Ominis and Anne sent Sebastian to Azkaban for his own good. Their friend and brother had changed from the kind boy he once was, and they regretted their decision ever since. They are desperate to have Sebastian back and are willing to do anything, anything. Ominis will even become the monster he vowed he was not.
The Fall of the House of Gaunt.
How did the ancient House of Gaunt, once among the wealthiest, most powerful, and most dangerous families in the wizarding world, become the desperate souls depicted in The Half-Blood Prince?
How did Sebastian's life sentence to Azkaban trigger the downfall of the heirs of Slytherin...
Chapter 32: Back to Hogwarts
With the bombshell of his family’s true identity and purpose still playing over and over in his mind, Ominis sat alone in the kitchen.
If he could see, he had no doubt he would just stare ahead in shock and disgust. He was sipping butterbeer right from the bottle, which would only anger his mother as she thought it was disgusting, but he felt like something stronger would be more appropriate at this moment. He was seriously tempered to ask out loud for one of the house elves to bring him Firewiskey. Magical rings right from bedtime tales and a giant snake at Hogwarts. He would tell Professor Weasley about the Chamber of Secrets the second he returned to Hogwarts, even if he didn’t know where it was. There was no way his family could continue hiding that chamber, who knew how many Muggleborns were at Hogwarts right now. His shock was so great that he hadn’t yet registered what his father had said about Sebastian returning to school. It had gone straight out of his head.
A sneer came into the room from the doorway. Followed by loud laughter.
“My, my.” Marvolo mocked, taking a close look at Ominis and getting right into his face.
“You look pale, dear brother. Quite like how little Poppy Sweeting looked when I leaked the blood from her body.”
He felt Marvolo running a finger down his check.
Ominis pressed his lips together.
“They will find out it was you.” He answered back, simply and calmly.
Marvolo laughed into his ear.
“Well, they haven’t yet. Don’t forget, I am the Minister for Magic’s cherished personal assistant, he trusts me so much, the eldest son to the Gaunt family, one of the oldest and purest families going. Nobody is looking at me with anything but envy, little brother. How many people have I tortured and killed so far? Nobody can touch me, not the Aurors and certainly not you, so stop the soft threats, they are all fantasy. You will never get the upper hand of any of us, least not me, you sightless little slug.”
Ominis felt a hand sitting on top of his head as Marvolo played with his hair.
“Sssssso tell me Ominisssss,” He said, in a mock hiss. “How did you enjoy father telling you of our family history? I can’t wait to hear of the attacks on the Mudbloods after next year, they will never figure it out and eventually the school will stop admitting them all together. Shame we lost Black, it would be funny if the snake had ate him.”
Ominis stayed quiet, it seemed Marvolo really didn’t know about the Hallows. If he had known, he would have been gloating. He really didn’t know the ring their father wore was anything more than a family herloom.
“It’s your last summer as a student, next summer you shall be married to dear cousin and then we will both listen out for news of the attacks. You shall ensure this family’s future, you will further the pure blooded society we all want, while at the same time, hundreds of Mudbloods will die. I can’t wait!”
Marvolo finally got off him and pulled out a chair.
“Don’t just look at me, get my food! Honestly, these elves get more dumber with each one I kill.” Marvolo said to himself, as small footsteps quickly ran into the cooking area.
“Brother dearest?” Marvolo now sang to Ominis, “Are you going to thank me? You know it was my attack that acted like the final straw and got Black fired, right? Which means I got your little Sallow buddy back in school. Which you failed to do, but you know, I’m not keeping count of your failures or anything.”
“Thank you.” Ominis muttered, knowing it was useless to argue with Marvolo.
“Smile, it’s your birthday Ominis.” Marvolo sang again, getting closer and closer to Ominis. It was a game he liked to play, getting as close into Ominis’ personal space as he could before his brother noticed. He was almost nose to check to Ominis when Ominis could no longer ignore his brother.
“Marvolo, please.” Ominis said, indicating space.
Marvolo’s cracking laughter was all Ominis could hear.
Later that day, he was presented with a watch by his parents. He didn’t know why they would gift him a watch, as he couldn’t see it.
His mother took a hairbrush and sat running it through his hair, as some lotion was rubbed into his skin to make it feel soft and to cover signs of bad sleep. They then took his picture for a family portrait, which he knew was for the benefit of the family flashing their wealth. He would never see his own picture, a little black and white image, wearing fine clothing, looking his very best, smiling mildly, occasionally blinking in the frame. Even his portrait couldn’t see the world around him. Maybe it would be removed, thrown out if he ever got away from this family.
That’s what the Gaunts did best, cover up their embarrassments.
Today was Ominis’ birthday.
Sebastian paused for a moment to glance out of the kitchen door as Garreth and Tessie flung Gnomes over the hedge, he watched as the Gnomes flew up into the sky and then back down. His eyes travelled out further to the boundary of the Weasley’s home. He was safe as long as he didn’t cross that line, the Gaunts couldn’t enter or see into the grounds around this home, as much as they knew, this home might not even exist. In September, which grew closer with shockingly fast speed, he would leave this place of safety. At Hogwarts, he would be protected by Professor Weasley, all the Hogwarts staff. He knew he could not leave the grounds, not even for a Hogsmeade visit. He was not overly concerned, even a limited freedom at school was preferred to life in Azkaban.
The idea of returning to Hogwarts made him feel sick to his stomach. As his pile of papers grew smaller and smaller, anxiety started creeping in. He would have to leave here and enter Hogwarts, were everybody would be judging him as a killer. He left Hogwarts as a teenager, one who hadn’t even reached Christmas of his fifth year, and he would return as a man of seventeen in his last year, a shadow of himself who had been to the worse place wizardkind had ever envisioned.
He still didn’t feel himself, not truly.
