Harry Potter and the Shadows of the Watchgate

-------------------------------------------------------------------
-*~| CHAPTER 14 - Trapped at Shrieking Shack |~*-
-------------------------------------------------------------------

After the Cho episode, Harry hadn't been able to see eye to eye with Ginny, as he himself didn't know what to make of it all. He had originally planned to bring Ginny along in their first Hogsmeade visit. But clearly, it wasn't to be, because it was not only Harry who was feeling skeptical but Ginny too was showing signs of uncertainty.

As the days drew by, tension between them grew to such a pitch that on Friday:

"Harry, what are you doing?" Hermione inquired sharply.

"What?" Harry asked bewildered.

"You are making your lapel eat!" Hermione said incredulously, while Ron chuckled.

Harry was so immersed in his thoughts that he couldn't even build the sense of what he was eating or what he was making his lapel eat, for that matter.

Like a breeze, his cause of discomfort came sauntering in the Great Hall with Marietta Edgecombe in tow. Hermione also stared after Cho intently, as if she was trying to judge what she was actually up to.

Ginny suddenly left her seat and went towards Dean Thomas. Harry suspiciously watched her as she talked to him. She asked Dean something and got a grinning response along a nod.

She returned to her seat and with a clatter, scooped up her books ceremoniously and stalked off towards the Library.

"If I can guess, Ginny has just asked out Dean," said Hermione, looking skeptically at Harry, while he looked stricken.

Ron suddenly became drawn and started fidgeting with the Daily Prophet, when he abruptly sat upright and yelled, "Listen to this! Strange weather reports from Muggle news."

The three of them huddled together to read it.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Strange Weather Conditions or Thoroughfare of Doom?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

From Our International Correspondent

From a time unknown, Muggles have denied the existence of another world, a world which is completely different from theirs, a world they don't want to know about. But now it is becoming apparent more than ever that another exists not too far from them.

This is not the first time that Muggles have noticed some wizard or witch doing magic, as many of them have dwelled on "Witch hunts" but never have been successful except when the wizard or witch was willing.

In September this year, they saw a full fledged group Disapparating in front of their eyes, dubbing them "The Grim Reapers"--we know as the Death Eaters. But no such sightings have been received after the Platform Nine and Three Quarters' incident.

However, when we start to go on with our life again, we are nonplussed by the strange vibrations in the air. A sudden hush in the winds and a strange calmness... a tell-tale sign of an upcoming storm...

Muggles dub it as the revolution of the planet earth and changing weather conditions. Like their statement about the state of "the Colosseum" in Italy, Rome, which according to them has deteriorated because of bad weather and vandalism, when actually its hinges were loosened in 1944 during the destruction of Grindelwald.

The wizarding community has to be vigilant and watchful because many of us are already reading the signs; the centaurs are silent more than usual and all the magical creatures are taking a stance.

-*-*-

"What a strange article!" Hermione exclaimed.

"What's the Colosseum?" asked Ron looking intrigued.

"It's a historical place at Italy, Ron. It was the center for thousands of hand-to-hand combats between gladiators, contests between men and animals, and many larger combats, including mock naval engagements. What Muggles don't know is that before the establishment of the Ministry of Magic in every country, wizards and witches from all over the world used to congregate there."

Harry and Ron gaped at Hermione on her vast knowledge, while she smiled matter-of-factly.

"You know the Muggle history too?" Harry was amazed.

"Well, as both of you haven't read Hogwarts: A History, don't complain, because I checked the reference and it is said that in one of those meetings, our Heads of the Houses met and decided to create Hogwarts," finished Hermione, in her know-it-all tone, leaving the boys wondering even more.

-*-

"That wasn't very nice of you," a dreamy voice startled Harry. He was sitting under a tree--a thing he has been doing too much lately--waiting for Ron and Hermione to show up, until Luna Lovegood came into view.

"What?" said Harry reproachfully, knowing too well, what she was talking about.

Luna just stared fixatedly at him with her bulging eyes, making him uneasy and trotted off towards Hogsmeade without saying anything further.

