Work Text:
Sebastian
**
In the grand scheme of life, fate seemingly held an ironic sense of humor. That much was certain the day Sebastian Sallow met Caroline Alice Rookwood.
He was bemoaning as he stretched down the corridor after a long Saturday in detention— courtesy of his lovely twin sister, Anne. She had the brilliant idea of placing a number of frog spawn soaps in both the girls and boys’ bathrooms labeled as 1,2, and 4. The chaos that ensued the night prior and the following morning was much too intricate for Sebastian to ignore. The utter suspicion and fear of frogs hopping around during a bath while there was a missing soap being located was too hilarious— it was quite a very Anne thing to do. And when he bumped into her just outside the bathrooms and realized what she’d done, he laughed…hard.
Apparently, his laughter and placement at the scene of the crime had caught the attention of their Head of House, Professor Sharpe, who promptly assumed the theatrics were his fault and assigned him detention. Anne was quite guilty, promising to make it up to him someway.
She bloody well will! And doing his potions homework for the next month to make up for taking the blame and her detention.
And so, he was wandering the halls back to his dorms at a much later time than he expected after cleaning the cauldrons in the detention room, hungry and irritable at missing lunch and dinner.
Hunger will make a man more humble— was the retort he received from several portraits as he grumbled.
Humble? More like murderous…
A rumble echoed from his stomach as he groaned, thinking of the missed Cornish pasties, roast, raspberry tarts, and pumpkin juice he missed out on. Did he have anything in his trunk? He frowned, realizing the only edible things in his trunk were the gag presents he and Anne would exchange for their birthdays from Honeydukes.
Perhaps if he thought hard enough, the sugar quills in his trunk would last him long enough til breakfast.
“Oof!”
He doubled back as he hit the air before him, a sounding thud falling before him but nothing appeared out of place—he must have been hungrier than he thought.
“Sorry,” a distinctly girlish voice muttered in front of him.
His eyes widened as he looked around— the portraits hung all sleeping in the low-lit corridor, “Excuse me?”
“Oh! My apologies— you can’t see me,” he jumped back as the figure of a girl materialized before him with honey blonde hair and green eyes stood, dusting her skirt and robes off.
She gave him a calm smile as he took sight of her, his jaw opening and closing at her sudden appearance. She laughed, nodding as she stepped to move past him, “Um… again, my apologies! I’ll just be— headed on my way.”
“Hold on, now!” Sebastian cried, watching as her shoulders slumped and she turned with a sigh, a placating smile on her face, “What spell was that? How did you that? And where are you going?”
“Now I can’t really tell you…it’s a trade family secret, you see,” She shrugged as she thought, smiling despite the twitch of his eye, “I’m not supposed to tell such secrets to people I don’t know. At least that’s what my brother, Vincent says.”
“Is that so?” Sebastian smiled, dusting his robes off as she gave him a quirk of her brow, sauntering over to her with his hand outstretched, “Sebastian Sallow— fellow Slytherin. Now we know each other.”
She smirked as she took his hand, “Cheeky answer… I like that, Sebastian Sallow. But I’m not sure I should be giving you my name.”
He let out a strangled cry as she giggled, “After all, once you do know my name— what’s stopping you from reporting a student out of bed? Merlin, you are the prince of frog soaps, Sebastian are you not?”
He was going to kill Anne— he thought as the heat rushed to his face. He glared at the girl, pouting at her utter ridiculousness.
“Common manners would dictate that you would exchange your name,” he tried reasoning.
“And common sense would dictate that I should not be meeting a young man, least of all a boy, alone in a corridor,” she quipped back with that sunny smile of hers.
“You’re impossible,” he groused.
“I am indeed!” She laughed, agreeing.
Sebastian was tapping his foot as she tilted her head to wait for his retort— challenging his brain to think on the fly. He bit his cheek, as he squeezed his eyes shut trying to think of a rebuttal when a low rumble echoed around them.
He let out a strangled groan— bloody hell he was hungry.