He felt distant, the Sebastian he used to be suddenly felt too happy, almost to the point he was annoying and overbearing. He couldn’t believe that he trusted a new student with dangerous information that had power over him, he had known this new student for less than three months and he already learned them the Unforgiveable Curses. Looking back now, he had been too trusting, too foolish.
Today was his best friend’s birthday and according to Garreth, Ominis was back with the Gaunts.
As Sebastian continued to look outside the door, feeling the cool air on his skin, he released something.
He didn’t care.
Not really. Ominis hated his family, they had hurt him, yet Sebastian found he cared very little right now for how his best friend was feeling. It was a lovely summer’s day, back home if things had been different, he and Anne would be playing in the sea at Feldcroft. Sebastian had no desire to go out into the sun, was it because he was anxious that going outside would mean risking the Gaunts finding him?
He knew it was unlikely to happen, it was almost impossible for Mr Gaunt to be randomly standing in a seemingly empty field in the middle of the English countryside, on the otherside of the country. The Gaunts lived way up in the North, the Weasleys down in the west, Gaunt was not here. No, that was the excuse Sebastian give himself, because the truth was slightly scaring him.
He liked the dark.
He liked the shadows.
Cool air felt nicer on his skin than the heat of the sun.
And he did not care that it was Ominis’ birthday.
“Sebby!” Garreth yelled. “Come over. Mum and dad are freeing the Chinese Chomping Cabbages, there’s too many gnomes here for a degnoming, so they- well- dinner time.”
“Ooooooh” Sang Tessie “It’s so savage. I love it!”
She started making over exaggerated chomping movements, accompanied by little screams as Mr Weasley came into view levitating a crate.
“You have been raised correctly.” Garreth said, patting his sister’s head.
“Tessie, maybe you’d want to go inside?” Mrs Weasely suggested.
“No. I’m here for murder time.” She said, standing her ground.
Sebastian smiled, but he shook his head and turned back to his work as outside came the sound of a crate opening, followed by loads of small shouts from the gnomes as they became plant food. He opened another school book and got back to work. He would master all these spells, all these enchantments, all these transfigurations. He was due to take his O.W.Ls in October, he was determent to get Outstandings in everything, but especially the classes he needed to be an Auror. Not like his Uncle or Sharp, he wanted to become one to stop people like Rookwood, so they would be no more victims like Anne.
He paused as he pictured her brown eyes. She was not found of his idea of becoming an auror, she felt he would be better as a professor, teaching students, but Sebastian privately disagreed with her on that. The last time he had learned a student spells… It had been the unforgivables.
He was unfit to be a teacher.
He didn’t know how to tell Anne this, he knew she would not approve of him still trying to help her, rather than focusing on his own life, but even before Anne was cursed, he and Ominis had always said they would be Aurors. The idea had always stuck with him and it was the only thing he could see himself doing.
He lowered his quill and rubbed his eyes, he would likely need a calming drought before long if his anxiety didn’t calm down. He glanced up at a little chart on the wall, it was mid July now, soon that sheet would roll over to August. Then his time here would end and he would go back to school. His stomach tightened bad enough to make it cramp and at the same time a cold shiver ran down his chest and he sat forward in the chair.
He needed to get this under control, he would look great at Hogwarts being half reliant on potions to get by, the unhinged killer who wasn’t entirely sane.
He glanced down at his transfiguration homework and the notes Professor Weasley had given him, trying yet again to take in the diagrams showing human transfiguration. It was would have made more sense if it had been written in Gobbledygook. This was sixth year Transfiguration, if he passed his O.W.Ls, he would need to start work from the seventh year, meaning he still needed to catch up on an entire year, but if he failed his exam, all this work would have been for nothing. He paused, should he work on potions or charms? Maybe his time would be better off finishing his fifth year work. Yet again, his hand ran through his hair, his waves were back now and thanks to Mrs Weasley, he looked groomed again. His hair was the only thing currently under his control.
From the garden came silence from the gnomes, evidently, they had been all eaten.
He found he didn’t care about them either.
Monday arrived. Then it was Friday. Tuesday arrived, then a Saturday.
A week passed, then another.
Sebastian got unsteadily to his feet and placed the unopened gift from Uncle Solomon into his trunk, then dropped his new school robes on top of them. The robes he used to wear had only been a year old, he had got them before his 4th year as he had grown a lot in the time, they were long lost, confiscated by the Ministry of Magic before they took him to Azkaban. Garreth had gotten new robes too, his were much longer than Sebastian’s, it seemed to him that Garreth was taller, while he was the same height he had been two years ago. That should have worried him, or concerned him that his growth had been slowed down, but he felt nothing.
He glanced down at his trunk.
His old books from his fifth year, all read, but some he had never got the chance to use yet in an academic way. His new books for the sixth year and his seventh year books. He got the books for all his old subjects, not knowing if he would even use them. Among them were O.W.Ls study guides and books for N.E.W.Ts. Sitting next to them was a range of medications he would need to take and chocolate, his teddy bear from his parents and the Slytherin blanket from his dorm.
Today was the last day of the summer holidays.
He was terrified.
Glancing around his little room, he knew he would miss this place while he was at Hogwarts. The Weasleys had invited him back for the holidays and after school had ended, but on the eve of returning to school, he suddenly had his doubts.
So he packed his trunk. He carefully decided which clothing to wear tomorrow to go to Kings Cross. He had opted to wear a jumper to hide his arm bones from being too noticeable, it helped to bulk him out too, hopefully nobody would notice how thin he had become.
All too soon, Mrs Weasley was waking him on the 1st of September.
They were going to travel with floo powder to the Leaky Cauldron, and then a horse and cart would take them to Kings Cross.
