Chapter Seventeen: What Does it Matter?
Finally Harish turned back to Hermione.
"How much time have we got?" he asked.
Hermione looked at her watch and her eyes widened.
"We've got exactly ten minutes to get back down to the Hospital Wing without anyone seeing us—before Dumbledore locks the door—"
"Okay," Harish replied. "Let's go."
They slipped through the doorway behind them and down a tightly spiraled staircase. As they reached the bottom of it, they heard voices. They flattened themselves against the wall and listened. It sounded like Fudge and Snape. They were walking quickly along the corridor at the foot of the stairs.
"…only hope Dumbledore's not going to make difficulties," Snape was saying. "The Kiss will be performed immediately?"
"As soon as Macnair returns with the dementors. This whole Black affair has been highly embarrassing. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to informing the Daily Prophet that we've got him at last… I daresay they'll want to interview you, Snape…and once the children are in their right minds, I am sure they will want to give a statement about exactly how you saved them…"
Harish gritted his teeth. He had never had a problem with his Head of House before, but now he didn't like the man at all. Even before, Snape acted suspiciously…like he had some sort of thought to what was going on within his house.
He glimpsed Snape's smirk as he and Fudge passed Harry and Hermione's hiding place. Their footsteps died away. Harry and Hermione waited a few minutes to make sure the men had gone, then they started runnin in the opposite direction. Down one staircase, then another, along a corridor—then they heard a cackling ahead.
"In here!" Harish muttered, grabbing Hermione's wrist.
They tore into a deserted classroom to their left just in time. Harish peeked out to see Peeves bouncing along the corridor in boisterous spirits, laughing his head off.
"Peeves," Harish informed her.
They listened to the cackling for a moment.
"He's horrible," Hermione said as his voice faded away. "I bet he's all excited because the dementors are going to finish off Sirius…"
Harish pulled out his Invisibility Cloak.
"We'll have to be under this so Dumbledore doesn't see us," Harish said. "Do you think you can make a run for it under the Cloak?"
Hermione nodded and the two of them got underneath the Cloak. Then, Hermione exclaimed as she checked her watch, "Three minutes, Harish!"
"Come on!"
And they broke into a run again, clutching the cloak. Afraid their feet were showing, Harish disillusioned himself and Hermione so that there was no chance their feet could be seen. Then he cast a spell that would muffle their footsteps. He only hoped it was enough to stop Dumbledore from knowing they were there. He half suspected that the old man could sense other people's presences.
"Hermione—what will happen—if we don't get back inside—before Dumbledore shuts us in?" Harish panted.
"I don't want to think about it," Hermione replied, checking her watch again. "One minute!"
They reached the end of the corridor with the Hospital Wing entrance. "Okay—I can hear Dumbledore," Hermione said tensely.
"Come on," Harish whispered.
The two of them crept slowly, quietly to the door of the ward. There, Dumbledore was holding it open saying, "I trust you. Now. I advise you to get some sleep—both of you."
As he was saying this, Harish and Hermione both ducked under his arm and got inside the ward. Then, they walked over to where they were pulling out the Time Turner, about to leave.
"Do you have a watch?" Hermione asked as she turned the hourglass thrice.
They started to disappear and the last thing they heard was Harish replying, "It's five minutes to midnight."
Then, the other Harish and Hermione pulled the Cloak off and climbed into their beds. Harish stuffed his Cloak into his shirt and lay back as Hermione slipped the Time Turner back underneath her robes. It was very odd, being back in the Hospital Wing like nothing happened, just after they had gone of a time-crunching rescue mission.
Then, Madam Pomfrey walked out of her office and strode over to them.
"Did I hear the headmaster leaving?" she asked, looking around at the silent ward. "Am I allowed to look after my patients now?"
She was in a very bad mood. Harish and Hermione thought it best to accept their chocolate quietly. Madam Pomfrey stood over them, making sure they ate it. But Harish could hardly swallow. He and Hermione were waiting, listening, their nerves jangling…And then, as they both took a fourth piece of chocolate from Madam Pomfrey, they heard a distant roar of fury echoing from somewhere above them.
"What was that?" Madam Pomfrey asked in alarm.
Now they could hear angry voices, growing louder and louder. Madam Pomfrey was staring at the door.
"Really—they'll wake up the whole castle! What do they think they're doing?"
Harish was trying to hear what the voices were saying. They drew nearer and Harish listened intently.
