For the first day of break, Hermione and Jake were working on their homework; more so Hermione because Jake got most of his work done the day prior. Ron was eating Peppermint Toads and massaging his stomach. They were the only ones in the Common Room, as most everyone else had left for the holidays.
Harry had eventually come down, moments before Lunch was to be served, "Where is everyone?" He asked as he descended the steps.
"Gone. It's the holidays, remember?" Ron asked him.
Harry slumped into a chair near the fire, and Jake eyed him carefully. Snow was still falling and Crookshanks was stretched out on the floor, looking like a large, ginger rug.
Hermione peered anxiously into Harry's face, "You don't look well, you know..."
"I'm fine," he said autonomously.
"Don't lie, Potter. What happened?" Jake asked, not knowing.
"Hermione didn't tell you?" Harry asked him.
"No. She didn't say anything, why?" He asked again.
"I found out that Sirius Black gave up my parents to Voldemort-"
" Don't say the name !" Ron interjected.
"- and that's why he most likely escaped Azkaban. To finish what his Master started!" Harry was angry, shaking from his anger.
"Harry, you mustn't go after Black," Hermione said in vain.
Jake didn't expect Harry to just let this go, "She's right. You shouldn't go after him," he said.
"I heard dad say what they found of Peter Pettigrew after Black murdered him; a finger, that's the largest bit of him they found, a finger!" Ron said, shuddering slightly.
"Harry, promise me you won't go after him? He's very clearly a better duelist than you are, he will not hesitate to kill you," Jake said, reminding Harry how much better Black is than him with a wand.
Harry remained quiet, however. He looked at all of them; Jake felt like the look was one of misunderstanding on their part. Harry then broke his silence, "D'you know what I see and hear every time a Dementor gets too near me?" Ron and Hermione shook their heads, but Jake had an idea, and Harry confirmed it for him, "I can hear my mum screaming and pleading with Voldemort. And if you'd heard your mum screaming like that, just about to be killed, you wouldn't forget it in a hurry. And if you found out someone who was supposed to be a friend of hers betrayed her and sent Voldemort after her-"
"There's nothing you can do!" Hermione said, looking stricken, "The Dementors will catch Black and - and he'll go back to Azkaban!" Hermione didn't even sound so sure of it herself.
"You heard what Fudge said! Black isn't affected by Azkaban like normal people are! It's not a punishment for him like it is for the others," Harry explained before he turned his attention to Jake, "What about you? What do you hear from them?"
Jake looked down; he knew what Harry was trying to do, "Our situations... are not comparable... Harry."
"What do you hear?" Harry asked again.
Jake sneered at him, "I hear my father raging at me and my mother... I hear him yelling, and her begging him to calm down..." He looked back down, was he really ready to tell them the truth about his parents? He hadn't done so thus far. He swallowed the lump in his throat, "When the Dementors showed up to the Quidditch game... I also heard a gunshot... my father... killing my mother..."
The three of them were silent; not expecting that, and not knowing how to continue after that.
Jake looked back to Harry, "I killed that son of a bitch... when he turned his gun on me, but he was a Muggle, so don't you dare try to compare your experience with the Dementor to mine. Revenge for you will only end in your death."
"Malfoy said it himself in Potions class that one day, 'If it were me, I'd want revenge,'," Harry said in response.
"So, you're going to take Malfoy's advice instead of ours?" Ron asked furiously.
Harry ignored him, "Malfoy's dad must've told him, he was right in Voldemort's inner circle, so obviously, the Malfoys knew Black was working for Voldemort-"
"-and Malfoy'd love to see you blown into about a million pieces, like Pettigrew! Get a grip, Malfoy's just hoping you'll get yourself killed so he doesn't have to play you at Quidditch!" Ron yelled.
"Harry, please ," Hermione began, her eyes shining with tears, " please be sensible. Black did a terrible, terrible thing, but d-don't put yourself in danger, it's what Black wants... oh, Harry, you'd be playing right into Black's hands if you went looking for him. Your mum and dad wouldn't want you to get hurt, would they? They'd never want you to go looking for Black!"
"I'll never know what they'd have wanted because, thanks to Black, I've never spoken to them," Harry said shortly.
"So you're really going to go find Black anyway? Even though there is a one-hundred percent chance he will kill you without hesitation?" Jake asked, but Harry didn't answer.
"Look," Ron said, obviously casting around for a change of subject, "it's the holidays! It's nearly Christmas! Let's - let's go down and see Hagrid. We haven't visited him for ages!"
