This secret passageway is under the Whomping Willow and leads to the Shrieking Shack. It appears in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
About[]
The passageway leads to the Shrieking Shack. The entrance at Hogwarts Castle is hidden by the Whomping Willow. It is subdued by tapping a knot in the base of the tree which stops it attacking long enough for a person to get through its roots to the passageway. A part of the passageway is on the Marauder's Map. However, it disappears at the edge of the paper when the path crosses into Hogsmeade, so it doesn't tell the viewer that it leads to the Shrieking Shack.[1] The passageway is long but begins to slope up the closer it gets to the Shrieking Shack, then it twists around a corner where there is a hole into the untidy and dusty Shack.[1]
History[]
The passageway was built in the 1960s for Remus Lupin. He was supposed to keep it secret but he told his friends, James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. They used the passageway to help Lupin get to the Shrieking Shack whenever he was going to transform into a werewolf. They put the location in their Marauder's Map.[2] Fred and George Weasley thought that nobody had ever used the passageway because it was under the Whomping Willow and was dangerous to get to.[2]
In June 1994, Sirius dragged Ronald Weasley through the passageway to get Scabbers (who waa reallyPeter Pettigrew). Crookshanks helped Harry and Hermione subdue the Whomping Willow in their pursuit of Ron.[1] Lupin and Snape later passed through to the Shrieking Shack too. Snape had found Harry's Cloak of Invisibility dropped near the passageway.[3]
Notes and sources[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 17
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 10
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 18