A/N. I'm back! Thanks to all those who reviewed, followed or favourites this story in the past two weeks, it was great to get home to find them in my inbox. So, without further ado, here's the next chapter!
Time Warp
"I'm going to lock you in. It is five minutes to midnight. Miss Granger, three turns should do it. Good luck."
Harry may not have understood there's instructions, but I did. Well, kind of. I understood the spoken instructions, but the implied ones? Not so much.
Upon using the Time-Turner I understood that Harry and I were the people we had heard racing across the Entrance Hall. Poor Harry, he was so confused. I could tell he didn't really understand what was going on, even when I tried - and probably failed - to explain. It was Harry though that figured out exactly what Dumbledore had asked us to do - free Buckbeak and use him to save Sirius. As I said to Harry, pulling that off without being caught would be nothing short of a miracle.
Step 1. Free Buckbeak.
Not as easy as it sounds. We had to get to Hagrid's without being seen, let the ministry officials see Buckbeak, steal him when their backs were turned, and get out of there without being noticed. Yup, piece of cake! Somehow we managed to pull it off, but only just. It was almost as if Professor Dumbledore knew what was going on, or had an idea, anyway. At least now we knew what those noises that we had heard really were.
Step 2. Wait without being seen or interfering.
Man was it hard to just watch it all play out, knowing what was going to happen. Harry especially wanted to go out there, to change something, but I knew we couldn't. We could endanger not only our lives, but but others too. We just had to be patient and wait until we could free Sirius, but that didn't mean it was easy.
Step 3. Escape a werewolf and drive away Dementors.
When Harry first told me to move, I thought he just wanted to chase Pettigrew or something equally foolish, but the I realised what he had - Professor Lupin was heading straight for us! We managed to make it to Hagrid's hut, just. When Harry wanted to go outside, he didn't fool me for one minute. I knew he wanted to see his Dad, even though I knew that wouldn't happen. I didn't know who had cast the Patronus, but I did know it wasn't James Potter. I was horrified when I saw Harry's Stag. What did he think he was doing? It took me a while to figure out what had happened, but now I know. We hadn't changed time, we were in a paradox! Everything that we were doing had already happened, that's why we didn't hear a shrieking Buckbeak or get kissed by the Dementors! Harry was right, this was easily the weirdest thing we had every done.
Step 4. Save Sirius.
I'm afraid of heights. I hate flying. I had to fly a Hippogriff to the upper floor of Hogwarts to save a convicted did I always manage to get roped into these things? At least Sirius was free now. Well, not exactly free, but at least he was alive with his soul intact.
Step 5. Get back to the hospital wing before the time was up.
We had a few difficulties getting back. First Fudge and Snape, and then Peeves. I really did not want to think about what would happen if we didn't make it in time. Luckily we did, and were back in our beds before Madam Pomfrey could notice anything.
Step 6. Act innocent and oblivious.
It really was hard to keep a straight face when Snape was accusing Harry of freeing Sirius. He had no idea just how right he was! I could tell Dumbledore was just as amused by the situation as I was. It was also funny to watch Harry put on his 'innocent' face. It isn't really all that convincing if you know him well, but it fooled Fudge, and that's all that mattered.
Step 7. Tell Ron.
I really do need to get Harry back for lumping me with the job of telling Ron. Although it was quite amusing to watch his reactions. In the end, both Harry and I had to go through it multiple times before he understood. I couldn't really blame him, it was quite confusing.
