The Shrieking Shack

The Marauders walked past the line of people waiting to sign out for Hogsmeade, straight to where the Prefect on duty was signing people out.

'Alright, Frank?' James said with the usual, casual smile of easy confidence and barely a glance and the long line.

Frank Longbottom looked at them over the top of the list and clipboard in his hands, 'There's a queue, Potter.'

A pained look crossed James' face, 'Awh, come on, Frank; we just put Gryffindor in the lead for the Quidditch Cup,' he spotted Lily out of the corner of his eye, took two paces and grabbed her in a sort of half-hug, while pulling her to the front, 'Besides, Frank, you wouldn't want to keep your girlfriend's friends waiting would you?'

Frank raised an eyebrow and shook his head, sighing, 'Alright, Potter, now bugger off before I decide to change my mind.'

He signed out the Marauders, Lily and Dorcas who had been dragged in too. Then they were all in the chilly sunshine, squinting slightly after the dull of the Entrance Hall and castle corridors. James's arm was still around Lily's shoulders.

Lily's immediate thought on seeing James and his friends saunter forward to the front of the queue was fairly rude; something along the lines of arrogant prick, a vestige from a few months before. Suddenly he turned round though, caught her eye, smiled and put an arm round her shoulders, pulling her forward; despite her protestations that she had to wait.

Then, somehow they were out in the chilly sunshine of the grounds, no longer waiting in the shadowy Entrance Hall.

'James, I can't!' Lily stumbled down the steps, pushing his arm off her shoulders.

He turned in confusion, the rest of them halting in their tracks at the interruption, 'Why? What's up?'

Something akin to fear blossomed in Lily's stomach and suddenly she knew how this day would end; James had become somewhat more than just a friend in the past few weeks. He was still James Potter though, and somewhere deep inside him was something she had been unwilling to face for years.

'I can't come with you,' she stated.

James' forehead creased over the grin he was now wearing, 'Why ever not?'

'I…' she sighed and took a deep breath, ready for the plunge, 'I promised I'd go with Caradoc Dearborn. Dorcas was just waiting for Marlene and Laura…'

James' creases disappeared and the grin remained, but suddenly there was a void between them. A silence full of everything that hadn't been said.

There was no falter or slip, the grin merely became slightly puzzled and he said, 'Alright,' nodding his head as if to say Fair enough and walked away. The others followed, including Dorcas who seemed to have been caught up in an engrossing conversation with Remus.

Peter stumbled on a loose rock, trying to keep up with the others long, lazy, sweeping strides, 'So, what's going to happen now?' he asked.

James didn't seem to hear him, hands buried in his pockets.

'Prongs?'

'Leave it,' Sirius growled at him, increasing his stride slightly until he was shoulder to shoulder with James, leaving Peter a few feet behind them.

Peter chewed his lip and looked worriedly from one to the other, but decided to keep quiet; it looked like it was going to be one of those days…

Remus suddenly looked up from his conversation with Dorcas, noticing the silence between the rest.

Peter took it as an opportunity, 'So… Zonko's, Wiseacre's, Honeydukes and The Three Broomsticks?'

'I need a new quill,' Remus replied.

'Scrivenshaft's?'

'Yeah.'

Lily watched the Marauders and her friend disappear around a bend in the track, feeling slightly as though she had let someone down; but she wasn't sure who. She was still staring down towards the Forest when a hand tapped her shoulder.

'Lily? You alright?'

It was Caradoc; hair a little ruffled, but blue eyes shining in anticipation of the day ahead.

Lily started, but blew out a tense breath, 'Sorry, I was a bit out of it for a moment.'

'No worries,' he smiled easily, 'Shall we head off? I've got an idea for later…'

Lily looked at him quizzically, but between the excitably, cheeky grin and twinkling eyes he wasn't giving anything away. They walked away down the lawns to the school gates.

