For Aurelian Gaunt, a wizard who had mastered every kind of magic—from the darkest to the lightest—who had defied fate and looked Death in the eye without flinching, there was no torture more cruel and devastating than the silence of his fiancées.
Hestia and Flora had stopped speaking to him. For two long days, the Gaunt Mansion had turned into a graveyard. The girls didn't yell at him, hurl curses at him, or confront him; they simply ignored him completely, walking past him as if he were a ghost. That coldness, born of frustration over the lack of a wedding date, was driving him mad.
Finally, after much pleading and promises that he had something extremely important to tell them, he had managed to convince them to listen to him that afternoon.
Aurelian stood waiting for them in the center of the mansion's beautiful garden. In the distance, he heard the rustling of the grass. Hestia and Flora were walking slowly toward him. They were wearing matching dark dresses, but what truly took his breath away wasn't their undeniable beauty, but their expressions. They looked at him with such deep and vulnerable sadness that Aurelian's heart ached. Seeing his proud and perfect fiancées looking so miserable because of him was a direct blow to his soul.
When they were a couple of meters away, they stopped. They said nothing, just lowered their gaze slightly.
Aurelian swallowed hard, feeling a knot in his stomach. He cleared his throat to find his voice. Without a moment's hesitation, the proud and feared Lord of the House Gaunt dropped to one knee on the grass, prostrating himself before them.
The twins' eyes widened in surprise at their fiancé's sudden gesture.
Aurelian reached into his tunic and pulled out two beautiful black velvet boxes. He opened them at the same time, revealing two exquisite and delicate white gold rings, each crowned by a perfectly cut blood-red ruby that caught the light of the setting sun.
"My Darlings…" Aurelian began, his voice trembling slightly with emotion. "I know I've been an idiot. But I really did have urgent matters to attend to—the business, my father, sorting out a few things… all of that took up my time, and that's why I hadn't been able to properly prepare for and discuss the wedding. I wanted everything to be perfect before taking the next step. But I want you to know that everything is ready now."
Hestia and Flora stared at him, frozen in place, holding their breath, their eyes quickly welling up with tears.
Aurelian cleared his throat again, looking them in the eyes with sincerity.
"I love you," he declared firmly. "I love you with all my soul, and I swear I'll make you immensely happy for the rest of your lives. Every day I thank the universe that you love me, that you stay by my side, even though sometimes—to be completely honest with you—I don't even understand why you love me with such devotion." Aurelian held up the boxes toward them. "Hestia, Flora… will you marry me?"
Everything came crashing down.
Hestia and Flora didn't answer; they simply collapsed to the ground. They sank to their knees in front of him on the grass, tears streaming freely down their pale cheeks. They burst into tears, a mixture of sobs and overwhelming relief.
"You're such a fool!" Hestia sobbed, covering her mouth with her hand. "We… we thought you didn't love us anymore! That you were going to abandon us!"
"We thought that's why you didn't want to marry us!" Flora cried, between hiccups. "We thought you'd grown tired of us!"
Aurelian felt his heart sink to his feet as he heard their deepest insecurities. He set the boxes aside, raised his hands, and wiped the tears from their cheeks with his thumbs.
"I could never stop loving you. You are my whole world," he assured them in a whisper.
He Gently, she took Hestia's left hand and slipped the ruby ring onto her ring finger. Then she took Flora's left hand and did exactly the same. The fit was perfect.
Hestia and Flora stopped crying for a second, looking down to admire the beautiful rings sparkling on their fingers. A dazzling smile, full of happiness, lit up their faces.
Without warning, they both pounced on him. They pushed him backward, throwing him onto his back on the garden grass, and clung to his body with all their might. They began rubbing and caressing their faces against Aurelian's cheeks and neck, seeking comfort and marking him as their own.
"I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you…" Hestia whispered endlessly into his ear.
"We love you so much… we'll never let you go," murmured Flora, intoxicated with happiness.
Aurelian let out a laugh filled with relief and hugged them tightly against his chest, feeling the warmth of their bodies.
"Please forgive me," he asked sincerely. "I'm sorry for all the misunderstandings and for making you feel insecure. It won't happen again."
Hestia lifted her head slightly, looked at him adoringly, and planted a gentle kiss on his cheek.
"There's absolutely nothing to forgive, my love," she whispered.
Flora settled herself against his chest, rested her hands on his shoulders, leaned in, and gave him a tender kiss right on the tip of his nose. Her eyes sparkled with that twinkle he loved and found so captivating.
"But, just so you know," Flora warned him in a low voice, "if you'd taken a little longer to ask us… I really don't know what crazy thing we would have done to force you."
