Hey everyone! I am SO SORRY for keeping you all waiting for an update! Life has been busy...and this chapter had so many things that just kept on not working that I had many writer's blocks and became super frustrated. But happy to say, that I've been working up a storm and have another chapter (finally!) written! I hope you enjoy it!
PS: Isn't the new 'Deathly Hallows' trailer AMAZING? I didn't think I could have that many goosebumps!
Chapter 25
"No..." Alexia watched in horror as her Professor began to change right in front of her. "No, no, NO!"
"Alexia, stay back!" Sirius warned her. "All of you!" he yelled "Run!"
But none of them did. All four of them stood, frozen.
"I'm not leaving you here!" Harry cried and tried running towards his Godfather, but Sirius pushed him back.
"I'll be fine! RUN!"
"Come on, Harry, we need to go!"
Alexia was pulling Harry back, but it was too late. A horrible snarling noise was heard, and as the foursome looked to see what made such a horrible noise, they saw, not Professor Lupin, but a huge wolf-like creature covered in sandy brown fur; eyes wild and mouth foaming. Then, seconds later, Sirius had also transformed back into his animagus and the huge bearlike dog lunged forward and pinned the werewolf to the ground.
"Harry, we have to go!" Alexia was pulling Harry away, but suddenly a yell from Hermione stopped her.
Pettigrew, seeing as his escort was no longer by his side, had dived for Lupin's wand and had it pointed at himself.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled and pointed his own wand at Pettigrew; the other wand zapped out of sight. "Stay where you are!" he warned.
But it was too late. Pettigrew had already began changing into a rat and was crawling away from the castle.
"NO!" Harry growled and began running after him, but Alexia held him back.
"Harry!" Alexia protested. "Leave him! We have to get out of here before someone gets hurt!"
But Harry wasn't listening. His green eyes were watching as the werewolf dashed away.
"Sirius! He's gone!" Harry yelled "Pettigrew got away!"
Alexia could make out bleeding gashes across the dog's jet black fur, but at the sound of his Godson's voice, he let out a low growl and instantly dashed away across the grounds.
"We need to get Ron up to the Hospital Wing before the werewolf comes back," Alexia sighed pulling Harry back towards Hermione and Ron.
Harry nodded and slowly began helping the girls lift Ron to his feet. They had only made it a few steps when they heard a yelping sound for a distance. Harry's eyes widened at the noise.
"Sirius!" Harry bolted as fast as he could towards the direction of the sound.
"Harry!" Hermione yelled.
"Get Ron up to the hospital, Hermione!" Alexia yelled and pulled out her wand. "I'll got after him."
"But your arm!"
"No but's Ron! Just go!" Alexia cried and dashed into the brush after Harry.
She caught up to him fairly soon and the twosome followed the whining to the edge of the lake. Alexia felt the air suddenly become colder as they ran down the slope towards the lake shore; but didn't really understand what it meant until-
The yelps of pains came to an abrupt stop as Alexia and Harry made it to the shore. As the got closer, they found out why. Sirius had turned back into a human; his yelping now sounds of moaning.
"No..." he groaned, holding his head. "Please...no..."
It was then that Alexia spotted them. Dementors, a hundred of them at least, were floating in their black shrouds towards them.
"Harry!" Alexia gripped onto her wand tighter.
"I know!" Harry pulled out his wand "Think of something happy!"
Alexia shook her head, trying to rid herself of the fainting feeling inside of her. 'Something happy...think, Lexi, think!' The pain in her arm was growing worse and she felt the cold more then ever now. She blinked, trying to keep the fog away, but it was getting harder. Harry's cries of the Patronus charm were echoing though her head as she tried focusing on her one happy moment. Christmas. The mistletoe. The kiss. Draco...
She shot out a white stream of light from her wand and fended off the Dementor closest to her. But it wasn't enough. The minute the black ghost vanished, another one slid past her. Her arm began to burn again and tears slid down her face as she collapsed onto the ground. 'No...NO! Get up! You have to get up!' But it was no use. She was too drained. Her wand slipped from her hand and Alexia froze up; unable to move. It was over. Alexia felt her eyelids drooping heavily. 'I'm sorry, Draco...' she thought as darkness and fear engulfed her. 'I tried...' the last thing she remembered before the black consumed all of her was a bright white light coming from the other side of the lake...
Voices. That was the first thing Alexia noticed when she slowly began to wake up. They were all very slurred and mumbled; mostly from the fact that she was still very groggy. She was trying to make out what was being said, but it was traveling to her brain far too slowly for her liking. She wanted to open her eyes, but Alexia was just far too comfortable in the bed she was in. But then, something caught her ear and Alexia found herself waking up.
