Mystery of the Closet under the Stairs
The realtor never mentioned that something odd had happened in the house. The previous owners simply wanted to live in a warmer climate, she told them, and once their son got a home of his own in a rich suburb of London, they fled for the Mediterranean coast faster than they could put the house on the market. That didn't affect the buyers; they liked the house enough to deal with the frustratingly-long communication times between the Dursleys', the Dursleys' realtor, the buyer's realtor, and themselves. They liked the neighborhood and the property, and they were happy to move themselves and their two daughters into the home.
But the youngest daughter found The Things, those strange items under the stairs. The first was a book that went mad when a leather strap was removed from it. It took days to coax the thing out of the oven, and it took even longer for young Emily to go anywhere near the kitchen, or the room under the stairs. But when the girls were home alone with their aging grandmother one rainy, Saturday morning, curiosity got the better of them. They took a flashlight into the closet under the stairs and shined it on every crevasse.
Papers, books, and black-stained feather things littered the floor. On one wall were fabric pieces torn from a cheap mattress by the rough grain of the wood. Above the little strings were lines, tons of them, all in groups of four with a diagonal slash through them. Groups of five lines, dozens of them, went as far up the wall as someone could reach while standing on the mattress, and while avoiding the stairs above.
"What was this room used for?" young Emily questioned, but her older sister had no answer. She decided to show their parents, but they had no answers either. They were Muggles, though they didn't know it, and the strange things that happened in that house would never be known, and the meaning behind the things under the stairs would never be discovered.
Theme 030: Under the Staircase
To complete the themes yourself, I have the list posted on my profile. The list is for any type of fan fiction (one-shot, drabble, etc.) and any fandom. Challenge yourself in other ways to make it more fun, and enjoy!