Chapter Text
The moment Professor Hecat dismisses the class, you’re making your way through the throngs of the crowd in the direction of Sebastian and Ominis. Natty calls out something to you — a ‘see you later’ maybe, you don’t know — but you end up giving her a distracted wave in return, eyes pinned on the Slytherin boys hanging back from the stream of students walking out.
“Sebastian! Ominis!” You call out, watching as the two stop, Sebastian’s eyes meeting yours while Ominis tilts his head in your general direction. Both of them wait patiently until you come up right beside them before continuing on their slow amble towards the door.
“Hello, troll-slayer,” Ominis greets amicably, making your lips twitch into a smile. He had taken to calling you that recently, finding a certain joy in rehashing your feats from your first Hogsmeade trip. You, yourself, had grown to like the nickname when it came from him, for he never had any ill meaning behind it when he used it.
“Hello, yourself, Ominis,” you say back, causing his own lips to twitch. Pleased at the reaction, you turn to Sebastian, nudging him gently as you did. “Seb, do you have a second?”
“For you, he’s got more than that,” Ominis quips and you snort as the boy in question flushes red. Still, Sebastian does not disagree, making you grin inwardly. “I suppose I know when I’m not wanted. Till later then, Sebastian, troll-slayer.” With a wave, Ominis flicks out his wand and wanders off, guided by the pulsing of his wand light.
The two of you watch, slightly bemused, as he turns the corner and disappears from sight before your eyes meet.
With a shrug, you push past the slight awkwardness that has settled between you two and reach forward to snag Sebastian by the crook of his arm. Tugging him to the side — though there was no need for it now that everyone has cleared out and the DADA classroom doors have closed, not ready to open until the next set of students an hour from now — you give him an excited grin as your voice drops to a whisper,
“In any case, it’s ready!” You watch as the confusion in Sebastian’s eyes gives way to understanding.
He leans closer towards you, his eyes wide. “It is?”
You laugh, positively gleeful as you say, “Yes! I can show you later — after classes — the thing I’ve been working on all this time. Come meet me in front of the Tapestry on the seventh floor — the one with the dancing trolls.”
"The seventh floor?" Sebastian raises his brow in question but you simply shake your head in response, not wanting to say another word that could possibly give it away.
Instead, you pull away, dancing out of his reach when he tries to pull you back closer, and smiling when he sends you an unimpressed look in response. "Soon," you promise as you start walking backwards towards the corridor where your next class, one Sebastian didn't share, would be held. "Just one more class."
He sighs but doesn’t push it any further. “Alright, I’ll wait, I suppose, but just so you know, you’ve got me at the edge of my seat.” Waving his hand at you, Sebastian bids you farewell as he himself heads for his arithmancy class.
You grin to yourself. You were certain the Room would blow every expectation of Sebastian’s out of the water.
Like always, Sebastian is already waiting for you on the seventh floor when you arrive. He seems to be lost in thought as you approach, his gaze directed right at the tapestry of trolls but it’s lost and unfocused, something you only confirm when you step foot right between him and the tapestry and his gaze remains lost.
Leaned back against the wall with his foot perched at the base and his arms crossed, Sebastian seems to have been waiting for you for at least ten minutes, though no more than thirty as he has remained standing. Funnily enough, and much to your amusement, he’s right beside where the Room’s door usually appears, and it makes you wonder if you could manage to have him remain there until you prompt the door’s appearance just to see if it would spook him.
With a shake of your head, you lean close to Sebastian’s face and snap your finger, effectively snapping him out of whatever thought he’d been chasing through the recesses of his mind and making his dark gaze focus on you.
“Good, you’re back. I thought for sure you’d remain lost had I not come and gotten you,” you joke as you pull away and take a step back.
Sebastian quirks his lips and, by way of greeting, asks, “Would you have come gotten me had I stayed lost and not found my way to you?”
“Course, I would. You’d do the same for me, after all,” You say, clicking your tongue and sending him an annoyed glance as you start to pace, bringing thoughts of your room to the forefront of your mind as you did so.
He grins, shifting his weight between his feet and leaning back, regarding you with a smug and pleased stare that’s attractive enough to almost makes you falter on your pacing.
Almost.
Clearing your throat, you resume your pacing and carefully avoid looking in his direction for the remainder of it. You try hard to ignore the fact that you’d had to restart the process again due to your thoughts derailing because of him and his bloody smile. Unfortunately, you only succeed in burying it for now, no doubt a page for you to re-examine later when you’re in the privacy of your bed’s curtains with no one and nothing stopping you from inwardly examining your thoughts and feelings about a certain brunet. But you digress.
It’s silent between the two of you now, save for the clicking of your shoes against Hogwarts’ tiles.
Only one more turn then—aha!
“Indeed, I would,” Sebastian suddenly says just as the door starts to materialize beside him. “I’d search high and low to find you even if—!” He jumps back as the door appears. He send you a bemused look, shocked gaze flickering between you and the doorway, and you grin, your pacing finally done.
