The excitement and happiness from the party was short lived, as Ron woke screaming bloody murder in the night. He insisted that Sirius Black had been standing over him with a knife in his hand, and when McGonagall came to see what the ruckus was all about, asked Sir Cadagon if he'd let a man inside, he cheerfully said that he had. Nobody talked after that. We all stayed up for the rest of the night to hear what had happened but once again, Black had escaped. Again the whispers started, people looking at me as I stood tight lipped by the fire, my hand hovering close to my wand.
From that moment forwards, more security measures were put in place and from now on, at least one prefect had to watch the common room in case Black once again managed to get inside. I took that job gladly, determined that this time I was going to prove that Black meant nothing to me and if he showed up again, I was going to blast him to pieces. He'd almost gone for Ron, Fred and George's little brother, the kid who used to trail after us every summer until he started school and got friends of his own. There was no way I was going to let anything happen again.
At the same time, I was also trying to comfort Hermione, who was now isolated from Ron and Harry on account of Crookshanks allegedly eating Scabbers. With that and Buckbeak's trial, and O. just around the corner, I had a rather full plate. I barely had more than two minutes to myself in a day, so every chance I got for some fresh air, I took it. Usually I found myself down in Hagrid's hut, chatting to him about magical creatures and monsters as he was glad to hear that I had such a clear interest in them. Other times I'd go walking by the lake, hoping to see Grim again.
It wasn't until a couple weeks later that I got my wish. I'd opted out of going to Hogsmeade, wanting some time and space to myself when lo and behold, there he was. Sitting by the water neat a cluster of trees, he sat there as if waiting for me. "Grim!" His tail wagged happily. "It's so good to see you, why do you keep on running off? Honestly, I could use your help if you'd grace me with your presence long enough. There's somebody who keeps on breaking into Gryffindor tower, so a guard dog like you would be really helpful." I started to chatter, feeling exhausted and drained as I rubbed his ears affectionately as he licked my cheek almost like a kiss. "Where do you keep running off to? I suppose you must already have an owner if you keep disappearing, not that they seem to take proper care of you. You should consider me as a change of owner. I'd spoil you rotten."
He whined softly as if saying that he'd like that, but of course that was just me being silly. Going for a long walk around the lake, I stayed quiet for the most part, only occasionally saying something to Grim to break the long silences, but honestly there was just too much going on in my head. In fact I was so tied up in my own thoughts that I hadn't realised that someone was following us until they were practically on top of us. A branch snapped and I whirled around to see a bunch of burly Slytherins facing me, their faces masked in some manner or another. "Oh great, the moron show is here." I drawled, knowing exactly what this is. "Let me guess, you're here to make sure I can't fly in the final. Oh no! What am I going to do?"
Rolling my eyes, I went for my wand and held it steadily at them as they held theirs right at me. "So come on, who's first? Or are you planning to take little old me on all at once?" It was then that I realised that Grim was once again, gone. Just typical. Oh well, it's not like I can't hold my own.
"Get her!" One of them shouted and immediately spells came flying at me. Twirling my wand I blocked them all then slashed it, pulling water from the lake to churn and rise before washing it against them, dousing them until they were soaked before I then blasted two of them in quick succession with hexes, leaving them with a nasty case of exploding, puss filled boils. They screamed and ran for it, leaving me with three more. They tried a combination attack again but I parried, neatly flicking my wand before then shooting bright red sparks right at their faces.
They all yelled, staggering backwards as I then set the tail ends of their robes on fire, which caused them to panic further, yelling and screaming as they hurried to wade into the water in order to put it out. Turning to keep my wand trained on them, I took a step backwards as I fired off another spell to freeze the water around their ankles but missed on account of my heel catching on a root and I tripped backwards. With a thud and a grunt I hit the ground, spluttering slightly but quickly tried to scramble back up as one of the boys pointed their wand at me.
Before they could even finish their spell, however, Grim leaped over my head with a powerful snarl and snapped his jaws around the boy's trailing sleeve, grabbing it in order to pull his wand awry so that the purple stream hit the ground only inches from my head. Blinking in surprise, I stayed still as Grim snarled again, snapping at their ankles as the boys all screamed and began to run for it, throwing spells wildly over their shoulder as Grim chased them, giving one of them a rather smart nip on the backside. Unable to help it, I laughed.
Watching them leave, Grim snorted before trotting back to me, sniffing at my face as if to see if I was alright. "Good boy." I praised, rubbing his head before getting up only to feel a sharp throb from my ankle. "Damn it, just what I need." It wasn't broken so I couldn't fix it with magic like Madame Pomfrey did, so the best I could do was just splint it up with a few thick branches and some rope I made with my wand. All the while Grim watched me, ears drooping as he whined with worry. "I'm alright, I've had worse. You don't hang around the Weasley twins without accidents happening." I said to him, clicking my tongue and holding out my palm for him. "Before you disappear, at least say goodbye next time, alright? Will you at least help me up?"
Grim did so, standing and letting me use his back as an anchor in order to push myself upright and hobble back towards Hagrid's hut as it was closest. Leaving me at the treeline, Grim licked my hand goodbye before racing into the thick expanse of the forest, leaving me to sheepishly limp over to Hagrid's, knock on the door and embarrassedly request help back to the castle.
