AN:

Thank you all for reading, reviewing, liking, and following this story! It does mean a lot and helps keep me motivated! This year I really hope to be more consistent with writing so hopefully I can stick with it! Here's a long chapter for you guys ;) I hope you enjoy!

Chapter Forty Nine

My eyes were trained on Buckbeak as Harry, Hermione, and I crept through the Forbidden Forest, trying to be as quiet as possible. My mind was racing. We had three hours. Three hours to save Buckbeak. Three hours to save Sirius Black from the Dementor's kiss.

My face was throbbing- nose broken from Pettigrew. Pomphrey had bandaged it and gave me a pain reliever but we snuck out before she could fully heal it. Bruises and scratches covered my body. Everything ached but that didn't matter.

We had lives to save.

Dumbledore was the only one who believed any of us that Sirius was innocent. Snape, somehow convinced Fudge that we had been Confunded and Pettigrew was in fact, not alive. With Pettigrew gone, and no one to back Sirius up besides us… there was not much to convince the Prime Minister otherwise.

Dumbledore then reminded us of the time turner. And here we were…

I could hear chatter from the inside of Hagrid's cabin. It was hard to wrap my head around the fact that

"Now?" Harry whispered from my right and both Hermione and I shook our heads.

"It's too early." I hissed back.

"If we steal him now, those Committee people will think Hagrid set him free! We've got to wait until they've seen he's tied outside."

Harry's frown deepened.

"That's going to give us about sixty seconds."

Merlin- this seemed impossible.

The sound of breaking china came from within Hagrid's cabin.

"That's Hagrid breaking the milk jug… I'm going to find Scabbers in a moment…"

A couple of minutes later we hear Hermione let out a shriek.

"Hermione- what if we- we just run in there and grab Pettigrew-"

"No!" Hermione cut Harry off, her eyebrows furrowed. "Don't you understand? We're breaking one of the most important Wizarding laws! Nobody's supposed to change time, nobody! You heard Dumbledore, if we're seen-"

"We'd only be seen by ourselves and Hagrid!"

"Harry what do you think you'd do if you saw yourself nursing into Hagrid's house?"

"I'd- I'd think I'd gone mad." Harry muttered realizing the consequences. "or I'd think there was some Dark Magic going on-"

"Exactly! You wouldn't understand, you might even attack yourself! don't you see? Professor McGonagall told me what awful things have happened when wizards have meddled with time… loads of them have ended up killing their past or future selves by mistake."

"Guys. They're coming." I hissed pointing at the castle.

I could just make out Dumbledore and the others exiting the castle and making their way down the steps. We were going to be on our way out of Hagrid's then…

Within a couple of seconds Hagrid's back door opened, and Harry, Hermione, Ron, and myself walked out of it with Hagrid. It was beyond weird seeing us like this.

Merlin, I looked exhausted.

I must look even worse right now.

After the four of us said our goodbyes to Hagrid we threw the cloak on over our heads and a second later there was a knock at Hagrid's door.

"Get ready." I hissed to Harry who nodded.

"I'll do it. You two stay here." Harry whispered back running a hand through his hair.

We watched the grass flatten in patches as the four of us walked away. Finally we were gone.

"Where's the beast?" The executioner asked coldly.

"Out- outside."

We all watched as the executioner popped his head out the window taking a long look at Buckbeak. Merlin he wasn't going to give us enough time.

"We- er- have to read you the official notice of execution, Hagrid. I'll make it quick. And then you and Macnair need to sign it. Macnair, you're supposed to listen too, that's procedure-"

Thankfully he turned away from the window. This was it.

As Fudge's voice started again, Hermione and I watched as Harry darted out from behind the tree, vaulted the pumpkin patch fence, and approached Buckbeak.

Hermione's hand gripped my own tightly as we watched Harry bow to Buckbeak. The Hippogriff bowed back and Harry began to fumble with the rope that tied Buckbeak to the fence.

"Come on… come on…" Hermione whispered and we watched as Harry struggled to get Buckbeak to move.

The hippogriff didn't seem to want to get up. Hermione's nails dug into my hand as we watched the two slowly inch towards us.

Harry tugged the rope harder and Buckbeak began to walk, rustling his wings irritably. They were still in plain view of Hagrid's back door. And from the sounds of it the officials were almost done signing paperwork.

Merlin this was painful to watch.

