It was a dark and quiet evening in which the moon was not even giving off much light. Frank Bryce laid in his bed sound asleep. The little old caretaker lived alone in a small shack on the Riddle family grounds although he had not actually worked for the family in fifty years. An inexplicable tragedy struck the family those many years ago. The Riddles (father, mother and son) had been tragically murdered in their house without a trace of how. The villagers of Little Hangleton long believed that Frank was the murderer although there was no mark left on any of their bodies and no evidence linking him to the murder. Even though Frank no longer served the family, he remained on the grounds and continued to care for them.
Frank startled and was awoken from his sleep. He rolled over and climbed out of bed. Something was bothering him and he needed a cup of hot tea. He crossed the house to the little kitchen and filled a teapot with water. Lighting the stove, he set the teapot on the burner. Something caught his eye as he turned to make his way over to his chair. There was a faint light visible in one of the upstairs windows of the Riddle family mansion. Frank snorted as he grabbed his coat off the rack and picked up a flashlight.
He hobbled across the grounds and up to the mansion. Frank slowly climbed the old staircase to the second floor and paused temporarily on the landing. Two voices were talking quietly in the dimly lit room at the end of the hall. The first man was addressing the second man as "My Lord". The other man had a peculiarly high and cold voice. "Where is Nagini?" the second man asked the first. He continued on discussing things that Frank had never heard of before. He thought he heard the man say something about a Quidditch Wold Cup and a Ministry of Magic. He continued on about someone named Harry Potter and that "it" must be done. Frank wasn't sure what they were referring to at first but a minute later things became more clear. The men were talking about murder. They sounded amused as they discussed a "Bertha Jorkins" who one of the men made disappear and had murdered. And whoever this Harry Potter was, Frank had a feeling that he was in danger. The little old man knew that he had to go to the police. He made to turn around quietly and walk back down the staircase but something froze him to the spot. He heard several loud hisses and saw a massive snake at the end of the hallway.
The snake slithered through the crack in the door and into the room where the two men were talking. It climbed up the back of the old armchair in front of the fire and hissed several more times. The door swung open and a short, balding man with rat-like features stood before him. The man stepped aside and Frank could now clearly see the source of the second voice in the armchair. Terror spread across Frank's face and he screamed loudly. The thing rose a wand and a flash of green light erupted in the hallway. The little old man crumpled to the floor -- dead.
----
200 miles away Harry Potter suddenly jerked awake and sat up sweating in bed. He had just had a terrible dream. A small old man named Frank had been murdered in a flash of green light. Harry's head was throbbing with pain as the lightning shaped scar on his forehead burned. Harry rubbed his head for a minute as he tried to remember more of his dream. All he could remember was seeing the old man killed from his point of view sitting in the old armchair by the fire. Harry had to tell someone about his scar hurting but didn't want to worry his best friends (Ron or Hermione), so he wrote to his Godfather, Sirius Black, instead. Harry folded his letter and handed it to Hedwig to deliver. He pushed the window open and Hedwig soared out into the night sky.
Harry walked down the stairs to the kitchen the next morning. The Dursleys were seated around the table eating. Vernon Dursley looked angry as Harry stepped into the room. He had received a letter that was covered in stamps from Molly Weasley. Ron's parents had written to the Dursleys to invite Harry to join them at the Quidditch Wold Cup this summer. The Dursleys begrudgingly allowed Harry to go when he threatened to write to his Godfather, Sirius Black (who they believed to be a mass murderer).
The Weasleys would be arriving at Number Four Privet Drive the following afternoon to collect him at five o'clock. The Dursleys were very tense the next day as they anxiously awaited the arrival of the Weasley family. The Dursleys did not like magic and certainly did not want to associate with a family of witches and wizards. Five o'clock came and went and the Weasleys still had not shown up. Uncle Vernon seized the opportunity to tee off on wizards. "I daresay their kind don't set much store by punctuality," he said.
