Fragments from the Willow

Life at Hogwarts is certainly an interesting affair. I only wish that I was more appreciated for what I am - a Whomping Willow, and a valuable one at that.

After all I have been here since the time of the Founders.

Although I was just a little sapling then. Well, not little. I was still big enough to whack Salazar on the noggin, standing foolishly as he was within my reach.

You can't blame me for doing something that is just my nature, can you? Of course, that wasn't the way Salazar saw things.

But it was still great fun. Almost, almost as good as when the Herbology professor tried to harvest the Wolfsbane around my roots, not knowing what I was.

Some Herbology professor he was. He was even worse after I got to him.

In that light I can see why I might not be appreciated as much as I should be, being one of ten of my kind left in Britain.

Not only do I exist, having survived the great Willow Burning (Muggles know nothing, I tell you), but I am also accessible. All the other Willows are stuck up on top of a mountain, or are part of a huge (and often deadly) forest.

I suppose it might have been better to have grown on the top of a mountain, or in the centre of an ancient forest. There would be less chance of having a tunnel bored through my roots for a werewolf. I appreciate that as much as I appreciated being moved closer to the castle in order to be studied.

To be truthful, I was flattered to be the subject of such close study, but I do not appreciate being "relocated" from a lovely, sun-filled glade in the forest (there are benefits to having clubs for branches) to a rocky, exposed patch of soil! Especially when the relocation takes place in the middle of the night. I do not appreciated being ambushed, stunned and levitated, thank you very much.

Nor was I please to have a tunnel constructed through my roots system. First of all roots are ticklish, and second of all.....well, how would you like to have a tunnel bored underneath you?

It might not have been so bad if they had not used electric shocks to "persuade" me to move my roots out of the way. It is not fun at all to have your roots zapped, even if it was only a light zap. Surely there are more humane ways to move roots. Like asking the tree they belong to if they would kindly shift their appendages a little to the right.

Willows aren't stupid, you know.

Although I have to admit, once I got used to the tunnel (and recovered for the shock) it was rather amusing, and sometimes touching, to be able to watch the antics of those boys with their unfortunate friend. What did they call the poor sod? Moony, I believe. Pretty clever, that one was. He would have been the one that thought of being Animagus. On second thoughts maybe not. Moony was always... reserved about doing dangerous stuff.

Now I think of it, Padfoot would more likely have thought up the idea. Silly bugger wouldn't have known the spell though. From what I overheard every full moon, Padfoot was not exactly a bright spark.

Moony, however, was quite clever.... I believe the Animagus spell would have been the result of a lot of research on his part.

I used to daydream about the adventures those boys had - trying to swat birds from the sky gets boring after a while.

That was a happy time for me, actually.

Of course, there was that one incident with that Snape boy. Rather mean of Padfoot, if you ask me. It was very lucky I didn't kill him.

That would have been awful. I didn't even know what I was doing, did I?

I'd grown fond of those boys... well, at least as fond as a Whomping Willow can be of human boys. Consequently, I did not want any harm to come to Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs. Especially not Moony, the poor thing, cursed as he was with lycanthropy. It would have been the end of that poor boys education at Hogwarts, if he had done something to another student during his transformation. Not like it would have been his fault - I mean, how much control can a werewolf have? Killing is in their nature.

So in view of the circumstances, I thought I was doing the right thing...

Plus it is my nature to beat anyone within reach to a pulp.

In any case, everyone mixed up in that episode survived, including Severus.

Actually, in the light of recent events, maybe I should have killed Snape.

I guess I'll never know...