AMBER AND ROSES
Chapter One.
Twice already, twice that scent, the soft, feminine perfume of amber and roses, has hit Ominis' sense of smell hard in his nose in less than 24 hours.
The first time the boy noticed this particular perfume was during the previous night, right after dinner, once he and Sebastian were already comfortable in Slytherin´s common room. However, though he had never noticed it before, the young Gaunt suspected that one of his companions had stolen something from the other houses, probably as an inappropriate welcome jest for the freshman students.
The second time he perceived the smell was the next day, when the delicious floral perfume made him straighten his back completely, waking him suddenly from the slumber into which he had been sinking during enchantment's class. And it's not that Professor Ronan's class is boring, on the contrary, his teaching methods are particularly interesting for the curious and intelligent youngest son of the Gaunts; however, during the night Ominis had suffered from insomnia because Sebastian, his best friend and companion, had confessed him, without the slightest hesitation, that during the summer holidays, his main activity had been to learn and practice dark magic, and such knowledge worried him to no end, keeping him on the edge of his bed.
Ominis straightens up completely, forcing himself to appear awake, while Professor Ronan draws the attention of the class.
"Let's welcome our new student, please, Miss Danielle Michel, who, to everyone's surprise, starts in our prestigious school in the fifth year, so I ask you to be cordial with her, and support her in her studies."
'Ah! A new student.'
The news surprises the elegant blonde, although only slightly. Even though it was uncommon for a student to join more than halfway through school, it wasn't a rarity for transfer students from other schools to join them halfway through the year, but at least that explained the new scent that his sharp sense of smell had previously detected.
The unknown voice awakens him from his deep thoughts.
"Thank you very much, Professor."
His refined ear, sharpened like few others, perceives the feminine voice and throws an unknown and disturbing shudder into his chest.
'Wow! With the oddity of the smell, I would have thought her voice should be at least a little high-pitched.'
The boy has to accept that it's quite the opposite, his new partner's voice is soft, harmonious, but slightly raspy, low-pitched, as if she's making an effort to speak secretly, just a little louder than a whisper. It's... The only word that comes to mind to describe her voice would be "intimate." And he definitely finds it enjoyable.
'But it's so much more than that...' Ominis continues musing. 'From the name, she should come from France, probably from Beauxbaton, and, from what I've read of that school, the girl must be beyond beautiful.'
"Psst! Hey! You can come and sit with me!"
Ominis hears Natsai, his companion from the House of Gryffindor, who's sitting in the top row to his left, call out to the newcomer. It seems obvious to him that Natty would be one of the first to try to pull the new girl in. Natty, like a good Gryffindor, has always been very open, although sometimes she seems rather a trapper, so it's obvious that she would take advantage of the novelty to win over a likely sidekick...
Danielle, if he heard Professor Ronen correctly, passes by his side, so that the fragrance that he had barely perceived in his common room, now hits him square on the nose with overwhelming force, breaking his musings, and sending him over a cloud of blissful empty thoughts...
That is, until Leander, a Gryffindor comrade, whistles softly as she passes by him too, murmuring as low as he can.
"Who would´ve thought… a Gryffindor and a Slytherin befriending. I really need to see how this goes."
So, she is a Slytherin after all? The boy lets out an involuntary, soft smile at the prospect. Yes, Sebastian had told him something about it last night, just before they fought again. As he recalls, his friend had said that the new student had been selected into Slytherin, but Ominis had thought he was referring to freshmen.
Not to... well, her.
"How true is it that you faced a dragon before you came to Hogwarts?" Natsai asks her as soon as the girl sits beside her.
"Eh? Ah! Well..."
And there was his fellow Gryffindor, exaggerating the situation as always, also a typical characteristic of Natsai, as well as meddlesome. And that's also one of the reasons why Ominis doesn't like to talk to any Gryffindor...
"Have you seen the new girl yet? Boy, does she have everything in the right place!" Garreth, the Gryffindor Ominis dislikes the most, second only to Leander, elbows him on the ribs, taking him by surprise and causing him to exhale heavily. "Oh! Uh... sorry Ominis... I mistook you for Sebastian."
