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uhohwhathaveidone · 1 year

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hiiii! I don’t know if you do song requests, if not ignore this <3 but if so, what if cardigan by taylor swift but it’s the reader and sebastian’s relationship! like they’re together having fun, but then anne gets worse and he falls deeper into the dark magic. the reader sees this and sides with ominis, so sebastian ignores the reader and essentially ends the relationship. maybe he comes back to them asking for forgiveness, maybe not idk up to, my dear! thank youuu!

"You drew stars around my scars" and now I'm sobbing.

Cardigan (S.S)

Hey Hey so this request seemed like the perfect match with "Here with Me" and I used that as the base of this fic, and made it a part 2! I hope you're okay with that! A rundown, reader and Sebastian are childhood bestfriends who eventually confess to each other, and the story continues here! And yes, this song makes me cry a bit it's so good. Anyway this is obviously another Hurt/Comfort fic, and there are mentions of blood and a near death for the dramatic flair. Anyway, I'm off to write another fic, I'll see you soon!

A few months after confessing to each other, and the lost hope that Reprifors would be the key to helping Anne, you and Sebastian were still searching for a cure, together now. You went through every charm and spell in the books available to you, and the weekends you used to share for bonding and hanging out had begun to turn into more research sessions, and you noticed how Sebastian had become more absorbed into helping Anne, and it felt like you were going back in time to when he would avoid you. But he wasn’t avoiding you to get away from you, he promised that he wouldn’t hide away from you. But Anne was only getting worse, and you were back to square one.

You sat with Ominis, going over the lessons you shared that day, when you brought up your concerns. Ominis had noticed that Sebastian was missing a lot, and that he wasn’t just avoiding you. You furrowed your brow as you turned the page, lost in thought as to what Sebastian was doing. Sebastian, on the other hand, was sneaking around the restricted section of the library, searching for a book he had seen the night before. He evaded the wandering ghosts and the librarian, reaching for the bookshelf. He breathed out a small breath, the book grasped in his hands. Quickly, he made his way out of the library, and headed to an abandoned room, closing the door quietly behind him. Opening the book, his eyes grew dark, tracing the words on the pages and muttering to himself, the pages seemingly oozing with dark magic.

Sebastian didn’t join you and Ominis for supper, which caused you to worry. You excused yourself and walked the halls, searching for any sign of the brunette. You came across Poppy, who had been walking opposite you with a book about Hippogriffs in her hand. “Hey, Poppy!” You greeted, walking over to her. Poppy smiled at you, closing the book. “Hey! What are you up to?” You explained to her that you were searching for Sebastian, who didn’t show up to supper. Poppy furrowed her brow as she thought back to when she last saw him, “I’m pretty sure I watched him walk into one of the forbidden room up the hall, but I’m not sure which one.” You thanked her and began walking down the hall, checking different rooms for Sebastian. When you made it to the third door, you creaked it open slowly, the sound of someone muttering on the other side making you cautious. You opened it wide enough to pass through and closed it quietly. Sebastian sat in the center of the room, book in one hand and wand in the other, talking to himself. You took a step forward, trying to figure out what it was you were looking at. The cover of the book looked like the ones from the restricted section of the library, and you could see a green haze faintly wrapped around the book and up Sebastian’s arm. Your eyes widened as you realized what the book was about, and quickly made your way to the center of the room with Sebastian.

“Sebastian, what on Earth are you doing?” You questioned, standing in front of him, horror painting your face. Sebastian broke from his trance, slightly confused as he looked up at you. “What are you doing here?” He asked, closing the book, and standing up, fixing his robes. You looked at him in disbelief, “What am I doing here? What are you doing?” You asked, trying to be calm. Sebastian looked down at the book and back up at you, still puzzled. “I might have found a way to actually help Anne. It’s our last hope!” He defended himself, slightly angry that you would even question his methods. You raised both eyebrows and frowned, “Our last hope? Sebastian, that’s Dark Magic!” Sebastian shook his head as he headed for the door, “Be quiet, no one was supposed to know. Now, come on, we have to go.” You stood there, shocked at his blatant disregard for the way he was going about things, staring at the back of his head. Sebastian stood at the door, waiting to hear you walk up behind him. “Let’s go.”

