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The first time Sebastian wondered just where he and Ominis would end up this summer had been on the train ride back to London. Every year before this his uncle would’ve been waiting for them in London, taking them back to the small place they called home.
Now, however, he had nowhere to go. He could stay at the home all alone, but it wouldn’t feel right. There would be no Anne, no Solomon and no one else, the Goblins had murdered pretty much every last person who lived in that place.
Going to the Gaunts wouldn’t work either, the family absolutely despised Ominis, that’s why the boy always spent the summer at his place.
“We’ll figure something out.” Sebastian muttered, “Maybe stay in a hotel or go camping that could be fun, right?”
Ominis didn’t respond, he hadn’t done a lot of talking after he decided to not turn Sebastian in. The only thing that gave Sebastian some hope for it ever going back to the way it used to be before this year was the fact that, while not talking, Ominis also hadn’t left his side for a moment.
That, of course, could also be because the boy just didn’t trust him.
“I’m sorry,” He whispered, before turning away and grabbing a book- not on dark magics, no he left those behind. It was a book he had found, a diary of sorts by Rowena Ravenclaw of all people. He couldn’t make sense of the words, it were words of a grieving woman that much was obvious, however it seemed to be random thoughts written on a paper.
Beside his confusion, the book made him feel something, gave him something to focus on beside his urge to learn more spells that were forbidden for such an obvious reason. The addictive magic had been all that was on his mind lately, the only things that stopped him were Ominis and the book he was currently holding.
“I’m not angry,” Ominis said, so suddenly that Sebastian wasn’t sure if he had imagined it or not. “Just worried, there’s a reason I despise Dark Magics, not just because of my past. It’s hard to say goodbye to them once you have accepted them as part of your life.” He sounded bitter when he said the next sentence, “I would know.”
“I never intended to worry you.” Sebastian said, not sure if there was anything else he could say.
“I know you weren’t, that only makes it worse.” Ominis sighed, “Just, stop thinking I hate you or anything. I can practically hear your self-loathing because of it and it’s kind of pathetic. We both know I could never hate you, Seb.”
“But we also both know that me doing Dark Magics against all your warnings is too far,”
“And I’m glad you finally realised that.” Ominis replied, “Acceptance is the first step to healing from this poison.”
“You really mean it?” Sebastian asked, looking Ominis in the eyes even if the other boy could not see it. He sounded smaller almost child-like, “You’re not angry?”
“I mean it,” Ominis promised and while Ominis didn’t claim his family title with pride; the one part he did take with pride was the ability to lie so easily. It was part of being raised in the Gaunt house, no mask pretty much meant no life once you’re older than six.
Because even if he really wished he could just hide all his anger under the love he had for his best friend, say that it was just a little mistake, he couldn’t help but feel a little angry. At himself for not trying harder to stop all of this, but also at Sebastian- the one person who knew just what he had been through- for not stopping after he had warned him multiple times.
That hadn’t stopped him from at least trying to find a place to stay for both of them, he had asked around trying to find anyone he trusted who could give them a place to stay. Until eventually his favourite professor offered them to stay with her, she was alone anyways and spent most of her time away from home.
“It would be good to have someone to take care of all my little flowers,” She had said after approaching him about the subject, “Just think about it okay?”
Ominis had told her they accepted a week later, without even discussing it with Sebastian.
“I have already found us a place,” Ominis said suddenly, deciding that maybe he really should tell Sebastian, “Unlike someone I actually think of these things before going back to my non-existent home.”
“You found a place?” Sebastian asked, “Where?”
“You’ll find out, have some patience, Seb.”
Ominis could feel the curiosity coming in waves from Sebastian, he didn’t need to have sight to know the boy was probably looking at him, trying to read his mind about where they would spent the summer.
“It’s someone we both like, stop worrying.”
Sebastian decided that he trusted Ominis enough to at least reply with, “If you say so.”
Ominis smiled, “You’ll like it there.” And maybe burrowing his anger under all the love he had for his best friend was easier than he thought just a few minutes ago.
~
Professor Garlick was waiting for them at the platform and Ominis just smiled at Sebastian’s excitement. Garlick was everyone’s favourite professor, besides the few people who absolutely despised herbology.