Hermione was about to object, but then decided against it. Harry looked privy to the idea, "Yeah, let's go," he sat up, "and I can ask him how come he never mentioned Black when he told me all about my parents!"
Ron went wide-eyed, clearly not what he intended. He tried to deter Harry from going down, but Harry was adamant about going down now, so they all got their Cloaks from their dormitories and set off through the portrait hole, ignoring Cadogan's raving, and down the empty Castle and out through the oak front doors.
They made their way slowly down the lawn, making a shallow trench in the glittering, powdery snow, their socks and the hems of their cloaks soaked and freezing. The Forbidden Forest looked as though it had been enchanted, each tree muttered with silver, and Hagrid's cabin looked like an iced cake.
Ron knocked, but no one answered, "He's not out, is he?" Hermione asked, shivering under her cloak? Jake casually stepped in between her and the wind that was blowing in, blocking it from hitting her. She glanced at him, and if it weren't for the cold already doing so, her cheeks would have turned pink.
Ron had his ear to the door, "There's a weird noise... Listen, is that Fang?"
They all put their ears to the door, too. From inside the cabin came a series of low, throbbing moans.
"Think we'd better go and get someone?" Ron asked nervously.
"Hagrid?" Harry called out, thumping his fist on the door, "Hagrid, are you in there?"
There was the sound of heavy footsteps, then the door creaked open. Hagrid stood there with his eyes red and swollen; tears splashing down the front of his leather waistcoat, "Yeh've heard!" He bellowed out and to their surprise, he flung himself onto Harry's neck.
Hagrid being at least twice the size of a normal man, this was no laughing matter. Harry was about to collapse under the weight of the giant man, but Jake was able to lift Hagrid off of him and help him back into his cabin. Hagrid didn't fight Jake's guidance and allowed himself to be steered into his massive chair and slumped over the table, sobbing uncontrollably, his face glazed with tears which dripped down into his tangled beard.
"Hagrid, what is it?" Hermione asked, aghast.
Jake noticed as he led Hagrid to his chair that there was an official-looking letter lying open on the table, "What's this, Hagrid?" Jake picked it up, and began to read it aloud:
Dear Mr. Hagrid,
Further to our inquiry into the attack by a Hippogriff on a student in your class, we have accepted the assurances of Professor Dumbledore that you bear no responsibility for the regrettable incident.
However, we must register our concern about the Hippogriff in question. We have decided to uphold the official complaint of Mr. Lucius Malfoy, and this matter will therefore be taken to the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. The hearing will take place on April 20th, and we ask you to present yourself and your Hippogriff at the Committee's offices in London on that date. In the meantime, the Hippogriff should be kept tethered and isolated. Yours in fellowship...
It was then followed by a list of the School Governors.
"Oh, but Buckbeak isn't a bad Hippogriff, you said so yourself. I bet he'll get off-" Ron started to say.
"Yeh don' know them gargoyles at the Committee fer the Disposal o' Dangerous Creatures!" Hagrid got choked, wiping his eyes on his sleeve, "They've got it in fer interestin' creatures!"
A sudden sound from the corner of Hagrid's cabin made them all whip around. Buckbeak the Hippogriff was lying in the corner, chomping on something that was oozing blood all over the floor. Jake looked in the opposite corner and saw Fang huddled into it, shivering; his mind was put to ease at least.
"I couldn' leave 'im tied up out there in the snow!" Hagrid wailed, "All on his own! At Christmas!"
The four of them looked at each other. None of them had ever exactly seen eye-to-eye with Hagrid about what he called 'interesting creatures' and other people called 'terrifying monsters'. On the other hand, there didn't seem to be any particular harm in Buckbeak. In fact, by Hagrid's usual standards, they were all rather fond of the Hippogriff, and Hermione even found him to be cute.
Buckbeak looked up at them and eyed Jake, but he returned to chomping his meat, because Jake's eye was soft when looking at the poor creature. If Malfoy had only listened to Hagrid, this whole situation could've been avoided, "Malfoy is a real piece of work..."
"You'll have to put up a Strong Defense, Hagrid," Hermione said, sitting down and laying a hand on Hagrid's massive forearm, "I'm sure you can prove Buckbeak is safe."
"Won' make no difference!" He sobbed, "Them Disposal devils, they're all in Lucius Malfoy's pocket! Scared o' him! An' if I lose the case, Buckbeak-" instead of saying it, Hagrid drew his finger swiftly across his throat, then gave a great wail and lurched forwards, his face in his arms.
