"Shocking business...shocking... miracle none of them died. Never heard the like...by thunder, it was lucky you were there, Snape..."
"Thank you, Minister." Snape's voice replied.
"Order of Merlin, Second Class, I'd say. First Class, if I can wangle it!" Fudge told him.
"Thank you very much indeed, Minister." Snape said.
"Nasty cut you've got there... Black's work, I suppose?" Fudge asked.
"As a matter of fact, it was Grindelwald Minister..." Snape informed him.
"No...don't tell me he's already like his parents!" Fudge said with a hint of fear.
"Black had bewitched them all, I saw it immediately. A Confundus Charm, to judge by their behavior. They seemed to think there was a possibility he was innocent. They weren't responsible for their actions. On the other hand, their interference might have permitted Black to escape. They obviously thought they were going to catch Black single-handed. They've got away with a great deal before now... I'm afraid it's given them a rather high opinion of themselves, and of course Potter has always been allowed an extraordinary amount of license by the headmaster..."
"Ah, well, Snape...Harry Potter, you know...we've all got a bit of a blind spot where he's concerned."
"And yet. Is it good for him to be given so much special treatment? Personally, I try and treat him like any other student. And any other student would be suspended... at the very least, for leading his friends into such danger. Consider, Minister against all school rules, after all the precautions put in place for his protection, out-of-bounds, at night, consorting with a werewolf and a murderer...and I have reason to believe he has been visiting Hogsmeade illegally too."
"Well, well...we shall see, Snape, we shall see...The boy has undoubtedly been foolish..."
Harry lay listening with his eyes tight shut. He felt very groggy. The words he was hearing seemed to be traveling very slowly from his ears to his brain so it was difficult to understand. His limbs felt like lead, his eyelids too heavy to lift. He wanted to lie here, on this comfortable bed, forever.
"What amazes me most is the behavior of the Dementors." Fudge began now. "You've really no idea what made them retreat, Snape?"
"No, Minister... by the time I had come 'round they were heading back to their positions at the entrances."
"Extraordinary. And yet Black, Harry, and the Grindelwald boy..."
"All unconscious by the time I reached them. I bound and gagged Black, naturally, conjured stretchers, and brought them all straight back to the castle."
There was a pause. Harry's brain seemed to be moving a little faster, and as it did, a gnawing sensation grew in the pit of his stomach...
He opened his eyes.
Everything was slightly blurred. Somebody had removed his glasses. He was lying in the dark hospital wing. At the very end of the ward, he could make out Madam Pomfrey with her back to him, bending over a bed. Harry squinted. Ron's red hair was visible beneath Madam Pomfrey's arm.
Harry moved his head over on the pillow. In the bed to his right lay Y/n. Moonlight was falling across his bed.
Y/n's eyes were open too and he had a look of deep concentration, when he saw that Harry was awake he pressed a finger to her lips, then pointed to the hospital wing door. It was ajar, and the voices of Cornelius Fudge and Snape were coming through it from the corridor outside.
Madam Pomfrey now came walking briskly up the dark ward to Harry's bed. He turned to look at her. She was carrying the largest block of chocolate he had ever seen in his life. It looked like a small boulder.
"Ah, you're awake!" she said briskly. She placed the chocolate on Harry's bedside table and began breaking it apart with a small hammer.
"How's Ron?" Harry, Y/n and Hermione all asked together in unison.
"He'll live." said Madam Pomfrey grimly. "As for you three, you'll be staying here until I'm satisfied you're all...Potter, what do you think you're doing?"
Harry was sitting up, putting his glasses back on, and picking up his wand. "I need to see the headmaster." he said.
"Potter." said Madam Pomfrey soothingly. "It's all right. They've got Black. He's locked away upstairs. The Dementors will be performing the kiss any moment now..."
"WHAT?" Harry cried.
"No! They have got the wrong man!" Y/n said getting up too now.
Harry, Y/n and Hermione all jumped up out of their beds. But their shouting had been heard in the corridor outside, next second, Cornelius Fudge and Snape had entered the ward.
"Harry, Harry, what's this?" said Fudge, looking agitated. "You should be in bed...has he had any chocolate?" he asked Madam Pomfrey anxiously.
"Minister, listen!" Harry said. "Sirius Black's innocent! Peter Pettigrew faked his own death! We saw him tonight! You can't let the Dementors do that thing to Sirius, he's..."
But Fudge was shaking his head with a small smile on his face. "Harry, Harry, you're very confused, you've been through a dreadful ordeal, lie back down, now, we've got everything under control..."
"YOU HAVEN'T!" Harry yelled. "YOU'VE GOT THE WRONG MAN!"
"Minister, listen, please." Hermione said she had hurried to Harry's side and was gazing imploringly into Fudge's face. "I saw him too. It was Ron's rat, he's an Animagus, Pettigrew, I mean, and..."
"You see, Minister?" said Snape. "Confunded...Black's done a very good job on them..."
"WE'RE NOT CONFUNDED! YOU JUST CANNOT SEE PAST A CHILDISH GRUDGE!" Y/n roared at Snape angrily.
"Minister! Professor!" said Madam Pomfrey angrily. "I must insist that you leave. These children are my patients, and should not be distressed!"
"I'm not distressed, I'm trying to tell them what happened!" Harry said furiously. "If they'd just listen..."
But Madam Pomfrey suddenly stuffed a large chunk of chocolate into Harry"s mouth and he choked, she seized the opportunity to force him back onto the bed. "Now, please, Minister, these children need care. Please leave."
The door opened again. It was Dumbledore. Harry swallowed his mouthful of chocolate with great difficulty and got up again. "Professor Dumbledore, Sirius Black..."
"For heaven's sake!" said Madam Pomfrey hysterically. "Is this a hospital wing or not? Headmaster, I must insist..."
"My apologies, Poppy, but I need a word with Mr. Potter, Mr Grindelwald and Miss Granger." said Dumbledore calmly. "I have just been talking to Sirius Black..."
"I suppose he's told you the same fairy tale he's planted in Potter's mind?" spat Snape. "Something about a rat, and Pettigrew being alive..."
"That, indeed, is Black's story." said Dumbledore, surveying Snape closely through his half moon spectacles.
"And does my evidence count for nothing?" snarled Snape. "Peter Pettigrew was not in the Shrieking Shack, nor did I see any sign of him on the grounds."
"That was because you were knocked out, Professor!" said Hermione earnestly. "You didn't arrive in time to hear."
"Miss Granger, HOLD YOUR TONGUE!" Snape snapped.
"Now, Snape." said Fudge, startled. "The young lady is disturbed in her mind, we must make allowances..."
