The Keeper and the Monster

Chapter 12: A trip to Ireland

"How good it is to see you again after all this time, Ominis" greeted Melanius Gaunt. "You've grown up into a fine young gentleman."

"I'm very pleased to meet you again, Uncle Melanius," replied Ominis with a polite smile. He could feel the cold Irish wind burn his cheeks as they walked towards the manor. The path's stones under his feet weren't as flat as they should have been, overgrown with weeds and roots. He had to be careful not to trip on them.

Melanius helped him with the stairs and they entered the mansion. "You can leave your luggage there, I'll put it in your room."

Ominis repressed a frown and thanked him. He would put it in his room? They had four house elves, from what he recalled.
His aunt Melania – yes – came to meet him and patted his shoulder. "I'm here!" she chuckled like it was a game. Yes, he knew she was here, he could smell her atrocious perfume. His aunt and uncle had never been tactful with his blindness. "You've become such a handsome young man. A true Gaunt beauty. I persist to say you would have made a perfect betrothed for our little Zephina if she hadn't... Anyway. You're right in time for supper. Let's get you to the dining room."

Though it wasn't necessary and Ominis had told them so thousands of times, Melania took his arm to guide him to a sit. He heard his cousin Zyphus greet him with his loud and damaged voice, due to the deformation of his mouth.

Melanius and Melania were husband and wife, but also cousins. Their parents were also cousins. Consanguinity was a custom in the Gaunt family, in order to keep their blood as pure as possible. Unfortunately, his cousins had paid the price of these traditions. Zyphus was physically deformed and had a lot of health problems, so much that he couldn't attend to Hogwarts. Zephina had had the same flaws and had died when she was 12. Zephilon was physically fine but his mind was in a permanent blur and would spend his time in his room.
For this reason, Melanius and his wife had moved far from the other Gaunts in Ireland, not far from an hospital where they could heal their children. Furthermore, because of their situation, they weren't as strict as Ominis' parents about blood purity. They still encouraged it for sure, and weren't fond of muggles, but they didn't torture them.

Oh, how he missed aunt Noctua.

They politely chatted while they ate. Melania asked him about his OWLs, Melanius about last year's goblin attack. They spoke about other pureblood families gossips, about how the Notts and the Rosiers where thinking about marrying their kids to strengthen the bloodlines, or how the Potters had just ruined their purity as their only son had just married a muggle-born. "I wouldn't mind if they had at least another child to marry, but now their legacy is over. Pity."

"Worse th- things c- could HAppen" managed to say Zyphus, probably talking about himself and his siblings. There was an awkward silence after that.

"Speaking about legacy" said Ominis, "I wondered. Do we know any families that would be the descendants of the Hogwarts founders? Apart from Slytherin, of course." He knew the answer already. This was just a way to guide the conversation where he wanted.

His aunt was pleased by the slight change of subject. "Well, we know for a fact that Rowena Ravenclaw's only daughter died before she ever married. Then, there are descendants of Helga Hufflepuff – the Smith for instance – though they're not purebloods and the legacy is quite scattered. It makes sense with Hufflepuff's conviction I suppose, we can't blame them for that. As for Gryffindor... Melanius dear, I think there are none, right?"

"Not that we know of. Godric Gryffindor was known to have many conquests, so we can only suppose that he had illegitimate children."

"So Slytherin is the only founder to have a strong lineage" concluded Ominis, though he loathed his own words.