Ben wished Hermione had thought of that, because now they were speeding past trees and branches, hearing the werewolf hungrily growling after them. As they reached a part full of gigantic and thick trees, Harry suddenly tripped over some roots protuding from the floor.

Ben immediately helped him up, and didn't let go of his hand until they were behind one of those huge trees. Hermione and Harry observed as the werewolf approached, while Ben's eyes scanned the ground, until they stopped on a broad branch laying on the floor.

Before thinking it twice, he cautiously took out his wand, and pointed it at it, before whispering so softly his voice was merely audible by him. "Wingardium leviosa."

The branch was slowly lifted up into the air, following the path his wand was taking it. Harry and Hermione were taking steps towards him, their backs towards the boy, eyes fixed on the left side of the tree.

Ben spun around, to find the wolf standing only inches away from them. The beast let out a mad growl, making Hermione and Harry turn, faces white as the moon shining above them. Ben lifted up his wand, making the branch go higher up.

A split second before the wolf could attack them, Ben shook his wand with a swift movement, throwing the branch directly to the creature's face, pushing him back with a thud.

Not wasting any time, Ben grabbed both of his friends' arms, and they backed away. However, the wolf didn't give up, yet. It growled furiously behind them, causing them to look back, to check how large the distance between them was.

Terrible idea. The wolf was approaching them slowly, and the ground behind them was so high and full of tangled roots that it would take them a long time to climb it up. Ben racked his brains, trying to come up with some other idea to save themselves, but he simply couldn't think of anything. He was way too terrified to think clearly.

Was it the end? Were they really going to die being killed by their own teacher in his werewolf form? Well, at least it wouldn't be a boring death in the slightest. As if it had been planned, both Harry and Ben wrapped their arms around Hermione protectively at the same time.

And they waited for death to arrive, eyes closed tightly, only one single thought was on Ben's mind: Alycia. The thought of not being able to hear his sister's sweet laugh again was unbearable for him. He wished he could have said goodbye to her, and could have hugged her for one last time.

He heard a very loud noise, though it wasn't a growl from the wolf. Curiosity won over his fear, and he instinctively opened his eyes, his horrified expression turning into one full of confusion.

Buckbeak the hippogriff lashed out fiercely at the werewolf, delivering a forceful blow across its face. He called after it a couple more times before compelling the beast to recoil and flee through the woods in the opposite direction.

Hermione panted, pulling herself closer to both boys. "That was so scary."

"Professor Lupin's having a really tough night," said Harry, glancing over at Ben to check on him.

"Poor man..." he commented, before looking away from Harry to observe Buckbeak. "Well done, mate, you saved us. Thank you."

The creature gave him a friendly look. The leaves on the forest floor rose and swirled through an abrupt gust of cold wind. A terrible sensation of dread and emptiness embraced them, and Ben was brought back to the first time he had seen a dementor, the first day of term when one of them got into their compartment on their way to school.

The three of them looked up to the dark, yet starry, sky. At least a dozen of dementors glided through the air, scouring for their escaped prisoner: Sirius Black.

"Sirius!" shouted Harry. "Come on!"

He set off running again, guiding Hermione and Ben to the black lake. When they arrived, the dementors were already there, hovering around two figures; one taller than the other. The tallest one was Sirius Black, and Ben's heart missed a beat once he realised who the second was.

It was Harry. He was being attacked by dementors, although most of them were focused on Sirius, for pretty obvious reasons. However, that didn't take away the fact that Harry was visibly hurting from it. He was shouting, falling to his knees, yet the terrible hooded creatures didn't stop.

"This is horrible," whispered Hermione.

Ben couldn't agree more. He forced himself to look away, he couldn't bear witnessing his best friend going through so much pain. Harry from the present was very still, awaiting for something to happen.

"What... what do we do now?" he asked him in a small voice.

Harry looked at him slightly nervously. "We have to wait. My dad will come anytime soon."

