Slowly, the other footsteps started to fade away. There was only Harry, Hermione and Aine left, hidden and crouching behind the wooden bridge's cobbled wall. They sighed, before Harry asks once more, "So... What happened?"
Hermione grabs her necklace out, displaying it to her friends, "This is a Time-turner, Harry... McGonagall gave it to me first term. This is how I've been getting to my lessons all year!" she explains and Aine raised a brow, and her friend went on, "I'm sorry I didn't tell any of you. I made a promise not to say a word."
"Well, you had to keep a promise. And I'm pretty sure Professor McGonagall would have hissed at you if you broke it!" So what now?" Aine tells her, reassuring her guilty friend. Harry glances at the Time-turner, "Wait. Wait, so... You mean we've gone back in time?"
"Yes."
Hermione continued, "Dumbledore obviously wanted us to return to this moment. Clearly, something happened he wants us to change." She pauses, looking ahead, their past selves were already gone. She looks back to her friends, "Come on. We should be at Hagrid's!"
The three of them quickly went down to their friend's house. However, as much as they were excited about their little mission, it was still a better idea to keep themselves concealed so that they don't get seen by others. Hermione leads her friends to the massive Stone Circle, looking ahead at the rest of their selves, hurriedly rushing to Hagrid's place. "Look! Buckbeak's still alive!" Aine beamed, catching the eyes of the Hippogriff who looked in their direction.
Hermione ponders, "Of course. Remember what Dumbledore said?" she exchanged gazes to her friends, "If we succeed, more than one innocent life could be spared!"
"Then let's go," Aine replies, determined. If they managed to set it free, perhaps it'll have more time to explore the wonders of the world. She casts a small smile at the creature, perhaps he'll even soar through the brilliant skies, I think he'll like that very much, feeling the smooth wind across his feathers as he rides above, free.
"Hey, Buck!" Aine whispers to the creature who blinked at her slowly, acknowledging her greeting. The three of them quickly hid behind the pile of gigantic pumpkins, their heads peeking out from the sides, glancing towards the hut. They watched through the small wooden window, as their past selves talked to Hagrid, it was like seeing a little puppet show. Although, the only thing they know was what was going to happen. The crows soon started cawing, alarming them all before they glanced at the chattering sounds of people.
"Here they come, I better hurry," Harry says to the girls, watching the ministry committee and Professor Dumbledore slowly approaching towards Hagrid's house, he stood up, preparing to free Buckbeak, but Hermione quickly grabs his hand and pull him back down, "No! Fudge has to see Buckbeak before we steal him. Otherwise, he'll think Hagrid set him free!" Hermione explains and Aine nodded, as heart-wrecking, it is stay put and wait, they had to do it.
Aine rolls her eyes at Harry who pressed his lips into a line, "Of course! Jeez, we almost busted this time-travel mission!" she fakes a gasp as the boy looks to his friend with a hardened gaze. She was right, but Harry was still feeling impatient, unable to voice his urges, he started tapping his fingers on the pumpkin to count the seconds while waiting.
"Look!" Hermione says and the other two turned their attention back to the little window, watching saw Hagrid pulling a familiar rat from a jar, handing it to Ron who beamed, "Scabbers! You're alive!"
Aine stifled, eyes narrowing at the rat, Harry growled, "It's Pettigrew..!" Sensing Harry's discomfort and agitation, Hermione quickly stops him from doing something stupid, "Harry, No. You can't."
"That's the person who killed my parents." Harry retorted as softly as he can, clenching his fists and anger soon grew ahead of him. "You don't expect me to just sit here!" Harry quickly stands up again, but Aine firmly grabs his wrists, "Harry, please, sit right down." she shakes her head, begging him to stay. Although she was fine with him leaving, the time-heist operation would be ruined and they'll be forced to stay with the consequences. That, Aine was definitely not fine with since she'll miss the people that was from her time.
Hermione's eyes went wide as she gasped at the sight of the adults slowly coming and pulls her friend to the side, hiding once more. She sighs, "Harry, you're in Hagrid's hut now. If you go bursting in, you'll think you've gone mad! Awful things happen to wizards who meddle with time... We can't be seen." she tells them both, but her eyes gazing only at Harry.
The boy pursed his lips, glaring back at the rat that was now in Ron's hands. "I know..." Aine mutters to him softly and he looks to her, "But not now. Trust me." she tells him and the boy breathed in heavily, suppressing his fury before nodding.
