𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐖 𝐎𝐅 𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐂 || 𝐒𝐄𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖

Chapter Thirty-Five: Familial trials

Chapter Thirty-Five

One job that came with the investigation was keeping an eye on the forbidden forest to see if the poacher number had increased or not. Usually, Matty would check herself but she was busy that afternoon with quidditch practice. After all, she was still the Gryffindor team captain and had to help her team.

Sebastian and Esme both had reports to write which left Ominis as the one who could check. Unfortunately, whenever he would do things like this, he'd usually bring someone along to help him out. He never really considered his blindness a disability but it sure did make things difficult sometimes.

So, while he was left to the task, he got an idea. A good one? Probably not. But it would give him an opportunity to talk to his brother about a few things—so he decided to ask Marvolo to accompany him. And surprisingly, he said yes.

So, there they were, two brothers walking in complete silence in the forbidden forest. Ominis wouldn't often come here—or come here at all. He usually followed along with the school's rules of staying away from the forest because after all, it was dangerous after all. But Professor Weasley had been allowing them to slightly bend the rules recently in order to help them with everything that was going on.

"Why did you ask me to come along with you?" Marvolo asked in a slightly annoyed tone. Sure, he had said yes but he was expecting something to happen, not to just be walking mindlessly around the forbidden forest.

"Esme didn't want me going alone and everyone else was occupied." Ominis lied.

He knew what he wanted to say to Marvolo but he wasn't sure how to bring it up or if Marvolo would just completely shut him down quicker than he could ask.

But the silence around them was extremely awkward. Ever since Marvolo graduated from school, he would come and go. He and Ominis rarely ever were around each other for extended periods of time and as a child, all Ominis really ever knew his older brother for was for the way he treated him. Which wasn't good at all. But yet Ominis still tried his best to convince each of his family members to leave the life they had been leading for so long.

Out of all of them, Marvolo would probably be the one he'd never convince. And his father, for that matter, even after his own sister's death he barely turned an eye to what she had been doing. And yet, Ominis still found himself caring about them somehow.

"Why are you doing all of this?" Ominis blurted out. He didn't really care if it made sense or not at first, he was just trying to get his words out. "Our family is already in shambles, why do you feel the need to tear it apart more than it already is?"

Marvolo seemed shocked by the sudden question and drew his brows together in confusion, looking down at his younger brother as they continued to walk. "Why do you care? You're never around anymore and you seem to hate us and everything we do. So why do you care?" He asked, trying to counter Ominis' question.

"Why do I care?" Ominis repeated Marvolo's question as if he couldn't believe why he was asking. "Because regardless of everything you've all done to me and no matter how hard I've tried to hate you all, I can't bring myself to stoop down to the same level and I still care about you. It's not like we never got along. It's not like you always hated me. And you want to stand here and ask me why?"

Ominis stopped walking halfway through him speaking and so now he and Marvolo were standing out in the middle of the forest. He wasn't wrong—there were times when he and his family did get along. In fact, for the first couple of years of his life, Ominis was very cherished by his parents, more specifically by his mother but things slowly started to change as he got older. Sure, Marvolo always gave his siblings tough love before it just turned into hatred, but they still got along.