The crisp autumn wind blew through the picturesque cobblestone streets of the village of Hogsmeade. The snow hadn't started to fall yet, but the cold air was already forcing the students to pull their scarves tighter.
Walking at a leisurely pace toward the warm Three Broomsticks Inn was Aurelian Gaunt. As was his custom, he walked accompanied by his two beautiful fiancées. Hestia clung tightly to his right arm, while Flora did exactly the same, clinging to his left. Feeling the warmth of his fiancées and their unwavering presence, Aurelian couldn't help but let out a soft smile.
In the distance, on one of the busiest corners of the village, stood the well-known Gauntcorp branch. The place was packed; dozens of wizards, witches, and students were coming and going, carrying packages.
Hestia frowned slightly as she watched the crowd.
"I still think you were too soft, Aurelian," Hestia remarked, resting her head on his shoulder. "You should have set a much higher price on that book where you explain and teach about the Arcane Patterns. It's invaluable knowledge—you're practically giving it away."
Aurelian let out a small laugh.
"Both Mr. Filch and I wanted it to be exactly like this, my love," Aurelian replied calmly. "The idea is that anyone, regardless of their status or wealth, can learn the basics of this new magic as long as they have the will and the desire to do so."
Aurelian's smile widened, his dark eyes sparkling with that calculated intelligence that characterized him.
"Besides… at the end of the day, the real, massive profits aren't in the books, but in the catalysts and the special ink needed to practice," he explained in a low voice. "Obviously, we continue to sell them at a price that's affordable and reasonable for everyone, but due to the enormous and constant global demand for consumables, it leaves us with a profit margin that is, frankly, nothing to sneeze at."
Flora lifted her face. She stretched up and planted a soft, sweet kiss on his cheek.
"You always think of everything, my love. You're perfect," Flora whispered in his ear.
Hestia, seeing her sister's action, opened her eyes. Not to be outdone, she quickly stretched up and mimicked the gesture, kissing him firmly on the other cheek.
Aurelian let out a long sigh as he let them compete for his attention. "I just hope," he thought with a touch of irony, "that when we finally get married, our married life will be at least a little calmer."
When they finally arrived and pushed open the doors to the Three Broomsticks, the buzz of people, the heat, and the smell of butterbeer completely engulfed them.
"Aurelian! Over here!" a voice called out.
It was Fred Weasley, poking his head out from one of the most secluded booths in the pub. They had reserved a small private table in the back, away from prying eyes.
Aurelian, dragging the twins along with him, made his way to the table. As he sat down at the reserved table, he greeted Fred, George, and Cedric, who were already waiting for them with drinks ready.
"Good afternoon, guys, how's everything?" Aurelian greeted them, taking a seat next to the girls. "I'm curious. What's so urgent and important that you had to call us here to talk in such private?"
Cedric sighed, his usual friendly smile replaced by an expression of deep seriousness. He clasped his hands on the table and looked directly into the eyes of the three Slytherins.
"Aurelian, Hestia, Flora… we hope we can count on your help," Cedric began. "It's no secret that the three of you are, without a doubt, the strongest and most skilled students in all of Hogwarts."
Flora raised an eyebrow, crossing her legs under the table.
"And exactly what kind of help are you looking for from us, Diggory?" Flora asked haughtily.
It was George who spoke up.
"We want to be stronger," George admitted, clutching his mug. "Things out there are getting darker by the minute. We watch the news; we know about the attacks. We want to have the power to defend ourselves and our families from whatever might happen, whether inside or outside this castle."
Hestia snorted in amusement, bringing a hand to her mouth to hide her smile at such audacity.
Cedric clasped his hands together in supplication, leaning forward.
"Please, Aurelian. We're asking you to train us," he pleaded, ignoring the mockery.
Aurelian opened his mouth to respond—he'd already planned to do so—but before he could utter a word, Hestia and Flora rose from their chairs in unison.
Both wore mischievous, somewhat arrogant smiles.
"If you really want us, the greatest witches of Slytherin, to waste our precious time helping you improve…" Hestia began.
"…then you must kneel right here and tell us out loud that we are the best in all of Hogwarts," Flora finished, laying down her ridiculous condition.
