Cthulhu in Hogwarts
by Sinope
Title:
Cthulhu in Hogwarts
Author: Sinope at (no spam!) gmail dot com
Rating:
PG
Pairing:
None (gen)
Summary:
I confess that at that moment a terror pierced me greater than any I have known.
Author's notes:
A drabble for thefourthvine on the above title.
Disclaimer: This is an unofficial fan work. No profit was made; no ownership is implied.
The castle walls dripped cold sweat, dank and mildewed in the absence of student life, each shadowed corner stained with rusty blotched and carved with lycanthropic slashes, though what werewolf could have scored those venerable walls I cannot say. Silence reigned as though the great decaying towers made some horrible mausoleum, the only sounds the plunk of fetid water into greenish puddles and the distant echo of a phoenix cry: kiiiii, kiiiii, kiiiii.
Into this monstrous reminder of past bloodshed, we three ventured, heedless of the warnings we had heard, childishly reckless (oh, how I see it now!) in our lust for answers. Though my companions' footsteps never faltered, I saw Hermione's face pale in the torchlight, her pallid cheeks and unblinking eyes a mirror of the growing terror I felt in my own soul. What now lurked in Dumbledore's office? What unnameable horror crept in the crevices between those decaying instruments, leeching their once-pure magic into tendrils of loathsome corruption? My heart blanched to think of it, but yet our unwavering path led us onward, onward through the guardian statue that leered at us with preternaturally knowing eyes, onward up the staircase now slick with slime, festering with pale tendrils of death-moss that never saw the sun!
At last we stood before the final door, and I confess that at that moment a terror pierced me greater than any I have known. For one paralyzing moment I cursed the fool's courage that had brought me hither; this putrefying fog of fear that choked my nostrils and blotted out any enervating memory seemed darker than anything of this earth, older than magic, crueler than the worst of mankind's vilest imaginings. Yet willpower forced me to do that which reason and sanity forbade; I placed my hand on the chill brass doorknob, flung the door open, and gazed in full at what awaited within. And - oh God, I cannot describe it, for human words cannot approach that which makes man's mind gibber and quail in its unbearable hideousness - then we saw it.
finis.
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