Chapter 140 — A Few Minutes for Goodbye

‘Keep looking at my shoulder if you don’t want to look down,’ I told Hermione. Her arms had tightened around my middle, and the next wingbeat pressed us all closer together.

‘I am looking at your shoulder.’ She paused when Harry made a sound behind her. ‘Both of them.’

I kept my eyes ahead so she would not see me smile. Wind found its way beneath my collar while Buckbeak climbed along the darker side of the castle, passing windows on our right. Nobody spoke again until he turned towards the little terrace.

I shifted my weight to draw his attention to the clear stone. He circled once, approached with his wings wide enough to make the wall look alarmingly close, and landed with a jolt that reached both my knee and shoulder. I stayed leaning forward until he had folded his wings and steadied his feet.

Harry got down first and helped Hermione onto the terrace. I slid off the other side with a hand on Buckbeak’s neck, then checked my watch: one minute past seven. There was no stair down, but a roof walk ran along the adjoining building just below the inner parapet.

The tall window showed only a thin line of light between curtains. Harry went towards it and called Sirius’s name softly, waiting with one hand near the frame until a face appeared behind the glass.

Sirius looked from Harry to us, then Buckbeak. His lips formed our names, though I could barely hear them, and he tried the catch when Harry pointed towards it. After a second attempt he shook his head.

‘Move away from the glass,’ I said, showing him the prepared piece. Harry stepped aside; Sirius looked at my bandaged hand before backing into the room.

I took the Alohomora paper from its cover and threw it towards the narrow iron fastening. The word brought a small click, and Sirius immediately turned towards the door behind him. A shadow moved beneath it, paused and continued across the landing.

We waited until he looked back. Harry and I raised the window, its stiff lower edge yielding only when Sirius helped from inside, and he leaned towards the opening.

‘What are you doing here?’ he whispered. He looked over his shoulder again before putting his hand on the sill.

‘Getting you out. Can you climb?’ I moved aside to leave him room, keeping the spent spell’s empty cover in my hand.

‘They’ll know someone helped me.’ His eyes went to the watched door, and Harry offered his arm through the opening.

‘Then we shouldn’t stay for them to see who,’ I said. Sirius paused, then began climbing carefully over the sill.

A clean dressing showed beneath his torn sleeve. He rested his weight against the stone before bringing both feet onto the terrace, and I lowered the window almost closed behind him. Harry caught hold of him before he had quite straightened; for a moment I thought he was helping Sirius balance, until Sirius put his arms round him.

I turned towards Buckbeak to give them what privacy the terrace allowed. Harry spoke close to his godfather’s ear, and I caught ‘Time-Turner’ and ‘three hours’ before the wind took the rest. Sirius glanced at Hermione, who touched the chain beneath her collar and nodded.

‘How long have you got?’ he asked. I checked my watch while Hermione moved nearer the window to listen for the guards.

‘Two minutes past. We need to be in the hospital wing at quarter past seven.’ I put the empty cover away and looked at Buckbeak. ‘He can take you out of the grounds.’

Sirius followed my glance. A bandage ran along one side of his body where his robe hung open, and he kept more weight on one leg, but he told me he could manage before I asked. I went to check the chain while he returned to Harry.

For a little while their voices were too low to reach me. Then Harry’s rose, carrying across the narrow terrace before he seemed to remember where we were.

‘I could come with you.’ He had hold of Sirius’s sleeve, and Sirius put both hands on his shoulders before answering.

‘Harry, I’ll have to hide. Find food and somewhere to sleep without bringing them to the door.’ He waited until Harry looked up at him. ‘You belong here, with people who can look after you.’

‘But you said I could live with you.’ Harry’s hand stayed on the sleeve, fingers gathered in the torn cloth.

‘I meant it. A home, when I can give you one.’ Sirius bent towards him. ‘I won’t make you live on the run to prove you want to be with me.’

Harry looked down, and Sirius waited until he raised his head again. When Harry asked whether he would write, Sirius promised to do it as soon as he could safely; he was more careful with the next question, about coming back.

Reading on NovelPhoenix is welcome; copying is not. This chapter was reposted here without its author's permission.

‘I’ll do everything I can,’ he said. Harry held on while Sirius drew him close again, one hand against the back of his head.

I watched the window. The light beneath the inner door remained still, but another door closed somewhere below us and voices travelled briefly up the tower wall. Hermione looked at my wrist and reminded me that Sirius needed time to get clear too.

I said his name quietly. He turned, understood without making me explain and came towards us when Harry let go of his sleeve.

‘Hermione. Oswald.’ Sirius took her hand between both of his and thanked her. She nodded, blinking hard, before he turned to me. ‘You got between Remus and me.’

‘I’m glad I reached you.’ For a moment I could feel the grass beneath my paws again, and see the place where the dog had been lying.

‘I saw you coming. I couldn’t get my leg under me.’ He put a hand on my good shoulder, careful of the other one. ‘Ken would have had a great many questions about that lion.’

‘So have I.’ There were things I wanted to ask about Ken that belonged beside a fire on an ordinary evening, rather than a watched room with a window we had just opened. Sirius gave my shoulder a brief squeeze.

