'And the Dementors? ' said Dumbledore. 'They'll be removed from the school, I trust?
I heard this line extremely faintly. My head was aching like it never had before, right in the spot where Pettigrew's Stunning Spell smashed into me. With all my strength, I opened my eyes by the tiniest margin. I was looking at the very dark hospital wing. Dumbledore, Minister Fudge, Harry and Hermione were standing at the other end of the ward. On my right, I saw Ron in a bed, unconscious.
'Oh, yes, they'll have to go,' said Fudge, running his fingers distractedly through his hair. 'Never dreamed they'd attempt to administer the Kiss on an innocent boy"
This jolted me fully awake, who had nearly been kissed? I prayed it wasn't Harry.
"No, I'll have them packed off back to Azkaban tonight. Perhaps we should think about dragons at the school entrance …' ended Fudge's words.
'Hagrid would like that,' said Dumbledore.
As he and Fudge left the dormitory, Madam Pomfrey hurried to the door and locked it again. Muttering angrily to herself, she headed back to her office.
Ron woke up at this point. He voiced my thoughts.
'What – what happened?' he groaned. 'Harry? Why are we in here? Where's Sirius? Where's Lupin? What's going on?'
Harry and Hermione looked at each other.
'You explain,' said Harry, helping himself to some chocolate.
I then noticed there was some on my bedside table too, and got started on it.
Hermione sighed as they climbed into bed.
"It's a really long and quite, frankly, crazy story. I doubt you two will even believe it-"
"Hermione mate, we trust you, you know that. Don't worry" I said
Hermione bit the inside of her lip, sighed again, then launched into the story.
"So, across this whole school year, you've all been wondering how I've been getting to my classes, right?"
"Yes" all 3 of us said, though I shot Hermione a subtle wink which she returned.
"But what has that got to do with all of this?" Ron asked
"Everything" replied Hermione, producing the Time Turner. "This is called a Time Turner, Ron. I've been using it every day all year to get to all my classes. I'd go to the classes I had with you and Harry, then right after class, I'd hide and go back in time a couple hours. It works by placing it around your neck and turning it by the number of hours you want to go back by. Usually it would only be one or two hours, but tonight, Harry and I went back three. I'm gonna hand it in though. It was taking far too much of a toll on me, all these classes, next year I'll have a normal timetable again".
"So, you and Harry went back three hours tonight", said Ron, his brow furrowed "why would you do that?"
I rolled my eyes
"Bro, isn't it obvious? They must have done it to try and rescue Sirius and Buckbeak in some way. Am I correct?"
Hermione nodded
"And did you succeed?"
"Yes"
"How in the bloody hell did you-" started Ron, but Hermione cut him off.
"Look, first I need to explain what happened before we went back in time, there were a few things that did. After you 2 were stunned, Pettigrew transformed and escaped. Sirius went after him, and with only an unconscious Snape for company at that point, we had to follow him, leaving Snape behind. All of the Dementors cornered us by the black lake. We tried desperately to produce Patrounuses, but we couldn't, and all help seemed lost. But then, something somehow made all the Dementors retreat"
"Which was-" Harry began.
"Look, Harry, I'll get to that later, you asked me to explain, you just lie there and eat your chocolate"
Harry shrugged and made himself more comfortable. "Alright then"
"We were all bought back here. Dumbledore, Fudge and Snape were here, and Dumbledore made everyone else leave so he could speak to us alone. He was the only one of them who believed us. Sirius was set to receive the kiss at any moment, but that's when he told us to go back in time. Our plan was to sneak Buckbeak away from Hagrid's hut, wait until it was time, then fly him to where Sirius was being held and allow them to escape together"
"And you managed to do all that unseen?" I said, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, well I can't say it was easy, but we managed it, just about. Anyway, we arrived in this room three hours ago and right away we went downstairs and hid in a broom cupboard. We overheard us taking Ginny under the cloak, then ourselves leaving. We followed ourselves down to Hagrid's, ducking behind the greenhouses and the forest, it was all so difficult. We then had to hide in the forest behind Hagrid's back door, and Dumbledore helpfully delayed the officials while they were inside the hut, giving us just enough time to to sneak Buckbeak away with us.
"Dumbledore must have known then" said Ron.
"Of course he did, Dumbledore knows everything. It's possible he got a glimpse of myself and Harry, and instead of raising the alarm, worked out what was probably going on and let it play out. I can't think as to how he'd have known otherwise. He told us we must not be seen though. I suppose if was himself doing so, it probably didn't affect much. Anyway, we got Buckbeak, watched the officials confusion as to where he'd gone, and then found a spot near enough to the Whomping Willow so we could know what was going on. We had to stop Buckbeak going after Hagrid a couple times"
"So did you just let Snape take the invisibility cloak then?" I asked
"Yes, although I had to stop Harry running off to get it"
"Still not sure that was a completely bad idea Hermione" said Harry
"Yes it was Harry, as you well know!" she snapped.
"Hopefully someone's gone to get it-" and at that moment, the hospital wing doors opened again, and Dumbledore came in holding none other than the invisibility cloak.
"This was left in the Shrieking Shack" said Dumbledore, amused. "I have just been speaking to Professor Snape, and he claimed he'd worn it, but it was left behind after everything else that occurred. Naturally, Harry, I couldn't let it fall into the wrong hands, so I went to get it myself. Use it well, as you have done so far"
"Thank you Professor!" said Harry
"Not at all. I trust that you will get some more rest tonight?"
"We've just been explaining our story to Ron and Ginny" said Hermione
"Ah, of course. I shall leave you to it then" he replied, smiling.
He left without another word.
"Great man isn't he, Dumbledore?" said Ron
"There will never be a greater headmaster" I added.
"Anyway, so we then waited ages for us to re-emerge from the Willow" said Hermione, continuing the story. "We had to avoid Lupin by hiding at Hagrid's-"
"Then I saved Sirius, Hermione, and myself!" said Harry, who looked like he'd been struggling to hold this in.
"Yes, you did" said Hermione, sighing and rolling her eyes. "You know what Harry, why don't you tell the rest, I've said enough"
"Sure!" he replied, grinning.
Hermione laid down properly and let out a moan of approval at the comfort of the bed.
"I thought I'd seen my dad conjure the Patronus that saved us, but it was really me!" said Harry excitedly. "You all know I don't normally like to go on about my achievements, but that was something I never thought would be possible. That type of magic is comparable in power only to Dumbledore and Merlin"
"That is quite something Harry" I said, shocked.
"Incredible mate" added Ron. "But what happened after that?"
Harry dropped his voice to tell the rest.
"Pretty simple really, we flew Buckbeak up to Flitwick's office, Sirius escaped with him, then Hermione and I managed to make it back here. Snape insisted I'd done something when they discovered Sirius missing, but he couldn't prove it."
Ron and I looked at each other for a while, then back at Harry and Hermione.
"You guys believe us right?" said Harry seriously.
"Oh we do mate, don't worry" said Ron "It's just a lot to take in you know. But where did Sirius and Buckbeak go? What happened to Lupin? Is he still on the grounds?And what's with all this time travel stuff anyway, how does it actually work?"
"Let's worry about those things tomorrow, it's late enough already" said Hermione.
So we did, and I fell asleep much sooner than I expected, considering all I'd just been told.