The morning sun bathed the uneven cobblestones of Diagon Alley, lending the bustling shopping district an air of peaceful normality. Far from the political tensions of the Wizengamot and the shadows of the continent, magical life in Great Britain went on as usual.
Seated on the terrace of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, Aurelian Gaunt was enjoying the peace of the place. He took small bites of his vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips while watching the crowd. All around him, children ran from one shop window to another, their faces smeared with sweets, laughing their heads off, while their parents walked behind them, simply enjoying a family day out.
Aurelian leaned back in his chair, feeling strangely relaxed. That day he had agreed to meet with Fred and George Weasley, as they wanted to check out potential commercial locations to finally open their dream joke shop: Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.
He was finishing the last spoonful of his ice cream when he saw them approaching through the crowd. Fred and George were walking briskly, with those mischievous smiles on their faces that foreshadowed the chaos of the day.
"Lord Gaunt!" Fred greeted him, bowing exaggeratedly.
"We hope we haven't interrupted your important business, Your Majesty," George added, sitting down across from him.
Aurelian rolled his eyes in amusement and set the spoon down in the glass bowl.
"Would you like some ice cream before we start our search? It's on me," Aurelian offered, pointing to his sundae.
Both twins shook their heads in unison. They were too excited by the prospect of finding their own shop to think about food. Without wasting any more time, the three of them got up and began walking down the alley, studying the empty storefronts, assessing the flow of people, and debating how big the back room would need to be for their inventions.
They walked for quite a while, ruling out a couple of places for being too small or located in very boring areas, until they stopped near the imposing white marble building of Gringotts.
Aurelian looked at the bank's enormous doors and then turned to the twins, a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.
"Since we're here… would you like to see my vault?" he asked casually.
Fred and George's eyes widened, shining with curiosity. Without a second thought, they nodded quickly, grabbed Aurelian by the arms, and practically dragged him down the marble stairs toward the bank's interior.
Once inside, they submitted their request, and a stern goblin guided them through the dark stone tunnels.
The ride in the mine carts into the depths of the mine was a spectacle in itself. Fred and George, feeling obliged to liven up the trip, began pulling pranks: they pretended to fall over, screamed as if they were on a Muggle roller coaster, and tried to catch the stalactites as they passed by. Aurelian couldn't help but burst out laughing at his friends' antics, enjoying the moment and the camaraderie.
The cart finally screeched to a halt in front of one of the deepest and oldest vaults, guarded by two enormous metal doors carved with large serpents that gave off a faint magical aura.
The goblin slid a finger through the keyhole, and the doors swung open with a sharp click.
Fred and George stepped inside and opened their mouths so wide their jaws nearly dislocated.
The interior of the Gaunt Vault was an astonishing sight to behold. It seemed bottomless, an immense hall stretching into the darkness. The further they walked inward, the more gold they saw. There were mountains of gleaming coins, chests overflowing with priceless jewels, shelves crammed with thick books, and pedestals holding strange and obscure magical artifacts.
Fred blinked repeatedly, trying to process the absurd amount of wealth surrounding him, and turned to Aurelian, scratching his head.
"Hey, Aurelian... all this is really impressive, honestly, but... where are the Sickles and Knuts?" asked Fred, genuinely confused at not seeing any smaller coins.
Aurelian let out a loud, clear laugh that echoed off the stone walls.
"You'll only find Galleons here, Fred," he replied with an arrogant smile.
George laughed along with him, giving him a gentle nudge in the ribs.
"By Merlin's beard, you're such a show-off," George joked, shaking his head.
Aurelian's laughter slowly faded. He took a few steps among the mountains of gold and ran his fingers along the spine of an ancient grimoire resting on a pile of coins. His gaze grew distant, and a strange, melancholic smile curved his lips.
"You know," Aurelian said quietly, without looking at them, "when I was just discovering the magical world and entered this vault for the first time, I didn't have a single coin. Nothing. There was only dust, cobwebs, and the occasional broken, dilapidated artifact. It was the tomb of a ruined family."
Fred and George were stunned. All the amusement vanished from their faces, replaced by astonishment and disbelief. They looked at the gold, then looked at each other, and finally looked at their friend.
"So… how?" Fred murmured, instinctively pointing at the vast fortune. "How did you manage all this?"
Aurelian looked up. His expression was gentle and vulnerable, something even his friends rarely saw.
"Luck," Aurelian replied, his voice barely a whisper in the vast silence of the vault. "Good luck... and to my mom."
The twins fell completely silent. In all the years they'd known Aurelian—doing business and sharing secrets—they'd never, not once, heard him mention his mother. That sudden glimpse into their friend's past was a jolt of reality.
Fred and George exchanged a look. They knew when a joke was appropriate and when it was time to be quiet. They asked no more questions; they didn't press him. They simply nodded, respecting the weight of that silence.
Minutes later, as they left Gringotts and stepped back into the light of Diagon Alley, the Weasley twins walked a step behind him.
