Sebastian's lungs burned with every breath, but he couldn't take a breather. Every minute counted - he knew that. Even though he could feel the girl's faint breath on the back of his neck, the unregular rhythm was getting to him. When he reached the stairs up to the hospital wing after what felt like an eternity, his heart was racing in his chest and he had to gasp for air. He silently cursed the many stairs at Hogwarts, as he had many times before during his time at Hogwarts.

Once upstairs, the floo powder lady slobbered all over him - he only gave her a disgruntled sideways glance - and managed to push out the heavy door into the infirmary with his foot. He was glad that the door was only ajar and not locked.

"Mr. Weasley, if she comes back with an unknown burn-" nurse Blainey began as she stepped out of her office, but stopped at the sight she was given. The Slytherin boy looked at her with widened eyes, unable to form a clear thought or sentence, but the girl's unconscious body explained enough. The woman reacted immediately, pointing with one hand to a vacant bed. The boy carefully let the girl slide from his back onto the bed, where the healer laid her down carefully. Sebastian took a few steps back, staring ahead, images of the day his sister was cursed and the scriptorium clouding his mind. 'Why? Why do I have to think about that right now?" was the only thing that came to his mind. He noticed that Terzia's wand had slipped out of his pocket and was threatening to fall off the edge of the bed. With shaky hands, he grabbed it and held it tightly.

"Mr. Sallow, you must go now," Madam Blainey said as she helped herself to her medicine cabinet. She turned to face him as she realized she hadn't heard any footsteps.

"Mr. Sallow. It would be better if you leave." With a hand on his shoulder, the woman tried to point him in the direction of the entrance.

"Is she going to be okay?" he asked, faltering slightly but not averting his gaze.

The healer looked at him a little sadly. She knew too well what had happened to his sister. The children of today were unfortunately forced to grow up too soon.

"Only if you leave and let me work," she replied, pointing towards the hospital door again. Sebastian looked down at the wand in his hand. He placed it gently on the small side table next to the bed and left the infirmary.

Sebastian began to pace nervously back and forth in front of the door, restlessly playing with his hands. Memories of unforgivable moments flooded his mind, with no end in sight. The several attempts to calm down were unsuccessful. His emotions had been a mess for months. As a result, the Slytherin did not realize that his friend had arrived.

"Sebastian," he heard his name as if the voice was far away. Nevertheless, he managed to focus his attention on the other. Great concern marked Ominis' otherwise straight face. The sinking feeling in his stomach didn't make it any better that his thoughts were expecting the worst.

Ominis stepped a little closer to him and said, "You need to sit down."

"Don't tell me what to do!" Sebastian snapped at him, which he immediately regretted.

"Sit. Down! You won't help anyone if you start hyperventilating," Ominis said a little more sternly. Sebastian only clicked his tongue unconsciously, but stopped pacing. He didn't even realize how irregular his breathing was becoming, that his vision was already beginning to flicker. A hand lay on his chest near his heart, which Sebastian grabbed with his own and clutched for some unclear reason.

"Your heartbeat, Sebastian! You really need to sit down," Ominis realized in shock when he felt the rapid pounding in his chest. With a guiding hand, he pulled him to the stone wall next to the door and Sebastian's body reacted of its own accord and slumped against the wall. The blind man did not let go of him and knelt in front of him.

"Listen to me carefully, will you? Everything will be fine. Take a deep breath. Terzia will be fine. Her fate is not Anne's, do you understand me? And breathe out," he coordinated to his friend, who complied willingly. He repeated the instructions over and over again until Ominis could make sure that the palpitations were much weaker. In his head, he repeated to himself that everything would be fine so as not to panic.

Ominis bit his lower lip, angry with himself for not doing anything, even though he realized how bad his best friend really was. Even if their contact had been relatively minimal over the last few weeks, he should have done something. It wasn't just the death of his uncle and the loss of his last family member that bothered him, but everything that had happened over the last two years. Sebastian had clung to the hope he saw in the dark arts for so long that it had kept him up, kept him going.

