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Post image for Can you hear that? The Harry Potter Shrieking Shack

One of the most haunted buildings in Britain, the Shrieking Shack has drawn the attention of many students over the years, students who were able to visit Hogsmeade. But only those who have permission slips can go. Harry, lucky boy that he is, wasn’t able to talk Mr. Dursley into signing the slip.

Released with the showing of the movie, The LEGO Harry Potter 4756 Shrieking Shack allows you to recreate the first part of the exciting climax of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Containing three buildings (Honeydukes, the Transfiguration shack and the Shrieking Shack itself) and four LEGO mini figures (Harry Potter, Sirius Black, Reamus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew) and the transforming animals, this is a large set.

Honeydukes, everyone’s favorite sweetshop, is in Hogsmeade! Harry can use the secret passageway underneath it to get to Hogsmeade from the school, and also long as he brings his Invisibility Cloak no one will even know. Full of all sorts of wizard sweets, this is heaven to any student. The shop itself is tiny, comprised of little more than a window display and the entrance, but it has hinges so that it can flip open to reveal the inside. It is also the most colorful building in the set.

Little more than a brown box with white trim, the transformation shed is a marvelous building. The transfiguration shed essentially allows figures to ‘transform’ into the animal counterparts. You place the box over the minifigure you want to transform, make sure the box is loaded with the correct animal, press the button and presto! You now have an Animagus transformed into their creatures. Sirius can transform into a gigantic black dog and Peter can transform into a rat.

Though it isn’t actually haunted, the Shrieking Shack itself has many surprises. The downstairs table can hold a frog or two, the skull on the side definitely adds to the creepiness of the building, though it can also move and shake the bed. There’s even a secret entrance through the side! The white roof can flip up and the whole structure rotates on its base, and all the shutters can be made to hang off their hinges to make the house look even wilder. The wooden titles make the whole place even more realistic, and the planks across the doors and crooked angle of the house really make it seem like it might be haunted. An old spell book sits in a dusty corner, giving the impression someone must have lived here once...

Peter Pettigrew, while not as crazy or portly looking as in the movie, is still very pale and wearing a rumpled grey suit. A semi-nervous expression on his face, he doesn’t look a lot like the frightened movie version. Harry Potter, however, resembles the movie almost completely. With his scar and constantly messy hair, our hero is wearing a grey jacket, red shirt and tan pants. Remus Lupin is wearing a tattered old suit, has scars across his face. The wavy reddish hair matches his comb over well and he has a nice smile on his face. He also has a wolf’s head attachment, so you can make him turn (partway) into a werewolf. Sirius is wearing a decent smile, has an unshaven face and unclean hair, along with his tattered grey-striped Azkaban robes. Sadly though this set is missing Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and Severus Snape, all of whom were involved in the events in the shack.

Recommended for builders aged 8 to 12, this 444-piece set is a large and complicated build. With many moving parts and tiny pieces, it’s no wonder that LEGO recommended it for older builders. A great set for anyone though, don’t let the complexity stop you from buying this set! This would be a perfect set for parents and children to work on, and the playability factory in this set is huge! Will Harry help his Godfather be cleared, or will Remus' transformation give Peter the chance to escape? Only you can decide what will happen that fateful night in the Shrieking Shack!