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Chapter Twenty Four
GOING HOME
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Sebastian stares at me with a sad look. "He won't," I hear him say. "But yes, I'll stop him if he tries."

I nod my head at that and slowly Sebastian steps away from me as if finally realizing just how close he was to me. I realize it too and I feel my face heat up. I straighten out my robes and stand there awkwardly waiting for someone to say something.

I glance between the two of them, "I'm listening," I say trying to sound strong but my voice carries how scared I am.

Ominis takes a step towards me, his wand in his hand guiding him. Instinctively I take a step back and I hear him let out a sigh. "Lila, I'm sorry," he says, his voice breaking. "I should have known my family would do something. They are ruthless."

I nod my head at his words, they were ruthless. But I had agreed along with it knowing that this might be the outcome. "You didn't force me to go."

"No, but I also promised that I would protect you," Ominis argues.

Sebastian steps into the conversation at that. "Well you can't blame yourself for not protecting her if your parents put you under the imperious curse." Then he turns to look at me. "And you can't blame him for something that he wasn't in control of doing."

Ominis shakes his head, "No, she has every reason to blame me. They're my family, it's my curse. She should hate me."

I twirl the ring on my finger as I always do when I'm nervous. "I don't hate you, Ominis, a part of me wants to but I don't." I whisper. "It scared me because a few nights before I had a dream that it would happen."

Sebastian looks at me with a puzzled look. "You had a dream about this? About what happened at the Gaunt manor?"

I turn my gaze to look up at him, he looks at me with concern. "Yes," I say nodding my head. "In my dream, we walk inside and your mother makes you use the curse," I start to explain, looking over at Ominis. "but you refuse and she uses the imperious curse and then you use the torture curse. I woke up before it could hit me."

"When did you have this dream?" Ominis asks beginning to pace back and forth.

My eyes glance back to Sebastian, "The day I said I wanted to get out of the castle, when I took Sebastian out and we went to some cliffs and when we got back to the castle that night was when you asked me to pretend to be your girlfriend." I explain.

"Oh so you took me out, so was that a date?" Sebastian asks with a smile.

I feel my face heat up at that despite knowing he's just trying to lighten the mood. "No, it wasn't a date." I say quickly. "Why would you think that?"

He shrugs his shoulders, "Well it was just the two of us."

"I asked Ominis if he wanted to but he didn't," I try to say. "If it was a date then why would I invite him just to be a third wheel?"

Ominis stops his pacing to look in our direction, "Are you guys seriously arguing over this?" He asks with annoyance in his voice. "That doesn't matter right now."

"It kind of matters," I think I hear Sebastian mumble.

The blonde haired boy is quick to glare at him before turning to me. "Tell me exactly what you saw, who all was there, and what did you drink before you went to bed that night?"

I look at him confused and then starting to get scared again. "Why? You think someone got inside my head?"

"It's a possibility," Ominis says. He stops and then looks in my direction, "But first I have to say that I'm truly sorry for last night."

My head falls down as I remember last night. The fear of meeting the Gaunts and then the excruciating pain of the curse. "It's fine, Ominis." I start. "I'm the one that agreed to go."

He looks at me with pain in his eyes, "Only because you felt like you had no choice." He says and I open my mouth to object but he continues. "Don't think that I haven't noticed that you can't say no. And I'm truly sorry for using that against you."

I look at Sebastian as I don't know what to say, "I tried to talk her out of it." He tells Ominis. "This was her choice, you didn't make her go."

"Even so, I knew what my family is capable of and yet I still brought you there and you got hurt. You can't say that it wasn't my fault." His voice breaks as he talks.

Sebastian places a hand on his shoulder, "You aren't responsible for your families actions." He tells him in a gentle voice, "You were under the imperious curse, it wasn't you."

Ominis lets out a sigh but doesn't say anything. I glance over at him. "I know it wasn't you Ominis, that you wouldn't do that." I say quietly but I know he heard me. "But that doesn't change the fact that every time I look at you now I can still feel the pain."

He looks at me with understanding but says nothing. "Okay, now that that's settled what do you think happened to make her dream about this?" Sebastian asks Ominis.

Ominis glares at him again for saying that this was settled, when if fact it wasn't. He lets out a sigh, "It's something my father has done before." He looks down as if he is the one that should be ashamed. "He uses it occasionally to mess with the mind of muggleborns before he takes them to torture them."

"You're saying that your father somehow got inside my head?" I ask somehow not believing that. "How?"

The blonde haired boy shakes his head, "No, not my father. My brother, Marvolo." He says slowly. "He knows how to do it. He's the one that must have informed my parents about Ava. He must have known I'd take you there." He runs a hand through his hair making it messy. "It was all just a game to them."

"How..." I start then trail off as I think about what I need to ask. "How would he do that?"

