On the Quiet

[Diomedea Rosier]

“Sending a letter to Mommy and Daddy? You disappoint me, Sebastian. I never thought of that side of you – then again, people are full of surprises.”
This was the opening sentence which greeted Sebastian Duvalle in the Owlery, as the blonde young woman entered it, and saw him tying a letter around an eagle owl’s foot. It soon flew away, and then the man turned around and faced her. Diomedea came closer to him, and crossed her arms. Ever since her ‘interesting’ encounter with Nyx Treassa, she had planned something for her own sense of sick amusement, and would not stop until she achieved her – highly indecent – ends. It was very useful, knowing some spicy secrets, and she had her way of manipulating people into telling her these. Of course, this was not the case this time. Alina had told Diomedea herself that she had slept with Sebastian; this was would not be particularly thrilling item of news to Diomedea, if it was not escorted with the more important aspect of it: that it happened when Sebastian was seeing Shenea, Diomedea’s close companion. Alina was another one such companion, but Diomedea hardly kept close feminine bonds. Thus, she did not put thought into the fact Shenea would be miserably hurt, if it meant that Treassa would. She was willing to sacrifice Shenea’s happiness just to achieve Nyx’s – if only temporary – insanity of shame, and disbelief at what would happen.

“You know, there’s been a long time since I last heard of Alina and you,” she told him testily, not looking at him, but at an eagle owl hooting happily on its seat. “I mean to say, were you not friends? Now you’re not even on speaking terms – are you?” she asked, and then turned to look at him straight into the eyes, cold, ice-gray, steely blue meeting his own deep blue ones.

[Sebastian Duvalle]

Carolina Smythe had been a very aggravating girl, to such an extent that he even wondered how on earth he had actually tolerated her, regardless of the fact they had spent a night together, when Sebastian was still an epicurean, when he sought wild passions to satisfy his raging human needs, when he was still condemned by those who were too obstinately fixated upon maintaining the societal etiquettes of propriety, and what constituted these. It never troubled him, but once he had settled with Nene, he had stopped his past activities. There was some mocking he had to endure from peers, and especially from one girl he had been with in the past, Alina Vania Kerl, but other than that society would at least accept him as a man who had finally fixed upon his partner. Or had he? It had been some months ago when Sebastian had been rather dull, Nene was not around, and Alina had talked him about his past, old ways, how she missed them, and this and that and the other, they ended up sleeping together; it was more complicated in fact (or so simple one could not grasp it?), but the outcome was that the day after Sebastian was filled with guilt, Alina was indifferent to this, and Nene had no inkling of what had happened. Naturally, Sebastian had never told her, nor did he ever plan to do so. Alina was his one-night-stand and turned into his many one-night-stands; they were, indeed, friends with benefits and that was something society would also condemn in them both. However, Sebastian had been with Alina some times before he had a relationship with Nene; he cheated her only that one time and he even considered it unfair to be judged because of it, thinking it (when egoism was on a high roll) even a miracle he had been monogamic, having spelt with many girls and never, not once until then, committing himself to a particular someone.

But Carolina Smythe, though he had made it absolutely clear to her, a year now, that what they had was a passing fancy (perhaps he had been rather cruel with her) and nothing else, no evolving romances, no sweet nothings, no relationships - she continued at times sending him letters. He planned this to be the first and final letter he would write to her; he had not responded to any of her letters, allowed her to think he was dead if she wanted, but this had gone one step too far, and he needed to strangle the seeds that would sow dissension among him and Nene; after all, he did not even like Carolina. During the night he had not seen the large wart in her breast, or the many moles in her face. And, of course, if a woman does not possess above all beauty, what does she possess? This corrupt perception of female capacity had altered throughout his relationship with Nene, who was both (as he perceived it, but then again he loved her) quick-witted and stunning. Still, he craved to get rid permanently of Smythe, and in that letter, thus, he had been particularly inexorable, unfeeling, unkind and fierce to her. He believed this would settle matters right - until he heard a cold voice from behind him, and when he turned around, he noticed Diomedea standing on the doorway, but apparently she had no letter to send herself. There was something very menacing, ruthless and malevolent in her expression, but he was not worried whatsoever; she was just being her usual unkind self. Plus, she did not harm Slytherins; her sense of Slytherin pride was specifically high. She openly mocked him, which was usual too, and he said nothing on the matter. "Does not interest you," he blandly told her, and tugged the letter onto the eagle owl's leg. He watched it fly away, until it finally vanished in the sky.