"I would like to speak to Harry, Y/n and Hermione alone." said Dumbledore abruptly. "Cornelius, Severus, Poppy... please leave us."
"Headmaster!" sputtered Madam Pomfrey. "They need treatment, they need rest..."
"This cannot wait." said Dumbledore. "I must insist."
Madam Pomfrey pursed her lips and strode away into her office at the end of the ward, slamming the door behind her. Fudge consulted the large gold pocket watch dangling from his waistcoat. "The Dementors should have arrived by now." he said. "I'll go and meet them. Dumbledore, I'll see you upstairs."
He crossed to the door and held it open for Snape, but Snape hadn't moved.
"You surely don't believe a word of Black's story?" Snape whispered, his eyes fixed on Dumbledore's face.
"I wish to speak to Harry, Y/n and Hermione alone." Dumbledore repeated.
Snape took a step toward Dumbledore. "Sirius Black showed he was capable of murder at the age of sixteen." he breathed. "You haven't forgotten that, Headmaster? You haven't forgotten that he once tried to kill me?"
"My memory is as good as it ever was, Severus." said Dumbledore quietly.
Snape turned on his heel and marched through the door Fudge was still holding. It closed behind them, and Dumbledore turned to Harry, Y/n and Hermione.
The three burst into speech at the same time.
"Professor, Black's telling the truth... "
"We saw Pettigrew, he escaped when Professor Lupin turned into a werewolf..."
"...he's a rat..."
"Pettigrew's front paw, I mean, finger, he cut it off..."
"Pettigrew attacked Ron, it wasn't Sirius..."
But Dumbledore held up his hand to stem the flood of explanations.
"It is your turn to listen, and I beg you will not interrupt me, because there is very little time." he said quietly. "There is not a shred of proof to support Black's story, except your word... and the word of three thirteen-year-old wizards, one of which belongs to a not well received family will not convince anybody. A street full of eyewitnesses swore they saw Sirius murder Pettigrew. I myself gave evidence to the Ministry that Sirius had been the Potters' Secret-Keeper."
"Professor Lupin can tell you..." Harry said, unable to stop himself
"Professor Lupin is currently deep in the forest, unable to tell anyone anything. By the time he is human again, it will be too late, Sirius will be worse than dead. I might add that werewolves are so mistrusted by most of our kind that his support will count for very little and the fact that he and Sirius are old friends..."
"But sir they cannot do this to an innocent man..." Y/n said now.
"Listen to me, Y/n. It is too late, you understand me? You must see that Professor Snape's version of events is far more convincing than yours."
Y/n clenched his hands. He hated the fact he couldn't deny how right Dumbledore was about this. It made him feel helpless.
"He hates Sirius." Hermione said desperately. "All because of some stupid trick Sirius played on him..."
"Sirius has not acted like an innocent man." Dumbledore reminded Hermione. "The attack on the Fat Lady, entering Gryffindor Tower with a knife and attacking young Y/n."
"That was only because he thought I had Pettigrew sir." Y/n quickly lied now.
But Dumbledore looked at him over his spectacles. "...Without Pettigrew, alive or dead, we have no chance of overturning Sirius's sentence."
"But you believe us." Harry asked hopefully.
"Yes, I do." said Dumbledore quietly. "But I have no power to make other men see the truth, or to overrule the Minister of Magic..."
Harry stared up into the grave face and felt as though the ground beneath him were falling sharply away. He had grown used to the idea that Dumbledore could solve anything. He had expected Dumbledore to pull some amazing solution out of the air. But no... their last hope was gone.
"What we need." said Dumbledore slowly, and his light blue eyes moved from Harry to Hermione. "Is more time."
"But..." Hermione began. And then her eyes became very round. "OH!"
Y/n looked at Hermione puzzled for a moment before he finally understood and smiled. "Brilliant..."
"Now, pay attention." said Dumbledore, speaking very low, and very clearly. "Sirius is locked in Professor Flitwick's office on the seventh floor. Thirteenth window from the right of the West Tower. If all goes well, you will be able to save more than one innocent life tonight. But remember this, you must not be seen. Miss Granger, you know the law best, you know what is at stake. You...must...not...be...seen."
Harry looked at Y/n and Hermione but didn't have a clue what was going on.
Dumbledore had turned on his heel and looked back as he reached the door. "I am going to lock you in. It is..." he consulted his watch. "Five minutes to midnight. Miss Granger, three turns should do it. Good luck."
"Good luck?" Harry repeated as the door closed behind Dumbledore. "Three turns? What's he talking about? What are we supposed to do?"
Y/n however had moved to stand in front of Hermione who was fumbling with the neck of her robes, pulling from beneath them a very long, very fine gold chain. She quickly threw it over Y/n's neck then turned to look at Harry. "Harry, come here." she said urgently. "Quick!"
Harry moved toward them, completely bewildered. She was holding the chain out. He saw a tiny, sparkling hourglass hanging from it.
"Here..." She had thrown the chain around his neck too.
"Ready?" she asked breathlessly.
Y/n nodded. "We only have one shot at this, so we better make it count."
"What are we doing?" Harry said, completely lost.
Hermione said nothing however turned the hourglass over three times.
Y/n looked up and saw the dark ward dissolved. He had the sensation that he was flying very fast, backward. A blur of colors and shapes rushed past him, his ears were pounding. It was an unpleasant feeling altogether and Y/n was unsure how Hermione had managed to put up with such a feeling all year.
Y/n turned his head to see Harry looked as uncomfortable as he did, then he felt solid ground beneath his feet, and everything came into focus again.
He and Harry were standing next to Hermione in the deserted entrance hall and a stream of golden sunlight was falling across the paved floor from the open front doors.
Harry looked wildly around at Hermione, the chain of the hourglass cutting into his neck. "Hermione, what...?"
"In here!" Hermione seized Y/n and Harry's arms and dragged them across the hall to the door of a broom closet. She opened it, pushed both inside among the buckets and mops, then slammed the door behind them.
"What...how...Hermione, what happened?" Harry asked in shock.
"We've gone back in time." Hermione whispered, lifting the chain off both Y/n and Harry's necks in the darkness. "Three hours back..."
Harry found his own leg and gave it a very hard pinch. It hurt a lot, which seemed to rule out the possibility that he was having a very bizarre dream.
"But..."
"Shh!" Y/n hushed them as he pressed his ear to the door. "Someone is coming..."
"I think...I think it might be us!" Hermione said and she had her ear pressed against the cupboard door below Y/n's head as both listened. "Footsteps across the hall... yes, I think it's us going down to Hagrid's!"
