Not one Gryffindor went back to bed that night. The castle was being searched again, and they all stayed awake in the common room. Amie wanted to sleep, but at the same time she was afraid that it would be suspicious. At dawn, McGonagall came to inform them all that Sirius had escaped, and Amie let out a relieved sigh.
Throughout the day, they could see safety measures being taken. Flitwick, their Charms teacher was teaching the front doors to recognize a picture of Sirius. Filch was running around the corridors, boarding up all possible cracks. Sir Cadogan had been fired, and the Fat Lady was back. She had agreed reluctantly, and only if she got protection -- now she had a bunch of trolls guarding by the portrait. Harry told Amie and Ron that the tunnel that led to Honeydukes wasn't guarded, or blocked, so it was true that no one knew about it. At least no teacher.
"D'you reckon we should tell someone?" he asked.
"We know he's not coming in through Honeyduke's," said Ron. "We'd've heard if the shop was broken in to."
"He's right," Amie agreed. "And, besides, if he manages to get into the school now, he won't be able to enter Gryffindor tower without the trolls seeing him."
Harry seemed very relieved.
Ron had been made famous over night. No longer was he just The-Boy-Who-Lived's best friend, now he was someone who was almost killed by a mass-murderer. Though he was shaken up by the event, he still told anyone and everyone who asked about what happened.
"...I was asleep, and I heard this ripping noise, and I thought it was in my dream, you know? But then there was this draft... I woke up, and one of the hangings of my bed had been pulled down... I rolled over... and I saw him standing over me... like a skeleton, with loads of filthy hair... holding this great long knife, must've been twelve inches... and he looked at me, and I looked at him, and then I yelled and he scampered.
"Why, though?" Ron added to Amie and Harry as the girls who had been listening left. "Why did he run?"
Amie put on a face of confusion:
"He must've known he'd have a job getting out of the castle once you'd yelled and woken people up," Harry said thoughtfully. "He'd have to kill the whole house to get back through the portrait hole... Then he would've met the teachers..."
Amie was happy that Harry could come up with such logical answers, but it would be a lot easier if he would have come to the conclusion that Sirius was innocent instead.
Meanwhile, Neville was having a hard time. McGonagall was so angry that he was banned from future Hogsmeade visits, she gave him detention, and no one was allowed to tell him the password to the tower. He had to wait every night for someone to let him in. Amie was so sorry for him, she even considered actually telling him the password, but she didn't want anyone to rat her out to McGonagall. Out of all punishments Neville recieved, none were more horrible than the Howler his grandmother sent him. They were eating breakfast when the owls swooped in to deliver the mail. When an owl with a red envelope in his beak landed in front of Neville, he choked on his breakfast.
"Run for it, Neville," Ron advised. He had recieved a Howler of his own the year before, and knew what a horrible thing it was.
Neville didn't wait around. He grabbed the envelope and ran from the Great hall, holding the Howler in front of him like a bomb as he ran. The Slytherins all laughed at Neville, but Amie was sure that he didn't care at all at the moment. As soon as he exited the hall, they could all hear his grandmother's voice yelling at him about how he had disgraced their entire family.
"Ouch!" exclaimed Harry, and Amie turned her head to see that Hedwig, Harry's owl, had brought him something, and because he had ignored her, she bit him. "Oh -- thanks, Hedwig."
Harry opened the envelope as Hedwig ate some of Neville's cornflakes. After Harry had read the letter, he showed it to Amie and Ron. It read:
Dear Harry and Ron,
How about having tea with me this afternoon 'round six? I'll come collect you from the castle. WAIT FOR ME IN THE ENTRANCE HALL; YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED OUT ON YOUR OWN.
Cheers,
Hagrid.
Ron's comment to the note was;
"He probably wants to hear all about Black!"
Amie snorted.
Amie spent the afternoon that day with Hermione, going through some notes they had prepared for Hagrid's case with Buckbeak. They were going down with it to him before dinner.
"How are you holding up?" Amie asked catiously. Hermione had been very edgy lately; all of her homework and Ron being angry at her was tearing Hermione down. As if to prove Amie right, Hermione's eyes grew glassy.
