__THE EXECUTION__
"I will yank that rat out of your hands and stomp on it."
———
Harry's euphoria at finally winning the Quidditch Cup lasted at least a week. Even the weather seemed to be celebrating; as June approached, the days became cloudless and sultry, and all anybody felt like doing was strolling onto the ground and flopping onto the grass with several pints of iced pumpkin juice, perhaps playing a casual game of Gobstones or watching the giant squid propel itself dreamily across the surface of the lake... all except for Rose. She was getting tired of seeing everyone's smiles, of course the trio and Blaise was an exception but anyone else made her sick.
Exams were nearly upon them, and instead of lazing around outside, the students were forced to remain inside the castle, trying to bully their brains into concentrating while enticing wafts of summer air drifted in through the windows. Even Fred and George Weasley had been spotted working; they were about to take their O.W.L.s (Ordinary Wizarding Levels). Percy was getting ready to take his N.E.W.T.s (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests), the highest qualifications Hogwarts offered. As Percy hoped to enter the Ministry of Magic, he needed top grades. He was becoming increasingly edgy, and gave very severe punishments to anybody who disturbed the quiet of the common room in the evenings. In fact, the only person who seemed more anxious than Percy was Hermione.
Rose, Ron, and Harry had given up asking her how she was managing to attend several classes at once, but they couldn't restrain themselves when they saw the exam schedule she had drawn up for herself. The first column read:
Monday
9 o'clock, Arithmancy
9 o'clock Transfiguration
Lunch
1 o'clock, Charms
1 o'clock Ancient Runes
"Hermione?" Ron said cautiously, because she was liable to explode when interrupted these days.. Rose didn't blame her. "Er— are you sure you've copied down these times right?"
"What?" snapped Hermione, picking up the exam schedule and examining it. "Yes, of course i have."
"Is there any point asking how you're going to sit for two exams at once?" said Harry.
"No," said Hermione shortly. "Have any of you seen my copy of Numerology and Gramatica?"
"Oh, yeah, i borrowed it for a bit of bedtime reading," said Ron, but very quietly. "Cmon, guys." Harry and Ron walked out of the portrait hole.
Rose snickered, "I still don't understand how you can be in two classes at once."
Hermione glared at her.
"Okay, okay, don't kill me.." She teased. "I mean, what? do you have like a time machine?" She joked.
Hermione tensed.
Rose noticed, and her smile slowly disappeared. "You—you have—a time—" Hermione threw a book at her.
"Hey—" she catches the book before it hit her in the face.
"I do not have a time machine." Hermione whisper-shouted.
Rose squinted her eyes at her. "Right.. okay." She slowly backed away out of the portrait hole to catch up with Ron and Harry.
——-
"Beaky's gettin' a bit depressed," Hagrid told them, bending low on the pretense of checking that Harry's flobberworm was still alive. "Bin cooped up too long. But still... we'll know day after tomorrow—one day or the other—"
They had Potions that afternoon, which was an unqualified disaster. Try as Harry might, he couldn't get his Confusing Concoction to thicken, and Snape, standing watch with an air of vindictive pleasure, scribbled something that looked suspiciously like a zero onto his noted before moving away.
Rose wasn't struggling, she wasn't as bad as Potions as Harry was. Snape stopped by her desk, and leaned over to look into her cauldron. "Hm." Rose paused and stared at him blankly. "Yes?"
"Nothing." He stated before scribbling something else down into his notes. She narrowed her eyes as he walked away, making a childish face at him when his back was turned. Harry laughed.
Then came Herbology, in the greenhouses under a baking-hot sun; then back to the common room once more, with sunburnt necks, thinking longingly the next day, when it would all be over.
Their second to last exam, on Thursday morning, was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Lupin had to compiled the most unusual exam any of them had ever taken; a sort of obstacle course outside the sun, where they had to wade across a deep paddling pool containing a Grindylow, cross a series of potholes full of Red Caps, squish their way across a patch of marsh while ignoring misleading directions from a Hinkypunk, then climb into an old trunk and battle with a new Boggart.
