Well, my first chapter of anything uploaded since 2008. I'm actually kinda happy with myself - I've managed to start writing again. ^^ For awhile there art had stolen my heart, soul, and mind, and I wasn't writing anything. It sucked, majorly. Um, I will be trying to update my other stories, but I wouldn't hold my breath if i were you. It's been awhile, and I don't write the same way anymore.
In other news, this fic is a response to my own challenge. Details can be found in my profile. Look for the bold heading The Spiders in the Cupboard if you're interested in taking a look. This fic will be rather short - it's mostly a series of drabbles that tell a much larger story.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter will, fortunately, never belong to me. I say fortunately, because not only would I have never finished the first book, but I also would have made it nothing but hardcore yaoi. Gotta love that TMR/HP action.
Of Serpents and Spiders
Part 1: Of Silence and Learning
By: Ceris Malfoy
It was dark.
Not that he knew what darkness was. He can not recall having seen light before, after all. But, still, it seems as if he can remember a time when he could actually see.
He can't see anything now – there's nothing but empty blackness in his cupboard.
Not that he knows that's where he is.
He is hungry, and that is a familiar, gnawing pain inside of him. But it is also a foreign one, for he thinks he might remember a time when he was happily full.
It is silent, and this he knows well. He does remember noise, you see – screaming, whispering, whimpering, rushing noise. Of all the points of his continued existence, it is the silence that he welcomes most.
He knows what light is now.
Not that it means much, given that it is almost always dark.
He is let out of his confinement (which is how he learns of The Cupboard) twice a day. Only twice – once in the early morning before the sun has fully decided to rise, and once again long after the screaming, pudgy creature has been sent upstairs. Both times he is given some food (not much) and a much-needed bathroom break.
His hunger is only slightly soother, kept on a fragile chain that threatens to snap and let the hunger consume him.
After his needs have been met, he is pulled aside by the large, round creature with the beady eyes and deep, gravely sounds and given a lecture.
He has never been taught how to read, or to write, or how to speak, or how to listen. But he knows what is being said regardless, and knows that he never will be taught.
And so, the silence that is broken only when he dreams (remembers) continues, and he is, for now, content.
He lives with his aunt and uncle, and knows, for once, for sure, what that means.
It means that his parents (light and food and desperate wailing) are dead, and are never coming back. He thinks that this is supposed to depress him, but how can he miss what he has never had?
He isn't quite sure, but when his (drunk, but how would he know that?) Aunt confesses the truth behind his existence in their house, pleading brokenly for forgiveness that he does not know of, and so can not give, he does learn something else – he has a name (Harry) and that his Aunt is desperate to get him out of this house.
He is not quite sure why he suddenly has the pressing urge to rip out his Aunt's tongue with his bare hands, or why the spiders in his cupboard flee.
Something has changed.
His Uncle was almost always gone, and his cousin, Dudley, was missing.
His Aunt was a bundle of high-sprung nerves, always jumping at the smallest noise.
He was always kept locked up now.
Beyond that, he could see now. It didn't matter that it was dark in his cupboard – he guessed his eyes have finally adjusted to the darkness.
He has friends, of sorts, now as well. There are hundreds of spiders living with him, and they are quite amusing.
He likes to watch them weave patterns in their webs – no one pattern was the same, and each one seems to bring about some different effect. He tries to copy them – tracing his finger in the air over and over in similar patterns, but he always fails to produce the same effect.
That was alright though, because he thinks he will get it soon.
He was awakened by a presence – it was strange and not at all welcome. He soundlessly slipped off the small cot and slid under it to the far corner, wondering why he felt the need to do so.
Outside of his cupboard, he could hear a stranger's voice – male and angry – snarling viciously at his Aunt. He could also hear his Aunt's voice, whimpering and pleading. He can't make out what they are saying, but he has a decent idea – his Aunt has finally managed to get in touch with his mother's "friend".
He wonders absently if said "friend" would allow him to take his spiders with him.
When the cupboard door is abruptly vanished and a scowling, sallow face takes it's place, and a harsh but silky voice tells him to "get out from under that disease-ridden mattress, you stupid boy," he figures probably not.
That doesn't stop the spiders from coming anyway, much to his delight.
There will be more, as I've actually got most of this written out before I even thought about posting it. Lol. This will be a TMR/HP fic. Just warning you people.