#sswallow;a new family

[sebastianswallows]

A new family — Chapter 1

— PAIRING: dark!Ominis Gaunt x F!MC

— SYNOPSIS: Ominis gets tired of his family and how miserable life is with them after he graduates. So he follows Sebastian's example for once, and kills them in cold blood. Now that he has the mansion to himself, he discovers he would still like to have a family, but one of his own making.

— WARNINGS: angst, culminating in murder

— WORDCOUNT: 2.1k

— A/N: Following A Different Kind of Key, I got a prompt for breeding kink with Ominis. I decided to combine this with a fic idea I had included in a poll a few months ago, which was that Ominis kills his parents in revenge, and begins to appreciate the dark arts. I don't know yet how many chapters this will have, but get ready for a dark and manipulative Ominis, and smut 💕 Enjoy, my dears!

It wasn’t like Ominis to say Sebastian inspired him. But that was, in a strange twist of events, what ended up happening.

The day Solomon died changed everything between the four friends involved with it. Sebastian and Anne’s uncle was gone, Sebastian was the one who killed him and Anne was left distraught, their fifth-year-friend was there when it all happened, and Ominis was left feeling like the earth was pulled from underneath him, not knowing where he’ll land. During the following days, Anne buried Solomon and ran. He knew where she was, but was sworn to secrecy never to reveal it to anyone, particularly not to Sebastian. It was a difficult request, but Ominis expected it to be made easier by Sebastian’s inevitable indictment for murder, which was bound to come any day now — right?

Their friend, who even witnessed the murder, refused to turn him in. That left the weight of the choice to Ominis, but he was easily swayed. Why lose two friends when he’s already lost one? So he said nothing…

During the months that followed, the weight of all that happened hung over them like a sword, like a noose ready to drop, like a tipping avalanche. Yet nothing happened. They entered the sixth year, and then the seventh. Anne healed from the curse’s influence — it turned out that Rookwood was the real culprit — and Sebastian graduated from Hogwarts — with the commendations of all their professors — and it had almost escaped Ominis how surreal the whole thing was, but sometimes he reminded himself that Sebastian had gotten away with murder.

It was a struggle to push down just how impressed he was. Sebastian had gotten practically everything he wanted: Anne was cured, Solomon was out of the way in a permanent fashion, and their mutual friend, well, she was under Sebastian’s sway now as much as he was under hers. Complicity did that…

It wasn’t fair. His best friend had a brilliant career ahead of him in whatever field he chose, he had every opportunity now to look for his sister again, and his perfidious little friendship was blooming into a romance day by day — meanwhile, what did Ominis have to look forward to? A return to his parents’ clutches and some arranged incestuous marriage, no doubt.

It wasn’t fair. All his other classmates were cheerful to be done with school, optimistic, hopeful, happy. They had jobs and girlfriends and some were even due to marry. And Sebastian, disgustingly, behaved as if nothing had happened in fifth year, as if he wasn’t a murderer.

It wasn’t fair.

Ominis rode in the cabin with his two friends on the train back to London, where Sebastian was excited to go and apply for a position with Borgin and Burkes.

“You know you’d do better in the ministry…” their friend told him, the smile in her voice teasing but sweet.

“Funny,” chuckled Sebastian.

“You’re still afraid of them?” she goaded.

“I think they should be afraid of me,” said Sebastian quietly, leaning toward her over Ominis. “The score is still one-nill last I checked.”

“Yes, but they don’t know that,” she said, leaning toward him too so that they now hovered somewhere around Ominis’ chest.

“And I plan to keep it that way,” said Sebastian.

“Excuse me,” said Ominis, pretending not to know they were there and getting up briskly enough to knock them back.

“Omi—!”

“Hey, watch it!”

He grabbed his wand and went out of cabin, shutting the door behind him. He pretended to go to the restroom, and pretended to use it for the next 15 minutes, and pretended not to hold back tears of jealousy.

Things only got worse once he arrived home. His parents did not exactly welcome him with open arms, although he had excelled in his NEWTs and was among the best students of his year. No, they behaved as if he’d just been done with a silly distraction, that filthy school that took in mudbloods, and his filthy friends from lowborn families, and now his real life started, said his father, and the fun was over.

He lasted two weeks until he murdered them.

He considered doing it in their sleep, but he wanted them awake. It was the evening of the 17th of July, and it rained and hailed all throughout supper. Ominis pretended to retreat early for the night, leaving them all together in the dining room, tired and mellow with firewhisky.

The doors shut on their own as if by a gust of wind. The chandeliers and fireplace were frozen with a spell. And the dining room was plunged into utter darkness.

A decanter was knocked to the floor and his father was cursing, and his mother called out from the top of her lungs for the elves, but Ominis had sent them away. His sister was rambling something about the house being haunted. They were learning now what it was like for him, what it had always been like for him, although he didn’t imagine they could appreciate it. He cast off the disillusionment spell, he didn’t need it anymore, and summoned all their wands to him wordlessly. Disarmed and scared and in the dark, he picked them off one by one.

First, his sister. He surprised himself by not shaking at all as he did it. In fact, he had never been more calm — was this how Sebastian had felt?

Their mother became noticeably quiet when she saw the brief green light and heard a body fall, but it took a while until she found her, feeling around on the floor. She barely said her daughter’s name in anguish before Ominis killed her too.

His father was left, and by then he’d begun to suspect, calling his name and prowling through the pitch black in that lumbering way he did. Ominis allowed him to hear his footsteps coming closer.

“I know it’s you, you little rat,” spat Gaunt Senior, facing him but standing still. “I heard you say it.”

“And you’ll hear it again,” said Ominis coolly, “right before you drop dead.”

“If only your brother were h—”

“Avada kedavra.”

The flash of green enveloped his body as it collapsed to the floor, and then it was gone, and it was dark again.

Not that Ominis noticed a difference. All he knew now was quiet, and peace, and loneliness. He finally had a life work looking forward to.

The first order of business was to get rid of the bodies, which he accomplished by turning them into teacups and finding a place for them in the glass cabinet in the living room. Brushing his finger across one, he thought it felt different from normal porcelain — a bit more rough, less cold, like bone — but their shape and weight were otherwise quite perfect. He smiled as he put them away.

The next issue was what to do with his brother… Marvolo lived somewhere in London, and he had enough friends there already that his absence would be noted. And he would not come back to the Gaunt manor just because Ominis called. Even if he did, he’d inquire as to what happened to their parents.

Which brought him to the last and final point: how to explain their absence.

He spent the next hour packing their wands, their cloaks, a cauldron, a few ingredients, and a sacrificial dagger, and then he went off into the nearby woods. They sometimes went there to perform spells that called for incantations and ritual sacrifice of the local fauna, often not returning until morning, stinking of wet dirt and blood. He could say a spell went wrong, an animal attacked, and there was no trace left of them but a few less-than-savoury items.

It was quite a trek to make all on his own, even levitating the items behind him, which often snagged in the low branches and the weeds. When he thought he was far enough, he planted the cauldron in the middle of a clearing and stuck the dagger in the earth, scattering the other items all around in what might be a convincing pattern should anyone come look.

Morning found him in his bed, alone and dirty, but content.

Ominis smiled and turned on his back, and listened: quiet. No screaming, no fights, no one ordering him around, no threats of violence, no curses, nothing.

It took about twenty minutes for that to start to bother him.

His fingers toyed with the wand which rested on his stomach, and he thought about all the times he’d judged Sebastian for using the Unforgivables. A part of him still found it abhorrent, because Sebastian was never in such a situation as he had been with his family. However bad Solomon was, he wasn’t like the Gaunts. Meanwhile, another part whispered that he should feel ashamed.

“But I don’t,” he said to himself, speaking with nobody else to hear. “I’m not. I’m not sorry.”

And he wasn’t, for many days to come. When the house elves returned from the prolonged shopping trip Ominis had sent them on, he told him the same lie he had prepared — Mister Gaunt had gone with his family in the woods to perform a ritual but hadn’t yet returned, and Ominis was worried, oh but no need for the elves to go, they needed to tend to the house — and went through the coming days just as he normally would, and soon forgot he’d ever had a family at all. And yet the house seemed larger than before, and behind each corner he still suspected some malevolent force, within each sound a muttered curse or insult, and although he knew them to be safely dead, transfigured in the cabinet, he had moments in the night when he thought they had returned to take revenge.

It wore away at him, and he knew he had to resolve it with a change in circumstance: either he moved away, or he made the house livable again. He didn’t consider even for a second to write to his brother Marvolo, but he considered asking for Sebastian to visit together with their friend — until his thoughts settled strictly on her.

On a whim, he wrote to her, and her alone. The owl took a few days to return, and it brought to him a strangely mournful and yet exciting message.

Ominis had inquired about her health — she was well — and her search for work — not so well — and Sebastian.

“It pains me to say this,” she wrote, “but I do not know. Sebastian has been sent to recover something (I know not what) for Mr Burke. Part of his training, he said. As if he weren’t experienced enough in these sorts of things. I told him, as I’m sure you would have as well, that Mr Burke was only going to take advantage of him and gain a dangerous item at no personal cost, and is only using Sebastian’s goodwill and enthusiasm. He did not take it well and has yet to speak to me since. He said I called him ‘naive’, but I did nothing of the sort.”

Ominis chuckled as his wand vocalised the letter. It was blatant she did think Sebastian naive, just as it was blatantly true that he was.

“To be perfectly honest, I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since, for various reasons,” she continued, “but I find my worries and upsets dwindle into something perhaps similar to what you felt at Hogwarts when Sebastian would get involved in these sort of reckless things — frustration.”

Ominis’ smile broadened. Her clear longing for Sebastian, her worry for his safety, her shameless affection, did not serve him — but frustration, he could work with. He picked up his dictation quill and a piece of parchment and sat down at his desk to write.

“My dear,” he started, “I am first of all happy to hear you are well and healthy, in spite of everything else seemingly falling apart around you. I am sorry, although not surprised, to hear about the novel way Sebastian has found to make a nuisance of himself. You have my full sympathies.

You have also, if you will not find it too forward, my invitation to join me at my parents’ mansion. I think it would be good for you. It is in a quiet and undisturbed area, close to London but surrounded by ancient woods. Without my family present, as they currently are — and we can discuss this too once you arrive — it is a most calming and comforting place, which sounds like just the sort of thing you need at present. You are welcome to stay for the remainder of the summer. It might help you find some balance in your life, perhaps even give you new energies to pursue employment — or other means of occupying yourself.

Please find the address enclosed.

Yours devotedly,

Ominis

P.S.: If indeed he does return in the interim, make no mention of this to Sebastian.”

[sebastianswallows]

A new family — Chapter 7

— PAIRING: dark!Ominis Gaunt x F!MC

— SYNOPSIS: Ominis gets tired of his family and how miserable life is with them after he graduates. So he follows Sebastian's example for once, and kills them in cold blood. Now that he has the mansion to himself, he discovers he would still like to have a family, but one of his own making.

— WARNINGS: just a whole lot of sweetness 🐍💚

— WORDCOUNT: 1.4k

— TAGLIST: @littletealight @skarathewitch @myrachondria @mrimperio @ssnapsaurus @tarotwitchy-main @hufflepuff-16 @shameless0shenanigans @imaslytherpuff @adoxra

“Yes.”

“What?”

“Yes,” she laughed.

“O-oh,” said Ominis with a smiling stutter. “That… was easier than I anticipated.”

He had no chance to say anything else, because she threw herself into his arms. Her cheek was warm next to his, her grip as strong around his shoulders as his was around her waist, and their legs were tangled on the floor. Their hearts beat together. His eyes closed in pleasure as her scent filled his lungs.

“I would kill for you,” he whispered.

“I know,” she said.

“I think I have. I think when… when I… my parents…”

“I know…”

“It was to clear the way for you. All along, it was for you.”

“You don’t have to kill for me,” she said, pulling back to brush a thumb over his beautiful cheekbones, and smiled. “Although I appreciate it all the same.”

Ominis chuckled and cupped her hand as it caressed him. He held it there as he leaned in close enough to feel her breath, to feel the warmth of her skin against his own, and she closed the space between them with a kiss. A shiver washed over his body at the feeling. He realised at that moment that he didn’t even know what he’d been missing. It was the first touch of real gentleness and love he’d ever felt, and against which the rest of his life would be compared.

He hugged her tight, and turned her in his arms, and sat with her hugged to his front between his outstretched legs when he slid the ring around her finger. It was the perfect fit, something to which he went to great lengths to ensure, taking samples with loose threads while they lay in bed together after reading.

