Chapter Twenty One

Harry drudged though classes that day waiting and constantly looking at his watch. As the minutes ticked by and the end of the school day bell finally rang Harry grabbed his bag and book, stuffing them in messily while walking quickly towards Hagrid's hut.

He met up with Hermione at the main door and they walked over the grass together.

"I came down at lunch time and he wasn't back yet." Hermione filled Harry in, "I really hope things went well."

Harry nodded in agreement. Hermione reached up and knocked clearly on the door but there wasn't any reply.

"Do you think he's still out?" Harry asked, thinking about peering in the windows.

Hermione shook her head, "No I'm sure he'd be back by now; his appointment was at eleven, it's been nearly five hours."

Harry walked over to on of the windows and stood on tiptoe to look in.

"Harry!" Hermione hissed, "That's really rude."

Harry shook his head, "Well we needed to know. Anyway Buckbeak is in there so they must be back."

Hermione sighed, "Maybe try down by the lake?" she suggested, she hoped he wasn't in the forest.

Harry nodded and they wandered towards the lake. The cool water had attracted a few students who were milling around, mostly pretending to do school work on the grass.

Harry spotted Hagrid by the edge of the water. They walked quickly over and sat down next to him.

" 'Ello you two." Hagrid said with a small smile.

"Hello Hagrid." Hermione smiled, she saw the small piles of shredded grass on either side of Hagrid and her heart fell.

"How did it go?" Harry asked.

Hagrid shrugged, "All righ' I guess."

"What did they say?" Hermione inquired, trying not to sound to impatient.

Hagrid let out a loud sigh, "Well they didn't say nothin' bad. I'm not fired or nothin'. Buckbeak..." he let out a sniff, "Buckbeak 'as to go away. He's not allowed on the grounds no more."

Hermione let out a sigh of relief, "Well that could have been a lot worse!"

"Tryin' to find a good 'ome for a Hippogriff ain't easy though." Hagrid explained, "Best case he'll live out 'is life in the zoo down in Chester."

Harry looked down at his hands, unsure what to say, "Well Mum's always said that the magical zoo there is really good. Maybe Buckbeak will be happy there?"

Hagrid shrugged, "I'm not so sure. 'E's a wild Hippogriff, say they don't know how to look after 'im right? Or 'e wants to go for a fly and can't?"

"Oh Hagrid, I know it's not perfect but it could have been so much worse!" Hermione pleaded with him, "Please try not to get to upset with what happened."

Hagrid nodded, "I know. You're righ' it's just goin' to be hard sayin' goodbye. I've known 'im since 'e was a baby."

Harry put a comforting hand on Hagrid's back, "Why don't I talk to Mum, maybe she can take Danica to the zoo soon and talk to some of the keepers?"

Hagrid cheered up a bit, "That's a good idea. She was such a help your Mam at the trial. She told 'em what's what. Even Mrs Weasley weren' too bad."

Harry smiled, "Exactly. Why don't we have a cup of tea, you can tell us all about it and then I'll head back up to the castle and write to Mum?"

Hermione nodded, "Brilliant idea."

Hagrid stood up a shower of grass hitting the water as he did so. Harry had a sudden strange feeling as the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

"I jus' got so down." Hagrid told them, "After the trial, the though' o' sayin' goodbye."

Harry snapped himself out of it and shivered, even in the sunshine, "It's these bloody Dementors. They're not helping anyone."

Hermione nodded, "Everyone has been a bit down this year." In truth she hadn't noticed a huge change in people in general but wanted to make Hagrid feel better.

They walked into the hut and sat down while Hagrid moved around making the tea. Buckbeak was fast asleep against the wall making small clucking noises with his beak as he dreamed.

Hagrid handed Harry and Hermione a large mug of tea each and sat down, a plate of rock cakes between them that Harry and Hermione both knew better than to eat. The talked for a while, trying to cheer Hagrid up but it wasn't long before he told them he wanted to be alone with Buckbeak for a bit.