“We no longer have the access to the floo network at Kings Cross, sadly the Gaunts got their wishes with their new bill. Only families who live a certain distance away can use the fireplace at Platform 9 ¾ now,” Mr Weasely explain with a scowl. “Oddly, and by pure coincidence, of course, the distance roughtly starts at Yorkshire.” Mr Weasley rolled his eyed. “Which is the Gaunts’ way of making sure only pure-blood families of their favour can use it. The Gaunts themselves and the Selwyns, that makes sense. Gaunts are up in Yorkshire and the Selwyns are in Scotland, but the Parkinson family or the Blacks? Those live in the city of London; they could walk to the station quite easy. Everybody else? We have to make our own way, using muggle transport. No, this is just the blood supremist making life harder for the rest of us because they don’t want to queue.”
“Good Morning!” Garreth called as he walked into the kitchen. “I already have a order for G.R.O. IN to give to Dunkein, he wants a full beard to look as manly as he can to throw off his old nickname.” Garreth grinned, and Sebastian forced a little smile on his face.
“Garreth, we have talked about this, we don’t want you using your products on people.” Mr Weasely said. “Also, I want to talk to you, today I want you to-“
“- To stay by Sebastian’s side, I know dad and I mean it, I know. Only an idiot would leave him and I, ECO of Garreth Weasley’s inventions, am not an idiot. I’m not just going to leave him on the train and ditch him for my friends.”
Garreth winked at Sebastian, but his sudden stillness imposed how serious the situation was. They had discussed this all week leading up to their return. They were going early, so that they would arrive on the Platform just as the Hogwarts Express pulled in. They would be the among the first on the train, all the best to get Sebastian safety into a carriage without any of the Gaunts seeing him.
“Gauntylocks won’t be there at 10am, a whole hour before the train leaves, I doubt they would even leave their gold and gem entombed house before quarter to eleven anyway.” Garreth said, trying to keep the general feeling in the kitchen light.
“Only commoners and Blood Traitors have to arrive early now.”
After breakfast, they got up and with Garreth going first, Sebastian stepped into the fireplace.
“Leaky Cauldron.” He said and a moment later he arrived in the fireplace of an inn. The famous pub that opened up Diagon Alley. He looked around, wishing Anne could see this with him. There were wizards and witches everywhere, the whole place was alive with drinks being placed at the bar, and a queue already forming to enter the shopping street outside.
Garreth moved Sebastian out of the grate and tried his best to hide him from anybody walking past. Sebastian kept his head down, his eyes averted. Surely nobody would be looking for the St Mungos runaway now, months after the Daily Prophet plea, but they wanted the less attention brought to Sebastian as possible.
As the flames turned bright green again, Mr Weasley stepped out and led the two boys and their trunks outside the pub. Sebastian took a glance back, one day he would come here properly, maybe have a drink before he went shopping. It was something to look forward too.
A horse and cart were already waiting for them, a wizard atop it. Professor Weasley had planned it in advance to pick them up and take them to King Cross when it became clear they couldn’t travel to the station directly.
Sebastian was sandwiched between Garreth and Mr Weasley, again for his own protection, but he could still see out of the little semi curtained window. London passed through the window as Sebastian glanced out, with his mouth open, taking in all the tall buildings, cobbled street after cobbled street.
“Sebastian, look!” Garreth shouted, pointing outside. “See those poles on that bridge? The Muggles have found a way to create light without oil and candle. It’s like their version of Lumos.”
“I believe they are calling it Eel-et-ric.” Mr Weasley said thoughtfully. “Although many of them are untrussing of it, it must remind them too much of magic, even if they don’t make the connection.”
It was off right now, in the daylight, but Sebastian could see something bulbous in shape in the middle of the lamp.
“Did they put that up recently?” He asked unsure, he had never seen anything like that before Azkaban.
“Within the last year.” Mr Weasley answered. “The Muggles made a big deal of it. I know some of wizardkind tried to destroy it, saying it was a step too far for Muggles, some of us believe the Muggles are getting too advanced.”
Even the Muggle word had carried on while he had been locked up. He tried to act normal, tried to force surprise at other things Garreth was pointing out to him, suddenly his time driving through London wasn’t fun anymore.
They arrived at Kings Cross, it was much bigger than Sebastian had been expecting. They got out, hearing southern English accents, which sounded so odd and posh to Sebastian’s ears, he missed Scotland a lot, the accents up there more musical than down here. Then he smiled, remembering tonight would be the first time he would return there, back to the highlands, to the snow and the cold, to the crisp mornings and the warm summers, surrounded by lakes and mountains. He felt light as they walked into the station with their trunks.
“Ok, walk right into the wall Sebastian.” Garreth said, pointing at a solid wall.
“Huh?” Sebastian asked
“He is right, you need to walk into it. I will take you as I want to see who is on the platform right now and I’m not leaving you out here.” And with that, Mr Weasley slowly led him into the brickwork. Sebastian’s mouth dropped open as they really did walk right through it.
The other students did this each year? He had so much to tell Anne.
The platform was deserted except for the odd witch and wizard. What clearly looked like a family of Muggles were standing in shock, seeing their child onto the train.
“Ok, let’s get you both into a carriage. Pick one on the far side, one that faces the other side of the platform, I don’t want you to be seen by anybody on the platform when it fills up.”
Sebastian and Garreth were placed by Mr Weasley into an end carriage that faced the other side of the platform, which was brick wall. They both hugged him goodbye, with Mr Weasley holding Sebastian’s shoulders for a moment.
“Remember, you are welcome at our home any holiday and after school has ended, right? Don’t be going off on your own Sebastian. You and Anne will always be welcome.”
He nodded, wishing Anne was on the train with him right now.
“Keep in school, don’t leave after dark and don’t give the Gaunts any chance to get you, right? Matilia – Professor Weasley – will be watching out for you.”
Sebastian nodded. He suddenly felt like he couldn’t speak.
“Thank you.” He said, his nose suddenly burned and his eyes were threatening to water. “You and Mrs Weasley, for everything.”
Mr Weasley nodded, he understood.
“There’s always room at our table for a pair of Sallows.” He said, before shooting Sebastian and Garreth back to their compartment.
