Chapter Text
Last time…
Coella’s hand slowly rose to cover her lips as her eyes widened—as her mouth opened to try to put that theory into words, to ask if that were possible that she’d just randomly found her mother through all of this chaos-
When they heard the heavy, creaking footfalls of someone ascending the stairs…
Ominis and Coella each whipped around in horror, trying to find some kind of hiding space or solution—the room was small, busted up. They couldn’t hide under the bed because its frame was broken, the cabinets they’d found the book in were too small for either of them to squeeze into, and-
Oh, what was she even thinking? They were wizards.
“Disillusionment,” she cast, Ominis immediately following suit with a relieved breath. They crept around to the other side of the bed, ducking down behind it. As soon as they settled, Coella’s hand found purchase in Ominis’ as they both held tightly to each other.
The footsteps, loud and heavy, approached the door, pushing it open.
Peeking out over the top of the busted bed frame, Coella got a good look at the intruder, head tilting as she studied the tall, stocky woman that had entered the room and was looking around suspiciously. Her face tanned and lightly freckled, with deep lines set in the skin to mark her as being a little older. Her hair was cropped short and messily styled, a deep red hue, and… she wore men’s trousers. Weird.
“Alright squirts, playtime is over. Let’s get the hell outta here before this damn house collapses.” The woman announced, looking around the room.
Her eyes squinted around, before landing on where Coella and Ominis were hiding.
Coella held absolutely still—Disillusionment wasn’t as perfectly masking as an invisibility cloak, but if they held still there was no way that she could actually see-
“C’mon, I can literally see you,” the woman said, stolling over and grabbing Coella by the back of her shirt. Suddenly lifting her forced the Disillusionment to dissipate, exposing her back to damned visibility.
Coella squirmed in the air for a moment, flailing as soon as she realized she’d been lifted right off of her feet. The strange woman had froze, staring at her wide-eyed as she held the teenager suspended in the air.
“Put me down!!” she yelped helplessly, and the woman obliged with a start, an amused, boisterous laugh falling from her lips.
“Couldn’t help but stare, ya look just like a friend a’mine.” The older woman replied unapologetically, stepping back as Coella brushed the wrinkles out of her shirt, and Ominis stood up beside her.
“Who are you?” Ominis asked, shifting to move between Coella and the strange new voice. “Ashwinder? Dark wizard?”
“Don’t get yourself all worked up, kid- and don’t associate me with that band of idiots. Firstly, my name’s Geraldine. My friends call me Gigi- one of ‘em said a little witch was gonna be here and need some help gettin’ back to school.”
“Ryu?” Coella asked immediately, her eyes widening a little as she looked up at the older witch.
“The one and only. He told me a bit about’cha. Well, he said he had a daughter somewhere once forever ago, and when he suddenly picked up and returned to the Highlands a couple years back, figured it might have somethin’ to do with her. You.”
Coella wondered if she was supposed to feel touched, but she only frowned. “He’s been here since ‘a couple years back’ but this week was the first time I’ve ever spoken to him.”
“Yeah…” Gigi scratched the back of her head, rolling her eyes, “He’s a thick-skulled idiot who thinks you’re better off without him. I’d say cut him some slack, he’s had it rough and doesn’t have the best faith in himself as any kinda guidin’ force, but-”
“Cut him some slack?!” Coella exclaimed, practically shrieked, as her hands clenched into fists.
“Well-”
“He’s-” Her voice cracked, and instantly her face turned a few shades darker, “he’s an, at least, thirty year old man! If he wants to- if he’s so frightened of a seventeen year old girl that he helped to create that he can’t even bring me to this place on his own and help me return, then he should have just kept his nose out of my life entirely!”
She stomped her foot as she continued, “But instead he sends someone else- someone, someone who has the gall to tell me to cut him some slack-?!”
Ominis wrapped his hand around her clenched fist, silencing Coella’s mounting tantrum for that moment.
“Hey- uh, she might be our only way of getting back to the school, Coella,” he mumbled under his breath.
“Yeah, listen to your boyfriend, blondie,” Gigi said, though her tone was pretty light. It was obvious she wasn’t super affected by the teenager’s outburst.
“He’s not my-”
“I’m not her-”
Gigi put her hands up with a laugh. “Whatever, kids. Follow me. We left another portkey out in the garden, just gotta find it.”
Coella let a heavy breath out from her flaring nostrils, only relaxing a little once the woman turned and sauntered out of the room. She turned her head towards Ominis, and felt heat rising in her cheeks—he’d totally just listened to her throw a tantrum.
“Um… I’m sorry you, uh, I- I’m sorry,” she mumbled, slipping her hand out of his to move around the room and make sure they hadn’t missed anything else.
