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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐈𝐙𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐒 𝐏𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐏𝐔𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇 𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 in a scramble to get away from the parlour. The pounding of their feet echoed down the hallway and the pounding of their hearts echoed in their ears. A collective scream ripped through the Shack once they passed the stairs to the basement and noticed the bloody auror crawling up the stairs, and then another scream once they neared the end of the hallway and noticed the red door straining against its hinges as the two inferi inside tried to escape.

"Up the stairs!" Luc shouted, leading the way as he rushed to the top.

"What about Wadsworth?" Jesse called, nervously glancing over his shoulder. His question was answered almost immediately when Thomas came barreling out of the parlour with Mr. Boddy clutched tightly in his arms, screaming at the top of his lungs. He surpassed the surprised group of witches and wizards on the stairs, climbing higher and higher until he disappeared from sight. The group stood frozen in shock for a moment until they caught sight of the inferi exiting the parlour and their legs catapulted them up the rest of the stairs. They finally caught up with Thomas on the third floor, where they found him curled up in a ball at the end of the hallway, rocking back and forth.

"Where do we go from here?" Willow asked, her eyes scanning the stairs for any signs of movement.

"The attic!" Madelynn answered, pointing towards the latch on the ceiling right above Thomas's head.

"But we'll be trapped!" Jackson argued.

"No," Jesse replied. "There's a painting that leads to the foyer! We can escape through there if they catch up to us!"

Unable to think of a better solution, the group grabbed two of the torches off the wall, pulled open the latch to the attic and scrambled up the ladder. It took some convincing to get Thomas to move, but eventually they were all shut inside. Without speaking, the group instinctively began piling books and furniture on top of the latch to keep it shut. Once this was completed, they all collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion.

"What do we do now?" Jesse asked, playing with the strings on his tennis shoes. "How do we defeat them?"

"The only thing that can beat inferi is fire," Penny answered from where she was sitting on a pile of boxes.

"So we burn the Shack down?" Jesse asked, eying the torches that had been settled into sconces along the wall. They cast off a glow that only illuminated a quarter of the attic, and the witches and wizards had settled into this ring of light like moths to a flame.

"We can't get out, dumbass," Luc interjected. He was splayed out on his back with his hands folded behind his head, nearly invisible among the piles of junk surrounding them. "If we burn down the Shack we burn ourselves with it."

Jesse sighed in defeat upon this realization and began fidgeting with his shoe strings even more. Silence fell upon the group as they listened intently for any noise below them indicating that the inferi had found them, but they heard nothing but their own labored breaths and erratic heartbeats.

"Looks like we're stuck up here for the night," Jackson sighed when the silence became unbearable. She grabbed one of the chairs from the pile on top of the latch and turned it around to sit backwards on it, facing the rest of the group.

"So we're just going to wait here until the host comes?" Madelynn asked nervously. She was sitting against a precarious pile of boxes that was slowly slipping as she leaned her weight against it. But instead of moving, she went with it, and within minutes she was almost completely reclined when she had originally been sitting up straight.

"I vote that we at least stay up here for the night," Willow answered, pacing along a stretch of floor that was cleared of items. She turned every three feet when she ran into something. "We can get some rest and then continue investigating tomorrow before the host arrives at midnight."

"How are we supposed to investigate with those things moving about below us?" Jesse retorted.

"I don't know, but we'll figure it out when we have clearer minds," Willow answered.

When nobody else voiced their opposition, Willow gave a small nod and sat down on the floor at her feet. "We can take shifts doing lookout, just in case the inferi find a way in."

"Wake me up when Wadsworth does his shift," Luc informed the group.

Thomas, who was sitting in the corner with Mr. Boddy purring on his lap, rolled his eyes. He couldn't see Luc from where he was sitting so he stared at the pile of boxes where Luc's voice had come from. "You still don't trust me?"

"Nope," the pile of boxes replied.

"It's probably a good idea to do shifts of two," Jackson piped up. In a quieter voice, she added, "Just in case one of us is the killer."

