whomp. James ducked and threw himself into the crack between the roots just as a branch swung past him, buffeting him with its passage.
'Wow,' Gennifer said, clambering up, 'six people with one knot push! I'd say that's a new record. Everybody all right?'
'I'll be fine when James gets off my back,' Rose complained, grunting.
'Sorry, Rose. I didn't have time to look where I was landing.'
Noah lit his wand and held it up. The space was low, ceilinged with the massive roots of the Whomping Willow. A stone-walled passage led down into darkness. The Gremlins began to descend it, followed closely by James, Rose, and Ralph. After about thirty paces, the group came to a halt. In the lead, Noah held his wand higher, whistling through his teeth.
'Eureka,' Damien said excitedly.
'What?' Rose exclaimed, standing on her toes to see over James' shoulder. 'I can't see! What is it?'
'Hogwarts finds a way,' Gennifer replied. 'It looks like there was a flood down here last spring. Washed a bunch of the dirt and gravel away. Look, there's room to squeeze through if you don't mind getting dirty.'
'Excellent!' Noah proclaimed, his voice echoing from further ahead. There was a distant splash. 'The passage beyond is completely intact! There's a little water to slosh through, and some seriously busy spiders, but the wandlight scares them away. I'd guess this goes straight on through from here.'
'Are we going now?' Ralph asked. 'I didn't really come prepared for any, er, journeys.'
'Don't get anxious, Ralphinator,' Noah answered, scrambling back around the former cave-in. 'We'll go the rest of the way later. It's just good to know the passageway's back open again.'
'And we're the first to find it,' Gennifer added.
'So don't you lot tell anyone,' Damien finished, stabbing a finger in the air and looking severely at James, Rose, and Ralph. 'Especially you, Mr. Slytherin.'
'Easy, Damascus,' Noah said. 'Ralph's loyal to the Gremlin cause. Come on, let's get back out of here.'
'So where does the passage go to?' Rose asked as they retraced their steps.
'Our best guess is that it goes to Hogsmeade,' Gennifer answered. 'So you might get your wish about sneaking in a visit this year.'
'The passage goes to Hogsmeade?' Ralph replied, a bit irked about Damien's lack of confidence. 'Where does it come up? Couldn't somebody just trace it back to Hogwarts?'
'Worried that your dad missed another weak spot in the school's 'security perimeter'?' Damien asked, smiling crookedly. 'Don't worry. Old Daddy Dolohov's defensive perimeter is safe. Nobody will be coming back from the other side. Except us, hopefully.'
'The passage doesn't go to Hogsmeade directly, Ralph,' Noah said.
They reached the bunker beneath the Whomping Willow. Carefully, Gennifer reached out and found the secret knot. The tree went still and she scrambled out.
'So where does it go to, then?' James asked as the group climbed quickly out of the secret opening.
'Our best guess is it goes to a delightful place called the 'Shrieking Shack',' Damien said, stopping outside the perimeter of the tree. 'Nobody ever goes there.'
'I can see why,' Ralph nodded. 'Does it, you know, shriek?'
'No, it's just a name, Ralph,' Gennifer said, clapping the big boy on the shoulder. 'It hasn't shrieked in decades. Although apparently it used to make quite a fuss, didn't it? Supposedly, the whole place shook.'
Ralph looked back at James and Rose. 'Are they making fun of me?'
'Yeah, Ralph,' James nodded. 'But it's all out of love. Don't sweat it.'
Ralph accepted that and the three began to follow the Gremlins back across the wet grass. As they reached the castle, he asked, 'So the Shrieking Shack didn't really used to shriek?'
James shook his head. 'I didn't say that, Ralph… I just said they were making a little fun of you. It's best if you don't ask any more about it.'
Rose concurred. 'Really, Ralph. Trust us.'
Ralph opened his mouth, considered it, and then closed it again. He sighed and the three students climbed the steps into the castle, following the smells of lunch.
The next day's Defence Against the Dark Arts class was slightly more bearable than previous classes, if only because they had a guest teacher's assistant. The assistant was possibly even more of a celebrity than Debellows himself, since he was not only the new leader of the Harriers special forces squadron, but was also a former Bulgarian World Cup Quidditch player. Viktor Krum strode purposely into the gym as Debellows introduced him, and the assembly of students applauded roundly. James knew Krum very vaguely, having met him once or twice years earlier. Viktor Krum had, of course, competed in the Triwizard Tournament alongside James' dad, Aunt Fleur and Cedric. During that time, he'd also had a short, romantic relationship with Aunt Hermione as well, to the extent that on the few occasions that Viktor had been in the same room with the Weasley family, Aunt Hermione had tended to look in the other direction quite a lot and Uncle Ron had puffed his chest out and adopted an attitude of noisy surliness.
Viktor spoke to the class in his irrepressible accent, telling them how he'd trained alongside Kendrick Debellows in his early years in the Harriers, and assuring everyone that he wouldn't be where he was today if not for the man's leadership and example. James was almost immediately bored. He liked Viktor quite a lot, but he disliked Debellows enough that the sight of the man absorbing his protege's praise made James a bit ill. The upshot was that there were no troops through the Gauntlet that day, although Debellows challenged Krum to a 'manly contest' to see which one of them could make it through first. Viktor had turned down the challenge, and James liked to believe it was because the younger man simply hadn't wanted to shame his mentor.
As the class wore on, James saw that Ralph, who was only slightly more artistic than James, was doodling an idea for the new Defence Club sign-up sheet.
As they filed out of the gym and made their way to History of Magic, James said to Ralph, 'You know, we really shouldn't be putting those up until we know we have a teacher.'
'That's your job,' Ralph shrugged. 'I have to do my part. Besides, you'll talk Cedric into it. You're good at that.'
'Yeah, well, I haven't talked him into it yet.'
'You'd best get on it, then,' Rose said, meeting them at an intersection. 'The first meeting is tomorrow night.'
James nearly dropped his book. 'Tomorrow? Since when?'
'Since I started spreading the word around the Great Hall at breakfast,' Rose replied simply. 'I only meant to tell Henrietta Littleby and Fiona Fourcompass, but you know how Fiona is. The whole Ravenclaw table was talking about it by the time I left. There's a lot of excitement about it. Nobody likes the way Debellows is running D.A.D.A. even though it was sort of sweet to see Viktor in the halls this morning.'
'But we don't even know where we're meeting!' James exclaimed. 'I thought we talked about starting things up at the end of next week?'
'That was before we talked to the Headmaster and saw what we saw in his Mirror. Ralph's right. Things
