"𝒯𝒾𝓂ℯ 𝒲𝒶𝓇𝓅" － 𝒯𝒽ℯ ℛℴ𝒸𝓀𝓎 ℋℴ𝓇𝓇ℴ𝓇 𝒫𝒾𝒸𝓉𝓊𝓇ℯ 𝒮𝒽ℴ𝓌

𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝟕𝐭𝐡, 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟒

Fred Weasley felt exhausted. He could feel it in his bones, the way his shoulders sagged as he slumped over his twin brother's hospital bed.

     "Well, this wasn't how I expected yesterday to go," he said dryly to himself. Craning his neck, he checked on his siblings — blood and adopted.

     Nikki was still unconscious. His ears rung with the sound that her body made when it collided with the boulder she was flung into.

     Ron was awake, leg bandaged with strips of fabric. He was talking quietly with Hermione, who nibbled on a piece of chocolate that had been snapped off of her chocolate bar.

     Harry and George were passed out as well.

Fred stood up from the uncomfortable chair at George's bedside, stretching as his neck popped. Yawning, he walked over to Ron, sitting carefully on the end of his bed and cautiously avoiding jostling his previously broken leg.

     "You two caught up on... everything that happened after we got brought here?" Fred asked softly, warm brown eyes dull with tiredness. "It's a hell of a lot."

Ron snorted, a sound that bore little humor. "Nikki broke her ribs from getting flung into a boulder — I don't blame Lupin, but bloody hell that must hurt — Hermione, Harry, George, Nikki, and Sirius were attacked by Dementors, and now we're back to square one."

     "Square zero," Fred corrected dryly. "He's locked up again; no idea where. I nominate you to be the one to tell Nikki."

     "Or just wait until Fudge spills," Harry cracked a joke from his bed, pushing himself up amidst the starched white sheets. "I'd pay to see that."

Hermione's head snapped in Harry's direction, her bushy brown hair following her movements. "Harry!"

"Don't worry about me, Hermione," Harry said. His emerald green eyes narrowed. "Worry about how we're going to break—"

     He cut himself off just in the nick of time, the doors to the hospital wing whisking open to admit Cornelius Fudge, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, and Severus Snape.

     Poppy Pomfrey briskly walked up the ward to Harry's bedside, bearing the thickest block of chocolate in the world like it was a weapon. "No need to worry, dear, they've got Black. He's locked away upstairs, and the Dementors will be performing the Kiss any moment now."

     A faint snort sounded from George's bed, the ginger in it wincing as he mumbled to himself, "Jerry's been dreaming about that..."

     "WHAT?!" Harry burst out, his chest heaving from the outburst. "You can't — he's innocent!"

     Fred got up from the edge of Ron's bed as if it scalded him, taking quick steps to Nikki's bedside. He couldn't let her blurt out something that could get her in trouble; she was the only person of their ragtag justice army that was overage.

     "Harry?" Fudge questioned, his face drawn in an agitated expression. "You should be resting — has he had any chocolate?"

     "Minister, just listen!" Harry demanded, swinging his legs over the edge of his bed and standing up on slightly unsteady feet. "Sirius Black is innocent! Peter Pettigrew faked his own death; chopped off his own finger! We saw him tonight. You can't let the Dementors do that vile thing to Sirius—"

     Nikki groaned from where she slowly regained consciousness, blinking her eyes against the influx of bright white light above her.

     Fudge was shaking his head with a pitying smile on his face. "Harry, Harry, you're very confused, you've been through a dreadful ordeal. Get back in bed, now, we've got everything under control."

     "YOU HAVEN'T!" Harry roared. "YOU'VE GOT THE WRONG MAN!"

     All the fuzziness that remained after just waking up vanished instantly at those words. Nikki attempted to sit up in her bed, mouth falling open in a silent gasp of pain.

     "Why didn't he kill us, then?" George asked baldly. "Death Eaters don't care about ages. Hell, they were recruiting from Hogwarts. And I think it's pretty clear that Death Eaters also don't have any qualms about murder."

