__________
Three
__________
"Get on," Harry hissed at Hermione as she stood rooted to the spot, staring in undisguised terror at the professor bearing down on them.
Still, she did not move.
"Come on, Hermione," he roared at her, abandoning all pretense at subtlety as the whole common room had gone deathly quiet, all students staring in wide-eyed amazement at the drama unfolding in front of them.
However, he was wrong in thinking that shouting at Hermione would do any good. It had snapped her back to the present, to be sure, but it had also drawn Professor McGonagall's attention to the Firebolt clutched tightly in Harry's hands. Her eyes narrowed as she crossed the last distance to the students.
"I don't think so, Potter," she said, the glare on her face intensifying as she realized his intentions. Before he could open his mouth to say anything, although he had no idea what he would or could say to make things any better, she raised her wand, flicked it, and Harry was horror struck to see that instead of clutching his beloved broom, he was now holding a ripe yellow banana. It was only when he noticed the twigs sticking out from the end of the fruit that he realized just how agitated the Transfiguration professor must be.
"You both have a lot of explaining to do, Potter. Now let's go!"
With that pronouncement, she turned on her heell and began marching back the way that she had just come, clearly expecting the two Gryffindors to follow her.
Sudden panic gripped Harry. McGonagall was probably taking them to the headmaster's office, and while Harry would normally have been pleased to see Dumbledore, the thought of the others that would surely be in the old man's office made him recoil in abject terror. Fudge did not worry him much. The fat little man seemed to be all bluster and no action, if the interaction Harry had been forced to have with the man was any indication. However, Harry knew with a cold certainty that Snape would be at this little meeting as well. He felt quite certain that nothing he could say would convince the Potions master that he had nothing to do with the escape of one Sirius Black and one condemned hippogriff. Could Snape make he, Harry, confess? Harry thought the answer to this was probably a big "you bet"!
And if Snape did manage to worm the truth out of them, what next? Harry thought the idea of expulsion or suspension would look very inviting indeed. Pictures of a dark, dank prison called Azkaban flooded Harry's mind; Azkaban Prison, holding all manner of insane souls and swarming with dementors just waiting to suck the happiness out of new victims. Perhaps he and Hermione would be allowed to share Sirius's old cell!
But why bother with Azkaban? After all, there were still dementors at Hogwarts. Would their actions warrant the Dementor's Kiss? He didn't know the answer to that, but decided he was better off not finding out.
Professor McGonagall was back at the entrance to the common room. Turning around, she was clearly quite annoyed that the two were not right behind her.
"Potter, Granger, if the two of you are not over here at the entrance to your common room in five seconds, I will personally expel you for your part in whatever bazaar events have occurred here tonight, events of which, I feel quite certain, you both possess a great deal of knowledge about!"
That settled it.
Feeling the numbing terror threatening to overtake him again, Harry seemed to feel the gathering of magic around himself. For a moment longer, the hushed silence continued to dominate the Gryffindor common room with all eyes focused on the irate professor and the guilty-looking students.
Then, all hell broke loose!
Several girls, including Parvati Patil, Lavender Brown, Alicia Spinnet, Katie Bell, and Ginny Weasley, shrieked as the glass in the window in front of Harry and Hermione exploded outward. The mighty crash that followed managed to drown out the girls' voices, but not Professor McGonagall's screech of fury as, with a pop, the twiggy banana in Harry's hands turned back in to the racing broom. By the time that the professor had recovered from her shock and rushed toward the window, Harry had already seized Hermione's nerveless hands, forced them around his waist, and, mounting the Firebolt, kicked off with a hard push, soaring through the open window in to the starry night, Hermione Granger clinging on behind and shrieking with terror as they went yet somehow retaining enough presence of mind to duck to avoid being brained by the window's frame.
By the time that Professor McGonagall had reached the window, the crazily bobbing broomstick and its fugitives were just a blur in the distance heading for the Forbidden Forest.