He glances in my direction as Sebastian stands off of the side looking nervous. "He would have had to put something in your drink, perhaps at dinner that night."

I try to think back to that night. I don't remember even going to dinner. Then I remember how I became sleepy after lunch that day. "Would it have made me sleepy?"

Ominis nods his head, "Yes, it the best way to get inside someone's head."

"I didn't go to dinner that night, but I remember after lunch I was really tired. And I remember thinking that someone must have put a sleeping potion in my drink." I say, my voice suddenly laced with fear.

Sebastian who's been quiet for a while and observing the two of us speaks up. "You think your brother drugged her and no one noticed?"

The boy nods his head again, "No one would even know, the only side effect is feeling tired." Ominis explains. "Also, if he's already trying to get inside your head you should be aware that he can also do it without the potion."

"How does he do that?" I ask but I feel like I already know the answer. The little headaches I get nearly every time I am around Marvolo.

"He's a Legilimens." Ominis answers. "He can get inside your mind. He's very skilled at it and can preform it without an incantation." He says and he sounds ashamed. "We both can because of Salazar Slytherin."

Sebastian looks at Ominis in surprise, "You can read our minds without us even knowing?"

"No, I mean yes I can but I don't." Ominis tells him.

Suddenly it all makes sense. How he knows about things that he shouldn't. About things that I haven't told him about but yet he always seems to know. "But you have," I say. "You've done it to me."

Ominis lets out a deep sigh, "I didn't do it on purpose." He answers. "I had just learned it over the break the first year. And I didn't mean to, I didn't know I was even doing it until I was in your head."

I nod my head trying to understand what it was like to be forced to do all that at such a young age. "Okay," I answer. "But please don't do it again unless you have to." I tell him.

He nods his head, "Of course." He replies. "But there is a way to stop someone from entering your head."

Sebastian crosses his arms over his chests as he looks to his best friend. "How do we do that?"

"Occlumency," Ominis says. "The easiest way is to clear your mind. It creates a fake layer to mentality that could throw off the perspective of the one that used Legilimency." He explains. "You can even use to fight off the imperious curse, once skilled enough with it which I am not obviously." He lets out a defeated sigh.

I let out a breath. I have to become skilled at this, I don't want Marvolo inside my head anymore or anyone else that I might not even known about. I close my eyes and try to clear my mind. I picture a black void of nothing and focus on it rather than the events of last night that try to make their way to the surface. I take in a few deep breaths and try to let everything else fade away. "Ominis," I say opening my eyes again. He looks in my direction, "could you teach me?"

He seems a bit hesitant, "The only way we would know it would work is if I tried to get inside your head." He tells me.

Knowing what all I know now, the pain of last night is slowly fading away as I take a step closer to him. I know it wasn't his fault, he's still just a boy. I know that he would never pry inside my head like his brother would. I trust him. "It's okay," I say. "I need to learn how to do it."

"You're sure about this?" Sebastian asks me. His eyes show his concern. "We don't have to do this."

"I do have to do this," I tell him, "Marvolo can't keep getting in my head."

Sebastian says nothing just simply nods. Ominis lets out a breath and takes a hesitate step towards us. "Which memory would you want me to look for?" He asks. When he seems to sense my look of confusion he continues, "It helps when I'm looking for something specific, and it helps you to know what that is so you can block it. Either by clearing your mind completely or shoving everything else forward and burying that specific memory."

I nod my head and try to think is something that would be important for him to find out but I would want to keep hidden. But I don't want to share those, so I opt for something he already knows. I first think about the day we all played truth or dare, but then he would know for sure that I started to develop a crush on Sebastian after that. "What about that day when me and Sebastian went to the cliffs, before all of this happened?" I suggest.

I glance up at Sebastian for reassurance but he looks nervous. I don't know if it's because I'm willingly letting Ominis inside my mind or because of the memory I chose. I offer him a smile and then turn to Ominis. "Yes, that would be a good one since I wasn't there." He stand directly in front of me and I let out a nervous breath. "Are you ready?" He asks and I nod my head and then mumble a yes when I remember that he can't see me. "Remember, try to keep me out."

I close my eyes and focus on the blackness and let everything else drift away into nothingness. I could feel his presence invade my mind now that I was expecting it. I could feel him try to dig through the mental layers that I put up, tossing aside memories of me as a child before Hogwarts.

For a moment I thought I had it mastered and then I felt him slip through a crack, and then the memory unfolds before me.

"Lila!" I hear the voice of Poppy say through the haze before the image clears and she runs up to me in the memory. "Where are you two off to?" She asks glancing between the two of us. I quickly realize that this is right before we left and she was under the impression that this was a date.

My head turns back to look at Sebastian without even meaning to, "We were just gonna go for a walk." I say and Poppy gives me a look like she wants to know more. "We are going to go explore the nearby hamlets." I tell her.

