Begin Again (George Weasley/Draco Malfoy)

Eight.

We waited in the Hospital Wing with Ron while Madam Pomfrey checked out his leg and then she checked out our cuts from the Whomping Willow tree to make sure they weren't too bad. They had brought Harry in as she was finishing up with me. He was passed out, and they put him onto a bed straight away. We pretended to be asleep when Harry woke up. We could hear the sounds of voices talking from the slightly ajar Hospital Wing door. We all stayed quiet so we could listen. Snape was telling the Minister of Magic that Sirius Black had confounded us into believing he was innocent and Snape was so lucky that he had found us.

Madam Pomfrey was happy to see Harry was now awake. Harry tried to leave, saying he needed to see the Headmaster and speak to him. Madam Pomfrey made him get back into his bed and lay down. She told him that Sirius was locked away upstairs and that he was due for the Dementor's any moment now. This just made Harry angry.
   
He shouted, "WHAT!" so loudly that it echoed through the corridor. Professor Snape, Dumbledore, and Minister Fudge all came running into the room. Harry desperately tried to tell them the story, how Sirius was innocent. No one would listen to it, though. Dubledore asked to speak to the three of us alone then, and they listened to him. We all started going at a mile a minute at him.
   
"Professor, Black's telling the truth. We saw Pettigrew."
   
"- He escaped when Professor Lupin turned into a werewolf-"
   
"- he's a rat -"
   
"- Pettigrew's front paw, I mean, finger, he cut it off -"
   
"- Pettigrew attacked Ron, it wasn't Sirius -"
   
Dumbledore held up a hand to silence us. "I'm afraid there's not a shred of proof to support your story, except for your word, and the word of three third year students will not convince anybody. A street full of eyewitnesses swore they saw Sirius murder Pettigrew. I myself had given the Ministry evidence that Black was the Potter's secret keeper."
   
"My dad can tell you."
   
"Professor Lupin is currently deep in the forest, unable to tell anyone anything. By the time he is human again, it will be too late, Sirius will be worse than dead. I might add werewolves are so mistrusted by most of our kind that his support will count for very little, and the fact that he and Sirius are old friends. With Sirius attacking the fat lady and entering Gryffindor Tower with a knife, we have no chance of overturning his sentence."
   
"But do you believe us, Headmaster?" Asks Harry.
   
"Yes. I do. But I have no power to make other men see the truth. Or to overrule the Minister of Magic. What we need," he brings his eyes over to Hermione now, "is more time."
   
"But," starts Hermione and then eyes grow wide, "OH!"
   
"Now, listen closely. Sirius is locked in Professor Flitwick's office on the seventh floor. Thirteenth window from the right of the West Tower. If all goes well, you will be able to save more than one innocent life tonight. But remember, you must not be seen. You know the law, Miss Granger. You know what is at stake. I'm going to lock you in." He consulted his pocket watch. "It is five minutes to midnight. Miss Granger, three turns should do it. Good luck."
   
"Good luck?" Repeats Harry, "what is he talking about?"
   
"Both of you get over here," she commanded, "quick!" She pulled out a chain from around her neck and we saw a tiny, sparkling hourglass hanging from it. "Here," she said, placing the long chain around both of us now, too. She turned the hourglass three times. The sensation of flying very fast took over. A blur of colors and shapes rushed past us. And then, I felt solid ground again and everything came back into focus.
   
"What just happened?" Asked Harry.
   
Hermione led us to a brook closet and shoved us into it. "This is called a Time Turner. I've been using it to get to my classes all year. We've gone back in time." Hermione explains. "Three hours back."
   
Harry tries to ask more questions, but Hermione silences him, saying she heard someone coming and it might be us going to Hagrid's. Hermione keeps saying she doesn't understand what Dumbledore wants us to do. Harry is puzzled about it too. I, on the other hand, am not.
   
"How is it not obvious to you two? Dumbeldore said we will save more than one innocent life. We have to save Buckbeak first," I tell them. "He's still alive right now. And then we wait until Sirius is in Flitwick's office and fly Buckbeak up there and set Sirius free."
   
"That's genius, Adelaide," breathes Hermione. "We'll wait in the forest, but we'll go around the greenhouses."
   
