Vega was surprised when Hagrid suddenly flung himself onto Harry's neck. And the fact that Hagrid was at least twice the size of a normal man, it was no laughing matter. Harry, about to collapse under Hagrid's weight, was rescued by Vega, Ron and Hermione, who each seized Hagrid under an arm and heaved him back into the cabin.
Hagrid allowed himself to be steered into a chair and slumped over the table, sobbing uncontrollably, his face glazed with tears that dripped down into his tangled beard.
"Hagrid, what is it?" Hermione asked, aghast.
It was then that Vega spotted an official-looking letter lying open on the table, and walked over to pick it, noticing that it was definitely sent to Hagrid by the Ministry of Magic.
"What's going on, Hagrid?" Vega inquired as she eyed the purple seal on it. "What's this?"
Hagrid's sobs redoubled, but he motioned at the black-haired girl to take it and read aloud:
Dear Mr. Hagrid,
Further to our inquiry into the attack by a Hippogriff on a student in your class, we have accepted the assurances of Professor Dumbledore that you bear no responsibility for the regrettable incident.
"Well, that's okay then, Hagrid!" Ron said, clapping Hagrid on the shoulder. But Hagrid continued to sob, and waved one of his gigantic hands, inviting Vega to read on.
However, we must register our concern about the Hippogriff in question. We have decided to uphold the official complaint of Mr. Lucius Malfoy, and this matter will therefore be taken to the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures.
The hearing will take place on April 20th, and we ask you to present yourself and your Hippogriff at the Committee's offices in London on that date. In the meantime, the Hippogriff should be kept tethered and isolated.
Yours in fellowship...
Vega trailed off as she reached the list of school governors at the end of the letter. She looked up at Hagrid with wide eyes, knowing that none of this was going to end up well.
"Oh," Ron said awkwardly when Vega finished reading off the letter. "But you said Buckbeak isn't a bad Hippogriff, Hagrid. I bet he'll get off,"
"Yeh don' know them gargoyles at the Committee fer the Disposal o' Dangerous Creatures!" choked Hagrid, wiping his eyes on his sleeve. "They've got it in fer interestin' creatures!"
There was nothing they could do, in Vega's opinion, to help against the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. It was one of the most corrupted departments in the Ministry and only rarely did they properly investigate any case and give a reasonable ruling. Lives weren't important to the Ministry.
A sudden sound from the corner of Hagrid's cabin made Vega, Harry, Ron, and Hermione jump slightly and whip around to see – Buckbeak the Hippogriff was lying in the corner, chomping on something that was oozing blood all over the floor. Vega turned to look at Hagrid again.
"I couldn' leave him tied up out there in the snow!" Hagrid choked. "All on his own! At Christmas,"
Vega, Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at one another. They had never seen eye to eye with Hagrid about what he called 'interesting creatures' and other people called 'terrifying monsters' – except for maybe Vega. On the other hand, there didn't seem to be any particular harm in Buckbeak.
In fact, by Hagrid's usual standards, he was positively cute.
"You'll have to put up a good strong defence, Hagrid," Hermione said, sitting down and laying a hand on Hagrid's massive forearm. "I'm sure you can prove Buckbeak is safe,"
"Won' make no diff'rence!" Hagrid sobbed. "Them Disposal devils, they're all in Lucius Malfoy's pocket! Scared o' him! Ad if I lose the case, Buckbeak –"
Hagrid drew his finger swiftly across his throat, then gave a great wail and lurched forward, his face in his arms. Vega frowned deeply, unable to find the right words to comfort Hagrid with this.
"But what about Dumbledore, Hagrid?" Vega asked as she turned to face him. "I'm sure this has reached him, too, since the school governors are involved,"
"He's done more'n enough fer me already," Hagrid groaned. "Got enough on his plate what with keepin' them Dementors outta the castle, an' Sirius Black lurkin' around,"
Ron and Hermione looked quickly at Harry, as though expecting him to start berating Hagrid for not telling him the truth about Black. However, Vega was sure that he wouldn't do this right now – not when he saw Hagrid crying in fear for Buckbeak's life. There was no way he would be able to do it.
"Listen, Hagrid," Harry spoke up. "You can't give up. Hermione's right, you just need a good defence. You can call us as witnesses, too!"
"Even with disposal department involved," Vega said. "I've read about a case of Hippogriff-baiting, where the Hippogriff got off. We can pick some defence from there and help Buckbeak escape,"
Hagrid howled still more loudly. Vega, Harry and Hermione looked at Ron to help them.
"Er – shall I make a cup of tea?" Ron said. Harry stared at him, causing the redhead to shrug and mutter, "It's what my mum does whenever someone's upset,"
"I agree," Vega said quickly before Ron got discouraged.
At last, after many more assurances of help, with a steaming mug of tea in front of him, Hagrid blew his nose on a handkerchief the size of a tablecloth and looked at the four students.
"Yer right," Hagrid said to them. "I can' afford to go ter pieces. Gotta pull meself together..."
"You can take your time, Hagrid," Vega assured him as she watched Fang the boarhound come timidly out from under the table and lay his head on Hagrid's knee.
