I was sick last week so, I apologize for not updating.
My bad.
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It was time.
Hermione decided. This could wait no longer. She had been observing Richard for weeks, and there was a pattern that was no longer possible to ignore.
Same late afternoon walk, and the same dissapearence until late night.
Even on the days she had tagged behind him asking him to teach her magic. Richard loved teaching his style of magic to others, but he still ended their sessions early, telling he had somewhere to be.
Logically speaking, It truly made no sense. She couldn't even think of a single reason as to why Richard would both aid them and at the same time, try to help Sirius Black come into the castle.
But what ever convoluted plans he was brewing had to come to a stop.
She went straight to look for Harry and Ron. They may had avoided each other, but she knew that they would watch her back when it came down to the necessary times.
If only she could find them.
She jogged along the corridors and stairs looking for them, eventually running into Neville.
"Oops! I'm really sorry Neville."
"I'ts all good." Neville stood up after collecting his books. "I've been looking around for you today anyway. Since you didn't come to the magic practice today and-"
Hermione ignored him and dumped the books she had picked up onto his hands as well.
"I'm sorry for being rude Neville, but I really don't have the time right now. I've been looking for Harry and Ron for hours for an emergency, and they're practically nowhere to be found."
"I think I saw them going down to professor Hagrid's place and- hey!?"
Hermione was already on the move.
"Sorry Neville, Gotta go!"
It was probably time for Richard's afternoon walk. She didn't know what would happen if they crossed each other, but she feared for the worst.
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..
Hermione was completely out of her breath by the time she made it to the distant hut. And she almost had a heart attack when she nearly crossed one of the hippogriffs at the property's edge by mistake.
Like, who in the world keeps a XXXX level dangerous magical creature tied with nothing but a thin metal chain to an obviously not stable fence where any one could walk past?
Despite almost getting ripped to ribbons, she did a flimsy bow and managed to get past the security to the wooden door.
Knock knock knock
Rustle rustle.
She could hear the sound of several things moving, and she called out.
"Hagrid, Its Hermione.. Is Harry and Ron there? Its urgent!" She cupped her hands at the door, trying to get the message through without yelling.
The hustle turned to a short silence,then a few heavy steps.
The door opened a creaked open and a voice escaped the crack filled with urgency.
"Come in, quickly, before anyone notice you."
Hermione dissapeared inside, and was greeted by two enthusiastic people. Though their enthusiasm were based on different things.
"Hermione, you're here!"
"Hermione, do you see, Scabbers is alive!"
Hermione swallowed the urge to recoil at the sight of the mangy old rat. Honestly, it was a sight of something that didn't even look like a domestic pet.
She put aside the disgust and pushed the hands away.
"That's great Ron. But we need to get back to the castle right now. "
"What's the rush? "
"Yeah?" Ron asked as he brought the rat close to him. "Don't tell me its McGonagall."
"Forget McGonagall," Hermione didn't think she would ever say that. "Harry, did you bring the invisibility cloak with you ?"
Maybe it was the urgency in Hermione's voice, but Harry replied quickly, while pulling out the cloak.
For some reason she felt a fear she never did.
"We need to hurry up, back to the castle Harry. Ron too. Its Richard, I've been following him for the last few days, and he always dissapears at this time near the Whomping willow. -"
"And let me guess.." Ron drawled. "You think he's going to meet up with Sirius Black?"
"Hermione, its great that you worry about it so much, but do you think that maybe..and I mean maybe you are being just a little over protective here?" Harry tried to be a little gentle. "I mean, he was the one who told us that Ha grid found Scabber..."
As the words left out of his lips, Harry slowly began to freeze, as the thoughts began firing in his head.
Hermione meanwhile felt her blood drain from her face, making her lips turn pale.
'So he was waiting for Harry to go outside?'
Her eyes caught sight of a black figure far and outside the hut, and the figure seemed to be pointing at them through the glass.
There was another shadow next to it, and it bolted away.
"We need to go, NOW!"
