Aurelian's wand continued to glow with that lethal green light of the Killing Curse, fixed firmly on a sullen Vinda Rosier. However, his attention shifted to the Magizoologist who had just burst into the hallway.
Aurelian raised an eyebrow, without lowering his arm.
"Tell me, Professor Scamander," Aurelian said, his voice trying to sound pragmatic, "why exactly should I spare the life of someone like her? She entered our school with the intention of kidnapping or killing me; she doesn't deserve mercy."
Newt Scamander stopped a few meters away. His expression, normally shy and affable, had hardened.
"Because that's not the way, young man," Newt replied firmly, looking him straight in the eye. "Killing your enemies in cold blood is never the solution you should choose. That kind of act only breeds an endless cycle that will bring more violence, more revenge, and more destruction for everyone."
Aurelian seemed to consider his words for a second. He tilted his head, and the green light at the tip of his wand flickered.
"You have a good point, Professor. What you say is a truth I cannot ignore," Aurelian conceded.
Newt gave a tiny smile of relief, believing he had gotten through to the young man. However, Aurelian's smile twisted into something much darker.
"That's true—as long as you let the other side survive. Or if you allow someone to live so they can seek revenge," Aurelian continued. "But if you eliminate absolutely everything and everyone who opposes you… then no one would ever remember what you did or who carried it out."
Aurelian smiled, a smile so cold it made the blood of those present run cold.
"After all, history is always written by the victors. Who knows how many civilizations, cultures, and magical traditions were forgotten forever, simply because someone greater, smarter, and stronger annihilated them without leaving anyone alive who could remember or avenge them?"
Taking advantage of the distraction caused by Newt's arrival, Vinda Rosier had crept silently across the floor until she reached her wand. Her fingers closed around the wood, but, upon hearing the young Gaunt's monologue, she remained completely still, listening to his words with absolute attention.
"How much truth there is in them," Vinda thought, feeling a chill—what she might call admiration—run down her spine. His philosophy was raw, brutal, and perfect. That was how the real world had always worked: the weak disappear, and the strong dictate what is true. What is good and what is evil—everything revolves around that.
Newt, ignoring the student's dark speech, quickly crouched down beside Percival Graves's lifeless body. He checked the Dark Wizard's pulse and noticed the horrific marks on his neck, from which abnormally black blood was oozing.
"By Merlin," Newt muttered, alarmed. "What creature bit him, Aurelian? I need to know so I can neutralize the poison."
Aurelian simply shrugged with utter indifference. He wasn't going to tell him anything that might save him.
Newt snorted in frustration, realizing the boy wouldn't cooperate. He already had his suspicions, but confirmation wouldn't hurt. Drawing on the experience forged during his travels around the world, Scamander spun on his heels. With a swift flick of his wand, he cast a disarming spell on Vinda, snatching the wand from her hands before she could use it, followed immediately by a binding spell that pinned her to the ground.
Without wasting a second, Newt turned to Graves and began murmuring a complex healing spell, enveloping the wizard in his magic. He induced a very deep catatonic state, freezing his vital functions to prevent whatever was affecting him from killing him before they reached St. Mungo's.
Seeing that the situation was under the pacifist professor's control, Aurelian lowered his wand and turned to leave—there was nothing he could do here.
"That soft-hearted nature of yours will get you into serious trouble someday, Professor Scamander," Aurelian warned him without looking back, walking toward the stairs.
Newt didn't take his eyes off the immobilized wizards, but he let out a small chuckle.
"I hear that a lot, Aurelian. I hear that a lot."
As he walked down the corridor and out of the magizoologist's sight, Aurelian slipped a hand under his robes and pulled out the little basilisk. Carefully, he set Nythoros down on the floor.
"Return to your normal size," Aurelian hissed at him in Parseltongue, his eyes glinting coldly. "Scour the castle and eliminate any intruding wizard or witch you find who tries to harm the students. Leave no trace that they ever set foot in the school."
Nythoros nodded, hissing with pure excitement. As Aurelian walked away, the serpent's body began to expand; its bones creaked and its scales multiplied until the gigantic King of Serpents returned to his imposing original size. With a hiss that made the walls tremble, Nythoros slithered swiftly through the dark corridors in search of his meal. It had been far too long since he'd devoured fresh humans, and he had no intention of passing up the feast that lay ahead.
Aurelian, for his part, had a much grander goal in mind. He hurried up the stairs toward the upper floors. He was searching for Headmaster Dumbledore; if Grindelwald was in the castle, the impending clash between these two titans was something he would not miss for anything in the world.
Suddenly, a colossal roar made him stagger.
Aurelian stopped and poked his head out of one of the windows in the hallway. The night wind hit his face. He narrowed his eyes and extended his magical senses outward. In the distance, right in the direction of the stadium, he could sense two overwhelmingly strong magical presences colliding with one another. The roar had definitely come from there.
A smile of pure excitement spread across his face.
Aurelian ran out, leaving the safety of the hallways behind to venture into the night, heading at full speed toward the immense Quidditch field. That night was pure history, and he was going to have the best seat in the house to witness the devastating duel between two Archmages giving it their all.
