Chapter Text
Felix straightened his tie as he took a good look at himself in the mirror before grinning to himself. Finally, he was about to start his seventh year at Hogwarts. Since the end of his fifth year, Felix had taken it upon himself to become the wizard that his late Professor Fig had wanted him to be. He had successfully kept the repository a secret and had sworn to never reveal its secrets until he felt like the time was right. Because of this, it was only fitting that he’d apply to become a professor at Hogwarts after graduation. Felix had expressed his interest in teaching at the end of last year to Professor Weasley, who had seemed overjoyed at the idea. With her blessing and promises of coaching him, Felix began to hope for the best outcome.
A satisfied sigh left Felix’s mouth before turning and exiting the boy’s bathroom. He had to make it down to the Great Hall in time for the Sorting Ceremony.
“Felix!” called out a charismatic voice.
Felix grinned. “Amit! It’s so good to see you! Did you have a good summer?”
Amit nodded with excitement. “I did! As much as I enjoyed it, I cannot wait for this year! We will finally graduate! Can you believe it?”
“It’s hard to believe,” Felix sounded bittersweet. “I am just sad that I only got to enjoy three years at Hogwarts.”
Amit gave him a sympathetic look. “Is that why you now aspire to teach here after graduation?”
“Partially, yeah.” Felix confirmed.
When they had finally reached the Great Hall, Felix and Amit sat down with the rest of the Ravenclaws, just in time for the Sorting Ceremony. One-by-one, each first year was sorted into a house, followed by cheers from their classmates. As Felix watched another student walk past him, his eyes landed over at the Slytherin table, where he spotted Sebastian chatting with Ominis. This was a surprise to the Ravenclaw boy. Felix remembered how fragile he and Ominis’s friendship was in fifth year and how the two Slytherin boys were in a disagreement on a lot of things. Specifically, of course, about Sebastian’s use of dark magic.
After killing his uncle, Sebastian’s friendship with Ominis became strained. It took Felix’s convincing to not report their friend for using the killing curse. As much as Ominis was hesitant, being on Anne’s side in this debacle, he reluctantly agreed to not turn him in. However, he kept his distance from Sebastian from then on. Funny enough, Sebastian did the same to Felix. The three boys – who had thought to have found friendship – became distant.
It killed Felix to greatly view his two former friends as strangers. Despite not communicating with the two Slytherins, Felix found his friendships with Poppy, Amit and Natty to be growing stronger.
Since stopping poachers from harming the beasts out in the wild, Poppy became more and more confident in her actions. She even started a club to help conserve and fight for the freedoms of all magical creatures. Felix agreed to help, and soon their club had gained quite a number of support from fellow classmates and some professors.
With Natty, Felix was able to learn some wandless magic from her. In addition, she delightfully agreed to help him with the animagus process after Felix asked. The Ravenclaw – who now was an owl animagus, spent a great deal of time soaring through the air in his owl form last year. He enjoyed flying solo, but he had the most fun exploring the open world outside of the castle with Natty, who shifted into her gazelle form.
Amit became good company as well. The two Ravenclaws became better friends in their sixth year. In a way, Felix felt like Amit became the brother he never had. When they weren’t spending their time working together for Professor Shah’s class, they were usually seen playing gobstones or wizard’s chess in the Ravenclaw common room. When Quidditch was finally brought back for their sixth year, they attended the games together to cheer their house on. They had a fun year together.
As fun as he had with his other friends, Felix still missed Sebastian and Ominis. Now seeing the two Slyherins exchanging words at their table made Felix smile bittersweetly. He began to hope that if those two are finally talking, then maybe he can be included in their lives again.
“SLYTHERIN!” roared out the Sorting Hat.
Felix noticed the horrified look on Sebastian’s face and quickly turned towards the front of the Great Hall to see what was bothering him. The person who stood up from the stool – now in Slytherin robes – was a boy who appeared their age. He had jet-black hair and gray eyes. As he made his way towards the Slytherin table – who all but Sebastian and Ominis welcomed – he stared down at the former. Felix had a feeling that something was wrong with Sebastian. He clearly knew who this was. After some consideration, Felix felt like this was his chance to confront him about it.
If there was an issue, then Felix wanted to help.
Once everyone was dismissed, and after excusing himself from Amit, Felix made his way towards the Slytherin common room. He spotted Sebastian and Ominis amongst the crowd of people and quickly followed suit. It wasn’t until they’d gotten close to the dungeons when Felix got lost in the crowd and was separated from his two former friends. Soon enough, Felix was alone, next to the kelpie statue. The sound of a voice he did not recognize was soon the confirmation that Felix was not completely isolated.
“Quite far from the Ravenclaw common room, aren’t ya?”