You spoke to Ominis about what you had witnessed, and Ominis’ face fell in concern and worry. “This isn’t good, does he know what could happen if he’s caught?” You shook your head, dropping into an empty chair in front of the fire. “What do we do?” You asked, rubbing your temples. Ominis thought hard, trying to find the best way to go about getting Sebastian to stop. “Bring him here, we need to talk to him.” You did just that, making your way to Sebastian, who just walked into the common room. “Sebastian,” You started. “We need to talk.”

“Sebastian, you know the dangers of Dark Magic! You could be expelled!” Ominis said, moving a chair to sit in front of Sebastian, who only scoffed in response. “You could go to Azkaban!” You chimed in, pleading with Sebastian to listen. He raised an eyebrow, glaring at the two of you. “It’s the only way. Nothing else works. You understand that, yeah?” Ominis shook his head, standing up and pacing. “I can’t stand by you in this situation. It’s wrong and dangerous.” Sebastian stared at you now, waiting for your response. You couldn’t speak, unsure what to say. Sebastian took your silence as an answer, and stood up, walking out of the commons. “I have to stop him, who knows what he’ll do.” You said, getting up from your seat and chasing after him.

You followed him to the lake and walked onto the dock. “Sebastian, you have to understand. We-“ “it’s like I don’t even know you! You were always ready to help Anne, but now you won’t?” He interrupted you, eyes dark as he paced around. You furrowed your brows, “I do! But this just isn’t the way to go!” Sebastian glared daggers at you, and you realized that what you said just placed you on Ominis’ side. “Do you even care anymore?” He shouted, gesturing around. You nodded, “I do care! But it’s wrong! Do you know what those kinds of spells could do to someone?” Sebastian scoffed, “Of course I do! I’ve been reading through them for weeks now!” You felt tears prick at your eyes, trying to fight them back, you continued. “I only want what’s best for you, Sebastian.” You said, quietly. Sebastian had his back to you, staring into the depths of the lake. He looked over his shoulder at you, before moving to leave. You tried to follow him, stopping in your tracks as you heard him mutter, “Maybe the best thing for me is for you to leave.”

You froze, watching Sebastian as he walked away, not turning back. You couldn’t stop the tears falling from your eyes as his words played in your head. You had just lost the person you cared for the most; you felt your body shake with sobs as you slowly dropped to the ground. Maybe you were wrong. Perhaps it was the only way to save Anne. But it was still wrong, right? You sat there for a long time, looking into the lakes as your tears dropped and made ripples on its surface. After all you went through, from meeting as kids to Anne being cursed, from finally expressing your feelings and still working on a way to help her, it was all over. The sky grew dark as time passed, your eyes stung from the cold that the night brought, and your cheeks were stained. Ominis had left the commons after an hour or so, noticing that only Sebastian had come back. He found you, arms wrapped around your legs as you sat at the edge of the dock, and sat next to you. You sobbed harder this time, trying to tell Ominis what had happened. He tried his best to comfort you, promising that the two of you would find a way to bring him back. He knew just how much you were going through, having been there the whole time you were battling those original feelings. After a while, the two of you walked back to the castle and back to your house, and you trudged up to your dorm.

Weeks had passed, and Sebastian didn’t even utter a word to you. You began to feel like you were the bad guy, the one who was in the wrong. You beat yourself up over it, silently. You refused to do anything that wasn’t on your schedule, and only ate a little before returning to your dorm to read through your schoolbooks. Ominis had begun to worry about you, seeing how you were becoming like a ghost in the castle. You didn’t participate in class anymore, sitting alone and quietly doing your work, distancing yourself away from everyone. You opened your charms book, flipping through the pages to reach the healing spells, taking out a quill to continue your study. You needed to find a way to help Anne, one that didn’t include dark magic, and had hoped that you could tweak the spells to have more of an impact. You told yourself that everything you were doing was best for everyone, and began to believe that you were the cause of all of this.