Aurelian raised a hand, about to stop them and ask them to stop teasing, but to his surprise, Fred and George didn't hesitate for a second.
The Weasley twins abruptly pushed their chairs back and threw themselves to the floor. They fell to their knees, clasped their hands, and, with exaggerated drama, began to praise the Carrow twins.
"Oh, great, powerful, and perfect Carrow sisters!" Fred cried dramatically.
"You are the finest witches to ever set foot in this castle! We are unworthy to be in your presence! Please, enlighten us!" George echoed, bowing low to the ground.
The reaction was immediate. Hestia and Flora, who had only set that stupid condition as a joke, expecting their pride to stop them, froze. At the Weasleys' exclamations, both girls' faces flushed a furious red, completely thrown off by the redheads' shamelessness.
"W-well, that's enough! Get up, you two idiots!" stammered Hestia, looking away in embarrassment.
"I-if you insist and beg so much… we have no choice but to agree to teach you," muttered Flora, sitting up abruptly and clumsily trying to regain her composure, though her ears were still red.
Aurelian and Cedric exchanged a glance from across the table. Both burst out laughing, thoroughly amused by how quickly the situation had spiraled out of control and by how the Weasleys had managed to embarrass the fearsome Carrow sisters.
When the laughter died down and Fred and George returned to their seats, brushing the dirt off their knees, Aurelian took charge of the meeting.
"Of course we'll train you, guys," Aurelian confirmed with a calm smile that promised pain and suffering. "I'll be expecting all three of you tomorrow afternoon, right after classes end."
"Where, Aurelian? On the Quidditch field?" Cedric asked.
"No. I'll meet you in the seventh-floor corridor," Aurelian said.
Fred, George, and Cedric looked at each other, confused. There were no empty classrooms or dueling rooms in that corridor, just a stupid tapestry of trolls dancing ballet.
Aurelian chuckled softly at their puzzled expressions. He stood up, straightening his robes, and gave them one last look.
"Don't worry. Tomorrow, when you arrive… it will all make sense."
The seventh-floor corridor was shrouded in silence, broken only by the impatient murmurs of the Carrow twins.
Aurelian stood waiting in front of the tapestry of Barnabas the Mad, his arms crossed. Beside him, Hestia and Flora leaned against the wall, clearly bored by the wait.
"Damn those idiots," Hestia muttered, kicking the floor in annoyance. "Who do they think they are, making us wait like this?"
"We should curse them the moment they set foot in the hallway, just to teach them a lesson in punctuality," Flora agreed, crossing her arms and frowning.
A few steps away, leaning against another wall and keeping a respectful distance from the furious sisters, stood Neville Longbottom, who simply waited in silence with a small smile.
Finally, the sound of footsteps echoed up the staircase. Cedric, Fred, and George appeared around the corner, panting slightly.
"Sorry, Aurelian! Professor Sprout kept us longer than expected..." Cedric apologized.
Fred, catching his breath, frowned when he noticed the Gryffindor boy's presence.
"Hey... why is Neville here?" Fred asked, confused to see his housemate.
Aurelian uncrossed his arms and walked toward them.
"Neville is like my apprentice," Aurelian explained casually. "He was the first person I ever seriously trained in this castle… well, aside from Hestia and Flora, of course. He knows my methods better than anyone."
Neville straightened up, stepping away from the wall.
"That's right. I consider Aurelian my teacher and my greatest role model," Neville said with deep loyalty, giving his mentor a broad smile.
Aurelian returned the smile with a slight nod. George, still unsure of the purpose of the place, looked around.
"That's great, Neville, we're happy for you. But… what exactly are we going to do here, in the seventh-floor hallway?" George asked, pointing at the empty wall in front of them. "There's nothing here."
Flora and Hestia exchanged a glance and smiled amusedly. Ignoring the newcomers, the twins stepped away from the wall and slowly walked back and forth three times in front of the troll tapestry, focusing on what they needed to do.
Before Fred, George, or Cedric could say or comment on anything, the movement of the wall stopped them in their tracks. Out of nowhere, reliefs began to form until they materialized into an imposing wooden door.