"Are you telling me." Harry whispered. "That we're here in this cupboard and we're out there too?"
"Yes." said Hermione, her ear still glued to the cupboard door. "I'm sure it's us. It doesn't sound like more than four people...and we're walking slowly because we're under the Invisibility Cloak." She broke off, still listening intently. "We've gone down the front steps..."
"We have a small amount of time before we need to move." Y/n pointed out to her.
Hermione sat down on an upturned bucket, looking desperately anxious, but Harry wanted a few questions answered. "Where did you get that hourglass thing?" He asked.
Hermione looked to Y/n for support and he just nodded. "It is best we explain." Y/n told her.
Hermione turned back to Harry now. "It's called a Time-Turner." She whispered. "And I got it from Professor McGonagall on our first day back. I've been using it all year to get to all my lessons. Professor McGonagall made me swear I wouldn't tell anyone. Y/n was the only person who was allowed to know. Professor McGonagall had to write all sorts of letters to the Ministry of Magic so I could have one. She had to tell them that I was a model student, and that I'd never, ever use it for anything except my studies...I've been turning it back so I could do hours over again, that's how I've been doing several lessons at once, see? But...Y/n, Harry, I don't understand what Dumbledore wants us to do. Why did he tell us to go back three hours? How's that going to help Sirius?"
Harry stared at her shadowy face. "There must be something that happened around now he wants us to change." he said slowly. "What happened then? We were walking down to Hagrid's three hours ago... "
"This is three hours ago, and we are walking down to Hagrid's." said Hermione. "We just heard ourselves leaving... "
Harry frowned, he felt as though he were screwing up his whole brain in concentration. "Dumbledore just said... just said we could save more than one innocent life..."
"Oh!" Y/n cried out suddenly and both Harry and Hermione jumped quickly looking up at him. "Brilliant! Of course! More than one life can be saved..." Y/n trailed off having reached a conclusion of sorts.
"You've worked it out?" Harry asked him.
Y/n just turned to him. "Why were we visiting Hagrid in the first place? What was the reason?"
"Because of Bu..." Harry started but his eyes widened now. "We're going to save Buckbeak!" Harry said catching on to Y/n's train of thought.
"Yes!" Y/n said excitedly pointing at him.
"But...how will that help Sirius?" Hermione asked not understanding.
"Remember what Dumbledore said Hermione." Y/n said to her. "He told us exactly where the window is, the window of Flitwick's office! Where they are holding Sirius... We need to save Buckbeak, fly up to the window and rescue Sirius! Sirius then can escape on Buckbeak...they can escape together! Two lives saved."
"Fantastic..." Harry said but from what Harry could see of Hermione's face, she looked terrified.
"If we manage that without being seen, it'll be a miracle!" Hermione uttered.
"It will be more than a miracle. We are talking about trying to rescue two ministry fugitives while having no plan whatsoever and all while having to remain out of sight." Y/n pointed out.
"Well, we've got to try, haven't we?" said Harry. He stood up and pressed his ear against the door. "Doesn't sound like anyone's there...Come on, let's go."
Harry pushed open the closet door. The entrance hall was deserted. As quietly and quickly as they could, they darted out of the closet and down the stone steps. The shadows were already lengthening, and the tops of the trees in the Forbidden Forest gilded once more with gold.
"If anyone's looking out of the window..." Hermione squeaked, looking up at the castle behind them.
"We'll run for it." said Harry determinedly. "Straight into the forest, all right? We'll have to hide behind a tree or something and keep a lookout..."
"Okay, but we'll go around by the greenhouses!' said Hermione breathlessly. "We need to keep out of sight of Hagrid's front door, or we'll see us! We must be nearly at Hagrid's by now!"
Still working out what she meant, Harry set off at a sprint, Y/n and Hermione behind him. They tore across the vegetable gardens to the greenhouses, paused for a moment behind them, then set off again, fast as they could, skirting around the Whomping Willow, tearing toward the shelter of the forest.
Safe in the shadows of the trees, Harry turned around, seconds later, Both Y/n and Hermione arrived beside him, panting.
"Right." Hermione gasped. "We need to sneak over to Hagrid's."
"We also need to keep out of sight..." Y/n reminded the two.
They made their way silently through the trees, keeping to the very edge of the forest. Then, as they glimpsed the front of Hagrid's house, they heard a knock upon his door. They moved quickly behind a wide oak trunk and peered out from either side. Hagrid had appeared in his doorway, shaking and white, looking around to see who had knocked. And Harry heard his own voice say. "It's us. We're wearing the Invisibility Cloak. Let us in and we can take it off. "
"Yeh shouldn've come!" Hagrid whispered. He stood back, then shut the door quickly.
"This is the weirdest thing we've ever done." Harry said fervently.
"That I cannot deny." Y/n whispered to him.
"Let's move along a bit." Hermione whispered. "We need to get nearer to Buckbeak!"
They crept through the trees until they saw the nervous Hippogriff, tethered to the fence around Hagrid's pumpkin patch.
"Now?" Harry whispered.
"No!" said Hermione.
"If we move him now the ministry will think Hagrid set him free." Y/n pointed out to Harry. "We will have to wait until they have seen he is tied up outside!"
"That's only going to give us about sixty seconds!" said Harry. This was starting to seem impossible.
"I know...But it is all the time we have got. Y/n told him.
At that moment, there was a crash of breaking china from inside Hagrid's cabin.
"That's Hagrid breaking the milk jug." Hermione whispered. "I'm going to find Scabbers in a moment..."
Sure enough, a few minutes later, they heard Hermione's shriek of surprise.
"Hermione." said Harry suddenly. "What if we...we just run in there and grab Pettigrew..."
"No!" said Hermione in a terrified whisper. "Don't you understand? We're breaking one of the most important wizarding laws! Nobody's supposed to change time, nobody! You heard Dumbledore, if we're seen..."
"We'd only be seen by ourselves and Hagrid!"
"Harry, what do you think you would do if you saw yourself bursting into Hagrid's house?" Y/n asked him.
"I'd...I'd think I'd gone mad." said Harry. "Or I'd think there was some Dark Magic going on..."
"Exactly!" Hermione said now. "You wouldn't understand, you might even attack yourself! Don't you see? Professor McGonagall told me what awful things have happened when wizards have meddled with time... Loads of them ended up killing their past or future selves by mistake!"
"Okay!" said Harry. "It was just an idea, I just thought..."
"I know Harry...but we cannot change the events like that. If we did we would not even have learned what that rat did..." Y/n pointed out.
Harry just looked conflicted.