That night when you woke up in the middle of the night, going downstairs to get a drink, the noises you heard. That was Mr. Sallow’s house being raided, and Anne being cursed. If you had done something then, instead of heading back to bed, Anne wouldn’t be in agony all the time. Maybe, instead, you would be the one cursed, and Sebastian would have his sister back. That mentality broke you even more, and you began to not care what you did as long as it got you closer to a safer cure, even if that meant spending the hours you should have been sleeping to study, skipping meals to grab a new book to look through, even not paying attention in most of your classes just to work on your own formula.

Ominis began to scold Sebastian, telling him that what he was doing was wrong, and how he was incredibly rude to you. Sebastian would only brush him off, muttering “It’s for Anne.” Ominis’ concern for you had begun to increase when he watched you in potions, barely grabbing the right ingredient for you potion and placing it into the cauldron. Some days, you wouldn’t even show up to the dining hall, and he had to sneak food out for you and try to get you to eat. He mentioned this to Sebastian, who stayed quiet about the matter. He kept looking into Dark Magic to find a way to help his sister, but he was met with one dead-end after the other. He began to believe that, maybe, the Dark Arts would not help him. But if that wasn’t the way to go, then what was?

Sebastian walked into the greenhouse, taking his seat next to Ominis. He looked around, noticing that you hadn’t shown up yet, and frowned. His gut was telling him that it was his fault that you had secluded yourself from everyone. It wasn’t his gut that old him that, of course, Ominis had made that fairly clear to Sebastian after the first week, but he was too absorbed in the Dark Arts to really care. But now, after he still hadn’t found what he was looking for, he slowly stopped looking at the books, and had put all but one back. It was as if a fog had been living in his mind, as he started to recognize faces and voices again.

Later that day, while Sebastian was walking down the dirt path to the creature pen, he was discussing with Ominis how he felt after the whole ordeal, breathing in the fresh air, and enjoying the breeze. Ominis shook his head, “We tried to tell you, Sebastian. It does things to people.” Sebastian looked down and furrowed his brows, while Ominis continued. “They were right, you know.” Sebastian looked up, confused. “They told you that it was dangerous. What would have happened if you were put away?” Sebastian thought hard about the question, Anne’s face appearing. “I wouldn’t be able to see Anne ever again.” He whispered. Ominis nodded, stepping over a rock. “Exactly, we only wanted you to be safe, and still able to see your sister. It was never about anything else.”

The two had made it to the pen, looking for the professor. Poppy’s small figure ran past them and to one of the gates, yelling at a group of students that had gathered around it. Sebastian couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, and moved closer. Poppy’s voice was stressed as she told the boys to leave the creatures alone; they were poking their wands in and prodding the small creatures in the head, aggravating them. “Stop it!” Poppy yelled, grabbing the sleeve of one of the boys. Another figure rushed by Sebastian, and he recognized it, you. You walked up behind Poppy, glaring at the boys. “You heard her, leave them alone.” You said, your face void of any emotion but anger and annoyance. The leader of the group scoffed, shoving his wand into the pen again. He looked up at you, grinning. “What are you going to do about it, hm?” You narrowed your gaze as you grabbed Poppy, moving her away from the pen and the boy and placed her behind you. In the corner of your eye, you saw the small creature grab hold of the wand with its sharp, needle like claws, and began to climb up it. The boy didn’t notice and pulled his wand back up and tried to point it at you. He was met with the angry chittering of the creature on the tip of his wand, ready to pounce on his face. Panicking, he threw his wand at you, and you tried to grab the little fellow before he hit the ground. Frightened and angry, not knowing that you didn’t mean it any harm, it lashed out and scratched at your neck and hands, leaving a bunch of thin, deep cuts all over. You hissed in pain but kept your composure as you held the creature gently, leaning over the pen to place it back on the ground to be with his group. You picked up the wand and handed it back to the boy, who stared in horror and guilt and blood started to soak your collar and sleeves. “Don’t do it again.” You said, glaring into his eyes. He nodded and ran off with his friends.

