. A blur of colors and shapes rushed past him, his ears 


were pounding, he tried to yell but couldn't hear his own voice -And 
then he felt solid ground beneath his feet, and everything came into 
focus again -


He was standing next to Hermione in the deserted entrance hall and a 
stream of golden sunlight was falling across the paved floor from the 
open front doors. He looked wildly around at Hermione, the chain of the 
hourglass cutting into his neck. 

"Hermione, what --?" 
"In here!" Hermione seized Harry's arm and dragged him across the hall 


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to the door of a broom closet; she opened it, pushed him inside among 
the buckets and mops, then slammed the door behind them. 

"What -- how -- Hermione, what happened?" 

"We've gone back in time," Hermione whispered, lifting the chain off 
Harry's neck in the darkness. "Three hours back..." 

Harry found his own leg and gave it a very hard pinch. It hurt a lot, 
which seemed to rule out the possibility that he was having a very 
bizarre dream. 

"But --" 

"Shh! Listen! Someone's coming! I think -- I think it might be us!" 
Hermione had her ear pressed against the cupboard door. 

"Footsteps across the hall... yes, I think it's us going down to 
Hagrid's!" 

"Are you telling me," Harry whispered, "that we're here in this cupboard 
and we're out there too?" 

"Yes," said Hermione, her ear still glued to the cupboard door. "I'm 
sure it's us. It doesn't sound like more than three people... and we're 
walking slowly because we're under the Invisibility Cloak -- " 

She broke off, still listening intently. 

"We've gone down the front steps...." 

Hermione sat down on an upturned bucket, looking desperately anxious, 
but Harry wanted a few questions answered. 

"Where did you get that hourglass thing?" 

"It's called a Time-Turner," Hermione whispered, "and I got it from 
Professor McGonagall on our first day back. I've been using it all year 
to get to all my lessons. Professor McGonagall made me swear I wouldn't 
tell anyone. She had to write all sorts of letters to the Ministry of 

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Magic so I could have one. She had to tell them that I was a model 
student, and that I'd never, ever use it for anything except my 
studies.... I've been turning it back so I could do hours over again, 
that's how I've been doing several lessons at once, see? But... 

"Harry, I don't understand what Dumbledore wants us to do. Why did he 
tell us to go back three hours? How's that going to help Sirius?" 

Harry stared at her shadowy face. 

"There must be something that happened around now he wants us to 
change," he said slowly. "What happened? We were walking down to 
Hagrid's three hours ago...." 

"This is three hours ago, and we are walking down to Hagrid's," said 
Hermione. "We just heard ourselves leaving...." 

Harry frowned; he felt as though he were screwing up his whole brain in 
concentration. 

"Dumbledore just said -- just said we could save more than one innocent 
life...." And then it hit him. "Hermione, we're going to save Buckbeak!" 

"But -- how will that help Sirius?" 

"Dumbledore said -- he just told us where the window is -- the window of 
Flitwick's office! Where they've got Sirius locked up! We've got to fly 
Buckbeak up to the window and rescue Sirius! Sirius can escape on 
Buckbeak -- they can escape together!" 

From what Harry could see of Hermione's face, she looked terrified. 

"If we manage that without being seen, it'll be a miracle!" 

"Well, we've got to try, haven't we?" said Harry. He stood up and 
pressed his ear against the door. "Doesn't sound like anyone's there.... 
Come on, let's go." 

Harry pushed open the closet door. The entrance hall was deserted. As 
quietly and quickly as they could, they darted out of the closet and 

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down the stone steps. The shadows were already lengthening, the tops of 
the trees in the Forbidden Forest gilded once more with gold. 

"If anyone's looking out of the window --" Hermione squeaked, looking up 
at the castle behind them. 

"We'll run for it," said Harry determinedly. "Straight into the forest, 
all right? We'll have to hide behind a tree or something and keep a 
lookout --" 

"Okay, but we'll go around by the greenhouses!" said Hermione 
breathlessly. "We need to keep out of sight of Hagrid's front door, or 
we'll see us! We must be nearly at Hagrid's by now!" 

Still working out what she meant, Harry set off at a sprint, Hermione 
behind him. They tore across the vegetable gardens to the greenhouses, 
paused for a moment behind them, then set off again, fast as they could, 
skirting around the Whomping Willow, tearing toward the shelter of the 
forest.... 

Safe in the shadows of the trees, Harry turned around; seconds later, 
Hermione arrived beside him, panting. 

"Right," she gasped. "We need to sneak over to Hagrid's.... Keep out of 
sight, Harry...." 