"And you're sure you have no idea what caused the Dementors to flee like that, Snape?"
"No Minister, they were gone long before I arrived."
"Amazing. And yet Black, the girl, and Harry were-"
"Unconscious, all of them, but alive. I tied up Black, of course, conjured up stretchers for the others, and immediately brought them back to the castle..."
Alexia's eyes flashed opened as the voices slowly echoed further away. She let out a hiss of pain when she tried leaning on her arm. She glanced down and saw it was now bandaged and set in a cast and sling.
"Perfect," she muttered and sat up the rest of the way in the bed.
It was dark, but she could make out the hospital wing's familiar outline. Near the end of the room, she spotted Ron, his poor, battered leg wrapped up in a cast, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. Across from her bed, she spied Hermione and Harry, both awake and looking rather solemn.
"What's going on?" Alexia cringed at how hoarse her voice sounded.
"You're awake!" Hermione jumped up from her bed and ran across to her friend's side. "How are you feeling?"
"Okay, I guess," Alexia shrugged. "What about you?"
"We'll live," Harry shrugged. "But that's not the point!" he suddenly became very alert. "We need to talk to Dumbledore right now!"
"Why?" Alexia was standing up from her bed now. "What's happened?"
"They've captured Sirius," Hermione explained. "The Dementors are going to perform the kiss any moment now."
Alexia's eye widened.
"No! Not they can't! We've got to do something!"
Just then, the doors to the Hospital Wing opened, and Dumbledore walked inside. All three of them rushed to his side.
"Headmaster you've got to stop them!" Hermione begged. "They've got the wrong man!"
"It's true sir," Harry nodded. "Sirius is innocent."
"It's Scabbers who did it." Ron called from his bed.
"Scabbers?" Dumbledore asked a bit confused.
Alexia rolled her eyes.
"His rat sir," she explained. "Only it wasn't a rat. It was Peter Pettigrew. He's an animagus sir...and he escaped..."
"And only we know the truth!" Hermione finished. "Please sir, you have to believe us."
"I do, Miss Granger," Dumbledore replied patting her shoulder. "But," he added. "I'm afraid the word of four thirteen year old wizards will convince few others." He began wandering back towards the doors. "Mysterious thing time..." he rambled as a bell tolled midnight. "Powerful, but very dangerous if used the wrong way. Sirius Black is in the top-most cell of the dark tower," he turned back around to face Hermione and Harry. "You know the laws, Miss Granger. You must not be seen. And you would do well I feel to return before this last chime." Another clang from the clock tower echoed through the room. "If not, the consequences might be too ghastly to discuss. If you succeed tonight, more than one innocent life may be spared. Three turns ought to do it I think." Dumbledore had made to the doors and was about to close them when he turned around one last time. "By the way, when in doubt, I find retracing my steps a wise place to begin. Good luck."
And with that, the doors shut behind him.
"What the bloody hell was that all about?" Ron gaped.
"Sorry Ron," Hermione apologized pulling out a long gold chain out from under her jacket. "But seeing as you can't walk..." She swung the chain around herself, Alexia and Harry. Alexia could see a tiny golden hourglass attached to the chain. Both her and Harry began reaching for it, but Hermione slapped their hands away as she began winding the small pendent around; three times, just like Dumbledore said. Suddenly, the room began to change. Soon, the spinning stopped, and they were standing in an empty, brightly lit hospital wing.
"What just happened?" Harry tried to ask as Hermione removed the chain from over their heads. "Where's Ron?"
"Seven-thirty..." Hermione was muttering. "Where were we at seven thirty?"
"Going to Hagrid's." Alexia replied a bit confused.
"Come on," Hermione grabbed onto Harry and Alexia's arms. "And we can't be seen!"
She dragged them both down the hall and out the door, across the courtyard and out over to the bridge.
"Hermione!" Harry was panting when they finally stopped running. "Hermione wait! Hermione can you please tell me what it is we're doing?"
Alexia held up a hand signaling him to be quiet. Harry looked a bit annoyed, but then suddenly noticed something odd. There, a few feet away from where they were hiding, was a sight that was out of the ordinary.
"That's us," Harry gasped.
Alexia nodded, seeing themselves confronting Draco and the others.
"This is not normal..."
Hermione and Alexia pushed him back behind the wall.
"This is a Time Turner, Harry." Hermione pointed to the hourglass around her neck. "McGonagall gave it to me first term. This is how I've been getting to my lessons all year."
"That's why you kept popping out of nowhere all the time!" Alexia exclaimed.
