There was a sagging old fence that draped its way in a lazy circle. It stood there, looking as if it knew full well that it was here to do a job, but it was too tired to get up and protect the area it encircled.
A few students stood right next to it. Several more stood back a few paces. No one wanted to touch the fence, as if they thought that it would poison them.
A few whispers flicked through the crowd. “Haunted.”
“Dangerous.”
“Evil.”
Their words stung. Remus shrugged his shoulders closer to him, as if making himself smaller would protect him.
It wouldn’t, though. He had already tried this tactic. Somehow it always managed to let him down.
James raised an inky eyebrow. “Cold, Moony?”
Remus relaxed a bit. “No,” he muttered. It was true. He wasn’t cold. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “I guess not.”
James shrugged, unconcerned. “Okay, then.”
What was it with them? Did they not realize that he was upset?
Remus mentally kicked himself. Idiot, he thought. Of course they don’t realize. There are girls here.
One of the girls who were standing nearby whispered something to her friend. They collapsed into muffled giggles.
The first girl “a tall one with red hair poking out of the collar of her puffy white jacket- shoved her friend and giggled again. “Go on!”
The second girl smirked and adjusted her hat. “Like I would ever turn down a dare,” she said. The crowd behind her murmured in surprise and skepticism.
“Five Sickles says she doesn’t do it,” a male voice said.
Remus glared at James. Way to go, Prongs, he thought. Way to exploit the uneducated masses, which don’t happen know that it’s currently harmless. Way to extort money from whatever sucker takes you up on that.
The crowd began to murmur louder. Remus could tell that the girl’s supporters were falling out from beneath her. No one wanted to risk losing their money, as they knew they would. Without support, the girl would fail. James had as good as won.
Remus scuffled his feet in silent prayer. Please, someone besides me come to her rescue…
“I’ll take that,” came another voice. It was the girl’s friend.
Thank you…
She turned towards us and glared at James, green eyes narrowed into defensive slits. James’s own hazel eyes widened slightly in surprise before he caught himself and restored his usual composure.
Remus buried his face in his scarf and smirked, hoping that James wouldn’t notice his shoulders quivering. James had just bet against Lily Evans.
He immediately caught himself. James was his friend. People are supposed to stick with their friends, not revel in their disastrous attempts to look cool.
Although, he had to admit that he found it funny. And satisfying. There were times when all Remus really wanted was to see the overconfident ones fail and realize that they, too, were mortal.
Sirius didn’t bother to hide his smirk. “Nice, Prongs,” he chuckled.
James shoved his hands in his pockets and looked mildly at Lily. “You sure, Evans? You really think your friend is up to the task?” He tilted his chin up so that he was looking down at her friend from underneath his glasses.
Remus grinned again, this time not trying to hide it in his scarf. He knew what James was thinking. James was mentally telling himself to play it cool. He was hoping, Remus knew, that the girl would win and the excitement of her victory would make Lily forget that James had implied that her friend was incompetent.
Lily took James said everything so seriously. She often twisted it or took it the wrong way, even going out of her way to find a hidden meaning that James probably hadn’t considered or even thought possible.
Lily turned her back and looked at her friend. “Ignore Potter, Marian,” they heard her say, her voice brittle with resentment. She gave Marian a little shove. “I have faith in you.”
I have faith in you…
Marian sauntered past them, an indignant switch in the fat brown braid snaking down her back. The crowd froze.
Go on, Marian, Remus thought. Show him who’s boss. Prove that you’re not scared of me. Prove that you’re not scared of little ol’ werewolfie me…
Marian hopped over the fence in a particularly droopy section. The crowd gasped, fell silent, and quickly started gossiping in whispers as one being.
Prove that you don’t mind werewolves…
Marian paused a few feet on the other side of the fence to strike a pose. She turned on her heel again and flounced across the snowy ground.
Prove that I’m not scary…
The wind whipped them, harsher than ever, as clouds of snow billowed around Marian’s short, curvy frame.
A shutter clattered in the distance. Dead flower stalks swayed and threatened to blow away.
Prove that I’m not evil… that I’m just like you and that the place that I go every month isn’t cursed…
Marian’s figure paused and looked around. An eerie silence arose as the wind shuddered to a brief halt.
“She’s not going to do it,” someone muttered. A few heads moved in agreement.
“You might as well pay up, Evans.” James grinned cockily. “You know she won’t do it.”
Lily glared harder than ever. “Shut up, Potter, or I’ll hex you.”
James rolled his eyes. “So rude. So violent. When will you lighten up, Evans? I’m only trying to have a bit of fun, you know. You could be nicer to me.”
Lily Evans, honor student, Prefect, model pupil, had reached her breaking point. Remus noted with some amusement that she seemed to do that a lot. Especially when James was around.
