Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I get nothing out of writing this story, except personal enjoyment.
Author's note #1: This is the first fanfic I've ever written (yay!), I got inspiration for this the other day when I was thinking about how that night in POA could have turned out differently for Harry and Hermione, this is what I came up with. Hope you like it. I'd love to hear what other people think of my writing since I've never done anything like this before, so please rate/review!
Author's note #2: I'm Belgian, so English isn't my native language (obviously). It's possible that there might be some grammatical or other language mistakes in my story, my apologies if that's the case. I think my mastery of the English language is okay, so it shouldn't be too bad… right? Enjoy!
Hermione felt very sore, but noticed she was laying down in a very comfortable bed. She opened her eyes. She was in the Hospital Wing. When Hermione turned over to her left, she saw Harry was in the bed next to her, looking unconscious, while Ron was having his broken leg mended by Madame Pomfrey in the opposite bed.
She wondered how the three of them had gotten there, until she violently remembered. The Whomping Willow, Pettigrew, Professor Lupin turning into a werewolf, and Harry, Sirius and herself being surrounded by hundreds of Dementors.
Hermione shuddered at this last thought. Seeing the hooded creatures appear from every corner of the lake was a nightmare, just like the realization that she couldn't defend herself from the Dementors. The last thing she remembered was Harry trying to cast his Patronus to fend them off. After that, everything had gone black.
The doors of the Hospital Wing were unlocked, and voices were coming from the corridor outside: Hermione heard Professor Snape and Cornelius Fudge talking. They were having a lively discussion about how Snape could be rewarded for what he did tonight. Hermione didn't understand what Snape had done. Maybe he had saved them from the Dementors?
She looked to her left again, and she saw Harry was now awake, his beautiful green eyes fixed on her.
Seeing this made Hermione's heart leap. A while back, she noticed that her feelings for her best friend had changed in a romantic way. That was also the reason why she chose to follow Harry to the lake when Sirius had stalked away in his Animagus form, earlier that night. She had felt something was about to happen and just couldn't let Harry go alone. She wondered if Harry knew about her feelings towards him. She didn't suspect he did, as it appeared he only saw her as his female best friend.
"Ah, you're awake!" said Madam Pomfrey. Hermione made a little jump, as she had completely forgotten where they were for a moment. She was carrying a huge block of chocolate and a small hammer. Harry and Hermione both asked what was going on, and the school nurse explained that Black had been locked up and would be receiving the Dementor's Kiss any minute now. Upon hearing this, both Harry and Hermione jumped out of their beds and looked ready to explode.
Snape and the Minister had heard something was going on in the Hospital Wing and joined the conversation, soon followed by Professor Dumbledore. But no matter what they told them, it became very clear that nobody would believe Harry and Hermione. Their hearts sank. What were they going to do?
Suddenly, Professor Dumbledore asked the others to leave so he could have a word with the two of them. As soon as they were alone, they tried to explain everything yet again, and it became clear that Dumbledore did believe them. However, there was nothing he could do to save Sirius from the Dementors. "What we need," he said, "is more time."
Harry looked dumbstruck, but Hermione understood what Dumbledore wanted them to do. After Dumbledore gave them some further information on the current whereabouts of Harry's godfather, Hermione pulled the Time-Turner from under her robes, threw the golden chain around herself and Harry, and turned the hourglass over three times… a few moments later, they were standing in the deserted entrance hall.
"Hermione, wha-" Harry began, but he couldn't finish his sentence: Hermione was pulling him across the hall, into a small broom closet. Hermione took her seat on an upturned bucket, while Harry sat down on the ground. Hermione noticed the tired, but alert look in his eyes. She couldn't keep herself from blushing a bit when looking in them, and to her surprise, she saw Harry's cheeks redden a bit as well.
They kept staring at each other, while Hermione explained what the Time-Turner was. They asked themselves what Dumbledore wanted them to do, but they were interrupted when footsteps went by across the hall, outside the closet.
"I think that's us", Hermione said. "We're going down to Hagrid's cabin now." She saw the confused look on Harry's face.
"So, you're telling me that we're in here, but we're also out there, heading towards Hagrid?" She understood his confusion, but Hermione decided that now was a good time to move out.
The youngsters silently left the broom closet, and went through the huge entrance doors out on the grounds. The sun was setting. Hermione decided that it would be safer to run to the edge of the forest and keep themselves hidden there. While running to the line of trees, both of them were thinking about what Dumbledore told them.
"Hermione… he told us that we could save more than one innocent life tonight. What if he meant that we should try and rescue Buckbeak as well as Sirius?"
Hermione didn't seem entirely convinced.
"It could be, but I don't understand how Buckbeak will help us save Sirius…"
Harry hadn't thought about that. But, soon after, he realized how the Hippogriff could help them.
