"Don't think I don't know what you're doing."

Ominis told sebastian. Sereia had left to go to bathroom before she and sebastian headed to detention together.

"What?"

Sebastian asked, looking at his friend.

"You're using this as an excuse to tamper with dark magic again." "I am not." Sebastian replied.

"I'm blind, sebastian, not stupid. It's like an addiction for you, you just can't get enough. I would have thought that after Solomon-" "Don't."

Sebastian's voice was harsh. He didn't want to be reminded of his uncle, not in any way. He definitely didn't need to be reminded of how he let everyone he cared about down.

Ominis sighed. No matter how much he tried to reason with Sebastian it never seemed to be enough. His voice always fell on deaf ears every single time.

Sebastian had gotten a taste of power and that was a hard thing to forget, no matter how much regret it brought along with it.

"I had hoped that you had learned a lesson."

Ominis continued, choosing not to speak of what they were both thinking. Sebastian had already lost his uncle, now with Anne gone and their new friend from the year before abandoning them to study abroad in Germany, Sebastian was being held together with pins and needles.

Sereia seemed to be one of the only things holding him together at all, even if she hadn't noticed or intended to.

She was a puzzle for Sebastian to solve and one that involved the arcane, which peaked his interest even more.

"Just be careful." Ominis said.

"I will." Sebastian replied.

"And don't drag her down with you." He added, referring to Sereia.

"Poor girl seems skittish enough on her own."

"Skittish?"

"She doesn't talk, Sebastian. She hardly ever speaks, you have to practically beg a response out of her. And what happened with Imelda- Sereria is learning to adjust and it's taking a toll on her. I can't see it in her eyes but I can feel it when she speaks. Sebastian, she's terrified."

"Terrified? Of what?"

"Of everything. You have to understand, Sebastian, she came from a far away place where she had no one and now she's suddenly surrounded by all of these people all the time and she can't get away from them ever. That's why she hardly speaks and that's why she lashed out against Imelda. She would never say it, but Sereia is terrified."

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

"What I fail to understand, however,"

Ominis continued,

"Is why you'd get detention on purpose to be with her."

"On purpose?"

Sebastian raised a brow at his friend.

"Who said I did it on purpose?" "Again with the bullshit? Really? Sebastian I've known you for six years now, we share a room and practically live together. I am not stupid. And I know you aren't either."

Ominis' tone was sharp. He wasn't letting Sebastian get out of this easily.

"I know that you know the right amount of Knott grass for a memory potion is three blades, not three handfuls. So why did you do it?"

"I told you."

Sebastian said and shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly,

"I just wanted to see what happened."

"Bullshit. You know as well as I do as well as any other six year that adding more knott grass not only amplifies but reverses the effects of the memory potion. That's why Sharp made us read three chapters last year on the power of knott grass."

Ominis continued, berating his friend, wanting answers.

"Have you taken after Garreth now? Is that it?"

He asked and Sebastian scoffed.

"No." He said like it were obvious.

"Then why did you- oh. Oh. oh I see."

"what?"

Sebastian asked, his voice now urgent.

"Technically you don't see anything." 

Sebastian added.

"Not that, you idiot."

Ominis snapped at him.

"You care for her don't you? Just like you did with the new girl last year? Adding her to your collection of curiosities then?"

"Curiosities? No, it's not like that."

Sebastian continued.

"Then, pray tell, what is it?"

Ominis asked and Sebastian remained quiet as he thought of just how to put his thoughts into words.

"She shouldn't have to do her first detention alone with Imelda. Does that not sound like a disaster to you?"

"Oh is that it?"

"Yes. obviously." Sebastian said.

"Sereia almost beat her to death earlier. Had I not stopped her Sereia would have kept hitting her. You really think it's a good idea to put the two of them in detention together? Sure professor Weasley is there to stop them but what if she turns her back? What if she has something else she has to attend to for even a second? What's going to stop Imelda from provoking her again and Sereia lashing out once more?"

"So that's it then?"

Ominis asked.

"You got detention to stop some sort of cat fight between two slytherin girls? How noble of you."

His word were teasing of course but a grin was on his face.

"I like to think of myself as the nobelist there is, you know."

Sebastian replied, feeding into his joke.

"Very funny." Ominis said with a roll of his eyes.

Sereia returned. Sebastian stood to greet her.

"Ready to go?" He asked and she nodded.

"We'll see you in the common room, Ominis."

Sebastian said and Ominis nodded as they went.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

"Glad you all could make it." "We didn't have a choice."

Imelda grumbled and glanced over at Sereia after Professor Weasley's warm welcome.

"For your detention I've decided that you would help professor Ronen sort out feathers for the first years learning the Levioso charm tomorrow. He wants strictly hawk feathers, for some reason."

Weasley said as she summoned a large brown canvas wrapped sack and dropped it down on floor before them.

"We're supposed to go through all of these? That's going to take hours!"

Imelda complained.

"Then I suggest you three better get started."

Weasley said before leaving them and heading to her office.

"Great. I'm stuck here with the wild one and- and you."

She narrowed her eyes at Sebastian who grinned.

"Why are you here anyways?" "I was messing about in potions. Almost turned my memory potion into a forgetful potion."

"How did you manage to do that?" "Knot grass." "Yeah right."

Imelda laughed.

"Professor sharp made us do all that research on knott grass last year so that wouldn't happen. How could you forget that?"

She asked.

"Unless-"

Her eyes widened. She looked from Sebastian to Sereia who hadn't been paying them any mind and instead found a spot on the floor for her to sit as she began sorting through feathers.

"You did it on purpose." "I did not."

Sebastian replied and made his way over to join Sereia.

"But- you-" "Not another word about it. I deserve me detention as much as you do."

Imelda stared at him, completely flabbergasted by this new development she had discovered herself. Slowly, she eventually walked over to the sack of feathers and joined them.

She was still furious about all of this, but there had to be millions of feathers for them to go through, and professor Weasley was right, they might as well get started.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

"How am I supposed to know which of these are hawk feathers anyways?"

Imelda grumbled as she picked up a feather from the sack that looked the same to her as all the others.

"That one isn't."

Sereia said plainly and Imelda narrowed her eyes at her.

"How do you know?" "Well,"

Sereia had a slight smile tug at her lips.

"You called me wild didn't you? You weren't entirely wrong. Trust me, I know my feathers."

Imelda rolled her eyes.

"Whatever." She picked another feather from the sack.

"That isn't one either."

Imelda groned.

"You're so smart why don't you sort them all on your own?" She snapped and Sereia shrugged.

"Ion mind."

Imelda crossed her arms over her chest and began to storm off.

"Oh, and by the way,"

Sereia called and lifted a feather in her fingers.

"That's a hawk feather."

Imelda just rolled her eyes before leaving Sebastian and Sereia alone to do all of the sorting on their own. Sebastian couldn't help it. He chuckled to himself once Imelda was gone.

"I can't believe you just did that. I didn't think you had much of a sense of humor."

He said to Sereia who seemed perfectly content sorting and studying each feather. Sereia shrugged.

"I just know my feathers is all."

"How do you know so much about feathers?" "You heard her, didn't you? I'm wild."

"But not actually, are you?"

"well, I grew up alone since about the age of five. And I lived in the wild. Alone. On an island. By myself. I would say that's pretty wild."

"All by yourself?"

Sereia nodded.

"That's how I know so much about feathers. I spent my time studying the world around me. I know I don't say much but I can tell you just about every type of shell to exist on my island back home."

she tossed another feather to the hawk pile and picked up another to study.

"Wow."

Sebastian said as he watched her.

"That's amazing."