“No problem,” he’d replied, turning his head away from her as he wiped something from his face. The boy followed close behind her, and out of the corner of her eye she saw the rhythmic flashing of the seeking light from his wand as he silently did the same.
They searched for a good few minutes, turning over each jagged piece of wood that was once a piece of furniture, hunting under each moth-eaten sheet. Nothing else, nothing legible or important-looking.
With nothing else to find, Coella moved back over to where they’d left the diary, picking it up and starting to close it, when a stray paper slipped out from the back of the journal. It fluttered slowly to the ground, landing with a quiet smack. Leaning over, she picked it up and unfolded it, eyebrows furrowing.
“What was that? Did you find something?” Ominis asked, moving to her side to shine his light over the paper.
“It’s…”
Ominis began reading, “…Record of Birth, July 16th, 1877, to father Ryu Black and mother Camille Badeaux… Desdemona Badeaux. That’s… that must be…”
“…Me.”
Coella was silent for a long moment, staring down at the weathered old piece of parchment, the penmanship that wrote all three names was the same as the writing in the journal, done with the same careful hand. That was undeniably her mother’s journal, and this was undeniably her real birth record. She clutched the paper between her fingers so tightly that she nearly crinkled it, hands trembling as she sucked in a steadying breath.
Ominis worried his lip, placing a hand on her’s. “This… doesn’t have to mean anything, if you don’t wish it to, Coella. You know that, right? You- You’re Coella Kaufmann, that’s all you-“
“Are you kidding?” she breathed, turning her hand over to capture his, giving it a shaky squeeze, eyes wide as she fought off a smile. “This is- this is everything, Ominis. This is… this is my family, this is… This is everything I could have hoped for, I- I found… my family. Kind of…”
She trailed off, looking around the dilapidated room, the run down house. Well, it was a grand property, even if the manor itself was…
“Coella, you know the Badeauxes are… I mean, you have a family already. This- you don’t have to… you don’t want to claim this. You’re better off…”
“I have- I have a man who raised me, a family that- that took me in, but I’ve never… these are my blood, Ominis. I’ve never in my entire life… This is my family.”
Ominis pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded, giving her hand another squeeze before letting go and stepping away.
“If there’s nothing else, then…”
“Right! Right, yes, we need to get back to the castle. I don’t think there’s anything left in here, so…” she shifted on her feet, sensing the change in atmosphere, but without another word, the two of them made for the door. They were quite a ways behind Gigi, but quickly caught up to her in the back ‘garden’.
The short-haired witch was pacing back and forth in the garden, muttering to herself about ‘babysitting’ and someone owing her a drink. She kicked at the dirt around a half buried statue on one end of the garden, before trotting over to a crumbling marble structure and tapping on it.
Coella looked around at the decrepit garden, full of beautiful wisps of light. Little pockets and streams of ancient magic—the air out here was heavy, the way it felt right before the sky broke in a downpour. She didn’t understand how some place that was so dead could be so full of… light. She was admittedly a little awestruck, especially now that they had the time to actually admire it, without the threat of forest predators or dark wizards.
“Good news: I know the other portkey’s around here somewhere—bad news: I have no idea which of these fuckin’ statues it is,” she’d said, scratching the back of her head with her wand.
Silence reigned over the small group—some stubborn, childish part of Coella not wanting to speak up and help the woman at all. Her father and his friends were all rotten in her mind, and now she felt especially miffed by the one who suggested she forgive him for being a coward.
“Well… the first portkey dropped us off in front of the fountain back there- maybe it's over there?” Coella finally suggested, after deciding that watching this older woman bumble around a dead garden was more sad than amusing.
Gigi turned and grabbed the teenager by her shoulders, giving her a firm, serious squeeze. “You’re so, so much smarter than your dad.”
“He’s not my-!” The older witch let her go and turned with a laugh, heading towards the dried up fountain before she could finish. “-Dad…”
Ominis patted her shoulder, and she let out a sigh as she continued on towards where Gigi had walked off to. Here, the older witch began closely inspecting the little statues littered around, before she came up to one she’d decided was the one.
“It’s this one,” Gigi announced, motioning towards a half buried marble statue depicting a lamb.
Coella trudged over and looked down at the statue, pursing her lips.
“This isn’t the one.”
“What? How could you know?” The older witch asked, raising an eyebrow at the girl.
She only shrugged in a clipped fashion, chock-full of a teenager’s attitude. She swept her gaze around, until she noticed a particularly concentrated pocket of ancient magic. Squinting past the glow, she saw another half buried statue, a rabbit.
“That one. It’s glowing.”
“Ugh, of course you can see the glowing too.” Gigi muttered, hoofing it over towards the statue she’d pointed out.
