Title: In Little Hangleton
Author: hourglass
Summary: In Little Hangleton, a group of children wonder what's really so spooky about the Riddle House. They've been warned to stay away, but what do parents know?
Rating: PG for death
Time frame: Early summer (July 4th to be exact, although it's not America so there's no meaning in that day) following Harry, Hermione, and Ron's fourth year.
Brief Authors' Note: Being American, I have no idea whether or not Little Hangleton is a real place, or, if it is, whether or not there is a family called Weiland, much less one with two kids named Lainey and Peter…
Translation: It's a fic. Implying "fiction". Only Lainey and Peter are mine. Also, please excuse me for the re-use of the word Marauder as a group of mischievous people. I couldn't think of anything else that went well! I tried, too… sat in front of the computer and thought, and thought, and thought, and gosh did it hurt. ~_^
PS: Happy Chanukah
The Marauders were 12 this summer. They had long ago made a pact to be friends forever, but forever had seemed a lot longer back then. Staring into the abyss of death, it was more of a fleeting thought than a measure of infinity.
But maybe I should start from the beginning.
The very beginning, of course, is when the Marauders were first born. All five were born within the same month, June, in a small town called Little Hangleton. Four of the five Marauders had deep roots tied to the town. Lainey and Peter's great-great-great grandfather William Weiland was one of the founders of the town, along with Paul's great-great-great grandfather Fredrick O'Leary (Paul the Marauder was really named Fredrick Madison Paul St. Valentine O'Leary the sixth, and it never failed to bother him if you brought it up). Deirdre's family had lived there for nearly as long, moving in only one generation after the town's founding. Only Greg's family was new, his grandparents having moved there with his then young father, his mother coming from a nearby town. Yes, that was new in the small, close-knit town of Little Hangleton.
Maybe that's a little too far back of a beginning for you. Another starting place could be when the Marauders became the Marauders. They were only five years old at the time, and forever was just a way to show that they meant it when they said they would be friends. Lainey and Peter had, of course, known each other nearly forever. They were first cousins after all. Lainey and Deirdre had met in pre-school, and Paul's family lived just down the street from Peter.
Greg hadn't shown up until kindergarten, which is when the Marauders had become the Marauders. They had quickly become best friends, goofing off instead of working on the classroom assignments, sneaking off during naptime, and taking too many cookies during snack. But, are the early childhood details boring you? We could just move along, to the final beginning: the beginning of the end.
It started innocently enough- well, as innocent as the bunch ever got. They were only planning to sneak into the dilapidated Riddle House to tell ghost stories about the recently deceased gardener Frank. They never planned on mixing up in devious schemes of world domination and the murder of an unfortunate boy named Harry Potter.
But mix in it they did, however briefly.
It started innocently enough. They'd settled down, flashlights in hand, in the street just outside the Riddle House. Greg glanced at each in the near-darkness, and began his tale.
"Once upon a time, a while back… when our parents were babies and dinosaurs roamed the earth" the others giggled, "a family lived in this house. Their name was Riddle. There was a momma Riddle, a daddy Riddle, and a- oops, wrong story. There were two elderly Riddles in the house, and their grown-up son lived there too. Rumour has it that he married and then left his wife, although nobody knows why… but that's a different story.
"The Riddles lived happily, or however you lived back then, for a long time, until, suddenly, they died. No warning, no nothing. They just were eating dinner and then were found, later, still wearing their dinner things, still looking normal. Just… dead. Frank, the gardener, was quickly blamed, but was then let go because of lack of evidence.
"They said that the Riddles continued to haunt the old house, and Frank stayed around to guard the house so that the spirits wouldn't escape. Now that he's gone, they say he's trapped in the house with the others.
"They say if you go into the foyer, turn in a circle five times counter-clockwise, all you have to do is say, "Spirits, I command you, show yourselves! Don't keep hidden by the pots and shelves!" the others laughed again. "So I'm not good at poetry! I mean, they aren't good at poetry. The people who make up these stories and tell them to me- I mean, hear these stories and-"
"Come off it, Greg," Lainey interrupted. We know they're just the voices in your head. Let's just sneak into the house, okay? Then you can tell us the one about how Frank died."
All four other Marauders nodded, and the five headed inside.
They reached the door, which was locked shut. They stared at it for a while, and considered picking the lock (and breaking the door down, but they weren't really capable of that one). The Deirdre wandered around the side of the house and noticed an open second-story window.
The Marauders were only slightly discouraged at the second-story factor of the window. They all were experts at scaling the sides of brick houses after all the practice they'd given themselves. Peter was the first one to go up the side of the house.
His mother's words echoed in his head. I don't want to ever hear of you going anywhere near the Riddle House again, young man. Do you hear me? He'd been younger back then, he told himself, and continued climbing.
He propped himself up on the windowsill, and gestured for Lainey to come up behind him. The other three followed directly behind her, and then all five piled into the mansion, one right after the other. Somewhere, deep within the old house, something beeped, breaking the eerie silence. All five sighed audibly.
Deirdre shined the beam of her flashlight around the empty, rotting room they'd ended up in. She shined it past the doorway, then swung it back quickly.
There, in the doorway, was a horrific sight. The shape of a man, part human, mostly not. Even his shadow, outlined with the flashlight, was enough to frighten the Marauders, with all their twelve years, to the point of absolute fear.
And then he spoke.
"My, my, my," he said. "And what have we here? Death Eaters, hold them!"
Lainey, Peter, and Paul's mouths all dropped open.
"You're- you're- you're You-Know-Who!" Paul finally choked out. By then, all five were being restrained by the Death Eaters.
"He's… what?" Greg asked.
"My name, Muggle," the Dark Lord said, "is Lord Voldemort."
Paul, Lainey, and Peter quaked with fear at hearing the monstrosity say his own name.
And then they thought back, and knew this was the end.
They say your life flashes before you when you die. Well, I don't need mine to. I'm here in my last moments with my best friends. I don't need to have one last glimpse to remember the good times. Wherever we go when we die, the Marauders will stay together. Forever, just like we swore we would. Maybe, in spite of facing the Dark Lord, I'll go with a smile on my face.
"Avada Kedavra."
************
~hg~