▬▬▬▬ CHAPTER FIFTEEN ▬▬▬▬

REMUS LUNGED AT HER, JAWS open and claws out. A piercing scream rang in Esmerelda's ears, but she ignored it and stepped to the side just in time to avoid any injuries. Quickly, with the chains still attached to her, she wrapped them around Remus' neck and squeezed.

"Go!" She shouted at them, struggling against the thrashing werewolf. "Get back to the castle! The only one he wants is me!"

"I'm not leaving you!" Sirius argued.

"Just do it—!" Remus broke through the chains, leaving both of them free. He spun around and pounced at her direction, but Sirius shifted into a giant dog and tackled him to the side.

"Sirius!" She cried out.

While they were dealing with that situation, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had a whole other problem in their hands. With the manacles now shattered, Peter was free too. He scrambled for Remus' fallen wand and used it to knock Ron out.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled. It did the trick, but Peter just shifted back into a rat and hurried away, too small for anyone to see him. Let alone catch him.

"Sirius, Essie, he's gone, Pettigrew transformed!" Harry shouted, turning towards him. But he was gone. And so were Remus and Esmerelda.

The fight had taken them near the edge of the lake. Sirius was biting and scratching at Remus while Esmerelda stayed at the side, trying to use Charmspeak on him but after several tries she realized with dawning dread that Charmspeak wouldn't work on him. Remus had lost too much of his mind from the full moon to be reasoned with.

So she went to plan B, which was to join in on the fight more closely. It wasn't a very good idea, she admitted—it was pretty suicidal actually—but her uncle was losing and if she didn't step in soon, she feared he'd get his throat ripped out.

She pulled out one of her charms and mentally apologized to her favorite professor. Then she threw the knife right at his leg. He threw his head back and howled in pain, allowing Sirius to sink his teeth into his side.

But it must not have affected him as much, because Remus easily threw him to the side and was just about to bite him—

—Until Esmerelda hopped onto his back and placed a burning palm on his fur. He howled again, his skin sizzling and threw her off.

"Come here! Look at all this delicious blood!" Esmerelda taunted, showing him the scrape on her hand from when he threw her to the ground. It was bleeding slightly, but that was more than enough to drive him mad. He turned his attention back on her and left Sirius, chasing after her as she ducked into the forbidden forest.

Remus was scarily fast in his werewolf form, but Esmerelda was a good endurance runner and had excellent stamina so she lasted about ten minutes before tripping on a goddamn tree root.

"Argh!" She grunted, luckily falling on her hands. When she heard the familiar sound of growling, she hurried back up to her feet and whirled around. Remus was heading straight for her.

She tried shooting him down with the stunning spell but he evaded the red light by jumping onto a tree branch and then leaping down on her. She moved away and ripped out another one of her charms, but was hesitant to stab him again. He may be trying to kill her, but she knew that this wasn't really Remus. None of this was his fault.

But she couldn't just keep trying to stab him in nonfatal areas forever either. She needed to knock him out.

But how do I knock out a werewolf? She had never done this before. Every time someone or something tried to kill her, she usually returned the favor right back but that obviously wasn't an option now.

I can't stab him anywhere fatal... And he's too fast to be shot down by any spells. I don't think I can trap him either... Maybe if I can get closer...

But she wasn't too sure that would be such a great idea. He could bite her, and she didn't want to spend the rest of her life going crazy every full moon (she already had her monthly periods to worry about after all, no need to make things worse). 

She spent most of time on the defense, avoiding attacks and creating distance as she tried to find an opening.

She threw another knife at his other leg and it only weakened him a little bit while angering him even more. Despite his wounds, he made another desperate grab from hers and swiped his claws out.

Esmerelda didn't realize it until it was too late, but she hadn't backed away enough on time.

Something warm spilled down her throat followed by this agonizing pain. Her knees buckled from the shock and she opened her mouth to cry out only for blood to spurt from her lips. She fell onto her bottom, trembling as a burning pain surrounded her neck.

The warm wetness seemed to fall down onto the front of her shirt, soaking through the fabric and wetting her chest. She looked down and felt like fainting.

Blood.

Remus had slashed her throat open.

She tried to back away, but every inch of her was shaking from the shock, her panicked breaths coming out in choppy high pitches and wheezes. She no longer cared about trying to subdue Remus. Right now all she could think about was that she needed a healer pronto.

