ღ chapter eighteen
( the whomping willow )
JULES WAITED FOR Ron, and the two of them left for the Gryffindor common room, where they could peacefully wait for Harry. She didn't know the password, so she needed him to get in. They found Hermione inside, her face a pale white. "Buckbeak lost."
She felt lost, her head swimming, as Hermione showed them the note. "They can't!"
"Professor Trelawney," Harry panted. bursting in at that moment. "Just told me-"
But he stopped abruptly at the sight of their faces.
"Buckbeak lost," Ron said 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 as he wrote that it was hardly legible.
Lost appeal. They're going to execute at sunset. Nothing you can do. Don't come down. I don't want you to see it. - Hagrid
"We've got to go," Harry said at once. "He can't just sit there on his own, waiting for the executioner!"
"Sunset, though," Ron sighed, staring out the window in a glazed sort of way. "We'd never be allowed... 'specially you, Harry, and Jules."
Harry sank his head into his hands, thinking. "If we only had the Invisibility Cloak-"
"Where is it?" Hermione said. Harry told her about leaving it in the passageway under the one-eyed witch, Jules curiously listening since she hadn't heard about it before.
"...if Snape sees me anywhere near there again, I'm in serious trouble," he finished.
"That's true," Hermione said, getting to her feet. "If he sees you... How do you open the witch's hump again?"
"You tap it and say, 'Dissendium,'" Harry answered. "But-"
Hermione didn't wait for the rest of his sentence; she 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!" Ron said, astounded. "First you hit Malfoy, then you walk out on Professor Trelawney-"
Hermione looked rather flattered. They went down to dinner with everybody else, but did not return to their common rooms afterward. They skulked 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, gilding the top branches of the trees.
They reached Hagrid's cabin and knocked. He was a minute in answering, and when he did, he 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 Harry pulled off the cloak. Hagrid was not crying, nor did he throw himself upon their necks. He looked like a man who did not know where he was or what to do. This helplessness was worse to watch than tears. "Wan' some tea?" he said. His great hands were shaking as he reached for the kettle.
"Where's Buckbeak, Hagrid?" Hermione asked hesitantly.
"I- I took him outside," Hagrid answered, spilling milk all over the table as he filled up the jug. "He's tethered in me pumpkin patch. Thought 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," Hermione said quickly, hurrying over and starting to clean up the mess.
"There's another one in the cupboard," Hagrid replied, sitting down and wiping his forehead on his sleeve. Jules glanced at 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," Hagrid said, voice wavering. "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. "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 too, Hagrid," she began, but Hagrid shook his shaggy 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. If Fudge an' Dumbledore catch yeh out without permission, Harry and Juliet, yeh'll be in big trouble."
Silent tears were now streaming down Hermione's face, but she hid them from Hagrid, bustling around making tea. Then, 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!" Ron said blankly. "Scabbers, what are you doing here?"
He grabbed the struggling rat and held him up to the light. Scabbers looked dreadful. 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.
"It's okay, Scabbers!" Ron insisted. "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'..."
Harry, Ron, Jules, 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, and ehind them came the feeble old Committee member and the executioner, Macnair.
"Yeh gotta go," Hagrid instructed. Every inch of him was trembling. "They mustn' find yeh here... Go now..."
Ron stuffed Scabbers into his pocket and Hermione picked up the cloak. "I'll let yeh out the back way," Hagrid said. They followed him to the door into his back garden.
Jules felt strangely unreal, and even more so when she saw Buckbeak a few yards away, tethered to a tree behind Hagrid's pumpkin patch. Buckbeak seemed to know something was happening. He turned his sharp head from side to side and pawed the ground nervously.
"It's okay, Beaky," Hagrid said softly. "It's okay."
He turned to the four students. "Go on," he said. "Get goin'." But they didn't move.
"Hagrid, we can't-"
"We'll tell them what really happened-"
"They can't kill him-"
"Go!" Hagrid whispered. "It's bad enough without you lot in trouble an' all!"
They had no choice. As Hermione threw the cloak over Harry, Jules, and Ron, they heard voices at the front of the cabin. Hagrid looked at the place where they had just vanished from sight. "Go quick," he said hoarsely. "Don' listen..."
He strode back into his cabin as someone knocked at the front door. Slowly, in a kind of horrified trance, Harry, Ron, Jules, and Hermione set off silently around Hagrid's house. As they reached the other side, the front door closed with a sharp snap.
"Please, let's hurry," Hermione whispered. "I can't stand 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. "It's 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.
"Scabbers, it's me, you idiot, it's Ron," Ron hissed. They heard a door open behind them and men's voices.
"Oh, Ron, please let's move, they're going to do it!" Hermione breathed.