"I've not bin meself lately," Hagrid said ashe stroked Fang with one hand and mopped his face with the other. "Worried abou' Buckbeak, an' no one likin' me classes –"
"They're not as bad as you think," Vega interjected. "It's your first semester as a teacher – you'll improve over time. I just think everything's been excessively distressing due to the dementors,"
"Yeah, your classes are great!" Ron added quickly a well, crossing his fingers under the table and Vega gave him a look. "Er – how are the flobber-worms?"
"Dead," Hagrid said gloomily. "Too much lettuce,"
"Oh no!" Ron said, his lip twitching but quickly straightened his expression out when he saw the blazing look in Vega's grey eyes trained on him.
"An' them Dementors make me feel ruddy terrible an' all," Hagrid said, with a sudden shudder. "Gotta walk past 'em ev'ry time I want a drink in the Three Broomsticks. 'S like bein' back in Azkaban –"
Hagrid fell silent, gulping his tea. Vega, Harry, Ron, and Hermione watched him breathlessly. They had never heard Hagrid talk about his brief spell in Azkaban before. Vega's expression flattened.
After a pause, Hermione said timidly: "Is it awful in there, Hagrid?"
"Yeh've no idea," Hagrid said quietly. "Never bin anywhere like it. Thought I was goin' mad. Kep' goin' over horrible stuff in me mind... the day I got expelled from Hogwarts... day me dad died... day I had ter let Norbert go..." His eyes filled with tears.
"Yeh can' really remember who yeh are after a while. An' yeh can' really see the point o' livin' at all. I used ter hope I'd jus' die in me sleep. When they let me out, it was like bein' born again, ev'rythin' came floodin' back, it was the bes' feelin' in the world. Mind, the Dementors weren't keen on lettin' me go,"
"But you were innocent!" Hermione said. Hagrid snorted.
"Think that matters to them?" Hagrid said. "They don' care. Long as they've got a couple o' hundred humans stuck there with 'em, so they can leech all the happiness out of 'em, they don' give a damn who's guilty an' who's not,"
Hagrid went quiet for a moment, staring into his tea. Then, he said quietly:
"Thought o' jus' letting Buckbeak go... tryin' ter make him fly away... but how d'yeh explain ter a Hippogriff it's gotta go inter hidin'? An' – an' I'm scared o' breakin' the law..." He looked up at them, tears leaking down his face again. "I don' ever want ter go back ter Azkaban,"
The trip to Hagrid's, though far from fun, had nevertheless had the effect Vega, Ron and Hermione had hoped. Though Vega was well aware that Harry had by no means forgotten about Black – he just couldn't brood constantly on revenge if he wanted to help Hagrid win his case against the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures.
Back at the Gryffindor common room, Harry and Ron went off to their dormitory and Hermione returned to finish the homework so they could focus on Hagrid's matter. Vega remained behind –
"I suppose I'll go for a walk," Vega said to Hermione, returning from their dormitory, armed with the Marauder's Map and the Invisibility Cloak. "I'll be back soon – I need to clear my head,"
Ignoring Sir Cadogan, Vega left the common room through the portrait hole.
Vega really liked how empty and quiet the entire castle was, but it also amplified the thoughts in her mind as she strolled down the staircase. There weren't any teachers walking around, and Vega pulled out the piece of parchment, mumbling, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,"
It was somewhat cringy for Vega to say it but she quickly distracted herself by looking for everyone in the castle – the teachers were in their offices except for Professor Sprout in the greenhouses.
Filch and Mrs. Norris were lurking around the office so Vega walked off to the Trophy Room instead, noting that once Filch left, she could easily take one of the many hidden passageways to get around.
There were two different passageways that led to fourth-floor corridor – one hiding behind the a portrait of Brutus Scrimgeour and the other behind one of the many mirrors in the Trophy Room.
As per usual, the Trophy Room was open and Vega easily slipped inside, looking around the place, at all the awards, trophies, cups, plates, shields, statues, and medals that were being kept in crystal glass displays. But Vega slowly moved past them to look for the secret passage behind the mirror.
"It's really a treasure, huh?" Vega mumbled as she traced her path to Filch's office from behind his back solely through secret passageways. "I never knew there were so many in here,"
Tom Riddle's Awards for Services to the School was still sitting around, though it was now joined with the awkward presented to Vega, Harry and Ron as well.
Vega's eyes trailed off to list of Head Boys and Girls nearby, and she grimaced when she saw Tom Riddle's name on there. But as she moved her eyes down from fifty years ago, she noticed many familiar names in there, and unfortunately quite a few of them belonged to her own family –
Carina Lestrange
Bellatrix Black
Those names were back to back, and Vega did know that Carina was only a year older than Bellatrix. But she couldn't understand how someone like her mother could become a head girl. Even if she was a capable student, according to the Sorting Hat, how could Bellatrix care enough to be one.
Andromeda's name was present there, too, and Vega let out a sigh – but before she could look away, she noticed another curious name – Lily Evans. She knew that it was Harry's mother.
Looking toward to the Head Boy list, Vega found James Potter's name to align with Lily's year, too.