The blond boy gives him the most reprobating countenance he can get. Fortunately, the Gaunt boy hears how someone behind him, surely Sebastian, gives Garreth a tremendous blow directly to Weasley´s head.
"You, idiot!"
"I'm sorry, Sebastian! I'm sorry! I thought he was you!"
At least that has stopped Garreth from continuing with such foul comments, but of course, it doesn't stop his other companions, who between murmurs and discreet whistles, give their own opinion of what he interprets are directed at an especially beautiful girl. Ominis is almost convinced now that Danielle has been transferred from Beauxbaton. The blond is startled when Sebastian's mouth comes close to his ear, acting as if they hadn't been arguing the night before, while the rebellious boy shares his thoughts with his best friend.
"May I tell you something, Ominis? I don't really blame Garreth: this new girl is such a sweet pie that I would love to eat all on my own."
Ominis growls in disgust.
"If you'll allow me to be honest, Sebastian, I don't have the slightest interest in hearing you talking like that about a colleague, either a pretty one or an ugly one, so I'll ask you not to do it again. Women are to be respected." After all, he's has been raised to be a gentleman. "Besides, you´re all like this because she´s the new toy, you'll see that everyone will calm down after a week or so once she´s no longer a novelty."
Sebastian whistles a little, half hearing his friend´s diatribe while he allows his eyes to linger on the girl´s frame, admiring the girl's silky platinum blonde hair.
"Pfft, you wouldn't say the same thing if you could see her, my friend."
Annoyed, and using his open palm, Ominis shoves Sebastian´s face off and away from him, forcing his friend back to his place, while they hear Professor Ronen clapping his hands several times to silence them and force them all to pay him attention.
"Well, since I can still see sleepy and dreamy faces, today's class will take place out in the open, hoping that it can aid you in waking up. Please follow me."
Obeying his words, the pandemonium that arises is the typical adolescent uproar, full of cacophonies of all kinds, between laughter and conversations, added to the dragging of chairs and footsteps. Ominis frowns at such a scandal.
"Forgive me, my friend, for leaving you alone this time! I need to find an excuse to talk to that girl." Even Sebastian has gone ahead to follow the professor, instead of waiting for his best friend as he usually does. Ominis snorts, but lets him be, since he always lingers anyway, waiting for the chaos to settle down a bit; he´s distracting his mind with gloomy thoughts as he feels his comrades passing by him when, out of the blue, he again perceives the perfume that has kept him restless since yesterday... accompanied by the soft, crystalline laughter of his new partner, who continues her joyful conversation with Natsai without interruptions.
"You'll see that you'll love it," says the young dark-skinned friend animatedly, "Professor Ronen's classes, when he decides to give them abroad, almost always lead to exciting competitions!"
Danielle laughs femininely, more because she feels infected by her new friend's excitement than by the prospect of competing with someone else.
"I'm sure it will be."
The young, Slytherin blond doesn't know why, but the combination of her crystalline laughter, mixed with her floral scent, brings forth an unexpected smile from his usually stoic face.
What went unnoticed by Ominis is that Danielle, as she passed him by, allowed her curious gaze to fall upon the cute, solemn boy who seems to prefer waiting for everyone to leave, rather than walking along with the rest of the class.
oooooooooOOOOOOOooooooooooo
The next morning found Sebastian waking his best friend rather abruptly, dropping his full weight onto the soft bed, sleepiness leaving the blond boy almost immediately.
"Let's go, Ominis! What happened to you? You never oversleep and it´s late already!"
Ominis growls at the attack.
"If you have to know, you're the one to blame for my insomnia. Besides, I thought you wouldn't want to talk to me."
Sebastian gives him a mischievous smile from the corner of his bed.
"Let me remind you that you're the one who's upset with me, not the other way around. Please tell me you´re over it."
Ominis frowns at his best friend's cynical words as he straightens up from bed, though still wrapped up under his blankets.
"You're the one who should think things through. I've told you a thousand times it´s dangerous to play with dark magic."
