Chapter 23
Cassidy stood there, frozen in horror with the other two as shouts and growls could be heard.
"Let's go." Harry said. Cassidy didn't budge, still looking at the ensuing fight. Harry grabbed her hand, pulling her along as they ran alongside Remus's werewolf form from afar. Finally, they were a few yards away, watching as Remus advanced on Past Cassidy and Harry...
Cassidy suddenly remembered something she'd read about werewolves one late night, when she was bored and decided to study Defense Against the Dark Arts with Hermione. How she'd shown a particular fascination with werewolves that night. How she'd remembered that they responded to other werewolf howls, and how Hermione had laughed at her imitation of one.
"'Mione." Cassidy hissed, Hermione turned to her.
"What is it?"
"That study session. The howl."
Hermione's eyes widened in realization, and she cupped her hands around her mouth.
"Awooo!" Harry rushed to cover her mouth, but Cassidy held him back.
"Have you two gone mad? What're you doing?!" Harry said.
"Saving your lives." Hermione replied, before turning back to the unfolding scene.
"Awooooooo!"
Remus turned to where they stood, and started to rush over. Cassidy's triumphant smile quickly faded.
"He's coming for us." Harry said.
"Well I'll tell you what, Sherlock Holmes," Cassidy said slowly, stepping back. "You are unbelievable."
"Run!" Hermione shouted, and the three of them turned to sprint for their lives. Cassidy ran the fastest, Hermione a centimeter behind her, with Harry in the back. The three weaved between trees, twigs and branches crunching beneath their feet. Cassidy's necklace glowed furiously, and she could hear her heart pounding in her ears.
Then Harry tripped.
"Oh, come on, Potter!" Harry yelled, pulling him to his feet before continuing to run, run, run.
They finally hid behind a large tree, and Remus came looking.
Squinting her eyes shut, Cassidy tried to breathe silently, holding on tight to Hermione's hand as the three of them hid. As Remus came closer, they shuffled to the other side of the tree, making sure he didn't see them.
Then, with a final howl, he stalked off.
"Oh good, he's gone." Cassidy whispered, starting to back away with the other two.
Then, a growl.
"Oh." Hermione breathed, as they all slowly turned to see Remus, growling lowly as he trotted towards them slowly. His eyes were inhumane, violent, hungry.
He got closer, rearing to attack. Harry tried to shield the two girls, ready for impact, ready to die...
Suddenly, Buckbeak appeared, flapping his magnificent wings in defense, and Cassidy resolved then and there that hippogriffs were her favorite animals. Remus roared in rage, trying to attack him, but Buckbeak hit him with his hooves very harshly, and Remus, with a last defeated roar, ran off into the night.
Hermione hugged Harry tightly, while Cassidy ran over to Buckbeak to stroke him. "That was so scary." Hermione whispered shakily.
"Well, Professor Lupin's having a really tough night." Harry replied, holding her. Cassidy was still gushing over Buckbeak, and the hippogriff's chest puffed under all the attention.
Suddenly, a wind blowed around them all, and Harry, Hermione and Cassidy looked to the moonlight sky.
Dementors. Hundreds of them, flying overhead. Cassidy looked down, and as expected, her necklace had turned pitch black.
"Sirius and Joshua." Harry breathed. "Come on!"
The three ran to the clearing with the lake, watching as the Dementors circled over the Past Cassidy, Joshua, Sirius and Harry. One swept down, feeding on Harry and Cassidy. They screamed, and the present Cassidy put her hands over her mouth.
"This is horrible." Hermione said.
"Don't worry." Harry replied. "My dad will come. He'll come and do the Patronus."
Cassidy gasped softly as she saw herself reach up and cast a feeble, weak stream of silver light to the dementors, before letting her hand fall to her side.
"Cassidy," Hermione said, turning to her. "You cast wandless magic."
Cassidy shook her head slowly. "It was useless."
"Useless? Sure, you didn't cast something big, but... not a lot of wizards can cast an accurate and direct spell wandlessly, Cass. That's something I've only seen Dumbledore do. I've been trying to learn it for weeks now, and you just... did it."
Cassidy blinked in surprise, but didn't say anything. She simply turned to Harry, who was still waiting for his father. A Dementor had come upon Sirius, and Cassidy winced at his screams as she saw her past self fall to her knees in defeat.
