Green is the Color || Ominis x OC || Hogwarts Legacy

Of a Fight for the Future: II

He was ten.

It was his earliest memory.

He is ten and clutching the weathered hand of Plums, one of the family's house elves, because Mother would never hold the hands of her children. Plums guides a young Ominis to the side of the shop while Mrs. Gaunt argues with the potionmaker about the efficacy of his products. Why aren't they working, when they've poured thousands of Galleons into these cures?

It doesn't stop there.

Ominis is seven, surrounded by strange, white-robed men. He is lying on a stone table, eyes covered in sapphires and hands bound to his sides. The men start to chant. He screams for his parents. All he hears are his older brother's low, gleeful laughs off to the side.

He grows a little more.

It is Plums who gives him his first-ever meaningful present and teaches him his first spell. Legere Tactus. She hoists the boy into her small lap and opens a book of letters. Slowly, painfully, she teaches Ominis how to read. He has never stopped being grateful.

...and then he is ten, stuck in a stiff suit and overwhelmed by the noise and scents of the ballroom. His mother drags him with her by the wrist. Off to the distance, a family is putting on a show: a man with his rich tenor voice plays the harpsichord. A woman leads the song, her tone like the tinkling sounds of a bell. And in between them is a little girl with strawberry- blonde hair, holding onto her mother's hand. As the song ends, the room erupts in applause.

But that is also the night when Ominis is brought along for his family's post-party entertainment. He is dragged by the scruff to Muggle London. They take a woman off the streets, Apparating her to Gaunt Manor.

That night, he learns what Dark Magic smells and feels like: low bass, sharp scents, and a sense of something dark and tense. He listens as his brother and parents torture the woman with spells. She screams when they throw an Incendio at her feet, forcing her to dance as the Gaunts laugh. The Muggle woman sobs when she is flung up and down in the air, her body making big wet sounds that make Ominis shiver. He puts his palms over his ears and curls up into a corner. He wants to be in his room. He wants Plums. He wants--

--his brother is shoving his wand into Ominis' hand. "Go on, Ominis!" Marvolo laughs. "It's like this."

His hand is guided into the right movements: four sharp, jagged strokes. Ominis gasps and throws the wand away. He tries to run, but Marvolo is bigger and faster. He grabs Ominis by the collar, pushes the wand into his fist, and tells him to cast the spell.

Ominis refuses.

And that's when he feels it.