"Yes," Hermione broke the silence. "It's us, going down to Hagrid's."

"Are you telling us," Harry hissed. "That we're in this cupboard, but we're also out there too?"

"Yes," Hermione said her ear at the door. "It sounds no more than four pairs of feet..."

"Right then, are you an actual time-lady, or did you scrap down the TARDIS for a tiny one?" I demanded.

"It's called a time-turner," Hermione began. "I've been using it to get to lessons. McGonagall made me swear not to tell anybody. I've been doing hours over, but---" She trailed off.

"You don't understand why three hours in the past will help Sirius." I added.

"Well, three hours ago, we were on our way down to Hagrid's..." Harry trailed off. He was in such fierce concentration, that he looked like he was trying to lay an egg. "More than one innocent life can be saved..."

"Buckbeak!" I shouted, and Hermione fell from the bucket she was sitting on with fright. "He told us where the window is! We have to fly there, and save Sirius! They can escape!"

Hermione looked astounded. "If we can do that without being seen, it would be a miracle!"

"Well, we've got to try, haven't we?" said Harry. He stood up and pressed his ear against the door. "Doesn't sound like anyone's there... Come on, let's go."

Harry pushed open the cupboard door. The entrance hall was deserted, and we hurried out into the shadowy grounds.

"We'll run for it," I told her determinedly. "Straight into the forest, all right? We'll have to hide behind a tree or something and keep a lookout —"

"We need to keep out of sight of Hagrid's front door, or we'll see us! We must be nearly at Hagrid's by now!"

I set off at a sprint, the others behind mine. Tearing across the gardens, trying to avoid stepping on the cabbages I leapt into the shadows of the trees, panting like I'd ran a marathon.

"Right," she gasped. "We need to sneak over to Hagrid's... Keep out of sight, Harry..."

We made our way silently through the trees, keeping to the very edge of the forest. Seeing the hut through the forest, I felt like I was in some sort of twisted nightmare as I saw the six of us go inside of the hut.

"Wow, does my hair really look that minging from the back?" I cringed. "Ugh, I need to grow my hair out!"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Move along a bit, we need to get nearer to Buckbeak!"

Creeping through the edge of the trees, I could see Buckbeak, tied to the fence, looking miserable.

"Now?" Harry whispered.

"No!" said Hermione. "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," I said nervously. This was starting to seem impossible.

At that moment, there was a crash of breaking china from inside Hagrid's cabin.

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

Sure enough, a few minutes later, they heard Gennie's shriek of surprise.

"Hermione," said Harry suddenly, "what if we — we just run in there and grab Pettigrew —"

"No!" said Hermione in a terrified whisper. "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 us and Hagrid!" Harry argued back.

"Harry, what would you do, if you saw yourself run into Hagrid's?" Hermione asked adamantly.

"I'd... Think I'd gone made... Or there was some dark magic going on." Harry mumbled.

"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..."

"Okay!" said Harry. "It was just an idea, I just thought —"

But Hermione nudged us both and pointed toward the castle. Dumbledore, Fudge, and the committee members were walking down the steps.

Moments later, the back door opened and the six of us were scurrying out of the hut, heading towards the hill.

Seconds later, the execution party arrived.

"We--er, have to read the official note of execution, I'll make it quick Hagrid. Then you and Macnair need to sign it. Macnair, you need to listen as welll--" I could hear Fudge say,

Macnair looked away from the window. It was now or never. "I'll do it," I hissed. "I flew him that one time."

As Fudge's voice started again, I darted out from behind my tree, vaulted the fence into the pumpkin patch (tripping over the fence in the process), and approached Buckbeak.

"It is the decision of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures that the Hippogriff Buckbeak, hereafter called the condemned, shall he executed on the sixth of June at sundown—"

Careful not to blink, I stared up into Buckbeak's fierce orange eyes once more and bowed. Buckbeak sank to his scaly knees and then stood up again. I began to fumble with the knot of rope tying Buckbeak to the fence.

"... Sentenced to execution by beheading, to be carried out by the Committee's appointed executioner, Walden Macnair..."

