Chapter Eleven
A little over a week remains of the school year. Danu leaves her last Transfiguration class of the year, where once again, she's reminded of how utterly awful she is at non-verbal magic. Passing though the Transfiguration courtyard, she overhears a group of students talking about Hagrid and slows down.
"Buckbeak lost," Said a boy with red hair, presumably another Weasley, "Hagrid's just sent this."
The girl standing next to him reads a scrap of parchment aloud. "Lost appeal. They're going to execute at sunset. Nothing you can do. Don't come down. I don't want you to see it. Hagrid"
The two of them take off running towards the entrance of the castle, and Danu stands glued to the spot, unable to move. Hagrid never told her that Buckbeak was in trouble. She was there the night he brought Buckbeak to the castle, saw the way Hagrid's face lit up every time he saw Buckbeak. She knew, of course, what had happened between Buckbeak and the git Malfoy. Her heart sank, not just for Buckbeak, but for herself as well. Hagrid was so close to her, she always felt so safe and warm in his hut, now he felt like a stranger.
Suddenly, she realizes that she had been to Hagrid's only twice this year, he quickly hurried her off as he was expecting company. She had been so busy since then, she hadn't had a chance to see him at all. Her feet instinctively carry her to him, she must comfort him. Hagrid's heart is so soft and full of love for everyone and everything he comes in to contact with, she can't let him suffer alone.
Coming to the top of the hill, overlooking the patch of giant pumpkins Hagrid grows, she sees Buckbeak tethered to a post out front of the hut. The Weasley boy, the curly headed girl who read the note, and Harry Potter run past her towards Hagrid's. Dumbledore suddenly appears in the doorway and makes to leave, Hagrid spots Harry and his friends and waves them in before quickly closing the door behind Dumbledore. Danu turns and makes her way back the way she came. Thankful that Hagrid is not alone when he's undoubtedly heartbroken but saddened that he hadn't even noticed her standing just feet behind the running children.
Before she knows it, her feet have carried her to the edge of the Black Lake. She sits beneath the same tree Snape had found her at when he turned her pumpkin juice bottle into a dragonfly. Danu leans her back against the tree and sighs, careful not to let any of the stray students scurrying about the lake catch her wipe the tears from her eyes with the sleeve of her cloak.
Danu sits beneath the tree for what feels like hours. It's nearing sunset, and her stomach twists in knots for Hagrid and Buckbeak. She lifts her head to the sky and lets out a deep breath. Just then, through the branches of the trees, a sea of black streak across the sky from behind the clouds. All of the Dementors are retreating. Could that mean that they have found Sirius Black?
She stands and follows the streak of Dementors with her eyes as the sun sets lower in the sky. In the distance, atop a hill on the outskirts of Hogsmeade, she spots it.
The Shrieking Shack.
The answer to the question that's been plaguing her for weeks.
She decided at once that she would not return to Bernadette's this summer.
Danu sprints back to the castle to start preparing. This won't be an easy feat, but she suspects, with how easily she can move without being detected, that she can pull it off.
It is a common misconception that the Shrieking Shack is haunted. Danu happened to know that it wasn't. Professor Sprout, and Hagrid after she pressed for further information during her second year, told her all about it. Professor Sprout showed her how to still the Womping Willow by remaining low and pressing a knot on the trunk of the tree. Once paralyzed, a small opening would appear low on the trunk. Professor Sprout would tell her no more, but she happened to catch Hagrid after a few bottles of Daisy Root Draught, and he told her all about the Shrieking Shack and how it's only bewitched to appear haunted. Lucky for her, he also told her how all of the doors and windows are false, and the only way to enter the shack is from beneath the Womping Willow. She could kiss Hagrid for that right now!
First, she leaves a note on her bed one morning asking the elves that clean the rooms if they could leave her a spare blanket. She claims she's been getting cold at night. Next, discreetly collects the empty pumpkin juice bottles from the Ravenclaw table and slips them into her bag when no one is looking. She will fill these with water. On top of the empty bottles, she gathers several full ones as well, knowing that she will want the occasional pumpkin juice. Several bags of tea fill her pockets every time she leaves the table.
Collecting food proves to be rather difficult, she must collect food that will last awhile without spoiling. She collects as many apples and bananas as she can, the apples should last her a few weeks as long as she keeps them in a dark place, she will eat the bananas first. Pastries and bread are also a staple, as long as she can keep them from molding or becoming stale. Protein is out of the question, as it will spoil and rot quickly. After a week or so, she will be able to leave the shack to collect berries that grow around the Womping Willow.