Stepping forward towards the door, you twist the knob confidently and push its heavy door open, before gesturing for Sebastian to go ahead of you. “After you,” you say, positively brimming with an eagerness similar to a kid before a pile of presents on the morning of Yule.
Your friend hesitates for only a second before he’s stepping through with you right after him. You tug the door shut behind you and gently push Sebastian forward so he’s outside of the dim corridor and into the bright square-shaped room with a domed, glass ceiling from which various greenery and vines hung freely from its trusses. Sunlight streams through in the glass, making the room cheery and warm. For someone who has never found a place to call a home before, it had been a surprise to realize that the Room had granted you that feeling safety and sanctuary you’ve never really found anywhere else.
The upper portion of the walls are filled with various bookshelves made of dark wood carrying large amounts of unmarked, leather-bound books which shuffle and move amongst themselves with seemingly no pattern to speak off. Meanwhile, the lower portion of this room’s walls differed depending on which side its viewer was facing.
On the corners of the side closest to where you and Sebastian stand are your potions stations and your Desk of Description, merrily humming along as the Owl — which you’ve named Winter for his pure white appearance — snoozes on its perch. On the other side, one corner holds a small seating area meant for tea for two people, while the other holds your large planter boxes, one of which currently houses a menacing venomous tentacula.
At the center of your room, surrounding a large, white — and remarkably stain-free — rug are various sizes of planter boxes ranging from small to medium, all of which have their own tenants.
Your smile strains as you carefully steer Sebastian away from the vicious Chinese Chomping Cabbages you had yet to harvest and towards the less harmful Dittany, taking note of the way one of the Cabbages seemed to snarl angrily at the two of you.
Perhaps you’d go out of your way to find a troll on your next adventure and let the Cabbages release some of their pent-up anger. They’d prove remarkably strong against magic-resistant monsters like trolls much to your surprise and, once you’d accidentally released a few and watched them take down an armed troll with no additional help, you hadn’t gone back to simple wand-casting since.
Sebastian’s eyes couldn’t seem to find one thing to land on, his gaze flickering between the plants to the brewing stations and pots, then to the ceiling above. Mouth dropped in awe, Sebastian lets himself be maneuvered onto one of the seats in your tea area, still rendered speechless as the sight before him.
“Want some tea, Sebastian?” you ask, gently prodding him on the shoulder with enough pressure to catch his attention. “Might want to close your mouth soon though, I don’t have very many insects here, but I do believe a fly or two may find itself home in your mouth if you keep it open like that,” you add, teasingly.
Sebastian doesn’t react to your jab, but he does close his mouth in response which you take as a win.
Not knowing how long it would take for him to regain his composure, you seat yourself on the other chair and lean back, sighing and waiting for him to come back. Thankfully, it doesn’t take him too long to do so, blinking away the stunned look and twisting his head to meet your gaze.
There’s a yearning for answers to his questions he has yet to utter present in his eyes, which causes you to smile and nod at him patiently, letting him know you were willing to provide them.
“What is this?” is his first question.
“The Room of Requirement. As you can see, it’s currently set up to show the room in a way of which I require it to be,” you answer, gesturing with your hand.
“Okay,” he says slowly, brain whirring as it tries to process what he was seeing. “And how did you find it?”
“By accident, but not without outside help,” you say truthfully. “I did prompt the room to appear, but to get it to show itself like this, well, Professor Weasley and Deek — he’s a Hogwarts house-elf — helped me with it.”
“Other than me, are those two the only one who know about this room?”
“I think so? I’m not really sure, I’ve only had this room for two months, but I have yet to notice another presence or anything within my room shifting without my permission. Deek also stays here and keeps up with its maintenance — I assume he’d let me know if there was someone else using it or trying to access it.”
Sebastian’s eyes scan the room before him for the house-elf. Coming up empty, he raises a brow at you, question unvocalized yet clear all the same and you shrug.
“He’s probably in the other room. It’s larger and built more for relaxation — a bigger table for tea time, a fireplace with comfortable couches not unlike those in Gryffindor common room — or so Professor Weasley says — and a dining table in case I ever decide to host dinner here. Want to go check it out?” You make to push yourself up, but Sebastian shakes his head and you drop back to your seat, confused.
“In a moment. I think I need…some time first to process that something like this existed here all this time and I never knew about it,” Sebastian mutters, collapsing against the chair’s cushions wearily. “Can you believe it? I’ve spent five years here — five! — And I never managed to find this, and yet, you found it in the two months you’ve been in this castle. Bloody hell.”
“I like secrets and take great fun finding and unraveling them,” you explain with a shrug. It’s true, after all. You found the Room of Requirement, the underpass under the bridge, broke into various classrooms you were certainly not supposed to be in, found the room with all the werewolf paraphernalia, and also the Map Chamber underneath Hogwarts. You had an uncanny ability for finding things that people tried to keep hidden and you don’t think there’s a place in Hogwarts you wouldn’t be able to uncover as long as you had the means to find it. Maybe it was a weird thing to take pride in, but you certainly did take pride in it.
“Still,” Sebastian breaths out, shaking his head in disbelief. “Two months.” He mouths to himself and you smile.
