Chapter Forty Nine
Hermione and Draco arrived at Luna and Neville's mansion within moments.
They found themselves standing at the foot of the stairs leading up to the entrance way, there was an unnerving atmosphere as they pushed open the heavy wooden doors into the house. There were no lights on and there was a chill inside the house that had nothing to do with the weather.
"Stay behind me, and stay quiet," Draco whispered and together they tiptoed through the darkened foyer. There was a foul odour on the air and the whole atmosphere was one of foreboding. Draco held Hermione's hand as they slowly made their way to the wine cellar door behind the staircase. "Bertram cannot hurt you." Draco said loudly through the thick iron door.
"Draco?" Luna's frightened voice replied questioningly.
"Yes Luna, it's just me and Hermione, you can open the door now okay?"
"Okay." Luna said, and Hermione and Draco could hear a bolt being drawn across the metal door, scraping with a harsh metallic screech as it did so.
Luna looked absolutely terrified as her face peered around the door, her eyes were wide, her skin was pallid and her lips looked dry, the area of skin around her eyes was pink and puffy and it was obvious she had been crying even in the half-light. She threw herself at Draco and Draco held her, patted her and tried to comfort her. Hermione looked around herself, all of her nerves were on edge and they were jangling with an extra-sensory perception she had never felt before.
"It was awful!" Hermione heard Luna telling Draco, but Hermione's ears were trying to tune into another sound; a subtle but chilling sound. Luna continued in her explanation of events to Draco but Hermione no longer heard it, somewhere in the shadows something was lurking, she could hear it whispering: a deep, low, rasping whisper.
Luna was still speaking to Draco, "... his eyes!..."
"Shhhhhhh!" Hermione said firmly, "Listen! Something is coming!"
"Oh no!" Luna cried, and Draco span around to face the room.
"I hear it!" Draco whispered.
"What is it? Oh God!" Luna said, trying to keep her tone hushed.
"I don't know but I think it's coming down the stairs." Hermione murmured.
The whispering steadily grew louder and it was now accompanied by a thumping and dragging noise. Draco, Hermione and Luna stood stock-still and deathly silent. The malodorous smell was becoming nauseating and the bitter chill in the air was causing the trio to shiver.
"'THUMP!'... 'I will find you little girl!'…... 'DRRRRRAG!'" Came the sounds and whispers. Luna was trembling uncontrollably, the voice was clearly coming from Neville's vocal chords, but the pitch and intonations couldn't be more unlike Neville's usual cheery speech pattern.
"'THUMP'... 'I can smell you!'... 'DRRRRRAG'.
The noises were by now almost at the bottom of the stairs, Hermione and Luna were silently retreating towards the back wall with Draco in front of them, protectively trying to shelter them from the unknown evil.
"'THUMP!" …... "Here …...…... I... come!" ...'DRRRRRAG'...'THUMP'...'DRRRRRAG'... …...'THUMP'...'Come to me!'...'DRRRRRAG!"
Hermione, and Luna had their backs to the wall, Draco was just slightly in front of them, they each stood in a defensive posture, wands out and ready to defend themselves in whatever way they could. The whispering had stopped and the silence was palpable, each person held their breath for for fear of being heard, and the atmosphere was intense.
There was a hint of cold blue light from the moon towards the front of the foyer and as the trio waited with baited breath, a grotesque silhouette came into view.