Harry, Ron, and Hermione stared miserably at the passing building as they were helplessly dragged from their old life into a new, horrible, unfortunate one.
Once Mr Slughorn's home faded out of view, Ron slumped on the seat and turned his head around from the window, frowning in despair. Hermione bit her lip anxiously and Harry fidgeted in his seat.
Mr Slughorn's automobile lumbered upon the cobbled street of the city, carrying the children further and further away from their old homes.
As they passed horse-drawn carriages and motor-cycles, Ron was still stubbornly refusing to even look at Mr Slughorn, so hot was his rage. Harry was stroking Hedwig and patting Padfoot, the only true remainders of their old lives apart from Crookshanks, Hermione's ginger cat. They passed a fountain, a construction area, and cheerful park where children such as themselves played, and a large, gloomy looking building.
Just when it seemed like they could have gone on forever, Mr Slughorn stopped the car, pausing to release a hurricane of coughs and sneezes into his handkerchief.
"Here we are," said Mr Slughorn in a voice undoubtedly meant to be cheerful. Ron huffed almost inaudibly, and Hermione scratched Crookshanks' ear to vent her nervousness.
"Your new home," Slughorn continued jovially. Harry frowned as though he seriously doubted this.
But then the three newly-orphaned friends stepped out of the car and reconsidered the off-putting thoughts.
The house that stood in front of them was, quite literally, the most pleasant house on the block. Its bricks were smartly polished and squeaky-clean, and its windows gleamed under the blazing sun. It was quite impressive, and, they had to admit, seemed like a good home. Ron was not ready to forgive Mr Slughorn for whatever reason- it was almost as if staying angry at him made the burden of his grief a lot less heavy.
The door opened in a strangely convenient time, and out came a smart-looking lady with brown hair and a kind face. She placed a potted plant beside the small patches of posies on either side of her doorsteps. Then she looked up, and her eyes lit in surprise as she seemed to spot the children for the first time.
"Oh, hello there." She said brightly to them, waving her hand in a friendly gesture- a phrase which here means, 'an action which made the three anxious youngsters feel slightly more comfortable'.
"Hello," Hermione began politely.
"Hi," Harry said half-heartedly, pacing Padfoot on the floor the same moment Hermione put Crookshanks down.
"Hey," Ron said, though only reluctantly at best.
"You must be the three new children moving in with Count Riddle, eh?" she asked cheerfully.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, we are." Harry said, trying his best to put on a small smile. "Are you his wife?"
The woman's face adopted a dark expression- a phrase which here means, that 'she looked as if the very idea of someone marrying Count Riddle was absurd'.
"Oh no, I'm Justice Strauss." She told them firmly, as though afraid her identity would change if she didn't bother to make it known.
"Justice Strauss?" Ron blurted out, having not heard of such a strange name before.
"It's not her real name," said Hermione with an automatic roll of her eyes. "It just means she works for the law. As a judge of sorts. Is that correct, Madam?"
"Absolutely, dear." She said, giving Hermione a large grin. "My real name is Amelia Bones, though. I'm Count Riddle's neighbor- you may visit me any time you please, of course. I do say, my niece Susan comes here quite a bit, you might even be friends." She beamed at them.
Feeling slightly disappointed, the three struggled to smile back, Ron wrestling a frown all the way. He knew he had his siblings, but not when Mr Slughorn was so determined to continue keeping the youngest Weasley boy away from them. The question; why?
"But….if you don't live here Mrs, then…." Hermione trailed off and followed Mrs Bone's eyes. Harry and Ron were quick to follow.
Across from Mrs Bone's attractive house lay its alternate version- an expression which means herein, that 'the house did not have patches of flowers and was not attractive or welcoming in the least'.
It was, simply putting it, quite gloomy. The children could not say it was dirty or filthy-looking specifically, but it was so dark that you wouldn't notice if it was. Several towers rose around it, and one especially long one shot out of the earth and into the misty sky.
The three children gulped in sync.
