Chapter 14
Buckbeak's Break For Freedom

The next few days passed by quietly inside Grimmauld Place for Harry and his friends. The advancing start date of school was nearly upon them again and they fretted about leaving Mr and Mrs Weasley and Buckbeak in Grimmauld Place.

"I don't feel comfortable with Mum being here alone during the day," Ginny had said as they were packing their things up ready to leave for Kings Cross station the next morning.

"Nor do I," Ron agreed. "But then someone needs to look after Buckbeak, he can't be left on his own again."

They continued to pack their things discussing what they would like to happen until they were interrupted by a knock at the front door.

"Must be an Order member," Harry said leaving to go and answer it.

On opening the door he saw the giant figure of Hagrid silhouetted against the light behind him.

"Hagrid!" Harry called out in delight at seeing his old friend. "Come in!"

"Alrigh' Harry," he said stooping to get in through the door. "Alrigh' Hermione, Ron, Ginny." He added seeing the three teenagers come downstairs.

"Hagrid!" They chorused, Hermione flinging her arms round Hagrid's large waist. "What are you doing here?" She asked.

"I've had an order from Dumbledore to come and collect a little friend of mine that I believe you've been kind enough to look after for me," he said grinning.

"Ah, yes," said Harry cottoning on immediately. "Buckbeak's in the attic."

Hagrid stomped upstairs behind the teenagers, finding it hard to fit through the small staircase up to the loft area.

"Ya havn't been keepin' 'im in 'ere 'ave ya?" Hagrid exclaimed in shock as Harry threw open the door.

"Well…I…we…" Harry began, but luckily for him he was spared the humiliation of trying to explain the reasoning behind Buckbeak's squalid living conditions, by Buckbeak himself. Recognising Hagrid's voice, Buckbeak had risen off the ground from where he was resting and lolled across to see him, making what appeared to be cooing noises all the way.

"Hello, Beaky," Hagrid said affectionately reaching over and stroking him immediately. Putting his face close to Buckbeak's neck, he felt a nip on his shoulder as Buckbeak softly pecked at him.

"You didn't even need to bow to him," Ron said amazed. "He's been really moody with us lately."

"I'm not surprised, keepin' 'im shut up in 'ere all day and night. Poor thin' was probably bored senseless. Don't you worry boy, I've got someone who's really lookin' forward to meetin' ya," he finished patting him gently just below the wing.

"Do you mean Gwarp?" Hermione asked tentatively, trying to distract Hagrid, who nodded in response. "How's he getting on?" She continued.

"Oh, he's doin' really well now," Hagrid said enthusiastically. "Really well indeed, actually. 'E can say nearly fifty words now an' I'm sure that 'e understands everything I say to him."

"But how is his temper?" Hermione asked nervously.

"Oh, that's passed completely," Hagrid said smiling. "'E gets a little angry every now an' again. Ya know, if the birds tease 'im, flyin' round an' round 'is 'ead, that sort o' thing. Sometimes 'e shouts a bit, if I aint seen 'im for a day or two, but 'e's not chained up any more and 'e's stopped uprootin' trees now, which 'as got t' be good."

"Oh yes," they all agreed quickly, nodding their heads dramatically, trying not to upset Hagrid with their opinions on his half brother just yet.

"Do you want a cup of tea?" Harry offered.

"No thanks 'Arry. I'd better be getting' back to 'Ogwarts. Get old Beaky out in the open again. An' I got t' be getting' on with somethin' Dumbledore's asked me t' do," he said mysteriously.

Pulling the familiar pink umbrella from his coat pocket, Hagrid pointed it towards Buckbeak who looked uncertainly back at him, muttering what turned out to be a vanishing spell.

Harry ran to the skylight and wrenched it open, whilst Hagrid climbed onto Buckbeak's back.

"Can he take your weight? Ron asked astonished.

"I performed the lightenin' spell on myself," Hagrid said.

"Goodbye then Hagrid, see you tomorrow," Harry said as Hagrid on the invisible Buckbeak made his way towards the outside world. "Goodbye Buckbeak see you soon."

"Yeah goodbye Hagrid and Buckbeak!" Ron, Hermione and Ginny called as the two travellers launched out into the air. Buckbeak clearly turned around to say goodbye to the teenagers who had been his only friends for months, as Hagrid came souring back towards them.

"G' bye," he shouted waving wildly.

"Hagrid!" Hermione suddenly shouted running to the edge of the skylight. Ron grabbed her arm as she nearly toppled over and out of the window. "Hadn't you better make yourself invisible too?"

Hagrid looked a bit sheepish, but pulling out his umbrella again, he waved with the hand it was in once more to say goodbye and then pointed it at himself, as he had Buckbeak earlier. Upon vanishing in front of their eyes, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny continued to wave for a few minutes at the thin air in front of them.

"I think he must be gone by now," Ron said, speaking out of the side of his mouth and continuing to wave with the others.

"Yeah, I think you're right," Harry said laughing, dropping his aching arm to his side and pulling the skylight shut.

They returned to their packing for the rest of the morning discussing what Mrs Weasley would do now. By the time they were called to lunch they had come up with a plan of action.

"Mrs Weasley, we have been discussing what we think you should do when we're at school again," Harry began. "We didn't feel comfortable with you being here alone all day and there's no reason for you to now either, now Buckbeak's gone. So we thought that maybe you could stay with…"

"Harry, Harry dear," Mrs Weasley said, coming over to the table where he sat and placing her hand on his shoulder. "It's very kind of you all to worry about me so much, but there's actually something we needed to speak to you about."

Harry fell silent, as Mrs Weasley sat down next to him.

