Remus had to visit Dumbledore's office before dinner the following day, once he'd finally woken up. Madam Pomfrey escorted him there so she could explain the situation, but unexpectedly, Hagrid was there as well. Remus supposed this was because he knew more about the centaurs than anyone else, so he could advise Dumbledore on what they should do.

As was usually the case, Remus didn't really listen to the details of the conversation, tuning in only when something significant came up, which wasn't until they neared the end and the common consensus seemed to be that Remus should go back to transforming inside the Shrieking Shack. It was a suggestion he didn't argue with, since he could deal with the claustrophobia if it meant he didn't have to worry about being fatally shot with an arrow without even remembering it happening. He just hoped this weird, sudden restlessness of his wolf form didn't cause him to escape the Shack again and end up at square one.

It turned out, however, that he didn't have to worry about that, since Dumbledore suggested they put a protective charm around the Shack to keep Remus from being able to escape. A specific charm so that he could still enter and leave the Shack when he was in his human form, but his wolf form was stuck inside. It sounded like a ridiculously complicated charm for it to differentiate between his human and wolf form, but it was nothing to Dumbledore's skill set. Once again, Remus got the impression that Dumbledore was thinking along the lines of some sort of cage, but in this instance Remus had no option but to resign to the idea. Besides, it wasn't as if it was a death sentence; as long as he disconnected his wolf form from himself he could pretend the claustrophobia didn't happen to him, that it didn't bother him, and it was just something he had to deal with.

He thought that would be the end of his problems, a blip in his transformations and he could eventually get back to normal, returning to the Shrieking Shack. As it turned out, however, it was just the start.

The protective charm around the Shack was simply a physical barrier, and did not include a silencing charm. Remus didn't think this would ever be a problem, since even if his howling during the night reached the castle, it wouldn't reach as far as the dorm rooms, where everyone was sleeping anyway. But he hadn't foreseen that someone would be up late at night, sneaking down to the Quidditch pitch after hours and practicing their Quidditch skills at every opportunity they got.

James hadn't even got the chaser position yet, but he saw no harm in extra practice, because either he got the position and could practice for the first match, or he could start practicing now for the next available opportunity to try out. He was completely obsessed with it, and somehow it affected Remus in an inconceivable way. The Quidditch pitch wasn't that near to the Shack at all, but it was so quiet at night that any sound travelled for miles. Unbeknownst to Remus, James had been clearly able to hear him howling, and it hadn't gone unnoticed.

It was the end of October, and James had already spread round a rumour that the Shrieking Shack was haunted before Remus had even returned to the common room after his meeting with Dumbledore. When he joined midway through a conversation between James, Sirius and Peter it took him some time to realise what was being discussed. Something about a haunting, which didn't strike him as anything special, considering Hogwarts itself was haunted. But then James mentioned the Shrieking Shack, and the realisation finally dawned on him. Remus fell instantly silent.

"What do you mean it's haunted?" asked Remus, keeping his voice level.

"Well, I don't know if it's haunted, but there was definitely something there last night. It was howling. So it might be a poltergeist."

"It was a full moon last night," pointed out Sirius, which made Remus's breath hitch in his throat. "Are you sure it didn't come from the forest? I've heard there are werewolves in there."

"Werewolves? At Hogwarts?" Peter didn't seem to like the sound of that. His eyes widened at the thought.

"Yeah I mean the forest's massive. There's all sorts in there."

"You probably just heard the wind," said Remus, trying in vain to change the subject, but it was quite clear this was a subject that James wasn't willing to drop so soon.

"The wind isn't that loud," he replied. "Besides, it wasn't windy yesterday."

"What were you even doing out last night? You must have sneaked out."

"I was practicing. For Quidditch. The pitch isn't too near the castle so no one spotted me." If this was a regular occurrence, then Remus was in trouble. He couldn't remain in the Shack, but he didn't want to return to the forest. He couldn't speak to Dumbledore again. The man would get sick of him eventually, even if it wasn't exactly Remus's fault.

Although, if he went to Dumbledore, that would mean grassing on James, and James would certainly be left with way more questions if he found out that Remus had told on him to the headmaster of all people. Not only would Remus make himself suspicious but he'd be breaking the most severe rule of their friend group. No grassing.

"I doubt it was anything. Just forget about it." Remus tried not to make himself too obvious, but he had to be firm to try and discourage his friend.

"Well, I'll see. When I practice again tomorrow night I'll listen out." Remus wasn't so worried about that, since the Shack would be empty for another month, and with no howling by then, James would surely give up. He allowed himself to relax slightly.

"That's boring," said Sirius. "You should go investigate."

"No!" They all looked at Remus, confused at his sudden outburst as he attempted to downplay his reaction. "I mean, you can't. You'll get in trouble." James laughed.

"Trouble? Are you new here?"

