Sins of the Father | Sebastian x OFC (Caroline Rookwood) | Ominis x Garreth

Chapter 59: Move

Summary:

"It's up to us. I can teach you, Crucio, or I can cast it on you."

Acceptance and delusion often lead someone in one direction into the light and the other under the cover of darkness. But regardless of which direction one chooses, one never stops moving.

Ominis

~~~***~~~

When one falls, especially through the trials and tribulations of life, one is given a choice— 1. Stand and keep moving, or 2. Remain lying there in stillness.

However, Ominis Gaunt has never had the luxury of choosing to lie in stillness for fear of his family, and Aunt Noctua always ascribed her general happiness in life to doing everything she could to leave the Gaunt household.

So when the cursed words fell from Marvolo's mouth, he found himself cold and at war with every sense he possessed.

'Aunt Noctua is dead.'

He stood at the threshold, fingers clasped on the doorframe, listening to the dullness of Marvolo's voice as he tried to process them. He fought with himself. On the one hand, there was little that Marvolo stood to gain by telling him such a lie– he already had the locket, after all. On the other hand, his brother would likely find some sick pleasure in his trickery by adding another hole to Ominis' heart. So, Ominis stood frozen at the threshold of the Gaunt estate one deplorable weekend after a deplorable dinner with his family, wondering if he should take Marvolo's suggestion to step into the study and inspect the family tree for himself.

'Aunt Noctua is dead.'

Marvolo repeated.

And Ominis could, he thought, drag his feet to the study and disprove such words. It would be simple– one foot after another. One calming breath after another until a victorious smile plastered itself upon his face. But he felt heady as a discomforting pang settled into his chest and his feet began to feel leaden when urged to turn.

And so, he settled for the choice to walk away.

But as his feet touched gravel and the soft heat of the sun licked his skin, he forgot the inevitable: however often one wished to ignore the truth, it tended to run and follow from the shadows until it came to light.

It is often thought that the line that separates truth and lies is grounded in the nature of reality. Truth, after all, is only pleasurable in the journey to uncover its secrets. And at the end of the quest to find fact from fiction, one must contend with the discomfiting feeling of acceptance or delusion.

But truth can become much too heavy to bear when ignored for so long.

~~~***~~~

It was not an unusual sound or smell— the tinkering of metal, the scent of the sea air, and the bleats of animals all sounded around Ominis as he made his way down the dirt path.

"He ain't never been like that, going in there wandless of all things!"

Ominis simply hummed, frowning as he followed Antonio down the path from the floo connection. They received his early call that morning in the Rookwood foyer, gasping for breath and rambling about idiots and insistence on not using a wand.

Sebastian, they learned, had taken to doing everything in his leadership of the compound, the Muggle Way. He bore no wand when he strolled into the barn to care for the magical creatures. Nor did he carry such and wore protective gear when he thought to join in on their many sparring lessons. And it was with finality that Antonio had quite enough, apparently, when Sebastian refused to down any healing potion after being gored by a unicorn.