Harry and Hermione trudged back up to the castle, a fine rain soaking them both.

"Can't deny I'm looking forward to summer." Hermione said, her bushy hair was sticking to her face, she swept it back and forced in into a messy ponytail.

Harry nodded, and shook his hair to get some of the water out, a bad habit he'd picked up from Sirius that Lily was constantly telling them both off for.

"Harry!" Ron called out.

He was heading into the great hall for dinner but told his friends to go ahead. Harry rolled his eyes at the sneers from some of the other Gryffindor boys; they'd never quite forgiven him for being in Slytherin rather than Gryffindor.

"What can we do Ron?" Hermione asked.

"I was wondering if you knew how the trial went." He asked nervously.

Harry nodded, "Buckbeak is OK. Well, he has to leave Hogwarts so Hagrid is rather upset but he's not going to be put to death or anything like we feared. Your Mum apparently wasn't to bad and possibly even helpful although Hagrid was rather tight lipped over the details."

Ron let out a sigh of relief, "I'm so glad. I did talk to her and asked her to be sensible and I even wrote to my brother to see if he could help."

"Yeah Hagrid mentioned that someone called Charlie was there. He was good friends with him while he was at school." Hermione smiled.

Ron nodded, "Yeah Charlie is just like Hagrid, he works with dragons over in Romania."

Harry smiled, "Well I think we should head into dinner."

Ron looked around, the hallway was mostly empty now just the last few stragglers heading into dinner.

"Yeah you're right." Ron nodded.

They walked into the hall and Harry and Hermione waved goodbye before sitting at their tables.

"I'll fill Neville in." Hermione told Harry before going to take her seat.

Harry sat down next to Daphne, Pansy and Draco and filled them in on how the trail went.

"Well it could have been a lot worse." Draco said,

"Although I can imagine there will be more than a few tears over Hagrid loosing Buckbeak, you remember what he was like with Norbert." Pansy pointed out. She helped herself to the stew and dumplings.

"Now that the trial is over, I think we should focus more on exams. I don't know about you but I feel sorely unprepared at them moment." Daphne sighed, pushing her food around her plate.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked her.

"I got a letter from Mama and Papa today telling me they weren't happy with my practice exam results." Daphne sighed.

Harry patted her hand and gave her a half hug, "Try not to worry, it wont help and you're doing better than me." he smirked.

"They just want me to be even better." Daphne sighed, "I get what they mean, it's not like I gave them a hundred and ten percent."

"There has been a lot going on though." Draco pointed out.

"You're right but both Ma and Pa were Head boy and girl in their years so they expect a lot from me and Astoria." Daphne said.

Harry finished his dinner quickly and went up to the Owlery. It was always draughty and dirty up there but Harry loved being around all the birds. He found a clean patch of stone and wrote out the letter to his mother.

He knew she wouldn't have an issue going to the zoo, Danica loved it there and they'd both be happy to help Hagrid. He found Hedwig and gave her some fuss as well as a few treats before giving her the letter and told her to send it to his mother.

He watched her fly from his arm out into the darkness until her white feathers vanished from view before heading to the common room to join the others in some studying. There was still the list of practice exam results up on the pin board and Harry noticed Daphne look at it every so often.

He was very glad that his parents weren't so pushy; that they didn't care he nearly always came firmly in the middle of the list.

Daphne was only third from the top on average. Pansy, eighth and Draco as always at the top next to Hermione. Harry did get slightly annoyed at how little Draco seemed to try, even though he knew Draco tried far more than he pretended to.

Harry just didn't hugely care about his grades. He was still set to get at least Exceeds Expectations on nearly everything, with only a couple of Acceptables. One of which was Potions.

They studied until the candles that lit the room fell dim and they were all getting tired.

"I'm heading to bed." Pansy said, closing her books and packing them away, "It's still a couple of weeks until exams so we should all be fine."

