Chapter 42

"As I went down the hill along the wall
There was a gate I had leaned at for the view
And had just turned from when I first saw you
As you came up the hill. We met."

- Robert Frost [Meeting and Passing]

The two returned to the cabin after a while, leaving Buckbeak in the pumpkin patch to enjoy the beautiful day. Rose sat and listened while Hagrid recounted stories of befriending the herd of hippogriffs in the forest. He reminisced about the day he first met Buckbeak and how he'd been the cleverest of the lot. As hours rolled by, Hagrid seemed to have cried himself out and looked more numb and forlorn than ever. Rose knew that sunset was fast approaching. She also knew it was best that she not be there when Macnair and the others returned—it wouldn't do to have him know she'd stayed the whole time. But every time she thought of going, she'd take another look at the giant of a man and couldn't bear the idea of leaving him alone. As the sun began to creep low over the mountains, a knock came from the door making the two of them jump nervously.

"It can't be them," Rose said while Hagrid walked to the door. "I haven't seen anyone come down the hill."

Rose was only mildly surprised when she heard the voice of Harry Potter say, "It's us, we're wearing the invisibility cloak."

"Yeh shouldn've come,' Hagrid told the disembodied voice in a hoarse whisper but stepped aside all the same.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione suddenly materialized in the room. Rose had seen Harry's invisibility cloak two years ago when he had insisted she come with him to the Mirror of Erised and so he could show her the young redheaded girl and the woman who looked so much like her who stood in it. Rose had not seen them of course, and Harry had made her swear to tell no one about the cloak. She'd never had a reason to break his confidence on that particular subject.

"What is she doing here," Harry said, his eyes traveling to Rose accusingly.

"Excuse you, Potter," Rose said back, feeling anger rising in her stomach. "I tried to help."

"Didn't try hard enough did you?" He snapped back. "It's your prat brother's fault this is happening in the first place—"

"Stop it," Hagrid interrupted the argument before it could escalate. "Yer parents would be turnin' in their graves knowin' their kids treat each other like that."

Rose and Harry glowered at each other across the room but didn't resume the fight, and Hagrid began bustling about the cabin to get tea for everyone.

"Where's Buckbeak, Hagrid," Hermione interrupted the tense silence, glancing over at Hagrid's empty bed.

'How long did he keep that bird in here?' Rose wondered to herself.

"We tied him up outside in the pumpkin patch. Thought he oughta see the trees an' smell the fresh air before…" Trailing off, Hagrid dropped the milk jar he was holding, and it shattered on the floor. Hermione jumped up to help before Rose could, and Hagrid sat heavily in a chair, dabbing his sweaty forehead with the handkerchief she'd given him.

"Can't Dumbledore do something, Hagrid," Harry asked him cautiously. Both he and Ron were looking at the man like he might shatter at any moment just like the milk jug.

"He tried, but he's got no power ter overrule the committee. Yeh know what Lucius Malfoy's like, threatened 'em I expect…" he trailed off and glanced at Rose who just stared at her feet silently. "Dumbledore's gonna come down when it happens, said he wants ter be with me. Great man."

"We'll stay with you too Hagrid," Hermione said though a sob.

"Yeh'll all go back up ter the castle. I don't wan' yeh watchin'. An' Rose an' Harry, yeh'd both be in big trouble if they caught yeh out this late without permission."

In order to stifle her tears, Hermione picked up another milk jug and cried out in shock when she opened the lid. "Ron! Ron, it's Scabbers!"

Rose, who had no idea what a Scabbers was, let out a sound of disgust when Ron pulled a mangey looking rat from the jug.

"What the hell is that?"

"Scabbers, calm down, what are you doing here?" Ron asked the rat, ignoring Rose completely. The rat was wriggling frantically in his grip.

"Yeh gotta go," Hagrid said suddenly, standing up and looking out the window. "They're comin'."

Rose could see he was right. Four wizards were now walking down the grassy path towards the cabin, Macnair's axe glinting ominously in the fading light. He ushered the four of them to the back door and pushed them out of it. Buckbeak looked at the five of them from his spot in the pumpkin patch and gave a nervous squawk.

"Go on," Hagrid told them all. Rose took a couple steps from the cabin before realizing the other three hadn't moved.

"Hagrid we can't go!"

"We can tell them how it really happened!"

"They just can't kill Buckbeak!"

"Go," Hagrid said fiercely, glancing nervously back to the front door where someone was knocking. Rose set her hand on Harry's shoulder.

"There's nothing more we can do. Let's go, we'll only get him into trouble if we stay." She saw the boy blink back tears before he nodded and pulled out his cloak. The fabric barely fit over the four of them, and Rose had to crouch as she walked to keep their feet from showing. They hurried around the cabin and up the sloping ground, but their progress was impeded by Ron stopping every few feet to get a better hold of Scabbers.

"Scabbers, knock it off you idiot," he told the squirming squeaking rat.

"Shut him up, Ron," Rose hissed at him. "They'll hear us."

"Oh please, let's get out of here," Hermione said, her face whiter than Hagrid's had been. The four of them froze at the sudden sound of an axe swinging down and embedding itself into something with a loud thunk. Rose grabbed Hermione's shoulders as she swayed in a near faint. She felt sick to her stomach as they heard Hagrid's raucous sobs drift across the lawn towards them. And then a great many things happened at once.