"Dumbledore told us that Sirius is locked up in Flitwick's office, on the seventh floor, remember? We can use Buckbeak to fly up there, unlock the window, and get him out in time."
Hermione gasped. "Harry, you're absolutely brilliant!" Harry couldn't help but blush at this last comment. They had now reached the edge of the forest and moved along between the trees, towards Hagrid's cabin.
"Hermione, can't we just run in there and grab Pettigrew?" Harry asked. Hermione told him they couldn't and explained to Harry what horrible things had happened to wizards who had tampered with time. Harry didn't seem convinced, but he didn't argue with her. She understood how agonizing it had to be for him, to watch the man who had betrayed his parents escape.
The back door of Hagrid's cabin opened and their earlier selves walked out silently, putting on the Invisibility Cloak as well. Harry and Hermione heard them move along silently. Meanwhile, the execution party had arrived at the cabin and Hagrid let them in. It was now er never.
"Wait here," Harry said, "I'll go get him." Hermione nodded in agreement and watched as Harry ran out in the open, towards the beautiful Hippogriff. She couldn't help but smile at seeing how courageous he proved to be, yet again. Harry managed to free Buckbeak, but the Hippogriff seemed reluctant to walk and didn't move along all that fast. Harry tugged the rope harder and Hermione started to panic, as the execution party could exit the cabin any moment now.
They were just in time. Harry, Hermione and Buckbeak had just concealed themselves behind the trees of the Forbidden Forest when the members of the execution party came outside the cabin. Hagrid seemed overwhelmed with joy and from what they saw, Dumbledore couldn't help but manage a little smile under his long beard. The executioner, on the other hand, seemed furious and demolished one of Hagrid's pumpkins with his axe.
Harry was smiling at the sight of this, but pointed out that they needed to get closer to the Whomping Willow. If they went there, they could keep an eye on their past selves. Hermione agreed, and they swiftly moved toward the giant tree, with Buckbeak following them.
The teens quickly reached a remote spot behind the trees of the forest, where they could watch the Willow. They saw how Sirius and Ron entered the secret passage underneath, followed by themselves. A few minutes later, Remus Lupin entered the passage as well. Finally, Snape came into sight and disappeared under the Willow, picking up Harry's Invisibility Cloak in the process. "And now we wait," Hermione said.
Night fell over the Hogwarts grounds. Harry and Hermione had been waiting in silence for about half an hour now, while Buckbeak was sitting behind them, looking in the direction of Hagrid's cabin.
There was one thing Hermione didn't understand about this night's events. "Harry, what happened when we were at the lake? I remember the Dementors closing in on us, but I just couldn't make the Patronus Charm work. And after that, I believe I passed out…" her voiced died away. Harry knew what she felt. It had been dreadful to watch the Dementors close in on them, hearing their rattling breaths, knowing the creatures were probably about to claim their souls.
"We nearly got Kissed." Hermione gasped when she heard these words escape Harry's mouth. She moved closer and hugged him fiercely, shivering all over him. "Oh, Harry…"
Harry swallowed and thought about that moment. He explained how the Dementor in front of him had lowered its hood, revealing its horrible face. After that, the creature had grabbed him by the throat with both its icy hands and lowered its own mouth to Harry's, ready to suck out his soul. It was then that the silvery light had appeared from across the lake. The Dementors had retreated and soon after that, Harry had passed out as well.
"But what was it?" Hermione asked, wondering how someone could have made that many Dementors retreat.
"It was a Patronus," Harry said. "A really powerful one." Hermione asked him if he had seen who conjured it, but Harry had only seen a vague figure on the opposite bank of the lake.
"I think it was my dad," Harry muttered.
Hermione couldn't believe it. Harry's dad was dead… or was he? She didn't know about magic being able to bring back people from death, but even if it was possible, it was highly unlikely that James Potter would have been there at that exact moment to save them.
No, there was something else going on. It couldn't have been Harry's dad. When she thought about it, she realized that Harry and his father shared near identical looks. Could it have been Harry who had saved them? But no, that couldn't be… it would be extremely dangerous to tamper with time like that…
Hermione didn't realize she was still holding Harry very close to her. Her heart and mind were racing. She pulled back a little and saw Harry smiling. "Everything is going to be okay., Hermione. I'm sure of it." After saying this, he took her hand and pulled her closer to him. Hermione let her head rest on his chest. The two of them sat down like this for some time, until…
"Look, we're coming out of the passage," Harry whispered. Hermione looked up and saw a group of people standing near the Willow, along with her own cat, Crookshanks. Harry and Hermione stood up and took Buckbeak's rope, ready to move again. They didn't have to wait long: one of the figures started shaking violently. They watched in horror as Lupin took his werewolf form.