"Are you clearer in the head again?" Ominis asked, letting go of him. He set down his and Sebastian's bag.

Sebastian mumbled a quiet "yes", leaning his head against the hard, cold stone wall.

Ominis slid a little further to sit next to him against the wall. Silence spread, except for the occasional creaking of the wood of the stairs in the corridor next to them.

"Why do I always hurt the people who are important to me? Anne, you, Terzia, ... my uncle. I must truly be cursed and damned. Life has dropped me," the brown-haired Slytherin thought aloud, his voice sounding broken.

The blind snake drew his eyebrows together, which emphasized his serious face even more.

"This is simply the punishment for crossing the line into the dark arts. You've let yourself down," Ominis replied after a pause for thought.

"How do you cope with the fact that... you know?" Sebastian turned his head towards him. Ominis understood what he was getting at.

"Not at all, and you know it. It will haunt me for the rest of my life that I directed such brutality at Muggles. I just accept that part of me so I can move on," he tried to explain.

"I couldn't face my guilt in such a way that I could accept it unconditionally in my life."

"Tolerating something and accepting something without further ado are two different things, Sebastian. Just because you acknowledge something for what it is doesn't mean you have to like it," the blind man explained. "Besides, it's better to admit your guilt before it's too late or it will eat you up from the inside."

"Has it eaten away at you?" his friend wanted to know, interrupting the once again awkward silence.

"Of course. Enough to keep me away from it now. That's why I didn't want to drag you or Terzia into it. But neither of you really wanted to listen and I got to watch you walk away from me," Ominis confessed. He then realized that he and Sebastian had never really talked about how he had perceived the last few months. He had slipped into the background of everything that had happened. The fact that the conversation was the first real one after weeks of pleasantries to keep the appearance of peace didn't make it any better.

An oppressive silence filled the air. Sebastian turned his gaze forward, no direct target in sight. Ominis was right about one thing. He, Sebastian, didn't want to hear anything that would set his goal back.

"She listened to you," he finally replied.

"Mhh?" Ominis turned to his friend.

"Terzia. She tried to stop me from going too far. But then I messed up and called her ignorant on top. And before I realized it, I pushed her away from my side," Sebastian sighed as he thought about it. "I'm the blind one of the two of us, Ominis, not you."

The other Slytherin couldn't help but grin a little at the statement.

"Definitely ironic, if I may say so. But I have to agree with you," he commented on the observation.

Sebastian took a deep breath and tried to calm his inner chaos somehow, as he couldn't stop the nervous trembling of his hands.

Suddenly, footsteps could be heard in the distance, climbing the wooden spiral staircase. Sebastian peeked around the corner so he could see who it was. When the person came into view, it turned out to be the slightly limping ex-Auror climbing the stairs with a small leather bag in his hand.

"It's Sharp," Sebastian explained to Ominis, who was listening intently.

"Does he have any potions with him? I hear something clinking like glass and it's not coming from the hospital wing."

Before Sebastian could find an answer, the potions professor reached the top step. With his typical stern look, he looked down at his students sitting on the floor next to the door. While the young Gaunt only looked a little shaken up, the image of the Sallow boy gave him pause, considering the traces of exhaustion and the slight circles under his eyes. His eyes still showed remnants of his previous panic.

"Mr. Gaunt, Mr. Sallow, shouldn't you be at lunch?" he asked in his gruff voice.

"We're waiting for someone," Ominis answered first, before his friend said the wrong thing.

"I'm well aware of that, Mr. Gaunt, but I can already tell you that Miss Siegbjerg won't be leaving the hospital wing any time soon."

The two Slytherins' eyes widened at the statement, surprised that their professor already knew.

"Leave. I'm sure you still have a lot to do, considering your upcoming OWLs or your afternoon classes," Sharp indicated again in a sterner tone that their presence was not welcome. Reluctantly, but complying, the Slytherins left their seats and walked towards the Great Hall, their bags shouldered.

