Chapter 138 — The Gap We Could See

The litter emerging beneath the Willow brought Harry back to his gap. I could see Ron’s pale face above the edge, then Snape’s sleeve and the hands helping guide the timber between the roots. Hermione kept Buckbeak behind the beech while I searched for Lupin and the cord.

Pettigrew came out beside him in human shape. I followed every step he took while Snape lowered the litter and sent up the red signal we had already seen once. Light answered nearer the castle; Harry and Sirius moved a few paces away from the others.

‘That’s when he asked,’ Harry whispered. I nodded without looking round, watching Lupin’s free hand begin to rise towards his chest.

‘Ready.’ I took Buckbeak’s chain from Hermione so she could put both hands to her wand. Across the clearing, my other self stood up beside the litter.

Sirius turned back towards Lupin, and the people around Ron began moving. Their bodies hid Pettigrew’s hands from me; I could see his shoulder, then nothing as Lupin bent forward.

‘Wait until he’s clear,’ I whispered. A grey shape dropped behind a root, vanished for an instant and appeared on the grass beyond it. Hermione followed it with her wand.

‘Petrificus Totalus!’ Her voice was nearly lost beneath Lupin’s cry. The spell struck earth at the edge of our gap as the rat passed behind a thick growth of stems.

‘Further left,’ Harry began, then stopped. The grass moved in two places, neither giving us a body to aim at, and nothing emerged through the next opening. Harry started to get up before I told him to stay where he was.

‘He went behind that patch,’ he said. His hand was against the trunk, ready to push him over it.

‘And we can’t reach the other side without crossing in front of Lupin.’ The werewolf threw Sirius aside as I spoke. Harry sank back, his jaw tight enough for me to see it moving beneath the skin.

Hermione watched the stems for several more seconds before lowering her wand. I had remembered where I lost sight of Pettigrew, prepared for that part of the ground and discovered how little of his route it gave us. I wanted to hit the beech; instead I tightened my grip on the chain and checked where Ron had got to.

I passed the chain back long enough to remove my pouch, then gave the pouch to Hermione. She fastened it across her body, and I checked the flap before Harry took the leading links. Buckbeak rose reluctantly, giving Hermione time to lift the coil clear of his feet and hand it over.

Across the clearing, we were moving Ron under the roots. My other self threw an Incendio strip, and the brief patch of fire lit Snape as he crossed in front of the opening. His shield caught the werewolf’s leap just as I remembered, including the way he struck his injured shoulder against the trunk.

Then the black dog crossed the grass. Harry made a small sound beside me and gripped the chain more tightly when Sirius went down; knowing the next few seconds did not make them easy to watch.

I saw the other Hermione take my pouch. Saw myself run out, briefly recognisable by the angle of my shoulders before the change brought me down onto four feet. The lion hit Lupin and rolled him clear of Sirius, close enough to the dog that I could see how badly another angle might have gone.

The werewolf rose, and the lion lifted a paw too high. Claws caught the shoulder underneath it; pain went through my dressing as I watched, though nothing had touched me here.

‘That’s when he got you,’ Harry said. I nodded, keeping my arm close as the lion drove forward and brought Lupin down again.

The raised paw stopped beside his head. Hermione breathed out, and I remembered how much movement had still been left in my body when I heard her warning. From here the gap between stopping and striking looked smaller than I liked.

‘Would you show me how you learnt?’ Harry asked quietly. He was still watching the lion back away from the werewolf. ‘When this is over?’

‘I can show you the work. You’ll need McGonagall before you try anything.’ He nodded, and I looked towards Snape, who was shifting to the position he had reached when the howl first came.

Hermione cupped her hands beside her mouth. The call carried out between the trees, and she was already turning after Harry when Lupin’s head came round. I told them to go, then followed with the fallen beech between me and the sound for as long as I could keep it there.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The werewolf reached the gap much faster than I wanted. Wood cracked behind me while Harry brought Buckbeak to the bend, where the hippogriff raised his head and began opening his wings in the narrow space.

‘Keep him moving!’ I called. Hermione reached the loose chain, helping Harry guide Buckbeak round the turn, and I stopped where the ground widened beside a standing tree.

My shoulder pulled as I lowered myself into the change. Damp leaves came close to my face, along with the scent of feathers and the stronger smell of the creature rushing towards us. I set all four feet properly beneath me before moving; I had learnt that much from the first collision.

Lupin rounded the tree with his arm already coming across. This time I stayed low, stepped beneath it and drove my left shoulder against his side, turning him away from the path Harry had taken. The impact forced a rough sound out of me even though I had used the better side.