"What about Dumbledore, Hagrid?" Harry suggested.
"He's done more'n enough fer me already," Hagrid groaned, "Got enough on his plate what with keepin' them Dementors outta the castle, an' Sirius Black lurkin' around-"
Jake, Hermione, and Ron looked quickly towards Harry, as though expecting him to launch into interrogation mode right then, but he couldn't bring himself to do it, not now with how miserable and scared Hagrid seemed.
"Listen, Hagrid," he got the giant man's attention, "you can't give up. Hermione's right, you just need a good defense. You can call us as witnesses-"
"I'm sure I've read about a case of Hippogriff-baiting," Hermione said thoughtfully, "where the Hippogriff got off. I'll look it up for you, Hagrid, and see exactly what happened."
"Hippogriffs are Proud creatures, I don't know why anyone would consider them dangerous, just don't treat them badly and they won't hurt you. It's Malfoy's fault for not listening, Hagrid, and I'll make sure that's understood for them," Jake said helpfully.
Hagrid still howled, and Harry, Hermione, and Jake looked at Ron to help them.
"Er - shall I make a cup of tea?" He asked. Ron looked at Harry, and spoke quietly, "It's what my mum does whenever someone's upset," he shrugged.
At last, after many more assurances of help, and with a steaming mug of tea in front of him, Hagrid blew his nose on a handkerchief the size of a tablecloth, which Jake was sure was actually just a tablecloth, and said, "Yer right... I can' afford ter go ter pieces... gotta pull meself together." Fang chose that moment to walk over to Hagrid timidly, and he laid his head on Hagrid's knee, "I've not bin meself lately," he said, stroking Fang with one hand and mopping his face with the other, "Worried abou' Buckbeak, an' no one likin' me classes-"
"We do like them!" Hermione lied immediately.
"Yeah, they are fun, just... maybe it's time to graduate from the Flobberworms," Jake suggested.
"How are they, anyway?" Ron asked.
"Dead," Hagrid said gloomily, "too much lettuce."
"Oh, that's terrible!" Ron said with false despair.
"An' them Dementors make me feel ruddy terrible an' all," Hagrid said with a sudden shudder, "Gotta walk pas' them ev'ry time I wan' a drink in the Three Broomsticks. 'S like bein' back in Azkaban-"
Hagrid fell silent, gulping down his tea. They all watched him breathlessly; Hagrid hadn't ever talked openly about his brief spell in Azkaban Prison. After a brief pause, Hermione asked in a timid voice, "Is it... awful in there, Hagrid?"
"Yeh've no idea," he said quietly, "never bin anywhere like it. Thought I was goin' mad. Kep' going over horrible stuff in me mind... the day I got expelled from Hogwarts... the day me dad died... the day I had ter let Norbert go..."
His eyes filled with tears as he remembered the baby dragon he once cared for back in their First Year.
"Yeh can' really remember who yeh are after a while... an' yeh can' see the point o' livin' at all. I used ter hope I'd jus' die in me sleep... when they let me out, it was like bein' born again, ev'rythin' came floodin' back ter me, it was the bes' feelin' in the world. 'Course, them Dementors weren' ter keen on lettin' me go," Hagrid recalled the feelings of being back there in Azkaban and being released.
"But you were innocent!" Hermione said at once.
Hagrid gave a snort, "Yeh think that matters tae them? They don' care, long as they got a couple o' hundred humans stuck in there with 'em. Tha' way they can leech all the happiness out o' them. They don' give a damn who's guil'y and who's not."
Hagrid went quiet for a long moment, staring into his mug. The four of them refused to break the tension themselves. Eventually, Hagrid did speak back up, but he was quiet, "Thought o' jus' lettin' Buckbeak go... tryin' ter make 'im fly away... but how d'yeh explain ter a Hippogriff tha' i's gotta go inter hidin'?hiding? An' - an' I'm scared o' breakin' the law," he looked back up at them, tears streaming down his face and through his beard, "I don' ever wan' ter go back ter Azkaban."
*******
After coming back from Hagrid's, the four of them spent a few days researching cases of Magical Creatures that were on trial and got off, with little success.
On the day of Christmas, they obviously didn't do any work so they could enjoy the day, and Hermione was lying awake in her bed, some presents at the foot of her bed. She was smiling and had Crookshanks sitting next to her, having just put a string of tinsel around his neck. He looked grumpy about it, but Hermione was indifferent and thought he looked cute. She opened her present from her parents and it was mainly more spending money for Hogsmeade, but there were some sweets thrown in as well. There had also been a present from Jake, which was a new Quill set. She was quite thankful for that as hers had been used quite a bit since First Year and was on the verge of snapping.