Sadness and despair coursed through the professor as she continued to stand there in shock at what had just happened. She could not believe that Potter had somehow been able to blast the window open, and more astonished to watch as he restored the Firebolt to its normal condition before grabbing Miss Granger and soaring away from the school. She did not know all of the events that had occurred that night, but she did know enough that both students would now be hunted by the Ministry of Magic, despite all that Albus could do to convince the Minister otherwise.
It was nearly five minutes before the uproar of the students brought her back to herself and got her moving again. She strode rapidly out of the common room, stopping only long enough to give Fred and George Weasley a week's worth of detention for dancing and making flying gestures while giving each other high-fives. Even detention could not dampen their enthusiasm over what had just happened.
__________
Minerva McGonagall was not wrong. To say that things were heated in the headmaster's office would be the same as saying that Snape worshipped Gryffindors.
It did not take McGonagall long to finish her story. A few eyebrows raised when she told them how Harry had wandlessly restored the Firebolt from its banana-like appearance. The calm in the office lasted for approximately two seconds after her voice fell silent.
"Preposterous!" It was Fudge who roared this statement, face contorted in rage.
"And I thought his father was out of control," was Snape's sneering contribution.
"That must have been a stronger Confundus Charm than you thought, Severus," squeaked little Professor Flitwick. "In fact, it almost sounds like he has put them under the Imperius Curse."
"Yes, yes, that must be it," Fudge agreed quickly, wiping sweat from his forehead in quick, jerky swipes. "I'll alert the Aurors at once. We should have them in no time. And if Black is with them, people will see just how great the Minister really is," he concluded, wringing his hands with glee.
He rose to his feet, a manic gleam in his eye. He had nearly reached the door when the voice of Professor Dumbledore stopped him.
"Minister, I will deal with this. They are students at Hogwar---"
"They are clearly not at Hogwarts any more, Dumbledore," Fudge interrupted angrily, the slight tinge of respect he usually reserved for the headmaster absent in his voice. "This is clearly now a manner for the Ministry and its Aurors to deal with. Minerva, if you could please come with me so that we may discuss any known options of where Black may have taken them. Snape, go alert Filch as to what has happened and have him keep a look out for the kids. Flitwick, please alert Hagrid and the other professors and have them conduct a thorough search of the grounds for any clues."
For the first time, as he stopped to draw breath, he realized one person was missing who should have been in the office.
"Dumbledore, where is your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this evening?"
"Unfortunately, Remus Lupin had to leave us for a night and should be back in the morning," the old man replied, cutting off Snape who had opened his mouth to respond.
"Fine, fine," Fudge snapped impatiently. "Snape, I want you to question Mr. Lupin when he returns."
Snape nodded, lips pressed so tightly together that his mouth seemed to have disappeared.
With that, Fudge left the headmaster's office to contact the Ministry followed reluctantly by Professor McGonagall, leaving behind a group whose emotions ranged from worry to anger to worry.
"Headmaster, your orders," Snape spoke first.
"For now, we can only do as the Minister has asked," Dumbledore said, the twinkle usually present in his eyes gone completely.
The other two looked at each other, frowned, nodded, and left to do as they had been instructed.
The door closed behind them, leaving behind one worried headmaster who was left with nothing to do but remain seated, staring moodily in to the fire that was always burning in his office. Albus Dumbledore was not used to feeling helpless, but helpless was just what he felt at the moment.
__________
Hermione Granger was sure she was going to die. Even as a child, she had hated flying with a passion that nearly matched her love of books. At first, it had been airplanes. Then there had been the one time she had gone to an amusement park and dared a roller coaster. Those had been bad enough.
Her first time on a broomstick had scared her more than she thought possible, and she had vowed that her first time would also b her last. Oddly enough, she had forgotten just how horrible brooms were after she had ridden on Buckbeak with Harry to save Sirius just over an hour ago.
Yet here she was on a broom again, and this time she wasn't in control of it. She found herself wishing fervently to be atop the hippogriff now, rocking back and forth side to side and being propelled by the mighty wings.
