"He sent us this," Hermione said, holding out the letter.
Harry took it. The parchment was damp, and enormous teardrops had smudged the ink so badly in places that it was very difficult to read.
"They can't do this," Harry exclaimed as soon as he finished reading. "They can't. Buckbeak isn't dangerous."
"Malfoy's dad's frightened the Committee into it," Hermione mumbled, wiping her eyes. "You know what he's like. They're a bunch of doddery old fools, and they were scared. There'll be an appeal, though, there always is. Only I can't see any hope... Nothing will have changed."
"Yeah, it will," Ron said fiercely. "You two won't have to do all the work alone this time, Hermione, Rose.I'll help."
"Oh, Ron!"
Hermione flung her arms around Ron's neck and broke down completely. Ron, looking quite terrified, patted her very awkwardly on the top of the head. Harry and Rosalie shared an awkward glance, a bit happy the two weren't fighting anymore. Hopefully.
"Should we —" Rosalie pointed at the hugging teenagers, looking awkwardly at Harry. The emerald green eyed boy shrugged and held his arms out. Rosie grimaced and punched his shoulder softly, not exactly knowing what to do. She could've hugged him, but I did mention she was too stubborn and petty for her own good, didn't I?
"Ow," Harry winced slightly, rubbing his shoulder.
Finally, Hermione drew away from Ron, who looked just as awkward as his sister.
"Ron, I'm really, really sorry about Scabbers..." she sobbed.
"Oh — well — he was old," said Ron, looking thoroughly relieved that she had let go of him. "And he was a bit useless. You never know, Mum and Dad might get me an owl now."
"You mean they'll get us an owl." Rosalie interjected quickly, but Ron waved her off.
"Same thing."
━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━
The safety measures imposed on the students since Black's second break-in made it impossible for Rose, Harry, Ron, and Hermione to go and visit Hagrid in the evenings. Their only chance of talking to him was during Care of Magical Creatures lessons.
