A Memorable Tale

33 | Another Case Cracked

I sighed and sat down. Buckbeak followed suite, sitting behind me in a position that let me lie on him. "I hate running."

"Well, we'll be doing a lot of that." Harry and Hermione watched their past selves enter the Whomping Willow and laid back. "Now we wait for ourselves to leave."

"That is the silliest sentence I have ever heard."

I opened my bag and pulled out the chicken that I was meant to bring to Sirius, leaving the container open so Buckbeak could eat. Hermione sat beside me, although she didn't have the same guts as me to lean on Buckbeak.

"Harry," Hermione started, breaking the silence. "There's something I don't understand. Why didn't the Dementors get Sirius? I remember them coming, and then I think I passed out."

I perked up. "You were attacked by Dementors?"

Harry sat down in front of us, nodding to answer my question. "One of the Dementors came to me and grabbed me by the neck. I think it was about to give me the Dementor's Kiss, but then something large and silver came galloping across the lake and forced the dementors to retreat."

I furrowed my brow. "A Patronus?"

"That's the only thing it could've been," Harry said, shrugging. "It was a real Patronus - a powerful one, too."

"And you conjured it?"

"No, I didn't."

"Then who did?" Hermione wondered. "Was it a teacher?"

"No," Harry answered confidently. "He wasn't a teacher."

"'He'?" I repeated. "So you saw him?"

"M-Maybe I imagined it. I wasn't think straight. I passed out right after."

Hermione leaned forward eagerly. "Who did you think it was?"

Harry hesitated, pulling the kind of face that someone makes when they know that they're about to say something stupid. "I... I think it was my dad."

We both stared at him, Hermione with an expression of pity, and mine filled with curiosity. "Did you see where he went before you passed out?"

"No. He looked solid, so it couldn't've been a ghost - Maybe I was seeing things, but it looked like him?"

I hummed and looked at the stars. Peter was supposedly dead and suddenly appeared now - was it impossible for James to do it as well?

I looked at Harry's face, specifically at his scar, and I shook the thought. If James were alive for these twelve years, he would have been with Harry.

About an hour later, a howl came from the Whomping Willow, where everyone was just emerging.

I patted Buckbeak's head and he stood up so he could follow us through the forest back to Hagrid's hut. I heard the rapid run of Professor Lupin as he tore through the forest.

Harry opened the door and Hermione and I rushed in.

"Hey Fang," I greeted, patting his head so he'd be sure that it wasn't the executioner again.

Buckbeak's head was now held high and I grinned. "Happy in Hagrid's hut, Buckbeak?"

He chirped and I took that as a yes.

Harry and I stared out the window, eying the full moon. "Harry," I started, feeling a bit more crazy than I usually was. "You said you saw your dad, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Why don't we see for ourselves?"

He gave me the same look Cedric gave me when I said that I would investigate Sirius but I had already made up my mind. Whether he was coming or not wasn't going to change the fact.