Coella trotted to keep up, all of the teenage sass dissipating immediately- “Wait, what do you mean ‘too’? Who else can see the glowing? Do you know what it even is?”
“‘Course I know what it is, it’s- it’s glowin’. Means its somethin’ special.” Gigi paused, grinning as she raised a brow. “Thought you didn’t wanna hear anythin’ else about your father?”
“It’s- I- I didn’t know it was him, I mean-” Coella shook her head hurriedly as she rounded the older witch to stop in front of her. “The glowing- it’s ancient magic! He can see it too?”
“Guess so,” Gigi shrugged, continuing to trudge past her.
“Guess so,” Coella repeated in a mocking tone, turning her head sharply when she heard Ominis snort, only to find the boy’s face was impassive, eyebrows raised in her direction when he sensed her looking at him.
“I don’t know why I bother trying to get answers out of you people. You’re both frustratingly vague or willfully ignorant! Forget I even asked!”
Gigi stopped in front of the rabbit statue, turning on her heel towards the teenagers.
“Sorry kiddo, if you want real answers you’re just gonna have to corner the guy n’ ask him yourself. He doesn’t tell me shit, and whatever he does tell me is not anything I’m at liberty to repeat to anyone, especially not his kid.”
“That’s the problem, he has to actually be present to be cornered!” Coella huffed, crossing her arms. “It’s not like I have an address to send a letter to, or postcard-”
“The hell is a postcard?”
“It’s a French muggle th- oh whatever!! Thanks for helping, I guess, even though you didn’t even really do anything since I literally found the other portkey myself! Come on, Ominis,” she grabbed his hand, dragging the boy forward as she started to reach down for the portkey.
The older witch was unbothered, pulling out and lighting a thin, obviously hand-rolled cigarette as she watched them, something amused in her brown-hazel eyes, something that only served to infuriate Coella more.
“Next time you see that man, tell him to have a good life! Tell him- tell him not to bother anymore, and that I am better off without him, and maybe he should do a better job of staying out of my life!”
She finished her rant and immediately slapped her hand on the portkey, her vision rippling and distorting as she was whisked away, back to the Scottish highlands. In the very last look she’d gotten at Gigi, the woman almost looked sad. Good riddance.
~~~
“I’m, um… sorry again that you had to see that,” Coella murmured, bumping her shoulder with Ominis’. Her ears burned, hands rubbing together as she buried her nose in the fluffy knit of his scarf. The portkey had taken them right back to the dilapidated ruins that they’d begun the night in, so finding their way back was easy. They were walking side by side down the trail that led from the Forbidden Forest back towards the school, the sun rising slowly above them. They must have been out all night.
Ominis was silent for a moment—which made Coella immediately look up at him to see that he’d turned his head away from her, his hand covering his lips.
“Are you laughing?” She asked incredulously, bumping her shoulder with his, harder. “Oh my God, have you been laughing at me that whole time?!”
He let out a breath before he composed himself, still grinning as he turned his head back towards her. “I just- when you said that, I remembered how your voice had cracked while you were yelling, and stomping your feet in the manor-”
“Sh- Shut up! That is so mean! I take back my apology, tenfold! The next ten things I do will not come with an apology, I swear!” Coella whined, slapping his arm as she huffed. Her cheeks were red as she pinched her eyes shut. “I only stomped my foot once…”
Ominis only laughed again, catching her hand when she’d gone to hit him again—their chilled fingers finding warmth at the contact immediately.
This time it was his turn for his cheeks to burn, dropping her hand as he turned his head away again.
“That’s what I thought…” She mumbled, letting out an amused little breath. Her heart was beating quickly in her ears as she gazed up at him, clasping her hands together in front of her.
Instead of lapsing into the awkward silence that they always did, Ominis bit down on his lip and turned his head back towards her, blushing all the way to the tips of his ears.
“I know this isn’t- probably isn’t, a good time, but, uh- do… you want to spend time together that… isn’t putting ourselves into unknown danger, or reading together?” He finally bit out. “Or- um, I mean- like, uh-”
Coella’s face flushed deep red as her eyes widened—there was no way he was asking for…
“...a- uh, like…”
He struggled to get the word out—waiting for something to interrupt, just as something always interrupted them. But the weak rays of the sun were just barely peeking out over the horizon, and they were the only two walking on the path towards Hogwarts at this hour.
Steeling his nerves, he grabbed her hand and stopped completely, turning his whole body towards her. Coella was silent, holding her breath—afraid that if she breathed too loudly she’d miss what he had to say.
“They’re… uh, this troupe is putting on a play at the Three Broomsticks on Friday, we could get dinner and go see it.” He finally managed, rubbing the back of his neck and turning his head away—a motion that could have been in embarrassment, and it was, but Coella also knew that he was turning his ear towards her.