Remus approached her slowly, looking like a predator seconds away from finishing off its prey. Esmerelda clenched her eyes shut and thought of the hospital wing just as he pounced on her one last time.

When Esmerelda opened her eyes, she saw the warm lights of the hospital wing. There was someone shrieking and the blurry figure of Madam Pomfrey entered her vision. She tried to speak, but all she felt was pain and more blood spilling from her.

She needed nectar, ambrosia, a healing potion—anything.

Suddenly she was pushed down on the bed and a rag was placed over her throat. Madam Pomfrey reentered her vision. She was wearing gloves and carrying a large glass bottle containing a dark red liquid. The lid was popped off and the bottle was placed against her lips.

"Drink, drink!" Madam Pomfrey ordered, using her wand to bring forth other supplies she needed.

It hurt to move her throat in any way, but she obeyed her instructions nevertheless. To the best of her ability, she gulped down the drink and tried to ignore the cutting pain. Whatever Madam Pomfrey had given her must have been laced with a sleeping draught since her eyes immediately started to droop. Either that or she was dying.

She tried to fight against it, but her eyes finally closed shut.

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When Esmerelda woke up, Madam Pomfrey was still hovering over her. She looked completely frazzled and the second they locked eyes, the older woman immediately burst into tears.

"You nearly bled out," she wept. "Thank goodness! If you hadn't gotten to me in time—!"

Esmerelda opened her mouth to speak but flinched when all she met was pain.

Madam Pomfrey shook her head. "Please don't try to speak. It's a miracle that your carotid artery wasn't severed—that definitely could've killed you. Your vocals chords, however, are still damaged, but they're healing at least. I had to shove a bottle of blood replenishing potion into your mouth due to all the blood you lost. I put a little bit of a sleeping draught too so you wouldn't be conscious when I applied the stitches—and yes, I know a few Muggle healing methods. After that, I gave you some nectar, but you started growing feverish so I stopped. It did good work, though."

Esmerelda couldn't express her gratitude and all she could do was mouth a 'thank you' instead. When she swallowed a lump down her throat, she winced at the immense pain that followed. Have you ever had a sore throat and whenever you swallowed, you could practically feel the scratchiness? It was like that, but instead of scratchiness, it felt like you were swallowing shards of glass that had been placed over a hot fire. 

It was awful because her throat felt so dry and she needed to swallow every goddamn time. 

"I covered your wound," Madam Pomfrey continued. "I don't know how long until your throat fully heals because I've never worked with nectar and ambrosia before, so just make sure to apply some murtlap essence on it everyday." She set a bottle of blue liquid on the table beside her bed.

Esmerelda nodded at the instructions, but was more concerned about Sirius and the trio. The last she saw of them, her uncle was knocked unconscious during a fight with Remus and she had no idea what even happened with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Suddenly, she heard several voices outside of the curtain separating her bed.

"Shocking business... shocking... miracle none of them died... never heard the like... by thunder, it was lucky you were there, Snape..."

"Thank you, Minister."

"Order of Merlin, Second Class, I'd say. First Class, if I can wangle it!"

"Thank you very much indeed, Minister."

"Nasty cut you've got there... Black's work, I suppose?"

"As a matter of fact, it was Potter, Weasley, Granger, and the other girl, Minister."

"The other girl?"

"Yes," Snape replied, sounding vindictive and victorious at the same time. "She is actually the daughter of that scoundrel, Black. Obviously, she's got her nasty traits from him."

"No! He—he has a daughter?!" The Minister sounded horrified.

Madam Pomfrey's face contorted with rage. "Oh you sad, sad man!" She shouted, ripping the curtains aside. The Minister jumped in shock while Snape merely stared on indifferently. "Don't think I don't know what you're planning with this! I can't believe you would stoop this low, Severus!"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Madam Pomfrey." Snape drawled.

The Minister didn't seem to hear a word of their exchange and instead fixed his wide, terrified eyes on Esmerelda, who didn't look threatening at all since she was literally laying on a hospital bed with a bad throat wound.

"Y-y-you!" He squeaked, pointing at her as if she had done a terrible crime. "You're the daughter of Sirius Black!"

She gave him a very flat look. This nincompoop was in charge of Magical Britain?

We're fucked, she thought.

"What's wrong with her?" He asked Snape.

"She got her throat cut open," he replied uncaringly. "Serves her right for trying to fight a werewolf."