Hermione nudged Y/n now and pointed toward the castle. Y/n moved his head a few inches to get a clear view of the distant front doors. Dumbledore, Fudge, the old Committee member, and Macnair the executioner were coming down the steps.
"We're about to come out!" Hermione breathed.
And sure enough, moments later, Hagrid's back door opened, and they saw Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione walking out of it with Hagrid.
It was to Y/n, one of the strangest sensations of his life, standing behind the tree, and watching himself in the pumpkin patch.
"It's Okay, Beaky, it's okay..." Hagrid said to Buckbeak. Then he turned to Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione. "Go on. Get goin'."
"Hagrid, we can't..."
"We'll tell them what really happened..."
"They can't kill him..."
"Buckbeak deserves better than this."
"Go! It's bad enough without you lot in trouble an' all!"
Y/n watched the Hermione in the pumpkin patch throw the Invisibility Cloak over him, Harry and Ron.
"Go quick. Don' listen..."
There was a knock on Hagrid's front door. The execution party had arrived. Hagrid turned, around and headed back into his cabin, leaving the back door ajar.
Y/n watched the grass flatten in patches all around the cabin and heard four pairs of feet retreating. He, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had gone. but the Him, Harry and Hermione of now hidden in the trees could now hear what was happening inside the cabin through the back door.
"Where is the beast?" came the cold voice of Macnair.
"Out...outside." Hagrid croaked.
Y/n ducked and Harry pulled his head out of sight as Macnair's face appeared at Hagrid's window, staring out at Buckbeak.
Then they heard Fudge. "We...er... have to read you the official notice of execution, Hagrid. I'll make it quick. And then you and Macnair need to sign it. Macnair, You're supposed to listen too, that's procedure..."
Macnair's face vanished from the window.
"Okay, It is now or never." Y/n commented.
"Wait here." Harry whispered to Hermione. " Y/n and I'll do it."
As Fudge's voice started again, Harry and Y/n darted out from behind their trees and vaulted the fence into the pumpkin patch. Y/n approached Buckbeak.
"It is the decision of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures that the Hippogriff Buckbeak, hereafter called the condemned, shall he executed on the sixth of June at sundown..."
Careful not to blink, Y/n stared up into Buckbeak's fierce orange eyes once more and bowed. Buckbeak sank to his scaly knees and then stood up again. "Harry grab the ferrets!" Y/n whispered as he began to fumble with the knot of rope tying Buckbeak to the fence.
Harry rushed to the side and grabbed a load of dead ferrets as Y/n managed to loosen the knot.
"... sentenced to execution by beheading, to be carried out by the Committee's appointed executioner, Walden Macnair..."
"Come on, Buckbeak." Harry murmured. "Come on, we're going to help you. Quietly...quietly..."
"...as witnessed below. Hagrid, you sign here..."
Y/n pulled at the rope now in attempt to get Buckbeak to move but the Hippogriff remained stubbon.
"Well, let's get this over with," said the reedy voice of the Committee member from inside Hagrid's cabin. "Hagrid, perhaps it will be better if you stay inside..."
"No, I...I wan' ter be with him... I don' wan' him ter be alone..."
Footsteps echoed from within the cabin.
Harry held up a dead ferret now to try entice Buckbeak to move and he grabbed the rope too.
"Buckbeak, please move!" Y/n pleaded as he and Harry tugged harder on the rope around Buckbeak's neck. The Hippogriff finally began to walk, rustling its wings irritably. They were still ten feet away from the forest, in plain view of Hagrid's back door.
"One moment, please, Macnair." came Dumbledore's voice. "You need to sign too." The footsteps stopped.
The boys heaved on the rope. Buckbeak snapped his beak and walked a little faster.
Hermione's white face was sticking out from behind a tree. "Y/n, Harry, hurry!" she mouthed.
Y/n could still hear Dumbledore's voice talking from within the cabin. He and Harry gave the rope another wrench. Buckbeak broke into a grudging trot. They had reached the trees.
"Quick! Quick!" Hermione moaned, darting out from behind her tree, seizing the rope too and adding her weight to make Buckbeak move faster.
Harry looked over his shoulder, they were now blocked from sight. They couldn't see Hagrid's garden at all. "Stop!" he whispered to Y/n and Hermione. "They might hear us."
Hagrid's back door had opened with a bang. Harry, Y/n, Hermione, and Buckbeak stood quite still, even the Hippogriff seemed to be listening intently. Silence... then...
"Where is it?" said the reedy voice of the Committee member. "Where is the beast?"
"It was tied here!" said the executioner furiously. "I saw it! Just here!"
"How extraordinary." said Dumbledore. There was a note of amusement in his voice.
"Beaky!" said Hagrid huskily.
There was a swishing noise, and the thud of an axe. The executioner seemed to have swung it into the fence in anger. And then came the howling, and this time they could hear Hagrid's words through his sobs. "Gone! Gone! Bless his little beak, he's gone! Musta pulled himself free! Beaky, yeh clever boy!"
Buckbeak started to strain against the rope, trying to get back to Hagrid. Harry, Y/n and Hermione tightened their grip and dug their heels into the forest floor to stop him.
"Someone untied him!" The executioner was snarling. "We should search the grounds, the forest."
"Macnair, if Buckbeak has indeed been stolen, do you really think the thief will have led him away on foot?" said Dumbledore, still sounding amused. "Search the skies, if you will...Hagrid, I could do with a cup of tea. Or a large brandy."
"O...o' course, Professor." said Hagrid, who sounded weak with happiness. "Come in, come in."
Harry, Y/n and Hermione listened closely. They heard footsteps, the soft cursing of the executioner, the snap of the door, and then silence once more.
"Now what?" whispered Harry, looking around.
"We'll have to hide in here." said Hermione, who looked very shaken.
"We need to wait until they have gone back to the castle. Then we wait until it is safe to fly Buckbeak up to Sirius's window." Y/n said forming a small plan.
"He won't be there for another couple of hours..." Hermione pointed out. "Oh, this is going to be difficult... " She looked nervously over her shoulder into the depths of the forest. The sun was setting now.
"We're going to have to move." said Harry, thinking hard. "We've got to be able to see the Whomping Willow, or we won't know what's going on."
"He is right." Y/n nodded in agreement.
"Okay." said Hermione, getting a firmer grip on Buckbeak's rope. "But we've got to keep out of sight, remember..."
They moved around the edge of the forest, darkness falling thickly around them, until they were hidden behind a clump of trees through which they could make out the Willow.
"There's Ron!" said Harry suddenly.
A dark figure was sprinting across the lawn and its shout echoed through the still night air.
"Get away from him... get away...Scabbers, come here..."