She lets out another squeal, "I'm so happy for you!"

I give her a questioning look but all she does is it glance at Sebastian and then to myself. She has completely misunderstood this entire trip. I think to myself. She thinks we are going on a date.

My eyes find Sebastian and he gives me an amused smile as Poppy wraps her arms around me. "I'll make sure to have her back before curfew, Poppy," Sebastian says.

He's definitely not helping the situation.

I swear I can mentally hear Ominis laugh before he digs deeper into my memories.

"Guess you'll just have to trust me." Sebastian's voice rings through my head before the image clears again. It's when we were on the cliffs. He grabs ahold of my hand again and leans back. He falls from the mountain, dragging me along with him. I let out a scream as we fall down towards the icy cold water below us. But we don't fall far. There is a ledge with grass and it leads into an opening to a cave.

We land safely on a bed of grass but that doesn't stop my heart from racing inside of my chest. I lay there a moment to catch my breath and then I turn to glare at Sebastian only to find that he is already staring at me. "You could have warned me!" I exclaim, hitting him softly on his arm. I sit up and look around. The cave isn't really a cave. It's just an overhang from the mountain above us. I can hear the sound of the waves crashing against the side of the mountain that we are on.

Sebastian stands up and offers his hand to help me up, I take it. "Yeah, but where would the fun be in that?"

I sit my bag down in the grass as Sebastian leads me over to the edge. We both take a seat with our feet dangling over against the cliffs edge.

We sit in silence for a few moments watching the sun climb higher in the sky and the waves crash against the cliff. Eventually I turn to my friend, "I wanted to tell you," I say quietly.

I was confused for a moment but then remembered the start of the conversation. Ominis had joined in the memory in the middle of it. Sebastian had known I had gotten a letter and that I was keeping it from him.

With the sun shining in my eyes, I can just make our Sebastian turning his head to look over at me. "Why didn't you?" He asks.

I turn away from him and let out a sigh, "I didn't want you or anyone I care about to get hurt." A breeze blows past us causing a few droplets of the water to be carried up and hit us. "Ever since last year when we were in the memory from the crystal ball and that man threw the killing curse at you I've been scared. I realized that it's better if I do this on my own so only I will get hurt instead of you or Ominis."

Out of the corner of my eye I see Sebastian shake his head, "No, you can't do that." He says. "You have to let us help you. You can't shoulder everything on your own all the time."

I nod my head knowing that he is right, "Here's the letter from this morning," I tell him, reaching into my pocket and pulled out the folded piece of paper.

Sebastian reach out and takes it from me before carefully opening it up and reading over the words. He stays quiet for a long time and I begin to grow worried. I finally look up at him and I see pure hatred on his face. "He killed my parents and cursed my sister." He says coldly.

I nod, "I'm so sorry, Sebastian, this is all my fault."

"No, it's not." He says, "It's his. He did this not you."

"Can we talk about something else, I wanted to bring you out here to take your mind off of everything that has happened recently." I say leaning back so that I am laying in the grass with my feet still dangling over the edge. I stare up at the roof of the cave. I see Sebastian nod his head at my question. "Do you have a crush on anyone?"

I don't bother to look at his face, I keep my eyes on the rock above me, but I can hear him let out a shaky breath. He's suddenly nervous. "I... Yes."

I lift up head up to face him now, "Wow that's great," I say with fake happiness in my voice. If he noticed he didn't say anything. "Can I ask who it is?"

"No... I want to keep that to myself." He says.

I nod my head in understanding, "That's fine."

"And you? Do you have a crush?" I hear him ask.

Now it was my turn to let out a shaky breath, "I used to have a big crush on Garreth," I admit and I hear Sebastian groan at that.

"Wait," he says, "used to? So you don't anymore?"

I shake my head, "No, I realized that I like someone else." I am afraid to say much more because he might start to put the dots together and realize that I don't like Garreth anymore because of our dared kiss in truth or dare. And how that made me realize that I've always liked Sebastian.

The memory begins to fade and then I am back in the undercroft with Sebastian staring at me. I turn to look at Ominis a little embarrassed at what he had heard. I'm not sure if this works the same way as the crystal balls did last year, but he at least heard everything.

Sebastian looks at me expecting me to tell him how it went. "Well, it's determined." I say. "I'm bad at this."

"It wasn't that bad." Ominis says taking a step back. "You almost blocked me in the beginning."

"Yes, but you still got through." I argue.

"You aren't going to master Occlumency the first try." He tells me. And he goes to walk towards the gate to leave the undercroft. "Also it's so painful that you guys don't know who each of you have a crush on."

I feel my face heat up at that and I avoid looking over to Sebastian, "What do you mean?" I ask deciding to play dumb.