"Since when do we care about that?" continued Sirius. "It'll be fun. We can use the passages Remus knows about, although the Shack's pretty far from here. I don't suppose you know any shortcuts, Lupin?" He grinned, although Remus couldn't see the joke. He chuckled lightly anyway, but the ball of dread sitting at the bottom of his stomach was getting heavier with every second.

"Of course I don't."

"Shame. You still need to write out those passages in the castle so we can follow along."

"Yeah, sure. You're not actually going to investigate are you?" Remus turned to James. James pondered for a moment, genuinely considering it.

"We might as well," he concluded. "As long as we're careful. We don't care about trouble, but we also don't want to get caught."

"Then we shouldn't do it. It's different than just going to the kitchens, we'd have to leave the grounds."

"We have the invisibility cloak. I think we'll be alright, and if there's nothing there we'll turn back."

"What if there is something there?" asked Peter.

"Then we run," laughed James. "But only if there's something actually dangerous there, otherwise we're not allowed to chicken out, got it?" Sirius and Peter nodded. Remus didn't say anything.

"Right, Lupin?" urged James, and they all stared at him, waiting for his agreement.

"Come on, Remus, it'll be punk," Sirius encouraged, and Remus had no choice but to agree, if only to stop them from questioning his stubbornness.

"Fine." They all cheered. "But we'll go tomorrow night, yeah? Get it out the way." The best Remus could do right now was let them explore to their heart's content, and when they inevitably found nothing of interest, hopefully they would forget about it. As for the rest of the school, perhaps their fruitless investigation would put the haunted rumours to rest, although Remus was very unnerved by how fast the rumour had even spread. He knew news flew round the school like fire, but with a sudden interest now sparked in everyone over the Shrieking Shack, Remus couldn't help but be alarmed. The sooner James and Sirius discovered there was nothing in the Shack, the sooner it could be forgotten about. All he could do was hope that within a month no one would be interested anymore. News travelled fast, but it disappeared just as quickly once people moved onto something new.

The Quidditch positions would be announced soon. That should be a sufficient enough distraction, especially for James.

Sirius practically ordered Remus to draw up the layout of the Hogwarts corridors in preparation for their nightly trek out into the grounds, which Remus had agreed to do anyway, so he didn't mind too much. Although he found that he struggled quite a bit with visualising the corridors enough to draw them down on paper. He had to ask Peter, who was the best at drawing out of all of them. He was always doodling on his books and desks, even his own skin sometimes. He got in trouble for it from the teachers, but his classmates loved looking at his cartoony illustrations, and Sirius was always begging Peter to draw on his arms like tattoos. Peter obliged sometimes, and Sirius showed them off proudly.

So Peter had no trouble sketching up a rough layout of corridors that Remus verbally mapped out for him. The original piece of parchment became quite big, as more pieces had to be added. It should have been expected that Hogwarts was not a small place, but Remus was surprised at the sheer amount of knowledge he had obtained over the last two years. Sirius and James knew their own routes as well, James especially ever since he started sneaking out to practice. Peter had to deal with three boys shouting over his head every time they remembered a different corridor.

"Okay just shut up for a sec, I'm doing it!" They quietened down after that. Peter wasn't much of a yeller, so if he did ever get angry they knew to back off. They settled down, and quietly pointed out passages whenever it looked like Peter had finished sketching a corridor or staircase.

"Look, we need a separate piece of parchment for the upstairs," advised Remus. He was so involved in the map now he had genuinely forgotten why they were drawing it up in the first place, in order to investigate the place he transformed in. The table in front of them, next to the fire in the Gryffindor common room, was covered in parchment, the wood underneath barely visible anymore. It was exciting seeing it all come together, and it was so late now that no one bothered them. If anyone passed them by, they'd just assume they were writing essays for class or something.

"That corridor's blocked, you have to go round the other way," Remus pointed out.

"I definitely know there's a ghost that haunts that part, although I don't know what they're called. But jot it down." That was Sirius.

"We should just cross that corridor out, it's outside Filch's office. We can't go down there even with the cloak." Voices were merging together again, and Peter had to speed up his drawing.

"Why are we even drawing so much?" he eventually asked with a huff. "I thought we were only using this to get to the Shack."

"Yeah but we sneak out a lot," replied James. "We'll need all of this eventually."

"Will we? Me hand's tired, and it's not exactly complete because we don't know every passage."

"Well when we find them we'll add them in, just leave space," said Sirius. Peter did as was told, but he didn't try to hide his growing frustration.

Eventually they had to stop. They'd drawn all they could remember, and whether it was accurate or not, they could find that out at a later date. They'd clearly got carried away, with multiple pieces of parchment covered in seemingly illegible lines and notes, but they were pleased with their work. It would no doubt come in handy, even if its first use was to explore the Shrieking Shack.