You heard Poppy gasp and move to stand in front of you, eyes wide as she saw all the cuts you had received. “You’re bleeding!” She shouted, snapping Sebastian out of his trance and rushing over with Ominis. The professor was already rushing over, walking over only to see the boy throw the creature at you. You shrugged in response, twitching slightly at the pain. “You need to go to the infirmary now! Those cuts on your neck look deep, you could bleed out.” The professor said, looking at the wounds to see just how bad they were. You nodded slightly, wincing as you began to walk up the hill again. The professor looked worried and looked over at Sebastian and Ominis. “I’m afraid they wont make it to the infirmary alone, can one of you go with them?” They asked, and Sebastian quickly nodded and raced after you.

“Wait! Let me help you.” Sebastian shouted as he hurried to your side. You shrugged him off and tried to walk faster, staggering a bit. You pressed a hand to your neck, noticing that it hadn’t stopped bleeding, nor did the cuts on your arms. Sebastian kept following you, desperate to get you to the infirmary as soon as possible. “I don’t need any help.” You said, narrowing your gaze at the castle, which began to get blurry. “But you do need help! You’re bleeding out!” Sebastian tried to reason, becoming frustrated at your stubbornness. Was he like this too, when you tried to talk him out of using the Dark Arts? “I can help myself. Now go away.” You kept walking, blinking away at the blur that had begun to take over your vision. Sebastian ran ahead of you, unsure what to do. He couldn’t stop you; you would bleed out as he tried to explain himself, but if you kept refusing his help, who knows how far you’d get before dropping to the ground. “Look, I’m sorry, for everything.” He started, trying to grab your arm and drag you to the door. You kept your gaze narrowed, not responding. “You were right, I shouldn’t have looked into the books! I thought it was the only way to help Anne, but it wasn’t. I realized that you were looking out for me, and Ominis and Anne. I didn’t care what happened if I got caught, I wasn’t thinking. But you were!” He pleaded with you as he continued to pull you to the doors, your foot dragging behind you and your breathing becoming ragged. He had no choice but to pick you up, whether you wanted his help or not. Lifting you up, he began to quickly walk to the door. “I’m so sorry. You were right about the magic changing people, I have no idea what I was thinking. It was selfish of me to do something like that, and even more selfish of me to say those things to you.” He pushed his shoulder into the door, walking through and down the hall. “I never meant to hurt you, I swear. It was dumb of me to think that you didn’t want to help Anne, I’m sorry.” Tears swelled in his eyes as he hurried down another hall, the infirmary near the end. “I swear, I will make it up to you. I will never let you down again.”

He slammed open the door and shouted into the room for help. A nurse was by his side immediately, guiding him to a bed to put you in. She checked you over quickly, noting that you were still conscious, barely. Sebastian watched anxiously as she ran to grab bandages and ointments, placing them on a tray and grabbing her wand. She used a simple spell to stop the bleeding, but couldn’t close up your wounds. She grabbed the ointment and a cotton pad, dabbing the substances onto your cuts. You hissed in pain, the evident alcohol mixed in the solution burning like hot lava. She asked Sebastian to hold your arm still so she could do the same there, and he grabbed your forearm in one and hand in the other, holding your sleeve up and squeezing your hand. Once again you hissed in pain, watching as the magical ointment bubbled and snuck into the open cuts. Afterwards, she wrapped you up, giving you a final check and handing you some of the ointment and bandages for when you needed them. You thanked her and walked out with Sebastian.

“You’re going to need help dressing those wounds.” Sebastian said matter-of-factly. A small smile tugged at your lips as you scoffed. “I suppose they are. Guess I’ll ask Ominis to help me out.” “Oh, come on!” You turned to Sebastian, seriousness now taking over your smile. “Did you mean what you said?” Sebastian looked down, remembering how you had been conscious the whole time he was rambling. “Yes. Of course.” You nodded, grabbing his sleeve and walking off to the common room. “You’ll have to redeem yourself; you know.” Sebastian nodded and smiled as he walked with you.

With the help of Ominis, you helped Sebastian get over what hold the Dark Arts had on him, and he returned to being himself, the same one you had loved for lord knows how long. You showed him the theories you had come up with and how you wanted to try to tweak the spells to make them stronger, and Sebastian began to find hope again. Two weeks later, he brought you back to the lake where he left you, the bright sun shining down on the two of them. “I hope you can forgive me, for everything.” He said, looking out at the water. You hummed in response, leaning your head on his shoulder. “I love you too.” “I didn’t even get to say it!” “I knew what you meant.”