"Any minute now." Harry said.
"Harry. He's not coming." Cassidy said slowly. Harry whirled toward her.
"What are you talking about?! I saw him!"
Cassidy took a deep breath before speaking again. "Your father is dead, Harry. He couldn't have been here."
"Cassidy—" Hermione started.
"No, Hermione. We can't stand here waiting for someone who's not going to come." Cassidy said.
"He'll come right now. You'll see." Harry said, turning away from Cassidy.
"Harry, listen to me," Hermione said gently as Cassidy pushed down the urge to shake some sense into Harry. "No one's coming."
"Don't worry, he will. He will come." Harry replied, still looking, hoping, waiting.
Cassidy watched in horror as her father's breaths became more ragged, more strained, saw how her past self's face was paling, contorting in pain. Hermione shifted closer to her, holding her shoulder.
"You're dying." Hermione said quietly. "All of you."
Then Cassidy remembered how everyone said how much Harry looked like James, and Harry turned to her, tears in his eyes, because he knew that his father wasn't coming. Perhaps he'd known from the start, perhaps he'd known this whole time, but he wanted to hold on to this slip of hope, this feeble fantasy.
"He was never coming." Cassidy whispered, a look of sorrow and pity on her face. "And I think you knew that, and I think you know what you have to do now."
Hermione looked between Cassidy and Harry. "What're you talking about? What does he have to do?"
But Harry simply looked at Cassidy for a moment, and ran to the edge of the lake.
"Harry!" Hermione said, starting after him, but Cassidy held her back, watching the whole thing with wide eyes.
He drew out his wand, his blue eyes flashing as he aimed it at the Dementors.
✺⋆⋆✷⋆⋆✧⋆✺⋆✧ "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" ✺⋆⋆✷⋆⋆✧⋆✺⋆✧
He screamed, and the bright light Cassidy had seen before she fainted burst from his wand, repelling the Dementors away and saving the lives of Sirius, Joshua, Harry and Cassidy. Cassidy and Hermione held each other, watching the waves of light spring forth from Harry's wand, and Hermione leaned into Cassidy as the light reflected in their eyes.
"Beautiful." Cassidy breathed, because that was the only way to describe it all. And then the light from his wand faded, and the Harry from the past collapsed.
Harry turned to the two girls, panting, before running over and hugging Cassidy.
"Oh!" She gasped, laughing before hugging him back. "What's this for?"
"For saving me." He mumbled into her jumper. She laughed, pulling back.
"You did that all by yourself, Potter." She whispered. "Now. Let's go find Buckbeak."
✺⋆⋆✷⋆⋆✧⋆✺⋆✧⋆⋆✺⋆⋆✷⋆✧
<p>"WOOOOOO!" Cassidy yelled, holding on to Hermione's waist as the three of them flew on Buckbeak. The wind blew on her face, and she felt the silky feathers on her thighs. "We're invincible!"</p>
<p>"We won't be very invincible if your shouts attract the attention of Dementors, will we?" Harry yelled back.</p>
<p>"Shut up, Harry."</p>
<p>Harry grinned.</p>
<p>"You were right, Hermione," Harry yelled, as they swooped lower. "It wasn't my dad I saw earlier. It was me!"</p>
<p>"Wow, Sherlock. You blow my mind, everytime." Cassidy whispered, and Harry tried to kick her.</p>
<p>"I saw myself conjuring the Patronus before. I knew I could do it this time, because... well, I'd already done it! Does that make sense?"</p>
<p>Hermione yelled "No!" the same time Cassidy yelled "Yes!", so Harry concluded that it was a draw.</p>
<p>"But I don't like flyingAHHHHHHHHHH—" Hermione screamed in time with Cassidy and Harry screams of excitement as they swooped down suddenly.</p>
<p>"THIS IS AMAZING!" Cassidy screamed, a look of exhilaration on her face. Hermione was still screaming, and they landed on the top of the Dark Tower, where Sirius was being held. Hermione whipped out her wand.</p>
<p>"Bombarda!"</p>
<p>Sirius's prison door flew off its hinges, and Cassidy whistled lowly.</p>
<p>"Why didn't you just Alohomora, like before?" Cassidy asked, raising her brow.</p>
<p>"I don't know," Hermione said as Sirius emerged from the cell. "They changed it in this movie."</p>
<p>"This movie?" Cassidy said, raising her eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"</p>
