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┄┄ .•* 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟗 *•. ┄┄
𝒉𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒂 𝒍𝒂 𝒗𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂, 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒓𝒅 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓
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"Harold, snap out of it! We have ten minutes to get back down to the hospital wing!" Hermione said, snapping her fingers in front of Harry's face. The latter was quick to wrench his gaze from the sky.
They slipped through the doorway behind them and down a tightly spiraling stone staircase. As they reached the bottom of it, they heard voices. They flattened themselves against the wall and listened. It sounded like Fudge and Snape. They were walking quickly along the corridor at the foot of the staircase.
". . . . only hope Dumbledore's not going to make difficulties," Snape was saying. "The Kiss will be performed immediately?"
"As soon as Macnair returns with the Dementors. This whole Black affair has been highly embarrassing. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to informing the Daily Prophet that we've got him at last. . . . I daresay they'll want to interview you, Snape. . . . and once young Harry's back in his right mind, I expect he'll want to tell the Prophet exactly how you saved him..."
Harry clenched his teeth. He caught a glimpse of Snape's smirk as he and Fudge passed Harry and Hermione's hiding place. Their footsteps died away. Harry and Hermione waited a few moments to make sure they'd really gone, then started to run in the opposite direction. Down one staircase, then another, along a new corridor—then they heard a cackling ahead.
"Peeves!" Harry muttered, grabbing Hermione's wrist. "In here!"
They tore into a deserted classroom to their left just in time. Peeves seemed to be bouncing along the corridor in boisterous good spirits, laughing his head off.
"Three minutes, Prongslet!"
They waited until Peeves's gloating voice had faded into the distance, then slid back out of the room and broke into a run again.
"Hermione—what'll happen—if we don't get back inside before Dumbledore locks the door?" Harry panted.
"Go figure. . . ." Hermione gasped—all this running was not good for her—, checking her watch again. "One minute!" They had reached the end of the corridor with the hospital wing entrance. "Come on, Harry!"
They crept along the corridor. The door opened. Dumbledore's back appeared.
"I am going to lock you in," they heard him saying. "it is five minutes to midnight. Miss Granger, three turns should do it. Good luck."
Dumbledore backed out of the room, closed the door, and took out his wand to magically lock it. Panicking, Harry and Hermione ran forward. Dumbledore looked up, and a wide smile appeared under the long silver mustache.
"Well?" he said quietly.
"We did it!" said Harry breathlessly. "Sirius has gone, on Buckbeak. . . ."
Dumbledore beamed at them.
"Well done. I think—" He listened intently for any sound within the hospital wing. "Yes, I think you've gone too—get inside—I'll lock you in—"
Hermione and Harry slipped back inside the dormitory. It was empty except for Ron, who was still lying motionless in the end bed. As the lock clicked behind them, Harry and Hermione crept back to their own beds, Hermione tucking the Time-Turner back under her robes. A moment later, Madam Pomfrey came striding back out of her office.
"Did I hear the headmaster leaving? Am I allowed to look after my patients now?"
She was in a very bad mood. Harry thought it best to accept their chocolate quietly, Hermione just grinned and ate with no complaints. And then, as they both took the fourth piece of chocolate from Madam Pomfrey, they heard a distant roar of fury echoing from somewhere above them. . . .
"What was that?" said Madam Pomfrey in alarm.
"A mountain lion," Hermione answered without skipping a beat, causing Harry to crack a grin and Madam Pomfrey to promptly roll her eyes.
Now they could hear angry voices, growing louder and louder. Madam Pomfrey was staring at the door.
"Really—they'll wake everybody up! What do they think they're doing?"
"He must have Disapparated, Severus. We should have left somebody in the room with him. When this gets out—"
"HE DIDN'T DISAPPARATE!" Snape roared, now very close at hand. "YOU CAN'T APPARATE OR DISAPPARATE INSIDE THIS CASTLE! THIS—HAS—SOMETHING—TO—DO—WITH— POTTER!"
"Severus—be reasonable—Harry has been locked up—"
BAM.
The door of the hospital wing burst open.
Fudge, Snape, and Dumbledore came striding into the ward. Dumbledore alone looked calm. Indeed, he looked as though he was quite enjoying himself. Fudge appeared angry. But Snape was beside himself.
