Harry Potter 03 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

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 was 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 own ear against the door.
    ‘Doesn’t sound like anyone’s there … come on, let’s go …’
    Harry pushed the cupboard door open. The Entrance Hall was deserted. As quietly and quickly as they could, they darted out of the cupboard and 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 –’
    ‘OK, but we’ll go round 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 towards 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.
    ‘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,