Chapter 66: Rescue Mission

Once Buckbeak was in the clear, Harry and I realized that we had a long wait ahead of us. There was nothing more for us to do until Sirius had been captured, and that wouldn't be for another few hours.

Harry pointed out that we should move to somewhere where we could keep track of what was going on, which made sense. So, slowly and carefully, we edged around through the trees on the outskirts of the forest. Every so often, one of us would step on a broken branch, causing it to snap and me to jump. I didn't like being in the forest, it was far too full of the terrible unknown. But we also had to stay out of sight, so there wasn't much of a choice.

The first half hour was extremely painful to watch. It was obvious how badly Harry wanted to intervene and prevent all the horrible things that were about to happen from happening, but he couldn't. I kept reminding him that he couldn't, but each time I felt he cared less and less. Finally, Snape entered the tunnel beneath the whomping willow, and there was nothing left to witness until everyone came back out.

I tied Buckbeak securely to a nearby tree and then sat down on the ground, settling myself as comfortably as possible. I carefully thought through the remaining events of the evening in the hopes of being better prepared later on. We would have to steer clear of Professor Lupin once he transformed, that's for sure. We would also have to steer clear of the dementors once they arrived. I glanced up and found that I was able to see the sky through the thin forest canopy. So far, there was one lone star twinkling away. It looked so lonely that I felt bad for it for a moment before re-directing my thought to the problem at hand.

I had to ask Harry about the events that had transpired on the lake. I'd been too distracted by the effect of the dementors and I'd passed out too quickly to have the full story. When Harry told me about the silver creature galloping across the lake, I almost couldn't believe it. It seemed almost too good to be true. And then it was.

I watched his face carefully and realized he was serious. He actually thought he had seen his father. When I remained silent for too long, Harry's eyes flickered to mine and I knew I had to say something, lest he get too caught up in this impossible idea. I hated to burst his bubble, but it was impossible that his father had cast a patronus. But even as I argued against it, Harry remained adamant. So, I fell silent.

I knew Harry was struggling, but I could also tell he wanted to be alone with his thoughts for the time being, so I shifted my position a little until I was sitting with my back against a tree, facing the whomping willow, Harry and Buckbeak a little way back into the forest. They were far enough that Harry could have some alone time, but close enough that he knew he wasn't alone.

It was a long time before Harry came back over and sat down next to me. We sat together, staring at the tree, wondering if we would ever come out of the tunnel at all.

"So this time flipper thing?" Harry brought up casually.

"Time turner," I corrected automatically.

"Time turner," Harry agreed. "It can take you back to any time and any place you want?" he asked.

"Not exactly. It takes you back in time, but it's not supposed to move you in space," I admitted.

"So how'd we end up in the Entrance Hall instead of the hospital wing?" Harry wondered.

"I'm not sure," I said. In fact this was something I'd been puzzling over since we'd shown up there. "Maybe Dumbledore cast a spell on us as we were leaving. Anyway, it's never done that before."

Harry nodded and turned his head to face the tree again, clearly lost in thought.

"When were you going to tell us about it?" he asked then, sounding detached. "Me and Ron," he added.

"Well…" I began hesitantly. "Never."

Harry didn't respond, he only continued to gaze at the tree.

"Harry, not telling was a condition of having the time turner. If I'd told you, they'd have taken it away and I wouldn't have been able to attend all my classes," I explained.

"It's okay, I understand. Classes are very important," Harry said unconvincingly. It was clear this was bothering him.

"To be fair, it isn't as though we were speaking for most of the year anyway," I said defensively.

Now Harry did turn his head to look at me. He didn't say anything, but instead searched my face for something. Eventually, he nodded and I could see that he was letting it go and taking some responsibility for what had happened this year. He turned back to face the tree, but there was one more thing I had to say.

"Harry, Ron can't know," I said. He whipped his head around again.

"Why?" he asked.

"I'm already breaking so many rules by letting you find out. I can't risk getting into any more trouble by Ron finding out," I said. "You have to promise not to tell him when we get back."

Harry took a moment to consider and I felt the full weight of the moment crash down on me. This decision would decide whether Harry valued my friendship at all or whether Ron would always be the most important.

"Alright," Harry said finally, causing me to let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding. "I won't tell."

"Thank you," I said. We both turned back to look at the tree and I saw a flicker of movement. Then Lupin, Ron and Pettigrew began to awkwardly climb out of the tree.

