The Houses Competition, Round 5 – Horror on the Coast

House: Ravenclaw

Class: CoMC

Standard - 1000-3000 words, choose two prompts.

Prompts: Abandoned Area. Buildings and places which are (mostly) empty of people will make good stock settings for scary stories.

(Animal) Rabbit

(Colour) blue

Word Count: 3000

Warnings/Trigger warnings: dead animals, mentions of dying, mentions of dead people; AU 7th year!

Beta: Queenie, Astral Pendragon

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THE RABBIT AND THE MOON

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The night was rapidly approaching. The sky, slowly turning from sky blue to a dark indigo, already sparkled with the first stars. In the distance, getting closer every minute, dark storm clouds darkened the sky further into grey-blues and blacks.

Nott looked at the sky darkly. He always hated the colour blue – and the rapidly approaching darkness wasn't endearing it to him. For him, the colour blue was a sign of danger – like the deep blue of the depth of the ocean and the light blue of the hottest flames. "It's going to storm tonight."

"Even better," Avery replied. "It's easier to hide our tracks if the rain will wash them away. Getting the girl like that should be child's play."

They were crossing the last kilometre over the open hills towards a crooked, small and narrow house. From the distance, it looked like the decrepit tower of a formerly mighty kingdom, reaching for the darkening sky in a last attempt of begging for help. Its once sky-blue façade looked withered and had started flaking, exposing sinister black stone and the broken edges of crumbling walls. It stood in the middle of nowhere, like a forgotten reminder of a past long gone, a reminder of a dying world that just hadn't managed to reach the last bastion of life, yet.

Nott shuddered just looking at it. "Did you know that there're rumours about Lovegood and his family?" he asked with a shiver, eying the distant house and the indigo blue sky slowly but surely turning into the heavy blacks and greys of an oncoming storm. "It's said that Lovegood is an illegal animagus and that he's roaming the lands surrounding his house as an innocent looking animal, laying traps all around it to keep it safe."

Avery, who was walking up towards the house next to Nott, scoffed, "Lovegood wouldn't."

In the distance, the caw of a crow broke the utter silence that surrounded the place and, for a moment, Nott was sure that he could see something white moving between the small blue flowers that were slowly but surely taking over the ground. He clenched his fists. There was far too much blue around here to make him feel anywhere close to relaxed.

"People say that he's a supporter of Grindelwald's cause," Nott said distractedly while he eyed the shrubbery surrounding them and the house in the distance. The tower-like house was still at least half a kilometre away from them, but whatever spell was surrounding it didn't let them Apparate closer.

"People say a lot when the day is long." Avery threw Nott an annoyed look.

That they did, but Nott still wasn't feeling all that comfortable approaching a house that had strong enough wards that they couldn't even get a feel of them, much less break them.

The air surrounding them felt heavy, like some kind of melancholy was lying on the land, forcing everyone approaching the house to feel the depression surrounding it.

"It's said that Lovegood went mad after he lost his wife," Nott added and looked around carefully, his eyes stopping at the blue flowers and darkening sky. "People say he blamed the Ministry for her death. She worked for law enforcement, after all, analysing unknown potions and spells. I heard she died while analysing an unknown potion – blown up in front of their daughter, if you can believe the rumours."

Avery just rolled his eyes at that. "Even if that's the truth, Nott," he said. "Stop imagining the worst!"

At that moment, something white jumped out of the darkness of the shrubbery to their right and stopped right in front of them.

Nott cried out, startled, and took two fast steps backwards. Avery froze. For a moment, neither the white rabbit in front of them nor the two Death Eaters moved. Startled, they all looked at each other, the rabbit's blue eyes oddly bright in the rapidly approaching night.

"That… that's Lovegood, Avery," Nott pressed out, his voice hushed. "I'm sure that's Lovegood!"

"Don't be stupid, Nott!" Avery barked immediately, instinctively denying Nott's conclusion like he always did. "That's just a rabbit."