     "Minister, listen," Hermione begged, giving her trust in Harry Potter, one of her first friends ever, the reins. She gazed imploringly at the Minister for Magic. "I saw him too. It was Ron's rat — Peter Pettigrew — he's an Animagus and—"

     "You see, Minister," Snape uttered calmly. "Confunded, all of them, Black's done a number on them."

     "He never got a trial," Nikki loftily interjected, her hand pressed against her injured torso as Fred helped her maneuver into a sitting position. "Find me the paperwork that says that Sirius Black had an official trial — Bellatrix Lestrange did."

     "We're not confunded," Harry snapped. "He's innocent; I know it!"

     Fred shrugged. "It's also extremely unlikely that he'd be able to confund... one seventh year, two fifth years, and three third years without getting stunned, Body Bound, or worse by one of us."

Under his half-moon spectacles, Professor Dumbledore stayed silent, merely observing the fierce defense of Sirius.

"Does my evidence count for nothing?" Snape spat, his voice shaking with revulsion. "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 earnestly explained. "You didn't arrive in time to—"

"Miss Granger, HOLD YOUR TONGUE!"

"Don't yell at her because you're pissed that we're bringing up holes in your delusional argument! You're condemning an innocent man to a fate worse than death," Nikki snarled back, her eyes blazing.

"I would like to speak to Harry, Hermione, Nicole, Fred, George, and Ronald alone," Dumbledore sharply interrupted what Severus Snape was going to say. Nikki and Ron gave identical shudders at their full first names.

      "Cornelius, Severus, Poppy — please leave."

     "Headmaster!" Poppy Pomfrey sputtered, scandalized. "They need treatment; they need rest."

     "This cannot wait," Dumbledore said, his voice gentle yet commanding at the same time. "I must insist."

     Fudge looked at the gaudy golden pocket watch dangling from his waistcoat, uneasily watching the mutinous look that Severus Snape leveled at the elderly wizard.

     "The dementors should have arrived by now," he interjected, trying to placate the hook-nosed professor. "I'll go and meet them. Dumbledore, I'll see you upstairs."

     Crossing the room, the Minister held the door open for Snape to walk through. The man didn't move.

     "Surely you don't believe a word of Black's story?" He asked incredulously.

     Dumbledore firmly repeated, "I wish to speak to them alone."

     Snape took a singular step towards Albus Dumbledore, seething.

     "Sirius Black has shown that he was capable of murder at the age of sixteen," he breathed out, voice shaking with barely contained rage. "You haven't forgotten that, Headmaster? You haven't forgotten that he once tried to kill me?"

     "Because—" Nikki's mouth opened as if to defend him, though Fred's hand firmly lodged itself over her mouth to keep her from spilling the secrets they had been compiling for the entire school year.

     "My memory is as good as it ever was, Severus." It was a quiet response, one that politely dismissed the Potions Professor.

     The second Cornelius Fudge, Severus Snape, and Poppy Pomfrey left the room Fred took his hand off of Nikki's mouth.

     Nikki buried her head in her hands, mumbling, "Everything was going so well — we had him!"

     Ron and Hermione stumbled over the explanation to Dumbledore, their words staggering each other.

     "He already knows," George smirked, snickering at the look on their faces. "Has since end of November."

     "It is your turn to listen," Dumbledore said softly, his words meticulously chosen. "I beg you will not interrupt me, because there is very little time. There is not a shred of proof to support Sirius' story, except your words — and the words of a seventeen year old, two fifteen year olds, and three thirteen year olds will not convince anybody."

     Fred and George muttered to themselves, "We're sixteen..."

     "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."

     Nikki pulled her head out of her hands, chewing on her lower lip as she thought. "There's got to be a way to break him out... there's always a way out of things if you operate outside of the law."

     "Re-Professor Lupin can tell you—" Harry blurted, unable to help himself.

     "Professor Lupin is currently deep in the forest, unable to tell anyone anything," Dumbledore explained patiently, though he cut off Harry mid sentence. Nikki flinched at the mention. Remus didn't deserve this. "By the time he is human again, it will be too late. What we need... is more time."

