a/n: Teddy bears…Teddy bears are good things…Take the hint, kids…(wink) Also, if you want to have your Prisoner of Azkaban books handy, you might be able to figure out what the characters are doing before they do it…I mentioned the teddy bears, right? Yes, yes I did…(cough) Okay, go read! (bustles everyone along into the chapter)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, but I do own this little ticket thingy here that says I can get Half-Blood Prince at midnight on July 16th! (hugs the ticket) What a fine piece of paper this is:-D

Chapter 29: Jumping to Conclusions

THUMP.

"Ouch…"

Claire opened her eyes and looked around. Where was she? It looked like a dusty old cupboard from what she could see through the darkness. She groped around for the doorknob and shoved the door open, falling out onto the cold stone floor of the Entrance Hall.

"Claire!"

She looked up to see Robin running towards her, tossing the books she was carrying aside as she went. Robin grabbed the brooms and mops that had fallen on top of Claire and pulled her to her feet, hugging her as though she was a life vest in the middle of a stormy ocean.

"Um…Hi, Robin?" Claire said, confused. Robin had never so much as smiled at her warmly, so as to why she was being hugged by this girl she had no clue.

"I'm so glad you're here!" Robin said. Then, as if coming to her senses, she let go of Claire and said, "What the hell were you thinking, leaving me here like that! I didn't think you were coming back—!"

"What are you talking about?" Claire said, smacking her robes as the dust on them went flying. Apparently those mops and brooms had not been used in a while.

"You left!" Robin said. "You've been gone for months!"

"What do you—ooooh," Claire said, eyes widening as it dawned of her. "Of course! I left before the Ravenclaw match and now its—oh…"

"Yeah," Robin said, hands on her hips as she glared at Claire. "Oh."

Claire twisted her fingers nervously.

"Robin, I'm sure you already know this," Claire began awkwardly, "but…Ginny…?"

"Perfectly fine," Robin answered her. "She apologized to you for getting so upset, but seeing as you couldn't remember anything that had happened…"

"Huh?" Claire said.

Robin sighed before delving into an explanation on how the character of Claire Woods had taken her place when she had gone, and what happened with Harry and Ginny as well.

"So…so everything's all right?" Claire asked tentatively.

"Well, Claire, I don't know if you realized this at the time, but it was pretty stupid of you to jump to the conclusion like this," Robin said, gathering the books she had dropped on the floor when Claire had arrived. "The Time-Turner sequence is starting, probably as we speak."

"I know," Claire said, staring at the floor in shame. "I just…I just wanted to fix it. I—I promised I would."

"What do you mean, 'you promised?' " Robin asked her. "Where did you go anyway?"

Claire told her everything about how she had come to leave the books and the conversation she had had with her great-grandmother before she sent her back.

"Man, you caught a lucky break there," Robin said, sounding relieved. "You're lucky you're related to a Bestower. Otherwise—well, let's not think about that."

She turned her head away and looked into the Great Hall, where a few students were milling around before dinner. It was a harmless glance, but a moment later Robin's eyes grew wide.

"What the—?"

"What?" Claire said, looking into the Great Hall as well. "What is it?"

"Well," Robin started slowly. "It's…it's you. There, sitting with Bethany!" She pointed. "Can you see?"

"Yeah…" Claire said, looking at herself at the Gryffindor table. "But—but I'm out here! You don't think…the Time-Turner…?"

"No, no it can't be that yet," Robin answered, shaking her head and staring quizzically at the other Claire. "Besides, we don't go back with the Time-Turner any more. Seeing as you, in the books, aren't really keen on talking to Harry any more—"

"—they don't trust me, of course," Claire finished with a nod. "But still, that doesn't explain why I'm in there and out here."

"Wait…maybe it does!" Robin said, thinking hard. "Didn't your grandmother say that the Gift was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience? That you're only allowed to go into the books once?"

"Yeah, something along those lines," Claire said, spotting where Robin was going with this theory. "So you're saying that, since I've already been here once, I can't fill my character's shoes any more? I'm just—like an extra person or something?"

"I guess so," Robin said with a sigh. "Man, you owe your grandma one, kid. She must have broken a dozen rules to get you back here."

