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"You're telling me that you've never fought in an actual dual until literally two weeks ago?" Sebastian raised a disbelieving brow and you shrugged, your hand pausing on the chapter of readings you had to do for potions the next day.
"Like I said, I've never exactly found myself needing to know that sort of skill. My home life is...quite quiet," you huffed out quietly.
The two of you were relaxing on one of the isolated couches in the Slytherin common room, your legs resting on his lap as you sat sideways on the couch, your textbook in hand. His own book laid open and face down, abandoned on the armrest, the boy clearly too busy with your conversation to bother with his assigned readings.
On another night, maybe you would've let yourself get pulled into conversation but you've been in this school for less than a week and the schedule Professor Weasley had created to get you up to speed with the rest of your class was brutal. Almost all of your hours were spent in class, or reviewing previous years' contents, or helping various other students with whatever problems each of them seemed to have. What little time you had left to yourself was spent primarily on research and reconaissance regarding what you and Professor Fig had found at Gringotts and you were no closer to solving the mystery than you were when you'd first received it. It was getting to be tiring and frustrating.
Your one reprieve from your busy days was being able to collapse onto your bed, curtains drawn, just waiting for sleep to claim you. Recently, however, you've begun enjoy the company of a certain Slytherin boy, having found your conversations to be intellectually stimulating while remaining entertaining. It didn't clear away the fatigue and exhaustion you often felt at the end of your day, but it did alleviate it a bit.
"Well," Sebastian looked thoughtful as he stared out at the tall windows across the room, his thumb rubbing small, soothing circles on your ankle. He didn't even seem to have noticed his actions, too busy with his thoughts, causing you to raise your book to hide your amused grin. "I bet you miss the quiet life, don't you?" His dark eyes flitted to yours and you shrugged.
"Yeah, but it's not like I can do anything about it now. Besides, if I kept that quiet life I never would've found myself here at Hogwarts and I certainly never would have had the chance to meet you or Natty. My life might be chaotic and confusing right now but I wouldn't go back and change a thing about it."
"Really? Not even the Hogsmeade attack?"
At the reminder of your first Hogsmeade and the troll attack on the village, you wrinkled your nose. "Well, I could do without the troll attack. Everything else though, I really did enjoy. I got to pick my wand, explore the village, and have my very first butterbeer with my very first friend here. I'd say it was a success despite Rookwood coming in to try and ruin my day," you explained. You glanced down at your book and sighed, shutting it and dropping it on the floor. Considering the way the conversation was going, you doubted you'd be able to finish your readings at all tonight. Maybe you could try and read them tomorrow during breakfast instead.
As if reading your mind, Sebastian smirked and patted your knee comfortingly. "Don't worry, I'll leave you be during breakfast tomorrow. You can do your readings then."
"Yeah, but I doubt the others would leave me alone. Meals and between classes are the only times the others can catch me and ask me for favours or to talk, after all," you pointed out.
"I'll scare them away and make sure no unscrupulous villains get in the way of your studying," Sebastian promised, putting his hand on his heart and adopting a solemn face. You snorted and his face broke into a grin as you shook your head in light exasperation.
"How did we become friends again?"
"Well, my dear," he started, tapping his fingers against your ankle, his eyes twinkling with mischief. "It all started when you beat me up in Defense Against the Dark Arts on your first day of classes with a wand not even your own, followed by an outing at Hogsmeade where we then got attacked by a troll then accosted by Rookwood who seems to be secretly working with Ranrok to try and capture you. And finally, in what I believe was the turning point in our friendship and what sealed the deal, you asked me to help you break into the Restricted Section of the Library on your third day at Hogwarts. After all that, I knew I wouldn't want to go through the rest of my years here without at least attempting to figure out just what kind of adventure you're on."
"Merlin, when you say it like that, it has been a lot hasn't it?"
"And the week isn't even over! Who knows what will happen next? I certainly can't wait to find out. Your adventures definitely help keep things interesting around here and I, for one, welcome the distraction. It certainly helps me move around the castle a lot more easily now that most of the professors and the librarian are too concerned with what sort of antics you're on to worry about the rest of the student populace and their antics."
You fiddled with your tie with a frown at the reminder of the library incident. Feeling guilt crop up once again, you opened your mouth to apologize once more only for Sebastian to raise his index finger, tutting you.
"Nope, nope. I already said it's fine. Don't worry about it. You can just tell me about your adventures in return and maybe sneak me out some books if you're able to," he said easily, his shoulders and body relaxed in contrast to your own tense one.