After some arguing it was decided that Thomas and Luc would take the first watch. The decision was made by Thomas, who knew how exhausted Luc was and decided to get some revenge of his own, knowing that Luc would have to stay awake if Thomas did. The Shack shifted and settled around them as the witches and wizards tried to get comfortable for the night. The glow of the torches flickered across their blinking eyelids, none of them heavy enough to stay shut regardless of how tired they were.

"I can't sleep," Jesse announced after exactly five minutes of silence.

"Me neither," Madelynn sighed.

"Make that three," Jackson grumbled, turning over onto her side. "We only have one day left in this godforsaken Shack and we're no closer to figuring out who the host is than we were at the start."

"That might not be entirely true..." Penny thought aloud. When she heard the ruffle of heads turning towards her, she elaborated. "I've been thinking more about those nightmares we had. There was something strange about mine that's been bothering me..."

"You mean other than the fact that they literally traumatized us?" Jackson asked.

"Aside from that, yes," Penny replied. "In my nightmare, I overheard my mom arguing with somebody before she chewed me out for eavesdropping. It was such an odd detail but I can't stop fixating on it."

"What were they arguing about?" Madelynn asked.

"I don't know, I only really caught the words, 'Death Eater'. But it didn't seem like it mattered what the argument was about, just that I was eavesdropping. That's what's so odd."

"Who was she arguing with?"

Penny took a breath before answering, "Professor Plum."

A ruffle of heads once more filled the space as everybody turned to look at Jesse, whose flushed face shone in the darkness. "I-I don't know what she's talking about! In my nightmare, nothing like that happened."

"What happened in your nightmare then, Plum?" Luc demanded.

"My sister poisoned me with cookies and told me not to trust Miss Scarlet!"

It was Jackson's turn to burn bright red, but she decided to remain silent.

"I think you're onto something, Miss White," Willow said as she replayed her nightmare over in her head. "In my nightmare, there was this dragon pendant that I bought my brother. It seemed weirdly important yet I can't place why..."

"D-dragon?" Madelynn stammered, but nobody seemed to hear her.

"The Dark Mark..." Luc muttered aloud as the thought struck him. He sat up straight and looked around at the rest of the group. "I saw it in my nightmare. There was a man who looked like a prisoner from Azkaban and he had it..."

"Wait, what did this man look like?" Willow asked with wide eyes.

"I don't know, I only barely caught a glimpse of him," Luc answered. "Thin, red straggly hair, sunken eyes...Why, do you know him?"

"No!" Willow answered immediately, her voice coming out louder than she intended. Everybody turned to stare at Willow, who began chewing on the inside of her cheek until she tasted blood.

"Did anybody else see anything weird in their nightmare?" Penny asked, redirecting the group's attention away from Willow.

"If you count Mr. Green pushing me off my broom," Scarlet answered, side-eying Luc and subconsciously rubbing her arm.

For once, Luc didn't have a response, but luckily for him, everybody was too distracted by their own inner turmoil to point this out.

"There was this tabby cat in my nightmare, but it was weird because my mothers don't own a cat..." Madelynn answered, causing Penny to involuntarily turn towards her with an inquisitive glare.

After a moment of deafening silence, Jesse cleared his throat and said, "I'm sure it's all nothing. Just the host trying to mess with us."

A resounding grumble of agreement passed around the room as everyone once more tried to settle in for the night. But now, there was more than just the fear of the inferi lurking below them clouding their minds. Eventually, their heavy eyelids beat their heavy minds and forced everybody except Luc and Thomas into a deep slumber.

Luc and Thomas shifted in their spots, trying their best to avoid making eye contact with each other during their shift. Luc watched the flickering of the torches across the attic as they casted playful shadows on the sleeping witches and wizard, while Thomas anxiously stroked Mr. Boddy's soft fur until he could feel his hand bristling with static electricity. Both wizards felt the need to say something to fill the eerie silence, but neither knew what words to use, until at last, Luc spoke.

"Say you aren't the host..." Luc began, his finger absentmindedly tracing the edge of the box sitting next to him. "Then what brought you here?"