Because Harry and I were so close, I noticed his heart rate and his breathing accelerate. I glanced over and saw him staring at the sky, where the moon was partially concealed by clouds that we both knew would part any second now. Then his eyes flickered back down to Pettigrew and I grabbed onto his arm to make sure he didn't do anything stupid.

The clouds moved then and the moon was revealed in all its splendour. Everyone stopped and then there was movement. The transformation began and I watched in a mixture of mild academic interest and horror as it took place.

And then we realized we were standing right in the werewolf's path. If we stayed here, we would surely die. I began to untie Buckbeak and I wished I hadn't made such a perfectly complicated knot an hour ago, because it was taking forever. My heart raced and then Harry led us back down to Hagrid's hut, empty now, to wait things out.

I couldn't help but think it was the perfect hiding spot. The dementors wouldn't be able to get to us, Lupin wouldn't be able to get to us, and we'd be perfectly safe until it was time to fly Buckbeak up to Professor Flitwick's office to save Sirius.

When we arrived at the cabin, Harry threw the door open and I pulled Buckbeak in with me. Harry flew in last and bolted the door behind him for safety. Unfortunately, Fang began to bark very loudly, which would attract the attention of anyone within hearing distance, including Lupin once he was on his own.

Buckbeak folded up his wings and lay down by the fire, clearly content to stay right where he was for the rest of the night. As Harry prepared to step outside to keep watch, I worried that he would start searching for Pettigrew. That would be reckless to the point of dangerous. But he promised he wasn't going to meddle, and I believed him. There was a resigned quality to his voice, like he'd accepted that this was how it had to be.

Harry stepped out the door. I watched him through the window as he stood motionless on Hagrid's stoop and then suddenly, he began to run straight for the dementors gathering at the lake. Cursing, I got the sinking feeling he was about to interfere, so I grabbed Buckbeak's rope, and after a great deal of pulling, he finally came with me out of the cabin.

I ran in the direction Harry had gone, realizing as I ran exactly where he had been headed. He wanted to see if it was really his dad who had cast the patronus that had saved all our lives. I saw a bright light and I knew whoever had cast it was doing it now, so I followed the light, assuming I would find Harry there.

When I finally got within view of the lake, it was to see Harry standing in plain sight on the edge of the lake, his wand outstretched. What did you do? I grumbled to myself. Then I said it out loud.

Suddenly the theory that it had been his father disappeared, and Harry insisted that it had always been him. I had to admit that it made more sense that the dead dad story, but the way Harry was explaining it all was too convoluted for me to process at the moment.

Pushing Harry out of sight, we watched as Professor Snape appeared, conjuring stretchers and floating us back up towards the castle. So that was how we'd ended up in the hospital wing. I calculated that we had less than an hour to pull off what we needed to do next, but we needed to time this perfectly. We had to make sure to wait to rescue Sirius until he was locked in Professor Flitwick's office alone, but not wait so long that we couldn't get back to the hospital wing. The world wouldn't end if we didn't of course, but we would be caught saving a convicted murderer, and that wouldn't be good.

When we saw the executioner reappear, we decided that it was our moment. The dementors would be coming soon to kiss Sirius and we needed to free him before that happened.

I turned to face Buckbeak and contemplated the creature. I was going to have to get on him if we were going to fly him up to the West Tower. I placed my hands on the hippogriff's back and wondered how I was going to pull myself up, when suddenly, Harry had grabbed my legs and was swinging me over Buckbeak's back. Before I even had a chance to adjust to my new position, Harry had swung himself up in front of me and was arranging Buckbeak's rope.

It was uncomfortable and precarious and I didn't like it at all. I'd never flown a hippogriff, but I already didn't like flying brooms and this felt even less secure. I grabbed onto Harry as soon as we started moving for fear of falling off, securing my hands around his middle and holding on as tightly as possible. When Buckbeak unfurled his wings in preparation to fly, I shut my eyes tight, deciding that it would be better not to look.

As we flew, I felt butterflies in my stomach. Actually, they were more like elephants stomping around. If I'd eaten anything recently, I knew I would have thrown it up right there. I tried to take calming breaths, but that wasn't working, and I ended up just muttering to myself unhelpfully about how afraid I was.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, Buckbeak came to a stop. I peeled my eyes open only to find that we were hundreds of feet in the air, hovering next to a window. Peering through the window, we could see Sirius awaiting his fate. Harry tapped on the glass and I watched as from inside, Sirius looked up, realized what was happening, hurried over to the window, and tried to open it.