“How did you even manage to make her-“
“She offered, Sebastian, she somehow just knew we needed a place.” Ominis said, “She’s probably going to be away from home most of the time, but she didn’t mind us staying.”
It was only when Mirabel Garlick actually approached them, that Sebastian believed him.
“Boys! How was the trip?” She asked excitedly, Sebastian smiled at her, “It was nice, thank you, professor.”
“Oh! Please call me Mirabel, no formality in my house.” She said, “Are you ready to leave?” She asked then looking at their bags and the other students. Ominis nodded, “I have everything.”
Sebastian nodded, he never had a lot to begin with. The goblins had taken a lot of him the past few years, till the point where he only had some clothes and his wand to actually take with him to Hogwarts.
She offered her arms to both of them, Sebastian gently guided Ominis hand to one of her arms, after realising he didn’t notice the offered arm, before grabbing the other one.
Mirabel smiled softly at the action before they apparated to her house.
The house- which was a small cottage in the middle of a field, there was one path leading away from the cottage, Sebastian expected it lead to a nearby village.- wasn’t much, like Mirabel had warned Ominis, but it looked peaceful.
“Thank you, for doing this.” Sebastian said, “I know it must be a lot to just take in two-“
“It’s nothing, I’ll enjoy the company and I have a trip planned with friend this summer. I was hoping you would be able to take care of my plants and cats, you should do fine. I’ve seen your skills in both Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures.” Mirabel said, “Now do you want to see the inside of the house.”
Sebastian nodded, while Ominis just reached for his wand, the spell didn’t exactly allow him to see anything, but it was the closest thing he had to sight.
Their teachers happily led them into the house, immediately greeted by one black and an orange cat. She smiled at the little creatures, “An elf usually takes care of them, since I can’t spent the time I want to spent with them at Hogwarts. They never got along well with other cats and there’s a ton of those in Hogwarts.” She petted one of the cats, the other gently nudged her leg with it’s head. “That doesn’t mean I don’t miss them, of course, I have always loved cats and these two they’re special to me.
“I trust neither of you fear cats?” Mirabel asked, Sebastian shook his head, “We’re not.”
“Good to hear,” Mirabel said, “I’d hate if you spent your time here in fear. It is vacation after all. I’ll show you to the bedrooms, I only have one guest bedroom, but I trust you don’t mind sharing?”
“We don’t,” Ominis was the one to speak up this time, “We’ve practically been sharing bedrooms every night for four years now.”
Mirabel nodded and started leading them to a hallway on the other side of the small cottage, there were three doors there, “The bathroom,” She said, pointing to one door, “And there’s your bedroom.” She opened the door to a room, it had a big window allowing the sun to come in, the entire room was made from wood mixed with light green and yellow colours.
Sebastian quite liked how it looked. The two beds were now separated by a small nightstand.
“Do you want the window bed?” He asked Ominis, who snorted, “You think I care?”
“Hey! I’m just being polite, offering you the bed. Besides the entire other bed is red.” Total lie, but sometimes it was fun to-
“The fact that I am a descendant of Salazar Slytherin does not mean I despise the colour red, I have told you that before. Besides, I don’t really ‘despise’ any colour, since I don’t know how any of them look.” Ominis said, while he claimed the bed closer to the door. “Maybe green really is the uglier colour.”
Sebastian smiled, “I think you would like green.” He paused, “You look great in green, after all.”
Ominis just snorted again, used to these comments from his best friend. “I’m sure you’d look absolutely disgusting in it.”
“Hey!” Sebastian said, laughing slightly.
~
The first few days were kind of hard to get used to just how calm this place was, Mirabel mostly left them alone, usually spending times with her plants or going to the village close to her home.
Once or twice they went with her, but more often than not they spent entire days playing dumb magical games they used to love to play before everything with Anne happened. Mirabel also enjoyed teaching them new spells, harmless jinxes that she loved when she first came into the wizarding world.
After two weeks Mirabel went away for her trip with the simple instructions to give her cats and plants enough attention, the elves would do the rest.
So they ended up alone.
“Sometimes I wish I could lend you my sight,” Sebastian said, “I would do so in a heartbeat, just to allow you to see a little bit of this world. Some of it is actually pretty amazing.”
