I woke up with that same sickened feeling the next morning, hardly able to comprehend the truth that had been unwittingly unravelled. Feeling too sick to even think about breakfast, I took to just staying in my room, alone, wondering what to do. Would Black know who I was if he saw me? What if he tried to get to Harry through me, expecting I would help him? Fat chance, I'll curse that man the moment he shows up in front of me, dementors be damned. I felt utterly disgusted with myself, and I wanted nothing more than to just wash any trace of Black from me so I promptly went to the prefects' bathroom in order to swim in the giant bath until I felt somewhat cleaner.

Orion brought me a letter from mum afterwards, having missed me at breakfast so brought it directly to the common room. I refused to read it though, instead sitting in my favourite chair and stroking him as he perched on my knee. For a long while all was quiet, then the portrait door swung open with Sir Cadagon yelling challenges at whoever it was coming in. Since there was practically no one else staying behind this Christmas, it was Harry, Ron and Hermione, heavily laden with books. "What's all this?"

"Hagrid got a letter from the ministry, Malfoy complained about Buckbeak now he's got a hearing to see whether or not he should be executed." Hermione proclaimed with flushed cheeks of anger, making me get up after moving Orion onto my hand. He ruffled his feathers to steady himself, throwing me an unimpressed look but hopped along to my shoulder and simply closed his eyes for a while.

"So they're going to press charges." I said, looking at the collection they'd gathered. "Typical Malfoy. What's all this for though?"

"We're going to prepare a case to try and help Hagrid get Buckbeak off. There's no way we're going to let Malfoy get away with this…" Ron seemed just as fired up as Hermione and promptly opened a book in order to start reading. Even Harry was on board, focusing on the books and as I looked at the three of them sitting there, a cluster of books between them all, I sat down and started to read also. Together we combed through every shred of useful information would could possibly find in order to build up a case that would defend Buckbeak.

It wasn't looking positive, none of the previous cases ended well so instead I began a character profile for Buckbeak, drawing particular attention to hippogriffs as a breed and how they were meant to be dealt with, and that the irresponsible actions of a lone student should not reflect upon the behaviour of Buckbeak's response. It took time, but it was slowly coming together. When I wasn't helping the famous trio with their work or the case, I was on my own, though usually Orion would be around.

He'd flown down from the owlery after seeing me walking through the grounds and followed me out to the lake where I went skating for a while, practicing my loops and jumps. It was fun to just glide, skating freely and having the entire lake to race Orion and just let go of everything. After a couple hours I felt much better, the smoothness of the ice seemingly glossing over everything else that seemed to be going wrong in my life now. Turning around in order to skate back, however, I spotted something along the shore which made me break out into a smile. "It's you!"

Jumping up with a bark, the same great black dog wagged his tail in greeting as I hurriedly skated over, sliding to a stop then waved my wand to make my skates vanished from my feet, allowing me to step into the thick bank of snow which came up to the dog's underbelly. He wasn't shivering, but I couldn't imagine he was particularly warm. "It's good to see you again, where did you run off to? I've been worried." Rubbing his face and grinning as the dog snuffled at my ear which tickled, I found myself hugging his great neck before I had even realised. "It's been a tough couple of weeks, I'll tell you that now. Come on, if you follow me back to the castle, I'll tell you all about it."

At first the dog was hesitant, remaining still as I started back to the castle with Orion landing on my shoulder for a brief moment, squeezing lightly with his claws in order to say goodbye before soaring off to find a warm perch to sleep in. "It's alright, hardly anyone's around since it's out of term time. I was planning on sneaking you into the kitchen to get you some food and a warm fire." Despite myself, I talked to the dog as if it could understand me, though I noted how it's ears pricked up at the mention of food. "That's right, food. Come on boy, come on, I'll race you!" Giving a loud whistle, I raced the dog back to the castle as he sprang into motion and dove through the snow to plough ahead, making me laugh as he fell into a drift and almost got lost.

I had to help pull him out, laughing all the while until suddenly it started into a game. We chased one another in the hidden area by the lake, racing and bounding until before I knew it, I'd dropped onto all fours and shifted into a black lioness without even thinking. At first the dog was alarmed, staring at me with a quick yelp but I purred at him, remaining crouched playfully before I sprung up and swiped at a low branch with my massive paw and caused the snow caught in the bough to drop onto the dog, making him bark, shake and snort before springing at me.