“Now stay in here, keep the curtain down so nobody comes in. Have a good term boys, Sebastian I hope your O.W.Ls go well, both of you do well on your N.E.W.Ts and maybe I will see you both at Christmas?” He asked, looking at both of them, they both nodded. “I will stay on the platform until the train leaves. I want to see what Gaunt is doing.”
With that, he closed their door.
Garreth grinned at Sebastian.
“Feels strange going back?” He asked.
Sebastian nodded.
“I can imagine.” He said.
They both grew quiet as they listened to the platform slowly filling up, then the movement of feet as the rest of the Hogwarts students slowly piled onto the train as 11’o’clock drew slowly nearer.
One of those footsteps could be Ominis, walking around with his wand out, apparently with a snake now from his family, a fully-fledged Gaunt. Maybe both of them had changed, Sebastian would be able to tell tonight when they went to bed. Then he paused in his thoughts, was his bed in the dorm still his or had somebody else moved into his space?
Outside on the platform, Mr Weasley watched from the corners of the platform. The Potter family walked past, leading a well-dressed young child alongside a new Hogwarts student, their eyes met as they passed and Mr Weasley give a subtle nod at them, which was returned with a “Good Morning”, the Potters were a decent family, they were followed by the Prewitts and then the Longbottom family passed, both families acknowledged Mr Weasely cheerfully, looking slightly windswept, none of them had been permitted to use the Floo Network.
He continued to watch and then it happened, the moment Mr Weasley had been waiting for.
Green flames over by the floo fireplace and out they came. First were the Lestranges, followed by the Slughorns and Rosiers.
The Knott family, forever the butt of jokes among the true Pure Bloods, had been told they were not in the catchment area for Floo travel.
They gathered for the final family to come through.
Then a man who Mr Weasley knew all too well came out. They had never spoken, but everybody knew who the Gaunts were. They were as identifiable with their strange silvery blue eyes and fair hair as the Weasley’s were with their red hair, however recently their inbred genes had been producing brown eyed children with darker hair as well. They were dressed in the finest robes Mr Weasley had ever seen, even their wands had ornate handles from exotic far away countries. The young man with Gaunt was clearly their youngest son, Ominis Gaunt. He was walking beside his father, his wand out before him. This was Sebastain’s friend, but it appeared that friendship may had ended, Sebastian never spoke of his friend from the Gaunt family anymore, although Professor Weasley had informed them he may write. As Mr Weasley watched, the young Gaunt snapped at students to get out of his way, before his father flicked his hand and sent the young wizards stumbling out of the way of his son, to the angry cries of parents. That was another thing about the Gaunts: Wandless magic. Most wizards could often find themselves using magic without meaning too, mostly as untrained wizards, but the Gaunts were said to be killed at it. Wild rumours even said the Gaunts could fly without the need of brooms, but Mr Weasley didn’t believe it.
Those shouts from the parents died the second they had released who they were shouting at, instead they backed away, moving their children as far from the group of Dark Wizards as they could get as Gaunt lead the pack of notorious families closer to the train.
Father and son then shared words on the platform, but it was not English or any human speech.
It was hissing.
In that moment a small snake emerged from underneath the boy’s robes. Mr Weasley knew they were speaking Parceltounge and his nerves flared up. No matter his experience within the Wizarding World, Mr Weasley knew Parseltounge was always a sign of evil. Gaunt bent down to hug his son goodbye, whether that was for show or real affection, Mr Weasley didn’t know. The young Gaunt climbed onto the train with the help of his wand and the father watched him, not blinking. That look unnerved Mr Weasley much further, it was the look you give to a tool that worked well for you.
As Ominis disappeared onto the train, Gaunt turned, there was a flash of silver as an animal’s body was temporary shown around Gaunt’s neckline, no doubt the dreaded snake everybody said Gaunt carried with him at all times, the same one that had chased his own sister, Matilda and the two Sallow children.
Gaunt didn’t glance at Mr Weasley, he took no notice of anybody else other than the pure supremists around him now his son was on the train, but a few other families around Mr Weasley were watching Gaunt, some with hatred, some with downright fear. The McKinnons standing nearby had actually drew their wands as if ready for a duel. Mr Weasley wasn’t surprised, he had heard it a few times that the Gaunts had previously attacked that family.
All the families nearby, all the decent ones Mr Weasley noticed, were watching Gaunt carefully. The Potters alone stood slightly ahead, watching as Master Gaunt waved his hand at the other families around him as they all made their way back to the floo grate, which the other families not in with the Gaunts had since lost the privilege of using.
The Mr Weasley saw it, at the very last moment. Gaunt had stopped and waved the others ahead of him, indicating they should use it ahead of him. He stopped and glanced around the platform, his cold silvery eyes sweeping over everybody, including Mr Weasley. He was searching for something, almost as carefully as the snake he had concealed within his robes would. Mr Weasely believed he knew whom Gaunt was looking for. A few students were still climbing onto the train as the final whistles blew out, steam had started blowing out and guards were slamming doors closed. Gaunt’s gaze passed over them all, glancing up and down.
He was looking for Sebastian. He wanted to see the boy in the flesh, his curiosity as to why his son cared so much for this boy getting the better of him yet again. However it seemed the boy wasn’t here, nor was his sickly sister. Gaunt could see nobody who fit their profiles on the platform.
Mr Weasley was suddenly very relieved they had gotten Sebastian out of sight long before Gaunt and his inner circle had arrived.
Gaunt’s gaze passed over the small circle of onlookers and amusement ran through him as he noticed them all, all the families his family had stood on in one place, gathered, safety in numbers style, like animals of prey.
It amused Gaunt to no end that these families, and of course the Notts, now had to travel like the Muggles they loved to marry and breed with so much.
Then Gaunt’s eyed locked onto Potter. The current head of the Potter family had taken a step forward, a younger brother watching carefully behind him.
