"I told you! I told you not to annoy that Skeeter woman," Ron said hastily, "She's made you out to be some some, Scarlet Woman!"
Hermione stopped looking astonished and snorted with laughter "Scarlet Woman?" She tried hard to with laughter, "Scarlet Woman?" She tried hard to suppress her giggles, but she was having a hard time with it.
"It's what my mum calls them," Ron muttered, his ears going red.
Hermione noticed Lucifer was being quiet. She looked at him and her heart stopped for a second as she saw the murderous look on his face.
She remembered what he told Rita Skeeter at 'the Three Broomsticks', but before she could say anything, he grabbed the Magazine and marched off, "Lucifer?" She called after him.
"I have to see Dumbledore," He called back, not turning around. Lucifer hurried all the way to his office and stopped at the Gargoyle, "Sherbert Lemon," he said and was glad it moved aside, didn't want to break the founder's creation. He went up the stairs and knocked on the doors.
"Enter," he heard Dumbledore's voice, so he did and closed the door behind him, "Ah, Lucifer, to what do I owe the honor?"
Lucifer set the magazine in front of Dumbledore, where it was opened still to Skeeter's article, "You've got to do something about Rita Skeeter."
Dumbledore grabbed the magazine and read through it. Afterwards he sighed, "Unfortunately, there isn't much else I 'can' do."
"If you don't, then I will. I warned her that if she wasn't nice to Hermione, she'd pay dearly. So I suggest, Headmaster, you do more to keep 'your' students safe, or I'll do it for you. I'm not sure if I'll be able to control my actions if I see Rita Skeeter again," Lucifer promised him, then turned and walked out, leaving the magazine behind for him to read.
He could 'feel' Dumbledore's gaze on him the entire time he was leaving, but didn't turn around at all, trying his best to ignore the weird feeling he always got near Headmaster.
He walked down the Staircase, past the Gargoyle, and back down to the Entrance Hall, where he walked outside into the cold, but not quite as cold as it was, afternoon air.
He vented his frustration on a nearby pile of rocks by crushing them into dust, then proceeded to level some trees at the edge of the forest. Lucifer owed Pansy a bit of a reminder on how foolish she acted, and the next time he saw her, she was going to be sorry she insulted Hermione.
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The next day, Lucifer met Hermione down in the Common Room and he sat down on couch beside her, "Morning," she said, looking at him with concern.
No response.
"Are you feeling okay?"
"I 've had worse..."
Hermione had tears in her eyes.
"I-I said it last year... but you've done so much... and suffered so much over ages... I worry about you," She expressed her concern.
"I appreciate your concern, more than you know, but I'm 'fine....."
The look she gave him said she didn't believe him, but she didn't press the issue, "After lunch we are going to Hogsmeade to meet him," Hermione reminded in case he forgot.
"I figured we were."
When it was finally lunchtime, Lucifer didn't eat much, and he felt Eve looking at him every now and then, but when he glanced up at her, she always quickly averted her eyes, could not await the conversation he was set to have with her sooner or later. She was upset, possibly angry with him, and he didn't blame her especially after what happened between them last night.
Hermione 'subconsciously' stabbed her pumpkin pie with her spoon. When lunch was just about over, the four of them snuck at least a dozen chicken legs, a loaf of bread, and a flask of pumpkin juice from the lunch table.
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While in Hogsmeade, awaiting the time they would meet Sirius, walked around to look through the shops. Harry and Ron going to the Joke shop, while the couple went to look at some spell books, but not buying anything.
Then, at half past one, they made their way up the High Street, past 'Dervish and Banges', and out toward the edge of the village. Lucifer hadn't been in this direction before, not that he ever had a reason.
The winding lane was leading them out into wild countryside around Hogsmeade. The cottages were fewer, and their gardens larger; they were walking toward the foot of the mountain in whose shadow it lay.
Then they turned a corner and saw a stile at end of the lane. Waiting for them, his front paws on the topmost bar, was a very large, shaggy black dog, which was carrying some newspapers in its mouth.
"Hello, Sirius," Harry said when they got up to him.
Sirius, in dog form, sniffed the bag his godson was carrying eagerly, wagged his tail a couple of times, then turned and began to trot away from them across the scrubby patch of ground that rose to reach the rocky foot of the mountain.
"Right then," Lucifer muttered, rolling his shoulders under his heavy leather jacket, "Time for a bloody mountaineering expedition..."
They climbed over the stile after him and followed. Sirius led them to the very foot of the mountain, where the ground was covered with boulders and rocks. It was easy for him, with his four paws, but Lucifer saw Harry, Ron and Hermione were soon out of breath, wheezing with every sharp incline.
"How… are you… 'fine?" She asked indignantly between shallow breaths, her cheeks flushed bright pink from the cold and exertion, looking at Lucifer, his boots were barely making a sound against the sharp rocks.
The boy in question paused, turning back with a rumbling chuckle that sounded dangerously dark. "Perks of being built a little differently, love. Come on, get on before you collapse." They'd reached a small ledge, he lowered himself to offer Hermione a piggyback. She happily clambered on, and he continued the trek.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, the bushy haired girl leaned face into the crook of his shoulder, breathing in his distinct scent of clove cigarettes. Lucifer lifted her effortlessly, shifting her weight as if she weighed no more than a 'feather', and resumed the climb without so much as a change in his breathing.
For nearly half an hour they climbed a steep, winding, and stony path, following Sirius, then, at last, he slipped out of sight, and when they reached the place where he had vanished, they saw a narrow fissure in the rock.
Lucifer knelt down to allow Hermione to slide off his back, she did so, placing a kiss on the side of his neck as she did. "Bribe accepted," he murmured, his lips twitching upward as they squeezed into the fissure and found themselves in a cool, dimly lit cave.
Tethered at the end of it, one end of his rope around a large rock, was Buckbeak the hippogriff.
"Hello, Buckbeak," Lucifer said, but he didn't give him a bow, supporting lazily against the stone wall. The beast seemed to recognize something inherently about the wizard and merely clacked his beak in a weirdly respectful gesture.
Moments later, Hermione had just slipped in herself and saw Buckbeak, she bowed. Once he bowed back, she rushed over to brush his feathers with her hand.
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