Chapter Fifty-Three: The Shrieking Shack

Once Draco had vanished Harry's father reappeared beside him. "So what did he want?" He questioned him while Harry slowly turned his head away from him and glanced down at the ground.

"Uhh,.. nothing." He fibbed even though he already knew that there wasn't any possible way in the whole entire wizarding world that his father would buy it.

"Harry James Snape, are you telling a fib? Cause you already know that even though your mother has already returned home that I can still let her know about what you're up to. Hedwig is always willing to stretch her wings." He replied.

"Sorry." Harry began while slowly glancing back up at him. "It's just that I really didn't want to get him in trouble. Today was the closest that I've heard him referring to me as a friend." He explained while Severus looked back down into his teenaged son's eyes.

"Ah, I see." He began. "Harry, do you mind if I ask you a question?" He wondered.

"Sure, go ahead." Harry replied.

"Did this have anything to do with him getting into Hogsmeade or Peter Pettigrew?" His father asked him.

"Yes, both actually." Harry replied still avoiding eye contact with him.

"Harry, do you know where Peter Pettigrew is?" His father questioned him.

"No." Harry began before finally making eye contact with him again. "But I know how to find him."

.

Hermione had not received very much sleep at all the night before since she spent half the night crying from her argument with Draco. The next morning at breakfast she had told Harry, Ron, and Ginny all about it. "I knew I couldn't trust that git and I warned him that I would put my bat boogie hex on him if any of you got hurt." Ginny said as Ron slowly turned his head and looked to the Slytherin table and glared at Malfoy.

"Yeah well he just better hope that I don't break him in half." He said before Hermione just simply heaved a sigh.

"Stop it! Knock it off both of you! I'm not worth risking detention or house points." She began. "Or worse suspension." She finished when suddenly Draco walked over towards their table and Ginny looked as if she had decided that she would take the risk after all.

"Hermione, can I talk to you about what happened yesterday?" He questioned her but she just turned her head around and ignored him. "Please?" He added which made Ron nearly choke over his pumpkin juice since he hadn't heard Malfoy ever use that word before. Before Hermione could answer him that's when Severus joined them at the table.

"Mr. Weasley, I do believe that Hagrid would like to see you down at his hut." He told him.

"Okay, well in that case see you guys later. He probably wants to see me to let me know that that furball of yours killed Scabbers." Ron replied as he got up from the table before Hermione angrily grabbed his pumpkin juice and tossed it at him in his face making Draco burst out laughing.

"Nice one Granger." He told her but Severus wasn't pleased.

"Ten points from Gryffindor." He said before walking away with Ron.

"It was worth it." She began. "I'm sick and tired of his attitude." She grumbled and then looked back up at Draco.

"If there was anything I could do to change what happened I would." He told her.

"I know. I'm sorry. It isn't your fault. I just can't believe that they're going to kill Buckbeak." She said before looking over at Harry.

"I should go with them." He said before getting up from the table and leaving the room.

"Me too." Hermione began as she got to her feet.

"I'll go with you." Draco told her before slowly offering her his hand in which she eventually accepted with a blush and then they ran out of The Great Hall together.

..

It turned out that Crookshanks really hadn't eaten Scabbers and that Hagrid had had him. Hagrid instructed that Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco leave his hut before the executioner came to put down Buckbeak and they all watched from the hillside. Hermione held onto Draco and embraced him tightly while she sobbed inside his chest and that's when suddenly Scabbers bit Ron's finger.

"Ouch!" He cried out before accidentally dropping him and he scampered off into the distance. "Damn it! He just took a chunk out of my finger!" He exclaimed before he ran after him. "Scabbers! Come back here!" He hollered and finally managed to scoop him up inside his hands and placed him inside his pocket before he turned around to look back behind him and saw a humongous furry black dog behind them and shakily pointed a finger at it.

"Guys look behind you! It's the grim!" He exclaimed and that's when with a ferocious bark the dog leapt up into the air and grabbed Ron by the pant leg and started dragging him across the ground and into a hole while he screamed for Harry to help him.

"Ron!" Harry cried out while he crawled across the ground towards him while Draco and Hermione anxiously looked up and saw that they had been underneath the whomping willow. That's when one of its branches started making a swing towards Harry and Draco's mouth gaped open and he let out a sudden gasp of astonishment.

"Harry look out!" Hermione cried as Harry quickly leapt to his feet and managed to jump out of the way in time. Harry, Draco, and Hermione managed to avoid several other blows before jumping into the hole as well that turned out to be a rather long tunnel that took them inside a house.

"Where do you think we are?" Hermione wondered.

"I have a hunch. I just hope that I'm wrong." Draco replied.

"We're in the shrieking shack aren't we?" Harry questioned as he noticed that the walls were starting to move. However, before Draco had the chance to answer him they entered a room where Ron was and shakily pointing at a man in the corner with where the pawprints had led up to.

"Where's the dog?" Draco wondered.

"That wasn't a dog that was an animagus!" Ron exclaimed and as Harry locked eyes with the man he instantly recognized him to be his godfather. Sirius Black.