The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part One

Home to All The Unwanteds

As James reached the top of the rope, a hand shot down over the edge and grabbed hold of his forearm, helping to pull him out. James grunted with effort as he finally folded over the top and crawled onto snow covered earth. "Blimey," he said, glancing back over his shoulder. "I didn't even see that thing!"

"Yeh ain't suppposed ter see it Messer Potteh, is yeh? S'what secret protectin' is all abou' innit?"

James looked 'round at the familiar voice. "Mr. Frek!" he said in surprise.

Frek nodded. The man had been half the pair that had been the DADA teacher team of the first part of their last year at Hogwarts, assistant to Garm, who had been a most enigmatic man. James never quite figured out how he felt about the duo 'til after they'd left Hogwarts and Garm had been killed on these, the very grounds of Fallengunder, by werewolves who had revolted against the ministry's cruel treatment and turned to alignment with the Dark Lord as members of his army.

"What are you doing here?" James asked.

"Werkin here for the headmistress, ent I?" Frek asked, "Been helpin' out best I can, jus' like I been doin' fer messer Garm all them years... helpin' out best I can..." He nodded.

"Headmistress?" James asked.

Frek nodded, "Ain't yeh been hearin' what's been on here at Fallengunder, then?"

James shook his head.

Frek chuckled. "Ahs well, yeh be seein' soon Messer Potteh. C'mon, its just time for dinner a'fore yeh'll be seein' the lady I reckon." He waved James to follow after him and started up the hill across the grounds to the castle.

James glanced back over his shoulder as they went and saw the moment the ditch went invisible again, flickering out of sight. He was tucking his wand in its holster under his coat as he walked. "So the invisible ditch -"

"More like a moat, messer Potteh," Frek replied, "Yeah it goes all 'round the grounds edge..."

"You get attacked so much 'round here you need it to keep danger out?" James asked.

"Keep 'em dangers out?" Frek laughed. "More to like keepin' 'em in." He winked and turned back to the path.

James raised an eyebrow, unsure what he was walking into, but hurried to keep up to Frek.

The castle doors were not as high and looming as Hogwarts entry hall was, they were smaller but more heavily locked and even had a thick, heavy beam that blockaded them shut, though the beam was, unnervingly enough, on the outside of the door.

There was a heavy iron crank which Frek did by hand, and the beam slid aside so that the doors could open - pushing in rather than opening out. "Gon' warn yeh, Messer James, it ain't been more'n a few hours clean up since the full mo0n, so yeh can't judge the state of it in here by whats yeh see today."

James started to ask what Frek meant but they stepped into the lantern-lit entry to find there was quite a mess inside - furniture knocked over and general disarray. Directly within the doors was a grand stair with two cases that curved up either side of a huge circular room. The stairs were lined with thick blue velvet carpet and at the top landing was an absolutely enormous painted portrait of Ned Veigler, his hair as wild on the portrait as James had ever seen it in life. The portrait smiled and nodded, watching with Ned's twinkling eye as Frek led James straight on through the doors below the landing and into a long, narrow great hall, much smaller than Hogwarts.

The hall may have been smaller, but it was easily thrice as chaotic as James had ever seen Hogwarts castle during a feast.

There were two long row tables, rather than four, and probably three to four hundred people sitting about them. People was the only word James knew to use, for there was no one sort of person there. There were human boys and girls, of course, all who seemed roughly ranging between 7 to 20 years old, but there were others, too. A boy with a long hooked Goblin nose sat beside a person with perfect blond hair that covered the entire body so thickly that it shook when they spoke - a yeti, James thought fleetingly. There was a young giant and a red-eyed vampire girl whose fangs showed when she smiled shyly at James as he followed Frek past her. But mostly, there were people who looked perfectly ordinary save for the fact that they were positively devouring the thick, bloody steaks that sat in piles on the tables.