"Hermione. We have to move, now!" Harry exclaimed in fear.
"But Harry, we can't interfere-" Hermione froze for a second. In the distance, they could see something moving towards them very quickly.
The werewolf was heading straight for them.
Harry took Hermione's hand and they started to run as fast as they could, . They kept running until they approached a clearing near the edge of the forest, and hid behind one of the thicker trees. Buckbeak was nowhere in sight. They could hear the werewolf howling and saw it approaching them in the distance, on their right. They moved around the tree and silently backed off, right into the clearing. The werewolf was nowhere to be seen.
Crack. With a sudden jolt of dread, Harry and Hermione turned around and saw the full-sized werewolf entering the clearing, about ten meters away from them. Harry instinctively turned his back to the werewolf, took a stand in front of Hermione and tried to protect her with his body, although he knew they were both going to die.
Suddenly, Buckbeak appeared from behind the tree where they'd been just a few moments ago. The Hippogriff roared and attacked the werewolf, which hurried off into the forest after it received a fierce blow to the head from the huge beast.
"That was so scary…" Hermione whispered. She was shaking heavily and threw herself into Harry's chest, her arms covering her face. Harry couldn't do anything but take her into a hug.
"Thanks for trying to protect me, Harry…" she squealed. Harry hugged her even tighter in response.
"Hermione, we should go to the lake. The Dementors will be surrounding us and Sirius any minute now, we need to know when we can save him…"
And so, they hurried off towards the lake. Harry had been right: when they left the edge of forest, they could see Dementors emerging out of the darkness from all directions. They were all heading towards the opposite bank of the lake.
"I don't think they will get near us, Hermione… we should take some shelter here, behind the trees, and wait for my dad to rescue us." Hermione nodded. They watched as the company of Dementors on the other side of the lake grew bigger and closed in on their past selves and Sirius.
A whisp of silver mist was appearing every now and then. Harry's attempts at casting a Patronus. They could see Hermione collapse. Both of them grew excited. Any moment now, their rescuer would appear. They could see one of the Dementors lower its hood.
"It should happen now," both Harry and Hermione thought.
But nobody came to their rescue this time. Harry's feeble Patronus flickered and died. They saw the Dementor close the distance to Harry, stretching out its decaying hands towards him. Two other Dementors were lowering their hoods as well. One of them lowered its scabbed face towards Sirius, and the other was moving towards Hermione's unconscious body…
Harry started to run forward. Hermione didn't know what he was doing until Harry hastily pulled out his wand and shouted "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" at the top of his lungs.
She gasped as a beautiful, dazzling silver animal erupted from the tip of his wand. She couldn't quite make out what it was, but it was charging towards the swarming group of Dementors. The three creatures who were about to perform the Kiss were hit first and thrown up in the air, soaring away into the darkness. The silver animal proceeded to keep running around the three people laying on the grassy lakeside, until all of the Dementors were gone.
Hermione couldn't believe it. Harry had been the one who had conjured the Patronus that drove away all those Dementors. She was astonished. The Patronus was cantering back to where they were standing. It was a beautiful, antlered stag. Hermione moved forward when she saw Harry stretch out his trembling hand to the stag, muttering the name Prongs to it, until the creature dissolved in a cloud of silver vapour.
"Harry…" she whispered.
Harry turned around, and before he knew what happened, Hermione had flung her arms around him and kissed him. He was surprised at first, but he returned the kiss and the two stood there for about a minute, exploring each other's mouths, before they pulled away from each other. Their eyes locked, and both of them couldn't supress a grin.
"Come on," Harry said. "We still have to save Sirius." He took Hermione's hand and led her back to Buckbeak.
"I think I want some more where that came from, after this is done," Hermione teased. Harry started blushing again, but promised her she'd be in for a treat later. They noticed how Snape had appeared on the opposite bank and had conjured stretchers for their unconscious bodies, guiding them towards the castle.
"We have about forty-five minutes left until Dumbledore locks us into the Hospital Wing," Hermione muttered. "How do we know when it's time to rescue Sirius?"
Harry hadn't thought about that. He guessed that when the moment came, they would know. And about half an hour later, when they started getting nervous and were about to set off to save Sirius, they got their warning.
A cloaked figure was leaving the castle and hurrying towards one of the entrances to the grounds. Harry noticed something shiny on his belt. "It's the executioner," Harry said, his voice filled with anger. "He's probably gone to fetch the Dementors. Now is the time, Hermione…"
Harry helped Hermione on Buckbeak and then swung himself on the Hippogriff. A few moments later, they were soaring towards the West Tower, looking for the window that was supposed to be Flitwick's office. Hermione grabbed onto Harry and looked set to crush his belly: he remembered that his new girlfriend wasn't fond of flying.