He hit the ground and rolled while I recovered beside the trunk. Behind me the chain rattled once, then moved further away; when Lupin got up, I lowered my head and stayed between him and the bend.

He shifted towards the other side of the tree. I moved with him, listening to Harry speaking to Buckbeak in a voice that kept rising despite his efforts. The chain had stopped rattling, which I hoped meant they had reached the wider ground rather than another obstacle.

Lupin lunged. I turned my head away from his teeth and struck across his upper arm with my left forepaw, but his weight still came against me. The leg beneath my injured shoulder had to take more than I intended, sending pain through the whole joint.

I gave ground and let the next reach pass my head. Then I drove from my hind legs, caught him across the body and forced him back over a root. As he fell sideways, I pinned one forearm beneath my paw before he could bring it across my face.

His teeth were close enough for me to see the wetness on them. I roared, stepped back when he twisted towards my leg and kept the tree beside my good shoulder. It narrowed the space he could use, though staying there cost me several short, rough breaths.

For a few seconds neither of us advanced. The werewolf looked past me towards the bend, then back at my face when I lowered myself to meet another rush. Instead he moved sideways, turned between the trunks and went into the darker forest with one arm held close to his body.

I stayed where I was until I could no longer hear him. Then I backed towards the bend and found Harry holding Buckbeak’s chain with both hands while Hermione stood beside the hippogriff, keeping her movements slow.

‘Oswald?’ Harry said. I changed back beside a tree and put my left hand against it before trying to straighten.

‘Further in,’ I managed. ‘He’s gone further in.’ My voice felt scraped, and it took another breath before I trusted myself to take my hand off the bark.

Hermione came towards me with the pouch already unfastened. ‘Are you hurt again?’ she asked, looking at the dressing beneath my collar.

‘No bite. I need a moment.’ I moved the fingers of my right hand. The old wound hurt more, but Pomfrey would have to tell me how much I had aggravated it; I was not going to settle that question by pulling the dressing off beside a tree.

Hermione helped secure the pouch at my waist, clear of the arm I wanted to keep close. I checked the two dry Patronus covers with my left hand while Harry waited, then tried a few steps when he asked whether I could walk. The ground stayed where it belonged, though I stopped at the first dip.

‘We need the pool,’ I said. Hermione glanced along the route Lupin had taken, and I shook my head. ‘Along the edge. The fallen tree has a low fork, and Harry found Sirius beyond it.’

‘I remember the dip before that,’ Harry said. ‘And where we stopped.’ He did not need to explain why we had stopped, and I pointed towards the lighter spaces between the outer trunks.

‘Keep those on our left until we recognise the ground. We stay behind the other versions of us.’ Harry began leading Buckbeak back towards the edge while Hermione gathered the links that threatened to catch on roots.

The way became familiar in pieces: a hollow full of leaves, pale bark where something had rubbed against a trunk, then the low fork against the thinner light beyond it. I raised a hand when someone began stepping over the fallen tree, and for an instant I looked directly at my own face.

The boy opposite wore a torn shirt and held his right arm close. Harry’s wandlight moved beyond the trunk behind him, while he concentrated on where to put his feet. I took a careful step backwards and broke a twig beneath my heel.

My other self stopped. I drew Hermione behind the nearest broad trunk while Harry brought Buckbeak into cover beyond it, keeping the pale head behind another tree. Hermione caught the loose chain before it could strike the bark.

‘Harry?’ my own voice called. The answer came at once from the far side of the fallen tree, close enough for me to remember exactly what I had felt standing there: someone else had stopped when I did, and I could not tell where they were.

Beside me, Harry watched Buckbeak and gave him enough slack to lower his head without drawing him out of cover. Across the gap I told the other Harry to keep talking; his reply broke off halfway through a question, followed by the red sparks we had been waiting for.

My other self changed beside the fork and cleared its lowest part as a lion. We listened until his footsteps had passed the dip, then Harry let out the breath he had been holding.

‘You walk as though you own the whole forest,’ he whispered. He kept one hand on Buckbeak’s chain while looking round the trunk to make certain I had gone.

‘It keeps putting roots where I want my feet.’ Hermione nearly smiled, then looked towards the fading sparks and reminded us we needed the far bank.

I pointed along the slope instead of down the way my earlier self had taken. The bank curved beyond the next trees, leaving a wider route for Buckbeak, and we followed it with the trunks between us and the water wherever the ground opened. I could hear Harry and myself speaking below, but the words disappeared beneath our own movement.