A Guiding Light
Rating: General Audiences
Category: M/M
Fandom: Hogwarts Legacy
Relationship: Ominis Gaunt/Player Character
Additional Tags: POV Ominis Gaunt, Slytherin Player Character, Slow Burn, Slow Build, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Jealousy, Tragic Backstory, Eventual Fluff, Ominis Gaunt Needs a Hug
Story Summary: Ominis Gaunt has been blind for his whole life, relying solely on his wand to show him the way. But when his wand one day goes missing, he finds guidance in an unlikely place, and soon a whole new world opens up to him.
Chapter 4 - however long it takes (to make you realise)
Word Count: 3342 [published on archive 14/03 2024]
Notes: chapter 4 is finally here, so enjoy!
(i know this one took a bit longer to post, but i'm still playing the game, so from here on it might take longer between each upload)
alsooo down below is a picture (of bad quality, i know, so don't at me) of my MC aka Kieran Everbleed, cuz i thought you might want to know what he looks like (seeing as i can't really have Ominis describe his looks...)
It was Saturday morning and Ominis had just been rudely woken up by the shrill noise of an alarm clock going off. Blasted little bugger, he thought as he stirred in his four-poster. Why would anyone set an alarm on a Saturday? It was totally barbaric.
“Sorry.” someone mumbled to his left - it was Albert Hickling. Of course it was Albert Hickling. For over four years he had tinkered with his own inventions, putting spells on them to make them do all sorts of unimaginable things. Never before, though, had he done anything with an alarm clock.
“It wasn’t meant to do that, I thought I had bewitched it to transform into a duck every morning so I could have it in my bath.”
“What?” Either Ominis was still too groggy from sleep, or it was the silliest thing he had ever heard.
“It wouldn’t be a real duck, of course!”
“Never mind that, could you just make it stop?” he said, because the alarm clock was, in fact, still ringing.
“Oh! Sorry.” Hickling mumbled again, fumbling with the noisy gadget for a good couple of seconds before it finally became quiet.
Ominis rolled his eyes. Idiot, he thought as he dragged the covers over himself again.
It wasn’t until he heard Hickling leave the dormitory a moment later, that it occurred to him that none of the other boys had woken up. Sebastian, he knew for a fact, was a heavy sleeper, and could sleep through most things - though something as loud and obnoxious as that alarm clock would surely have woken anyone up. As for Everbleed, he hadn’t learnt what type of sleeper he was - but even if he was a heavy sleeper as well, there was no reason why he shouldn’t have woken up.
Ominis regretted that he hadn’t asked Hickling what time it was when the clock had rung - if he had, he would have known now, if it was a time in the morning when the boys would normally be in bed.
Lifting himself up to his elbows, he called out for Sebastian but got nothing in response. It was awfully quiet, now that he thought about it. On most mornings, he could hear faint snoring coming from Sebastian, but right now, the room was completely silent.
“Sebastian? Are you there?... Everbleed?” Still no response. Ominis frowned. Normally, he and Sebastian would wake up at roughly the same time, a consequence from sleeping in the same room since they were 11, he was sure of, then Everbleed would slowly start to wake up, and eventually the three of them would go to breakfast together. But now there seemed to be only him here.
A voice in the back of his head told him that the two of them had gone on without him - but he tried not to listen. After Sebastian had talked to him on the bridge last week, Ominis had been under the impression that things had gone back to normal between them - but now he wasn’t so sure anymore.
He let his arms fall to his side and his head was once again reunited with the pillow. He sighed, but found that when he did, his chest ached a bit, so he brought his hand up and clutched the fabric of his pyjamas, right over his heart. As he did so, he thought about how pathetic he was, and that it made perfect sense that Sebastian would want to abandon him.
He closed his eyes shut, hard, and wished that he could just fall back to sleep, but he knew there was no way he could do that now. Not with all these thoughts filling up his entire mind. Things will be all right, he told himself, I will be all right.
...
Sleep had, unbeknownst to Ominis, swept him away an hour later, easing his mind as well as his body. When he came to, it was because he had, for a second time that morning, been woken up.
“Are you still sleeping? You’re going to miss breakfast if you don’t get up soon.”
