Y/N's POV
"He sent me this," Hermione said, holding out the letter.
I took it. The parchment was damp, and enormous teardrops had smudged the ink so badly in places that it was very difficult to read.
Dear Hermione,
We lost.
I'm allowed to bring him back to Hogwarts. Execution date to be fixed.
Beaky has enjoyed London.
I won't forget all the help you gave us.
Hagrid
"They can't do this," I said, "they can't. Buckbeak isn't dangerous."
"Malfoy's dad's frightened the Committee into it." said Hermione, wiping her eyes. "You know what he's like. They're a bunch of old fools, and they were scared. There'll be an appeal, though, there always is. Only I can't see any hope...nothing will have changed."
"Yeah, it will," said Ron fiercely, "you won't have to do all the work alone this time, Hermione. I'll help."
"Oh, Ron!"
Hermione flung her arms around Ron's neck and broke down completely. Ron, looking quite terrified, patted her very awkwardly on the top of the head. Me and Harry chuckled slightly at Ron's awkwardness. Finally, Hermione drew away.
"Ron, I'm really, really sorry about Scabbers..." she sobbed.
"Oh, well he was old," said Ron, looking thoroughly relieved that she had let go of him, "and he was a bit useless. You never know, mum and dad might get me an owl now."
The new safety measures imposed on the students since Black's second break-in made it impossible for us to go and visit Hagrid in the evenings. Our only chance of talking to him was during Care of Magical Creatures lessons.
He seemed numb with shock at the verdict.
"S'all my fault. Got all tongue-tied. They was all sittin' there in black robes an' I kep' droppin' me notes and forgettin' all them dates yeh looked up fer me, Hermione. An' then Lucius Malfoy stood up an' said his bit, and the Committee jus' did exac'ly what he told 'em."
"There's still the appeal!" said Ron fiercely. "Don't give up yet, we're working on it!"
We finished our conversation with Hagrid and then made out way to Charms, where, surprisingly, Hermione didn't show up.
Hermione wasn't at lunch either. We had started to get slightly worried.
We passed the security trolls, gave the Fat Lady the password and scrambled through the portrait hole into the Common Room.
Hermione was sitting at a table, fast asleep, her head resting on an open Arithmancy book. We went to sit down by her side. I gently prodded her awake.
"Wh-what?" said Hermione, waking with a start and staring wildly around. "Is it time to go? Which lesson have we got now?"
"Divination, but it's not for another twenty minutes," I said, "Hermione, why didn't you come to Charms?"
"What? Oh no!" Hermione squeaked. "I forgot to go to Charms!"
"But how could you forget?" I said. "You were with us until we were right outside the classroom!"
"I don't believe it!" Hermione wailed. "Was Professor Flitwick angry? I lost track of things!"
"You know what, Hermione?" said Ron. "I reckon you're cracking up. You're trying to do too much."
"No, I'm not!" said Hermione, brushing her hair out of her eyes and staring hopelessly around for her bag. "I just made a mistake, that's all! I'd better go and see Professor Flitwick and say sorry, I'll see you in Divination!"
Hermione joined us at the foot of the ladder to Professor Trelawney's classroom twenty minutes later.
Together we climbed the ladder into the room. Glowing on every little table was a crystal ball full of pearly white mist. The four of us sat down together at the same rickety table.
"I thought we weren't starting crystal balls until next term," Ron muttered.
"Don't complain, this means we've finished palmistry," I muttered back. I was getting sick of her flinching every time she looked at my hands.
Professor Trelawney finally appeared and explained to us all about the crystal orbs. At last, we started looking into them.
I felt extremely foolish, staring blankly at the crystal ball, trying to keep my mind empty when thoughts such as 'this is stupid' kept drifting across it. It didn't help that Ron and Harry kept breaking into silent giggles and Hermione kept tutting.
"Seen anything yet?" Harry asked us after a quarter of an hour's quiet crystal gazing.
"Yeah, there's a burn on this table," said Ron, pointing, "someone's spilt their candle."
