Ignorant
Has this idea for a fanfic for a while now and decided to actually write it down. I might continue it, I'm really not sure yet. But enjoy!
Sebastian Sallow x f!OC
Hufflepuff house
2.8k words
“Ignorant…”
That single word rang through my ears and stayed with me as I walked out the Undercroft and to my common room. “I’m ignorant?! Who does he…a Slytherin thinking…calling me….” These thoughts and others ran around in my head as I walked past countless students, none of which I can say the name to as I didn’t pay attention to anyone I passed. I heard my name called out multiple times, sometimes followed by a thanks for helping them with this and that. On a normal day, I would stop and ask if they needed anything else, but I didn’t want to talk to anyone at this point. Something was telling me my patience was thin and even the slightest conversation would not be a pleasant experience for anyone involved.
After what seemed to be the longest walk I’ve made in Hogwarts, I finally arrived at the Hufflepuff common room, but something about it seemed different this time. What is normally a very lively and vibrant room filled with the warmth of nature, the smell of freshly baked goods from the kitchen, and colorful characters talking and laughing, now felt almost dead. The laughter felt dull and forced, the cupcakes left for us by the house elves in the kitchen looked dry and flat, the whole room just appeared to have lost something. Of course, maybe I have just been ignorant of how the common room truly was and was just now seeing its true nature.
Once again I heard my name being called, but just like before I chose to ignore this and made my way to my room. Ever since I’ve arrived at Hogwarts, it seemed almost no one has been to the room despite having multiple other beds for other girls. But this was a trend I was hoping was going to continue with my current state of mind. With a flick of my wand the door opened and closed behind me. I began pacing around the room, replaying the conversation Sebastian and I had, my hands clenching tighter and tighter the more I thought. “He wasn’t thinking right, he was just angry.” One thought said while another whispered “After all I’ve done for him!?”
“All the things I helped him with?!” I thought out loud. “Hogsmead, Ominous, Salazar-” the more I thought the redder my face felt. During my pacing, I gave my trunk at the base of my bed a kick, followed by another, followed by multiple others, followed by a “Goodness!” from the door.
I looked up from the trunk and saw Poppy standing in the doorway with a very concerned look on her face.
“Poppy I…”
“Cassia, are you ok?” Poppy asked, walking towards me. “What-” What she said next was lost to my ears as the pain of kicking the trunk caught up to me in my right food. I tried my best to suck in a breath without Poppy hearing and gritted my teeth. I shuffled my feet towards my bed, never once lifting my right foot, and tried to ignore the pain to focus on what Poppy was saying.
“-I kept calling you to sit with me but it was like you were in your own world. Then I come and see you kicking your trunk. I’ve never seen you like this, what’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing, really.” As I replied, I tried moving my toes but it seemed even the thought of it made the pain start up. “It’s just…stress from my classes.”
“Which classes?” Poppy asked. “I’d be more than happy to help!”
As much as I appreciated having Poppy for a friend, having her (or anyone else for that matter) around me right now is the last thing I wanted. Especially now with this new pain. “It’s fine Poppy. I’m just not understanding one chapter. I’ll get through it.”
“That once chapter could mean the difference between an O and an E on our OWLs,” Poppy said, kneeling beside me. “And I’ve never seen you this worked up over any class before. Are you sure-”
“I’m sure.” I snapped, but immediately regretted it as soon as I saw Poppy’s usually cheerful and happy expression dropped.
“Oh…alright.” She said standing up. “Well, if you need anything I’m only an owl away.”
I slowly nodded my head as I watched her leave the room. As soon as I heard the door click behind her, I threw my shoe off and held my foot. I considered for a short time taking my sock off as well, but the pain I was already feeling gave a good indication of what it looked like.
After holding my foot for a bit I hobbled back to the trunk. “One of my Wiggenweld potions should do the trick.” I mumbled. But when I opened my trunk, I did see my potions I had stored…toppled over and spilling out.
“Damn it!” I yelled out, slamming the trunk back shut. “Damn potions! Damn trunk! Damn Sebastian! Damn it, damn it, damn it!”
I sat on my knees and covered my face in my hands, feeling myself start to shake with anger. “I know it’s my fault for kicking it.” I thought. “I should have known, why did I do that? How could I been so igno-”
That word rang through my ears once more and a new pain started to come over me. “I need to talk to-he doesn’t want to talk to you-I can fix-no you can’t-I want-no.” Tears started to leak through my hands and, as much as I tried to stop them, sobs soon followed. It wasn’t long after that I felt arms wrap around me and my head placed on someone’s chest.
