chapter sixteen / a hippogriff meets his end

             After being assured by her friends persistently that it was nothing more than a hoax and checking at least fourteen times that Cedric was still well and alive, Cassie still didn't fully believe it. But her mind had been ripped to other things – other, more important things, such as Hagrid losing the appeal.

  "Ow! Hey, keep up, Ron!" Harry hissed under the Invisibility Cloak. It was quite difficult, truthfully, to fit all four of them under at once, so Cassie was forced to walk alongside them to Hagrid's hut under a disillusionment charm. The spell was done by Hermione, and, even if she was the best witch in their year, had a few flaws. Such as, whenever Cassie spoke, a ripple would flow throughout her whole body and completely ruined the point of the charm itself.

   "Bloody hell – Hermione!" Ron whisper-shouted, and Cassie heard a stumble before the Cloak slipped off Harry's head and she saw him rolling down the hill. She let out a small laugh of shock before running after them, giggling the whole way down.

   "Blimey, are you alright?" she asked with an airy laugh once they'd been situated and standing again. All three of them glared in different directions. Harry knocked on the door.

   It burst open and Hagrid stood in the doorway, pale-faced and trembling.

   "It's us. We're wearing the Cloak," Harry said to Hagrid, who visibly calmed. "Let us in."

   "Yeh shouldn've come!" Hagrid told them, but stepped to the side and allowed entry nonetheless.

   Hagrid was not crying, nor did he throw himself upon Harry's neck in agony. He looked like a man who didn't know where he was or what to do.

   "Wan' some tea?" he asked, his hands shaking as he reached for a boiling kettle of tea.

   "Where's Buckbeak, Hagrid?" Hermione asked warily.

   "I– I took him outside. He's tethered in me pumpkin patch. Thought he oughta see the trees an' – an' smell fresh air– before–"

   Hagrid's hand trembled so violently that the milk jug slipped from his grasp and shattered all over the floor.

   "Don't worry, Hagrid," Hermione muttered quickly, hurrying over to clean up the mess.

   "There's another in the cupboard," he said, sitting down. Harry glanced at Ron, who shrugged hopelessly.

   "Isn't there anything we can do, Hagrid?" Harry asked fiercely, sitting down next to him. "Dumbledore–"

   "He's tried. Got no power ter overrule the Committee. He told 'em Buckbeak's alright, but they're scared.. Yeh know what Lucius Malfoy's like... threatened 'em... be quick an' clean... an' I'll be beside him–"

   Hagrid swallowed thickly, his big brown eyes darting around the cabin. Cassie placed a hand on his shoulder in what she hoped would have been a comforting gesture, but the man just jumped back, frightened.

   "Oh! Cassie!" Ron said, as though he'd forgotten she was there (he probably had). "Er – about that.. we don't know the counter spell..."

   "You're joking," she muttered, looking down to where her hands should have been and only seeing the floor. "Oh, honestly Ron, f–"

   "Cassie's here? Lupin? You lot brought her down, too?" Hagrid roared, standing from his spot at the table. "D'you know–"

   "Ron! I– I don't believe it! It's Scabbers!" Hermione shrieked from the cupboard, stumbling back.

   "What're you talking about?" Ron asked stupidly.

   Hermione carried the milk jug over to the table and turned it upside down. Out poured Scabbers the rat, squeaking frantically and scrambling to get back inside.

   "Scabbers!" Ron exclaimed, scooping the rat into his palms and holding him up.

   Cassie was quite glad for the disillusionment charm over herself, as she was sure Ron would have been having a fit over the look of disgust on her face. Scabbers had lost many more tufts of hair and thinned an incredible amount compared to before.

   "It's okay, Scabbers! There's no cats! Nothing here can hurt you!" Ron said excitedly.

   Hagrid suddenly stood again, his eyes fixed upon the window. His normally ruddy face had gone the color of parchment. "They're comin'.."

   Harry, Ron, Cassie, and Hermione whipped their heads around. A group of men was walking down the distant castle steps. In front was Dumbledore, his silver beard gleaming in the dying sun. Next to him was Cornelius Fudge who Cassie could tell, even from such a distance, was wiping his forehead. Behind them were the feeble old Committee member and the executioner.

   "Yeh've gotta go! They mustn't find yeh here.. go now," Hagrid instructed them, stuffing the Cloak back into Harry's arms. "An' you make sure Cassie gets back to the castle alright!"

   They followed him to the door into his back garden. Cassie's eyes fell upon Buckbeak, tethered to a tree behind Hagrid's pumpkin patch. The Hippogriff seemed to notice something was happening; he turned his head from side to side and pawed at the ground.