"This is such a waste of time," Hermione hissed, "I could be practising something useful. I could be catching up on Cheering Charms-"
Professor Trelawney walked towards us.
"Would anyone like me to help them interpret the shadowy portents within their Orb?" she murmured.
"I don't need help," I whispered, "it's obvious what this means. There's going to be loads of fog tonight."
Both Ron, Harry and Hermione burst out laughing.
"Now, really!" said Professor Trelawney as everyone's heads turned in our direction. Parvati and Lavender were looking scandalised. "You are disturbing the clairvoyant vibrations!" She approached our table and peered into our crystal ball. I felt my heart sink. I was sure I knew what was coming-
"There is something here!" Professor Trelawney whispered, lowering her face to the ball so that it was reflected twice in her huge glasses. "Something moving...but what is it?"
Silence.
"My dear," Professor Trelawney breathed, gazing up at, "it is here, plainer than ever before... my dear, stalking toward you, growing ever closer...the Gr-"
"Oh, for goodness' sake!" said Hermione loudly. "Not that ridiculous Grim again!"
Professor Trelawney raised her enormous eyes to Hermione's face.
"I am sorry to say that from the moment you have arrived in this class my dear, it has been apparent that you do not have what the noble art of Divination requires. Indeed, I don't remember ever meeting a student whose mind was so hopelessly mundane."
There was a moment's silence.
"Don't speak to her like that! It's not her fault that this subject is pathetic!" I said, looking at Trelawney angrily. "You say I'm going to die every lesson, but look at me, I'm not dead yet am I?"
Everyone was now looking at me and then Professor Trelawney spoke, expressing her views of how me and Hermione were not good enough for this subject.
"Fine!" said Hermione suddenly, getting up and cramming Unfogging the Future back into her bag. "Fine!" she repeated, swinging the bag over her shoulder and almost knocking Ron off his chair. "I give up! I'm leaving!"
I followed her, ignoring the looks from all my classmates and followed Hermione out the class.
The second me and Hermione left the classroom, she broke down and started crying. I tried my best to comfort her. In my mind, I thought that her giving up Divination was good, now she had one less subject to worry about. Later, we met up with Harry and Ron in the Common Room, they were quick to tell us about what happened when the two of us left the Divination class.
Ron and Harry had now taken over responsibility for Buckbeak's appeal. When they weren't doing their own work, they were poring over enormously thick volumes with names like The Handbook of Hippogriff Psychology and Fowl or Foul? A Study of Hippogriff Brutality.
Myself, on the other hand, had to fit in my homework around Quidditch practice every day, not to mention endless discussions of tactics with Wood. The Gryffindor-Slytherin match would take place on the first Saturday after the Easter holidays. Slytherin was leading the tournament by exactly two hundred points. This meant (as Wood constantly reminded the team) that we needed to win the match by more than that amount to win the Cup. It also meant that the burden of winning fell largely on me because capturing the Snitch was worth one hundred and fifty points.
"So you must catch it only if we're more than fifty points up," Wood told me constantly, "only if we're more than fifty points up, Y/N, or we win the match but lose the Cup. You've got that, haven't you? You must catch the Snitch only if we're-"
"I KNOW, OLIVER!" I yelled.
The whole of Gryffindor House was obsessed with the coming match. Gryffindor hadn't won the Quidditch Cup since the legendary Charlie Weasley had been seeker. But I doubted whether any of them, even Wood, wanted to win as much as I did. The rivalry between me and Malfoy was at its highest point ever. Malfoy was still bitter about the mud-throwing incident in Hogsmeade and was even more furious that I had somehow wormed my way out of punishment. I also hadn't forgotten Malfoy's attempt to sabotage me in the match against Ravenclaw, but it was the matter of Buckbeak that made me most determined to beat Malfoy in front of the entire school.
The night of the match, the only thing every Gryffindor had in their mind was the match, I escaped to my dormitory early, to hide from the crowd. I was praying that tomorrow nothing bad would happen.