Soon, they were floating outside the window. Harry tapped the window and saw Sirius lift his head. His godfather stared at him, his mouth wide open. "Alohomora!" Hermione shouted, and the window sprang open with a click.
"How?" Sirius clearly couldn't believe what was happening. He didn't hesitate, however, and jumped onto Buckbeak.
"Okay, Buckbeak. Get us to the top of the West Tower, quickly!" Harry bellowed. The Hippogriff obeyed, and soon they were standing on top of the tower. Harry and Hermione slid off Buckbeak's back and explained to Sirius that he had to leave right away.
Sirius exclaimed that he owed them, and that they would soon meet again. He couldn't help but smile at the sight of Harry and Hermione's joined hands. "You truly are your father's son, Harry… not only do you have the same looks, the courage and great care towards your friends that he possessed, but you also seem to have inherited his great taste of women."
Hermione reddened at this last comment. When they urged Sirius to leave yet again, he gave both of them a hand. He winked to the couple one last time, and set off into the night along with Buckbeak. Harry and Hermione watched as they flew away. Harry put his arm around Hermione, while she leaned into his chest. They kept watching until a cloud drifted in front of the small forms of Sirius and Buckbeak.
They were gone.
"Harry, we'd better go. We have about ten minutes left before Dumbledore locks the doors to the Hospital Wing, we have to get down there!" Hermione said. Harry agreed.
When they approached the staircase, Harry noticed two hooded figures in the distance, who were floating towards the tower. "Look, Hermione. I think there are two Dementors approaching," Harry muttered. He was right: they recognised the tattered robes from the horrible creatures. Harry instinctively pulled out his wand, but it became clear that they were headed for Flitwick's office, and so Harry and Hermione could move on without trouble.
Once they reached the bottom of the staircase, they waited for a moment. Fudge and Snape were out in the corridor, talking about when the Kiss would be administered.
"I believe MacNair should have fetched one or two Dementors by now, so we'll go up to the office where Black's locked in" Fudge said. "I presume Dumbledore will join us in a few minutes." Snape looked as happy as he had ever been.
"He's sick." Hermione was clearly not amused by Snape's behaviour. Soon, the noise died down, and she and Harry moved out towards the Hospital Wing. They reached it just in time: Dumbledore appeared outside the doors when they reached it.
"And? How did it go?" The Headmaster asked. Harry and Hermione smiled in unison. "Great. We managed to free Buckbeak, and Sirius escaped on him."
"Fantastic!" Dumbledore's eyes filled with pride. When he took a good look at his pupils, he noticed their joined hands. "And I believe you two might have found something else tonight, am I right?" He smiled when he saw the two teenagers starting to blush simultaneously. "Now, hurry up, I'll let you in and lock the doors."
A few minutes later, Harry and Hermione were sitting in their beds, right next to each other. They had both been given a few small blocks of chocolate by Madam Pomfrey. Their eyes locked again. Except for them, and the still unconscious Ron, the Hospital Wing was now deserted.
"I still can't believe you were the one who conjured that Patronus," Hermione said. "But then again, I could have guessed it. Only a really powerful wizard could have done that."
Harry's cheeks reddened. "I couldn't have done it without you."
"Oh no?"
"No. If you want to cast a perfect Patronus, you have to use a very powerful memory. One that will completely fill you up with happiness". Harry smiled while he was talking about his stag Patronus. "What do you think I was using as my memory?"
"Oh, Harry…" Her eyes were filled with moisture.
"I was thinking about that moment before we got to the lake, when we were waiting for our past selves to get out of the Whomping Willow. You were resting your head on my chest and I was sitting very comfortably against that tree. It was the happiest and strongest I had felt in a while, I could feel it in my entire body when we were back there. I knew that I needed a more powerful memory to use for my Patronus to save us, and since that memory was still very fresh, I thought that just might do the trick… and it did."
A few tears escaped from Hermione's eyes. Even though they had been through a lot of things together the past three years, nothing compared to what they had done and discovered this night.
"Do you remember what I promised you when we were at the lake?"
Hermione beamed when she heard these words. "Yes," she giggled.
"Well, maybe now is a good time for it…" Harry whispered. He stood up and closed the distance to Hermione, and soon, they were in a passionate kiss yet again. Harry enjoyed the feeling of holding her, while she was running her hands through his messy dark hair.
"Oi! What are you two doing?" the surprise made Harry and Hermione jump, even though they immediately realized who it was. "Ron!" Hermione whispered. "NEVER do that again, you scared the living daylights out of us!"
Ron smirked, however. "I think you two have a lot to tell me, don't you?" Harry and Hermione grinned back at him, while they joined hands again. They assured Ron that Sirius was safe. Tomorrow, they would tell him the whole story about the events of the night.