   "It's okay, Beaky. It's okay, it's okay," Hagrid comforted the creature, before turning to the students. "Go on!"

   "Hagrid, we can't–"

   "We'll tell them what really happened–"

   "They can't kill him!"

   "Go! It's bad enough without you lot in trouble an' all!"

   They had no choice. As Hermione threw the Cloak over Harry and Ron, they heard voices from the front of the cabin. Hagrid looked at the place where they had just vanished from sight.

   "Go quick. Please don' listen," he said hoarsely, before walking back into his cabin as someone knocked at the front door.

   "Please, let's hurry," Hermione whispered to Ron and Harry, and Cassie nodded, forgetting they couldn't see her. "I can't stand it. I can't bear it."

   They started up the sloping lawn towards the castle. The sun was sinking fast now, the sky had turned to a clear, purple-tinged gray, but to the west was a ruby-red glow.

   Ron stopped walking.

   "Oh, please, Ron!"

   "It's Scabbers – he won't – stay put –"

   Ron was bent over, trying to keep Scabbers in his pocket, but the rat was going berserk; squeaking madly, twisting and flailing, trying to sink his teeth into Ron's hand.

   "Scabbers! It's me, you idiot, it's Ron!"

   They heard a door open behind them and men's voices.

   "Oh, Ron, please let's move, they're about to do it!" Hermione pleaded in a whisper.

   "Okay– okay, Scabbers, stay put!"

   They walked forward. Cassie was focused on trying to tune out the voices behind them. The rat was still squeaking loudly, but not loudly enough to cover the sounds drifting from Hagrid's garden. There was a jumble of indistinct male voices, a silence, and then, without warning, the unmistakeable swish and thud of an axe.

   All traces of panic had left the air as the three teenagers stared, transfixed with horror. The last rays of the setting sun were casting a bloody light over the long-shadowed grounds. Then, behind them, they heard a wild howling.

   "Hagrid," Cassie heard Harry mutter. She watched a foot step out from under the Cloak, but a hand pulled him back in and he was fully invisible again.

   "Harry, we can't. He'll be in even worse trouble if they know we've been to see him," Ron pointed out.

   Hermione's breathing was shallow and uneven. "How... how could they? How could they!?"

   "It's alright, Hermione. Hagrid was right; I'm sure it was quick," Cassie attempted to comfort the girl, but how do you comfort someone who was crying over a Hippogriff's execution?

   "Come on," said Ron, whose teeth were chattering.

   They set off back towards the castle, the three under the Cloak walking slowly to keep themselves hidden and Cassie pausing every now and then to make sure she could still hear their footsteps. By the time they reached open ground, darkness was settling like a spell around them.

   "Merlin, Scabbers, keep still," Ron hissed again, clamping his hand over his chest. The rat was wriggling madly. Ron came to a halt, causing the other four to as well. "What's the matter with you, you stupid rat? Stay still – OUCH! HE BIT ME!"

   "Ron! Be quiet!" Hermione whispered urgently. "Fudge'll be out here in a minute–"

   "But he won't stay put!"

   Scabbers was plainly terrified. Even from outside of the Cloak, Cassie could see the squirming.

   "What's the matter with him?" Ron muttered angrily.

   But Cassie had just seen it – slinking towards them, his body low to the ground, wide yellow eyes glowing in the darkness – was Crookshanks. Whether he could see them or was following the sound of Scabber's squeaks, Cassie couldn't tell.

   "Crookshanks!" Cassie heard Hermione moan. "No, go away, Crookshanks! Go away!"

   But the cat was growing nearer, and Scabbers seemed to notice this. "Scabbers – NO!"

   Too late. Cassie saw the rat squirm out of the cracks of the Invisibility Cloak and scamper away. Crookshanks bound after him immediately, and before anyone could stop him, Ron had thrown the Cloak off himself completely and pelted away into the darkness.

   "Ron!" Hermione shrieked.

   The charm, by now, had faded off Cassie, and the Cloak lain forgotten at their feet, but nobody seemed to care. They sprinted after Ron and the pets.

   "Get away from him! Get away! Scabbers, come here!" There was a loud thud. "Gotcha! Get off, you stinkin' cat–"

   "Ron! Come back under the Cloak!" Hermione hissed. "Dumbledore– the Minister– they'll be back in a moment–"

   But before anyone could make a move, before they could even catch their breath, they heard the soft pounding of gigantic paws. Something was bounding toward them out of the dark – an enormous, grey-eyed, jet black dog.