So that's what we did. We made our way to the greenhouses and then to the forest. We snuck around to Hagrid's house silently through the trees. We needed to get to Buckbeak. We waited until the Committee people saw that Buckbeak was alive so they didn't think Hagrid let him loose and then Harry tried his best to get the Hippogriff to come to him, it didn't work. Hermione put on the chain of dead Pheasants and we lured him into the forest with food. Then we watched in delight as no one could find Buckbeak.
   
"Now what?" Harry asks.
   
"We have to hide in here," says Hermione. "We cannot be seen by anyone. Especially ourselves. We'll think we've gone mad if we do."
   
We watch ourselves get pummeled by the Whomping Willow, and we watch Sirius pull Ron in the tree in his dog form. The Whomping Willow was creaking and lashing out with its lower branches. We could see ourselves darting around it. And then it froze.
   
"That's when Crookshanks pressed the knot," says Hermione.
   
We then watched us enter the tree from the spot where Sirius had dragged Ron off. Just as we were gone the Minister and Dumbledore came into view. If they would have been just a second earlier they would have seen us, and then Dumbledore could have come with us and got Pettigrew's story.
   
"Here comes my dad," I say as he came into view. He watched as he seized a broken branch and prod the knot. The tree stopped fighting and he entered the trunk. Hagrid walked past us then, and we all had to struggle to keep Buckbeak back. Hagrid made his way into the castle and Buckbeak stopped fighting us. About two minutes later, Professor Snape came darting for the tree. He picked up the same branch my dad had used and touched the knot and entered the tree.
   
As we waited for our return, Harry told us what happened when he was alone with Sirius. Sirius asked Harry to move in with him once he was free. Technically, as Harry's Godfather, Sirius certainly did have claim to do so. And we all knew how Harry's Muggle Aunt and Uncle wouldn't care if he left. They'd be happy to get rid of him. Then he told us about the Dementors. How they swarmed them, and how they nearly put the kiss on Sirius then, but they didn't because a jet of silver light came across the lake. He was certain it was his dad that did it. We did our best to be as nice as we could to remind him that his dad was dead, but he was certain it was him that saved him and Sirius from the Dementors.
   
"Here we come," I said, seeing us all exit the tree after over an hour. Harry tried to make a break for Pettigrew, and Hermione and I had to stop him. We had to move quickly, because my dad was now transforming. We went back over to Hagrid's now that it was empty. We watched as Sirius turned into his Dog form and started wrestling my dad, and Snape forced us to go into the castle after Harry took off after Sirius. Harry ran over to the Black Lake himself. When we reached there, he was performing the Patronus charm perfectly, a bright, big Stag was fending off the Dementors now.
   
A few minutes later, Dumbeldore and Fudge were here getting the unconscious Sirius and Harry to the castle. We waited about fifteen more minutes before we made our way to Sirius. We mounted Buckbeak and he soared through the air. We landed in front of Sirius in the office. I did Alohomora and the window sprang open.
   
"How?" Asked Sirius.
   
"There's not much time. Get on," says Harry firmly. "You've got to get out of here. The Dementors are coming for you. They’re going to perform the kiss" Sirius jumped out of the window frame and flung a leg onto Buckbeak and we rode off back into the forest for a quick goodbye.
   
"We'll see each other again," he said to Harry. "You are truly your father's son, Harry." He brings his eyes over to me now. "And you, gosh you look just like your mother, Adelaide, but you got Remus’s mop of hair. I'm so glad Remus finally got some sense and decided to be in your life after all. We were all so upset with him when he made that choice not to."
   
"I am, too," I tell him. "He's been a great dad so far."
   
Sirius smiles, "We always knew he would be."
   
"You should get going now," says Harry. "We don't want you to get caught."
   
"Right, thank you all, you have no idea. I will never be able to thank you enough," he mounted the hippogriff again, squeezed his sides with his heels, and Buckbeak too off. "I'll write to you, Harry." Called Sirius as he flew away.
   
We ran back to the castle and made it there just in time. We entered the Hospital Wing to see ourselves leaving. "Well?" Asked Dumbeldore.
   
"We did it," said Hermione. "Sirius is gone with Buckbeak."
   
"Well done," he says, nodding.
   
Ron was still sleeping. Snape was furious when he realized Sirius had escaped again. He accused Harry of having something to do with it. He was right, but we would never tell him that, of course. Madam Pomfrey made him leave. Telling him he was going to wake the entire school.
  