She picked Crookshanks up and marched over to the boys dorm room, seeing all three of them awake. Her attention was on a new broom Harry had gotten, before she glanced at Jake and saw that he was putting a shirt on. She mentally berated herself for her indecent and impure thoughts of what she would do to him. Her face still betrayed her by having her cheeks faintly turn red.
She turned her attention back to the broom, "Oh, Harry, who sent you that ?" She asked, setting Crookshanks down on Seamus' empty bed.
"No idea, there wasn't a card or anything," Harry responded.
"Don't waste your breath, Hermione," Jake said.
She looked at him curiously, now with his shirt on how it belonged, "Why?"
"I already told him it could be from Sirius Black, but neither he nor Ron seem to care," Jake said, glaring at the other two boys.
Hermione looked at them as well, "Have you both lost your minds? With the possibility that Black could have actually sent you that, with intent to kill you, Harry, and you still want to take it for a quick fly?"
"Uh, yeah," it was Ron who spoke up, "this is the fastest broom in the world right now. It's the international standard for National Quidditch Teams, of course we are going to test it out!"
Crookshanks suddenly leapt off of Seamus' bed and towards Ron, but Jake was quick with his reflexes and caught him out of midair, "Crookshanks!" Hermione yelled, "I told you to stop that!"
"Get! Him! Out of here!" Ron yelled at her.
Jake stepped in between them to hand the cat back to Hermione, "I think you should shut Crookshanks up in your dormitory for a while, just to be safe? Besides, I'm of the opinion that if Harry wants to kill himself riding a broom possibly sent to him by a psychotic murderer, I say let him. It's his life that his parents gave up theirs to protect, so why should we stop him? If he dies, he dies."
Hermione was incredibly reluctant to agree with him on that, and how he could talk about his friend like that was beyond her. She grabbed Crookshanks and looked up at Jake, she was sure he'd grown a little taller in the time they've already been at Hogwarts, "Okay..." she said quietly.
He nodded and went back to Chloe, who Hermione just noticed was wearing a tiny little Elf Hat, and she glared at Jake with daggers. If looks could kill, he'd be one dead Wizard.
She giggled and went back to her dormitory to change and left Crookshanks there. She got back down to the Common Room and Jake was there, waiting on her, "Ready to go to the Great Hall?"
"Of course," she smiled and walked with him. When they got to the Great Hall, the decorations, though she'd already seen them, she still thought they were gorgeous.
After Breakfast, she noticed that Ron hadn't talked to her once since she left the Boy's Dormitory. If he was going to be childish about it, then she wouldn't talk to him either, he wasn't worth her effort right then. She walked into the Common Room to see Harry examining his Firebolt, which just irked her even more. She promised Jake she'd let it go, but could she hold her word to that?
Hermione did some reading until lunchtime, which the Great Hall was changed up a bit to accommodate the low number of students still there. There was a table for Thirteen to sit at: Professors Dumbledore, Sprout, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Snape; the caretaker, Argus Filch. As for the students, aside from the four of them, there were two extremely nervous looking First Years, and a Sullen faced Slytherin Fifth Year.
"Happy Christmas," Dumbledore said jovially as they approached the table, "I felt that since there are so few of us here, it seemed foolish to use the House Tables. Sit down, sit down."
The four of them sat down at the end of the table side by side, with Harry in between Ron and Hermione, and Hermione in between Harry and Jake.
"Crackers!" Dumbledore said enthusiastically, offering the end of a large silver one to Snape, who looked reluctant to partake in Dumbledore's antics. Snape grabbed it and tugged, and with a bang like a gunshot, the Cracker flew apart to reveal a large, pointed Witches hat topped with a stuffed Vulture.
Hermione looked to her right at Jake and could see him straining to not burst out into laughter. She smiled, remembering the Boggart on their first day in Professor Lupin's class. Her smile faded the more she remembered, especially with how the class ended. It was the reason for Jake's one-eyed status.
"Tuck in!" Dumbledore exclaimed, beaming around the table. He was wearing the Witches hat presently.
Hermione was helping herself to some Roasted Turkey and Chipolatas when someone entered the Great Hall. She looked and saw Professor Trelawney gliding towards them. She had worn a green sequined dress for the occasion of Christmas day. The dress made her look more than ever like a glittering dragonfly.
