Dumbledore Vs. the Whomping Willow
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter names, characters and locations belong to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing that you recognize.
Written for the Operation Crunchy Banana Soup challenge on the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenge forum
It began one night when Remus Lupin and Sirius Black were sitting in the Shrieking Shack, discussing the goings on and current events at school. Though it was mostly Sirius who was doing all the talking. Lupin was too busy munching on an oversized chocolate bar to say much.
Lupin was quite happy because this particular chocolate bar was over a foot long. It was the biggest bar of chocolate he'd ever had, and he was going to savor every last bit of it until it was gone.
"Look at you, Moony," said Sirius, grinning and chuckling as he watched his friend gnawing on the bar of chocolate. "You look like a dog with a bone in his mouth."
Lupin didn't comment on what Sirius said. He just kept chewing on the chocolate bar, a thin trail of saliva trickling from the corner of his mouth as he drooled over the delicious chocolate that he loved so much.
"Wish I had something to eat," Sirius continued. "You always have your chocolate doggie treats, but I don't have anything."
"You could have some of my chocolate if you want," Lupin offered.
"No offense, Remus, but no one is going to eat anything after you've slobbered all over it."
"Oh. Right. I forgot about that." Lupin held up his bar of chocolate. "Werewolf cooties," he said, pointing at it and chuckling.
"What I'd like to have is ice cream," said Sirius. "Loads of it. Enough that I could swim in it if I wanted to." He was then struck with a bolt of inspiration.
"I know!" he exclaimed suddenly, his face lighting up at the idea that entered his mind. "What we need to do is start bringing our favorite foods in here and stockpiling them in one of the rooms. We could add to our secret snack pile throughout the month. Then, once the full moon has passed and the moon is starting to wane again, we could all gather together for a big feast!"
Lupin looked a little puzzled. "I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I follow you. What would be the point of waiting until the moon begins to wane?"
"Remus, your transformations are never pleasant, and afterwards you're always aching and miserable. Wouldn't it be nice to know that, after everything is over and the worst is behind you, you could collapse in a giant pile of chocolate and eat until you feel better?"
The thought of having his very own heaping mound of chocolate did sound rather nice. And no matter how bad he felt chocolate always made him feel better.
"Alright then," said Lupin. "Let's do it. Let's turn this place into a storeroom for our favorite treats. Just make sure Peter keeps his food well away from everyone else's. I don't want my chocolate stinking like old cheese."
And so the little band of Marauders began gathering as much of their favorite foods as they could. They went down into the kitchens late at night, getting food from the house elves who were happy to serve them, bringing them several plates worth of their favorite foods upon request.
Little by little their collection grew, until they each had a large pile of their favorite food tucked into a corner of one of the rooms in the Shrieking Shack.
Lupin had a pile of chocolate bars in one corner of the room. Sirius had several cartons of ice cream that he had charmed to stay cold so it wouldn't melt. Peter Pettigrew had his cheese, and James had an assortment of fruit so he could make fruit salad.
"Look at this," said James, indicating with a wave of his hand towards all the food they'd collected. "We've gone from being a rat, a dog, a werewolf and a stag to being a bunch of squirrels hoarding food for the winter."
"This is the Snack Shack now," said Sirius, grinning at James. "There's only one problem. We need a way to protect our stash so no one can get in here and steal it. A weapon of some sort. That's what we need. A weapon to defend our snacks."
James rolled his eyes. "And who is going to get past the Whomping Willow, come all the way down here and steal or food?"
"Snape," Sirius answered almost immediately. "He's made it down here once before - "
"Only because you told him how to get here."
" - and he's bound to do it again," Sirius finished.
Lupin kept quiet while they were talking. He had snuck a chocolate bar from the pile in the corner and was munching on it while he listened to their conversation.
"I don't trust Snape not to tell his fellow snakes about his place, especially if he suspects we're up to something," Sirius continued. "What we need is a powerful weapon, one that represents Gryffindor and all that we stand for, to show Snape that this is our territory and that Slytherins aren't allowed."
The boldness and determination in his voice was growing by the second as he spoke.
"We need..." he paused for dramatic effect. "The sword of Gryffindor!"
And before anyone could stop him, Sirius Black had darted off down the hall and was off to the castle to steal the ancient sword of Gryffindor.
Now stealing food was one thing, but stealing a sword was something else entirely. They were able to sneak food out of the kitchen easily enough, but there was no way Sirius could steal the sword of Gryffindor without someone finding out what he was up to.