Nott shook his head. "That's Lovegood. I'd know his eerie blue eyes anywhere!"

Avery rolled his eyes. "Shoo!" he said to the rabbit. The rabbit stared at them unimpressed. Then, unbothered by their presence, it came closer, analysed Avery's left boot – just to double back and vanish like magic into the shrubbery with its unnaturally blue flowers.

Nott eyed the shrubbery in the slowly fading twilight cautiously. "That was Lovegood," he insisted. "He knows we're here now."

"It was a rabbit," Avery repeated, annoyed. "And now stop dawdling. I want to get the girl before sunrise."

Nott eyed the withered blue house in the distance and wasn't sure if he wanted to get the girl at all. Only habit kept him silent.

They started to walk again. The formerly bright sky was now a deep azure, bordering on a deep midnight blue. Here and there, some stars could be seen peering through the heavy wall of bluish-black or bluish-grey clouds.

Mist started to rise from the ground, weaving a cloak around the crumbling house and turning the path into tricky ground. The caw of the crow had multiplied.

The first white-blue flash of lightning raced over the sky, illuminating the house in the distance. For a second, Nott could see a banner of white-blond hair blowing in the wind and imagined hearing tingling laughter being carried towards them. Then, darkness and silence surrounded them again.

"There's someone on top of the house," Nott whispered harshly and grabbed Avery. "We need to be careful!"

Avery threw him another annoyed look. "You imagined that," he said unimpressed. "And even if you didn't, I doubt they'd see our black robes against the ground."

"Ah… yes, I guess you're right."

Another flash of lightning raced across the sky, illuminated the ground and reflected from glowing eyes.

Nott and Avery both froze, their eyes trained on the white rabbit staring at them from a safe distance. The animal, eerily, didn't move at all.

"That… that's not normal," Avery whispered, harshly.

"I told you, that's an animagus," Nott replied, sounding more like he was hissing instead of speaking. "That's Lovegood!"

"Lovegood isn't registered," Avery whispered back.

Nott scoffed. "I'm pretty sure he wouldn't register."

Crack!

Again, lightning lit up the ground. For a moment, Nott could see the white fur of the animal flickering like a candle in the dark, then, the next moment, the animal was gone without a trace.

"That's really not normal," Nott agreed. Avery swallowed but then gestured towards the house down the path.

"Let's get the girl and get out of here," he said, not refusing Nott's assessment.

Nott nodded, but couldn't help himself but say, "did you know that there used to be a town around here? Yaxley mentioned it the other day when we planned this – said that the town vanished suddenly and without a trace, houses, people, everything. He said that he suspected Lovegood. That man and his newly wedded wife were the only ones left. There're rumours that Lovegood was the one who bewitched them. Yaxley said that his dad's best friend's grandfather said that Lovegood turned the whole town into animals and then hunted them down one after another for insulting his bride."

Avery scoffed. "He said that to frighten you – and like a child, you've fallen for it."

Nott glared at Avery for that. "For all we know it could be the truth," he argued.

"Codswallop." Avery turned back towards the path and walked away without another glance. Nott immediately hurried after him, not willing to be left alone in the blue.

They had barely made it another three steps when suddenly, something cracked beneath Nott's left boot. Nott stopped and hesitatingly looked down. The next lightning illuminated the ground, revealing the pale gleaming, old bones of a rabbit. Its skull's empty eye sockets looked at Nott judgmentally. Nott stumbled backwards.

"What is it now, Nott?" Avery turned with annoyance clear on his features.

Crack!

The next lightning raced across the sky followed closely by the distant rumbling of thunder. Just a few metres away from them sat a white rabbit, looking at them with its eerie blue eyes just as judgmentally as the skull at Nott's feet.

"Something really isn't right here," Nott said. That was when the sky opened its gates and heavy raindrops started to hit the ground. Within seconds, the two wizards were soaked. "Avery… are you sure we should be here?" Because Nott was really starting to doubt that.

