tentative title: Carmilla
An: This is a crossover for The webseries Carmilla a modern retelling of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's gothic novel. I've been wanting to write this for awhile so enjoy.
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After the meeting had finally ended and his run in with Mrs. Black Harry found himself following his godfather to the bottom of the stairs and through a door into the basement kitchen.
It was just as gloomy as the hall above, a cavernous room with rough stone walls. Heavy iron pots and pans hanging from the dark ceiling.
An assortment of chairs had been crammed into the room for the meeting and a long wooden table stood in the middle of the room, littered with rolls of parchment, goblets, empty wine bottles, and a heap of what appeared to be rags.
Tonks was showing something to a young, pretty woman he didn't recognize and Mr. Weasley and his eldest son, Bill, were talking quietly with their heads together at the end of the table.
They jumped as Mrs. Weasley cleared her throat.
"Harry!" Mr. Weasley said, hurrying forward and out of Molly's direct line of sight to greet him, shaking his hand vigorously and leaving Bill to quail under his mother's glare. "Good to see you!" Over his shoulder Harry saw Bill hastily rolling up the lengths of parchment left on the table."Journey all right, Harry?" he called, trying to gather up twelve scrolls at once. "Mad-Eye didn't make you come via Greenland, then?"
"He tried," said Tonks, who'd finished whatever she was doing before and was now striding over to help Bill and immediately sent a candle toppling onto the last piece of parchment. "Oh no — sorry —"
"Here, dear," said Mrs. Weasley, sounding exasperated, and she repaired the parchment with a wave of her wand. In the flash of light caused by her charm, Harry caught a glimpse of what looked like the plan of a building.
Mrs. Weasley must have seen him looking because she snatched the plan off the table and stuffed it into Bill's heavily laden arms.
"This sort of thing ought to be cleared away promptly at the end of meetings," she snapped before sweeping off toward an ancient dresser from which she started unloading dinner plates. Bill took out his wand and muttered a chastised "Evanesco!" and the scrolls vanished.
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After Sirius's rather awkward introduction of Mundungus he turned to the woman who had been talking with Tonks.
She was of middling height, light brown hair falling around a smiling face. She was also very pretty and possessed an inner warmth that only served to enhance her loveliness.
"That's Laura Hollis, she and her friend were visiting Britain and ran into Dumbledore."
Turning back to Harry Sirius wiggled his eyebrows, "she's pretty isn't she." Harry blushed trying to stutter out a response while Sirius let out a bark of laughter, "don't worry she's a bit old for you anyway and she's already taken."
Sirius scratched Crookshanks absentmindedly as they continued with thankfully less embarrassing topics.
During a lull in conversation Mrs. Weasley turned from what she was doing to call out over her shoulder, "Sirius you haven't seen Carmilla have you? Laura dear do you know if she up? she's usually awake by now."
Just as the words left her mouth the door opened and in came a woman yawning, rubbing sleep from her eyes.
Whereas Laura wore comfortable clothes, simple but good looking, she was dressed like something from the night, cloaked in dark cloths, leather pants all but painted onto her legs.
Mrs. Weasley turned to her as she entered, "Oh, Carmilla dear there you are we were wondering where you'd got to."
She seemed to nod vaguely in her direction before going to sit next to Laura, plonking herself down sitting stretched out on her chair like a cat.
Nodding to the newcomer Sirius took it upon himself to enlighten him, "that's Carmilla, she's that friend of Laura's I was talking about."
As Sirius opened his mouth to continue they heard Mrs. Weasley shriek, "Fred — George — NO, JUST CARRY THEM!"
They had a split second of warning as the large cauldron of stew, an iron flagon of butterbeer, and a heavy wooden breadboard, complete with knife, hurtled through the air towards them.
They had just managed to dive away from the table, when the butterbeer spilled everywhere and the stew came skidding down the length of the table coming to a halt just before the end, leaving a long black burn on the wooden surface.
The knife however missed the table entirely flying through the air towards them. Suddenly a moment before it hit Carmilla was there arm outstretched. The knife in her hand quivering ominously an inch from Sirius's crotch.
They all stared for a moment before Mrs. Weasley turned on her sons.
"FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!" screamed Mrs. Weasley. "THERE WAS NO NEED — I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS — JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE ALLOWED TO USE MAGIC NOW YOU DON'T HAVE TO WHIP YOUR WANDS OUT FOR EVERY TINY LITTLE THING!"
"We were just trying to save a bit of time!" said Fred, hurrying forward. "Sorry Sirius, mate — didn't mean to —"
Sirius face had gone pale white and he seemed to be in shock, staring down between his legs before letting out a faint croak before fainting.
Harry hastily set about reviving him while Mundungus, who had toppled backward off his chair, let loose a long string of curses as he got to his feet. Crookshanks had given an angry hiss and shot off under the dresser, from whence his large yellow eyes glowed in the darkness.
Carmilla meanwhile retreated back across the table to her seat earlier alertness gone, yawning and twirling the knife she'd plucked from the air idly between her fingers.
"Boys," Mr. Weasley said, lifting the stew back into the middle of the table, "your mother's right, you're supposed to show a sense of responsibility now you've come of age —"
"— none of your brothers caused this sort of trouble!" Mrs. Weasley raged at the twins, slamming a fresh flagon of butterbeer onto the table and spilling almost as much again. "Bill didn't feel the need to Apparate every few feet! Charlie didn't Charm everything he met!
Percy —" She stopped dead, catching her breath with a frightened look at her husband, whose expression was suddenly wooden.
"Let's eat," said Bill quickly.
"It looks wonderful, Molly," said Lupin, ladling stew onto a plate for her and handing it across the table.
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For a few minutes there was silence but for the chink of plates and cutlery and the scraping of chairs as everyone settled down to their food though Carmilla didn't seem to be in the mood for it, barely touching her food.
Part way through their meal Mrs. Weasley turned to Sirius and said, "I've been meaning to tell you, there's something trapped in that writing desk in the drawing room, it keeps rattling and shaking. Of course, it could just be a boggart, but I thought we ought to ask Alastor to have a look at it before we let it out."
"Whatever you like," said Sirius indifferently.
"The curtains in there are full of doxies too," Mrs. Weasley went on. "I thought we might try and tackle them tomorrow."
"I look forward to it." Harry heard the sarcasm in his voice, but he was not sure that anyone else did.
Across the table he notice Laura nudging Carmilla. After a minute she seemed to give in, a look of fond exasperation on her face, "fine," then speaking up, "Molly I can take care of whatever's in the desk."
"Are you sure dear? I know your capable but well..."
As he watched Carmilla rolled her eyes but there was no real feeling in the gesture, "your concern's touching but I'll be fine."
"Well if your sure then, I'll leave it to you."
Harry watched with interest, was she some kind of Dark arts expert? she certainly looked the part.
He considered the idea as Tonks entertained Hermione and Ginny opposite him by transforming her nose between mouthfuls. Apparently it was a regular mealtime entertainment, because after a while they started requesting favourites.
Mr. Weasley, Bill, and Lupin meanwhile were having an intense discussion about goblins.
Another glance their way revealed that Laura seemed to be eating off of her friends plate, mouth full of food smiling up as Carmilla made a face.
He smiled at the sight before turning back to his own food.
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