Faced with the sudden scrutiny of every single person in attendance in the ballroom, Ellora finds herself gripping Ominis' arm just a little too tight. Maybe walking in arm-in-arm with the Slytherin boy wasn't the best idea, after all. After so many years of being pushed aside as an afterthought or purposely left in the shadows by her own family, Ellora isn't sure she's cut out for being in the limelight.
"Relax, love," Ominis murmurs, lips scarcely moving as he escorts her down the stairs to the main floor of the ballroom and past where her mother stands, champagne flute in hand and fire in her eyes. Ellora barely hears his words, though, her attention focused solely on the outrage swimming in the deep brown eyes of her mother. She can see from here just how tightly the matriarch of the Selwyn family is holding the flute in her slender hand. The very same hand that had open-palm slapped Ellora not twenty minutes prior.
"She's angry," Ellora mumbles distractedly as they reach the bottom of the stairs, "Merlin, she's so-"
"Ellora, love, look at me," Ominis punctuates his request by reaching over and placing his other hand on top of hers, where she's gripping his forearm anxiously. When she does, he allows his cloudy-eyed gaze to flicker over in the direction of Blanca Selwyn. His expression is of sheer self-confidence as he dips his chin in acknowledgement.
To everyone else watching the brief interaction, it seems merely a gesture of respect, a young gentleman recognizing and silently greeting the host of the event he's attending. But Ellora knows better. Ominis is challenging her mother. He's daring her to voice her outrage, to let it be known that her daughter was not meant to descend those stairs on the arm of a Gaunt. And, to the utter surprise of the green-eyed Ravenclaw girl, her mother yields. And smiles. Like this was planned, like the daughter she'd spent the last five years tormenting is doing exactly what she is meant to be doing.
It isn't until the couple have passed the older woman that Ominis speaks again, saying, "Don't fret about your mother, Ellora. She will yield to whatever it is my parents do. So tell me, what are the Gaunts doing at the moment?"
It takes her a moment to locate the Gaunt family amongst the crowd of attendees. But she does eventually spot them, standing rather in the shadows in the far corner of the ballroom. Malphas Gaunt stands at the edge of a large window, leaning against the frame as he converses with his eldest son, Marvolo, and the head of the Lestrange family, Corvus III. His wife, Malvina, stands off to the side of the three men, having her own conversation with Corvus' wife, Eglantine. By her side is Ominis' little sister, Desipa. As Ellora watches, Ominis' mother leans slightly to the side and whispers something in her first-born's ear. Nearly all at once, every member of the Gaunt family turns their gazes toward her and Ominis. Ellora sucks in a sharp breath at the sudden shift in attention. Her already elevated heartbeat picks up its pace even more.
"They're certainly paying attention," Ellora answers Ominis' question in a soft voice, doing her best to quell the trembling that plagues her words. If Ominis notices her trepidation, he does her a service in not mentioning it. "All of them," Ellora continues, "Even Desipa."
Ominis leads Ellora to a corner of the dance floor that is well within view of his family and hers both. Not that it would have mattered where precisely they stood; at least three quarters of the witches and wizards in the room are still watching the couple with curiosity.
"Now that's a miracle, if I'm honest," Ominis says airily. It's an attempt to lighten the mood, to ease Ellora's anxiety. It doesn't work, exactly, but she finds herself smiling up at him appreciatively all the same.
As they take up their beginning dance positions, along with the several other couples strewn about the dance floor, a sudden though occurs to Ellora. She bites her lip worriedly, unsure whether or not she should voice her thoughts aloud. She doesn't want to offend, but-
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Arranged || Ominis Gaunt
FanfictionWhen Ellora Selwyn was sorted into Ravenclaw at 11 years old, her parents turned their backs on her. Though constantly ostracized and treated with blatant and purposeful unfairness by her family, the youngest Selwyn child never imagined her mother w...