Before responding, Thomas took a moment to study Luc's features. "Same thing as you. I have a secret that's been threatened."

"And just what is your secret?" Luc asked, pulling his knees up to his chest and staring intently at Thomas.

"You first," Thomas retorted.

Luc narrowed his eyes in response. "I've seen you around Hogwarts, you know. You're always alone."

"Maybe I like it that way."

"Maybe there's a reason nobody wants to be your friend."

"And just what are you insinuating?" Thomas snapped, his anger pushing him to his knees. Mr. Boddy gave a soft hiss before jumping off his lap, moving over to the corner where he began grooming his ears.

"I've heard rumors," Luc continued, a sly smile sneaking onto his face upon seeing Thomas's reaction. "If only the great Salazar Slytherin knew that they let a mud-blood into his house."

Thomas's face turned bright red as his skin began to boil. He tensed his fists and opened and shut his mouth several times in response, but no words came out.

"So that's a yes, then," Luc smiled in victory. "Not a very exciting secret though, if I must say. I was expecting something worse."

"Who says that's my secret?" Thomas retorted.

Luc's brows furrowed in response and he looked upon Thomas in a new light. "What's your story, Wadsworth?"

A look of surprise flickered across Thomas's face upon hearing Luc's question because there was no snide tone or hint of sarcasm in his voice. It almost sounded like Luc genuinely wanted to know. "Why do you care?" Thomas asked, once more resuming his defensive stance.

"It's going to be a long night if we both stay silent," Luc answered with a shrug.

"Fine," Thomas replied with a huff. "You want to know why I'm always alone? Because I've always been alone. Grew up in a big, fancy house with tons of big, fancy things, but no parents. Work is their first-born and I'm their forgotten second child. I thought the one positive thing that would come out of having magic is that they'd finally pay attention to me, but that lasted all of five minutes until they got a work call. They didn't even know I had left for Hogwarts until after I came back home after my first year."

Luc stared silently at the cracked floorboards beneath his feet, studying the way the grains danced around each other. A twang of guilt ricocheted in his heart, along with another feeling: understanding. It was a story he was already familiar with.

"Maybe we're not so different, then," Luc said quietly, clearing his throat in discomfort.

Thomas glanced up at Luc in surprise. In the roughly twenty-four hours the two Slytherins had spent together, Thomas had never seen Luc look so weak and vulnerable. Thomas pressed his lips firmly together as he waited for Luc to continue.

"I maybe see my parents once a year, if I'm lucky," Luc carried on. "I think they see each other more than they see me and they hate each other. The only reason they stay together is for their work, not even for me. The only person that's ever been there for me is my nanny, Doreen."

After a moment of contemplation, Thomas said, "Funny how we both come from the same background and still one of us is treated worse than the other because of the purity of their blood."

Luc nodded his head and stared absentmindedly off to the other end of the attic. "Funny indeed," he replied quietly. A moment later, he continued with, "Say, can you explain something to me?"

"What?" Thomas asked curiously.

"What the fuck is a microwave?"

A chuckle escaped Thomas' lips upon hearing Luc's question and he had to take a breath to compose himself before responding, "It's a box that muggles use to heat up their food."

"And to think, they used to burn us at the stake..." Luc mumbled, rubbing his temple with the heel of his hand. "Okay, now tell me about those moving picture boxes that muggles spend all day sitting in front of."

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While Thomas was busy explaining various muggle inventions to Luc, below their feet, something was stirring. The inferi stalked each floor in search of the witches and wizards, their bones scraping against each other as their rotting flesh loosened. And somewhere deep within the Shack, a grandfather clock chimed, marking the final twenty-four hours.

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A/N: A slightly less action-packed chapter for this week, but don't worry, the next one is going to be wild! Also wanted to take the chance to develop a little bromance between our Slytherin boys since they've been feuding this whole time. I can't stop laughing thinking about Thomas explaining muggle things to Luc lmfao.

If you were to go to Hogwarts, what muggle items would be the hardest for you to give up?