Author's Note: Okay so I don't want to wait to post this chapter either, I just finished it. And I had two reviews in the last couple hours since posting the last two! You are particularly awesome! Posting this especially for Janeth, who is hopefully still awake and will be excited to read this asap.
I'm sort of binge-writing tonight just so y'all know, hopefully it goes well and i'll get alot done.
~RPP
After they'd finished eating Freddie paid for their food and they left the bar. Ziggy trailed behind them though he looked a little sluggish from all the shrimp. Freddie could tell he was ready for a nap.
"I thought of a place where we could go practice dueling," Freddie said as she led the way down the street. "Somewhere we won't be disturbed."
"Snape's house?" Ada guessed.
"No, I wouldn't bring anyone there without asking him first."
"But it is your house, too, no?"
"Well yeah it is, but...I just wouldn't feel right without checking with him first," she said. "Anyway, the place I'm thinking of will be way better. Follow me."
"Where are we going?" Ada asked curiously as Freddie left the main road and started down a dirt path that looked as if it hadn't been traveled in quite sometime.
"You'll see," she answered with a smile.
As they left the shops behind eventually a dilapidated structure appeared on a hill in the distance. There was an old fence surrounding the property made of rotted logs and rusty wire.
"What is this place?" Ada asked as Freddie ducked beneath the fence, then held the wire up for her to pass through. Ziggy followed after Ada, slipping easily beneath the lowest wire.
"The Shrieking Shack. They say it's one of the most haunted buildings in Britain," Freddie said in a spooky voice.
"I have never heard of it. Is it...safe?" she asked, hesitating slightly.
"Are you scared?" she asked with a grin.
"No," Ada said defensively, squaring her shoulders. "If you are not scared, neither am I. I am not afraid of ghosts."
"Good...because it's not actually haunted."
As if to disprove her point an unearthly wail came from the building, followed by the sound of something banging. Ada raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"It's just enchanted," Freddie chuckled. "To keep people away."
"Why?"
"Well, back when Severus was in school there was a boy his age – a Gryffindor boy – who was a werewolf."
"A werewolf?" she gasped. "At Hogwarts?"
"Uh-huh. Professor Dumbledore set up the Shrieking Shack so that he would have a safe place to transform, where he couldn't hurt anybody."
"Wow," Ada said, looking at the building with a mystified expression. "I suppose it worked? He never hurt anyone?"
"Nope," Freddie said. She didn't see the point in telling Ada that Lupin had almost killed Snape in the Shrieking Shack when he was a teenager.
"Lucky."
The girls walked around the shack twice, looking for the door, but there wasn't one. There didn't seem to be any doors or windows that were low enough to get inside.
"Uhh..." Freddie said, starting to feel foolish as they walked around looking for a door that clearly wasn't there. "Well I've never actually been inside it from this way. There's a secret tunnel that leads from Hogwarts to here."
"That is smart. Only one way in or out and it is hidden? Professor Dumbledore probably designed it that way. It's clever."
"Yeah, I guess so. Oh, I know – we can Apparate inside. I've been in there before, I should be able to take you. Come here, Zig," Freddie said and the kneazle leapt into her arms. Ada put her hand on Freddie's shoulder. Freddie concentrated, picturing the foyer of the Shrieking Shack clearly, and they Disapparated.
They reappeared a second later in the same dusty old room Freddie remembered from years ago. The stains on the wallpaper and the broken furniture all looked the same and she wondered if anyone had been in there since the day Snape had brought her. Ziggy jumped from her arms and disappeared into the shadows.
"Wow," Ada said, looking around the room, her nose wrinkled. "It's disgusting. ...You think he did all this? The werewolf?"
"I guess so. There was no Wolfsbane Potion back then. Nothing to tame him during the full moon."
"They have a lot of rage and adrenaline," she said quietly, the floorboard creaking as she walked around the room. "Have you ever met one?"
"Not one that was transformed. I saw one at St Mungo's last year that had only recently been bitten. He was just a kid," she said, shaking her head. "His parents were devastated...they brought him in, hoping that there was something we could do, but..."
"Did you brew the Wolfsbane Potion for him?"
"They couldn't afford it," Freddie sighed. "It really sucked because I wanted to help them. But the price of the ingredients and the time it takes to brew. Master Hawkins said we couldn't do it. She gave the parents a copy of the recipe and the names of a few Potioneers who brew for a select few private clientele, but I could tell the parents wouldn't be able to afford that either."
"That's terrible...werewolves have always faced such stigma, most people are really prejudiced against them, but it doesn't have to be that way," she said bitterly. "Not anymore, not with the Wolfsbane Potion. It should be made available for people throughout the world, not just those who can afford it."