"Excellent, Harry," Lupin muttered as Harry climbed out of the trunk, grinning. "Full Marks."
Flushed with his success, Harry hung around to watch Rose, Ron and Hermione. Rose was done with the other obstacles, and entered the trunk. She was definitely prepared to see Aurora shouting at her again.
"You! You—"
"Riddikulus." Rose boringly muttered, aiming her wand at the Boggart. She then stepped out of the trunk, arms dangling at her sides. She stopped my Harry and stood there waiting for Ron and Hermione to finish the course.
"Brilliant, Rose." Lupin stated to Rose. She nodded in acknowledgment.
Harry blushed at the very close proximity between them, Rose's pinky just barely touching Harry's, and he quickly turned his head opposite of Rose's direction so he wouldn't embarrass himself. Lupin noticed and snickered.
Ron did very well until he reached the Hinkypunk, which successfully confused him into sinking waist-high into the quagmire. Hermione did everything perfectly until she reached the trunk with the Boggart in it. After about a minute inside it, she burst out again, screaming.
"Hermione!" said Lupin, startled. "What's the matter?"
"P-P-Professor McGonagall!" Hermione gasped, pointing to the trunk. "Sh-she said i'd failed everything!"
It took a little while to calm Hermione down, Rose rubbing her back and reminding her who the brightest witch in her age is. When she last had regained a grip on herself, she, Harry, Rose, and Ron went back to the castle. Ron was still slightly inclined to laugh at Hermione's Boggart, but an argument was averted by the sight that met them on the top of the steps.
Cornelius Fudge, sweating slightly in his pinstriped cloak, was standing there staring out at the grounds. He started at the sight of Harry.
"Hello there, Harry!" he said, then noticing Rose. "Miss Black.."
"Hello Corny." She waved sarcastically.
He sighed, "For the hundredth time, my name is Cornelius."
"I'm aware."
"Anyway! Just had an exam, Harry? Nearly finished?"
"Yes," said Harry. Hermione and Ron, not being on speaking terms with the Minister of Magic, hovered awkwardly in the background.
"Lovely day," said Fudge, casting an eye over the lake. "Pity... pity..."
He sighed deeply and looked down at them.
"I'm on an unpleasant mission, Harry. The Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures required a witness to the execution of a ma Hippogriff. As i needed to visit Hogwarts to check on the Black situation, i was asked to step it."
"Does that mean the appeal's already happened?" Rose interrupted, stepping forward.
"No, no, it's scheduled for this afternoon," said Fudge, looking curiously at Rose.
"Then you might not have to witness an execution at all!" said Ron stoutly. "The Hippogriff might get off!"
Before Fudge could answer, two wizards came through the castle doors behind him. One was so ancient he appeared to be withering before their very eyes; the other was tall and strapping, with a thin mustache. Harry gathered that they were representatives of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures, because the very old wizard squinted toward Hagrid's cabin and said in a feeble voice, "Dear, dear i'm getting to old for this... Two o'clock, isn't it? Fudge?"
The black-mustached man was touching something in his belt; Harry looked and saw that he was running one broad thumb along the blade of a shining axe. Ron opened his mouth to say something, but Rose nudged him hard in the ribs and jerked her head toward the entrance hall.
——-
Harry, Ron, and Rose's last exam was Divination; Hermione's, Muggle Studies. They walked up the marble staircase together; Hermione left them on the first floor and Harry, Rose and Ron proceeded all the way up to the seventh, where many of their class were sitting on the spiral staircase to Professor Trelawney's classroom, trying to cram in a bit of last-minute studying.
"She's seeing us all separately," Neville informed them as they went to sit down next to him. He had his copy of Unfogging the Future open on his lap at the pages devoted to crystal gazing. "Have any of you ever seen anything in a crystal ball?" he asked them unhappily.
