The afternoon sun was gently setting over the grounds of Hogwarts, bathing the lawns and towers of the castle in a beautiful amber hue. The breeze rustled the leaves on the trees, carrying with it the scent of wildflowers and the promise of a new summer just around the corner.
For most students, the end of the school year meant exams and nerves. But for Aurelian, it meant the end of another stage at school.
He walked along one of the stone paths that led to the back gardens, away from the hustle and bustle of the main courtyard. Of course, he wasn't alone. Hestia walked on his right, her arm firmly intertwined with his as she rested her head on his shoulder. Flora walked on his left, her fingers intertwined with Aurelian's, gently swaying their hands with each step.
At that moment, they were just three teenagers enjoying their love and companionship in their own world.
"So Fudge really offered you the Junior Assistant position at the Ministry, my love?" Flora asked with a giggle, looking at Aurelian's profile adoringly.
"He did," Aurelian confirmed with a relaxed smile. "He explicitly said, 'A talent like yours shouldn't be wasted on vacation.' Of course, I told him I'd think about it, but it really doesn't do me much good to accept the position."
Hestia let out a soft laugh, squeezing his arm even tighter.
"Poor man. He thinks he can use you when in fact it's quite the opposite; he's just paving the way for you to walk all over him without getting your hands dirty."
Aurelian chuckled at the comment. He paused for a moment in the shade of an ancient oak tree, turning to look at them both for a second. His dark eyes sparkled with affection.
"About that," Aurelian said, lowering his voice to a confidential tone, "there's something I've wanted to show them for months, and now it's finally ready."
She twins looked at him with immediate curiosity. They knew Aurelian spent hours working on something, sometimes disappearing into the dungeons or the library with books that no one else touched.
"Your secret project?" Hestia asked, raising an eyebrow. "The one that kept you up until dawn?"
Aurelian nodded.
"Until now, it was too unstable. The theory was solid, but the practice... well, let's just say there were a couple of small explosions that I preferred to keep away from you." He caressed both their cheeks with the back of his hand. "I didn't want to risk you getting hurt because of a miscalculation."
Hestia narrowed her eyes, feigning slight annoyance at the comment, even though her heart melted at his touch.
"You know we can take care of ourselves, Love. We're not made of glass."
"I know," Aurelian replied softly, "But you two are my treasure, and I don't want you to get hurt because of me." He paused, smiling proudly. "My experiments with Mr. Filch have borne fruit, and now I'm finally sure it's stable. It's time for you to see it."
The mention of Filch in those experiments always surprised them, but the promise of seeing their beloved's work overcame any doubts.
"Can we see it now?" Flora asked eagerly.
"Let's go there," Aurelian said.
Hestia and Flora exchanged a bright look. They both leaned toward him without warning. Hestia kissed the corner of his lips and Flora kissed his cheek, a gesture full of affection and gratitude for always including them in every part of his life, even his academic secrets.
"We love you," they whispered at the same time.
"I know," Aurelian replied, kissing each of the girls on the forehead. "I love you too. Come on, Argus is waiting for us."
They continued on their way, skirting the main greenhouses until they reached an old section of the gardens that almost no one visited, near a stone wall that bordered the Forbidden Forest. It was an area rarely frequented by students or teachers, full of vines and small, shapeless statues worn down by time.
There, next to a stone bench, Argus Filch was waiting for them.
Filch wasn't hunched over or wearing his classic look of hatred for the world. He was standing upright, holding a wooden box with both hands as if it were the Holy Grail. He was wearing a clean work robe, and when he saw Aurelian emerge from the bushes with the twins, his eyes lit up with a mixture of nervousness and scientific pride.
"Aurelian... ladies," Filch greeted them, his voice trembling slightly with anticipation. "Everything is ready. None of our calculations will fail again."
Aurelian released she twins and approached Filch, examining the box with a critical eye.
"Everything perfect?" Aurelian asked.
"None, Gaunt. Everything flows like a river. It's... it's so beautiful," Filch replied, almost with tears in his eyes.
Aurelian turned to Hestia and Flora, extending a hand to invite them closer.