"What took you so long?" Harry bellowed, seeing Ron and Hermione.

"We were checking some references for our essay of History," said Ron uneasily, while Harry checked them out suspiciously. Hermione's eyes were downcast.

"When did you start studying?" asked Harry unbelievingly.

Ron started stuttering when Harry said with a sigh, "Oh forget it. Let's go."

They made their way towards Honeydukes and spent almost half of their money there. Ron goggled at all the sweets and purchased everything that came in his view. They didn't visit Zonko's because they had already gotten their special supplies from 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes'.

At the Three Broomsticks they purchased butterbeer and seated themselves at a corner table.

Only in a manner of minutes, Cho passed them by with Marietta.

Harry groaned and Ron rolled his eyes.

"What is it with her?" Harry almost screamed and was hushed by Hermione. Some third-years sitting beside their table were peeking at them suspiciously.

"She wants you to see that she's available," said Hermione, arching her brows.

"You know, Harry... I think there is something dodgy about this whole... Cho thing," said Ron with a look of concentration.

"I don't know myself, mate. But I know this, that she's no Veela," said Harry, wishing that Cho was a Veela, at least then, his behavior would have been explainable.

In came Ginny and Dean, and Harry had just had it.

"Let's get out of this place, I'm feeling suffocated here," Harry said edgily.

Hermione followed him, but Ron found time to give Ginny a disapproving look before going out, which she pretended not to notice.

"Let's head towards the Shrieking Shack," Harry said nostalgically.

"I don't think it's a good idea, Harry," Hermione said apprehensively.

"Oh c'mon, Hermione, lighten up and be adventurous. We know what the Shrieking Shack actually is. There's no ghost in there if that helps," Ron said teasingly.

Hermione huffed up and silently followed Harry and Ron in climbing the slope leading to the Shack. She was gasping for breath when they finally reached their destination. Harry was just extending his hand to open the door, when a cold menacing voice called from behind.

"I knew it. I would find you here."

Harry spun around and saw the smirking face of Draco Malfoy along with his body guards. Strangely, Harry was not at all surprised at the appearance of his nemesis along his clan.

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" Harry spat.

"I can ask you the same question, Potter. What are you doing here?" Draco asked, smirking at him.

"None of your business!" Harry said angrily.

"Came here to mope for your worthless godfather, did you?"

"You little-" Harry swore loudly.

"Temper, temper, Potter. If you go on like this, you'll soon burn out," Draco said smiling broadly, as if he was enjoying a particularly favorite sport, while his two cronies guffawed.

"Very devious of you to follow us here," said Hermione, folding her arms.

"Oh shut up, Mudblood! You don't know when to open your mouth," said Draco, sneering at her like she was some insect, crawling at his feet.

Ron made a wild move towards Malfoy but Hermione and Harry stopped him by grabbing his robe.

"Wait for the right time," Harry whispered in his ear warningly.

"Scared, are you now, Weasel King?"

"Even my stupid rat, who was actually one of your dad's old pals, was not scared of you all. Why will I ever be afraid of you! You bloody little pipsqueak," Ron said hotly.

Malfoy looked livid in fury as he advanced towards them. "I'll show you, you--" Draco swore crudely as he shot red sparks from his wand.

Before they could do anything, the air filled with a round of cracks, telling them about the unwanted visitors.

Hermione gasped as they saw that they were barricaded by almost ten Death Eaters, who were advancing towards them forebodingly.

"Uh-oh! We're trapped!" said Ron, taking out his wand.

"Thanks for informing us," Harry said sarcastically.

"It was your idea to come here in the first place," Ron answered derisively.

"This is no time to squabble!" Hermione quipped in, warningly.

"What are you all whispering about? Looking for a way to run off?" Draco sneered at them, in his usual pucker.

Before Harry could reward Draco with some carefully chosen words regarding his mindset, he was interrupted by the silky voice of Lucius Malfoy, who was coming towards where they were standing.