She took the time to admire it before letting him slip it on, and spotted on the inside the engraving he’d asked for: two coiled snakes that filled the space between the beginning and the ending of the phrase Amor vincit omnia.

He used a hand gloved with her gift to crown her finger with it, and tasted with delight the melding of the colour of the gold against her flesh. “It’s warm, like sunlight falling straight on the tongue. And you, my dear, taste sweet.”

“Not as sweet as you, I think,” she smiled, then leaned in to kiss him on the lips, “but let me just make sure…”

When they visited Poppy and Everett and a few of their other friends on Boxing day, they kept the ring hidden beneath a pair of gloves, and only announced their engagement when they went to see her parents. They were sweet to Ominis, if a little deferential — they had never met a Gaunt before, and her telling them that he was ‘not like the others’ did little to ease their fears. Nevertheless, the pair left her family home in a much warmer and more emotional tone than they had arrived.

They kept the ceremony small, with her family and all their friends and a few of their professors invited. It was March by then. They wed on the Vernal Equinox.

Even Sebastian was invited, although he didn’t show — gone on a relic hunt in Cyprus, or so he wrote when he sent his compliments. If she felt slighted by their best friend’s absence, Ominis couldn’t tell. She was sweet and lovely and hung on his arm throughout the day for the ceremony and into the night for the dinner — arranged in the middle of Gaunt Manor’s rose garden — and then they bid all their guests goodbye.

The festivity went on until sunrise, with fireworks and songs and dance and the crystal chime of toasts. They could hear it from her bedroom, where they retreated. It wasn’t the first time they cuddled in the dark, still partly dressed and tired, but tonight had a significance to it that was so great neither of them could even acknowledge it. They kissed, and held each other, and buried their faces in the other’s neck and hair and chest, but did nothing else than cuddle like lovebirds until they fell asleep.

The morning was the more awkward part, once the rush of everything and the bravery of firewhisky washed away, but they just smiled and held each other tighter.

The typical thing to do for a honeymoon, so they’d heard, was to visit relatives. They agreed together not to do that. Ominis’ were few and far away, other branches of Gaunts who were disappointed not only by the mysterious disappearance of his parents and siblings but also that Ominis himself was now no longer eligible to marry any of their daughters. Meanwhile, her parents were… simply understanding of their need to be alone.

So they kept to themselves, and life went on just as before.

“Do I get to call you ‘darling’ now when we have breakfast?”

“You can call me ‘darling’ any time. In fact, I’d rather you did.”

“Really? You don’t think it’s condescending?”

“Why would I? Do you not mean it?”

She laughed. He’d caught her there…

Across the table, she reached for his hand and started playing with his wedding band. After he’d given her hers, she slipped out one day and bought one for him too, surprising him with it that very evening. The inside was engraved with a pair of hands interlinked, rather than snakes, and the inscription in life and in death. A poignant homage not many would read too deeply into, but Ominis smirked when he ran his finger across it.

They kissed before their first breakfast as husband and wife, and after it, and then strolled through the garden among the remains of the party. The guests had left on their own, and they did their best to tidy up, but the lawn was still the scene of some chaos. Birds had descended to pick at the crumbs and a few rabbits, awoken from their winter burrows, hopped over the overturned chairs.

“I have my wand on me, I could disapparate all of it.”

“No need, my darling. The elves can attend to it.”

His head then turned to the left. Still holding his hand, she followed him as he walked toward one of the bushes.

“What is it?” she asked.

Ominis only smiled and pulled her forward. When they got close enough, she saw there was a little grass snake there, brown with a white collar and pale belly. Its head swayed a bit above the ground as it flicked its tongue out. The tip of its tail was curled around a branch just above the ground as if it were holding itself steady.

“Say something to it,” she asked Ominis, hand pressed against his shoulder.

“Wait. He’s speaking now,” he chuckled, crouching to be closer to the snake. “He’s asking why last night was so noisy. He knows this is my property, and he’s complaining.”

Ominis’ laughing voice then turned to a silky hiss, and she was left impressed once again by his gift. It crossed her mind for the briefest second that she need not be envious, as any child of theirs had the chance to inherit it — but she pushed down that impish and imprudent thought before she began to blush.

“What did you tell him?” she quietly asked when he was done.

“I apologised,” he smirked. “And told him I had a wedding party.”

The snake hissed at him again and Ominis replied with what sounded like a pleased and haughty tone.

“Do snakes even know what a wedding is?”

“Well,” he tilted his head up at her with a smile, “I used his terms.”

“Which are?”

Ominis straightened back up and took her hand again. “I don’t think you’d like to hear them.”

“Come on, tell me,” she laughed as they started walking around the garden again.

He seemed to think about it for a few minutes, but it was impossible for him to wipe that smug grin away.

“I said it was our courtship dance. And that we are now mated.”

“So you lied to him.”

“How so?”

“We had our courtship dance long ago,” she smirked. “And we haven’t mated yet.”

“You are vulgar.”

“You like it.”

“Yes.”

“How do snakes court each other?”

“Well, it depends on the species,” he began, his fingers tightened around hers. “Some like to rub against the one they’re courting, or hiss and lick at her sleek body. Some do elegant contortions or dances, presenting themselves…”

“And how do they mate?”

“They curl around each other. Sometimes for hours, sometimes for days… Just lying tightly together in a burrow or among the grass.”

“Oh that does sound sweet…”

“Do you like that?”

“Now who’s being vulgar?” she said cheekily.

“Why?” asked Ominis with an innocent voice. “Do you wish to try it?”

[sebastianswallows]

A new family — Chapter 6

— PAIRING: dark!Ominis Gaunt x F!MC

— SYNOPSIS: Ominis gets tired of his family and how miserable life is with them after he graduates. So he follows Sebastian's example for once, and kills them in cold blood. Now that he has the mansion to himself, he discovers he would still like to have a family, but one of his own making.

— WARNINGS: none, but Marvolo gets dealt with 🍵

— WORDCOUNT: 2.5k

— TAGLIST: @littletealight @skarathewitch @myrachondria @mrimperio @ssnapsaurus @tarotwitchy-main @hufflepuff-16 @shameless0shenanigans @imaslytherpuff

“I knew it, you little rodent,” sneered Marvolo. “Couldn’t wait for your inheritance, could you? What happened, ran out of pocket money to keep your classmate interested?”

Ominis stepped further into the drawing room and took his cloak off, casting it wandlessly into the hook of the coat hanger.

“It’s pointless to get upset about it. Our family fortune belongs to me now, whether you like it or not. Not by any particularly legal right, of course, but I claim it nevertheless. And, not that you’re interested, but I already graduated last summer. We both did.”

“You’re still a brat,” chuckled Marvolo. “Still look as if you’re sixteen, do you know that? No, you wouldn’t, would you… You were spared, I suppose, of ever having to be confronted by a mirror.”

“Indeed, I’ve been spared many things recently,” said Ominis, circling around. He did not have his wand out to guide him, and yet he seemed to know exactly where the other two were, keeping a steady distance between the three of them and drawing Marvolo’s attention away from her. “In fact, I’ve taken the liberty of sparing myself from some of them.”

“And I’ll take liberties with your hide,” he growled. “Where��s mother and father? What’ve you done to them?”

“You never never good at Legilimency, Marv, so stop trying. Don’t want to give yourself a headache.”

Marvolo’s lip twitched at the hated nickname, but he ignored it. “Could ask your little bitch, then,” he said, taking heavy steps toward her. “After I’m done with you, she and I can have a very revealing time together.”

Ominis took that quite impassively. Not a muscle on his face moved, stuck as it was in a mien of disgust. His hands were tucked behind his back, and she couldn’t tell if he had slipped his wand out by now from wherever he held it. She feared what would happen if his brother drew first.

“Your threats are so hollow,” she said to Marvolo, turning to distract him. “You couldn’t protect your parents, you can’t protect your fortune, and now your little brother is about to throw you out of your own home.”

“So you lied to me,” he said with a smile. “You batted your lashes and claimed you knew nothing, and all along you were as guilty as my baby brother. Co-conspirators, is that it? I didn’t think you had it in you…”

“You have no idea what I have in me, but you’re about to find out.”

He laughed, loosening his arms and posture in what she recognised as preparation for a duel. “Oh, I’ll relish what’s inside you, not to worry,” said Marvolo with a grin.

He was fast, drawing his wand out to cast Petrificus at her — and she was half-right, it was up his sleeve — but she was faster. She raised it out of her skirt pocket, blocked the curse, and aimed Expelliarmus at him before he cast anything else. His wand flew off behind him, knocking a crack into the glass cabinet. It left Marvolo clutching his wrist in pain.

“Ow, you little bitc—”

Distantly, she heard Ominis call her name, but she would not ruin this moment by listening to him.

She could tell Ominis had spent years refining his hatred into something he could live with, but she had not had the luxury. She hated Marvolo enough to kill — for his cruelty, for his arrogance, for his lack of shame at what he had become — although she would not take that privilege away from Ominis and take Marvolo’s life herself. She did not have long to think before he lunged at her or retrieved his wand, so she did the first thing that came to her mind.

“Relish this,” she growled. It was a complex spell, and she cast it quite instinctively, letting magic flow through her and do the work in her stead. With a wave of her wand, Marvolo clattered to the ground with a chime.

“Wh-what happened?” asked Ominis, stepping cautiously toward her. He did, in fact, have his wand out in his hand behind his back. Now, he scanned the surroundings, frowning in confusion. “Where’s Marvolo?”

“Exactly where he was a moment ago,” she said with a bright smile. “Only a little more… compact.”

“I heard a sound. Did he break something?”

She merely laughed and stepped forward to pick him up. When she returned to Ominis, she wrapped his hands around the object: it was a teakettle. Ominis frowned for one second, but then his brows shot up. He fought against a growing grin.

“He’s not dead,” she said. “I didn’t know if that was what you wanted. But… unless he can perform wandless magic, he’ll be in this state for quite a while. And I haven’t told you the best part yet.”

“There’s a better part?” laughed Ominis. His cheeks were blushing and his smile made his eyes shine. He seemed exhilarated from what just happened, and even somewhat… flattered, by what she’d done for him. “Tell me...”

“He matches the others.”

The kettle that used to be Marvolo was bone-white, just like the tea cups, and quite evenly round in shape reflecting his sturdy body. From around his middle and curling toward the top was a screaming skull veiled in grey shadow whose mouth cut off right at the split of the lid.

Ominis burst into laughter. He never would have thought that she would do something like this for him… He was ready to do it himself, to kill Marvolo in fact, which was why he kept his wand hidden until the last moment. But of course, she was faster. It was only natural, seeing as she was far more experienced in duelling than him — and, needless to say, more than Marvolo.

“This is certainly… the most impressive Christmas present I’ve ever received.”

“Oh, that’s not your present,” she said softly. “Consider it a cherry on top.”

“I can’t wait to see the real thing, then,” Ominis grinned, gently cupping her elbows. “But, first I… I want to apologise,” he said, his smile dying. “I didn’t defend you when he said those horrible things about you —”

“Oh Ominis, that’s alright…”

“I didn’t want him to think —”

“I understand…”

“Didn’t want him to know how much I care about you —”

“I know, I —” She paused mid-sentence.

“— how much you mean to me…”

Her breath caught in her throat, eyes growing wide at his confession. She understood before then that Ominis felt something for her, but to hear him say it in that way, so raw and vulnerable and unguarded, moved something inside of her that until then had been still.

“I… I care a great deal about you too,” she said.

“I understand that,” he chuckled. “Not many people would kill for me, I think.”

“Remember, he’s not dead yet. We should be cautious about him.”

“Where’s his wand?”

They went together to the back of the room and found it laying on the floor. Ominis picked it up while she placed Marvolo in the glass cabinet, arranging his family around him.

“There,” she smiled. “A full set.”

Ominis waved his wand toward them to see and smirked at the display. “They go well together, especially with you in the picture, smiling triumphantly.”

“You can tell when I’m smiling?” she asked with delight.

“Yes, your cheeks get a little fuller when you do.”

She chuckled and came beside him. “What do you want to do with the wand?”

“I want to break it in half,” he said. “But we should probably keep it.”

“Alright. Where?”

Ominis thought it through for a moment. “Perhaps it’s unwise, but…” He went and put it in the cabinet as well, not far from the teapot that was Marvolo. “If he can undo the spell on his own, wandlessly, then he deserves to get out. That and I delight in thinking it will be right there, tempting him all the while.”