<p>Hermione shrugged. "Nothing."</p>
<p>It was quite hard to fit four people on a hippogriff, but they managed it nonetheless. Sirius was ecstatic, whooping and laughing the whole way.</p>
<p>Finally, they landed in the courtyard, and Sirius helped Cassidy and Hermione off Buckbeak before taking the children aside.</p>
<p>"I'll be forever grateful for this, to the three of you." he said, looking at each of their faces.</p>
<p>"I'm grateful that you'll finally take a bath," Cassidy joked, and Sirius rolled his eyes.</p>
<p>"Just like your father. Always picking away at my hygiene. It's hard to keep clean in Azkaban, Noelle."</p>
<p>Cassidy smiled at him. "You're really brave. And loyal, for what you did. Coming back for Pettigrew, trying to take Harry in."</p>
<p>Sirius looked at Cassidy, really did, and a flicker of recognition passed in his eyes, like he saw someone else standing there. He stepped forward, taking her by the shoulders.</p>
<p>"Never lose that spark, Noelle. You really are the fiercest witch of our age." He ruffled her hair before letting go of her shoulders, and Harry stepped forward.</p>
<p>"I want to go with you." He said.</p>
<p>"One day, perhaps. For some time, my life will be too unpredictable." He took Harry by the shoulders this time. "And besides, you're meant to be here."</p>
<p>"But you're innocent." Harry replied, desperate.</p>
<p>"And you know it." Hermione and Cassidy looked to each other, sensing this was a personal moment, and stepped away.</p>
<p>"You were remarkable at the lake, you know." Hermione said to Cassidy as they walked back to Buckbeak. "You somehow knew what to tell Harry... logic really doesn't always win."</p>
<p>Cassidy shook her head. "You were amazing too, 'Mione. That howl? You did it better than I did, and you stopped me from doing something absolutely stupid. Twice."</p>
<p>They both laughed, linking arms as Sirius and Harry emerged. Sirius nodded at the two girls, and he got back on Buckbeak, handing Sirius the chains to hold on to the hippogriff with.</p>
<p>Sirius looked down at the three of them, eyes shining for the first time since Cassidy met him.</p>
<p>"You're just like Joshua, you know that?" Sirius said, looking at Cassidy, who smiled before he turned to Hermione. "And you really are the brightest witch of your age."</p>
<p>Cassidy nudged Hermione playfully as the latter smiled, stepping back as Buckbeak galloped, spreading his wings before carrying Sirius up into the night sky.</p>
<p>They all stood there, watching for a moment, before Hermione taps both of them.</p>
<p>"We have to go!" She hissed. Cassidy nodded as they started to run for what felt like the hundredth time that night, the Clock Tower chiming as they dashed back to the hospital wing.</p>
<p>As they made it to the hospital wings floor, they saw Dumbledore leaving the hospital wing, and he turned to see them arrive. They almost stumbled over themselves getting to him.</p>
<p>"Well?" Dumbledore said expectantly. Cassidy braced against Hermione, panting.</p>
<p>"He's free." Harry answered. "We did it." Just then, Joshua appeared, walking over leisurely. He winked at Cassidy, who grinned back at him before he started to follow Dumbledore.</p>
<p>"Did what?" Dumbledore said, waving with one hand as he held Joshua's shoulder with the other. "Goodnight."</p>
<p>And with that, the two men left.</p>
<p>Shaking her head in disbelief, Cassidy pushed open the hospital wing's doors, followed by Harry and Hermione. They saw their past selves fading away, paused until they were completely gone, and walked back in.</p>
<p>Ron stared at them all as if they'd grown five heads.</p>
<p>"How did you get there? I was talking to you there..." he pointed to where their past selves had been standing, "...and now youre there?"</p>
<p>Harry Hermione and Cassidy struggled to stifle their laughter. Cassidy suddenly cleared her throat and stood straight, a mock-serious expression on her face.</p>
<p>"Oh, Ron, it must be some of the medicine Madam Pomfrey gave you." She shook her head in pity.</p>
<p>"Clearly. Any idea what he's talking about, Harry?" Hermione said, grinning.</p>
<p>"I dunno." Harry said, shrugging as the two girls giggled. "Honestly, Ron, how could somebody be in two places at once?"</p>