Into the Shrieking Shack

June 16th 1994

Dear Diary,

Yesterday was hands-down the weirdest day of my life. We found a rat that was supposed to be dead, followed a dog-that-was-a-human into the Shrieking Shack, heard a 12-year-old tale that had been ignored, changed time and saved a convicted hippogriff and murderer. I'd like to see any 24-hr period beat this!

Well, I had to eat my words about the whole 24-hr thing a few years later, but for now this was enough for one day!

Whilst trying to comfort Hagrid, I made a shocking discovery: Scabbers was alive, and appeared to be hiding in Hagrid's cupboard! I couldn't believe it, all the evidence pointed towards Scabber's death. But I guess that makes sense, as that is what he wanted us to believe. But, as usual, I'm getting ahead of myself.

This is where things start to get weird. Clue one, Buckbeak was obviously bothered by something, pawing on the ground nervously while taking small, fevered looks toward the forest. Clue two, no shrieking from Buckbeak. I don't know why I didn't think of it at the time, but you would think a Hippogriff would not take execution meekly.

Other than those clues to later on, other weird things were happening. Scabbers was acting very strangely, even going as far as biting Ron. Then that dog came out of nowhere and dragged Ron into a passage under the Whomping Willow. I will never forget the horror coursing through my body, especially when we heard the crack of his leg breaking. Harry and I didn't really have a choice after that; we had to rescue our friend, our brother.

I'm still not sure how Crookshanks knew we needed help. He's obviously much smarter than he looks!

Running down that tunnel was terrifying. We had no idea where we were heading, nor what we would find when we got there. As soon as we were out of the tunnel I knew where we were, but if anything that just made me feel more afraid for the safety of me and Ron and Harry, who I now thought of as "my boys". The stories all said that the Shrieking Shack was haunted, but it didn't look like ghosts had resided there. It was something much more solid, more dangerous.

We followed the drag marks in the dust upstairs where we found Ron...and Sirius Black.