Disclaimer: I only own the 3 OCs. The rest belongs to JK Rowling.
A/N: The name Liliana is not a play on Lily. It's just a name I heard. Hope you guys enjoy!
It was the night of Halloween. The three 16-year-olds stood across the street from No.12, Grimmauld Place, wearing their Halloween costumes. They stared at the old, ruined house that most definitely looked haunted.
"Are you guys absolutely positive that you want to do this?" asked Liliana, looking at the two boys.
"Yes," answered Michael, not taking his eyes away from the house. "We all agreed."
"I know, but it looks so scary now that it's nighttime." Liliana said, regretting a little that she had ever agreed.
"Oh, don't be such a girl, Lils," said Stefan, rolling his eyes.
"I am a girl, git!" Liliana glared at the smirking boy.
"Let's go guys. We agreed we'll go inside it tonight. I'm sure it's not haunted like people say." Michael said.
"But what if it is?" asked Liliana.
Michael put a comforting arm around the girl's shoulders. "Don't worry. Nothing will happen."
"Yeah, maybe you guys can get a room at the house." Stefan smirked.
"For the thousandth time, Stef, there's nothing like that between us!" Michael said rolling his eyes.
"Yeah." Liliana said a little unconvincingly as she looked down, blushing slightly. Before either of the boys could notice, she quickly changed the subject. "Okay, boys, let's go."
Liliana took both the boys' hands and crossed the street towards the old house. Michael took the lead once they started climbing the few steps to the front door. He slowly opened the door, trying his best not to make any noise. The other two followed him, equally trying not to make a sound. They stepped over the threshold and lit the torches that they had brought along with them. The place looked incredibly dusty, like it hasn't had a human presence, or any kind of presence for that matter, in years. It was, after all, an abandoned house.
They shone their torches down the hallway. There was a knocked down stand that looked like a big foot. A ragged curtain was covering something on the wall. A dusty carpet was on the floor leading to a staircase. Michael stepped forward gingerly, shinning his torch at the walls. Even though it was half ruined now, Michael thought that it must've looked grand before it was abandoned. He came to the stairwell and looked at the other two behind him as if to ask them whether they should climb it. Liliana shrugged and Stefan nodded.
As they climbed the stairs they saw that ugly looking heads with big ears and eyes were mounted on the wall. Liliana muffled a scream when she saw these. "Probably fake stuff to scare people," whispered Stefan from behind her. "Maybe this was a scare house."
"Something tells me it wasn't." Michael said more to himself.
They reached the first floor. They made their way towards a room and saw that it was something like a drawing room. There were two sofas in the middle, covered in layers of dust. A great big chandelier could be seen hanging on the ceiling, utterly useless now. A torn curtain revealed a window. Broken oil lamps could be seen around the room. Stefan made his way towards one of the lamps and crouched down. "Look at this thing! It looks ancient! I mean they don't even make stuff like this anymore. How old do you think this place is?" He asked from no one in particular.
Liliana came and crouched down beside him. "I've seen these kinds of stuff in History books. I don't know, this place could be a hundred years old."
Meanwhile, Michael made his way out of the room to examine the rest of the house. He made his way towards another room, only to find that it was just a bathroom. He went back in the drawing room and called his friends. "Guys, let's go upstairs and see." The other two stood up and followed Michael out the room and up the stairs. They saw another room and entered. It looked like a bedroom. They looked around for a bit before deciding that there was nothing interesting there.
They continued like that for another fifteen minutes, going into every room they saw. It looked like the former occupants of the house were obsessed with green. They couldn't understand most of the writing they saw. The word "Slytherin", whatever it was, could be seen a lot. They decided that maybe it was some kind of a club during their time. Stefan was convinced that this house belonged to some kind of a mob that went by that name.
They reached the topmost landing and saw that the door directly ahead of them bore a nameplate. None of them could read the name from where they stood, as it was covered in dust. Liliana made her way towards the door and wiped the dust away from the nameplate. "Sirius," she read aloud.