   Cassie watched, paralyzed in fear as Harry reached for his wand – the Grim bounded toward him and hit him in the chest. He keeled over backward in a whirl. The force of the dog's leap carried it too far; it rolled off of him and skidded around for a new attack.

   Ron was off his feet quicker than he'd been able to stand again – the dog's jaws fastened around Ron's outstretched arm. Harry lunged forward and grabbed Ron's shoulder, furiously tugging him back. Cassie stumbled back as a– a branch? hit Harry straight across the face. She screamed at the same time as Hermione when another branch swept them off their feet. Cassie's shoe got caught on the crook of a branch and it pulled her into the air with an angry swipe. Cassie only faintly recognized the shouts from Harry and Hermione, her mind unable to do anything other than register the blinding pain in her ankle; it had to have been sprained, maybe even broken.

   The Whomping Willow suddenly came to an abrupt halt and Cassie fell at least fifteen feet, landing with a disgusting thud on the (thankfully) soft grass. Harry and Hermione were at her side, but she wheezed at them to go on.

   "Go– go get Ron–" was all she could get out, clutching her side and wishing she had more hand to hold her injured ankle. They hesitated, but scampered off and into the base of the tree, running after Ron. She laid there, trying to inhale deeply and keep her mind off of the pain, but it seemed as though her lungs could only bring in so much air.

   Well... this was it, Cassie thought. This was how she was going to die. She was sprawled out pathetically on the grounds outside of Hogwarts in the dead of night, just under the Whomping Willow. Merlin, would they even be able to get to her body? Or would the tree just hit away anyone who tried to step forward? She wondered if anyone knew that she wanted pink tulips in her grave.

   "CASSIE LUPIN!"

   Oh. Oh, okay. So she wasn't going to die of the attack from the Whomping Willow. No, her gravestone would read, 'Murdered by Remus Lupin. (don't worry, she deserved it).'

   "Wh– are you alright!?" the man asked frantically, kneeling next to Cassie's injured figure. She held her side and squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head, but quickly stopping as the action muddled up her mind and brought on a killer headache. She winced.

   "Here, here.." Remus mumbled to himself, taking out his wand and flicking it around a couple times. Cassie could practically feel the pain leaving her body. When he finished, all that was left was a slight ache in her side and an occasional stab of pain from her ankle.

   "Where'd you learn to do that?" Cassie wheezed, but he brushed her off.

   "Did they go down the trunk?" he asked urgently, and Cassie nodded her head once. Remus let out a string of words Cassie had never thought her father to even know.

   The Whomping Willow had seemingly revived itself and was angrily whacking its branches around again – even more furious than before, probably upset it had been outsmarted already. Cassie ducked another branch, expecting her father to do the same, but he just waved his wand again and a spare branch poked a knot under the tree that caused it to immobilize itself again. She didn't have much time to think on it, as Remus was already hurrying down the hole of the trunk.

   "Wait! Wait–" she called as she ran after him, careful to keep most of her weight off her ankle. Either he didn't hear her, or was ignoring her, but he kept rushing down the dark and dingy passageway, not even bothering to cast Lumos and get some light to see where he was going.

   Finally, they reached a clearing that led up some old and rotten wood stairs. Cassie climbed up them breathlessly, glancing around the room she was now in. If she thought the tunnel had been dull, this room was flat out bone-chilling. The few ratty and old pieces of furniture were covered in a thick layer of dust and mostly all of the windows had been shattered. With a quick glance out of the broken glass, Cassie squinted her eyes to the darkness, and recognized a flickering lightpost from Hogsmeade a few yards away. Was this the Shrieking Shack?

   Too much was happening for her to focus on their whereabouts. She stumbled up the stairs after her father – Er, godfather, but it probably wasn't the time for corrections – and took in her surroundings. Ron was laying on a mangy old bed with torn sheets, his leg bent at a horribly awkward angle. Hermione and Harry were facing the corner behind where Cassie had entered from, and as she stepped in, their wands were disarmed from them and flew into her father's hands. She turned abruptly and faced him, backing into the corner her friends were in, careful to keep her hand on her wand.

   "C-Cassie–" Ron whimpered, pointing to the corner she'd just been standing in. "It's– it's him! He's an Animagus!"

   Cassie blanched as her eyes fell upon the man behind Remus. A mass of filthy, matted hair hung to his elbows. If his eyes hadn't been shining out of the deep, dark sockets, he might have been a corpse. The waxy skin was stretched so tightly over the bones of his face, he resembled a skull. His yellow teeth were bared in a grin.

   It was Sirius Black.