"Quick! Quick!" Hermione moaned as Buckbeak broke into a slow trot.

As soon as Harry was in reasonable distance to us, Hermione and I both darted forwards, grabbing onto the rope and pulling. We needed to move.

"Stop!" Harry hissed suddenly. I looked behind my shoulder to see that we were deep enough in the forest that they couldn't see us. "They might hear us-"

I placed a hand on Buckbeak as Hagrid's door opened with a bang. All of us went completely still. Listening intently.

"Where is it?!" The committee member said suddenly. "Where is the beast?

"It was tied here!" The executioner sounded furious. "I saw it! Just here!"

"How extraordinary." Dumbledore commented, sounding almost amused. I felt my lip twitch at that.

"Beaky!" Hagrid sounded close to tears. As Hagrid sobbed, the executioner swung his axe into the fence in anger. "Gone! Gone! Bless his little beak he's gone! Musta pulled himself free! Beaky yeh clever boy!"

Buckbeak started to strain against the rope trying to get to Hagrid. The three of us quickly tightened our grips, pulling him back to stop him.

"Someone untied him! We should search the grounds, the forest-" The executioner was snarling but Dumbledore was having none of that.

"Macnair, if Buckbeak has indeed been stolen, do you really think the thief will have led him away on foot? Search the skies if you will… Hagrid, I could do with a cup of tea. Or a large brandy." He said.

"O'- o' course, Professor. Come in, come in…" Hagrid sounded weak with happiness.

The three of us listened closely… footsteps slowly retreated along with the soft cursing from the executioner. Hagrid's door shut and there was silence once more.

I felt like I could breathe again.

We did it. Well half of it.

"Now what?" Harry whispered looking around.

"We'll have to hide in here for now." Hermione said looking shaken. "We need to wait until they've gone back to the castle. Then we wait until it's safe to fly Buckbeak up to Sirius' window. He won't be there for another couple of hours… oh this is going to be difficult…"

"We're going to have to move." Harry muttered after a couple of minutes. "We've got to be able to see the Whomping Willow, or we don't know what's going on."

"Okay." Hermione muttered after a second. "But we've got to keep out of sight…"

The four of us moved around the edge of the forest as quietly as we could. Darkness was quickly falling as we made our way to a small clump of trees where we could clearly make out the Whomping Willow.

"There's Ron." Harry pointed at a dark figure appearing before us.

I could see Ron sprinting across the grass towards the tree, shouting after Scabbers. Three more figures materialized out of thin air, chasing after Ron. The four of us collided into each other, not even realizing how close to danger we were.

"There's Sirius!" Harry hissed. A dark streak bounded from the base of the Whomping Willow. Pouncing on Harry right as one of the tree branches slammed into me, knocking me through the air.

"I didn't think I fell that hard." I muttered and Harry nodded.

"Looks even worse from here, doesn't it?" We watched as Sirius pulled Ron into the roots. "Ouch- look. I just got walloped by the tree- this is weird-"

The Whomping Willow thrashed around before finally freezing. This was hard to watch.

"That was Crookshanks pressing the knot." Hermione mumbled.

"And there we go… We're in."

The moment we disappeared, the tree began to move again. Seconds after Dumbledore, Macnair, Fudge, and the committee member left Hagrid's and started to make their way up to the castle. It took a couple of minutes before Lupin showed up. And then a couple more for Snape. We were all in. Merlin this was bizarre.

"Harry…" Hermione started after a couple of minutes. "There's something I don't understand… Why didn't the dementors get Sirius? I remember them coming… and then I think I passed out… there were so many of them."

I had assumed Snape was the one who saved us.

She pulled Buckbeak's rope out of our hands and tied it to the nearest tree branch before sitting on the ground. Harry and I sat down as well, exhaustion was starting to hit me. I needed caffeine or something. I closed my eyes, still listening but resting. Just for a minute.

Harry explained how the dementors swarmed us, one almost getting to him when something large and silver came galloping across the lake- forcing the dementors to retreat.

"But what was it?" Hermione asked after he was done.

"There's only one thing it could have been, to make the dementors go. A Patronus. A real powerful one."

"But who conjured it?" Hermione asked but Harry went silent.

"Didn't you see what they looked like? Was it one of the teachers?"

"No, he wasn't a teacher." Harry sounded certain about that.

