Chapter 61: Buckbeak
Finding the passage and opening it was easy enough. It was dark inside, so I got out my wand and cast a quick lumos. The passage was suddenly bathed in a dim light that showed off the crumbling walls and ceiling. The ceiling was low, so I ducked before entering and then carefully began to make my way into the tunnel. I went slowly, looking around cautiously for the cloak.
I realized then that the cloak would be invisible, as it was an invisibility cloak, and I wouldn't be able to see it, so I rolled up my sleeves and dropped down to my hands and knees with a grimace so that I could feel around for it. It smelled strongly of dirt and mud, and with my face so close to the ground, I had to put a hand over my nose as I crawled around.
I felt something on my foot, and screamed when I craned my neck around to find an abnormally large cockroach crawling on me. I clapped my hand over my mouth frantically, worried that somebody had heard me, and froze, but when nobody joined me in the passage, I decided I was safe and continued. I worked much more rapidly now, wanting more than anything to just get out of here and finally, my hand brushed over the silky-smooth material of the cloak.
I grabbed it and scrambled to my feet, letting out a grunt when my head banged against the low ceiling. I raced out of the passage before I could be accosted by any more insects and then returned to the common room to find Harry and Ron for dinner. It would have been suspicious for us to not go down to the Great Hall after all.
Once we had eaten, we snuck into to an empty room off the Entrance Hall to wait until everyone had cleared out. We probably could have left sooner, since we'd be invisible, but we didn't want to risk running into anyone and alerting them to our presence. With three people under the cloak, it would be difficult to be stealthy.
Finally, when the last of the stragglers exited the Great Hall and began making their way back to their common room, we knew it was time. We crossed the Entrance Hall as quietly as possible and then slipped out the front doors, hoping they would still be open later when we needed to get back inside.
When we got to Hagrid's cabin, we knocked and waited for him to open the door.
Hagrid was a wreck. As long as we'd known him, Hagrid had been very in tune with his feelings, never shy to cry when the situation called for it. But there were no tears today. Instead he just looked lost. He fumbled with everything he touched and his mind was all over the place. He seemed disoriented, jumbled, frazzled. What was about to happen was unprecedented and he didn't know how to respond to it.
I felt tears prickling behind my eyes and averted my gaze as they started to pour down my cheeks. It was just so unfair that they were going to do this to Buckbeak when the hippogriff hadn't even done anything wrong. It was Malfoy being a git that had caused all of this. And I could have stopped this if only I'd done more research or made a better case for Hagrid. I'd left the entire appeal up to Harry and Ron because I'd had so much work, but if I'd helped maybe Buckbeak would have gotten off.
While I was helping to prepare tea, since Hagrid was in no shape to do it himself, I had a sudden fright. I'd reached for the milk bottle, intending to pour some milk into the jug I had finally found, but when I looked inside, I screamed and dropped the bottle. It was Scabbers. After everything, Scabbers was alive!
In the excitement of being reunited with his rat, Ron, and by default Harry and I as well, became completely distracted from the current situation. It wasn't until Hagrid pointed out that the execution committee was approaching that I remembered that we were supposed to be there to comfort Hagrid, not rejoice over discovering Ron's pet.
I felt like a horrible friend. Hagrid deserved more. I wished we could have done something, said something, anything to make this day less awful for Hagrid, but he just kept insisting that we leave before we got caught. He insisted that he didn't want us getting into trouble, and while we all would have been fine getting into trouble if it mean staying with Hagrid, we could also see that it would only stress him out more if we stayed.
We left through the back door into the garden and passed Buckbeak, who seemed agitated, almost as though he knew he was about to die. The men were getting closer, we could hear them now, so we reluctantly threw the cloak over ourselves and departed.
My feet moved mechanically as we walked around to the front of the cabin. The execution party had just entered Hagrid's hut, and I knew they would be coming out soon to do the deed. In that moment, I realized that I truly didn't want to be there to watch. When we'd come down, we'd only been thinking about Hagrid. But with the hippogriff before me, I became acutely aware that he was moments from death and I wasn't ready to witness it. If we couldn't be with Hagrid to comfort him, then I didn't want to be here at all. It was just too horrible.
We made it about halfway before Ron stopped suddenly. Knowing we were minutes, maybe seconds away from the dreaded moment, I wailed to Ron to keep moving. I didn't want to be anywhere nearby when it happened. I didn't want to hear anything, see anything, or feel anything.
I heard a creaking sound that I knew was Hagrid's front door and voices approaching the garden where Buckbeak was. I started to panic now, my heart beating wildly in my chest. I tried to pull Ron along, but he was struggling with Scabbers, and I couldn't go ahead alone because we all needed to stay hidden under the cloak.
We stopped again and I almost cried, knowing we still weren't far enough away because I could still hear the men's voices behind us. Ron continued to struggle, trying to muffle Scabbers' squeals while I tried to pull us all forward to no avail. Suddenly, the voices behind us stopped and my heart froze, knowing what was about to happen.
I shut my eyes even though I couldn't see anything anyway since I was facing the wrong direction and held my breath as I heard the swish and thud of an axe. I felt sick, forcing the bile rising in my throat down as I opened my eyes and swayed, feeling dizzy. A new wave of tears silently began pouring down my face. I felt Ron's hand wrap around mine and squeeze lightly in an attempt at comfort.
Harry tried to turn us around, but Ron and I stopped him. We couldn't go back now. It was too late. It was over, and there was nothing we could do for Hagrid except upset him by landing ourselves in detention. With Ron's hand still firmly wrapped around mine, we focused on returning to the castle and staying hidden.
Ron and Scabbers continued to fight and then Crookshanks appeared, coming towards us as if he could see right through the cloak. Ron's hand let go of mine as Scabbers started squirming even more vigorously and I tried to get Crookshanks to leave us alone by telling him to go away, but he ignored me.
With a shout, Ron lost his grip on Scabbers and he scurried away through the grass. Crookshanks bolted after him, and before I knew what was happening, Ron had thrown off the cloak and was chasing after the two animals.
I called out after Ron in fear, not caring anymore if Fudge heard me. Harry and I followed, running as fast as we could with the cloak still over both of us. It was slow going, and we didn't catch up to Ron until we came upon him laying on the ground with Scabbers between his hands as he tried to fight Crookshanks off.
There was a noise from behind us then, and we all turned around to see what it was. I hoped desperately that it wasn't Fudge, but when I saw what it was, I suddenly regretted that wish. It was an enormous black dog that happened to look exactly like the grim Professor Trelawney kept seeing in Harry's future. I didn't believe the nonsense about the grim being a death omen, but this dog did not look friendly and that was enough to make me fearful.
Before either Harry or I could reach our wands, the dog jumped towards us and knocked Harry over, rolling away and then standing up again for a second attack. Behind me, Ron had stood up and he bravely pushed me out of the way and then ran towards Harry, pushing him out of the way too.
The dog missed Harry, but grabbed Ron's arm in its mouth, beginning to pull Ron away. Harry tried to pull the dog off of Ron, but he was too late. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a branch slam into Harry, sending him flying to the ground. I lunged at the dog desperate to free Ron from it's grasp and trying to ignore the blood that was now everywhere, but another branch came at me. I screamed in shock and pain as the branch connected with my chest and I fell to the ground, my vision blurring until I could no longer see anything.