"Sybill, this is a pleasant surprise," Dumbledore said from his seat at the table.
He made to stand up when Trelawney stopped him, "No! There are Thirteen of you right now! If one of you rises, you will be the first to die!"
"Then let me get a chair for you so that you may sit with us," Dumbledore was still smiling as he pulled out his wand and waved it, pulling a chair from somewhere else in the Castle, presumably, to allow Professor Trelawney to sit with them.
She sat down at once, allowing them all to take a moment to watch her sigh in relief that the number of people dining together was now up to Fourteen.
Professor McGonagall spooned something and handed it over to Trelawney, "Tripe, Sybill?"
Sybill looked at her, before looking around the table, as though she was looking for someone, "But, where is dear Professor Lupin?"
"The poor fellow is ill again," Dumbledore said most regretfully, "A terrible shame it had to happen on Christmas Day."
"Surely you already knew that, Sybill?" Professor McGonagall seemed to poke the sleeping bear, because Trelawney looked at her with a less than friendly gaze.
They then bantered back and forth a moment, before Dumbledore put a halt to it, "I doubt," he said louder than usual, "that Professor Lupin is in any immediate danger. Severus, you made the Potion for him, correct?"
"Of course, Headmaster," Snape said with his usual sneer.
"Then I hardly think we need to worry more about him. I'm sure if he were here, he'd be asking us to all Tuck in to this delicious feast," Dumbledore smiled, basically telling them all to get to eating.
Two hours later, when everyone was bursting at the seams with food, Jake, Harry, and Ron all stood up from the table. They all started to leave, but Jake stopped when he noticed Hermione wasn't following, "Hey, you comin'?" He asked her.
"In a little bit, I want to talk to Professor McGonagall first," she said, smiling oddly at him. It was a smile he didn't recognize, and that worried him.
"Hermione?"
"I won't be but a few moments, go on then," she said encouragingly. He turned to head for the giant oak doors, turning back around to see her talking to the Professor like she said she would.
He walked back up to the entrance to Gryffindor Tower and saw Sir Cadogan, toasting him with a flagon of mead, "Merry - hic - Christmas! Password?"
"Scurvy cur," he smiled at the ridiculous password.
"And the same to you," Cadogan nodded and opened for him. Jake walked in and up to his dorm room, passing Harry and Ron on the way, the former carrying his new Firebolt down to the Common Room.
Jake walked over to the cage that Chloe was perched in, "Hey, girl, you want to spread your wings and fly?"
She opened her eyes and raised her head, looking at him oddly. He opened her cage and then the window. She flew out and made a beeline for the window, and out into the cold. Since she was as black as the void, she was easy to spot in the snow. He smiled as he watched her flying until she was out of sight.
He turned to leave the dorm room, but before he grasped the doorknob, he heard Ron yelling, " What did you go running to McGonagall for!? "
He opened the door and hurried down the stairs, hearing Hermione yell back as he did, "Because I thought - and Professor McGonagall agrees with me - that that broom was probably sent to Harry by Sirius Black! Why is that so hard to grasp?"
Jake had just hit the bottom step to see Hermione and Ron in each other's faces. He quickly got between them and pushed each of then to arms length, "What's going on!?" He demanded from them.
"Hermione thought it would be funny to go and rat out Harry's new broom!" Ron said furiously.
Jake turned slowly to Hermione. He jerked his head over to the Boy's Staircase. She followed him up the stairs and they got to the Third Year's dorm room. He closed the door behind them, "Hermione... I thought you promised me you would just accept Harry's idiotic behavior?"
"I don't understand how you can just accept that your friend is willing to risk his life all for riding a stupid broom!" She yelled at him. "He's our friend, how do you not care about him?"
"His life choices are not mine to interfere with, Hermione. I thought I could trust you," Jake said. It wouldn't be until a while later when he would regret those words.
Tears stung Hermione's eyes, "You can..."
"I don't know about that right now..."
Hermione let out a sob and shoved past him. She opened the door and didn't look back, she ran down the staircase, and up the girls staircase to her dorm room. She slammed the door behind her, crawled into her bed and held her pillow tight. She never told him, but Jake was her own anchor, her own rock, her own support. That's what she had thought, at least. She felt cold metal on her chest; she moved the pillow and pulled out the necklace Jake had bought for her Birthday last year. She clutched it tightly and yanked it off her neck. She set it down on her bedside table and laid down, clutching the pillow again and crying her eyes out until she fell asleep.