"Fudge is coming..." Aine says, her eyes gazing to the Minister of Magic, and Hermione looks back, furrowing, "But why aren't we leaving?" she said to herself, looking at their past selves that were still in the hut, "Why aren't we leaving?" she questions again, glowering. Aine then looks downwards, seeing a pebble that has the shape of a snail's shell. Hermione followed her gaze, and grabs the pebble, recalling a similar object she once saw. Aine knew too, that was the same stone that was thrown towards one of the glass jars and one that Harry's head received. "Throw it," she tells her friend who immediately does what she said. Flinging it harshly through the window, and the shattering sound that came after was heard and all three of the Gryffindors quickly duck their heads.
"Are you bloody mad!" Harry softly exclaims and Aine quickly grabbed another pebble and threw it again.
"Ow..!"
"Ow!" Harry cringes, feeling the same exact pain he felt before happening again. "That hurt!"
"Sorry!" Aine apologized, "Needed to get those statues out of there."
"You mean us."
"Yeah, past us."
They watched once more, as the group of men approached Hagrid's, pounding on the wooden door that creaked, and then their eyes gazing at the back door, where their past selves were looking at the entrance, finding the perfect opportunity to escape. As soon as one side entered, the other hastily and sneakily rushed out of the hut. "Oh crap, here they come." Aine frowns, "Come on!" Hermione urges, running towards the thick trees behind the stack of pumpkins.
Each of them took a tree to hide themselves in, making sure none of their clothing was exposed. Aine could hear her heart thumping so loudly that her ears could feel the pulsing. She looks to Hermione and Harry on her left, both looking at her, "You good?" Harry mouths the words to her, and she nods. "This is fun!" she mouths back, her eyes sparkling at them, and the boy rolls his eyes, while Hermione places a finger over her lips, "Shh..." They then turned to the front, and they watched, holding their breaths as their past selves hid in front of them.
Hermione took a slow step, and peeks from the side of the tree trunk, squinting, "Is that really what my hair looks like from the back?" she whispers, a little too loud, and Aine gulps, Harry's eyes widened, "What...?"
"Shush!"
Their hearts almost dropped as they quickly whipped their bodies backwards, as soon as their past turns around. Aine adverted her eyes to Hermione, she mouths, "What was that for?"
"Sorry...!" Hermione mouths back.
"What?"
"I thought I just saw...Never mind, let's go!"
It took some time but they waited for quite a while until their past selves were gone, Aine's back against the rough, scaly bark of the tree, and every movement gave a light crackling sound, she took a deep breath, positioning herself until she was comfortable enough. She could feel the zagged texture of the tree, sharp enough to cut her palms. She could feel the splinters, egging to pierce her fingers and decided to just pull her sleeves down, hiding half of her hands.
"They're gone." Harry whispers and the girls turned ahead, he was right, they were gone. Thankfully. All of them blew a raspberry, calming themselves down before they moved ahead. "Alright..." Hermione took a deep breath, shifting her gaze to Buckbeak, "Okay, let's go. Harry, go." she tells him and they slowly exposed themselves to the skies once more, moving very stealthily to make sure no one sees them. Hermione and Aine cover themselves behind the pumpkins, steadily making their way towards Buckbeak. After all, he was the one who knew how to get closer to the creature better than the other two.
Slowly, the gap between them and the beast was lessening, but more obstacles came in their way. The black crows started picking their beaks onto them, Aine groans, flinging her arm around to scatter the birds.
Harry lowers his stance, catching Buckbeak's attention, before the Hippogriff itself bowed back, granting him audience before it turned its head back and leaned it onto his talons. Harry quickly grabs the chains, releasing them from the post and getting his hand bitten by a crow at the same time. He pulls the chain, but quickly pauses, as Aine swallowed, the door of Hagrid's hut opened a little, startling all of them. But soon, it closes back.
"Okay... Come on, Buckbeak." Harry urges, pulling the chains, "Come with us, come on." He says to the beast. However, no matter how hard he tugs on it, Buckbeak refuses to come with them, or rather, it didn't move at all.
"Come on! Pull his chain harder!" Hermione presses, "I'm trying! If I pull any further, he's gonna get hurt!" Harry replies, frustrated.
"Well, we're going to get hurt if you don't hurry!" Aine added.
"You want to try?" Harry lowers at her, which the girl simply groans, "Come on, Buckbeak!" the boy pushes on.
"Hurry now, Beaky!" Hermione encourages, her nerves slowly getting pulled along.
The Hippogriff chirped lowly as if telling them to go away, before resting its chin back down. Aine sighs, before turning around to see if there's anything that could haul the beast away. Time was running out and any moment now, the ministers would come out and execute the creature. The girl puffed her cheeks, before spotting an array of ferrets hung on a wooden rack. She grabs all of them, piling them on either side of her shoulders and arm. It was heavy but the heaviness was nothing compared to the anxiety she was having right now. It was now, or never.