She couldn’t help but grin. It certainly wasn’t wise, but she had to appreciate Ominis’ lust for danger. It seemed to be a new part of him, now that he was free of his family, and free to become himself…

She approached him from behind and hugged him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. “So, when can I give you your proper gift?”

“When I shall give you mine,” he said, turning his face half-toward her. “At Christmas.”

“Are you certain?”

“Only way to make sure you stay that long,” he smiled.

She did, of course. She could not imagine leaving now. Ominis had been a bit rattled after everything, and on a couple of occasions late at night she thought she heard him scream, but generally he was happier, more lively, and even… confident. He no longer showed off about anything in particular, either good nor bad, and came and went by as the mood struck. Sometimes they spent their mornings and lunch and had afternoon tea together, and other times when he wanted to retreat somewhere, he did, and returned to her just as at ease.

The week between Marvolo’s transfiguration and Christmas passed in a powder white whirl of snow outside while the inside was garnished green and red. She and Ominis decorated the manor, perhaps for the first time, with holly and ivy and ribboned garlands that hung over the fireplace. They spent a whole morning making paper chains to throw about the place, and little paper angels to set upon the tables. They had the elves bring in a pine tree and placed it in the drawing room, and lost an evening just to decorate it with tinsel and candles. Apples and walnuts tied with string stood in for globes.

“Doesn’t compare to the Hogwarts one,” she said as they stood back to admire it. It was the 23rd of December.

“Doesn’t matter,” said Ominis with a smile. “It smells just like it.”

They had a modest Christmas dinner of roast goose caught from a flock on the Gaunt grounds, with mince pies of meat and fruits and spices, and ended it with the traditional pudding soaked in alcohol and set on fire before serving. They helped themselves to Firewhisky from his family’s stocks and served it while playing music boxes of Carols that they’d bought from a muggle music shop.

“You know, I don’t believe I’ve spent this day with fewer than four people, ever,” said Ominis. “But this is the least lonely Christmas I’ve ever had, with you here.”

A smile bloomed on her face before she even knew it, and her cheeks felt hot. “I… that’s… I don’t know what to say. But, I feel the same,” she whispered, laying his hand over his. They were sitting on the floor before the fire, with plates of treats and half-drunk glasses of Firewhisky all around.

“I hope it hasn’t been a disappointment to you…”

“Not at all!”

“We can visit Poppy tomorrow, and stop by Imelda and Everett’s too. Or, anyone else, really. We’re free to go wherever we like now.”

“I’d like that,” she grinned. “I’m not sure I have presents for all of them, but I could put something together tonight… I hear Poppy is quite fond of poacher-sized metal cages that shrink.”

Ominis chuckled and laid back on his stretched arms. “Speaking of presents…”

“Oh,” she giggled. “Yes, I’ve yet to give you yours…”

“Do you want to go first?”

“I… I do. Wait here.”

She got up and took the package from where it was hidden beneath a cushion on the sofa — an unnecessary act, as Ominis had known about it since they dealt with Marvolo, but it seemed appropriate to conceal it. It made the act of bringing it to him that much sweeter.

She kneeled beside him and shyly handed him a small, rectangular box wrapped in green paper with a big white bow attached.

“It isn’t much, but…”

“It doesn’t have to be,” he softly said. “I still believe your handling of Marvolo was the greater present.”

“Well then, this one can only disappoint,” she laughed. “But here, it’s yours anyway.”

Ominis took it, passed his hand across its every surface, and then carefully unwrapped it. The box inside had a grey velvet finish and opened to reveal a pair of gloves. Ominis ran his fingers over them and frowned in confusion.

“Put them on,” she said excitedly, leaning forward to not miss a thing.

He did, slipping them on one at a time and fastening them with the little gold buttons that were at the inner wrist. At first, he didn’t react at all, but when he placed one hand down on the floor to steady himself, his brows jumped.

“Oh!”

“Yes?” she grinned.

“I feel… Oh, this is strange,” he laughed, fighting a grimace. And yet he couldn’t take his hand from the floor. “We have this ugly thing?”

“What do you feel?”

“I can taste the colour of the carpet. It’s… stale and muddy, tastes the way dried moss smells.”

“Oh dear,” she laughed. “I wouldn’t say that, but…”

“Where did you find these?”

“From a special shop. You needn’t concern yourself,” she said smugly. “I’ve tried them on for a bit, and mostly agree with the gloves. They don’t capture grey very well though, I think. Some shades are sweeter than they taste.”

“Well, I… shall have to decide that for myself,” said Ominis. He was still and measured in his movements, but she could see how bright his smile was, how wide his eyes. His hands now felt all around him in wonder, from the carpet to his tie to the box the gloves came in.

“Do you like them?” she asked.

“I love them,” said Ominis, turning to her with a sweet and vulnerable smile. “Thank you.”

“I’m relieved… Thought you might not like the effect.”

“I shall have to be careful what I touch,” he confessed. “It’s like having a box of Every Flavour Beans that never ends.”

“Do you think we could each wear one and compare how we taste? I-I m-mean how things taste to us…”

“I’d love that,” he grinned, not missing a second. “Which reminds me, it’s time for your gift.”

Ominis pealed the gloves off and put them back inside their case. She expected him to get up and take her present from its hiding place. Instead, he merely reached into his pocket. He turned to her, took her hand, and in the other he held out a small, black satin box.

It was too small to contain anything other than…

“This is my Christmas present to you,” he said with a shy smile. His voice on the verge of trembling. He eased the box open with his thumb and index finger, and tightened his grasp on her hand. “If you would accept it, I mean…”

“Ominis, what —”

“The only thing I have to offer you is myself.”

[sebastianswallows]

A new family — Chapter 5

— PAIRING: dark!Ominis Gaunt x F!MC

— SYNOPSIS: Ominis gets tired of his family and how miserable life is with them after he graduates. So he follows Sebastian's example for once, and kills them in cold blood. Now that he has the mansion to himself, he discovers he would still like to have a family, but one of his own making.

— WARNINGS: just Marvolo being a nasty boy. I tried to keep him accurate, and he's probably the worst character I've ever written.

— WORDCOUNT: 2.2k

— TAGLIST: @littletealight @skarathewitch @myrachondria @mrimperio @ssnapsaurus @tarotwitchy-main @hufflepuff-16

Her hand went instinctively to the wand in her skirt pocket, but Marvolo stepped forward slowly, casually, throwing on a bemused smile. The doors closed behind him as if from a draft.

There was little in him that reminded her of Ominis. The high cheekbones and full lips were there, but his hair was dark and duller, his brows bullish thick, and his body was more broad. Although clothed quite finely in a gentleman’s suit, grey with black pinstripes, he moved in an uncouth manner, rough and lumbering and careless, if not outright uncivil.

“I wasn’t aware we were having guests,” he said, his brown eyes distastefully tracking her up and down before settling on her own. His voice was flat and low. It moved like something buried beneath mud. “Although you don’t seem like the sort of person that would be welcome here.”

She immediately hated him. She had heard of him throughout the years by Ominis, although not too much as it was, understandably, difficult for him to talk about his family in detail. She’d seen his pictures around the house as well, a few moving photographs and paintings, and he made himself unpleasant in each one, arrogant and egotistical and proud. And not only was he was as repulsive as his parents, but he’d been party to many of the torments inflicted on her dear Ominis.

She placed the parcel on the coffee table, almost in defiance, and smoothed her hands down her skirt. “I wasn’t aware yours was a welcoming family,” she said coolly.

“It isn’t,” he laughed, coming around to plop himself down on the sofa without even asking for her name. He crossed his legs and sat back, his arms spanning across its backrest almost from one end to another. “Which is why I wonder how you got here. You seem to have made yourself… comfortable,” he said, his eyes going down her figure once again. He might have noted the quality of the robes which she had bought with Ominis, or the dragon-skin boots she wore. His eyes, inevitably, fell to the gift-wrapped package on the table. “I can, of course, think of only one culprit,” grinned Marvolo.

“Is that so?”

“Where is my baby brother?”

“He’s your brother. How would I know?” she said, slowly stepping back.

“I only ask,” he shrugged, “because since I’ve got here I haven’t seen hide nor hair of mother and father, and you’re nothing like sissy’s friends.”

“Perhaps they’ve all gone out.”

His eyes flashed suspiciously up at her. He must have been thinking she was an interloper, or a thief, or worse… She had said nothing to discourage that opinion, of course, but she did not particularly care either way. She hated Marvolo, and didn’t intend to hide it.

“Yes, they must be out there somewhere, draining the family coffers… Am I right?”

Ah, so Ominis withdrawing funds from their account must have tipped him off. Perhaps even one of the Gringotts goblins told him about it. From across the distance, she could feel Sebastian laugh and say ‘I told you so’.

“I don’t know anything about that —”

“No, you wouldn’t, would you? What’s… this?” he said in one breath, leaning forward mid-sentence to pick up the little parcel. He held it to his ear and shook it to guess what was inside.

She took a few steps to the side and sat down on one of the armchairs by the fire, stretching out her legs as she lay almost on her side lazily.

“It’s a gift,” she said, “but not for you.”

“For someone special, is it?” Mavolo grinned, leaning back with it still in his hands. “Enough chitchat. Where’s Ominis?”

“You don’t care.”

“No, I don’t, but tell me anyway.” He looked around the room with a critical eye, suddenly humourless. “I know something odd has happened. I can smell it.”

Her eyes narrowed and she cocked a brow. A sliver of Legilimency told her the truth was slightly different.

“Someone told you.”

“Oh,” he laughed boomingly, “you caught me.”

“The house-elves?”

Marvolo scoffed. “Simpering vermin. No, it was the serpents that live on our grounds. Dug one out of his burrow and a nice long chat. Interesting little fellow. Didn’t recall seeing my family for many moons, although you and Ominis are known to take frequent walks lately…” His eyes glinted with satisfaction, no doubt feeling boastful about his special ability.

“Well then, perhaps the snakes can tell you where Ominis has gone. I certainly can’t.”

“I see he’s done nothing creative with the place,” said Marvolo, making a show of casting his eyes around. “Bought a distasteful little muggle device and littered the place with books, but aside from that… Not exactly an improvement. Even though father’s been gone for… how long, now?”

She shrugged. In truth, she didn’t know for certain how long it had been. “I have no idea what, if anything, has happened to him.”

“I suppose Ominis didn’t have the heart to tell me our beloved parents went ‘missing’. An owl would have been nice, you know… That or he didn’t have the courage to try to make me disappear as well.”

“Ominis has done nothing of the sort. He’s —”

“I thought you said you didn’t know,” he smirked. “So how do you know he’s innocent?”

“If anyone’s to be suspected of something, it’s you,” she said, leaning forward. “After all, I certainly can’t verify what the snake told you, can I?”

“Ah yes, you’re a mudblood. How could you possibly?”

“For all I know, you’re the —”

“Let me guess. I’m the big bad villain, am I? Why? Because I didn’t spoil your little cripple? Because I didn’t give in to his tantrums and melodramas? He was always so disgusting, the little milk-eye… Such an embarrassment. You have no idea what it’s like to have someone like that born in the family. A burden to be dragged about.”

“You really are vile.”

“Do you think,” he continued, leaning forward to brace his thick arms on his knees, “that your scrawny little boyfriend —”

“— He’s not my boyfriend.”

“— didn’t bring his misfortunes on himself? I think he relished it, as a matter of fact… He loved the attention. It was the only thing he had to contribute, after all. No magical talent, no interest in anyone other than himself, no respect for his own family who made him and raised him in the lap of luxury.”

“You call what you did to him ‘luxury’?!”

“Any other wizard would’ve given an arm and a leg to be born into this noble family. No, Ominis wants to be pitied… It is the only way he can stand out. But I know better. So do mother and father — or at least, they did.”

Her sprawl in the armchair turned more into a coiling, like an angry snake ready to strike, but she kept her jaw shut — clenched, in fact — and let Marvolo’s words wash over her. She burned to defend Ominis, but it was clearly a lost cause. Marvolo spoke as if he believed every word, as if he thought Ominis deserved all the nasty things his family inflicted upon him… She’d met people like that before, usually on the other end of her wand. There was no reasoning with them.

“You are convinced they are dead,” she said coolly. “And yet between you and Ominis, you seem to be the one fond of Unforgivables. Only further leads me to believe you killed them, and have come here to try to pin it on him before the Ministry hears of it.”

“Me?” he laughed. “Why would I hurt my own blood?”

“You need money, correct? All those gambling dens in London must be clamouring to get their dues…” she smirked.

