(y/n) - your name

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Time reverses in a dizzying backward blur as if a tape were being rewound, every moment that occurred in the hospital room flickering by at a dizzying speed. Outside the window, darkness gives way to dusk and the sun "un-sets," returning to its place low on the horizon. At this point, the time reversal ends and the room is... Empty. Except for Harry, Hermione and (y/n). 

As Hermione unloops the necklace, Harry glances around in confusion. "What just happened? Where's Ron?" Hermione ignores the question, and eyes the clock on the wall while (y/n) looked at the girl with wide eyes.

"That's how you managed to go to all of your classes like Ancient Rues and Divination! You went back in time to go to both!" Hermione nods at her friend's answer, pointing to the clock.

"Seven-thirty. Where were we at seven-thirty?"

"Going to Hagrids for the execution!" (y/n) answers quickly.

"We need to go! Quick!" the Hufflepuff nods, waving her hands over them three to make them invisible with her powers before picking them all up and flying them out of the castle. Hermione gasps in surprise, flailing as her friends flew them over the fields and towards the bridge where they hovered behind the monolith menhirs.

"That's us!" Harry whispers, pointing to the group of kids below to see the scene for their morning where Hermione punched Draco in the face.

"This is a Time-Turner, Harry.McGonagall gave it to me first term. This is how I've been getting to my lessons all year." Hermione explains. "Dumbledore wanted us to return to this moment. Clearly, something happened he wants us to change."

"Keep your voices down. We're invisible but they can still hear us." (y/n) whispers, the other two pursing their lips and nodding as they hovered over their past selves to follow them.

"Look. Buckbeak's still alive." Harry says as the group flies down to the pumpkin patch.

"Of course! Remember whatDumbledore said. If we succeed, more than one innocent life could be spared." they hover behind a bunch of pumpkins, looking up to see the executioner, Dumbledore and Fudge walking towards the hut.

"Here they come. I better hurry!"

"No! Fudge has to see Buckbeakbefore we steal him. Otherwise, he'll think Hagrid set him free!" Hermione pulls Harry back and he nods, looking back into the hut to see Hagrid handing Scabbers to Ron.

"That's Pettigrew!" he hisses furiously, rising up again but Hermione grabs him, speaking fiercely.

No, Harry! You can't!"

"Hermione, that's the man who betrayed my parents! You don't expect me to just sit here-" the boy gasps as he struggles to move, (y/n) closing her fist and just staring into the hut as she holds Harry still with her powers. "(y/n)!"

"Go on Hermione."

"Thanks (y/n). Look, Harry, you're in Hagrid's hut right now. If you go bursting inside, you'll think you've gone mad. Awful things can happen when wizards meddle with time. We can't be seen!" Hermione turns around and watches Fudge and the others drawing closer, frowning as she glances into the hut. "Fudge is coming and... we're not leaving... why aren't we leaving?" As (y/n) lets Harry go, Hermione looks at the pumpkin next to her and notices a familiar-looking grey stone. She immediate picks it up and hurls it through the open window, smashing the ceramic jar.

"Are you mad!?" Hermione ignores Harry, swiftly whistling a second stone through the window and hitting the back of his head, both boys wincing in pain as they rub their head. "That hurt."

"Sorry." (y/n) snickers lightly behind her hand, hovering behind her friends like a ghost. They quickly get up and fly to hide in the trees behind the pumpkin patch, just in time to see themselves-along with Ron-exit the back door and slip behind the pumpkin pile where they were hiding behind only seconds before.

"Is that really what my hair looks like from the back-?" (y/n) slaps a hand on both Harry and Hermione's mouths, peeking out from the tree when the girls see themselves peering into the trees. They hear themselves before the group runs away, (y/n), Hermione and Harry slowly walking out from behind the trees as the Hufflepuff drops her hands. 

The coast is clear and they slip out of the trees. "(y/n)..." Harry nods to her and she peers over the pumpkins, waving her hand as the metal chains are surrounded by a red glow, slowly unravelling to let Buckbeak loose. She cringes as the metal clangs, trying not to make too much noise and Harry walks over to the creature. He bows and Buckbeak bows back, the boy grabbing the chain once it was loose and trying to get the creature to stand up.

"Jesus christ..." (y/n) quickly summons over the dead ferrets on the stand next to her, hovering one of them in front of Buckbeak and he stands up excitedly. She throws one up for him to catch and eat, flying back as she hovered the creature's treats in front of her so it would follow her. The kids quickly lure Buckbeak into the trees, the creature running after them happily as they flew through the forest. (y/n) kept feeding Buckbeak every time he got bored, summoning dead ferrets in front of him like a magical illusion.