They made their way silently through the trees, keeping to the very edge 
of the forest. Then, as they glimpsed the front of Hagrid's house, they 
heard a knock upon his door. They moved quickly behind a wide oak trunk 
and peered out from either side. Hagrid had appeared in his doorway, 
shaking and white, looking around to see who had knocked. And Harry 
heard his own voice. 

"It's us. We're wearing the Invisibility Cloak. Let us in and we can 
take it off." 

"Yeh shouldn've come!" Hagrid whispered. He stood back, then shut the 
door quickly. 

"This is the weirdest thing we've ever done," Harry said fervently. 

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"Let's move along a bit," Hermione whispered. "We need to get nearer to 
Buckbeak!" 

They crept through the trees until they saw the nervous hippogriff, 
tethered to the fence around Hagrid's pumpkin patch. 

"Now?" Harry whispered. 

"No!" said Hermione. "If we steal him now, those Committee people will 
think Hagrid set him free! We've got to wait until they've seen he's 
tied outside!" 

"That's going to give us about sixty seconds," said Harry. This was 
starting to seem impossible. 

At that moment, there was a crash of breaking china from inside Hagrid's 
cabin. 

"That's Hagrid breaking the milk jug," Hermione whispered. "I'm going to 
find Scabbers in a moment --" 

Sure enough, a few minutes later, they heard Hermione's shriek of 
surprise. 

"Hermione," said Harry suddenly, "what if we -- we just run in there and 
grab Pettigrew --" 

"No!" said Hermione in a terrified whisper. "Don't you understand? We're 
breaking one of the most important wizarding laws! Nobody's supposed to 
change time, nobody! You heard Dumbledore, if we're seen --" 

"We'd only be seen by ourselves and Hagrid!" 

"Harry, what do you think you'd do if you saw yourself bursting into 
Hagrid's house?" said Hermione. 

"I'd -- I'd think I'd gone mad," said Harry, "or I'd think there was 
some Dark Magic going on --" 

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"Exactly! You wouldn't understand, you might even attack yourself! Don't 
you see? Professor McGonagall told me what awful things have happened 
when wizards have meddled with time.... Loads of them ended up killing 
their past or future selves by mistake!" 


"Okay!" said Harry. "It was just an idea, I just thought 


But Hermione nudged him and pointed toward the castle. Harry moved his 
head a few inches to get a clear view of the distant front doors. 
Dumbledore, Fudge, the old Committee member, and Macnair the executioner 
were coming down the steps. 


"We're about to come out!" Hermione breathed. 


And sure enough, moments later, Hagrid's back door opened, and Harry saw 
himself, Ron, and Hermione walking out of it with Hagrid. It was, 
without a doubt, the strangest sensation of his life, standing behind 
the tree, and watching himself in the pumpkin patch. 


"It's Okay, Beaky, it's okay..." Hagrid said to Buckbeak. Then he turned 
to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "Go on. Get goin'." 


"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!" 


Harry watched the Hermione in the pumpkin patch throw the Invisibility 
Cloak over him and Ron. 


"Go quick. Don' listen...." 


There was a knock on Hagrid's front door. The execution party had 
arrived. Hagrid turned, around and headed back into his cabin, leaving 
the back door ajar. Harry watched the grass flatten in patches all 
around the cabin and heard three pairs of feet retreating. He, Ron, and 
Hermione had gone... but the Harry and Hermione hidden in the trees 


336 



could now hear what was happening inside the cabin through the back 
door. 

"Where is the beast?" came the cold voice of Macnair. 

"Out -- outside," Hagrid croaked. 

Harry pulled his head out of sight as Macnair's face appeared at 
Hagrid's window, staring out at Buckbeak. Then they heard Fudge. 

"We -- er -- have to read you the official notice of execution, Hagrid. 
I'll make it quick. And then you and Macnair need to sign it. Macnair, 
You're supposed to listen too, that's procedure --" 

Macnair's face vanished from the window. It was now or never. 

"Wait here," Harry whispered to Hermione. "I'll do it." 

As Fudge's voice started again, Harry darted out from behind his tree, 
vaulted the fence into the pumpkin patch, and approached Buckbeak. 

"It is the decision of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous 
Creatures that the hippogriff Buckbeak, hereafter called the condemned, 
shall he executed on the sixth of June at sundown --" 

Careful not to blink, Harry stared up into Buckbeak's fierce orange eyes 
once more and bowed. Buckbeak sank to his scaly knees and then stood up 
again. Harry began to fumble with the knot of rope tying Buckbeak to the 
fence. 

"... sentenced to e