Acceptance: Hogwarts Legacy Continued

Chapter 90: Ominis- haircut

"So that's a thunderbird... seems kinda small doesn't it?"

There was a thunder clap in response and the three of them stepped back.

"Hey Sebastian, let's not insult the weather controlling beast, yeah?" Ominis whispered over to him, yanking off his bowtie.

After they had traveled back to the castle from Feldcroft where Ominis had taken them- Diana insisted they let the animals out right away.

They had let out the rescues in their respective areas- each with similar species, and all the unknowns together in a vivarium of their own. They had moved around the already present animals the past month to make sure there was extra space, and by they that mostly meant Diana. The thunderbird was a problem though- it seemed to be a feisty little (big) thing and Diana was worried that it wouldn't play nicely with others.

Apparently the room always provides and after releasing the other animals and contemplating what to do with the last- another vivarium had been created. The new biosphere was hot- incredibly so, and felt like it was covered in sand. Immediately after entering, Ominis started shedding some of his layers, leaving him only in his white shirt and trousers.

"I don't think it's full grown.... It's such a powerful creature I bet they brought it in young like with the Phoenix. It seems happy though, it must like the heat." Diana sounded pleased.

"Speaking of which, I'm afraid I'm going to melt in here. Can we go now?" He heard the boy next to him try to fan himself with his hand.

"Yes, and now that all the animals are out we need to get you to the nurse." Ominis faced towards the girl.

"Actually- I still have something I need to do."

Before either of them could protest or question he heard her move around and casted out diffindo.

"WHAT THE HELL?? Sebastian ran towards her.

"What just happened??" Ominis asked, feeling confused and concerned.

"She just bloody whacked her hair off!" He replied, and Ominis' jaw dropped.

"WHAT?? Diana why did you-"

"Marvolo had his hands all over the end of my hair."

"And you couldn't have just washed it??" Sebastian's voice sounded very perplexed and disgruntled.

"Actually-" Ominis walked over to her, and without much pretext reached out to find her hair. "-this seems a fairly reasonable response to me." He found her face and then back to her messy locks that had long since lost the luster of the evening.

Anything that Marvolo did or touched felt dirty- it was something he had observed before. He often found himself getting rid of items that his brother had used. Her hair though definitely felt shorter, and it was back to his usual state. It had been nice to feel earlier that evening, but he couldn't help but smile at how it was now.

"Alright, you guys have lost it." The other boy chided the two of them.

Ominis dropped his hand and instead moved to her side. He stooped himself down, allowing her to place her arm around his shoulders to support her. He placed his arm around her waist, and three of them moved out of the desert.

Sebastian led them to a changing screen, they figured that in the state she was in she needed to change before they went to the nurse. Her misshapen hair and battered body was going to cause enough alarm besides her broken foot.

As she changed Ominis waited with Sebastian across the room. They both slumped back into chairs as soon as they sat, Ominis felt the exhaustion of the day weighing heavily. They sat in silence for a while, and it was the first time he felt like he had a chance to breathe. He was so calm now that he hadn't noticed he was falling asleep until he was jolted awake by his friend's voice.

"What's in the bag" Ominis jumped a little, and rubbed his eyes.

"Oh um, I had the foresight to pack up my stuff a few days ago in case something bad happened. It's got my gifts for you guys, all the clothes and books I didn't already have here, and other papers and documents that belong to me. I'm glad I did it, it makes the fact that I'm never going back there a lot easier."

"Yeah, I mean if you had left my gift there I would have made you go back and get it."

Ominis reached out and swatted at the idiot next to him, but couldn't help but smile.

"Hey, it's technically Christmas - you could just give it to me now."

"Sebastian!" Diana called out making her way over to them "You shouldn't ask him to give you a Christmas present when you haven't even given him his birthday present!"

"And you shouldn't be walking!" he heard him get up and move towards her.

"Well then give me your seat, and you go change." They moved around the room and back. Then Sebastian left to take his turn.

"Ominis, can I give you your birthday gift?"

He had slouched back down in his seat but this made him perk up. He nodded and then he heard her dig through her bag. He scooted his chair over to face her, and when had found what she wanted she did the same. He held out his hands and she placed what felt like a piece of paper in them. He pulled it towards himself and immediately felt the bumps all around- it was in braille. He moved to the top of the page.

"Stargazing map?" he questioned.

"Yes! I've been working on it for a long time!" Her voice sounded giddy with excitement "I took my star chart mapping I've been working on in astronomy and found an enchantment to make it move according to your location."

She reached out and grabbed his hand and moved it along the paper. There was a large indented circle along the edges of the page. "Inside of this circle are the constellations, it shows you what is above you right now. And then I reworked your braille spell so that the stars would be visible to you."

He moved his hand around inside the circle and felt the stars. There was one grouping with a label that read Orion. He moved over the rest of the page, finding some of the same groupings that Diana had shown him earlier that year.

"Th-this is amazing... Thank you."

"You're welcome! And I was thinking we could go out to our spot some time together and find the stars again."

"Y-yeah, that would be great!"

There wasn't anything else he could say because right then Sebastian made his way over. He asked to see the gift and Ominis handed it over. Then he reached into his bag, grabbed a spare change of clothes and left to take his turn to change.

"What? Diana, this is amazing! You should have let me give my gift first, its garbage compared to yours!"

He chuckled as he went behind the screen. It really was an amazing gift- probably the most thoughtful one that he had ever gotten. She seemed to be quite good at finding the perfect present. He thought too that his own gift would be much less in comparison, but there wasn't much he could do about that now.

He felt incredibly lucky, even after the chaos that was their day. Things had gone... less than ideally, but the three of them were safe and together now. He was with two people that, besides Anne, meant more to him than literally anything and anyone. And those two people he knew also cared for him. He may have left the Gaunts behind today, but his family was still right here.