Rating:
PG
House:
The Dark Arts
Characters:
Severus Snape
Genres:
General Horror
Era:
Children of Characters in the HP novels
Stats:
Published: 03/12/2005
Updated: 03/12/2005
Words: 509
Chapters: 1
Hits: 519

Where the Cosmos Grow

painless_j

Story Summary:
An old wizard tells a didactic story. With a twist.

Posted:
03/12/2005
Hits:
519
Author's Note:
This is *not* AU. As usual, this fic is a bit of a puzzle but with enough clues. So, pay attention.

They are sitting on a small hillock in front of a decrepit old house. The sun is setting behind them, making the air itself seem thick and crimson. The shutters creak in the chilly wind.

The old wizard, their host, is infirm, sinister, and seems even a bit mouldy around the edges, but Hermione insists that he holds the knowledge of the ages first hand, and blah, blah, blah, so Ron has to sit there and listen to the old wizard’s insane tales.

What is planted will bring fruit, creaks the man’s rusty voice in rhythm with the draught howling through the house, behind them.

~~

Martin’s sister sat on her bed, with her pale arms around her knees. She was shivering from the night chill in her thin nightgown. The cold moonlight crept across her bed and nearly reached Martin's. The greenish mist smelled slightly acrid as it crawled in through the open door where the scary people, masked and dressed in black, had led their parents away.

Martin whimpered on his bed and called out for his mother. His sister glanced at him but didn’t dare say anything, quickly returning her full attention to the figure at the door. A tall, lanky young man with black hair, hanging limply around the white mask hiding his face, stood in the doorframe and made sure the children stayed where they were.

It was eerily quiet for a while, and then some cracking sounds rang out, and everything became a noisy blur, full of the cruel laughter of the strangers and the two children’s desperate cries.

As he and his sister were dragged outside, Martin grabbed onto the young man’s black clothes, and a new mocking voice cut through the noise, “The brat took a liking to you, Severus.”

Martin clutched at the name and held onto it like he was holding onto the man’s clothes. “Severus!” he cried out. The young man’s shoulders stiffened. Martin continued to wail “Severus, Severus, Severus,” until they were thrown into a hole dug in front of their house, and even after, when the soil kept pouring onto his face and he could see no more. The last thing he heard was his sister’s words spoken as she suffocated, “I have a cosmos seed. I’ll drop it into the earth and they will find us when the flowers blossom.” I hope they would, he thought, but it’s an awfully long time to wait.

The old man points at the tall cosmos flowers with his gnarled hand. They are pink and white, waving in the breeze just behind them on the knoll they are sitting on.

“Aaaah!” Ronnie shrieks in sudden realisation, while ‘Mione jumps to her feet and shouts, “You’re lying!”

“I am not!” old Martin Appleby argues.

“Then you are a sick, senile old man!” Ronnie’s elder sister’s chest is puffed out in anger. “I know Great-uncle Severus! He comes for Christmas and our birthdays! Uncle Severus is a good man!”

“I know,” Martin nods. “It was he who dug me out.”

Fin


Author notes: The title is a paraphrase of the title of Nick Cave's song 'Where the Wild Roses Grow.'