If I survive you survive

Chapter 24: Cobra Cottage

When Harry stopped crying he felt as though someone had hit him over the head over a shovel after he'd finished running a marathon. His head was pounding, and he was exhausted. When he lifted his head from his knees he could see the worried faces of Ron and Hermione looking at him.

"What do we do now?" Ron asked quietly but not to anyone in particular.

"I think we need to get inside the house. That's surely why Tom apparated here." Hermione almost whispered back to him.

Harry hauled himself to his feet and tried the handle which he knew wouldn't open. He cast alohomora and nothing. He glanced down at the little sign and the turned back to the door and whispered open in parseltongue. The door creaked open and Harry rolled his eyes at himself for not thinking of that first. He moved to enter the cottage but stopped when Hermione called him.

"Do you think you should just walk in? What if there's curses or something inside?" she looked worried.

"I don't think there will be. Only a parseltongue could open this and Tom thought he was the only one till I was in second year and even then, it wasn't the real you-know-who. I'm not sure that even makes sense but I don't think he'd cast anything else on it" he shrugged and walked in the door.

It was obvious nobody had been here for a very long time. There was a thick layer of dust covering everything, but it looked like it had been lived in at one point. There was a fireplace with wood sitting next to it in a wicker basket and a comfy looking sofa in front of the fire. There was bookcases each side of the fire with a range of texts some Harry recognised, Hogwarts a History being the main one, and others he had never seen before. If there hadn't been so much dust and a lack of sunlight it would have been very cosy. Behind the sofa was a small archway that led into a small kitchen where what looked like a small range cooker was fitted between cupboards. There was a butler sink under a window that looked out into a small overgrown garden.

Harry closed his eyes trying to focus on what he was sensing. There was a light thrum of magic in here that hadn't been evident in the living room. He opened some of the cupboards and found boxes of tea bags and sugar, tins of soup and vegetables. What Harry had felt had been Tom's stasis charm keeping everything preserved. He didn't want to look at the dates on any of the tins so simply closed the cupboards again.

He wandered back into the living room and through a wooden door that led to a small hallway. There were three more doors, one led to a small bathroom containing a toilet, sink and shower. The other two contained bedrooms, one with two small single beds and not much else and the other was clearly the room Tom had used when he had stayed here. There was a double bed in the room with green bedding although under the dust it was difficult to tell just how green. More bookshelves were in here with books Harry was sure would be kept in the restricted section at Hogwarts if they had been there. There was a cupboard containing a couple pairs of trousers and some shirts and two green jumpers. Harry rolled his eyes at the Slytherin house scarf that hung limply over a hanger.

He walked back outside the cottage. Nobody had bothered to follow him inside.

"No curses just lots of dust. I think maybe we should open the windows and try and clean it up a bit before moving Tom inside" even this small plan made Harry feel a bit more in control.

"We can't stay here" Ron was speaking at his shoes.

"We can't leave either Ron. We don't know where we are and until Tom wakes up we won't know where to move to," Harry tried to be placating but knew Ron was looking for a fight.

"Try tergeo on the dust and then scourgify that should clean everything as much as possible" Hermione was pulling out her wand as she entered the cottage. Harry smiled weakly at her in thanks before walking back towards Tom's bedroom. Once he had cleaned this up he would move Tom in here.