Professor Sharp stayed outside the door for a moment to make sure they didn't return. Once he had the insurance, he entered the infirmary. He was immediately greeted by the young nurse.

"Ah, I'm glad you could come so quickly. I hope I didn't interrupt you while you were doing something important."

Sharp waved her comment away and made his way to the bed where the Hufflepuff girl lay.

"Who managed to bring Miss Siegbjerg here in one piece?" the man wanted to know, even though he thought he knew the answer.

"Mr. Sallow. Unfortunately, I hadn't found the time to ask him what had happened," nurse Blainey explained as she took the leather bag from the potions master. As requested, he had brought along the strongest healing potions and the like.

"I'll find out later. His class has lessons with me in the afternoon," said Sharp. The man's gaze wandered from the woman to the girl. Even though he himself had seen a lot in his time as an Auror, he had never expected at the beginning of the school year that this young woman would single-handedly strike down the strongest goblin of her time. Even though no major scars were visible from the outside, he knew for certain that the events and the death of his colleague had definitely left deep wounds. Wounds that could not be healed with potions.

After the memorial service for Professor Fig, it did not go unnoticed that Terzia became more withdrawn. Even her favorite teacher, Professor Ronen, could no longer get through to her. Nevertheless, they kept an eye on her as best they could. In the hope that one of her classmates would make it sooner, which fortunately happened in the end.

However, the potions professor had reckoned with every one of his students, but not with Sebastian Sallow. He himself seemed to be struggling with something inside, you could tell. He often seemed lost in thoughts. The Slytherin was also slowly detaching himself, but the young Gaunt still seemed to be a constant in his life now that his sister could no longer come to school.

"Keep a close eye on her here," he said with a warning look. "You have permission to conjure her to the bed if necessary, should she want to make a break for it. But hopefully that won't be necessary."

He took the empty bag and left the hospital wing. After all, he still had to make small preparations for the coming lessons.

***

In the Great Hall at the Snakes' table, both Slytherins poked at their food, hunger gone. Imelda, a very ambitious housemate and flying fool, sat down next to Ominis and looked askance at the boys.

"Hey, you two! Why the long faces? Did someone die?" she said with a sarcastic laugh.

Sebastian leaned forward a little so that he could glare at the girl. She was lucky that Ominis was sitting between them, he thought to himself silently, while the hand with the fork clenched dangerously.

Ominis replied snappishly: "You'd better keep your mouth shut, Imelda. Otherwise you'll have a very bad day, I guarantee it."

"That's all right. Don't fly off the broom again. What happened to you?" she said, raising her hands in defense, which only one of them saw.

Ominis heard Sebastian next to him breathing in and out deeply, as if trying to control his temper. He would actually like to leave, but was afraid that his friend would jump on the Slytherin girl at any moment.

So he gave him a little push with his elbows and whispered: "You'd better go away before you blow everything up here."

He then heard Sebastian get up from the bench and walk away.

"Oi! Where's he going?" Imelda asked, less out of concern than because she felt insulted.

"Leave him alone. He's got enough troublesome ghosts around him without you."

"Sorry, but what do you mean?" she grumbled angrily.

"That's quite obvious. You're even more insensitive than Sebastian and have no tact for a lady. I already feel sorry for your future husband, if you ever find one," Ominis replied cheekily. He also left the table, before Imelda could reply.

Before he had even left the hall, someone called out to him.

"Ominis, please wait!"

The Slytherin would recognize the voice of the beast-loving Hufflepuff anywhere. When he heard her footsteps stop beside him, he turned in her direction, wand still active though, in case he needed to make a quick exit.

"What do you want, Sweeting?" he asked in his slightly stern voice.

"Why do you always call me by my last name? We are in the same class for 5 years..."

Ominis just raised an eyebrow and asked, "Is that what you want to talk to me about?"

"Uh, what? No, no. I just wanted to ask if Sebastian was with you. I saw you come into the hall together and wondered if you'd been able to locate Terzia," Poppy replied nervously at first. She noticed the Slytherin frowning in concern at the Hufflepuff's name.

