The other chosen one
Chapter 11
APOV
"Lexi. Lexi! Wake up!" Was shouted in my ear, making my eyes snap open, suddenly very awake, recognising the medical wing straight away. I sat up to see Mione stood next to my bed, Harry sat on the bed next to me and Ron on the bed opposite, still unconscious and with his leg in a cast. I looked at my friends faces and remembered what had happened that lead me to a bed in the medical wing.
"Dad." I breathed, looking around as I stood up, ignoring the arm the Mione held out to support me. "Where's Dad? And Uncle Remus?"
"Professor Lupin is still in the forest. The sun isn't up yet." She said as Harry came to stand next to me.
"And my Dad?" I asked, almost scared to find out the answer.
"Pettigrew got away. We have no way to prove his innocence." She whispered, her eyes welling with tears.
"He's going to be given the kiss, isn't he?" Harry asked, the silence the only conformation I needed. Before anyone else could say anything, the door opened to reveal Dumbledore, who strode towards us, his robes billowing behind him.
"Professor! They have the wrong man!" Mione exclaimed.
"Miss Granger…" He started, but I interrupted.
"You know he's innocent professor! You know that the Potter's made Pettigrew their secret keeper! He's still alive! We saw him! You know my Dad is innocent! You know!" I said, feeling tears form in my eyes. I had only just gotten Dad back, and now I was going to lose him forever.
"Without Peter Pettigrew in custody, there is no evidence to support your theory." He said, making me want to scream. "What we need is more time." He said with a pointed look at Mione, who suddenly gasped as she realised something. "Three turns should do it. He is located in the west tower. If you succeed, more than one innocent life can be saved." He said before leaving the room, shutting the door behind him.
"What is he on about?" Harry asked as Mione pulled a necklace out of her shirt.
"Come on. We have to hurry." She said, pulling us closer before putting the necklace over all three of our necks, the chain seeming to get longer as she tried to stretch it. She took hold of the charm and spun it three times. I watched in amazement as the room around us changed, everything moving in reverse. When everything stopped, we were stood in an empty medical wing, Ron nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Ron?" Harry asked as Mione took the chain from around our necks and tucked it back under her robes.
"Come on." She said, dragging us out of the room and down the hall. We ran out of the castle and down to Hagrid's hut, where we hid behind the pumpkin patch, able to see ourselves through the window of Hagrid's hut.
"Hermione, what the hell is going on? Why can we see ourselves?" I asked, making her sigh.
"This is a time turner." She said, pulling the necklace back out to show us. "It's how I've been getting to my classes all year. It allows the wearer to go back in time to redo something or change something." She looked over the pumpkin we were hid behind. "More than one innocent life can be saved. Buckbeak! He meant that we could save Buckbeak!"
"We save Buckbeak and Dad can ride him to get away." I whispered, looking back at the hut. "Oh no. Here we come." We quickly hid in the forest behind the pumpkin patch and waited for the past us to leave before Harry and I ran forward, both bowing to Buckbeak before grabbing his chain and guiding him into the forest before anyone could see. As soon as we were hidden in the forest, away from any prying eyes, we let Buckbeak loose, letting him run and jump around as much as he wanted.
"Lexi." I turned to look at Harry, knowing what the look on his face meant. "What did Pettigrew say to you?" We were waiting near the edge of the forest, Mione stood closer to the whomping willow that we could just see. We had just watched ourselves go into the tunnel, followed by Uncle Remus and then Snape.
"He said that he was going to find Voldemort and hand me to him. Said something about getting a reward for his loyalty." I said with a humourless chuckle before looking at my feet. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about my Dad."
"I understand." He said, making my head snap up.
"You do?" I asked, making him laugh lightly.
"Well, I did say that he deserved the Dementors' kiss, didn't I?" He said, making me smile knowing that he had forgiven me.
"Guys!" We walked over to Mione, looking at where she was pointing. "It's time." We watched as we all came out of the Whomping willow, Dad setting Ron on one of the roots before taking Harry to the side.
"What stopped the Dementors?" I asked, watching the scene before me. I was too concerned with Dad to look up when the Dementors were driven away, so didn't know who stopped them.
"Someone cast a Patronus. A powerful one at that." Moine said, making Harry look at his feet.
"I think it was my parents." He said, making us silent for a moment.
"Harry, your parents are… well… dead." Mione said, hoping she wouldn't upset him by saying so.
"I know. I just remember seeing 2 figures, a male and a female. I may have imagined it." He said, before freezing as the moon appeared. We watched as Uncle Remus turned into a werewolf, fighting Dad before taking off into the forest. We all shared a look before running to the lake through the trees, coming out at the other side to where we could see Dad, stumbling down the bank before collapsing on the shore I watched as I ran out to him, Harry behind me.
"Here come the Dementors." I whispered as they swooped down to where we were. We watched for what seemed like hours, but was only a minute before Harry and I shared a look. We ran out of the trees, ignoring Mione's call and pulled our wands out, coming to a stop at the water's edge.
"Expecto Patronum!" We called before watching in amazement as 2 brilliant white animals shot out of our wands, chasing the Dementors away before walking back to us. I stared at the large, shaggy dog in front of my and knew this was my Dad's animagus form. I looked at Harry to see him looking at the large stag in front of him, the stories in my book letting me know that this was Prongs, James Potter's animagus form.
Mione grabbed us as our Patronus' disappeared, pulling us back into the trees as Snape appeared, looking around in shock, obviously looking for who drove the Dementors away. After a moment, he conjured a stretcher for Harry, Dad and I, levitating us back to the castle.
