Chapter Text
The bright, warm sun rays filtering through the Great Hall’s windows and the clear sky above their heads during their breakfast were the perfect background for chatting about the upcoming Summer vacations. Almost everyone seemed to look forward to the end of the school year and to go back home, or take a trip somewhere to forget about classes and homework for a while.
The atmosphere the last few mornings had been lively and enthusiastic – except around him. It was mostly his fault, his sour mood making the discussion about Summer vacations an unpleasant topic.
Sebastian was not looking forward to them at all, dreading the end of the school year even more than the previous Winter break.
Unlike during Winter holidays, he could not remain in Hogwarts and would have been forced to go back to his empty house in Feldcroft. He was not looking forward to be constantly reminded about his crimes, the grave of his uncle right next to it reminding him every day he killed him – part of him wished he could have moved the body in the actual graveyard of the village, but another felt he deserved to be tortured by a visual reminder of his guilt.
He was not looking forward to remember his twin sister was still refusing to even speak with him – Anne had Ominis relay the message that she was still going to move away despite not being cursed anymore, wanting to get some time for herself to collect her thoughts and feelings.
Ominis had mentioned he was going to spend the summer months with him, stating he would have rather spent his vacation dealing with his reckless treks across catacombs than to go back to his family. But Sebastian also knew that at some point his best friend was surely going to leave for a while to visit Anne, leaving him alone to deal with the ghosts of his failures and his sins hunting the place.
He was starting to hate his childhood house, he was seriously starting to consider the opportunity to just set it ablaze and burn down everything it represented. He would have needed to find a different accommodation in the meantime, and he had time before he could legally own the house and dispose of it as he wished, but anywhere else seemed to look better than his home in Feldcroft.
"If you’re that displeased at spending the summer with me, I can arrange to go somewhere else."
Sitting next to him, Ominis must have guessed why he had suddenly went silent as soon as their housemates on the other side of the table had started talking about vacations. Sebastian understood it was more a joke than a serious comment by his friend’s smirk, partially hidden by the tea cup he was sipping from.
"It’s not the company that displeases me, it’s the place."
"We could go somewhere else."
"London?"
Didn’t his girlfriend say she was going to stay in London with her uncle and aunt? He could get the chance to visit her, although Ominis would have probably not been happy to play the third wheel.
"I was thinking more about Antarctica, as farthest away from my family as possible."
Ominis put down his tea cup and grimaced, half-jokingly, half-seriously meaning it. After the stunt with his arranged engagement during the previous Winter break, Sebastian could fully agree with his wish to put as many miles as possible between himself and his family.
"What about an expedition through the North-West Passage?"
"You want to try to be killed by polar bears instead of Trolls for a change?"
An owl suddenly tossing a letter in front of his plate stopped Sebastian just as he was about to snark back to his friend. It took him just a glance at the Gaunt family crest stamped on the wax seal to suddenly feel like his breakfast was stuck in his stomach, a sense of uneasiness freezing his hands on the table and making him reluctant to open the parchment.
"...Who is it from?"
Ominis must have sensed something was wrong by his lack of reaction, moving a hand towards the letter on the table to attempt to figure out the sender. Sebastian stopped him just as he was about to press his fingers on the seal, grabbing his wrist strongly enough to pin him in place but not hurt him.
"No."
His friend frowned, his expression going dark and concerned.
"...it’s from my parents, isn’t it?"
"I’ll let you know what it says, let me read it first."
He let Ominis’ wrist go and his friend moved his hand back, albeit with visible reluctance.
Grabbing the letter to put it closer, Sebastian broke the seal and spread open the parchment with both hands, holding it just above the table to start reading. It took just two sentences to turn his uneasiness into downright sickness, the dry business language and the useless pleasantries in the letter making the content feel even more outrageous and disgusting.
As if they were not telling him that in the end his family was not pure, noble and worthy enough to be wed to one of the Gaunt’s heirs – and they made sure to remark the difference by mentioning for the first time ever the surname of the prospective fiancée; as if they were not stomping on all the gambles and risks they took to get their counter bid to work – it didn’t matter the Gaunts were not aware of what they had to do, they were still sinking their whole plan with some dry business communication.