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"So we've gone back in time?" Harry asked, dumbfounded.
"Yes," Hermione replied. "Dumbledore wanted us to return to this moment." They all turned back around to where their others selves were. "Clearly something happened here he wants us to change."
Just then the smack of Hermione's punch was heard. Alexia had to hold back another laugh.
"Good punch," Harry noted.
"Thanks," Hermione smiled.
Alexia barely had time to hide behind the barrier as Draco and his friends began running towards them. She was too distracted by the conversation going on in her head.
'I just got punched in the face! How do you think I feel?'
Alexia quickly found the chain to her memory stone and studied it carefully.
"I guess that means there's two of you too," she whispered.
'You big baby! Just go up to the Hospital Wing!'
"Better turn it off so he doesn't get confused," she muttered quietly and recited the spell to deactivate the stone from working.
"Alexia, come on!" Hermione's voice called.
"Coming!" Alexia stood from her hiding place, slipping her necklace back under her blouse and followed after her friends.
"Look," Harry smiled pointing down to Hagrid's hut. "Buckbeak's still alive!"
"Of course..." Alexia smiled. "Remember what Dumbledore said?"
"That's right!" Hermione's eye lit up. "He said if we succeed, more than one innocent life can be spared."
Harry nodded and followed the girls down the slope and over to the patch of pumpkins in Hagrid's garden.
Just as they were out of sight, Alexia caught sight of Fudge and the others walking towards the hut.
"Dumbledore's coming," she muttered.
"I better hurry..."
"No Harry!" Hermione pulled him back. "Fudge has to see Buckbeak before we take him. Otherwise he'll think Hagrid set him free."
Harry sighed and nodded, and continued to watch their other selves through the window.
"Scabbers!" they heard Ron cry. "You're alive!"
"That's Pettigrew..." Harry glared.
"Harry, no, you can't!" Alexia begged.
"That's the man who betrayed my parents, Alexia!" Harry protested. "You don't expect me to just sit here-"
"Yes, you must!" Hermione interrupted and pulled him and Alexia closer to the hut. "You're in Hagrid's hut right now. If you go bursting inside," Hermione explained, "you'll think you've gone mad! Awful things can happen to wizards who meddle with time, Harry. We can't be seen."
"Fudge is coming," Alexia pointed out again, jerking her thumb towards him.
"But we aren't leaving..." Hermione pointed out, puzzled. "Why aren't we leaving?"
Just then, both girls noticed a stone sitting on top of the pumpkin next to them. Instantly, Hermione grabbed it, stood up, and hurled it through the open window. SMASH! The sound of the glass jar inside the hut was heard as the stone landed.
"Are you mad?" Harry yelled, but the girls weren't listening.
Alexia found another rock and chucked it inside and thud! It hit the other Harry in the back of the head.
"Ow..." Harry groaned, rubbing the back of his scalp. "That hurt!"
"Sorry," Alexia apologized sheepishly.
"Come on, we need to hide before we come out the door!" Hermione ushered her friends into the grove of trees behind them and just in time too as they saw themselves, along with Ron, exit the back door and slip behind the pumpkin pile where, only seconds before, they were hiding.
"Is that really what my hair looks like from the back?" Hermione's voice wondered out loud.
"Hermione!"
"Get back!"
Harry and Alexia pulled their friend back behind the tree, a branch snapping as they did so.
The other Hermione turned to look behind her.
"What?" the other Harry asked.
"I thought I just saw...never mind."
"Let's go!" They heard Ron whine and held their breaths as they watched themselves run up the hill and out of sight.
They sighed with relief and went back to freeing Buckbeak.
"Go Harry!" Harry nodded at Hermione and made his way over to where the Hippogriff was sitting.
The large creature noticed. Harry slowly bowed, and after slurping up the rest of his ferret, Buckbeak bowed his head back. Harry smiled and slipped the chain off of the post and start to pull.
"Come on, Buckbeak!" he whispered. "We need to go!"
Nothing. The stubborn bird wouldn't budge. Just then, Alexia got an idea.
"Hermione!" she nudged her friend and pointed over to the pile of dead ferrets sitting in front of them.
"Perfect!" Hermione grabbed the whole pile of them, and began dangling one of the ferrets in front of Buckbeak.
"Come on!" she cried. "Come and get the nice dead ferret!"
It got Buckbeak's attention and he stood and began to follow. Hermione flew it up into the air and the large beak snapped around it and gulped the ferret down happily. Harry, Alexia and Hermione lead Buckbeak away when the back door suddenly opened. All three of them froze. They were caught.