"Nope," said Ron and Rose in unison. Ron kept checking his watch; Rose knew that he was counting down the time until Buckbeak's appeal started.
The line of people outside the classroom shortened very slowly. As each person climbed back down the silver ladder, the rest of the class hissed, "What did she ask? Was it okay?"
But they all refused to say.
"She says the crystal ball's told her that if i tell you, i'll have a horrible accident!" squeaked Neville as he clambered back down the ladder toward Harry, Ron and Rose, who had now reached the landing.
"Oh, yeah that's nice." Rose grumbled sarcastically.
Harry looked at his watch, it was now two o'clock. "Wish she'd hurry up..."
Parvati came back down the ladder glowing with pride.
"She says i've got all the makings of a true Seer," she informed them. "I saw loads of stuff... Well, good luck!"
She hurried down the spiral staircase toward Lavender.
"Are you ready, Rose?" Harry asked her. "Rose? Hello?" He snapped in front of her face.
She snapped out of it. "Sorry," She quickly stated, looking away. "She was pretty."
Harry rolled his eyes.
"Ronald Weasley," said the familiar, misty voice from over their heads. Ron grimaced at Harry and Rose and climbed the silver ladder out of sight. Harry and Rose settled themselves on the floor with their backs against the wall, Rose's hand on top of Harry's.
Finally, after about twenty minutes, Ron's large feet reappeared on the ladder.
"Well?" Rose asked, standing up.
"Rubbish," said Ron. "Couldn't see a thing, so i made some stuff up. Don't think she was convinced, though..."
Professor Trelawney's voice then called, "Rose Black!"
Rose squeezed her eyes shut in annoyance, going towards the ladder.
"Good luck." Harry snickered.
"Shut up, Harry."
———
The tower room was hotter than ever before; the curtains were closed, the fire was alight, and the usual sickly scent made Rose cough as she stumbled through the clutter of chairs and table to where Professor Trelawney sat waiting for her before a large crystal ball.
"Good day, dear," she said softly. "If you would kindly gaze into the Orb.. Take your time, now.. then tell me what you see within it..."
Rose bent over the crystal ball and stared, already bored. She stared for quite some time.
Nothing.
"Well?" Professor Trelawney asked delicately.
"Er—" said Rose. "I don't see any—"
She paused. Her mouth closed. She furrowed her eyebrows, tilting her head.
"Do you see something?" Trelawney asked excitedly.
She did. But what was it?
It was a large room. A shack, it looked like. Broken and dirty walls, Blankets on a bed that we scrapped up like rags. It was difficult to see, knowing how much fog overtook the crystal ball, but the more she stared, the more clear the picture got.
"Oooh! I think you do, what do you see, dear?"
Trelawney snapped her out of her daze. She opened her mouth a few times but didn't know how to say it. "A—A shack."
"A shack?"
"Yeah." She nodded.
"The Shrieking Shack? Perhaps?" Professor Trelawney suggested.
Rose shrugged.
"Hmm... very well. You may go." Trelawney dismissed.
Rose hummed in acknowledgment, before standing up and walking out, and back down the ladder.
Harry stood up immediately. "How did it go?"
"Saw a random room, told her, and she told me to leave." Rose shrugged.
"Thats it?"
"Yep." There was a silence. "Well, bye." She started walking back down the staircase.
"See you in the common room." He said.
——-
Harry entered the common room again, and it was almost deserted. Over in the corner, however, sat Rose, Ron and Hermione.
"Professor Trelawney," Harry panted, "just told me—"
But he stopped abruptly at the sight of there faces.
Ron looks devastated, Hermione looked terrified, and Rose looked disappointed.
"Buckbeak lost," said Ron weakly. "Hagrid's just sent this."
Hagrid's note was dry this time, no tears had splattered it, yet his hand seemed to have shaken so much he wrote that it was hardly legible.
Lost appeal. They're going to execute at sunset. Nothing you can do. Don't cone down. I don't want you to see it.
Hagrid.
