Legacies

Break-out

The next time Harry knew anything, he was flanked by two girls on either side of him. It took him several minutes to figure out he was in a hospital wing bed and that both Hermione and Romina were scared out of their minds for him. Ron was on the bed right next to him with his foot bandaged up.

"You shouldn't have run off like that," Romina said with a relieved sigh. They'd been waiting anxiously waiting for him to wake up. "You were lucky the dementors didn't get you! Stupid!" She smacked his arm, ignoring Hermione's reprimand.

Dementors! Harry snapped upright on the bed. Everything was coming back to him now. The lake, the dementor, Sirus... "I saw my Dad!"

Romina, Hermione and Ron exchanged similar puzzled looks. They hadn't really known what happened down at the lake. Professor Snape would not tell them a single word except for the fact they all had detention until they graduated — if they weren't suspended first, of course.

"He sent the Dementors away..." Harry went on, not really noticing the faces of his friends, "I saw him. Across the lake..."

Everybody wanted to tell Harry that he probably just imagined it after everything, but they didn't have the heart. He seemed so animated about the idea that it seemed cruel to take it away from him. Plus, there were more pressing matters at the moment.

"Listen, Harry," Hermione inched closer to his bedside, "They've captured Sirius. Any minute the Dementors are going to perform the Kiss."

"The Kiss...?" Harry said slowly, confused.

Romina felt awful having to explain it, especially now that they knew Sirus was a completely innocent man. "It's the Dementors' biggest ability. Their most terrible act, really. They clamp their jaws over the victim's mouth and...suck out his soul." She wasn't proud of why she knew exact detail either. She'd known it even before Hogwarts explained it to them. She was guilty of asking her aunt and uncle about the place where Elora and Caplan were imprisoned and how they were kept there. She only learned of the Dementors and their abilities after badgering her uncle for answers. In her darkest moments, she was guilty of wondering why the Dementors hadn't applied the Kiss to the imprisoned Oswells already.

Harry had a very small moment to be horrified before Dumbledore entered the wing. Hermione didn't waste a second in telling him they had the wrong man captive.

"It's Scabbers who did it!" Ron's input didn't exactly help them make a strong case in the beginning.

Dumbledore sent the redhead an odd, slightly concerned, look. "Scabbers?"

"My rat, sir. Only he's not really Well, he was a rat. You a rat. See, he used to be my brother Percy's but he got an owl—"

"Ron, stop talking," Romina waved him off before they were all declared insane because of him. "What we're trying to say, sir, is that we know the truth. You need to believe us here. Sirius Black is not the man we thought he was. He's innocent. He's being framed!"

"I do," Dumbledore surprised them all, "But I'm sorry to say the word of four thirteen-year-old wizards will convince few others. A child's voice, however honest and true, is meaningless to those who have forgotten how to listen. Mysterious thing, time. Powerful. And, when meddled with... dangerous. Sirius Black is in the topmost cell of the Dark Tower." Hermione straightened when Dumbledore's gaze landed on her. "You know the laws, Miss Granger. You must not be seen. And you would, I feel, do well to return before this last chime. If not... well, the consequences are really too ghastly to discuss. Three turns should do it, I think. If you succeed, more than one innocent life may be spared tonight. By the way, when in doubt, I find retracing my steps to be a wise place to begin..."