Chapter 19
Chp 19
The house watched her like it had eyes. The windows.
He’s dead. He’s dead.
So how is he still watching me?
Months of neglect are shockingly apparent on the already fading and dirty wood. Aurora supposed the house itself was still stately, but all she saw was a rotting corpse.
Wrapping her arms tight around herself, Aurora closes her eyes and breathes. In. Out. In. Out.
It’s just a house. It’s just memories.
“Are you alright?” A light hand comes to rest at her shoulder. Aurora opens her eyes to find her sister gazing into her eyes, concerned.
“Can you go in first?” She implores. Pandora nods “Of course.”
She watches silently as Pandora walks up through the grass, onto the front porch. Rory half expects the house to come alive and swallow her whole. It doesn’t.
Pandora tugs the front door when it sticks slightly, finally jerking it open and stepping inside. For a moment Aurora just stares after where her sister has disappeared, before she balls her hands into fists at her sides resolutely. With a jerk of her chin, she takes the first step with her head held high.
“We are right here.” Regulus encourages.
“Right behind you. Or wherever you need.” James reassures.
She nods, taking a few more steps toward the house and onto the porch. The wood groans under her feet like an old bone creaking. She hesitates at the threshold, taking a few more breaths.
Take your time. You’re safe. A maternal voice echoes in her mind.
She takes a step, crossing the threshold into the foyer. The temperature change is sudden, what was a balmy summer was now a dry chill. She shivers.
Her eyes scan faded wallpaper and dusty chandeliers as she finds her sister drifting toward the dining room.
“I’m surprised the rest of family hasn’t raided the place yet.”
Pandora puffs out an aggravated breath. “They’ve tried! Papa keeps getting letters from the cousins, but we’ve been ignoring them. Vultures.”
Auroras heart swells. She had no doubt Pandora’s family had been flooded with letters on her behalf. Marriage offers, no doubt, as well as claims to whatever else they thought they could get their hands on.
She had been fielding her own share of letters, distant aunts urging a beneficial match, mostly. Some halfhearted condolences.
They meant nothing to her.
Joining Pandora, Rory places an arm around her sister. Pandora leans into her sweetly.
“Thank you.” Aurora says softly. James and Regulus join them as Pandora waves her off indistinctly.
The four of them stare quietly into the dining room. Aurora moves as if in a trance, taking her place at the dining table. Idle fingers find familiar grooves under the table, where years worth of digging fingernails have left their mark in the wood.
A soft whining noise draws her attention before she realizes it’s coming from her own throat.
“Just say the word and we leave.” Regulus reminds her kindly.
“No.” She snarls, too sharply, rising to her feet with the quickness of a rat in a maze. “Let’s just get this over with quickly and go home.”
Home?
She supposed that was Hogwarts. Or was it Pandora’s? She felt most at home wherever her friends were, so where did that leave her?
With heavy heart and leaden feet, she wanders the halls and climbs the stairs, her companions following like a triad of supportive shadows.
Most of the rooms were empty and silent, the house elves long gone. The only rooms showing signs of life were her bedroom and her Fathers.
“Woah.” James exclaims in a hushed tone as they enter her Fathers chambers. A large four poster bed with ornate hangings and dark wood dwarfs the room. Taking a seat on the bed, Aurora reaches her hand toward the pipe laying on the bedside table.
It still smells like him.
She recoils, moving to put it back.
“Your dad smoked?” James appears, taking the pipe gently from her hands.
Aurora nods.
“I never saw him do it, but he always smelled like tobacco. I think he hid it because he was ashamed.”
James crinkles his brow in confusion. “Ashamed?”
“Muggle habit. Ancient pure blood families have all sorts of silly rules and regulations for themselves, In order to separate us from them.” Regulus explains.
James’s face is a mixture of confusion and sad frustration.
“Only one more room…” Pandora encourages gently.
Aurora sighs heavily. She had been avoiding her old room on purpose. Pandora knew.
“You don’t have to-“ Pandora begins, but she cuts her off,
“No. I can do it.”
She leads the way across the house to a narrow set of stairs.
