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“I’m telling you, it’s haunted,” Draco groused as they walked up the brick sidewalk towards the Greek Revival mansion, their flashlights throwing long shadows in front of them.
“We lived in a haunted castle for six years, I don’t see why that’s supposed to impress me,” Harry shot back, turning the camera he was holding towards Draco.
They stopped at the bottom of the staircase and looked up to take in the large columns and numerous windows.
“This is different. The ghosts at school don’t count.”
“Don’t count how? They were dead, and they were still around. Sounds like ghosts to me.”
Draco rolled his eyes. “They were safe to be around children. None of the ghosts at Hogwarts tried to push me down the stairs.”
“Clearly you didn’t spend enough time around Peeves.”
“Oh no, the ghost that threw water balloons, how scary. Come on.”
He started up the stairs before Harry could reply. The glass storm door creaked in the slight wind, and he frowned at it. Harry reached for the doorknob, and Draco smacked his wrist away.
“We have to introduce ourselves first, don’t be a moron.”
“This is ridiculous.” Harry frowned, but drew his hand back anyway.
Draco took a deep breath and centered himself in front of the door, ignoring the way Harry huffed a laugh behind him.
“Hi, William, hi ,Eunice. It’s Draco Malfoy and—” he turned to look at Harry, pointedly.
“Er, I’m Harry Potter?”
“—Harry Potter. We’re not here to do you any harm. We’re just here to look around a little. Right, Harry?”
Harry nodded and Draco elbowed him in the side.
“Oof, right. What Draco said. No harm, just looking around.”
Satisfied, Draco turned back to the door. The storm door slowly creaked open by itself, and he carefully reached out to unlock the heavy wooden front door behind it. Pushing it open slowly, he stepped inside, panning his own camera around the front hall. Harry followed him in.
“Alright, the last time I was here, most of the activity was coming from the attic. I think we should start up there.”
Harry was looking around, peering into the front rooms.
“I thought you said this was a historic property?”
“It is. It’s just closed for the winter. Now come on.”
Draco walked down the hall at the center of the house until he came to the servant’s staircase. Taking a deep breath, he cautiously started up it. Harry followed behind him.
“Draco, there’s nothing here.”
“I’m telling you, there is.”
“Fine, then why hasn’t anything communicated with us yet?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because you don’t believe they’re real.”
“I’m gonna try and talk to the ghosts.”
“You do that then.”
“Ay yo, Eunice, William! If you’re really here, push me down the stairs right now!”
“What are you doing?!” Draco squawked. “You can’t just ask a ghost to attack you!”
He grabbed one of Harry’s wrists and clung to the banister tightly with his other hand. Moments passed. Nothing happened.
“I told you, nothing here.”
“That’s not proof!”
Harry laughed. “Fine, okay, ghosts, if you’re here, push me and Draco down the stairs!”
“Don’t drag me into your shit!” Draco cried, “Please, please don’t push me down the stairs, I’m not with him. I think you’re here!” He dropped Harry’s wrist quickly.
Nothing happened.
Draco heaved a sigh of relief. “Okay. I think we’re good.”
“You’re a wuss.” Harry snickered, before brushing past Draco up the stairs.
They moved from room to room, Harry filming as Draco waved around an EMF detector and cursed under his breath whenever it beeped louder than normal. Room after room, nothing happened. Finally, they found themselves back in the front hall.
“Well, I guess there’s only one place left to check,” Draco grimaced.
“The basement?”
“The basement.”
They walked back through the house and out into the back yard. The garden was dead, and the cold wind whistled through the bare branches of the trees dotted around the space. The entrance to the basement yawned in front of them, black and empty. Harry started towards it. Draco followed him, hanging back slightly.
It was dark in the basement, and colder than outside. The floor was packed earth, with some wooden boards throughout. They wandered through, talking in hushed tones.
“Apparently, there’s a blood basin in here, where they used to kill sheep back when it was a farming community.”
“That’s probably the most boring possible use for a blood basin. Where is it?”
“I have no idea. I guess we’ll know it when we see it?”
They wandered the whole footprint of the house, stopping briefly in a room set in one of the far corners. There were full sized windows in two of the walls which looked into the rest of the basement. The glass in the windows was broken, and crunched underfoot. In the room was a broken piano, and the carcasses of several grand chandeliers, their cut crystal embellishments caught under a thick layer of dust.
Eventually, they started to make their way back towards the exit. Harry stepped into a low ditch in the middle of the floor and shone his flashlight throughout the space.
“I think maybe you were wrong about the blood basin,” he said quietly.
Draco paused, “Er… I think. I think you might be standing in it actually…” He cast his flashlight beam onto the gash in the floor, and tracked it down the slope towards the back of the house.
Harry laughed. “In that case,” he tossed Draco the camera, and scrambled to lie down in the basin.
“What are you doing?! Harry, get up! Harry!”
“Oh, relax. Nothing is going to happen. Hey ghosts!” Harry shouted, placing their indicator flashlight on his chest. “If you’re here, turn this flashlight on!”
Draco held his breath. Moments passed. Just as he exhaled, the flashlight lit brilliantly.
“Oh god, oh fuck, oh god, oh fuck, oh fuck…” Draco muttered, clenching and unclenching his hands.
Harry laughed. “Alright! If you want us to leave, turn the flashlight off!”
The flashlight stayed lit, and then slowly, so slowly, it started to turn off.
“Harryyyyyyyy,” Draco hissed, “stop it!”
“Hmmmm,” Harry thought for a moment. “If you’re mad at us, turn the flashlight on.”
“Don’t ask them that!” Draco shrieked, and Harry laughed again.
The flashlight lit. Draco bent down and grabbed it. He turned it off, and tossed it back at Harry.
“Okay!! Message received, we’re leaving now!”
“Oh, relax, Draco. It’s just the batteries. This proves nothing.”
“You never think anything proves anything. We’re going.”
“I thought we were supposed to stay the night?” Harry asked, slowly climbing to his feet.
“We were, until you decided to antagonize the ghosts!”
Draco hurried to the exit, Harry trailing after him. They walked back through the house, Draco constantly checking over his shoulder until they were out the front door. Harry locked up while Draco stood as far from the door as he could without being too close to the top of the stairs. As they started back down the street towards town, Harry looped an arm about Draco’s shoulders.
“See? Nothing happened. Case closed, it’s not haunted.”
“That’s what you always say. And even if this one’s not, just wait ‘til you see where we’re going tomorrow.”