Aurelian laughed softly, feeling a shiver run down his spine as he imagined being kidnapped and tied to an altar by his own fiancées. It sounded silly when he thought about it.
"I think it's best for all of us not to think about any of that," he replied, stroking their backs.
After a few minutes of cuddling on the ground, the three of them stood up, brushing a little grass off their clothes. Hestia and Flora couldn't stop looking at their rings, intertwining their fingers with his.
"Don't worry about a thing from now on, darling," Hestia told him, immediately adopting an authoritative tone. "We'll take care of all the wedding planning; you just need to be there."
"It'll be a grand, majestic, and perfect wedding, worthy of the House of Gaunt," Flora added with conviction. "Of course… not with too many guests. Just the necessary ones. We don't want anyone to ruin our day or get too close to you."
Aurelian looked up at the clear sky, illuminated by the orange hues of the sunset. He nodded silently, feeling an immense sense of peace. At least the storm had passed, and they were no longer angry with him.
If the twins planned to make the wedding an exclusive event, so be it. He would worry about the chaos of his future marriage at another time. Today, he would simply enjoy having won back the smiles of the women he loved.
Hestia and Flora entered his room and closed the heavy door with the utmost care, making sure the latch made a soft, silent click.
As soon as they were completely alone, the composure and facade they had maintained in the garden and over the past two days crumbled completely. The twins looked into each other's eyes, clasped their fingers tightly together, and, casting all decorum aside, began jumping and twirling around the room, laughing heartily as if they were once again a pair of little girls with a new toy.
Deep down in their dark hearts, they had always known that their beloved Aurelian had never stopped loving them. However, two days earlier, when he had arrived at the mansion looking unusually exhausted, sweaty, and distracted, paranoia and jealousy had taken hold of them. Their minds had immediately jumped to the conclusion that, perhaps, he had been wasting his time with another woman—some dirty bitch trying to steal what was theirs.
That's why they'd decided to deploy the deadliest tactic in their arsenal: to stop speaking to him.
Those two days of silence and distance had been a living hell for them. On more than one occasion, while pretending to ignore him, they'd had to bite the inside of their cheeks until they bled because the only thing they really wanted to do was throw themselves at him, talk to him, hug him, and kiss him nonstop.
But they'd been strong. It was a necessary sacrifice… and boy, had it worked perfectly! Their little act of torture had not only made him feel guilty but had also prompted Aurelian to finally stop putting things off, get down on one knee, and ask them to marry him.
Hestia burst into a bright laugh.
"I swear to you, Flora, I've never been this happy in my whole life!" Hestia exclaimed, clutching her sister's hand as they continued to spin around the room.
Flora nodded frantically, stopping their impromptu dance. She understood her twin sister perfectly; she felt as if her heart were about to burst in her chest—she felt as if she were literally in heaven.
Still laughing and breathing heavily, they both fell backward onto the soft bed in the room. They lay down side by side and, in perfect sync, raised their left arms toward the ceiling.
They sighed in pure ecstasy, watching intently as the light from the lamps in the room reflected off the exquisite red rubies in the rings he had just slipped onto their fingers.
Flora tilted her head slightly, without taking her eyes off her jewel.
"First thing tomorrow, we must ask our mother for help; she must come as soon as possible," Flora said, her voice taking on a determined tone. "And we also have to contact the interior design and haute couture shops in Paris that we already had in mind right away."
Hestia raised her hand to her lips, devoutly kissed the sparkling ruby on her ring, and nodded, flashing a victorious smile.
"There's no time to lose," Hestia murmured.
The great truth hidden behind all her pouting and complaints toward Aurelian over the past few months was that the Carrow twins had been planning every single detail of their wedding for over a year. They already had everything perfectly organized from start to finish—from the exclusive guest list to the venue and seating arrangements, the flowers, the reception, and, of course, the exact fabric for their dresses. It would be a majestic event; it had to turn out absolutely perfect.
They had a great deal to do in the coming days and would have to pull strings throughout the wizarding world to pull it off within the timeframe they desired. But none of that exhaustion or pressure mattered now.
In a few weeks, standing before the altar and with magic as their witness, they would fulfill their greatest and deepest longing. At last, they would be officially known to all as Hestia Gaunt and Flora Gaunt, and they would stand alongside their Aurelian, ruling over everything, until the end of time.
-------------------
I have a Patreon account. If you would like to support me, I would greatly appreciate it. You will be able to read up to 15 more chapters, listen to all chapters as audiobooks, and view images of the characters in the story for free. Thank you very much for reading my story :D
patreon.com/Daoistrg