She gave him a vicious glare. She was trying to keep Remus away from her uncle! If she wasn't so gods damn exhausted, she would've hexed him, and maybe the Minister too as a bonus.

"I can't believe you," Madam Pomfrey hissed at him. "You just can't learn to grow up, can you?"

Snape ignored her scathing remark and turned to the Minister. "Black had bewitched Potter and his friends. I saw it immediately. A Confundus Charm, to judge by their behavior."

THAT'S NOT TRUE! She wanted to scream. Even worse, she couldn't even Charmspeak them to listen to her. She was too exhausted to use the Mist even to the minimal degree. Her body was still shaking from the combination of aftershock and rage. This was truly the worst situation ever. Madam Pomfrey seemed to have given up too because she turned away to focus on the other patients.

"They seemed to think there was a possibility he was innocent. They weren't responsible for their actions. On the other hand, their interference might have permitted Black to escape... They obviously thought they were going to catch Black single-handed. They've got away with a great deal before now... I'm afraid it's given them a rather high opinion of themselves... and of course Potter has always been allowed an extraordinary amount of license by the headmaster—"

"Ah, well, Snape... Harry Potter, you know... we've all got a bit of a blind spot where he's concerned."

"And yet—is it good for him to be given so much special treatment? Personally, I try and treat him like any other student."

Esmerelda would've snorted.

"And any other student would be suspended—at the very least—for leading his friends into such danger. Consider, Minister—against all school rules—after all the precautions put in place for his protection—out-of-bounds, at night, consorting with a werewolf and a murderer—and I have reason to believe he has been visiting Hogsmeade illegally too—"

"—Well, well... we shall see, Snape, we shall see... The boy has undoubtedly been foolish..."

"What amazes me most is the behavior of the dementors... you've really no idea what made them retreat, Snape?"

"No, Minister... by the time I had come 'round they were heading back to their positions at the entrances..."

"Extraordinary. And yet Black, and Harry, and the girl—"

"All unconscious by the time I reached them. I bound and gagged Black, naturally, conjured stretchers, and brought them all straight back to the castle. The Black spawn was already here."

Harry and Hermione chose that as the perfect time to wake up.

"How's Ron?" They said in unison as Madam Pomfrey tended to them.

"He'll live," she said grimly. "As for you two... you'll be staying here until I'm satisfied you're—Potter, what do you think you're doing?"

Harry had rose up from the bed and swiped the curtains away, seeing Esmerelda, Snape, and the Minister.

"Harry, Harry, what's this?" Fudge said, looking agitated. "You should be in bed—has he had any chocolate?"

"Minister, listen!" He exclaimed. "Sirius Black's innocent! Peter Pettigrew faked his own death! We saw him tonight! You can't let the dementors do that thing to Sirius, he's—"

But Fudge shook his head, giving him a patronizing smile. "Harry, Harry, you're very confused, you've been through a dreadful ordeal, lie back down, now, we've got everything under control..."

"YOU HAVEN'T!" Harry yelled, which was only making his case worse. "YOU'VE GOT THE WRONG MAN!"

"Minister, listen, please," Hermione said desperately, stepping beside him. "I saw him too. It was Ron's rat, he's an Animagus, Pettigrew, I mean, and—"

"You see, Minister?" Snape said, looking smug. "Confunded, both of them... Black's done a very good job on them..."

"WE'RE NOT CONFUNDED!" Harry roared. "ESSIE, TELL THEM..." But the words died down the second he saw the wound on her throat. Both him and Hermione paled.

Snape smiled cruelly. "I'm afraid Miss Black cannot speak right now. She sustained an injury when she foolishly decided to take on a werewolf."

Harry glared at him with such loathing. "You're a liar. You're nothing but a sad, pathetic little liar—"

Snape glowered right back. "—I won't allow you to speak that way to me, Potter."

"Minister! Professor!" Madam Pomfrey said angrily. "I must insist that you leave. Potter is my patient, and he should not be distressed!"

"I'm not distressed, I'm trying to tell them what happened!" Harry said furiously. "If they'd just listen—"

But Madam Pomfrey suddenly stuffed a large chunk of chocolate into Harry's mouth; he choked, and she seized the opportunity to force him back onto the bed.

"Now, please, Minister, these children need care. Please leave—"

The door opened and Dumbledore entered. Harry swallowed down his chocolate and stood back up.