Dumbledore had been secretly aware of the goings on in the kitchen, having often gone down for a midnight snack himself from time to time. He noticed the supplies of certain food items were getting a bit low, and he occasionally heard footsteps retreating down the corridor as he approached the kitchen.
With his kind heart and good natured spirit, Dumbledore didn't think much of a few students sneaking food from the kitchen. Sometimes he just chuckled pleasantly to himself and smiled as he caught sight of Lupin's foot below the hem of James' invisibility cloak as he ran down the hall.
He knew that Lupin had an increased appetite, particularly around the time of the full moon. It was around this time when the boy craved large quantities of food, mostly meats, and would greedily devour anything edible in sight. He once caught Lupin in the kitchen the night before the full moon eating ham smothered in chocolate sauce. So it wasn't unusual to see him down here sneaking food.
Dumbledore could ignore the missing food, but when he returned to his office and found the sword of Gryffindor missing from its case it was time to take action.
His first thought was to follow Lupin as he was sneaking off with another batch of food from the kitchen. While he didn't suspect that Lupin was the one responsible for the sword's disappearance, he knew the boy's friends were often in trouble for their various pranks and hijinks throughout the castle.
Dumbledore didn't think that Lupin's actions were anything more than a hungry young werewolf in need of a little something to get him through until breakfast. But when he followed the boy out onto the grounds and watched from a distance as a second student joined him, a student who just happened to be carrying a large bundle in his arms, he began to think that something was amiss.
"You should not have taken that," said Lupin, shaking his head in disapproval. "Don't you realize that you could get expelled?"
Sirius just waved a hand at him, dismissing his friend's concern.
Lupin's eyes suddenly widened as he noticed a figure watching them from across the grounds.
"Sirius. Sirius, we have to go," he whispered frantically in the dark, tapping Sirius on the shoulder to get his attention.
Sirius followed his friend's gaze and saw the figure was now crossing the grounds and moving towards them. When he realized that it was Dumbledore his heart plummeted into his stomach as panic gripped his insides.
Both boys turned and ran, with Sirius holding back just long enough to press the knot at the base of the Whomping Willow so Lupin could enter the tunnel under the tree.
In his haste to escape into the tunnel after Lupin, Sirius slipped and the cloth bound bundle he was carrying went flying out of his hands, landing in the grass behind him as he fell onto his back, effectively knocking the wind out of his lungs.
Sirius lay on the ground, stunned and breathless, the sword of Gryffindor several yards away in the grass.
The Whomping Willow was starting to move again. Dumbledore was getting closer. And Sirius Black couldn't move.
Dumbledore approached the Whomping Willow and its branches began to quiver and shake. One of the tree's long branches reached down, looping and twisting around the handle of the sword.
The Whomping Willow brandished the sword, swinging and stabbing at Dumbledore.
Dumbledore drew his wand, meeting the tree blow for blow with shield charms to block the Whomping Willow's attacks. He tried stunning the tree, but each time the Whomping Willow raised the sword and used its blade to deflect any spell sent its way.
The Whomping Willow had always been dangerous and extremely difficult to deal with. But now that it had the sword of Gryffindor within its grasp things had gotten much worse. And as Dumbledore prepared to cast another stunning spell at the vicious tree, the Whomping Willow slashed at him with the sword, slicing his beard clean off.
For a moment Dumbledore stood still, staring in stunned disbelief at the greying hairs that lie strewn about the ground at his feet. Seconds later the Whomping Willow took another swig at him, this time coming close to cutting off his nose.
By now Dumbledore had had enough of dealing with this blasted tree. He fired another spell, this one powerful enough to knock the sword out of the tree's grasp and send it spinning through the air where it struck the ground point first several yards away.
Dumbledore ducked beneath the tree's flailing branches and seized Sirius Black by the back of his robes, dragging the young boy out from under the tree.
Sirius immediately began twisting and squirming, yelling in protest as he tried to free himself.
"I didn't do it! I swear I didn't steal the sword! It was just lying there when I got here, honest!"
"Come with me, mister Black," said Dumbledore, marching the boy off in the direction of the castle, pausing to retrieve the sword before continuing on his way. "You have a lot of explaining to do."
"Would you believe me if I said a dragon did it?" Sirius asked.
James and Peter were now standing at the mouth of the tunnel beneath the Whomping Willow. The last words they heard as they watched their friend being hauled off towards the castle was Sirius yelling in the distance, "I regret nothing except getting caught!"