Chapter 22
"Look, Buckbeak's still alive." Harry said, looking down at the pumpkin patch with the other two.
"Of course." Hermione replied. "Remember what Dumbledore said? If we succeed, more than one innocent life could be spared. Let's go."
The three of them ran down the hill, and hid behind a pile of pumpkins.
"Can't believe we're actually about to steal a hippogriff." Cassidy muttered.
Harry and Hermione give her a look, and she sighed. "I'm just saying. It's a little insane."
They pressed against the side of Hagrid's hut as footsteps crunched nearby. Cassidy peeked out just as Fudge, Dumbledore, and Macnair (the executioner) approach.
"Here they come. I better hurry." Harry said, moving to get up. Hermione stopped him, pulling him down.
"Fudge has to see Buckbeak before we steal him. Otherwise, he'll think Hagrid set him free."
A sudden commotion from inside made them all turn.
"Scabbers. You're alive!"
Cassidy frowned as she saw Past Ron struggled with his frantic rat.
"You want to keep a closer eye on your pets, Ron." Hagrid said in the distance.
"Or maybe consider getting a new one." Cassidy muttered.
"That's Pettigrew." Harry said, fists clenched.
"Harry, you can't." Hermione said,
"Hermione, that's the man who betrayed my parents! You don't expect me to just sit here!"
Cassidy gripped his sleeve, adding to Hermione's restraint. "Harry, I get it, but if you charge in now, you'll ruin everything. We have to be smart."
"Exactly! Harry, you're in Hagrid's hut now. If you just go bursting in, you'll think you've gone mad!" Hermione panted, eyes pleading. "Awful things happen to wizards who meddle with time, Harry. We can't be seen."
Harry didn't move at first, his jaw clenched. Cassidy glances at Hermione, then back at him. "Please, Harry."
Finally, he exhaled sharply and relented.
Dumbledore and Fudge continued toward Hagrid's door.
"Fudge is coming, and we aren't leaving." Hermione and Cassidy looked at the window, where past Harry stood. "Why aren't we leaving?"
Cassidy watched Hermione pick up a small rock, inspecting the spiral pattern on it.
"What are you—?"
Before she can finish, Hermione hurls the rock at Hagrid's hut, shattering a vase inside.
"Are you mad?" Harry said, his eyes wide with fear as Hermione hid behind the pumpkins.
Cassidy stared, wide-eyed. "Apparently, yes."
Hermione throws another rock, hitting the earlier Harry in the back of the head.
"Ow!" Earlier Harry yelped, and Cassidy saw her past self rush to the window, leaning out.
"Ow. That hurt." Present Harry said as Cassidy picked up a rock.
"Sorry." Hermione said, and before either one of them could stop Cassidy, she threw a rock at her past self's forehead.
"Cassidy! What'd you do that for?!" Hermione hissed.
"I was leaning out the window like an idiot," Cassidy said, rubbing her forehead in time with her past self. "They could've seen me. This is ridiculous."
The three of them looked back to Hagrid's hut, watching themselves leave.
"We're coming out the back door!" Hermione said, getting up. "Go!"
The three of them rushed to hide behind a tree, just as their past selves came to hide behind the pile of pumpkins.
Cassidy's breath hitched as she saw past Ron looking at her past self, breathing heavily.
"I think Hagrid was right," Past Cassidy whispered shakily.
"What?" Past Ron whispered back.
"I don't think I can watch." Past Cassidy's breathing hardened.
Past Ron watched her profile for a moment, then, without a word, put his pinky around hers. Past Cassidy froze, turning to him for a moment, but Past Ron was looking at the scene playing out in front of them.
Without a word, present Harry and Hermione both turned to look at present Cassidy slowly, as her face grew very warm.
She shook her head quickly, signaling that she didn't want to talk about it. Harry smirked, while Hermione furrowed her brow and tried not to look at past Ron and Cassidy entwining their pinky fingers. She chose to look at her past self instead.
"Is that really what my hair looks like from the back?" She muttered.