#sebastian sallow fluff #sebastian sallow imagine #sebastian sallow x you #sebastian sallow x reader #sebastian sallow #sebastian sallow angst #hurt/comfort #hogwarts legacy imagine #hogwarts au #i love Cardigan #harry potter imagine #ominis gaunt #poppy sweeting

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joeytime · 4 months

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Maxiel Hogwarts Au...

If you asked Max what he thought of Hogwarts, he would likely make a joke about pigs and insult their quidditch teams.

He isn't sure it's smart to do that now, in the middle of the Hogwarts' grand hall, completely surrounded by Hogwarts' students and staff. He isn't sure he could escape even if he had his broom.

"Wow, you really hate Hogwarts." The dreaded hat says atop his hair.

Shut up! Max thinks furiously at it. Get out of my head!

Everyone stares intensely at Max, not daring to breathe while the fate of the member of the national quidditch team is being decided. Even the teachers are at the edge of their seats, other than Dumbledore, he seems to know where Max will inevitably end up.

"Little quidditch champion. Everyone is expecting" The hat says, as if it's life of forever moving from head to head to call one of four words is somehow a greater destiny than Max's.

It's not. Max knows he will go on to succeed in life, and win as many quidditch championships as he wants and then retire on an island in The Maldives with a butt load of cash while the hat is left in a dusty room, waiting for it's yearly use. Max wants to reach to rip it up but it would not be wise to do so in front of Dumbledore himself. His hands stay in his lap, frown etched on his face.

"Impatient. Immature." Max's fingers twitch slightly. There is only so much backtalk one can take from a hat.

"Violent and uncaring, wherever will I put you?" Max doesn't agree with that description, he cares plenty, about winning that is.

"Foolish. Foolish boy." It doesn't hurt, Max has heard those words plenty of times.

Max sulks.

It's a beat of silence before the suspense reaches its climax. "Hufflepuff! " The hat hollers, not bothering to consult Max on it's decision. Which is very rude and impolite.

The entire room erupts into chaos, screams of "What! " and "No way! No way!" echo throughout the hall.

Max can't help but agree, he thought he might end up in Gryffindor or Slytherin, maybe Ravenclaw if he was super unlucky. But Hufflepuff? His father was going to disown him. The media are going to have a field day. Well they were going to already, regardless of which house Max was put in.

Dumbledore moves to pull the hat off of Max, the treacherous thing whispers one last time: "Things will make sense in time. Be patient. Do not mope."

Max doesn't mope. Verstappens can't mope, so he doesn't.

Dumbledore gently guides a slightly speechless Max to the Hufflepuff table, pushing him into the seat before winking and walking off.

Max wants to burn down this school.

Cheers erupt from the Hufflepuff table, hands coming to pat him on the back and fawn over him.

The other tables seem miserable at the prospect of losing out on a quidditch champion.

"Oh my god! Hi! Hi! Oh my god! It's you!" A boy excitedly chatters to his left, other students crowd around him and Max suddenly finds that he can't breathe. It's like he's small again, after being knocked off his broom by an overly excited big kid. He had fallen to the ground, too exhausted and overwhelmed to get back up.

His father had been mad, really mad. He hadn't slept well again after that.

"Guys! Guys! He doesn't look so good. " Whoever that is, is definitely right, Max can hardly breathe, he tries to use the breathing technique his father taught him after his first match, control his breathing. It doesn't work, it only causes the panic and urgency in his veins to surge. It did work, it's purpose was to put him on guard, not calm down.

He curls into himself, hands around his ears to protect from the deafening sound of crowds cheering. His bubble of personal space is of course pried and poked at. Fans never had any self awareness when it came to these matters and his father never did have sympathy for personal space.

Hands are pried away from him, he can hear outraged screeching at the action. His own quidditch team's screams when he was 6 years old and pulled away to join the older kids. They thought it wasn't fair that a small boy climbed the ranks faster than they did.

"Hey! Hey! Everyone back up right now!" The entire opposing team bombarding him in an attempt to stop him. The referee's reprimand that fell on deaf ears.

