In The Safety Of Magical World

Chapter 24

I managed to catch a glimpse of my front door being blown out of the hinges with an earsplitting boom. It was accompanied by derisive laughter and I slipped around the corner of my kitchen before I could make out a figure in the doorway. 

My heart was racing and cold sweat covered me from head to toe. I clenched my teeth to stop them from chattering and as I was feeling the kitchen counter for some kind of weapon, my trembling hands almost overturned a box of food utensils. Had they fallen onto the floor, the typical metallic jingling would disclose my location immediately. Gryffindor house, my ass. I was anything but brave. And how the hell else was I suppose to feel when there was a death in my house?

I heard the clacks of high-heel shoes walking through the hallway and stopping. Maybe she actually expected me to sit right in front of the door, awaiting her with my arms wide. Quietly I moved further into the kitchen, as she could see me if she walked just a little to the right. But instead, Bellatrix went right into the living room after taking a moment to look around. A nameless dread engulfed me as I imagined she could Apparate right in front of me.

" Thomas? " she called in an unbelievably sweet, friendly voice that had underlying tones of offensiveness and forgery. " Where are you, Tommy? "

Feeling like I might throw up, I bit my lower lip hard enough to taste blood. Breathing silently, I listened as Bellatrix turned towards the stairs and walked to the second floor. Moments later, banging, crashing, and breaking sounds rocked the house to the point of the white plastering falling down from the ceiling. She was obviously rampaging through all the rooms, looking for me, destroying every little thing that happened to be in her way. 

Thank Heavens I managed to get my parents out of here! And Fawkes was gone too. Right at the most inappropriate moment.

My eyes ran over the kitchen, desperately looking for something that could be used as a weapon. A lot of things caught the eye – pans made of cast iron, a variety of knives, a cutting board, vinegar, and cleaning products. But that could work against regular intruders, those who didn't have magic running through their veins. 

That's when it fully dawned on me how much I was actually afraid of death. I didn't want to die, but the witch in my house didn't give a damn about what I want. The coffee pot on the stove was cold and empty, everything just the way my parents left it. And I felt they would never come back to it.

" I will find you, Tommy! " Bellatrix screamed, the steps thumped as she ran downstairs, her voice full of venom where not a single drop of sanity could be found. " I will find you, Muggle boy! "

She had already been in the living room and the hallway. The bathroom, a small guestroom, and the rooms of me and my parents were all upstairs and she had gone through them as well. The only thing left on the first floor was the kitchen, one place she hadn't checked yet. The high-heel shoes clacked around the living room for a moment and then the sound turned towards the kitchen, slowly, but steady. 

I panicked and did the only thing I could think of – hide. The tablecloth that covered our round kitchen table was so long it touched the floor. It might shield me, at least for a moment, so that I wouldn't immediately be in her sight when she walked in. Quickly, I dove under the table.

I held my breath as Bellatrix entered the kitchen. She stood on the doorstep for a while and then started to circle the room. I was frozen in a kneeling position under the table, my heart beating like a drum, so wildly it almost felt like a heart attack. All she had to do was move the tablecloth and I would be as good as dead. 

The fabric was non-transparent and I couldn't see what was happing, but I could hear it instead. Her prowling in the kitchen resembled a robber in the house. The doors of cupboards were being opened, the drawers pulled out, the washed mugs and plates knocked over the counter and shattering onto the floor.