Cursed (Hogwarts Legacy fanfiction - original in German)

Chapter 23 - Don't act the hero

Marvolo had just kicked a branch away from his feet when he noticed the small slope into which the piece of wood fell with a clattering sound.
"What does our little prodigy want in such a dirty place so late?" his younger brother Notus grumbled and looked around again. 

The middle child of the Gaunt family had inherited his mother's ice-blue eyes, just like Ominis, but fortunately, he was not born blind like him. The dark brown of his hair, which he shared with Marvolo, unmistakably came from his father, as did his unmistakable impatience. 

Everything seemed deserted, and it had taken them nearly an hour to get there since they never traveled through the nearest Floo Flame but always used a more distant one to cover the rest of the way on foot, unseen and secretly. 

Marvolo snorted as he followed Selwyn, who seemed to have found a spot where they could easily jump over the slope.
"We don't care about that. We're just making sure this foolishness doesn't go unpunished," Marvolo said, leaping over the small gorge and discreetly ensuring that Notus made it too. 

Even though he was only a year older, Marvolo still felt responsible for his younger brother, and the fact that their father had asked him to take him along stemmed solely from the idea that Notus should gain experience, but their father also wanted someone to keep an eye on him. 

Selwyn laughed maliciously as he bent under the branches of a fir tree to venture deeper into the forest.
"That's right. Remember that, little one. In our circles, foolishness is deadlier than many a curse," he said, and then stopped until Marvolo joined him. Marvolo now looked at his comrade questioningly, who seemed to be listening in the distance.

"Do you hear that too?" Selwyn asked softly and then held his arm out to stop Notus, who had just arrived with them. Marvolo held his breath and listened to every sound in the surroundings. Selwyn was right; not far from the three of them, there was rustling in one of the bushes. It was a regular but barely noticeable rustling, as if someone – or something – was sneaking up. The noise became slightly louder, so whatever was moving there was still moving quite slowly.

Marvolo and Selwyn exchanged a serious look and then nodded almost simultaneously. The two dark wizards immediately drew their wands, and Notus, who had been observing them, did the same a little later. Just to be safe, Marvolo positioned himself a little in front of his brother, while Selwyn crept into the protection of a few trees in the direction from which the rustling was approaching. 

After a few steps, he stopped again, trying to make out more details in the darkness ahead. In the dim moonlight, eight watchful, pitch-black eyes suddenly sparkled before him, and in the blink of an eye, a huge, spider-like creature leaped at Selwyn, who instinctively made a backward leap, narrowly avoiding one of the four hairy leg pairs with which the beast had tried to grab him. He ran back to the other two, noticing that the creature was following him, and not alone. More of these creatures were now crawling out of the undergrowth, all of them in pursuit.

"Here's a fork in the path. Should we split up?" Ominis asked somewhat uncertainly after he and Sebastian had ventured deeper into the cavern for a while. His question didn't sound particularly frightened, and it wasn't fear that made him hesitate to continue but rather the concern that Sebastian might get lost, as he didn't have a wand like Ominis to guide him in the right direction when needed. 

However, as expected, Sebastian didn't hesitate for a second.
"Yes, let's do that. We need to find her quickly. Just call me if you find her, and I'll call you if I do," he replied and spontaneously chose one of the two paths at the fork. Ominis opted for the other one a little later and felt that the pull of his wand grew stronger the deeper he went into the cave.