“I- I’d love to,” she breathed, finally, her heart pounding in her ears. Her hand was trembling in his, clammy and nervous—terrified that he’d reveal that he was joking. Her heart was thumping all the way up in her throat as she waited for it—waited for him to laugh, to tell her he was disgusted with her and her feelings again.
But it never came. His face broke out into a smile, a real smile that showed his perfect teeth and sent Coella’s heart fluttering.
“That’s great,” he murmured, blinking and shaking his head a little in disbelief, before he repeated a little louder, “That’s great- I mean, I- I’m looking forward to it.”
“Me too,” she replied, almost inaudibly, but by the soft squeeze he gave her hand, she could tell he’d heard her.
The rest of the walk back to the school was on cloud nine, quiet and holding each others’ hands the whole way. Coella would point out and describe a few of the puffy clouds, and Ominis was the one who stopped them when he heard a couple of songbirds that he knew she’d delight in.
Soon, too soon, they arrived back at the gate to the school. They paused, dawdling there for a moment, a mutual desire not to let this ill-timed outing end.
“Well… time to get back to the real world, I suppose,” Coella murmured, letting out a soft sigh as she looked down at their joined hands.
“Feels like a week ago that I was chasing you down the corridor, not just last night,” Ominis let out a breath, running a hand through his hair as he squeezed her fingers.
“What were you even planning to do if you’d caught me? If I hadn’t tripped? Were you going to drag me all the way back to the dorms, kicking and screaming?”
“Mm… would it be better or worse to say that I hadn’t thought that far ahead? Maybe I would have tied you up and left you in the Undercroft overnight.”
Coella flushed, eyebrows raising—and she watched Ominis’ ears slowly turn red in the beat of silence that had followed.
“I- I mean, I didn’t- uh, not like… Merlin, get your mind out of the gutter.”
She let out a shrill little giggle, her free hand raising to cover her mouth. “I didn’t even say anything! Ominis, did you know your ears turn red when you’re embarrassed?”
“They do not!” His voice cracked as he ripped his hands back to cover his ears.
Coella laughed harder, throwing her head back as she gasped for air.
“Your face!” she howled, having to hold her stomach, “I can’t believe-!! Your face!!”
“Uncalled for!” Ominis yelped, still pressing his hands over his burning ears. “Coella Kaufmann-”
“Oooh, the Prefect voice and my full name? Ominis Gaunt, I am so scared,” she only continued to giggle, reaching out to tug on his sleeve, dragging at least one of his hands away from his head. She threaded their fingers together again, feeling her stomach flutter.
“You should be,” Ominis mumbled, his voice low, bordering on shy. He rubbed the back of his neck with his other hand, giving her hand a squeeze. “We should go inside. You need some sleep.”
“If I need sleep, then you need sleep. You’ve been up just as long as I have,” Coella replied, glancing over at the school with a soft sigh. “But you’re probably right…”
She was the first to pull away, dragging herself back to the stone path up to the large doors to the castle. He was beside her again soon, both of them notably walking a little heavier, exhaustion finally weighing in on them.
Pausing in front of the door, Ominis turned to her again.
“I’m guessing I’ll end up having to answer for our absence- or at least my absence from rounds, from last night. If, somehow, I don’t see you before Friday, let’s meet back here at 4 o’clock. If that, um… would leave you enough time to get ready after your last class?”
“That sounds perfect,” Coella grinned, having to bite back a more excited smile as she pushed open the door.
They’d started to head down the corridor, towards the stairs that would take them to the basement, when Coella saw Headmaster Black briskly approaching the pair. She grabbed Ominis’ arm to attempt to drag him into hiding, but it was far too late-
“There you are!” The man tutted, glancing between them with narrowed eyes, lingering on Coella with a clear note of distaste—she wondered if he knew that she was related to him, a fringe, bastard relative. “I’ll not ask where you’ve been, Mister Gaunt, so long as you come with me and have a story prepared.”
“Headmaster?” Ominis asked, turning helplessly back towards Coella when the Headmaster placed a hand on his shoulder and began to lead him up the stairs instead.
“Wait-!” Coella yelped, surging towards the two as they walked away from her.
“Off to bed, Miss Kaufmann! You’d do well to stay within the dorms before curfew is lifted!” He snapped, just enough scary authority in his voice to stop her in her tracks long enough for Ominis to motion to her that it was okay.
“R- Right, I’m sorry Headmaster,” Coella replied, biting down on her lip before she turned and trotted off towards the basement.
She was, admittedly, only worried for a moment, before an excited smile crept back onto her lips, an extra pep in her step despite the long night. Nothing would be able to dash her excitement for her coming date, nothing!