"She's a fan too," Claire told her. "Of Harry Potter I mean. She was a mess when she saw what we—I mean, I—had done. I guess she wanted it fixed."

Robin was staring at her curiously, and then she shook her head sadly at the floor.

"It wasn't just your fault, Claire," Robin said quietly. "I helped. Aquinas helped. It was a team effort, like your grandmother said."

Something sprung into Claire's head at that moment.

"Aquinas!" she said, looking around as if expecting him to be lurking about. "Is he—?"

But Robin merely shook her head again.

"I haven't seen him at all since you left," Robin answered. "It makes sense—an Observer can't be in the story without anyone to observe, now can they?"

"I—wait, I never did get that. What do you mean? What's an Observer?"

"Well, there's not time to explain that now," Robin said, looking cautiously into the Great Hall again. "Look, you're going to be finishing dinner in a little while and if there's two of you here and your character sees you—that's bound to cause some problems. Let's get up to the dormitory, I'll grab my Invisibility Cloak and the book, and we'll get out on the grounds so we can see what's going on."

"Okay, sounds like a plan."

With that, the two girls sprinted as fast as the could up the marble staircase to Gryffindor Tower.

A few minutes later, Claire and Robin were sitting on the steps leading up to the girl's dormitories, hidden under the Invisibility Cloak and listening to an ongoing conversation out in the common room.

"Sunset though," Ron was saying. "We'd never be allowed…'specially you, Harry…."

They heard Harry sigh, "If only we had the Invisibility Cloak…"

"Where is it?" Hermione asked.

"Listen!" Robin hissed in Claire's ear as Harry proceeded to explain about the One-Eyed Witch statue to Hermione. "When Hermione opens the portrait hole, follow her. It's our only chance to get out unnoticed and early, before everyone gets done with dinner."

"Gotcha," Claire whispered back.

"How do you open the witch's hump again?" Hermione was asking.

"Go!"

Robin and Claire crept silently out of their hiding place and waited in the corner for Hermione to stride in front of them and out into the corridor. They crept out right behind her, Claire nearly tripping on the hem of the cloak.

"Watch it!" Robin mouthed as Claire righted herself again. "Okay, this way, follow me…"

They made their way down staircases and corridors until they reached the Entrance Hall, where Claire suggested they wait in the broom closet she had fallen out of half an hour before—at least until they came up with a more thorough plan of action.

"Okay," Robin said, listening against the door of the cupboard once they were safely hidden inside. It was hardly necessary, the sounds of dozens of people thudding down the marble staircase and into the Great Hall were easy enough to hear without pressing your ear against the wood. "Okay…we need to figure out what we're going to do."

"Yes," Claire said, sitting down on an upturned bucket. "Let's have a look at the book, shall we? And Robin—how's your Patronus? Are you going to be able to drive the dementors away from Harry and Sirius?"

"My Patronus is acceptable," Robin answered, also sitting down on a bucket and flipping through page after page in her Prisoner of Azkaban book. "I think Harry and Sirius should survive the evening basically unscathed."

"Good," Claire said. She leaned forward so that she could see the book as well. "So—how should we go about doing this?"

"Okay, well, in my opinion, we should just let the evening's events go as they're written." She gave the book a little poke with her finger and Claire nodded in agreement. "We only need to be involved once and we should keep it that way."

"I agree," Claire said. "So should we just wait down by the lake, then?"

"Well, we could—but we have a couple other things to take into consideration, Woods," Robin replied.

"Like…?"

"Well, we have to remember that Harry and Hermione are going to be out on the grounds most of tonight, too," Robin said, her brow furrowed in thought. "When they use the Time-Turner to go back and save Buckbeak—"

"—they'll be outside almost the entire time, of course," Claire said, nodding as her brain processed this new information. "So, we need to make sure that we're either a) under the Invisibility Cloak at all times or b) hidden somewhere where Harry and Hermione won't see us."

Robin nodded and said, "And another thing—Lupin."