 
The next day, most of the school had gone to Hogsmeade one last time. None of us felt like going though. So, we wandered around the nearly empty castle together. We told Ron everything that happened with Sirius and Buckbeak. We visited Hagrid, where he told us that my dad was packing up his things, and that he resigned this morning. I sprung to my feet, so did Harry. We ran to my dad's office, and sure enough, he was packing.
   
"I saw you coming," he said, pointing to the open map on his desk.
   
"Hagrid told us that you resigned." I say, stepping towards him.
   
"It's not true, is it?" Asked Harry.
   
"I'm afraid it is," my dad answers, looking down at his feet. "Professor Snape, um, accidentally let it slip about my condition to some students. Once word gets around to the parents, there will be letters calling for my resignation. They will not want a werewolf teaching their children. And after last night, I see their point, I could have bitten any of you."
   
"You're the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we've ever had," I tell him, starting to get a little bit emotional about this.
   
"From what the headmaster told me this morning, you two and Hermione saved a lot of lives last night. If I am proud of anything that I've done this year, it's how much you all have learned." He brought his brown eyes to Harry then, "tell me about your Patronus."
   
"It's a Stag," Harry says. He goes into the story then, my dad is smiling when he's finished the story.
   
"Your father was always a stag when he transformed." My dad was finished emptying his drawers now. He tapped the map and folded it up and held it out to Harry. "Since I am no longer your teacher, I don't feel guilty about giving this back to you. Just don't let Snape catch you with it after hours in the hall again, okay?"
   
"Thank you," Says Harry, taking the map from him.
   
"I'm going to miss you so much," I tell him, throwing my arms around his torso, hugging him tightly.
   
He hugs me back, giving me a squeeze. "I'm going to miss you, too, but I meant what I said at the beginning of the year. I want to be in your life. You're only losing me as a teacher, not a father."
   
"I love you," I tell him. I am 14 years old and I just told my father that I love him for the very first time. How odd is that?
   
"I love you, too, Adelaide," he says, softly. "I promise we will see each other this summer."
   
There was a knock on the door then, it was Professor Dumbeldore telling my dad his carriage was here. He told us each goodbye one more time and left.
   
Nobody at Hogwarts knew the truth of what happened that night with Sirius. I didn't even tell Draco. He was furious about Buckbeak escaping, though. He told me that he was sorry that my dad quit, but he also agreed that he did the right thing, because werewolves are known to be dangerous. I just let him talk. I knew my dad could be dangerous, I saw it with my own eyes, but I was smart enough to know that he was only truly dangerous once a month if he didn't take his wolfsbane potion.
   
I sat with Ron, Harry, and Hermione on the ride back to King's Cross Station. It just felt right with everything that we have all been through recently. A little owl had caught up to the train on the way home. He had a letter on his leg. We opened the window and let it in our carriage. Harry read the letter and then he let us all read it as well. It was a letter from Sirius.

Dear Harry,
    I hope this finds you before you reach your aunt and uncle. I don't know if they're used to owl post.
    Buckbeak and I are in hiding. I won't tell you where, in case this owl falls into the wrong hands. I have some doubt about his reliability, but he is the best I could find, and he did seem eager for the job.
    I believe the dementors are still looking for me, but they haven't a hope of finding me here. I am planning to allow some Muggles to glimpse me soon, a long way from Hogwarts, so that the security on the castle will be lifted.
    There is something I never got around to telling you during our brief meeting. It was I who sent you and Adelaide the Firebolts. Crookshanks took the order to the Owl Office for me. I used your name but told them to take the gold from my own Gringotts vault. Please consider it 14 years of birthday gifts from your Godfather and Uncle Sirius.
    I would also like to apologize for the fright I think I gave you that night you left your uncle's house. I had hoped to get a glimpse of you before starting my journey north, but I think the sight of me alarmed you.
    I am enclosing something else for you, which I think will make your next year at Hogwarts more enjoyable.
    I will write again soon.

Sirius.

   
Sirius had given Harry permission to go to Hogsmeade as his Godfather. He smiled so proudly and said, "That'll be good enough for Dumbledore."

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Here's part 8!

It broke my heart when Lupin had to leave her. At leats they got to stay goodbye for now.

-Emily Winchester.