"As in the star?" Michael said from behind her.
"Maybe this is the balcony or something." Stefan said.
"Let's find out, shall we?" said Liliana. She opened the door. It wasn't a balcony. It was another room, but it looked very different from the others. Instead of green, this room seemed to be decorated in red. There was a large wooden bed, a long curtain hiding a window, a chandelier with a few candles still stuck in its sockets and a large wardrobe, its doors half open. The word "Gryffindor" could be seen on a few banners that hung from the walls. Apart from that, there were a lot of pictures of old models of motorbikes and some posters of young girls wearing bikinis. However, this room, as well as all the other rooms, looked like somebody had rummaged in it looking for something.
"Okay, this must've definitely belonged to the family rebel. Look at all those bikini models!" exclaimed Stefan.
Liliana rolled her eyes as she walked around the room examining the "Gryffindor" posters. She wondered what it could have been.
Michael was not looking at the girls or the motorbikes or the strange posters. He had found a picture on the wall with four boys. They looked about his age, all wearing robes. Maybe they were celebrating Halloween when the picture was taken. As far as he knew, people didn't usually wear robes in day to day life. It looked like the boys were fooling around while the picture was taken, because none of them looked like they were posing for a photo. It looked like they were all in the middle of completing one action or the other.
"Ah!" Liliana gasped suddenly. Michael turned around to see that she had her foot stuck in the very corner of the floor. "There was a loose floorboard," she said as she tried to free her leg. Michael made his way towards her to help get her foot out. Liliana finally managed to free herself. She rubbed her foot as Michael removed the floorboard completely and looked below to see what it contained. There was a single piece of folded paper.
He took the folded piece of paper out. It wasn't even proper paper, but maybe people back then used stuff like this. He unfolded the paper to see what it was.
"What is it?" asked Liliana, still rubbing her foot.
"It's a letter." Michael said.
Stefan turned his attention back to his friends at those words. "What does it say?" He asked.
"Wait," said Liliana. "Is it okay to just read someone else's letter like that?"
"Well, I don't think they'd mind," answered Michael. "Whoever wrote this must be dead. It's dated 1979."
"Whoa, mate, that's like 300 years ago!" Stefan said as he came towards Michael and looked over his shoulder at the letter.
"Yeah," said Michael. He examined the letter. The handwriting looked messy, yet comprehensible. It was addressed to a "Sirius". The nameplate on the door made sense now. Sirius was probably the owner of this room. The writing was blotched in a few places, as if it got wet. Had the writer been crying? Michael's curiosity heightened. She beckoned for Liliana to come join him like Stefan.
Liliana made her way to the other side of Michael and all three of them read the letter together.
Dear Sirius,
I don't know whether you will ever get to read this letter or not. If you do, however, I might possibly be dead by that time. But don't worry. If all goes according to plan, even if I end up dead, my death will not have been wasted. Unlike my life.
I'm sorry. I am really sorry about everything. I'm sorry for everything I put you through. I'm sorry for making all the wrong choices. I'm sorry about being a coward. But Sirius, I promise you, I won't die like one.
You were right. You were right all along. I was too stupid to see it until now. I believed everything they told me. You were right to leave when you could. I wish I was brave enough to do that. If I could go back in time, I'd leave with you, Sirius. It has taken me this long to realize that I was wrong. But at least I know now.
This is not just a letter. This is a promise. To you and to myself. I am going to do everything I can to stop Voldemort. I've seen his true self. How cruel he really is. I know his secret. I will do my best to put a stop to this Pureblood mania of his. I promise you that, Sirius. I will not waste my life for him anymore.
All I wish for now is to see you; to talk with you; to hug you one last time. I want to go back to the time when we were together; when we were happy. But I can't. I know I can't. Because if I see you, I will not be able to do what must be done. I know you won't let me. And I can't trust myself not to tell you.