As if they were not telling him he was about to be served a checkmate and lose the match.
Sebastian would be lying if he said he was expecting their counter bid to fail. He had some doubts in the first few days, especially since Ominis seemed to be way too sure the matter was not settled, but between all the positive things that happened - Anne’s curse breaking, the development of his relationship with the girl he loved, all of them being able to live their lives as normal students – he had let them go.
He was now with no backup plan, drawing a complete blank.
He needed to brainstorm with someone, and he needed to do it right now, to prevent himself from setting on fire the letter with confringo.
"We’ll speak about this later, I promise. Go ahead to classes."
"Sebastian!"
He stood up from his seat ignoring Ominis objection, roughly grabbing the letter and crossing the Hall toward the Ravenclaw’s seats. He also ignored the perplexed gazes of the nearby Ravenclaw’s students when he stood closer to his girlfriend and leaned forward to whisper in her ear.
"We need to talk, meet me outside."
He moved away and started making his way towards the heavy doors of the Great Hall without waiting for her, knowing that she was going to understand from his tone that it was a dire situation and that she should have followed him immediately.
She showed up a few seconds after he stopped near a wall just outside the huge doors, looking at him concerned.
"What happened?"
"The Gaunts just sent me this."
Sebastian handed her the parchment, silently watching while she started to read. It took her only a few seconds to pale, her eyes growing wide with increasing disbelief while moving from left to right to read the letter up until the end.
"No..."
She muttered, looking up at him with a sad glance.
"We can’t counter the new bid with another new one, the prospective fiancée comes from one of the noble pure-blood families of England. They countered on the only condition we can’t turn around, even with money."
Sebastian didn’t know what moves he could have done next, but he clearly knew which ones he could not do.
Even assuming they could buy their way up to the social ladder – which they could not, because the money did not actually belong to neither of them but her uncle – the obsession of families like the Gaunt with blood meant they were despising parvenus. That was why they had originally decided to try to turn their lower status into a bonus, focusing on the money only as a mere financial bonus and not as a display of their status.
It turned out pure-blood families preferred to back stab and blow out each other houses in an insane attempt to impose their rule by force, rather than move in a more clever way.
While he had been playing chess, they have been playing Basilinda.
"We need to look at this from another angle. We can try to dig out more about the family and see if we can find something about them that may make the bid less appealing."
It was the other option he considered back during Winter, and discarded due to lack of names. He now had one, and it could have been worth a try.
"We’ll figure it out together. Our first plan may have failed, but I’m sure we are both still dead set on breaking this arranged engagement."
She gave him a determinate glance and he grinned. She really was his other half.
The buzzing of the students leaving the Great Hall to head into classes interrupted them. They remained on the side and spotted Ominis leaving together with Anne – they were both smiling, and it made Sebastian furious to think everything he did to get them together was wiped away with a single letter.
He would have liked to keep the matter hidden from them both until he had a new solution, to spare them further pain, but the last time he did it, Ominis had been upset and his relationship with his sister did not take any turn for the better.
"I’ll speak with Ominis about this. I’m not sure his parent will deem necessary to let him know our counter bid has failed, but at some point they will definitely tell him to come back to get officially engaged to the new prospective fiancée. He’s going to know anyway."
"I’m going to let Anne know. We dragged her into our plan, and we know she loves him. She needs to know too."
Sebastian nodded, thanking her for taking on herself the task to speak with his sister. Anne needed to know too, especially now that she was no longer cursed, especially now that he was aware she loved Ominis and she was well enough to have the chance to stay with him.
He originally wanted to break the engagement to save his friend from a miserable fate he did not deserve, but now he wanted to do it even more for his sister. To make up for what he did, to make her happy – she may be hating him now, but she was still his twin, he would always do anything for her, as he did when he was trying to cure her.
"We can’t let this engagement go through, we need to break it up for good."
He was not going to give up, but how did he got himself into such a bind? The board was almost empty, all his pawns rolled out from it. Had he been so focused on saving the King that all the nearby squares were cut off from his vision? He still had the Rook and the Bishop on his side, but the Queen was at the edge of the board and the King was in check.
He was one move away from suffering a checkmate. And the clock was ticking.