"But it must have been a really powerful wizard, to drive all those dementors away… If the Patronus was shining so brightly, didn't it light him up? Couldn't you see-"

"Yeah… I saw him." Harry said slowly. I peaked one eye open and saw the confusion on his face. "But… I must've imagined it… I wasn't thinking straight… I passed out right afterwards."

"Well, who do you think it was?"

"I think…" He ran his hands through his hair. "I think it was my dad."

His dad?

I found myself staring at Harry in shock. There was no way that Harry's dad had saved us… right?

"Harry, your dad's- well… dead." Hermione said quietly and Harry looked away from both of us.

"I know that."

"You think you saw his ghost?" I asked and he shook his head.

"I don't know… well, he looked solid…"

"But then-"

"Maybe I was seeing things." Harry shrugged. "But… from what I could see… it looked like him… I've got photos of him… I know it sounds crazy."

He shut down after that. I glanced at Hermione who looked as concerned as I felt. It was… impossible. Right?

After what felt like an eternity the tree up ahead froze.

"Here we come!" Hermione hissed.

We all clambered to our feet. The three of us watched as Lupin, Pettigrew, and I came awkwardly out of the hole in the roots- all handcuffed together. My face pinched in frustration as I watched the three of us.

It was painful, watching- knowing what was about to happen. We could potentially save Sirius and have saved Buckbeak but what about Lupin? What about Pettigrew escaping? There were so many things that went wrong. So many things that we could fix.

"We can't let Pettigrew escape again."

The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. Both Harry and Hermione's head whipped towards me.

"We've got to stay put." Hermione said firmly. "We mustn't be seen. There's nothing we can do!"

"So we're going to let Pettigrew escape all over again?" Harry asked in frustration and Hermione nodded.

"I can wait by where he escaped. I'm sure we can-" I started but Hermione shook her head furiously.

"There's not enough time! And how do you expect to find a rat in the dark? There's nothing we can do! We came back to help Sirius. We're not supposed to do anything else!"

"All right." Harry hissed and I bit my lip in frustration.

As much as I didn't want to admit it- she was right.

The moon slid from behind the cloud. We watched as our figures stopped- before the panic started.

"There goes Lupin. He's transforming…" Hermione hissed.

"Guys- we've got to move." Harry said suddenly, starting to untie Buckbeak.

"We mustn't, I keep telling you-"

"Not to interfere! Lupin's going to run into the forest, right at us!"

Bloody hell.

"Quick! Where are we going to go?! Where are we going to hide! The dementors will be-"

"Back at Hagrid's!" Harry cut off Hermione and we started to pull Buckbeak back to the cabin. "It's empty now- come on!"

We ran as fast as we could as Lupin's howls filled the air. My hair stood on end as we moved as quickly as we could. Harry ran before us, yanking open the door while Hermione and I herded Buckbeak into the cabin. The door bolted shut behind us.

"Fang! Fang it's us." I quickly ran over to Fang who was barking widely at us. He finally quieted down and we all stood there, catching our breath.

"Merlin I can't believe we didn't realize." I said finally and the other two nodded.

"That was really close…" Hermoine agreed.

"Yeah…"

Buckbeak settled himself down and I collapsed into one of Hagrid's chairs, Fang's head resting on my lap. Fang gave me a little bit of comfort at least.

"I think I'd better go outside again.." Harry said slowly his eyes trained out the window. "I can't see what's going on- we won't know when it's time-"

"I'm not going to try and interfere!" He said quickly, noticing Hermione's expression. "But if we don't see what's going on, how're we going to know when it's time to rescue Sirius."

Hermione looked at me and I gave her a small nod.

"Well… okay then, I'll wait here with Buckbeak… but Harry, be careful- there's a werewolf out there- and the dementors." Hermione said nervously.

"I can come-" Harry cut me off before I could finish.

"You look terrible Cassie." He said bluntly and I sighed. I knew that he was right.

"Stay alert."

Harry nodded his expression grim before stepping out of the cabin. Hermione started to fumble around Hagrid's cabin, starting a pot of tea for the two of us.

"Are you okay?" She asked, still keeping her voice low and I nodded.

"Pomfrey's pain potion is wearing off but I'll be fine. We've got to save Sirius."

I happily accepted the cup of tea Hermione handed me feeling better to have something in my stomach.

"Do you… do you really think he saw his dad?" I asked while Hermione started washing up the pot she had used.

"I… I honestly don't know it sounds impossible."