"Professor Dumbledore, Sirius Black—"

"—For heaven's sake!" Madam Pomfrey cried out. "Is this a hospital wing or not? Headmaster, I must insist—"

"—My apologies, Poppy, but I need a word with Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, and Miss Esmerelda," he said calmly.

"It's Miss Black, headmaster." Snape corrected smoothly.

Dumbledore's face slightly hardened. Slowly, he turned to him. "I am very disappointed in you, Severus," he said softly.

Fudge's eyes bulged out. "Hold on, here! Do you mean to tell me you knew about—about her and willingly let her into the school!"

Dumbledore faced him. "I don't believe it is fair to judge a child for the family she came from, especially when she was never even raised by them. Therefore, unable to be influenced by them. Don't you agree, Minister?"

Fudge's face went red, but he nodded begrudgingly instead.

Dumbledore smiled thinly. "Now, I have just been talking to Sirius Black—"

"—I suppose he's told you the same fairy tale he's planted in Potter's mind?" Snape spat. "Something about a rat, and Pettigrew being alive—"

"—That, indeed, is Black's story," he replied.

"And does my evidence count for nothing?" Snape snarled. "Peter Pettigrew was not in the Shrieking Shack, nor did I see any sign of him on the grounds."

"That was because you were knocked out, Professor!" Hermione said earnestly. "You didn't arrive in time to hear—"

"—Miss Granger, HOLD YOUR TONGUE!"

"Now, Snape," Fudge said, looking at him like he was a madman. Not far off, in Esmerelda's opinion. "The young lady is disturbed in her mind, we must make allowances—"

"—I would like to speak to Harry, Hermione, and Esmerelda alone," Dumbledore interrupted. "Cornelius, Severus, Poppy—please leave us."

"Headmaster! They need treatment, they need rest—" Madam Pomfrey protested.

"—This cannot wait," he pressed on. "I must insist."

Madam Pomfrey pursed her lips and strode away into her office at the end of the ward, slamming the door behind her. Fudge consulted the large gold pocket watch dangling from his waistcoat.

"The dementors should have arrived by now," he said, making the kids stiffen. "I'll go and meet them. Dumbledore, I'll see you upstairs."

He went for the door and held it open, but Snape didn't move.

"You surely don't believe a word of Black's story?" He whispered.

"I wish to speak to Harry and Hermione alone," Dumbledore repeated.

Snape took a step towards him, and Esmerelda sat up, preparing for a fight. Her shirt had been changed, but she could see her brooch on the table and she was still wearing her charm bracelet.

"Sirius Black showed he was capable of murder at the age of sixteen," he breathed. "You haven't forgotten that, Headmaster? You haven't forgotten that he once tried to kill me?"

"My memory is as good as it ever was, Severus," Dumbledore said quietly.

Snape snarled and whirled around, marching through the door. Both him and Fudge finally left.

Harry and Hermione blew up, but Dumbledore raised a hand to stop them. "Enough now. Esmerelda, can you manage to tell me what happened to you?"

Esmerelda wrote in the air with her finger, using the trusty spell flagrate.

Lupin—werewolf—protect Sirius—drew away—accident—not his fault, she wrote.

Dumbledore nodded in understanding. "There is very little time for me to explain this," he said quickly. "There is not a shred of proof to support Black's story, except your word—and the word of two third years and the daughter of the culprit will not convince anybody. A street full of eyewitnesses swore they saw Sirius murder Pettigrew. I myself gave evidence to the Ministry that Sirius had been the Potters' Secret-Keeper."

"Professor Lupin can tell you—" Harry said, unable to stop himself.

"—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 that 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—"

"—But—"

"—Listen to me, Harry. It is too late, you understand me? You must see that Professor Snape's version of events is far more convincing than yours."

"He hates Sirius," Hermione said desperately and Esmerelda nodded in agreement. "All because of some stupid trick Sirius played on him—"

"Sirius has not acted like an innocent man. The attack on the Fat Lady—entering Gryffindor Tower with a knife—without Pettigrew, alive or dead, we have no chance of overturning Sirius's sentence."

"But you believe us."

"Yes, I do," he agreed. "But I have no power to make other men see the truth, or to overrule the Minister of Magic..." His eyes trailed over to Esmerelda, as if to add and you cannot use your powers to convince them. He stared pointedly at her throat. 