     "...Nobody's telling Sirius about this," Nikki connected the dots, a mischievous grin crossing her face as she carefully stood up out of her bed. Her face flickered, a pain-filled expression flashing across her face before it vanished barely a second after.

     "But—" Hermione began, confused. Her eyes widened as the plan hit her. "OH!"

     "...What?" Ron asked cluelessly.

     "Now, pay attention," Dumbledore said, speaking very low and slowly. "Sirius is locked in Professor Flitwick's office on the seventh floor, the thirteenth window from the right of the West Tower. If all goes well, you might be able to save more than one innocent life tonight. But, remember this, you must not be seen."

     Albus Dumbledore strode easily towards the door, his face a placid mask. "I am going to lock you in. It is—" he raised his wristwatch up to eye level, "five minutes to midnight. Miss Granger, three turns should do it. Miss Weasley, please don't darken your unlucky record even more. It would be a struggle to explain to your loved ones."

     With a wink, he was gone, the door locked behind him.

     Hermione's head shot up, the pressure of their time limit causing her movements to speed up. "Harry, come here, quick!"

Harry's eyebrows furrowed. "What — oh."

"Like hell am I letting you two time travel by yourselves," Nikki scoffed lightly, grabbing her wand off of the bedside table. "Fred, George, you're in charge — don't let the power go to your head."

     Fred and George snorted weakly. Their thoughts were dragged nearly two years back in the past, when Nikki came to them after accidentally time-traveling more than a decade into the past.

     Hopefully it didn't go wrong again.

Neither of them wanted to deal with the fallout that would come from one Sirius Orion Black the Third.

Dusting her hands off lightly, Nikki strode over to Hermione and Harry, the fourteen year old girl throwing the necklace chain over their necks.

Hermione counted each turn of the Time Turner as she spun it, her hands shaking slightly as the room swirled around them.

"Huh, better than last time," Nikki snorted under her breath as the ground stabilized beneath them.

Hermione bodily shoved them into a broom closet, ducking in and closing the door behind them.

"Wha—" Harry spluttered, his nose scrunching in confusion.

Nikki pulled her hair back into a ponytail with the elastic band wrapped around her wrist. "You know, you're lucky nobody was occupying this closet... would have scarred you for life."

"Shhhh!" Hermione hushed, straining her ears to listen to what was occurring outside of the door.

"It's you, Harry, and Ron," Nikki said after a brief moment of silence, chewing on her lower lip as she thought. "You're going to meet us, then Sirius can't get the Frisbee, that arse tries to execute him... need I go on?"

Harry huffed out a breath. "None of this is helping!" He whisper-shouted. "We need to rescue Sirius... somehow..."

"Why'd Dumbledore tell us to go back three hours instead of just a single hour? It doesn't make sense," Hermione murmured to herself as she struggled to decipher Dumbledore's instructions amidst riddles upon riddles.

Harry's jaw dropped as the answer hit him with all the force of a rampaging herd of hippogriffs. "...He — more than one innocent life — we're going to save Buckbeak!"

Nikki's eyes widened excitedly. "That... that would work! Fucking hell, you're definitely James' son — he'd come up with a plan as chaotic as this."

Harry's cheeks reddened as he bashfully ducked his head.

Hermione was confused. "But... how would that help Sirius?"

"Dumbledore told us the window," Harry stressed the last word. "We're going to fly Buckbeak up to Sirius, and he can escape from here with Buckbeak!"

Nikki sighed softly. "One flaw with that plan — there's no way in hell we would be able to convince Sirius to up and leave to... I don't know, America?... without us."

She fiddled with the ends of her ginger ponytail as she cracked a sheepish smile. "He's already not going to be very amused by the fact that we've both time-traveled... again, for me."

Her head snapped up, eyebrows furrowing. "There's nobody outside; can't hear them. Come on, we're on a time crunch — literally."

The unlikely trio snuck down to Hagrid's, avoiding the giant black dog that was currently nosing around in the half-giant's garden.