"So, we meet again, Potter. Did you think your worthless Ministry would be able to detain us in Azkaban for long? When all the Dementors have joined our alliance and the Dark Lord is growing stronger everyday?"

Harry was too absorbed in finding a way out of this situation to reply to Malfoy. He was back in Sirius's memory, where Peter was tortured by almost the same people here. He could guarantee that Rodolphus was one of the banding Death Eaters.

Was Wormtail with them now? Harry could only wonder. He motioned to his friends to stay alert, as he himself tightened his grip on his wand.

"You are three and we are thirteen, even a Flobberworm could guess that you are no match for us!" Rodolphus Lestrange announced, flexing his right hand.

Harry could feel the dejá vu in the air, as he replied, "You always were good at counting but," Harry continued like his father had years ago, "don't be so sure, Roddy!"

Five figures stiffened in the Death Eater circle. Draco looked bewildered, while Hermione and Ron gaped at him.

"What was all that about?" Ron whispered.

"Later. Here's the plan, Hermione; Ron and I will run in opposite directions to divide the group and you will go in the Shrieking Shack and towards Hogwarts from the secret passage to get help. All right?"

"But- but," Hermione protested but was silenced by Harry. "Got any other bright ideas?" When there was no reply, he continued, "On the count of three."

"One."

"Come on, Potter!" Draco yelled at him.

"Two... Three!"

Ron and Harry bolted in opposite directions, shielded by the overgrown garden of the Shrieking Shack. As predicted, the Death Eaters divided to follow them after short commands barked by Rodolphus, while the Draco clan went after Hermione.

Harry slid down the slope and fell facedown near a black cloak. His glasses were covered with so much dirt that he couldn't make out, who it was. That person ran in another direction and abruptly, every sound around him was muted as he heard a slow harrumphed rattling, the sound of a very familiar intake of breath.

Without even missing a beat, he yelled, "Expecto Patronum!" while thinking about squishing Draco Malfoy's face in the same dirt that he was lying in.

And Prongs was unleashed.

Before he could even clean his glasses to see the retreating figure of the Dementor, a hurricanic wind started to swirl near him, which cleaned his glasses automatically.

Harry was facing a gaping hole of nothingness, not too distant from him and before he could do anything, he was floating in the air, drawn towards it.

"Harry, NO!" someone screamed.

"Ferula!"

Harry was bound by bandages and was dragged in the opposite direction. Ginny and Dean were pulling the bindings with all their might.

Professor McGonagall, Lupin and Hagrid came running towards them the same instant. To his astonishment, Lupin did the same complex wand movement and chanting, closing the portal, just like Dumbledore had done on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.

"That was quick thinking, Miss Weasley," Professor McGonagall said, as Hagrid was dusting Harry with big swipes.

"Feelin' all right, Harry?"

"Ron! Death Eaters must be still following him. Did Hermione get to you?" Harry blurted in a hurry.

"Let's not waste time here on storytelling, shall we?" Lupin said urgently and headed for the Shrieking Shack, while all of them followed suit, with Hagrid in the lead with his long strides.

"I dunno what happened to the ones who were following me," Harry panted between breaths, keeping pace with Lupin.

"Must have scrammed as they always do."

They stopped in front of the Shack, because Hermione and Luna were coming towards them supporting Ron in between; who was coughing blood.

Professor McGonagall gasped in alarm and conjured a stretcher for him.

"Where is Draco?" Harry asked Hermione.

"Should be in there." She motioned towards the Shack. "I tied him along Crabbe and Goyle and went after Ron... I just knew that if I'd run to school, something bad would have happened," she said, her bloody lips quivering, not meeting Harry's eyes.

Ron looked pale and pinched, as if somebody had drained his body of blood.

"Lupin, you go with Harry to check on Malfoy and we'll go to the Hospital Wing," Professor McGonagall directed, while conjuring a stretcher for Ron.

-*-

Harry entered the Shack with Lupin, who sighed reminiscently and Harry noticed his eyes gleam in the half darkness.

