When the zombies first came, Penny was hiding behind the punishing branches of the whomping willow. Curled into a hollow in its side, she felt almost safe. She had dug deep below the roots to reach that spot — she had been hiding there since Voldemort and his ilk had sent the snatchers. (She had stayed at Hogwarts for additional studies.) Food was a problem, but dear half-blooded Susan had been able to sneak it to her regularly enough. Already the days where some were a target based on blood status and others were safe and free seemed very distant. Now everyone was targeted indiscriminately, inhumanely…
Susan was still her ally — and friend, she would not be so cold as to describe her in that distant umanner. Warmth of character was especially important to preserve in a time such as this. But Susan was now at just as much risk as Penny, and so could not be sent out as a go-between. In the nook of the tree the two of them sat together, developing their magic. Training the tree to fight especially for them. And coaxing other plants too, plants growing near the edge, and even some that had been Accio’d all the way from the green house, or that they had run outside to take if it resisted being carried with magic. They brought these plants into the Shrieking Shack as a passive line of defense, and cracked open the wood to put roots in the soil underneath.
Sometimes the whomping willow stretched its branches up to the sky, and Penny and Susan could see the land unobstructed. It was nerve-wracking, all that open space. But the tree always smashed down incoming threats, or at least had so far.
Penny’s friendship with Susan was strange – a few years apart, different houses, barely even passing acquaintances before it all went down. But Susan found her when she was alone, and this was a kindness Penny would keep with her until she died. By now the care was mutual, and surviving with Susan made surviving feel a bit more worthwhile.
Penny and Susan used Aguamenti to create streams of water for the other to drink from. And Penny had sent her owl, Natasha, to get food for a long while. There was no need to offer payment now, the social order being thoroughly disbanded. But a few days ago she had returned behaving erratically, making the telltale clicking noise of the zombies. Susan had acted fast, killing Natasha. She and Susan buried her once the threat was past.
The zombies came nearly every day, and there was no rhyme or reason to when they appeared. The tree had not failed them yet. But there was a scare, once, when three zombies found the secret entrance before Penny and Susan had built up many defenses. Penny sent the weeds after them, and was able to hold them in place long enough to finish them off. This was the incident that gave her the idea to harness more plants than just the Whomping Willow.
The problem was not so much the strength of any individual zombie, but the sheer number of them: the hordes outpouring over the earth, like Voldemort’s Inferi but more, worse, more agile. They multiplied like rabbits, they did, and whenever they got close enough they lunged in for the bite, transforming the person into another one of their own. Magic could kill one easily enough. But fifty? A hundred? A thousand? And the zombies of wizards retained their magical ability, although not the brainpower to fully use it. Many zombies of wizards have broken their wands through misuse, which further limited their power, but their magic could still be dangerous.
Penny knew that she wasn’t really safe, not if a large horde found its way into the shack. But there was nothing she could do other than build up more defenses.
The lack of food, however, was becoming an increasingly acute danger. Penny was already a bit foggy. Susan said there were stores of food in Hogsmeade at the Hogs Head Inn, if it was still undamaged. She had gone back and forth to get it during the war. It would be better to get food from a muggle village, in theory (because the zombies would be weaker.) But the Hogwarts grounds were so secluded they would have had to travel overnight, and they didn’t even know where food could be found. Hogwarts Castle, of course, also had food in it, or at least it should’ve. The two of them debated and decided to attempt Hogsmeade instead, because it has growing things that could potentially be used, and more space to run, even though it is a little farther away.
There was another reason, a reason they avoided talking about directly. Inside Hogwarts, nearly all of the zombies would be of people they knew, classmates, teachers, friends… Some were so far gone that they were unrecognizable, but others were as clear as a mirror to who they once were. Seeing so many of them would be too much to bear, and might cause them to act too slowly.
In Hogsmeade most of the zombies would be strangers.
Traveling through the shack and its tunnels was not really possible – there were too many plants to get past. Even if she could avoid being hurt by the plants (she had attempted to train them not to harm her – but held minimal score in the effectiveness of this if the plants felt her climbing past them) she would surely harm or trample them just in trying to get past.