And then they saw three more figures materialize out of nowhere. Y/n watched himself, Harry and Hermione chasing after Ron.
Then he saw Ron dive. "Gotcha! Get off, you stinking cat..."
"There's Sirius!" said Harry. The great shape of the dog had bounded out from the roots of the Willow. They saw him bowl Harry over into Y/n, then seize on Ron.
"Looks even worse from here, doesn't it?" said Harry, watching the dog pulling Ron into the roots. "Ouch...look, Y/n and I just got walloped by the tree...and so did you Hermione... this is weird"
The Whomping Willow was creaking and lashing out with its lower branches, they could see themselves darting here and there, trying to reach the trunk. And then the tree froze.
"That was Crookshanks pressing the knot." said Hermione.
"And there we go... " Y/n added. "We are in..."
The moment they disappeared, the tree began to move again. Seconds later, they heard footsteps quite close by. Dumbledore, Macnair, Fudge, and the old Committee member were making their way up to the castle.
"Right after we'd gone down into the passage!" said Hermione. "If only Dumbledore had come with us..."
"Macnair and Fudge would've come too." said Harry bitterly. "I bet you anything Fudge would've told Macnair to murder Sirius on the spot."
"Most likely." Y/n agreed.
They watched the four men climb the castle steps and disappear from view. For a few minutes the scene was deserted. Then...
"Here comes Lupin!" said Harry as they saw another figure sprinting down the stone steps and halting toward the Willow. Harry looked up at the sky. Clouds were obscuring the moon completely.
They watched Lupin seize a broken branch from the ground and prod the knot on the trunk. The tree stopped fighting, and Lupin, too, disappeared into the gap in its roots.
"If he'd only grabbed the cloak." said Harry. "It's just lying there..."
He turned to Y/n and Hermione. "If I just dashed out now and grabbed it, Snape'd never be able to get it and..."
"Harry, we mustn't be seen!"
"How can you stand this?" he asked Hermione fiercely. "Just standing here and watching it happen?" He hesitated. "I'm going to grab the cloak!"
"Harry, Stop it!" Y/n said as he seized the back of Harry's robes and pulled him back not a moment too soon. Just then, they heard a burst of song. It was Hagrid, making his way up to the castle, singing at the top of his voice, and weaving slightly as he walked. A large bottle was swinging from his hands.
"See?" Hermione whispered. "See what would have happened? We've got to keep out of sight! No, Buckbeak!"
The Hippogriff was making frantic attempts to get to Hagrid again. Y/n and Harry seized the rope too, straining to hold Buckbeak back. They watched Hagrid meander tipsily up to the castle. He was gone. Buckbeak stopped fighting to get away. His head drooped sadly.
"Harry...I know this is hard to watch, but remember this. We are going to save Sirius. If you cannot trust in me then trust in Dumbledore...this was his plan after all." Y/n told him and Harry sighed.
Barely two minutes later, the castle doors flew open yet again, and Snape came charging out of them, running toward the Willow.
Harry's fists clenched as they watched Snape skid to a halt next to the tree, looking around. He grabbed the cloak and held it up.
"Get your filthy hands off it," Harry snarled under his breath.
"Shh!" Hermione shushed him.
Snape seized the branch Lupin had used to freeze the tree, prodded the knot, and vanished from view as he put on the cloak.
"So that's it." said Hermione quietly. "We're all down there...and now we've just got to wait until we come back up again."
She took the end of Buckbeak's rope and tied it securely around the nearest tree, then sat down on the dry ground, arms around her knees.
"Harry, Y/n... there's something I don't understand... Why didn't the Dementors get Sirius? I remember them coming, and then I think I passed out...there were so many of them." She shivered.
Y/n sat down beside Hermione now and turned his head to her. He hesitated for a moment but put his arm around her shoulder. "Hermione there was nothing you could have done...Harry and I fought for as long as we could. Harry passed out a few moments after you did." Y/n told her and Harry nodded to confirm this fact before he sat down too and he explained what he'd seen when he rewoke, how, as the nearest Dementor had lowered its mouth towards Y/n to try to perform the kiss upon him, Two large silver animals had come across the lake and forced the Dementors to retreat.
Y/n removed his arm now as Hermione sat with her mouth slightly open in shock by the time Harry had finished. "But what was it?" Hermione asked.
"There's only one thing it could have been, to make the Dementors go." said Harry. "A real Patronus. A powerful one."
"But who conjured it?" Hermione asked.
"I do not know...But whoever did saved our lives." Y/n said grimly.
Harry didn't say anything. He was thinking back to the person he'd seen on the other bank of the lake. He knew who he thought it had been... but how could it have been?
"Didn't either of you see what they looked like?" said Hermione eagerly. "Was it one of the teachers?"
"I only barely saw the Patronus's...I was in such a state I was barely able to take it all in." Y/n said trying to remember.
"He wasn't a teacher." Harry said now.
"But it must have been a really powerful wizard, to drive all those Dementors away...If the Patronus was shining so brightly, didn't it light him up? Couldn't you see...?"
"Yeah, I saw him." said Harry slowly. "But... maybe I imagined it... I wasn't thinking straight... I passed out again right afterward."
"Who did you think it was?" Y/n asked him.
"I think..." Harry swallowed, knowing how strange this was going to sound. "I think it was my dad."
Harry glanced up at Y/n and Hermione and saw that Hermione's mouth was fully open now. She was gazing at him with a mixture of alarm and pity.
Y/n's own face was a mixture of confusion and worry.
"Harry, your dad's... well... dead." Hermione said quietly.
"I know that." said Harry quickly.
"Do you think you saw his ghost then?" Y/n asked carefully.
"I don't know...no... he looked solid..." Harry said.
"But then..."
"Maybe I was seeing things." said Harry now. "But from what I could see... it looked like him. I've got photos of him..."
Y/n and Hermione looked at each other both worried.
"I know it sounds crazy." said Harry flatly. He turned to look at Buckbeak, who was digging his beak into the ground, apparently searching for worms. But he wasn't really watching Buckbeak. He was thinking about his father and about his father's three oldest friends. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. Had all four of them been out on the grounds tonight? Wormtail had reappeared this evening when everyone had thought he was dead. Was it so impossible his father had done the same? Had he been seeing things across the take? The figure had been too far away to see distinctly... yet he had felt sure, for a moment, before he'd lost consciousness.
The leaves overhead rustled faintly in the breeze. The moon drifted in and out of sight behind the shifting clouds. Hermione sat with her face turned toward the Willow, waiting.
As time passed Y/n's gaze would occasionally drift to the side as he looked at Hermione out of the corner of his eye. It would only last for a moment before he caught himself and fixed his gaze forward.