"I'm still sorry Peeves ratted us out. You weren't even there for yourself -- you were only trying to help me and look where that got you," you muttered with a scowl. It really was a shame you had no way of banishing the bloody poltergeist as a way of revenge. Maybe that could be something you could look for while in the restricted section next time?
Ever since you'd seen the poltergeist bully a Hufflepuff student into dropping his books by the bathroom and continue to harrass him until the kid ran off without his things, you hadn't really had much patience dealing with the damn thing.
"I'm still surprised you didn't just blame me for it. It would've been so easy and it would've allowed you to keep doing your own research," you pursed your lips, unhappy with the punishment your friend had received, but feeling warm and thankful that he had stayed true to you despite the repercussions.
Sebastian shrugged and looked away. If you hadn't been examining him closely, you might've easily missed the embarrassed flush on his cheeks under the bleak light of the common room. "Yeah, well, you trusted me with the whole Gringotts thing and asked me to look after your back for you. I'd be a pretty shit mate if I betrayed that."
"Mhm, yeah, you would've been, but I would've understood it seeing the stakes she had laid out for you."
His brow quirked upwards. "Oh? You heard that?"
"Yes, which is why I respect you even more for what you did for me. Especially considering we've only known each other for like three days."
"Yeah, well, fighting a troll together forges a long-lasting bond between people, y'know?" His fingers were back to tapping against your ankle again as he settled deeper into the couch cushions. "I reckon there's another group of wixens out there that bonded over fighting a troll."
You snorted. "I doubt it's common for people to have 'facing a troll together' as a bonding exercise, so I would bet against you on that."
"Yes, well, you never know. Maybe a hundred years from now a group of kids will fight a troll together and become close knit friends," Sebastian smirked as you rolled your eyes, your mouth fighting to keep down the smile that was growing on your face.
"Maybe," you said, unconvinced.
"In either case, I think the troll battling was definitely a good bonding exercise for us. That, the illegal duelling club, and the illegal excursion to the restricted section made us pretty good friends if I do say so myself. I must say though, when I first saw you get sorted, I thought you'd be just another student and yet here you are, breaking school rules left and right and making yourself a menace to the prefects. I must say, I'm proud that I seem to be rubbing off on you," Sebastian looked at you teasingly and you groaned, leaning your head against the armrest and covering your eyes with your arm.
"Okay, okay, I get it. Hogwarts wasn't this chaotic before I came here and it's only my first week, blah blah. I'm never going to live this down, am I?" You muttered into your arm, highly mortified that this was the legacy you were creating for yourself at Hogwarts.
Another comforting pat to your ankle and you let out another groan. You didn't even have to see Sebastian's face when he spoke, you could hear his amusement. "Just reminding you, considering you had told me you didn't want to get in trouble with the professors when we first met and I'd invited you to the duelling club. I just find it quite funny that you and that person are the same."
"Yeah, yeah. Just you wait and see what next week has in store for us, Sallow," you raised your arm and sent him a glare, causing him to shrug in amusement.
"Hopefully not another troll. I think I'd get pretty bored if the same things happened again. Oh, maybe with your luck, we'll end up fighting a dragon. Wouldn't that be fun? Oh wait -- I forgot you've already done that, haven't you?" He smirked and you stuck out your tongue, reaching beside you on the couch and throwing the throw pillow at his face, causing him to bark out a laugh as he held up his arms for cover.
"Oh, shut up," you hissed, embarrassed yet oddly pleased to have found someone you felt comfortable enough to be this close with.
Sebastian smiled and held his hands up in a placating manner. "Alright, alright, I'll stop. We won't fight a dragon next week."
"Thank you."
"Maybe we'll just fight a banshee or a merman instead. Wouldn't that be fun?"
Laughter erupted from Sebastian's mouth as you summoned the pillow you had thrown at him earlier and continued to smack him with it, over and over. His own arms were raised for cover, lips stretched wide into a grin and dark eyes crinkled with a happiness and contentedness you had yet to see on him.
Amazingly, you yourself felt quite light, your body no longer as tired as it was before and your mood much better than it had been earlier when you'd come back from running all over the castle in search of Daedalian keys, gobstones, and an astrolabe.
Sure, you didn't know what you would face in the upcoming weeks ahead, but at least you could trust Sebastian to have your back all throughout it. And, maybe, perhaps, you could help him find the answers he's been looking for for so long.