My Darling Sébastien Finished

It was nine in the evening when she first saw him, the Spaniard. She had heard much about him, very little good in terms of correspondence. As far as her ex husband was concerned the man was an incompetent that somehow seemed to rise in the ranks. He was a talented... well womanizer if the rumors held true. 

Well, she hoped that the rumors were.

His vice also his anticipated weakness she watched him from afar. He ate too much, she wondered if he had a bag of holding in his esophagus. He was loud and reckless. He was from Hogwarts. Indeed Sebastian Cazarez possessed the unique skill-set she sought, as did likely dozens of other Professors in Hogwarts but misfortune brought her to Sebastian's heels. 

She always hunted at night, the cool and the dark. The shadows were a refuge, not a hindrance or a terror because it was her kind that went bump in the night. She was the presence that you were certain you heard but when you turned around there was nothing there. That shadow you saw move out of the corner of your eye. An illusion. A mirage. A waking nightmare. 

She was so close to Sebastian she could smell his skin, his hair. Her steps silent but he knew that she was there, it was a sixth sense most had. That chill that runs down your spine, that moment when the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end and your arms turn to gooseflesh. That instant that one musters the courage to turn around and to face whatever terror their mind has imagined knowing nothing would be there.

Only this time someone was.

She was a tall, slender woman. Dressed oddly one could say, her choice of donning full plate armor while on a late night stroll might remind the Professor of a peer or rather subordinate. "Oh, why hello," she announced her face only a few inches from Sebastian's as she purposefully invaded his space. She wanted to startle him, to see if he would step back or maintain his composure and attempt to take control of the situation. 

Not that it mattered, it was simply something to busy his mind with while she verified one thing. "Are you Deputy Headmaster Sebastian Cazarez?"

She just wanted affirmation, it was not as if there would be any living witnesses in a few moments. She was hungry and they looked scrumptious. He nodded his head as he opened his mouth to say something, the gesture was enough. "Catch darling," she announced as she withdrew a small silver orb with a gloved hand and lobbed it towards him with a gentle under-handed throw.

There was a flash of bright white light and then... he was gone. The woman remained, there was something wrong with her face the moment that followed but like all things that too would pass. The darkness of her blood pronounced for a moment as the vessels just beneath the surface of her skin became momentarily apparent and the air now smelled of sulfur and ash.

Her eyes scanned the streets as she muttered to herself out loud, "Who saw?" None actually did, but the street was not barren. It would be over the next few minutes, that silver orb left where it fell until she returned minutes later. A stream of blood had only then run dry on the left side of her face. She licked her lips, dinner was wonderful. 

From the ground she would retrieve what she had come for -- 

Into the depths of her satchel the tiny silver orb would return.

And this is why Sebastian was absent from Hogwart's Opening Ceremony.