"I have never been so happy in my life that I haven't showered in a day," Nikki mumbled to herself. "The coconut shampoo and conditioner is a dead giveaway that there's two me's right now."

Harry muffled his snort into his hand.

Hermione wrung her hands together, an anxious look across her face. The three teenagers watched as the events that had transpired mere hours ago reoccurred — to them, at least — and Harry and the dog split off from the group entering Hagrid's.

"Oh, that's really dangerous!" Hermione whispered frantically as they watched the Sirius from their past transform back into his human form. "He could have been seen!"

"When there's a Death Eater on the grounds," Harry muttered back, "he's not exactly all that worried about himself."

A thought hit him suddenly, the emerald eyed boy half-rising out of his crouched position. "What if we just ran in there and grabbed Pettigrew?"

"Andddd there's those Potter brains," Nikki let out a scoff, her voice light and even. "You can't be seen, especially not by yourself. Trust me, I'm a seasoned veteran of time travel."

"You did it once and the thing broke," Harry said flatly.

Nikki thought to herself, 'Touché.'

Hermione rapidly shook her head. "This is one of the most dangerous laws of the magical world! If you saw yourself bursting into Hagrid's, what would you think?"

"...That I've gone crazy?" Harry sheepishly replied, lips quirking into an innocent smile.

"People have killed their future selves time-traveling before," Hermione warned. "It's a miracle Nikki made it back alive."

"Well," Nikki drawled, "it's a bit difficult for an infant to kill someone."

     Harry snickered. "I apparently did."

     Nikki rolled her eyes affectionately, cuffing him on the back of the head lightly as the boy crept forwards to where Buckbeak was tied up to a post.

     Careful not to blink, Harry carefully lowered himself into a bow as he looked directly into the hippogriff's fierce orange eyes for the second time.

     Silence.

     Nikki nibbled anxiously on her lower lip, her heartbeat rising.

     She could hear each beat.

     After what seemed like an eternity, Buckbeak sank to his scaly knees and then stood back up again, proud even to the end. Harry began to fumble with the rope around the creature's neck as snippets of the formal announcement of Buckbeak's execution drifted in through the open window.

     "...sentenced to execution by beheading, to be carried out... Walden Macnair..."

     Nikki's nose wrinkled at the name.

     "Come on, Buckbeak," Harry coerced in a murmur, "we're going to help, quietly!"

     Harry threw his weight into the rope, but the hippogriff didn't budge. "Come on," Harry begged.

     Reluctantly, Buckbeak began to walk towards the tree line, his feathers ruffling in a display of annoyance.

     "Move faster!" Nikki hissed under her breath, Hermione and her faces pale white. "You're going to get seen—"

     They just barely crossed into the forest before Hagrid's back door opened with a bang.

     Hermione's breath caught in her throat. The three time-travelers stood stock-still, not even daring to breathe.

     The loud squabbling made its way over to the forest, Walden Macnair furious that his victim had escaped.

     Nikki flinched back from the noise, her face whitening more as her ribs protested the action.

     "Bless his little beak, he's gone!" Hagrid's voice rose above the din, his joy unmistakable even through wracking sobs.

     "So..." Harry questioned blankly. "What do we do now?"

     "Shhhh," Nikki hushed, her palm stretching out and closing over Harry's mouth. "You know how our hearing is."

     "We'll have to hide here," Hermione determined, though her face looked shaken. "We need to wait until we've all gone up to the castle. Then, we wait until it's safe to fly up to the window with Buckbeak to rescue Sirius... which is going to take a couple hours."

     "We've got to see the Whomping Willow to see what's going on," Harry declared. "Otherwise it's a guessing game."

     Carefully, Nikki, Hermione, Harry, and Buckbeak snuck around the forest edge. They hunkered down in a clump of trees, the Whomping Willow in their eyesight.

     Nikki winced as the Hermione from their past screamed at the collision between Ron and Sirius. "...Sorry nobody explained to you..."

