Voldemort x reader Lacuna Memoria ~tsula

Intruders in the Night

Little Hangleton was a small village in Northern England with the misfortune of having absolutely nothing of interest; with the exception of the mysterious death of the prominent Riddle family some fifty years prior. However, the story had been so embellished over the years that no one was really quite sure what the truth was anymore. Everyone had their own opinion on how the mishap had happened and they all wanted to call it murder. It was just more interesting that way. After all, it wasn't like anyone was going to pretend that the Riddles had been the least bit likable.

And when it came to who to blame, nearly every finger in town pointed right at one man in correlation to the family's death.

Frank Bryce was about seventy and had worked for Mr. and Mrs. Riddle before their untimely deaths. Despite the fact that the police had cleared him, that there was no evidence of any wrong doing whatsoever, the townsfolk took it upon themselves to punish the man. As far as they were concerned, he was a cold blooded murderer. It really didn't matter at all to them if there was no proof.

The people of Little Hangleton had wasted no time in warning you of this and giving you their own personal accounts of what had happened-half of them not having even been born at the time of the incident.

Mr. Podmoore had introduced you to Frank after all the paperwork had been signed and had asked if you wanted to continue keeping him on as a groundskeeper. Considering that the man had been working there for more than fifty years, you would have felt heartless to just send him off. Though, watching him limp around the garden didn't make you feel too kindly either.

He protested against you helping out, no doubt used to having to do everything on his own; however, you insisted and many a passersby would find you both working in the gardens in an attempt to return it to its former glory. Though, the title 'passersby' was a little too nice really. 'Snoopers' was more accurate as the only thing further down the road was the graveyard.

You'd even caught several kids with their faces pressed against the windows. Frank had come out as swiftly as he could at his age to chase them off and warned that it was likely their parents that put them up to it. He didn't speak out against the townspeople unless you asked about them directly and you could hear the bitterness he held back. These people gave him hell for a crime that he really did not seem to have committed.

You didn't ask why he stayed though, or pry into his past at all if you could help it. Like you, he was very much alone in the world and you figured that he stayed because he had nowhere else to go.

The two of you got along quite well. Unlike the rest of the town, he didn't make it his business to pry into where you came from or why you moved there. He seemed perfectly happy to leave you to your own devices unless you needed him and you were kind enough to do the same.

You were thankful to have him around too, as he was the one that outed the cleaning crew for nosing about. After that you decided against hiring people from town and instead brought in those sent by agencies from the city. In retrospect, you should have known better, but you thought it would only be polite to hire people from town. A sort of goodwill gesture to try and show the town you meant well and wanted to be part of them. Those feelings were dying out fast though.

The lengths that people were willing to go to out of sheer boredom and curiosity was astounding. You hadn't been living in the house two weeks before you were highly considering the purchase of vicious looking guard dogs. A couple of big, hulking monsters to chase off anyone who wasn't you or Frank would send a clear message.

By that point you were positive that it was the townsfolk responsible for the house being empty so long. The 'legend of the Riddle house' seemed to make these people crazy. Were they expecting to sneak up to the house and catch Frank murdering you?