A Young Wizard's Journey - Prisoner of Azkaban

Beheading the Snake

Once the tears had begun, Y/N couldn't stop them. He didn't sob, all in all he kept himself together quite well, but his voice was shaky and the tears flowed freely with no sign of stopping anytime soon.

They'd failed. Failed Hagrid. Failed Buckbeak. And now he was going to pay for Malfoy's stupidity. Just like that a magnificent and innocent creature put to slaughter because of some pale faced nobody.

But he wasn't a nobody. As much as Y/N hated to admit it, his family was one of the most powerfully influential across the entire wizarding world. It made him sick. He wasn't sure whether he wanted to hurt Lucius or Draco Malfoy more.

'There will be an appeal,' said Hermione to Y/N. 'There always is. We may be able to get them to overturn the sentence.'

'The appeal will be run by the head of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures, and I guarantee they've heard everything Lucius had to say during the trial. Wouldn't even be surprised if some galleons had changed hands to ensure a vote was unanimous,' said Y/N bitterly as he stared into the fire.

'You did everything you could, Y/N,' said Ginny, leaning forward. 'Both of you did. And Luna will tell you the same. We were there during all of those late nights spent looking through books and old records. I could have sworn you didn't even sleep some nights. Then you both got right back to it the next day.'

'And you'll have our help this time,' said Ron fiercely as Harry nodded. 'We let other things get in the way. Less important things. Let us help this time, you two have enough with your lessons and stuff anyway. Ginny's right, I've heard how late you've been coming to bed and how early you've been getting up, Y/N. You need a rest and something else off your plate.'

Y/N opened his mouth to argue, but Hermione wrapped her hands around his neck and pulled him in against her.

'He's right,' she whispered. 'I can see it too. Please rest? For me?'

Y/N gave a sigh, and nodded.

'We should go and see him,' said Harry absent-mindedly as he moved to get up.

'We can't,' said Hermione at once, she still hadn't released Y/N. 'The security has been upped since the party and you don't have the cloak.'

'Since the party?' asked Harry as Ron looked between the three of them curiously.

Hermione clapped her free hand to her mouth.

'It's fine,' said Y/N, extricating himself from her grip and sitting up. 'If they're to know then they should know sooner rather than later.' and he recounted the aftermath of the party and about Sirius Black entering the Common Room.

'What!?' bellowed Ron the moment Y/N had mentioned he'd been looking for Scabbers.

'Shhhh,' hissed Y/N, glancing around as a couple of people looked around curiously. 'Not so loud. No one else knows. Dumbledore hasn't said a word yet. Neville got a stern telling off but that was on the pre-tense of someone else reporting it. He doesn't know Black used it,' Y/N finished recounting his story and by the end of it, Ron and Harry were staring open mouthed.

'So Blacks not after me?' asked Harry slowly.

'He's after Scabbers,' said Ron just as slowly.

'And we think he's still alive,' said Y/N, 'and so does Black. We were going to ask you to borrow the Marauder's map. But, well...'

'If you'd have said something, I wouldn't have gone,' said Harry at once.

'And if I'd have known you were going to get the map confiscated, I'd have said something,' said Y/N. 'No point worrying about it now. Scabbers can't have gone far. Or at least I doubt he has. Besides, it doesn't work on animals so we don't know if it would have anyway.'