Lovegood – because that damned rabbit had to be Lovegood – hopped closer to Nott and examined Nott's right boot and the skull in front of it. Then Lovegood raised his judgemental gaze towards Nott before doubling over and vanishing back into the darkness.

The next lightning refused to reveal the rabbit, but instead, it revealed blond hair flickering like a flame in the wind on top of the house which was barely a few metres away. Tingling laughter could be heard in the wind.

A pale face with bright blue eyes looked down from the top of the crumbling house. Crows circled above the pale figure, their blood-curdling caw-caw evoking the oncoming storm. Nott couldn't help but think of the eeriness of blue – of the depth of the ocean and the heat of the flame.

Avery followed Nott's gaze and he looked just as unnerved as Nott felt. "Let's get inside and get the girl."

Nott nodded and stepped up towards the warped gate that was the only entrance to the garden, which was surrounded by a crooked, old and formerly blue – maybe ocean blue – chest-high wall. As it was, the colour was peeling from the wall leaving blackened stone in its wake. The gate had once been painted a deep azure – even recognisable in the darkness of the night - but now, it was rusted and the colour was flaking like the colour of the house's façade.

Nott really hated blue.

He opened the gate, wincing when it creaked loudly in the eerily solemn silence that had previously been only broken by the cawing of the murder of crows circling above the house – the rookery.

Both wizards pulled out their wands. They stepped through the gate, one after another and then onto the path that led to the house.

Something crunched under their feet. Nott hesitatingly lit his wand and looked down. The path was made of thousands and thousands of rabbit bones.

Nott shivered and hastily snuffed out the light again. Sadly, the sky was less merciful and a bluish-white lightning flash lit up the surrounding area.

Not far from them, hemming the entrance, old, withered trees stretched their twisted branches towards the dark, blue sky, like the fingers of a skeleton reaching for the unreachable blue above them. The branches were bare – apart from small, blue flowers and the cut off paws of white rabbits which had been painstakingly added to the thin twigs reaching for the sky. The paws were swinging in the strengthening wind, looking like the macabre versions of Christmas decorations – or like bodies, hanging in small trees.

"Lovegood really went around the bend," Avery murmured, his eyes like Nott's on the macabre adornment of the trees. He shook his head and then turned towards the entrance door. A white rabbit jumped out of the shrub next to him and stopped close to the entrance. Its blue eyes met the two wizards' gaze head on.

The two wizards stopped dead in their tracks.

"I told you, that's Lovegood," Nott whispered, eyeing the rabbit cautiously. The rabbit didn't move, its eerie blue eyes trained on them, watching them. Its gaze made Nott shiver.

In the breeze, they could hear the faint echo of tingling laughter and the caw-caw of the murder of crows. The wind picked up further, playing with their wet hair and blowing the rain into their faces.

Then, the door to the rookery opened.

The first thing Nott saw was eerie silvery-blue eyes and a pale face. The next he saw was white-blond hair and a dark blue nightgown.

The girl looked to be about fifteen and Nott definitely didn't trust their good fortune of finding her immediately.

"Oh, hello," the girl greeted them, her eerie eyes wandered from Nott to Avery. "Can I help you?"

"Are you Lovegood's daughter?" Apparently, Avery didn't trust their good fortune either.

The girl crooked her head. "I'm Luna," she replied. "But Daddy isn't here."

"Oh? Isn't he?" Avery raised an eyebrow.

The girl shrugged unbothered. "Daddy's never here on a new moon," she said. Then, she reached down and picked up the rabbit on the steps next to her. She slowly started to stroke it. "He knows better than to be here on a night like this."

Her nightdress swayed in the wind. Above her, the storm raged. Bluish-white lightning raced through the sky, followed by heavy thunder. Rain soaked the ground all around them and Nott and Avery were chilled to the bone.

Avery stepped closer to the girl. "I fear you have to come with us, young Lady."

"And I fear, that's impossible," the girl immediately replied, pressing the rabbit closer to her chest. "Daddy would be very disappointed if I wasn't home tomorrow morning."