Could ghosts conjure patronuses? Ben had no clue, but an awfully bad sensation was clinging to his heart. Yet, he remained quiet, wishing Harry was right.

But nobody was coming, and the forest was in absolute silence, with no sounds announcing someone's arrival. Sirius had fainted, and was laying on the floor, movementless. All the dementors were now fixed on Harry, and it was clear that he wouldn't last too long.

"Any minute now," continued Harry, and pointed shakily at some rocks in front of them. "Right there, you'll see!"

"Harry, listen to me," said Hermione cautiously. "No one's coming."

"Don't worry, he will," insisted the boy. "He will come."

Hermione slowly shook her head. "You're dying... Both of you."

"It's okay, he's coming."

"Harry, please, he's not going to come!" exclaimed Ben, scared beyond his mind. "He can't come to save you!"

Harry looked right into Ben's eyes for an instant, before running out of the forest entrance, and stopping at the border of the frozen lake. He drew his wand with determination, and took a deep breath.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" he bellowed. A bright white light was shot out of his wand, slightly weakly at first, but it soon turned bigger, much more powerful, and extended all over the lake in wave motions. The dementors shrieked dreadfully as they were engulfed in the spell, scattering in different directions, until the light died out.

Harry gasped for breath, recovering, and was surprised as Ben sprinted down from the forest, and wrapped him in a tight hug, both of them nearly losing balance from the impact.

———————————————

A refreshing night breeze brushed against their faces, tugging at their hair as they flew through the air on Buckbeak, on their way to the tower where they had assumed Sirius Black was locked up.

"You were right, Hermione! It wasn't my dad I saw earlier! It was me! I saw myself conjuring the patronus before. I knew I could do it this time because... well, I'd already done it! Does that make any sense?"

"No!" she replied. "But I don't like flyi- AHH!"

Ben laughed as Harry steered Buckbeak down to the dark tower. Once they landed, they all took a deep breath before approaching the cell. Their intuition had been correct: Sirius was sitting there, in a corner of the room.

"Hello," greeted Harry.

"We've come to take you out of here," Ben told him, in case he was wondering.

Sirius smiled at them.

"Be careful," warned Hermione, taking out her wand. Harry and Ben took a couple of steps back. "Bombarda!"

The cell's door exploded, jeeting some pieces of bricks all over the air. As soon as the cloud of dust had vanished, Sirius Black stepped through. He looked exactly like in the pictures, except for one small detail: his lips were drawing a smile now.

His light grey eyes met Ben's, and the boy nervously held out a hand for him to shake. "Hello, my name is Benjamin-"

"Walker, yes, I know who you are," he finished. His voice was raspy, very raspy, but it still sounded friendly, and you could tell it had been bright and vivacious before he went through Azkaban. "I used to attend many dinners with your family when I was younger."

Ben didn't know how to respond to that. He wanted to cause a good impression to him, and he knew talking about their families wouldn't be a great idea. Growing up, he didn't only hear the story about him being a murderer, but also the one about him betraying his family and running away. He had always admired his courage for that, but felt guilty for it, since he didn't want to compliment or admire a killer in any sort of way, even if it was something completely unrelated to murder.

"Let's go," said Hermione, and they all carefully mounted Buckbeak, who immediately set off into the darkness of the night.

The creature landed on the now empty courtyard, just a few minutes later. Sirius was the first one to jump off, and helped the kids do the same, before they all walked to a nearby corridor.

"I will forever be grateful for this," said Sirius, sounding dead serious. "To all of you."

"I want to go with you," Harry told him immediately.

"One day, perhaps. But sometimes my life can be too unpredictable. And, besides," he continued, stepping closer to Harry, placing his hands on the boy's shoulders softly. "You're meant to be here."

"But you're innnocent," retorted Harry.

Sirius smiled at him, before slowly pulling Harry down, making him sit on a bench as he crouched down in front of him. "And you know it. And for now, that'll do."