Ominis could only respond with a sluggish ‘Mm’ for he was too tired to be able to make a, perhaps more coherent, response.
After a moment, he heard his stomach rumble as hunger overwhelmed him, and he woke up more and more. When he eventually sat up in his bed, stretching his arms over his head, the thoughts that had occupied his mind earlier came back and hit him straight in his gut. Breakfast didn’t seem so inviting all of a sudden.
“You wouldn’t happen to know where Sebastian is, would you?” he asked before he even realised it.
“No, but I heard him and Kieran early this morning, talking about Feldcroft. They seemed to be in a hurry.”
The answer threw another punch to his gut and he felt sick. He was sure he would have thrown up, if it wasn’t for the fact that Hickling was in the room.
“I thought it was strange that he left without you.”
‘Left without you’ The words echoed in his mind, taunting him, cutting him. ‘Left without you’ He could feel the bad taste in his mouth as the words only grew louder. ‘Left without you’ He ran out of the dormitory, running like a wild beast that had been let loose. … Then he fell and hit the floor, and everything came all at once - the vomit, the tears, the blood.
...
For a third time that morning, Ominis was woken up. This time, however, it wasn’t whilst lying in bed - but on the cold stone floor of the common room, and not when he had been asleep, but when he had been unconscious.
Everything was a big blur to him. His head throbbed violently and he felt dizzy. He could hear rushed murmurs coming from all directions, but he couldn’t make out any of the words over the ringing in his ears. Someone shook him by the shoulder, calling his name, but Ominis just lay there, unable to produce any sort of response. Then he could feel a pair of arms picking him up, and a warm body against his own. In the state he was in, he couldn’t understand anything that was going on.
...
He felt something soft touch his back and he realised that he must have been laid down. No more than a second later someone’s hand was on his forehead, then at both sides of his head, prodding at him, wiping at his face. He could hear a woman muttering to his side, but her words weren’t any clearer than the voices earlier had been - these, too, were rushed. Then, before he could even register it, his back had been lifted up and something was placed in his hand to hold. Ominis blinked, still feeling very out of it. He heard more muttering, and the next thing he knew, someone grabbed the object from his hand, brought it up to his lips, and then a nasty liquid hit his tongue. He wanted to spit it out immediately, but found that whoever was feeding him this liquid was still pouring it into his mouth, making it impossible to do so.
Whatever it was that he had been forced to drink, he felt an instant effect from it as soon as he swallowed it. The throbbing in his head died down to a level where it was almost completely gone, and his ears no longer rang. The woman spoke to him again, and this time Ominis could hear every word.
“Mr. Gaunt? This is nurse Blainey - you are in the hospital wing. It seems you fell and took a blow to your head.”
As he registered her words, Ominis brought his hand up to his head, and frowned - he couldn’t remember falling and hitting his head.
“It’s best if you stay here for a couple of hours, so I can keep an eye on you. Now, be still, so I can put this on you.”
He didn’t know what ‘this’ referred to, but felt the matron’s hands on his head again, apparently putting on some sort of bandage.
“Do you remember how this happened at all?”
“No.” he replied, his voice coming out slightly hoarse.
“Your prefect, Mr. Hickling, arrived with you in a hurry, just moments ago. He told me he saw you running out of the dormitory looking sick, and that when he heard a commotion in the common room he went to see what was going on. That’s apparently when you had hurt yourself.”
The matron finished wrapping him up and said “You don’t have to remember now, it will all come back to you after you’ve had some rest, so don’t strain yourself. Now, if you would be so kind, Mr. Hickling…”
Ominis hadn’t realised Hickling was still in the hospital wing with them.
“Of course, nurse Blainey. Ominis, I shall leave you now. Hopefully you’ll feel better soon.”
Ominis made his second incoherent response to Hickling that morning, but it was the best he could do - he was still trying to understand why the other boy would have shown him such kindness.
“Oh, I almost forgot, nurse Blainey, Ominis hasn’t eaten his breakfast yet…”
“Why didn’t you say so? Tsk, tsk, tsk. Here I was, giving him medicine on an empty stomach…. Oh well, best call for the house-elves, so they can bring some food up then.”
...