"OUT WITH IT, POTTER!" he bellowed. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"
"Professor Snape!" shrieked Madam Pomfrey. "Control yourself!"
"See here, Snape, be reasonable," said Fudge. "This door's been locked, we just saw—"
"THEY HELPED HIM ESCAPE, I KNOW IT!" Snape howled, pointing at Harry and Hermione. His face was twisted; spit was flying from his mouth.
"Calm down, man!" Fudge barked. "You're talking nonsense!"
"YOU DON'T KNOW POTTER!" shrieked Snape. "HE DID IT, I KNOW HE DID IT—"
"That will do, Severus," said Dumbledore quietly. "Think about what you are saying. This door has been locked since I left the ward ten minutes ago. Madam Pomfrey, have these students left their beds?"
"Of course not!" said Madam Pomfrey, bristling. "I would have heard them!"
"Well, there you have it, Severus," said Dumbledore calmly. "Unless you are suggesting that Harry and Hermione are able to be in two places at once, I'm afraid I don't see any point in troubling them further."
Snape stood there, seething, staring from Fudge, who looked thoroughly shocked at his behavior, to Dumbledore, whose eyes were twinkling behind his glasses. Snape whirled about, robes swishing behind him, and stormed out of the ward.
"Fellow seems quite unbalanced," said Fudge, staring after him. "I'd watch out for him if I were you, Dumbledore."
"Oh, he's not unbalanced," said Dumbledore quietly. "He's just suffered a severe disappointment."
"He's not the only one!" puffed Fudge. "The Daily Prophet's going to have a field day! We had Black cornered and he slipped through our fingers yet again! All it needs now is for the story of that Hippogriff's escape to get out, and I'll be a laughingstock! Well. . . . I'd better go and notify the Ministry. . . ."
"And the Dementors?" said Dumbledore. "They'll be removed from the school, I trust?"
"Oh yes, they'll have to go," said Fudge, running his fingers distractedly through his hair. "Never dreamed they'd attempt to administer the Kiss on innocent students. . . . Completely out of control. . . . no, I'll have them packed off back to Azkaban tonight. . . . Perhaps we should think about dragons at the school entrance. . . ."
"Hagrid would like that," said Dumbledore, smiling at Harry and Hermione.
As he and Fudge left the dormitory, Madam Pomfrey hurried to the door and locked it again. Muttering angrily to herself, she headed back to her office.
There was a low moan from the other end of the ward. Ron had woken up. They could see him sitting up, rubbing his head, looking around.
"What—what happened?" he groaned. "Harry? Why are we in here? Where's Sirius? Where's Lupin? What's going on?"
Harry and Hermione looked at each other.
"You explain," said Harry and Hermione at the same time.
Hermione stared at Harry until he couldn't anymore and reluctantly he started to tell the story, as Hermione ate her chocolate.
When Hermione, Ron, and Harry left the hospital wing at noon the next day, it was to find an almost deserted castle. The sweltering, heat, and the end of the exams meant that everyone was taking full advantage of another Hogsmeade visit. Neither Hermione nor Ron felt like going, however, so they and Harry wandered onto the grounds, still talking about the extraordinary events of the previous night and wondering where Sirius and Buckbeak were now. Sitting near the lake, watching the giant squid waving its tentacles lazily above the water.
A shadow fell across them and they looked up to see a very bleary-eyed Hagrid, mopping his sweaty face with one of his tablecloth-sized handkerchiefs and beaming down at them.
"Know I shouldn' feel happy, after wha' happened las' night," he said. "I mean, Black escapin' again, an, everythin' — but guess what?"
"What?" they said, pretending to look curious.
"Beaky! He escaped! He's free! Bin celebratin' all night!"
"That's great!" beamed Hermione, elbowing Ron hard in the ribs because he looked as though he was close to laughing.
"Yeah. . . . can't've tied him up properly," said Hagrid, gazing happily out over the grounds. "I was worried this mornin', mind. . . . thought he mighta met Professor Lupin on the grounds, but Lupin says he never ate anythin' las' night. . . ."
"What?" said Harry quickly.
