It was arduous work, being a Squib. Or at least, practically being one. Until Davina's fifteenth birthday, that was all she was to the people who mattered. The family disgrace. The potential cuckoo in the nest.
Or so her father called her, regardless of whether he thought she was listening. For there was no conceivable way she could have been his. A powerful wizard such as himself could never produce such a travesty.
It wasn't for a lack of trying. Davina tried with all her might. She would steal her brother's wand while he was sleeping and try to cast simple spells like Lumos. But it never worked. And they never let up.
Mr Rosier worked at the Ministry of Magic as an Auror. He was very well-known, though not necessarily for his successes. Mrs Rosier was a thin blonde witch with a short temper and hardly any motherly instincts. Both were in all the right social circles and only associated themselves with other Pureblood families.
The Rosiers were members of the Sacred Twenty-Eight—the highest order of Pureblood families. It was of the utmost importance that they maintained their status; both in blood and in power. They could not tolerate a potential Squib in the family.
When Davina didn't receive a letter from Hogwarts, Mr and Mrs Rosier sent a barrage of nasty letters to the school demanding to know what mistake they made. They got their answer. There was no mistake. "She simply isn't magical enough." Or magical at all.
No matter how much her sister teased her, no matter how much she made her cry; Davina simply could not make anything happen. Mrs Rosier once levitated her, so she was level with the highest roof of the manor, then dropped her to see if any magic would show. She caught her only seconds before she splat on the asphalt with a look of disgust.
They barred Davina from social events. She was forgotten by most and dismissed by all the rest. Mr and Mrs Rosier gushed about their precious Evan and Celine, but never mentioned Davina.
Even from Evan's wedding, she was kept away. She had cried and begged, but to no avail. The answer, as it was to everything in Davina's life, was "no". And that was that.
.
Blindness also proved to be a difficult task—particularly as a member of the Gaunt family. Another family of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, the Gaunts could trace their lineage all the way to Salazar Slytherin himself. They were quite proud of this. Although some thought the amount of snake motifs around their manor to be a bit much.
The Gaunts were a cruel and frivolous family. Mr and Mrs Gaunt did not work. They did not contribute much to society save for their opinions and generous donations to the economy through their unrestrained spending. In their spare time, they enjoyed torturing Muggles for sport with the family's favourite spell. Crucio.
Those without pure blood were believed by the family to deserve death or severe punishment. Muggles were the worst of the lot. The three eldest Gaunt children shared this sentiment, and were proficient casters of Crucio by their second years at Hogwarts.
The youngest Gaunt, however, held a different view. The tortured screams of his siblings' victims brought him no pleasure. Oftentimes it was he who was his siblings' greatest victim. When he would not torture Muggles, they would instead cast Crucio on him. They would knock him over and scream in his ears. They hid his belongings and moved furniture around so he would crash into things.
While the Gaunts were cold and cruel and greedy, Ominis was gentle, and occasionally shy.
And while he and Davina had similar upbringings; there was one thing they had in common that would bring them closer than ever.
The task.
See the next chapters of this fic (already posted) on Wattpad.
