History

XXXIX. BUCKBEAK'S FUTURE AND CHRISTMAS TIME

chapter thirty-nine; the prisoner of azkaban

1993

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Ron, Zoe  and Hermione watched Harry nervously all through dinner, not daring to talk about what they'd overheard, because Percy was sitting close by them. When they went upstairs to the crowded common room, it was to find Fred and George had set off half a dozen Dungbombs in a fit of end- of-term high spirits. 

Harry, who didn't want Fred and George asking him whether he'd reached Hogsmeade or not, sneaked quietly up to the empty dormitory 

"I can't believe it," Zoe said once Harry was gone.

"Me either," Ron said.

"It's horrendous to think about," Hermione said. 

"I'm going to go see if he's okay," Zoe said. She got up, walked up to Harry's dormitory and opened the door. 

"Harry?" she asked softly. "Are you alright?"

Harry stayed silent and Zoe assumed he was asleep. 

"We're here if you need us," she said before she shut the door and walked back downstairs. 

"Anything?" Ron asked as Zoe shook her head.

"I think he's asleep," she said, sitting back down.

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"Harry, you, you look terrible." 

It was the next morning and was nearly lunchtime by the time Harry came downstairs to find the dormitory deserted. Ron was eating aPeppermint Toad and massaging his stomach, and Zoe and Hermione had spread their homework over six tables. 

"Where is everyone?" said Harry. 

"Gone! It's the first day of the holidays, remember?" said Ron, watching Harry closely. "It's nearly lunchtime; I was going to come and wake you up in a minute."

Harry slumped into a chair next to the fire and Duchess jumped onto his lap and curled up, looking like a fluffy, white cushion. Snow was still falling outside the windows. Crookshanks was spread out in front of the fire like a large, ginger rug.

"You really don't look well, you know," Hermione said, peering anxiously into his face.

"I'm fine," said Harry.

"Harry, listen," said Hermione, exchanging a look with Zoe and Ron, "you must be really upset about what we heard yesterday. But the thing is, you mustn't go doing anything stupid."

"Like what?" said Harry.

"Like trying to go after Black," said Ron sharply. He didn't say anything.

"You won't, will you, Harry?" said Zoe. 

"Because Black's not worth dying for," said Ron. Harry looked at them.

"D'you know what I see and hear every time a dementor gets too near me?"

Ron, Cassie and Hermione shook their heads, looking apprehensive.

"I can hear my mum screaming and pleading with Voldemort. And if you'd heard your mum screaming like that, just about to be killed, you wouldn't forget it in a hurry. And if you found out someone who was supposed to be a friend of hers betrayed her and sent Voldemort after her. . . ."

"I don't hear my mum screaming like she's about to be murdered," Zoe said softly, "but I hear the cries of my family when they had to call the hospital because I was dead for three and a half minutes and I hear the man who killed my father laughing." Harry, Ron and Hermione's faces fell. "With the whole Black situation, there is nothing you can do."