Esmerelda gripped her blankets tightly, tears welling in her eyes. She doubted the dementors would listen to her—not in this weakened state at least. She couldn't lose Sirius, not now. She didn't care if the Minister believed her or not. She would break Sirius out and hide him somewhere. Hell, she could disguise him with the Mist. All she needed was to know where he was.

"What we need," Dumbledore said slowly, looking straight at Hermione for some reason "Is more time."

"But—" Hermione began. And then her eyes became very round. "OH!"

Harry and Esmerelda had no idea what that was about.

"Now, pay attention," he ordered. "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 this, both of you: you must not be seen. Miss Granger, you know the law—you know what is at stake... You—must—not—be—seen."

Esmerelda was still confused, but Dumbledore never bothered to explain what he was talking about. He went for the door and looked back at them. "I am going to lock you in. It is—" He glanced at his watch, "Five minutes to midnight. Miss Granger, three turns should do it. Good luck."

"Good luck?" Harry repeated incredulously once he was gone. "Three turns? What's he talking about? What are we supposed to do?"

Hermione was too busy fumbling with the neck of her robes. She pulled out a very long, very fine gold chain. Hanging from the middle of it was a small, sparkling hourglass.

"Harry, come here," she said urgently.

Harry moved towards her just as Esmerelda left her own bed. Both of them stared at her with wide eyes.

"E-Essie, your neck, you can't—" Hermione said with concern.

But she shook her head and wrote in the air again.

Must save uncle.

They exchanged worried looks.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked her.

He didn't leave me. I can't leave him.

Harry started to stare at her in a new light. After a second passed, he nodded his head in confirmation.

"She's coming with us," he told Hermione.

She bit her lip, still concerned, but accepted it. "Alright. Come closer, then."

Esmerelda stepped forward until she were literally inches away from them. Hermione quickly threw the chain around their necks.

"Ready?" She asked breathlessly.

"What are we doing?" Harry asked.

"We're going to travel back through time." She answered, and the world around them dissolved.

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Time traveling was actually a lot less spontaneous than Esmerelda thought it was. It still stunned her speechless (no pun intended) that the wizards somehow invented a way to time travel. She would've totally taken a time-turner—as Hermione called it—since it would definitely be a good help for the war. However, she didn't really feel comfortable using Kronos' domain, so she decided she wouldn't risk using it for a second time.

Right now, she, Harry, and Hermione were trying to save Buckbeak, the second life that Dumbledore had mentioned.

"This is the weirdest thing we've ever done," Harry whispered beside her. "You, Essie?"

She had done a ton of weird things, but time traveling definitely topped the list. She nodded in agreement.

"Let's move along a bit," Hermione whispered. "We need to get nearer to Buckbeak!"

They crept through the trees until they saw the nervous hippogriff, tethered to the fence around Hagrid's pumpkin patch.

So this is the one who gave my cousin that itty bitty scratch that he kept wailing about, Esmerelda mused. She already liked the animal.

"Now?" Harry asked.

"No!" Hermione said. "If we steal him now, those Committee people will think Hagrid set him free! We've got to wait until they've seen he's tied outside!"

"That's going to give us about sixty seconds..." Harry said anxiously.

Suddenly they heard a crash from the hut.

"That's Hagrid breaking the milk jug," Hermione whispered. "I'm going to find Scabbers in a moment."

"Guys," Harry said, "What if we—we just run in there and grab Pettigrew—"

"No!" She said again. "Don't you understand? We're breaking one of the most important wizarding laws! Nobody's supposed to change time, nobody! You heard Dumbledore, if we're seen—"

"—We'd only be seen by ourselves and Hagrid!" He argued.

"Harry, what do you think you'd do if you saw yourself bursting into Hagrid's house?" She questioned.

"I'd—I'd think I'd gone mad," he admitted, "Or I'd think there was some Dark Magic going on—"

"Exactly! You wouldn't understand, you might even attack yourself! Don't you see? Professor McGonagall told me what awful things have happened when wizards have meddled with time... Loads of them ended up killing their past or future selves by mistake!"

"Then Essie should go," Harry suggested. "She wasn't there with us!"

That was right... She was all the way in San Francisco talking to Jason...

"Yes, but she certainly didn't have that wound in her throat! They're going to get suspicious!" Hermione said hotly.

"Okay!" Harry said in a tone that one would use when tired from arguing with their mom. "It was just an idea, I just thought—"

But Esmerelda nudged them both to be quiet and pointed towards the castle where Dumbledore, Fudge, and a few other people were drawing closer. One of them was holding a huge axe, but it was nowhere near as amazing as Glimmer.