"I -- I'm fine," she said, but of course Amie didn't believe her. She sat down next to Hermione and wrapped her up in a hug. Hermione started crying, and soon she had told Amie about all of her worries. She worried for Harry because of Sirius, she had been very scared when Ron almost got stabbed, and her homework was reaching a point she couldn't stand. Amie stroked her back and muttered soothing words.
"It's gonna be okay, 'Mione. Ron's fine, and he'll come around soon. No one's going to kill Harry." Hermione only sobbed more at that, so Amie shut up. After about ten more minutes, Hermione's tears stopped, so Amie decided it was time to leave the library.
"Come on, it's almost dinner. Let's head down to Hagrid with this." she gestured to all the papers they had been working on. Hermione nodded, and a small smile tugged at her lips.
After they had been to give Hagrid the papers -- he was very happy for them -- they went back to the castle and ate dinner. Ron and Harry were there, too, but Amie and Hermione sat far away to avoid confrontations. Hermione was still awfully disturbed, but Amie's presence kept her from crying.
"You go on to the common room, I have something to take care of," Amie said as they exited the Great hall. Hermione nodded and left. As soon as she disappeared from view, Amie ran all the way down to the lake and in through the trees.
"Sirius! Sirius!" she hissed.
"Finally decided to show up, did you?" he said as he stepped out from behind a tree.
"I'm sorry, it would look suspicious if I went down here all the time." Amie apologized.
"I'm only joking, calm down," Sirius smiled.
"Here you are, I bet you're starving," Amie said as she took out lots of food from her enlarged pocket. She was quiet as Sirius ate, but he ate really quickly, so she didn't have long to wait before she could talk to him.
"It was really stupid coming up there again, you know," she said, her eyes narrowed. "Why can't you talk to me before you do something like this? Now Neville is in trouble because of you, when you could've just asked me for the password!"
"Sorry, sorry! It was just an opportunity I couldn't miss, not when the cat had brought me the passwords." Sirius said.
"I understand what you're going through, Siri, I really do, but you need to stop being reckless. You can't go up to the castle again,"
Sirius sighed before replying.
"I figured as much. What have they done up there?"
"The Fat Lady is back, but she's got trolls guarding her. There's no way you can get in through the portrait hole, even with you being an animagus and having the passwords." Amie said.
"But there's no point for me to get in there anyway, right? You said Peter escaped."
"He did. But I have no idea where he is." Amie said.
"That's too bad. Well, I'll figure something out. Thanks for dinner."
With that, Sirius transformed back into a dog, and disappeared through the trees.
As Amie was walking through the corridors, heading to Gryffindor tower, she heard a voice.
"Hey! Pssst. Over here!" it hissed. Amie frowned, but walked towards the voice. It was coming from a classroom, and the door was ajar. An eye was peeping through the doorway, a very familiar eye.
"Draco? Is that you? Why are you hiding?"
Draco swung the door open and Amie walked into the classroom. The door was shut after her.
"Aren't we always hiding? No one knows about us." Draco said.
"True, true," Amie agreed. "It's good to see you,"
Draco wrapped his arms around her and planted a kiss on her head.
"I haven't seen you in a while, Ames. What's going on?"
"You know, same old, same old. Quidditch practice, homework, hanging out with my friends."
"You have to make sure you have time for me sometimes too, Amie. I missed you," Draco smiled lovingly at her. Amie grinned back.
"I missed you too,"
Draco kissed her then, and Amie's heart fluttered.
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""
When Amie finally made it to the common room, it was around eight o' clock. Hermione was sitting by a table, studying as usual. She looked up when Amie walked in, though.
"Where were you?" she asked when Amie sat down next to her.
"I met Draco for a bit," Amie replied.
"Oh," Hermione said. "How is he, then?"
"Fine," Amie said. "He's real fine."
When Harry and Ron got back to the common room about an hour later, they went straight to the bulletin board, where there was a big crowd of people.
"Hogsmeade, next weekend!" Ron said excitedly, looking at the board over people's heads. "What d'you reckon?" he added in an undertone to Harry as they went to sit down.
