The Girl Who Hid | ✓

|32| Time Turner

Harry, Hermione, and I stood in a deserted entrance hall, a golden stream of sunlight falling across the paved floor from the open front doors.

"Hermione, what —?" Harry tried to ask but Hermione seized our arms and dragged up inside a broom closet.

"What— how— Hermione, what happened?" I said.

"We've gone back in time," Hermione whispered, lifting the chain off our necks in the darkness. "Three hours back..."

"But—"

"Shh! Listen! Someone's coming! I think— I think it might be us!" Hermione had her ear pressed against the cupboard door. "Footsteps across the hall... yes, I think it's us going down to Hagrid's!"

"Are you telling me," Harry whispered, "that we're here in this cupboard and we're out there too?"

"Yes," said Hermione, her ear still glued to the cupboard door. "I'm sure it's us. It doesn't sound like more than four people... and we're walking slowly because we're under the Invisibility Cloak— "

She broke off, still listening intently.

"We've gone down the front steps..."

Hermione sat down on an upturned bucket, looking desperately anxious.

"Where did you get that necklace from?" I suddenly asked.

"It's called a Time-Turner," Hermione whispered, "and I got it from Professor McGonagall on our first day back. I've been using it all year to get to all my lessons. Professor McGonagall made me swear I wouldn't tell anyone. She had to write all sorts of letters to the Ministry of Magic so I could have one. She had to tell them that I was a model student, and that I'd never, ever use it for anything except my studies... I've been turning it back so I could do hours over again, that's how I've been doing several lessons at once, see? But...

"Guys, I don't understand what Dumbledore wants us to do. Why did he tell us to go back three hours? How's that going to help Sirius?"

"There must be something that happened around now he wants us to change," I said slowly. "What happened? We were walking down to Hagrid's three hours ago..."

"This is three hours ago, and we are walking down to Hagrid's," said Hermione. "We just heard ourselves leaving..."

"Dumbledore just said— just said we could save more than one innocent life—" Harry started, but then it hit me.

"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 and Harry's face, they 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 us.

"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—"