In passing, she knew from Ominis about Marvolo’s stay in London, and his squandering habits. It wasn’t difficult to put two and two together…

Marvolo leaned back and smirked, not even attempting to deny it.

“I’ll just remind you that I’m not the only one in this family who is, as you so feebly put it, fond of the Unforgivables.”

“You forced Ominis to use them!”

“You believe everything that blind fool tells you?”

“He’s not a —”

“Although I must admit, pretty girls like you tend not to be very clever. Am I right?”

“Your compliments are as banal as your insults.”

“Come, now,” he chuckled, finally standing up and throwing the parcel back on the sofa. “You’re not as picky as all that, are you?”

With his distinctive heavy steps, hands stuffed in his pockets, Marvolo made his way around the room and vaguely toward her. She could now see that he was leaving mud trails everywhere he went, likely leaving it for the elves to deal with.

“After all,” he shrugged, “if you’ve set up here with that pale bat, your standards must be through the floor.”

“You don’t even care about what happened to your parents, admit it. You’re just upset Ominis is living his life outside of your malign influence.”

“So is that why he’s been dripping the account dry? My account, my inheritance?” he asked, coming slowly closer. “To pay for you? To buy you nice things — although, that piece, I must say,” he tutted and shook his head as he looked her up and down, “not particularly fitting. Guess he must’ve chosen it himself.”

Her fingers itched to curse him, but then Marvolo went by and past her, walking toward the right side of the room. She turned and kept him in her sights as he strolled, completely confident, with his back toward her. Slowly, she rose to her feet and faced him, keeping the armchair between them, ready to duck if tried to take out his wand. She suspected it was either up his sleeve or in his pocket.

“Is that the only reason you’re here?” she asked. “Because you noticed some galleons missing?”

“No,” he said, still looking around. “I’m here because I have yet to receive my annual invitation to father’s special Modranicht feast. Ominis wouldn’t know, he was never invited. It takes… a special pair of eyes to appreciate that celebration,” he grinned, winking at her from over his shoulder.

She glared at him but said nothing. She vaguely knew about the festival, something ancient that used to take place around Christmas Eve. It was supposed to be a celebration of motherhood, although she didn’t want to think of how the Gaunts observed it. The stains down in the dungeon flashed in her memory for a split second.

“Perhaps you have fallen out of your father’s favour,” she said.

Marvolo only laughed and turned his back to her again. His gaze fell to the glass cabinet, and he stepped closer to observe it.

“It is true, though,” he drawled. “I have been a bit of a villain. Not that Ominis didn’t deserve it. He’s never stood up for himself… Not against me, not against mother or father — who, to be fair, is rather terrifying — not even against sissy. I suppose that makes him the family ‘sissy’, doesn’t it?” he laughed. “Which makes me wonder what you’re doing with him.”

“I told you, I’m not doing anything.”

“Sure,” he nodded, looking at her again. “Only wearing his gifts and spending my money and living for months in my house!” said Marvolo, his voice rising with each word until he was shouting at her. His tone changed so quickly from the mocking laughter to the furious rage that it gave her whiplash. “If whoring yourself to a Gaunt is how you pay for your school supplies, so be it,” he said, his tone gentle again. “But you won’t do it on my galleons. Now, you little whore, for the last time: what happened to my father?”

“I’m not your little whore, and I have no idea what befell your father. Since he is supposed to be such a marvellous wizard, I’m sure nothing bad could possibly happen to him.”

“That’s right,” he nodded. “Not from a weakling like Ominis.”

His face turned one last time toward the cabinet and he frowned, noticing that something was off about the display but not being able to tell what.

“Regardless,” Marvolo continued, starting to walk back to her, “just tell me where he is and I’ll take it up with him, brother-to-brother, if not man-to-man.”

“I told you, I don’t know where he is.”

His dark eyes flashed with a dangerous glint as he stalked toward her. “It wouldn’t do to ruin those good looks by lying to me.”

“She told the truth,” came Ominis’ voice. Just then, the fireplace burst green and the flames grew large, dying swiftly to reveal his figure. He was dressed in a long warm cloak, his hands hidden beneath its folds. “But not to worry, Marvolo. Here I am. Now,” he said, stepping out of the fireplace, “I understand you’re looking for our family?”

“Oh, welcome back!” he clapped. “Off to bury their corpses, were you?”

“Oh no,” he said calmly, “I would never do them that honour.”

[sebastianswallows]

A new family — Chapter 2

— PAIRING: dark!Ominis Gaunt x F!MC

— SYNOPSIS: Ominis gets tired of his family and how miserable life is with them after he graduates. So he follows Sebastian's example for once, and kills them in cold blood. Now that he has the mansion to himself, he discovers he would still like to have a family, but one of his own making.

— WARNINGS: none, just Omi being sneaky

— WORDCOUNT: 2k

— TAGLIST: @littletealight @skarathewitch

“This is a pretty impressive place…”

“Is it? I never noticed.”

“You’re just being facetious now.”

“I assure you, I’m not.”

When she arrived at the mansion via floo, Ominis was there to greet her. The fireplace in the living room was large enough for her to stand in. The elves carried her suitcase upstairs while Ominis served her mint lemonade to clear her throat after the powdery journey. Then, he led her on a tour of the place.

He could tell from her tone of voice that she liked it. This was probably on the grander side of things compared to what she was used to. It was curious, walking ahead of her and hearing the subtle ways her voice changed when she looked up or behind her as he described each room, gawking, he imagined, in a bit of wonder.

Gaunt manor was not the greatest wizarding residence by far, ranking far below what the Blacks and Malfoys owned. The family was past its golden years and in this generation had fallen, befittingly, to silver, thanks to his father’s unwise spending and his mother’s rash investment choices. Marvolo, the celebrated son, was even worse at managing expenses than their parents were.

Ominis didn’t use to care. It could all turn to dust as far as he was concerned. But now that he was on course to being the sole inheritor (once he resolved the Marvolo issue), he found himself being a bit more interested.

So it soothed him somewhat to hear his friend so impressed with the estate.

“You can stay however long you wish, you know,” he smiled, turning his head toward her as he led her up the stairs.

“What about your parents?” she asked.

“Oh, they’ve been gone for over a week already. If they were going to return, I’m sure they would have by now.”

“Don’t you think you should go looking for them?”

“No,” he said coolly. “Why?”

“Right… I forgot how you felt about them.”

“It’s not about how I felt about them,” he pressed, stopping at the top of the stairs. “It’s how they were.”

“Or how they are?”

He paused, privately embarrased by how he almost gave himself away. Did Sebastian ever slip up like this?

“Well, right now they are not here, so it’s irrelevant.” Before she could read too much into his words, he changed his tone and smiled. “Come, I’ll show you to your bedroom.”

There were many rooms to choose from, but he gave her a suite right next to his, on the eastern side of the house. It caught the first light in the morning and was quite dark at night, perfect for a restful stay. What he didn’t mention was that there was a little door blended into the wallpaper that connected her room to his.

“The elves must’ve brought your luggage here by now.”

“They have,” she said with a bright smile as she walked around the room. “But, Ominis, you know I could make do with a little cupboard to live in…”

“Nonsense,” he grinned. “You’re my guest, and I want you to feel welcome. Now, make yourself comfortable and afterwards I’ll show you the grounds outside. We can have lunch there too.”

“Alright.”

“I’ll be in the living room.”

The ticking of the grandfather clock mounted above the fireplace filled the silence while he waited for her. He’d already told the elves to prepare a lunch for two at the large table on the veranda near the rose garden, and had given them a plan for the whole next week filled with the dishes he knew she liked. Every meal, every sweet, even the drinks, all were chosen from her favourites. The bookshelves in the reading room as well were stocked with her favourite books, and as he picked them, he’d taken the liberty to bring out some of his father’s hidden studies on dark magic.

It was a subject he had long avoided, although over the years it became impossible to escape the teachings of his parents, especially those that were enforced on him. He’d tried to forget all the curses, the jinxes and hexes they’d taught him, and now he strove to remember them.

Something had always felt wasted about his childhood, and he used to think that was because of how unhappy he was around his family — and what a tragedy that was all on its own, to not feel safe at home, among his only flesh and blood — but now Ominis began to think it was because of his repressions. He’d rejected dark magic because they liked it, he willed himself to be the opposite of his tormentors, and fashioned himself into someone who was a stranger to them… but also to himself.

How many opportunities had he missed out on by forcing himself into a wilful mental construction, a fake persona, an act of escapism? How many adventures, how much fun, how much exploration of the magic and the literature that existed, even in the small world of his childhood, had he kicked away from himself out of fear? He had been — and still felt himself as being — so concerned with the notion of regret, of mistakes, of needless trouble, that he had forgotten to live. Now, he found himself with no life at all.

“That’s about to change,” he said to himself as he waited quietly in the armchair for his friend to come down the stairs. “It might feel like it’s too late, but it isn’t. It’s never too late.”

“What isn’t too late?” she asked breathlessly as she stepped into the living room.

“Lunch,” he smiled, getting up from the armchair with a spring in his step. “With me, outside.”

“The room is lovely, by the way. Thank you,” she said as she came closer. “I’m ready now”

Ominis closed the distance and took her hand, hearing a little gasp escape her. “This way.”

He led her out through another door, opposite to the main entrance, into a hallway that opened to a pair of glass doors. Ominis could feel the sunlight streaming on his face as they approached and passed through it out onto the grounds. This was the back of the house, with a little maze of hedges and a fountain with a statue of a serpent in the middle.

“That over there is supposed to be a basilisk,” he said. “By the sound of it, it’s turned on.”

“Turned on?”

“It’s streaming water from its mouth, is it not?”

“Oh,” she giggled. “Yes, it is.”

A smile curved Ominis’ lips, and he held her hand tighter.

He didn’t even need the wand to show him the way, he knew it by heart. Going around, he walked with her to the front, where the gravel turned to a neat cobblestone path.

“You can see the forest far to the right,” he said without turning. “Where my parents disappeared.”

“What is in those woods?” she asked quietly.

“Old oaks and beech trees. And a few wild animals too. Foxes, deer, wolves, and boars mostly…”

“Do you think that’s what happened to them?”

“Possibly. They’re just as likely to have tripped on an overgrown tree root as to have been mauled by a boar,” he shrugged.

She knew how he felt about his parents, and most importantly knew why. Every summer was a reminder, when her letters never reached him and she spent the months wondering how he was. She had come to fear his parents almost as much as he did.

It gave some comfort now to Ominis that he didn’t have to hide his indifference toward their deaths, even if it was for a reason she did not yet suspect. So he walked forward with her hand in his and showed her around the other side of the mansion.

“This is where the greenhouse is,” he said, pointing vaguely ahead. “It is connected to the house.”

“It looks lovely!”

“I’ll take your word for it,” he chuckled. “We grow some poisonous plants there, so be wary. But it is otherwise a comfortable spot, especially in winter. Makes for good reading.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she grinned. “Although I’m not sure I will still be here come winter.”

“We’ll see about that,” he smirked, his face turning toward her slightly. “Now, we come to the best part.”

A bit toward the right from where they started, behind a certain angle of the house, was a little flower garden enclosed by stout green shrubs. A few fruit trees grew there too, apples and cherries heavy with fruit. Songbirds rested in their branches. But what dominated the field were waves and waves of white roses.

“Oh, Ominis,” she said with wonder. “It’s so beautiful.”

They slowed their pacing as they approached, and he took the time to feel her hand in his. It was warm, and soft, and his began to sweat, but he could not let go.

The rose garden was not as well tended as it should have been. His parents didn’t think it a priority. It was a wild and thorny growth, coiled and dangerous, but Ominis was still fond of it. It was mostly tended to by the elves, and primarily at his instruction.

“Careful you don’t get pricked,” he said, squeezing her hand as they got closer.

“Don’t worry,” he heard her grin. “I’ve been through worse than a flower garden.”

“Not a Gaunt one, I’m sure,” he smirked.

“You’re not that scary, Omi,” she said fondly, turning toward him. The scent of roses surrounded them now.

“Is that so?”

“Mhm…”

“How long do you plan to stay?” he suddenly asked.

They stopped in front of a large rose bush and she let go of his hand so that she could touch them, smell them, feel their velvety petals.

“Not very long,” she said. “I wouldn’t like to impose.”

“It’s no imposition,” said Ominis, stepping closer. “On the contrary… I want you here.”

“Really?” she asked innocently, turning toward him. “What for?”

“For company?” he offered. “For companionship? For…”

“You miss Hogwarts, don’t you?” she grinned.

