"Beautiful day," Hermione mused as the group walked through the courtyard.

"Gorgeous," Ron agreed. "Unless, of course, you've been ripped to pieces."

"There's no need to be so dramatic, Ronald McDonald." Eva rolled her eyes. "You've probably just lost him or something."

"Ripped to pieces?" Harry asked Ron. "What are you talking about."

Hermione walked ahead, her arm linked with Eva's. "Ronald has lost his rat."

"I haven't lost anything!" Ron argued. "Your cat killed him."

Eva sighed. "Bullshit."

"Rubbish," Hermione added.

Ron began walking further behind, hoping to get Harry on his side. "Harry, you've seen the way that bloodthirsty beast of hers is always lurking about, and Scabbers is gone."

"Again," Eva turned around, "you probably just lost him, like how Harry loses his glasses when they're actually on his face, right where he left them. Maybe you just left Scabbers somewhere obvious and . . . forgot."

"Exactly." Hermione began walking backwards, scowling at Ron with her hands in fists at her sides. "Maybe you should learn to take better care of your pet!"

"Your cat killed him!" Ron shouted as they made their way over to Hagrid's hut.

"Did not!"

"Did!"

"Didn't!"

They eventually found Hagrid by the lake, skimming stones across the clear and calm surface of the water. He was still wearing his version of formal clothes, which were . . . interesting, to say the least.

"How did it go, Hagrid?" Hermione asked. "The hearing?"

"Well," Hagrid kept his back turned, holding a flat stone in his hands, "first off, the committee members took turns talking about why we were there." He skimmed the stone across the lake. "And then I got up and did my piece, said how Buckbeak was a good Hippogriff, always cleaned his feathers. And then Lucius Malfoy got up."

"It never goes well when Lucius gets up," Eva sighed.

Hagrid shook his head. "That it does not. Well, you can imagine. He said Buckbeak was a deadly and dangerous creature who will kill you as soon as he look at you."

Eva rolled her eyes. "He seems to forget that I was the one who saved Malfoy's life."

"And then?" Hermione asked.

"And then he asked for the worst, did old Lucius," Hagrid muttered.

"They're not sacking you!" Ron yelled.

Hagrid shook his head and skimmed another stone. "No, I'm not sacked." He paused for a moment. "Buckbeak's been sentenced to death!" he sobbed.

In Trelawney's Divination class, they'd finally moved on to crystal balls. Eva, Neville, and Seamus sat around the table together, lazily staring into the clouded crystal and seeing, of course, nothing.

"Broaden your minds," Trelawney encouraged enthusiastically as she glided across the class. "You must look beyond. The art of crystal gazing is in the clearing of the Inner Eye. Only then can you see!"

Eva suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around. Trelawney was gazing down at her, almost disappointedly.

"Your aura has gained no life since I last saw you," Trelawney informed her. "It is like you simply have no soul, or your soul has been snatched," Eva jumped, "by something else, a creature from another world, perhaps."

"Well . . ." Eva began with an awkward smile, "I summon a demon from hell, so really my soul was never mine to begin with. Damned from the day I was born."

"Oh yes, I am aware, dear," Trelawney sighed. "There is no hope left for you, I'm afraid. Tell me, are you in the beyond?"

Eva froze and glanced around. "Sure, yes, definitely." She nodded sharply in confirmation.

Trelawney shook her head. "I don't think you are." She grabbed Eva's head and shook it lightly. "Broaden your minds," she continued as she made her way through the room. "Now, what do we have here, hm?"

"I swear, this class never ends," Eva whined, resting her chin on her hand. "That's it, I'm failing Divination. Only a week left of this year anyway."

"I don't even get how we're supposed to pass," Neville added as he squinted to gaze further into the ball. "Also, what did you mean by 'your soul is damned'?"

"Story time, I guess," Eva sat up straight and clapped her hands together with an enthusiastic smile. A few others around her turned their heads to listen too. "Demon summoners, of course our demons' purpose is to basically act as . . . sort of a guardian angel, but from hell. That's why we're so hard to actually kill, because we're usually saved by our demons. Obviously, demons don't protect us and our souls for free, no. In exchange, they gain our souls, and when we die we spend an eternity in hell, without being punished for our sins obviously. So, to sum it up, I get to live a risk-free life, and Hecate gets to collect my soul at the inevitable end. There's a whole history related to the bible too, but I'm too lazy to read it."

Suddenly, the class all jumped and turned their heads. Hermione shoved her crystal ball straight off the table and stormed angrily out of the class without another word.

