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Exploring the Tunnel


Halloween night came at Hogwarts and the halls were a frenzy of excitement, hardly any of the students were able to concentrate on lessons in classes and most of the teachers had prepared fun activities for them to do in order to combat the holiday distraction. In Transfiguration, for example, Professor McGonagall had them transfigure odds and ends into bats. Lily had an impressive collection of bats fluttering about over her head before long, rivaled only by Remus’s equally large cloud of them. James and Sirius had a few circling their desks, but poor Peter had only a couple of half-shapen things - including a small ball with black wings. James snatched that out of the air, “See?” he said, “I should’ve been Seeker - I’ve just caught Peter’s assignment!”

The bats from all the day’s Transfiguration classes were collected and freed in the Great Hall - including Peter’s half-object-half-bat monstrosities - and by the end of the day, there were hundreds of student-made bats flying about among the floating candles and Jack-o-Lanterns that filled the ceilings over the four house tables as the students and faculty sat down to a feast. Stuffed baked pumpkins and chops as big as their heads and gobs of gravy and carrots with butterscotch pasties for dessert! It was rich and delicious.

“Oiiii, sakes a live,” Sirius groaned when he shoved the last bite of his third pastie into his cheeks, “You’re going to have to bring me to St. Mungo’s if I eat even one more bite. I think I’ve distended my stomach with all the food I’ve shoved in.”

“Me too,” James nodded, holding his belly.

Peter, who had eaten twice the amount either of them had, wrapped several pasties in his napkin and pushed the bulging package into the pocket of his robes for later.

Lily was sitting on the bench next to Remus, though she was facing away from him as she chatted with the third year Marlene McKinnon and first year Ali Prewitt. Remus had spent a good deal of the meal focused on how close to him Lily was again, and was still eating his actual dinner long after the other three boys had moved onto desserts. He took a pasty just as all the food disappeared from the table and started to nibble on it as Dumbledore stood up at the faculty table to wish them all a Happy Halloween and dismiss them off to bed.

The great crowd slowly moved out of the hall and into the corridors. They were on the stairs when James turned ‘round to the others and said, “Are you lot even tired? I’m not.”

Sirius grinned, “What are you suggesting, Potter?”

“We should go to the common room,” Remus replied, “We have homework to do. Especially you,” he added, pointing at James, who had been shirking off his homework in lieu of practicing Quidditch in his free time.

“Blimey, homework on a holiday, you are insane!” James exclaimed. “You don’t have to come, then, if you don’t want to.”

“Come where?”

James didn’t answer. Instead, he quickly slipped away from the crowd of students making their way toward Gryffindor Tower, disappearing down a dark corridor. Sirius grinned, “Bye.” He rushed off after James.

Remus and Peter had come to a stop, students streamed around them, a couple elbowed them as they shoved by, telling them to move along. They heard Bilius Weasley at the top of the stairs directing traffic and shouting instructions to various students as they passed. Remus sighed, “Bloody hell,” he muttered, “We really should be doing homework…” He darted after the other two into the dark, leaving Peter alone in the crowd for a moment before he scrambled after them, squealing.

“Wait! Wait up!”

“Shut up Peter,” James hissed, suddenly catching Peter ‘round the middle and covering his mouth with his palm, “Do you want to get us caught then?” Peter shook his head and James dropped his hand from his mouth, “Then shut up.”

The four boys snuck along down the corridor and ‘round a corner, where they clustered ‘round James as he pulled out the list of passageways they’d gotten from the little alcove in the Trophy Room passage and he muttered, “Lumos,” illuminating the words on the page.

“We should’ve brought our map,” Sirius groaned.

James grinned and reached in his book bag, producing the map and the quills they’d been using to create it. “I was thinking ahead,” he said.

“You bloody genius!” Sirius hissed and passed the parchment and quills on to Remus, who they’d all decided was best at drawing the actual details after Remus had spent some time adding in the Trophy Room corridor the other night in the common room. “Here you are, Cartographer,” Sirius said.

Remus tucked the quills into his pockets and unfolded the map carefully. “So where are we off to, then?” he asked, looking over the map.

“I’d like to do the humpbacked witch,” James replied, “But I reckon there’s probably a ton of people ‘round it right now trying to get into the common room.” He peered ‘round the corner of the bend in the corridor they’d ducked down, listening for the sounds of anybody on the stairs but it sounded as though everyone might’ve gotten past those by now.

“It’s too bad we couldn’t see where people are on the map, that would be dead helpful,” Sirius said, “Imagine if we could see where Filch was all the time?”

Remus said, “Well that would take some sort of advanced charm, I’d imagine, linking the map to the actual floor somehow.”

Sirius looked at Remus with a raised eyebrow, “What?”

“Sure,” Remus said, “If there was a charm that could somehow tell the map to project the floor itself… maybe some sort of detection charm’s on the floor, like in the carpets, and the carpet sort of relays the information onto the map…?”

“There’s a spell that could do that?” Peter asked, incredulous.

“Dunno,” replied Remus.

“That would be ruddy brilliant,” Sirius said.

“An alternative would be to put some sort of tracing spell on everyone in the castle,” Remus said.

“That would take forever,” James said. “Imagine, having to put a spell on everyone in the castle? It’s not as though they’d line up for it and pass by us one by one.” He laughed at the thought of it.

But Remus shrugged, “You’d cast it on a door way so that everyone who passes through the doorway is sort of registered and then the map is charmed so that anyone who has the spell on them is projected onto the map.”