Aine moves towards Harry, and the Hippogriff scowls, definitely getting annoyed with the humans, "Beaky, come on now! Look! Look at this yummy dead ferret!" she prompted with an anxious smile, displaying the large lifeless ferret in front of the beast's eyes, who soon sparkled. "Come and get the nice delicious ferret!" Hermione tells him, and soon Buckbeak stood up, shaking its feathers as it made its way towards them. Hermione tosses one ferret towards the beast, taking a couple of steps back, causing the beast to follow.
"Oh sh—" Aine heaved, and their eyes widened, and they froze on spot, the door flung open and Professor Dumbledore appeared, followed by Minister Cornelius Fudge, but none of their eyes was on them. Perhaps it was thanks to Buckbeak's large demeanour. Taking the chance, Aine slowly took a few steps back, waving the meat at the creature's face, its eyes glisten, and slowly following Aine and her friends deeper into the woods. Harry pulling onto the chains, while Hermione coaxes while aiding Harry with this tug-of-war with the beast, "Hurry, Beaky!'
Once they were deep into the forest and out of sight, Aine quickly tosses another ferret to Buckbeak who gobbles it up quickly. From within, they could hear the Minister fretting about on Buckbeak, "Where is it? I saw the beast, just now! Not a moment ago!"
"How extraordinary!" Professor Dumbledore says cheerfully.
Hagrid looks around, unsettled over the disappearance of his beloved beast, "Buckbeak..."
"Come now, Dumbledore. Someone's obviously released him! Hagrid?"
Crunch!
Aine turns to Buckbeak who ate a ferret that was on her shoulder sneakily. "Beaky. Eat a little softer, alright?" She tells the beast who gave a small huff and blinked. Aine smiles, stroking its beak in return.
"I don't think the minister's suggesting you had anything to do with this, Hagrid. How could you? You've been with us all the time!" Dumbledore clears up.
"Right." The half-giant replies, still looking around.
"Well, well. We must search the grounds!" Minister Fudge announced, eyes looking around the school land.
"Well, search the skies, if you must, minister!" the Headmaster tells him, then looking back to Hagrid, and placed an arm on Hagrid's hand, reassuring him. "Meanwhile, I'd like a nice cup of tea or even a large brandy." He grins.
Hagrid nodded, inviting Dumbledore to come in for his drink, but before the Headmaster continued on, he looked back to the masked man, "Oh, executioner, your services are no longer required. Thank you." He says politely, but perhaps it was a hint of sarcasm? Either way, he was already proceeding in, " You'll find no small glasses in this house, professor." Hagrid informs him, "Oh, no worries, Hagrid. I'll be fine even with the biggest glass you have."
Aine, Harry and Hermione watched as both Professor Dumbledore and Hagrid went back into the house, and the executioner heading to the largest pumpkin where Buckbeak was earlier. With a lift of the axe, the blade swung downwards, slicing and crushing the pumpkin into many pieces. "That could be you, Beaky. Lucky we got you out, right...?" Aine softly spoke under her breath and a gentle squawk was heard in return from the beast. But it was thankfully muffled by the many crows who continued to caw.
"Let's go now," Harry tells her and they all slowly ventured deeper into the Forbidden Forest with Buckbeak.
"Come on! This way. This way, now." Hermione says, motivating the beast with another one of the ferrets Aine was carrying. Soon, they got deeper into the woods before stopping to catch their breaths and rest.
"You did well, Buck!" Aine complimented him throwing another ferret in which the Hippogriff snagged and chewed. "Now what?" Harry asks, and Hermione looks ahead, "We go save Sirius."
"How?" the boy questions, letting go of the chain he was pulling Buckbeak and followed Hermione who replied, "No idea."
"Great, no plan, how much more exciting can it get?" Aine replies, but the other two was already far ahead to hear her. She sighs, turning to Buckbeak who cocks its head, blinking. She walked towards it, lowering her head one more time in which the beast mirrored. She drops the other ferret she was carrying to the ground and extends her hand to the Hippogriff, it rubs its beak on her hand and she smiles. Reaching forward to Buckbeak's neck, she slowly unchains the beast. "You're free now," she tells the Hippogriff. "You can go wherever you want now!"
Buckbeak chirped, and Aine caresses its smooth feathers one last time, "I have to go now." she says sadly, looking back to Harry and Hermione in a distance looking back at her, "I really wish we could be friends longer, but I can't keep you. And... You deserve better as well."
Aine looks into Buckbeak's glazed eyes and smiles at the beast. "Goodbye, Buckbeak," she whispers, resting her head on the beast's feathers before turning around, to catch up with her friends.
With one last turn of her head, she looks to the Hippogriff, who continued to stay where it was, never moving one inch, almost as if waiting for her and her friends to come back. But as Aine continued to walk, the trees slowly blocks her view of the beast, until she couldn't see him anymore.
And now, we save Sirius.
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