"Hagrid," Harry said in dismay, turning and starting back towards the cabin.

"Scabbers, ouch!" Ron exclaimed, dropping the rat who had bit him hard.

The rat streaked out from beneath the cloak and down the lawn. Rose had just pulled Harry back by his back of his robes when Ron ran out after Scabbers and an orange cat ran across their path and down the slope after them.

"Crookshanks, no!" Hermione shouted, running after the cat. "No, leave him alone!"

Rose and Harry locked eyes and they both took off after Ron and Hermione, Harry pulling the cloak from their bodies as he did so.

"Get back here, you stupid children," Rose muttered under her breath while they ran, and if Harry heard he gave no sign of it. At the bottom of the hill she could just make out through the gathering darkness that Ron was sprawled on the ground. Both of his hands were pressed tightly over his breast pocket where she assumed the rat now was. He was kicking ineffectually at the cat who was leaping easily out of the way at each attempt.

"Ron! Dumbledore, the Minister, they'll be coming out any second," Hermione said shrilly.

Both Harry and Rose turned at the sound of pounding feet on the grass. For one wild moment, Rose thought that someone who'd been in Hagrid's house had seen what was happening and given chase. But when she turned, she saw the enormous black dog running across the lawn towards them. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Harry raise his wand, and Rose made a grab for it.

"No! He's friendly," she said just in time for the dog to jump and slam into the pair of them knocking them to the ground like bowling pins. Rose lay in the grass, staring up at the sky that was quickly descending into dusk, trying to catch her breath. A scream of pain was enough to jar her into rolling over on her stomach and watch in disbelief as the previously innocuous dog dragged Ron away by his ankle. Harry was already on his feet and running after his friend, but without warning a tree limb swung down and hit him hard in the stomach. Rose, Harry, and Hermione all winced at the loud crack of Ron's ankle breaking when the dog tore him free of a tree root and dragged him under the Whomping Willow and out of sight. Rose struggled to her feet and turned to run back towards the castle.

"Where are you going," Harry shouted at her.

"This is—this is insane," she said breathlessly, still winded from the dog. "We need help."

"We don't have time," he snapped at her. "Are you going to help us or not?"

"Please Rose," Hermione said desperately, her brown eyes wide with fear. Rose looked between the two of them and the castle indecisively, and Harry huffed in derision.

"Come on Hermione, we'll have to do this ourselves," Harry said, turning away from her—it was clear he thought she was a coward. Drawing her wand, Rose felt anger fill her body with a sudden resolve, but she still couldn't stop her hand from trembling.

"One of you grab my wand and follow if you can," Rose said. Placing her wand tip at her heart, Rose transformed into a fox. Her wand fell to the ground and she darted across the lawn, jumped a couple swipes from the tree, and dashed down the hole into a long dark tunnel.

'You're being reckless again,' a voice said in her mind, but Rose ignored it. The dog had always treated her with such gentleness before, she was sure when she got there that she could calm it down even without her wand.

Though the tunnel was dark she could see well enough with her fox's eyes, and even if the tunnel hadn't been one straight sloping line, she would have been able to find the way by following the obvious smell of blood in the air. Merlin, she hoped Ron was alive when she got to him. It took several minutes before the tunnel began to slope up and opened into a ramshackle house. Rose paused at the entrance to transform back into a human—she didn't want the dog to think she was dinner too.

As quietly as she could she crept up the stairs and pushed the door open to a very dirty bedroom. The walls were covered in deep gouges and the furniture looked as though something had gnawed on it, and remembering Remus' story about his time at Hogwarts, she realized they must be inside the Shrieking Shack. Laying in the corner beside the bed was Ron Weasley, moaning in pain but still clutching his hands to his pocket. He looked up in relief when he saw her enter and nodded to the wall opposite him. Turning, Rose saw the great black dog sitting there, he no longer looked aggressive, instead it seemed like he'd been waiting for her. Glancing down, she saw that one of his front paws was resting on Ron's wand—it must have fallen out of his pocket and rolled over to him. If she could get the wand, she could stun the dog and get Ron out of here.

"Hey there," she said soothingly, stepping slowly towards him. "Remember me? It's okay. What's gotten into you today? Time to go back to being a good boy—"

She froze when the dog began to morph and grow in front of her eyes; the large black dog disappearing into the gaunt form of an all too familiar man. For a moment, a vivid memory of a handsome young man with dark curling hair picking her up and sitting her in front of him on the seat of a large motorcycle flashed through her mind. She was giggling and reaching for the handlebars, and he leaned the bike from side to side while she pretended to drive it. The almost skull-like face that she saw now was barely recognizable as the same man.

"I am such an idiot," Rose murmured—her throat dry from fear. She heard Ron's panicked shouts behind her but couldn't focus on what he was saying. Instead, her eyes were locked on the wand in Sirius' hand; the wand he was pointing directly at her. To her surprise, he didn't curse her or even look like he wanted to, instead he gave her a tired, strained smile.

"Hello Rosie," he said in a hoarse voice.

"Sirius," she returned cautiously.

"It's good to see you again."

And even though she was shaking and even though he was pointing a wand at her, Rose couldn't help saying, "I think I preferred you as a dog."