“I miss you.”

She said nothing, and for a moment the breath froze in his lungs. He had said too much… But then, her fingers curled around his own again and she held his cold hand in hers.

“I’ve missed you too,” she said closely. The intimacy of it made him flush.

“I… I’m glad to hear that,” he grinned.

“Are you?”

Holding her hand, he stepped closer. “Stay longer,” said Ominis. He could feel her breath fan on his neck. “Stay the whole summer, and even longer than that.”

“Why?” she asked quietly.

“I never want to miss you again.”

“Ominis…”

“I know it’s a bit unexpected coming from me. I was always a bit of a cold fish, wasn’t I?”

“No…”

“Not hot-blooded like Sebastian, right?”

“No, that’s not —”

“I’m all alone in this house,” he said. “But I don’t regret that my family disappeared. I don’t expect they’ll appear again, and if they do you won’t have to worry about a thing.”

“I know,” she said. “I trust you.”

“But I don’t want to live here alone. If I want to spend my days with anyone, it’s with you.”

“I… I don’t know…”

“You don’t have to say anything now. I just told you so that you know where I stand.”

She said nothing. Although he couldn’t see her face, he could feel her hand getting damp in his grasp, could feel the hints of nervous trembling and excitement. It said more than her face or her words ever could.

“And if you change your mind at any point… If Sebastian ever writes back,” he said with a light smirk, “then you are free to leave. And, of course, to return.”

He knew what she was thinking. Sebastian would only get in touch with her when he wanted something — that’s what he always did. And by leaving the door open for her to return, Ominis already placed into her mind the inevitability that, should Sebastian show interest in her again, it would not be long-lived…

His fingers squeezed her hand.

“Let’s go have lunch,” he smiled, pulling her with him toward the veranda.

She followed with a light step and a tight, warm grip.

[sebastianswallows]

A new family — Chapter 4

— PAIRING: dark!Ominis Gaunt x F!MC

— SYNOPSIS: Ominis gets tired of his family and how miserable life is with them after he graduates. So he follows Sebastian's example for once, and kills them in cold blood. Now that he has the mansion to himself, he discovers he would still like to have a family, but one of his own making.

— WARNINGS: a lot of angst and just lonely and pining and heartbroken Ominis but not for long

— WORDCOUNT: 1.8k

— TAGLIST: @littletealight @skarathewitch @myrachondria @mrimperio @ssnapsaurus @tarotwitchy-main @hufflepuff-16

“Have you read this one yet?”

“Not yet. You said it’s good?”

“I think so, but I don’t know how it compares to Hereward.”

“He was a middling potioneer at best. He is more famous for his father than his own work. What do you want to have for dinner?”

“Anything is fine.”

Her hand slid on top of his as they lay together on her bed, books spread out between them, their hair tousled on the pillows. Outside, it was still raining. The sun had nearly set, the sky was covered in clouds, and they hadn’t yet lit a lamp. For Ominis, it didn’t make a difference.

He flipped through one of the books without even paying attention to what he picked up, and sightlessly read aloud to her the passages that made him chuckle. The older the book, generally speaking, the more strange and dangerous its instructions were.

“Yes, just cut that claw off at the root from a sleeping dragon, I’m certain nothing bad could happen. To think they gave this instruction to third years in the 1640s…”

“Do they list any evasive manoeuvres?” she asked with a grin.

“I don’t think so, although I can feel something is scribbled on the side… Perhaps a cautionary ‘do not attempt alone’.”

What a strange experience, to be read to in the dark… It was comforting and intimate in a way she’d never experienced before. It made her think of all those school nights when Ominis would be studying on his own, and she’d be off on some quest or scouring through a goblin camp or doing away with Ashwinders using the curses Sebastian taught her. It seemed now like so much time lost… If she had spent more time with him instead, would it have been a comfort to him? Would things had ended up differently?

As Ominis kept reading, she rolled to her side and rested her head against his arm. He paused, but only for a moment, and then went on.

They decided, almost wordlessly, to do together the things they hadn’t done before. After a few more days of rain, they went to the forest looking for mushrooms, something Ominis could not safely do until then. They went on shopping trips to Diagon and Knockturn Alley and spent the whole day there — after a brief stop to Gringotts for him to relieve his family vault of a few more Galleons — and treated themselves to new robes and tailored clothes, and ingredients so they could try out some of the more dangerous potions they could never do at Hogwarts.

At the end of this escapade, she went to her home and packed up a few more things to take back to the mansion. Ominis waited for her with an undying smug smile — in the end, she would still be with him come winter.

“Have you considered staying, perhaps, even longer?” he asked with a casual air as they had tea at a little table next door to Scribbulus.

“You mean over Christmas and New Year’s?”

“Yes,” said Ominis at length, “and maybe longer than that?”

“Your generosity knows no bounds,” she grinned. “Why do you ask?”

“Just tell me. Yes or no?”

He kept a smile on his face, but his brow was tense. Whatever confidence he’d had was clearly dwindling at her refusal to give him a straight answer.

“What are you really asking me, Ominis?” she said with a quiet lean forward and a teasing tone.

“Only what I said…”

She didn’t believe him, but couldn’t stop her grin.

In the end, she agreed to stay with him until January.

“After that, I really must go. I’ve put off looking for employment long enough.”

“There’s nothing to say you can’t remain with me and work.”

“Ominis…”

“And if you mention taking advantage of my so-called generosity one more time, I shall lock you in.”

“Ominis!” she laughed, but a part of her felt he was serious.

“I meant it,” he said more quietly. “I need you. I… I need you, to be happy.”

Her laughter died and she was left gazing at him softly, in silence. She wasn’t used to such openness from him… He was always the quiet one, closed off and elusive, a mystery in many ways, just like his family. And it was in part because of his family that she never considered Ominis as… more. More than a friend. The Gaunts would never have approved of her, and so every early flash of infatuation died until it ceased to flare at all. Of course, she had never imagined the drastic measured he would take to free himself from them… She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t impressed. Between him and Sebastian, perhaps she had an unhealthy interest in homicidal boys.

Slowly, she reached across the table and covered his hand as it still held onto a teacup — an innocent and innocuous one, this time — and searched inside herself.

“It’s a difficult thing to imagine,” she said, “to be the one that makes you happy…”

“I don’t mean it as an imposition,” he said hastily, “not like some… some duty.”

“Still, it’s not what… what I…”

“Not what you had planned for your life?” he asked coolly, leaning back. He slid his hand from underneath hers and picked the cup with the other one for a sip.

“I don’t mean it like that, but… I suppose I don’t know yet what I want from life.”

“But enough to know it isn’t me, isn’t that so?”

“No,” she said with a faint laugh, “not even that much.”

Ominis nodded, but he seemed somewhat at peace, that or the fight had gone out of him at her utter lack of enthusiasm for his roundabout courtship. Still, it hadn’t been an outright rejection, at least not yet…

But it made the rest of their time together a bit more strained. She could feel his attention cast down on her whenever they were together — and perhaps it had always been so, but she only just now noticed — and their silences together grew more sad, more lonely, more discouraged.

Strangely, Ominis became a bit more daring too, as if he had nothing left to lose.

He showed her the mansion’s dungeons, finally, after months of her being there. She’d never asked to see it, but she had learned that it was held under lock and key. The only thing Ominis had told her about it was that it existed. It was a grey and arched expanse with cells on either side, and instruments the sort of which she’d only seen in the DADA class at Hogwarts — iron maidens, racks, heretic forks, and rows and rows of shackles along one of its walls.

“Don’t worry,” said Ominis, “it hasn’t been used in generations. I think. It should be adequately sterile by now.”

It did little to assuage her apprehensions, as the instruments and parts of the floor were still splattered with stains.

“Who were they used on?”

“I never asked.”

Ominis was more daring in asking for what he really wanted, too. Long picnics at the edge of the forest, dragging on until the owls and bats flew overhead and the wolves began to howl. Reading sessions of curse books in her bedroom until midnight with the lamps turned dim. They purchased a gramophone together, a muggle device his parents never would have abided, and played the latest symphonies out of its large flower-shaped cone.

And, lastly, he told her exactly what how he killed his family, and what he did with them… She was only partially surprised, but mostly secretly in awe at his daring and creativity.

He was expecting her to leave almost any day, and took advantage of the time she gave him. She gladly let him do it. And, from sheer cowardice, never addressed his fears — never told him that she felt things she hadn’t felt in years, and simply didn’t know what to do with them, especially in his presence, now, when she was really beginning to know him. Instead of seeing the polite Ominis, the aristocrat, the reluctant heir, the burgeoning dark wizard, she delved into his wants, his needs, his fears, and had found in him very much a kindred spirit.

She did, however, plan to leave — more for his sake than her own. Ominis needed someone who could dedicate their life to him, their freedom, and put aside their sense of self. He also needed a gentle soul who could be a good influence to him. And she was the furthest thing from that…

As the holidays approached, along with her implied departure, they gradually grew more distant. Even when they had dinner, even when they went on walks, or when they danced together by the fireplace to the wailing gramophone, there were silences between them that otherwise would not have been.

She resolved to buy him something, like a consolation gift — something as much for Christmas as for a ‘good-bye’ — and slipped out of the house one day in mid December via floo. There was nothing that someone could give to a boy who had everything — all the luxury, the books, the clothes, and all those fragrant roses that were now buried in snow — but she felt that he uniquely missed a sense of normalcy. He’d probably never celebrated a proper Christmas with his family, only the ones at Hogwarts, and that time must’ve been bitter for him. Seeing so many other classmates going happily back home, coming back with charming little presents and fond stories… She wondered if being around Anne and Sebastian was easier, as they didn’t have much of a home to go back to either.

It was, of course, pointless to speculate, especially when she had a mission: find him a worthy present.

Three hours later, she returned with a prettily wrapped package in brilliant green. The sun was just setting and coloured the sky pink, colouring the drawing room through the wide glass panes. Aside from the flash she made as she arrived, the house was eerily silent. She was pleased with this, of course, as it kept her journey secret. Ominis must have still been in the library where she left him, that or he’d gone looking for her… She meant to hide the package before she returned to him, slip it on some high shelf or some place out of reach, where even his wand wouldn’t detect it, but then she heard footsteps coming from the foyer… She only had enough time to tuck it behind her back.

But the steps were heavy, angry-sounding, and made by large boots. A visitor, at that hour? And uninvited too… She frowned and undid her cloak to lay it on an armchair, ready to confront whoever it was, when the stranger opened the door to the drawing room and walked in.

He stopped in his tracks for a moment, looking just as surprised to see her as she was to see him. She recognised him from the pictures that still littered the mansion: Marvolo Gaunt.

[sebastianswallows]

A new family — Chapter 3

— PAIRING: dark!Ominis Gaunt x F!MC

— SYNOPSIS: Ominis gets tired of his family and how miserable life is with them after he graduates. So he follows Sebastian's example for once, and kills them in cold blood. Now that he has the mansion to himself, he discovers he would still like to have a family, but one of his own making.

— WARNINGS: a bit of fluff, a bit of angst

— WORDCOUNT: 2.2k

— TAGLIST: @littletealight @skarathewitch @myrachondria @mrimperio @ssnapsaurus @tarotwitchy-main

After only a few days, it was easy to make her forget all about wanting to leave. The sun woke her up with its warm rays, and they had breakfast together in the rose garden, and food apparated before them — all of it cooked to perfection by the house elves — and then they spent hours and hours all day, in rebellious freedom, like it was the best weekend at Hogwarts… Even Ominis could tell she hadn’t been happier in years.

She delighted in the library as well, the second largest room in the mansion after the dungeon, and spent every evening there for the first five days.

“You never told me your family had a first edition copy of Magick Moste Evile!”

“We also have a copy of a manuscript on poisons by Hereward, the author’s son. I’m sure it’s somewhere around here...”

“How did your family acquire all of this, Ominis?”

“You don’t want to know,” he grinned.

“Well, now that you mention it…”

“To be fair, most of it is inherited from past generations of Gaunts. Our family went through a period of obsessive academic interests.”

“Now that you’re in charge, those days might come again,” she said with a cheeky smile.

“Who’s to say I’m in charge?”

“You can be subtle about it all you want,” she said as she turned a page, causing the book to moan and shiver. “But it’s clear something nefarious happened to your parents. Your sister and brother too…”

“My brother, in fact, is still in London.”

“Plan to take care of that, do you?”