     Hermione gave a minute shake of her head, lower lip trembling. Her eyes landed on Macnair, Dumbledore, Fudge, and the Committee member that looked to be pushing two hundred as they walked up the path just as their past selves slipped into the tunnel below the Whomping Willow.

     She moaned, "Right after we went down the passage! If only Dumbledore came with..."

     Harry frantically shook his head. "Macnair and Fudge would have come too," he bitterly replied.

     "Remus and I would be in Azkaban before you could say the bloody word and Sirius would be dead," Nikki summed up in a dry monotone. "He's worth the risks, though."

     "Grab the cloak, Remus!" Harry pleaded under his breath as the weary professor ducked under the Willow along with Fred and George. "Or one of the twins!"

     He turned suddenly to Hermione as an idea struck him. "If I just dashed out there, I could grab it before Snape!"

     "We musn't be seen!" Hermione insisted, her words falling on deaf ears.

     Harry started to get up out of their cover, halted by Nikki's grasp on his collar yanking him down.

     "Hear something," she said simply.

     A burst of song followed her words, the sound coming from Hagrid, who weaved slightly as he walked.

     Barely two minutes after Hagrid left, Snape came charging out of the castle doors, black cape billowing behind him.

     Harry's fists clenched as they watched the Potions Professor skid up to the Whomping Willow, grabbing onto the Cloak of Invisibility and disappearing down the tunnel.

     "Get your filthy hands off it!" Harry snarled, his voice pitched low in fury.

     "James would have an aneurysm," Nikki murmured to herself, wincing. She leaned up against the trunk of one of the trees they were clustered beneath. "And now... we wait..."

     "Harry," Hermione questioned hesitantly as they sat down as well. "There's something I don't understand... why didn't the dementors get us? There were so many..."

     Harry began to explain the large silver something that had come galloping across the lake, forcing the dementors into a retreat.

     Nikki swore under her breath as she felt something poke her. Fiddling with the waistband of her shorts, her eyebrows furrowed as her fingers brushed against smooth wood.

     Her mouth popped open in a small 'o.'

     It was Sirius' wand.

     "A real Patronus. Corporeal," Harry finished, anxiously raking his fingers through his bird's nest that he called hair. "I... think it was my dad... though I know it sounds stupid and—"

     "...your dad's — well — dead," Hermione said gently. "You think you saw his ghost?"

     "Did it have antlers?" Nikki asked quietly, rolling the wand Sirius had snuck her between her fingers. "James' was his Animagus — Prongs. Giant arse deer."

     Her head fell against the wood of the tree trunk, exhausted. "Not how I was expecting to spend my day," she added wryly.

     "I think so..." Harry scrunched his nose up as he tried to remember through the fog the dementors had caused. "Solid... looked a bit like him — I have a couple pictures."

     They waited in silence, all three of them mulling over what Harry had explained. Nikki tilted her head up to the gradually setting sun, strips of crimson and maroon lighting up the sky.

     "He's not going to like this, you know?" Nikki broke the silence, lips quirking into a half grin. "Stubborn prat wanted to do everything by himself. Now, there's time travel involved — we did the time warp again!"

     Hermione cocked her head, bewildered. "...How do you know Rocky Horror Picture Show?"

     "Lily," Nikki said succinctly. "Became the only thing James and Sirius would play on her old record player in the common room. I think they got the entire school doing the time warp on Halloween."

     The howl of a werewolf broke them out of their quiet conversation, Harry's head snapping up.

     "Guys, we have to move!" He demanded, already hopping up and tugging lightly on the rope attached to Buckbeak's collar.

     Nikki winced as she saw herself get thrown violently into a boulder, a sickening crack echoing through the night sky.

     "No, we can't!" Hermione whispered frantically.

     "Yeah, I know!" Harry huffed. "Don't interfere, blah blah blah — he's going to come right at us!"

     They scrambled for Hagrid's cabin, Harry wrenching the door open and ushering them inside. With a slam, the door closed behind them.

     High pitched canine yelps of pain were audible even behind the closed door. Harry inched his way to the window, squinting.