"Lupin!" Claire said aloud as she remembered. "Of course, a werewolf will be loose on the grounds! God, Robin I don' know if we can do this—"

"We have to, Claire," Robin said firmly. "We have to. Think of all of the fans all over the world. Harry Potter has helped some people get by—I know it's helped me. And if they don't have their Harry Potter books, real lives are going to change too, Claire, not just fictional ones—"

"I know, Robin, I know!" Claire said, screwing up her face in frustration. "I'm just nervous, that's all—"

"Shh!" Robin said suddenly, holding up a hand to silence her. "Do you hear something?"

In the time they had been discussing things in the broom closet the number of students in the Great Hall seemed to have dwindled significantly; they could no longer hear a rumble of voices or the clattering of knives and forks. On top of that, they could hear voices in the Entrance Hall…two voices to be exact…

"Hermione, what—?" they heard Harry say in confusion.

"Shit!" Robin hissed, slamming the book shut.

"They're coming in here!" Claire said at the same time, reaching wildly for the Invisibility Cloak.

She had just thrown the cloak over their chalk-white faces when the door was flung open. Claire grabbed Robin under the elbow and dove into the Entrance Hall right before Hermione pushed Harry inside and slammed the door shut.

Claire sighed with relief and mouthed, "That was close!"

"Claire!" Robin whispered as quietly as humanly possible. "Claire, the cloak…!"

"What?" Claire mouthed and looked around Robin to see what she was looking at. Her jaw dropped as she saw what the trouble was. The corner of the cloak had been caught in the door when Hermione had slammed it behind them.

"What should we do?" Claire mouthed.

But Robin merely put a finger to her lips and pointed to the door of the Great Hall. Turned her head, Claire pursed her lips and watched as Harry, Ron, and Hermione peaked their heads around the door and into the deserted Entrance Hall.

"Okay," Hermione whispered, "no one there—cloak on…"

The trio disappeared underneath Harry's Invisibility Cloak and very slowly made their way across the Hall and out the oak front doors.

Claire looked to Robin for directions. The latter held up a single finger and pointed to the door her cloak was trapped in. They head Hermione's voice coming from inside.

"We've gone down the front steps…."

"Where did you get that hourglass thing?"

If Claire's heart wasn't pounding painfully in her throat, she'd have thought this was terribly cool. It was like reading two parts of the story at the exact same time.

"I've been turning it back all year so I could do hours over again, that's how I've been doing several lessons at once, see? But…Harry, I don't understand what Dumbledore wants us to do…"

Claire felt a sharp poke in the ribs and saw Robin was pointing to the book. Claire leaned over and read a bit of the page. She sighed with relief; Harry was going to open the door in a minute to check and see if anyone was in the Hall. It would be easy for the two of them to follow Harry and Hermione outside after that.

Though the conversation lasted only a page, it seemed to Claire and Robin it lasted days. Finally, though, the crack in the door widened.

"Move! Quietly!" Robin mouthed, and the two girls crept slowly into the shadows beside the oak front doors.

"Let's go!" said Harry.

Harry and Hermione opened the oak front doors and Claire and Robin were right behind them as they sprinted down the stone steps.

"Stop for a minute," Robin said, letting Harry and Hermione get far ahead of them as they headed off into the Forbidden Forest.

"Where do we go from here?" Claire asked, looking wildly around them. "We can't go into the Forest, Hermione and Harry and going to be all over the place in there! They'd definitely see us…"

"No, no we can't do that," Robin agreed. "Let's go over by the lake where we can still see the Whomping Willow. As soon as they all go in the tunnel to the Shrieking Shack, and I mean all of them, we can head around the lake so we'll be ready when they come out."

"Will we be safe from the werewolf over there?" Claire asked, trying to keep the worry out of her voice.

"Should be," Robin replied, looking over her shoulder at the castle. "We'd better stay under the cloak. Gryffindor Tower is right there and if your character happens to look out the window…"

"Yeah, good idea."

The two of them made their way over to the lake, crouching down behind a large bush where they could watch the Whomping Willow safely.

"Okay, it should be okay to take the cloak off now," Robin said, whipping it off herself and shaking her long blonde hair out of her face. "If we have to make a run for it because of Lupin or whatever, we're not going to be able to get away very fast under that."

"But what if someone sees—?" Claire began, also coming out from under the cloak.

"No one is coming for a while, we're fine," Robin answered, opening the book in her lap again. Claire hid the cloak in the bush they were hiding behind and sat quietly watching the Whomping Willow sway in the breeze. A moment later, she heard someone coming from the castle.