Shoving his hands casually inside the pockets of his trousers, he turned around and faced her; he wondered for a second what she wanted, and instinctively knew it was nothing benevolent. Therefore, when she mentioned Alina, he maintained a calm expression (how could she possibly know? His relationship to Alina had been secret months now, and she could not simply guess, Merlin's beard), though he looked different than when he previously had been - more troubled, and his decided indifference was too much to be genuine. "Alina is a friend of mine," he told her disinterested. "She is busy with her studies, I am busy with NEWTs, that's why we haven't been talking much. Why do you ask?" he told her, faking apathy, and crossed his arms as though he was not in the least concerned about where this conversation was going - but his posture actually showed he was. "Has she told you anything?" he asked, and perhaps this had a double meaning; on one hand, he meant to know whether Alina had complained to Diomedea about Sebastian's progressive indifference, but also, and more importantly, whether Alina had spilled the beans to Diomedea. He knew she had not, he did not expect that from her, but knowing was never a bad thing.

[Diomedea Rosier]

Diomedea wanted to make this deal simple, and quick; she had to time to waste, and definitely not with Sebastian Duvalle. Shenea was a rather bad influence on his lying ability; it seemed to have – temporarily, perhaps – abandoned him, for she could see through him straight away. The anxious glare, the momentary glint in his eye, the sudden desire to quickly explain himself, the forceful indifference with which he uttered his words. She was disappointed; this was too easy. “Oh, yes,” she told him at his last question, a cruel smile across her lips, sensing agony in his voice, which he could have hid better; “the bird has sung.”

She approached him further more, and stood right in front of him, her arms crossed, and her head facing his straight, showing lack of vulnerability, and ruthlessness. “I’ll make this very simple for you,” she told him in a firm, clear voice, avoiding beating about the bush. This was not worth the wait, and the sooner she told him of her plans, the better. “You owe me,” she informed him. “The bird has sung, and its song was rather interesting, I could never let it go away. You disappoint me, Sebastian. You have a good relationship with Shenea, and you throw it all away for nothing? Is she worth that little for you? Old habits do die hard, so I guess you’ll forgive me for this one.”

[Sebastian Duvalle]

Sebastian did not flinch once she made it clear that Alina had told her everything; of course she had! She could not keep her bloody mouth shut, could she! Girls were the same, everywhere. He found that an old, chauvinistic feeling was burning inside his stomach again. She stepped towards him, but he did not step backwards. He was going to show her that he was strong, and would not take any crap from her, or anyone else. His arrogance pushed him to do so, but perhaps it was not enough. His face was adorned with a hardened expression, and the muscles contracted in the right side of his face a second time, as his stomach tightened considerably more. He could not help but feel she was pushing him into a trap, from which he could not escape.

So why did he owe her? Because she had not told anything to Shenea yet? That infuriated Sebastian incredibly, but he maintained a calm exterior, if only for the façade. “You don’t understand,” he told her through gritted teeth, and pressed lips. “Nene – she was angry at me, for nothing! She kept whining about how her parents were putting a distance between her and themselves, she seemed too obsessed about it, and pushed me away,” he said angrily. “I was … I was desperate. It should never have happened, and it won’t happen again.” He looked into her eyes, wanting her to understand. “Ever again, that’s for sure. It was a mistake, a bloody mistake.”

