Hunted AIAOY 3

Chapter 24

"I saw our dad!"  Harry sat up quickly, too quickly.  He held the side of his head as his surroundings--the Hospital Wing--spun.

"What?"  Hermione asked, wondering if sleeptalking was hereditary.

"The dementors at the lake!"  Harry couldn't believe it!  Somehow, someway, his father had saved them!  "I saw him across the lake!"

"Listen Harry,"  Hermione was chalking this entire conversation up to hysteria, exhaustion, and a head trauma.  "They've captured Sirius.  Any minute the dementors are going to preform the kiss."

Harry pushed himself out of bed, stammering.  "W-what?  He's innocent!"

Hermione looked to the entrance of the Infirmary as the door was opened, finding Dumbledore walking through the doorway.  He surveyed the teenagers in front of him slowly, Hermione and Harry hurring to him and Rebecca and Ron in beds across the aisle.  Ron was sitting up and listening, but Rebecca hadn't yet moved.  "Headmaster!"  Hermione started.  "You've got to do something!"

"He's innocent, Sirius Black!"  Harry added.

"It's Scabbers, sir!"  Ron tacked on.

"Scabbers?"  Dumbledore asked curiously.

"It's my rat, sir, only he's not really rat.  Though he was a rat!  My brother Percy's rat first then-"

"We know the truth."  Hermione interrupted.  "Please, believe us."

"I do, Miss Granger.  Believe you, that is.  But I'm sorry to say that the word of four thirteen year old wizards will not do."  Dumbledore walked to Rebecca's bedside, holding a hand to her forehead a moment.  "A child's voice, however powerful, is as meaningless as time."  Dumbledore leaned over the bed, noting how Rebecca's lips moved occasionally in the shape of one of the dreaded words: Swing, double, rat, dog, dark, friend.

Dumbledore patted Ron's heavily bandaged leg, leaving Rebecca.  "Curious thing time," Dumbledore began to leave the Hospital Wing as quickly as he had arrived.  "Powerful and when meddled with, dangerous."  He paused at the door and looked over his shoulder at them all.  "Sirius Black is in the topmost cell of the Dark Tower.  You know the laws Miss Granger, you must not be seen.  And I feel you would do well to return before this time.  If not, the consequences are too ghastly to discuss."  Giving them a mysterious smile, Dumbledore left them with one last collection of statements.  "If you succeed, more than one life may be saved tonight.  Three turns should do it, I think."

Harry stared at the shut door, his mind awash with so many questions he wasn't even sure where to start.  "What's he talking about, Hermione?  Time?  Laws?  Turns?  Wh-"  Harry sank into the chair next to Rebecca, finding the most important question was the hardest for him to ask.  "How bad?"

"Not good."  Hermione answered vaguely.  Harry reached forward to comb a loose curl of Rebecca's hair off her cheek, finding her skin to be as cold as the lake that had frozen over in front of their very eyes.  "Rebecca tried to use more magic than she had.  Madame Pomfrey says she's lucky to be alive."

"I couldn't...hold on."  Harry struggled to breathe, to speak.  "I couldn't keep the spell going like she did.  I lied on the ground and I watched."

"Don't be an idiot."  Ron said, his own voice thick with emotion.  "What would she say if she heard you right now?"

"For fuck's sake, Harry."  Hermione said, a poor imitation of Rebecca.  "You talk like that and people will call me the smart twin."

Harry lowered his head, a single laugh escaping his sorrow.  "Sounds like something she'd say."

Hermione nodded, feeling as if she had done her job.  "Then it's time for us to do what she'd do, too.  Come on."  She pulled Harry to his feet and led him to the middle of the Hospital Wing.  "Sorry, Ron.  But since you can't walk."