Chapter 11: The Demented Shack
A few weeks passed, and soon it was October. On October 5th, most of the 3rd year students were excited about the trip to Hogsmeade which was going to happen that day. To her surprise, Rose found herself agreeing with Ariel on something, which was that they both were eager to see the Shrieking Shack. While Ariel wanted to visit it because she wanted to see the place Snape had died, Rose was curious because she remembered that it featured prominently in some of the adventures her parents had went on when they were her age.
"You promise to bring me some sweets from Honeydukes, right?" Lily pleaded as Rose prepared to leave.
"Of course I will," Rose said with a smile. She started to head for the door along with many of the other older Ravenclaws, but then Amethyst Sprite came into the common room looking very worried and frightened about something.
"Please listen, this is very important," Amethyst said, her voice shaking nervously even though she was trying to speak loud enough for everyone to hear her. "I'm really really sorry, but the Hogsmeade trip has been cancelled."
"Why?! Is there a loose criminal again, only the criminal was actually framed and his friend did it instead?" Ariel blurted out.
"Um, no, it's worse. There are dementors in the Shrieking Shack," Amethyst answered. Several people gasped in fright, including Rose, although she could hear a few others asking things like "What are dementors?"
"Dementors are a very dangerous kind of Dark creature," Amethyst explained, "The Ministry is sending Aurors to take care of them. I'm sure the trip can be rescheduled. Maybe if the Dementors are gone by next week, it will be safe again." She then hurried out of the room, looking as though she was afraid that the students would be angry at her because the Hogsmeade trip was cancelled.
"Are dementors really that dangerous? Or do they just have bad rumors about them like thestrals?" Lily asked once Amethyst had left.
"No, Lily. Do not even THINK about trying to tame one for a pet. They aren't like thestrals or even dragons. They feed on people's emotions and steal the happiness away from anyone who gets near them, and they eat people's souls. Please promise me you will never even consider wanting one for a pet," Rose said seriously.
"Oh. So that's what they are. Even if I can't have one for a pet, maybe Hagrid will know about them. I can ask him when Albus and I visit him today," Lily said cheerfully.
"I'm sure he would know about Dementors. He does know a lot about different magical creatures, especially the more dangerous ones," Rose agreed. After breakfast in the Great Hall, Lily met up with Albus and Bunny.
"Hi, Bunny and Al! Bunny, are you taking your dad's class? What is it like? I want to take Care of Magical Creatures too when I'm in 3rd year too," Lily greeted them eagerly.
"I am taking that class. I like it so far, but I think Divination is my favorite of my new classes," Bunny answered. As they started to head in the direction of Hagrid's hut, James swaggered up to them, and Lily noticed that he looked even more smug than he normally did.
"Hi, James. What are you so happy about? Did you get a special treat from someone?" Lily wondered, unsure as to what he could be so smug about.
"You could say that. Don't worry about the dementors. Your big brother will take care of them for you," James smirked, patting Lily on the head before he strode off, going in the direction of the Whomping Willow.
"T...take care of the...you mean those...things...those things that suck out your soul?! That make you have nightmares when you're awake?!" Albus squeaked, terrified, "He's not going to that...that shack, is he?"
"It's okay, Al. No one's allowed in Hogsmeade today, so he wouldn't be able to get there. And he doesn't even have permission, remember when Dad ripped up his permission slip last year?" Lily reminded him confldently.
"But he might be going anyway! He's going by that tree, the Whomping Willow! Remember what Dad told us? About Remus Lupin? And about how there was a passage in the willow that goes to the shack?!" Albus panicked.
"Well then, I want to follow him! I want to see if that passage is still there!" Lily declared excitedly, "Don't worry, I won't go through the passage if it's there." She then took off for the Whomping Willow, with Albus following her, calling "Please don't get in danger too, Lily!" Bunny watched them run off for a moment, and then she took off in the direction of Hagrid's cabin, knowing that she might need to get someone to help if James really did get into the Shrieking Shack. As Lily got closer to the Shrieking Shack, she saw James stop. He pointed his wand at the tree and before her eyes, the tree stopped moving and a big hole opened up in the bottom of it.
"Wait, James! Don't get your soul sucked out by the dementors! And how did you make the tree stop?!" Lily blurted out as she charged towards him.
"I'm not going to tell you! And you're not going to steal my glory! Go away before I hex both of you!" James snarled, pointing his wand at her face.
