A Man Has Horns // Sebastian Sallow

Chapter 3 - Quidditch Unfriendlies

"Lilith say something," Imelda looked at me up and down.

"Oh please don't make me," I tucked my face deeper into my knees, overwhelmed.

I was back in our Slytherin dormitory room and thank God, Grace and Violet were away. It was all so embarrassing. Last year I  fought monsters and now the only thing I was fighting was myself. I had given everyone the impression I was incredibly scattered. I kept looking back at the first few days just to think about how I should have changed everything. Mostly, I just deeply regretted my connection to Ominis and Sebastian.

I realised our closeness came from hiding a dead body.

"Blimey, what has gotten into you! You were gone for maybe an hour and you look like you have faced a boggart," Imelda was genuinely confused.

"I wish," escaped my lips before I even had a chance to think on what to say to her.

I didn't want to tell her.

"Come on! What could have happened for you to think I can't be trusted!" Imelda didn't stop pressing me.

"I feel stupid saying it out loud," I still held myself back. I just didn't know what really happened and what my feelings were regarding it.

There was a small pause between us.

"Sebastian?" Imelda bit through.

I stayed silent. I was on the floor picking at the leather strap of my bag, not even daring to shoot her a glance.

"He is just a bellow average boy Lilith, really not someone you make such a scene for," Imelda said impatiently and annoyed.

I kept starring and picking at the strap.

"Fine if you don't want to talk about it then don't," Imelda barked at me. She had lost her patience with me but I didn't want to speak to her. Especially if she was acting like this.

She stood up and walked to her bedside table to drop off a coin purse and place an elongated box with a new telescope on her trunk.

"I was ready to make an Unbreakable Vow for you and you still don't trust me enough to talk about a stupid boy," Imelda mumbled angrily getting ready to leave the room.

She referenced a moment last year when she was maybe the only one who stopped me after Professor Fig's death to ask if I was ok and what had happened. I tried to tell her the same as others that everything was fine, her to only take out her wand to say she will vow to never utter a word of this to anyone if I needed that solace to speak my actual mind. It was sudden and unexpected and I was in shock. Since then, I understood she was more than met the eye and talked to her more often. She was funny if you had tough skin.

"Oh Merlin, it isn't always about you!" I couldn't hold my tongue back. "He... I think he is dating someone but I didn't know and don't know how I am feeling.... about it," I gave up trying to speak.

"Sebastian Sallow? Who?" Imelda stopped in her tracks and looked at me.

"Charlotte Morrison," my chest stirred again thinking about them.

"A Hufflepuff? You are kidding?" Imelda laughed off her own questions. 

"There is nothing funny about it," I told her off.

"I am not laughing, I am just... He just wouldn't date a Hufflepuff," Imelda stayed firm in her belief.

"How would you know?" I asked her growing more and more annoyed.

"Well..." she sat down on the floor across from me, "He seems like a person that actually cares about such kind of appearances. Slytherins rarely date outside of their House, and if so, maybe with a Ravenclaw."