Trelawney glanced to Harry and Ron. "Have I said something?

On the day of Buckbeak's execution, Eva followed Hermione, Ron, and Harry outside. Thanks to Malfoy's stupidity and recklessness, an innocent creature was about to be killed. Eva had never wanted to break his perfectly straight nose so much in her life, and that was saying something considering she always had the irresistible urge to punch him.

In the courtyard, the executioner was sharpening his axe. He grinned evilly at them as they walked past, but Eva made sure to flip him off just as they left his eyesight.

"I can't believe they're going to kill Buckbeak," Hermione murmured as they walked through to one of the hills above Hagrid's hut. "It's just too horrible."

They suddenly froze. "It just got worse," Ron said cautiously.

Malfoy was crouched on the edge of the slope, accompanied by Crabbe and Goyle. He was watching the scene with a pair of binoculars closely, with way too much excitement for Eva's liking.

". . . father said I can keep the Hippogriff's head. I think I'll donate it to the Gryffindors' common room," Malfoy sneered, causing his friends to laugh.

Before Eva had the chance to start forward, Hermione stomped her way over to them with more anger than she'd ever seen from her before.

"Look who's here," Crabbe taunted.

"Ah," Malfoy laughed, "come to see the show!"

"Oh, fuck you, Malfoy!" Eva shouted at him.

Hermione was already much closer to him, pointing her wand at his neck. "You! You foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach!"

"Hermione no!" Ron yelled before Hermione could do anything to Malfoy, who was now whimpering in fear. "He's not worth it."

Hermione slowly lowered her wand from his neck. Like Pansy had before, Malfoy then started to laugh mockingly, but his laugh was cut short when Hermione's fist collided with his face with a painful-sounding crack.

"Malfoy, are you okay?" Goyle asked panickedly as the three of them ran from Hermione. "Let's go, quick!"

"Not a word to anyone, understood?" Malfoy cried.

Eva turned her attention back to Hermione with a proud smile. "I've taught you well, my child."

Hermione nodded, seeming already much more relaxed. "That felt good."

"Not good, brilliant!" Ron countered, both him and Harry smiling broadly.

The group then ran down to Hagrid's hut as quickly as possible. His entire front garden was filled with massive orange pumpkins while ravens circled around their heads and dead ferrets and squirrels were hanging upside down on string, probably for Buckbeak to eat. Eva wondered if anyone there was actually aware that it wasn't Halloween yet.

"Oh, look at him," Hagrid murmured as they watched Buckbeak out of the window to his hut, "loves the smell of the trees when the wind blows through 'em."

"Aw," Eva squeezed to the front and peered out of the window, "he's so cute!" She sighed heavily. "This was never supposed to happen. I promise, I didn't realise the Malfoys were planning a lawsuit against Buckbeak. Even with my injury, I had nothing to do with this at all."

Hagrid nodded and smiled slightly. "I didn't think you would."

"Why don't we just set him free?" Harry suggested.

Hagrid sighed and shook his head. "They'd know it was me, and then Dumbledore would get into trouble. He's coming down, you know, Dumbledore, says he wants to be with me when they . . . when it happens . . . great man, Dumbledore, great man."

Hagrid tossed some food over to another creature he kept in the corner which squealed deeply in delight. The magical world really did scare Eva sometimes . . .

Hermione stood up from her chair, almost spilling her tea. "We'll stay with you too, Hagrid."

"You'll do no such thing!" Hagrid snapped. "Think I want you seeing something like that? No, you just drink your tea and be off. Oh, before you do, Ron."

Hagrid walked across the room to a little metal tin. He took the lid off and pulled out a small furry animal which turned out to be Ron's lost rat.

"Scabbers!" Ron laughed happily as he took the rat from Hagrid. "You're alive!"

"You keep a closer eye on your pets, Ron," Hagrid chided lightly.

Hermione, however, was livid, though not quite as much as she had been with Malfoy. "I think that means you owe someone an apology."

"Right," Ron sighed. "Next time I see Crookshanks, I'll let him know."

"Oh my word, Ron, don't be a dick, you're turning into Malfoy!" Eva shouted from where she was sat at the table beside Harry.

"Exactly, I meant me!" Hermione yelled at him.

The ceramic vase on the table suddenly shattered, grasping everyone's attention. The contents spilled across the surface and onto the floor, but the only piece of evidence they had was what looked like a large seed.

