Emerald Death; burning, scorching, destroying everything and all.

~

It became obvious day by day to Emma that she had fallen completely for Ominis Gaunt.

His presence became a necessity to her wind-down. It did not feel right ending any day without having spoken to him. They began to seek one another out; Emma changed the way she went questing in order to see him more and Ominis cut down his time of preferred solidarity to be with her.

During classes they began to sit together more often. Sebastian's attendance was strangely erratic. Emma guessed he was sacrificing class for research. When he was there, they spoke like normal, but there was a thick tension in the air. He never spoke about Anne or the curse in class but his request of her hung over them.

If he noticed her proximity to Ominis, he didn't mention it.

In Charms, Natty and Poppy had given her knowing smiles when she did not join them on the higher desks, opting to sit on the lower level with Ominis. In Defence Against the Dark Arts they paired up and Emma learnt the specifics of Ominis' duelling style. In Potions they shared their table with Gareth Weasley, who couldn't help but ask about some of the rumours he had heard.

Emma continued to experience people's surprise at her friendship with Ominis, who was apparently notorious for not having friends. As a result of all the fuss, History of Magic became her favourite class. The curved desks allow for only two seats at a table. Just Emma and Ominis.

At present, they are out in the cold on the North rampart of Hogwarts again. It's snowing lightly on a cold, grey day. They are understandably alone.

"Feels different," she mutters, regarding the trauma at hand; she had just returned from the conclusion of her and Natty's Rookwood investigation, resulting in the death of the Dark Wizard.

"That's understandable. He was infamous."

Emma nods slowly. She removes her black studded gloves to reveal trembling fingers.

"I'm...I'm shaking ," she laughs coldly.

Ominis is quiet and still for a moment, before he holds his gloved hand out.

"May I?"

Emma's mind goes blank, unable to do anything but blink rapidly and stare until she comes to her senses. She places her icy fingers there and Ominis wraps her hand in his. He squeezes gently, comforting the shake and warming the cold.

An owl suddenly swoops into their moment, hooting as it comes to land beside Ominis with a great flap of its wings. It shudders off snow and drops a letter in his lap.

"A white barn owl."

"Credence, Anne's owl," Ominis responds. Emma restracts from his hand quickly.

She watches in silence as he taps his wand to the parchment, thinking back to when she sent him a howler. Sebastian had told her the spell he used to read is harder to work with concerning handwriting.

"This can't be," Ominis frowns. Before she can ask what's wrong, he waves the parchment into her lap.

Emma reads it, quickly filling with dread.

Sebastian had finally gone too far.

"We must go at once," she declares, getting to her feet.

Ominis sighs, "I'm sorry this comes at such a time for you."

She laughs wearily, "What's a little more trauma to such a day?"

-

Anne was waiting for them at the entrance to the catacomb, looking stricken and afraid.

She feels horrible for it, but as she and Ominis approached the girl, a tinge of possessiveness ran through Emma's veins. Their exact relationship was still unclear.

"Ominis! Emma!" Anne calls, hurrying to meet them, arms wrapped around herself. "Please, you have to help me. Sebastian has gone too far. What lies in the catacomb..." she gives a frightened look at the musty entrance, "I cannot stay here."

Emma nods knowingly, ready to head in with Ominis.

"You don't want to see him?" The boy asks, not following.

"Ominis, he was willing to put the whole hamlet and himself in danger on the chance that some old relic could help to heal me."

Emma studies her closely, seeing the clear detachment she is feeling from her twin.

"I'm sorry, Ominis. Make sure he's all right, will you?" Her tired eyes move from him to Emma, pleading. Emma gives a sad smile and nods again, before Anne turns and heads back towards the hamlet.

They stand in silence for a minute, until Ominis turns heel and marches towards the catacomb

"I'm glad you're here, Emma." He brushes past her with a stormy expression. "At least you're not with him this time."

The sudden flip of mood stings. Before following him she tosses a glance at where Anne is now at the bottom of the hill.

He was upset because she didn't come with them.

"Anne's right," Ominis begins as they brave the aged stone hall. Emma resists rolling her eyes. "He and the entire Hamlet are in danger. This place is crawling with Inferi."

She trips up at his words. Ominis stops abruptly, turning back with concern.

Emma stares back awkwardly, "They're the only thing I've come across that I'm afraid of."

His eyebrows twitch up, but he tries to hide it. His wand glows red between them, nothing but the eerie sounds of the catacomb around them.

"Well, you're not alone this time," he says carefully.

"I can tell you blame me for this," she blurts out.

"I don't blame you," he responds quickly. "I just think...we never should have let him take the relic."

"You didn't," Emma sighs solemnly, "I did."

She passes him and carries on into the doom.

"Lumos."

Though the tombs are lit with candles on the floor, the light from her wand seems impossibly bright.

