2. A Thin Layer of Wood
Alphard and Walburga Black were sitting upstairs in Wally's room playing wizards chess silently, an air of agreed concentration filling the air. That's when they heard it.
"Avada Kedavra!" There was a moment of eerie silence. The voice had cut through the silence in the air like a knife, harsh and merciless, like it was second nature to the killer for those words to simply come out of their mouth, like it was as simple as bidding somebody good day. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. They heard a soft thump from beneath them, and the pair sat there, unmoving, knowing exactly what had taken place just a floor below them, nothing but a thin layer of wood between them. It sent chills up their spine, their eyes were wide and breaths hitched. Alphie's nostrils flared, betraying the look of stone-cold shock on his face.
Their house-elf, Mipsy, was just killed by their mother.
Cygnus, their older brother, came running down the hall just moments later, bursting into the room. "We got the letters! We got the letters!" He said, holding up the envelopes, waving them around, and doing a little dance. Cyg's excited demeanor was out of place in the pressing silence that filled the room and the pair turned to look at each other grimly. Alphie abruptly broke eye contact and stood up, snatching their letters from their elder brother's hand. Cygnus looked at his brother with disgust, seeing that he'd been crying before he hit him upside the head. "Stop crying! It's only an elf." He said before clicking his tongue with distaste and turning to the door.
Alphie rubbed the back of his head while walking over and sitting next to Wally, handing her the letter so they could open them together. Wally and Alphie had grown up the best of friends, always doing everything together. When they were little they used to climb up to the attic, crawling out the window so they would be sitting on the window. They'd sit there for hours, watching the muggles walk and drive by, wishing they could go and play in the park with the other kids.
Their mother was an evil woman, always getting mad at them for no reason, using the cruciatus curse on them until they lay shivering in their own sweat and tears. But never Cygnus.
Cygnus was the firstborn and favorite child. In their mother's eyes, he could do no wrong, so when he blamed things that he did on Wally or Alphie, it went unquestioned and punished very harshly. She'd give them the punishment that Cygnus deserved, while Cygnus ran free, doing whatever he pleased.
The two had been waiting for their letter for weeks. Just the knowledge that they'd soon be out of that wretched house was a comfort. So the pair sat reading their letters, their eyes growing wider and them becoming more eager with each sentence they read.
Later that night, Alphie returned to his room quietly while Wally kept rereading her letter, fingers tracing over the letters. She thought about how awful her mother was, killing the house-elf because she felt like it, constantly watching them and making sure they never did anything wrong. I'll never raise my kids like this. No one deserves this. She turned out her light and got under the cover, falling asleep.
Meanwhile, Alphie was in his room hiding under his covers, using a candle to read his book. He was thinking about the muggles, what their life must be like. He remembered hearing about a war a few years ago, and the Great Depression before that. Still, he thought, it must be better than here. He closed his book after finishing the chapter, blowing out his candle, and going to sleep.
That night, they both dreamed about what it would be like at Hogwarts, dreaming about the freedom that would come with it.
~~~~
That morning Alphie woke up to the sound of glass shattering and a shriek. He hopped out of bed and rushed downstairs, hoping to see what it was before his mother did.
Once he made it to the kitchen, where the noise had come from, he saw Wally standing there with broken plates surrounding her.
"I was trying to make breakfast but Mipsy's gone and I couldn't reach the shelf-" she started before Alphie cut her off.
"Don't worry Wally, let's just clean this up, yeah?" He said as he started picking up the pieces of broken glass.
The twins were still picking up shards of china when they heard the cold voice they knew so well.
"What happened here?" Their mother asked, staring at them with a stern expression on her face.
"I-"
"It was me, mother," Alphie said, cutting off Wally again. "Wally had nothing to do with it. I was trying to-"
"Enough!" his mother shrieked. "Crucio!" She yelled, waving her wand at Alphie, who took the hit, falling to the floor.
"Alphie!" Wally screamed, too scared to move from her spot.
"Clean this mess up." was all their mother said, before walking away, leaving Cygnus standing behind her, holding back his laughter as his sister made his way over to Alphie, cleaning up the blood from where the glass cut him.
"I'm sorry, Alphie. I'm so sorry." Wally said, wiping a damp cloth over his cheek.
"Don't worry about it. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Anything so that you don't get hurt again." He said, smiling up at her. "We're siblings. It's what we do."
Once Wally was done cleaning up Alphie and the rest of the mess on the kitchen floor, they went up to Alphie's room, Wally sitting on his bed while Alphie sat at his desk.
"How do you think Mia is? She probably just got her letter too, yeah?"
Wally nodded in agreement, "We should probably write her. And Ella too. We haven't seen them since, how long has it been, Christmas?" She got up and made her way over to the desk next to Alphie, while he pulled out some ink and paper.
Wally pulled over a chair as Alphie started the letter.
"Dear Mia and Ella,"
YOU ARE READING
Rise to Power
Fanfiction"What're we going to do?" "We're stuck. I think we have to do what he says." "But we can't do that to our friends." "I don't know. I just don't know what to do." ~~~~ We know what happened with Grindelwald, The Marauders, Harry Potter, and even the...