The two Potters and Gaunt seemed to be locked into some unseen, unheard standoff. Mr Weasley didn’t know what that was about, but if the Potters were in some sort of feud with the Gaunts, it was news to him. They were normally very quiet, focusing on their hair tonics and potion ranges.
Gaunt continued to watch them, his eyes almost hungry for something as he continued to hold their gaze. The cloak came to the front of his mind, he would like that so much for the Gaunts. He then turned his attention to the floo grate, making a slow show of using it to remind the lesser families of what they’ve lost before returning to the House of Gaunt.
Ominis and Anne sent Sebastian to Azkaban for his own good. Their friend and brother had changed from the kind boy he once was, and they regretted their decision ever since. They are desperate to have Sebastian back and are willing to do anything, anything. Ominis will even become the monster he vowed he was not.
The Fall of the House of Gaunt.
How did the ancient House of Gaunt, once among the wealthiest, most powerful, and most dangerous families in the wizarding world, become the desperate souls depicted in The Half-Blood Prince?
How did Sebastian's life sentence to Azkaban trigger the downfall of the heirs of Slytherin...
Chapter 31: Heritage and Inheritance
Weeks passed in a daze of homework and exams.
Hogwarts settled down with Professor Weasley running things, although it was too late for Quidditch, flying had returned with two games held during the last week of term.
Ominis had been dreading the holidays more than anything, locked in that old house with his family for two months.
He got onto the train with everybody else and dragged his feet off again, until his father’s voice greeted him home. Since then, time slowed down. Every hour felt like an age, each morning he woke and each night he tried to charm his door closed so nobody, animal or wizard, could get to him while he slept.
The summer slowly crept on.
Ominis was dreaming.
An invisible snake guided his way, making slight clicking noises as it moved ahead of him, the sound of scales on floor, then on material. He could almost imagine a small head pulling along a small body without arms or legs, ending in a small tip at the tail, with a flicking tongue sniffing the air around them. He felt the cold floor was he walked silently down the hallway, which he knew ending in a door. This was the door to his father’s room, he knew it by the number of rugs on the floor and the feel of the cold wood. Beyond the door ahead lay a room of magnificent beauty, everything ornate.
Ominis raised his hands to feel for the approaching door, pausing as his fingertips made contact.
His father held some of the family’s riches in here, Ominis knew that silks lay or were hung on every soft surface and at the windows. There was a bed bigger than his own where his father laid down to sleep each night, serpents winding their way up and down the poles, Ominis’ own fingers had traced them as a small boy when he had followed his father into here.
And there, in the corner curled Shiva. He could sense her and knew her exact location.
She was watching him carefully, she was curious as to why he was in the room. He paused and tried to speak, to tell the snake he was only dreaming, that he wasn’t really here.
Her tongue flickered in his direction, he could hear the sound from across the room, trying to sense his emotions.
She would not harm a Gaunt, least he had always been told that, but she also had her orders. Nobody was allowed near her master’s box, the one that held the key to Gringotts.
Ominis could sense the box within the room, almost as if it was freedom itself calling to him. All he had to do was open the box and take the key, if he could get to Gringotts and empty his family vault, he would never have to return here, his family would lose all their means to rule. He would run away, never to see his family again.
Only how was he meant to hide maybe a billion galleons?
Shiva was inching closer to him now, he felt the air move as she stretched closer and closer. He wanted to move back, away from her.
It was as if his thoughts of betraying his own family were attracting her ever closer to him. He could feel her moving inches from his face now, her cold breath upon his check. She would strike at him the moment she believed he was going for that box. Nobody touched that except for Master Gaunt or his wife.
Shiva knew that.
Then suddenly Ominis was no longer himself. He was looking up at Shiva towering much higher than him, her face pointed down at him as a small forked tongue flickered from his lips.
He was Snakey, perhaps always had been, climbing the desk and coming over the top, the box was there in front of him as he tried to lift the lid open with his small snout, but Shiva had been watching. It was too late to call Snakey back, too late for them both as Shiva threw herself at them both.
“Sir, you must wake up” A voice called to him as his breathing quickened in the aftermath of the dream.
“Mmh?” Ominis muttered, face in the pillow.
“Sir. Young master, Sir. It is morning. I have been sent to wake you and to present you to your father. It is your birthday sir, happy birthday.”
“Ohhh” Ominis moaned, moving his head up off his pillow slightly and feeling Snakey leaning up against his face.
Just a dream then.
“Sir, please sir, please wake up. Master Gaunt is waiting for you, sir.”
At this, Ominis opened his eyes.
“It’s so early?” He asked thickly. It couldn’t be daybreak yet, and during summer too, it must have been very early.
“Why does he want to see me so early?”
The House Elf shook its head. Ominis could hear the ears flapping.
“I know not, sir”
Ominis tried not to groan.
His birthday. How could he forget. His entire family had been making such a fuss over it since the holidays started. Marvolo with a series of sniggers and his mother and father often whispering to themselves in the corner of the room.
His mind went to the question ‘What did the Gaunts do to their children when they came of age’.
Today marked his first day of being a man.
“Sir, he is waiting on you sir. Your father, sir.” The house elf said filled with fear. The voice was new, which meant another of the families’ house elves must have meet an early end. Ominis didn’t know how much a servant cost, but his family sure went through them fast.
“I’m coming.” He muttered.
Before the strange dream with the snake, he had been dreaming about Sebastian. It was his normal dream, finally managing to write a letter to his best friend, only to have it fly away in the wind, while Sebastian sat in a dark room somewhere far away, waiting for the letter that will never come. Each day it played on his mind that he had not yet made peace with Sebastian, even though it had been months since Sebastian was freed, almost a year. He couldn’t write to him now, it would be too beyond risky and he didn’t know Sebastian’s location. Ominis would say his words to Sebastian, face to face, when they met next, he knew they would meet again.
‘Come Snakey’ He hissed, holding his hand out blindly for his friend to slide into his palm.
