"Hermione, we're going to save Buckbeak!"
"But--how will that help Sirius?"
"Dumbledore said--he just told us where the window is--the window of Flitwick's office! Where they've got Sirius locked up! We've got to fly Buckbeak up to the window and rescue Sirius! Sirius can escape on Buckbeak--they can escape together!"
From what I could see of Hermione's face, she looked terrified. "If we manage that without being seen, it'll be a miracle!"
"Well, we've got to try, haven't we?" said Harry. He stood up and pressed his ear against the door. "Doesn't sound like anyone's there... Come on, let's go." Harry pushed open the closet door. The entrance hall was deserted.
As quietly and quickly as we could, we darted out of the closet and down the stone steps. The shadows were already lengthening, the tops of the trees in the Forbidden Forest gilded once more with gold.
"If anyone's looking out of the window --" Hermione squeaked, looking up at the castle behind them.
"We'll run for it, " said Harry determinedly. "Straight into the forest, all right?
"We'll have to hide behind a tree or something and keep a lookout --" I began.
"Okay, but we'll go around by the greenhouses!" said Hermione breathlessly. "We need to keep out of sight of Hagrid's front door, or we'll see us! We must be nearly at Hagrid's by now!"
Still working out what she meant, we set off at a sprint. We tore across the vegetable gardens to the greenhouses, paused for a moment behind them, then set off again, fast as we could, skirting around the Whomping Willow, tearing toward the shelter of the forest...
Safe in the shadows of the trees, Harry turned around; seconds later, Hermione and I arrived beside him, panting.
"Right, " she gasped. "We need to sneak over to Hagrid's... Keep out of sight, guys... " We made our way silently through the trees, keeping to the very edge of the forest. Then, as we glimpsed the front of Hagrid's house, we heard a knock upon his door. We moved quickly behind a wide oak trunk and peered out from either side.
Hagrid had appeared in his doorway, shaking and white, looking around to see who had knocked. I heard Harry's voice.
"It's us. We're wearing the Invisibility Cloak. Let us in and we can take it off."
"Yeh shouldn've come!" Hagrid whispered. He stood back, then shut the door quickly.
"This is the weirdest thing we've ever done, " Harry said fervently.
"Let's move along a bit, " I whispered. "We need to get nearer to Buckbeak!"
We crept through the trees until we saw the nervous hippogriff, tethered to the fence around Hagrid's pumpkin patch.
"Now?" Harry whispered.
"No!" said Hermione. "If we steal him now, those Committee people will think Hagrid set him free! We've got to wait until they've seen he's tied outside!"
"That's going to give us about sixty seconds, " said Harry. This was starting to seem impossible. At that moment, there was a crash of breaking china from inside Hagrid's cabin.
"That's Hagrid breaking the milk jug, " Hermione whispered. "I'm going to find Scabbers in a moment--" Sure enough, a few minutes later, we heard Hermione's shriek of surprise.
"Hermione, " said Harry suddenly, "what if we--we just run in there and grab Pettigrew --"
"No!" said Hermione in a terrified whisper. "Don't you understand? We're breaking one of the most important wizarding laws! Nobody's supposed to change time, nobody! You heard Dumbledore, if we're seen --"
YOU ARE READING
Lumos (Book One)
Fanfiction- ~ - ~ Lumos series book 1 ~ - ~ - On the evening of July 31st, 1980, Lily and James Potter welcomed a pair of twins into the world. But the joy of additions to the family tree was quickly destroyed by Lord Voldemort. He meant to destroy both twins...