Cassidy raised an eyebrow. "Now's the time for that?"
Hermione suddenly snapped a twig, making her earlier self turn around. The three of them hid behind the trees, panting.
"What?" Earlier Harry said.
Earlier Hermione looked into the trees, brows furrowed. "I thought I just saw... Never mind."
"Let's go!" Earlier Ron said, and the four of them ran off.
As their earlier selves headed back to the castle, Hermione checked the coast, the four of them went back behind the pumpkins.
"Okay, go, Harry!" Hermione hissed. "Go!"
Harry approached Buckbeak cautiously. A couple of crows pecked at his feet.
"Go away. Get off." He hissed.
Buckbeak eyed him warily, unmoving.
Cassidy shifted uncomfortably. "What if he doesn't move?"
"Then we're doomed." Hermione replied.
Cassidy exhaled. "Great. Love that."
Buckbeak still didn't budge, and footsteps echoed from Hagrid's hut.
"Very well, gentlemen, shall we step outside?"
"Okay, Buckbeak. Come quickly. Come with us now. Come on." Harry said, staring at Buckbeak.
Buckbeak did not come.
"Buckbeak, please come with us." Cassidy hissed.
Buckbeak blinked at her, and still didn't move.
Cassidy glances at Hermione. "You've got a plan B, right?"
Hermione swallowed, turning to Cassidy. "You, wait here. Keep trying, Harry! Come on. Quickly."
Finally, Hermione disappeared into the underbrush and returned moments later—her arms full of dead ferrets.
Cassidy recoils. "Hermione. What the hell."
"Come on, Buckbeak. Come and get the nice dead ferret." Hermione cooed, ignoring Cassidy.
Cassidy watched in mild horror as Buckbeak gobbles down the treat.
"Okay. That was... effective." she whispered to herself, backing away with the others as Hermione held out another ferret for Buckbeak to eat.
Dumbledore was still distracting Fudge, guiding him in the opposite direction.
"Come on, Beaky." Hermione whispered, shaking the dead ferret.
Finally, Buckbeak moved, following them into the woods just as Fudge, Macnair, and Hagrid step into the pumpkin patch.
"But where is it? I saw the beast just now." Fudge stepped closer to the pumpkin patch, as if doing so would magically bring back Buckbeak. "Not a moment ago!"
"How extraordinary." Dumbledore mused, a knowing twinkle in his eye.
Cassidy smirked. "He's good."
"Buckbeak." Hagrid said breathlessly.
"Oh, come now, Dumbledore. Someone's obviously released him." Fudge said, indignant. Cassidy took Buckbeak's chain from Harry, looking on with the other two as they hid in the trees. Buckbeak tried to peck at the ferrets draped around Hermione's neck, and Cassidy threw him one to eat. He made a sound of gratitude as he gobbled it down, and Cassidy gently stroked him.
"—your services are no longer required, but thank you." Dumbledore said to Macnair, the executioner. He looked like he wanted to burn the school down. In his fury, he used his axe to cut a pumpkin open.
Cassidy glanced at Harry and Hermione. "We should go."
They slipped away, Buckbeak's wings rustling behind them as they escape under the cover of night.
✺⋆⋆✷⋆⋆✧⋆✺⋆✧⋆⋆✺⋆⋆✷⋆✧
"If you told me two weeks ago that we'd be doing this, I'd probably believe you, because we're always doing something life-threatening or stupid." Cassidy hissed, as the three walked through the woods, her hand wrapped around the cold chains that was in Buckbeak's neck. Hermione was in front, luring Buckbeak along with the ferrets, and Harry was walking next to her. "I really hope next year's better." She sighed, rubbing her eyes.
"Cassidy, hurry up!" Hermione whisper-yelled, and the group started to run a bit faster through the dark and cold woods, before stopping at a spot. Hermione threw the last ferret to Buckbeak, which he gobbled up gratefully.
"Now what?" Harry asked.
"We save Sirius." Hermione replied breathlessly.
"How?" Cassidy and Harry say in unison.