The both of them were laying on the field next to Mirabel’s house, Sebastian was looking at the clouds that seemed to magically morph into shapes, while Ominis had his eyes closed. It was so unlike any vacation before. The first few vacations Ominis had spent with Sebastian’s family were fun, although often they had a lot of things to do. His uncle didn’t want them to be lazy. Then Anne got sick and everything changed.
For the first time they could really just relax, no one was telling them to do anything.
Ominis sighed, they had this conversation many times before. “I honestly don’t know if I’m missing something, it’s always been like this.” He paused, “At least I don’t have to see you all day.”
“I think you’d love the way I look.” Sebastian said, voice full of confidence.
Ominis turned to his side, knowing Sebastian had probably turned a while ago to be able to look at him during talking. “It’s nice, though? I can just meet anyone and not have any judgement from the way they look. There’s so many people who are absolutely amazing, but not necessarily pretty, right? So nobody likes them.”
Sebastian nodded, it made sense a world without judging anyone simply by their looks, how nice that would be.
“Can I ask you something?” Sebastian asked after a long pause.
“What is it?”
“How did you know?” Sebastian said so softly, “Everytime something almost went wrong or I was in danger you showed up.”
“I have to compensate for the blindness in some way, don’t I?” Ominis asked, “It’s like this feeling I get. I was worried this year, Seb.”
“I know you were.” Sebastian muttered, putting a hand on Ominis’ cheek. “I’m sorry for worrying you.”
Ominis smiled slightly, “I know you are.”
“I don’t think you know how sorry I am,” Sebastian said, moving his hand from Ominis face, instead before he carefully put his hand over Ominis’. “You saved me, not from all those Goblins, but from myself. I never noticed what I was doing until it was too late. I have never felt more sorry about ignoring someone’s warnings.”
Ominis turned his hand around, allowing Sebastian to carefully grab it. “Now you know.”
“I do.” Sebastian answered, “And you have every right to be angry, but somehow you’re not because you are the best person ever and it just makes me wonder-“ Sebastian smiled, they could never stay serious for too long.
Ominis laughed, feeling where this was going.
“Are you an angel?”
“I’m way too traumatised for that.”
“Are you? Oh damn, I was so sure I finally figured you out, maybe I could have dressed you up in all white and convince people you are my guardian angel!”
“You ruined our beautiful friendship moment, Sebastian!” Ominis said and Sebastian smirked, “That’s what I’m here for, is it not? Without me this friendship would be one gross, too sweet, friendship.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being nice.”
“Are you even hearing yourself right now?” Sebastian asked, “I mean you are one to talk, you’re the most sarcastic person I have ever met, you seem to enjoy insulting people while sarcastic, most of them don’t even hear it’s sarcasm you know?”
“Yes, well, that’s funny.”
“Is it?”
“I think it is and I am pretty sure you have said you think it’s funny before.”
Sebastian turned back to the clouds, pulling his hand away in the process, “Right, You’re so funny.”
“And you are an asshole.”
~
“Ominis are you actually asleep?” He whispered into the blackness of the room.
“I’m not.”
“Do you want to-“ Sebastian sighed, “Nevermind.”
“What?” Ominis asked, Sebastian breathed in, “I don’t know, put our beds together?”
Ominis snorted, “You are such a child sometimes, was that that hard to ask?”
“What?”
Sebastian casted a Lumos allowing him to see Ominis searching for his wand, patting the bed and nightstand. He smiled softly, before handing him his wand, after he noticed it on the ground.
“We did this all the time, Sebastian. I was honestly expecting you to ask the first night.” Ominis explained, “So we’re doing this?”
Sebastian nodded, even if Ominis could not see it. He was aware that every year before this one they had been forced to share a bed, it had never been weird.
But it was different now, it felt different.
Ominis moved away from his bed, waving his wand once, moving the nightstand away then he waited till Sebastian moved the beds.
It was only once he laid there that Sebastian just realised why this, all of it, felt so different than any of the times they did the exact same thing before.
He turned around, facing Ominis, the moonlight that had been hidden earlier by clouds now coming through the window, making the boy look even prettier than he usually did.
