None of the punishments Neville had received, however, came close to matching the one his grandmother had in store for him. Two days after Black's break-in, she sent Neville the very worst thing a Hogwarts student could receive over breakfast – a Howler. The school owls swooped into the Great Hall, carrying the post as usual, and Neville choked as a huge barn owl landed in front of him, a scarlet envelope clutched in its beak. Harry, Ron and I, who were sitting opposite him, recognised the letter as a Howler at once – Ron and I had gotten them from our mother the year before.

'Run for it, Neville,' Ron advised.

Neville didn't need telling twice. He seized the envelope and, holding it before him like a bomb, sprinted out of the Hall, while the Slytherin table exploded with laughter at the sight of him. They heard the Howler go off in the Entrance Hall – Neville's grandmother's voice, magically magnified to a hundred times its usual volume, shrieking about how he had brought shame on the whole family. Hedwig then got Harry's attention by nipping him sharply on the wrist. The letter he had was from Hagrid, inviting the 3 of us to visit him at around 6pm that evening. We would have to meet him in the entrance hall though, as we couldn't go out alone.

'He probably wants to hear all about Black!' said Ron.

So at six o'clock that evening, we left Gryffindor Tower, passed the security trolls at a run, and headed down to the Entrance Hall. Hagrid was already waiting for them.

'All right, Hagrid!' said Ron. 'S'pose you want to hear about Saturday night, do you?'

'I've already heard all abou' it,' said Hagrid, opening the front doors and leading them outside.

'Oh,' said Ron, looking slightly put out.

The first thing we saw on entering Hagrid's cabin was Buckbeak, who was stretched out on top of Hagrid's patchwork quilt, his enormous wings folded tight to his body, enjoying a large plate of dead ferrets. Averting his eyes from this unpleasant sight, we saw a gigantic, hairy brown suit and a very horrible yellow and orange tie hanging from the top of Hagrid's wardrobe door.

'What are they for, Hagrid?' said Harry.

'Buckbeak's case against the Committee fer the Disposal o' Dangerous Creatures,' said Hagrid. 'This Friday. Him an' me'll be goin' down ter London together. I've booked two beds on the Knight Bus …'

I bit my lip.

I was thinking that it would be very difficult for both Hagrid and Buckbeak to fit through the Knight Bus door on their own, let alone together, but I didn't want to voice this rude thought, I'd had enough awkwardness with Demelza and Amy over things like that. Also, we had completely forgotten that Buckbeak's trial was so near, and therefore, our promise about helping him prepare Buckbeak's defence; the arrival of the Firebolt had driven it clean out of our minds. Hagrid poured us tea and offered us a plate of Bath buns, but we knew better than to accept; we had had too much experience of Hagrid's cooking.

'I got somethin' ter discuss with you three,' said Hagrid, looking uncharacteristically serious.

'What?' said Harry.

'Hermione,' said Hagrid.

'What about her?' said Ron.

'She's in a righ' state, that's what. She's bin comin' down ter visit me a lot since Chris'mas. Bin feelin' lonely. Firs' yeh weren' talking to her because o' the Firebolt, now yer not talkin' to her because her cat –'

'– ate Scabbers!' Ron interjected angrily.

'Because her cat acted like all cats do,' Hagrid continued doggedly. 'She's cried a fair few times, yeh know. Goin' through a rough time at the moment. Bitten off more'n she can chew, if yeh ask me, all the work she's tryin' ter do. Still found time ter help me with Buckbeak's case, mind … she's found some really good stuff fer me … reckon he'll stand a good chance now …'

'Hagrid, we should've helped as well – sorry –' Harry began awkwardly.

'I'm not blamin' yeh!' said Hagrid, waving Harry's apology aside. 'Gawd knows yeh've had enough ter be gettin' on with, I've seen yeh practisin' Quidditch ev'ry hour o' the day an' night – but I gotta tell yeh, I thought you two'd value yer friend more'n broomsticks or rats. Tha's all.'

"You know guys, he has a point" I said. "This has gone on far too long now. You should make up with Hermione"

Harry and Ron exchanged uncomfortable looks.

'Really upset, she was, when Black nearly stabbed yeh, Ron. She's got her heart in the right place, Hermione has, an' you two not talkin' to her –'

'If she'd just get rid of that cat, I'd speak to her again!' Ron said angrily, 'but she's still sticking up for it! It's a maniac, and she won't hear a word against it!'

'Ah, well, people can be a bit stupid abou' their pets,' said Hagrid wisely. Behind him, Buckbeak spat a few ferret bones onto Hagrid's pillow.