And she thought she had gone fast before?
The brooms that the school maintained were old with many bent twigs. Many of them took more than a minute before they could finally be coaxed up in to the would-be rider's hands. When she had flown back in her first year, it had been at a speed of somewhere in the neighborhood of ten kilometers an hour. She had congratulated herself at managing this feat.
And she had been in control.
She had no control this time. All she could do was clasp tightly on to the somewhat skinny boy in front of her and pray that he didn't throw her off. Not only that, she was also contending with speeds of nearly a hundred kilometers per hour, and that was just seconds after they had launched themselves from the window of Gryffindor Tower.
So it was not surprising that her scream trailed after the pair as they rocketed away from the school.
Harry bent forward as much as he dared with the extra passenger on the Firebolt, determined to get as much speed as he possibly could from the faithful broom. In seconds, the lights of Hogwarts were fading from view behind them as they zoomed above the darkened grounds with only the light of the full moon to guide them. Still, it was enough. Harry was able to see where they were going, and after his earlier experience with the dementors, he kept his senses on full alert to avoid them. Thus it was that a silvery object on the ground caught his eye as they neared the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest.
"Hold on, Hermione," he called over the rushing wind, although such a warning was unnecessary. He wondered vaguely if one or two of his ribs might not be broken by the death grip the girl had on him. Wincing slightly, he dove.
Hermione screamed again.
"Harry, what are you d-d-doing?"
"Open your eyes and you'll see, Hermione," he said, struggling and hopefully succeeding to keep the annoyance out of his voice. "I've got you. You should know by now I'd never let you fall."
Something in his voice seemed to soothe her a little. Still trembling violently, she forced her eyes to open a crack and stare down at the rapidly approaching ground. It only took her a second to see what Harry was after. She was only amazed that he had been able to see it at all. Then, she remembered herself. Of course Harry would see it. Did he not chase the Golden Snitch during Quidditch matches and catch it more often than not, and the object now drawing closer by the second was a hundred times larger than the Snitch.
So lost was she in her admiration of the boy's flying skills, that they were zooming upward again before she even realized that Harry had reached out and grabbed the Invisibility Cloak. Professor Lupin had put it in to his cloak pocket before they left the Shrieking Shack, and Hermione assumed that Lupin must have left the rest of his clothes behind when he transformed, and had to bite down a giggle at the thought of a wolf turning back in to a naked man under the shocked gazes of the villagers of Hogsmeade.
Harry, meanwhile, had managed to tuck the cloak in to the pocket already containing his school trunk. Now, leveling off near the treetops of the forest, he pondered his next big problem. He knew that they were going to be on the run for quite a while. He would have to worry about that in the morning. Right now, he needed to find them a place to stay for the night. This, however, was easier said than done.
They were both shivering from the cool night air and Harry's shoulders and Hermione's arms were beginning to ache with fatigue before he finally saw what he was looking for.
The tree, he judged, was almost directly in the center of the Forbidden Forest and seemed to tower above its neighbors by a good twenty feet. The girth of the tree was also, even at its top, still some fifteen feet round. Not only that, its topmost branches seemed to be woven so thick and tight that they formed a natural platform. And it was here that the two landed.
It was here, shivering from the coolness in the air and the fear of the unknown, that two young children clung to each other as the night wore on. It was here that the first faint trails of dawn found them, having just closed their eyes and slipped in to an uneasy sleep, the girl's head of bushy brown hair pillowed on the boy's narrow chest, one paternal arm thrown around her to pull her close and attempt to keep her warm.
And as a wolf howled some distance below them, the boy, in spite of all his worries and cares, smiled contently.
___ ___ ___ ___
A.N.: Just one brief note. I don't know what happens to a werewolf's clothes when he changes. I therefore took the liberty of assuming that his changing body tore the clothing from the body of the wolf, and thus it would be possible to find the Invisibility Cloak. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Cheers.
