Chapter 16 - Buckbeak's trial

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Next morning, Megan woke up to find her dormitory empty. It was already past nine thirty. She got dressed quickly and headed down to the common room, wondering why neither Hermione nor Ginny had woken her. When it was empty, she headed to the Great Hall. Her friends were there already. Cedric had left his table to join them.

“Oh, there you are, Megan!” Harry said.

“Megan, you look awful.” Hermione said, glancing from her book.

Megan hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before.

“How come you’re still here? Where is everyone?”

Some other students were still seated when they should have been in class a while ago.

“First day of the holidays,” Cedric said who was standing beside them. “They were thinking of coming to wake you."

She sat down.

“You really don’t look very well…” Hermione said anxiously.

“I’m fine.” She said.

Cedric sat down beside her and said:

“Megan, listen… we know you were shaken up by yesterday… and… we just want to make sure you’re not going to do anything stupid…”

“Like what?'

“Find Black.” Ron said.

“You can’t, Megan…”

“He’s not worth dying for…”

“Whatever he did, your parents…”

“Guys!” she interrupted. “I’m fine. No, I won’t go looking for Black. He sounds intent on finding me, so I’ll just wait to see if he does. And fight.”

“Megan-”

“He betrayed my parents, Hermione!” Megan said. “I grew up with the worst family imaginable because of him! You think I’m just going to let him kill me?”

“Black will be caught and thrown back in Azkaban, where he belongs…” Harry said.

“You heard them yesterday, he’s not affected!” Megan said.

“Megan, d’you know what the Pettigrews got after he was killed?” Cedric asked her, looking tensely into her eyes. “Posthumous Order of Merlin First Class… and a finger. That’s all that was left. And I will be a Slytherin before I let him do that to you.”

“Megan, please…!” Hermione wailed. “What he did was terrible, but… but you’d be playing into his hands! You’ve got to be reasonable… You know your parents wouldn’t want you in that kind of danger…”

“How do I know, I never spoke to them…” Megan said shortly.

“Look… let’s just forget about it for a bit…” Harry said. “It’s the Holidays. How about going to see Hagrid?”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.” Ron said.

And so they did. Megan thought of asking Hagrid about Black, but when they crossed the grounds to Hagrid’s hut, he wasn’t there. A note said he had been summoned to an official hearing about Buckbeak.

It wasn’t till a few hours later that they heard he had returned. And though Megan didn’t forget about Black, she didn’t have the heart to bother Hagrid with that when he was in trouble. They found him by the lake wearing a hairy suit and tossing pebbles across the water.

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