Aurelian stepped forward and opened the door.
"Gentlemen, welcome to the Room of Requirement," Aurelian announced, stepping aside to let them pass.
The trio entered with their eyes wide open. Fred and George murmured to each other, completely amazed.
"By Merlin's beard, George… how ugly, shameful, and depressing it would have been to leave Hogwarts without ever having seen this place," Fred whispered, touching the walls.
"This hall has the ability to transform into anything you need," Aurelian explained as he closed the door behind him. "In this case, we asked for a dueling hall."
The interior was immense, with padded floors to cushion falls, training dummies in the corners, and a large combat platform in the center. On one side of the room, there was a plush sofa for resting.
Aurelian walked over to the sofa and sat down. Immediately, Hestia and Flora pounced on him, lying down beside him and hugging him tightly, each taking one of his arms as they rested their heads on his chest.
"I want to assess your current skill level and teamwork to figure out where to start," Aurelian told them. "So, to begin with, the three of you will face off against Neville. A three-on-one duel."
George, observing the peculiar and enviable scene of Aurelian being possessively hugged by two girls, leaned toward his twin.
"Look at him, always rubbing his success in our faces," George whispered with an amused smile.
The three of them took their positions at one end of the dueling platform, drawing their wands. Facing them, Neville Longbottom held his wand in a firm stance.
Cedric, feeling a little bad about the apparent numerical disadvantage, smiled at the Gryffindor boy.
"Sorry about this, Neville. We'll try not to hurt you too much," Cedric apologized in advance.
Neville simply smiled broadly, lowering his center of gravity slightly.
"Don't underestimate Neville!" Aurelian shouted at them from the sofa, settling in more comfortably among the girls. "He's way stronger than he looks!"
And he was absolutely right.
The moment the duel began, the battle was fast, brutal, and completely unexpected for the trio. Neville moved with overwhelming agility and strength, deflecting spells with shields as hard as steel and counterattacking with extremely precise non-verbal curses. Although Cedric, Fred, and George tried to flank him and coordinate attacks, Neville's experience and his brutal training under Aurelian's methods were too much for them.
A few minutes later, the duel was over.
Cedric, Fred, and George lay on their backs on the floor, exhausted, covered in sweat, and gasping for air, their wands several feet away.
Aurelian, after carefully freeing himself from his fiancées' grip, rose from the sofa and approached the fallen boys.
"There's still a lot of work to be done; your defense is a mess, and you're not covering your blind spots," Aurelian assessed them, looking down at them. "But, without a doubt, you have… potential."
Then he turned to Neville, who was also sitting on the floor, wiping the sweat from his forehead after the intense effort of defeating three opponents simultaneously.
Aurelian smiled at him proudly and gave him a thumbs-up in approval.
"You were excellent, Neville. Good job."
Neville widened his smile, proud that he hadn't disappointed his master, and returned the gesture by giving a thumbs-up as well.
Cedric, propping himself up on his elbows with difficulty, looked at him intently.
"Aurelian," Cedric gasped, "If Neville is that strong... how strong are you compared to him?"
Aurelian scratched his chin as he thought about how to answer.
"Well… to give you an idea, to defeat Hestia or Flora individually, you'd need the combined strength of roughly ten to fifteen current Nevilles fighting at the same time."
Fred let out a stifled, nervous laugh from the floor.
"And you?" Fred asked. "How many Nevilles would it take to match you?"
Aurelian smiled broadly. He answered them without a trace of embarrassment or false modesty.
"Honestly, guys… I think it's best for everyone if we don't count them."
At that moment, Hestia and Flora appeared, walking right behind Aurelian. They clung to his shoulders from behind, looking down on the defeated trio with superiority.
"Of course it's incalculable," Hestia declared proudly. "Our beloved is the best."
"He's the strongest and most brilliant wizard of all time," Flora added, kissing his neck.
Fred, George, and Cedric looked at each other from the ground. They had just been humiliated by a boy two years their junior; their friend's girlfriends were monsters beyond their reach at their current level; and their new "coach" was, in his own words, a god among men. They definitely had a very long and painful road ahead of them.
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