Are you there...?
Written for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments) for the classroom Divination tower.
A/N: I don't own Harry Potter and I never have or will own it.
Sirius still remembered when the strange things started to happen. It must have been around Halloween and All Saint's day. At first it was harmless thing, like objects disappearing or being in places where they weren't before. He thought he was turning crazy or just forgot, where he had put them. But then, some real weird things started to happen. The lights would go on and off for no good reason as would some other electrical stuff. Windows and doors opened and closed by themselves and objects like vases or cups just fell off their cupboards or tables without anyone touching them.
Sirius sighed, sitting in his comfortable armchair, the latter events just started recently, while the former had been going on since that certain Halloween night. It was the beginning of December now and he feared the events would be getting creepier by the month. But what made the situation he was currently in even worse was that his old-school friends would be coming over in a few minutes. And that's what he feared. He hadn't told them, what was going on in his house. How would they react? Would they ever come visit again if they knew what was going on here? He himself had gotten used to it, however he still refused to sleep in his bed, taking the old shack behind his house instead. At the sound of the doorbell he jumped slightly.
He walked over to the door and opened it, finding his friends, dressed in cosy winter clothing. They exchanged greetings and he let them into his house, all while secretly begging whatever was causing his problems to stay away for the next few hours.
Indeed, it worked. At least for the next three hours the thing left us alone. Suddenly, however a snow storm started inside, leaving Peter, Remus, James and Lily no choice but to stay at their friends home. Making the best out of this situation, they made themselves comfortable on the couch and armchairs in the living room. With hot tea and stories of the past the planned to get over the storm.
It had been two hours now. Two hours and the storm still wasn't letting down. It even seemed to get worse by the minute. Without any stories to tell anymore and a ragging snow storm outside the five friends just sat there for a while, sipping their tea and listening to the rattle of the storm against the windows.
"Hey have you guys heard that?" asked James suddenly, interrupting the silence.
"No" "Heard what?" questioned the others, shaking their heads.
"The laughter, there's a child laughing. Can't you hear it?" he continued.
"James, no one's laughing."
"And especially not a child. Look outside, there's a heavy storm blowing. No kid would be outside in that weather."
"It's probably just the window lids you're hearing rattling, nothing more." reasoned Lupin.
Lily opened her mouth to say something to her husbands, when the lights first began to flicker and then went out. Someone (probably Peter) shrieked in fright, while the others just gasped in shock. The shock lasted only for a short while, before all five friends murmured a quick 'Lumos', lighting their wands with small dots of bright light.
Sirius sighed: "And that was the fuse. Looks like we have to spend the night here without electricity. Sorry guys."
The others shock their heads, insisting that it wouldn't matter to them.
...
It was getting late now, everyone prepared to get settled in. James and Lily settled for the guest room, while Lupin and Peter took the couch and seats in the living room and Sirius slept in his own bed. Everything went well, all the young adults were sleeping peacefully, without any noisy disturbances besides the howling wind bashing against the windows. This was until Sirius got a rough wake up by Peter, telling him that Lily saw strange things happening in his guest room. He immediately ran over to his guest room, where James and Lupin where trying to calm a distressed Lily down.
"Lil's what happened?"
"I... I woke up because it was so cold in here...and...and I saw that the window was open...but none of us had opened it before going to sleep. Then, when I went to close it, the vase over there fell. I thought maybe someone was there and wanted to scream, but I couldn't. It...it was like something was holding me back. Afterwards something went by me, something really cold...it...it felt like..." stuttered the poor woman to which James pressed her soothingly to his chest.
"It's okay, you don't have to be afraid, I will protect you." he murmured.
Just in that moment, one of the lights on the nightstand fell down shattering and leaving small pieces of glass on the floor. Everyone winced slightly and James opened his mouth to say something, but was quickly interrupted by the door opening a creek and then slamming shut. The lights, that were turned on flickered on and off before finally going out altogether. Lupin, who had his wand ready, muttered 'Lumos' and walked over to the light switch, trying to flip it up and down multiple times without result.
"The power's out again. I'll look for the fuse and fix it. Sirius, will you join me?"
Lupin tried the door, only to find it locked. He backed away from it, muttering something that sounded like what is going on here? The others had risen to their feet their lighted wands in hand. Back to back they stood in the small guest room. Suddenly a gush of wind knocked them down and their wands out of their hands. They felt cold, like one of the ghosts of Hogwarts had just passed through them. The friends tried to get up and run away, only to get knocked down again by another blast of ice cold air.
Laughter hollered through the house. The laughter of a child. Objects could be heard falling to the floor. All the young adults felt unable to take a single breath. It was like somebody or something, was blocking them, hindering them to do so. Sirius felt so close to passing out right now in that moment and after a few minutes of desperately fighting against it he fell into unconsciousness.
...
The next morning all of them woke up with a groan and a monstrous headache. Sirius was the last one of them. Blinking his eyes, he sat up. Everything looked back to normal, at least at the first sight. Looking closer to the floorboards near the part where he had passed out the night before stood three letters. His eyes widened in recognition and slight horror.
"We gotta get out of here, quick!" he whispered, barley audible for his friends.
They gave him confused looks, but still followed his orders. Sirius couldn't wait to get out of this house, his house, or yet his former house. Because after this incident he never ever entered it again.