bacchusnovels Chapter 397 Letting Buckbeak Go
Chapter 397 Letting Buckbeak Go
Chapter 397 Letting Buckbeak Go
In stark contrast to Ron's bewilderment was Harry's expression.
At this moment, he frowned, his mind racing, as if desperately trying to connect all the clues.
"Dumbledore just said—he said we can save more than one innocent life—" His eyes suddenly lit up, and he abruptly looked up. "Hermione, we have to save Buckbeak!"
"But—how would that help Sirius?" Hermione still seemed a little confused.
"Dumbledore said—he mentioned that window!" Harry almost shouted, "The window in Professor Flitwick's office!"
Sirius is locked up right there! We have to get Buckbeak to that window and rescue Sirius! He can ride Buckbeak away—they can escape together!
Hermione stared blankly at Harry, a flicker of fear crossing her eyes.
"If we can do it without anyone finding out, that would be a miracle!" she whispered.
"But we have to try, don't we?" Harry stood up and pressed his ear against the cupboard door. "It looks like no one's out there—let's go!"
He pushed open the door of the broom cabinet, and sure enough, the foyer outside was empty.
They carefully stepped out of the cabinet and quickly ran down the stone steps.
The treetops of the distant forbidden forest were being tinged gold by the afterglow of the setting sun, casting long, dark shadows.
What if someone looks out the window?
Hermione looked up at the castle behind her and whispered nervously.
"Run!" Harry said decisively, "Run straight into the woods, find a place to hide and observe what's going on!"
"Alright, but we have to go around the greenhouse!" Hermione said urgently, her breath slightly unsteady. "Avoid Hagrid's hut's front door! We should be nearby now!"
Without saying a word, Harry took off running, with the other three close behind.
They circled around the vegetable garden to the other side of the greenhouse, paused briefly, then sprinted towards the willow tree, eventually disappearing into the shadows of the forbidden forest—
When they finally stopped and stood behind a thick tree trunk, panting, Harry turned to look at Hermione.
A thin layer of sweat still clung to her face, but her eyes had calmed down.
"What do we do now?" Hermione asked.
"Wait and observe," Harry said, his eyes fixed on Hagrid's hut not far away.
"Okay," she said breathlessly, "we'll sneak over to Hagrid's and be careful to stay hidden, Harry—"
The four of them quietly made their way through the bushes, walking along the edge of the forest.
They heard a knock when they saw Hagrid's front door.
They quickly slipped behind a large oak tree and peered out from both sides of the trunk.
Hagrid appeared at the door, pale and trembling, looking around for the person who had knocked.
Harry heard his own voice.
"It's us, wearing invisibility cloaks. Let's go in and take them off."
"You shouldn't have come!" Hagrid whispered, taking a step back and quickly closing the door.
"This is the strangest thing we've ever done," Harry said excitedly.
"Let's move forward," Hermione whispered, "we need to get closer to Buckbeak!"
The four of them trudged through the bushes and finally spotted the nervous, wobbly hippogriff tied to the fence of Hagrid's pumpkin patch.
"Now?" Harry asked in a low voice, his eyes fixed on Buckbeak in the distance.
"No!" Hermione exclaimed, "If we steal it now, the committee will think Hagrid let it escape! We have to wait until they see Buckbeak still tied up there before we can do anything!"
"Then we only have about sixty seconds." Harry frowned, feeling that the whole plan was almost impossible to succeed.
Just then, the sound of shattering porcelain came from Hagrid's hut.
"Hagrid broke the milk can," Hermione said nervously. "Next, I'll find Scabbers are gone—"
Sure enough, a few minutes later, Hermione's scream came from the cabin, exactly as they remembered.
"Hermione," Harry suddenly realized something, "if we just rush in and grab Pettigrew—"
"No!" Hermione's eyes widened in shock. "Don't you understand? We're breaking one of the most important rules of magic! No one can change time, Harry, no one! Dumbledore has warned us that if we're seen—"
"We'll only be seen by ourselves and Hagrid!" Harry argued.
"Harry, imagine if you suddenly found yourself walking into Hagrid's hut, what would you think?"