"We've got to go," said Harry at once. "He can't just sit there on his own, waiting for the executioner!"
"Sunset, though," said Ron, who was staring out the window ill a gazed sort of way. "We'd never be allowed... 'specifically you, Harry...."
Harry sank his head into his hands, thinking.
"If we only had the invisibility Cloak..."
"Where is it?" said Hermione.
"This dumbass—" Rose nodded towards Harry. He sighed. "—left it in the passage way to Hogsmeade."
"Its true, and if Snape sees either one of us near there again, we're in serious condition trouble." Harry finished.
"Yeah," said Hermione, getting to her feet. "If he sees you.... How do you open the witches hump again?"
"You tap it and say, 'Dissendium,"" Answered Rose.
Hermione strode across the room, pushed open the Fat Lady's portrait and vanished from sight. "She hasn't gone to get it?" Ron said, staring after her.
She had. Hermione returned a quarter of an hour later with the silvery cloak folded carefully under her robes.
"Hermione, i don't know what's gotten into you lately!" said Ron, astounded. "First you hit Malfoy, then you walk out on Professor Trelawney—"
Hermione looked rather flattered.
They went down to dinner with everyone else, but did not return to Gryffindor Tower afterward. Harry had the cloak hidden down the front of his robes; he had to keep his arms folded to hide the lump because Rose laughed and told him he looked pregnant with it.
They sulked in an empty chamber off the entrance hall, listening, until they were sure it was deserted. They heard a last pair of people hurrying across the hall and a door slamming. Hermione poked her head around the door.
"Okay," she whispered, "no one there—cloak on—"
Walking very close together so that nobody would see them, they crossed the hall on tiptoe beneath the cloak, then walked down the stone front steps into the grounds. The sun was already sinking behind the Forbidden Forest, gliding the top branches of the trees.
They reached Hagrid's cabin and knocked. He answered, and looked all around for his visitor, pale-faced and trembling.
"It's us," Harry hissed. "We're wearing the invisibility cloak. Let us in and we can take it off."
"Yeh shouldn've come!" Hagrid whispered, but he stood back, and they stepped inside. Hagrid shut the door quickly and Rose hurriedly pulled off the Cloak.
"Wan' some tea?" Hagrid asked. His great big hands were shaking as he reached for the kettle.
"Where's Buckbeak, Hagrid?" said Hermione hesitantly.
"I—I took him outside," said Hagrid, spilling the milk all over the table as he filled up the jug. "He's tethered in me pumpkin patch. Though he oughta see the trees an' —an' smell fresh air—before—"
Hagrid's hand trembled so violently that the milk jug slipped from his grasp and shattered all over the floor.
"I'll do it, Hagrid," said Hermione quickly, hurrying over and starting to clean up the mess. "Theres another one in the cupboard," Hagrid said, sitting down and wiping his forehead on his sleeve. Harry glanced at Rose and Ron, who looked back hopelessly.
"Isn't there anything anyone can do, Hagrid?" Harry asked fiercely, sitting down next to him. "Dumbledore—"
"He's tried," said Hagrid. "He's got no power ter overrule the Committee. He told 'em Buckbeak's all right, but they're scared... Yeh know what Lucius Malfoy's like... threatened 'em, i expect... an' the executioner, Macnair, he's an old pal o' Malfoy's... but it'll be quick an' clean.. an' i'll be beside him.."
Hagrid swallowed. His eyes were darting all over the cabin as though looking for some shred of hope or comfort. Rose awkwardly patted his shoulder.
Hagrid continued, "Dumbledore's gonna come down while it— while it happens. Wrote me this mornin'. Said he wants ter—ter be with me. Great man, Dumbledore..."
Hermione, who had been rummaging in Hagrid's cupboard for another milk jug, let out a small, quickly stifled sob. She straightened up with the new jug in her hands, fighting back tears.
"We'll stay with you, Hagrid," she began, but Hagrid shook his head.