The people at his sides are replaced and gentle hands hold him back up, out of the ball he curled himself into.

Max doesn't dare look up, too afraid at the thought of seeing his father's judgemental look.

"Hey, are you okay? " Max turns his head, soft, gentle, warm eyes, concerned. Jos was never concerned, he was the uncaring one! Not Max!

"I'm fine. " A repeated response, practiced again and again every time he came home to his mother.

The teen with the soft eyes gestures for another boy to sit on Max's other side. The boy opposite Max looks on in concern.

"Hello. I'm Daniel Riccardo, I'm a prefect of Hufflepuff, it's nice to meet you." The gentle boy says, eyes still filled with concern.

"Max Verstappen. " Max manages to choke out.

"The boy on your left is Yuki Tsunoda and that's Lando Norris." Daniel gestures to the boy sitting opposite Max, who waves shyly.

The ruckus Max's sorting caused calms down and everyone settles down to listen to Dumbledore's welcome back speech which luckily does not mention Max.

Max feels strange between Riccardo and Tsunoda, like dread wrapped in false cotton. Norris also peers at him from time to time, creep.

They're sent back to their dorms. Max tells Riccardo that he can get there on his own but the older boy frowns and insists that he takes Max. Max thinks his father would be disappointed at his complacency but he doesn't have the strength to fight it.

Riccardo leads him to the kitchen, Max wants to snap some insult about him being a goody two shoes and how this is none of his business. He holds his tongue.

Riccardo gestures to a specific barrel, looking more worn out than the ones around it. He taps a certain beat, perhaps it's a secret code. That's childish, Max decides, they are not children playing in a fort.

The barrel swings open.

Max grimaces at the small tunnel.

"Here, you try tapping it." Riccardo puts Max's hand to the barrel.

Max repeats the rhythm perfectly. Memory exercises were part of his training.

Once Riccardo is satisfied, he points at the tunnel, almost as if he wants Max to crawl through it.

Max scrunches his nose, seriously? The older boy points more urgently and Max relents, shoving himself through the tunnel.

Well, not shoving, he's not really big, a fact his father loathed, putting him on diets with large sums of proteins and even attempting to use transfiguration spells before it was put to a stop by his mother.

Max wished his mother had not stopped his father. Maybe he would have an excuse not to join this god forsaken house.

It's an agonizing 5 second crawl before he pops out the other end right in front of Lando Norris, the boy before.

Daniel appears behind him, putting a hand on Max's shoulder.

"So Max, this is the Hufflepuff house. You know Yuki and Lando. That's Oscar, Nico and Valtteri." Riccardo urges the boys to come forward.

"It's Verstappen. " Max declares, Riccardo quirks an eyebrow and the rest of the boys look equally confused.

"Hi! I'm Lando! I'm like a huge fan, do you mind signing this for me? " The boy's yellow robes are somehow orange.

Max's PR training kicks in and he smiles one of those sickly sweet smiles that his father loves to wipe off his face before ordering him to smile again. His posture straightens and he reaches a hand around the younger boy's shoulders, patting him on his back once, twice. Just like he rehearsed.

"Sure! " His tone is so obviously a faux sweet as he reaches to retrieve the black marker from his back pocket. The boy has stars in his eyes and Max feels guilty, he always does. He's a fraud.

He signs the hat from his national team, the one he left behind.

He wishes he didn't.

"Hey, are you okay Max? " Riccardo asks, looking weird again.

"I'm doing great, how are you? " His PR trainer said asking back these questions were endearing, cute. Max's father had mocked him for that act, his trainer had been fired after that.

"How about I bring you to your room? Would you like that?" Riccardo asks, Max smiles again, nodding.

"Sure." Norris waves enthusiastically as Riccardo leads him out of the common room and into his private room.

"Are you alright? Max?"

"Call me Verstappen."

"Verstappen. Are you alright?"

"You can go, Riccardo. "

"... Call if you need anything."

When the prefect leaves, Max wants nothing but to burst into tears. He flops onto the bed.

The next day he drags himself out of bed. Even if classes don't start till 9 and the sun hasn't risen yet.