“Sir. Please sir. I have orders, he is not to come. The snake is not to come sir, your father was very clear.”
“What?” Ominis said, shocked. “Why can’t Snakey come?”
“Sir. I do not know. They is not telling me. Your father only said you. Not the snake. He said the snake must stay in here. The snake is not welcome.”
Ominis took an intake of breath. Not welcome?
“This house is full of snakes!” He shouted and he didn’t mean only the animal type. “Why is he not invited? He’s a part of his family just as much as I.” Ominis raged.
“Sir. Sir please. Those are my orders. Sir, please- It’s my first day serving the House of Gaunt, please sir.” The elf begged desperately, no doubt the other elves had informed this one of who it’s new masters were. Ominis couldn’t tell if it was male or female by its voice, but it was terrified.
“Of course, sorry. Snakey stay here.”
Dread. Anxiety. Pure horror filled Ominis as he walked down the halls of his house without his snake. Snakey was his eyes, he could see what was going on. Ominis’ ears strained to hear anything from downstairs, but the house was strangely quiet at this time of morning.
“What time is it?” Ominis asked, suddenly curious.
“It is 6am, sir.” The Elf replied timidly. "He wants to see you before anyone else wakes.”
He tried to guess what was going on. When Marvolo had come of age, Ominis had been with Sebastian and Anne. He didn’t know what happened in this family when somebody came of age, he took deep breaths. Would it be the killing curse this time? Would he have to become a murderer and take a life just to become seen as an adult in his family’s eyes? Yes, that seemed the most likely thing and his heart raced. Would they kill him when it became clear he was not a killer like them?
His family would have captured a muggle, hence the early hour of the day. It would be on Ominis to murder them with the killing curse.
The elf continued to walk him downstairs, unseen to Ominis and the newest elf in the Gaunt house, Marvolo was watching his clueless brother from the smallest gap in his bedroom door. He knew already that Ominis would react badly to what came next and he was living for it. He wished he could be in the room with Ominis and their father, but oddly, each Gaunt had to hear this on their own, father to son, mother to daughter. Never were any siblings allowed into the room with them, which Marvolo found stupid. It wasn’t like the secret was that big, so why all the secrecy? What would his parents do when Ominis broke down and started screaming out about the darkest secret of the Gaunt family. He remembered when he turned seventeen and learned Salazar Slytherin’s biggest gift to the Gaunt family, he had been filled with excitement and an eagerness to see his ancestor’s plans fulfilled. Knowing Ominis, he would have a panic attack.
Master Gaunt was waiting for his son. Time for childhood innocent to leave the boy. No Gaunt passed this day without the terrible burden passed to them.
“Come in.” He said as the elf knocked on the door. “Sit him in the chair and leave. If I catch you earsdropping, you won’t last to your second day, clear?” Mr Gaunt told the trembling elf, who bowed low and did as instructed.
“Wait!” Gaunt ordered the elf. “Make sure Marvolo is not anywhere near this room. If I get wind that Marvolo has heard anything I tell my son now, you will pay for it, as will every elf in this household.”
“Yes sir.” The elf gasped in alarm as it left.
Mr Gaunt looked over at Ominis, lingering in on those eyes without any pupils.
“Don’t look too afraid Ominis.” He said, slightly irked over the fact his son always looked terrified in the presence of his family. “Today is a special day. Your birthday. Your 17th birthday and that means something. In our family, just like all other wizarding families that matter, the 17th year marks your coming of age. You are no longer a child and therefore, you are now an adult, an equal in my eyes. Everything I tell you, you are forbidden from telling Marvolo, do you understand me? You are not to tell your snake anything of what we say in this room. If I find out you have spoken, I will kill you myself.”
Ominis froze. He slowly nodded.
There was a moments pause as Mr Gaunt slide off the ring from his hand, he glanced down at the Peverell mark upon it.
“Hold your hand out.” He ordered, moving the ring more into the light so that the Deathly Hallows symbol shone out.
Ominis slowly held his hand up, every nerve he had was listening, waiting. Being blind meant he couldn’t see what was right in front of him.
Mr Gaunt dropped the ring into Ominis’ hands.
To Ominis, it felt slightly heavy and warm. He closed his fingers around it to feel his father’s ring.
“Do you recall the bedtime stories I used to read to you when you were a child.” Mr Gaunt asked, a slightly light in his eye, his head slightly titled.
“Which ones?” Ominis asked cautiously, now feeling the big stone on the ring. “There were many.”
“Beadle the Bard” His father said with distain. “The idiot storyteller. He who had a big mouth he didn’t know when to keep shut.”
“I remember.” Ominis said quietly. The memory came to him. His father reading him a set of children’s stories, laughing hysterically at the final one, then throwing the book across the room, before telling a very alarmed younger Ominis that lesser wizards knew nothing about facts.
“You recall the Three Brothers? Ignore everything you think you know about that story. I’m going to tell you real truth. As you can guess, there was no river and there was no Death, just three gifted wizarding brothers named Peverell. Your brother knows only of their name and that they were famous, the reason Slytherin himself wanted to marry our line. He doesn’t know anything else and I would have that stay this way. Do you understand?”
Ominis nodded, his father continued.
“Cadmus Peverell was the second brother from the Three Brothers story. It’s not just a story Ominis. Cadmus’ line married into the Gaunt family at the time. We are the descendants of the Peverell brothers. A greater family than Salazar Slytherin ever was. Take a feel of that ring in your hand. Feel it. You can’t see the engraving on the stone, but it’s there. A line, a tringle and a circle. Look with your fingers, feel it.”
Ominis did, the stone was really old but he could feel something there.
“I can feel them.” He said softly, wondering what this had to do with him.
“Place the ring on your finger, Ominis.” His father said suddenly.
Ominis took the ring and carefully slid it onto his finger.
“Do you recall what the second brother could do with the stone?” His father asked.
