Finally it's the first Hogsmeade weekend. Fred and George have told me such a lot about it that I'm really impatient to visit. All of us were lined in the Castle grounds. Professor McGonagall had collected the permission forms and shortly afterwards the gates would be opened allowing us to go to Hogsmeade. 

And finally the moment arrived. The gates were opened and students rushed out. The whole atmosphere was vibrating with happiness and glee. The twins were arguing among themselves on which Zonko's joke item to buy in large stock. 

While I was thinking about Percy. This morning he had taken me aside and told me that he had managed to ask Penelope out on a date to Madam Puddifoot's teashop, the haunt of happy couples. Ah well who am I kidding? I was the one who gave him that suggestion. 

He had threatened me to make sure that the twins stayed far away from that shop so that they would not catch a glimpse of Percy with his girlfriend or else he wouldn't talk to me for goodness knows how long. 

And I agreed. Idiotic, I know. But then he's my brother and I do have to help him sort out some of his problems. And it is going to be a difficult task. Because firstly I don't know where it is located exactly and secondly when the twins want to go somewhere no one can stop them. Hoping for the best nevertheless. 

***

Anyhow we reached Hogsmeade. It is a picturesque little village of cottages and shops, with enchanted candles hanging in the trees during the holidays. We were headed towards the High Street where the joke shop and sweet shop was located. 

"So firstly we'll go to Zonko's Joke shop," the twins instructed the schedule, "then we'll show you the Hogsmeade post office. Deals exclusively in owl post. Then to the Shrieking Shack and then to Honeydukes. And yes not to forget, we'll have some Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks." 

Sounds interesting. And miraculously though, the tea shop is nowhere in our schedule. Job made twice easier. Thank God. We stepped inside the Zonko's Joke Shop which was an absolute favorite place for Hogwarts students to shop on Hogsmeade trips as it carried jokes and tricks to fulfill even Fred and George Weasley's wildest dreams.

Such products were Dungbombs, Hiccough Sweets, Frog Spawn Soap, Sugar Quills and Nose-Biting Teacups. I would like some Sugar Quills though. They are this fabulous sweet which looks like a quill but you can suck it and it tastes sugary. I had always been such a kid for having sweets. We were quite loaded when we left the joke shop. 

Now to the post office. Owls after owls were lined up for distribution of mail and it looked so awesome. 

And now to the Shrieking Shack. It is said to be the most haunted buildings in Britain. And it sure looks like it. According to Nearly Headless Nick, not even the Hogwarts ghosts will enter it. How ironic though.

The Shrieking Shack was an abandoned house, with the windows and doors boarded up. The rooms and halls were all dirty, covered with dust, and the furniture was moth-eaten and broken. There was a chair in the foyer of the Shack that had one of its legs ripped. In one of the rooms, there was a magnificent but dusty four-poster bed with rickety doors. Actual definition of creepy as if the whole place was scratched with powerful claws. 

"Interesting, isn't it?" Fred asked. 

I nodded. 

Interesting but quite nightmarish. I delicately fingered one of the window shutter which was ripped off and through which we were looking inside. 

Something flashed. 

No, not again. 

A low painful howl reached my ears. 

No. 

This shall not happen again or else there will be solid evidence that I'm losing my sanity. And then ripping and shredding sounds started to come from inside the house. Just my imagination. Just imagination. 

I bumped into George, "hey Kat you okay?" 

Okay. Of course I'm okay. It's just my mind that has decided to go free falling today. 

"Got scared, did you? Come on let's go somewhere else." 

Yes, let's go somewhere else. I don't know why I keep hearing those voices and I can't help but feel that there must be some reason behind it. But I don't wanna think about that now. I don't wanna spoil my weekend.

***

Going somewhere else helped a lot. Next stop was Honeydukes. And it was heaven for sweet lovers like me. There were shelves upon shelves of the most succulent looking sweets imaginable. 

Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, fat, honey colored toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavor Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizzbees, the levitating sherbet balls that Ron had mentioned; along yet another wall were Special Effects sweets: Drooble's Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell-colored bubbles that refused to pop for days), the strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps ('breathe fire for your friends!'), Ice Mice ('hear your teeth chatter and squeak!'), peppermint creams shaped like toads ('hop realistically in the stomach!') , fragile sugar-spun quills and exploding bonbons. 

There was a variety of chocolates too including Charm Choc, Chocoballs, Chocolate Cauldrons, Chocolate Frogs, Chocolate Skeletons, Chocolate Wands, Choco-Loco and Wizochoc. I really wanted to buy every single sweet in there. 

It seemed as if Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory had been brought to life. I remember how I had wished to witness a real life Wonka's factory when I was reading Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 

On the front counter was a board that read: Important Allergy Information - Our products may contain Peanuts, Almonds, Cashews, Hazelnuts, Macadamias, Pecans, Walnuts, Wheat, Milk, Egg, and Soy Products. Good thing I'm not allergic to any of these. 

I was thinking about trying out a Cauldron Cupcake when a shriek came from the other side of the shop. I turned to see Percy and Penelope in the corner with Percy's face getting redder than carrots. 

Now what happened... Uh oh. 

The twins had seen them when I was too busy observing the sweets and now they were plummeting Percy with dozens of questions. I gotta go help poor Perce over there. 

"Aw, Percy you never told us about your girlfriend," Fred spoke. 

"What would the new dating couple like to have? Cupid chocolates or heart shaped acid pops?" George added. 

Uh oh. 

Percy's gonna take out all his anger on me later when we reach the school. No I'm definitely not looking forward to that. 

"Fred and George, you said that we had to visit the Three Broomsticks as well," I'm trying, okay? But I'm not sure that anything would work now. 

The whole shop is going to turn into Shrieking Honeydukes no matter what I do. And precisely that's what happened. 

Penelope fled off somewhere and Percy was screaming his head off at the twins for ruining his date. 

Supposedly. 

"It was not a date, you idiots! And now look she went off because of you!" 

Shrieking Honeydukes, how appropriate.

***