Fear of a Name

Chapter Seventy-Four: Freeing Buckbeak

Safe in the shadows of the trees, I turned around; seconds later, Harry and Hermione arrived beside me, panting.
"Right," Hermione gasped. "We need to sneak over to Hagrid's... keep out of sight, both of you..."

We made our way silently through the trees, keeping to the very edge of the forest. Then, as I glimpsed the front of Hagrid's house, I heard a knock upon his door. We moved quickly behind a wide oak trunk, and peered out from either side. Hagrid had appeared in his doorway, shaking and white, looking around to see who had knocked. And then I heard Harry's voice, not from where we were stood, but from Hagrid's cabin.
"It's us. We're wearing the invisibility cloak. Let us in and we can take it off."
"Yeh shouldn've come!" Hagrid whispered. He stood back, then shut the door quickly.

"This is the weirdest thing we've ever done," Harry said fervently from beside me.
"Let's move along a bit," Hermione whispered. "We need to get nearer to Buckbeak!"
We crept through the trees until we saw the nervous Hippogriff, tethered to the fence around Hagrid's pumpkin patch.
"Now?" Harry whispered.
"No!" Hermione said. "If we steal him now, those Committee people will think Hagrid set him free! We've got to wait until they've seen he's tied outside!"
"That's going to give us about sixty seconds," said Harry.

This was starting to seem impossible.

At that moment, there was a crash of breaking china from inside Hagrid's cabin.
"That's Hagrid breaking the milk jug," Hermione whispered. "I'm going to find Scabbers in a moment—"
Sure enough, a few minutes later, I heard the Hermione of three hours ago let out a shriek of surprise.

"Hermione," said Harry suddenly, "what if we — we just run in there and grab Pettigrew—"
"No!" said Hermione in a terrified whisper. "Don't you understand? We're breaking one of the most important wizarding laws! Nobody's supposed to change time, nobody! You heard Dumbledore, if we're seen—"
"We'd only be seen by ourselves and Hagrid!"

"Harry, what do you think you'd do if you saw yourself bursting into Hagrid's house?" I said.
"I'd — I'd think I'd gone mad," said Harry, "or I'd think there was some Dark magic going on—"
"Exactly! You wouldn't understand, you might even attack yourself!" Hermione said, in a quiet voice. "Don't you see? Professor McGonagall told me what awful things have happened when wizards have meddled with time... loads of them ended up killing their past or future selves by mistake!"

"Okay!" said Harry. "It was just an idea, I just thought—"
But Hermione nudged both of us and pointed toward the castle. I moved my head a few inches to get a clear view of the distant front doors. Dumbledore, Fudge, the old Committee member, and Macnair the executioner were coming down the steps.
"We're about to come out!" Hermione breathed.

And sure enough, moments later, Hagrid's back door opened, and I saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione walking out of it with Hagrid. It was, without a doubt, the strangest sensation of my life, standing behind the tree with Harry and Hermione, yet watching them both in the pumpkin patch.
"It's okay, Beaky, it's okay..." Hagrid said to Buckbeak. Then he turned to Harry, Ron, and Hermione of three hours ago. "Go on. Get goin'."

"Hagrid, we can't—"
"We'll tell them what really happened—"
"They can't kill him—"
"Go! It's bad enough without you lot in trouble an' all!"
I watched the Hermione in the pumpkin patch throw the invisibility cloak over Harry and Ron.
"Go quick. Don' listen..."

There was a knock on Hagrid's front door. The execution party had arrived. Hagrid turned around and headed back into his cabin, leaving the back door ajar. I watched the grass flatten in patches all around the cabin and heard three pairs of feet retreating. Harry, Ron, and Hermione of three hours ago had gone... but now I, along with the Harry and Hermione hidden in the trees with me, could hear what was happening inside the cabin through the back door.

"Where is the beast?" came the cold voice of Macnair.
"Out — outside," Hagrid croaked.
I pulled my head out of sight as Macnair's face appeared at Hagrid's window, staring out at Buckbeak. Then I heard Fudge.
"We — er — have to read you the official notice of execution, Hagrid. I'll make it quick. And then you and Macnair need to sign it. Macnair, you're supposed to listen too, that's procedure—"
Macnair's face vanished from the window. It was now or never.
"Wait here," Harry whispered to Hermione and me. "I'll do it."