"Come on, Buckbeak," I murmured, "come on, we're going to help you. Quietly... quietly..."

"... as witnessed below. Hagrid, you sign here..."

I threw all my weight onto the rope, but Buckbeak had dug in his front feet.

"Well, let's get this over with," said the reedy voice of the Committee member from inside Hagrid's cabin. "Hagrid, perhaps it will be better if you stay inside —"

"No, I — I want to be with him—"

"Buckbeak, move!" I hissed urgently.

I tugged harder on the rope around Buckbeak's neck. The Hippogriff began to walk, rustling its wings irritably. We were still in view of the hut.

"One moment, please, Macnair," came Dumbledore's voice. "You need to sign too."

The footsteps stopped. I heaved on the rope. Buckbeak snapped his beak and walked a little faster. Hermione's white face was sticking out from behind a tree.

"Hurry, Rory!" She mouthed.

I could still hear Dumbledore speaking. I gave the rope another wrench. Buckbeak broke into a trot. We were almost there....

"Quick! Quick!" Harry moaned, darting out from behind his tree with Hermione, seizing the rope too and adding their weight to make Buckbeak move faster.

We were finally in the safety of the trees and I wanted to cry with happiness.

Hagrid's back door had opened with a bang. We stood quite still; even the Hippogriff seemed to be listening intently. Silence... then —

"Where is it?" said the reedy voice of the Committee member. "Where is the beast?"

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

"How extraordinary," said Dumbledore, sounding amused.

There was a swishing noise, and the thud of an axe. The executioner swung it into the fence in anger. The crows flew away from the fence and I realised with a jolt that what we heard earlier wasn't a beheading.

"Musta pulled himself free! Beaky, yeh clever boy!"

Buckbeak started to strain against the rope, trying to get back to Hagrid. We tightened our grip and dug heels into the forest floor to stop him.

"Someone untied him!" the executioner was snarling. "We should search the grounds, the forest."

"Macnair, if Buckbeak has indeed been stolen, do you really think the thief will have led him away on foot?" said Dumbledore, still sounding amused. "Search the skies, if you will..."

The voices lowered into silence around the ground, and we were left alone.

"Now what?" Harry whispered.

"We'll have to hide here." Hermione said, looking shaken. "We need to wait until they're up the castle. Then we wait until it's safe to fly Buckbeak up to Sirius's window."

"But that'll be ages away..." I trailed off, noticing the sun setting lowly in the sky.

"Oh, this is going to be difficult..." I trailed off, noticing the sun was setting now.

We crept through the rest of the trees until we emerged out by the Whomping Willow. We watched Ron and I were dragged in by Sirius, and later on Hermione, Cole and Harry entering. Once Gennie had gone through the passage with her dad, Harry finally spoke up again.

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

"Yeah, but that'd change a lot of things!" I hissed, pulling at his arm. "Haven't you watched Back to the Future?"

How can you stand this?" he asked me fiercely. "Just standing here and watching it happen?" He hesitated. "I'm going to grab the cloak!"

"Harry, no!"

Hermione grabbed Harry's robes just at the right time—Hagrid appeared in our line of vision, signing and clutching a bottle.

"See?" I whispered. "See what would have happened? We've got to keep out of sight! No, Buckbeak!"

The Hippogriff was making frantic attempts to get to Hagrid again, nudging at my hand and pulling at the rope; Harry seized his rope too, straining to hold Buckbeak back. Somehow we managed to keep him tethered until Hagrid disappeared, but the animal looked almost sad.

Barely two minutes later the castle doors burst open again and Snape began charging towards the tree, Harry looking livid as he grabbed his cloak.

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

Snape seized a branch, and the tree went silent, and looking smug he vanished, the cloak over him

"So that's it," said Hermione quietly. "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.

"Why didn't the dementors get Sirius? They appeared, but I passed out...."

I explained what I'd seen—the horrifying face of the dementor, the screams, the darkness, the bright light that saved us....

Hermione's mouth was slightly open by the time I had finished.

"But what was it?"