Another one flew in at Harry's head. "Ow!" Harry yelped, grabbing the back of his head and wincing in discomfort. "Hagrid."

Hagrid stepped over to join him by the window and glanced out. "Crikey. It's late, it's nearly dark, you shouldn't be here," Hagrid remembered as he began covering the creatures in his hut. "If someone sees you outside the castle at night, you'll be in trouble, big trouble, particularly you Harry!" A loud knock sounded on the door. "I'll be with you in a moment!" he called out. "Quick, quick!"

Eva hugged Hagrid briefly before following the others out of the other entrance to the hut. They snuck out around the pumpkin patch as stealthily as possible, trying to avoid being spotted by Dumbledore, Fudge, or the executioner. Eva really couldn't afford to be expelled for getting into trouble, not after how annoyed her mother became at the end of the previous two years when she'd returned injured and/or mentally traumatised.

They reached the top of the hill, ready to watch the moment of truth. In the distance, the executioner lifted his sharpened axe above his head.

The axe sliced down over Buckbeak's head.

The tears threatening to spill streamed down Eva's cheeks. She hid her face in Harry's shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her, his eyes never leaving the scene below them. Eva could feel that her tears were soaking Harry's hoodie, but she couldn't care less.

Ron suddenly gasped in pain and there was a soft thud as Scabbers landed on the ground and scuttled away. Blood was dripping from a small cut on Ron's finger.

"He bit me!" Ron sounded appalled as he glanced around for his rat. "Scabbers!"

Ron suddenly took off in pursuit of his rat, leaving Eva, Harry, and Hermione trailing after him. He called out for his rodent, but it seemed to be of no use. Ron finally dropped down to the ground and caught the rat, but the other three stopped.

He was directly underneath the Whomping Willow.

"Guys, do you realise what that tree is?" Hermione questioned in alarm without daring to go any closer.

"Oh shit!" Eva cursed.

Harry glanced up at the familiar aggressive branches. "That's not good. Ron, run!"

Ron then looked back at them in fear. Well, not them, but behind them, with a trembling finger pointing over their shoulders. "Harry, Hermione, Eva, run! It's the Grim!"

Surely enough, the three of them turned around, only to come face to face with a massive dog, with matted black fur and a feral snarl. The dog suddenly ran at them, its teeth closing down on Eva's sleeve.

She screamed as she was dragged off, the dog then also latching onto Ron's leg and dragging him backwards towards the tree too. Damn it, she hated being the size of an 8 year old.

Harry and Hermione ran after them frantically. Fortunately, Harry was able to grab Eva's leg and pull her away from the dog successfully, but that left Ron screaming for help as he was forcefully yanked down under the tree.

Eva sat up and held her arm to her closely. There were a few bite marks in her flesh while several droplets of blood oozed from where the animal had bitten into her.

Hecate suddenly appeared from behind her and took her arm, bringing the wound up to her nose. "Nope, not infected. You should be good, sugarplum."

"Good? GOOD?!" Eva shouted hysterically. "WE JUST LOST RON!"

Hecate shrugged. "He was always the weakest link."

Eva didn't even have a chance to continue shouting because one of the many branches from the Whomping Willow slammed towards them. It hit straight into Harry and Hermione, throwing them backwards, but Hecate was able to duck Eva down before it had the chance to hit her.

The branches continued to slam down at the four of them from all directions, narrowly missing them each time. Harry and Hermione were eventually reunited with Eva and Hecate, but not before another heavy branch pounded into the ground, causing them to leap to the side.

Eva could barely keep up as Hermione got stuck to one of the branches, followed by Harry. Ignoring them, Hecate took Eva's hand and agilely led her down the small hole under the Whomping Willow.

She landed on her back with a thud, yet Hecate was nowhere to be seen. Just as she began to sit up again, Harry fell down the same hole straight on top of her, and then Hermione too.

"Can we all get off the small person?" Eva choked out from underneath their combined weight.

Hermione and Harry both sat up again. "I'm sorry," Hermione apologised.

Eva scrambled up to her feet. "It's fine," she coughed. "Where the hell are we?"

"And where do you suppose this goes?" Hermione asked as she looked down at the darkened dirt tunnel ahead of them.

Harry dusted himself off and followed through. "I have a hunch," he told them. "I just hope I'm wrong."

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Author's note: Yay, we do be getting closer to the fun bit now. I'm gonna be honest, the Prisoner of Azkaban was the most confusing of all of the movies, like I can barely follow the plot-

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, stay safe, and ily lots!