I could tell the window was locked because he was having a lot of trouble with it, so as carefully as possible, and without completely letting go of Harry lest I fall to my death, I pulled out my wand. I warned Sirius before I did it and then cast a simple unlocking charm. The window sprang open and Sirius stared at it and us in shock and wonder.

There was no time to explain. Recognizing this, Sirius jumped out the window and onto Buckbeak, seating himself behind me. As Harry urged Buckbeak upwards, I felt Sirius' hands grip onto my shoulders for support and I tightened my grip even more on Harry. If he slid off the end of the hippogriff, I didn't want to get pulled along with him.

Finally, Buckbeak landed on top of the West Tower and I slid off immediately, almost falling over in my haste to get off the creature. Sirius wanted to talk, but there was no time. He didn't understand and now wasn't the time to explain, but Harry and I had to go. And so did he if he didn't want to be recaptured.

Accepting that this wasn't the time for a heart-to-heart, Sirius climbed back onto the hippogriff, nudged Buckbeak, and they took off into the sky. Harry watched as they disappeared into a single point, but I had other things on my mind. I checked my watch again. We were running out of time.

Pulling Harry from his thought, we raced down the staircase, our footsteps pounding against the stone stairs until I heard voices and stopped cold. We flattened ourselves against the wall and made sure to be as quiet as possible while they passed. It was Professor Snape and the Minister, on their way to check on Sirius. We had to get back now.

When the footsteps had died away, we emerged from our hiding place and raced down the hall in the opposite direction. We almost ran into Peeves on the way, but thankfully we managed to hide just in time. Finally, we made it to the corridor that housed the entrance to the hospital wing. We crept along to corridor as quickly as possible without making any noise. The door opened and Dumbledore's back appeared.

Dumbledore backed out of the room completely and shut the door. He took out his wand to lock it and I knew this was our one chance. Harry and I ran forward to the Professor to stop him from locking the door before we got inside.

He smiled upon seeing us and asked if we'd been successful. When we told him we had, his smiled widened, if that was even possible, and he moved to let us enter the wing before he locked it behind us.

We slipped back inside and the room was exactly as we had left it, as I'd known it would be. As I heard the lock click behind us, I led the way back to our beds, on which we sat down as I ensured my time turner was tucked safely away.

Madam Pomfrey emerged from her office then and made a sarcastic comment about being allowed to do her job. It was clear she was in a bad mood, so we accepted the chocolate she offered us, though the effects of the dementors had worn off some time ago. As I accepted my fourth piece of chocolate, there was a loud roar of fury that I predicted was coming from Professor Flitwick's office, though that was only a guess. The voices seemed to be getting closer to the hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey was not impressed.

I tried to make out what the voices were saying, but it was too muffled. When they got close enough, I could hear them arguing about how Sirius had escaped. It was Professor Snape and the Minsiter, predictably, as well as Headmaster Dumbledore. When they arrived in the wing, Snape made a beeline for Harry, demanding to know what he'd done. But thanks to my getting us back in time for Dumbledore to lock us into the hospital wing, we had the perfect alibi.

Professor Snape was furious. He remained convinced that we'd – or more specifically Harry – had done something, but now he was the one with absolutely no proof. He stalked away and while Dumbledore and the Minister began to discuss the future of the dementors at Hogwarts, a familiar groan sounded from across the room.

I snapped my head towards the noise, seeing Ron stirring. I instinctively stood up in preparation to run to his side, but I stopped myself and sat back down on the edge of my bed, remembering that I was supposed to be weak from having just been attacked by a fleet of dementors.

Groggy and confused, Ron asked what had happened. He'd been out of it longer than Harry and I had, and knew less about what had transpired after Professor Lupin's transformation.

I glanced at Harry and saw in his face how much he wanted to tell Ron everything, but the promise he'd made me was keeping him from it. He offered to let me explain, and I knew it was so that he would know what was part of our official story and what wasn't. I was grateful to him for that. I knew Ron was his best friend, and his loyalty to me in this moment meant the world.

But as I glanced back at Ron, I knew I didn't want to lie to him. I appreciated that Harry was willing to hide this from Ron, but I didn't want to put him in that position. And I didn't want to put myself in that position. I didn't want there to be any more secrets between the three of us. This year had been awful enough already. Besides, I'd already broken almost every other rule when it came to the time turner, so I figured I might as well go ahead and break this one.

"Ron, do you know what this is?" I asked, pulling the time turner out from beneath my robes. I saw Harry's eyes go wide when I took it out while Ron's were only confused. "It's called a time turner..."