Ominis bit his lip and said nothing, but kept walking along the shelves while his guest sat reading at the large oak wood desk in the far back of the room. He couldn’t guess whether she approved of his actions, and perhaps it helped her conscience not to even know what they were. He comforted himself with the thought that she seemed to have approved of what Sebastian did well enough — so she could very well show him the same courtesy.

“I’m curious,” he said, trying his luck, “what do you think happened to my family?”

He heard her turn another page, browsing through the curses.

“With such a library at your disposal, anything could have happened to them,” she said with a smile.

Ominis stopped, his back to her, and brushed some dust off the thick spine of a herbology almanac from 1664. She sounded… indifferent, even tacitly approving.

“I should have expected you to be tranquil about such topics,” he grinned. “They never bothered you before…”

“If you mean Sebastian —”

“Now why would you bring that up?”

“That is what happened, isn’t it?” she said, sounding a bit triumphant. She slammed the book shut, and it screamed. “Ominis!”

“What?” he said, turning around, his face serene. She definitely sounded excited, although whether it was in anger or joy, he couldn’t tell. He faced her impassively, although in his chest his heart was pounding.

“Are you responsible?”

His jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed. With his hands clasped together behind his back, wand held loosely in his right one, he felt his back straighten.

“What if I were?” he asked. “Would you mind?”

“N-no,” she said at length, her voice softening after the initial outburst. “I… I would understand.”

“Would you?”

He heard her leave the desk, stepping around the heavy old chair and cautiously approach him. Her little heels rang loudly in the library. He was surprised to feel her gentle grip on his elbow, but he stayed still.

“You never knew how much I wished I could help you whenever you were away for the summer… Steal you away, protect you.”

A muscle twitched in his eye at that. “I didn’t need protecting.”

“I know,” she said, smiling. “Your problem required more drastic solutions, correct?”

Ominis tried not to smile. Whatever his fears were, her reaction did not substantiate them, and gradually he felt his heart settle, his blood cool, and his arm loosened in hers. She pulled it closer to hold his hand.

“Still,” said Ominis, “I appreciate the sentiment…”

“I won’t ask you what happened,” she said. “You will tell me if you wish to, and if that happens to be never, then —”

“It won’t be never. It might just take… some time.”

“Whatever happened, though — whatever happened — know that I will never judge you.”

“Oh,” he chuckled, “so you won’t hold me to a higher standard than Sebastian, then? That’s a relief.”

“It doesn’t suit you to be jealous.”

“Who says I’m jealous?”

He didn’t hear a thing, but he could feel the incredulous squinting of her eyes.

“Alright,” she said. “Come on, let’s have dinner.”

She squeezed his fingers once before letting go and stepping back toward the desk.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I mean to take it upstairs with me — that is, if you don’t mind. I promise I won’t misplace it.”

“You’re using Magick Moste Evile as a bedtime read?”

“Yes, I am. And you should, too,” she smiled. “Never know when you need it.”

The air between them changed following that conversation. After nearly a week spent wondering how she felt about him, how she’d really feel if she knew what he had done, for Ominis, it was like letting out a breath that he had held all that time.

He smiled more, laughed more, spent more time alone leaving her to wander freely through the grounds, but also spent more time with her. They began a habit of reading together in the greenhouse, more of a conservatory where all manner of plants were arranged with no particular thought or care. They retreated there after lunch with a cup of tea — green for her, white for him — and that’s where they did most of their reading. She recommended him books on dark magic as she finished them, or named favourites she knew from Hogwarts when she spotted them in his library, and pointed out what she knew he might like.

They frequently stopped to discuss things, arguing between good and evil, between fairness and pragmatism, between glory and destiny, reaching no particular conclusions — but then, that wasn’t the point. Slowly, Ominis could feel himself catching up to how he might have been were it not for his family, and the distaste for the dark arts that grew in him because of them. He went through this rediscovery of himself slowly, anxiously, but guided by her hand.

One evening, in the mid of August roughly one month after he had killed his parents, a late summer storm washed over them. She could see the dark clouds nearing after lunch, and in less than one hour they were upon them. It was quite an experience to sit in the conservatory when the rain began to splash on the glass, to hear the whipping of the wind, and feel in the frail encasing the pressure of the air outside. Within their little enclosure, still warm and fragrant with tea, they felt like they were in another world.

“Oh I wish you could see how the water pours down the roof,” she told him as she held his hand. “It looks like a little waterfall.”

“I’m sure it’s lovely,” he chuckled. “I think I can hear it. It’s like a leaky faucet.”

“And the sky outside is dark, almost like it’s nighttime.”

“Yes, I can feel how much colder it is.”

“Do you want to go back inside?”

“We are inside,” he smiled. “But yes, we can sit in the drawing room instead. I’ll light a fire.”

They picked up their books and went to sit out the storm in the parlour. Ominis lit a fire, as he promised, with a carefully aimed spell, while she unpacked a box of biscuits the elves had bought the week before.

“I want more tea,” she said. “Do you?”

“Certainly,” said Ominis, still tending to the fire.

He heard her going out toward the kitchen, then coming back with the little clinking of porcelain on a tray and set it on the table in front of the fireplace.

“You have lovely tea sets,” she said pensively, “albeit some are a bit macabre.”

“How so?” he chuckled. “Do you mean the designs?”

“Yes,” she said from further back in the room. “Black pansies and bone piles, and oh my, this one has skulls,” she laughed. “And this is an interesting kettle. The cups fit along its side like mushrooms growing from a tree… Wonderful craftsmanship.”

Ominis frowned — he didn’t recall them having a tea set with skulls on it… The blood froze in his veins when he realised what it was.

“Well, you don’t want to use any of those,” he said as he quickly got up and walked toward her. “Let’s use the cups from earlier.”

“But I had green tea in mine, and now I want some oolong. The flavours wouldn’t mix.”

“Yes, but —”

“Oh, please, Ominis,” she said, and he could hear her pouting so sweetly, “I want to try them. I’ve never seen such fancy cups before.”

He frowned and clenched his jaw, but smiled. “Alright. Anything for you.”

“I won’t break them, I promise,” she grinned.

“Just don’t pick the —” He stopped when he heard that distinctive bony clank.

“The what?”

“Nothing.”

The storm still raged outside and thunder trembled through the walls. Ominis checked the kettle, then felt around the tray until he found one of the cups. With trembling hands, held the teapot and poured. The liquid hissed in its distinctive way until it nearly reached the rim, and then he filled the other.

“Milk? Honey?” she offered.

“None for me, thank you.”

“Well, I’ll have both.”

“Not sure there’s enough honey to sweeten up that cup,” he mumbled under his breath.

“What?” she laughed. “What was that?”

The fireplace hissed and flapped when a draft from down the chimney hit its fire. Another bout of thunder rolled its way across the distance and sounded through the room. Between the silence, the rain beat against the window in incessant little drops.

“I just… I really don’t like this set,” he finally said.

He made no effort to disguise how he was feeling this time. There was a frown between his brows that he couldn’t wipe away, and his lips were set in a firm line that refused to let him speak. His hands were braced on the edge of the table as if he might fall if he let go.

“Ominis,” she said after a few moments, “do you want me to drink from this?”

“I might,” he said with a sardonic smile. “I partially do.”

“Why?”

“Curiosity. Indifference. A touch of sadism.”

“And what about the other part?”

“The other part,” he sighed, “is sick.”

She got up — he hadn’t even noticed when she sat — and was right by his side, her warm hands uncoiling his from around the wood.

“It sounds to me as if both are sick,” she quietly said.

Ominis allowed his flesh to melt in her grasp, his bones losing their firmness and his blood its vigour. When she moved him to sit down, he followed without resistance.

“I just don’t know how to feel,” he said weakly, “about anything anymore.”

“Well, let’s start from somewhere… For instance, how do you feel about yourself?” she asked as she kneeled beside his chair, her hands still on his.

“Shame,” said Ominis. “I don’t even know why I just said that… But, shame, and humiliation.”

“Why?”

“Because I still don’t know how I should be. What I should like, what I should think, how I should react to things, and how I should behave. All parts of me were formed by evasion and as… as a reaction to something else, rather than coming from me. And…”

“Yes?”

“And I fear I’ve pushed myself down so low that I can not dig myself up again. An early grave,” he chuckled.

“Don’t be like that, Ominis,” she said, holding him more firmly. “You’re still here, and they’re the ones who are gone.”

“That hardly gives me much satisfaction.”

“And what would?”

“I don’t know. Burying them, I suppose, one way or another. Or… getting rid of them some other way.”

“How?”

“I haven’t decided,” he said, unthinkingly turning his head toward the teacups steaming with tea.

“And… how do you feel about me?” she asked.

“You?” he said, turning toward her again. “I feel like… like I’ve lost you before I had a chance. And other times, I feel like I never had a chance to start with. So, I suppose I feel hopeless.”

“Well, luckily for you, all of those are wrong,” she said with a smile.

It was Ominis’ turn to hang on to her. His fingers curled around her hands and gripped onto her wrists like shackles.

“Do you mean that?” he asked.

“I do.”

“So you don’t want to see Sebastian again?”

“I — well…”

“You know what I mean.”

“Ominis, I don’t need Sebastian to be happy,” she said archly. “Not any more than he needs me.”

The hint of resentment in her voice did not go unnoticed, but he chose not to address it, at least for now.

“What do you need to be happy?”

“Nothing.”

“Oh,” he said. “Well, that’s a shame.”

“And why?”

“Because I happen to need you.”

[sebastianswallows]

A new family — Chapter 9

— PAIRING: dark!Ominis Gaunt x F!MC

— SYNOPSIS: Ominis gets tired of his family and how miserable life is with them after he graduates. So he follows Sebastian's example for once, and kills them in cold blood. Now that he has the mansion to himself, he discovers he would still like to have a family, but one of his own making.

— WARNINGS: smut, fluff, cuddling, fingering, breeding kink, size kink, creampie, multiple orgasms, overstimulation, sweet/dirty talk, and of course Parseltongue 🐍

— WORDCOUNT: 3k

— TAGLIST: @littletealight @skarathewitch @myrachondria @mrimperio @ssnapsaurus @tarotwitchy-main @hufflepuff-16 @shameless0shenanigans @imaslytherpuff @adoxra

Her fingers curled around his, with Ominis holding them beside her head while he laid kisses all over her neck. He licked the sweat that pooled there and smiled when he felt her purr. His hot breath, coming fast but still so soft, sent shivers down her body, her every muscle, and the tension settled right at her aching womanhood.

“O-ominis,” she moaned, sinking her nails into his knuckles — not enough to hurt, but just enough that he would feel it.

“My love,” he whispered back, trailing kisses down the centre of her neck, “my little wife, my own, my only, mine…”

She felt it when he braced his elbows on the bed, still holding her hands beside her, still pressing her down with his whole body and her legs spread around his waist, and then she felt something poking at her core.

“Aaahh…” she gasped, “t-that’s…”

“Shhh… easily, my darling, lightly…”

Her eyes were wide, staring through the dark, looking at where he would be. He was so hard and dripping wet against her, his tip feeling feverish compared to the rest of his skin and still only parly peeking out of its soft covering. Ominis pressed his lips against her jaw and slowly, carefully, pulled upward, dragging his chest against her straining nipples, his thighs against her bottom, and tried to press inside of her. His manhood slid against her wetness and the head bumped into her mound before he canted his hips back and settled it back at her entrance. Her folds surrounded it, hugging it, pulsing around him in a kiss.

Ominis slowly pulled back before thrusting forward again, driving his straining manhood right toward her hole. She whined and shivered, and nearly closed her legs in surprise at the feeling, but he was there holding her apart with his thighs.

“Won’t go,” he muttered, but then he soothed his own frustrations with a sigh. “We’ll have to see to that then, won’t we?”

Before she could ask what he meant, his fingers touched her core again. She arched up involuntarily as he began to tease her, playing loudly in her wetness and dragging it up to her nub. His other hand went up to hold her head, gentling her frowns with his thumb.

After flicking her bud quite mercilessly, he dipped his hand a little lower and felt for her hole, then entered it — just with one finger, just trying her. Her lips parted in a gasp that Ominis quickly silenced with a kiss. When he got to the first knuckle, he pulled back, then thrust inside a bit deeper, then deeper still, until it was halfway inside.

“So tight, my little love is,” he whispered against her lips. “Are you scared?”

“N-no…”

“Good,” he smiled, kissing her lips again. “I wish only to take care of you, please you, pleasure you, my heart...”

When his finger was nearly all the way to the root, his thumb began to rub her nub. She mewled at the sensation and reached up to kiss him, burying her pleas into his mouth. Ominis took them gladly, chuckling against her lips while he kept toying with her.