"Who—?" Claire started to ask, crouching down lower in the brush.

"It's the Ministry of Magic representatives," Robin answered her, her eyes narrowed as Dumbledore, Cornelius Fudge, Macnair, and the old committee member headed down the stone steps and onto the sloping lawn. "They're headed down to Hagrid's for the execution."

A moment later, they heard a stifled shriek from the direction of Hagrid's hut.

"Hermione's found Scabbers," Robin said, her face extremely pale. "The committee members should be reaching his house any minute…"

They heard a sharp rap on wood—Fudge was knocking on Hagrid's door. Claire felt her heart pounding painfully in her throat.

"Robin, Harry and Ron and Hermione—aren't they going to be coming this way?" Claire croaked. Her throat was unusually dry. "Pettigrew—he's going to run this way, isn't he?"

"Yes, but not for a minute," Robin said in the same dried-out tone.

They heard a squealing noise coming twenty yards away up the hill.

"Scabbers, it's me, you idiot, it's Ron!" they heard an aggravated voice say.

"They're coming—we've got to move!" Claire whispered, making to stand up.

"No!" Robin said, pulling her down to the ground again. "Stay put!"

Swish—thud.

All three parties—the trio under their cloak, Harry and Hermione in the forest with the escaped Buckbeak, and Claire and Robin hidden in the bush—fell silent.

Hermione broke the silence in a barely audible whisper, "They did it! I d—don't believe it—they did it!"

"Robin, Wormtail is going to run for it—he's going to come down here, we've got to get out of the way!" Claire said, starting to get angry and Robin's idiocy.

"No! Not yet!" Robin insisted through gritted teeth.

A howl of happiness—or, as the trio thought it was, a howl of misery—was heard across the grounds, made by none other than Hagrid. The duo hidden down by the lake heard Ron tell the others they needed to get back to the castle, and they were just starting to move along when—

"OUCH! He bit me!"

"Ron, be quiet! Fudge'll be out here in a minute—"

"He won't—stay—put—"

"Robin—!" Claire said, trying to pull the girl somewhere other than where they were currently positioned.

"Wait…Claire, where's Crookshanks!" Robin said, looking scared as she searched around them wildly. "Crookshanks is supposed to be here! He's not here! Where is he!"

Claire didn't really care that the cat was missing—she had just seen a rat fly out of thin air and onto the lawn, running as fast as its little paws would allow it.

"I don't know—Robin we need to move, now!—"

"Ron, no!"

Ron appeared out of nowhere as well as he threw the cloak off and pelted after his rat. A moment later, Harry and Hermione appeared as well, running after Ron.

"Scabbers—!"

Claire had no time to think; she thrust into the bush, grabbed Robin's Invisibility Cloak, and tossed it over the both of them. She stayed as still as she could, hoping against hope that none of the trio had spotted them…

"Sirius!" she heard Robin whisper.

A great, black dog appeared on the lawn. It dove clear into Harry, knocked him to the ground, and seized Ron by the arm, sinking its inch-long teeth into his flesh.

"See?" Robin said to Claire in an exasperated voice. "If we had moved we'd have been right in the middle of that! You don't think, Woods—"

"They were headed right this way!" Claire said defensively, feeling foolish.

"Lumos!"

A bright light illuminated the scene up on the lawn. Harry's arm was outstretched, holding out the wand light to see what was going on. Hermione was on the ground, bleeding freely from the shoulder, trying to stand. Ron was being dragged into the giant tree's roots by Sirius. And, Claire could see just barely through the bit of light Harry's wand was giving off, Harry, Hermione, and Buckbeak were specs amongst the trees of the Forbidden Forest, watching the scene carefully…

Snap. Ron's leg was broken.

"Harry—we've got to go for help—"

"No! That thing is big enough to eat him; we haven't got time—"

The two of them began dodging the branches, trying to get into the gap in the roots. Hermione was dancing nervously on the spot, and so was Robin.

"Where is Crookshanks, Claire!" she said in a worried voice. "He's supposed to be here! He's not here, where is he!"

"I don't know…" Claire said nervously.