"I wanted Arthur to ask you really, as he knows more of the details than me, but anyway, we wondered if it would be alright for us to continue living here whilst you were staying at Hogwarts…"

"Of course you can stay here, it's not that I don't want you here. It's just that we were worried about you being alone…"

Mrs Weasley put her hand up to stop Harry from speaking. "I was actually referring to quite a few people when I said 'us'," she cut in. "It's just that Grimmauld place is so convenient for London and the Ministry, Diagon Alley etc etc, we wanted to have a few Order members stay here whilst you're away and to continue to use the building as our meeting place. Would that be alright?"

"Yes!" Harry said pleased with the arrangement. "That'd be fine."

"Oh, good," Mrs Weasely said, getting up to put lunch on the table. "It'll be Remus, Kingsley, Tonks – people like that."

Harry nodded, as he tucked into a roast beef and horseradish relish sandwich. They all munched on their sandwiches, hungry after all the packing they had done.

"Oh look," Hermione announced reaching under the chair next to her and pulling out a newspaper. "This is today's edition of the Daily Prophet and look at the headline." Turning it round and showing it to the group, the front cover sported a photo of Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucious Malfoy struggling and cursing the photographer and the headline 'Death Eaters finally imprisoned'.

"What does the story say?" Ginny asked.

"The Death Eaters Bellatrix Lestrange, Lucious Malfoy (both pictured above), Augustus Rookwood and Peter Pettigrew, were last night imprisoned in the newly formed wizarding prison at Gringotts bank. After the dementors desertion of their posts as keepers of the prison of Azkaban last week, the Ministry of Magic have been searching for a secure place to imprison criminals.
All four Death Eaters have been held on remand in Hogwarts since their capture earlier this week. The trial, sentencing each Death Eater to life imprisonment, was held at the Ministry of Magic yesterday.
Gringotts was declared the most secure magical building that the Ministry could find at such short notice and further security measures have been undertaken since the decision to use it as a temporary prison was made.
Peter Pettigrew, long since believed to be dead, was unveiled by Albus Dumbledore to be the liar that he is. It was believed that the late Sirius Black had murdered him, after he had destroyed a street and killed several muggles. However, Pettigrew has actually been living his life for the last 13 years as his animagus creature, a rat. It was also revealed that "Pettigrew was the murderer of the muggles too and framed his old school friend Black to cover his own tracks," our inside source exposed.
Dumbledore told the court of how this story had been pried from Pettigrew two years earlier by Harry Potter, Ron Weasely, Hermione Granger and Remus Lupin and was co-obberated in court by Severus Snape and Lupin himself. It would appear that they had also been party to hiding the escaped and wrongly imprisoned Sirius Black, until, it was revealed, a few months previously when Black met his untimely end in the Department of Mysteries. Having travelled to the Ministry in a bid to help Potter and his friends in a battle against He – Who – Must – Not – Be – Named's Death Eaters, Black – it has been claimed – was struck by a curse from his cousin Bellatrix Lestrange. The facts about what happened after that are somewhat confused, but unofficially, mentions of a veil have been made. What Potter and co. were doing unescorted in the Ministry in the first place, is also unclear.
This whole episode is shrouded in mystery, with more lies and untruths coming out all the time. One thing that is regular in all this though is the name Harry Potter. Where ever there seems to be a mysterious occurrence Potter's name seems to crop up somewhere in the story, making us question, just what part does the boy really play in all this?" When Hermione had finished reading, she neatly folded the newspaper then took it and threw it onto the fire. "Rita Skeeter," she added dusting her hands off.

Ginny giggled uncertainly, glancing up towards Harry. Harry calmly finished eating his sandwiches before speaking.

"Well it looks like they've put Sirius' name in the clear then," he said finally.

"Yeah, that's great news isn't it?" Ron said pleased. "They've framed Lestrange for his death too."

"Yeah and us," Harry spat, making Ron realise that what he'd said obviously wasn't the right thing to say if you wanted to keep Harry calm and not exploding with anger.

"Kind of," Hermione said, diffusing the situation. "They didn't accuse us of doing anything really, seems like their just stabbing around in the dark, looking for a story. They don't really seem to know enough of the facts – they seem second hand to me."

Harry nodded, thinking about what he's just heard. "It said something about an inside source, didn't it? I wonder who that is?"

Ron's face went rather red and he buried his head in his hands.

"Ron? What's the matter?" His sister asked.

"Ginny, can't you see, the 'insider' is Percy. It's got to be."

Ginny gasped. "No. It can't be him that would say things about Harry and us."

"Why on earth not?" Harry said, hotly. "Remember the letter he sent Ron, warning him away from me? He's got it in for me Ginny?"

"I don't think that he doesn't like you Harry," Hermione said. "It seems more to me like he's feeling foolish for being proved wrong about you not being a deranged idiot and so is still trying to stir up dirt around your name, which makes him look less of a fool."

Harry was impressed, Hermione had used her cool head again and managed to see logic where he couldn't. Ron was clearly impressed with Hermione too, as he was sitting staring at her, a strange dreamy look misting up his eyes.

"Are you alright Ron?" Hermione asked, briskly.

Ron seemed to jump to and sat up straight in his seat, mumbling something about day dreaming.

Spending the afternoon playing Exploding Snap and wizarding chess quietly in the lounge room made Harry long for a simple, peaceful life. He thought about all that had happened lately in the magical world, all the upheaval that had happened. He also thought about all the families that had been destroyed and ripped apart because of this war. Everything came back to Voldemort and Harry. Because wherever Voldemort was mentioned Harry would have to be there too, the two were linked and Harry knew that it was his destiny to deal with him, even if it cost him his life.