"My father wouldn't do that, Harry," Hermione choked, wishing she'd believe it.
"He loathes Sirius, Hermione!" Harry bellowed. "I bet he'd love to watch the dementors suck out his soul!"
Hermione had to believe her father wouldn't be so cruel. That he would never delight in seeing anyone have their soul extracted. He raised her. There were too many moments of tenderness, of genuine attempts to help her, she just wasn't ready to believe he was the sort of bloke to want-
It'll make sense when you're older... Hermione shuddered and clasped her hands.
"Hermione," Ron said. "The man is evil. How can you be so thick not to see it?"
Hermione snapped her head in Ron's direction and hissed "He saved all of fucking lives, Ron! Multiple times! I- can't-" Please, please, let them be wrong about him. She drew her knees up to her chest with an exasperated sigh. "You're both wrong about him. You can't just-forget it, Ron. I'm not mad, just disappointed."
Ron scoffed, gaping at her. "What happened to the girl who told the Minister of Magic to 'shut up and listen'?"
Hermione buried her head in her knees and scoffed. "I have no fucking clue how to make people listen. I hoped that-well, I've seen that technique work with Madam Bones and my father...I thought I could-erm-y'know- command respect or whatever. I'm a bloody idiot."
"I haven't much time with you three," Dumbledore spoke, peering at Hermione. "We haven't much time at all."
Hermione perked up taking his meaning.
"Professor, you have to stop them!" Harry insisted. "Sirius is innocent. If he won't listen to us, then maybe Lupin-"
"Lupin is in no condition to be interviewed even if we found him, Harry," Dumbledore said. "Even then, he's mistrusted by our kind."
"That's not fair!" Harry insisted. "There has to be something we can do to stop this! God, Snape knows and he's still happy to let Fudge do this!"
"Professor Snape," Dumbledore corrected. "Likely has no intention of letting such things happen. As Hermione said, he wouldn't do that."
"You both have too much faith in Professor Snape," Harry grumbled.
"Harry," Hermione said. "He's my father."
"'Many of us have fathers that were awful people'," Harry said. "It was actually yours that told me that."
"Harry-" Hermione started.
"I need you three to listen to me now," Dumbledore said. "There isn't much time. Now Sirius is being held in the Astronomy Tower. But to save him one would have to get there before now. Anything else would be to late. Do you understand me, Hermione?"
The time-turner..."Yes, sir."
"Good," he nodded. "Now, I'm going to lock you in so you can get the rest Poppy wanted you to get."
"But, Professor!" Harry protested.
Dumbledore peered at him from over his glasses with a knowing twinkle in his blue eyes. "I trust you to do what is right."
With that, he left the wing, shutting the double oak doors and the echo of the lock clicking resonated off the stone walls.
"What does he expect us to do?" Harry wondered.
Hermione leapt to her feet and dug out the time-turner from her robes, dangling the hourglass from its gold chain for Harry to examine.
He knit his eyebrows squinting at the time-turner. "Erm, that's really pretty, Hermione, but how is that supposed to help us?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "This is a time-turner," she turned to Ron. "Turns out you were right, Ron. I did have to be in three places at once to attend my classes. I've been using this to turn back time and attend my classes all year."
"What?!" Harry choked. "You had the ability to turn back time all year and you didn't use it to change things?"
Hermione looked down at her feet and shrank. "I-erm-there are laws, and the penalty for breaking them is harsh. I was also warned if I were careless, if I saw my future self, I could go mad. I didn't want to risk it, I'm-erm-not exactly the picture of stability."
Harry shook his head. "But you could have freed Buckbeak long before now. You could have caught Pettigrew, exposed him. Hermione. We might not be in the position right now."
Hermione bit her lip and clasped her hands, finding the familiar gauges where she had dug before. 1, 2,3...she inhaled sharply. "I promised McGonagall I would only use it for classes. And-erm-" how could she explain it? She tried after Pettigrew got away, she thought about it with Buckbeak. She just couldn't bring herself to break that promise. It had been done to her so many times that she couldn't...unless she absolutely had to.
Well, I guess I do.
"Honestly?" Harry blinked at her.
"And," she inhaled deeply. "I'm a complete idiot. We can move forward now, yes?"
Harry looked back a Ron then to her before nodding.
Hermione nodded in return and extended the gold chain to go around Harry's neck as well. "Cover us with the cloak."