"Yes, we've found her. She's in the hospital wing now. But I assume that she won't be allowed any visitors for the time being," he explained enough not to have to talk too much about it.

"Oh, that doesn't sound very good. But I'm glad I asked you. Thank you," Poppy thanked him and gave the blind man a quick hug. He stiffened at the sudden touch, which did not go unnoticed.

"Too much?"

"Yes."

"Excuse me. I'm not too good with people yet, sorry. Well, see you later in Potions," she excused herself and rushed off.

The Slytherin picked up his pace again, still a little taken aback by Sweeting's unfamiliar closeness. But he could clearly sense the positive influence of her housemate.

***

As the last rays of the day's sun bathed the sky in soft colors, Terzia regained consciousness. She awoke out of nowhere, her eyes dilated and one hand still outstretched in front of her. The image of Professor Fig falling into nothingness and out of reach still flickered right before her inner eye. The pumping of her heart gave her circulation a hard time, causing small dark sparks to disturb her vision.

"Professor?" came as little more than a murmur from Terzia's throat.

Disoriented, she blinked and turned her head back and forth until she was fully aware of the hospital wing.

'Just one of the nightmares,' she thought to herself exhaustedly. She hated it deeply when reality caught up with her.

In the meantime, she lowered her arm and simply let it fall beside her. The bed barely allowed her tired muscles to move. Her head was also pounding like hell. She was aware that she had always felt exhausted the last few weeks, but she couldn't figure out why she was here now. As she stared at the high ceiling, she strained to remember what had happened, even if the memory of the dream didn't make it easy. The Hufflepuff could still remember sitting in her former mentor's classroom and studying her important papers. But there was something else, she could feel it in her heart. Images of the freckled face appeared more and more clearly in her mind.

"Sebastian..." she mumbled a little vaguely.

Then she heard footsteps approaching her on the stone floor. Nurse Blainey came walking around the visual barrier. The healer stood at her bedside table with two potions in her hands and set them down. She noticed the pair of eyes looking at her, of course. With a gentle smile, the nurse turned to her patient.

"Well, I'm glad you're awake again. How are you?" asked Nurse Blainey in a low voice.

"I feel like I've been kicked by a troll," Terzia stammered out in response. The woman couldn't help but smile a little at the description.

"Oh dear. We'll have to do something about that quickly. Can you expose yourself to something?" she wanted to know as she poured one of the potions into a cup.

Terzia tried, but her body didn't seem to want to obey properly. Finally she let out a frustrated sigh. The healer understood and helped her into a more upright position with a swing of her staff, making sure that the pillow was snug against her back.

She then handed the cup to the girl, who took it with shaky hands. It was difficult to get her arms high enough to take a sip. This puzzled Terzia for a moment, as she had previously raised her one arm. In the end, she concluded that it was just her body's flight reaction. With Blainey's helping hand, she finally managed to take the potion. After the last drop was gone and the nurse took the cup back, Terzia's hands rested in her lap, her gaze fixed on them. The effects were immediately noticeable and the headache disappeared, giving her a chance to think.

"How did I get here?" she wondered aloud.

The nurse looked at her calmly and explained: "You were brought by a classmate."

"Sebastian..."

"Yes, that's right! Mr. Sallow, and apparently Mr. Gaunt, found you when you were already unconscious and came straight to the hospital wing," Blainey said and turned away.

Terzia frowned in confusion. Images flickered before her eyes again, both Slytherins in view. They had spoken to her. It wasn't her imagination, was it?

"How do you know that?"

"Professor Sharp asked them how it came about and that was their explanation. You should thank the two gentlemen for their watchful eyes as soon as you are allowed to leave."

The Hufflepuff girl nodded curtly, unsure what to believe more; her fuzzy memories or the healer's words.

"When can I leave?" she continued to ask.

"Nothing as soon as you think. Your body is exhausted. You need to regain your strength first. Unfortunately, potions and spells can only support the process, but your body must heal itself," explained nurse Blainey with a sterner undertone.