     "I can't see anything... I've got to go outside and see when it's time."

     Nikki sighed, her fingers running through her limp ginger waves. "Coming with you."

     It was three words, not even a proper sentence. Her nose scrunched against the pain in her chest.

     Harry frowned sympathetically.

     "Remember," Hermione cautioned, "no interfering! And... be careful, both of you."

     Nikki and Harry crept from Hagrid's hut to the edge of the Black Lake, watching silently as the events that occurred scarcely a half-day ago unfolded once more.

     "Come on, Dad," Harry mumbled, his heartbeat racing as he watched the hoard of dementors converging on him, Hermione, George, Nikki, and Sirius. Glimpses of faint silver could be seen, Harry's meager past attempts at a Patronus. "Where are you?"

     No one came.

     His emerald green eyes snapped wide open as he realized. He understood.

     As Harry flung himself out from the bush they were hiding in, wand clutched in his clammy palm, he knew — without a shred of doubt — that his father wasn't the mysterious rescuer.

     He was.

     "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Harry Potter bellowed, the glowing silver deer bursting from his wand tip and cantering towards the dementors.

     Nikki cracked a soft smile at the sight of the Patronus, her memory drawing her back nearly twenty years in time to when James Fleamont Potter and Sirius Orion Black raced their Patronuses through the common room to the vexation of their fellow Gryffindors.

     Hermione flew towards them like a whirlwind, face drawn in the perfect picture of horror.

     "What did you do?" Hermione fiercely questioned. "You were supposed to just be lookout!"

     "I just saved all our lives," Harry laughed in disbelief. "Get behind this bush; I'll explain!"

     Hermione didn't understand. "Were you seen?!"

     "Yes — haven't you been listening?" Harry waved his hand in the air impatiently. "I thought I saw my dad — it was me!"

     Hermione's jaw dropped. "That — Harry that's very advanced magic."

     "Your mum's was a doe," Nikki revealed, getting to her feet gingerly. "There was a Defense Against the Dark Arts club — well, half club and half class — for all years that the professor thought were advanced... we worked on the Patronus Charm then."

     She snorted. "James practically fainted when she got it."

     Hermione checked her wristwatch, her entire body tense. "Forty five minutes... there's Professor Snape!"

     "More waiting," Nikki huffed dryly. "Stellar."

     They stood by the Black Lake, hiding behind thick tree trunks as their eyes fixated on the doors of the castle.

     A shadowy figure came bustling across the grounds, setting a straight, brisk path towards one of the entrances of Hogwarts. A shiny object glinted on his belt.

     "Macnair!" Harry hissed, gripping onto Hermione's shoulder and Nikki's wrist as they bid their time to move. "Okay, okay, okay... I'll give you both a leg up — Hermione, you hold on to Nikki's waist. Nikki, you grab on to me."

     Hermione and Nikki were boosted atop of Buckbeak's back, the younger, bushy-haired girl gripping tightly to Nikki's waist.

     Harry clambered on top of Buckbeak by using a low-hanging branch as a sort of step-stool. "Hold on tight!" He called back over his shoulder, looping the rope around Buckbeak's neck like a pair of reins for a horse.

     "Is now a good time to mention that I'm not really a big fan of—" Nikki's voice cut off into a strangled scream as her arms tightened around Harry's waist.

     Buckbeak soared into the dark air at the lightest tap of his flanks by Harry's heels. Hermione buried her face into Nikki's back, refusing to look down.

     "I don't like this," the fourteen year old squeaked. "I really don't like this!"

     Harry attempted to count the windows flashing past them, squinting as Buckbeak's wing brushed against the castle wall.

     "Whoa!" He called out, tugging backwards on the rope as hard as he could. "I think we've got it...?"

     Nikki swallowed shakily, carefully unwinding her arm from around Harry and pulling out her wand. Tapping it to the window, she whispered, "Alohomora."

     The window sprang open, causing Sirius' head to snap up from where he was sitting in the corner of the room.

