The Shrieking Shack || The Marauders (Book 1)

JAMES

A few days after Christmas, the holidays at Hogwarts got quite dull for James and Sirius. They seemed to be having a hard time finding new things to do. Lobbing water-balloons at Filch was only funny so many times and Hagrid's rock caked were really beginning to crack up James's teeth. And if James had to endure Nearly Headless Nick, talking about how extremely unfortunate and tragic it was that his head wasn't severed completely, he was sure he'd throw himself off the Astronomy Tower.

"We could check out the forbidden forest," Sirius suggested. They were lazing away by the lake, one rare cloudless morning, when the sun wasn't really visible but the day certainly did seem bright enough to tempt them out into the open and enjoy all its glory.

"Oh I don't now..." said James listlessly.

"We have scoured every corner of the castle and the grounds. The forest is all that's left," Sirius said, though it was quite clear that he was as interest in the prospects of exploring the forest as James, which is to say he wasn't.

"There is one more place," provided James, cautiously.

"What?" asked Sirius, much too lazily than James would have liked.

"The willow!" said James excitedly.

Sirius sat up at once. "Yeah? And what about Remus?"

"Well, Remus isn't here, is he? I don't think it would hurt if we..." he trailed off, a meaningful grin plastered across his face.

Sirius smiled. "Yeah right," he said laying back down. "Remus might not be here to stop us but the tree is still bloody alive, probably murdering a tiny bird as we speak."

"Right. And it's not like we have an invisibility cloak up our sleeves which will help us sneak pass the blood thirsty tree."

Sirius sat back up again. "The cloak? Do you really think it'll work?"

"It might."

That had settled it. They ran up to their dormitory quickly to retrieve the cloak, and ran back just as fast to the grounds. Quietly, they crossed the grounds and moved towards the Whomping Willow with the cloak over their heads. James felt that the cloak wasn't really necessary considering that no one except them was around. They might as well have walked up to the willow without the invisibility cloak on and worn it only while approaching the tunnel at the root of the tree, but Sirius thought better of it. After all, it could be possible that someone was looking out through one of the castle windows.

As James had suspected, the tree didn't harm them under the cloak. Quite easy, the two of them slipped under its roots and slid down the dark tunnel.

"Lumos!" muttered Sirius, taking out his wand and James followed suit.

It wasn't roomy down there and they moved ahead the narrow passageway hunchbacked. On and on they went for at least twenty minutes, both absolutely quiet, anticipating what they might find at the end.

The passageway soon ended to a set of stairs and they both climbed, Sirius behind James.

"Ouch!" James's head hit something solid. After groping around a little he realized it was a trap door and pushed it open. His hands moved to shield his eyes on reflex, as the bright light hit them. They both climbed up, still rubbing their eyes.

"What the-?" James heard Sirius and looked around instinctively.

"Merlin's beard!" he said.

It was a house. It might one day have been a nice cozy place to live, James could see it in the flowery wallpaper, the plush chairs and the flower vase but not anymore. The wallpaper had big gashes etched all across it and a flower vase remained broken on the floor amidst other debris, it appeared someone had tried to hastily clean in a neat pile. Pieces of a chair littered the room and cotton was strewn across the floor spilling out of ripped cushions. The most sinister part of it were the windows. They were all boarded up. The house appeared to be some sort of a sick prison.

James picked up the arm of the broken chair. It appeared as though it had been chewed on by something with big pointed teeth. Sirius gulped and looked at James, with his wide eyes and pale face he looked exactly as scared as James felt.

They both stood there for a moment or two, listening, but no sound reached their ears. The house was empty.

"Should we-" whispered Sirius, "-should we head back or-?" He looked at the door at the other end of the room.

"I don't think anyone's home," James whispered back and started towards the door.

The scene was quite similar in the narrow hall, the wallpaper was slashed at places and there were giant claw marks on the boarded up door at the other end, which James guessed must lead out of the house.

The hall let to a staircase which looked comparatively unharmed though it creaked a lot as they climbed up. There were three doors on the first landing, all bearing the same claw marks.

"What the heck lives here?" whispered Sirius as he opened the first door and entered.

The room looked comparatively better than the rest of the house, even though the wardrobe door was hanging on its hinges and the hangings of the four poster bed were torn and littered on the floor along with a mingled heap of black cloths. For some reason, the black piece of cloth gave James an uncomfortable feeling at the back of his head, he moved forward and picked it up.

His heart stopped and he flung the cloth as far from himself as possible. It was a black robe, very much like the ones they wore at school, ripped at places and plastered with dry blood. From the size, it probably belonged to a kid no older than James himself.

Sirius was looking at the floor where the robes had lied previously horror stuck. James looked down and yelped. It was covered in dry blood.

"I think," Sirius said. "We should leave now."

James nodded his reply and turned around at once to leave.

*

It had been hours since the sun had set and James and Sirius were still sitting in their dormitory. Neither could talk.

The same pictures moved through James's mind again and again. The boarded windows, the claw marks, the slashed wallpaper and the robes. What could have done that? What did live there? And where was it when they were down there? With the boarded up doors and window, James was sure that there was no way out of the house except for the willow tunnel, but he was pretty sure that if a monster did come out through the tunnel, someone was bound to notice.

So maybe the thing, whatever it was, didn't live down there anymore. But then the school robe on the floor didn't look much old.

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A/N: And the Shrieking Shack has been discovered. Poor Remus. What do you think James and Sirius will do next?

Also, I'm rather proud to announce that I have finished writing this story, from now on it's just a matter of editing and uploading. We only have around 5-6 more chapters to go. Thank you so much for reading my story, for giving it your time and appreciation. It really does mean a lot to me. :')

Please comment and let me know what you thought about the chapter. Also don't forget to vote if you liked it. :)