With his hand still there, he thrust his hips forward and tried to enter her again, testing how open she was — but still no luck. His middle finger eased out, then back in, fighting through the clenching of her inner muscles.

“Relax, my love,” he whispered between kisses, “I need to part you…”

“I… I’m trying…”

“Is it not good?”

“It is,” she whimpered, “it is, it’s so…”

“Good,” he smiled, kissing her breathless again.

A second finger slid into her hole, and his hand found a rhythm, pushing in and out while rubbing her button raw, spreading her own juices around her throbbing folds, and all the while his manhood was right there, threatening to enter her.

Kissing down her chin and past the necklace, Ominis settled on her breasts. His hand left her head to cup them, pressing them together carefully so that he could suckle on them both at once. She yelped and writhed, giggling insanely at the pleasure he brought her from every direction, but he just kept diligently working on her. Every act was deliberate and measured, as if he’d thought it through a thousand times. The fingers moved faster, deeper, stretching her out, and her nub began to twitch from overstimulation.

“Om-minis,” she sighed, shivering from head to toe, “I… I can’t…”

“You can,” said Ominis, voice muffled by her breasts, “you will. I’ll make you…”

“Can’t… can’t…” she pleaded, head lazing back, chest heaving, fingers curling in the sheets.

But her legs spread of their own accord and she began to tilt her hips toward his fingers, and a lick of fire started spreading from her core down to her thighs and up her tummy. He felt it, and nibbled on her breasts a little harder while his fingers curled deliciously inside her.

“Ominis!” she moaned, and every sound after that was a wordless cry of pleasure as orgasm overtook her.

He kept suckling on her breasts and fingering her, thrusting in and out with the fingers curled just right, and once she began to clench around him, he shoved them deep. He held there, as far inside as he could reach, feeling her convulse around him on and on, until it stopped. The thumb kept flicking her bud, nail scraping against it lightly until she stopped shivering.

When he pulled away from her, a trail of slick followed like a delicate string, stretching out until it snapped and stuck to her inner thigh. His tongue lapped at her breasts more slowly, lips following their every rise and fall, until her breathing settled. Between her legs, his thumb rested on her pearl until it too calmed down and ceased its twitching.

“O-Omi—” she breathed, not able to finish his name before he began to shove himself inside of her.

“There you are,” he whispered breathlessly, “there’s my love… Stay still…”

With his still wet hand, he grabbed onto one hip to hold her down as the head of his manhood pushed into her. The tip popped in first, stretching her far wider than his fingers had, and then the shaft slid in more smoothly. She winced and grit her teeth, feeling far too sensitive after her orgasm, but soon the same familiar pleasure started spreading up and down her body again.

“Aaaah… d-deeper,” she whimpered, arching in the dark, searching for Ominis.

“Gently, my love,” he whispered from above her. “I don’t want to hurt you… You’ll tell me if I hurt you, right?”

She nodded distractedly, forgetting that he couldn’t see, but Ominis must’ve felt the motion and chuckled.

“I meant it,” he said, speaking seriously but fondly as his thumb brushed over her hipbone.

“I know…”

He was barely half-way in when he paused, and his whole body stopped. Ominis held himself up on one arm, breathing quietly, listening to her. The pearls and emeralds at her neck chimed with her every inhale. When he felt her ready, he began to thrust again, hips snapping ever so slightly forward, deeper, always deeper, until she hugged his shaft to the root.

They moaned in unison, holding onto each other so tightly they hardly knew anymore where one ended and the other began. She found his hips and embraced him, pulling him ever so slightly closer. Moving carefully, Ominis bent over her and kissed her lips again, far more slowly and desirously than he had that entire night. He laid over her with almost all his weight, holding her down.

His hand on her hip felt hot and sticky. For a moment, she imagined that was blood on his hands, her darling murderous husband. Closing her eyes, she pictured herself painted with it, and she’d never loved him more. Her adoring, tender, dangerous husband…

“I love you,” she whispered against his mouth, “more than anything…”

“And I love you,” Ominis said without pause, leaping down to kiss her again, more aggressively and lovingly this time.

His hips pulled back, dragging his heavy member out of the hug of her womanhood, then snapped back hard, pushing her a little up the bed. She could hardly move without him following, their legs curled around each other’s and their chests sticking together with sweat. His kiss swallowed a surprised little yelp from her.

Every motion touched something in her body that made her want to jump out of her skin, and it took everything she had to not close her legs to him — not that it would have mattered, because he wasn’t going anywhere. He was inside her, plugging her up, forcing her open, bullying her hole past its overstimulation into accepting what he gave it.

“Stay as you are,” Ominis breathed, chuckling tiredly against her sweaty neck. “How am I to give you what you need if you close yourself to me?”

“I… s-sorry…”

“Shhh, no need for that,” he said sweetly. “Here, let me help…”

With one long, slow thrust, Ominis brought his lips up to her forehead and his hands around her neck and his hips right against hers, and stayed there. He kissed her temple while cupping her throat, just feeling her frantic pulse and breathing, but caressing her with his thumb in one sweet promise that he’ll hold her down more firmly should she try to move again. His thighs were flush against her behind, and his sac was getting soiled with her juices. She whined and arched, body protesting against being so full, but Ominis held, and held, and held there. He was keeping his promise to her, mating with her like a snake.

“There you are,” he whispered against her hairline. “That’s my good little wife… Keep it right there…”

“Too big,” she whined, bucking her hips nervously. It only managed to tease her more.

“Relax,” he whispered, “stop fighting it…”

“Yes,” she sobbed, nodding her head against his shoulder, “I’m trying…”

Ominis cooed at her and slid a hand lower again, palm tracing a heavy path down her sensitive breasts, her waist, her hip, before it pushed its way between their bodies. Suddenly, he began to flick her clit again, playing with it roughly while his shaft lay inside her to the hilt. She tensed up and cried, a small tear of wetness tickling down her folds as her body reached a point of almost unbearable overstimulation again.

“Kiss me again,” she begged, her voice breaking with half-moans. “Kiss me, I need it, I —”

He chuckled and slid down her body, his lips landing on her cheek, her nose, and then her mouth. He sipped on her pleasured murmurs and began to move his finger around her nub at the same leisurely pace as his kiss. When he released her lips, it was only to move even lower and kiss her breasts. She wailed loudly when he pulled one puckered bud into his mouth and suckled while he caught her clit between two fingers and pinched it, catching it again and again when it slipped from how wet it was.

“Please,” she cried, “please, please, Omi —”

Her begging did something to him. Ominis moaned deep in his throat and she could feel his manhood kick while still inside her. He finally pulled back, then slammed up into her again, working up a frantic pace that would have moved her up the bed if not for his hand holding her down by the throat.

She filled the room with moans and clung to him as he brought her to another shaky, ravaged orgasm. His hand stilled, but his shaft worked her through it, keeping her pulsing channel stretched and struggling to contain him. She was still twitching from her released when he began to messily rub her nub once more.

“No,” she groaned between hysterical bouts of laughter at how sensitised she was, “can’t… Too much…”

“That’s what you said last time,” he said, smirking with her breast still between his lips. “You can take it…”

“I caaan’t…”

“Don’t you want to be a good wife for me?” he whispered, moving to the other breast and sucking noisily at it. “Can’t make a family if you’re not good…”

“Y-you want that? With me?”

“Don’t you?”

She’d always known Ominis to hate his family, and he’d expressed in not so many words the intention to have them die out, at least so far as he could help it. She didn’t dare to hope that him getting rid of the rest of the Gaunts would have changed his plans in that regard, but hearing him say it made her heart rush.

“I… I do,” she said once she caught her breath. The necklace rattled against her collar when she tilted her head slightly, looking down toward him in the dark, though she could hardly see him. “I want it v-very much, in fact…”

Her admission seemed to breathe new life into Ominis. He grinned, and the breath of his laughter cooled her skin before he dipped again and kissed her, moving from one breast to the other quickly, then right at the centre where her heart was beating.

His hand at her neck worked its way upward, tangling in her hair, while at her womanhood his fingers played in her wetness. He scooped up a bit of her release and dragged it to her mound, making a mess of her, teasing her with how much she’d already spilt for him. Very slowly, mindful of how sensitive she was, his hips began to cant up into her again.

But he was more gentle this time, taking up the slow pace of earlier. She could tell from his quick puffs of breath that he was holding back.

“Ominis,” she moaned, threading her shaky fingers though his hair, “please, finish inside me…”

He responded with a groan and one harder, sharper thrust. “I will,” he promised. “I’ll fill you up so much your body won’t have a choice but to let itself be bred…”

“Yes, yes, please, I need it!”

“So good for me,” he whined. “You’re all soft now… So plush, so wet…”

He stretched his legs and braced himself against the bed to push more deeply into her, hands going up to hold her wrists down on the bed, rendering her flat beneath him. He was conquering her inside and out, holding her down with his weight and moving just his hips in sharp, deep shoves. Her folds throbbed, lavishing his sac with kisses whenever it slapped against them.

He felt her clenching around him and hissed, whispering nonsense against her dampened flesh in Parseltongue. She stilled at hearing it, frightened for a split second at that forbidden language that slid down her ears like ice, but rather than making her afraid, it aroused her even more. Her hands slid from his grasp down to his back and she clung to him, whimpering in surrender.

With one hard thrust inside her, Ominis abandoned her breasts and his lips found her throat again, tongue slipping against it between serpentine words as his hips thrust harder and harder, battering her walls, and then he stilled.

“Aaaah!” he cried, burrowing his face in her soft hair. “That’s it… there it is, take it…”

The moan he gave felt almost fragile, like he fell apart when he came inside of her. His hand went down again and worked her nub with frantic urgency. When she felt his thick, hot seed spill into her, warming her up from the inside, she shattered and clenched around him, crying out fragments of his name. Her thighs tightened on his hips, her entrance clenched around his manhood, and she felt him holding still as deep inside as he could reach while he released every drop he had from his throbbing, heavy sac.

“I love you,” he whispered. “I love you so much…”

Her hands shook as they clung to him, trying to bring him even more close to her. His cheek was pressed against the necklace so hard it must’ve hurt, but he didn’t care. His manhood kicked inside the tight hug of her walls with each pulse of seed that spilt from it, until gradually, it stopped.

She sighed and kissed his temple as she came down from her orgasm, nuzzling her face into his hair.

“I love you too,” she said, “more than you can know…”

“I’m glad,” said Ominis with a breathless laugh. “There was a time I was afraid you never would…”

She cupped his cheek and pulled his face away from her neck, easing him toward her so that she could catch his lips with hers.

“Well, I do,” she murmured with a smile against his mouth. “And I always will.”

They clung to each other as they caught their breath. His length was still inside, still plugging her up, and her legs were sapless as they rested wrapped around him. When they started feeling heavy and lazy, they slid over to their side, snuggling together in a wet and messy tangle.

Her leg was resting over his hip now, and his length slid out of her. With it, a few dollops of the seed he’d left inside trickled out. It felt like a tongue licking a path out from inside of her. She trembled and moaned at the feeling, and Ominis couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Are you all calm now, my sweet?” he whispered as he caressed her cheekbone. “Sated, are you?”

“Very,” she hummed. “For now…”

“For now, huh?”

“At least until I hear you speaking Parseltongue again…”

“Oh, d-did I… during…?”

“You did,” she moaned, stretching forward to give him a quick peck on the lips. “And you will again if you wish to keep your wife happy.”

Ominis chuckled, and she could’ve sworn he blushed. “Anything your heart desires…”

Slow and lazy, she slid closer and wrapped an arm around his waist. “It desires you,” she said, resting her forehead against his.

“Good,” he smiled. “You have me. And you shall have more and more of me from now on…”

She giggled, feeling madly infatuated with him all over again, and reached forward to plant another kiss on his lips. She breathed in the scent of his body, basking in his warmth, just as he did too. Coiled around each other, safe and sated and finally happy, they fell asleep in each other’s arms.

[sebastianswallows]

A new family — Chapter 8

— PAIRING: dark!Ominis Gaunt x F!MC

— SYNOPSIS: Ominis gets tired of his family and how miserable life is with them after he graduates. So he follows Sebastian's example for once, and kills them in cold blood. Now that he has the mansion to himself, he discovers he would still like to have a family, but one of his own making.