Remus tried not to agonise over the trip that night, because he knew that they wouldn't find anything, nor would there be any reason for them to suspect that he had something to do with the howling. But what if there was something there? What if he'd left claw marks on the walls? Claw marks would never be lived down if the others discovered them.

They didn't leave the castle until well after midnight. James had his invisibility cloak, while Remus was in charge of the map. Sirius and Peter were the eyes and ears of the operation. Navigating the castle was relatively easy, as they were already familiar enough with the layout anyway, even without the map, which was a little hard to control; they had messily stuck the pages together and Remus was fairly certain at least one of the pages was in the wrong place. It needed refining, that was for sure, but they couldn't focus on that yet. It did come in useful though, as a quick reminder to avoid the corridor where Filch's office lay.

Once they successfully reached the outside, with the chill breeze stinging their faces, they could fold up the map and work out how to get to the Shrieking Shack, all while attempting to keep the invisibility cloak from blowing off them. They had to stay underneath it until they were out of sight from any windows.

The route to the Shack had to be a long one, since Remus was the only one who knew about the passage through the Whomping Willow, and there was no way he could suggest it without causing any suspicion. So he followed the others across the lawn, travelling down a hillside that crunched underfoot with all the frost settling atop it. It was barely November, but Scottish winters were harsh, and they were already feeling it a month before it began.

The Shack itself was cordoned off by a fence, with the only access being from the tunnel. The fence itself, however, was relatively rotten and not that high, and since they were now well out of sight from the castle, the boys could take off the invisibility cloak and climb over easily. James folded the cloak up and shoved it into his robe pocket alongside the map, before clambering over the wooden beams, trying not to step on anything particularly rotten and fall through.

It was another few metres until they reached the Shack, and Remus realised he'd never actually looked at it properly from the outside before. He'd only ever accessed it from the tunnel, which offered no view of the exterior. It looked just as rotten as the fence, and Remus had no idea how it managed to stay intact with his wolf form inside. Surely he should have crashed through one of the walls by now (before remembering that he technically had escaped once before, although since he still had no idea how exactly, he couldn't assume that any walls had been damaged by him).

There was a front door, but it was locked. Remus hoped that perhaps they'd give up trying to get inside if the door wouldn't budge and they could turn back, but it was useless to even think that the others wouldn't try whatever they could to force their way into the house. They weren't about to waste an entire trip out here to be bested by a locked door.

They couldn't use magic, because they were outside of the Hogwarts grounds and therefore it was banned, and even theyweren't willing to test those particular boundaries, so they had to find a different, more muggle method to enter the Shack.

Sirius tried the front door at first, shoving his weight against the frame. The door jambs splintered a little, or at least it sounded like they did, but the door was sturdier than it looked, and it remained firmly shut.

"Try one of the windows," suggested Peter. James went round the side, the others following closely behind. The nearest window was slightly cracked and so dirty you couldn't even see through it. James rubbed at it with his sleeve.

"Yeurk!" He pulled his sleeve away and grimaced at it in disgust. It was covered in grime. He wiped it off on his trouser leg and tried to peer into the small gap he'd cleaned.

"Looks empty," he informed. "But I can't see much."

"Try the lock, see if it opens," encouraged Sirius. James rattled at the lock, fiddling with the filthy mechanism. It clicked, and he tried to lift the window up. It was loud, rattling and making an awful screeching sound, like nails on a chalkboard. They all cringed at the sound, expecting someone to hear them and drag them back to the school by their ears. But there was no one around for miles. The noise blew away in the wind and everything went silent, save for the whistling of the breeze now filtering into the Shack from the open window. James took a proper look inside, they all did. Remus felt like hanging back, knowing full well nothing was in there, but he had to join in, so he squeezed up beside the others, listening for any potential howling. They were all on alert now, which was possibly dangerous what with all four of them having their heads through the window frame. Any sudden noises and they would scarper like cats, probably obtaining a few injuries in the process.

"Can't hear anything," whispered Peter. "Should we go inside?"

"Hang on," said James, before he stuck his head in even further and yelled out "HELLO?" His voice echoed around the walls and Sirius dragged him back.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Making sure it's empty."

"By alerting the whole bloody world?"

"No one can hear us. And I think the house is empty."

"You think?" Remus rolled his eyes at the argument and pushed them all out the way. He wanted this nightly trip over and done with and they were wasting time. The sooner they saw it was empty, the better. So he put his foot on the rotten windowsill and pulled himself up through the window, shimmying a little but managing to fit through fairly easily. He touched ground on the other side, now fully inside the house. He hadn't been in this room before, but the house was pretty small so he assumed the room he transformed in was whichever room was connected to this one by the door on the other side. He turned back to the others.

"You coming in or not?"