"Steal your glory?! What does that have to do with anything?! Why do you even WANT to go by those dementor things?! Even I don't want one for a pet, not after what Rose told me they do to people!" Lily shouted at him, confused and angry as to why her brother was acting this way.
"Shut UP! You're always the center of attention, you freaky little werewolf, and now I'm going to get what I deserve! Chiropterus rhinus!" James yelled, and a blast shot out of his wand and hit Lily in the nose. Lily began sneezing violently, each sneeze producing a herd of tiny bats that flocked around her face, attacking it. James dashed through the hole in the base of the tree and it closed behind him. Lily fell to her knees, screaming and sneezing as she tried to swat the bats away from her face. Albus stood watching her, petrified with fear and horror, and then he screamed as the tree started to move again. Lily barely heard him scream before the willow swung a giant branch down, right on her back. She cried out in pain as it slammed her into the ground, and out the corner of her eye she saw Albus run off, presumably to tell someone what was happening. She tried to roll out of the way, but the willow swung another branch down, this time breaking her arm. A branch then whipped outward, sending Lily tumbling away. She landed face-down in the grass, whimpering and in pain but thankfully out of reach of the Whomping Willow's swinging branches. The Bat-Bogey Hex had stopped as well, but James's look of hatred as he cast the spell was still fresh in Lily's mind.
"He hates me...why? Am I really just a freak?" she whimpered to herself as she heard heavy footsteps approaching. She moved her head slightly and saw two pairs of gigantic feet near her, and she realized that it was probably Hagrid and Bunny.
"Yeh'll be fine, Lily. Madame Pomfrey'll sort yeh right out," Hagrid said gently as he picked her up and carried her into the castle.
Meanwhile, James had reached the end of the passage that led to the Shrieking Shack. He was shocked by the blast of freezing cold air that he felt when he stepped into the shack, and he recalled what Harry had said about dementors and how the first sign of their prescence was a sharp drop in the area's temperature.
"I'll beat you, you evil dementors, and be a hero just like my dad!" he shouted determinedly, and stepped further into the shack. James's resolve began to waver, though. Was he really going to be able to be a hero? Was he even worthy of being Harry's child? Was he even his father true child?
"I am! I really am Harry Potter's son!" he yelled, protesting against the dark thoughts that were seeping into his mind. But he then remembered what others had said. He recalled an unthinking comment Lavender Brown had made when he was 11 and at Diagon Alley, getting ready for his very first year at Hogwarts.
"You know, James doesn't really look much like Harry, does he? A bit like his mum, but you couldn't tell he was a Potter just by looking at him" she had said. And there was that girl on the Hogwarts Express, Strawberry Shortcake, who had also doubted him. She didn't believe him when he had asserted that he in fact was Harry Potter's son.
"Was I adopted?" James whispered to himself in horror as he collapsed to his knees, the dementors coming into the room and floating closer and closer to him. "Maybe I'm not who I think I am. Maybe I'm a fraud. If I was...Dad and Mum don't love me the way they love Albus and Lily. Maybe it's because I'm not their real son." He was so wrapped up in his depressing thoughts that he barely noticed it as a silvery-white toad hopped into the room. But then the toad leapt at the dementors, clearing a bit of the darkness away, and James then saw another silvery-white animal, a Jack Russell terrier, race into the room. He felt a familiar, comforting prescence from the white terrier, as if it was a long-lost family member who had come to protect him.
"Get them all! GO!" a very familiar voice shouted. James peeked up and saw Professor Neville Longbottom and Ron Weasley standing in the doorway, pointing their wands at the dementors. The silvery toad and dog smashed into the dementors, chasing them away from the Shrieking Shack, and as the dementors left, the feeling of cold depression lifted slightly from James's mind.
"James?! What the # *& are you doing here?!" Ron swore when he saw his nephew huddled on the floor.
"We shouldn't ask him here, of course. We need to take him straight to Madame Pompfrey," Neville stated. He conjured a stretcher, and both he and Ron levitated James onto it. The two of them carried James out of the shack, not through the Whomping Willow passageway, but out through the front door that led to the main streets of Hogsmeade, the two patronuses flying ahead and chasing off any remaining dementors.
"You're safe now, James. We're going to take you to Madame Pomfrey," Neville said gently as they passed through the streets of Hogsmeade, heading back to the safety of Hogwarts.