Once Madam Pomfrey had treated all the wounded, Hagrid was finally allowed in.
He squeezed through the doorway like something far too large for the room.
He strode heavily over and sat down abruptly beside the newly awakened Harry, glanced at him, let out a great wounded howl, and began to weep bitterly.
"Harry, I thought it was all too late! As soon as you had gone, I rushed to Dumbledore's office, but there was no one there... I was so worried... luckily, I ran into Professor Snape, and pointed him towards the Forbidden Forest, telling him, 'Harry and the others have gone after Peter Pettigrew,' and he ran straight off to find you..."
He sobbed, great tears seeping into his beard, looking as though he were still shaken.
Madam Pomfrey was annoyed by the noise he was making.
Ten minutes later, she put her hands on her hips and shooed Hagrid out, insisting that "the patients need rest."
By this point, apart from Sirius, the unconscious ones had gradually been woken by the racket Hagrid was making.
Once he had come to his senses, Professor Snape's face wore the same cold, disdainful, contemptuous expression as always.
"Well, well," he said, looking at the pale-faced Harry, a chilling smile playing on his thin lips.
"From the Minister for Magic on down, everyone has been trying to protect the famous Harry Potter from Peter Pettigrew's threat. Yet the famous Harry Potter is stubborn, and makes ordinary people fear for his safety! The famous Harry Potter goes wherever he pleases, without a thought for the consequences."
"Sir, we saw Peter Pettigrew! We caught him, and then he got away!" Harry protested.
"Nonsense!" Professor Snape looked at Harry's face with disgust and scoffed.
"Peter Pettigrew's excuse serves rather well, does it not? Just another pretext for you to go sneaking into the Forbidden Forest in the middle of the night! Disregarding the rules, thinking far too highly of yourself... I have seen quite enough of that."
"But, sir, we saw him with our own eyes!" Hermione quickly explained.
"So, where is he now?" Professor Snape glanced at her, his tone softening slightly.
Hermione hesitated.
She did not know whether she should tell them. Hogwarts students were not supposed to be in Hogsmeade at this hour.
They had broken at least fifty rules along the way.
"He... he has been living in the Shrieking Shack!" At that moment, Ron woke and struggled to sit up, but his injured leg prevented him, and he fell back onto the pillow.
Professor Snape's expression changed drastically.
As if Ron had flung wolfsbane in his face, his complexion darkened, becoming even blacker than the night outside the ward.
"This is absurd! I cannot abide any more of your nonsense! I shall not go anywhere near any shrieking shacks!" He twisted his face into a strange expression of disgust, as if someone had tried to poison him.
He stared intently into Harry's eyes with his own dark ones, and said slowly, "Professor Dumbledore is not at Hogwarts at present. I shall go and tell the Board of Governors myself what has happened. They will not believe the ravings of three children! You may all expect to be expelled! As for Professor Lupin, once the Board learns he is a werewolf, he will very likely lose his teaching post as well!"
"Draco Malfoy..."
He cast a stern glance at the boy standing quietly beside Hermione, his voice slow and low, unusually using his surname, as if to remind the silent boy of it and all it represented.
He snorted, his tone threatening, "As your Head of House, I advise you to keep away from these troublemakers!"
Draco lowered his head obediently, seemingly accepting his Head of House's rebuke humbly, but his feet did not move.
He did not follow his Head of House out of the room. He remained firmly planted beside Hermione's chair.
Hermione was a little worried about him. She looked up at him and found him staring at her, his grey eyes filled with a complicated, unreadable emotion.
At that moment, she understood only his concern; there were other feelings there that she could not fully grasp just yet.
What was that? What did the emotion in his eyes mean?
She wondered, puzzled.
Harry Potter stared in astonishment at Professor Snape's retreating figure, watching him limp away, unsure whether his anger or his confusion ran deeper.
Harry could not understand why Professor Snape, who so disliked them, would suddenly appear near the Forbidden Forest and place himself between them and the terrible werewolf.
Nor could he understand why, if Professor Snape had been willing to protect them, he would not believe their account, and would even make such sweeping accusations and threats afterwards, behaving so unreasonably.
"If I get expelled, my mum will kill me," Ron said sullenly from the bed beside him, his voice sounding like a squeaky, strangled toy.
Hermione was also rather anxious.