Acting fast was key. Penny is a faster runner — she’s always had long legs. But Susan has faster reflexes, noticing slight changes in milliseconds. They went out together, preferring to throw in their lot. Each was holding a magically shrunken devils snare in her pocket, to be deployed if necessary, which could inflate to full size.
At first there were no zombies in sight. They got all the way to the edge of the lawn before spotting a zombie. The zombie did not seem to have spotted them. They ran past, into the forest. The forest had many places for zombies to hide but it also had many plants that could be spelled into weapons. There were fifteen or so to the side of the path up ahead. Susan froze for a second. The zombies spotted the girls and began to walk towards them. Susan recovered, sending a petrification spell their way. It hit three of them, but the third was not hit fully and was only made to move slower. The rest came charging at them and Penny threw her devil's snare on the lot, grabbed Susan’s hand, and ran off the path into the edge of the trees. The zombies struggled against the plant that was holding them in place and choking the un-life out of their decaying bodies.
Penny and Susan returned to the path after passing the zombies, not trusting themselves to keep from getting lost in the forest. The zombie that was slowed followed behind them. It reached out and its fingers grazed Susan’s ankle. She kicked it aside and ran on.
At last they got out of the forest, thoroughly out of breath – not without encountering a few more zombies, but none that couldn’t be handled with spells. The killing curse doesn’t work on zombies, presumably because they are already dead, so getting past them requires a bit more creativity. Penny figured this out back when she wasn’t confident in the whomping willow’s ability to handle them.
The town of Hogsmeade was full of zombies everywhere Penny looked. Penny and Susan stayed along the edge of the forest, listening carefully. Zombies were coming in and out of buildings, and congregating on the pathways. Penny spotted a zombie with melted gummies and chocolate smeared across its face, with presumably a blood-flavored lollipop sticking out of its mouth. The absurdity almost made her laugh, but she stifled it. She had to stay focused.
Penny and Susan continued along the forest edge until Susan spotted the Hogs Head. They clenched their hands around their wands and started to run. It wasn’t long before the zombies spotted them. They zigzagged through the area, staying as far as possible from clumps of zombies. The building was fifty feet away now, but there were zombies in the doorway. Susan pointed her wand at the flowers near the zombies’ feet and caused all of the pollen to fly out at once and into the zombies’ faces and mouths, blinding and disorienting them. The two of them ran inside, bodily pushing away any zombies that were close.
“In the basement!” yelled Susan, already running in that direction. Penny followed. There was a pile of boxes full of preserved food. Susan cast “Reducio” to shrink the boxes until they could all be carried, and each girl picked some up. The boxes were at risk of falling out of her arms and Penny didn’t know how she’d ever run back through the town. But she suddenly remembered that apparition is possible within Hogsmeade. If only she could reach her wand…
“Susan, take some more boxes.” Penny spotted a zombie coming up behind her and moved to the side. “Quick!” She grabbed her wand, dropping a box, and, having no free arms with which to hold Susan, curled her foot around Susan’s ankle. The zombie reached out to grab and bite. She put her wand in her mouth, threw the devil's snare on the zombie, and performed the apparition spell.
She was squeezed so tight. She tried to gasp for air but it was not possible. There was no air to gasp at, and no one to do the gasping. It had been a long time since she apparated. And then pain roared through her and she landed at the edge of Hogsmeade. Leg still curled around Susan, they both fell, scattering the boxes, but Penny barely noticed. A whole length of skin along her chest and shoulder was gone, revealing the bloody inner layers. It hurt so badly she could hardly think. Susan numbed the splinched area and relief welled up in Penny. However, the numbing spell also caused the splinched area to be paralyzed, so Penny struggled a little in picking up boxes.
A trio of zombies came nearly ten feet away, but Susan saw them back off. Strangely, as the two of them started into the woods, the zombies seemed to be ignoring them entirely. Penny theorized that because of her wound, they thought she, too, was a zombie. Whatever the reason, they got home without further incident. As Susan started working in earnest on treating Susan’s wounds, she couldn’t help but think that splinching or other methods of disfigurement was a highly distasteful but viable option for future endeavors. She didn’t have the supplies and medicine to treat it fully, but she hoped it would be good enough. And the two of them could lie low for the time being, with all the food that they had retrieved.