As Fudge's voice started again, Harry darted out from behind his tree, vaulted the fence into the pumpkin patch, and approached Buckbeak.
"It is the decision of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures that the Hippogriff Buckbeak, hereafter called the condemned, shall be executed on the sixth of June at sundown—"
Harry stared up into Buckbeak's fierce orange eyes and bowed. Buckbeak sank to his scaly knees and then stood up again. Harry began to fumble with the knot of rope tying Buckbeak to the fence.

"—sentenced to execution by beheading, to be carried out by the Committee's appointed executioner, Walden Macnair—"
"Come on, Buckbeak," I heard Harry murmur, "come on, we're going to help you. Quietly... quietly..."
"—as witnessed below. Hagrid, you sign here—"
Harry was clearly pulling hard on the rope, but Buckbeak had dug in his front feet.

"Well, let's get this over with," said the reedy voice of the Committee member from inside Hagrid's cabin. "Hagrid, perhaps it will be better if you stay inside—"
"No, I-I wan' ter be with him... I don' wan' him ter be alone—"
Footsteps echoed from within the cabin.
"Buckbeak, move!" Harry hissed.

Harry tugged harder on the rope around Buckbeak's neck. The Hippogriff began to walk, rustling its wings irritably. They were still ten feet away from the forest, in plain view of Hagrid's back door.
"One moment, please, Macnair," came Dumbledore's voice. "You need to sign too. "
The footsteps stopped. Harry heaved on the rope. Buckbeak snapped his beak and walked a little faster.
"Harry, hurry!" I mouthed.

I could still hear Dumbledore's voice talking from within the cabin. Harry gave the rope another wrench. Buckbeak broke into a grudging trot. They had reached the trees...
"Quick! Quick!" Hermione moaned, as we darted out from behind our tree, both of us seizing the rope as well and adding our weight to make Buckbeak move faster. I looked over my shoulder; we were now blocked from sight; we couldn't see Hagrid's garden at all.
"Stop!" I whispered. "They might hear us."

Hagrid's back door had opened with a bang. Harry, Hermione, Buckbeak and I stood quite still; even the Hippogriff seemed to be listening intently. Silence... then—
"Where is it?" said the reedy voice of the Committee member. "Where is the beast?"
"It was tied here!" said the executioner furiously. "I saw it! Just here!"
"How extraordinary," said Dumbledore. There was a note of amusement in his voice.
"Beaky!" said Hagrid huskily.

There was a swishing noise, and the thud of an axe. The executioner seemed to have swung it into the fence in anger. And then I heard Hagrid howling, and I could just about make out what he was saying through his sobs.
"Gone! Gone! Bless his little beak, he's gone! Musta pulled himself free! Beaky, yeh clever boy!"
Buckbeak started to strain against the rope, trying to get back to Hagrid. Harry, Hermione and I tightened our grip and dug our heels into the forest floor to stop him.

"Someone untied him!" the executioner was snarling. "We should search the grounds, the forest."
"Macnair, if Buckbeak has indeed been stolen, do you really think the thief will have led him away on foot?" said Dumbledore, still sounding amused. "Search the skies, if you will... Hagrid, I could do with a cup of tea. Or a large brandy."
"O' — o' course, Professor," said Hagrid, who sounded weak with happiness. "Come in, come in..."

I listened closely. I heard footsteps, the soft cursing of the executioner, the snap of the door, and then silence once more.
"Now what?" whispered Harry, looking around.
"We'll have to hide in here," said Hermione, who looked very shaken. "We need to wait until they've gone back to the castle. Then we wait until it's safe to fly Buckbeak up to Sirius's window. He won't be there for another couple of hours... oh, this is going to be difficult..."
She looked nervously over her shoulder into the depths of the forest. The sun was setting now.

"We're going to have to move," I said, thinking hard. "We've got to be able to see the Whomping Willow, or we won't know what's going on."
"Okay," said Hermione, getting a firmer grip on Buckbeak's rope. "But we've got to keep out of sight, remember... "

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A/n: As well as this chapter, I just put a trailer type thingy (but kinda not) at the beginning of the book if you wanted to watch it! 🖤