Chapter Text
Ominis Gaunt stood in the crowded entrance hall, the high vaulted ceiling he’d never seen but heard described echoing with the voices of the many students returning for their next or final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The familiar voices that bounced through his ears gave him both a headache and a desperate need to find somewhere quiet; but they were also instilling in him a different kind of anxiety.
Something was wrong and it took him longer than it should have to realise what it was… someone was missing. The person he had told himself he wasn’t looking forward to meeting again… was missing.
He’d told himself he was going to be nicer to the sunny Hufflepuff this year, be less…him. Be less waspish, less sharp with her and impatient with her lack of magical knowledge. He had tried all last year, to curb his temper; sometimes successfully and sometimes not. She was nice, kind, innocent and just plain happy in a way that rubbed his fur all the wrong way. She also didn’t push past his boundaries and temper the way Sebastian and Anne had or avoid him the way other students did.
She backed off; but she would be waiting for him quietly in their next class seated together, he would feel guilty and slip her a lolly she had likely never tasted before as a pseudo apology, help her with her classwork and that would be the end of it. Sebastian had laughed that she was taming him like a cat, one scratched hand at a time. Over the holidays, he had promised himself, he would do less of the hand scratching.
If Edith Greene had been in the entrance hall, he would have heard her even if she hadn't come close enough for his wand to sense her in the crowd of students. She would have been laughing, squealing or calling out to someone he barely knew. But there was nothing.
He knew she would have come up to greet him before now though, maybe told him off for not writing to her, shown him some random muggle thing she had gotten her hands on over the summer or worse… some mundane piece of wizardry everyone born in the magical world had owned since they were born.
She wouldn't have ignored him on their first day back and even if she was; no matter how chaotic the voices echoing all around him, he felt he would have heard her by now. Where was she?
He would have asked Sebastian and Anne again if they had seen her but they had left his side to do what they called making the rounds. He could hear them; barely over all the noise but still there, in separate parts of the entrance hall laughing and yelling. They also had many friends that they hadn’t seen over the holidays. The twin’s casual disinterest at not being able to immediately see Edith around had irked him.
“She’ll turn up.” Anne had replied with the same tone she used when Ominis had misplaced his homework over the holidays.
He’d began to berate her, that Anne had shared classes with Edith and was her friend before she had brushed him off, calling to a different friend she had spotted before walking away. It had left him feeling angry with the pair of them, not that they would care.
A knot of worry was beginning to form in his chest like lead. Was she sick? Or had something happened to her?
Over the summer he hadn’t written to her. He had tried; his fireplace was full of the ashes of incinerated drafts. The wording had never been quite right, too forced or vague. He had been afraid she wouldn’t reply or that she would. He had so many excuses for not sending them. He regretted it now.
A student brushed his arm causing him to turn, Lenora Everleigh his wand told him. Though not as a sight, he had no idea what Lenora looked like beyond Anne's description of her; no one could explain how his wand worked. It wasn’t seeing exactly, his wand sent out magical pulses and relayed the information as something in his mind so that he didn’t bump into things anymore.
The muggle-borns found it fascinating and started talking about a Leonardo d Vinci, some muggle inventor. It could also tell one person from another and a kind of individual magical essence if the person was a witch or wizard, he had always found that invaluable.
Lenora was a Hufflepuff girl he didn't speak to unless it was class related or she spoke to him first. She always thought she was smarter than she was but she was not malicious; she was one of Edith’s friends though they weren't close as far as he was aware but they were in the same house. Lenora also more importantly, would have been on the train with her.
"Lenora." He called, his voice rising enough that she should be able to hear him over the chatter. She had heard him; he could feel her stiffen in surprise.
"Yes?" She replied, confused and wary. Whether it was from his family's horrid reputation or his personal reputation for cutting remarks to people to bump into him without an apology he didn't know, or care.
"Have you seen or heard from Edith?" Ominis heard himself ask sharply. Rather more sharply than he had intended.
"Why do you want to know?" Lenora asked; that shrill entering her tone as it did when she got defensive. Hufflepuffs had a reputation for being overly protective of their muggle-born housemates.
"Was she on the train, Lenora?" He demanded his voice sharpening further in irritation. Silently he cursed agreeing to join Sebastian and Anne for the last month of summer. He hadn't been on the train or at the station.
"I... I don't know. I didn't see her but that doesn't mean she wasn't." Lenora stammered the defensive air knocked out of her. No wonder she never got into Ravenclaw. Wasn't it common sense to make sure your muggle-born friends got on the train?
"Well, go and look!" Ominis snapped. "And you had better keep me informed or I'll tell Andrew Larkin about your love letters and how you follow him through the halls."
"How do you -" She started; he could hear her foot stamp.
"- now Lenora!" Why did everyone assume because he was blind and ignored everyone, that he was also deaf? He knew everything that happened in these walls and right now, he would use every dirty secret if he needed to. Something was very wrong and he could feel it.