She whirled around, face blazing. “I thought I told you,” she screeched, eyes snapping dangerously, “to SHUT UP!”
Remus didn’t know how she moved so fast. Maybe she had sped up her learning and taught herself to Apparate.
In any case, Lily had traversed the five feet separating them before anyone knew what had happened. She slammed a very startled James up against a tree and pinned him there by his collar.
“You,” she growled, baring her teeth, “had better hope that Marian does this. You had better hope, because if I lose my chance to laugh in your face then you can expect a very painful end to your life.” She dropped her voice menacingly as she finished her sentence. “Got it?”
James rolled his eyes and grabbed her wrists firmly, yanking her hands off his collar. “Sheesh, Evans,” he said. He didn’t sound menacing at all. In fact, he sounded somewhere between amused and disgusted. “Chill.”
He stepped away from the tree and shook the snow from his dark hair. “No need to get anxious. I’d be more than happy to oblige your obvious need to prove what a snob you are-”
Lily shoved him disgustedly and hopped over the fence after Marian.
Sirius shook his head. “Shoulda-,” he began wearily. Remus knew that Sirius was getting tired of having to tell James that he had, yet again, screwed up.
Remus sighed. Again, this wasn’t something that he’d admit, but he thought that Sirius and James’s methods of getting a girl were faulty. They were just so arrogant. They both had the impression that every girl they came across was obliged to fall at their feet.
Too bad that every girl they came across was more than happy to comply.
A sudden pair of screams cut though the icy air. Everyone froze.
Silence.
“They’re dead,” someone whimpered. “They’ve been killed by the ghosts.”
Yeah. Ghosts, Remus thought sulkily. He knew he shouldn’t take it personally, but he took offense at being called a ghost. If they were going to declare him evil, they might as well get it right and call him an evil werewolf.
No. Wait. He didn’t want that.
James yelled and vaulted himself over the fence. “Lily!”
Remus and Sirius followed, but Peter chose to stay behind. Peter didn’t really enjoy going into the Shrieking Shack if he wasn’t in animal form.
The coward, Remus thought grumpily. It’s not like the Shack is haunted. I do all the haunting. And I’m right here.
They flew over the ground, kicking up bits of snow and grass underneath their heavy winter boots. The rest of the crowd stood in stunned silence, watching them nervously. Through the gusts of snowy wind they looked like one dark mass against a background of nothingness.
Funny how the less movement and noise there was, the creepier it seemed.
Remus felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle up in spite of himself. It was as if he had passed through a sudden gust of very cold wind.
One that’s only three feet wide? His scientific side asked quizzically.
Whatever, his Marauder side grunted back. Marauders didn’t like anything inexplicable. It made them seem weak, silly, gullible. Probably just a ghost.
James had already reached Lily’s side and was bending over her concernedly. Sirius stood a few feet off, looking at the Shack thoughtfully. Marian lay a few feet to Lily’s left. No one was asking her if she was all right.
Remus rolled his eyes and walked over to Marian. His friends were right. He was definitely the ‘concerned father’ figure in their group.
“Are you all right?” he asked, offering her a gloved hand.
She took it gratefully and pulled herself to her feet. “Thanks,” she said quietly.
She looked up at the Shack. “I think they’re right,” she said. “This place really is haunted.”
She looked at Remus earnestly. “Don’t you think it’s haunted?”
Remus bit his tongue and said, “I guess.” Yeah, right. He had a quick mental grumble about superstitious idiots and asked, “What happened?”
Lily swatted James away impatiently and walked over to Marian. “These two shingles came flying out of nowhere at us. The weird thing was, they were going straight for our heads. Like they were intentionally trying to hurt us.”
Sirius made a low, rumbling sound in his throat. “Come look at this,” he said uneasily, pointing at the door.
They all stared. On the door were words written in dark green paint- words that had not been there at the last full moon, when they had last gone through that door into the village to explore and become carried away by their sheer ingenuity.
Lily ran a finger above the letters. “I am the way to the doleful city,” she murmured, reading the words on it, “I am the way to eternal grief.”
“The Inferno,” Remus muttered automatically. Everyone looked at him curiously.
“The what, exactly?” asked James, running a hand through his hair nervously.
“Dante’s Inferno,” Remus explained impatiently. Had none of these people ever read classic literature? “It’s a Muggle poem that was written during the Renaissance. This guy Dante is taken on a tour through the author’s idea of Hell, and those words-” he gestured towards the door, “-are bits of the passage that is wrought on the gates that mark the entrance to Hell.”
“You mean, like,” Lily swallowed nervously, “'abandon all hope, ye who enter here?'”
Remus nodded.
“I think we’d better get out of here,” Sirius muttered. “Now.”
Always trust a dog’s instincts, Remus thought as he turned and stumbled away thought the snow. If the dog says it’s not safe, then it probably isn’t.