Felix turned to find himself meeting the gaze of the mysterious older boy who just got sorted. Now that he was closer to him, Felix noted how tall this guy was. He nearly gulped, feeling a tad intimidated by him. This person gave off a dark aura, and Felix did not know how to feel.
With what confidence he had, Felix stood his ground and replied, “I spotted my friend and wanted to catch up. We haven’t spoken in a while.”
“Friend, huh?” the boy grinned. “Oh! You must be Sebastian’s ‘charge’ from his fifth year, right?”
“How do you know Sebastian?” Felix replied, put off-guard by that nickname Sebastian called on the day of his first Hogsmeade visit.
Just as the mysterious boy was about to reply, another voice boomed from down the hall.
“Vincent!”
Felix turned to see none other than Sebastian himself making a B-line towards them. He looked livid. Felix was unsure how to react. Should he leave? As he began to back away a few paces, Sebastian motioned an arm in front of him, as if he were being shielded from the new student.
“Hello cousin,” the boy, now identified as Vincent, spoke. “How was your summer holiday?”
“Stay away from him,” Sebastian growled. “You stay away from me, you stay away from Ominis, and you especially stay away from Felix!”
Vincent’s grin dropped as he took a few steps forward, practically challenging him.
“Yeah? What are you going to do if I don’t, Sebastian? Are you going to kill me like you did my father?”
Felix’s jaw dropped at the mention of Solomon and timidly looked at Sebastian. Despite being behind him, the Ravenclaw could tell that his former friend was fuming with anger. Felix thought Sebastian would make promise to that comment, if Professor Sharp hadn’t appeared.
“What’s going on here?” demanded the potions professor.
Vincent and Sebastian glared at each other before they backed away. Vincent fixed his tie and gave his cousin and Felix a knowing look before turning to make his way towards the Slytherin common room. “Nothing,” he said calmly. “Nothing, Professor.”
Professor Sharp gave Vincent a suspicious look before turning his attention to Felix and Sebastian. “Are you boys alright? What happened?”
“Exactly as he said, Professor,” Sebastian huffed out. “Nothing. Just some family quarrel, that’s all.”
Professor Sharp did not look too convinced. “That so?” turning to Felix, he says, “Let me know if there’s any problems with any of you.”
Felix simply nodded before watching their professor leave. Now alone, Sebastian let out a sigh and turned to finally face Felix. The Ravenclaw observed him, taking note of the growth spurt that his old friend hit. He felt small compared to these Sallow men.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
Felix nodded. “I am. Sebastian, who was that? Was he telling the truth? Is Vincent your cousin?”
“Solomon’s son,” Sebastian replied bitterly. “Vincent transferred from Ilvermorny after Anne wrote to him during the winter holidays last year. Guess he decided to transfer.”
“Why was he studying magic in America if he’s Solomon’s son?” Felix required.
“He and his wife separated when Vincent was young,” Sebastian explained. “From what memories I do have of him, Vincent was not pleasant. He’s worse than my uncle ever was.”
Felix frowned. “You think he decided to come back for revenge?”
“Possibly,” Sebastian replied grimly. “I don’t want to go down this path again. I do not want any more trouble. Whatever you do, Felix, please, stay away from him. Who knows what else Anne told him.”
“Before you intervened, Vincent called me your ‘charge’. That’s the nickname you gave me on the day we met.”
“Anne must’ve told him about that,” Sebastian frowned. “I did tell her quite a lot about you in letters we exchanged during that time.”
“Oh…” Felix cleared his throat. “Right.”
They stood there in awkward silence, not knowing what to tell each other next. Felix looked up at Sebastian, who looked around. Was he avoiding him still? Frowning, Felix opened his mouth to say something.
“Sebastian, about what happened, I-”
“I have to go,” Sebastian cut off. “I’ll be sure to tell Ominis about you. See you around.”
“I…Okay, then.”
Felix stood there and watched as Sebastian disappeared down the hall. With a heavy sigh, the Ravenclaw turned to make his way back to his respected common room. While his goal was achieved, it was not in the way that he had hopped. A lot of conflicting thoughts and emotions were running through his head. Why was Sebastian sticking up for him while still avoiding him at the same time? Was Vincent really that big of a problem? Importantly, where was Anne? She was not seen at the Sorting Ceremony, and nor was she mentioned other than having written to her and Sebastian’s cousin. Were they on speaking terms again? Felix made a mental note to ask these questions next time he saw Sebastian. Then again, he did seem in a rush to get away from him.
“Perhaps I could try speaking to Ominis next?” Felix thought to himself.
Finally, after a long walk up the tower, Felix entered the common room and made his way to bed. He’ll have to think things over in the morning.