And then, at last, after over an hour.
"Here we come!" Hermione whispered.
She, Y/n and Harry got to their feet. Buckbeak raised his head. They saw Lupin, Ron, and Pettigrew clambering awkwardly out of the hole in the roots. Then came Y/n and Hermione... then the unconscious Snape, drifting weirdly upward. Next came Harry and Black. They all began to walk toward the castle.
Harry's heart was starting to beat very fast. He glanced up at the sky. Any moment now, that cloud was going to move aside and show the moon.
"Harry." Hermione muttered as though she knew exactly what he was thinking, "We've got to stay put. We mustn't be seen. There's nothing we can do..."
"So we are just going to let Pettigrew escape all over again..." said Harry quietly.
"Harry there is nothing we can do! We came back to help Sirius, If we abandon him they will perform the Dementor's kiss on him and then this will all have been for nothing." Y/n told him. "Sirius is our objective, not Pettigrew. The forest can deal with that vermin."
"All right!" Harry said annoyed but finally understanding.
The moon slid out from behind its cloud. They saw the tiny figures across the grounds stop. Then they saw movement..
"There goes Lupin." Hermione whispered. "He's transforming."
"I just wish there was more we could do to help him..." Y/n said.
"Y/n! Hermione!" said Harry suddenly. "We've got to move!"
"Harry we mustn't!" Hermione whispered back.
"How many times must I keep telling you..." Y/n began.
"Not to interfere! Lupin's going to run into the forest, right at us!" Harry pointed out to them.
"Ah..." Y/n stopped.
Hermione gasped. "Quick!" she moaned, dashing to untie Buckbeak. "Quick! Where are we going to go? Where are we going to hide? The Dementors will be coming any moment..."
"We will have to go Hagrid's!" Y/n said quickly getting up. "We saw him heading up the castle, his cabin should empty now."
"Come on!" Harry said urgently.
They ran as fast as they could, Buckbeak cantering along behind them. They could hear the werewolf howling behind them...
The cabin was in sight Harry skidded to the door, wrenched it open, and Y/n, Hermione and Buckbeak flashed past him. Harry threw himself in after them and both he and Y/n quickly bolted the door. Fang the boarhound barked loudly.
"Shh, Fang, it's us!" said Hermione, hurrying over and scratching his ears to quieten him. "That was really close!" she then said.
"Too close, It is a good thing Harry remembered." Y/n said.
"Yeah..." Harry murmured as he began looking out of the window. It was much harder to see what was going on from here. Buckbeak seemed very happy to find himself back inside Hagrid's house. He lay down in front of the fire, folded his wings contentedly, and seemed ready for a good nap.
"I think I'd better go outside again, you know." said Harry slowly. "I can't see what's going on... we won't know when it's time..."
Hermione looked up. Her expression was suspicious.
"I'm not going to try and interfere." said Harry quickly. "But if we don't see what's going on, how're we going to know when it's time to rescue Sirius?"
"I will go with you." Y/n said getting up.
"Well...okay, then. I'll wait here with Buckbeak... but Y/n...Harry, be careful, there's a werewolf out there... and the Dementors."
Y/n nodded. "We will keep our wands out."
Y/n and Harry stepped outside again and edged around the cabin. They could hear yelping in the distance. Which meant the Dementors were closing in on Sirius... and that both them and Hermione would be running to him any moment.
Harry stared out toward the lake, his heart doing a kind of drumroll in his chest. Whoever had sent that Patronus would be appearing at any moment. For a fraction of a second he stood, irresolute, in front of Hagrid's door. You must not be seen. But he didn't want to be seen. He wanted to do the seeing... He had to know.
And there were the Dementors. They were emerging out of the darkness from every direction, gliding around the edges of the lake. They were moving away from where Y/n and Harry stood, to the opposite bank. He wouldn't have to get near them...
Harry began to run.
"Harry!" Y/n whisper shouted but ended up having to chase after him.
Harry had no thought in his head except his father. If it was him... if it really was him...he had to know, had to find out.
"Could not follow a simple set of instructions..." Y/n muttered as he continued to chase after Harry.
Harry could see the lake was coming nearer and nearer, but there was no sign of anybody. On the opposite bank, he could see tiny glimmers of silver his and Y/n's own attempts at a Patronus.
Y/n finally reached him now. "What on earth do you think you are doing!?" Y/n asked him.
There was a bush at the very edge of the water. Harry threw himself behind it dragging Y/n with him. "Just watch Y/n. My dad is going to show up any minute."
"Harry..." Y/n said sadly.
But Harry was peering desperately through the leaves. On the opposite bank, the glimmers of silver were suddenly extinguished. A terrified excitement shot through him... any moment now... "Come on!" he muttered, staring about. "Where are you? Dad, come on..."
"Harry, I am sorry but he is not coming...No matter how much you want him to it is impossible..." Y/n told him.
And Y/n was right, No one came.
Harry raised his head to look at the circle of Dementors across the lake. One of them was lowering its hood. It was time for the rescuer to appear... but no one was coming to help this time...
And then it hit him... he understood. He hadn't seen his father he had seen himself.
Harry flung himself out from behind the bush and pulled out his wand.
"Harry!" Y/n called to him.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM! " Harry yelled.
And out of the end of his wand burst, not a shapeless cloud of mist, but a blinding, dazzling, silver animal.
Y/n watched with amazement as he squinted his eyes, trying to see what the Patronus was. It looked like a horse of some kind.
Y/n raised his own wand joining in now that Harry had already interfered. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" He cast and a sliver cat shot out the end of his wand from the bush. It dashed towards the Stag and leaped upon its back.
Then together the horse began galloping silently away from them, across the black surface of the lake. Y/n and Harry saw it lower its head and charge at the swarming Dementors. The silver cat upon its back began to swipe at any Dementor it came close to as the horse was galloping around and around the black shapes on the ground, the Dementors were falling back, scattering, retreating into the darkness...They were gone.
The horse turned. It was cantering back toward Harry and Y/n across the still surface of the water. It wasn't a horse. It wasn't a unicorn, either. It was a stag. It was shining brightly as the moon above... it was coming back to him.
It stopped on the bank. Its hooves made no mark on the soft ground as it stared at Harry with its large, silver eyes.
The silver cat leaped off its back as it strutted to Y/n who was still in the bush. Y/n looked at the patronus with bewilderment for a moment. "...Good girl Noctis." He found himself saying before it stretched its paw forward and disappeared.
Harry's own patronus slowly bowed its antlered head. And Harry realized... "Prongs." he whispered. But as his trembling fingertips stretched toward the creature, it vanished.