But Sebastian only broadens his smile, making it a little cocky.
"Yep, you have, and I'd love it if you´d tell me a few thousand more. That said, will you forgive me?"
"Will you stop looking for dark magic?"
This time the smile is a rather sad one.
"Ominis... you know I'm doing it for Anne..."
But the blond only pushes his friend away when he receives the answer he refuses to accept, annoyed again, and once again picks up his blankets to bury himself underneath them.
"If that is so, then don't even come near me."
Seeing himself ignored, Sebastian sighs as he lowers his head, a little apologetic, but knowing his best friend the way he does, he understands that a sleepless Ominis is not exactly a sympathetic one, and thus, he refuses to lose hope. "I'll be in the common room studying, in case you decide to join me."
"You'd better not wait for me," Ominis shouts from under the covers, "especially if I know what kind of books we're talking about."
Sebastian sighs again, and nods, even though he knows his friend can't see him, and then disappears behind the door with his shoulders slumped.
As soon as he hears Sebastian has left the bedroom, the blond boy dresses with worry in his chest, sad and anxious to see the risks that Sebastian is taking lately, because, although he can understand him perfectly, and perhaps even sympathize with him, no one knows better than him what could happen if he continues to tease with dark magic the way he´s doing. But he also understands that he can't be mad at him forever, at least not if he wants to take care of the dumb guy. Guided by his wand, whose magic works like a sonar, Ominis descends into the Slytherin common room, and, forgetting for a moment his gloomy thoughts, laughs under his breath as he notices, as soon as the vibration waves coming from his wand register in his brain, three shadows peering through the huge window of the common room.
"And then Imelda told me that, if we stay looking through the window long enough, mermaids will surely appear."
"Mermaids? Wow! I've always wanted to see one!"
Ominis heads out with firm steps to lean over the nearest column, his favorite spot. He has always felt a guilty pleasure listening to these newly arrived boys excited by the sounds of mermaids that, according to them, they can detect among the sea waves. But he knows better: he knows that it was he who started the rumor and that now his companions use it to give these innocent welcome to the freshmore students.
However, he´s suddenly met again by that smell, that sweet perfume, making him stop in his tracks.
'Is it... Can it be...?'
Not wanting to keep his curiosity from being satisfied, Ominis raises his wand at eye level and receives in his mind the return of the sonar, which forms in his brain a blurred image of what lies in front of him. And in front of him forms an aesthetic, female shape of his Slytherin companion, whose slenderness contrasts with the soft curves of her hips and chest, and he is immediately surprised by his findings, for it's a rare phenomenon to see this girl´s silhouette so easily, until he realizes that, hanging from her right hand, there is her dark robe, the one that always hides the student´s bodies. Ominis blushes, confirming first-hand what Sebastian had told him just a day prior: this girl's body is indeed properly developed, quite appealing in his opinion. And suddenly the boy finds that his saliva has gotten stuck in his throat.
"Ehem!"
Danielle is startled to hear the unfamiliar voice immediately behind her. She was so lost in her thoughts, hoping she could catch a glimpse of the mermaids, that the sudden noise makes her jump.
"Oh! Excuse me!" She smiles sweetly at the handsome guy standing a few steps from her. "It wasn't my intention to get in your way. Did you come to see the mermaids?"
Ominis clearly perceives how his cheeks turn an intense pink, he doesn't know if it's out of shame at being found out "staring" at her, or when he realizes that his classmates have played this trick on their own, fifth-grade partner. He doesn't know why, but without asking permission, the blond boy takes her by the free hand.
"Come, follow me."
"¿But... Where?"
Danielle, taken by surprise, simply allows her housemate to pull her away from the window, leading her to sit on the warm couch by the fireplace, in front of her other brunet companion, who was reading a thick book, evidently very concentrated, but who now observes with great surprise the blond boy who is dragging her along.
"Ominis?"