"It's so obvious," he says, "I'm blind and I can even see it." He starts looking back at us. "I mean Sebastian likes 𑁋"

"Ominis!" Sebastian says cutting him off. Ominis only offers a smile before exiting to the undercroft. Sebastian turns to me and gives an awkward smile. "After you," he says holding the gate open for me as I exit the undercroft with him right behind me.

The two of us head down to the great hall in silence. I don't really know what to say to him after all of that. I look up at him as he holds the door open for me. "Thank you," I say.

"Well I'm just being a gentleman." He responds with a smile as he winks at me.

I can't help the blush that spreads across my face. "No, well yes, but not that." I say, stumbling over my words. He looks down at me and raises his eyebrows. "I meant thank you for making me talk with Ominis, even when I didn't want to."

"Oh, that." He says stepping out of the way of a student running past us. "I don't like seeing my best friends fight."

"I think that if you didn't do that then we probably never would have talked. And I would have lost a friend, maybe two because I wouldn't want you to have to choose between the two of us so I would have pushed you away as well." I begin to ramble.

"You can't push me away, that's impossible. And I wouldn't have let it come to that. I would have locked you two in a room together or something until you made up." He answers.

We reach the corridor for the great hall and opens the door for me again and I duck my head as I blush again. We see Ominis sitting at the table and quickly make our way over to him.

Someone must have informed my brother about what happened. And that someone had to have been Marvolo, because no one else aside from the three of us knew. I sit in the great hall across from the boys when Finn walks up to me.

"Lila," he says and I look up at him. "Follow me." He says when he realizes that Sebastian and Ominis are sitting across from me.

I know he's just trying to be the protective older brother but I roll my eyes. "Why?" I ask him as I turn around in my seat.

"There's something I have to discuss with you," he says starting to get annoyed.

I give apologetic look to my friends and then let out a sigh as I stand up and follow my brother out of the great hall. We stand in the corridor out of the way of the people coming in and out. "What is there to talk about?" I ask him.

"I heard about what happened last night," He says and I bring my eyes up to look at him suddenly worried. "I know that you went to the Gaunt Manor."

"Who told you that?" I ask trying to sound like I didn't know what he was talking about.

"It doesn't matter where I heard it, it's the fact that you didn't deny it." He says giving me his disappointed look. "Why would you even go there?"

I let out a sigh, "My friend needed me," I tell him honestly.

He didn't seem to believe that, "So it just coincidentally happens that you're over there for your friend and he uses the torture curse on you?" He asks in a whisper so that the passing students don't hear him.

I open my mouth to speak but then I don't know how to respond to that. I guess from the outside perspective it does seem like that happened. But that wasn't the case. "That's not the full story," I try to tell him.

"So he did use the torture curse on you?"

I let out a defeated sigh, "Yes but 𑁋"

Finn cuts me off, "And that you ran out of class when you got paired with him this morning?"

"Can you let me explain?" I ask him beginning to grow frustrated.

He shakes his head, "No, I think I've heard enough." He says and grabs ahold of my arm and leads me towards the doors that head outdoors. "I've already informed our mother and she's informed Professor Black that we will be leaving a few weeks early."

"What? Why?" I ask him as we walk across the bridge, the wind blowing my hair into my face and I have to brush it aside.

"So you can get away from that Gaunt boy." Finn answers as if it's obvious. "Mother even talked about transferring you to a different school."

I plant my feet on the ground, refusing to go any further. "No, I'm not transferring schools. I'm perfectly fine here. And it wasn't Ominis's fault." I try to reason with my brother.

He seems to hesitate for a moment at the sound of my voice. He must know that if my friend actually did that on their own free will then I wouldn't defend them. "Doesn't matter, mother has already requested that we return home."

I let out a sigh and turn my head back to face the castle that seems to glow in the night sky. I didn't even get to tell my friends that I was leaving. I'll have to write to them in our journals when I get home.

Once we make it off of school grounds Finn takes hold of my hand and apparates us to our home. This is going to be a long summer.

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Okay with that we are done with year four. Honestly feels insane. I didn't think I would make it this far into the story without giving up on it. There for a minute I thought I did but I am determined to finish it. I loved writing year four, it has been my favorite so far.

Also I may have came up with another story idea. I've read the stories where the characters are from the past and travel to Harry Potters time or they are from Harry potters time and come to the past, or even they are from present time and go to the past but I haven't seen a story where the main character is transported into the game, kinda like a jumanjii situation. If you have read any like that or are writing one let me know and I'll read it.

I think I want it to be a Ominis love interest story. But that could just be because I'm reading an Ominis story. I like to alternate them. I'll read a Sebastian and then Ominis and then try to find one with both.

I'm still working out the plot idea and stuff but I'm getting excited about it. But don't worry this story still has about 50 more chapters I think. And I will finish it.