Silence
If you gaze into an abyss for long enough,
the abyss gazes back into you
-Friedrich Nietzsche
Draco was curious. It was not often that his mother forbid him from doing anything. He was the pampered child of the Malfoy family. Anything he wanted was his before he even uttered the words. The twelve year old took advantage of this fact often enough.
He peered through the gap in the bushes to the neighboring house. A new family was rumoured to have moved in. There was hardly evidence to support this fact for the huge, sprawling mansion was as gloomy and foreboding as ever. In contrast to that, The Malfoy Manor was a sophisticated piece of architecture with columns and arches, three storeyed, consisting of eight-bedrooms excluding the servants' quarters. The Manor had been with Malfoy's for generations and was always inherited by the eldest son. Needless to say, The Malfoy's were very well-off.
The house in question, however, has a gruesome history for nothing ever good happened there. The original owner died of pneumonia before ever seeing the house in its completion after giving years of his life towards building it. His daughter moved in there with her husband and lived in relative peace for ten years before tragedy struck. Her husband was murdered by a gang of bandits and his five year old son was taken away, never to be seen again. The wife fell into depression and killed herself two weeks later. After a series of events such as these, the house was rumoured to be cursed and no one ever bought it.
Until now.
All of this was of no concern to the young Malfoy. He was just interested in the family that had moved in. The Grangers.
His mother spat out the name in disgust and what also might be interpreted as fear. The Grangers were the outcasts of society in small little town of Wiltshire. First they were regarded as strangers who refused to socialize after moving from their hometown. Then rumours began to surface about their daughter.
William and Diane Granger were genial folk who interacted with a few families, namely he Potters and the Weasleys. But they refused to talk about their daughter apart from giving her name.
Hermione.
Draco thought that a strange name. Nevertheless, he was determined to know her and find out if she was horribly disfigured as the town made out her to be. The people had never once seen her and believed the Granger's to be hiding her because they were ashamed.
Naturally, people jumped to the conclusion that she was deformed, possessed by the devil, deathly sick or else a combination of all three. People do little else.
He slowly crept through the bushes and sidled his way to the side of the building before pausing. He looked to the left and to the right and slowly, with exaggerated movements, tiptoed towards the backdoor that he knew was open. The Grangers were out for the day and William Granger was a tad forgetful.
He opened it- thankfully it did not creak- and stepped inside, closing the door behind him.
Gnawing darkness greeted him.
Not a single sound echoed through the house, save for the sound of his laboured breath. He began to think the girl didn't exist. And also that it wasn't really important to know her. Not while facing the darkness, his sweaty palms and his quickened heartbeat on finding that the backdoor had jammed and there was no way out.
Maybe she was a ghost. A spirit that roamed the house, compelling her parents to remain silent about her existence for if not, she would seek vengeance on the poor soul that disturbs her.
She slowly floats down the stairs, air whistling past her and blowing into Draco's face. She comes closer and closer and clo—
Draco curses his overactive imagination and the horror books that he had smuggled from his dad's study. He curses his foolishness and the darkness that blankets this house.
Most of all he curses his senses for telling him that there is someone a few feet in front of him.
He inhales quietly, his heart thudding, his fists clenching.
He is unable to move, he realizes. He has literally frozen in his fright.
He closes his eyes as he feels the figure move toward him. He starts trembling when he feels it stop before him.
A few beats of silence. He takes in a deep breath, lets it out and opens his eyes.
Draco screams.