If anyone had happened upon us, it would have been the most bizarre sight to behold, even for a usual day at Hogwarts. A lion and a huge black dog play fighting with one another, tumbling through the snow before I finally changed back and flopped onto a shallower area of snow so that I didn't become buried. Breathing heavily I smiled freely up at the clear blue sky, warmed from the frolicking and without a single thought of Sirius Black or father's remotely in my mind. The dog came over and lay down beside me, placing his head over me to gaze at me rather wistfully with those velvety clear eyes of his. "I should really give you a name." I mused, thinking to myself as I took to stroking his head. "Ron would have a fit if he saw you, I bet he'd think you were a grim. It's almost perfect, I'll call you Grim."

So with Grim newly christened, I snuck him into the castle through one of the secret passages, getting us through and whispering to make sure he stayed quiet. Since I knew this castle like the back of my hand, it was easy to avoid any teachers, caretakers, ghosts and even one exceedingly persistent poltergeist. Once I'd tickled the pear in the painting leading to the kitchen, I immediately called out. "Hello everyone! I'm back! Binky, you're looking rather handsome today. Poppy, how are you feeling? Better? Ogo! I've missed you!" Knowing quite a few of the elves by name, they immediately swarmed towards me.

"Miss Black! Miss Black! Come in, come out of the cold, we's be getting you hot tea immediately!" They all chorused and soon they had pulled off my hat, scarf, coat and gloves and ushered me to the fire, though they weren't entire sure about my new companion.

"Oh don't be afraid, this is Grim. Please don't tell anyone I brought him here but look at him, he's practically starving. I just wanted to give him a decent meal and of course, no one cooks better than all of you." I said to the elves who very quickly became chipper and bright again, crying as they thanked me for my compliment and ushered me into a chair by the fire. Grim came and lay down at my feet, sighing softly as the flames crackled invitingly. Within moments I was being served tea and crumpets, a large bowl of prime meat being offered to Grim as well as a bowl of water. He devoured the food hungrily then lapped up his water before looking up at me. He then sat up and took to just resting his head over my lap as I stroked his head, smiling contentedly as I fed him one of my crumpets. All the while I chatted to the elves who were on duty, asking them what they had planned for Christmas dinner and if they had time to enjoy themselves now that there was less people to feed in the castle.

I think there were only about a dozen of us still here, most of the teachers having gone to visit relatives also. I'm pretty sure I've never seen the castle so empty, so it was a little strange but at the same time, it was rather nice. The elves were eager hosts, wanting to make sure I had everything I could possibly desire by bringing me blankets to warm up and hot chocolate after my tea with cakes and Christmas biscuits galore. They fed Grim again, and then a third time, then halfway through his fourth helping of cooked turkey, sausages, beef and thick gravy, he had to finally admit defeat.

He then returned to laying his head over my lap, closing his eyes to rest as I continued to stroke the fur between his eyes. I waved my wand over him in order to pull every last flea and tick off him and swiftly made them vanish, cleaning him up a bit so that he was more comfortable. As the elves worked they sang Christmas songs, thoroughly happy and completely in their element and being around them seemed to make all my own concerns once more melt away until I was dozing peacefully by the fire.

Binky dutifully came and stoked the fire every now and then, checking on me until it was starting to get late and warned me that dinner would be served soon and asked whether I would like to eat here in the kitchen or in my common room. Looking down at Grim, he was standing up and looked as if he wanted to leave, so I thanked Binky and everyone else for their hospitality and promised to visit soon. We left the kitchens and I started up towards the stairs that would lead to the common room but just as we passed the main doors that lead back into the grounds, I heard voices ahead of us.

I thought nothing of it, touching Grim's head gently to signal he should keep walking beside me, feeing the warmth of his fur at my fingertips. I let go then turned ahead, seeing two shadows and when they rounded the corner, saw McGonagall and Flitwick there. "Ah, Miss Black. Don't tell me you've been outside all this time?" McGonagall fussed when they spotted me, seeing me dressed in my coat and winter wares.

"No I…" Looking down with the intention to introduce Grim to them, I found that he'd gone. Vanished! For the second time he'd disappeared before anyone else could see him, and for a moment I had to wonder if I really was just going mad.

"Yes Miss Black?"

"Nothing professor. I have been skating on the lake, that's all." I informed her whereby I was warned not to go out alone again, asked if I'd seen anything suspicious and completely neglected to tell them about Grim. He must have gone out the front doors before they had seen him, but it was too dark now to have a hope of finding him again, and to make matters worse it was snowing again meaning there would be no paw prints come morning. With a wave of their wands, McGonagall and Flitwick closed the great iron doors and I watched them with a sinking feeling in my stomach, disappointed that my new friend had fled once more from me.