     "Rescue party, party of three — is there a Sirius Orion Black the Third here?" Nikki posed innocently, grip on Harry with her other arm tensing. Her eyes flicked downwards, a lump lodging in the middle of her throat. "...Side note, don't look down."

     Harry joked, "Party of four, if we count Buckbeak."

     "What the fuck is going on?" Sirius queried, taking quick strides to the window. "...You lot are real... aren't you?"

     "Real — we're breaking you out on a hippogriff!" Harry chirped, a proud grin on his face.

     Sirius' eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "I-how?"

     "On a time crunch, can't explain how, please hurry — and don't fall!" Nikki explained quickly.

     His eyes rolled lightly. "Budge up a bit; you're suffocating poor Bambi."

In one fluid movement, Sirius pulled himself out of the window, balancing precariously on the windowsill.

Nikki's eyes widened, terrified. "Careful!" She shrieked, shifting the tiniest bit backwards and reluctantly letting go of Harry. Her hands shot out to balance herself on the hippogriff, breathing hitching in her throat as her ribs gave a pang.

Sirius narrowed his eyes as he flung one leg over the hippogriff's back, pushing himself between Harry and Nikki. Her arms looped around him as she pressed her face into the space between his shoulder blades.

Craning his neck around, he raised an eyebrow. "You should be in bed, love."

"It's Poppy Pomfrey," Nikki mumbled into the back of his shirt. "I'm perfectly fine."

"Even Poppy isn't that much of a miracle worker to fix broken ribs in an hour or two — you three time traveled, didn't you?" Sirius pieced everything together shrewdly.

Harry gave a weak grin over his shoulder. "...Best option?"

Giving Buckbeak another prod forwards, they flew higher, perching on the battlements as Hermione and Harry slid down off of the hippogriff. Hermione's face was a pasty white.

"...You're going to have to let me go for a second, Coley," Sirius said affectionately, his thumb tracing small circles on her clasped hands resting against his breastbone. "I'll get you down."

Nikki swallowed, relaxing her arms and letting them fall off from Sirius' body.

He dropped nimbly down to the ground, turning and placing his hands gently on her waist. Lifting her gently, as if she were made of glass, Sirius brought Nikki down to the ground.

"You time traveled again?" Sirius queried, a slight huff to his voice.

Nikki gave a sheepish smile, quipping, "Would you rather I let a thirteen year old and fourteen year old go back three hours in time without any adult supervision?"

Sirius gave no response, merely wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into a hug. He pressed his lips to the side of her head, breathing in the intoxicating scent of pure Nikki.

"...So..." Harry hesitantly mentioned, "what do we do now?"

Sirius stretched out one of his arms to ruffle Harry's hair. "I'm staying here," he said, a tone that gave no room for objection. "I'll be a dog again. We've made it this far. As for Buckbeak... give him back to Hagrid — Macnair's never been the most intelligent bloke, and the other guy looks like he's one strong wind away from keeling over from a heart attack. For Fudge... the less said about him the better."

His fingertips tapped out a staccato pattern against the skin of Nikki's bare back as he thought. "We'll fly Buckbeak back down, drop him off, and then haul arse back to the Hospital Wing."

Sirius snorted. "Such a James plan..."

Harry shifted from foot to foot, a tiny grin spreading across his face.

"Bloody hate heights..." Nikki mumbled to herself, taking a deep breath and savoring the strong scent of cinnamon. "We better hurry back down, or else we'll miss the time — Dumbledore said five minutes to midnight?"

Hermione gave a meek nod as she approached the hippogriff that Harry was petting the beak of. Harry gave her a boost once more, Sirius doing the same for Nikki.

Once they were all positioned properly, Harry snapped the reins, Buckbeak gliding through the air to come to a stop by Hagrid's garden.

"You're not running," Sirius stated flatly as he dismounted the hippogriff, picking Nikki up and cradling her. One of his arms supported her shoulders while the other was hooked under her knees. "I love you, but you can't keep pushing yourself if you're hurt."

