A large clutter of bats fly past us as I duck my head, waiting for them to all pass.
"At least someone's enjoying himself" Hermione says, looking at Buckbeak.
I turn to him to see him jumping around, chasing a few bats.
"Yeah. Hermione?" Harry calls after looking forward.
"Yeah?" Hermione asks.
I get up and sit with my back against a tree, leaning my head against it.
"Before, down by the lake when I was with Sirius... I did see someone. That someone made the Dementors go away"
"With a Patronus. I heard Snape telling Dumbledore. According to him, only a really powerful wizard could have conjured it"
"A really powerful wizard did" I say smiling.
"She's right. It was my dad. It was my dad who conjured the Patronus" Harry says, Hermione leaning forward.
"But Harry, your- your dad's-"
"Dead. I know" Harry says, making Hermione lean back "I'm just telling you what I saw"
"Here we come" Hermione says, all of us getting up.
"You see Sirius talking to me there?"
"Mhm" Hermione hums.
"He's asking me to come live with him" Harry says.
"What?!" I ask, taken aback.
"Yeah"
"That's great" Hermione says, nudging me in the side.
I'm not jealous of Harry, just... Annoyed.
"When we free him I'll never have to go back to the Dursleys'. It'll just be me and him. We could live in the country. Someplace you can see the sky. I think he'll like that after all those years in Azkaban" Harry says.
"Am I invisible to you? Do you not know that I exist?" I ask Harry, visibly angry.
"Harry!" young Hermione calls, making us all turn to them.
There is a long and loud howl, then dad.
"Run! Run!"
Hermione screams, and I get taken back to that moment. I look at me and Remus wrestling on the ground and dad launching at him.
"Let's go" Harry says.
We follow Harry to me dad and Remus, Remus slowly walking towards Harry.
Hermione makes a triangle with her hands and howls, Harry stopping her.
"What're you doing?!"
"Saving your life" she replies, then howls again.
"Thanks" Harry says, but Remus starts running towards us "Great, now he's coming for us"
"Yeah, I didn't think about that. Run" Hermione says.
We all turn and run, me turning into a black wolf to hide in the darkness. As the other 2 run, I sprint ahead of them, climbing up a tree.
Harry and Hermione hide behind a thick one as Remus looks around. I walk down a branch, and see Harry and Hermione backing into a clearing, Remus standing not too far from them.
He growls and gets their attention, and as they shield themselves, I launch at Remus, rolling forwards and getting up on my paws. I roar at him, and he roars back, coming for me.
I run at him and push him back, but he uses his long back legs to kick me backwards, making me hit a tree.
He goes towards Harry and Hermione, but Buckbeak gets in front of them, standing on 2 legs and hitting Remus' head. Remus growls and snarls at him, but Buckbeak does the same, scaring Remus off.
I get up and turn into myself, running to the other 2 as Buckbeak roars at Remus again, turning to us. Hermione stays in Harry embrace, hugging him, him hugging her back.
"That was really scary" she whispers.
"Poor professor Lupin's having a really tough night" Harry says.
"He should've had his potion" I say, rubbing Hermione's back in comfort.
Wind suddenly starts picking up, and we all look to the sky, seeing Dementors flying in the direction of dad.
"Sirius. Come on!" Harry yells, pulling Hermione with him as he runs.
I sigh and run after them, catching up in a matter of seconds. We all look over at young Harry and young dad, both of their souls being sucked out. We then see me running down and looking at dad, holding his arm.
"This is horrible" Hermione says.
"Don't worry. My dad will come. He'll conjure the Patronus" Harry says.
A Dementors flies to Harry, me and dad, sucking out dad's soul.
"Any minute now. Right there. You'll see" Harry says, pointing to the edge of the grass plain.
"Harry, listen to me. No one's coming"
"Don't worry he will. He will come"
"You're dying. Both of you" Hermione says, but Harry runs to the lake, stopping just in front of it "Harry!"
Harry shoots his wand up.
