The Marauders Year Five Part 2 #Wattys2017

The Moment That Would Need Changing

The Moment That Would Need Changing

Liam Harding's greatest fear in the world entire was snakes. And this one was a particularly terrible snake. It twisted and tightened around Liam's narrow body, slithering and hissing until it's forked tongue flickered against his face, its coils about his torso and his neck. Liam was paralyzed with the fear of it, his mind screaming out as tears poured from his eyes, his hands shaking... Voldemort laughed, leaning closer and he sing-songed, "Hissy hissy, little snakey..." the words barely a breath, using legilimency to peek into the images of Liam's mind stealthily...

But then something caught his attention. Another flash - a house, a small, destroyed house behind a large wall of hedge... and a voice...

"That's where the crazy man lived. The crazy snake man. Legend has it that he could sing to snakes, in the snake language... he would sing and they would obey him..."

Voldemort turned, his entertainment in Liam spent, and he stared into Wally's still face, undulating like his snake as he stood before Wally. He hissed, too, and he leaned closer and he whispered, "The house in your mind... why is it there?"

Wally looked confused. "The - the house?"

"The house of the crazy snake man?"

"Just a story... a thing kids talk about back home... stupid, really... you know, legends and that. Like the Riddle House. Just silly legends is all."

Voldemort hissed. "What do you know of the Riddle House?"

Wally stared, confused. He looked at Severus, who raised his eyebrow for Wally to go on and tell the Dark Lord what he wanted to hear, and Wally said in a hurried voice, "Dunno not tons, they was murdered all of them, the whole family and a load of servants... Nobody never was found guilty for it, nobody ever figured out what it was that killed them anyway! The groundskeeper Frank Bryce is the only one that's alive there still and he guards it like mad, keeps all us kids out with his shotgun. But his legs are bad, see. He was in the war. But the big kids, they'll pay a couple quid to go up and touch the house or to steal a trinket or whatever, and --"

Rage surged through the Dark Lord, "You've stolen from the Riddle House?!" he bellowed and his face reddened deeply and he switched his wand as though he were brandishing a whip. "CRUCIO!!!!"

And Wally fell to his knees... screaming.

Regulus Black stood at the top of the stairs with his brother, the others were working out a plan to levitate Charlus out of the dismal hole. Sirius stood facing his brother, their shoulders pressed to the door. He took a deep breath and reached up to dust some straw from Regulus's shoulder, where it had been stuck since he'd first arrived. He stared at him for a long moment. "Little brother..." he started, then he paused, biting his lip.

Regulus stared up at Sirius.

"You'd best be careful."

Regulus nodded, "Of course."

Sirius put his other hand on Regulus's shoulder so that he was holding him, staring into his eyes for a long moment, then he dropped his hands away, unable to form the words to say what he felt. He took a deep breath.

Regulus felt a dull ache, wishing Sirius had said the things in his eyes. But the words did not come and Regulus looked down after a few moments. He reached down and carefully rolled the sleeve of his jumper up so that his Dark Mark showed, black and horrible, and he saw Sirius's eyes flicker to it. He looked up. "I didn't ask for the Mark, Sirius."