The Shrieking Shack (Part 2)

"Get out!"

The moment Pomona put the Mandrake back into its pot and removed her earmuffs, she heard someone speaking outside the greenhouse. She looked through the dusty window, which had not been cleaned in years, and saw two adult wizards leading two Slytherin students as they escorted a House-elf toward the greenhouse.

After Hogwarts closed its gates, outsiders were not allowed to enter without the headmaster's permission. Besides, those two adult wizards looked like no good.

Trusting her badger's instincts, Pomona felt that going outside now would lead to no good. In her haste, she hid in the preparation room. Just as she closed the door, the greenhouse door opened as well. The House-elf was shoved inside, stumbling, followed by the four wizards. They shut the door tightly and closed all the windows.

Pomona smelled that rotten stench again, the same smell she had caught in Madam Malkin's robe shop that day. Fighting back her nausea, she peered through the crack in the door to see what they were doing. Once all the windows had been shut, the tall man walked up to the two Slytherin boys and said arrogantly, "There, satisfied? This place is far from the castle. No one will hear you."

The two Slytherin boys still looked uneasy. Then the shorter man said, "Don't worry. It's only a House-elf. You won't get into trouble."

"How could that be?" the slightly plumper student said nervously. "If someone goes missing, people will definitely notice."

"Someone? It isn't a person at all." The tall man's face was filled with disgust. "House-elves are born inferior. Who would make pure-blood nobles answer for one?"

"Take out your wands." The shorter man drew his own wand and said to the two of them, "Hurry up."

The two Slytherin boys hesitated for a moment, but they took out their wands anyway.

"Let these little ones learn something, Evan." The tall man moved aside and sat on a table. The shorter man, Evan, stepped into the middle of the aisle and grinned viciously at the trembling House-elf.

"Cruciatus Curse!" A green light shot from his wand and struck the House-elf directly. It immediately screamed in agony.

"See? That's how you use an Unforgivable Curse." Evan turned to the two Slytherin boys. "Which one of you is going first?"

The two looked at each other. In the end, the plumper boy stepped forward and pointed his wand at the House-elf.

"Cruciatus Curse!"

He shouted the spell. The elf instinctively raised its hands to shield its face, but no green light came from the Slytherin boy's wand.

"No!" the man on the table shouted. "Using an Unforgivable Curse requires resolve. You were still hesitating!"

"I wasn't!" the boy said hurriedly.

"Do as I do!" Evan walked over to the plump boy and raised his wand again. "Cruciatus Curse!"

Another green light struck the House-elf. This time, it rolled across the floor in agony.

Pomona finally understood what they were doing. These two adults were using the House-elf as a practice target, teaching two minors how to cast Unforgivable Curses.

They had no regard for life and delighted in torturing others. House-elves might not be human, but if those two boys followed through, evil would take root and sprout in their hearts like a seed. A new generation of villains would be born.

The plump boy was still hesitating, but the thinner one was already eager to try. He took out his wand and cast the Cruciatus Curse at the House-elf as well. A small green light hit it, and the elf let out only one miserable cry.

"Good, that's it. Be more determined." Evan said loudly, "You aren't playing around. If you truly want to serve the Dark Lord, you must give it everything you have."

They were Death Eaters.

Pomona's entire body went stiff. How could Death Eaters have infiltrated the school?

"Watch and learn, Avery, Mulciber." The man sitting on the table said to them, "Your father would cry if he knew you were this useless."

Mulciber wiped the sweat from his forehead and pointed his wand at the House-elf.

"Please, young master," the elf said weakly. "Robby can't take it anymore."

Yet the Slytherin boy answered its plea with another Unforgivable Curse.

Pomona did not know how many times a person could endure such pain. House-elves were stronger than humans, but their slave mentality left them with power they dared not use to resist. As the two young Death Eaters cast more and more Unforgivable Curses on it, its wails and screams grew quieter, while the expressions on the two boys' faces changed accordingly.

They became crazed and evil, nothing like elegant.

Pomona remembered Pete's warning. Hufflepuffs should stay away from Slytherins, especially after this year's Quidditch match, when the boys' actions had practically been a declaration of war against Slytherin. Mulciber and Avery might not dare do anything to Pomona, but to those two adults, torturing her would be nothing unusual. She would bet they had tortured Muggle adults before.

Expecto Patronum required happy memories, while Unforgivable Curses required the determination to hurt others. Maintaining such malicious thoughts would only make a person increasingly evil. They felt no pain at all; expecting them to suddenly grow a conscience, do something good, or repent was impossible.

When wizards used their strength to oppress other races, had they ever considered that those races might one day resist and trample those once-unrivaled powers beneath their feet?

The goblins had rebelled in the seventeenth century. Professor Binns had spoken of it yesterday. They had used a Hogsmeade tavern as their headquarters. Though Binns had not gone into detail, the result was obvious: Gringotts was now run by goblins.

To negotiate peace, one needed bargaining chips. Wizards' money was now controlled by goblins. How were wizarding nobles supposed to survive without money?

Power had to be fought for. That was why goblins held a higher position in the wizarding world than other races. Centaurs were the same. Wizards called them savages, yet did not dare touch them, at least not like that House-elf on the floor.

Food was not happiness. Strength was happiness. For the first time in her life, Pomona wished she possessed power.

A thousand years ago, Helga Hufflepuff had brought House-elves to Hogwarts, giving those magical creatures persecuted by war a place to live. A thousand years later, Pomona had been sorted into Hufflepuff. A Hufflepuff should keep a low profile, but they were badgers. When necessary, they had to bare their teeth. And Hufflepuffs had to do what was right, because it was right.

Pomona put on her earmuffs, took out her wand, and aimed it at the Mandrake pot across from her.

Professor Flitwick had told her that casting a spell required wand movements, an incantation, and concentration. But the space she was in was too cramped to swing her wand, and she did not dare speak the spell loudly. There were four of them. If she exposed herself, not only would she fail to save the House-elf, she would suffer misfortune as well.

God of magic, bless me. Please let me succeed.

Pomona prayed silently and softly recited the spell the Hufflepuff upperclassmen had repeated countless times the night before. "Diffindo."

She had aimed at the flowerpot, but the spell went slightly off and hit the table instead. With a sharp crack, one of the table's legs broke. The rotten wood could not bear an adult's weight and shattered at once. Then the flowerpots on the table fell to the floor, and more than a dozen Mandrakes began crying together.

"Oh, damn it! Cover your ears!" the Death Eaters cried out. If the Mandrakes had been healthy, a single pot could have killed them. Unfortunately, they were malnourished. Even with more than a dozen crying together, the Death Eaters could still escape.

Only after they had fled far away did Pomona run out from hiding and lift the House-elf into her arms. It was so light, so painfully thin, yet House-elves like it prepared Hogwarts's lavish feasts.

"Wake up." Pomona patted its face. The elf could still move, but its eyes had rolled back, and it looked terribly weak.

Pomona hid it beneath her robes and ran toward the hospital wing with it in her arms.