— WARNINGS: smut, a bit of body worship, a lot of teasing, and Omi being good with his mouth 🐍

— WORDCOUNT: 2.6k

— TAGLIST: @littletealight @skarathewitch @myrachondria @mrimperio @ssnapsaurus @tarotwitchy-main @hufflepuff-16 @shameless0shenanigans @imaslytherpuff @adoxra

It wasn’t her first time seeing Ominis’ room, and it was also her first time not seeing it. They were in the dark, the moon merely winking through the curtains. He wanted it that way, and she did too — to know him, understand his world, become closer to him in every way now that they were married.

She’d changed sometime during the day out of the wedding dress she’d slept in to a plain grey dress, and Ominis to a black suit. The brief conversation with the snake on his property lingered in her mind, and she grew more and more anxious as noon grew into evening, but now that they were at the beginning of their first night together, he made her wait. She dared not cast a Lumos, nor keep her wand at hand, while she paced around the bedchamber alone.

She heard the door creak open and turned, and smiled at the sight of her new husband’s silhouette against the hallway before he plunged them into darkness again.

“I’ve found it,” he said cheerfully, trotting toward her in three wide steps.

“Will you tell me what it is now?” she laughed.

“No, I love keeping you in suspense.”

“Tease…”

“That’s right,” he grinned. “Best get used to it, wife.”

He placed something on the vanity behind her, a box by the sound of it, and opened it. His right hand went to her chest, keeping her still, while he unhooked something with the other. She stood and waited, and then Ominis picked it up. A chime sparkled through the air behind her, announcing a broad and jewelled necklace. She felt its weight against her chest when Ominis laid it upon her, and then his arms went around her neck to fasten it.

“What’s this?”

“A gift,” he smiled. “Family heirloom. Silver with emeralds and pearls.”

She brushed her hand against it. Although heavy, it felt so delicate, like woven lace or spider silk. “It’s beautiful…”

“It’s yours,” said Ominis, leaning in to brush his lips against hers. “And you make a fitting mistress.”

He took something else out, some sort of fabric: the gloves. He put them on and caressed the necklace and the dress it lay on.

“Not sure I’ve tasted green before,” he whispered with pleasure. “Quite raw, and fresh on the tongue… But there’s something… feeble about it.”

“The emeralds, they’re translucent,” she said, “like glass.”

“Ah. Not like the pearls, then,” he said, his hand caressing lower. “Sweetened milk and sand… Strange combination. And the silver tastes like a sharp winter breeze, piercing but light. Why do you giggle?”

“I am happy, of course. You’re enjoying my gift…”

“And I plan to enjoy it to the fullest,” he smirked, leaning in for another brief kiss. “Not sure about this dress, though.”

“Oh?”

“Doesn’t go well with the jewels. I’d say they’d look better against your skin. What do you think?”

Ominis must have felt her breathing quicken, might have even heard her heart beat faster, because without another word, he set his wand down on the vanity behind her and began to undo her dress. He started at the neck where it was fastened tightly, pushing aside the decorative lace, and revealed her bit by bit. He pushed aside the collar until he reached her shoulders, then pushed it down more. Her arms were a bit trapped, but she would not have moved anyway while she waited for him.

There was barely a glimmer of moonlight shining on her husband’s face, but she didn’t need it, anyway. She felt what he was doing, felt all of him through his hands that touched her, and his breath that brushed against her, and the warmth of his body. When he finally tugged down enough of her clothes to let the necklace rest against her skin, he brushed his gloved fingers down it, from her neck to the top of her breasts.

“Exquisite,” he breathed. “Just as I knew you would be.”

“Do you mean me, or the jewels?” she chuckled.

“You are the jewel. You are all the jewels in the world and more.”

She put her hand on his above her chest and leaned in to kiss him. Her other hand caught his shoulder and held onto him. He was a voice in the dark, a warm touch in a cold room… Ominis was everything to her.

Piece by piece, he took her clothes off. At the edge of her mind, she knew she should feel embarrassed, but his presence calmed her, his slow and careful touches and the way he handled her. And when he was done, and she could slip her fingers through to him, she helped him out of his clothes too.

He felt the way she always thought he would: hard bones, soft skin, and very, very sensitive… Any touch that fell below the neckline caused him to gasp, to shiver, and even to giggle nervously. When she kneeled to remove his boots, just like he’d done with hers, she took the time to kiss each knee in turn and pet his lean, long thighs.

She left one glove still on though, wanting her husband to be able to both feel and taste her, and he left on the necklace. It rattled against her neck when he laid her on the bed.

He was trembling, and she was too by now, and the noise of their excited breathing filled the air. She felt somewhat relieved at the darkness, because she wasn’t sure she could stand to see him too — pale and unravelled and beautiful, with those plush lips and that soft hair so undone where it was once so proper. She dared only run her fingers along the length of his jaw, to guess where he was, and kiss him, and as she did so, caressed him further down: his long neck, his clavicles, his shoulders, and the softer flesh of his chest.

“You tickle,” he whispered, smiling against her lips.

“Tickle me back, then,” she grinned.

Ominis chuckled softly and stopped to think for a moment, before he brought a hand up to her chin — the gloved one — and with his thumb, he felt her lips. He circled and circled that entrance into her body until they tingled, pausing the breath in her chest. His legs slowly entangled hers, stretching and spreading her on the bed, and then his hand moved lower. He held her by the neck, letting her head hand backwards, and as his hand continued to explore her body, he kissed her throat.

She purred, and the sound of it sank into his lips, turning into something desperate when he cupped her breast. He held its weight, played with it a little, then ran his gloved thumb across her tip. His new wife jumped slightly, giggling in embarrassment at her own reaction, but the weight of his body held her down.

“Good?” asked Ominis smugly. His palm covered her, then closed, slow and teasing, until he caught her nipple between thumb and index finger.

“Intense,” she whispered with a trembling breath. The motion rattled the necklace that pooled at the bottom of her neck.

He laughed against her skin and she felt a hint of his teeth before he started kissing her again.

The other hand joined him, holding her torso like she was a gift he was unwrapping, and then both hands brushed down her sides until he found her hips. His lips soon followed behind, gentle pecks with whispers of ‘I love you’ in between and teasing licks like serpent kisses. He stopped once at her breast to suckle it, warming the puckered tip against his tongue, worrying it until she whined and arched into his mouth. Then, with a smirk, he released it, wet and hardened, to move onto the other and give it the same treatment.

“Ominisss,” she whimpered, fingers curling in his hair. “You tease me…”

He moaned, and chuckled, and released her breast with a parting kiss. “And you haven’t teased me plenty?”

“H-how do you mean?” she grinned.

“You don’t realise what it was like, being with you all the time?”

“You invited me here,” she pointed out — but he continued, undeterred.

“The scent of you has come to fill this house, your favourite places in particular,” he sighed, hands kneading her hips, kisses trailing lower, down to where her heart was and the bottom of her ribs. “Your steps, so light and gentle, greeting me each day when you awoke. Your voice, rough and tired in the morning, sounding as if… as if… as if you’d just spent the whole night making love,” he rasped. “Drove me insane…”

“You never told me…”

“How could I?” he said, lapping all along her lowest ribs with the lightest touch of his tongue. “Let you laugh at how besotted I was? How you had me wrapped around your littlest finger? Or worse, you’d have run off the very next day…”

She did not deny it. Her nails sank into his hair when she thought back to the earlier days of her stay, when she was so unsure of everything, confused by his behaviour, and felt like she never would belong to a house of the Gaunts — even with them disappeared under mysterious circumstances, not that that made matters better. She was glad now to have waited.

“But I fell in love with you,” she said lightly, brushing his ruffled hair away.

Ominis hummed in agreement. “And not a moment too soon.”

His gloved hand stayed on her breast, playing with her nipple, but his lips had reached the soft surface of her stomach and he kissed the whole expanse. She couldn’t help but tense and giggle, tummy dipping at the teasing licks. It was as if he were trying to taste what was beneath, assess her flesh and readiness… The air filled with the noise of kisses and his deep inhales as Ominis breathed her in.

After leaving her waist cold and wet from his adoring mouth, his hands joined once again to hold her hips, and he held her still more firmly than before. She could not tell why until she felt the press of his kiss against her mound.

“Oh,” she gasped to a nervous rattling of pearls, her body almost curling in on itself. “O-omi—”

“Mmmm, sweet,” he whispered, nuzzling her womanhood, “just as I knew you’d be.”

“You’ve thought about this…”

“Many times.”

His left hand cupped her thigh and pushed it gently to the side, and with a gloved finger, he touched her at her core. All her muscles clenched at once, and he licked his lips.

“Shall I describe you to yourself?”

“I don’t think I could take it,” she giggled breathlessly.

A slick sound grew as he played with her, and his lustful groan soon followed. The glove was smooth, but still harsher than his fingers, those smooth aristocratic digits she had long admired — and oh how she longed for them now.

“Ominis,” she whispered, “touch me…”

“I don’t think I dare,” he teased. “Listen, listen to how slick you are…” He let the sound of his finger flicking through her slit fill the air. “I daren’t tarnish your gift, my love.”

“But O—”

“So I will have to make do…”

With the glove now cupping her other thigh, he held her open and dipped his head, and brought his tongue straight to her.

“Ominis!”

He moaned at the first real taste of her body, at the hint of her insides, raw and dripping and unbearably hot. His lips puckered to a kiss while his tongue slid out and tickled at her hole. Greedily, he lapped her up, and his hands worked hard to hold her. She writhed on the bed and her muscles tensed and laxed, but she could not escape Ominis’ lips, his kisses, and the prying of his tongue that sought to get deeper and deeper.

Her hands pressed his head lower on her, holding him there, while her legs spread to make more room for him. She nearly arched off the bed, chasing his tongue, but his hands hardened and he pushed her back down on the bed. The show of strength made her whimper, and Ominis chuckled at it, she could even feel it at her core.

“You like being held down,” he whispered teasingly against her folds. “Are you that kind of girl? Are you naughty in that way?”

His words, the way he said it, even the hot breath of him right there, made her body shiver uncontrollably. What could she even say to that?

But Ominis didn’t wait for a reply. Her breath came out in frantic mewls as he suckled her flushed little bud between his lips and pulled it as deep into his mouth as he could. His tongue slid out every few seconds, in an unpredictable and maddening pattern, to tease her hole and bring more of her wetness to his mouth. Beneath her arms, still stretched across her front to hear and ruffle his soft hair, Ominis’ hands came up, as smooth and subtle as a pair of white snakes, and came to rest upon her breasts. The tips of them barely touched the edge of the necklace.

She cried out when he began to pluck her nipples, arching her back for him. They pebbled under his attention and he pinched them plump and painful almost, while with his licks and kisses he tended to her nub.

“Oh… oh… Ominis,” she sobbed, head tilted back with her eyes closed, too dazed to do anything with her body but lay back and let him take it, do whatever he wanted with it.

“So wet,” he sighed, finally pulling away from her slit. Between her juices and his spit, she dripped all the way between her cheeks. “Aren’t you a naughty young lady, letting yourself get into such a state over your school friend…”

“We’re not in school now,” she giggled dazedly.

“Indeed,” Ominis chuckled, pausing to lap at her once more, licking her from the end of her slit to her pearl in one greedy pass of his tongue, “we’re not. Mmm…”

He purred, twirling his thumbs over her nipples in slow circles as he raised himself just slightly, resting his cheek over her stomach.

“And now that we’re not in school anymore,” he grinned, “what do you wish to do?”

She could hardly see him, couldn’t even guess exactly how his body was positioned aside from what she felt. The wetness of his mouth cooled her skin, and the edges of his messy hair that fell over his eyes tickled her tummy. He brought the gloved hand down and plucked it between his teeth, then slowly pulled it off. It fell somewhere on the bed, and then his hands came back up to her breasts, together, strumming her tips relentlessly.

“I… I… Ah!”

She could hardly speak, distracted by the pleasure and the pain and all the new sensations he was causing her. A fresh dollop of wetness plopped out between her folds, pushed out by the greedy contractions of her channel, begging to have him inside.

“I want you,” she whispered, writhing between his body, in his grasp. “Take me… Make love to me,” she begged. “Make me yours… That’s w-what I want.”

She felt Ominis sigh over her stomach, a sweet and gentle feeling. His hands left her breasts to clasp her thighs again, and with great care, he wrapped her legs more tightly on himself. He curled them around his chest, and between them he lifted himself slightly, dragging his body on top of hers much like a snake crawling through grass.

“Do you want me to hold you down,” he asked hotly, whispering to her in the dark, “and mate with you,” kissing the bottom of her ribs, “and make you belong to me?”

“Yes,” she moaned desirously, “I do.”