Harry did so and stared at her as Hermione methodically held the time-turner before their faces. She bit her lip and tapped the outer ring thrice cautiously. A ritual she did when she was stressed before actually turning time back. It calmed her, or at least put at ease the parts of her mind that insisted on disaster. It worked less and less, yet she did them more.
Why the fuck are you thinking about this now?
She inhaled deeply and turned the inner ring thrice. Three hours should have been enough to get them where they needed to be. Maybe nine? No, this should be fine.
Hermione shut her eyes to avoid the dizzying effect watching the world in reverse had on her. Or to soothe her guilt at not interfering all the times she might have actually changed something for the better. She would this time.
"What the-" Harry gasped looking around the now sunlit hospital wing. "Did we just go back in time?"
Hermione nodded remembering the first time she used the time-turner all those months ago. She scanned the empty hospital wing and urged Harry forward silently, both padding along, Hermione barefoot, from beneath the invisibility cloak. They slowly made their way out onto the lush green grounds. It seemed too good to be true, a bright blue sky overhead and golden sunshine shimmering over the sapphire lake hardly suggested the horrors about they would face mere hours from now.
At least, no obvious signs suggested what was to come, but a crowd of fifty or so students formed a two concentric rings, facing outward in Hagrid's garden with joined hands, chanting loudly:
"We shall not,
We shall not be moved!"
Harry and Hermione paused to watched the scene unfold. Angelina and Deirdre stood at the forefront, facing the adults opposite them, despite the circle, there was no doubt (at least in Hermione's mind) who the masterminds of the protest were. They recognized a number of students from the outer ring, including Fred, George, Lee, Skylar, Josh, and even O'Malley had joined the cause. It seemed younger students that joined were in the inner ring, and Hermione fancied Luna, Ginny and Neville would be among their number.
Though Colin Creevy stood outside it all, documenting the protest, taking pictures frantically.
"This is highly inappropriate!" the executioner yelled at Dumbledore and Hagrid. "A teacher can't make students-"
Dumbledore smirked and looked over his halfmoon glasses at the tower, musclebound man. "But you see, Mr Knott, Hagrid was with me while before this happened. This is simply a group of admirable young people doing what they believe is right. Yes, I also believe it's their right to organise amongst themselves, is it not?"
Knott flushed a violent purple, close to the shade of Dumbledore's robes. Knott knew there was nothing he could do to stop a peaceful protest on school grounds and it was simply delicious watching him come to that realisation.
Buckbeak... Hermione turned her thoughts to the hippogriff. She wasn't sure this would actually be enough to save him, but with so many witnesses to protect the protesters and Hagrid, an idea came to Hermione.
"Harry," Hermione muttered. "I have an idea, but you need to be quiet."
Harry knit his eyebrows in confusion but nodded.
Hermione closed her eyes and clasped her hands together. She took in a deep breath and counted to three. On three, she opened her eyes to see Harry tower over her. It seemed breathing had done the trick, she successfully turned into a cat that time.
Surveying her surroundings once she got her barrings, Hermione plotted her way way into the inner rings and dashed out from underneath the cloak. She bounded for her destination, unnoticed among the commotion. Between the chanting students, arguing adults and Hagrid's appeals to Knott, no one noticed they tiny, tawny tabby infiltrate the ring of protesters to the docile Buckbeak at its centre.
Buckbeak eyed her with suspicion. He lowered his great beak to her head and Hermione, despite her fur bristling outward, did everything she could to remain calm. He whipped his head back at her smell and then cocked his head to the side in confusion. He narrowed his yellow eyes and refused to break her gaze.
Hermione wondered if he had seen her as a snack rather than a rescuer. But his body language didn't quite suggest that.
My smell...I still smell like me!
Long moments passed between them. Hermione and Buckbeak eyed each other. She slowly blinked to express trust and hoped the gesture was something he could read, but the perplexed hippogriff still stared at her. Until he lowered his neck, his beak touching the grass. It seemed she finally had his trust.
With everyone's backs to her, swaying to the chant Hermione knew this was her chance. She used the cover to assume her human form, still crouching low to the ground. Her heart pounded in her ears as she untied the line mooring the poor creature in place.
She made quick work of the line but getting Buckbeak to launch was another story. Once she'd freed him she quickly returned to her cat form to evade detection, and made efforts through body language to try to get him to leave. Hermione, at a loss, scratched his foreleg and hissed.