It soon turned dark as the kids stop for a bit to figure out what to do next. "Now what?" Harry and (y/n) ask Hermione.

"We save Sirius."

"And we do that... how?"

"No idea" the Hufflepuff summons a line of dead ferrets, stringing them on trees around Buckbeak to keep him occupied before the kids all fly up over the hill. "(y/n) are you ok? You've been keeping us hidden for a while now and making us fly everywhere. Take a break."

"I'm ok, I've practised a lot so I won't faint." she smiles at her concerned friend, the three kids looking at the Whomping Willow thrashing around. 

"It's Lupin..." Hermione says when he approaches the three and casts a spell to immobilise it before going down the hole. "Here comes Snape." As Lupin disappears into the gap at the base of the tree, Snape makes his way down the slope.

"And now we wait." (y/n) and Harry ask, Hermione nodding.

"Now we wait." the kids sit down except for (y/n) who hovers behind them, her leg still in pain. She looks behind her to see a hoard of bats flying towards them and she places her hand's on top of Harry's and Hermione's heads, them looking up at her when a burst of warm red shimmer escapes her hands to keep them safe in a dome from the bats. The shield makes some of them bounce off the edge, it shimmering from the impact. 

(y/n) drops the shield when it was safe, the air quiet for a bit until Hary spoke up. "Before. Down by the lake. When I was with Sirius... I did see someone... that someone made the dementors go away..."

"With a Patronus. I heard Snape telling Dumbledore when we were taken to the hospital. According to him, only a really powerful wizard could have conjured it." Hermione says.

"It was my Dad." the girls look at Harry, a smile on his face. "It was my Dad who conjured the Patronus."

"But, Harry, your Dad's-"

"-dead. I know. I'm just telling you what I saw." Hermione and (y/n) nod, both of them not wanting to press the boy any further. The kids turn to glance toward the Whomping Willow, seeing their past selves climb out from the hole. "You see Sirius talking to me? He's asking me to come live with him."

"Really? That's great Harry!" (y/n) smiles down at him and he nods, his voice wistful and full of hope.

"When we free him, I'll never have to go back to the Dursley's. I'm going to tell him I'd like to live someplace in the country. Someplace where you can see the sky. I think he'd like that, after all those years in Azkaban." Harry turns around and sees (y/n)'s eyes tearing up, a look of longing in them. "(y/n), you can live with us too." she looks down at him in surprise, blinking away her tears quickly.

"Really?"

"You don't have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas alone anymore. We can stay someplace where it's not too big and we can help him-" a howl pierces the night, the group watching the scene unfold of Lupin transforming and passing him the potion (y/n) conjured. The Hufflepuff breathes in and lets out a loud howl, Harry wheeling around to look at her with wide eyes as her hands cupped around her mouth.

"What are you doing!?"

"Making sure we continue the timeline so we don't screw it up!" she quickly picks up her friends, making sure they all were invisible as they fly up into the air to avoid professor Lupin charging at them. He runs past below them and they fly off to where Sirius fell off the cliff.

"Hurry (y/n)!" Harry asks, all three of them shivering violently from the freezing wind and looking up to see dementors flying near them.

"Shit!" she quickly lowers them into the forest, weaving through the trees until they arrive at the frozen lake where past Harry and Sirius were. Dementors were flying in and out, a cyclone of them whirling madly above them. Harry watches himself vainly attempt to conjure a Patronus as the cyclone only continues to grow.

"This is horrible..." Hermione whispers.

"Don't worry. My Dad will come...Right there... you'll see... he'll come... any minute... he'll conjure the Patronus." Hermione and (y/n) eye their friend warily. 

"Harry, it wasn't your dad... it was you..." the boy goes rigid at (y/n)'s words, a sad frown falling on his face when he realised that it was he who helped himself. He was the one to protect himself and no one else. Harry quickly slashes through the trees, down to the rocky outcrop and to the exact spot where his father appeared. Poising his wand, he looks out over the sea of Dementors on the other side of the lake.

He had no one to help him except for himself. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

A wisp of silver escapes his wand, hovering like a mist, then blooms magnificently. The trees explode with light and the lake blazes with reflected fire. Harry stands utterly still, wand extended to the heavens as the light pulses out around him with a glowing brightness. Across the lake, the Dementors retreat. Harry waits, still as a statue, until each and every single one is gone. Then he simply lets his arm drop.