"Claire, they're not going to be able to get in!" Robin half-shouted over the noise of Hermione's screams and the tree's violent movements. "Crookshanks pushes the knot for them and he's not here!"

"Leave it to me, I'll do it…" Claire said.

She seized the Invisibility Cloak so she could run and sprinted up the lawn toward the scene. It was horrible—Harry and Hermione were getting pummeled and neither one had any idea how to get into the tunnel. Claire squinted through the flailing tree limbs; she could just barely make out the knot on the trunk. It would be a challenge…

She took a deep breath.

"Here goes nothing…"

"Claire—!" she heard Robin half-shout.

She ran into the chaos. Dodged a branch to her right, flung herself onto the ground to avoid another, rolled to the left barely missing a third. She'd have to crawl. She felt the cloak snagging on roots and brambles as she army-crawled her way to the trunk. Almost there…her fingers were outstretched…she could almost reach it…

Snap.

"AHHHHHH!"

Even though she was invisible, the tree seemed to sense her. Like a mother smacking the hand of a naughty child it had rapped a branch sharply against the back of hand. It felt as though every bone in her wrist and fingers were broken. She looked wildly around her—Harry had just gotten hit sharply across the shoulder blades, Hermione had narrowly avoided a branch in the face.

"Now!"

She pushed with all her might and reached the knot, pushing it just as a branch hit her squarely across the back. Suppressing her scream, she rolled over out of the way so Harry and Hermione could get passed.

"What happened?" Hermione asked, clutching her shoulder painfully.

"I don't know—it just stopped!" Harry said, looking around. "There's no time, we've got to get to Ron—here, this looks like—yes, it's a way in! C'mon!"

The two of them slid down the tunnel. Claire lay where she was, panting heavily, cradling her bleeding hand.

"Claire!" someone hissed. "Claire where are you?"

"Robin…?" she said vaguely.

She appeared a moment later under the cloak.

"That was cl—" Claire started to say.

"Shh!" Robin said, throwing a hand over Claire's mouth.

They heard voices passing by—the committee members going back up to the castle. The tree began to rustle angrily again.

"Move! Go!" Claire shouted, jumping up and grabbing Robin.

They dodged a few branches, but another hit the pair right across the stomach. They flew onto the lawn, the Cloak slipping off of their heads. Someone gasped, Claire wasn't sure who, but Robin quickly pulled the cloak back over the two of them just as someone was rushing passed them—Lupin. He seized a broken branch off the ground, prodded the knot, and slipped inside the tunnel. Claire was about to breath freely again when—

"He's free! He's free! Beaky's free! La la la la laaaaa!"

Hagrid nearly stepped on them as he made his way up to the castle—Robin pulled her arm out of his way just in time.

"Claire!" someone shouted across the lawn. It was Harry—he had seen their heads from across the grounds!

"Robin, we've got to get out of here!" Claire said desperately, making to stand.

"I know, I know!" Claire saw Robin was nearly in tears. "What are we going to do—?"

"You're going to come with me," said a cold voice from behind them. "Both of you."

The Invisibility Cloak whipped off of them in a single movement as the pair of girls spun around to face none other than Severus Snape. They gasped.

"Come now, step lively," he said, smirking evilly. Claire saw he was already holding Harry's Invisibility Cloak in his greasy hands. "And bring that cloak along too, if you would. There is much I would like to do before the night is through, and you, Gregory and Woods, are slowing me down…"

a/n: DUN DUN DAAAAAAAAAAaaa! Oh, the horror! They were seen! They're going to be seen some more! It's amazing how important the presence of a single cat was in this sequence. So…where WAS Crookshanks? How come he wasn't there! Is it still possible for Claire and Robin to still save Harry and Sirius? Tune in next chapter to find out! Teddy bears! Bring the teddy bears!

If you are from the other site reading this chapter before it gets up on the other there, DO NOT GO BACK TO THE OTHER SITE AND REVIEW, PLEASE. Just review here for now, I promise I'll see it! (wink)

I've decided that chapter 30, the final chapter, will be posted AFTER the release of Half-Blood Prince. I really, really hope you guys enjoy book 6--I'm so excited! Who's going to die? (clutches stuffed duck) She'd better not so much as touch a Weasley...