Unforgivable - Sebastian Sallow x Fem!Reader x Ominis Gaunt

𝕊𝕚𝕩

𝕐/ℕ

Today's the day.

I awoke this morning Y/N L/N....tonight...I will fall asleep Y/N Gaunt. 

I wonder if it will change anything. From the stories I've heard of marriage, it seems it will be the single most important day of my entire life. A day two souls become one, a day where everything changes...even the most minute detail. 

But apart from my name...what exactly will change? Will Ominis and I be stronger; even more in tune with each other than we already are? Will my anxieties and my fears and my traumas miraculously dissipate into nothing? Will my past be permanently overshadowed in my heart by the promise of a bright future?

Of course...I hope for all of the above to be true. But...I had my doubts. 

Some may call it 'wedding jitters'...I called it 'being practical'.

Ominis and I had spent every single day with each other for the past decade. Even before we professed our love for one another, he was always in my dormitory...or in the Room of Requirement with me, tending to all the beasts I'd rescued and given sanctuary. The man even had his class schedule rearranged so we'd never have to go too long without the pleasure of each other's company. 

It's not as if we'd saved ourselves for the sanctity of marriage either. Ominis and I had proven to be quite primal, near animalistic in nature as far as intimacy is concerned. He'd taken my virginity when I turned eighteen years old...and we practically hadn't stopped since. Marriage would pose nothing new or foreign in that regard.

We'd been living together practically since we'd graduated from Hogwarts...we'd already dealt with financial strifes and growing pains as we maneuvered our way through life together. Truth be told...the only thing that separates what we are now from man and wife...is the title. 

And even though we had all of that going for us...my heart had never fully rid itself of darkness. My nightmares still plagued me, my traumas still burned, I could still never look my reflection in the eye. While Ominis had made my heart joyful, airy and light...it was as if he had slapped a bandage over a breach in the bottom of a raft...and I was forever sinking. 

I'd never be whole again...and I couldn't figure out why. I'd locked away who I was before...everything that had sought to destroy me, I'd hidden beneath lock and key. I'd remade myself into a new woman...a woman Ominis would approve of. And everything I was incapable of providing for myself, Ominis had provided for me tenfold. Any woman alive would be lucky to even feel a brush of Ominis's warmth and passion...and here I was...about to proclaim him my life partner in front of the gods and everyone. I was blessed...beyond blessed.

And still, I felt so hollow...so broken...so damaged. So undeserving of this moment. 

So, as I sit here in the bed of my bridal suite...I asked myself: Are the stories true? Is marriage truly enough to fix all of this? Will marriage be enough to make me whole again...for his sake?

I truly didn't know the answer. But...I suppose I won't know until it happens. 

And it will. Today. Because, given the squealing and chittering of my bridesmaids that I could hear from down the bloody hall...I knew it was way too late to back out now. 

They didn't even offer me the courtesy of knocking first before the door to my room swung wide open, clamoring loudly against the wall behind it.

Imelda Reyes, Natty Onai and Poppy Sweeting were standing in the doorway, wide smiles stretched across their faces and excitement swirling in their eyes. They all broke out into an ear-piercing chorus of 'Good morning!', 'Rise and shine!', 'Today's the day!' as they scurried their way into the room and surrounded my bed on all sides.