The boy in question only nods his head to him as he sits on the couch, pulling the girl to sit next to him. For a reason Danielle can't understand, she simply obeys without question. And Sebastian, to her surprise, sits on her left side, also without protest, but still looking with intense curiosity at her and his best friend alternately.
"If you'll allow me, I'd like you to join us for a moment, please." Ominis begins, turning his face towards her as if indicating that he is watching her intently while waving to Sebastian with one hand. "You shouldn't be looking at that window. It's a lie that you can find mermaids in there."
"W-what...? Is it a lie?"
Sebastian snorts when he sees what it is all about, amused that she had fallen into such an obvious trap in the Slytherin house, but he immediately composes himself once he notices his friend's gesture of disapproval, and decides to compensate by taking the baton of the conversation.
"I'm sorry for that... please, let me explain. It's a joke the older students make to newcomers. You must excuse our fellow students, they couldn't let this… warm welcome pass up... even if it´s you."
Danielle straightens her posture, while her cheeks are tinged with a very sweet shade of pink.
"Oh... I'm sorry... I didn't know it was just a joke." The girl´s eyes lose their light, evidently saddened and disappointed. "It's unfortunate because I was really excited to get to see mermaids."
Sebastian minimizes her words with a wave of his hand, his flirtatious smile well put in place.
"You shouldn't apologize, they're the ones who are wrong because it's a trick for the first graders, not for our classmates. By the way, my name is Sebastian, Sebastian Sallow." The boy extends his hand amicably, and although Danielle hesitates for a moment, the brunette's smile is very contagious, so she shakes it happily. "And my handsome friend here is called Ominis."
Danielle raises an eyebrow when she notices that Sebastian has decided to omit his friend's last name, but decides not to comment, so she turns her gaze to the (indeed) handsome friend, and extends a hand, trying to imitate the friendly gesture.
"Nice to meet you too, my name is Danielle Michel."
Ominis smiles broadly at her but is unaware of the outstretched hand in front of him.
"Yes, Professor Ronen told us your name. It's beautiful."
Danielle had a beautiful smile drawn on her lips, however, seeing that he doesn't hold her hand, and noticing the way his eyes don't seem to be fixed on something, she finally realizes the boy's situation, so she lowers her hand slowly, embarrassed.
"O-oh... sorry, Ominis, I didn't know..."
But Sebastian doesn't waste a moment, and he takes her wrist to guide her hand towards Ominis' own, who immediately reacts and shakes it warmly, without losing his smile for a moment. Sebastian raises an eyebrow at this, but decides not to comment, while Ominis follows the thread of the conversation without noticing the other's likely thoughts.
"Don't worry, Danielle, it's not your fault. But let's change the subject, and while we're at it, would you let me ask you a few things?
Sebastian bursts into a laugh that startles both of them, especially the girl.
"What a wolf in sheep's clothing you are! Was this your plan all along?"
"It's not what you think!" Ominis tries to fight back, cheeks burning hot, but Sebastian keeps laughing. "I'm not the same as you!"
Noticing that Ominis is starting to get frustrated, but that Sebastian doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon, Danielle decides to intervene and try to mediate the situation between the two friends, as well as relax and accept this unexpected encounter, so she smiles at the blond as she holds his hand again.
"It´s all right, Ominis, you can ask me whatever you like. If your questions aren't very compromising, I think I'll have no problem answering them."
Ominis shudders at the unexpected contact and almost withdraws his hand, yet he gives her his best smile in appreciation.
"You're very kind, Danielle. Tell me, for I´m very curious to know, what part of France do you come from?"
Danielle, despite previously been smiling broadly, immediately loses her smile and replaces it with a gesture of great disbelief.
"¿From... from France? I don't understand..."
Sebastian is the first to grasp her embarrassment.
"What do you mean? You´re not French?"
Ominis feels a lot more confused than his raven-haired friend.
"You mean you weren't transferred from Beauxbaton?"
But the long, thick eyelashes only flutter over the beautiful gray eyes, evidently lost at their questioning.
"¿Beau... What? I still don't understand..."
Ominis perceives that, underneath her crystalline voice, there´s a discreet hint of annoyance so he squeezes a little tighter the hand that still holds his own.
