Written by Muriel Maple
It seems to have become a pattern that whenever students enjoy a Hogsmeade Weekend, something mysterious stirs in the village. Yet what unfolded last weekend will be remembered for years to come — not just for the haunting events themselves, but for the lessons learned about empathy, grief, kindness, and the enduring power of love even in tragedy.
On the 19th of October, 2032, it wasn’t only the howling winds that unsettled the students visiting Hogsmeade. Whether browsing sweets at Honeydukes or warming their hands with a Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks, both villagers and students were disturbed by eerie singing drifting across the rooftops — a mournful melody carried from the direction of the Shrieking Shack.
Unable to ignore the heart-wrenching song, a group of brave students followed the sound up the path toward the old manor ruins. There, they discovered an old locket engraved with the initials E + T, holding pictures of a young, smiling couple. Despite warnings from nearby adults, the students ventured into the ruins and encountered the source of the haunting: a ghostly young witch named Eliza, trapped in her grief and longing for her lost love.
Eliza told them her story in soft, trembling tones. She had once been a young witch in love with a wizard named Theodore, whose life had been darkened by the curse of lycanthropy. They had dreamed of finding a cure together, of a life not defined by fear. But one full moon, against Theodore’s desperate warnings, Eliza had gone to find him — and never returned alive.
Since that night, her ghost had remained bound to the Shack, returning each October to sing her sorrow into the wind. But this time was different.
The students listened, comforted her, and even managed to fix her broken music box — its gentle melody filling the room like a promise. Others pieced together pages of a journal scattered among the ruins, fragments of the lovers’ final days. Eliza believed that Theodore had left something for her, and she asked the students to help her find it.
Following clues from St. Mungo’s Outreach to Goode’s Potion Shoppe and Tomes & Scrolls, the students traced Theodore’s desperate search for a cure. Their journey led them to the village docks, where they unearthed an old, half-buried chest. Inside lay Theodore’s final letter to Eliza — and his wand. Guided back to the Shack by a friendly Labrador, the group gathered to read his last words aloud.
The letter told of a man clinging to his humanity despite the curse consuming him. Theodore begged Eliza never to seek him out as the moon rose, fearing he could not control the beast. He confessed that if he never returned, he wanted her to know he had hidden his wand where they first met — by the Great Lake. His final words revealed the unbearable guilt that had driven him to his own end after realizing what had happened to his beloved.
When the letter was read aloud in the Shack, the air grew still. Eliza listened, tears glistening like starlight, and for the first time in years, she smiled. She asked the student holding Theodore’s wand to place it inside her music box — a final resting place for their story.
Then, as the melody played one last time, Eliza thanked the students for their kindness. She said she could feel her Theodore waiting for her, and this time she knew how to find him, and with a look of quiet peace, she faded into the light.
Since that night, no sorrowful singing has been heard in Hogsmeade. Only the autumn wind now carries the memory of a love that endured beyond life itself.