Three
__________
"Get on," Harry hissed at Hermione as she stood rooted to the spot, staring in undisguised terror at the professor bearing down on them.
Still, she did not move.
"Come on, Hermione," he roared at her, abandoning all pretense at subtlety as the whole common room had gone deathly quiet, all students staring in wide-eyed amazement at the drama unfolding in front of them.
However, he was wrong in thinking that shouting at Hermione would do any good. It had snapped her back to the present, to be sure, but it had also drawn Professor McGonagall's attention to the Firebolt clutched tightly in Harry's hands. Her eyes narrowed as she crossed the last distance to the students.
"I don't think so, Potter," she said, the glare on her face intensifying as she realized his intentions. Before he could open his mouth to say anything, although he had no idea what he would or could say to make things any better, she raised her wand, flicked it, and Harry was horror struck to see that instead of clutching his beloved broom, he was now holding a ripe yellow banana. It was only when he noticed the twigs sticking out from the end of the fruit that he realized just how agitated the Transfiguration professor must be.
"You both have a lot of explaining to do, Potter. Now let's go!"
With that pronouncement, she turned on her heell and began marching back the way that she had just come, clearly expecting the two Gryffindors to follow her.
Sudden panic gripped Harry. McGonagall was probably taking them to the headmaster's office, and while Harry would normally have been pleased to see Dumbledore, the thought of the others that would surely be in the old man's office made him recoil in abject terror. Fudge did not worry him much. The fat little man seemed to be all bluster and no action, if the interaction Harry had been forced to have with the man was any indication. However, Harry knew with a cold certainty that Snape would be at this little meeting as well. He felt quite certain that nothing he could say would convince the Potions master that he had nothing to do with the escape of one Sirius Black and one condemned hippogriff. Could Snape make he, Harry, confess? Harry thought the answer to this was probably a big "you bet"!
And if Snape did manage to worm the truth out of them, what next? Harry thought the idea of expulsion or suspension would look very inviting indeed. Pictures of a dark, dank prison called Azkaban flooded Harry's mind; Azkaban Prison, holding all manner of insane souls and swarming with dementors just waiting to suck the happiness out of new victims. Perhaps he and Hermione would be allowed to share Sirius's old cell!
But why bother with Azkaban? After all, there were still dementors at Hogwarts. Would their actions warrant the Dementor's Kiss? He didn't know the answer to that, but decided he was better off not finding out.
Professor McGonagall was back at the entrance to the common room. Turning around, she was clearly quite annoyed that the two were not right behind her.
"Potter, Granger, if the two of you are not over here at the entrance to your common room in five seconds, I will personally expel you for your part in whatever bazaar events have occurred here tonight, events of which, I feel quite certain, you both possess a great deal of knowledge about!"
That settled it.
Feeling the numbing terror threatening to overtake him again, Harry seemed to feel the gathering of magic around himself. For a moment longer, the hushed silence continued to dominate the Gryffindor common room with all eyes focused on the irate professor and the guilty-looking students.
Then, all hell broke loose!
Several girls, including Parvati Patil, Lavender Brown, Alicia Spinnet, Katie Bell, and Ginny Weasley, shrieked as the glass in the window in front of Harry and Hermione exploded outward. The mighty crash that followed managed to drown out the girls' voices, but not Professor McGonagall's screech of fury as, with a pop, the twiggy banana in Harry's hands turned back in to the racing broom. By the time that the professor had recovered from her shock and rushed toward the window, Harry had already seized Hermione's nerveless hands, forced them around his waist, and, mounting the Firebolt, kicked off with a hard push, soaring through the open window in to the starry night, Hermione Granger clinging on behind and shrieking with terror as they went yet somehow retaining enough presence of mind to duck to avoid being brained by the window's frame.
By the time that Professor McGonagall had reached the window, the crazily bobbing broomstick and its fugitives were just a blur in the distance heading for the Forbidden Forest.