The banquet hall doors opened with a loud thunk that vibrated through the stone floor and the windows. Students streamed past them into the hall, exclaiming over the food, the candles; laughing as they paid, Ominis and Lenora, no mind, oblivious and eager to get to the food.
They had been searching for ten minutes with no luck from either of them. Panic was beginning to choke Ominis like smoke. Lenora was in tears now too; which was not helping.
Together they had asked nearly everyone in the hall and no one had seen her; actually no one had even received a letter from her all summer.
The worst part, the part that made him want to jinx people was; no one had questioned it. She was probably busy or didn't have an owl; there had been a multitude of excuses. He had a terrible pit of panic opening in his chest and he needed an adult.
“No one has seen her Ominis.” Lenora hiccupped. “What do we do now?”
“I’ll alert the teachers. You keep asking around.” Ominis told Lenora before turning and entering the banquet hall. The teacher would already be in the hall, supervising.
The teachers table was at the far end of the hall, on a wooden dais he almost stumbled on because someone from the Gryffindor table suddenly elbowed him from behind.
Ominis was disappointed but unsurprised to find Professor Weasley was not at the teachers table as he had hoped. She would have been his first choice but clearly she was with the new first-years.
Briefly he considered Professor Garlick as the head of Hufflepuff but decided Professor Sharp was probably the best one to alert. His wand told him the professor was seated over at the end of the long curved table next to Professor Hecat, his other choice.
"Excuse me, Professor Sharp?" He began, snagging his attention.
"What is it Mr Gaunt? Why are you not at your table, the sorting is about to start." Came the leisurely question ever so slightly slurred with what was no doubt wine, he could hear the Professor sit up a little straighter.
"Edith Greene from Hufflepuff hasn't arrived at school yet. I am…concerned." Never had Ominis found keeping his tone steady and measured so difficult.
"And why are you concerned Gaunt? She isn't part of your house." Professor Hecat cut in before Professor Sharp could reply. Her gravelly voice was both suspicious and amused.
Anger rose in Ominis like the snake his house and family were famed for. He struggled to crush it down, it wouldn't help. If he lost his temper they may disregard him. Perhaps he should have brought Lenora after all.
"Lenora and I have asked everyone we could find, but no one has seen her, not on the train or in the hall or had any contact with her over the holidays." He began after taking a deep breath against his racing heart.
“She is muggle-born, Sir; I'm concerned there is a problem and maybe her parents couldn't report it.” He could hear the slight tremble in his voice as his throat began to close and he could feel the wand in his hand shake a little.
Ominis hoped this was enough, if he had to debate it with them he'd probably end up bursting into tears like Lenora had.
There was a heavy pregnant pause as the Professors considered his words and all his unspoken implications. "I will look into it, Mr Gaunt. Have a seat at your table with your friends." Professor Sharp replied, all traces of his original jovial tone gone. Thank Salazar.
By the time Ominis had navigated the pushing, joking students to the Slytherin table and found the space left for him by Sebastian, the Great Hall doors had clanged shut with an unsettling finality that rattled all the goblets.
He really hoped she was safe.
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Edith hadn't woken up with a start, consciousness and the fight for it had been a struggle. It was like falling into a lake and every time your head broke the water’s surface, something pulled you back under.
During the battle she gradually became more and more aware of things and for longer. Pain as the first thing she became aware of, it stabbed at her body like broken glass. Each breath bringing on a new wave, the air felt too sharp. She tried to move but her body wouldn’t listen. She was trapped.
Sound was the next victory she won. At first it was just ringing; the strange hum that happened when you stood to close to a bell being rung. Gradually it lessened; there were voices in the hallway, screams, calls for help and crying that brought on a renewed wave of panic. It was frightening.
What fresh hell had she found herself in now? Did she even want to find out?
Her eyelids felt like they were made of lead, she struggled against the weight. The bright lights burned her eyes like acrid smoke when she eventually managed to open them. Black spots blurred her vision, extra dark against sterile white walls that almost glowed.
The room spun for a few moments, the sterile walls felt like they were closing in on her, driving the air from her lungs before it slowed to a stop. Her stomach flopped around like a fish.
Was this a hospital? She wondered. It was a lot cleaner than any she'd ever seen before. How had she gotten here?
A memory of Professor Sharp standing over her came back in a flash.
She remembered now, she had been locked in her room waiting to be sent away somewhere in the morning, if she had survived the night. She’d heard rumours of a place called Bethlem, whispered by neighbours before she’d gone to Hogwarts.
She'd heard yelling and crashing through the dull throbbing pain of wounds that oozed sapping her strength and causing a fever that invaded her nightmares. Then her locked door had shattered inwards with a crunch like breaking bone, sprinkles of wood had fallen on the bed like snowflakes and freezing her blood with fear.
Next thing she remembered was Professor Sharp looming over her with a strange expression. When he had gathered her up off the bed, she remembered screaming and then everything going black.
She was so tired; the waters of unconsciousness were already raising back up to reclaim her. Edith had little choice but to allow it, everything still hurt and she was so very tired.
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