Just a week ago, the twins had walked through this passage, but now it felt somewhat unfamiliar. The once dirty and cluttered tunnel had been cleaned up significantly, with stone tiles laid on the floor.
At the entrance to the Shrieking Shack, the previously broken wooden door had been repaired. Next to it, a wooden sign had been planted, reading: Beware of the vicious dog inside. Do not approach.
"The 'vicious dog' written here wouldn't happen to be your Garlon, would it?" Fred asked uncertainly. Garlon was the only dog-related creature associated with Eda.
"..."
"Puhahah~ there is no way..." George laughed.
"..." Eda didn't reply.
"Merlin's beard! Other than Percy's rat, I've never seen that Labrador bite anything!" George exclaimed, convinced that Eda's brain must have gone haywire to think Garlon could guard a house.
Eda had thought long and hard about what to write on the sign. Her initial idea was: If you don't want to lose your life due to an accident, do not enter.
In the end, she abandoned that idea. This place was more or less going to be her home, and having such a creepy warning at the door felt like she was living somewhere truly dangerous.
"There really isn't another option besides Garlon," Eda said, sounding a bit helpless. "I'd love to get a three-headed dog, but I'd have to be able to pull that off first. It's not like I've had the luck of running into a drunken Greek who just happens to be carrying a Cerberus puppy."
Garlon certainly wasn't capable of guarding a house. He was far too non-aggressive. Despite now being much larger than Mrs. Norris, he still wasn't a match for that troublesome cat.
At least Garlon wasn't like those silly sled dogs; otherwise, there'd constantly be an expensive renovation project waiting for Eda.
Eda reached out and pushed open the wooden door.
Unlike the dim and eerie atmosphere from last time, the room was now bathed in sunlight, and the unpleasant smells were gone. She turned to the twins and said, "Fred, George, welcome home."
As they stepped inside, the twins were left speechless with surprise.
Everything in the room had changed. The chaotic mess was now neat and orderly. The thick layer of dust covering the floor was gone, and the peeling wallpaper had been neatly reattached to the walls. Most of the old, broken furniture had been replaced, the piano had been repaired, and there was even a guitar placed beside it.
The Shrieking Shack no longer bore the slightest resemblance to a haunted, gloomy place. The clean, sunlit room felt more like a warm and inviting home. If the twins hadn't been here before, they might have assumed that the Shrieking Shack had always been this way.
From the window, they could see Hogwarts on one side and the snow-covered Hogsmeade on the other. Pointing at the window, George asked with concern, "The wooden boards are gone. Won't someone notice something unusual here?"
"They won't," Eda replied, standing by the window to explain. "The sunlight streaming into the room is real, but the wooden boards covering the windows haven't been removed. Winnie and I set this up together—we just nullified the boards' original function, making them unable to block sunlight."
The wooden boards now acted like one-way mirrors. Sunlight could pass through, and those inside could see the outside clearly. However, from the outside, no one could see in—they would only see the wooden boards.
Unless a powerful wizard forcibly broke the spell, no one would ever discover the true state of the Shrieking Shack.
"Winnie? The house-elf who's always bringing you back?" Fred asked. "She wouldn't go and tell the professors about all this, would she?"
If the professors found out, all the effort Eda had put in over the past week would be for nothing. However, the likelihood of that happening was slim. While Eda wasn't Winnie's master, neither were any of the professors. The only one who could truly be called her master seemed to be Headmaster Dumbledore. But with over a hundred house-elves at Hogwarts, Dumbledore was unlikely to waste his time chatting with Winnie.
"I'm not doing anything bad here," Eda replied, unconcerned. "On the contrary, I've debunked the rumors of the Shrieking Shack being haunted. Dumbledore should give me a Special Contribution Award for this!"
The twins didn't understand why Eda was so fixated on this award. From the moment she learned about the Special Contribution Award, it had become her obsession.
Without Winnie, Eda might have long since abandoned her plan to renovate the old shack. The speed at which the Shrieking Shack had been tidied up was largely thanks to Winnie.
Whenever Eda came here with her, the diligent little house-elf would always take the initiative to do the work, leaving Eda feeling more like she was getting in the way. Once Winnie confirmed that the place was truly "clean," she even began coming alone at night to continue working. Winnie's tireless efforts left Eda feeling a bit guilty.
The room had originally been filled with damaged furniture. Eda and Winnie had repaired what they could, but some pieces were so far gone they weren't worth fixing. Winnie had taken those unusable pieces away and disposed of them. As a result, the Shrieking Shack now felt somewhat empty.
The house-elf Winnie even patted her chest and assured Eda that she would take care of replacing the missing furniture.
She explained that there was a room in the castle where many pieces of furniture were stored. Some of them could be taken from the room; aside from being a bit old, they were perfectly fine.
Other house-elves often took furniture from that room, so it was no big deal for Eda to borrow some for now. If necessary, she could always return them later.
Thanks to the help of the house-elf, most of the issues were resolved. The Shrieking Shack, now forcibly claimed by Eda, could be considered her first private retreat in this world—a secret base just for her.
"This place is ours now. Should we give it a new name?" Fred suggested, after taking a stroll around the house. He was thoroughly satisfied with it—a place that belonged exclusively to the three of them. Any lingering resentment he'd felt earlier had long since vanished.
"Good idea. We can't keep calling it the Shrieking Shack. That makes it too easy for someone to figure out this secret," George agreed enthusiastically. "Let's think of a name only the three of us will know!"
Eda, lounging on the sofa with her head tilted, said, "Do you two have any good ideas? Fred, you brought it up. You go first!"
Fred stroked the faint fuzz on his chin as he paced the room. It was such a relief not to stir up any dust. Meanwhile, Eda leaned lazily against the back of the sofa, also pondering a suitable name—one that ideally incorporated all three of their names.
"We found this place thanks to the Marauder's Map," Fred finally said after thinking for a while. "I think we should pay tribute to the four great Marauders! Let's call it the House of Dominators. From now on, we'll be the Dominators!"
At first, Eda admired the Marauders for their magical prowess. Later, what impressed her even more was their boundless creativity. Without such imaginative minds, how could they have discovered so many secret passages?
Especially the one hidden beneath the Whomping Willow. No normal person would dare approach the ferocious tree, let alone discover a hidden tunnel beneath it.
So paying tribute to the Marauders wasn't a bad idea. Eda didn't mind the title of "Dominators" that Fred proposed, but naming the place House of Dominators felt a little odd to her.
Even so, Eda pulled out her wand and wrote the name in glowing red letters that floated in midair. Then she turned to George, curious about the result of his deliberations.
"My idea is similar to Fred's, but I was thinking of House of Outlaws," George said, glancing at Eda to hear what she had come up with.
Good grief—"Dominators" and "Outlaws." The twins' suggestions sounded so aggressive and far from anything cozy or homely. Eda waved her wand again, writing George's suggestion in the air as well.
Although there were only three of them to vote, Eda believed that rituals and a sense of ceremony were essential in life.
Finally, she waved her wand one more time, and the glowing red letters transformed into a single new word—her choice for the name.
Compared to the twins' suggestions, Eda's pick had zero combativeness. It practically radiated love and peace.
_________
Read 12 Chapters ahead:
Patreon: Dragonel