Finally, after securing what she believes to be enough food, she places an extending charm on her backpack a cross-body bag and packs all of her belongings into both. The trunk at the foot of her bed receives a weigh charm, as she will ditch this on the train.
After what feels like an eternity, the day finally arrives. Gossip from other students confirm what she believed to be true a week ago, Sirius Black was spotted elsewhere, far from Hogwarts, and the Ministry would no longer be patrolling the area. Danu's hands shake as she slips from her bed early that morning and heads to the great hall before anyone else to grab some last minute food. She grabs several more danishes, pumpkin pasties, muffins, scones, and sweet bread. She carefully wraps them all in napkins and puts them in her bag, along with six more apples and four bananas.
Danu's stomach knots with nerves as she makes her way out of the castle and towards the Womping Willow. After a quick look around, she crouches down and rushes towards the tree to press the knob on the trunk. The tree freezes immediately, and she lunges into the hole, headfirst.
After a short slide downwards, Danu comes to an abrupt halt at the bottom of an incline. She glances back just as the entrance she had just came through closes and she loses all light within the tight tunnel. She pulls her wand from the side pocket of her backpack and whispers Lumos the end of her wand produces a bright, white light. She had just enough room to crouch, but slowly made her way forward. She had never been in the tunnel before and had no idea how long it was. After what felt like an eternity, she finally reached a bend at the end of the tunnel and could see the soft glow of sunlight from the other side. Danu extinguishes her wand and follows the bend around; she crouches once more and finds herself in what appeared to be a bedroom. She sneezes as she enters, and dust whirls around her head. Someone has been here recently. Footsteps in the dust a debris circle the room, as if someone were pacing. The graying wallpaper falls in strips towards the floor, the windows are poorly boarded up and emitting soft streams of sunlight from the cracks, and the furniture is all smashed up. The old mattress on the floor is shredded, feathers fill the room in large heaps.
Carefully, she steps in the footsteps on the floor to not give herself away should whomever was here come back. Carefully, she opens the bedroom door and makes her way down the hall. Danu has no way of knowing just how many bedrooms the shack has, but she knows that she cannot use the one with the entrance, in case someone comes in. Making her way down the hall, she takes a peek into each room and makes an inventory. Once on the ground floor, she decides this will be the safest place for her. Far enough away from the entrance, but able to hear and hide from anyone who should come.
After several hours, and several passes of Tergeo around the room she had chosen as hers for the next two months, Danu is rather satisfied. She chose what was intended to be a study as her own. Not only was it the cleanest room, but there was also a library full of books, a fireplace, several leather chairs, and a window to look out of. She pulled the only intact mattress from a closet on the second floor, blasted it with Scourgify, and placed it beneath the window in the study.
One month in, and Danu has finished all of her summer work. This feat would have been done in haste on the way to and from London on the train had she gone to Bernadette's. She spends her days practicing non-verbal magic without fear of being caught, as her 17th birthday came after just a week in to being in the shack. Her non-verbal magic has gotten much better, but still not anywhere near as good as it needs to be. There have been a few scares, times when he was woken up from a dead sleep convinced that someone was moving around the shack. One night in particular, she hid in the closet attached to the study all night. The next morning, she went up to the bedroom with the entrance, and saw no fresh footprints in the dust. Satisfied that no one had been there, she went back to her room for an apple and another round of trying to turn a bottle into a dragonfly.
One month and one week in, Danu lays on her stomach reading a weathered potions book she found on the bookshelf. The book is outdated for the most part, but there are a few potions she would be interested in discussing with Professor Snape. Just then, she hears a creak outside the closed study door, and lifts her head towards it with her wand in hand, ready to flee if necessary. Suddenly, the study door flies open.
There, in the doorway, stands Professor Snape. Dust floats around his form, furry fills his eyes and she's too stunned to speak, much less move.
"You." He sneers at her. "I knew you were up to something."
Danu opens her mouth to respond, but no sound comes out. Snape quickly closes the gap between the two of them and points his wand at her. It feels as if a thousand knives are in her skull. She knows what he's doing. She knows he's attempting to use Legilimency on her. She read about it in her Defense Against the Dark Arts book while drafting an essay shortly after her meeting with Dumbledore at the beginning of the year. It is why her head hurt so badly in Dumbledore's office that day. Dumbledore tried to do the same thing to her, but why?
She expected images to flash through her mind, instead, it felt as if she had ran full speed into a tree on a broom. She looks up at Snape, his features as shocked as hers undoubtedly were. Snape grabs her by the wrist and drags her through the room without a word.