If there’s one thing Sebastian enjoys more than dark magic, it’s tormenting his two closest friends. Especially when they make it so painfully easy.

By now, half the wizarding world could see what was happening. You find reasons to linger beside Ominis, your conversations stretching long after they needed to. While Ominis, for all his perceptiveness, remains spectacularly oblivious. Or perhaps, he’s simply convinced himself that the connection you share could never possibly be what he secretly wants it to be.

"You know," Sebastian remarks one afternoon, dropping into the seat opposite the pair of you with the smug look of someone about to cause problems, "I've never met two people so determined to dance around one another."

Ominis sighs immediately, "Sebastian."

"What?" Sebastian’s grin only widens, "I'm making an observation."

"You are meddling."

"I prefer encouraging."

Ominis folds his arms, already looking thoroughly unimpressed, though the faint colour creeping into the tips of his ears betrays him. "Some of us are trying to have a civilised conversation."

"And yet," Sebastian muses dramatically, "neither of you has said the thing you're both obviously thinking."

Silence follows, and Ominis’s stomach just about drops into his ass when he realises Sebastian really isn’t going to lay off this time.

"Ominis," Sebastian continues with theatrical patience, "if someone voluntarily spends every spare moment with you, laughs at your dreadful jokes, waits for you outside lessons, and looks positively miserable whenever you're not around-"

"I would assume they're an exceptionally loyal friend." Ominous cuts Sebastian off, trying desperately to give you an out without making things uncomfortable.

Sebastian drops his head into his hands. "Oh, you're hopeless."

Ominis frowns. "What else would I possibly assume?" His voice quietens, losing its usual dry wit. "People tend not to seek out a Gaunt unless they have to." The humour promptly drains from the room. He says it so matter-of-factly, as though it’s a truth he has accepted. The name Gaunt carries enough darkness without him needing to explain it, generations of cruelty have ensured that. Ominis has spent so long believing himself difficult to love that the possibility never truly occurs to him.

Sebastian's expression softens for all of two seconds before the mischief returns as he rises to his feet. "On that note, I’m going to leave the two of you to unpack that."

Ominis’s expression tightens at Sebastian’s comment, though he says nothing when he hears his friend’s footsteps retreat from the room again. A beat passes between you before he releases a slow breath. “I should find myself a better best friend,” he mutters, though there’s no real venom in his tone.