Buckbeak let out a loud screech and much to Hermione's dismay attention from the protesters turned to the creature they organised to protect. No one seemed to notice Hermione. Their eyes instead on the rearing hippogriff spreading his wings.
Buckbeak locked eyes with Hermione one last time before taking to the sky. She watched in amazement with the rest of her peers as Buckbeak's silohuette grew smaller and smaller into the distance.
Hermione dashed out from the scene mostly unnoticed, but one person gave her pause.
Luna, between Ginny and Neville, turned her gaze to Hermione. Luna's pale face remained soft as she looked down at her. Recognition seemed to dance behind her silver eyes and an easy smile broke across her lips.
A torrent of feelings assaulted Hermione. Fear that she'd been caught and now Luna was liable, sadness that she didn't trust her dear friend with her secret, unease and ease danced together, Hermione unsure how she felt about Luna's expression. She hadn't a chance to work out how she felt about it before Luna callled out and pointed to the sky.
Did she...recognise me? Hermione thought, staring at Luna in amazement before remembering she had other places to be.
"What was that?" Harry asked when Hermione once again assumed human form from the safety of the cloak.
"Witnesses will say Buckbeak got out on his own," Hermione assured him. "No one saw me." Except Luna...
"I hope you're right. Now what?" Harry asked.
Hermione looked around. "We steal a broom and wait in the Astrology Tower, naturally."
The two walked beneath the cloak back to the castle when they spied a figure in black in a mad sprint to the Whomping Willow. As they closed the distance Hermione recognised her father, who now paused to survey the grounds. He lifted his wand but stopped when his eyes fell to the ground. He stooped to pick pluck a shimmering-Harry's invisibility cloak from the grass.
"How dare you touch that," Harry seethed, in a whisper. "Get your filthy hands off of that. It was my Dad's, you bloody prat."
Hermione turned to face Harry and pressed a finger to her lips. They did not want to get caught.
Harry gave a begrudging nod and they watched, Harry in a fuming silence, as her father disappeared under the cloak and the Whomping Willow opened to reveal its path.
"Let's go," Hermione urged.
"Wait," Harry said. "What if we can save two birds with one stone?"
Hermione looked up at Harry, watching the gears turn behind his green eyes. A smile broke across his lips and Hermione caught his meaning, feeling a smile break across her own.
"Or a dog and bird with in a single night?"
The forest grew darker while Harry and Hermione tracked Buckbeak. Harry walked beneath the safety of the invisibility cloak and Hermione once again took the form of a cat to tack the hippogriff's sent. She expected more of a learning curve, but her time honing her skills after being transfigured against her will made tracking via sent easy to pick up again.
Soon the sun completely sank and the bright full moon took its place. Now, Harry and Hermione had to find Buckbeak before Lupin did.
"Hermione!" Harry called pointing across the lake.
There they were. The lot of them, Hermione trying to free her hand from her father's grip, Sirius Black arguing with him while Harry mouthed to Hermione. Lupin took off and, as before, did not make it before the transformation took place. Shrieks echoed off the lake and through the trees until they were replaced with howls.
Harry and Hermione watched in horror as Lupin, now a giant wolf snarling, bounded toward the group. He didn't turn back. Why wasn't he turning back. Worry clutched at Hermione's throat as she wondered if death then would mean...
Something distracted him. Something he could hear that we couldn't. But what?
"He's going to turn back. He'll get distracted. It's a closed time-loop," Hermione muttered under her breath.
"He's not turning back, Hermione," Harry whispered, grabbing his wand. "We need to do something or we're dead!"
"But we're not dead!" Hermione whispered back. "It's a closed time loop, that means that everything that's happening already happened."
Harry turned back to her and pointed at the scene across the way. "The we must have done something. Nothing else is distracting him!"
"But, Harry-" Hermione began.
"No, Hermione," Harry snapped. "You said it's a closed time loop? Well then we were here last time too. Think about it Hermione, if nothing changes, than we don't either. We were already here. I-erm-I reckon it's like Capturing Kronos!"
Hermione bit her lip as she remembered the most recent instalment of the Son of Hermes series. That was exactly what happened with Jason and Arabelle in the novel. That was actually a prominent time-travel theory presented in Fates Design: Journal of Temporal Magicks. Maybe, just maybe, Harry was on to something. And Hermione hadn't really time to think of alternatives. She turned her attention to what they did to distract Lupin.