I mean… it was impossible. His dad was dead. There were so many things happening tonight that were hard to explain. It was making my head spin.

Harry admitted that he saw the figure from far away- that he didn't get a clear look but he sounded so… so certain that it was a person. That they were alive. They looked like Harry's father.. were able to cast a patronus.

A dead person could not cast a spell…

But an alive person could...

My whole body twitched as realization struck me.

"Hermione… What if Harry saw himself..?"

Hermione's eyes met mine, wide with realization and panic.

"He didn't."

Hermione grabbed onto Buckbeak's rope and was already out the door while I tossed my cup into the sink- shutting the door firmly behind me. The two of us rushed through the forest, wands out while we got closer and closer to the lake where everything was happening. A bright silver light shined through the thinning trees and we stopped seeing Harry standing, the light at the tip of his wand slowly fading.

"What did you do?!" Hermione hissed. I looked across the lake to see Sirius, Hermione, Harry, and I all passed out on the ground. The air slowly grew warmer . He… had saved us.

"You said that you were only going to keep a lookout!"

"I just saved all of our lives." Harry hissed back and grabbed Hermione's arm, pulling her behind some foliage. "Get behind here- I'll explain."

"I can't believe it… you conjured a Patronus that drove away all those dementors! That's very very advanced magic." Hermione hissed looking torn. She seemed half excited about how advanced it was but half frustrated that he saw himself.

"I knew I could do it this time, because I'd already done it… does that make sense?" He said buzzing with adrenaline. A moving figure caught my eye.

"Shhh. It's Snape." I hissed and we all peered around the bush.

Snape finally regained consciousness. He conjured stretchers, lifting the four of us onto them and with his wand out, made his way back out of the forest towards Ron and then back towards the castle.

"It's nearly time," Hermione said, looking at her watch. "We've got about forty five minutes until Dumbledore locks the door to the hospital wing. We've got to rescue Sirius and get back to the ward before anyone realizes we're missing."

"It's a tight window. We should start moving a bit closer." I whispered and the other two nodded.

We started to make our way towards the edge of the forest, giving ourselves enough room to fly if we need but still remaining out of sight.

"Look!" Hermione hissed and I followed her line of sight to see a man hurrying across the grounds.

"Macnair! The executioner, he's gone to get the dementors! This is it, come on."

Harry helped Hermione and I onto the back of Buckbeak before climbing on the front. Harry muttered that we better hold on before we took off into the air.

Riding on Buckbeak was worse than flying on a broom. Both Hermione and I were gripping on tightly as we soared towards the castle, each of us counting the windows- keeping an eye out for Sirius.

"Whoa!" Harry finally yelled and Buckbeak slowed down in front of one of the windows.

"He's there!"

We could clearly make out Sirius sitting in Flitwick's office with his head hanging. Harry reached out knocking on the window and Black's head shot up. His jaw dropped and he leapt from the chair, rushing towards the window.

"Stand back!" Hermione mouthed and Sirius moved over. She pulled her wand out and pointed at the window. "Alohomora!"

The window sprang open.

"How-how?!" Sirius asked weakly and I reached a hand out to Black

"Get on! We don't have much time." I called out and Black nodded.

It was lucky he was so thin. He easily climbed out of the window, using my help to get onto Buckbeak's back.

"You good?" I asked Black who nodded and I gave Harry a thumbs up. "Hold on tight!"

"Okay, Buckbeak, up! Up to the tower! Come on!" Harry called.

With a giant sweep of his wings, Buckbeak had us soaring upwards again. Harry, Hermione, and I slid off of the Hippogriff as soon as we had landed.

"Sirius, you'd better go quick. They've gone to get dementors and they'll reach Flitwick's office any moment. They'll find out you're gone." Harry panted.

"What happened to the other boy? Ron?" Sirius croaked.

"He's fine! He's still out of it but Pomfrey will fix him. You need to go!" I cut in but Black was still staring at Harry.

"How can I ever thank-"

"GO!" We all shouted. Black pulled on the makeshift reign, turning Buckbeak around so that they were facing the night sky.

"We'll see each other again. You are- truly your father's son, Harry."

Buckbeak's wings unfurled once more and we all took a step back as they rose into the air. The two growing smaller and smaller before soon enough they were gone. All that was left was the full moon and the stars twinkling down at us.

As impossible as it had seemed… we did it. We actually did it.