Summary: Walburga Black was the last living in her family branch, so seeing a large black dog stalking her was not enough to spook her into accepting whatever fate seeing the Grim meant.
Rated: T
Genre: Tragedy
Competition/Challenge Block:
Written For: Monthly Challenges for All (Year 3); Hogwarts (Term 14)
Hogwarts: Ravenclaw; A.8 - Futurology #3: Holodecks - Write about something that is not what it seems.
Word Count: 708
A Grim Haunting
Walburga first noticed the large black creature when leaving the high-class restaurant in Diagon Alley. It loomed in the shadows under a bench, it's grey eyes glaring at her the entire time she walked across the cobblestone road. The growl that emitted from the beast was enough to have her decide to apparate home rather than take the bus, too startled by the black dog to want to wait.
She wouldn't admit it to anyone, but Walburga found herself quite spooked at seeing the dog. Remembering her school days on studying creatures, the Grim was one of the more feared next to thestrals, both being symbols of death. Being the only living Black left in her line, it weighed on her conscious heavily that night, even going so far as to take the extra care to bless her home to help ward away anything that may have followed her home.
Unfortunately, the safety of her home being under the strongest and oldest wards known to the Black family tree was not enough. An aggressive bark was heard outside the following evening, and Walburga took the risk to check the front window to investigate the dark streets before her. The light of the dull streetlamp illuminated the grey eyes of the black silhouette of a dog sitting across the street, staring straight into the same window she looked out of. It's stare felt like it pierced right into her soul, and she hastily closed the curtains to break the line of sight.
"Blasted beast…" she hissed, but the shake in her voice said she was terrified of what this all meant.
She decided that if the dog showed up a third time, she would take action. For all she knew, it was just some stray mutt that happened to follow her scent to try and scavenge food from her.
Three days passed with no sign of the horrid creature, giving Walburaga the time to calm herself and rationalize the encounter to be nothing more than just an odd coincidence with a mutt after all. It was enough reasoning to have her go out again to shop and spend time with her nieces. Evening had soon came and the girls parted ways with her to return to their parents. It was a lovely night out, so Walburga decided to walk down to the other end of Diagon Alley before hailing the bus to take her home.
It was a mistake on her part.
The dog appeared from an alcove of two shops and kept pace with Walburga. She could hear its growling every so often and the hair on the back of her neck rose in high alert. Pulling her wand from her robes, she gripped it hard in her hand, waiting for the right moment to strike before calling Kreacher to take her home. Walburga hated apparating and traveling by house-elf, but she was scared, and wanted to stop being haunted by this dog.
Turning suddenly, she shot a stunning spell at the dog, it hitting the ground at its feet caused it to leap backwards. It snarled, eyes glinting in the light, before it started to aggressively bark at her. She stepped back, prompting the creature to leap her way.
"Kreacher!" she hollered, the elf appearing almost immediately to grab her and take her home.
She only started to breath when she was in the safety of her sitting room. "Tea, now. I need to ease my nerves."
"Yes, Mistress."
It was really late now, Walburaga was finally getting settled into bed for the night after shaking the fright of being almost attacked by the Grim itself when she heard a strange barking once more. After listening for a moment, it sounded like singing, but beasts couldn't do such a thing, and it was irritably familiar once she concentrated on the obnoxious tune. It still sounded very ominous, and she dared not look out the window to confirm the creature that was making such odd sounds. If this was truly a sign of her impeding death, then let the blasted beast take her now without the need to remind her of the horrendous sounds that once emitted from the son she made sure to erase from her blood.