"Open the door first," said Peter. Remus walked over to where the front door was to check if it could be unlocked from the inside. It could, and with a bit of effort turning the rusty latch, the door creaked open, and the others ran round the side to slip through.

Lumos was around the only spell they were allowed to use without getting in trouble, so they all had their wands on them and they all lit up the ends, casting a good amount of light around the room. Most of it was still steeped in shadows though, so they huddled around for protection. Now that Remus wasn't in his wolf form it was weird how the house suddenly became so much scarier. Every tiny noise, every whistle from the wind caused them to look quickly this way and that.

"Should we go back yet?" whispered Peter.

"We just got here!" James replied, although his voice was hardly any louder. "We have to explore a little first."

"Why?" asked Remus, not wanting them to scrutinise the place too much. "There's nothing here. No howling or anything."

"Who cares? I still want to check the place out. No one else has been inside here, imagine how cool we'll be." Sirius wandered over to the other side of the room, opening the door on the far end. The one that led to the room Remus transformed in, which wasn't locked. He always forgot to lock it when he arrived. Sirius disappeared behind the door, not even waiting for the others to catch up. Remus had to hand it to him, he was braver than the rest of them.

"Sirius, hang on!" called James, who followed after his friend. Peter and Remus were right behind.

"Where'd he go?" asked Peter. They were all in the room now, and it appeared empty. Sirius was nowhere to be seen.

"Sirius?" James waved his wand around, searching the shadows, but he was reluctant to go too far into the room. As a result, he didn't notice the wardrobe hidden in one of the corners, away from where their wand lights reached. If he had, he probably would have guessed that Sirius was hiding in there, intent on jumping out and scaring them. Remus knew about the wardrobe, and since it was impossible for Sirius to have disappeared into thin air, it didn't take him long to work things out. He toyed with the idea of walking over, wrenching the door open and blowing Sirius's cover, but he decided it would be much funnier to see him scare the other two.

"Sirius, this isn't funny," said James angrily, although he still refused to walk much further into the room, and there was a clear hint of fear in his voice. "I know you're hiding, you're not clever."

"What if he got snatched?" suggested Peter from beside them. "Maybe a ghost took him or something."

"Ghosts can't kidnap people," said Remus. "They can't even touch 'em."

"Alright, a vampire then—" but he barely finished his sentence before a terrible howling sound suddenly broke the silence. Remus had expected Sirius to jump out and say "boo!" or something, but apparently he had instead favoured confirming the werewolf rumour by mimicking one. Even Remus jumped at the noise. Peter stood stock still, but James was gone before they'd even registered that he'd left. He'd roughly tried to grab Peter's arm, who was closest to him, but was too intent on escaping that he'd quickly let go and bolted out the front door. It was quite telling that James had been the one to bail, and Peter was still there. The boy who was still scared of ghost stories despite having interacted with ghosts on a daily basis.

Sirius finally emerged from the shadows, laughing his head off.

"You bastard," accused Remus, although his voice held more amusement than anything.

"Got ya, didn't I?" He said triumphantly, his eyes darting across the two of them. "Where did James go?"

"Bolted as soon as you started howling," replied Peter. "And that was a real dick move of you, I thought we was about to die."

"James ran and you guys didn't? Merlin, what a scaredy cat." Sirius walked past them to chase after James and the room was quickly abandoned. Remus glanced over at the shadows from where Sirius had emerged. If they had explored that area properly, they would have found the tunnel leading from the Whomping Willow.

Remus was glad to leave, and he locked the front door when he exited, out of sight from the others. No point leaving an escape for his wolf form. The others were ahead of him now, having caught up with James, and as Remus got closer he could see James looking even angrier at his brave facade being shattered in a matter of seconds, while Sirius and Peter made light fun of him.

"If only you hadn't run away so fast," Sirius was saying. "I wanted to see your face."

"Shut up, that wasn't funny!"

"It was, I can't believe you actually fell for it!" James pushed him aside and marched back to the fence. It wasn't a real argument, since Remus couldn't feel any tension. James was just embarrassed and Sirius would take the piss as much as he could until James eventually snapped, and the two would forget about it and move on. A swift punch on the arm would solve it probably, so Remus ambled beside the others and met up with James on the other side of the fence.

James wouldn't talk on the way back, but Sirius would howl lightly every so often just to annoy him. Remus ignored it himself of course, even if it did make him feel a little uncomfortable, but he was starting to think that Sirius would end up with more than a sore arm if he kept winding James up so much. Luckily for him though he was forced to stop when they arrived back at the castle for fear of being heard by anyone, so the following silence allowed James enough time to cool down. By the time they reached the common room and the invisibility cloak could be whipped off, James's anger had subsided enough for a swift kick at Sirius's shin to be sufficient punishment. Sirius grinned and followed him up the stairs. They all went to bed at around two in the morning, and woke up the next day exhausted.