Pointless {Harry Potter X Female OC}

Y3: Literally

TW: possible triggering topics, minor swears

"Hell no,"

They moved around the edge of the forest, darkness falling thickly around them until they were hidden behind a clump of trees through which they could make out the Whomping Willow.
"There's Ron!" said Harry suddenly.
A dark figure was sprinting across the lawn and its shout echoed through the still night air.
"Really? Thought it was a book," said Violet, earning an eye roll from Hermione.
"Of course you did," Harry said.

And then they saw three more figures materialize out of nowhere. Harry watched himself, Violet and Hermione chasing after Ron. Then he saw Ron dive.
"There's Sirius!" said Harry. The great shape of the dog had bounded out from the roots of the Willow.

"Looks even worse from here, doesn't it?" said Harry, watching the dog pulling Ron into the roots. "Ouch-look, I just got walloped by the tree- so did Violet-"
The Whomping Willow was creaking and lashing out with its lower branches; they could see themselves darting here and there, trying to reach the trunk. And then the tree froze.
"That was Crookshanks pressing the knot," said Hermione.
"And there we go..." Harry muttered. "We're in."

The moment they disappeared, the tree began to move again. Seconds later, they heard footsteps quite close by. Dumbledore, Macnair, Fudge, and the old Committee member were making their way up to the castle.
"Right after we'd gone down into the passage!" said Hermione. "If only Dumbledore had come with us..."

"Macnair and Fudge would've come too," said Harry bitterly. "I bet you anything Fudge would've told Macnair to murder Sirius on the spot..."
"I don't think that's how it works," Violet said.
They watched the four men climb the castle steps and disappear from view. For a few minutes, the scene was deserted. Then-
"Here comes Lupin!" said Harry as they saw another figure sprinting down the stone steps and halting toward the Willow.

They watched Lupin seize a broken branch from the ground and prod the knot on the trunk. The tree stopped fighting, and Lupin, too, disappeared into the gap in its roots.
"If he'd only grabbed the cloak," said Harry. "It's just lying there...."

Barely two minutes later, the castle doors flew open, and Snape came out of them, running toward the Willow.
Harry's fists clenched as they watched Snape skid to a halt next to the tree, looking around. He grabbed the cloak and held it up.

"Get your filthy hands off it," Harry snarled under his breath.
"Shut up!" both girls whispered.
Snape seized the branch Lupin had used to freeze the tree, prodded the knot, and vanished from view as he put on the cloak.
"So that's it," said Hermione quietly. "We're all down there... and now we've just got to wait until we come back up again...."
She took the end of Buckbeak's rope and tied it securely around the nearest tree, then sat down on the dry ground, arms around her knees.

"Why didn't the Dementors get Sirius? I remember them coming, and then I think I passed out... there were so many of them...."
Harry and Violet sat down too. Harry explained what he'd seen; how, as the nearest Dementor had lowered its mouth to Violet's, a large silver something had come galloping across the lake and forced the Dementors to retreat.

"But what was it?" Hermione asked.
"There's only one thing it could have been, to make the Dementors go," said Harry. "A real Patronus. A powerful one."
"But who conjured it?" Hermione asked eagerly. "Violet?"
"Hell no," Violet said.
"Didn't you see what they looked like?" said Hermione eagerly. "Was it one of the teachers?"
"No," said Harry. "He wasn't a teacher."

"But it must have been a really powerful wizard, to drive all those Dementors away... If the Patronus was shining so brightly, didn't it light him up? Couldn't you see- ?"
"Yeah, I saw him," said Harry slowly. "But... maybe I imagined it... I wasn't thinking straight..."
"Who did you think it was?" Violet asked.