Suddenly a loud banging and scraping noise came from the Dursley's boarded up fireplace and they heard several voices behind the makeshift wall. The boards were blasted off of the wall and several red haired men ducked out of the fireplace. Arthur Weasley, wand raised, was followed by Ron, Fred, and George. The Dursleys living room was covered in soot. Uncle Vernon's face was twisted with anger while Aunt Petunia and Dudley looked on in terror. The Weasleys greeted Harry and Fred and George walked across the living room to pick up his trunk and suitcase. A toffee tumbled out of Fred's pocket and onto the living room floor. Dudley couldn't help himself. He immediately snatched it up and popped it into his mouth.
Ron picked up Hedwig's cage and followed Fred and George back through the fireplace leaving Mr. Weasley and Harry alone with the Dursleys. Arthur Weasley tried to converse with the Dursleys but they wanted nothing to do with him. Dudley dropped to the floor gagging and sputtering. His tongue had turned purple and was at least a foot long. The toffee he ate was enchanted with an engorgement charm. Mr. Weasley drew his wand once again and tried to reverse the charm. The Dursleys started throwing things at Mr. Weasley. Arthur instructed Harry to go ahead and follow Ron and that he would stay behind and sort things out. Harry stepped into the fireplace, threw a small handful of Floo Powder down, and said "The Burrow."
Harry climbed out of the stone fireplace into the Weasley's sitting room. "Did he eat it? The toffee?" Fred asked Harry.
"Yeah. What was that?" Harry responded.
"A Ton-Tongue Toffee. It's a sweet that makes your tongue grow huge," George said. "We figured he would."
Mr. Weasley arrived and was furious. "That sort of behavior seriously undermines wizard-Muggle relations!" He shouted at the twins. Molly Weasley entered the room and joined Arthur in scolding their sons. Harry and Ron exited the room and followed Ginny and Hermione (who had also just arrived) up the stairs to Ron's room. Ron and Ginny told Harry about Fred and George's new business that they were calling Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. They began making magical practical jokes to sell at school.
"Mum's not to thrilled with Fred and George's business. She wants them to work for the Ministry of Magic instead of opening their own joke shop," Ron told them. When the shouting downstairs had ended they all went down to dinner. Mrs. Weasley was still visibly annoyed as she slammed pots and pans around in the kitchen.
Percy Weasley sat at the table and boasted to anyone who would listen about his new job at the Ministry of Magic. He went on and on about his boss Mr. Crouch, whom he apparently had a man crush on. He also mentioned that Bertha Jorkins was still missing. She never came back from her holiday in Albania.
The dinner discussion finally shifted to the Quidditch World Cup that was just a couple days away. The final match that they would be going to see would be between Ireland and Bulgaria. Shortly after dinner Mrs. Weasley sent everyone off to bed since they would have to get up very early the following morning to head to the World Cup.
It was still very dark outside when Molly Weasley woke them all up the next morning. Arthur Weasley explained to them all at breakfast that they would be traveling to the World Cup via Portkey. "A Portkey is a magical item that will transport you to another location when touched." As dawn began to break Mr. Weasley marched them all out of the Burrow and down the lane. Mr. Weasley pointed to a hill in the distance where they would be walking to catch their Portkey.
Waiting at the Portkey was a man that introduced himself as Amos Diggory. Mr. Diggory worked at the Ministry of Magic with Arthur Weasley. Amos introduced his son to Arthur who shook his hand. His son Cedric, was a year ahead of Harry, Ron, and Hermione at Hogwarts. Harry recognized him as the Captain of Hufflepuff's Quidditch team. As they stood around waiting for the Portkey, the topic shifted to how Cedric's Hufflepuff team had defeated Harry's Gryffindor team last year after Harry was attacked by Dementors. Mr. Diggory turned to Harry, "I said to him, I said – Ced, that'll be something to tell your grandchildren, that will ... You beat Harry Potter!" Cedric tried to play it off like it wasn't that big of a deal because Harry had fallen off of his broom.
The Portkey arrived just in time to end the socially awkward moment. They all took a hold of the old boot that had appeared on the top of the hill and they were transported to the top of another hill.
Vote Count
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Not Voting: Canik, Chaplain of Death, D34THBR1NG3R, Finster Baby, Imran Ehsan, KevinH, Kitkat16, Rhizoctonia, Robert2424, SeaBeeGipson, Sister Midnight, Wolfpacks, Yehom
With 13 alive, it takes 7 to lynch or 4 at deadline.
Deadline is 1:00pm CST on Tuesday, January 24th.
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