"Don't worry about it," Avery said. "We're going to leave a message for your father, explaining why you left and what'll happen if he doesn't do as we say."

A clap of thunder, loud enough to nearly deafen them, drowned out the cawing of the murder of crows. For a moment, the world seemed darker than before, then a flash of lightning lit it up in a blood-curdling blue colour.

"Daddy isn't in the habit of listening to people," the girl said. Her thin nightshirt blew in the wind. Her feet were bare. Oddly enough, she didn't seem to shiver from the cold at all. Her eyes were as eerie blue as the rabbit's in her arms.

Then, she took a step forward, stepping onto the path made of rabbit bones. Her hand petted the white rabbit in her arms calmly.

"Did you know that people at school call me Loony?" she inquired, seemingly out of the blue. Her eerie silvery-blue eyes fixated on the two Death Eater's faces. "They usually say that I'm away with the faeries."

Something in the way she spoke made Nott shiver. She was calm – far too calm for a girl confronted with strangers on her steps and her eyes… they seemed to glow from the inside, reminding Nott of the hottest of flames.

"They're wrong, of course," she continued and Nott raised his wand when she took another step closer. Avery took an involuntary step backwards. "I'm certainly not away with the faeries when they say it to me."

The path beneath her feet started to glow – the bones suddenly began to emit a blood-curdling blue light. Avery shot a spell at her, but it sizzled out before it reached her.

Nott took a slow step backwards. His wand shook in his hand. His own spell rebounded and even the Avada Kedavra that was Avery's next choice did nothing. It was then that Nott understood that no matter the spell, nothing would reach her. There was something… different about her, something ethereal, eerie, and unexplainable.

Luna stepped closer. "Did you know that my fellow students took a look at my Patronus and named it a hare?" She laughed, and her laughter tingled in the otherwise silent air surrounding them. "If they'd have taken a closer look, they'd have noticed that its ears were too small and its hindlegs too short."

Her hand carded through the white fur of the rabbit whose blue eyes were watching the two Death Eaters closely.

Goosebumps spread all over Nott's arms and a chill ran down his spine. He stumbled backwards while Luna stepped forwards, one of his hands still clutching his wand, the other one reaching backwards groping for the gate. Next to him, Avery did the same, his eyes huge and his face pale.

The path of bones started to glow stronger and stronger and above them, the storm was raging and the crows were filling the air with their chilling song.

"Maybe… we should go?" Avery offered up at that moment. His voice was shaking.

Luna crooked her head. "Didn't you just invite me along a few minutes ago?" she inquired and her voice sounded dreamy – and eerie, like the echo of a thousand deaths.

"I think… we could do that some other time?" Nott suggested, his voice just as shaky as Avery's.

Luna smiled and her smile looked eerily kind.

Then, finally, Nott's fingers brushed the gate. He reached up to open it.

"Are you going already?" Luna asked softly. "Don't you want to stay and play?" Her chilly smile revealed needle-like teeth. Her pupils had constricted, leaving a slit instead of the round pupils of a human. Then, she knelt down and sat the rabbit onto the glowing path of bones.

She looked up from her position on the ground and into Nott's and Avery's faces.

"I think," she said slowly, "you should stay." Her needle-teeth gleamed in the light. "Let's play a game…" The wind whirled around them. "The Rabbits and the Moon – how does that sound?"

Lightning crackled. The blue light of the path vanished and for a moment, there was blessed darkness.

Crack!

Again, lightning raced through the dark blue sky – and reflected within a thousand blue rabbit eyes. The next moment, something rebounded on Nott's chest. He stumbled, then turned, ripped open the gate and ran.

...

He'd run until the morning, chased by formerly dead rabbits. He'd run until he collapsed. And when he did, he'd see a blue, blue night sky with the moon shining down onto him.

The last thing he'd ever hear would be tingling laughter in the wind.

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I hope you liked it.

Over and out.

Ebenbild