Severus watched the crowds of Hogwarts students flowing down across the lawns towards Hogsmeade, chattering and laughing gaily despite the cold. He didn't care much for the little town beyond the gates; there wasn't anything there to interest him. He didn't have money for sweets, and at the age of seventeen he didn't really care for biting teacups. Something caught the corner of eye and suddenly he focused on the unmistakable, brilliant red hair belonging to Lily Evans; obvious even from this distance.

There was someone beside her, someone with short, blonde hair; someone who wasn't one of her usual girl friends. Severus turned and gathered up the books he had been using; he had a sudden urge to be in Hogsmeade today.

'So what happened with Lizzy, Padfoot?' Remus asked sociably.

'The usual; tears, tantrums,' he sneered suddenly, 'asked if I was seeing someone else.'

Dorcas looked up in shock, 'What happened?'

'Padfoot dumped Lizzy last night,' James replied and Dorcas thought she heard a vicious twist of enjoyment in the way he said it.

'Why?' she asked, curious.

'Got bored,' came the disinterested reply from the stony faced boy.

She could have been asking him why he had stopped reading a textbook, for all the tone of voice and expression he supplied. She could see why the Marauders didn't have many friends; they never seemed to want to talk, that didn't stop them being the most popular people in the school though.

'That's not a very good reason…'

A quirky grin crossed Black's face, 'Hey, it's not like I told her that; I said she wasn't really my type.'

Dorcas was incredulous, 'You've been going out for what? A month? And you told her she wasn't your type?'

'Yeah, and…?' he replied, looking down at her as though she was something strange he spotted in a Care of Magical Creatures class.

Remus nudged her slightly and whispered, 'Leave it,' before changing the conversation, 'What do you reckon? I'd say Zonko's, then Scrivenshafts, then over to the Three Broomsticks. That way we can pick up the good stuff before other people get there, then after lunch we can go to Wiseacre's and you can go with the girls to Gladrags. Meet up in Honeydukes, then have a pint in the Hog before heading home.'

'What do you know about the Shrieking Shack?' Caradoc asked as they passed through the school gates.

'Not much,' Lily admitted, wondering what he was getting at, 'It's supposed to be the most haunted building in Britain or something…'

'Yup, anything else?'

'Not really… no one can get in, either, apparently even the Marauders tried and couldn't find a way in.'

He looked across at her quizzically, 'Who told you that?'

She frowned, she wasn't actually sure, 'I don't know… Remus might have mentioned it or something.'

'Really?' he asked, eyeing her with an odd expression.

'Oh, I don't know,' she said, 'Why do you want to know anyway?'

'Well, I've got a half-brother, Ivor. We were talking over the summer and I asked if he knew anything about the Shack and if anyone had ever been inside. He's eight years older than us, and he said he never been to see it while he was at school; said it was just a ruin and no one had lived there in years.'

'Because it's haunted, right?'

'Nope.'

'What?' Lily stared at him in confusion.

'Yeah, said no one had lived there because it was all the way up on the hill.'

'But if you ask the villagers…'

'They'll say you can hear screams sometimes at night.'

Lily couldn't work out what he was getting at, 'What are you trying to say?'

'Benjy and I asked Ambrosius, the chap who owns Honeydukes, about it. He said the screams only started a few years ago.'

'Why?' Lily asked, suddenly intrigued.

'No one seems to know.' Caradoc replied with a grin, 'Besides, you can get in; Benjy said he found a way in last time he in Hogsmeade. Want to have a look?'

There was pure challenge written across his face.

Lily bit her lip; no boy was going to get the better of her, 'Yes.'

'Alright then, let's go.'

'Now?'

Remus could almost feel something among the trees, watching them as they walked down the path to Hogsmeade. He knew it wasn't a threat, he didn't know how he knew that, he just knew; he supposed it was something of the animal in him. Whatever it was it well camouflaged, and Remus was having trouble spotting it.