"Okay- Scabbers, stay put-"
They walked forward; Jules, like Harry and Hermione, was trying not to listen to the rumble of voices behind them. Ron stopped again. "I can't hold him- Scabbers, shut up, everyone'll hear us-"
The rat was squealing 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.
Hermione swayed on the spot. "They did it!" she whispered. "I don't believe it- they actually did it!"
Jules's mind had gone blank with shock. The four of them stood transfixed with horror under the Invisibility Cloak. The very last rays of the setting sun were casting a bloody light over the long-shadowed grounds. Then, behind them, they heard a wild howling.
"Hagrid," Harry muttered. Without thinking about what he was doing, he made to turn back, but Ron and Hermione seized his arms.
"We can't," Ron said, who was paper-white. "He'll be in worse trouble if they know we've been to see him."
Hermione's breathing was shallow and uneven. "How-could-they?" she choked.
"People are unnaturally cruel," Jules whispered, after realizing she had not spoken in a while.
"Come on," Ron said, teeth chattering. They set off back toward the castle, walking slowly to keep themselves hidden under the cloak. The light was fading fast now. By the time they reached open ground, darkness was settling like a spell around them. "Scabbers, keep still," Ron hissed, clamping his hand over his chest.
The rat was wriggling madly. Ron came to a sudden halt, trying to force Scabbers deeper into his pocket. "What's the matter with you, You stupid rat? Stay still- ouch! He bit me!"
"Ron, be quiet!" Hermione whispered urgently. "Fudge'll be out here in a minute-"
"He won't- stay- put-"
Scabbers was plainly terrified. He was writhing with all his might, trying to break free of Ron's grip. "What's the matter with him?"
Stinking toward them, his body low to the ground, wide yellow eyes glinting eerily in the darkness, Jules spotted Crookshanks. Whether he could see them or was following the sound of Scabbers's squeaks, she couldn't tell.
"Crookshanks!" Hermione gasped. "No, go away, Crookshanks! Go away!"
But the cat was getting nearer. "Scabbers- no!"
Too late- the rat had slipped between Ron's clutching fingers, hit the ground, and scampered away. In one bound, Crookshanks sprang after him, and any of them could stop him, Ron had thrown the Invisibility Cloak off himself and pelted away into the darkness.
"Ron!" Hermione fretted. She, Jules and Harry looked at each other, then followed at a sprint; it was impossible to run full out under the cloak; they pulled it off and it streamed behind them like a banner as they hurtled after Ron; they could hear his feet thundering along ahead and his shouts at Crookshanks. "Get away from him- get away- Scabbers, come here-"
There was a loud thud. "Gotcha! Get off, you stinking cat-"
Harry, Jules, and Hermione almost fell over Ron; they skidded to a stop right in front of him. He was sprawled on the ground, but Scabbers was back in his pocket; he had both hands held tight over the quivering lump. "Ron, come on back under the cloak," Hermione panted. "Dumbledore, the Minister, they'll be coming back out in a minute-"
But before they could cover themselves again, before they could even catch their breath, they heard the soft pounding of gigantic paws. Something was bounding toward them, quiet as a shadow, an enormous, pale-eyed, jet-black dog. Harry reached for his wand, but too late, Jules watched in horror as the dog made an enormous leap and the front paws hit him on the chest; he keeled over backward in a whirl of hair.
Jules whimpered, clutching her wand, but making no moment to startle the creature.
But the force of its leap had carried it too far; it rolled off of Harry. He tried to stand up; they could hear it growling as it skidded around for a new attack. Ron was on his feet.
As the dog sprang back toward them he pushed Harry aside; the dog's jaws fastened instead around Ron's outstretched arm. Jules lunged forward, she seized a handful of the brute's hair, but it was dragging Ron away as easily as though he were a rag doll.
Then, out of nowhere, something hit her so hard across the face she was knocked off her feet. She heard Harry and Hermione shriek with pain and fall as well.
"Lumos!" she whispered, blinking the blood from the gash in her forehead out of her eyes, trying to clear the landscape of sanguine hues that was impeding her vision.
The wandlight showed her the trunk of a thick tree; they had chased Scabbers into the shadow of the Whomping Willow and its branches were creaking as though in a high wind, whipping backward and forward to stop them going nearer.
And there, at the base of the trunk, was the dog, dragging Ron backward into a large gap in the roots- Ron was fighting furiously, but his head and torso were slipping out of sight-
"Ron!" Jules shouted, as did Harry, trying to follow, but a heavy branch whipped lethally through the air and they were forced backward again. All they could see now was one of Ron's legs, which he had hooked around a root in an effort to stop the dog from pulling him farther underground- but a horrible crack cut the air like a gunshot.
Ron's leg had broken, and a moment later, his foot vanished from sight.
( AUTHOR NOTE )
shit is about to get VERY interesting.