This is your chance to shut off this dreary, miserable story. Who knows, if you shut it down now, then maybe you can imagine that Hermione, Ron and Harry were not forced to walk toward the dark and scary house that they now knew was Count Riddle's. You can imagine that instead, Mr Slughorn had come to his senses and agreed to take the three of them to one of Ron's siblings, who were at that very moment wondering where their brother and his friends were. But these wishful figments are just that- figments.
If you chose to continue with this unfortunate tale- and I certainly hope you did not -then I will have to continue this tale, never straying from the truth as I have sworn not to.
Instead of driving them off into the opposite direction as quickly as possible, Mr Slughorn, eager to get back to work so he could in return, get back to detecting fake signatures on bank checks, hurried over across the block, to Mr Riddle's house.
"Maybe it's not as bad as it seems?" Hermione offered, trying to smile weakly. Crookshanks' face twisted more than ever, which proved exactly what her furred friend thought of this.
"Right, maybe." Harry said uncomfortably. Padfoot barked, and Hedwig hooted from her spot on Harry's shoulder.
"Of course," Ron said, not convinced in the very least.
When someone tries to be optimistic in the midst a pessimistic situation- pessimistic, here, is fancy word meaning 'not optimistic at all' – then one can use the expression, 'looking for the silver lining of a black-cloud'. Of course, this expression has nothing whatsoever to do with rain clouds and silver lines, but it simply means looking at the positives of the situation instead of the negatives.
The three newly-orphaned children couldn't, try as they might, find a silver lining to their dark cloud of rotten luck.
'Well,' Hermione tried to reason with herself. 'the house looks rather old. Maybe it has an ancient history of its own that I can discover.'
'Well,' Ron said, trying to imitate his friend and search for silver among a sea of black. 'maybe…maybe..I dunno. Maybe something good will come out of this.'
'Well,' Harry thought to himself, looking around the house. 'Maybe Count Riddle will let me look out of one of the towers so I don't only have to see the interior of this terrible house all day. '
Although these far too optimistic thoughts were stampeding through the brains of our three orphans- and by 'stampeding', I mean that they were rushing through their minds in a figurative manner, and i do not mean that the thoughts were running a parade through their brains, at least as far as my research goes –they were careful not to get their hopes too high up.
With a dignified expression, Mr Slughorn reached to knock, then pulled out a handkerchief out of his pocked and sneezed. He was still suffering from the cold he had gotten a few days ago.
Hermione was so deep in thoughts she nearly forgot to say 'Bless you,'.
Mr Slughorn reached to knock again, scarcely looking at the terrified looks the children were exchanging behind his back.
His fist made contact with the wood, and the moment it did, the door slowly creaked open.
AN: I just realized that Hermione is the eldest. Oh well. That works in my favor. In case you want to know, this will hopefully have a much more satisfactory ending than 'The End'. I'm still thinking about who the Quagmires will be replaced by- I'm thinking Neville, Luna, and…someone. Oh, oh well.
Susan Bones will be in this fanfic, for sure!
Here are the review replies that kept me going!
RRs
Krystal: I will try to follow the events of the books, hopefully, but not quite as closely as possible. I don't want it to be the same story with different characters . The entire point of this- if, by any chance, the strategy of Ron, the knowledge of Hermione, and the observations of Harry replaced Violet's inventing skills, Klaus' own knowledge, and Sunny's knack for biting, and later cooking. Hopefully, I'll find myself right where 'The End' takes place, but certain events will definitely change. Hah, that's a good question! See, as I will explain further next chapter, the Weasleys, Grangers, and Sirius and Remus have involved the three of them, especially, in a bond of all but official siblinghood. But the difference is that Count Olaf/Riddle can't get the fortune by killing all of them off, because, ta-ta, Ron has six other siblings! Indeed, the play will work in a different way, so Hermione will hopefully not end by almost marrying Voldemort, but the scheme will be disguised as a play. No, I stick to the characters' personalities as firmly as I can, so I Count Riddle will not be as messy as Olaf is. Thank you for this review, and I don't pull a 'The End' on you- a phrase which here means, disappoint you beyond possibility ;).
Taylor Hepworth: Thanks, Tay! I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS CHAPTER TOO ;0