"Blimey, haven' yeh heard?" said Hagrid, his smile fading a little. He lowered his voice, even though there was nobody in sight. "Er—Snape told all the Slytherins this mornin'. . . . Thought everyone'd know by now. . . . Professor Lupin's a werewolf, see. An' he was loose on the grounds las' night. . . . He's packin' now, o' course."
"He's packing?" said Harry, alarmed. "Why?"
"Leavin', isn' he?" said Hagrid, looking surprised that Harry had to ask. "Resigned firs' thing this mornin'. Says he can't risk it happening again."
Harry scrambled to his feet. "I'm going to see him," he said to Ron and Hermione.
"But if he's resigned—"
"I don't care. I still want to see him. I'll meet you back here."
Hermione then turned to Ron.
"I'm going to see him off at the gates, see you later, Ronnie!" she said as she stood up and started to make her way to the gates.
When she got there, she saw the carriage had already arrived so in a few minutes she was able to spot Remus coming towards her.
"You're leaving," Hermione stated and Lupin nodded. "I just wanted to say, I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me to snap at you the other month, I was just so fed up with people thinking Padfoot was guilty. And you should have been the one who thought the opposite."
"Don't apologize, Mia." Remus smiled at her, "I'm the one who should be apologizing. I'm sorry. Now, I must go, but I will see you soon." He said as he got on the carriage and as he did Hermione couldn't help but overhear him muttering "Just like them. . . ." which made her frown. She shrugged it off and started to make her way back up to the castle.
As she did she couldn't help but notice the group of people watching her from the forest. She frowned. She had been seeing people all year long but could never watch them long enough to make up who they were. She made a dash to the forest but like every time, no one was there. Hermione came to a conclusion. The madness in her was starting to get to her head. So much so she was imagining things. Right?
Nobody at Hogwarts now knew the truth of what had happened the night that Sirius, Buckbeak, and Pettigrew had vanished except Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Professor Dumbledore. As the end of the term approached, they heard many different theories about what had really happened, but none of them came close to the truth.
Malfoy was furious about Buckbeak. He was convinced that Hagrid had found a way of smuggling the Hippogriff to safety, and seemed outraged that he and his father had been outwitted by a gamekeeper. Percy Weasley, meanwhile, had much to say on the subject of Sirius's escape.
"If I manage to get into the Ministry, I'll have a lot of proposals to make about Magical Law Enforcement!" he told the only person who would listen—his girlfriend, Penelope.
Though the weather was perfect, though the atmosphere was so cheerful, though he knew they had achieved the near-impossible in helping Sirius to freedom, they had never approached the end of a school year in worse spirits.
He certainly wasn't the only one who was sorry to see Professor Lupin go. The whole of their Defense Against the Dark Arts class was miserable about his resignation.
"Wonder what they'll give us next year?" said Seamus Finnigan gloomily.
"Maybe a vampire," suggested Dean Thomas hopefully.
"Or an impostor," Hermione suggested.
"Hmmm."
The exam results came out on the last day of term. The three of them had passed every exam. Hermione had gotten O's in almost everything with exception of Herbology—which she didn't actually care that much about (she got an E anyway)—and History of Magic, she got an A.
Percy had got his top-grade N.E.W.T.s; Fred and George had scraped a handful of O.W.L.s each—Hermione was really proud of them and insisted on a picture of the three of them.
Gryffindor House, meanwhile, largely thanks to their spectacular performance in the Quidditch Cup, had won the House championship for the third year running. This meant that the end of term feast took place amid decorations of scarlet and gold and that the Gryffindor table was the noisiest of the lot, as everybody celebrated.
As the Hogwarts Express pulled out of the station the next morning, Hermione gave Harry and Ron some surprising news.
"So, I went to see Minnie, this morning," she began. "I wanted to drop out of Herbology but apparently, that's not possible. So, I quit Muggle-Studies."
"But you passed your exam with three hundred and twenty percent!" said Ron.
"I know," sighed Hermione, "But it's so boring. . . . I thought it'd be more fun. Besides, now I don't need the headache going back in time was."
"I still can't believe you didn't tell us about it," said Ron grumpily. "We're supposed to be your friends."
Hermione rolled her eyes and didn't respond. She then looked around at Harry, who was watching Hogwarts disappear from view behind a mountain. Two whole months before he'd see it again. . . .