Werewolves are territorial, solitary creatures only socially motivated during-oh dear god...
Hermione cupped her hands over her mouth and did her best to mimic the mating call of a female werewolf.
It worked. Lupin bounded away from the lot of them and into the wilderness, likely to find a way around the lake. That bought them some time.
"What did you-" Harry choked. "Did that scare him off?"
Hermione shook her head. "Female werewolf mating call. Let's hope his werewolf form likes girls."
Harry grasped her by the shoulders. "So you got him away from us by attracting him to us?"
Hermione choked. That was exactly what she did. You stupid piece of shit! You just signed your own death warrant! What the hell is wrong with me!
"I-I-I" she squeaked before inhaling deeply. "We have maybe fifteen minutes before he finds us. Let's get-"
Hermione's thoughts stopped as a mist formed over the lake and a chill cut through her core. The dread wasn't as complete as it was when they were one the same side of the lake. No, the dementors were too fond of the tableau of human misery across the way, yet another concern mulled over in Hermione's mind.
Who summoned the stag patronus?
Harry and Hermione watched as the dementors spiralled overhead, their past selves a veritable feast for the awful creatures. Hermione thought back to their brush with-neither of the two of them could summon a patronus. Someone else had too, but who could have possibly done it?
A werewolf at their heals, and dementors about to Kiss their past selves, Hermione didn't see the option to wait. If Harry was right about them saving themselves with Lupin, then he had to be right here. She grabbed her own wand and thought the last unencumbered happy thought she had.
Closing her eyes she imagined herself in the bamboo forest once more, Hiro's warm arms embracing her beneath the thick bamboo canopy and the taste of sake on his lips against her while she ran her hands through his untidy hair. The scent of open bamboo flowers clung to the air as she let herself think of that day. Hiro was perfect, sweet, and even the awkwardness of their first kiss endeared him to her. Beyond the perfect moment, she could see them stargazing together on the roof, sprawled out under the Ever-blossoming Sakura and even walking side by side up to the shrine.
Hermione opened her eyes to see more than wisps of silver light expanding from the tip of her wand. Finally she'd done it right. If she could concentrate, maybe she could-
Do you really think you're good enough for him? He's going to leave, just like everyone else!
The thought came from nowhere and it wasn't just Hermione's mood it destroyed. The silver light from Hermione's wand flickered like the light of a dying candle before extinguishing. She turned to Harry hoping he fared better.
He wasn't even trying! Harry stood there, staring at the gruesome lake across the way. He stood with baited breath as if waiting for the sky to fall.
"Harry!" Hermione cried. "You were right. It has to be us that stop them! B-but I can't and you're more-"
Harry turned to her with an excited smile of all things. "No, I reckon you were right about some one intervening Hermione. My Dad's going to save us. I don't know how. But I saw him across the lake summon the stag patronus. It looked just like him, Hermione! And Sirius told me his animagus form was a stag. It had to be him."
Hermione regarded her friend with fresh pity. He'd seemed so certain his father would rise from the grave to save them. How could she tell him he was wrong? Delusional even? After a year of her best friends telling her she'd been delusional, it felt wrong. What was worse was Hermione knew she'd be the same if she thought her mother cared, thought she could be bothered to come and save them. The reality would shatter him, but Harry already knew his Dad was dead. And they were running out of time.
"Harry, I know you want it to be him," she explained. "But it can't. He's been dead almost thirteen years and-"
"You think I don't know that!" Harry cried. "I saw him, Hermione! I saw him cast the patronus and save us!"
Hermione turned to the scene. They were all unconscious now, and the only person coming for them was Lupin. And he most certainly wasn't coming to save them.
"He's coming," Harry breathed. "Just you wait, he'll come."
Hermione bit her lip and clasped her hands together. How could James Potter come to save them after years of being dead? Unlike Pettigrew, James Potter's body was found. There was no way he would come to save them. Yet Harry clung stubbornly to that version of events.
"That boy is just like his father!" One of her father's many rants about Hermione's friendship with Harry ran through her head. It wasn't just her father that thought that though. How many people told Harry he looked just like his father.
Oh for the love of Merlin!
"It's you, Harry!" Hermione shouted. "It's your patronus that saves us. I know it!"