"I agree. I wish I could have helped that boy," Freddie said remorsefully. "I still think about him sometimes, wonder what happened to him. And his poor parents."
"I can't even imagine," she said, shaking her head. "I do not know what I would do if I had a child and they were bitten."
"You would brew the Wolfsbane Potion for them. You're a talented Potioneer, you always have been. Even if you don't particularly care for the craft."
"Yeah... Can we look around some before we start our duel? What's upstairs?"
"A bedroom. We can go up there. Severus and I did."
"Oh?" Ada asked with a playful smile. "Did he bring you here for a little 'alone time'?"
"Not exactly," Freddie said with a grin. "That happened in the tunnel later."
Ada giggled loudly but quickly fell silent as the house moaned around them, the walls moving from some enchantment as they climbed the rickety staircase.
"It is amazing Dumbledore's spells have not worn off after all this time," Ada said, sounding impressed. "That had to have been ages ago- how old is Snape?"
"Uh...35," she said a little sheepishly, but her friend didn't mention the age gap.
"So two decades ago and Dumbledore's enchantments are still holding. That's amazing. I wish I could have learned from him," she said wistfully. "Madame Maxime is wonderful, but she is no Albus Dumbledore."
"I told you you should have transferred to Hogwarts," Freddie teased lightly.
They both drew their wands for light as they reached the dark landing. It smelled like dust and mildew. The door to the bedroom banged open as they approached and Ada raised her wand defensively.
"It's just bewitched," Freddie reassured her. "To be as terrifying as possible. There's no one here. No one has been here for years."
"There's blood on the floor," Ada murmured as they entered the room. "Is that part of the enchantment?"
Freddie held her wand out to see the dark stain on the floor that cut through the thick dust. It looked as if someone had been dragged along the damaged floorboards. It hadn't been like that the last time she was here...but the blood was old and black, covered by a lighter layer of dust.
"I don't know," Freddie admitted. "I guess it could be."
"That's creepier than the noises," she said, trying to hide the slight shudder than went through her.
"It's alright though, look – Ziggy is laying on the bed," she said, indicating the kneazle who had curled up on the moth-eaten bedspread where she had once fed him as a baby. "He wouldn't be so relaxed if there was any danger."
"True," Ada said with a nod. "He'd probably would be able to sense if anything was amiss... I wonder why there is a bed up here?"
"Maybe they sedated him?"
"No," she said, shaking her head. "Traditional Sleeping Draughts don't work on werewolves. According to Lucien de Garmeaux's book Loup-Garou et de Vampires, not even the Draught of Living Death could knock out a werewolf on the full moon." Ada was looking at the deep gashes in the wallpaper. She ran her fingers lightly over the claw marks as she continued speaking softly. "Their blood lust burns through most tranquilizers, even the ones that Muggles make. That is why Damocles Belby's Wolfsbane Potion was so revolutionary."
"I knew that," Freddie said. "It's just been a while since I learned about werewolves in Defense Against the Dark Arts class. We never had a steady teacher in that subject."
"I have heard that! They say there is a curse on the position, that no one lasts more than a year as Defense teacher at Hogwarts."
"Did you read that in a book, too?" she asked curiously.
"No," Ada chuckled. "I heard it from some of the Hogwarts students this year. ...Is it true some of the previous teachers have died?"
"Oh yeah several," Freddie said and Ada looked mildly alarmed. "Let's see the last one was run off. Before him there was Gilderoy Lockhart – he had a Memory Charm backfire on him and he's been in the Janus Thickey Ward at St Mungo's ever since. Before Lockhart was Quirrell, who died when the Dark Lord possessed his body to try and steal the Philosopher's Stone. Before Quirrell was Tennyson, that was my last year at Hogwarts, he lost a limb to an infected grindylow bite and quit – I heard he died. Before that was Gunther, he was a total dud. He didn't seem to know anything. Nothing horrible happened to him, unless you count a nervous breakdown at the end of the year. He didn't die though."
"Jeez. Didn't you tell me Snape wants the post?"
"Yeah, that's what he's always said. Between you and me, I'm glad Dumbledore hasn't given it to him. Not with what's happened to all the other ones. He would have been a brilliant Defense teacher though."
"You are lucky you have him to teach you and train you to fight."
"I am," she agreed seriously. "So, are you ready to learn?"
"Yes!" she said eagerly. "Up here, or shall we go back downstairs?"
"We'll have more room downstairs," Freddie decided. "And we won't disturb Ziggy's nap."
"Good. It smells terrible up here. No wonder you didn't do it in here."
Freddie chuckled slightly and led the way back down the dilapidated staircase.