"Last time we were here, this place was crawling with spiders."

She feels Ominis get closer.

"The dead must have scared them off, or worse. We need to find him quickly."

Her eyes dart along the ground, looking for any sign of the Inferi rising as they sprint through the tomb, propelled by fear. A rotten smell is in the air and she can feel the dark magic pressing in.

"Where did Anne's say she found him?"

"Just ahead. In the Great-"

The moment they had been anticipating erupts around them as they slide into a stone foyer. Inferi burst from the ground, roaring and writhing, reaching for them.

Without missing a beat Emma burns them all, a ring of Incendio billowing around her and Ominis.

Letting go of her fear, she leaps forward into the centre of the chaos, as with all battles. Fire, ash and singed bone quickly fill the air as she dances with the flame at the tip of her wand, burning and annihilating.

She checks Ominis is clear and following before sprinting ahead, coming to the first central tomb.

There, she vaults herself off the balcony down into a nest of Inferi, to the shout of her name from Ominis behind her. Concerned, afraid for her; but he was finally experiencing what she was capable of.

That was enough to face her fears.

"I've never known so many Inferi to spawn in one place!" She hears, never once losing sight of the pale head of blonde hair at the edge of the battle, dealing his own sizable dent in the army.

"And there's no sign of Sebastian..."

Emma stops a moment and lets the remaining ones come closer. As she looks into their soulless eyes in their rotting faces, a very strange sense of familiarity comes over her.

Not for their appearance or anything like that, but their magic. Their magic felt known, in a way that repulsed her.

She was acquainted with this magic. It felt just like...

The shock turns to rage and she fuels it into her attacks, unleashing a fiery hell upon the dead. None can come close with her great rings of flame and the explosive blasts firing off in every direction.

The last of the dead fall to ash together, leaving a whispery silence behind.

Emma stands in the dust, confused and shocked by her discovery.

"Are you-"

"It's him," she admits immediately, breathless, smoothing her hair back out of stress as her mind analyses everything. "I can sense his magic within them."

Ominis sighs, defeated, "Anne did say in her letter that he learned how to use the relic."

"and there were carvings of Inferi on the relic," Emma concludes. "The relic...allows him to create Inferi?"

"I don't think that's the case," he responds, "He's controlling them. This is powerful Dark Magic. Creating Inferi is incredibly difficult, I think he's commanding them-" Ominis freezes suddenly, a look of further horror overtaking his face. "Hold on a moment."

Emma's eyes widen, "What?"

"I was so worried about Sebastian I didn't even realise; Anne's gone to get Solomon! When she said she couldn't stay here, I didn't understand what she meant. She already knows he's too far gone."

Emma can't help but agree. This whole time, he had been attacking them. The betrayal burns deep, thinking of how she and Ominis had been willing to die to avoid hurting a friend, while Sebastian was out here trying to kill them.

"Solomon threatened to go to the Headmaster if he heard of Sebastian dealing with Dark Magic," Emma states, hollow. Should they even care?

"I need to get to Hogwarts," he declares, "I must get to Professor Black first. Twist the story a bit. Make him think it's a family fight."

A part of her wants to tell him to stay, that he'd be more likely to come to Sebastian himself, but Ominis knew Solomon better, and she didn't need his help to get through the Inferi.

"I'll be back as soon as I can. See if you can talk some sense into Sebastian..." He held up his wand, glowing red. "He might actually listen to you."

Emma deflates, "As you say."

He turns back the way they came, "Be careful, Emma."

"You too."

The rest of the way, battling Inferi and solving dead puzzles, Emma ponders on what she should say to him.

Her anger keeps overriding any empathy and she begins to wish Ominis had stayed and she had gone instead. He is less prone to rage.

As she comes over the bridge of bones, she is met with a disturbing sight.

Sebastian, at the centre of the catacomb, smiling. Web-wrapped bodies hang from the ceiling. A dry tar pit of bones lay beneath his feet. Most eerily, three Inferi surround him, heads bent in submission, seemingly idle.

His smile only deepens when their eyes meet, much to Emma's disgust.

"Isn't this incredible?" He announces, holding his arms up in reverence at the revolting scene around him.

His words bring a memory to surface; of his jealousy and awe of her and Ominis having unique abilities. His parsel tongue, her ancient magic.

Perhaps those feelings played a role in his pursuit, beyond Anne's cure.

Emma steels herself, becoming hard and poised.

"Sebastian-"

"I told you! The relic is the answer." His stance is smug, overconfident, but his eyes are desperate for her to understand. "I've been trying to reverse the Dark Magic that injured Anne, but this will allow me to control it - just as I can control the Inferi."

Emma regards him with disgust.

"'Control'? I had to fight Inferi all the way! Why-"

She is cut off suddenly by a spell, flying past her ear. It hits the closest Inferi, knocking it to the ground. Their heads snap back to the source, finding Solomon coming towards them.