"Let's go." Mione said. We ran back into the forest, quickly finding Buckbeak and bowing to him before all 3 of us climbed onto his back, Mione wrapping her arms tightly around my waist while I lightly held onto Harry's. We flew up to the top of the west tower, landing and dismounting, seeing my Dad look up from where he was behind a cell door. He stood up as I turned to Mione.
"If you would do the honours." I said to her in a posh voice, bowing slightly.
"Why thank you." She replied in an equally posh voice, mimicking my bow before turning to my Dad, a huge grin on her face. "You may want to step back." She said. She waited for him to be at the back of the cell before raising her wand. "Bombarda!" She shouted, making the door blow in. My Dad slowly walked out, looking at us in shock.
"Why?" He asked, making me roll my eyes.
"Shut up and get on the bird." I said. It was tight, but the 4 of us climbed back onto Buckbeak, Mione in between Harry and I and Dad behind me. We flew to the Quidditch pitch, knowing no one would look for us here, and hid in the changing room, letting Buckbeak run around the pitch.
"You shouldn't have done that." Dad said, looking at me as he paced the floor. "You could get into a lot of trouble."
"Only if we're caught." I said, making him laugh.
"Moony was right. You do get it from me." He said, sitting down next to me, looking at Mione in wonder. "Why? Why did you help?"
"I've known who you are since Christmas. I'll admit, at first, I judged Lexi for it, assumed that she was going to hurt Harry, but then I saw something in her, something I hadn't seen before." She said, looking at me with a smile. "Determination and love." My eyes widened and I quickly shook my head, unaware of Harry doing the same thing on the other side of Dad.
"Love?" He asked, looking at me as I held my head still. "You're in love?"
"I meant her love for you." Mione corrected, making Dad look back at her. "The love for the family she wished she had. I knew how much it would have killed her if we left you. I wasn't willing to let an innocent man suffer." I saw Dad look at Harry, letting me give a look of gratitude to Mione.
"You look just like your father." He said, making me turn my head to look. "But you have your Mother's eyes. And you seem to have inherited your father's love of mischief. I was right when I said that you two would become the next generation of Marauders."
"What you said, about me coming to live with you and Lexi…" Harry said, making me frown.
"I'm sorry Harry, but my life will be too unpredictable while I'm on the run. It's safer if you stay with your Aunt and Uncle." He looked at me, seeing the tears in my eyes. "Alexis…" He started, putting his arm around me as I rested my head on his shoulder.
"Can't you just stay at Black Manner?" I asked, trying not to cry at the thought of losing him.
"The Aurors will expect that. Stay with Moony for a while longer. You'll be safe with him." He sighed and kissed my head. "I'm sorry I wasn't there all these years. I missed the chance to raise you."
"It's not your fault." I said, lifting my head as I heard Mione stand.
"It's time." She said, making us all stand. We walked out of the changing room and towards Buckbeak, Dad embracing all 3 of us in a tight hug before he mounted.
"I will send you a letter soon." He said, smiling at us. "I am proud of you all. Especially you, Alexis. You have grown into the woman I knew you would. Make the Marauder's proud." We stood back as Buckbeak spread his wings, lifting them into the air before flying out of sight, leaving the 3 of us standing alone, our arms around each other's shoulders.
"Guys, we have to go." Mione said suddenly. We shared a look before running from the pitch and across the field, trying to get back to the castle quickly. We ran up the stairs, hiding more than once from Filch, before skidding to a halt next to the medical wing, seeing Dumbledore closing the doors.
"Well?" He asked, looking at us with raised eyes.
"We did it." Harry said, making the old wizard smile.
"Very well done. All of you." He said, making us smile. "I think you should be gone by now. In you go. I'll lock the door behind you." We got in to see Ron still asleep on his bed. As we heard the door lock, the door to Madame Pomfrey's office opened, making us jump onto my bed which was closest to the door.
"What are you doing?" She asked, storming towards us. "Back in your own beds." She ordered, making Harry and Mione quickly get into their own beds. Not a moment later, there was an almighty roar from above us, making Harry, Mione and I smirk. "What is the meaning of all this noise?" The shouting got louder until the door opened with a bang, Snape storming towards my bed, Dumbledore and Fudge behind him.
"You!" Snape shouted, stopping at the end of my bad, looking at me with fire in his eyes. "What did you do?"
"Professor Snape! Control yourself!" Pomfrey snapped, her hands on her hips.
"Black got away! I know you had something to do with it." He hissed at me, gripping the end of my bed.
"He got away?" I asked innocently. I hadn't been dubbed the best liar of the golden quartet for no reason.
"Severus, the door was locked and I was here until 5 minutes ago. They couldn't get out, free Sirius Black and get back into the room in the 5 minutes it took to discover he was missing and get here." Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling.
"They had something to do with it! I know it!" He snapped, still glaring at me.
"Professor Snape, what is the meaning of this?" Fudge asked, looking very confused.
"She is Black's daughter!" He yelled, pointing to me, making Fudge's eyes widen. So much for the Ministry not knowing who I am. "I know you did it. How did you get him out?" He asked, glaring at me again.
"I have no idea what you're talking about professor." I said, making him growl before storming out of the room, Dumbledore and Fudge following him out.
"Well, I don't know what has gotten into him." Pomfrey said as she gave Harry and Mione potions before coming back to me. "Perhaps I should have another look at his head."
"I'm sure it's just all the hot air escaping." I said, making Harry and Mione snicker. Pomfrey look at me with a frown, trying to stop a smile.
"You have the same look in your eyes that your father got before he and the other Marauder's pulled a prank. It still makes me nervous." She said, walking back into her office as Ron slowly woke up, groaning against the brightness before looking at us through narrowed eyes.
"What'd I miss?" He asked groggily. That was all it took for the 3 of us to burst into uncontrollable laughter, leaving him looking at us in confusion.
