"Lumos!"

  Eda lit up her wand, its glow far brighter thawins' but soft and n.

  "Ok. The passage is leading us away from the castle..." Gee said, looking at the map in his hand. "But where it leads, we have no idea—"

  "—Wherever it goes, we o stay cautious," Fred murmured.

  Just as Fred was about to take the lead, Eda stopped him. The passage might be safe, but Eda thought it best for her to go first. If there was any danger, she could deal with it immediately.

  The three of them wideheir eyes, bending low as they slowly moved forward. The turetched endlessly ahead, and they had no idea how much farther they had to go.

  Eda silently estimated the distan her mind, feeling that it was at least as long as the passage leading to Honeydukes.

  Wheunnel began to slope upward, Eda turo the twins behind her and said, "Judging by the distance, we should be in Hogsmeade now. But where exactly the exit is, I'm not sure."

  "Hopefully, it's not some remote forest. That would be s." Fred remarked.

  "The celr of the Three Broomsticks would be great. We could sneak out some drinks…"

  "Why do I feel like stealing drinks isn't your main goal here?" Eda looked back at Fred, her eyes filled with disdain.

  After walking a bit further and rounding a er, they came upon a small exit ahead of them. Eda signaled for the twins to stay still. She raised her wand and slowly moved forward to check out the situation ahead.

  It was a room—a messy, gray, dipidated room. The aper eeling, the floor was stained, and the furniture was all broken.

  It looked like some kind of struggle had taken pce here, with the windows boarded up tightly.

  "Fred, Gee, e on up!"

  Eda called, still holding her wand aloft. Although it was daytime, the room was dim, with only a faint glimmer of light seeping in through the cracks in the boarded-up windows.

  "Where is this?" The twins climbed out of the tunnel, squinting into the eerie darkness around them.

  To Eda's right was a door. She pushed it open, revealing an even darker hall beyond.

  The floor was coated in dust, suggesting that no one had been here for a long time. Uhe other shops in Hogsmeade, this pce felt entirely abandoned—more desote even than the Hog's Head.

  The three of them began to ihe house, the floorboards creaking loudly uheir feet. The sound echoed through the house, adding an uling yer of tension.

  Carefully, they asded a staircase that looked as though it might colpse at any moment. Each step stirred up thick clouds of dust. At the top of the dim nding, they entered a tightly closed door.

  The trio exged gnces.

  Eda raised her wand to shoulder height while the twins fnked her, one oher side.

  "Haah!"

  Together, the twins pushed the door open, and Eda rushed in with her wand raised, sing for any potential threats. But the room appeared empty, with nothing ihat could harm them.

  The yout of the house felt eerily familiar to Eda. The tightly boarded-up windows were especially striking. A realization began to dawn on her, but she needed firmation. She hurried to one of the windows and squihrough the narros between the boards, trying to see outside.

  Gee, meanwhile, stood beside a dusty four-poster bed draped with tattered curtains.

  He gnced around uneasily and said, "What the hell is this pce? Why does it feel so familiar?"

  Fred chimed in as well, "I've got that feeling too. Like we are seeing the insides of a house we have seen many times from the outside.."

  "Don't tell me this is…"

  The twins turned simultaneously to Eda, their expressions expet. They he cleverest of the three to firm their suspis.

  "You're right.."

  "We're in Hogsmeade. This house is the infamous Shrieking Shack."

  Earlier, she had pried the gap between the boards a little wider and caught a glimpse of the outside.

  "Isn't this pce supposed to be haunted?" Gee said, his tone ced with curiosity. "Never seen a ghost here befuess today's the day to witness something!"

  "Gee, what do you think the ghosts here are like?" Fred asked excitedly. "Do they look beautiful? Or terrifying?"

  "Tch! These guys."

  The twins, bursting with questions, were clearly fasated by the rumored hauntings of the Shrieking Shack. Thankfully, their wands remained firmly in their grips, ready for anything.

  Eda moved cautiously, her wand lighting the way as she surveyed the room and recalled what they had seen downstairs. The floors, walls, and furniture of the Shrieking Shack bore signs of extensive damage. Deep gouges and cw marks were etched everywhere, as though a ferocious struggle had taken pce. Animal bites were visible on some of the furniture, further adding to the eerie atmosphere.

  The se before her sparked vivid imagery in Eda's mind, almost like a tragic story unfolding in a book.

  She imagined a once-happy family living in the Shrieking Shack, enjoying a carefree life in this fairytale-like vilge. But one day, their enemies—or perhaps someohey had wronged—came for revenge, bringiru ah to this idyllie.

  The abandoned Shrieking Shack had fallen into disrepair.

  In the harsh winters, animals would occasionally take refuge here from the cold, leaving behind the bite marks and cwed surfaces. As for the unfortunate family who met a tragid, their spirits were said to linger, g out in anguish eaight.

  Frightened vilgers boarded up the house, sealing it away to prevent any harm or mischief from the restless ghosts.

  It was a pelling narrative, the framework of a dramatic tale ly falling into pce.

  Yet one gring issue remained—where were the ghosts?

  Eda and the twins had been wandering the house for quite some time without entering so much as a flicker of a ghostly presence.

  And to think, they had arrived here through a secret passage from Hogwarts. A secret passage leading to a supposedly haunted house—it felt more like a joke than anything else.

  Brushing off the dust from an old sofa, Eda slumped down onto it, feeling a deep sense of disappoi.

  The words spoken by Professlover Cecil by the Bck Lake echoed in her mind: The answers will find you themselves.

  While Eda's magical prowess wasn't on the same level as Professor Cecil's, the current situation seemed to perfectly match his se: the aruly had e to her.

  What started as a mere exploration of the secret passage had led them to the Shrieking Shack, a pce that roving to be nothing more than a dust-filled, desote house.

  "Why hasn't the ghost shown up yet?" Fred muttered under his breath, sounding almost impatient.

  "Well, am I not looking like a ghost?" Eda replied gloomily. She sat with her head bowed, making it hard for the twins to see her expression.

  The twins rushed over. Fred grabbed Eda by the shoulders and shook her gently, his voice trembling. "Eda, what's wrong? Are you okay? Did a ghost really possess you?"

  "Aa—ok! Stop shaking, stop shaking!"

  "Then don't scare me like that!"

  Gee said nothing, but the worry etched across his face spoke volumes as he kept a watchful eye owo of them.

  Dizzy from Fred's shaking, Eda swatted his hands away and said, "I'm fine, just a little disappoio think we ended up in the Shrieking Shack so easily... All the effort I put in before was just a waste of time!"

  "You scared me half to death! I thought you were really possessed!" Fred exhaled in relief. "Don't do that again—it's way too freaky."

  "Isn't this pce supposed to be haunted? Your preparations won't go to waste," Gee said, trying to fort her.

  Still feelied, Eda replied, "How long have we been hanging around here? If the rumors were true, those ghosts would've e out and torn us to pieces by now. What are they waiting for—Easter?"

  The twins had also started to suspect as much, though they were relut to admit it. After all, the legend of the haunted Shrieking Shack was far more appealing than the reality of this decrepit old house.

  With a shared sense nation, the twins sat down on the sofa beside Eda, their heads drooping just like hers. In what was reputed to be Britain's most terrifying haunted house, the three of them sat in the same defeated posture, sighing in unison.

  The dark, custrophobi no longer inspired fear in them—only an endless, lingering disappoi.

  __________

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