Hermione and Ben exchanged glances, and both of them silently walked over to Buckbeak, allowing Harry and Sirius some privacy. "I really wish he could've gone live with him," commented the boy. "He would've been much happier there."

"Yeah," she agreed. "But Sirius is right. It's too risky, for both of them."

Ben didn't respond to that, and simply stroked Buckbeak's soft feathers in silence. Some minutes later, they were joined by Harry and Sirius, who mounted the animal gracefully.

"You really are the brightest witch of your age," the man told Hermione, before looking at Ben. "And you, please remember that where we come from doesn't define us; it's our actions what do make us who we are."

Ben smiled at him, with Sirius returning the gesture before trotting away on Buckbeak, which extended his wings, and set off. Harry, Hermione and Ben watched as they both disappeared into the night.

"We have to go," said the girl, and they ran into the castle, not stopping until reaching the hospital wing, which Professor Dumbledore was coming out of. They took a couple of seconds to catch their breath before saying anything, but the headmaster was the first to speak.

"Well?"

"He's free," panted Harry. "We did it."

"Did what?" the old man asked, but they could tell he obviously knew, by the enigmatic look he was giving them. "Good night..."

The three of them exchanged looks, before pushing the door open right when the other Harry and Hermione were disappearing. Ron was lying on a bed, his leg extended and bandaged.

"How did you get there?" he asked, pointing at them, and then signalling to the place where their other selves had been standing. "I was talking to you there. And now you're there, with Ben!"

"What's he talking about?" asked Hermione.

"I don't know," shrugged Harry. "Honestly, Ron, how can somebody be at two places at once?"

"Maybe you've gone mad, Ron," added Ben.

The three of them laughed, relieved to know everything was over, as Ron looked at them, seeming as confused as ever.

———————————————

During the way back home, Harry told Hermione, Ben and Ron about his visit to Lupin. They had found out he would no longer be teaching at Hogwarts, since someone had snitched on him, and told everyone he was a werewolf, and nobody wanted a werewolf teaching their children.

Ben would've liked to come with him, too, since he wanted to apologise to Lupin for throwing a branch at him while he was on beast mode, but he had been procrastinating finishing packing his truck, so he didn't have time. Harry assured him he'd apologise on his behalf, and then told him that their ex-professor had told him not to worry about it in the slightest, since he was just protecting himself and his friends.

Harry was very glad to announce to his friends that he had gotten the Marauder's Map back, since Lupin thought it would be much more useful for Harry and his friends. 

"I'm excited to see what happens next year," commented Ben, feeling Snowflake play with his shoelaces. "I'm sure it will be useful, seing we keep getting into adventures every single term."

"Excited?" repeated Ron, making them laugh. "I'd say scared is more appropiate!" 

"At least this summer we can communicate in an easier way," said Hermione. "Those notebooks Ben gave us for Christmas are going to be very useful!"

"That's why I got them for you," he replied. "I can still send letters, but I'd rather not risk it too much. After all, they think I'm no longer friends with you."

"I still can't believe Malfoy agreed to keep the secret."

Ben shrugged. "I just hope he doesn't break the deal after what happened the other day."

"I don't think he will," responded Hermione. "He probably would've done it by now."

"And, after all, you owing him a favour can be very useful for him in the future," added Harry.

"Yeah, that's true," agreed Ron. "Especially now that Scab- Pettigrew escaped. I hope it doesn't, but there's a risk something very bad might happen."

Harry swallowed uncomfortably.

"Well, no matter what happens, we'll stick together," stated Ben. "We'll be by your side, Harry. We'll all continue surviving, like we have until now."

The black-haired boy looked at Ben, his eyes full of emotions the brunet couldn't really unravel, so he simply smiled at him. And a warm sensation crept to his chest as Harry returned the gesture.

A/N: let's gooo, year four is about to start! i'm so so excited, you should all get ready for the drama that's about to come to this fic!