Harry stood there, hand still outstretched. Then, with a great leap of his heart, he and Y/n heard hooves behind them. Both whirled around and saw Hermione dashing toward him, dragging Buckbeak behind her.
"What did you both do?" she said fiercely. "You said you were only going to keep a lookout!"
"We just saved all our lives..." said Harry. "Get behind here behind this bush. We'll explain."
Hermione listened to what had just happened with her mouth open yet again. "Did anyone see either of you?"
"Yes, haven't you been listening? I saw me but I thought I was my dad! It's okay!"
"The light from our Patronuses was bright enough to keep Harry's face hidden, and I stayed in this bush remaining out of sight." Y/n explained.
"Y/n, Harry. I can't believe it...You've both conjured up a Patronus that drove away all those Dementors! That's very, very advanced magic."
"Y/n already did it once before apparently in front of Lupin. How comes you couldn't do it before?" Harry asked him
"I was...overwhelmed by the amount of Dementors we were facing." Y/n admitted.
"Well I knew I could do it this time." said Harry. "Because I'd already done it... Does that make sense?"
"I don't know..." Hermione said unsure but something caught her eye. "Y/n, Harry, look at Snape!"
Together the three peered around the bush at the other bank. Snape had regained consciousness. He was conjuring stretchers and lifting the limp forms of Harry, Y/n, Hermione, and Black onto them. A fourth stretcher, no doubt bearing Ron, was already floating at his side. Then, wand held out in front of him, he moved them away toward the castle.
"Right, it's nearly time." said Hermione tensely, looking at her watch. "We've got about forty-five minutes until Dumbledore locks the door to the hospital wing. We've got to rescue Sirius and get back into the ward before anybody realizes we're missing..."
"Should be easy..." Y/n sighed.
They waited, watching the moving clouds reflected in the lake, while the bush next to them whispered in the breeze. Buckbeak, bored, was ferreting for worms again.
"Do you reckon he's up there yet?" asked Harry, checking his watch. He looked up at the castle and began counting the windows to the right of the West Tower.
"Look!" Hermione whispered. "Who's that? Someone's coming back out of the castle!"
Y/n stared through the darkness. The man was hurrying across the grounds, toward one of the entrances. Something shiny glinted in his belt. "It is Macnair..."
"The executioner?" Harry said. "He's gone to get the Dementors!"
"It is time we moved." Y/n said to them both.
Hermione put her hands on Buckbeak's back and Y/n gave her a leg up. Then he placed his foot on one of the lower branches of the bush and climbed up in front of her. He pulled Buckbeak's rope back over his neck and tied it to the other side of his collar like reins.
Harry climbed on behind Hermione now and put his hand on her shoulders.
"You both ready?" Y/n called to them.
"Yeah." Harry nodded.
"No..." Hermione said anxiously.
"Just hold on to me." Y/n whispered to Hermione and he nudged Buckbeak's sides with his heels now.
Buckbeak soared straight into the dark air. Y/n gripped his flanks with his knees, feeling the great wings rising powerfully beneath them. Hermione quickly began holding Y/n very tight around the waist and he could hear her muttering, "Oh, no...I don't like this oh, I really don't like this..."
Y/n couldn't help but chuckle as he urged Buckbeak forward. They were gliding quietly toward the upper floors of the castle. Y/n pulled hard on the left-hand side of the rope, and Buckbeak turned. Y/n was trying to count the windows flashing past.
"There!" he said, pulling backward as hard as he could.
Buckbeak slowed down and they found themselves at a stop, unless you counted the fact that they kept rising up and down several feet as the Hippogriff beat his wings to remain airborne.
"He's there!" Harry said, spotting Sirius as they rose up beside the window. He reached out, and as Buckbeak's wings fell, was able to tap sharply on the glass.
Black looked up. The three saw his jaw drop. He leapt from his chair, hurried to the window and tried to open it, but it was locked.
"Stand back!" Hermione called to him, and she took out her wand, still gripping the back of Y/n's robes with her left hand. "Alohomora!"
The window sprang open.
"How...how...?" said Black weakly, staring at the Hippogriff.
"Hurry up and get on there is not much time." said Y/n, gripping Buckbeak firmly on either side of his sleek neck to hold him steady.
"Sirius you've got to get out of here...the Dementors are coming... Macnair's gone to get them." Harry told him.
Black placed a hand on either side of the window frame and heaved his head and shoulders out of it. It was very lucky he was so thin. In seconds, he had managed to fling one leg over Buckbeak's back and pull himself onto the Hippogriff behind Harry.
"Come on Buckbeak, up!" said Y/n, shaking the rope. "Up to the tower, come on."
The Hippogriff gave one sweep of its mighty wings and they were soaring upward again, high as the top of the West Tower. Buckbeak landed with a clatter on the battlements, and Harry, Y/n and Hermione slid off him at once.
"Sirius, you'd better go, quick." Harry panted. "They'll reach Flitwick's office any moment, they'll find out you're gone."
Buckbeak pawed the ground, tossing his sharp head.
"What happened to the other boy? Ron?" croaked Sirius.
"He is going to be okay." Y/n told him.
"Ron is still out of it, but Madam Pomfrey says she'll be able to make him better. Quick...go..." Harry said now.
But Black was still staring down at the three. "How can I ever thank..."
"GO!" Harry, Y/n and Hermione shouted together.
Black wheeled Buckbeak around, facing the open sky. "We'll see each other again." he said. "You are, truly your father's son, Harry..."
He squeezed Buckbeak's sides with his heels. Harry, Y/n and Hermione jumped back as the enormous wings rose once more. The Hippogriff took off into the air. He and his rider became smaller and smaller as Harry gazed after them, then a cloud drifted across the moon. They were gone.
"Y/n!" Hermione started tugging at his sleeve, staring at her watch. "We've got exactly ten minutes to get back down to the hospital wing without anybody seeing us, before Dumbledore locks the door."
"Damn, that is no time at all." Y/n stressed.
"Okay." said Harry, wrenching his gaze from the sky. "Let's go..."
They slipped through the doorway behind them and down a tightly spiraling stone staircase. As they reached the bottom of it, they heard voices. They flattened themselves against the wall and listened. It sounded like Fudge and Snape. They were walking quickly along the corridor at the foot of the staircase.
"...only hope Dumbledore's not going to make difficulties." Snape was saying. "The Kiss will be performed immediately?"
"As soon as Macnair returns with the Dementors." Fudge told him. "This whole Black affair has been highly embarrassing. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to informing the Daily Prophet that we've got him at last. I daresay they'll want to interview you, Snape...and once young Harry's back in his right mind, I expect he'll want to tell the Prophet exactly how you saved him."