     He planted a soft kiss to her forehead, lifting his head to Harry as the corner of his lips quirked into a grin. "And you... we've got to start working on this savior complex you have, Bambi. But we'll have time... now, we've got to run."

     It was a comical scene. Two third years flanked the escaped prisoner from Azkaban, who murmured softly in her ear. The dark-haired man winced every time she was jostled, almost as if the pain she bit back was felt by him instead of his love.

     They got to the door just as Dumbledore locked it, breathing heavily as Sirius set Nikki down on the stone floor.

     "No more time traveling," he puffed out, regaining his normal breathing pattern in a couple seconds. "For my sanity."

     "No promises."

     The side of her mouth lifted in a lopsided smile, wordlessly telling him that she was joking.

     "Inside, all of you," Albus Dumbledore ordered softly, unlocking the door and ushering them forwards as the bolt slid closed behind them.

     "Nothing got burnt down since we were put in charge!" Fred exclaimed. "Solemnly swear."

     George, from where he was propped up against a multitude of pillows in his hospital bed, snorted. "Success?"

     "Yes," Harry answered, nearly collapsing into the hospital bed he had been in only three hours before. "Can I sleep for a week, now?"

     Sirius transformed into his dog form and leapt on top of the bed that Nikki had been in, curling into a ball on top of the starched white sheets. Nikki slid in under them, the dog resting his head on her knee gently.

     "Did I hear the headmaster leave?" Madam Pomfrey irritably asked as she strode sharply up the aisle. "Am I allowed to look after my patients now?"

     A distant roar of fury echoed across the castle as Pomfrey distributed the chocolate bars out. Her eyes landed on the black furred dog, though she said nothing. A disapproving sniff was all she needed.

     "HE DIDN'T DISAPPARATE!" Severus Snape's voice exploded from behind the Hospital Wing's double doors. "YOU CAN'T APPARATE OR DISAPPARATE INSIDE THIS CASTLE! THIS. HAS. SOMETHING. TO. DO. WITH. POTTER!"

     The doors slammed open. Nikki brought one of her pillows up to her mouth, ready to muffle any snickers that would burst out.

     "Severus, be reasonable, they've all been locked—" came the Minister for Magic's voice.

     "OUT WITH IT, POTTER!" Spittle flew from his lips with each word. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

     "...Nothing?" Harry responded, screwing his face into a suitable expression of polite confusion and innocence.

     "Profesor Snape!" Madam Pomfrey rebuked, her chest puffing out furiously, "control yourself!"

     The howl from the Potions Professor showed that he was beyond the point of rationality. "THEY HELPED HIM ESCAPE!" His finger slipped off of Harry to Hermione and then to Nikki. It stalled on the giant black dog that was currently pressed against Nikki's leg, snout draped over her knee.

     "THE DOG, BLACK'S THE DOG!"

     Fudge shook his head like an irritating gnat was flying and buzzing around his ear. "You're talking absolute nonsense," he barked.

     "It's a bit barmy, Professor, you must agree," Nikki added placidly. "How on earth could my dog be Sirius Black?"

     Nikki's shoulders shook with suppressed laughter. Fred and George's poker faces were trained after years of pranking, though the fact that Severus Snape was completely right but Cornelius Fudge thought it was the ramblings of a lunatic was straining them beyond their limits.

     Ron pursed his lips, refusing to look at Harry or Hermione. If he did, he would break down into gales of laughter and it would be all over.

     'Goodbye dementors,' Sirius thought idly, pressing his muzzle against Nikki's hand.

     The Hospital Wing was quiet once everyone left, Severus Snape still spewing vitriol even as he was escorted out by the Minister.

     "I think we have to come clean," Fred murmured out of the corner of his mouth. "Full-on Weasley Family Meeting."

     Nikki frowned slightly as she absentmindedly ran her fingers through the thick fur on the nape of Sirius' neck. "Full-on or just the Weasley's at Hogwarts?"

     "Bill and Charlie, yes," George replied, on the same wavelength as his twin. "Mum and Dad... we'll leave that for later when we actually have a plan."

Word Count: 5,763