"We're about to come out!" Hermione breathed just as Hagrid's back door opened. The past version of the trio and Hagrid hurried out to the pumpkin patch.

"It's okay, Beaky, it's okay..." She heard Hagrid say. Then he turned to the kids. "Go on. Get goin'."

Naturally, they protested.

"Go! It's bad enough without you lot in trouble an' all!"

Defeated, they threw an impressive looking invisibility cloak over themselves and disappeared.

The execution party finally arrived and started speaking to Hagrid.

"Wait here," Harry whispered to the girls. "I'll do it." It was probably for the best too, since he had apparently bonded with Buckbeak during their first lesson. Plus, she had no idea if hippogriffs were anti-demigod or not.

Thankfully, Harry managed to retrieve Buckbeak just in time.

"Where is it?" One of the wizards asked. "Where is the beast?"

"It was tied here!" The executioner said furiously. "I saw it! Just here!"

"How extraordinary," Dumbledore said. There was a note of amusement in his voice.

"Beaky!" Hagrid called out.

The executioner angrily threw his axe down and let out a howl of anger.

"Gone! Gone! Bless his little beak, he's gone! Musta pulled himself free! Beaky, yeh clever boy!" Hagrid sobbed.

Buckbeak strained against the ropes. Harry and Hermione held on tight and tried to yank him back, but it wasn't working. Esmerelda did a risky thing. She stepped forward and placed a hand on Buckbeak's head. It turned to her and since it didn't try to peck her eyes out or anything similar, then that must mean hippogriffs fall under the category of 'pro-demigods'.

She shook her head at him and made a hushing motion. Buckbeak obeyed and backed away from view.

"He—he listens to you?" Harry blinked in surprise. "Have you met him before?"

She shook her head.

Once the coast was clear, the moved around the edge of the forest as dark fell. They hid behind a clump of trees just meters away from the Willow where past!Ron could be seen sprinting across the lawn.

"Get away from him—get away—Scabbers, come here—" They heard Ron shout. Two more figures materialized out of nowhere: the Harry and Hermione of the past. They were chasing after Ron, who made a mad dive for Crookshanks.

"Gotcha! Get off, you stinking cat—"

"There's Sirius!" The Harry beside her exclaimed.

Her uncle's familiar animagus bowled over the past!Harry and seized Ron. Esmerelda inwardly groaned. No wonder it took them forever to trust him!

"Looks even worse from here, doesn't it?" Harry commented, watching the dog pulling Ron into the roots. "Ouch—look, I just got walloped by the tree—and so did you—this is weird—"

"That was Crookshanks pressing the knot," Hermione said as the tree froze.

"And there we go," Harry muttered. "We're in."

Right after they disappeared, Dumbledore, Fudge, and two other wizards were making their way up to the castle.

"Right after we'd gone down into the passage!" Hermione blew up. "If only Dumbledore had come with us..."

"Macnair and Fudge would've come too," Harry said bitterly. "I bet you anything Fudge would've told Macnair to murder Sirius on the spot..."

Esmerelda nodded in agreement and wrote, Snape + them = worse situation

"Here comes Lupin!" Harry said moments later as they saw another figure sprinting down the stone steps and haring toward the Willow. Up above, the clouds were covering the full moon.

Esmerelda couldn't help but wince, her hand reaching up to gingerly touch her bandaged throat.

"If he'd only grabbed the cloak," Harry's shoulders slumped. "It's just lying there..." He turned to Hermione. "If I just dashed out now and grabbed it, Snape'd never be able to get it and—"

Again, the two fell into an argument with Hermione winning (as usual). Esmerelda nudged them to be quiet so she could point out Snape's entrance. The man had stopped next to the tree to pick up the invisibility cloak that had been left behind.

"Get your filthy hands off it," Harry snarled under his breath.

"Essie, when exactly do you come in?" Hermione asked as she looked around for another noirette. Five minutes had passed since Snape entered, and it was around that time Esmerelda had stepped in to knock him out.

She shook her head and wrote, Entered through Hosgmeade.

"Oh, I see," Hermione said quietly. "Then that means we're all down there... and now we've just got to wait until we come back up again..."

She took the end of Buckbeak's rope and tied it securely around the nearest tree, then sat down on the dry ground, arms around her knees. "Essie, did you see what happened with Sirius and the dementors, by any chance? I remember them coming, and then I think I passed out... there were so many of them..."

