Jane sat down at the Hufflepuff table, at dinner.
"Did you hear," Ernie said. "Draco provoked a Hippogriff in Care of Magical Creatures class, and it attacked him. It probably served him right though."
After dinner, Jane caught up with Neville and Hermione. "So, what happened in Care of Magical Creatures class today," she asked.
"Hagrid warned us all about behavior around the Hippogriffs, and then Draco did exactly what he had been warned not to do. He got injured, but I suspect he's pretending to be more severally injured than he actually was."
"I hope the Hippogriff doesn't get in trouble," Jane said. "What's a hippogriff anyway?"
Jane, Neville, and Hermione went to see Buckbeak. When they got there, Luna was already there.
"Hi Luna," Jane greeted.
"Hi," Luna said. "Does anyone know why this poor Hippogriff is chained up like that?"
"Because," Hermione explained. "Draco provoked him and got hurt, so now Buckbeak's in trouble."
Hagrid came out. "Hey, Hermione, Buckbeak been put on trial. I could really use your help to prepare. Actually, I could probably use all of your guy's help."
"I don't know much about trials, but we should probably start with getting some witnesses," Jane said.
"We should probably start by researching the law," Hermione said, "although that is a good idea, Jane."
Jane, Luna, Neville, and Hermione read all they could find on magical creature law in the library and took notes. So did Percy, after Hermione told him about it.
Jane sat down at the Hufflepuff table, and started eating breakfast, on Halloween.
"I have some great news to announce," Professor Dumbledor said. "The Dementors found the escape prisoners, and they all went back to Azkaban."
Cheers and clapping rang out, in the great hall.
This hurt Jane's ears, and she quickly put her earplugs in, but she smiled. Avoiding the dementors had not been as difficult as she expected, but it was still a huge relief that they were gone.
Once she was able to get away, Jane washed the disgusting feeling stuff off of her face. She made a mental note that the next time some girls wanted to give her a makeover, she would say no. Still, she had appreciated the fact that they were being friendly with her.
She took her swing, and then went and set it up on a tree on the grounds. She swung until she saw Neville and Hermione approaching. Apparently, it was already late enough for students to be back from Hogsmeade, where she would not be allowed to go until next year.
Jane jumped off her swing and ran up to them. "Hey," she greeted. "How was Hogsmeade?"
"Pretty cool," Neville said. "I brought you back some sweets from Honeydukes."
Jane smiled, wide. "Thanks, Neville!"
While having breakfast, at the Gryffindor table, Neville kept looking at Percy. He just looked very upset. Apparently, he was not the only one who noticed.
"Percy," Hermione said, "is something the matter?"
"Yes. When I got up, Scabbers was missing. McGonagall later pulled me aside and informed me that your cat caught him, brought him to her, and scared him into turning into a man. She took him to the ministry. Apparently, he's an unregistered animagus, and a criminal, whose been in hiding for many years."
There was a long moment of silence, as everybody was shocked.
"I'm so sorry, Percy," Hermione finally said. "At least you still have Hermes."
"Yeah, but I can't believe I brought that guy into our house, years ago. Worse, I even gave him to my little brother."
"Well, you shouldn't feel too bad. Your parents didn't figure that out either."
Days later, Neville and Hermione looked at the daily prophet article. The front page headline read;
Sirius Black, An Innocent Man
Neville looked down at Trevor, who was in his lap. "At least neither of us has a pet who was really a criminal in disguise."