Finding out about the future - A Shadowhunters and Harry Potter crossover

Chapter Sixty Seven - The Riddle House

A/N

So before this chapter starts I just wanted to say that I'm skipping the first three book, since I honestly can't bring myself to write them. You can imagine that the characters have all read them and are aware of what happened xx

The villagers of Little Hangleton still called it "the Riddle House," even though it had been many years since the Riddle family had lived there. 

"I'm sure there wasn't ever a nicer bunch" said Ginny sarcastically, a couple of people giving her sympathetic glances which she glared away.

It stood on a hill overlooking the village, some of its windows boarded, tiles missing from its roof, and ivy spreading unchecked over its face. 

"This is every creepy house, ever" said Magnus.

"Right" said Simon.

Once a fine looking manor, and easily the largest and grandest building for miles around, the Riddle House was now damp, derelict, and unoccupied. 

"Good" said Rose, "Nothing good ever came from the Riddles"

The Little Hangletons all agreed that the old house was "creepy."

"Understatement" laughed Sirius, remembering the letter they had sent to him almost a year ago.

The Little Hangletons all agreed that the old house was "creepy." Half a century ago, something strange and horrible had happened there, something that the older inhabitants of the village still liked to discuss when topics for gossip were scarce. The story had been picked over so many times, and had been embroidered in so many places, that nobody was quite sure what the truth was anymore.

"As it does with every truth"

Every version of the tale, however, started in the same place: Fifty years before, at daybreak on a fine summer's morning when the Riddle House had still been well kept and impressive, a maid had entered the drawing room to find all three Riddles dead.

"Emotional damage right there" said Sirius.

"Bless her" said Molly.

The maid had run screaming down the hill into the village and roused as many people as she could.

"Lying there with their eyes wide open! Cold as ice! Still in their dinner things!"

The police were summoned, and the whole of Little Hangleton had seethed with shocked curiosity and ill-disguised excitement. Nobody wasted their breath pretending to feel very sad about the Riddles, for they had been most unpopular. Elderly Mr. and Mrs. Riddle had been rich, snobbish, and rude, and their grown-up son, Tom, had been, if anything, worse. 

"Tom" said Ginny, paling a little.

"Probably his dad Ginny" said Rose softly,.

All the villagers cared about was the identity of their murderer - for plainly, three apparently healthy people did not all drop dead of natural causes on the same night.

"How sympathetic of them" said Alec dryly.

The Hanged Man, the village pub, did a roaring trade that night; the whole village seemed to have turned out to discuss the murders. They were rewarded for leaving their firesides when the Riddles' cook arrived dramatically in their midst and announced to the suddenly silent pub that a man called Frank Bryce had just been arrested.

"Frank!" cried several people. "Never!"

"Now watch how quickly they'll all turn on him" said Jace, "People always do"

Maryse put her hand over his, and Jace wrapped an arm around his mother.