"Forgive me for assuming things from you. From your name, which is typically French, I thought you came from France, and that you were a transfer student."
"N-no, I... um..." Danielle suddenly feels uncomfortable between the two boys, and withdraws the hand that held Ominis', lowering her gaze, as she plays with her trembling fingers. "I'm from... from London." Sebastian, also noticing the obvious discomfort in the girl, leans a little closer to her and covers his trembling hands with his palm, trying to instill confidence in her, and at the same time marveling at how soft her white skin feels.
"Like Ominis, I apologize for assuming things about you. It's just that we want to make you feel at home, especially since you're almost halfway through school." Sebastian lets go of her hand to straighten up, and for some strange reason, Danielle feels that she already misses that warm touch, and tries to hide her embarrassment by paying attention to her interlocutor. "I'm from a little town south of Hogwarts called Feldcroft. I hope one day you'll let me take you to see it."
"I, too, come from London," says Ominis, to continue the introduction, "from the Belgravia district, to be exact, though I recommend Feldcroft a lot more. There are more beautiful landscapes and more interesting things to do there. But I would certainly take you to visit me, anytime you want."
She smiles warmly at them.
"Thank you very much for the invitation. Both of you. I´ll seriously consider it."
"And what about you?" Sebastian asks now. "You've already told us you're from London, which neighborhood exactly?"
"I..." Danielle had a huge smile as she listened to her explanations, but when she´s forced to remember her place of origin, the smile is suddenly erased once more, "I..." how to explain the pitiful neighborhood she comes from, without having Ominis, who lives in one of the most exclusive areas of the city, make a frightened or disgusted face as soon as he finds out about her shameful birthplace? The young woman feels her cheeks tainted deep red, and she becomes even more nervous, so she gets up immediately, more than ready to leave the place. "I... I just remembered that I have something very important to do. A-a task by Professor Fig. Thank you so much for everything, guys, s-see you later."
Without another word, Danielle walks out of the fireplace, almost running away from her two new friends, who get up immediately, speechless at the untimely flight of the newcomer.
"What did you do, Sebastian?" Ominis is the first one to reprimand him, and Sebastian feels even more at a loss of words.
"I-I don't know! I swear I didn´t do anything! I´m almost certain I didn´t do anything!" Still flabbergasted, he turns around to look at the retreating figure, but, unable to help it, Sebastian's eyes notice the visible curves of the beautiful girl as she moves away from them, as the tunic is still on her arm; His masculine and uncontrolled action, although predictable, causes the boy's cheeks to blush with grief... until he notices his best friend has raised his wand, evidently activating the sonar so that he can at least perceive the shadow of what he has just admired. Chuckling, Sebastian forces Ominis to lower his wand.
"I know what you're doing with that, dude, and let me tell you that you're such a hypocrite."
"I'm not doing anything, and I'm not a hypocrite," Ominis complains, though Sebastian laughs again at the sight of his cheeks turning crimson when he realizes he´s been caught up in the act.
"Yes, you are, my friend. You explained to me how that sonar of yours works. And while it makes me laugh that you're behaving all low and dirty just like me, it offends me you had the guts to scold me just yesterday for telling you how nicely curved she is, and now I find you checking her... attributes."
Ominis huffs, but says no more, and they both regain their attention on the beautiful silhouette that´s already beginning to climb the stone stairs, the dark-haired boy watching her retreat with a sigh escaping from his chest, while the blond simply hears her hurried footsteps echoing over the stone walls... as well as perceiving the trace of perfume she has left behind, and that slowly fades away...
oooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
A/N: Well, since I see that everyone likes this pair/trio, I couldn't be left behind contributing with my own fic. I'll try to keep it out of Mature´s purview since they're teenagers... But I can't promise anything, hehehe.
Let´s see, who of you, my amazing readers, can guess which neighborhood Danielle comes from, and why is it relevant? I assure you, there is a reason, especially a historical reason, and hope you like the surprise and the connection.
I hope you like this beginning, see you in the comments!