another couple of hours.... Oh, this is going to be difficult...."

 She looked nervously over her shoulder into the depths of the forest. The sun was setting now.

Amelia shuttered, wrapping her arms around her. "I wish I had brought a blanket."

 "We're going to have to move," said Harry, thinking hard. "We've got to be able to see the Whomping Willow, or we won't know what's going on."

 "Okay," said Hermione, getting a firmer grip on Buckbeak's rope. "But we've got to keep out of sight, Harry, remember...." 

They moved around the edge of the forest, darkness falling thickly around them, until they were hidden behind a clump of trees through which they could make out the Willow. 

"There's Ron!" said Harry suddenly.

 A dark figure was sprinting across the lawn and its shout echoed through the still night air.

 "Get away from him -- get away -- Scabbers, come here --"

"Oh, little does he know that's not Scabbers at all but in fact Petter P -- Ow! Why did you elbow me?"

"Becouse I brought you along to help, not be annoying."

 And then they saw two more figures materialize out of nowhere. Harry watched himself and Hermione chasing after Ron. Then he saw Ron dive.

 "Gotcha! Get off, you stinking cat --" 

"There's Sirius!" said Harry. The great shape of the dog had bounded out from the roots of the Willow. They saw him bowl Harry over, get smacked with a stick then seize Ron....

"Oh, I hit him good." 

"Looks even worse from here, doesn't it?" said Harry, watching the dog pulling Ron into the roots. "Ouch -- look, I just got walloped by the tree -- and so did you -- this is weird--"

Amelia looked over her shoulder and put her hand under her shirt. "She healed my wound, which means," Amelia unwrapped the thing bandages from around her arm. Three long scars dragged across Amelia's upper arm. "I'm going to have a hard time passing this one off as a dumb accident to my parents."

 The Whomping Willow was creaking and lashing out with its lower branches; they could see themselves darting here and there, trying to reach the trunk. And then the tree froze. 

"That was Crookshanks pressing the knot," said Hermione.