At the end of March, Scabbers disappeared.
Ron immediately blamed Crookshanks for it, and the argument between him and Hermione became even worse afterward.
According to Ron, Hermione's cat had finally eaten Scabbers.
According to Hermione, Ron was acting insane without actual proof.
Harry had spent nearly the entire day caught between them.
At one point he was standing directly in the middle while Ron shouted from one side and Hermione argued from the other. Victor occasionally tried calming Hermione down for a few seconds before eventually deciding the situation was hopeless and simply watching the chaos instead.
Now the four of them were walking toward Forbidden Forest to visit Rubeus Hagrid.
Ron was still upset.
"Harry, you remember Scabbers is gone, right?" Ron complained while walking ahead beside him. "That rat's been with my family for years, and that monster cat finally ate him."
Behind them, Hermione immediately made an offended sound.
Harry sighed tiredly.
Honestly, he had come to see Hagrid partly because he hoped Hagrid might somehow calm Ron down a little.
As they approached Hagrid's hut, Victor suddenly heard heavy movement nearby.
A second later, Buckbeak came striding excitedly from behind the fence the moment he spotted Victor.
Victor's expression softened slightly.
"Buckbeak," he said while the hippogriff approached him proudly. "Did you miss me?"
Buckbeak let out a sharp cry.
Ron stared.
"That thing likes you way too much."
"You three go inside first," Victor said without looking away from the hippogriff. "I'll stay outside for a bit."
Then he walked toward Buckbeak while the others continued toward Rubeus Hagrid's hut.
Buckbeak immediately moved closer the moment Victor approached, lowering his head proudly like he expected attention.
Victor rested one hand against the hippogriff's neck while lightly brushing through the feathers.
"You know," he said quietly, "sometimes I feel like I'm doing too much work."
Buckbeak tilted his head slightly without understanding anything he said.
Victor let out a quiet breath through his nose.
"Yeah, I know you don't understand," he continued while looking toward the distant tree line near the Forbidden Forest. "I have to worry about my brother, my parents making terrible decisions, and half the people around me losing common sense every other week."
Buckbeak made another low sound and nudged him again impatiently.
Victor glanced at him for a second before speaking again.
"To be honest, I probably saved you," he admitted. "If it wasn't for me, my idiot brother would've convinced my father to kill you."
The moment those words left his mouth, Buckbeak suddenly stiffened.
The hippogriff's head snapped sharply toward the woods while his wings shifted uneasily.
Then he let out a loud cry.
Victor's expression changed immediately.
"What is it?"
He turned toward the forest at once.
For a brief moment, his eyes sharpened unnaturally as Eyes of Death activated, and he focused deeper into the woods, tracing the faint flow of magic through the area.
Something was there.
He could feel traces of magic lingering between the trees.
But whatever it was vanished almost immediately afterward, leaving only silence and the cold wind moving through the forest branches.
Beside him, Buckbeak remained unusually alert, his sharp eyes fixed toward the darker parts of the forest as though he sensed something moving beyond the trees.
After a while, the trio finally returned from Hagrid's hut.
Ron looked far happier than he had earlier, clutching Scabbers protectively in both hands now that he had finally found the rat again. Hagrid walked behind him looking relieved himself, probably glad the argument about Crookshanks had stopped for five whole minutes.
Hermione noticed Ron holding Scabbers and immediately folded her arms.
"So, Ron," she said, "aren't you forgetting something? Maybe apologizing to my cat?"
Ron looked offended instantly. "Apologize? Your cat's been trying to eat him all year!"
Crookshanks, sitting nearby beside Hagrid's pumpkins, gave Ron an extremely unimpressed look.
"He didn't eat Scabbers though, did he?" Hermione shot back.
"Only because I found him first!"
Harry sighed quietly while Victor watched the entire thing with amusement.
Somehow these two could turn literally anything into an argument.
Then suddenly,
Scabbers froze.
The rat's tiny body stiffened violently in Ron's hands, eyes widening toward the forest.
Victor noticed it immediately.
The panic.
Like the rat had seen death itself hiding among the trees.
Before Ron could react properly, Scabbers let out a sharp squeak and launched himself free.
"Oi—!"
Ron nearly dropped to the ground trying to catch him, but Scabbers hit the dirt running and bolted straight toward the woods.
"SCABBERS!" Ron yelled before immediately sprinting after him.
"Ron, wait!" Harry shouted.
But Ron was already disappearing between the trees.
Harry, Hermione, and Victor exchanged one quick look before taking off after him.
As Victor ran through the woods, weaving past roots and branches, a strange feeling settled in his chest.
This felt familiar.
Too familiar.
Like something important was about to happen.
*****
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