Echo | Harry Potter - George Weasley

Chapter 40: Turning Back Time

With Hermione leading the way, the trio rushed through the halls of the castle, down the clocktower, through the courtyard, and across the bridge. If they were to retrace their steps like Dumbledore had told them to, they first needed to go down to Hagrid's hut—the destination they had been heading toward the morning before. 

"Hermione, wait!" Harry called after her as they reached the other end of the bridge. "Hermione, will you please tell us what it is we're doing?"

Hermione didn't say a word. Instead, she peered out from the bridge, her eyes trained on a group of kids near the grassy ledge. Only, it wasn't just any group of kids, it was them. Shaye was watching as she, Harry, Ron, and Hermione confronted Draco and his goons.

"That's us." Shaye couldn't believe what she was seeing. 

"This is not normal," Harry sputtered before Hermione pulled him and Shaye back onto the bridge and out of sight of the past versions of themselves.

Sighing heavily, Hermione pulled out the necklace from before. "This is a Time-Turner," she finally explained. "McGonagall gave it to me first term. This is how I've been getting to my lessons all year."

"That's why you kept popping up out of nowhere!" Shaye caught on. "You were taking Divination and Ancient Runes at the same time!"

Hermione nodded. "Yes."

Harry, however, was still having some trouble grasping the situation at hand. "You mean we've gone back in time?"

"Yes," Hermione told him. "Dumbledore obviously wanted us to return to this moment. Clearly, something happened he wants us to change."

With that, the three of them peered back around the pillar of the bridge just in time to watch past Hermione punch past Draco in the face. It was just as glorious to witness the second time around. 

"Good punch," Harry commented.

"Thanks." Hermione smiled, but it faded quickly when she realized that Draco and his friends were retreating back toward the bridge. "Malfoy's coming."

While Draco, Crabbe, and the other Slytherin boy darted back across the bridge, Shaye, Harry, and Hermione leapt over the railing of the bridge and ducked down on the other side, hoping to avoid being spotted. The three of them waited for their past selves to start heading down to Hagrid's hut before they emerged from their hiding spot. Then, as slowly and carefully as possible, they followed. 

"Look." Harry pointed toward the pumpkin patch in front of Hagrid's hut. "Buckbeak's still alive."

Shaye recalled Dumbledore's words to them. "If we succeed, more than one innocent life could be spared." 

"Of course." Hermione realized. "Let's go."

With their past selves already inside the hut with Hagrid, the three students rushed down to the pumpkin patch and hid behind the same large pile of pumpkins as before. Hagrid could be heard talking about Buckbeak's execution through the open window, and by the time he had moved away and his voice was too low to be audible anymore, Harry spotted Dumbledore, Cornelius Fudge, and the executioner coming down the path.

"Here they come." Harry started to stand. "We'd better hurry."

"Not yet." Shaye grabbed his sweater. "Fudge has to see Buckbeak before we steal him. Right, Hermione?"

Hermione nodded in agreement. "Right. Otherwise, he'll think Hagrid set him free."

Through the open window of the hut, Shaye watched for the second time as Ron was reunited with his rat. A rat she and everyone else now knew was not a rat at all but, in fact, a very large, very horrible man.