Sadness and despair coursed through the professor as she continued to stand there in shock at what had just happened. She could not believe that Potter had somehow been able to blast the window open, and more astonished to watch as he restored the Firebolt to its normal condition before grabbing Miss Granger and soaring away from the school. She did not know all of the events that had occurred that night, but she did know enough that both students would now be hunted by the Ministry of Magic, despite all that Albus could do to convince the Minister otherwise.
It was nearly five minutes before the uproar of the students brought her back to herself and got her moving again. She strode rapidly out of the common room, stopping only long enough to give Fred and George Weasley a week's worth of detention for dancing and making flying gestures while giving each other high-fives. Even detention could not dampen their enthusiasm over what had just happened.
__________
Minerva McGonagall was not wrong. To say that things were heated in the headmaster's office would be the same as saying that Snape worshipped Gryffindors.
It did not take McGonagall long to finish her story. A few eyebrows raised when she told them how Harry had wandlessly restored the Firebolt from its banana-like appearance. The calm in the office lasted for approximately two seconds after her voice fell silent.
"Preposterous!" It was Fudge who roared this statement, face contorted in rage.
"And I thought his father was out of control," was Snape's sneering contribution.
"That must have been a stronger Confundus Charm than you thought, Severus," squeaked little Professor Flitwick. "In fact, it almost sounds like he has put them under the Imperius Curse."
"Yes, yes, that must be it," Fudge agreed quickly, wiping sweat from his forehead in quick, jerky swipes. "I'll alert the Aurors at once. We should have them in no time. And if Black is with them, people will see just how great the Minister really is," he concluded, wringing his hands with glee.
He rose to his feet, a manic gleam in his eye. He had nearly reached the door when the voice of Professor Dumbledore stopped him.
"Minister, I will deal with this. They are students at Hogwar---"
"They are clearly not at Hogwarts any more, Dumbledore," Fudge interrupted angrily, the slight tinge of respect he usually reserved for the headmaster absent in his voice. "This is clearly now a manner for the Ministry and its Aurors to deal with. Minerva, if you could please come with me so that we may discuss any known options of where Black may have taken them. Snape, go alert Filch as to what has happened and have him keep a look out for the kids. Flitwick, please alert Hagrid and the other professors and have them conduct a thorough search of the grounds for any clues."
For the first time, as he stopped to draw breath, he realized one person was missing who should have been in the office.
"Dumbledore, where is your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this evening?"
"Unfortunately, Remus Lupin had to leave us for a night and should be back in the morning," the old man replied, cutting off Snape who had opened his mouth to respond.
"Fine, fine," Fudge snapped impatiently. "Snape, I want you to question Mr. Lupin when he returns."
Snape nodded, lips pressed so tightly together that his mouth seemed to have disappeared.
With that, Fudge left the headmaster's office to contact the Ministry followed reluctantly by Professor McGonagall, leaving behind a group whose emotions ranged from worry to anger to worry.
"Headmaster, your orders," Snape spoke first.
"For now, we can only do as the Minister has asked," Dumbledore said, the twinkle usually present in his eyes gone completely.
The other two looked at each other, frowned, nodded, and left to do as they had been instructed.
The door closed behind them, leaving behind one worried headmaster who was left with nothing to do but remain seated, staring moodily in to the fire that was always burning in his office. Albus Dumbledore was not used to feeling helpless, but helpless was just what he felt at the moment.
__________
Hermione Granger was sure she was going to die. Even as a child, she had hated flying with a passion that nearly matched her love of books. At first, it had been airplanes. Then there had been the one time she had gone to an amusement park and dared a roller coaster. Those had been bad enough.
Her first time on a broomstick had scared her more than she thought possible, and she had vowed that her first time would also b her last. Oddly enough, she had forgotten just how horrible brooms were after she had ridden on Buckbeak with Harry to save Sirius just over an hour ago.
Yet here she was on a broom again, and this time she wasn't in control of it. She found herself wishing fervently to be atop the hippogriff now, rocking back and forth side to side and being propelled by the mighty wings.