"Yeh're ter go back up ter the castle. I told yeh, I don' wan' yeh watchin'. An' yeh shouldn' be down here anyway... it Fudge an Dumbledore catch yeh out without permission, Harry, Rose, yeh'll be in big trouble."
Hermione now had silent tears streaming down her face, and as she picked up the milk bottle to pour some into the jug, she let out a shriek.
"Ron, i don't believe it—it's Scabbers!"
Ron gaped at her.
"What are you talking about?"
Hermione carried the milk jug over to the table and turned it upside down. With a frantic squeak, and much scrambling to get back inside, Scabbers the rat came sliding out onto the table.
"Scabbers!" said Ron blankly. "Scabbers, what are you doing here?"
"Ew." Rose looked at it disgusted.
Ron turned glared at her.
Harry thought, 'She isn't wrong..'. Scabbers looked awful. He was thinner than ever, large tufts of hair had fallen out leaving wide bald patches, and he writhed in Ron's hands as though desperate to free himself.
"Its okay, Scabbers!" said Ron. "No cats! There's nothing here to hurt you!" Hagrid suddenly stood up, his eyes fixed on the window. His normally ruddy face had gone the color of parchment.
"They're comin'..."
Rose, Harry, Ron and Hermione whipped around. A group of men was walking down the distant castle steps. In front was Albus Dumbledore, his silver beard gleaming in the dying sun. Next to him trotted Cornelius Fudge. Behind them came the feeble old Committee member and the executioner, Macnair.
"Yeh gotta go," said Hagrid, every inch of him was trembling.
Ron stuffed Scabbers into his pocket and Hermione picked up the Cloak. "I'll let yeh out the back way," said Hagrid.
They followed him to the door into his back garden. They saw Buckbeak tied to a tree behind Hagrid's pumpkin patch. Buckbeak seemed to know something was happening. He turned his head from side to side nervously.
"Its okay, Beaky," said Hagrid softly. "Its okay..." He turned to Harry, Ron, Rose and Hermione. "Go on," he said. "Get goin'."
Rose started walking but stopped when the others didn't follow. "We going or not..?"
They didn't move.
"Hagrid, we can't—"
"We'll tell them what really happened—"
"They cant kill him—"
"Go!" said Hagrid fiercely.
"Yeah," Rose agreed, waving her hand erratically, "Come on!"
As Hermione threw the cloak over Harry, Ron and Rose, they heard voices at the front of the cabin. Hagrid looked at the place where they had just been.
"Go quick," he said. "Don' listen..."
And he strolled back into his cabin as someone knocked on the front door.
Slowly, in a kind of horrified trance, Harry, Rose, Ron, and Hermione set off silently around Hagrid's house. As they reached the other side, the front door closes with a sharp snap.
"Please, let's hurry." Hermione whispered. "I can't stand it, i can't hear it..."
They started up the sloping lawn toward the castle. The sun was sinking fast now; the sky had turned to a clear, purple-tinged gray, but to the west there was a ruby-red glow.
Ron stopped dead.
"Oh, please, Ron," Hermione began.
"Its Scabbers—he won't—stay put—"
Ron was bent over, trying to keep Scabbers in his pocket, but the rat was going berserk; squeaking madly, twisting and flailing, trying to sink his teeth into Ron's hand.
"Ron, get your fucking rat in your pocket before i yank it out of your hands and stomp on it." Rose whisper-shouted.
They heard a door open behind them and men's voices.
"Okay— Scabbers, stay put—"
They walked forward; Harry was trying not to listen to the rumble or voices behind them. Ron stopped again.
"I can't hold him—Scabbers, shut up, everyone'll hear us—"
The rat was squeaking wildly, but not loudly enough to cover up the sounds drifting from Hagrid's garden. There was a jumble of indistinct Male voices, a silence, and then, without warning, the unmistakable swish and thud of an axe.
Roses jaw fell.
Hermione swayed on the spot.
"They did it!" she whispered. "I'd—don't believe it—they did it!"
———-