“Merlin’s pants. I’m cursed.” Sebastian whispered into the emptiness of the room, hoping his friend really was asleep this time. He lifted a hand, leading it back to the place it had laid that afternoon, on Ominis’ cheek. This time however, he didn’t quite let the hand actually touch his friend.
His hand was shaking and he slowly moved it back, his breath shaking. There was a lot he expected from this break, but this-
It wasn’t something he ever imagined to happen, he always had thought of himself to be someone to not get into a silly teenager relationship during his time at Hogwarts.
But with Ominis, it suddenly didn’t feel so silly anymore.
He forced himself to slow his breathing, not get into a useless panic attack about the fact that he really was in love with his bestfriend, he forced himself to close his eyes, maybe he could still get some sleep.
~
It was after five days of silent pining and everyday Sebastian thanked the gods that Ominis couldn’t see him staring at him for hours with a soft smile on his face.
However today was immediately different, when Sebastian woke up he noticed a pressure on his chest, an arm wrapped around his waist. It was the first time this had ever happened in the past four years. Ominis had never been a big cuddler and Sebastian had easily accepted that.
“I can hear your confusion.” The boy mumbled into his chest, “Make it shut up, I want to sleep.”
Sebastian chuckled, moving one of his hands to play with Ominis’ hair. “I thought you hated physical contact?”
“Sometimes, but you love it.” Ominis sighed, “It’s called a sacrifice, besides I don’t mind too much when it’s like this.”
“Why today?”
“You were annoying me,” Ominis said, as if that explained everything.
“Okay?”
“Just because I can’t see it does not mean that I don’t feel you constantly staring at me, or whisper curse words while you’re laying next to me. I didn’t think it would be that big of a realisation.” Ominis muttered, “But I suppose you were always the oblivious one.”
“You knew, the whole time?”
“It’s been so obvious,” Ominis replied, “It’s one of the things that scared me most the past year, the fondness in your voice was just gone. It’s like you totally forgot about all of it. I spent weeks loathing myself for never making a move, because I was scared to ruin whatever it was between us. Now, however, I notice it’s impossible to keep ignoring whatever this is.”
Sebastian didn’t know if he wanted to kiss Ominis or hide in embarrassment, the boy however made the choice for him when he sat up and leant above him. Sebastian leant in, allowing his lips to softly touch Ominis’.
Ominis pressed back and Sebastians embarrassment fade away totally, he realised how right Ominis was, they both had been waiting for this for at least two years. All he could think about now was Ominis, the boy seemed to have taken over his entire life, he seriously doubted if it was healthy how much he would let Ominis influence his life.
But he knew all the boy would do is keep him safe.
Then Ominis pulled away and rested his forehead on Sebastians, laughing slightly.
“I can’t believe we waited so long to do that.”
“Sorry for being so oblivious.” Sebastian apologized, not sure what else to say.
“You should be, we could have done this a while ago.”
“Didn’t you just say that you knew all this time, but didn’t want to ruin our friendship?”
“Yes, I did, but I wouldn’t have rejected you if you asked me out.” Ominis said, “Which technically you didn’t even do.”
“Oh, so I have to be the one to ask the other out?” Sebastian asked and Ominis shrugged, “You seemed like you would die from embarrassment if I asked you out.”
Sebastian had to admit, this direct way Ominis chose had probably been a better idea, “Okay, well than you absolute idiot, will you go out with me?”
“Oh, I’m the idiot?”
“Of course, I mean I could not possibly be an idiot.”
“Why is that?”
“Because you have high standards and would never date an idiot, meanwhile I love my idiot boyfriend.”
“We’re boyfriends now, huh?” Ominis asked, “With this attitude, you need to take me out before you get to call me that.”
“Sure, whatever you say.” Sebastian replied, kissing Ominis’ nose, “Well are you ready for a really romantic picnic date?”
“I have been for the past two years.” Ominis replied, smiling at Sebastian.
Sebastian couldn’t help but pull Ominis into another kiss.
When Mirabel returned home and she saw the closeness between the boys, she secretly cheered, before going inside to hangout with her cats, she was exhausted from the trip with her girlfriend.