Prompt: Spiderman 3
Ballycastle Bats
Keeper
Word count: 1,473
AN: BASED OFF A SLAVIC DEMON NAMED KOSCHEI, SEE BELOW:
Single way to kill him: you must destroy his soul. He's hidden his soul away in the form of a needle. And the needle is inside of an egg, which is inside of a duck, which in turn is inside of a hare. The hare itself is hidden inside of an iron box, which is buried under an oak tree, which is on the mythical island of Buyan, home of the three winds.
Sometimes I lay in bed and decide that I don't actually want to get out of it, but I have too. I had a husband that needed to be fed before he disappeared off on another Auror mission, and a job that needed me alert. Sometimes my husband was having a good day, but when he had a bad one, I found I had even less motivation to get up.
Today wasn't the best.
"Bloody thing can't even work right." Harry's mumbles echoed across our little apartment, I forced my eyes to stay open despite the dark of bedroom.
It was time to just get up already, even if I didn't there would be no getting away from the irate wizard. I knew Harry generally had good intentions, and he didn't mean to snap so much, especially not like he had yesterday. It was just one of the not so great parts of his personality, his anger.
It was just the war; it was hard to get away from bad memories when reporters tried banging down the front door - bringing them all back up again. It didn't help that I had a flashy position as Chaser for the Holyhead Harpies, so I wholeheartedly accepted part of the blame for his moods. I still hated that stupid little black iron box he brought home from work yesterday though.
A banging sound from the kitchen forced me to jump slightly, a hint of fear melted out of my veins as I sighed to myself. He was an Auror, just because he'd ran into some silly cursed object and decided he had to bring it home didn't mean anything - probably.
I swung my legs off the bed as I sat up before I stretched out muscles that felt just a touch too tight for my liking. I should have stretched out more at practice yesterday.
I grabbed my wand out from under its place under my pillow and slipped it between two belt-loops on my pyjama pants. I hated to admit that I felt a slight sense of relief from feeling the wood at my hip as I marched into the kitchen.
"Morning, Gin." His morning voice was always gruff as was mine.
"Sleep at all?" I raised a brow at him before I sat at the table where he'd found himself a piece of toast to eat. I eyed the dark circles under his eyes and paused. The green that I was so used to seemed...darker. Almost black.
"Not much but, that's alright." His shrug was a touch jerky, unsettling.
"You need to sleep, Harry." I stopped my tone just short of chastising him and settled with an unhappy look thrown his way.
"Look, Ginevra, if I wanted to marry your mother, I would have just done that instead. Now just get off my back!" His words were sharp and very much uncalled for in my book as I stared at him, black eyes forgotten. He looked nearly as surprised as I was at his outburst but we both knew I wouldn't take it as smoothly as I had last night.
"Are you bloody kidding me? I don't know what gave you the idea that it was alright to talk to your wife like one your underlings, but it's not!" I felt regret swell almost instantly as my voice matched his own in sharpness but went higher in pitch. I'd never had a great handle on my temper.
"I-..." He looked as though he wanted to apologize but he paused. I watched him for a moment; his eyes darted to the iron box that sat in the living room next to us before he appeared angrier.
"What?" I pursed my lips, as I silently gave myself a pat on the back for sounding only half mad.
"Just..." He started again with the fury in his voice but seemed to be at war with himself as he just shook his head.
"What is going on, Harry?" I felt a piece of my heart ache for my husband in that moment. He reminded me of that same moody boy in fifth year, but he had enough sense to not just lash out at the people he loved this time.
"You know you can talk to me, Ha-" I reached forward to place my hand over the top of his shaking one but, he jerked back suddenly before he stood. The screech of the chair against the floor was the only sound I could hear outside of my measured breaths.
"Don't wait up." Harry practically growled at me before he turned to stalk out of our apartment. I watched with my mouth nearly open as the door almost swung itself off the hinges and slammed shut behind him.
He'd always had a knack for wordless magic and a bit of a temper, but I'd never seen either thing so strong until today. I hated it but, I was actually a bit afraid for my own husband. He was supposed to be the boy that had fearlessly faced down so many horrible things, the one I'd dreamed of marrying years ago. Now he just fought with himself as much as he fought with me.
I stood to stalk over to the box before I ran a finger along the top with thoughts of destroying the stupid thing. Somehow, instead of whipping out my wand I just continued to run my fingers over it until I finally sat back down with the box in front of me.
I don't know how long I sat in that chair, glancing between the door and the new souvenir with it's pointed edges but, eventually people began banging on our door. I was a touch shocked, and I suppose that had to be it...why it took me so long to answer the door.
"Yes?" I blinked lazily at the two Wizards standing in front of me that were watching my every move.
"The box? Is the box here?" They practically barged their way in through the door before I could stop them. What was the deal with this thing? It was just a metal box. That was all.
"What do you want?" My voice was sharp enough to grab their attention away from the box in question when their serious expressions turned to worry. I recognized the two men, excluding a scar or two, they were at the last Christmas party thrown by Harry's department.
"Mr Potter brought this home yesterday, yeah?" One raised a brow, eyeing me as he motioned to the box atop our kitchen table.
"What of it?" I slowly shut the door as I turned to stand with one hip cocked to the side. People couldn't just get away with barging into my home like this. It simply wouldn't do.
"Mrs Potter, has Harry opened it? The box?" The second bloke began now, seemingly to ignore whatever tactic his partner had.
"What is going on with this bloody box? How am I supposed to know if he's opened it? Do I look like 'is bloody mother?" I waved a hand roughly in the direction of the box as they seemed to grunt at each other in a language that I didn't understand. I huffed out of frustration with this scene and watched them ply the box open with hands clad in dragon-skin gloves to simply discover an...egg?
"Wha-" I began to question what the hell was going on when they took the egg out and used the box to smash it on my bloody table. Fury raged through me that was quickly replaced by confusion once more when a single silver coin hit the table. I eyed the coin open mouthed and I vaguely noticed that the writing on it reminded me of my ancient tomes class.
"Venom curse, ya think?" One head popped up as he glanced at his partner who nodded back at him with a sigh.
"I'm sorry, hi? Yes, hello." I waved at the wizards with frustration once more. Only one out of the two heads turned to me with a hint of disinterest.
"Did you know you're in my house?" I motioned to the surrounding living room with a raised brow as they seemed to notice me once again.
"Yeah...You are. Now either explain what the hell is happening or, I hex you into your next life." My lips formed a single line as I slipped my wand out of it's customary home in my belt loops. I watched as both Aurors seemed to swallow heavily before motioning to a chair.
"You may want to take a seat, Mrs Potter."