“Shhh…” I heard Poppy whisper. “It’s ok, let it out.” She started gently patting and stroking my hair, continuing to let out gentle “Shhs”. I kept my hands clasped tightly to my face while she did, never once taking them away.
“This isn’t about classes, is it?” she asked and I shook my head no. “Do you want to talk about what it really is?” Once again I shook my head no and I felt her nod her head before going back to the silence, minus my sobs.
I decided to skip dinner that night and instead spend my time in the Room of Requirement. Having some time to myself while taking care of the plants and beasts would probably help me forget about the events of today and prepare myself for anything I would be facing later. I also decided being anywhere near where Sebastian could even possibly be would not be good for the either of us and we both could do with some distance between us for a while. I also didn’t want to worry Poppy any more than what I already had after she walked in on me crying. I did hear her come into the dorm room just before she left for dinner, but I was faking a nap in hopes of being left to myself and making it easier for me to sneak away.
When I opened my eyes, I saw a small note sitting on top of a stack of cookies. I could tell they had just been freshly baked from the steam and delicious smell coming from them. At this sight of this small gesture of kindness I couldn’t help but smile and help myself to a couple of bites off the top one. I hid the rest in my cloak’s pocket before making my way out of the dorm and towards the Room of Requirement
“Ms, Cassia, wonderful to see you!” Deek greeted me as I walked through the door.
“Wonderful to see you as well, Deek. I brought something for you.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out one of Poppy’s cookies.
“Oh, Deek is most gracious for this gift. Deek rarely gets to see his friends in the kitchens with how busy they are, how busy we both are. Deek’s kept a watchful eye on your potions and plants as well.”
“Thank you.” I smiled at the house elf. “I’ll have to collect everything after I feed the beasts. I’d also imagine the Puffskeins are ready to be brushed…again.”
“Of course Ms. Cassia, take your time.” With that, Deek wondered off to a different part of the room while I walked up the stairs towards the Swamp Vivarium which held my Thestrals.
As soon as I walked past the entrance to the swamp, a dry, muggy feeling came over me and the bottoms of my shoes started sticking to the mud under me. The humidity of the swamp made sweat almost instantly appear on my forehead. “Lumos” I mumbled before a bright light shined at the tip of my wand. I walked further into the swamp before I finally came across its inhabitants. Three large, beautiful Thestrals stood in front of me while a smaller peeked it’s head from behind it’s mother before it recognized me and ran to greet me.
“Hello.” I smiled, reaching up to stroke the larger, male Thestral while the smaller one sniffed around my pocket. No doubt smelling the remaining cookies. “Not yet little one.” I giggled. I extinguished the light from my wand and with another flick multiple brushes appeared, one for each of the beasts around me. Though, admittedly these brushes didn’t do much to clear out knots given the Thestrals lack thereof, but more so to remove mud and moss from their bone tight skin. None the less, the Thestrals still seemed to enjoy it and stretched out their necks as the brushes made their way over them.
“Now for dinner.” With another flick, the brushes disappeared and a feeding can appeared in my hand, ready for dinner. The adults munched on the food directly in front of them while the younger one playfully chased his. While I was watching him play, I started hearing something echo throughout the vivarium. I cast Lumos once again and saw something running from the entrance of the swamp towards me.
“Ms…Ms!” a tiny voice called out that I soon recognized.
“Deek?” I questioned, running toward the house elf.”
“Ms Cassia!” Deek Huffed once he reached me. “It’s the…someone…the Hippogriffs…”
“Highwing?!” was my first thought. “Pardon me Deek.” I picked up the house else and raced out of the swamp and towards the Forest Vivarium where most of the beasts were held. My first thought were poachers, but how they would be able to enter the Room of Requirement, much less Hogwarts itself, was beyond me. Then I thought if there may have possibly been something wrong with her, a virus or an illness getting to her. She did refuse to eat breakfast this morning, but I chalked that up to her being upset the Mooncalf got into her food.
Before I even reached the Forest Vivarium I could already hear Highwing’s screeches mixed with human screams. When I walked through the entrance, that’s when I heard the same screeches followed by the flaps of her wings. I looked to my left right and saw her jumping and snapping at one of the larger trees. I put Deek down and we both ran over to her. As I got closer I saw the source of the human screams sitting on one of the branches in the trees and holding onto the trunk for dear life. They were kicking their legs to shoo Highwing away, but I could tell this was only making her angrier. I slowly walked closer to the figure and was able to put a face to the screams.