“Where are we going? It’s like we are heading to an attic or something.” James remarks innocently.
“That’s because we are, James.” Pandora replies flatly.
Aurora decides to put him out of his confused misery.
“My room is in the attic.” She reaches the top of the stairs, pulling on the hatch to release the rickety ladder. “Well, it is the attic.”
“What?” James squawks from the back of the line, “That’s ridiculous. This huge manor with all those empty rooms and your room is-“ James pauses as he reaches the top of the ladder, eyes scanning the room.
“This.” James ends meekly, as understanding begins to wash over him.
The walls were a pale, blank paper, adorned with no pictures or posters. A single window provided watery light, in addition to a bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling.
There was a thin mattress laid out on a rusty metal frame. Aurora knew from experience how loud and squeaky it was. Just looking at it, she could smell the metallic tang of rust, feel the flakes of it on her face.
“Father was cruel. He was always cruel. I don’t remember it, but I know I didn’t always live here. In this… room.”
She doesn’t know what else to call it, even if it didn’t have a door, or proper ventilation, it had been her room for many years.
“Those rooms were for guests, and anyways children are often told that they should be seen, not heard. At least he didn’t beat me.” She shrugs, feeling everything and nothing at once.
“As someone who was not spared the rod, believe me Rory, this isn’t better. I would rather Walburga hex me and raid my mind than this.” Regulus gestures to the dreary blank slate before them.
Great, my childhood was worse than what Walburga Black provided. Fantastic.
“I mean at least we had toys. Real beds. This place is like an asylum. A bad one, for poor people.”
“It’s like the shr-“ James stops himself mid-sentence.
It’s like the shrieking shack. She knew that’s what he wanted to say. Except, at least Remus had the others to keep him company during the full moon at the shack. Aurora had had no one.
Aurora clears her throat loudly “Yes, well. We came, we saw, we… conquered. Let’s go before I decide to burn it all to the ground.”
“Let’s do it then. If that’s what you want, the house is yours anyway.” James says it so simply, like it’s nothing more than throwing garbage in the bin.
“James! No!” Pandora scolds, alarm widening her bright eyes.
“Why not? It’s a house of nightmares. The ghosts won’t mind.” James comments wryly.
“The table.” Regulus interjects, as if struck by epiphany. The three of them turn to him, flummoxed.
“The dining table. We can burn the dining table.”
It was perfect. Poignant. Regulus knew her father had tortured her at that table every night for years. She could see in his eyes he needed this too, a small retribution.
He continues, “Let me handle the house, with Pandoras help of course. We can sell it and you never have to think about this place again.”
A generous offer. A hopeful one too.
She nods, a wicked smile spreading across her face.
“Let’s go burn shit.”
At first, they tried to drag the table out, but it was much too heavy. If they all worked together, they could manage a decent leviosa.
By the time they had managed to get the dining table far enough away from the house and the surrounding trees, it was dark.
“Perfect weather for a bonfire, nice thinking Reg.” James is all smiles, obviously excited to do a bit of chaos magic.
Regulus might have twitched a smile at the compliment.
“You do the honors, Batty.” James urges.
Aurora shakes her head “It won’t be enough, even if it was just you or Regulus doing the spell, it wouldn’t be powerful enough. We have to do it together.”
“Ok. On three?” Pandora asks. They nod.
“One” Aurora counts.
“Two” wands are raised.
“Three!”
“Incendio!” The four shout in unison, flame erupting from their wands.
They watch the fire start, slowly at first. Flame licks the dark, glossy wood tenderly, like a lover. Before long, the fire is fully engulfed, roaring and crackling angrily. Not a lovers spat, or a petty argument; the fire roared like a battle cry.
Once the table is mostly ash, the group drags tired feet back to the port key.
“Thank you all. For coming with me.” Aurora feels that she will never be able to communicate her gratitude effectively, but her friends just shrug and nod.
“Of course we came.” Pandora smiles. Regulus squeezes her hand, she squeezes back without looking.
“I hope there’s a roast for dinner. I’m craving something charred.” James ponders out loud.
Auroras laugh is stolen from her throat as the world lurches and they return to Hogwarts.
Home.