I want you to know that you did not fail. I know that you were always trying to protect me; make me see sense. And even though, you didn't show it much, I know you loved me. I know you loved me as much as you love James.
And Sirius, I want you to know, that whatever I might have said, I've always loved you as well. And I'm so proud of you. I just wish that I had made this choice seven years ago.
It always hurt me to see the disappointment in your eyes. But I'm going to make you proud. I promise that. I know that you will be proud of me. I just wish I'll be there to see it.
Regulus.
Michael was the last one to stop reading, not because he was slow, but because he had read the letter twice. A strange sensation was going through his body. His throat tightened a bit. He concentrated hard on the wooden floor below him to stop himself from breaking into tears. True, he didn't understand half the things that were said in the letter. He had no idea who Voldemort was or what the writer was talking about knowing a secret and putting a stop to "this Pureblood mania of his", whatever that meant.
But he felt like he could understand this writer, Regulus. He felt like he knew him, though clearly he couldn't have. The bloke lived some 300 years ago. Probably died around that time as well. But he didn't know for sure. Had he succeeded, or had he just died? Had Sirius, whoever that was, got to know about this change of heart in him? He hadn't found the letter, Michael assumed.
"Michael!" sounded Liliana's voice from somewhere and it brought him back from his reverie.
"Yeah? Sorry. What?" Michael said, a bit flustered.
"Are you okay?" she asked, concerned.
"What? Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, what were you saying?" Michael asked.
Liliana looked at him for a moment before she spoke again. "What do you think about the letter?"
"Um…." Michael didn't really want to voice his true thoughts. At least not all of it. "I don't know. Sounds like family. Brothers, maybe?"
But Michael was sure that they were brothers. It felt like that. And he felt like he was Regulus. He felt like he was the little brother asking for forgiveness from his older brother. His older brother, who had died from a car crash. Michael never got to say all the things he wanted to his brother. And so he understood Regulus. At least to a certain extent.
"I think they might've been lovers." Liliana said.
Stefan scoffed. "You're always trying to romanticize things, Lils. I agree with Michael."
"Fine. Whatever. But I could be right," said Liliana.
"No, I don't think they were a couple. This feels different." Michael said.
"Ha! See?" Stefan exclaimed.
"Fine fine. What do you reckon then?" Liliana asked Michael, ignoring Stefan.
"Like I said, they could be brothers. I just have a feeling that they must've been brothers." Michael examined the letter again. Liliana glanced at Stefan, and as their eyes met, they both understood what was going on in Michael's mind. Michael was still wishing for his late brother's forgiveness. He never did get a chance to apologize like this stranger had.
Suddenly, they heard a sound. They couldn't quite figure out what kind of a sound it was.
"What was that?" Liliana asked drawing closer to Michael.
"I don't know. But let's get out of here. We've been inside this house for a long time now." Michael said folding back the letter. He put it in his pocket and picked up his torch from where he had placed it on the floor.
"Why are you taking the letter?" Stefan asked.
"It's interesting. And I'm sure Sirius wouldn't mind." Michael said as he made his way towards the door. But both of them knew that it wasn't the real reason.
The other two exchanged looks again and decided to just follow him. But Michael stopped at the next door. There was a name on it.
"Look at the name." he pointed. "Regulus!"
Stefan and Liliana stared at it. It said 'Regulus Arcturus Black'. "This guy's whole name is weird," said Michael. "But I guess this really means that Sirius and Regulus most probably were brothers." He was just about to open the door, when another sound came from downstairs. It was a loud crashing noise. A second of silence. Then a woman's voice could be heard.
"Mudbloods! Filth! Stains of dishonour! Taint of shame on the house of my fathers!" The woman's voiced screamed.
All three friends practically flew down the stairs and ran to the door without looking back. As they ran down the hallway towards the front door, none of them noticed that the curtain they saw earlier upon entering was open now and that it was the woman on the portrait who shouted all these bizarre things.
A/N: Thank you for reading! Please review!