Harry clenched his teeth. He caught a glimpse of Snape's smirk as he and Fudge passed Harry, Y/n and Hermione's hiding place. Their footsteps died away. Harry, Y/n and Hermione waited a few moments to make sure they'd really gone, then started to run in the opposite direction. Down one staircase, then another, along a new corridor they heard a cackling ahead.
"Peeves!" Harry muttered, grabbing Y/n and Hermione's wrists. "In here!"
They tore into a deserted classroom to their left just in time. Peeves seemed to be bouncing along the corridor in boisterous good spirits, laughing his head off.
"Oh, he's horrible,." whispered Hermione, her ear to the door. "I bet he's all excited because the Dementors are going to finish off Sirius..."
"Remind me to use the spell Professor Lupin taught us earlier this year." Y/n said.
Hermione checked her watch again. "Three minutes!"
They waited until Peeves's gloating voice had faded into the distance, then slid back out of the room and broke into a run again.
"Hermione... what'll happen...if we don't get back inside before Dumbledore locks the door?" Harry panted.
"I don't want to think about it!" Hermione moaned, checking her watch again. "One minute!"
They had reached the end of the corridor with the hospital wing entrance. "Okay... I can hear Dumbledore." said Hermione tensely. "Come on!"
They crept along the corridor. The door opened. Dumbledore's back appeared.
"I am going to lock you in." they heard him saying. "It is five minutes to midnight. Miss Granger, three turns should do it. Good luck."
Dumbledore backed out of the room, closed the door, and took out his wand to magically lock it. Panicking, Harry, Y/n and Hermione ran forward. Dumbledore looked up, and a wide smile appeared under the long silver mustache. "Well?" he said quietly.
"We did it!" said Harry breathlessly. "Sirius has gone on Buckbeak..."
Dumbledore beamed at them. "Well done. I think..." He listened intently for any sound within the hospital wing. "Yes, I think you've gone too, get inside. I'll lock you in..."
Harry, Y/n and Hermione slipped back inside the dormitory. It was empty except for Ron, who was still lying motionless in the end bed. As the lock clicked behind them, Harry, Y/n and Hermione crept back to their own beds, Hermione tucking the Time-Turner back under her robes.
A moment later, Madam Pomfrey came striding back out of her office. "Did I hear the headmaster leaving? Am I allowed to look after my patients now?" She was clearly in a very bad mood.
Harry, Y/n and Hermione thought it best to accept their chocolate quietly. Madam Pomfrey stood over them, making sure they ate it. But neither of them could hardly swallow. They sat waiting, listening, their nerves jangling... And then, as they took a fourth piece of chocolate from Madam Pomfrey, they heard a distant roar of fury echoing from somewhere above them.
"What was that?" said Madam Pomfrey in alarm.
Now they could hear angry voices, growing louder and louder. Madam Pomfrey was staring at the door. "Really...they'll wake everybody up! What do they think they're doing?"
Y/n was trying to hear what the voices were saying. They were drawing nearer...
"He must have Disapparated, Severus. We should have left somebody in the room with him. When this gets out..."
"HE DIDN'T DISAPPARATE!" Snape roared, now very close at hand. "YOU CAN'T APPARATE OR DISAPPARATE INSIDE THIS CASTLE! THIS...HAS...SOMETHING ...TO...DO...WITH...POTTER!"
"Severus, be reasonable... Harry has been locked up..."
BAM.
The door of the hospital wing burst open.
Fudge, Snape, and Dumbledore came striding into the ward. Dumbledore alone looked calm. Indeed, he looked as though he was quite enjoying himself. Fudge appeared angry.
But Snape was beside himself. "OUT WITH IT, POTTER!" he bellowed. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"
"Professor Snape!" shrieked Madam Pomfrey. "Control yourself!"
"See here, Snape, be reasonable." said Fudge. "This door's been locked, we just saw..."
"THEY HELPED HIM ESCAPE, I KNOW IT!" Snape howled, pointing at Harry, Y/n and Hermione. His face was twisted, spit was flying from his mouth.
"Perhaps you should have some chocolate professor." Y/n suggested now. "It is good for raising morale."
"BE SILENT GRINDELWALD!" Snape bellowed.
"Calm down, man!" Fudge barked. "You're talking nonsense!"
"YOU DON'T KNOW POTTER!" shrieked Snape. "HE DID IT, I KNOW HE DID IT..."
"That will do, Severus." said Dumbledore quietly. "Think about what you are saying. This door has been locked since I left the ward ten minutes ago. Madam Pomfrey, have these students left their beds?"
"Of course not!" said Madam Pomfrey, bristling. "I would have heard them!"
"Well, there you have it, Severus." said Dumbledore calmly. "Unless you are suggesting that Harry, Y/n and Hermione are able to be in two places at once, I'm afraid I don't see any point in troubling them further."
Snape stood there, seething, staring from Fudge, who looked thoroughly shocked at his behavior, to Dumbledore, whose eyes were twinkling behind his glasses. Snape whirled about, robes swishing behind him, and stormed out of the ward.
"Fellow seems quite unbalanced." said Fudge, staring after him. "I'd watch out for him if I were you, Dumbledore."
"Oh, he's not unbalanced." said Dumbledore quietly. "He's just suffered a severe disappointment."
"He's not the only one!" puffed Fudge. "The Daily Prophet's going to have a field day! We had Black cornered and he slipped through our fingers yet again! All it needs now is for the story of that Hippogriff's escape to get out, and I'll be a laughingstock! Well...I'd better go and notify the Ministry..."
"And the Dementors?" said Dumbledore. "They'll be removed from the school, I trust?"
"Oh yes, they'll have to go." said Fudge, running his fingers distractedly through his hair. "Never dreamed they'd attempt to administer the Kiss on a student , even if it was a Grindelwald... Completely out of control...no, I'll have them packed off back to Azkaban tonight. Perhaps we should think about dragons at the school entrance."
"Hagrid would like that." said Dumbledore, smiling at Harry, Y/n and Hermione. As he and Fudge left the dormitory, Madam Pomfrey hurried to the door and locked it again. Muttering angrily to herself, she headed back to her office.
There was a low moan from the other end of the ward. Ron had woken up. They could see him sitting up, rubbing his head, looking around.
"What... what happened?" he groaned. "Harry? Why are we in here? Where's Sirius? Where's Lupin? What's going on?"
Harry, Y/n and Hermione all looked at each other.
"You two explain." said Harry, helping himself to some more chocolate.