Alice and I found Kim on her bed, hiding in her covers. The stairs had turned into a slide when Jeremy had tried to follow. We knew it would, but he had tried anyway.

"Kim?" Alice asked gently. There was not reply. "The mouse thing was just a stupid trick. I shouldn't have even done it."

"Don't let some idiot boy ruin your day." I added. "He's clearly not worth it."

Kim emerged, eyes wet and puffy, from underneath her bedspread.

"Do you guys think I'm a slut?

"No!" We screamed in unison.

"Of course not sweetie." Alice murmured, stroking her hair.

"You're just…very open." I added.

Kim frowned pensively. I knew that her home life wasn't great. She probably just liked the affection. She would talk about how good it felt to make boys happy. I had thought she was just codependent. Maybe not.

"Listen," Alice said, eyeing me in a way that made it clear my last statement wasn't helping. "That Jake is a tool. Always has been, always will be. He belongs in Slytherin. Don't waste a minute thinking about anything he has to say. And if Alan is having doubts, well, whatever happens happens. If it's meant to be, it'll be."

"Yeah," I said, lamely. Thank Merlin that Alice was there.

"Thanks guys." Kim mumbled.

"Tell you what," I said, trying to make up for my earlier lameness, "We've got a Hogsmead day tomorrow right? I think some serious shopping is in order."

-

I was pouting, okay, whining. But I spend half of every summer with my mom in muggle land and, what can I say? I got used to the variety. Movies, concerts, malls. There are only so many butter beers a girl can drink, for goodness sake. I wondered if Kim and Alice knew what they were missing.

Jeremy, surprise surprise, had opted out of the all day shopping trip in favor of a day with the boys. I didn't blame him really. I wouldn't exactly be into a Quidditch tournament myself.

"Urg, don't they restock every once in a while?" I groaned, picking over the same tired skirts I had seen on our last outing.

"Maybe if you would buy some robes instead of wasting all you money in a muggle costume shop." Alice joked.

"Ew. I hate robes." It was true, I had gone to muggle school until I had gotten my letter from Hogwarts. I missed it sometimes. Mostly not, but I definitely missed the clothes.

"What's the point? We wear uniforms anyway," Kim pointed out, still morose. This trip was failing to cheer her up.

"Yeah…it's just that there's nothing to do. We've been everywhere at least fifty times."

"Well…" Kim started, doubtfully, "Not everywhere."

Alice and I starred, curious.

"We've never been in the shrieking shack."

-

"We're not doing this." Alice protested again. "This is stupid. Childish. I don't want to."

I, on the other hand, was getting a bit of a rush. This was the wizarding world, anything really could be in there. My stomach was doing loops. I felt alive.

Kim merely trudged on. Stupid Alan. Stupid Jake. Idiot boys. Jerks. Assholes. The righteous indignation was pumping me up. We all stopped, at the boundary now. About to take the plunge.

"I'm not going." Said Alice firmly. "None of us should go."

"I want to." Kim countered, "I want to do something that scares me, without a boy to hold my hand."

I beamed, giving Alice a look. I knew she couldn't refuse after Kim said something like that. Way to assert your independence girl. I congratulated her silently. Throw the weight of oppression from your shoulders.

So I was admittedly going a little overboard. I was just so giddy. I didn't know why.

Together we murmured a spell, allowing us to step through the gate. We breathed in the crisp, fall air and ran, all the way to the front door.

I reached it first and pulled. It was, a bit alarmingly, unlocked. It swung right open with all of the horror-movie creaking door sound effects. When we saw what was in there, we all took a step back.

The place was destroyed. Trashed. All the furniture was ripped to shreds, and it looked like it had been inhabited, well, recently. I swallowed.

"So, um, souvenir shopping?" I asked, trying to lighten the mood. I picked up the remnants of what I thought was once a chair arm. "It'll look awesome in our bedroom."

Alice slapped my hand.

"Put it down, stupid. It's probably cursed."

Kim looked possessed.

"I want to go all the way." She said, "All the way through."

"Uh, Kim?" I was a little creeped out, "You okay?"

"I'm fine. Let's go."

We walked up the stairs and around the house. Everything was destroyed. Everything a mess. Each time one of us stepped on the floor the wrong way it creaked, and we jumped like bad horror heroines. We were just heading out when Alice caught sight of a side room, the only one we hadn't entered. We went in, just to be finished, Kim said, totally finished, but we never expected what we found there.

"It's a tunnel." Alice said, kicking it open and going green, "Oh Merlin help us."

"This is awful." Kim added. "I hate being independent. I miss having a boyfriend!"

My heart was beating too fast to hear them.

"Where do you think it goes?"

-

Meanwhile, not too far away, four boys, unknown to us, monitored our progress on a magical little map.

-

A/N: Yay! First review! Thanks!