It Started With Letters - Drarry

The Locked Door

WOWOW FIFTY CHAPTERS

Harry pushed open the door of his bedroom, the house was quiet and it had been for a while.

He had heard the floo go out a while ago and had stayed, staring at the sky with a fuzzy head, the light seeping under the curtains that he couldn't bring himself to open.

He pushed himself up and slowly stepped out of bed, cursing as his foot landed in the forgotten pile of glass. He rubbed his eyes and kept walking, pushing open his door and glancing outside, he caught a glimpse of Draco through the open door next to his but apart from that the house seemed mainly empty.

He stepped out and glared at the sudden brightness, being careful to not attract Draco's attention he moved further into the house, looking around.

It had wooden floors, white walls and high ceilings. He made his way to the staircase on the other side of the room and crept up it, taking the steps one at a time to dull the pain in his recently healed leg.

The first landing had a couple more doors, bedrooms he presumed. So he continued on up, another level of bedrooms and then something different.

it was a single door, similar to the others, except it was directly at the the top of the stairs.

He tried to push it open before noticing the rusted padlock keeping it shut. He bit his lip and brought up his fist, slamming it at the lock and wincing at the loud noise as the old lock fell onto the carpeted stairs.

He waited for a moment, listening for any noise from downstairs, but as none came, he picked up the lock, pocketed it and pushed open the door.

He stepped inside gingerly and closed the door behind him. It was dark apart from light that danced through the small circular window, illuminating the small freckles of dust that floated in the musty air.

He took in a deep breath of old books and wilting parchment. A desk sat against the right wall and a small cupboard against the left, yet that wasn't what caught Harry's attention.

What did was the plentiful amounts of paper that crowded the walls, detailed lines of ink, feathering across them. Diagrams and lines of text on yellowing, curling parchment.

Stacks of books lined the walls, coated in dust and labelled meticulously. He frowned and picked up a paper from a stack, holding it tenderly between his fingers. It was dead and crunchy, and if he yelled loud enough he could imagine it crumbling to dust beneath his fingers.

He pushed his glasses further up his nose and squinted at the parchment, scouring the page.

The scrawl was messy, hard for him to make out any words apart from dates and names, many of which seemed rather insignificant to him.

"Harry," A voice called through the house.

"Shit," Harry murmured, throwing the paper back where he found it and hurrying towards the door, his heart pounding in his chest.

"HARRY," Draco's voice sounded again.

The lock rattled as the boy struggled to fit it back in, all the while footsteps sounded on the stairs.

He slipped it through and left it dangling open, hoping to Merlin himself that no one would notice. His tiptoed down the stairs as fast as possible, thanking god for the carpet.

"I'm just here," Harry called from the second landing, trying to catch his breath, "I was just- looking around,' not exactly a lie.

Draco appeared from the bottom step, "Are you alright, you look really red in the fac-."