Esmerelda shook her head and tried to explain it. Sirius knocked out by Lupin. I led Lupin away from him. Didn't see what happened.

Harry sat down too. Esmerelda had to fight back the urge to scoot away from him. Nothing against Harry, but that aura his scar kept emitting was starting to really disturb her. It was angry, violent, and malicious. She felt like she was sitting next to a serial killer doused in the blood of his victims.

While Esmerelda struggled to get comfortable, Harry explained what he'd seen; how, as the nearest dementors surrounded him and Sirius, a large silver something had come galloping across the lake and forced the dementors to retreat.

"But what was it?" Hermione asked.

"There's only one thing it could have been, to make the dementors go," he replied. "A real Patronus. A powerful one."

Esmerelda didn't recognize the word, but it seemed like a useful spell so she made a mental note to learn it later.

"But who conjured it? Didn't you see what they looked like?" Hermione asked eagerly. "Was it one of the teachers?"

"No," he said. "He wasn't a teacher."

"But it must have been a really powerful wizard, to drive all those dementors away... If the Patronus was shining so brightly, didn't it light him up? Couldn't you see—?"

"Yeah, I saw him," he said slowly. "But... maybe I imagined it... I wasn't thinking straight... I passed out right afterward..."

"Who did you think it was?"

"I think—" He swallowed thickly. "I think it was my dad."

Silence. Esmerelda looked at him unsurely. Hopefully he was seeing things because if he really did see his dad then that would mean either two things: one, he was faking his death the entire time which would make a really awkward family reunion or two, he cheated death which would get him into a lot of trouble with Hades (and more paperwork for her, so no thanks).

"Harry, your dad's—well—dead," Hermione said quietly.

"—I know that," Harry said quickly.

"You think you saw his ghost?"

Oh yeah! Esmerelda thought. That could be a possibility too!

"I don't know... no... he looked solid..."

"But then—"

"—Maybe I was seeing things," he mumbled. "But... from what I could see... it looked like him... I've got photos of him..."

Hermione was still looking at him like he was insane.

"I know it sounds crazy," he said flatly.

About twenty more minutes passed and the moon was beginning to show through the clouds.

Esmerelda swatted Harry and Hermione's shoulder as a way to tell them that their past selves were now leaving the hole in the roots. They all began walking towards the castle with Snape floating unconsciously.

Esmerelda gulped nervously. Any time now Remus would shift and she and Sirius would try to restrain him which would ultimately lead to her throat getting slashed open.

"Harry," Hermione muttered sternly and Esmerelda glanced to see him staring fixedly at Peter. "We've got to stay put. We mustn't be seen. There's nothing we can do..."

"So we're just going to let Pettigrew escape all over again..." He said quietly.

"There's nothing we can do!" She snapped. "We came back to help Sirius; we're not supposed to be doing anything else!"

"All right!"

The moon finally appeared, bathing their other selves in moonlight. Esmerelda watched with a grimace as her other self tried to free her arm from the chains as Remus began to watch her hungrily.

"There goes Lupin," Hermione whispered. "He's transforming—"

"—Guys!" Harry suddenly gasped. "We've got to move!"

"We mustn't, I keep telling you—"

"—Not to interfere! Lupin's going to run into the forest, right at us!"

FUCK! Esmerelda thought, jumping to her feet. Quickly, they untied Buckbeak and sprinted back to Hagrid's Hut since was all empty now. Esmerelda could only hope that Remus wouldn't sniff out the presence of a 'second' demigod. If he did, they were all doomed.

Once things became calmer, Harry decided to go outside to check on things. Neither Esmerelda and Hermione were buying his excuse, but they let him off anyways.

"He's gone to see his 'dad', hasn't he?" Hermione asked hopelessly.

Esmerelda nodded in confirmation and the shorter girl groaned.

While waiting for Harry to return, Hermione asked her a very startling question: "Back there at the Shrieking Shack... how did you get Pettigrew to obey you?"

Esmerelda froze.

"I-It was... frightening, to be honest," she admitted. "Pettigrew's face just turned blank and—and he didn't even realize what he had done afterwards. What exactly did you do?"

Before Esmerelda could even think of a lie, the door burst open and Harry entered the hut.

"I'm the dad!" He exclaimed.

Hermione nearly fainted.