"They were two real patronuses." Harry said quietly

"But who conjured it?" Hermione said. "Did you see what they looked like?"

I paused, I thought I knew but.... Could it really be possible? "I think..."I said slowly. "I think it was our parents."

Hermione looked at me, looking both pitying and alarmed. "Rory..... They're both dead."

"You think I don't know that?" I snapped.

"Sorry." Hermione said. She was quiet for a few moments. "Do you think it was their ghosts?"

"They looked solid, I could see them too." Harry backed me up.

"But then —"

"Maybe I was seeing things," I said hesitantly. "But... from what I could see... it looked like them... I've got photos... I mean, it sounds crazy...."

But as the three of us fell silent I thought maybe it wasn't so crazy. Wormtail was believed to be dead for twelve years—Sirius had been thought as crazy and a traitor. Surely our parents could reappear to help us?

The leaves overhead rustled faintly in the night breeze, and I was starting to get impatient as the first glimpse of the moon was sighted. But then--

"There we are!" Hermione exclaimed.

Everybody was trailing out of the tree, and Harry looked murderously over at Pettigrew.

"There's nothing you can do, Harry. You can't be seen." Hermione whispered.

The moon slid out from behind its cloud at her words and Gennie's shouting was heard from the shadows.

"Hermione!" said Harry suddenly. "We've got to move!"

"Didn't you listen to her?" I snapped. "We can't do anything!"

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

"Shit," I groaned.

"Quick!" Hermione moaned, dashing to untie Buckbeak. "Quick! Where are we going to go? Where are we going to hide? The Dementors will be coming any moment —"

"Back to Hagrid's!" Harry said. "It's empty now — come on!"

Tugging at Buckbeak's rope furiously we began running, and the creature seemed to sense our panic as the howls of the werewolf was heard behind us. Then the cabin was there, glowing like a beacon and I almost cried as Harry opened the door and we all piled inside the small hut.

Breathing heavily I leaned against the window pane, trying to see what was going on—but it was barely detectable in the darkness.

"We'll have to go outside when it's time, we can't see anything otherwise—" I trailed off, struggling to speak from exhaustion.

"I'll come with you," Harry said.

"Well... okay, then... I'll wait here with Buckbeak... but both of you be careful — there's a werewolf out there — and the Dementors."

Giving her a reassuring smile, the two of us stepped into the darkness of the grounds, yelping heard from not too far away.

"It's almost time then..." I whispered.

"That means whoever made the patronuses are coming now!" Harry said, pulling at my hand. "Come on!"

For a fraction of a second I hesitated until Harry gave me a pleading look. We had to know...

And there were the Dementors. They were emerging out of the darkness from every direction, gliding around the edges of the lake...

"We won't have to get near them," Harry said, reading my thoughts. "We just need to see if it is Mum and Dad."

"Okay."

We began to run. I had no thought in my head except of our parents... If it was them... if it really was them... we had to know, had to find out...

Throwing ourselves behind a bush on the edge of the water we knelt, peering through the leaves. Our faint silver attempts were gone, it was almost time--

"Come on!" Harry muttered, staring around. "Where are you? Dad, Mum, come on —"

But no one came. I raised my head to look at the circle of Dementors across the lake. One of them was lowering its hood towards me. It was time for the rescuers to appear — but no one was coming to help this time —

And then it hit me. "IT'S US!" I burst out, and Harry jumped. "How many times have people told us we look like our parents this year?! It's us—we did that!"

"YES!" Harry exclaimed, looking startled.

Holding hands, we flung out from the bushes and spoke together.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" we both yelled.

And maybe it was the positive thoughts spilling like sugar in my mind, or the fact I was with my brother, who loved me that we were always going to be together, or the fact I was finally apart of the world I'd been separated from, but—

It worked.

A blindingly silver animal appeared out of my wand, resembling a horse. And it was charging at the dementors with Harry's patronus at its side—and the dementors were falling back, retreating—they were gone.

And as the darkness began to lift, I could see the shapes of the patronuses as they galloped back to us. A stag and doe approached us—the two separate heads of a coin, two equals....