He didn't say anything, just carried on the conversation, mentioning that he'd like to go to Tomes and then James saw it. He followed James' transfixed gaze and saw the rear legs of something large just disappear into the shadowy trees.

'Centaur,' muttered Sirius, 'Haven't seen one for a while.'

'A Centaur!' Dorcas cried, disbelieving.

'Yup,' Sirius responded with a shrug. Remus grinned; Sirius was good at stating the amazing with a complete lack of enthusiasm, it was as though he never got surprised. His mate had 'detached' down to the letter; whether he lounging back in his chair in a lesson, or lazing on a sofa with his latest girlfriend; you couldn't pin Sirius Black down.

He remembered the first time they had met one; Fifth Year, wandering along the edge of the Forest one night and Sirius had simply said, 'Good evening,' as the huge, part horse, part man stepped out of the trees in front of them.

Since then, they'd met them a few times, and were friendly with a youngish one called Carach. Remus always found them a bit intimidating; he'd read somewhere that in Europe there were stories of centaurs hunting werewolves for sport. The centaurs they met were friendly, if a bit taciturn, and they instantly recognised the boys for what they were. Centaurs had far better senses than any human, and they had spotted three Animagi and a Werewolf from several hundred metres.

'We've seen a few about,' Peter added.

'How? And when?' Dorcas asked, stepping back to try and see if the Marauders were lying. Remus grinned inwardly, knowing that they could have made her believe that there were Giants in the Forest if they wanted; they had a way of backing each other's stories up and adding little details that never failed to convince people.

'Oh, you know; wandering about at night does let you see a few things others don't.' James grinned at her.

'If you know what we mean,' Black said with a grin and a lecherous wink.

'Shut up, Padfoot.' Remus said as Peter sniggered.

'We reckon there's about thirty or so; they must have a camp somewhere. They'll come and have a chat sometimes, if we're lucky.'

'You just go into the Forest and "chat" with centaurs?' Dorcas asked, astounded.

'Yeah,' Remus said with a shrug and a nod.

'But aren't there werewolves in there?'

'Only at full moon,' Remus replied darkly.

As they wandered into Zonko's, Dorcas had a question, 'So this is where you get all your stuff?'

'Some of it,' James replied with a grin, 'A lot of stuff we make ourselves, depending on the situation.'

'Like what?' Dorcas challenged.

'Pete's Catch Coin.' Remus said, leaning past to pick up a packet of Foaming Bubble-Gum, "Guaranteed to make anyone foaming mad" it read.

'His what?' she asked.

'Oi, Pete, show her your Coin; we made it for his birthday last year.' James called.

Peter grinned and pulled out a silver coin; it wasn't a Sickle though, Dorcas could see that. He handed it to her and she saw that on one side, there were the four Marauders' heads; while on the other side there was back end of some kind of rodent, with a long tail curving round the edge of the coin.

'Heads and Tails: flick it up in the air,' James said and she did so.

She tried to catch it, but it stopped before it started to fall again and hung there spinning gently in mid-air.

'Now, put your hand out and say, "Drop".'

'Drop.' she said, holding out her hand.

The coin fell into it.

'Pete's not very good at catching, see.' James said, taking the coin from her and handing it back to Peter, who grinned, 'So we thought, what could we do to stop him dropping coins when we try and decide what to do. Moony came up with the idea.'

The path up to the Shrieking Shack was more grass than track, and the ruined house itself was seemed strangely lifeless. A collection of twisted trees stood where there might once have been an orchard but there was nothing to define anything else about it as having been lived in. The house itself looked battered; rain, snow and hail had made their mark on the old wood and crumbling slate of the roof.

It was quiet too; Lily noticed as they walked up towards it, no birds sang in the trees or the surrounding heather. It was strangely lonely in the bright sunlight; giving off an aura of abandoned loneliness.

'See, it's all boarded up,' Lily pointed at the windows and door where heavy planks had been nailed across.

