Every Shade of Green (Ominis Gaunt)

Jade Light

A small bolt of lightning strikes Emma's heart, thinking of Ominis and their first meeting. Had that been something they had done together? Was it...special?

"I do miss Hogwarts. But I wouldn't mind being in Feldcroft, really, if it wasn't so dreary now."

Emmaline listens as Anne recounts the constant struggle between her uncle and Sebastian.

"This curse can not be undone. I can feel it. Sebastian cannot take away my pain."

Anne stares at Emma earnestly.

"Your eyes speak the truth," the latter says.

"No one knows this curse better than me. I'm the one suffering from it. But Sebastian..."

"...is a know-it-all."

Anne laughs.

"Stubborn. There is no discouraging him."

Emma leans towards Anne, "I haven't been in the magic world long, but I like to think that magic, even dark magic, is intelligent enough to know its host. And the opposite is therefore true."

"Then you believe me. There is no cure. Perhaps...you can help him understand that?"

Emmaline glances at the door.

"I will."

The way her day with Sebastian continued did not bode well for that vow to Anne.

After seeing where Anne was cursed, recognising the house of Isidora Morganach made the afternoon all the more spooky. When it lead back to the Undercroft and revealed the triptych, Emmaline's Mystic-Metre was officially full.

When Sebastian mentions a Scriptorium, she realises just how invested he gets in any trace of a possible cure for Anne, and just how hard this will be.

Emma holds her tongue the entire time, finding no purpose in expressing her disagreement. He was well invested, and until the Keepers gave her more insight into Isidora Morganach, she didn't have anything to back herself up but Anne's declaration of terminality.

"I need to talk to Ominis."

Surely Ominis was on their side? They may be best friends but he seems close with Anne. He had expressed that Sebastian often got himself into trouble, meaning Ominis is not part of that trouble and perhaps not along on this quest.

I need to talk to Ominis too, Emma thinks.

She and Sebastian step out of the Undercroft, coming face to face with Ominis himself. Emma goes to speak, to make acquaintances and start building an alliance so she can honour her vow to Anne.

His past venom rings in her ears.

"Excuse me," she crumples, dashing away while the two boys remain silently confused.

"What was that about?" She hears Sebastain say on her way up the stairs.

~

The viaduct courtyard balcony by the stone werewolf statue is her favourite place to look out at the surrounding grounds Though to be honest, there were many places at Hogwarts in which she could sit for hours and just soak in the magic and life.

She doesn't really want to go home.

Her mother, whose magic depressed itself in Emmaline's childhood at the height of her muggle father's abuse, would expect her. There were too many aunts in her house tending to her mother. Too many cousins, magic and non-magic alike, in Ireland, where Emma didn't grow up. Not that she wanted to go back to London anyway.