Part 13

"So, where have you been since the battle with Ranrock?" Sebastian suddenly asked. Noah wasn't expecting this question.

"In that case, I also have a question. How do you know that I was gone for two weeks, not a month?" Noah answered with a question, which Sebastian found quite endearing.

"Have you forgotten who taught you the disillusionment spell?" Sebastian laughed.

"How did you know I was there? After all, no one except the professors knew about it," Noah genuinely puzzled.

"You still haven't answered my question," Sebastian pressed on.

"I don't want to talk about it," Noah abruptly cut him off.

Sebastian noticed that whenever he tried to approach this conversation, it felt like grasping at fog. The answer seemed right in front of him, but it slipped away. Meanwhile, Noah was sinking into his memories and slowly fading away, as if poisoned from within.

"Your eyes turned red this morning," Sebastian decided to change the subject.

Noah stared at Sebastian, his eyes glowing bright red again. At that moment, Sebastian was speechless. In his eyes, Noah had always been an ideal person who never gave up, always faced danger head-on, and was fearless like a hero from old fairy tales and legends. But now, this image that Sebastian had constructed in his mind was crumbling at an alarming rate. From shock, he even forgot how to breathe, and his dumbfounded expression gave him away.

"He understands everything."

Noah was scared of himself, abruptly closed his eyes, and walked away from Sebastian. Without a better plan, he made his way to the Room of Requirement.

"Mr. Omill, Dick is glad to see you. I heard you didn't miss classes today!" a joyful house-elf named Dick approached him.

"Yes, Dick, can you please leave me alone?" Noah covered his eyes with his hand. Dick didn't want to leave him, but he thought it was best to go. Snapping his fingers, he disappeared, and Noah was finally left alone.

Noah rushed to the mirror to look at his reflection. To his surprise, his eyes were indeed red, just as Sebastian had said.

"I'm a monster," Noah said aloud and burst into laughter. Of course, in the moment when he inhaled someone else's suffering, multiplying his strength, what else could he have expected? Out of anger, he grabbed the mirror and threw it on the floor, causing it to crack and shatter into small pieces. It seemed as if dozens of burning, red eyes were staring back at him from the fragments.

A shiver ran through his body, and he clutched his shoulders, sliding down the wall.

"I didn't mean it! Please, let it be a dream. Let me wake up, and everything will be fine. Please..." he began repeating the same words like a prayer, like some kind of ritual. He was scared of himself and didn't know what to do.

After Noah left, Sebastian finally regained his ability to breathe.

"Are you done now?" Ominis approached Sebastian. "Wait, where's Noah?" Sebastian, still unable to move past what he had witnessed, remained silent. Ominis shook Sebastian by the shoulders. "What's going on? Where's Noah?" he tried to rouse him, but Sebastian stubbornly remained quiet.

"Did you have a fight?" Ominis inhaled and sat down beside him. "Tell me."

Sebastian looked at Ominis and didn't know whether to tell him about what he had seen or not. After all, he himself didn't fully understand what was happening with Noah.

"I don't know. He just left," Sebastian managed to say.

"Well, if he had to go away for a while, that's it. But now we have another secret from each other," Ominis frowned.

"Let's go back to Hogwarts. Maybe we'll find him in the crypt," Sebastian put on his robe and stood up from the bench. But Ominis just sat there and didn't move.

"Ominis, are you coming?" Sebastian asked.

"Going where? You don't know where he is, and you didn't tell me what happened here," Ominis put away his wand and settled himself comfortably.

"I really don't know what I saw clearly. I think it has something to do with ancient magic," Sebastian began explaining as Ominis turned to face him.

"Did you see it? What did you see?" Ominis was concerned.

"I wanted to find out where he had been missing for so long, but Noah didn't want to talk and just left," Sebastian decided to keep his eyes a secret for now.

"He could have told you himself when he was ready. Why do you constantly pry with your questions?" Ominis got up and scolded him, but Sebastian didn't listen. He started reproaching himself for putting Noah in such a state himself.