She’d silently made her way all the way down the steps into the Slytherin dorm, creeping into her own room. She’d have to drink a wakefulness potion tomorrow, because there was no way she’d be able to get more than three hours of sleep before her first class, and even still, she struggled to lay herself down for bed. Quickly dressing in a nightgown, she slipped into bed and covered herself with her duvet, suppressing a little squeal.
All of the drama and confusion of the last few days completely melted away—she had a date! With Ominis!
Pressing her face into her pillow, Coella let out a long sigh and forced her eyes to close, willing Friday to come sooner.
~~~
Shaken from a short, pleasant dream, Coella’s eyes snapped open after only a few hours, the worried face of her best friend swimming into view.
“Coella Aerwyna Kaufmann, where in the world have you been!?” Anne gasped, still shaking the poor, sleep-deprived witch.
“U- Um? Here?” Coella mumbled, blearily rubbing her eyes as she sat up, scrambling to shove Anne’s hands off of her. “What happened, is- is the school on fire?”
“I was about to set fire if it meant the smoke would force you to crawl out of whatever hole you and Ominis were canoodling in!”
The instant blast of heat in Coella’s cheeks woke her the rest of the way up as she shoved Anne off of her bed, hands smacking to her own cheeks.
“We were not canoodling!” she shrieked, loud enough to garner the attention of the other girls who were trying to wake up and get ready for the day. She shrank down in the bed, biting her lip.
Anne popped back up, grinning like a cat. “Weren’t you? Then what were you doing together, alone, for a whole day? And if you say adventure, then I’m totally calling bull-”
“A- A whole day? What do you mean- a- a whole day? We were only gone for a night! You’re crazy!”
“You’re crazy! Or- or were you two… all day… that you thought-”
“NO!”
Coella fully shot out of the bed, legs tangling in the sheets as she fumbled to get away from the wildly inappropriate accusations of her best friend. She thumped to the floor, practically landing on her face and jumping up so fast she barely felt the pain.
“I’m taking a bath now!” she announced on her way out, still in her nightgown.
“With Ominis~?” Anne called after her, loud enough to wake half the dorms.
“NO!”
~~~
Coella absently walked on to her first class of the day, a dreamy look on her face and a pep in her step.
Anne embarrassing her could never dash her excitement for the date she’d have with Ominis later that week. Date!
It was like a dream—she was discovering concrete things about her real family, her and Ominis were getting closer, she’d kind of gotten to tell her father where to shove it. Everything was falling into place.
She hugged the old leather bound journal to her chest as she walked, smiling a little to herself. She hadn’t let go of the thing since she and Ominis found it, her mother’s journal. She hadn’t gotten a chance to read much of it besides what they had skimmed back at the manor, but she planned to change that. But, hugging it close, it felt as though she’d had a piece of herself returned to her. It soothed her soul in a way that no awkward talk with her papa, or frustrating conversation with her father, could ever compare to. It was her mother.
Coella, too, had a duty to learn of this piece of the past and preserve it. Blame it on her Anthropology Professor of a papa, but she felt like she had the most important job in the world as the apparent last of the Badeaux clan.
She smiled a little to herself. She had a name that was all her own. Coella Badeaux. Or would she go with Desdemona? Changing her first name felt harder than her last one, plus... well, having a name with demon in it didn't seem like it would suit her. Coella Badeaux, though, that was cute. French was more chic anyway, wasn't it? It rolled off the tongue nicely, too. Maybe she should change it? There were enough Kaufmanns, she was possibly the only Badeaux.
While musing to herself, she was halted suddenly by running into someone’s back, stumbling back a little in surprise.
“I- I’m sorry-“ she mumbled, eyes flicking up to meet the face of… Ominis? But… older? “…Mister…?”
“Watch where you’re going-“
He even sounded like Ominis, his voice quiet with an undercurrent of power—though this man’s piercing green eyes stared right into her own, pupils dark and unclouded, freezing the poor young woman right in place.
Ophiuchus Gaunt.
“Father,” Ominis himself finally cut in, and that was when Coella heard the difference in tone: Ophiuchus’s voice was colder, firmer, whereas Ominis seemed to speak more softly, warmly. Though in that moment, his voice could have compared to his father’s—cold, firm as he stopped his father from berating Coella any further.
He stood behind his father, wearing an annoyed expression. His hair, which he’d just recently started letting fall in its natural little waves, was now slicked severely back, his old school uniform, a hand-me-down of Sebastian’s with his Prefect badge sewn on by Coella, had been completely replaced with pressed silken materials, a new Prefect badge embroidered on his sweater.
“Who is this clumsy little witch, Ominis? A friend of yours?” A judgemental woman’s voice piped up as she stepped in between Ominis and his father, she was rail-thin and a few inches taller than her husband, who was already pretty tall and thin himself. Shining brown hair set in perfect waves framed her face, unfathomably dark green eyes stared down into Coella’s very being, and when she blinked (which wasn’t often), the poor young witch swore she saw a second eyelid slide over her eyes. Like a cat, or a… snake.
