Chapter 1
Long after the Battle of Hogwarts, the world had quieted. Harry Potter, now in his mid-twenties, sought a life away from the spotlight. He moved to the countryside, purchasing an old, ivy-cloaked manor known as Blackthorn Hollow—a house with a history darker than the wood it was built from.
Locals warned him of strange occurrences. Whispers in the walls. Shadows that moved without light. A coldness that lingered even in summer. But Harry, ever the brave soul, shrugged it off. He needed peace, and Blackthorn Hollow offered solitude.
One rainy October evening, Hermione Granger arrived with a surprise visitor: Draco Malfoy.
“I didn’t invite him,” Hermione muttered under her breath as they approached the creaking front door. “He said he had some Ministry business near here and insisted on tagging along.”
Harry smirked. “Well, it’s a big house. If he vanishes, I won’t go looking.”
But that night, as thunder rolled across the sky and the wind howled like wolves, something changed. The house *shifted*. Doors closed where there were none before. Hallways bent in impossible directions. The manor came alive.
Hermione, curious as ever, decided to investigate a whisper she heard down the east wing. Draco followed, more to make sure she didn’t get herself killed than out of genuine interest.
They didn’t come back.
Hours passed. Harry searched, calling their names, his voice echoing through corridors that shouldn’t exist. The house seemed to toy with him—staircases leading to dead ends, portraits turning to watch him as he passed.
Meanwhile, Hermione and Draco were trapped in a shifting maze of rooms, each filled with fragments of the manor’s history: ghostly figures repeating tragic events, mirrors that showed nightmares, doors that required riddles to open.
“I told you this place was cursed,” Draco snapped, wiping cobwebs from his sleeve.
Hermione rolled her eyes. “And I told you not to touch the runes on the wall. You activated the trap.”
As they struggled to find a way out, an ancient presence stirred. The house’s original owner, a dark wizard named Alaric Thorn, had never truly left…