And she thought she had gone fast before?
The brooms that the school maintained were old with many bent twigs. Many of them took more than a minute before they could finally be coaxed up in to the would-be rider's hands. When she had flown back in her first year, it had been at a speed of somewhere in the neighborhood of ten kilometers an hour. She had congratulated herself at managing this feat.
And she had been in control.
She had no control this time. All she could do was clasp tightly on to the somewhat skinny boy in front of her and pray that he didn't throw her off. Not only that, she was also contending with speeds of nearly a hundred kilometers per hour, and that was just seconds after they had launched themselves from the window of Gryffindor Tower.
So it was not surprising that her scream trailed after the pair as they rocketed away from the school.
Harry bent forward as much as he dared with the extra passenger on the Firebolt, determined to get as much speed as he possibly could from the faithful broom. In seconds, the lights of Hogwarts were fading from view behind them as they zoomed above the darkened grounds with only the light of the full moon to guide them. Still, it was enough. Harry was able to see where they were going, and after his earlier experience with the dementors, he kept his senses on full alert to avoid them. Thus it was that a silvery object on the ground caught his eye as they neared the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest.
"Hold on, Hermione," he called over the rushing wind, although such a warning was unnecessary. He wondered vaguely if one or two of his ribs might not be broken by the death grip the girl had on him. Wincing slightly, he dove.
Hermione screamed again.
"Harry, what are you d-d-doing?"
"Open your eyes and you'll see, Hermione," he said, struggling and hopefully succeeding to keep the annoyance out of his voice. "I've got you. You should know by now I'd never let you fall."
Something in his voice seemed to soothe her a little. Still trembling violently, she forced her eyes to open a crack and stare down at the rapidly approaching ground. It only took her a second to see what Harry was after. She was only amazed that he had been able to see it at all. Then, she remembered herself. Of course Harry would see it. Did he not chase the Golden Snitch during Quidditch matches and catch it more often than not, and the object now drawing closer by the second was a hundred times larger than the Snitch.
So lost was she in her admiration of the boy's flying skills, that they were zooming upward again before she even realized that Harry had reached out and grabbed the Invisibility Cloak. Professor Lupin had put it in to his cloak pocket before they left the Shrieking Shack, and Hermione assumed that Lupin must have left the rest of his clothes behind when he transformed, and had to bite down a giggle at the thought of a wolf turning back in to a naked man under the shocked gazes of the villagers of Hogsmeade.
Harry, meanwhile, had managed to tuck the cloak in to the pocket already containing his school trunk. Now, leveling off near the treetops of the forest, he pondered his next big problem. He knew that they were going to be on the run for quite a while. He would have to worry about that in the morning. Right now, he needed to find them a place to stay for the night. This, however, was easier said than done.
They were both shivering from the cool night air and Harry's shoulders and Hermione's arms were beginning to ache with fatigue before he finally saw what he was looking for.
The tree, he judged, was almost directly in the center of the Forbidden Forest and seemed to tower above its neighbors by a good twenty feet. The girth of the tree was also, even at its top, still some fifteen feet round. Not only that, its topmost branches seemed to be woven so thick and tight that they formed a natural platform. And it was here that the two landed.
It was here, shivering from the coolness in the air and the fear of the unknown, that two young children clung to each other as the night wore on. It was here that the first faint trails of dawn found them, having just closed their eyes and slipped in to an uneasy sleep, the girl's head of bushy brown hair pillowed on the boy's narrow chest, one paternal arm thrown around her to pull her close and attempt to keep her warm.
And as a wolf howled some distance below them, the boy, in spite of all his worries and cares, smiled contently.
___ ___ ___ ___
A.N.: Just one brief note. I don't know what happens to a werewolf's clothes when he changes. I therefore took the liberty of assuming that his changing body tore the clothing from the body of the wolf, and thus it would be possible to find the Invisibility Cloak. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Cheers.