Delphyne Gaunt.
His parents. Why were his parents here? She thought there was no love lost between them, she thought that he didn’t care about them, and they didn’t care about him? She could see how clearly uncomfortable he was standing there, her heart sinking into her stomach.
“She’s not-“
His friend? Coella’s breath caught in her throat the moment he’d hesitated, paused, feeling that age old insecurity shoot through her. Her eyebrows pinched—was that it, dream over? Pureblood, noble Ominis Gaunt wasn’t allowed to be friends with her anymore, not now that they were adults? Was it because of her papa, because he'd left the wizarding world? The Kaufmanns were pureblooded, even if they weren't the richest family, but... pretending to be muggle was a pretty big offense, wasn't it? But that wasn't her fault-
“-Clumsy.”
She let out the breath she’d been holding, but the anxiety didn’t ease. Something wasn’t right. Ominis was hardly facing her, rubbing the back of his neck as his parents inspected her.
Ominis let out a sigh, reaching up to run a hand through his slicked back hair, messing it up. “This is my friend, Coella-”
“-B-Badeaux,” Coella finished for him, quickly, forcing the foreign name past her lips, praying it fell naturally enough to not be suspicious. The Gaunts were crazy about their pureblood status and preserving the dark arts, being connected to that old, pureblooded family was good for her and Ominis’ budding relationship, wasn’t it?
Plus, the thought of… having a name that could possibly command fear and respect was nice. For a moment, it felt like she had something bigger than her to back her up, not just the ancient magic that she had to keep a secret—like how Ominis must have felt, throwing around his father’s and the headmaster’s close relationship before.
“She- that was a joke, haha- of course she’s not… this is Coella Kaufmann, you remember, ah, Gerhart Kaufmann? His daughter—a very humorous witch that is going to be late for class if you hold her any longer.” Ominis stated quickly, stepping forward to give Coella a nudge towards the stairs, his eyebrows pinched together—why would you say that?!—his expression screamed.
Coella took the nudge, stumbling forward towards the stairs. Her lips pressed together as she glanced back at the trio before she gave his parents a little curtsy and began to walk away, catching only the tail end of the rest of their conversation, his mother remarking on how Coella did resemble the old Badeauxes bone structure, if you squinted.
His father seemed to disagree, disapproving of the connection to the Kaufmann’s blood traiter, and they brought up the Rosiers, another French pureblooded family, of which two members of the clan attended Hogwarts as 6th years. By that point, Coella was out of earshot, and she decided she didn’t want to listen or be a part of the conversation at all anymore.
The young witch frowned, clutching her journal a little closer to her chest as her good mood had been entirely dashed.
She… hoped, or figured that he had only acted weird because they’d been around his parents—maybe they’d get a chance to meet up and talk about it sometime during the week, though it seemed as though his parents weren’t going to leave him alone any time soon. She was sure he’d find a moment to sneak away to the Undercroft or something, though.
If not, there was always their date on Friday—if he couldn’t slip away at all that week, she knew he’d make an absolute effort to at least uphold this engagement, wouldn’t he?
She just had to have faith in him, no matter what. This was a weird wrench thrown into their week, but surely his parents can’t mess up too much while they’re here. Things would go back to normal. She just had to believe that.
~~~
A week later, Coella stood by the back door to the castle, rolling over the other day in her mind to make sure this was where Ominis had said to meet up. She clutched her little purse with an excited grin on her face, trying not to bounce in place from her own joy.
She was early—by half an hour, in fact, she’d left her last class of the day to ‘use the restroom’ in order to give herself more time to get ready. She took a long bath with her favorite lavender bath oils, gave her hair enough time to dry and style, and practically slathered her entire body in floral-scented lotion once she was done. She kept her focus on smelling nice and making sure her skin and hair were soft and supple, for as much as she made sure she looked nice, too.
Ominis wouldn’t have cared how she looked, obviously, but she wanted to look like she belonged by his side, knowing now that his parents were… around. Coella had prestige, even if she didn’t know that fact until this past week. She’d been only a year or so off from graduating Finishing School, her aunt had taught her everything she’d needed to know about debuting in high society, about existing in high society. She was a Badeaux.
Muggle society was different from Wizard high society, but some basic things had to be the same, right?
Every night that week, she’d slipped out of the dorms to hang out in the Undercroft, with no luck of running into Ominis. She didn’t even see him in the dorms at all during downtime, or in his usual spot in the library. Whatever his parents were there for, it kept him entirely occupied outside of classes.