"Ah, they were the heads together," Vega realised out loud. She looked around for more names and found many Blacks and Lestranges on the list and shrugged her shoulders.
When Vega looked back down at the Marauder's Map, she noticed that Filch was walking off with Mrs. Norris to the Astronomy Tower where Peeves seemed to be wreaking havoc. She pulled the Invisibility Cloak over her and quickly made her way through the passageways to the office.
Filch's office was still as dark and decrepit as she had last seen him, barely lit by the single oil lamp hanging from the ceiling, and it still smelt of fried fish, old oil and melted wax.
The chains and manacles were still as polished as ever.
But Vega made her way to the filing cabinets, bypassing the drawer dedicated entirely to Fred and George, and found a drawer titled 'Potter and Black'. She pulled it open carefully, sending a furtive look on the map to make sure that Filch wasn't returning and started to flip through the detention slips, swiftly looking at the names it contained, which were mostly James Potter and Sirius Black.
There were so many of them allocated exclusively to the two of them. She wondered for a moment if she would have to look through a separate drawer for those given how much mess only James Potter and Sirius Black had made. Seriously, how often did they get in trouble? Then, suddenly –
Names: James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin
Crime: Duelling in corridors with Severus Snape
Suggested Sentence: –
Vega stared at the five names mentioned on the parchment paper, stunned. It was obvious to her now that James Potter had not only been friends with Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew but also Remus Lupin. She frowned, wondering if she should tell Harry about it. Should she burden him –
He'll get angry if he finds out later.
Why hasn't Professor Lupin mentioned it?
Looking back at the Marauder's Map, Vega noticed that Filch was rapidly making his way back to the office. She closed the drawer quickly, stuffing the detention slip and the map into her pocket before rushing out of the office and to the nearest hidden passageway that opened to the ground floor.
"Just in the nick of time," Vega breathed as she got out of passageway and to the freezing Entrance Hall. She looked up when she noticed – "Crookshanks? What are you doing out here?"
Crookshanks meowed at her and walked over to where she was, curling around her leg. Vega sat down on the edge of the Grand Staircase and stroked his thick, ginger head gently to placate him.
"Did you get tired of chasing Scabbers around?" Vega asked him. "You know, you should try and look for other rats... one that's not a pet. Hermione and Ron really fight over it. I know you're really clever. Everyone's really stressed out... with those Dementors and Sirius Black out there..."
Suddenly, Crookshanks stopped curling around her and mewled loudly, pulling at her robes with his teeth. Vega tried to stop him from doing so, wondering if he was hurting somewhere but Crookshanks persisted until she finally pushed herself to her feet and watched him hurry out.
When Vega remained standing by the stairs, Crookshanks turned around to look at her over his shoulder and meowed loudly, and she hurried to follow him, realising he wanted her to follow.
The two of them made their way out of the oak doors and out into the snow again. Vega frowned.
"Where are we going, Crookshanks?" Vega asked as she followed the ginger mass. "You shouldn't be out here – what if you catch a cold? Hermione would be devastated,"
But Crookshanks persisted his way through the snow, meowing at her to keep following him and Vega let out a sigh, deciding that she could see where he wanted her to go. If her Aerglo had behaved like this, she would've followed her to see what was the matter, too, of course.
When she looked ahead of where Crookshanks was heading, Vega gasped audibly and lunged forward to grab the half-Kneazle, snatching him off the ground and taking several steps back.
"Crookshanks!" Vega exclaimed. "You can't go near that tree, it'll hurt you – that's the Whomping Willow, it's off-limits to everyone. If you want to climb trees, choose any but that one,"
Crookshanks didn't seem very impressed when Vega held onto him and started their way back to the school, telling him how it could've hurt them both, especially him if he tried playing there. The ginger cat stared at the reflective eyes peeking out from the dark passage by the Whomping Willow.
⚡️
Vega didn't mention anything about what she had discovered about James Potter and Professor Lupin to Harry. She wanted to do it, but she couldn't find the right words or time to do so. She didn't want Harry to go be angry at Lupin for keeping all this, and besides, they were suddenly very busy –
The following day, Vega joined Harry, Ron and Hermione to head down to the library and returned to the empty common room laden with books that might help prepare a defence for Buckbeak.
The four of them sat in front of the roaring fire, slowly turning the pages of dusty volumes about famous cases of marauding beasts, speaking occasionally when they ran across something relevant.
"Here's something... there was a case in 1722...
but the Hippogriff was convicted –
ugh, look what they did to it, that's disgusting –"
"This might help, look – a Manticore savaged someone in 1296,
and they let the Manticore off – oh – no, that was only because everyone
was too scared to go near it..."
There were too many cases of the animals being killed and Vega couldn't help but avoiding the sentences they had given to them. She also felt agitated, wanting to do something to fix the standards for the department of disposal – it was too corrupt. But she also knew that if she started with that, it would require an entire upheaval of the whole ministry before it was properly fixed.
And Vega wasn't sure anyone was ready to listen to a girl who was the child of Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange any time soon. Her schoolmates may treat her fair for now, but the outside world didn't know what or who she really was. And if the media got involved as well, then...
It's always guilty until proven innocent in real life, huh?
⚡️