"He must have disapparated, Severus. We should have left someone in the room with him. When this gets out—"
"HE CAN'T DISAPPARATE!" Snape roared. Either he was shouting loud enough to wake the dead now, or they were getting very close. "YOU CAN'T APPARATE OR DISAPPARATE INSIDE THIS CASTLE! THIS—HAS—SOMETHING—TO—DO—WITH—BLAKE!"
"Severus—be reasonable—Harish has been lock up—"
BANG.
The door of the Hospital Wing blasted open.
Fudge, Snape, and Dumbledore all came striding into the ward. They all looked very angry. Harish had never seen Dumbledore without the twinkle in his eyes, and it was slightly disturbing. Fudge appeared more angry than him, as he was most likely hiding his anger under a mask. But Snape was beside himself.
"OUT WITH IT, BLAKE!" he bellowed. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"
"Professor Snape!" Pomfrey shrieked. "Control yourself!"
"See here, Snape, be reasonable," Fudge tried. "This door's been locked, we just saw—"
"THEY HELPED HIM ESCAPE, I KNOW IT!" Snape howled, pointing at Harish and Hermione. His face was twisted, spit was flying from his mouth.
Both of them looked alarmed. Their Head of House had never acted this way to a Slytherin before.
"Calm down, man!" Fudge barked. "You're talking nonsense!"
"YOU DON'T KNOW HIM LIKE I DO!" Snape shrieked, his voice climbing in pitch. "HE DID IT, I KNOW HE DID IT—"
"That will do, Severus," Dumbledore said quietly. He was still angry that Black escaped. "Think about what you are saying. This door has been locked since I left the ward ten minutes ago. Madam Pomfrey, have these students left their beds?"
"Of course not!" Pomfrey shot back, bristling slightly. "I would have heard them!"
"Well, there you have it, Severus," Dumbledore said calmly. "Innocent until proven guilty. Unless you can offer some sort of proof…"
Snape stood there, seething. He was staring at Fudge, who looked thoroughly shocked at his behavior, to Dumbledore, who was obviously still trying to work out how Black escaped. Snape whirled about, robes swishing behind him, and stormed out of the ward.
"Fellow seems quite unbalanced," Fudge muttered, staring after him. "I'd watch out for him if I were you, Dumbledore."
"Oh, he's not unbalanced," Dumbledore replied, the twinkle returning to his eyes. "He's just suffered a severe disappointment."
"He's not the only one!" Fudge puffed. "The Daily Prophet's going to have a field day when they learn of this! We had cornered Black and he slipped through our fingers once again! All I need now is for them to learn of the escaped hippogriff and I'll be a laughing stock! Well…I'd better go and notify the Ministry…"
"And the dementors?" Dumbledore queried. "They'll be removed from the school, I trust?"
"Oh, yes, they'll have to go," Fudge said, running his fingers distractedly through his hair. "Never dreamed they'd attempt to administer the Kiss on an innocent boy…Completely out of control…no, I'll have them packed off back to Azkaban tonight…Perhaps we should think about dragons at the entrance…"
"Hagrid would like that," Dumbledore said as the two of them left the Hospital.
Once they had gone, Madam Pomfrey hurried to the door and locked it again. Muttering angrily to herself, she headed back to her office. There were low moans coming from across from Harish and Hermione. The twins had woken up.
"What happened—?"
"Why are we here—?"
"Where's Lupin?"
"Where's Sirius?"
Harish and Hermione looked at each other.
"You explain," Harish said, helping himself to more chocolate.
When Harish, Hermione, and the twins left the ward the next day, they were immediately greeted by Draco, Daphne and Ginny. Daphne hugged Harish and Ginny hugged both of the twins. The castle was deserted. The sweltering heat and the end of the exams ensured that everyone else went down to Hogsmeade for one last trip of the year. Neither Harish, nor Hermione felt like going, so they stayed behind and explained to Daphne and Draco exactly what had happened the night before. They wandered the grounds, wondering to each other where Sirius was then, and where Pettigrew had gone since he had escaped.
Harish highly doubted that his father would accept the rat back. How was he supposed to trust a man like that? The man was so useless, Harish wondered why his father let him become a Death Eater in the first place. Harish lost his train of thought as he sat on the edge of the lake, staring at the now blue-green water. A lazy tentacle drifted toward the surface.
What did it matter that he was actually Harry Potter? He was Harish Blake now, and that was all that mattered.