"They escaped!" Lupin said disappointedly, picking the pieces of cut rope from the floor. "And there's no evidence of their being connected to the Death Eaters except your, Ron's and Hermione's word, which could easily be manipulated."

Harry kicked at a moldy cushion lying on the floor, which careened off to the opposite corner of the room, leaving dust particles behind.

"So, now they know about the Whomping Willow's secret passage," Harry said regretfully.

"Yeah, I guess, they knew it all along. Peter must have told them about it," Lupin said dejectedly.

Harry didn't want to intrude but it looked like Lupin wanted to talk.

"For years, we all were the best of mates. The Marauders, the epitome of friendship... Students and professors alike used to give our example whenever there was any discussion about friendship... And now, look at what is left of it: these dust covered floors, broken furniture, scratched walls... broken promises and loneliness," Lupin finished hoarsely, pounding on the nearest table with his fist, which groaned to the ground in termite eaten dust.

Harry had never thought this way, how Lupin felt after the death of his friends and about the friend who betrayed all of them.

"It all started with Peter, you know. I stumbled upon him being bullied and Sirius and James trying to save his neck... what a friendship he has proven," Lupin sighed and shook his head sadly.

"A friend whose life you saved by carrying him to the hospital," Harry said in a distant voice.

Lupin's head snapped in attention. "How did you? ... Oh... Sirius's diary. I should have known. So, you figured it out and saw it happen?" Lupin asked his eyes gleaming.

"Yes, I did. You carried Peter and Sirius carried James and after that there was no looking back, right?" Harry asked.

"Yes, that was the start..." Lupin's voice became distant, like he was trying to remember something as well.

"I had a question that I wanted to ask you," said Harry.

"What?"

"Why you weren't on the Hogwarts Express, or may be you were..."--Harry furrowed his brow in concentration--"but I remember you joining the first-years in the Entrance Hall. If I remember correctly, you were not in the line of the first-years before."

"Yes, I wasn't in the line. I came by Knight Bus because it was on twenty-eighth August that I found out that I was finally accepted at Hogwarts. You know, Harry, before Dumbledore, nothing unusual was accepted in the wizarding world. The year I turned eleven, I didn't receive a Hogwarts letter," he said, smiling bitterly.

"But why?" Harry asked bewildered.

"Because I am a werewolf and no nice kid would play with me and accept me, because of what I am... I had lost hope of ever being educated, but then Dumbledore became the Headmaster and things changed. So, I was actually twelve when I joined Hogwarts, and now when I look back, I'm really glad that things worked out the way it did, because, if I had been accepted at eleven, I would've never had the privilege of being a Marauder."

Lupin turned away and started going through the Shack, silently followed by Harry, room after room, taking in the moldy walls of the Shack and tattered furniture lying about and finally reaching the tunnel leading towards Hogwarts.

"Lupin... I miss him too, you know," Harry suddenly blurted out.

Lupin's figure became rigid, as if he was trying to control his emotions, and without turning back, Harry heard Remus croak, "Me too."

-*-

Ron was sleeping peacefully. His ribs were heavily bandaged because one of his lungs got punctured while fighting the Death Eaters. It had been repaired by the Matron but needed healing.

Harry was sitting beside Ron's bed looking at his bandages, blaming himself for Ron's injuries; with, Hermione, who was fidgeting with her robes; Ginny, who was curled up on a chair; and Luna, who was staring fixatedly at the ceiling.

"It's no use sitting here, go to bed, all of you," Madam Pomfrey ordered them to leave.

When they all reluctantly started rising, Dumbledore came in.

"I would like all of you to join me in my office, there are matters to be cleared. Just run along and I'll be there in a minute."

They made their way towards Dumbledore's office, where Harry uttered the password,

"Fainting fancies."

The office looked peaceful. The headmaster portraits were feigning their ignorance, seeing new faces. Fawkes was not present on his golden perch. Must have gone for some errand, Harry thought.

They all took seat near the blazing fire.

The silence was broken by Hermione. "I'm so sorry, Harry."