‘Another time,’ he said. Then he looked at my pouch. ‘About what you asked before we left the house. Your bag.’

‘Have you thought of something?’ I kept my voice low, though I wanted to hear the answer badly enough to forget the window for a second.

‘Look into older storage pieces. Some were made to keep their space enchantments stable while other magic worked on the outer casing.’ He glanced at the strap. ‘The makers sometimes cared more about that than about how much they could pack inside.’

‘A stronger one?’ I put a hand against the pouch, remembering the empty lining scattered across the Room of Requirement.

‘Better suited to the strain, perhaps. A tough case by itself might do nothing.’ Sirius checked the window before continuing. ‘Find out how it was made, and let McGonagall examine it before you try another change with one attached.’

‘You think it could work?’ I asked. He gave a small smile without pretending to inspect the enchantment through the fabric.

‘I think it’s a place to start looking.’ That was less than a solution, but it gave me something I could investigate. I thanked him, and he told me to save the thanks until we knew whether it helped.

He bowed to Buckbeak and waited. The hippogriff lowered his head, allowing Harry to help Sirius climb on; it took two attempts to avoid pulling against his injured side. I kept the chain clear while Hermione steadied Harry’s arm, and at last Sirius sat upright between the wings.

I passed him the leading length. ‘The loose part’s secured,’ I said. ‘Keep it away from his feet when you land.’

Sirius checked how the links lay and took a firm hold. Harry stepped back beside me and told him to be careful, receiving the same instruction in return. Then Buckbeak moved towards the terrace edge and opened his wings.

We drew back against the wall as the first downstroke sent cold air across our faces. His talons left the stone, and he dropped beyond the terrace before the next beat carried him over the grounds. Harry went to the low wall and watched until the moving shape became difficult to distinguish from the darkness outside the castle lights.

I put my good arm round his shoulders. He leaned against me for a moment, then straightened and wiped his face, saying we should go before I had to ask.

It was eight minutes past seven. I pushed the window shut, leaving the Aurors’ door on the other side, and followed Harry over the inner parapet onto the roof walk. He helped Hermione down first, then steadied me while I found a foothold that would spare my knee the drop.

We kept beside the wall until the walk reached a stair in the adjoining tower. No footsteps came from below; I listened a moment longer before leading them down, with Harry a step beneath me and Hermione keeping one hand against the wall. My knee had stiffened during the flight, and the first steep turn made us slow.

Voices rose from the passage at the next landing. We waited in the dark beside the stair until they had moved towards the main corridor, then crossed to the smaller way towards the hospital wing. My watch showed three minutes to quarter past when Hermione stopped at the last turn with a hand against her side.

I stayed beside her until she could draw a full breath. ‘Nearly there,’ I said, watching the passage rather than urging her to start before she could.

‘I know. Go on.’ She straightened and came with us to the alcove opposite the ward just as its door opened.

Dumbledore stepped out. His gaze moved over our muddy shoes, my arm held close and Hermione’s hand still against the wall; Harry came forward before he could ask anything.

‘They’re safe,’ Harry said. ‘Both of them.’

‘Good.’ Dumbledore glanced towards the dark window at the end of the corridor. ‘Now wait until it’s clear, and go to your beds.’ He continued towards the stairs without making us give our account in the passage.

Hermione watched him go, then looked at my wrist. Through the gap he had left in the ward door, I heard my own voice say, ‘Now,’ as the long hand reached the quarter-hour mark.

We waited another moment before Harry looked inside. He pushed the door wide enough for us to follow, and the space beside Ron’s bed was empty. Ron stared from his pillow as we came through the doorway.

‘You only just left,’ he said. His eyes went from Hermione’s muddy hem to the way I leaned against the end of my bed. ‘You look worse.’

‘We’ve had longer to practise,’ I said. Hermione sat in the chair beside him while Harry nodded in answer to the question Ron was already beginning.

‘Sirius is away. Buckbeak took him.’ Harry put his wand on the table and stayed beside the bed while Ron processed the second part.

‘The axe hit a pumpkin,’ Hermione explained. Ron’s face changed slowly, in a way that made the walk back feel considerably shorter.

‘Hagrid will be glad,’ I said. ‘Dumbledore can tell him Buckbeak got away.’

Ron looked towards the door and asked whether we could tell people how. Hermione said the Time-Turner had to remain private and Dumbledore would handle the questions tonight; Ron nodded, then glanced at the chain beneath her collar.

‘Asking to see the trip for myself would be a bad idea, wouldn’t it?’ he said. She looked at his supported leg before answering.

‘I’d prefer to sit here for a while.’ Ron moved his water glass within her reach and accepted that without another argument.

Pomfrey came from the room at the end of the ward and stopped when she saw us. Harry began getting into bed before she spoke, while I sat more carefully and discovered how much of the last three hours my knee intended to remember.

‘The shoulder first,’ she said, reaching for my robe. I let her help me out of it, then unfastened my watch and laid it face upwards on the table. It still showed the same evening, and beyond it Ron was listening while Harry described the silver stag.