"No idea." Hermione replied, and the three of them ran off, leaving Buckbeak behind.
They came to a stop, watching the Whomping Willow. It seemed Remus Lupin was standing outside of it.
"Look, it's Lupin." Hermione said.
Cassidy, without thinking, made to run to him, but Hermione held her back.
"He's right there. I could warn him to take his Wolfsbane, get help, anything—"
"And you'd still be taking a big risk." Hermione said. "Awful things happen when wizards do that, remember?"
Cassidy looked at Hermione's blood-streaked face, her body heaving with deep breaths, and stepped back silently.
"Looks like Snape's there." Cassidy said, grimacing. Snape entered the Whomping Willow, his black robes billowing behind him.
"And now we wait." Harry said.
"And now we wait." Hermione replied, and the three of them sat on the floor.
After playing five rounds of rock-paper-scissors with Harry and Hermione, the group looked up to a swarm of bats flying to the horizon.
Cassidy looked at them silently, feeling a dull ache in her chest as she thought about what her past self could be going through right now. Her father. Part of James' Potter's inner circle? Best friends with Sirius Black and Remus Lupin? Apparent enemy of Severus Snape? Though, to be honest, everyone seemed to be an enemy of Severus Snape.
And who was that her they kept referring to in the Shrieking Shack? Could it be an ex-girlfriend of his or something? She was still so confused. She wondered if she'd ever met Harry when she was a baby, since their parents were friends. But she didn't have any photos with him, as far as she could tell.
"Hermione? Cassidy?" Harry said, pulling the latter out of her reverie.
"Yeah?" Hermione said, as Cassidy turned to Harry.
"Before... down by the lake, when I and Cassidy were with Sirius and Joshua, I did see someone."
Cassidy blinked. She'd only seen a very bright light, and wasn't able to catch who had cast it.
"Who?" Cassidy asked, before she could stop herself.
"Well, I'm not sure of my answer, but that someone made the Dementors go away." Harry said.
"With the Patronus?" Hermione asked. "I heard Snape telling Dumbledore. According to him, only a really powerful wizard could have conjured it." Hermione explained, and Cassidy felt a bit proud of herself for being able to cast one earlier, even though it was very small and mostly useless. She kept this fact to herself.
"It was my dad. It was my dad who cast the Patronus." Harry said, and Cassidy made a noise that sounded something like a gasp and a snort.
Harry stared at her.
"I wasn't laughing, I swear." Cassidy said quickly. "I've just got loads of snot in my nose."
Hermione shook her head at Cassidy before turning back to Harry.
"But Harry, your dad's—"
"Dead, I know." He said this so quickly that both girls flinched. "I'm just telling you what I saw."
Cassidy opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Hermione.
"Here we come." Hermione said, tapping Cassidy's shoulder as she stood up. Cassidy saw the five of them (Sirius, herself, Harry, Ron and Hermione) emerge from the Whomping Willow. Past Sirius walked off with Harry, while Hermione and Cassidy fussed over Ron's wound.
"You see Sirius talking to me over there?"
"Mhm." Hermione hummed, while Cassidy nodded.
"He's asking me to come live with him." Harry said.
"That's great." Hermione said, and Cassidy ruffled Harry's hair affectionately.
"We can finally come visit you on the holidays," she said excitedly. "We can all come to your place and have sleepovers..." Cassidy was already planning what to do when Harry went to live with Sirius, and Harry simply chuckled softly.
"...of course, I'll bring all the sweets to eat, free of charge," she said proudly, and Hermione giggled. For a moment, they planned something fun together, like normal kids their age tended to do.
"I'll be free and I'll never have to go back to the Dursleys," Harry said, his eyes shining in the moonlight. Cassidy simply watched him, knowing how much he hated it at that place, how he'd simply love to leave and never turn back. "It'll just be me and him. We could live in the country. Someplace you can see the sky. I think he'll like that after all those years in Azkaban."
Cassidy put a hand on his shoulder, rubbing it gently, before she heard it.
That dreadful sound from earlier, replaying in front of them.
The howl of a werewolf.