"Expecto Patronum!" Harry yells, a white light growing bigger.
A light barrier shoots out of his wand over and over again, pushing the dementors away from Harry, me and dad. I look over at Hermione and smile, then look back at me, Harry and dad, seeing Harry faint.
I see myself and Harry comes to us, walking past us and away as me and Hermione follow him, both of us looking back at younger me.
The 3 of us find Buckbeak and get on him, flying to the cell on top of the Dark Tower
"You were right Hermione. It wasn't my dad I saw earlier. It was me! I saw myself conjuring the Patronus before. I knew I could do it this time because... Well, I had already done it. Does that make sense?" Harry asks.
"No. But I don't like fly-ING" Hermione says but screams loudly as we dive down, Harry yelling in glee.
Buckbeak lands on the Dark Tower, and we get off, running to the cell.
"Bombarda!" Hermione yells after taking out her wand, the door of the cell exploding off.
We get dad on Buckbeak and it's Harry, dad, me then Hermione. I hold dad around the stomach and lean my head on his back, holding him tight as he holds one hand on mine, and the other on Buckbeak.
We land in the courtyard, and move away from Buckbeak, near a few concrete-made benches.
"I'll be forever grateful for this. To all of you"
"I want to go with you"
"One day, perhaps. For some time, my life will be too unpredictable. And besides..." dad puts his hands on Harry's shoulders "You're meant to be here"
"But you're innocent"
"And you know it" dad says, sitting Harry down on the benches and crouching down, holding Harry's wrists lovingly "And for now, that'll do"
Hermione goes off to Buckbeak as I go to the wall opposite them, leaning my back against it.
"I expect you're tired of hearing this..." dad cups Harry's cheeks in his hands "But you look so like your father. Except your eyes. You have-"
"My mother's eyes" Harry finishes, smiling and laughing almost silently.
"It's cruel that I got to spend so much time with James and Lily, and you so little. But know this... The ones that love us never really leave us. And you can always find them" dad says and puts his hand on Harry's chest, left side "In here"
Dad gets up and turns, smiling as he comes to me. I smile back and push myself off the wall, dad standing right in front of me.
"My darling pup" dad says, putting his hand on my cheek "I don't think I have any words for you. You know exactly what you're doing. Just like your mother. She was a natural born leader. Always keeping everyone in check, but always having fun"
"I don't want you to leave" I say, putting my hand over his, rubbing my thumb gently over it.
"I know. I don't want to leave you either, but I have to. You know that" dad says, making me nod my head "You know what you're doing. You get hurt, but you survive. Because you have each other" dad says, looking at Harry, then me again "You'll be alright without me. I had to leave you once before, I can do it again. This time, I know you'll be safe. I love you"
"I love you too" I say, pulling him down and kissing his cheek.
"And I will be meeting that boyfriend of yours. One day" dad says sternly, making me swallow. Hard.
He kisses my forehead, then goes to Buckbeak, getting on him. Hermione hands him the chains, but dad turns to Hermione.
"You really are the brightest witch of your age" dad says to Hermione, who smiles.
Buckbeak growls, then stands on 2 feet, kicking his legs. He gets back on 4 feet and runs, the 3 of us running forward a bit to watch dad leave, Buckbeak flying into the sky.
Bells start chiming so I turn to Hermione, who gasps lightly.
"We have to go" she says to Harry, dragging him as we run through the courtyard and to the hospital wing.
We see Dumbledore as we take a right, who closes the doors and turns to us. We stop in front of him.
"Well?" he asks.
"He's free. We did it"
"Did what? Goodnight" Dumbledore says and walks down the stairs.
"Night, sir" I call after him as he hums something.
We open the doors, but see ourselves. We wait for us to vanish, then walk in.
"How did you get there? I was talking to you there. Now you're there" Ron says, pointing to us, then where we were when we left before putting his arm down.
"What's he talking about, guys?" Hermione asks.
"I don't know. Honestly, Ron. How can somebody be in two places at once?" Harry says as we all chuckle, smiling brightly.