"What for?" Harry asked confused.

"For not coming here to get help..."

Suddenly the office was filled with low murmurs as the old headmasters and headmistresses started whispering among each other.

"Hermione, are you mad? I'm glad that you didn't! I would have blamed myself if anything would have happened to Ron. He's my best friend, just as you are!" Harry couldn't understand why Hermione was behaving that way.

The whispering became more pronounced.

"I thought, you were angry with me," she sobbed throatily, while Harry turned to Ginny for help. Before even giving her a look, Ginny was right beside Hermione patting her shoulder and calming her down.

"Have I interrupted something?" Professor Vidal inquired, coming inside the office.

"Oh no, not at all. She's just a little upset," said Luna, and started staring at Professor Vidal with her bulging eyes, instead of the ceiling.

Vidal was soon relieved of the one to be stared at, as Dumbledore, Remus, McGonagall and Snape entered the office and Luna's gaze shifted towards Dumbledore instead.

"Let's recount today's events, shall we? Why don't we start with Miss Granger?" Dumbledore motioned to Hermione, giving her an encouraging smile.

"Umm... we were ambushed in the Shrieking Shack by the Death Eaters along with Draco Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle," she said glaring at Snape.

"May I ask you, Miss Granger, what exactly were you all doing at the Shrieking Shack?" Snape asked, looking very interested.

Before Hermione or Harry could answer, Remus interrupted, daring Snape to say anything else, "I think what is more important, Severus, is what actually happened there."

With murmurs of agreement, Hermione started again, "I was going to go through the Whomping Willow's passageway to the school but was followed by Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle inside the Shack. After some struggle I bounded them with ropes and thought better of it and followed Ron because- because, I was simply worried." Hermione faltered at this point. "When I followed Ron's tracks, I saw that there were two Dementors who were circling him and his Patronus was not strong enough to overpower them. When the Death Eaters saw me coming, they also jumped in the circle and we dueled and were soon joined by Luna." Hermione hesitated again as she looked towards Luna who only shrugged.

"I was just going through the Hogsmeade forest when I heard shouts and laughter," Luna said vaguely. "So, I went near to check it out and joined the duel with Hermione. And then something weird happened. Suddenly, the atmosphere somehow changed and I- I can swear that I saw some sparks flying from a point, I think from someone who was wearing an invisibility cloak. I think, the sparks were some warning signal because they took care of the Death Eaters. But before Disapparating a Death Eater did the Bronchial Spell on Ron. And you all know what happened next," Luna finished.

"What was the color of the sparks shot by that invisible person?" Vidal asked, rubbing his one-day stubble.

"Blue."

"Anything more, the two of you would like to add?" McGonagall inquired.

"No... nothing else," said Hermione, looking tentatively at Harry.

"Harry, your turn," said Lupin.

"I was chased by the Death Eaters when I slipped down the slope. I saw someone there; I didn't have a good look because my glasses were caked with dirt. Still, whoever it was, was wearing a school robe, so must be a Hogwarts student. And then I saw that Gateway again, just like the one in the Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. If Ginny hadn't used the binding spell, I would have been--" Harry motioned his hands like flying a paper plane.

Hermione and Lupin glared at him; Dumbledore coughed; while Ginny tried to look not too pleased with herself.

"Did you recognize anybody in the Death Eaters' group?" Remus asked.

"Rodolphus Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott and Wormtail, maybe."

"Ah... very well. Severus, as Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle belong to your House, you need to give them a warning. This time there is no concrete evidence but they wouldn't be so fortunate next time. And I would warn all of you to be wary of your surroundings; it seems we have a turncoat among us and we have to find that student, before he or she does something eternally harmful.

"I have informed Molly and Arthur about Ron's condition. Don't get worried because Poppy has informed me that he'll be well in a few days. I would request all of you to go to your dormitories and have a good night cap," said Dumbledore, with a finality in his voice.

There were so many questions revolving in Harry's mind, but he assumed that they had to wait patiently for the right answers.

~*~