House. Slytherin
Category. Short
Prompt. [Prompt] The lights are on but nobody's home.
Word Count. 757
A/N. Thank you Queen for this fantabulous idea 3
oO0Oo
She walked up the front walk, her wand drawn. It had been Frank and Alice's anniversary, and so she had agreed to watch Neville while they partied the night away; however, it was now nearing 4 AM, and they still hadn't returned. Normally, they never left Neville overnight without prior warning… Augusta was worried something had happened to them.
As their house came into view, she forced herself to calm down. The lights were still on, and so her son and daughter-in-law had likely just been out later than they had originally planned. After all, You-Know-Who was dead now, vanquished by the Potter child. She had been silly to get so worked up. As she knocked at the front door, she could hear the noise echoing throughout the entire home. She waited out there on the front porch, her wand still drawn, her mind racing on overdrive. What if they weren't okay? What if there had been an attack? What if they hadn't come home— but now, their lights were on...
Augusta waited and waited. The night air was cold, and there was a cold breeze blowing. The stars provided a faint light, and the front yard was illuminated; however, when she raised her eyes to the heavens, she noticed with a shiver that there was a full moon in the sky. That did it. Even though it was rather rude to enter someone's home uninvited, she unlocked the door (which opened far more easily than it should have…) and stepped inside.
The inside of the house was chaos. Chunks of mauled furniture littered the floor. Shards of glass glittered amid the ruin. Blood stained the walls.
"Oh goodness," Augusta whispered, her eyes wide as she stared at the devastation spread out before her. The house was entirely silent. "Frank? Alice?"
No one answered.
Now even more uneasy, she cast homenum revelio. According to the spell, there were two people in the kitchen — two living people — and so she hurried upstairs, her wand still held before her. For all she knew, it could be Rodolphus Lestrange and his demented brother lying in wait.
When she entered the kitchen, she saw no one. Then she walked around the counter and saw the bodies of Frank and Alice lying on the floor. Frank lay still with blood trickling down his torso to join the steadily growing pool beneath him; meanwhile, blood was dribbling down Alice's chin, and she was jerking slightly. For one terrible moment, Augusta thought her son was already dead, for there was no way anyone could have lost this much blood and lived. He lay at an unnatural angle, one leg bent beneath him and his head cocked much too far to the right; yet, when she drew closer, she saw that he was still breathing. He was alive. Tears started to blur her vision as she crouched down beside him.
"I'm here now,"' she said, casting a spell to bind his wounds and slow his bleeding. "It's going to be okay."
He didn't answer, but Augusta hadn't expected him to. Relieved that his condition seemed to have stabilized, she now turned to her daughter-in-law. "Alice?" she said, slowly shaking her arm. There was barely a mark upon her. "Alice?"
But she didn't answer, either.
"Alice, are you okay?" Augusta shook her again, more insistently this time. Alice's breathing was steady and strong, and for all the world she looked as though she could be fast asleep. Yet, she lay there like the dead, and Augusta felt the first stirrings of worry and fear. "Alice?" her skin was warm to touch. "Alice?" Panicked, now, Augusta picked up her wand. "Renervate!"
Alice's eyes flew open, but they were empty and unseeing. On her face there stretched a rictus of a grin, and she began to laugh, a cold, uncaring sound.
Augusta stumbled backwards. She glanced from her clearly insane daughter-in-law to Frank, then saw with cold clarity just what had occured. Frank lay there, a private smile on his lips, relaxed as though in slumber; before she had woken Alice, Alice had looked exactly like Frank. Someone had attacked them; someone had done this to them. Augusta felt her heart constrict as she gazed at her son and daughter-in-law. They were so young, so strong, and had had their entire future before them…Now, however, they were both lost in their own little dreamlands. They were both alive, but their minds had flown.
It was just like their house.
The lights were on, but no one was home.