Ominis nodded. All children knew the story.
“He could recall a loved one who had passed.” Ominis said slowly.
“Turn the stone on that ring.” His father said calmly.
Ominis’ fingers seemed to trembled as he felt for the stone. There was no way this was the same stone from his childhood story book. People always said the Gaunts were insane due to the inbreeding, if his father really believed he could reawaken the dead with an old heirloom, maybe those rumours were true after all.
The stone turned when he pushed it, at the same time, he left his hair move slightly as if a little breeze had blown in.
Unseen to Ominis, a woman with dark golden hair and pale silver eyes appeared next to him. His father was averting his eyes from the place he believed his sister would be standing, even though for once he couldn’t see her. How many times had he talked to Noctua Gaunt’s shadow, he had lost count. His sister had been everything to him, even if they didn’t agree on many things.
Her constant battles against their family tiring to him, but she was still his blood and her disappearance hurt just as much today as it did all those years ago.
She had tried to prove the Gaunts all wrong and had lost her life for it. Mr Gaunt knew she had died the moment she appeared to him after he had turned the ring himself, all those years ago.
He had hoped to prove her still among the living.
As Gaunt watched, his son’s mouth dropped open and a cry of anguish escaped his lips as his unseeing eyes searched desperately for the woman clearly talking to him. As Gaunt watched, his son carefully reached out to feel the woman there, but of course, he would only feel air.
“My sister speaks to me often. When I call to her to come.” Gaunt said quietly, in a voice Ominis had never heard him use before. “Sometimes, others come with her. My grandparents, my own parents. It’s not always family, old friends come too, those who have been lost over the years.
The resurrection stone has been in our family longer than the ability to speak with snakes. The reason you walk around with your wand, able to use magic to help you see, that is down to your unique heritage. It’s not from Slytherin side, but from the Peverell bloodline. We have the bloodline of wizards who did extraordinary things that history only remembers as a story, for such was their magnificence ordinary wizards believe it false.”
Gaunt paused. Tapping his fingers on his chin, lost for a second in his own thoughts.
“So, at 17, all Gaunts learn of their heritage and inheritance, but only certain Gaunts are shared the information about this ring and it’s stone. You see, I want you to have this ring when its time. You will pass this ring on to your children and you shall only tell one of them its true purpose. Whichever son holds the values not of Slytherin, but of Cadmus Peverell. If not a son, then a daughter. Never hand this ring to the likes of Marvolo.”
Ominis’ mouth fell open, before he closed it again.
What was he hearing? His father had seriously chosen him, blind as he was, as imperfect as a Gaunt as he was, over Marvolo?
At the same time, he could hear his aunt Noctua in his ears confirming he was better than all of them.
‘”Never stop fighting them”’ She whispered softly into his ear.
Gaunt watched Ominis as his head still turned to listen to whoever spoke to him from where wizards went after death.
“But a warning, my son. There are people out there searching for this ring.
Lunatics. Fanatics.
People who don’t deserve to hold our items in their hands. Bard told the world of our family relics and some wizards want them, badly, they believe they will be equal to our bloodline should they have them.
Tears ran from Ominis’ eyes and he took off the ring, unable to bare wearing it a second longer. Hearing Noctua confirming to him that he should run away, her telling him he is perfect and loved. If this ring was really going to be his, he could talk to her again at a later date.
He lifted his hands to his eyes to rub the tears away. For once, Master Gaunt allowed his son to have this moment. The first time he had tried on the ring, he had nightmares for weeks and couldn’t so much as look at the ring upon his own father’s hand.
“She spoke to me.” He said, his voice shaking as he held out the ring for his father to take back.
“More will join her in time, that’s a certain.” His father said, not unkindly.
“This is a Hallow. One of the Deathly Hallows.” His father said, putting it back onto his finger. “There’s three. The Potter family are also descendants of the Peverell family, they have the cloak. This may surprise you, but you are distantly related to them, cousins to be exact, but you are never to marry them, or interact with them. They are not our family They’ve made it very clear they hate us and our ways. Preferring blood traitors and Half Bloods.” Nobody knows where the wand is, it was last seen in the hands of Loxias when he named it ‘The Deathstick’ as would be typical of a lesser wizard. You must protect this ring, because if the ring and the cloak are ever reunited with the wand, it makes the barer the master of death, and you can guarantee whoever owns the wand right now wants the cloak and the ring too. It is your job to protect this stone and to never let it leave our family. Don’t bother the Potter family, blood traitors they may be, they are as equally gifted in the magical arts as we are. For this reason, I always belittle them in the eyes of other wizards more in line with our views, so they can never raise above us, because they can if they wished. Lucky for us, they are more than happy to marry lesser blooded wizarding families. Nothing good will ever come from a Gaunt challenging a Potter, but maybe one day.”
Gaunt took a drink, while looking down at the ring on his hand.
“The Potters aren’t going to start talking, they love that cloak too much to risk it. Always passing the grubby little thing around to their children to take to school with them, to them it’s a joke. They do not treat it with respect.”
Ominis’ head was spinning. He knew the Potters, there was a Potter at Hogwarts in the year under him, he now wondered if they knew about the Hallows too.
“Marvolo doesn’t know any of this?” Ominis asked shaky “Not the ring, or what it is? He doesn’t know any of this?”
“He only knows that our family are related to Cadmus Peverell, a gifted and ancient wizarding family. He knows nothing of the ring’s true abilities. He believes it a simple heirloom; he does not know of the Deathly Hallows. I have picked you to get this inheritance.”
“The second thing I want to tell you is something Marvolo knows and no doubt when you leave this room, he will taunt you about it. You may speak freely about the next part as if it were all we spoken about today. Understand?” Gaunt asked Ominis, back on business now.
Ominis nodded.
“We have talked about heritage, but now it’s time to talk inheritance. Tell me, my son, have you heard a voice at Hogwarts before, from the walls maybe or deep in the castle itself?”
