Part - Vampire at Hogwarts

Scabbers' Alive

Raina's POV

We reached Hagrid's hut and knocked. He was a minute in answering, and when he did, he looked all around for his visitor, pale-faced and trembling. "It's us, we're under the invisibility cloak. Let us in and we can take it off" Harry tells him.

"Yeh shouldn've come" Hagrid mutters as he lets us in. Hagrid shut the door quickly and Harry pulled off the cloak. Hagrid was not crying, nor did he throw himself upon their necks. He looked like a man who did not know where he was or what to do. This helplessness was worse to watch than tears.

"How about I brew up some tea" I suggest.

"I'll help" Hermione states.

"Where's Buckbeak Hagrid?" Harry asks.

"I took him outside. He's tethered in me pumpkin patch. Thought he oughta see the trees an' -- an' smell fresh air -- before" Hagrid trials off. "There's a jug in the cupboard" he tells Hermione as I start to boil the kettle. Hagrid sits down and wiping his forehead on his sleeve. Harry and I glance at Ron, who looked back at us hopelessly.

"Isn't there anything anyone can do, Hagrid?" I ask him.

"What about Dumbledore?" Harry asks.

"He tried" Hagrid tells us. "He's got no power ter overrule the Committee. He told 'em Buckbeak's all right, but they're scared... Yeh know what Lucius Malfoy's like...threatened 'em, I expect...an' the executioner, Macnair, he's an old pal o' Malfoy's...but it'll be quick an' clean...an' I'll be beside him" he states.

"Dumbledore's gonna come down while it -- while it happens. Wrote me this mornin'. Said he wants ter -- ter be with me. Great man, Dumbledore" he adds.  Hermione, who had been rummaging in Hagrid's cupboard for another milk jug. Let out a small, quickly stifled sob. She straightened up with the new jug in her hands, fighting back tears.

"It'll be ok Hermione" I assure her.

"We'll stay to Hagrid" Ron tells him.

"Yeh're ter go back up ter the castle. I told yeh, I don' wan' yeh watchin'. An' yeh shouldn' be down here anyway" Hagrid tells us. "If Fudge an' Dumbledore catch yeh out without permission, Harry, yeh'll be in big trouble" he adds. I hand Hermione the milk and she goes to pour it into the jug. She lets out a shriek.

"What is it?" I ask her concerned going for my wand.

"Ron, I don't believe it -- it's Scabbers!" she exclaims and I relax. Ron gapes at her. As I place my wand back up my sleeve.

"What are you talking about?" Ron asks her confused. Hermione carried the milk jug over to the table and turned it upside down. With a frantic squeak, and much scrambling to get back inside, Scabbers the rat came sliding out onto the table. "Scabbers, what are you doing here?" he asks shocked.

He grabbed the struggling rat and held him up to the light. Scabbers looks dreadful. He was thinner than ever, large tufts of hair had fallen out leaving wide bald patches. He writhed in Ron's hands as though desperate to free himself. "It's ok Scabbers, no cats. There's nothing here to hurt you" Ron assures his rat.

Suddenly a pot breaks. "Blimey! What was that?" Hagrid demands. I pick up a pebble and exam it. Another hits Harry in the back of the head. Making him look out the window.

"Hagrid" he says and we all look to see the Minister approaching the hut. Accompanied by Dumbledore, the executioner and other ministry official.

"It's late. It's nearly dark. You shouldn't be here. Someone sees you outside the castle at this time of night, you'll be in trouble. Big trouble. Particularly you, Harry" Hagrid mumbles.

"We'll go out the back" I suggest. Ron stuffed Scabbers into his pocket and Hermione picked up the invisibility cloak. We follow Hagrid to the back door as there is a knock at the front one.

"Be with you in a moment!" Hagrid yells.

"Hagrid, it'll be fine. It'll be okay" Harry assures him before we leave out the back door. We rush by the chained up Buckbeak and hide behind Hagrid's giant pumpkins. We wait for the right moment to move.

I feel like someone is watching us. Hermione and I turn to look at the woods behind us. "What?" Ron asks us confused.

"I thought I just saw... Never mind" Hermione mumbles.

"Lets go" I state as the adults entered the hut. I see Hagrid blocking the view from the window. So that they wouldn't see us. Hermione still threw the cloak over us to be safe though.

We soon start up the sloping lawn toward the castle. The sun was sinking fast now; the sky had turned to a clear, purple-tinged gray, but to the west there was a ruby-red glow. Ron stopped dead. "Oh please Ron" Hermione whines.

"It's Scabbers, he won't stay put" Ron tells us. Ron was bent over, trying to keep Scabbers in his pocket. But the rat was going berserk; squeaking madly, twisting and flailing. While trying to sink his teeth into Ron's hand. "Scabbers, it's me, you idiot, it's Ron" he hisses.

We heard a door open behind them and men's voices. "Oh, Ron, please let's move, they're going to do it" Hermione tells him.

"Okay Scabbers, stay put" he tells his rat and we start to walk again. I try ignore the voices behind us. But I notice Harry and Hermione trying to eavesdrop on them. Ron stops again. "I can't hold him. Scabbers, shut up, everyone'll hear us" he says annoyed.

The rat was squealing wildly, but not loudly enough to cover up the sounds drifting from Hagrid's pumpkin patch. There was a jumble of indistinct male voices, a silence. Then, without warning, the unmistakable swish and thud of an axe. We all freeze in shock.

A/N

Picture above of Buckbeak in the pumpkin patch and picture on the external link of Ron with Scabbers.