We spent the rest of our visit discussing Gryffindor's improved chances for the Quidditch Cup. At nine o'clock, Hagrid walked us back up to the castle. A large group of people was bunched around the notice-board when they returned to the common room.

'Hogsmeade, next weekend!' said Ron, craning over the heads to read the new notice. 'What d'you reckon?' he added quietly to Harry and I, as we went to sit down.

'Well, Filch hasn't done anything about the passage into Honeydukes …' Harry said, even more quietly.

'Harry!' said a voice in his right ear. Harry started and looked around at Hermione, who was sitting at the table right behind them and clearing a space in the wall of books that had been hiding her.

'Harry if you go into Hogsmeade again … I'll tell Professor McGonagall about that map!' said Hermione.

'Can you hear someone talking, Harry?' growled Ron, not looking at Hermione.

'Ron, how can you let him go with you? After what Sirius Black nearly did to you! I mean it, I'll tell –'

'So now you're trying to get Harry expelled!' said Ron furiously. 'Haven't you done enough damage this year?'

But this was the final straw for me. I had had enough!

"GUYS, GUYS, GUYS, STOP!" I yelled, so loudly that several people nearby jumped and looked around!

I looked directly at Ron and Hermione.

"Honestly, this whole fight of yours is getting truly ridiculous now! Can you not see it? Ron, I get it, you're upset about losing Scabbers, but it's time to move on! You even said it yourself many times, that he was useless and did never did anything interesting! I honestly think you're pretending to care about it more than you actually do, just so you can continue to vilify Crookshanks! And Hermione, come on, I know it's hard, but you have to face the facts here. Crookshanks did kill Scabbers, and that's it, you cannot continue to go around pretending otherwise, and threatening to inflict further trouble on others! You both need to own up to your mistakes and end this, I hate seeing my brother and one of my best mates acting this way towards each other. Have you either of you even considered what this may look like to others, especially me, Ron, your sister, and Hermione, me, your best female friend! It's horrible, so can you both please just give it a rest!"

There was a long silence that followed my rant, then:

"Well said Ginny" came Demelza's voice from behind us. She and Amy sat down. "Honestly, I was about to say what you just did, had you not done so"

"Yeah, well done mate, you've put them in their place" added Amy, fist bumping me.

Ron and Hermione remained silent for another minute or so, then Hermione said:

"Yeah, you're right Ginny. This whole thing has been pretty ridiculous. I'm sorry for not considering how it impacted others. Can you forgive me?"

She chewed her lip as she looked at me for an answer.

"Of course I can mate, I just want this to be over"

I then looked at Ron, who seemed very reluctant, but he nodded, and said

"Yeah, I'm sorry too Ginny"

"Now, look at each other" I said

They did so, rather awkwardly

"Crookshanks did eat Scabbers Ron" Hermione choked out, and she looked like she was about to cry.

"Thank you for finally saying it, and I'll promise to leave him alone now" replied Ron

They hugged briefly, and when they pulled apart, I said "Friends again?"

They both nodded, and shook hands

"Friends" they said simultaneously.

'So how about it?' Ron said to Harry and I. 'Come on, last time we went you two didn't see anything. You haven't even been inside Zonko's yet!'

'OK,' he said. 'But I'm taking the Invisibility Cloak this time"

I nodded in agreement.

"Wait, Ginny, did you just agree to go to Hogsmeade illegally?" said Demelza

Shit, I thought. I hadn't even told them about the previous time I'd done so.

Biting my lip, I said "Ummm, yeah, and it wouldn't be the first time either"

I told them all about what happened just before Christmas, To my surprise, they weren't angry.

"You need to let the 2 of us come this time then!" said Amy.

"Yeah, we're missing out on a lot!" added Demelza

"I think the cloak is only big enough to cover 3 of us at once" said Harry "so I'm afraid one of you will have to wait for the next time"

"Toss of a coin?" suggested Hermione. "Not that I approve of all this, but clearly nothing I say will stop you, so I may as well make suggestions"

"You won't report us will you?" I said

Hermione sighed

"Against my better judgement, no I won't"

"Alright then, let's do it!"

Demelza pulled out a Galleon from her pocket.

"Goblin or Wizard?" she asked Amy.

Like with Muggle coins that have a picture of the reigning monarch on one side, and a different picture on the other, Galleons have a picture of a Goblin on one side and a Wizard on the other, as a symbol of the co-operation between our two species in regards to money.

"Goblin" said Amy

Demelza tossed the coin in the air, then after catching it in her right palm, turned it over on to her left.

"Wizard. Sorry mate"

Amy shrugged

"Ah well, no biggie. Just make sure you bring some stuff back for me, yeah? I'll just spend the day with Andrew"

"Of course we will" replied Demelza.