[Diomedea Rosier]

Diomedea looked at him closely. The smile had faded moments now, and instead a serious expression was on her face. “Don’t I?” she asked him coldly, her steel-coloured eyes piercing into his own shades of blue. “I think I understand more than you want me to. No more excuses from you. She turned her back on you for a moment, and you seized the perfect opportunity to turn your back at her. That’s nice!” she said, and laughed grimly. But then her expression froze. “Yes, a mistake,” she said through pressed lips. Her mother had forever been lost because of a mistake. “We all make them, and we all have to pay the price. It’s high time you paid yours.” She looked at him very closely now. “Shenea is a good friend of mine. She would be hurt if she knew.”

She smiled.

“There is a favour you have to do for me,” she told him, and it was crystal clear it was not a favour, for her tone did not tolerate any complaint. “You can’t draw backwards, and you can’t say no. I really will make this very simple for you. You don’t have a choice, because I’m not giving you one.” Her eyes pierced into his, as a cruel smile spread across her lips. “I won’t ask you something out of your system. Do you know Nyx Treassa?” She smiled still. “You do.” Her smile widened. “I know what she is, and I want you to go through it. I want to stick the dagger in her wound, and twist it so it hurts.”

[Sebastian Duvalle]

Sebastian did not like at all where this was going, and he had a rather unpleasant feeling about it, that began to make his stomach turn. "This is not about Shenea, this is about you!" he shouted at her furiously, his clear blue eyes showing he was in a rather tense moment. Where was she going with this? He could not say much when she spoke, for what she said gave him a perilous feeling with regard to what was coming, and he simply stood there, waiting for her to say what she had to say, and get over with it.

But what she had to say, he never expected. His stomach turned at the mention of a 'favour', for he was well aware it hardly was one, and he caught the hint of 'going through it'. Of course, he froze for seconds, and kept staring at her, until he finally managed to swallow, and wet his lips, anxiously staring at her. If only she did not know about Alina. "You're crazy," he mumbled at her, a hard expression on his face, indicating he was not going to lift a single finger to destroy what he had with Shenea.

[Diomedea Rosier]

Of course it was about her, but the fact it had been Shenea screwed over by him did not help much, and thus she lost every bit of conscience she may have had in the beginning. So, when Sebastian called her crazy, she only laughed coldly at him. "Try omniscient," she told him. "You're too blind to your mistakes now to notice - however, this here, me standing on this spot and giving you this ... offer, it's because of you. Think about it. Had you been more self-controlled and less eager to engage yourself with a friend of benefit, had you realised that Shenea mattered more to you than untwisting your boxers for a sordid affair, I would have never be given this opportunity of seeing your pretty little face sending death glares down my way," she said with a frigid smile, and rather enjoyed these death glares.

"You see, Sebastian, the funny thing about life is that you can never run away too fast from whatever is hunting you," she told him, with her smile vanished, and a serious expression on her suddenly hard face. "No matter who you want to be, and what you want to do, and whatever ungodly action you take to achieve this, the bottom line remains. People can't change, and neither can you. You see, you and me, we are on the same boat, facing different sides. You think being with Shenea leads to a new page, but it's the same page, of the same book, in the same library, only upside down, and you are blind to this trick. You think Shenea has in any way improved you, but you only need one word, and you will go back to whom you previously were, whom you were avoiding to be, but wake up - because this is not Apocalypse, and you are not a fallen angel rising from hell. You are a mindless, spineless dick and you need to get it together for when you are about to set Treassa right."

She uncrossed her arms. "I give you time till next Tuesday, and that should be enough. I've made sure she's in a right state, don't worry," she informed him, and smiled unpleasantly at this. "You don't have a choice now, Sebastian, but you did have one when being with Alina. All this now just happened because of your own sorry-ass mistakes. So do not dare accuse me of anything you have not previously inflicted on yourself. This is not a kind request, Sebastian, and it is not an order, nor a threat. It is downright blackmail, so put on a helmet and deal with it. And if you think I'm bluffing, try me. See the end result." With a last icy stare, she turned around, opened the door, and disappeared.