"Knock it out, Harold!" Hermione said waking him in the head.
"I'm okay," said Harry quickly. "Just thinking about the holidays."
"Yeah, I've been thinking about them too," said Ron. "Harry, you've got to come and stay with us. I'll fix it up with Mum and Dad, then I'll call you. I know how to use a fellytone now —" Hermione snorted at that "It's the Quidditch World Cup this summer! How about it, Harry? Come and stay, and we'll go and see it! Dad can usually get tickets from work."
"Yeah. . . . I bet the Dursleys'd be pleased to let me come. . . . especially after what I did to Aunt Marge. . . ."
"I'm going too, right Ronald?" Hermione said giving Ron puppy eyes.
"Blimey, Hermione, you know how those eyes work on anyone. . . ." Ron grumbled, "And of course you're coming. Mum wouldn't have it any other way," he told her, and Hermione positively beamed.
It was late in the afternoon that Hermione noticed something outside the window, "Harold, look!" She said pointing outside.
Something very small and gray was bobbing in and out of sight beyond the glass. Harry stood up for a better look and saw that it was a tiny owl, carrying a letter that was much too big for it. The owl was so small, in fact, that it kept tumbling over in the air, buffeted this way and that in the train's slipstream. Harry quickly pulled down the window, stretched out his arm, and caught it. It felt like a very fluffy Snitch. He brought it carefully inside.
The owl dropped its letter onto Harry's seat and began zooming around their compartment, apparently very pleased with itself for accomplishing its task. Hedwig clicked her beak with a sort of dignified disapproval. Crooks sat up in his seat, following the owl with his great yellow eyes. Ron, noticing this, snatched the owl safely out of harm's way.
Harry picked up the letter. It was addressed to him. He ripped open the letter, and shouted, "It's from Sirius!"
"What?" said Ron as Hermione exclaimed, "Read it!"
Dear Harry,
I hope this finds you before you reach your aunt and uncle. I don't know whether they're used to owl posts.
Buckbeak and I are in hiding. I won't tell you where in case this owl falls into the wrong hands. I have some doubts about his reliability, but he is the best I could find, and he did seem eager for the job.
I believe the Dementors are still searching for me, but they haven't a hope of finding me here. I am planning to allow some Muggles to glimpse me soon, a long way from Hogwarts so that the security on the castle will be lifted.
There is something I never got around to telling you during our brief meeting. It was I who sent you the Firebolt, Crookshanks took the order to the Owl Office for me. I used your name but told them to take the gold from my own Gringotts vault. Please consider it as thirteen birthdays' worth of presents from your godfather.
I would also like to apologize for the fright I think I gave you that night last year when you left your uncle's house. I had only hoped to get a glimpse of you before starting my journey north, but I think the sight of me alarmed you.
I am enclosing something else for you, which I think will make your next year at Hogwarts more enjoyable.
If ever you need me, send word. Your owl will find me. I'll write again soon.
Sirius
Hermione watched as Harry looked eagerly inside the envelope. There was another piece of parchment in there. He read it through quickly and felt suddenly as warm and contented as though he'd swallowed a bottle of hot butterbeer in one gulp.
I, Sirius Black, Harry Potter's godfather, hereby give him permission to visit Hogsmeade on weekends.
"That'll be good enough for Dumbledore!" said Harry happily. He looked back at Sirius's letter. "Hang on, there's a PS. . . ."
I thought your friend Ron might like to keep this owl, as it's my fault he no longer has a rat. And tell Hermione thank you for me.
Ron's eyes widened and Hermione smiled at the last sentence. The minute owl was still hooting excitedly.
"Keep him?" Ron said uncertainly. He looked closely at the owl for a moment; then, to Harry's and Hermione's great surprise, he held him out for Crookshanks to sniff.
"What do you reckon?" Ron asked the cat. "Definitely an owl?"
Crookshanks purred.
"That's good enough for me," said Ron happily. "He's mine."
When they got to King's Cross station Hermione bid them all goodbye and ran to her parents wrapping them in a hug. Afterward, they started making their way home.
It was the end of her first whole year in Hogwarts and Hermione couldn't be more nervous about the next one. That's when shit would go down. She'd have to save Cedric and start on her Animagus project. Those were top priorities.
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