"I—I think I'll think I'm going crazy," Harry admitted, "or that it's some kind of dark magic."
"Yes! You'll be completely confused! And you might instinctively attack yourself!" Hermione exclaimed. "Professor McGonagall warned me that altering time could have terrible consequences. Some wizards have accidentally killed their past or future versions of themselves, you know?"
"Okay!" Harry said helplessly, "I was just thinking about it. I thought—" "Stop thinking about it!" Hermione shoved him and pointed to the castle.
Harry looked in the direction she was pointing, and saw the castle gates open in the distance, with Dumbledore, Fudge, the old commissioner, and executioner McNeil descending the steps.
"They're out!" Hermione whispered, holding her breath.
A moment later, Hagrid's back door opened, and Harry saw himself, Ron, Hermione, and Hermione following Hagrid out.
This was one of the strangest experiences of his life—standing behind a tree and watching his past self walk through a pumpkin patch.
"It's alright, Buckbeak," Hagrid whispered to Buckbeak, "It's alright, buddy." Then he turned to Harry...
Ron, Hermione, and Sophia urged in whispers, "Let's go, let's go quickly."
"Hagrid, we can't—"
"We need to tell them the truth—"
"They can't kill it—"
"Go!" Hagrid growled urgently. "Things are bad enough already, don't drag you all down with them."
Harry saw himself in the pumpkin patch through the shadows of the trees and quickly covered himself with the Invisibility Cloak.
"Keep going, don't stop—"
A rapid knocking broke the silence of the night at Hagrid's front door.
A group of people arrived.
Hagrid took a deep breath, turned and went into the house, leaving the back door slightly ajar.
Harry noticed several creases on the grass next to the cabin and heard four pairs of footsteps gradually fading away.
He, Ron, Hermione, and Sophia left the pumpkin patch, but now, hiding behind the tree, they could clearly hear the sounds coming from the back door.
"Where is that beast?" McNeil's cold voice broke the silence in the room.
"Outside—outside," Hagrid replied in a trembling voice.
Harry quickly pulled his head back in, only to see McNeil's face appear at the window, his sharp gaze sweeping over Buckbeak outside. Then, Fudge's voice rang out, calm and indifferent.
“We—we—have to read you the official execution notice, Hagrid. I’ll read it quickly,” Fudge said. “Then you and McNeil will need to sign it. McNeil, you listen too, it’s procedure—”
McNeil's face disappeared from the window; the opportunity had arrived!
"Wait here," Harry whispered to the other three. "I'll go."
As Fudge's voice rang out again, Harry dashed out from behind the tree, vaulted over the fence, and silently approached Buckbeak.
"The Committee on the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures has determined that Buckbeak, the hippogriff, hereinafter referred to as the Sinful Beast, will be executed at sunset on June 6."
Harry held his breath, trying to calm himself down.
He stared into Buckbeak's fierce orange eyes and bowed deeply to them.
Buckbeak slowly knelt down, then stood up again. Harry quickly fumbled for the ropes on the fence.
"Sentenced to beheading, to be carried out by executioner Walton McNeill, appointed by the committee—"
"Come on, Buckbeak," Harry whispered. "We're here to rescue you. Don't make a sound—don't make a sound—"
The rope was untied, but Buckbeak's front hooves remained firmly gripping the ground, as if hesitating.
"—Witness: Hagrid, sign here—"
Ha pulled on the rope with all his might, but Buckbeak just flapped his wings impatiently, seemingly unwilling to leave.
"Alright, let's do it then." A committee member's shrill voice came from inside the house. "Hagrid, perhaps you'd be better off staying inside—" "No, I—I want to be with it—I don't want it all alone—" Hagrid's voice was hoarse and sorrowful.
Harry tugged on the rope again, and this time Buckbeak finally took a step, shaking his head in frustration.
They were only ten feet away from the Forbidden Forest, yet completely exposed to Hagrid's back door.
"Wait a minute, McNeil," Dumbledore said suddenly, "you need to sign too."
The footsteps stopped, and Harry seized the opportunity to pull the rope sharply. Buckbeak spread its wings and reluctantly quickened its pace.