“Oh, dear!” Her face was stricken with concern as she eyed his face, “Did you miss dinner by chance?”
“Erm…yes?”
It took all but two seconds before the girl with warm honey blonde hair, whisked his arm and pulled him along the corridors.
“Now, normally I wouldn’t do this,” she said peering at him as she pulled, “By this I mean take someone with me… but mama is very insistent no one in our presence ever goes hungry. And you happen to be in luck!”
The confusion that marred his face was stuck as his mind raced to decide whether he wanted to label her as impossible or just insufferable. But… if he was going to eat— he might have to rethink the entire stance. Her hands waved underneath a portrait as she let him go.
He stared at her with bemusement, “Your idea of feeding is to show people a painting of a fruit bowl?” He groaned, rolling his eyes as the hunger pang in his stomach roiled angrily. This was a complete waste of time.
“No, you ninny,” she laughed, grabbing his arm to stop him from walking off, “Watch!”
Sebastian stood back with an incredulous look on his face, staring as her perfectly manicured hands held up a point and began to tickle the pear. Ugh— what madness did he stumble upon? Insufferable, impossible, idiotic, and—and—were the words that came to mind to describe her. Did she seriously think—
“Viola!” She made an absolutely perfect curtesy with a smug smile as the portrait with a giggling pear opened, “Welcome to one of Hogwarts’ best kept secrets, the kitchens!”
She ushered him inside the cozy area, the multiple fires kindling as a flurry of house elves came to greet them.
“Mistress Caroline! Mistress Caroline! We’ve missed you!”
“Mistress Rookwood! See what Teddy has made today!”
“Would mistress Caroline like a treacle tart?”
“There’s some leftover roast from dinner if mistress Caroline has gone and forgotten herself in the library again!”
Caroline, was it?
He watched the elves bring her treats as she accepted each one graciously.
“Mistress Caroline, who’s is the new friend?”
She turned to beam at him as she bit into a tart, swallowing before she spoke, “This, Deek— is Sebastian Sallow. And he’s quite hungry. Would it be trouble if he has some food?”
Sebastian’s eyes widened as a group of house elves rushed around the kitchen to bring him trays of food. Carolinewatched the scene unfold with mirth, sitting perfectly poised on a too tiny stool as she ate her tarts and a small done up plate at a makeshift section of the Great Hall table.
“Hungry are we?” She exclaimed as he brought a pile of stacked food on a dinner plate to sit across from her.
“Yes, absolutely famished,” he replied without shame, tucking into the warm roast and potatoes, and dipping the house elves homemade bread into the jus, before he peered up at her curiously, “How did you find this place?”
She gave him that secret smile and tilted her head, “Family trade secret.”
Of course…
He rolled his eyes as they ate, thankful at least he was not waiting till breakfast to have a morsel. Sleeping hungry was not a fun experience…
“Well, Caroline,” he enunciated her name, smirking as her eyes widened behind the brim of her goblet, “Now that we know each other’s names, perhaps you can tell me a bit of your family’s secrets?”
She rolled her eyes as he did his best to pout and stare at her innocently and sweetly as Anne was known to do when she found herself in trouble. If it worked for his twin, surely it would work for him?
“You get one secret,” she gave him a pointed look, “And I mean one!”
He bounced as he inched forward over the table, “That spell you used! The one that made you invisible!”
Caroline laughed at his enthusiasm, “Are you sure you want your one secret for that spell?”
“Yes, undoubtedly,” he said nodding.
She rolled her eyes and shook her head, chuckling, “Alright… but we’ll have to find a better place for me to teach you. I love these house elves but the kitchen isn’t really conducive to teaching that— they’ll be too excited every time you reappear in thin air.”
Sebastian smirked as he leaned forward, “I know just the place…”
“Really?” She scoffed at him, “My brother’s told me a number or rooms and secret passages in the castle. What place would you know that I don’t?”
“Well first…how would you like to meet a Gaunt?”
He smiled at the surprise on her face—my, how the tables have turned.