“Sebastian?!” I yelled in disbelief.
“Cassia!” he yelled back “Get this damn thing away from me!”
Now, if this was yesterday, or last week, or even last month I would have been the first to jump in and help Sebastian out of this predicament. But after our fight and me coming to my earlier decision, I wasn’t feeling the same “jump-into-action” feeling I usually get. Instead, I decided to have some fun with this.
“Oh poor boy.” Deek said, covering his head in his hands. “Deek tried to make him leave before, but Deek as too late. Ms Ca-”
“It’s ok Deek.” I smiled. I looked down at one of the Mooncalves that had come over to watch what was going on, her eyes big with wonder. “I will handle this.”
I turned to look back at Sebastian and shook my head. “Sebastian, get down from there, you’re scaring the Mooncalf!”
Sebastian looked back at me with eyes almost as wide as the Mooncalf. “I’m scaring the-HEY!” Sebastian’s snapped his leg away from Highwing just before she was about to grab hold of his pant’s leg.
“Yes! Poor thing is shaking.” I placed a hand on top of the Mooncalf’s head, which was actually doing anything but shaking and was instead enjoying the show. I saw Deek look up with worry in his eyes and I gave him a quick wink. “And my poor Niffler, scared half to death.” The Niffler I rescued from IronDale was now also at my feet, though I had a feeling he was more interested in taking advantage of the situation and steal any stray hold he could find.
“Cassia!” Sebastian yelled again.
“Here you go little one.” I cooed, bending down to give the Niffler some treats and scratching the Mooncalf’s neck.
“CASS-MY SHOE!” I looked up from the Niffler and saw Highwing had snatched one of Sebastian’s shoes off, almost bringing him out the tree with it. At this point, this was enough and ran with Deek to sooth the Hippogriff.
“Deek, can you try to get Sebastian out the tree? I’ll get Highwing.”
“Yes ms.” Deek responded.
“Hey girl, it’s ok.” I said, talking barely above a whisper. I slowly placed my hand on her neck and began to stroke it. “It’s ok, you’re safe now. We’re all safe.” Highwing shook her head and slowly backed away from the tree. I walked with her, continuing to stroke her feathers and keep my voice down. Then, with one last squawk she dropped Sebastian’s shoe and flew off.
I looked over at Sebastian who was slowly making his way down from the tree with Deek encouraging him. However, this was proving very difficult given Deek’s small size and Sebastian’s shoeless sock getting caught on almost every stray splinter of wood. But once he was safely back on the ground, I walked over to him with my arms crossed.
There was silence between us, each of us only staring at each other waiting for the other to talk. Deek must have sensed the tension around us as he didn’t even dare to speak. Sebastian was the first to break the silence though when he cleared his throat.
“May I have my shoe back?”
“After you tell me how you got here.” I replied, glaring at him.
“You’re guess is as good as mine!” he yelled. “I was just walking, minding my business, next thing I know a door opened with all these potions and plants. Next thi-”
“That’s not how the room works.” I interrupted, earning me a very confused look from Sebastian.
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” Deek answered, “The Room of Requirement appears when someone is most in need of something. Perhaps you were in need of some potions, or some Chinse Chomping Cabbages. There’s no shortage of possibilities of what can be found in this room, sir.”
“Oh.” Sebastian smiled before letting out a chuckle. “That makes sense. Little did I know I was in need of being attacked by a monster to-”
“She’s not a monster, and she has a name.” I interrupted again, this time taking a step towards Sebastian. “She is a beautiful and regal creature who demands a person’s respect. Something I’d expect you to know. Of course, given how ignorant I can be, why would I expect that?”
Now it was Sebastian’s turn to step towards me. He looked down at me and I could see the gears turning in his head, trying to come up with something to say. I lifted an eyebrow, waiting for him to say something while my hand tightly gripped my wand.
“Give me my shoe.” Was all he managed to say through gritted teeth.
I chuckled and with a “Gladly”, tossed his shoe toward the entrance. “Deek, will you please show Sebastian the way out.”
“Oh…yes Ms.Cassia.” Deek said, slowly walking toward where I threw the shoe. “Please, follow Deek sir.”
I kept my back turned away from the entrance as Deek showed Sebastian. Once I was sure they had left, I took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. I felt something at my feet and when I looked down I saw one of the Puffskeins at my feet looking up at me. I sat down in front of him and conjured up a brush for him.
“’So much for the silent treatment, huh little guy?” I sighed.