Hermione's pale face peeked out from behind the tree.
"Quick, Harry!" she mouthed silently.
Harry continued to pull the rope, and Buckbeak finally started jogging. The four of them quickly approached the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
"Hurry! Hurry!" Hermione urged in a low voice, rushing out from behind the tree and grabbing the rope to pull together.
Harry glanced back; they were finally out of sight of the trees.
"Stop!" Harry whispered, "They'll hear us—"
Just then, Hagrid's back door suddenly slammed open.
The four people and the beast froze, even the winged harpy seemed to hold its breath.
A moment of deathly silence, then—
"Where is it?" The committee member's shrill voice shattered the night's tranquility. "Where is the monster?"
"He was just tied up here!" the executioner shouted furiously. "I saw it with my own eyes! Right here!"
"That's really strange," Dumbledore said.
For some reason, his tone seemed somewhat...gloating?
It's quite rare to hear such a tone from someone of this age.
"Piccolo!" Hagrid shouted.
Immediately following was a whooshing sound of wind, accompanied by the dull thud of an axe crashing heavily into the fence.
The executioner seemed to be enraged and, in a fit of anger, swung the axe down hard.
Then, a wild, roaring cry echoed through the air, this time mixed with Hagrid's sobbing.
"It's gone! It's gone!" Hagrid cried intermittently. "God help Little Hawkbeak, it's gone! It must have broken free on its own! Piccolo, you clever boy!"
Upon hearing Hagrid's voice, Buckbeak began to frantically pull on the rope, trying to return to its master.
Four people pulled the rope taut from four directions, their heels digging deep into the forest soil, trying to keep it steady.
"Someone has untied the ropes!" the executioner roared furiously, his voice piercing the silent night. "Search this place! Search the woods—"
“McNeil,” Dumbledore said, “if Buckbeak had really been stolen, do you think the thief would have walked it around on a leash?”
If you're going to search, you have to search the sky.
As he spoke, he looked at Hagrid.
"Hagrid, I'd like a cup of tea, or rather, a large glass of brandy."
“Of course, Professor.” Hagrid’s voice sounded ecstatic, as if he had been granted a pardon. “Please come in, please come in.”
The four little ones held their breath and listened intently.
A few seconds later, they heard footsteps, the executioner muttered a curse as he left, and with the sound of the door closing, everything fell silent again.
"What do we do now?" Harry asked in a low voice, his eyes scanning the surroundings warily.
"Hide here," Hermione whispered. "We have to wait until they're all back in the castle, until it's completely safe, before Buckbeak can fly to Sirius's window. And he won't be there for two hours. Oh my god, this is too difficult—"
She nervously turned back to look into the depths of the woods, where the last rays of the setting sun were sinking below the horizon, and darkness was gradually enveloping the surroundings.
"We need to find a different spot," Harry suggested, racking his brains. "We need to be able to see the Whomping Willow, otherwise we won't know how things are going."
“Okay,” Hermione nodded, gripping Buckbeak’s ropes tighter, “but you must remain hidden, Harry, remember that.”
As night deepened, they moved cautiously and found a dense thicket at the edge of the forest, where they could just see the *Ligustrum lucidum* through the gaps in the trees.
"Ron!" Harry suddenly whispered, his eyes fixed on the lawn in front of him.
A dark figure was running hurriedly across the grass. Ron's shouts echoed in the silent night air, startling Buckbeak, who shook his head nervously.
"Go away—go away—Banban, come here—"
Then they saw three more figures suddenly appear.
Harry watched himself, Hermione, and Sophia chasing Ron, and then saw Ron lunge forward.
"Gotcha!"
"Filch is here!"
Harry pointed in another direction, where a dim yellow light shone from the other side.
The willow tree creaked and groaned, its lower branches whipping violently.
They saw themselves dodging left and right, trying to get closer to the tree trunk.
Suddenly, the tree stopped.
Filch pressed down on the scar.
As the group watched themselves and "themselves" from this peculiar perspective, their hearts pounding with fear, Sophia's face grew increasingly pale...