"Girls... get ready. Argus and I are going to show you something that could change the way we understand magic. It could open new horizons for those who supposedly don't have the gift."
Filch placed the box on the stone bench and, with trembling hands, opened the lid.
Aurelian took a stack of parchment papers, cut into perfect squares, and a bottle of ink that glowed with a metallic blue hue, similar to mercury in its liquid state, out of the wooden box.
"Magic, as we are taught at Hogwarts, is about intention and the internal channeling of that intention," Aurelian began to explain, dipping a fine quill into the ink. "A wizard takes and uses his own magical reserve, usually pushing it through his wand and shaping reality. But what if you don't have that internal reserve?"
Hestia and Flora watched in fascination as Aurelian placed the paper on the flat stone surface. With quick, precise movements, he began to draw lines. These were not random scribbles, but rigorous geometric shapes. A perfect circle, inscribed triangles intersecting at acute angles, and small runes that the twins had never seen in their Ancient Runes classes.
"What I am drawing here," Aurelian continued without looking up, his hand moving with the confidence of a surgeon, "is a specific command written in a 'circuit,' if you will. This particular design has a single purpose: to create water. But instead of asking the water to appear with my voice, I am building a structure for the water to exist without my direct intervention."
Aurelian traced the last curve of the outer circle.
"This paper will create the stream of water. The important thing is that it won't use my magic to do so."
It was then that Argus Filch, unable to contain his enthusiasm, stepped forward. His hands moved in time with his explanation and his eyes sparkled with an intelligence that most students never believed he possessed.
"You see, ladies," Filch interjected in a raspy but clear voice, "the secret lies not in the power of the user, but in the environment. The air around us, the earth, the plants... everything is saturated with magic, which normally goes untapped. We... those of us without a core... cannot generate it, but with these patterns," he pointed reverently at the drawing on the paper, "we can take it to create the result we want."
The Carrow twins looked away from the paper and toward the caretaker.
"The drawing acts as a funnel," Filch continued, pointing to the triangles intersecting the circle. "The patterns trap the magic that is there in the environment, compress it in the center of the design, and force it to manifest physically. The paper is not the source, it is the catalyst. It converts the magical energy in the air into the requested element. It is... it is pure magical engineering."
Hestia and Flora blinked, surprised. They had never heard Filch speak with such eloquence and technical knowledge. For a moment, they saw the man not as the bitter janitor who chased students, but as a valuable collaborator in an unexplored branch of magic. There was a new respect in their eyes.
However, that respect had its limits. As they nodded politely to Filch, they exchanged a quick, knowing glance.
"He's brilliant," Hestia's eyes said. "But only a genius like our dear Aurelian could have taught a Squib to understand this," Flora's gaze replied.
To the girls, Filch was just a useful tool, polished and sharpened by the hands of their Beloved. All the credit in their hearts belonged to their Soul Mate Aurelian, who had made possible what other wizards believed impossible.
Aurelian finished the last stroke. A small spiral in the exact center of the design. He lifted the pen and straightened up.
"It's done," he said at last.
The paper lay inert on the stone. The ink glistened slightly.
Aurelian cleared his throat softly.
"Ahem."
Just a sound, a sound that seemed to mark the beginning of the activation. A second later, the blue ink lines flashed with an intense white light.
Hestia and Flora held their breath.
There was a sound like a vacuum cleaner sucking in air, and suddenly, the center of the paper lit up until it exploded.
FWOOSH!
A jet of crystal-clear water shot vertically from the paper, reaching a height of two meters with surprising pressure, wetting the leaves of a tree near to them.
The phenomenon lasted only a few seconds.
The white light intensified for a moment longer, then suddenly the paper curled in on itself. With a hiss, the parchment instantly consumed itself, disintegrating into sparkling dust, the energy that passed through the paper burning its physical existence to fuel the spell.
The rest of the water fell on the grass like a light rain. Silence returned to the garden momentarily.
"Incredible, it really works," whispered Flora, looking at the dust where the paper had been.
"A type of magic that doesn't depend on a person's own power," added Hestia, looking at Aurelian with a blush. "You never cease to amaze me, my Lord."
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