"We will not really be expelled, will we?" she asked Draco in a low, hopeful voice.
"This could be treated as a serious matter or a small one, entirely at Professor Snape's discretion. And the Board of Governors must base its decision on evidence. The best course would be for you to find further proof that Peter Pettigrew was indeed at Hogwarts tonight."
Draco's expression was rather serious.
"What evidence could there possibly be? He has already got away," Hermione said sadly, clutching his robe as she turned his words over, trying to think of another solution.
Draco looked at her pale face but did not answer her question.
He took a piece of chocolate from his pocket, slowly unwrapped it, and carefully fed it to her through the wrapper. "Here, open your mouth."
Hermione stared blankly into his soft, gentle eyes, and slowly, bit by bit, ate the chocolate from his hand, temporarily regaining some of her strength.
She had not even realised how close together they were sitting.
Harry did notice, but he was in no mood to tease them. Nor did he have any interest in the chocolate bar; he remained lost in thought.
He pressed his lips together, his face pale as he watched his godfather, still very weak.
"I hate myself," Harry said suddenly, a note of confusion in his voice. "Should I... have let Sirius kill him? Peter Pettigrew..."
"That does not sound like you, that sounds more like something a Slytherin would say."
Draco looked at Hermione's suddenly rigid face and patted her head reassuringly.
He crumpled the sweet wrapper into a ball and tossed it into the bin nearby, saying lazily, "I recall you have always been rather soft-hearted."
"This time is different. I feel so sorry for Sirius," Harry said sadly, looking at the dark-haired man swathed in bandages on the bed... his unconscious face bearing the marks of suffering. "I ruined his only chance to settle the score."
"It was my fault," Ron said sternly. "I should not have thrown him to the ground... I should have held onto him firmly until we handed him over to the Dementors."
"It is no one's fault. No one could have foreseen it," Hermione said uneasily. "None of us expected this."
The ward fell silent.
"I bet Peter Pettigrew is up to something, he very nearly let it slip," Ron added, as if to make the mood even more sombre.
This remark caught Draco's attention.
Ron's words had struck a chord in him.
Draco had a bad feeling about this... Sirius Black had pressed Peter Pettigrew so hard, and yet Peter Pettigrew had been determined to resist to the last.
It must be because whatever this conspiracy was, it mattered a great deal.
"Actually, there is one way, but it is rather risky," Draco said calmly.
His grey eyes came to rest, quite openly, on the base of Hermione's throat, where a delicate gold chain lay faintly visible against her collarbone.
"We shall need some time," he said, his gaze lingering on the unbuttoned collar of her shirt.
Hermione blushed slightly under his gaze. She covered her neck, which felt warm beneath his stare, but when her hands touched the chain, suddenly understanding his meaning.
"You know about it?" She twisted the thin chain, looking at him with suspicion and uncertainty, feeling that his gaze was somewhat too warm.
"More or less," Draco said with a slight smirk. "I know such things exist."
"But..." she forced herself to regain her composure, a hint of hesitation on her face, "the sort of use you mean is not permitted. I was told it may only be used for schoolwork."
"That is up to you." Draco said noncommittally, his expression inscrutable as he studied her suddenly flushed cheeks and neck.
Ron lay in his bed, looking rather peaky from the sharp pain in his injured leg. He asked impatiently, "Hey, what riddles are you two playing at now?"
Hermione did not have time to explain to him. She glanced at Harry, who looked dejected, and then at Sirius Black, still unconscious.
Finally, before she quite made up her mind, she blushed and asked Draco, "Will you... come with me?"
"If you need me." Draco looked at her intently, smiling slightly.
Hermione made up her mind. She said to Ron apologetically, "I am sorry, Ron, you cannot come with me."
"Harry, come here." Draco gestured with his chin towards Harry.
"What is going on?" Ron grimaced, clutching his injured leg, as he watched in astonishment as Hermione pulled a long, thin gold chain from the collar of her robe and hung it around her own neck, and then Draco's and Harry's.
The chain was extraordinary; it seemed able to extend and retract freely.
"What is going on?" Ron asked. He saw Hermione's hand turn the small, glittering hourglass at one end of the chain three times.
Hermione did not answer him. Then, Ron's eyes widened in surprise... the three of them had vanished from the spot.