"What have you done?" He growls, glaring at his nephew with deadly eyes, "Accio Relic!"

The prism of Inferi shoots out of Sebastian's hand and into his uncle's, who points his wand at it.

"Solomon! Don't!" He pleads, but Slytherin's artefact quickly turns to red and black ash in his hand. "The relic!" Sebastian mourns, face stricken, almost falling to his knees. She and Solomon share an uneasy look. She wonders if he knows her role in this.

Emma feels a sense of relief at the relic's destruction, amongst the pity for Sebastian. She can not watch the family fight for long however, as the Inferi immediately begin to rise, no longer controlled.

"You'll pay for this!" Sebastian cries, turning to his uncle threateningly.

"Sebastian, don't do this," Emma begs, but can not continue her plea when the Inferi come too close, leaving Sebastian to duel his uncle as she takes on the dead.

Once again flames surround them and Emma does not let up, desperately trying to get rid of them all so she can stop the battle between uncle and nephew.

In the glimpses she can get, they are both dishing out aggressive spells, throwing each other about, blasting fire and ice. Sebastian holds his own against the ex-auror, who Emma is surprised to see holds nothing back.

The Inferi never seem to stop coming at her, perhaps fueled by the rage in the air.

Emma ducks and dives, roaring fire dancing around her from the tip of her wand. Inferi are singed, embers in the shape of bodies, collapsing to ash when she casts the severing charm in the fire's wake.

More spawn between her and the family battle, snarling and growling as they reach for her from all directions. Her hand slips into her coat, feeling for the wide bottle of Thunderbrew which she gulps quickly.

It tastes the foulest of all the potions for its stench-of-the-dead component. A furious storm brews in her chest and bursts out, filling the room with crackling thunder.

"Incendio!" She casts, a great ring of flame expanding around her again, burning the dead before they are struck to nothingness by the storm raging above them.

Dust and embers on the ground gust in swirls as Emma dashes back across the room, back to Sebastian and Solomon.

The latter stumbles around, holding his side. Sebastian is clearly injured but does not seem to feel it, nor hear Emma as she calls his name. She stops just short of their battlefield, unwilling to put herself in the middle.

In Sebastian's eyes, a boundless fury scorched, devastated and pained.

"She can not be healed, Sebastian," Solomon declares. His pain is clear too, along with frustration, and fear. "You must stop."

"Listen to him, Sebastian," Emma pleads, but he does not seem to hear her, another curse leaving his wand and crashing over his uncle who is too weak to dodge.

"I won't let her suffer," Sebastian declares. His tone, his anguish; Emma's blood runs cold.

It all happens too quickly.

She feels the magic in the room change in a way only Emma can. From its ever present warm hum to something cold, dark, even more so than the dead beneath their feet. The room seems colourless and icy, until the flash of green permeates the walls.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Emerald Death; burning, singing, destroying everything and all.

Emma's wand lifts on instinct, but it's too late to do anything. Nothing can stop it. Solomon collapses without so much as a grunt. The shock washes over her like a waterfall, complete bewilderment preventing her from even breathing.

Of all the outcomes of this battle, that was not one she saw coming. Instantly she felt like the stupidest person in the world. The path her friend had been going down this entire time seemed to be glowing, obvious now, as if taunting her.

He killed his own uncle.

The clatter of his wand against the floor seems louder than a bomb.

Emma watches in horror as something indescribably harrowing seemed to dissipate from Solomon's lifeless body. She has a feeling this is the effect her ancient magic eyes will see with the killing curse, the magic itself grotesque.

Such evil draws more Inferi from the ground. Emma tries to gather herself for further battle but feels unbelievably stuck.

"Depulso!"

Not easily startled, she stumbles back at the curse. Sebastian is violently thrown against the wall.

Anne, wearing the same stricken look her uncle and twin had with grief and tears on her face, came staggering towards them. Emma stared at her with a great sadness, and unmistakable guilt.

The two girls shared a look of despair. At that moment, Emma realises there are cold tears on her own face.

"Incendio!" Anne screams, circling with a jet of fire erupting from her wand, flaming the newly-risen Inferi. The flames are so hot Emma is forced to turn away, burning bright with the girl's grief and rage. The creatures last only a few seconds.

Anne collapses beside her uncle's body, turning him to his back as if hoping to find the curse had failed. Sebastian looked on in horror. Words felt stuck in Emma's throat as she watched the family fall to pieces.

After a moment with her uncle, Anne slowly got back to her feet. Emma could not see her face, but the siblings were sharing a look.

She began stalking towards the altar.

"Bombarda!"

Only Emma sees the magic of the book dissipate. It rises in the form of flaming, shrieking souls, which ultimately die as the book and altar burn, while Sebastian screams.

"No!"

