Hermione, Harry, and Ron walked out of the castle and into the courtyard. They decided to go and visit Hagrid, to see about Buckbeak's hearing.

"Beautiful day." Hermione said, looking around.

"Gorgeous. Unless of course you're being ripped to pieces!" Ron said, glaring at her.

Hermione just rolled her eyes as Harry looked at them, confused. "Ripped to pieces? What are you talking about?"

She sighed before saying, "Ronald has lost his rat."

Ron looked at her in disbelief. "I haven't lost anything! Your cat killed him!"

"Rubbish." Hermione commented, walking ahead of them.

Ron turned to Harry and said, "Harry, you've seen the way that blood-thirsty beast of hers is always lurking around and about. And Scabbers is gone!"

She whipped around, facing him. "Well maybe you should learn to take better care of your pets!"

"Your cat killed him!"

"Did not!"

"Did."

"Didn't."

They walked down the steep slope to Hagrid's house, to find him not there. "Where do you think he could be?" Hermione asked, looking at Harry. He just shrugged, when the three of them heard a big splash coming from the Black Lake. They looked at each other before running to the source of the noise.

There, in the water, stood Hagrid. But instead of his usual, dingy clothes, he was wearing a suit. Or what he would call a suit. It was brown and looked to be made of fur, and he wore an orange tie with yellow polka dots. He was standing at knee length in the water, skipping very large stones.

"How did it go Hagrid? The hearing." Hermione called out to him. Harry and Ron also waited for an answer.

He stopped tossing the stones and said, "Well, first off the committee members took turns talking about why we were there." He threw another stone and continued. "Then I got up and an' said my peace. Said how Buckbeak was a good hippogriff; always cleaned his feathers." He sighed at the next part. "An' then, Lucius Malfoy got up, well you can imagine, he said "Buckbeak was a deadly and dangerous creature who would kill ya as soon as he looked at ya."

Hermione clenched her jaw at the mention of Draco's father, but she breathed out and said, "And then?"

Hagrid threw yet another stone and said, "And then he asked the worst, that ole' Lucius."

"They're not sacking you." Ron said hopefully.

"No, I'm not sacked." His voice cracked, as if he was about to cry. He threw one more stone and then the tears came. "Buckbeak's been sentenced to death!" He cried out, not even throwing the last stone, but just dropping it beside him in the water.

Harry and Ron looked at each other, exchanging sad glances. But Hermione looked away, already feeling the tears coming. She blinked a few times, and they were gone. But she couldn't believe that Buckbeak, that innocent hippogriff, was going to be killed.

After a few moments of silence, the four headed back toward the school. They bid Hagrid a goodbye at his house, and Hermione even hugged him. He smiled sadly at her before turning and disappearing inside his house, Fang barking happily at him, oblivious of the pain he was feeling.

They walked up to the castle, none of them saying a word. Finally Harry broke it by saying, "I wish we could do something to make Hagrid feel better."

"Me too." Ron said, looking down at the ground. Hermione nodded, but stared out over the grounds.

"What if we go to the Ministry and try to convince them to terminate the sentence?" Hermione said, looking at them with hope in her eyes.

"Are you mad? And how are we supposed to get to the Ministry?" Ron asked, looking at her like she was crazy.

"It was just a suggestion." She said softly, before storming into the castle.

"You couldn't have been a little more sensitive?" Harry asked, looking at Ron with raised eyebrows.

"What? Her bloody, demented cat killed my rat!" Ron exclaimed. Harry just rolled his eyes and they went in.

Okay, this was definitely a filler chapter! It was just supposed to show what happened at Buckbeak's hearing.

I will have the next chapter uploaded VERY soon! :)