Legacy Disowned - Book 2

Chapter 26 - If You Want Something Done Right

Invidia Gaunt hated this feeling. The beating of her heart, rapid as humming bird wings, thrumming through her ear drums, leaving her feeling dizzy.

But how else could she feel since Vasileios had given her that wanted poster. It seemed a cruel joke crafted specifically to cut at everything she knew to be true.

An irrefutably unremarkable child. Brought up to be quick and sharp enough to fell magical beings of a far higher station. That in itself was an abomination.

And then, suddenly, that abomination was blessed not only with the gift of magic, but also the very power on which Salazar Slytherin's last descendants entire reality depended upon.

Her hand shook as she lifted her teacup from its saucer and downed the calming draught within. But it was never so simple to make that feeling go away entirely. The potion may effectively calm her physically. But it couldn't erase the knowledge that the foundation she stood upon, the fortress that had been her birthright, was anything but solid.

It just wasn't fair. She was a Gaunt. An heir to Salazar Slytherin himself. The world should be hers, her wishes granted and her future unquestionably secure. So why was it always like this? Why did she always have to fight so desperately to hold onto the smallest semblance of control.

She'd been gutted, stripped of every morsel of pleasure she'd been promised in this life.

It was supposed to have been simple. A loving bride fated to a perfect union, promised from birth, to be the perfect family, upholding the future of the Noble House of Gaunt.

But nobody else seemed capable of simply following that design. Between her father selling away their most valuable asset with no care for the family's future. Her brother Corvinus blowing so much of their fortune on some secret bloody plumbing project within Hogwarts he'd insisted was their forefathers wishes. And her husband—

Invidia heard the teacup smash before she realized she'd thrown it. She looked down at her hands, still shaking. "Mimmy!" she snapped.

There was a pop, and the house elf appeared, looking up at her with a far too familiar concern in her eyes.

"Calming draughts," Invidia said sharply. "You need to increase the potency."

Mimmy rung her hands in her servette skirt. "Perhaps if Mistress waited the prescribed time between measures–"

"Did I ask for your opinion?" Invidia hissed. "Go. Now."

The house elf cast her eyes down, curtsied, and with a pop, was gone.

Invidia narrowed her eyes at the spot the elf had vanished from. The silly thing was correct of course. Her body was growing tolerant of the potions effects. But with her world clattering down around her, what else was she meant to do?

And why was it so damned hot in here?

She stood from her chair, needlessly smoothing her dress before striding out into the garden for air. The winter chill felt soothing against her pounding temples, the frigid breath she took, grounding her back in reality. It wasn't enough to calm her completely, but until Mimmy could get her some stronger potions, it would have to do.

She passed beneath the garden arch and stopped, looking down at the magical bubble that kept the rainbow of irises growing around the headstone fresh and vibrant amongst the frosted branches surrounding them. The potion in her gut seemed to curdle at the very sight.

The colourful pedals may as well have been banners, hung by her own son to remind her of what may have very well been her greatest blunder. Laughing at her as they fluttered in the breeze.