The rest of the morning and afternoon went by faster than Ominis thought it would, considering he was meant to spend it in a hospital bed. He had managed to rest for the most part, albeit shorter periods at a time, and the rest of the time he had spent listening to nurse Blainey moving across the room, tending to other students. At some point Hickling had come back with his clothes and schoolrobe so he could change out of his pyjamas.
Later, when the matron finally came to remove his bandage, she announced that he was free to go, and Ominis felt relieved.
“Be careful not to make any sudden head movements though, and should you feel anything at all, come back and see me again.”
“Of course, nurse Blainey-” he said, and started stepping away from the bed, but realised soon that he was without his wand. “-My wand…”
“Oh, it’s right here, dear-” she handed it over to him, placing it in his hand. “-Mr. Hickling brought it with him when he dropped off your clothes.”
“Ah… thank you.” he managed a smile, and then proceeded to walk away from the bed, and out of the hospital wing.
...
As soon as Ominis reached the Grand Staircase, he was overwhelmed with loud voices. All around him students were chatting away with their friends, talking about what they had been up to during the day, and what they planned to do tomorrow. Some students, further away from him, mentioned being in Hogsmeade, eating and drinking at the Three Broomsticks. A group of girls talked about how they went down to Lower Hogsfield and what a lovely little place it was.
It all made Ominis feel like he had been stuck in a sort of hazy dream the entire day - coming in and out of consciousness, and not really knowing what had been going on for the most part. He had missed out on a whole day he could have spent doing the things the students around him had done. But it was just one day, he told himself, no matter. It’s not like he normally spends his free days visiting Hogsmeade or the neighbouring hamlets, anyway. Nonetheless, a sense of gloominess washed over him as he descended the stairs towards the Reception Hall.
A waft of delicious food reached Ominis’ nostrils as the doors to the Great Hall opened and closed by students coming in and out, and the gloomy feeling turned to hunger. It felt to him like no time at all had passed since the house-elves had brought him breakfast. Here I go, eating again, he thought to himself. All he had done this day, so far, had been eating and sleeping.
...
Dinner had been exquisite. All the things Ominis loved tasted particularly good this evening - the roast chicken was juicier, the sausages fattier, and the roast potatoes crispier than ever. He couldn’t think of a time when he had been this full - not even on his very first day as a first-year.
I wonder if I still have room for some dessert? But it probably won’t arrive any time soon, he thought as he rubbed his belly. Though I might as well stay here for a while, I’m too tired to go anywhere at the moment. He let out a content sigh, but was interrupted halfway.
“You look like you swallowed a dugbog - were you that hungry?” It was Sebastian.
Ominis was just about to give a snarky retort when suddenly there was a strange feeling in his head. It didn’t hurt, exactly, more like it made him a wee bit dizzy. He shut his eyes, but when he did, memories of the early morning came back to him - very fast, and very vividly, and he felt increasingly dizzier. He didn’t even notice nearly falling off of the bench, until a pair of hands steadied him.
“Don’t touch me.” he spat out instantaneously.
He was met with something he could only assume was a stunned silence. Then, whilst still a little shaky, he stood up and began to walk away, bumping into Sebastian on purpose. It didn’t take long, however, until Sebastian’s hand was on his arm, trying to stop him.
“Ominis? Wha-”
“Don’t talk to me.”
“Did something happen?”
Ominis ignored the question at first, just puffing out air, shaking his head in disbelief, trying to convey the message that he was upset. Then he grabbed Sebastian's arm forcefully and dragged him to the side of the hall, where they could have some privacy. There, he answered the question with a question of his own.
“What do you think?” he said through gritted teeth.
“Well, you’re obviously upset, I can see that.”
“How observant of you, anything else?”
“You’re being really snappy towards me.”
“Oh, yeah?”
Sebastian sighed, and after a couple of seconds said “Why are you being like this, Ominis? If I did something to offend you, just say so.”
“Offend me?” he huffed loudly. “I think you would know for yourself if you had done something to offend me.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like!”
“Okay, so I have offended you? When exactly?”
“You haven’t offended me Sebastian, you’ve hurt me!” he yelled out, tears starting to form in his eyes. “Are you really that oblivious?”