Sirius’s eyes widened, “You know how to do that stuff?”

“This is all theoretical,” answered Remus, “I dunno if any of it is even possible.”

“Well it would be quite spiffing if it was!” James said.

Peter squeaked, “Well that doesn’t help us tonight and if we stay here much longer Mrs. Norris is sure to sniff us out. What are we doing right now?”

“Hold onto your knickers Peter,” James answered, “Bloody hell, how are you a Gryffindor, being such a coward?”

“I’m not a coward,” muttered Peter moodily.

Sirius grinned, “What if Remus showed us the passageway in the Whomping Willow?” he suggested. “We could add that onto the map.”

“Yeah!” exclaimed James, lighting up.

Remus however didn’t look nearly as excited. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” he mumbled.

“Why?” James asked.

“Because,” Remus didn’t know how to explain the reservation he felt about it. He hated being in that tunnel because of of what it meant and the change from boy to wolf that he experienced after that long walk to the Shrieking Shack. Somehow, that passageway seemed like something to hide out of shame to him, rather than something he wanted to share with his mates.

“C’mon Rey,” groaned Sirius, “Please?”

Remus shifted his weight from foot to foot nervously.

“Well why aren’t you calling him a coward?” Peter demanded of James, “He’s hesitating as much as I’d done!”

Remus’s face reddened. “I’m not afraid of showing you lot the Whomping Willow, I just don’t know if -- oh bloody hell, c’mon,” he said, and he quickly led the way back ‘round the corner of the corridor, heading for the entrance hall. James and Sirius exchanged gleeful expressions and Peter hurried to keep up with the others, panting as he practically ran after them down the corridor.

James could hardly believe they were going to be seeing such a cool passageway at long last and his insides tingled with excitement. They paused to put the invisibility cloak over them before going down the staircase, just in case any faculty had lingered behind in the Great Hall. They could hear Filch whistling lowly - it sounded like some sort of funeral dirge - and the schwoop, schwoop as he dragged his broom across the floor of the hall, cleaning up. They snuck past the door to the Great Hall as quietly as they could and out the main doors of the castle.

Filch paused in sweeping and peered out ‘round the door of the Great Hall when the wide front doors of the castle thudded ever so softly closed behind the invisible second years. “Who’s there?” Filch demanded, glancing about. Mrs. Norris slid around his ankles, her tail flicking and swishing, and he muttered, “Keep an eye out, my pet, maybe we’ll catch the filthy mongrels who made all that mess before.” He stared at the door with beady eyes an a hungry expression. “Go on, mess makers,” he muttered, “Mr. Filch’s got all night to wait.” He slunk back into the shadows.

Outside, the boys ran across the grounds, trying to keep the invisibility cloak on, but not being as careful about it as perhaps they should’ve been. Peter tripped over his own shoelace and lost his footing, falling to the grass and being fully revealed, running the last ten or twenty feet in the pale moonlight, exposed. He glanced back at the castle, afraid that somebody might be watching. When they reached the edge of the Willow, Remus told them to stop and they all stopped, standing clustered together, and Peter scrambled back under the invisibility cloak.

“You lot left me behind!” he complained.

“Sorry Peter,” Sirius said, “We didn’t notice you gone.”

“How could you not notice me gone?” he demanded.

“We were running,” James answered with a shrug.

“What’s so scary about this tree anyway?” Sirius asked, staring up at the seemingly peaceful branches of the Whomping Willow. And then, as though insulted by his question, the Willow shook itself and one of the long tendrils reached out and knocked Sirius over by pushing him in the shoulder. He fell with a thump onto his bottom on the grass, eyes wide.

James laughed, “You got bested by a bloody tree!”

“Yeah notice you took a step back, too, Potter,” Sirius snapped, getting up and dusting himself off, careful to stay a few steps out of the tree’s reach. “I’ll be bruised for weeks,” he added, rubbing his shoulder where the tree had packed a surprisingly good punch. James was still laughing from beneath the invisibility cloak.

Remus meanwhile had selected a good sized rock. “Watch out, you lot,” he muttered and he took aim for the knot at the base of the tree.

“Blimey!” James exclaimed as the rock hit the knot in the tree, freezing the Whomping Willow. “Why aren’t you on the Quidditch team? Aim like that, you ought to be a Chaser, not me. You could get the quaffle through the hoop with no trouble!”

“I’m not a Quidditch sort of guy,” Remus replied with a shrug. “Too many of the practices and games would conflict with the full moon. C’mon, hurry, before it wakes up again.” He hurried them under the hanging branches and James stuffed the cloak into his book bag as they ran. Sirius eyed the branches suspiciously, not sure he trusted them not to push him down again. Remus led the way, followed by Sirius. Peter got stuck in the hole, his girth a bit wider than the hole, and James had to shove him down with a grunt. James only just got through the hole behind Peter himself as the tree began to stir.

“It’s dark down here!” commented Sirius, squinting into the darkness.

“Lumos,” Remus said, and his wand lit up a good deal of passageway with still no end in sight. “It goes all the way to the Shrieking Shack,” he reminded them, “You won’t see the end for some time.”

“Now what?” James asked, rubbing dust off his back end from where he’d landed ungracefully leaping through the hole after Peter.

“Now we walk,” Remus answered with a shrug and he turned to lead the way off through the darkness to the Shrieking Shack.