Jos expected him to continue his strict training regime. He was almost tempted to skip it and lie to his father but he thought he better not after his humiliating sorting from yesterday.

Now, alone, Max can see the Hufflepuff room properly. It's... It's all gentle lighting, none of the bright fluorescent lights his room had. The chairs looked comfy and the many plants lazing around the common room tempts him to join them.

Perhaps that would be a better fate, turning into a plant to live the rest of his life in the common room. His hand lingers on his wand, mind on a spell his professor taught him when he was just 9. He didn't.

When he had crawled out of the Hufflepuff room, fully dressed, broom in hand, the sun was just peaking from the horizon.

The halls are empty, some portraits mutter as he walks by. His father's portraits never moved, other than those instructed to. For example, a painter that never stopped moving his brush or a surfer never to take a break from the sea.

Making his way to the Hogwarts field, he stretched, slow and patient. His bones crack from the exhausting day he had before.

The field is decent sized, not as big as the one he played in during national championships, bigger than the one his father made him run laps around till he fainted.

He glides through the air easily, flying comes easily to him. If he were to be given his own time and freedom he thinks he would likely still be a top player in the school leagues.

It's better that he was hurled up though. Better to have reached the top by sheer force of his father's training.

He thinks about his national team, he's a reserve, too young to play officially but the team has him in some practices and he attends smaller competitions for them. Max suspects it's more about having a claim on Max when he comes of age.

He's 15, he still has 3 years to choose which team he wants to go to. By then, he will make his own choice. He will not do whatever pleases his father anymore.

The golden snitch twinkles near the end of the field. Max pretends not to see it.

It is fun, sometimes, tricking the golden snitch, allowing it a false sense of security. Like a tiger cub playing with a cricket.

His father would get mad at him if he did it for too long, he was upset his son couldn't catch it at once. Which Max could, he just didn't see the fun of it.

The fluttering golden ball is in his hands before it can even think of escaping.

Max briefly wonders if the snitch can possibly think, he lets it flutter away, repeating his game once again.

In the golden light of the sun and shaded path of the clouds, the wind whizzes past his ears, he falls into the familiar rhythm of flying, sometimes he makes his own obstacle courses, weaving through imaginary hoops.

By the time the sun reveals itself fully to watch Max fly, he realizes that a crowd has gathered around under him, star-struck Hogwarts students watching, mouths open and everything.

He flushes slightly, he may have had many adoring fans due to his membership in the national team and young age but come on! These were his peers.

Max lowers down, checking his watch to see that it is indeed 8.30am and he has to run if he wants to get to class not drenched in sweat.

He waves slightly to the crowd, zipping to the house dorm even though he's probably breaking several school rules.

He knocks the tune and enters quickly, still high from the adrenaline of flying.

He climbs out of the tunnel only to come face to face with Daniel Riccardo, his face stern and stony.

"Verstappen! You can't just sneak out like that!" Daniel's expression softens when he sees Max.

Max knows he feels pity even if Riccardo knows nothing about his life.

"I of course did not sneak out, I left my room and went to the field." Max doesn't think early hour training counts as sneaking out, going to parties in the dead of the night is sneaking out.

"Max, we were worried. I went into your room and you weren't there. Thought you'd been kidnapped by the other houses to play quidditch for them or something... "

Max considers this briefly, Riccardo knocking on his door gleefully, freezing when he doesn't get an answer. Did his blood pressure spike? Did he throw Max's door open in desperation only to find the room empty?

Max grimaces.

"I went to go training... Sorry..." Max stands awkwardly, hands by his side like a child being punished by a parent.

Riccardo sighs. Max wants to cry.

"Please forgive me, I'm of course sorry, I will do anything!" Max cringes inside, begging with someone other than his father is a foreign concept.

Riccardo has a cheeky smile on his face, Max is almost scared.

"I'll forgive you... Only if you call me Daniel!"

Max groans inwardly, well he's also partly relieved but Daniel doesn't need to know that.

"What will it be Max? Will you call me the d word? Or will you suffer in my never ending spite! "Daniel's grin grows.

" Fine. "

" Fine, who? "

"Fine. Daniel."

Max flushes, weird.

Daniel looks elated.

54 notes · View notes