“If you’re talking about the Undercroft again, I’ve already apologised for that-”
“That’s not what this is about!”
“Then, what is it about?!”
“Everbleed!” he practically screamed out, tears now streaming down his cheeks.
“What does he have to do with this?”
“Everything! He’s got everything to do with this, can’t you see? You spend so much time with him, you barely have any left to spend with me anymore! And as if the Undercroft thing wasn’t bad enough, you even bring him to Feldcroft to meet Anne? You didn’t stop to think that perhaps I wanted to go meet her again? That I, who happen to actually be her friend, would be happy to hear her voice again? No? Did it never occur to you?!”
He fell backwards against the wall, shaking with uncontrollable sobs, feeling utterly miserable.
“Am I not your friend, Sebastian? Do I mean that little to you?”
Several seconds passed in a suffocating silence, and he thought that this had to be it - the moment he would lose his most dearest friend. He knew that if Sebastian didn’t want him anymore, things would go back to how they were before they were friends, before he got to Hogwarts. He would be on his own again, the only company the one found in solitude. But he didn’t want that, he didn’t want to go back to being all alone, with no one to talk to, or to laugh with, or to create memories together with. But that had already started to happen. It started on the very first day of their fifth year. A tear in a bond that he thought was so strong that nothing could break it, but has just kept on growing.
“Ominis…” Sebastian’s voice was not more than a breath of air, and Ominis could barely hear it over his own thoughts. “I am sorry. I am truly sorry… I didn’t know you felt like this. You know you mean a lot to me-”
“No, Sebastian, I don’t.” he cut him off quietly, and Sebastian sighed.
“You and Anne are the most important people in my life; I wouldn’t know what to do without either of you.”
“Then why didn’t you let me come meet her?”
Sebastian sighed once again, and took a step closer.
“What you have to understand, Ominis, is that there are bigger things going on. War is almost upon us and goblins are terrorising people everywhere. There’s not a single hamlet that is safe anymore, especially Feldcroft. It’s just a matter of time before they curse someone from the village again, and I just don’t want that to be you.”
Ominis closed his eyes. He just didn’t want to hear it.
“You don’t think I can handle my own.”
“That’s not what I said, Ominis.”
“But I know that’s what you meant. You didn’t want me there with you to slow you down, so you brought Everbleed with you instead - perfect little Everbleed who can defeat a whole troll on his own.-” He pushed himself off of the wall, and stepped closer to Sebastian, stopping right in front of his face. “-Isn’t that right?”
A few silent seconds passed.
“You’re being ridiculous.” Sebastian said and moved away. Ominis clenched his jaw.
“I’ll leave you alone then, if that’s what you think. I have no interest in being here anyway.”
He didn’t get very far though, before Sebastian said “Before you go, I want to speak to you about something else, if you care to listen.”
Ominis made no sign of moving, and Sebastian continued “You remember me mentioning Salazar Slytherin’s Scriptorium, right?-”
“-I’ve already told you how I feel about that.”
“Yes, well, I hoped you could give it some more thought. I believe, if we were to enter the Scriptorium, we could find something that could provide us with useful information about a cure for Anne.”
Ominis clenched his jaw harder.
“That Scriptorium means only bad things, and I want nothing to do with the dark magic that lies within it-”
“-Even if it means finding a cure?”
“I will not change my mind on this matter! Anything to do with the Dark Arts should be avoided. It’s too risky.”
“Anything to do with Salazar Slytherin is worth the risk.”
“I can’t agree, and I’ll not say a word more. I’m sorry.”
With those final words, Ominis walked away from Sebastian - his head pounding and his heart aching. He couldn’t even be bothered to care when he realised he had collided with Everbleed, he just wanted to get away from the Great Hall as fast as possible.
...
It was cold in the dormitory, where he lay in his four-poster, thinking hard on everything that had transpired that day - first hitting his head, then spending the day in the hospital wing, and lastly, everything that had gone down between him and Sebastian in the Great Hall. Perhaps he hadn’t lost his most dearest friend that day, but he wasn’t sure how much longer it would take before their bond would eventually break.
He turned onto his side and dragged the duvet over his head, trying not to think, because he just wanted to go to sleep, forget about everything and for this day to finally end.