Magic? || Years 1-5

Beneath The Whomping Willow: Year 3

"Ron!" Harry shouted, about to take a step forward when Amisty tugged the back of his robes with her teeth as a branch came hurtling down.

Now all they could see of the redhead was his leg, which was hooked around one of the roots in the last attempt of staying above ground. She stared at it in horror, knowing it wouldn't take long for the bone to -- CRRRRACK!

His leg was broken.

"Harry -- we've got to go for help -- " Hermione was breathing heavily, blood staining her robes from the cut on her shoulder.

"No! That's thing's big enough to eat him; we haven't got time -- " Harry argued desperately, ducking down from another strike from the tree. "If that dog can get in, we can."

He started the search, darting around and dodging attacks as he looked for an entrance to the tree.

"Oh, help, help, please..." Hermione shifted her weight from foot to foot nervously, gaze shifting around. Crookshanks, as if he had heard her, snuck up toward the roots and pressed down on a knot on the trunk.

In an instant, the tree stopped moving.

"Crookshanks! How did he know -- ?" Hermione started, shocked as she grasped onto Harry.

"He's friends with that dog. I've seen them together. Come on -- and keep your wand out -- " Harry replied, voice dark as he held up his wand.

Crookshanks had vanished through the gap in the roots. Harry went first, sliding down the tunnel, then Hermione, and then Amisty, her paws scrabbling against the smooth surface.

"Where's Ron?" Hermione whispered, her voice quaking slightly with fear as she stared around.

"This way," Harry replied, following after the ginger cat, who was leading the way down the tunnel.

"Where does this tunnel come out?" She asked again, a little bit airily as she struggled to regain her breath.

"I don't know... It's marked on the Marauder's Map but Fred and George said no one's ever gotten into it... It goes off the edge of the map, but it looks like it ends up in Hogsmeade..." Harry replied.

Amisty was still reeling from the slap to the ground, her vision cloudy on the edges. It seemed to take ages before the tunnel started to rise, Crookshanks gone, and a small beam of light breaking through the darkness surrounding them. When they reached the end, they entered a very dusty, very unkempt room.

The wallpaper was peeling horribly, large sections of the walls underneath showing, stains covering the floor, furniture splintered and snapped, windows covered in wooden planks. It was deserted, but the door to their right was open to a shadowed hallway.

"Harry, I think we're in the Shrieking Shack," Hermione whispered, looking around at the boarded windows.

"Ghosts didn't do that," Harry replied, gaze captured by the wooden chair closest to them, chunks ripped out and an entire leg torn away.

Just as he finished speaking, a soft creak sounded from about them. Amisty pawed at the ground nervously. They silently tiptoed through the hall and up a winding staircase, the thick layer of dust on the floor only disrupted by the streak left by Ron.

"Nox," Hermione and Harry whispered together, their wands darkening once more.

Only one door on the top floor was open. Harry led the way, kicking it open and staring around. Crookshanks was lying on top of a dusty four-poster bed, purring, and Ron was lying beside it, leg very broken and face very pained.