Chapter Text
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"Be near me when my light is low,
When the blood creeps, and the nerves prick
And tingle; and the heart is sick,
And all the wheels of Being slow.
Be near me when the sensuous frame
Is rack'd with pangs that conquer trust;
And Time, a maniac scattering dust,
And Life, a Fury slinging flame."
- Excerpt from "In Memoriam A.H.H." by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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SEBASTIAN peered over the top of his newspaper, one leg neatly crossed over the other as he sat on a shadow-dappled bench beneath a cherry tree in St. James's Park. The delicate, honeyed scent of the blossoms grounded him. Just ahead, two boys ambled along the footpath. Sebastian kept a steady eye on them, watching, waiting.
They were walking closer together than he remembered, their shoulders nearly brushing. The sight made his chest tighten, until he recalled they'd never been caught that summer. Not once. Not even when surrounded by Muggles. He used to think it was because they'd been careful. But sitting here now, decades older and infinitely more wary, he realized the truth: they'd simply been lucky. Incredibly, heartbreakingly lucky.
The boys passed nearer to his bench. Sebastian could just catch fragments of their conversation, though he didn't need to hear the words to understand. Their expressions gave everything away: the way the slightly smaller boy's freckled cheeks flushed pink, the light in both their eyes.
Sebastian lifted his paper a little higher, concealing his face behind the printed page as his past, quite literally, walked by.
"What's on your mind?" asked a sixteen-year-old Damien.
Sebastian mouthed the answer a beat before his younger self said it aloud. "Why you, of course."
Some things never changed.
"Oh, really? Only good things, I hope."
"A gentleman never tells."
Damien gave him a playful shove, that oh-so-familiar lopsided grin lighting up his handsome face. "Very well, have it your way." He rolled up his sleeve and checked his watch.
Sebastian glanced down at his own wrist almost reflexively, taking in the same timepiece: aged, worn at the edges, but still working. Still one and the same.
"Shall we make our way to the tea room then?" Damien asked, already turning on his heel and bounding ahead. The younger Sebastian jogged after him, his smile wide, a light summer breeze ruffling his wavy hair.
Sebastian's breath hitched, the nostalgia striking him dumb. He had missed Damien every single day since the moment he lost him, but he hadn't known it would still hurt like this, seeing him so young, alive and well. The flame in his chest flared to life, burning bright, like it always did at the thought of Damien.
Sebastian had wondered if he'd ever make it here. If time would be kind enough to allow him to come, to permit him to save Damien one final time. Some days he'd even wondered if time had closed its doors on him. But here, on this sunny, impossible summer day in 1891, he saw clearly: Time hadn't abandoned him. Time had only been... waiting.
He'd made it.
Sebastian was here, exactly where he needed to be.
Exactly who he needed to be: the Stranger.
Sebastian folded his newspaper, tucked it under his arm, and rose from the bench.
It was time to begin.
Art:
"Sebastian & the Time-Turner" (Wattpad Cover) by giselsann (*Note: This was a commissioned piece. You can find giselsann's profile on Tumblr. She's quite prolific and all of her art is absolutely stunning. I highly recommend commissioning her!)