Deep within the dungeons, the reality outside seemed nonexistent. In their room, Hestia and Flora slept peacefully in the same bed, clinging tightly to one another, sharing exactly the same dream.
It was a beautiful, idyllic fantasy. In the world of their dreams, the sky was clear and the birds were singing. Both were walking down the aisle of a vast cathedral, wearing beautiful white silk dresses that trailed along the floor. They were linked arm-in-arm with their father, moving slowly toward the altar where they would finally marry their soulmates.
There, at the end of the aisle, their beloved Aurelian awaited them. He wore an impeccable, tailor-made black suit and watched them approach with a smile full of love, reaching out his hands to them.
Hestia and Flora sighed in their sleep, raising their arms to take their future husband's hands. They were just one centimeter away from touching him, from sealing their happy ending...
But suddenly, the world collapsed.
They were yanked out of their reverie in an instant, feeling something shaking them desperately by the shoulders.
Both opened their eyes at the same time, their pupils dilated with fury. They were having the most perfect and beautiful dream of their entire lives, and something had just ruined it. They sat up abruptly in bed, ready to cast the deadliest curse they knew.
Standing before them, trembling but still tugging at them, was a small kitchen elf holding a sharp knife in his free hand.
"Why the hell are you waking us up, you damn stupid creature?!" Hestia screamed at the top of her lungs, reaching for her wand on the nightstand, ready to skin him alive.
The elf cowered and instinctively hid behind his own hands, terrified by the twins' bloodlust, but forced himself to speak.
"I-I'm so sorry, mistresses, but the elf had to do it!" the creature shrieked in a high-pitched voice. "It was a direct order! It's extremely important to wake everyone at the school immediately!"
Flora's blind fury subsided when she noticed the creature's unusual behavior. Elves never woke the students, and they certainly never carried weapons.
"Why? What's going on?" Flora demanded, frowning.
The elf looked at them with his enormous eyes.
"There are evil intruders at Hogwarts! Be very careful! Elf is warning you, but now elf must go quickly to eliminate them all and defend our home, yes sir!"
Without giving them time to process the absurdity of hearing a house elf talk about "eliminating" intruders, the creature vanished with a ¡POP! , leaving the girls bewildered in the dim light of their room.
The bewilderment lasted only a second. Their curiosity about what was really going on took over. They got dressed quickly, grabbed their wands, and ran off to the Slytherin common room.
When they arrived, they were met with chaos. Almost all the Slytherin students were already awake, huddled on the sofas or sitting on the rugs, talking among themselves and whispering nervously. The prefects and older students, demonstrating their house's hierarchy, were trying to control the first-years, ordering them to stay away from the doors.
Hestia and Flora ignored the crowd. They scanned every corner, every shadow, and every armchair in the common room with their eyes, searching for Aurelian's unmistakable figure.
But he wasn't there.
The twins' hearts skipped a beat. Not seeing him in his usual armchair or by the fireplace, fear for their beloved's safety gripped them.
Before they could run down the hallway to the boys' dormitories to look for him, the unmistakable sound of the front door opening silenced the entire room.
Professor Severus Snape entered, his robes billowing. His face was paler and more stern than usual. His dark eyes swept over his students, ensuring he had their full attention.
"Listen to me carefully," Snape began, his drawling voice echoing in the silence of the room. "Under no circumstances are you to leave the common room. The doors will be sealed from the inside."
Daphne Greengrass, standing near the fireplace, stepped forward.
"Professor… is it true what the house-elves were shouting? Are there intruders inside the castle?"
Snape nodded curtly.
"That is correct, Miss Greengrass. The castle has been breached. That is why I order you to stay here and not, under any circumstances, try to play the hero." Snape let his gaze sweep over the older students. "Although I know each of you perfectly well and know that none of you would be foolish enough to go out and risk your necks for others, it doesn't hurt to remind you. If you stay here, you'll be safe."
Silence reigned once more, broken only by a faint, reckless whisper from a fourth-year boy standing near the twins.
"But… Aurelian Gaunt isn't here… professor," the boy murmured, looking around in terror.
Hestia and Flora whipped their heads around so quickly it almost made a cracking sound. Both shot the fourth-year boy a venomous glare; the poor student turned as pale as a ghost, screamed, and quickly hid behind a sofa, fearing for his life more from the Carrow sisters than from the intruders in the castle.
Snape picked up on the exchange, noticed the obvious absence of his house leader, and, closing his eyes for a second, rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Silly boy," Snape muttered to himself, referring to Aurelian and his hopeless king complex, which surely had him fighting in the hallways instead of hiding.
Without wasting any more time, the Head of Slytherin House turned on his heel and hurried out of the common room to join the rest of the faculty on the upper floors of the castle.
The very moment the door began to close behind the professor, panic once again gripped the younger students, creating a new uproar of voices and shoving.
Hestia and Flora didn't need to exchange a single word. They shared the same mind, the same goal.
Taking advantage of the confusion and chaos, they both slipped along the edges of the room. Just before the door was completely sealed by the spell, the twins slipped away into the dark corridors of the dungeons.
They had to find him. No matter who had invaded their school—whether it was Grindelwald or Merlin himself, resurrected—no one would stand between them and their fiancé.
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