“Chin up, Seb, I’ve shared with you most things I’ve found,” you reach across the table and nudge him, raising your brows up and down when he glanced at you, making him huff out a laugh.
“I still can’t believe — Is that a Venomous Tentacula?” he asks, incredulous, eyes drawn to the looming, overgrown plant in the corner of your room. This time, it’s your turn to huff out a laugh.
“Yes! Though, there’s a whole bunch of massive ones in an abandoned greenhouse so I’ve not really had to harvest this one yet but—“
“Sorry, what?”
“—he’s a pleasant fellow. Keeps my Cabbages and the mandrakes company actually. Additionally, they’re quite useful against trolls,” you say offhandedly, fighting to keep an amused smirk from forming on your lips. You can see Sebastian growing slightly hysterical at the casual information you’ve been dropping and quickly decide to change the subject. “In any case, I also wanted to bring up the fact that there are some books here that you’re free to take a look at. Maybe one of them has a solution for the illness your sister has.”
Sebastian stares at you before shaking his head. He grumbles something about giving up on trying to understand what kind of things surround you then pushes himself up until he’s standing, dark eyes trained on you. “That sounds great, but there's more isn't there? Can you show me?”
“Alright,” you acquiesce and stand to lead him through the other corridor.
His reaction to this one is similar to the room before but the wonder in his eyes turn to hunger when he sets them on large shelf of books you have at one end of the rectangular room. You can tell he’s itching to make for the books, to scour them for knowledge and devour them. Ambition is thrumming in his veins but his hunger for knowledge gives you pause.
At another time, perhaps you might’ve found it amusing that he had not been sorted into a Ravenclaw with his reaction, but looking at Sebastian right now, at the greed in his eyes and the way his fingers and his body twitch as they make an aborted move for the books, sends a flash of fear and doubt into you. You had never thought about it but you’ve never really wondered to what extent Sebastian was willing to go to find answers for his sister’s situation and a small part of you — a traitorous part of you that sounds frighteningly like Ominis — whispers that perhaps Sebastian would reach a point in time when he longs for dark knowledge not because of his sister but because he has become misguided and enjoys the power and thrill dark magic gives.
You clear your throat, banishing that thought from your mind. Sebastian turning dark was something you would notice, right? And there were lines that you’re sure he wouldn’t cross in his pursuit of knowledge. Ominis and you need not worry about it too much. Still, you draw his attention by tugging at his sleeve. “Right. Sebastian. How about we look at the books next time? You haven’t even seen the rest of the room yet!”
Sebastian breaks eye contact with the shelf and gives you a sheepish grin. “I suppose I got a little excited there at the thought of finding more spells, but we can look at them later. Now, do you happen to have Wizards Chess or Exploding Snap somewhere around here? I reckon you’ve not played any of those in a while, have you?”
Your lips quirk upwards into a stiff smile, an uncomfortable thought coming to your mind. You bat it away back into the recesses of your brain — you had told yourself you would not examine it for a while, could not afford to do so when you had more pressing concerns at the moment. “No, I don’t think I can recall playing those. I’ve seen them being played around but I think you might need to teach me.”
“That’s fine, but have you got them?”
A conjuration spell later and the two of you are seated at the plush couch on the other side of the room from the shelves, a wizards chessboard prepared between you two.
Sebastian lifts up a tall piece with a crown and smiles. “This is the King. You win the game once you’ve checkmated the other player’s king. That means that no matter what, the King cannot escape from a check or an attack by the opponent’s pieces.”
“So the goal is to protect it while claiming the other person’s King?” you ask, curious.
“That’s right,” Sebastian nods as he sets it back down on its square. “The King may be important but the Queen is the most powerful piece on the board — it can move in all the ways the other pieces can, and if used properly, it can help the player win the game. It’s not the only powerful piece there, however,” — he holds up the piece that make up the front line — “this is a pawn. While weak because of its limited mobility, it has the potential to be promoted into a Queen, a Rook, a Bishop, or a Knight. In the hands of a good chess player, a pawn can turn the tide. In the hands of a bad one,” — here, Sebastian flicks the top of it and the pawn falls onto its side, rolling across the board until it taps against your own pawns and stops — “it’s easy pickings for your opponent.”
You smile at him grimly. “Much like life, I suppose?”
“Felt like a pawn lately?” Sebastian questions as he reaches over to pluck his pawn and set it back down onto its square. The pawn readjusts its cap and sends him a glare that he doesn’t notice, his attention too focused on you.
“No, not yet,” you admit, your own finger touching the top of your own pawns gingerly, gaze drawn to the way they straightened up, faces stony and directed at the opposing side’s pieces. “But I have a feeling that’ll change soon.”
Sebastian barks out a laugh and rests his crossed arms on the table in front of him, tone teasing and dark eyes sparkling as he says, “Then, we can only hope that you end up promoted rather than hacked to pieces by the parties that oppose us.”
You don’t say anything but press your lips together and try not to smile.
Us.
Like it or not, you and Sebastian were in this together, for better or for worse.