'Benjy said there was a hole round the back, some of the boards have been pulled away.'

Lily looked warily at the house, but followed Caradoc as he skirted round the wall.

It was true.

There was a hole where two of the huge boards that covered the windows had been torn off; Lily looked at them as Caradoc moved towards the dark chasm of the window. What looked like spell damage blackened one side; what had been the inside.

'Caradoc…?' Lily murmured to the sound of scrabbling feet.

She turned just in time to see Caradoc disappear into the darkness of the house.

'Caradoc! I don't think we shou-'

'Merlin, Lily! You should see this! It looks like someone let a dragon loose in here!'

Lily left the blackened board and peered into the gloom after Caradoc, as her eyes adjusted to the dim light she could see what had been furniture scattered across the room. Only it wasn't furniture anymore; something had quite obviously torn it apart. There were claw marks in the dusty upholstery of what had been the back to large armchair and across the walls.

'I don't think we should be in…'

James had been round Zonko's too many times to find it that appealing anymore and he didn't need anything from Scrivenshaft's so he nudged Sirius and gestured up the street, 'How about we have a wander, see if we can find anything new? Besides, there's two passageways that come out in Hogsmeade; that book said so and we only know the Honeydukes one, might be a good idea to take a look around.'

'True,' Sirius replied, 'and I still think that grate at the back of the Post Office is suspicious; why would a Post Office need a cellar?'

'We can take a look then,' James replied and they headed out through the door, gesturing to Remus that they would meet them at The Three Broomsticks.

They had barely made it to the back of the Post Office and Sirius was just trying to prise the grate out of the ground when a scuffling noise made James look up.

Snape stumbled as he moved past the end of the alley, alone.

'What's that ratbag doing in Hogsmeade?' James muttered, leaving Sirius and moving back toward the street.

Snape never came to Hogsmeade and now he was hurrying up the street, towards the Shrieking Shack end. Indeed, as James watched, Snape passed the last couple of houses and turned onto the path up to the Shack.

'Padfoot, come here; Snivellus is being suspicious.'

'He's always bloody suspicious; do you think he's still trying to get back at us, or expose Remus?' Sirius said, glaring after him.

'I wouldn't put it past him,' James replied, 'Even if he promised to Dumbledore, I wouldn't trust him as far as I could kick his greasy backside.'

They both started forward after him without any agreement being needed to be made.

They followed him to the point where the path began to twist upwards towards the greying house on the hill, before Sirius' hackles suddenly rose as they both saw him take his wand from his pocket.

'Under here,' James muttered, looking around and pulling out his Father's Invisibility Cloak.

They vanished from sight as Snape advanced further up the path.

Caradoc had persuaded Lily to clamber inside and they we standing in what must have once been a dining room when the something rustled in the darkness.

'What was that?'

'Ghosts,' Caradoc grinned at her as she slid a little closer to him.

'Shut up,' Lily half growled, half laughed back, 'You said there weren't any.'

'Maybe I was wrong…' he whispered, eyes wide with mirth, 'Want to go upstairs?'

'Not really, we should go,' Lily replied seriously.

'Scared?' Caradoc shot back.

'No!' She hissed, glaring.

'After you then,' he said with an elaborate bow.

Lily set her foot on the stair, noticing that there was a faint trail in the dust that had been disturbed recently. Frowning she started slowly up them, but Caradoc stopped her with a hand on her waist.

She turned, finding him suddenly very close behind her.

'Um, Lily…'

He really was very close. Lily shuffled backwards slightly and spotted something out of the corner of her eye, 'Look out!' she shouted as a ruined chair leg spun across the room at Caradoc.

He only managed to turn before it caught him across the temple, knocking him back against the wall and back down the stairs.

She barely had time to draw breath to scream before there was a BANG and a very male voice shouted, 'We saw that, Snivellus, you slimy little git!'