"Well, Filch hasn't done anything about the passage into Honeydukes..." Harry said quietly.
Unfortunately, Amie -- and Hermione -- heard him.
"Harry!" Hermione said, shocked. Harry spun around to look at her, as she cleared the wall of books that had been hiding her and Amie from view.
"Harry, if you go into Hogsmeade again... I'll tell Professor McGonagall about that map!"
"Can you hear someone talking, Harry?" Ron growled, looking anywhere but Hermione.
"Ron, how can you let him go with you? After what Sirius Black nearly did to you! I mean it, I'll tell --"
"So now you're trying to get Harry expelled!" Ron yelled angrily. "Haven't you done enough damage this year?"
Hermione opened her mouth to respond, but at that moment, Crookshanks jumped up on her lap. The look on Ron's face made her pick Crookshanks up and run up to the dormitories.
"So how about it?" Ron asked Harry, as if they hadn't been interrupted. "Come on, last time we went, you didn't see anything. You haven't even been inside Zonko's yet!"
Harry looked after Hermione, pondering. Then he turned to look at Amie, asking her with his eyes if she felt the same way as Hermione. In response, Amie mimicked her hand zipping her mouth.
"Okay," Harry agreed with Ron. "But I'm taking the Invisibility Cloak this time."
The next Saturday, they all went to breakfast. Everyone was excited to go back to Hogsmeade. All through breakfast, Amie could see Hermione looking at Harry suspiciously.
"Do you think he's going?" she asked Amie.
"How should I know?" Amie smiled innocently. "Come on, Hermione, let's have a good time."
Hermione sighed and nodded.
As they walked through the Entrance hall, they saw Harry walking up the staircase, leaving Ron behind.
"Bye!" he shouted, loud enough for Hermione to hear. "See you when you get back!"
Amie rolled her eyes, he was being extremely obvious.
"He is up to something, I know it." Hermione said with narrowed eyes.
"Forget about it, Hermione." Amie said. "Let's go."
Even though there was a lot of things on their minds, Amie and Hermione managed to have a good time in Hogsmeade. They had Butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks, they bought sweets in Honeydukes, and they even bought some clothes from the robes shop. They were in a great mood, until they got back to the common room. An owl was waiting for them. The note clamped in it's beak was smudged and blotchy, as if someone had cried on it. Hermione took it from the owl with shaking hands, and they read it together.
Dear Hermione and Amie,
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.
When they had finished reading, they were both crying.
"They can't do this! They just can't!" Hermione sobbed.
"That's just it, though. They can!" Amie cried.
"It's not fair!" Hermione said.
Just then, an owl came for Amie. She recognized it as Draco's. The letter read:
Ames.
I was just in Hogsmeade, by the Shrieking Shack, when we were attacked.
Weasley was standing there, and I thought he was alone, but someone started throwing mud at us.
Goyle started running towards Weasley, when he was tripped. And then I saw Potter's face.
Potter was in Hogsmeade today, and I told Snape as soon as I got back.
I'm sorry. I know you're friends. But as I've already told you, I can't stand him.
I just thought you should know why he's in trouble, I guess.
Draco.
"Oh, no! Oh no, oh no!" Amie said.
"What? What is it?" Hermione said, panicky.
Without answering, Amie gave Hermione the letter. She scanned it, and when she came to the part with Snape, she paled.
"He's in so much trouble if he can't come up with an explanation for this!"
"I know. We need to go and find him!" Amie said.
Hermione agreed, so they left the common room. But as they started walking away from the portrait hole, Harry and Ron showed up. Amie breathed a sigh of relief.
"Come to have a good gloat?" Ron said venomously. "Or have you just been to tell on us?"
Amie could see how Hermione changed her mind about what to say just then. Harry seemed to have been let off the hook, so there was no point of bothering him about going to Hogsmeade.
"No," Hermione said. She was still holding Hagrid's letter, and her lip was trembling. "I just thought you ought to know... Hagrid lost his case. Buckbeak is going to be executed."
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New chapter! :)
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