In the classes they did have together, he’d chosen to sit elsewhere, instead of beside her as he always did. That had earned more than a few odd looks, not only from Poppy and Natsai, but even a few other students who knew of their friendship. More odd than that, every class that he was in, one of his parents was… near, too. If not in the classroom, then somewhere nearby outside of it.
So, she hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to him at all that week. Not even small talk. At meals, he’d chosen to sit at the end of the table that a few of the more pompous Slytherins tended to gather, the purebloods or nobles, leaving Sebastian to glare reproachfully in their direction any chance he got. Anne only glanced over there worriedly, often, biting her nails when she did. Something had shifted in their friend group, and it seemed like Coella was the only one who didn’t really know what was going on. She just looked down at the end of the table sadly, missing her best friend.
Instead, with Ominis kind of MIA, she’d taken to reading up on her family history and her mother’s journal, absorbing all that she could of her new family. The disparity between the two was staggering—the history books seemed to be dreadfully full of misconceptions, whereas Camille’s journal spun the tale of a bitter teenager at the foot of a great legacy.
The Badeauxes were a family of great power, and it seemed as though something even more powerful resided within Camille and the manor that they lived in. Camille had some kind of great duty, though she never detailed what exactly that was, it was something that was so much larger than her, something she had to keep absolutely secret. She mentioned it often, her legacy, usually in conjunction with talking about her mother berating her—she treated it like it wasn’t a big deal, something that made Coella a little irritated. If it was something so terrible and secret, should she have really been treating it so lightly?
Reading the journal only seemed to add to her questions, for as much as it answered some of them, each answer only spawned more questions. She would have had an easier time of researching and figuring out what this great Badeaux Legacy was if Ominis was around to help her. She didn’t want to make it anyone else’s problem—Natty, Poppy, Anne and Saoirse were all usually busy with their own plots to take down poachers, something Coella had taken a step away from for the time being. Sebastian was out of the question, and outside of them, she didn’t really know who to turn to. It was just herself, and her mother’s journal.
She missed Ominis.
God, she hoped Ominis would manage to get away from his parents for this evening. She missed him so terribly. And Lord, she prayed that they wouldn’t run into his parents if they did manage to go on this date. Would the Gaunts even be in Hogsmeade? Probably not. Hopefully not.
Coella shook her head, and then paused, pulling out her compact to fix her hair again. With her compact out, she re-applied a little bit of balm to her lips, too, flushing when she did. What did she imagine was going to happen tonight?
The smile crept up on her lips again, as she snapped the compact closed and stuffed it back into her little purse. She knew exactly what she was imagining, and it was Anne’s fault.
Pressing a hand to her warm cheek, she only continued to grin and try to hold back a girlish squeal. Her excitement was still so intense, she hadn’t allowed it to twist into dread or anxiety, yet. She was just… excited!
She checked her pocket watch, just a few minutes off from 4 o’clock. She bounced in place, trying to keep herself from staring at the door, waiting for it to open. She cast her eyes out at the fluffy clouds, the autumn-colored leaves that were coming in at the edges of the forest.
A little breeze blew through the yard, and Coella shivered, drawing her nice coat tighter around herself. She let her eyes drift around to the other students milling about—a few were passing a Quaffle back and forth, two students were racing each other on broomsticks, until Professor Kogawa yelled up at them to cut it out. Other students strolled down the sidewalk towards Hogsmeade, chatting animatedly, while some sat on a few of the benches scattered about.
Coella found her attention lingering on a game of Summoner’s Court going on between two younger students, probably fifth years. Professor Rohan would have taught Accio to them recently, so she guessed they were practicing. Or just playing, it was a very animated game—one of the students even jumping to cover the other’s eyes during their turn.
Losing track of time, she didn’t end up checking her watch until after multiple rounds had passed and the two students wrapped up their game.
She blinked, it was half an hour past four now. Maybe he was held up? Professors asked him for help with little things all the time, especially Madame Scribner.
Nodding a little to herself, Coella leaned back against the pillar beside the door again to resume people watching. It was a good pastime, a kind of bad habit that has basically turned into a hobby at this point. It was something she’d started sometime after that Winter Ball in her 5th year—once she passed that… milestone, she’d found herself watching the other students as they went about their day.
Partly because from then on it was all… brand new. She wanted to see every little detail that she’d never got to experience last time, how the students went about their day, having no idea of the fact that they’d all nearly perished the night before.
Now, well… it had become a slightly creepy way for her to pass the time. It was very fun to sit there and imagine in her head what the two students gesturing so animatedly were talking about, who was set to win in the game of Gobstones that a small group of them were playing nearby. She giggled to herself as she watched one of them get sprayed with a nasty green liquid after losing a point.