She turned back to her patient with a tray containing a bowl of soup and a piece of bread. With the help of the levitation spell, the tray slid over Terzia's lap and remained in this position.

"But don't worry. I'm confident that they'll be fit again by the time your OWLs come around. And if the principal keeps his word, there will be a school-wide reward for an outstanding performance in the exams."

"Reward?" the girl frowned irritably. How long had she been out this time? What else had she missed?

"Oh right, they can't know that yet. The principal announced this surprisingly nice gesture at dinner and apparently promised a party at the end of the year if the 5th and 7th year students achieved a 'Outstanding' in at least two exams. And of course not a single 'troll'," the nurse added the last sentence with a grin in her description. "I'm sure you'll manage that, as you've learned so much in a year."

Terzia didn't say anything and began to eat, albeit with difficulty.

The warm vegetable soup warmed her wonderfully from the inside, sending a lovely feeling of comfort through her exhausted body. Nurse Blainey said goodbye for the moment and told her that she would come by later for another treatment.

While the girl slowly slurped her soup, her thoughts were racing. But Sebastian and Ominis kept sneaking underneath. If they really had found her and spoken to her, it would hurt even more than their relationship at the moment. She hadn't spoken to one of them since Fig's memorial service and the other had kept his distance to give her a "well-deserved rest". Even though she had decided this herself, her heart was crying out louder and louder for contact with them. She missed them very much, but she didn't want to impose her problems on them any more than she had this year.

She remembered what she had promised her mentor before everything fell apart. She promised to keep the container under lock and key, but in time to tell people she trusted about it. It was to remain a secret, but not a sole burden. But to this day, only the teachers knew about it, because Terzia could hardly lie about it. After all, Fig had given his life for it. Of course, her classmates also inquired about what had happened, yet no one got a word out of her. Inside, she wondered whether it was right not to say anything to her friends, but she couldn't find an answer to this at the moment.

When she had finished eating, she dropped into the pillow and let her eyes wander around the now candlelit room. She was incredibly tired, but every time she closed her eyes, she found herself back in that damned cave under the school. Where she had defeated Ranrok, returned the ancient magic to its place and her mentor had taken his last breaths. Her personal hell, which had returned to her again and again over the past weeks. Terzia had already stopped counting how many times she had woken up crying and sobbing from nightmares. Sleeping was pure torture at the moment. She would go so far as to say that the Cruciatus curse truly had competition. Looking around again, she spotted her wand on the bedside table. With shaky fingers, she managed to grab it after a few attempts. The moment she gripped it tightly, she felt the magic flowing through the wand. Sometimes she thought she could hear her wand talking to her, and as she often did, she placed her wanded hand on her chest. Her heart beat in unison with the gentle pulsing of the magic.

She lay there for a long time until her eyes finally closed of their own accord. Even the healer came three times in the meantime to check how she was doing and to administer the potions. But Terzia's answer was always the same: "I'm fine."

***

Late in the evening, Ominis walked through the hall of the Astronomy Tower on his way to the secret room below the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. He liked to go there so that he could talk aloud to himself without any strange, eavesdropping ears. As he descended, he heard distant explosions and the faint smell of smoke. As he walked through the bars of the undercroft, he heard an angry "Confringo!" from Sebastian and shortly afterwards wooden crates shattering not far from him.

He immediately cast Protego so as not to risk splinters in him. He heard the crackling of a fire and his otherwise calm mind turned to anger.

"What by Merlin's beard are you doing? Are you planning to set the whole undercroft on fire?" the blind man asked angrily as he cast the ice spell on the fireplace.

"What, am I not even allowed to come here?" the other Slytherin snapped back. His voice dripped with annoyance.

"Yes, but not so you can tear the room apart down to the last brick! Do you have any commen sense?" Ominis now raised his voice. "Why do you always have to confront your problems so radically? Can't you even think before you act?"

Silence.