Anne winces in pain, her curse clearly reacting to the excess of magic she is using.

"You've made your choice," she declares weakly. Looking away from him in disgust, back down to Solomon, she lowers herself.

She bows her head over his chest and disappears with his body.

Sebastian reaches a hand out in vain.

"Oh... Anne," he laments, distraught. "What have you done?"

Wrath stirs in Emma. Her eyes move from the spot where Anne and Solomon had been, to her fellow Slytherin, in disgust.

"What did you say?" She finally speaks. Though croaky, her voice comes out with ice. She feels like throwing him into the wall herself.

Of all the things she had faced during her time at Hogwarts so far, this had been more confronting than anything. What do they do now? He just killed an Auror. Should she even care?

In that moment she feels nothing for him but disdain.

He stumbles to his feet without giving an answer. He looks forward, at the way out, with new determination.

"I must get out of here."

He suddenly starts sprinting out of the room, as if Emma weren't even there.

"Sebastian, wait!" She calls out angrily, chasing him back through the catacomb. "Stop Sebastian! Just hold on."

Her body felt weak and wobbly from more than 36 hours without sleep. Her skin was burnt in places from the constant fire. Her hands and mind were quaking at having witnessed a close friend callously murder his own uncle with a Dark spell. But she keeps up with him.

He pays her no attention the whole way out, not until they burst out of the catacomb into the early morning light. Emma came out behind him to see him basking in the dawn glow. She could feel it affect him, blinding the gloom of the curse and relic.

"What is it?" He suddenly asks, without looking at her.

"You better be joking," she grunts, having never felt so exasperated by someone in her entire life. Not even her father.

"Anne won't survive this," he begins to rant, not meeting Emma's eyes, as if he did not notice her anger, "She's withering away; inside and out. Solomon's never been there for us. Not really."

"So he deserved to die?" She mutters, staring at him in bewilderment.

His head snapped to her in distress. He came closer to Emma in a way that made her want to raise her wand and began angrily pacing back and forth.

"He gave up on Anne," he spat, venom in his words. Emma grew more and more nauseous by the second. "I'll never give up on her."

She has known what has really been driving him since they perused the library together months ago. When he first told her about Anne, she knew she could never understand the fear of losing your twin to something that hurts and can not be fixed.

What she didn't know is that such fear could drive him so far.

"You saw him, didn't you, Emma?" He suddenly seized her shoulders in his hands, pulling her close. She recoils but does not push him for the sake of his mental state. He stares into her eyes deeply, as if searching.

"Sebastian-"

"He was going to ruin her life! He attacked us." He lets her go, stumbling backwards, "I-I had to use the killing curse. You know I did." He goes back inside his own head for a moment, before adding, "If I hadn't known how to cast it..."

Emma shakes her head in disbelief, "You went too far Sebastian."

He seems to realise then that she is not taking his side. A new type of pain blossoms in his eyes as he stares at her, backing away.

"I-I can't think right now. I need to leave," he tells her, turning around and starting down the hill. "I can't stay here. I need to find Ominis."

Emma moves to follow, "Sebastian-"

"Please," he faces her again but continues moving away, "I'm not myself right now. I'll meet you later, in the undercroft."

Emma forces herself to stop, not wasting any time to watch him. She casts a foul look over her shoulder at the catacomb as she takes out her field guide, selecting the trophy room floo flame. It's the highest in the Grand Staircase Tower. The closest to Black's office.

When she pops into the castle, she sees her reflection in the cabinet, covered in ash and grime. Luckily it's still too early for many people to be out. Besides, this sight was not an unusual one for her.

She closes her eyes and tries to sense Ominis out, as she had felt possible before. There had not been much time to practice this particular part of her ancient magic ability. But she would try anyway.

The deeper she breathes, the more of the castle she can feel. The spirit of magic in every student and teacher paled in comparison to the magic of the castle itself. Sometimes it felt overwhelming.

When she catches the feeling of Ominis' magic beneath her, she turns away from the Headmaster's office and begins down the Grand Staircase.

The portraits shout at her to stop running as she flies down them three at a time, the last step barely materialising before her foot lands. Using the floo network does not occur to her rattled brain.

Her footsteps echo off the walls of the Slytherin halls when she reaches the last floor.

She quickly stops when she rounds the corner to the Common Room entrance. He stands there, at the centre of the snake tiles, with a stormy expression that vanishes upon her arrival.

"Are you hurt?" He asks immediately, tender, as he comes towards her. "What happened?"

Emma opens her mouth to speak, but can't get the words out.

Ominis frowns, "Emma?"

Without thinking, when he's close enough, she leans forward, gently pressing her head into his chest. Ominis accepts her immediately, the arm not holding his wand encircling her shoulders.

"He killed Solomon."

And for a second time that day, she'd hear a wand clatter to the floor, in grief.