Now his father sounded like he was smiling, he sounded like a school boy again, who had been waiting a long time to tell his son this.
“A voice nobody else but you can hear?”
Ominis’ blood ran cold, goosebumps erupted down his arms. Yes, there had been a voice.
Since his first night at Hogwarts, all those years ago, he had heard a voice calling to him as he slept, or moved around the castle. Somebody calling him by his name, only for him to turn his head and not hear footsteps.
He had thought he was just hearing things, being away from home and everything he knew, settling into a new environment.
In the end he had laid the blame on Peeves, believing the Poltergeist was playing tricks on him.
He nodded.
“Yes?”
His father was smiling now, for sure. Ominis could hear the enthusiasm in his voice.
“Think back to when you were a boy, do you recall me and your mother telling you about a secret chamber at Hogwarts? We told you Slytherin had made one. Do you remember? You were so young, so you may have forgotten.”
Master Gaunt took a drink, Ominis could hear him place the glass down.
“They say she is beautiful, she could be fifty foot long by now, she has lived many hundreds of years already and she will live just as longer still. It is her who calls to you Ominis, she feels us whenever we are near the castle and she calls out to us. She has lived in the castle since Slytherin left.
He placed her there the very night the other founders forced him out. Our payment for speaking Parseltounge, gifted to the Gaunt family who carry the Peverell bloodline, is to ensure her survival and her concealment.
She’s a snake Ominis, a Basilisk. Normally the Gaunt family would never be bossed around, but all Slytherin asked of us was to carry on his work, guard the chamber and when it’s time, we are to open it and free her, so she can claim all the Mudbloods finally. You see Ominis, there really is a chamber, deep down in the school, under the lake. You may notice you hear her the most when you are in bed, it’s because you are right above her. She sleeps under you each night at school. Slytherin knew his students alone should be the closest to her. Throughout the generations, the Gaunts, all of us, have protected the chamber. We’ve been waiting for the true heir of Slytherin who will open the chamber and set her free. No Gaunt has ever done this, even though we can any time. Do you know why?”
Ominis shook his head.
“No?” He asked, now entirely in shock. Sheer disgust numbed him. His family was even worse than he had ever believed.
“We can’t look upon her, she can kill with her gaze. When you were born without working eyes, your mother wanted to search the world, use any magical means necessarily to make you see. Others in this family could see clearer than your mother, who herself was blinded by parental love. You were born unable to see because it is you Ominis, you are Slytherin’s true heir.
She can’t harm you.
You can be in her presence and not fear her eyes. You will open the chamber of secrets on your final day at Hogwarts and when they all return next year, she will be unleashed upon the Mudbloods at that school. Marvolo likes to think he is the prince of this family, but it’s you Ominis. You are the heir of Slytherin, you are the Gaunt who will change our world. And that, my son, is the reason I wanted you home so badly. You are my son, the one this family has been waiting for. So if one insignificant boy had a jail break from Azkaban using all my favours with my peers, it was a little price to pay to have my little prince back home where he belongs.”
He was rooted in his seat.
Then he lunched forward and vomited up water.
“Ominis, control your emotions.” His father said simply, as Ominis continued to empty his stomach.
“You want me to kill students?” Ominis asked in horror at last, gasping for air as his father cleaned up after him with his wand.
“Just the Mudbloods. They shouldn’t be at the school anyway. You won’t be killing students, you shall be cleansing the dirt, the pretenders, from our society before they can learn enough to join it.”
“Our family, has kept this all this time? For-For generations? And nobody has said a thing?”
“I don’t see an issue with that.” Came his father, short and simple.
The true horror of this family, the depravity, was crushing him. His family had always been despicable, but this was a new low even for them.
They were all complaisant to murder, they had been planning it for centuries, for millennia and nobody had said anything!
“Did Noctua know this?” He asked
“She did, it’s what made her leave the family.” His father said in a neutral voice.
“However, to answer your question, yes, there have been incidents over the years, when a few Gaunts have spoken of the chamber drunk out of their heads, or our own children have ran to teachers, claiming there is a monster hiding in the walls.”
At this, Gaunt laughed.
“But that’s the thing Ominis, we are never believed, even for all our wealth, our prestige. If you were to go shouting about the chamber right now at school, nobody will ever believe you. The school has been searched many times and they never found the chamber, yet its right in front of their eyes. I imagine many students have stood right in front of the entrance each year and they have no idea what it is. It is impossible for them to even enter; they can’t speak our language. I will tell you in time where the chamber is.”
Mr Gaunt smiled at his son.
“I know this may be overwhelming, but this is what being part of his family is all about. You have great gifts and carry a noble purpose. You may go now. Remember, not a word to Marvolo about the Deathly Hallows. Go, you are dismissed.”
Ominis snapped his thoughts together.
“Yes.”
“And wash your face, it’s your birthday after all, your family all wish to celebrate with you.”
“I will.” Ominis said dully, as he approached the door.
“Oh and Ominis? I hear tell from my sources that your dear Sebastian Sallow will be back at Hogwarts this upcoming term, did you know that? It’s my view that he would have been safer staying in St Mungos, if you ask me. Make sure he knows to keep his mouth shut, now and forever, no matter how guilty he feels over what he did to his uncle. If he says anything, if I get wind he is close to cracking, then he will go the same way as that lovely woman who worked for the Prophet. I’ve forgotten her name already, I have had so many silenced since her. Make sure he knows if he ever feels like he’s going to confess to his crimes that I can arrange for him to be united with his uncle and his parents. I have opted for mercy, but you know I don’t like loose ends, so tell him to be very careful and tread lightly around this family. We are always watching and Hogsmeade is not as safe as you’d believe.”
Ominis nodded. His imagination of Poppy’s fate appeared in his mind, he could almost see his own picture of Marvolo creeping up behind his classmate, a wand in his hand.
He nodded.
“I will tell him father.”