Then the blind boy heard his friend running towards him and before he could react, he was grabbed by the collar of his cloak.

"Don't talk to me about thinking, Ominis! In every duel, in every battle, I came out as the winner, but I lost the war. I lost everything. Everything! My own anger at myself is the only thing I have left and this overwhelming feeling of guilt," Sebastian said between gritted teeth. "I'm sorry, do you hear me? That's what you wanted to hear all along!"

"Don't say 'I'm sorry' if you don't mean it and continue to hurt the people who still see some good in you with your actions," the blonde Slytherin replied with narrowed eyes.

Sebastian clicked his tongue bitterly and growled: "I know I made a mistake, a big mistake, but stop harping on about it!"

He pulled the Slytherin closer to his face - which left him quite unmoved - and looked directly into the milky eyes, as if he would find the solution to all his problems there.

"So why didn't you stop me more? Why was Terzia always by my side, even though she knew what I was doing was wrong? I didn't want any of this. I only wanted to help Anne. She's my sister, damn it! My uncle shouldn't have... shouldn't have died. I really didn't want it," he said, his anger clashing with sadness. The tremor in his voice faltered. He had to swallow hard.

"Do you think I don't care about Anne's fate? That I didn't care enough? She's like a sister to me! But unlike you, I understood that there is nothing curable in the dark arts. You inflicted this pain on yourself," Ominis spoke openly about his feelings.

Rage flowed through him and his grip on his wand tightened. He could understand how Sebastian couldn't finally understand that he alone was to blame for his suffering after the last discussion. If Sebastian didn't realize it soon, he wouldn't be able to help him, Ominis knew that.

The hands on his collar began to tremble, but he didn't know if it was out of anger or something else. Then he heard quiet sobs. Immediately he knew something was wrong. Ominis brought his wandless hand to his friend's face and placed it on his cheek. The Slytherin could feel a drop of water brush the tip of his index finger. Another sob escaped Sebastian.

"I'm afraid, Ominis. Afraid of being alone for the rest of my life. To be in the shadows of you all, to never see the sunlight again. I know I have no right to ask this, but-" the other Slytherin began, before taking a deep breath. "Please, Ominis, help me. Help me take this pain away."

The boy weakly loosened his grip on the collar, but did not let go completely and lowered his head to the blind man's chest. This gesture left the other shaken. What had happened today had probably turned the consuming flame of guilt inside him into a firestorm.

"Actually, I wanted to punish you with silence for never listening. But to hear you now, so full of fear," Ominis began, placing a hand on his friend's back. He could feel Sebastian holding his breath. "I don't want to lose you either. Two school years without Anne was hard enough, but I could never bear to have neither of you around. You're too important to me for that."

The Slytherin was carefully taken in his arms, which he returned. His face on his shoulder and his hands clutching his cloak.

"But I'm still mad at you for being such an absolute selfish rat," Ominis added.

For a few minutes, the two boys stood in the tight embrace until Sebastian slowly let go, reassured that Ominis would not push him away.

"What now?" asked Sebastian, because he couldn't think of anything better to say.

"First of all, YOU clean up here. I've told you before that you're welcome to use spells down here, but no mess or pure destruction!" Ominis explained, which gave Sebastian a faint smile.

"I'll stay long enough to make sure you do it properly. Then I'd suggest some sleep. It's almost bedtime and I don't want to mess things up with the principal," he continued, leaning against the wall next to the exit.

Sebastian went to the first corner full of splintered wood and pointed his wand at it. Small red sparks flew from the tip of the wand, ready to fire the explosion spell again. Even my wand wants to destroy, he thought painfully.

"Can you still start today?" Ominis asked, bringing him out of his thoughts.

"I'll do it," came back a little belligerently. The familiarity of his character put a smile on the blind man's face.

After a few minutes, the two Slytherins left the undercroft together. They walked side by side in silence, knowing that the exchange of their pent-up emotions had spoken enough. Sebastian didn't feel quite too lonely after weeks alone in the dark, though. His best friend was with him again.