HP - Shadow Monarch!

Chapter 58 - Werewolf.

[Chapter Size: 1900 Words.]
Third Person POV

Hogwarts.

...

...

Snape looked at the tree standing out in the moonlit night outside the school. He had seen this place many times before, but this was the first time he approached it for a closer look.

He knew that while he was investigating Lupin years ago, the school nurse would always bring him here once a month. He even tried to warn Lily at the time, which made his ex-friend furious as he kept trying to make her stay away from Lupin, saying he was dangerous. The headmaster didn't help much either.

He continued walking, finding an entrance in the middle of the tree, then followed, looking at the tree, expecting some reaction from it as he was now in its territory.

"He's going in!!" Far away, James, Sirius, and Peter watched from a distance, hidden, while waiting for this very moment to happen. They hadn't been able to get revenge on Snape, and he continued to humiliate them without them being able to do anything.

This made the letter an option, albeit a somewhat extreme one, but having finally the opportunity to see Snape cornered, they hoped to see him run away, even though he didn't seem to know the danger that being in a room with a werewolf posed for an ordinary student.

Everything seemed to be going according to their plan as they saw Snape continue walking even under the tree. "Hey, why isn't he using a spell to calm the Whomping Willow?" Black asked, surprised as he watched Snape keep walking.

"Does he know how to use that spell?" Peter asked as James and Potter realized Snape could be crushed before even reaching the transformed Lupin.

However, in the next moment, the willow made its move so fast that no one could react. It simply bent its trunk and seemed to slam Snape in the next instant, even destroying the ground around it.

The three Marauders looked at this with wide eyes. "Was he crushed?!" Pettigrew said, trembling.

"What are we going to do?!" Sirius asked James.

"We're not going to do anything!! Let's go back to the castle and pretend nothing happened!" James immediately said, not wanting to be responsible for anything that happened, as he and Black started to move, but Pettigrew soon noticed something happening in front of him.

"The willow is behaving strangely!!" He pointed to the spot, while the Whomping Willow itself seemed to be trying to pull the entire tree upwards, but somehow it couldn't.

James, Sirius, and Peter looked at it stunned, as the willow seemed to be trying to straighten its trunk. Meanwhile, beneath it, Snape was simply standing in the spot he had been hit but not lying on the ground as the Marauders had imagined. On the contrary, he was standing while his left hand protected him from the tree when it attacked.

Snape easily caught and held it while the tree now tried to escape his grip, but he held it firmly. "You have quite a strong hit... tree, but if that's all you can do, I'm disappointed..." he taunted while the tree didn't seem to appreciate his words.

He then finally let it go, making the tree rise back to its initial position. The willow seemed to want to continue attacking Snape, but he was already near the entrance due to the tree waiting for him to get close enough so he couldn't escape.

"But you know..." Snape commented as he was entering, "You seem like a good sparring partner. Maybe I'll visit you in the mornings..." Snape said and entered.

As the Gryffindor students continued to spy on him, not understanding what had just happened—after all, they could only see Snape being hit but coming out unscathed—Snape also noticed them but didn't care, as this was already expected. He entered the place, descending a staircase and finally reaching a door with a padlock around it, appearing quite reinforced. He could hear moans and animalistic growls from the other side.