"Yep." Daphne said, she felt rather more confident now after studying for so long. Her parents had gotten straight Outstandings and until this year so had she, there had just been a lot on her plate. She wouldn't say anything to the others but Astoria taking so naturally to all her subjects had been an extra stresser.

Harry rubbed his eyes and also packed his books away. It had been a long and busy day and he couldn't wait to climb into his nice warm bed.

He pushed his chair back to stand up and fell forward slightly as it bumped into something.

"Please watch what you're doing." Tracy snapped, pushing the chair away from her, "I'd rather you didn't break my feet, but then what can I expect from you?"

"I didn't see you." Harry said, "Sorry."

"Give it a rest Tracy; it's late." Daphne sighed.

"I know and a trip to the hospital wing would be so unfortunate." She hissed.

"You know, you're not half as scary when you've not got your following of minions." Pansy laughed, "So stop being a bitch and go to bed."

Tracy snarled at them.

"Don't make to much of a fuss. The Lestranges wont like it." Draco smirked.

"I don't care what the Lestranges think." Tracy snapped, "They're to caught up in their own little heads anyway."

"Why would they be wrapped up in their own heads?" Harry asked.

Tracy smirked mockingly at them, "You mean you don't know? They're worried about their Mummy dearest."

"And how would you know?" Daphne asked.

"Millicent may follow them around like a love sick puppy when they're awake but she still shares a dorm room with me. She's not the best at keeping secrets." Tracy whispered to them.

"Tell us." Draco growled.

"And what's in it for me?" Tracy asked.

"What do you want?" Harry huffed, he was tired and seriously doubted that the information was worth all this hassle.

"Hmm you hurt my foot. Say sorry." Tracy smiled nastily.

"I'm sorry." Harry said with a shrug.

"Not like that. Properly." Tracy told him.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Whatever Tracy. See you tomorrow in class."

"Harry wait." Daphne said, catching his arm, "Maybe this is something we should know."

Harry shook his head, "What could Bellatrix possibly be up to that is that bad?"

"Harry. Think." Draco told him.

Harry sighed and wracked his tired brain. . He sat up straighter. They knew he was at least not dead, if not exactly alive. Was she really trying to find him?

Harry stood up and stood, eye to eye with Tracy.

"I'm really sorry that I hurt your foot; I should have looked and I wish I had. Please accept by sincere apologises." he told her with as much of a straight face as he could.

"A little heavy but well done." Tracy let out a harsh laugh, "They haven't seen or heard from her in months."

"Really?" Daphne said, "You were right Harry that wasn't worth it."

"Oh no I mean nothing. I mean Rodolphus is asking if they've heard from her as no one has, just the odd glimpse in random places for ages." Tracy said, crossing her arms at them, "Well I'm off to bed. Nighty night." she said sarcastically before flicking her platinum blonde hair over her shoulder and walking away.

"Do you think she's been looking for You-know-who?" Pansy whispered.

Harry shrugged, "Well we know after last year at least part of him is still… not dead."

"Yeah, or she could be just wanting to avoid her pig of a husband. I think Tracy is making more of a thing of it to be honest. She just wanted to make you say sorry." Draco said, shaking his head, "Come on, it's nearly midnight. We should get some sleep."

Harry nodded and gathered his books together. He gladly changed into his pyjamas and snuggled between the blankets. He couldn't sleep though, he listened to the sound of Crabbe and Goyle snoring. It had driven him nuts for the first few months but after nearly three years he didn't care any more. He didn't even really hear it most of the time.

His blankets were warm on his skin and the sound of the waves on the lake crashing outside slowly swept away his thoughts until his mind was blank enough to go to sleep. He dreamt he was in Grimmauld place but there was screaming. He was running down the corridor towards the noise but he couldn't reach it.

He didn't remember what he had dreamt when he woke with a jolt half way through the night, just that his scar was hurting.