But then, the two patronuses flickered and disappeared.

Slowly, we turned to each other, silent in shock. And then grins burst onto our faces and we hugged so close I felt Harry's hair tickle my neck, and it was like that first hug on that first day—but more special. We were finally joined and united.

"We are the most amazing set of twins that have lived," Harry mumbled into my hair. "We saved ourselves!"

"Maybe we're more like our parents than we thought...." I giggled, and the two of us burst into relieved laughter, as the pounding of hooves approached.

Spinning around, Hermione was dragging Buckbeak, looking furious. "What did you do?" she said fiercely. "You said you were only going to keep a lookout!"

"We just saved all our lives..." said Harry. "Get behind here behind this bush — I'll explain."

Hermione listened to what had just happened with her mouth open for the countless time this night. "Did anyone see you?"

"Yes, haven't you been listening?" I laughed. "I thought I saw our parents, but it was us all along!"

"I can't believe it! That's very advanced magic!" Hermione said, shaking her head in disbelief.

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

"I don't know — Harry, look at Snape!"

Together we peered around the bush at the other bank. Snape was awake and conjuring stretchers to put all of us on them. Then wand held in front of him, he began to limp off to the castle.

"Right, it's nearly time," said Hermione tensely, looking at her watch. "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..."

"No pressure...." I said, though hope was starting to go through me like a powerful drug. We could do this.

We waited, and I kept fidgeting as time went as slow as oozing honey, and I was ready to scream. I just wanted to save Sirius.

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

Staring through the darkness, I could see Macniar with something on his belt. "Macnair is going to get the dementors! We need to go now!"

Hermione put her hands on Buckbeak's back and Harry gave her a leg up. The two of them grabbed my wrists and pulled me up to sit behind Hermione. Harry leant over and tied the rope as some sort of reins.

"Ready?" he whispered to us. "You'd better hold on —"

He nudged Buckbeak's sides with his heels.

Buckbeak soared straight into the dark night sky, and I couldn't help whooping as the wings began whipping wildly around us as I clutched around Hermione's waist like a life-saver; the wind and height making my eyes stream.

Hermione didn't like it at all, and she kept letting out squeals as Buckbeak made misguided swoops in the air, almost hitting owls.

But then we could see the bricks of the castle and we were floating upwards, counting the windows slowly, praying we'd find the right one.

"There!" Hermione shouted, and Harry pulled hard on the rope and Buckbeak turned so abruptly we almost crashed into the window.

The noise seemed to startle Sirius, who was sat on a chair in the classroom, mouth open in disbelief. He leapt up, and tried yanking at the window, but it was locked.

"Stand back!" Hermione called to him, and she took out her wand, still gripping the back of Harry's robes with her left hand.

"Alohomora!"

The window sprang open, and Sirius climbed onto the windowsill, staring at us like we were a mirage. "How—how—"

"Get on!" I hissed. "The dementors are coming for you soon!"

That seemed to startle Sirius into action and in seconds he flung a leg over Buckbeak's back, and I helped pull him on behind me.

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

With another whistling sound from the wings, Buckbeak soared further up into the air, Sirius holding tightly onto my shoulders as we landed with a crash onto the West tower.

As soon as it was safe, the three of us slid off Buckbeak and into the tower.

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

"What happened to your friends?" croaked Sirius.

"They're going to be okay—Gennie's with Remus. Just, please—go-"

Sirius was looking at us in disbelief. "How can I ever thank —"

"GO!" Harry, Hermione and I shouted together.

Sirius took the reins and spun Buckbeak around, taking a final look at us. "We'll see each other again—Harry, Rory. Your parents—they would be proud of you both."

I felt like my heart was warming in my chest, and I felt like I was going to cry. "They'd be proud of you too—you tried so hard to protect us."

Sirius gave me a small smile and then he squeezed Buckbeak's sides and the huge wings batted in the air once again, and Buckbeak and Sirius were rising.... They were getting smaller and smaller as they rose into the sky—Sirius waving until we couldn't see them anymore.

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