After another couple minutes passed, she started to shift on her aching feet. She leaned against the pillar for some slight relief, but let out a sigh all the same. She should have worn more comfortable shoes.
Next time she wouldn’t show up so early!
She hadn’t known Ominis to be… well, the most punctual, so she should have known…
Some part of her had hoped he’d be there early, like her—excited, like her. The fact that he wasn’t, and that he was late made her stomach twist anxiously. She couldn’t help but recall earlier in the week, the last time she’d actually really spoken to him, when she’d feared he was about to denounce their friendship in front of his parents.
As the minutes continued to creep on past her, she couldn’t even focus on the other students in the courtyard, the fact that they were all slowly trickling away—back into the castle, or on the road to Hogsmeade. Leaving her behind. Still waiting.
Was this… just a joke? His cruel revenge for her dragging him on another pointless little adventure?
Coella quickly shook her head, slapping her cheeks between her two hands, earning a couple confused stares from a passing group of 4th years.
She was not going to get scared and doubt him, or question his motivations like she had always done with Sebastian-
And she certainly was not going to keep comparing him to Sebastian! That really needed to stop!
Shifting on her feet once more, she checked her watch again.
45 minutes past 4 o’clock.
Sighing again, she looked up at the sky, taking in the sun that was slowly drifting towards the horizon. It wasn’t quite setting, but it was steadily growing lower, ever the reminder of each minute that passed.
What did this mean, then? Shouldn’t she be worried? For him to be this late could mean he was in some kind of trouble. Shouldn’t she have left by now to go look for him, or-
5 o’clock.
“Coella? What are you doing out here, trying to catch your death?” Sebastian’s voice snapped her out of her panic spiral, as he approached on the path from the south gate. He tugged his scarf off and wrapped it around her shoulders, eyebrows raised in concern.
“I- um,” Coella flushed, her cheeks reddening as she struggled to produce an answer—how humiliating would it be to tell him that she was currently being stood up by his best friend? What other answer did she have? “I’m waiting… um, for Ominis. We were going to hang out…”
Sebastian’s expression of concern turned into a single raised eyebrow. “I just returned from Hogsmeade, he was out there with uh- that one 6th year girl, Aurélie Rosier. The pureblood girl.”
“He… was?”
Coella caught the exact moment that his face twitched in pity, and she sucked in a breath before continuing. “Oh, oh! That’s right, I- I totally forgot, we’d said we were going to be meeting up there! Jeez, um, thank you for the reminder, I'm like so late!”
Without giving him a chance to respond or call her bluff or humiliate her further, Coella tugged his scarf off and handed it back to him before she began briskly walking down the path towards the Southern gate, biting down on her lip to bite back her tears. Aurélie Rosier, she remembered her as one of the Slytherins that Ominis sat beside during meals in the last week, an attractive young witch with dark hair, and tanned skin, a delicately shaped face that spoke her noble heritage louder than she did—and she spoke of her heritage and place in her family loudly. She had a much kinder twin brother, Adriel, who had been sorted into Gryffindor and practically ex-communicated from the family for that fact.
She paused and threw a look back at Sebastian, scrunching her nose up. “You know, I’m a pureblood too! Not like- like it even really matters! I’m a Badeaux, and a Black. She’s just a Rosier, there’s a million of them back in France,” she spat, before turning again and scurrying the rest of the way down the path.
What did that 6th year girl offer him that Coella didn’t? Was it because she acted like a pureblood? And who the hell was Ominis to blow her off like this? He’d given her the cold shoulder all week and that was fine, since she knew his parents were hanging over his shoulders, and she wouldn’t have been mad if he hadn’t been able to ditch them for their date—but to go to Hogsmeade at the time they were supposed to have met up, with someone else, without so much as a note?!
He was supposed to be her best friend, romantic feelings or not!
She continued on the path, but didn’t take the fork that went to Hogsmeade, instead looping around the castle to return through the Northern gate. Just as she was entering and headed up the side staircases to get up to the Room of Requirement, she spotted those infuriating, tall, regal figures standing beside the fountain as they spoke with Headmaster Black.
Clenching a fist at her side, Coella spun on her heel and trotted back down the stairs, making a beeline towards the Gaunts. Despite how they towered over her, she stomped right up to them, rudely shouldering her way into the conversation as she glared up at the pair, head held proudly above her shoulders.
“Hey-”
“Excuse-”
“Miss Kaufmann-!”
Coella gripped her skirt in her fists, forcing her head down in a curtsy. “I apologize for my rude interjection, but I’m afraid my introduction earlier this week was ill-timed and unexpected, and I would like to remedy that fact, Mister Gaunt, Lady Gaunt. I am Coella Aerwyna Badeaux, first daughter of Camille Badeaux and Ryu Black, and to my knowledge, sole heir to the House of Badeaux…”