They watched Aurelian's back with a new and deep respect. They had always known he was brilliant and powerful, but now they understood the true magnitude of his will. Aurelian had achieved everything he had—the gold, the political power, the empire known as Gauntcorp—starting literally from nothing, doing it entirely on his own… without parents, without a family to support him… or love him, and in a world that initially despised him simply for who he was.
For Fred and George, that level of determination wasn't just impressive; it was, in fact, worthy of the utmost admiration and respect.
The soft plop of his appearance echoed through the spacious, elegant foyer of Gaunt Manor. Aurelian had barely had time to brush off any debris from Diagon Alley that might have clung to his clothes when two human projectiles threw themselves at him.
Hestia and Flora threw themselves at him, hugging him desperately. They buried their faces in Aurelian's chest, trembling with a mixture of indignation and fury.
"My love!" Hestia shrieked, tightening her grip. "A crazy vagrant broke into the house!"
"She's disgusting and completely deranged!" added Flora, looking at him with her large black eyes full of revulsion. "You have to throw her out, Aurelian!"
Aurelian blinked, surprised by the twins' unusual agitation. He raised both hands and began to stroke their heads with slow movements to calm them down. As the girls sighed and relaxed under his touch, Aurelian's mind wondered what had happened.
A crazy vagrant? The Gaunt Mansion's protections were impenetrable; no one without the explicit permission of someone with Gaunt blood could cross the threshold. He wondered who on earth that woman could be to have managed to get in, and above all, to have reduced the unflappable Carrow sisters to such a state of hysteria.
"Calm down, my darlings. I'll go see who it is," Aurelian murmured.
Walking slowly, with Hestia and Flora still clinging tightly to his sides, Aurelian made his way down the hallways. Guided by the echo of cheerful laughter, he headed toward one of the rooms in the east wing.
Upon reaching the doorway, the scene he encountered was, to say the least, surreal.
Nagini and Barty Crouch Jr. were sitting comfortably on a sofa. Barty was chuckling softly while Nagini watched it all with a mixture of curiosity and slight revulsion.
The source of their amusement was in the center of the room. An extremely emaciated woman, her pale skin almost clinging to her bones, wearing dirty prison rags and with an untamed tangle of long black hair, sat at a small table. She was devouring a large plate of food with her hands, gobbling it down desperately.
Hearing Aurelian's footsteps, the woman stopped her frantic eating and looked up.
Her sunken eyes, rimmed with dark circles, locked onto him, and a spark of recognition flashed in them.
Without warning, the woman dropped her food, leaped unnaturally high, and lunged straight at Aurelian.
The girls didn't even have time to draw their wands. The woman grabbed Aurelian's face in her hands, getting so close that he could smell her rancid odor. She inspected him from head to toe, turning his face from side to side while a wide, deranged, toothless grin spread across her face.
"Oh, my goodness...!" the woman squealed in a high-pitched, childlike voice, pinching his cheeks. "Just look at you! You're my handsome lord! So adorable, so perfect—my sweet, beautiful lord!
Hestia and Flora let out a scream when they saw that slut touching their fiancé's skin, but before they could cast a Killing Curse.
Crack!
Aurelian dematerialized from the woman's hands and reappeared instantly on the opposite side of the room, near a fireplace. He was deeply shaken by the invasion of his personal space.
Immediately, Hestia and Flora ran toward him and embraced him again, positioning themselves protectively in front of his body, hissing like rabid cats at the black-haired woman.
Just then, the wooden doors of the room swung wide open. Lord Voldemort, clad in dark robes and wearing an expression of deep weariness, appeared.
"What is going on?" Voldemort asked, his voice echoing through the room.
Nagini, sitting on the sofa, cleared her throat. She raised a hand and pointed at the gaunt woman.
The recent escapee from Azkaban was completely oblivious to the tension in the room. She had spun on her heels and was now staring at Aurelian from across the room, hopping frantically on the tips of her toes with excitement, her hands clasped beneath her chin like a lovesick teenager.
Voldemort rubbed the bridge of his nose and let out a long sigh.
"Bellatrix... control yourself, please," Voldemort ordered her in a tone that made it clear he had no patience for her eccentricities today.
Bellatrix Lestrange stopped dead in her tracks upon hearing her master's voice. She turned quickly toward Voldemort and dropped to her knees, crawling a couple of steps toward him in a posture of total submission.
"A thousand apologies, my Lord! I'm sorry, I'm so very sorry!" Bellatrix whimpered, lowering her head. "It's just that… oh, my Lord…"
She looked up again, and her maniacal gaze fixed on Aurelian once more.
"I'm so excited to finally meet the cute little Lord Gaunt! He's the spitting image of you! Like two peas in a pod!" Bellatrix exclaimed, hopping up and down with excitement even while on her knees.
Aurelian, still shielded by the two furious Carrow sisters, began to wipe away the light dirt the Death Eater had left on his cheeks. He stared intently at the most dangerous and lethal witch in Great Britain as she crawled across the floor, casting somewhat unsettling glances his way.
"Definitely," thought Aurelian, keeping his face expressionless, "this woman is the craziest person I've ever met."
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