Harry stared at Hermione for a moment, his face paled and his eyes widened behind his specs in fear. "But I-erm-I can't produce a patronus, Hermione. You're a much better witch, and you can't."
"Y-you think I'm a good witch?" Hermione squeaked in surprise. "I told you, Harry, it's nothing but books. I-I'm not-" she inhaled sharply. "I've been trying to produce a patronus all year and I never get close. I'm-" This isn't important! Honestly, they might all be better off if you had died back in the chamber!
"Hermione?" Harry waved a hand in front of her.
Hermione shuddered. They didn't have time for whatever crisis Hermione felt bubbling to the surface. She had to-she put the thought from her mind. Or at least, she tried.
"You look just like your father," Hermione reminded him. "And you've always been powerful. Trust me, you can do this."
"But I saw-" Harry stopped. "Myself...I must have thought it was my dad because I can't cast a patronus...but, Hermione," he paled on this grave realisation. "I can't cast a patronus!"
Hermione bit her lip and glanced in the direction of the forest. Lupin would be upon them soon.
"You can, Harry," Hermione promised. "I know you can. You are Harry-bloody-Potter, and a patronus is nothing for you."
"But, Hermione," Harry started.
"We don't have time, Harry," Hermione said. "I'm going to turn into a cat and distract Lupin. You need to save past us."
"You're going to what?!" Harry choked. "But, Hermi-"
Hermione had already assumed the form of a cat and dashed in the direction of Lupin. If nothing else, she would save her friends.
Lupin bound through the forest, howling as he tore through the trees. Hermione suddenly understood her father's inability to let it go when the massive wolf locked his silver eyes onto her, baring his sharp fangs, bared. Hermione knew exactly how Lupin viewed her.
Hermione was nothing more than a treat, and on that must have been fun to hunt. Lupin lifted his stunted snout to the moon and let out a howl that nearly froze the blood in her veins. Hermione stared at the giant grey from, unable to move. She hoped her catlike instincts would kick in soon.
Lupin lowered his head and bared his massive canines once more, his eyes alight with more than hunger. He was going to tear her apart, and he was going to have fun with it.
Hermione bolted into the trees in the opposite side of the forest. She moved as fast as all four feet would allow, just barely leaving he shadow of her pursuer. She veered to the left and was read to bolt up a massive oak. She could climb and Lupin could not. A hitch in her plans appeared in the form of a rearing and screeching hippogriff.
How am I going to saw him? Hermione thought, knowing Buckbeak didn't stand a chance against Lupin.
She barely had time to process an improvised plan when Buckbeak's beak grabbed at her midsection!
Hermione yowled and hissed wondering whose supper she would wind up being. She thought she was okay with-but the desire to fight returned to her. She extended her claws to defend herself when she realised that Buckbeak didn't clamp down. He was simply carrying her.
Buckbeak took to the skies once more and Hermione stared at the ground shrinking below her as they grew further from it. She imagined plummeting to the ground, her bones shattering upon impact, her lungs bursting long before that happened. Her feet longed for the ground or a tree branch. Here in the sky, she had no control. That was all Buckbeak. She was at his mercy.
Trading one danger for another, this one stripping Hermione of any sense she could make things work. She shut her eyes for a moment, but that only made it worse. Instead she watched the world far below her, frozen in Buckbeak's beak in fear.
The lake appeared before them. A giant stag formed from silver light walked serenely over the water, glowing like the moon itself. Dementors shrieked below, recoiling from the light until they darted into the night.
Buckbeak crossed the lake and landed before an exhausted Harry.
"Buckbeak!" he breathed. "Oh, am I ever happy to see you. We have to save-"
Harry took Hermione from Buckbeak, and smiled. "I reckon you didn't need rescue at all."
Hermione assumed her human form once more and placed a hand over her aching midsection. "In my attempts to save you, I did need rescue, and from Buckbeak here of anyone."
Buckbeak proudly inclined his head and shut his eyes happily.
"Yes," Hermione laughed, rubbing his neck. "You're a good boy."
Though Hermione did wonder if her plan to turn back into a human from the safety of a tree and bind Lupin would have worked. The bitter thought lingered despite the fact they needed Buckbeak.
It's not the damn hippogriff's fault you always seem to be in need of rescue. And you thought you could save anyone?! Ha!
"Let's save Sirius," Harry, already mounting Buckbeak, offered Hermione his hand.
"I hate flying," she moaned, taking his hand.