"NO" Hagrid's voice boomed in the cottage. "I am a Hogwarts professor. I can't let you out. Especially now-"
"Gah! Scabbers! Get back here."
Too bad for him, scabbers had another plan. Hermione watched in horror as the mouse ran out of the door crack, and then before they could even move, Ron had thrown open the door,running to the fence and leaping to catch the rat. They had never seen what she had seen.
The next moment, a black shadow fell on top of Ron, making him completely dissapear under.
"""ROOONNNN!"""
Call three stood frozen for a second, before they scrambled out to get to Ron.
The figure of Ron was turning to a speck in the distance as a massive dog like thing dragged it away to where the hooded figure stood.
Moments after they scrambled out of the house, Hagrid burst out, carrying his pink umbrella.
Hermione didnt know what he intend to do with it, but the hooded person didnt intent to find out.
Splinter crack
The moment the hooded figure's wand moved, Hagrids umbrella broke into pieces. And before they could even make out what happened, black ropes flew and wrapped Hagrid completely even covering his mouth.
Last trace of Ron disappeared behind the hill and the hooded figure followed.
They couldn't let them get away. Not when they didn't even know where they were running off to.
Hermione started to run, and Harry was already ten steps ahead of her. And he too quickly disappeared.
She couldn't catch up to them. But she had an idea as to where they were going. She turned around and used one second to cast a spell.
"Finite Incantatum"
The ropes around Hagrid disappeared, but she was already running before he could even stand up. Past the Hippogriffs, fat lot of good they did, towards the direct path towards the womping willow with all the speed her legs could muster.
Ooofff!!
She stumbled as she ran down, barely catching catching herself as she saw brilliant bolts of gold green erupt from Harry's hands as Ron was dragged into the shadows at the foot of the whomping willow.
Hermione's mouth hung in surprise, even more when those lightning like bolts were deflected by a simple movement of the wand of the hooded man as he too disappeared into the shadows.
But at that moment, she saw under the hood and she knew who that was.
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"Stupefy!"
"Putreficus totalus."
"Immobilus"
The first thing Richard did once they stepped into the shrieking shack was to hit the rat with the best restraining spells he had, before hanging it mid air like a stinky sock after ripping it out of Ron's arms.
Sirius was already back to human.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" Richard practically threw his hood off as he grabbed Sirius's collars. "WE AGREED ONLY THE RAT! ONLY THE FREAKING RAT!"
"Technically we do have the rat."
"Yeah? You know what else we have "Technically"?" Richard was fuming. He was already getting misunderstood left and right because of the will of the story,how was he supposed to give excuses when the people he is working with start ripping people's limbs off. "Technically you got Ron Weasly's leg off of him as well."
Richard took a deep breath, then another. He should have expected this. It happened in the story, so it was bound to happen now as well.
"And stop moving for a single second there, if you don't want to bleed to your death-Damn it Ron!"
Richard grabbed him before he grabbed Scabbers, and they both collapsed to the ground hard.
"Stop moving for a single second -"
Ron wasn't having it.
" Give back scabbers you -" He trailed off with a set of words that definitely didn't belong on a children's book.
"You know what , screw it."
Richard stood up and pointed the wand at Ron.
"I can't deal with your bullshit right now."
Ron, who appeared to struggle with spirit suddenly looked afraid with the wand pointed at him.
Yeah, that was better.
"Don't move, unless you want to stay the next few minutes stupefied. " Richard pointed the wand at the wounds. "Ferula."
Next second the leg, which was torn badly was boundtightly and placed in a splint.
It was the only healing magic he could manage at the moment.
"Don't move." Richard pointed the wand at Ron. " You don't know the full story here, so don't make a mess here. Got it?"
Richard waited, then tapped Ron on the forehead with his wand.
"You got it right?"
"Yeah.."
"Good.. Now we just need to wait for-"
"GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF OF HIM RICHARD!!"
Richard sighed. The trope of getting misunderstood was starting to get old here.