Congrats, Esmerelda wrote, mentally sighing in relief for his perfectly timed entrance.

"No—I mean—sorry—I was the one who saved us. It wasn't my dad, it was me." He went on to explain how the person his past self saw was actually him from the future—though it was technically his present self.

Time travel is confusing, Esmerelda thought.

Meanwhile, Hermione was celebrating, having (hopefully) forgotten her conversation with the other girl. "Harry, I can't believe it... You conjured up a Patronus that drove away all those dementors! That's very, very advanced magic..."

"I knew I could do it this time," Harry grinned, "Because I'd already done it... Does that make sense?"

No, Esmerelda wrote.

Hermione suddenly straightened up. "Guys, look at Snape!"

They left the hut and hid behind some bushes. Snape had woken up and was conjuring stretchers and lifting up the limp forms of Harry, Hermione, and Black onto them. Ron was already on his own stretcher.

"He doesn't get you?" Hermione asked Esmerelda.

She shook her head and wrote, Already at hosp. wing.

Hermione didn't seem to understand how on earth someone with a slashed throat could manage to walk all the way to the hospital wing on her own, but didn't question it. Instead, she glanced at her watch and sucked in a breath. 

"Right, it's nearly time. We've got about forty-five minutes until Dumbledore locks the door to the hospital wing. We've got to rescue Sirius and get back into the ward before anybody realizes we're missing..."

After a boring period of silence, Harry finally broke. "D'you reckon he's up there yet?"

"Look!" Hermione whispered. "Who's that? Someone's coming back out of the castle!"

Esmerelda turned and saw someone hurrying across the grounds. It was the dude with the lame axe.

"Macnair!" Harry growled. "The executioner! He's gone to get the dementors! This is it, Hermione—"

"Who's going to go up there?" She asked anxiously. "Buckbeak can't fit all four of us."

Esmerelda raised her hand. There was no way she wasn't going. Harry raised a hand too. Strangely enough, Hermione looked relieved. "Okay, good. I've never ridden one of these before... You get going, I'll try to stall!"

Swiftly, Harry and Esmerelda climbed aboard. Esmerelda hugged him around the waist just as he nudged Buckbeak's sides with his heels.

"You better hold on," he warned her.

She nodded, her face determined. Usually she'd throw up just from the mention of being up in the air, but she needed to do this for her uncle. Screw Zeus' fragile ego.

They glided quietly towards the upper floors of the castle. Finally, they reached a window and saw Sirius crouched in the back of the room. Harry reached out and tapped on the glass and Sirius snapped his head up. His jaw dropped at the sight of his niece and godson flying outside.

Sirius jumped to his feet and hurried to the window. He tried to open it, but it was locked.

Harry fumbled around his pocket for his wand but Esmerelda got impatient. After motioning Sirius to stand back, she brutally kicked the window, the glass shattering into a million pieces.

"How—how— ?" Sirius said weakly, staring at them in bewilderment.

"Get on—there's not much time," Harry hissed. "You've got to get out of here—the dementors are coming—Macnair's gone to get them."

In seconds, Sirius managed to heave himself through the window and pulled himself onto the hippogriff behind Esmerelda.

"Okay, Buckbeak, up!" Harry said, shaking the rope. "Up to the tower—come on!"

Buckbeak soared upwards and went towards the top of the West Tower. Once he landed on the battlements, the three of them slid off.

"Sirius, you'd better go, quick," Harry panted. "They'll reach Flitwick's office any moment, they'll find out you're gone."

But Sirius wasn't listening. Instead, he was gaping in horror at Esmerelda. "What happened to your throat?"

She grimaced.

"She can't talk," Harry tried to explain.

"Forever?!" He squawked.

They both shook his head. "No, it's temporary—"

"—And what happened to the other boy? Ron?" He croaked.

"He's going to be okay. He's still out of it, but Madam Pomfrey says she'll be able to make him better. Quick—go—"

But Sirius was still staring at them. "How can I ever thank—"

"—GO!" Harry shouted, while Esmerelda gave him a look.

"We'll see each other again," he said. "You are—truly your father's son, Harry... And Esmerelda... Regulus loved you very much..."

She smiled at him and watched sadly as he climbed onto Buckbeak. They took off into the air, becoming smaller and smaller in the sky.

And then they were gone.

— author's note —

Is this gonna be the last you see of Sirius in this book? Nope! He'll be back veeeeeery soon and you're gonna see a lot of him!