In the eyes of Harry, Sirius, and the others, they only saw that the moment Sherlock touched Snape, the two of them suddenly vanished together!
Silent and soundless, it was as if they had been erased from the frame by an eraser out of thin air!
"What happened? Where are Professor Cavendish and Snape?" Harry said in shock.
Ron and Hermione couldn't answer his question either, because they didn't know what had happened.
"Forget about that! Run! Run, quickly!" Sirius had released Lupin by now.
Lupin knelt on the ground, the bright white moonlight spilling over him like deadly poison, causing a violent transformation in his body!
Sirius took Harry and the others, and they sprinted together towards Hogwarts Castle!
Lupin, who had completely turned into a beast, let out a long wolf howl beneath the moonlight!
As Harry ran, he couldn't help but look back.
"Peter! Peter is still there!"
Sirius grabbed him and didn't let go.
"Forget him! He's as good as dead! Before Lupin notices us, get back to Hogwarts quickly!"
They sprinted, not daring to stop for a moment. However, just as they reached the Whomping Willow, an uncountable number of black-robed Dementors floated down from the sky, surrounding them.
That bone-chilling cold, enough to freeze a person, made Harry nearly freeze in place!
Sirius suddenly let go of Harry's hand. He gasped as he looked at the Dementors surrounding them.
As if guessing what he was thinking, Harry pleaded desperately.
"No! Sirius! You can't... they'll kill you! They'll kill you!"
Sirius, however, had a look of determination on his face.
"When I escaped from Azkaban, I already expected this outcome, Harry. Being able to avenge your parents has already fulfilled my greatest wish!"
He broke free from Harry's grasp and fled in the opposite direction from Hogwarts Castle.
He didn't use his Animagus form because Dementors have no eyes; they rely only on scent and human emotions to perceive a target's presence. If he turned into a dog, the Dementors would surely target Harry and the others instead.
"Expecto Patronum!" Sirius chanted the incantation for the Patronus Charm.
A silver glow lit up before him, but no Patronus formed under his spell.
It was merely a faint silver phantom, similar to the level Harry had been practising.
This glow was completely unable to disperse the swarm of Dementors that descended like locusts, but Sirius still managed to force back the few Dementors blocking his path.
He escaped their encirclement, but in reality, he couldn't escape for long. Not only were there Dementors ahead of him, but swarms were flying in from every direction, forming an even denser ring around him.
Harry looked towards the direction Sirius had fled and instinctively started to chase after him, but Hermione pulled him back just in time.
"If you go over there too, they'll suck your soul out!"
"But I just met him. He said he'd sign my permission form to leave school... said he'd take me to his home..."
Tears welled up in Harry's eyes. He didn't want to cry because he had already cried enough today, but he couldn't stop the tears from falling.
Hermione, Ron, and Harry burst through the Castle gates. Peering through a corridor window, they could see the direction Sirius had fled, where a silver light suddenly flared up, illuminating half the sky.
No one knew what Sirius's current situation was, whether he was still alive or had been caught by the Dementors.
Harry collapsed to the ground, his eyes vacant, his entire spirit seemingly drained away.
Hermione and Ron looked at each other. They wanted to find words to comfort Harry, but at that moment, neither of them could say anything.
While they stood dazed in the corridor, a flurry of hurried footsteps sounded from upstairs.
Professor McGonagall, Minister for Magic Fudge, Filch, and two other Ministry of Magic officials came downstairs. They had originally been preparing to leave the Castle but were clearly startled by the Dementors' reaction.
Seeing the locust-like swarm of Dementors outside, Fudge shouted excitedly.
"Aha! Those fellows must have found something!"
Professor McGonagall turned her gaze towards Harry and the others, her face serious and her brow furrowed.
"It's already curfew. What are you still doing here? Back to your common room!"
Harry didn't listen. Instead, he desperately grabbed Professor McGonagall's robes.
"Professor! Go save Sirius! He's innocent! He was framed! The real killer is Peter Pettigrew! Go save him! Please! Ron and Hermione can both testify!"
"Yes, we can all testify, Professor!" Ron and Hermione hurriedly added.
However, none of the adults present believed them. Fudge looked at them in surprise, muttering under his breath,
"Are they under some sort of dark spell cast by Black? Why would they say such things?"
"No! If you don't go over there now, he's really going to die!"
But no one believed the words of the children. Professor McGonagall had Filch take them back to their common room, and Filch was naturally happy to do so.
The three of them were forced back to the Gryffindor common room. Harry didn't return to his dormitory but sat blankly in the common room.
The most painful thing in the world is to have hope, only for that hope to be ruthlessly shattered before your eyes.
Ron and Hermione stayed by Harry's side, deeply worried about his state.
"We can go find Professor Dumbledore!" Harry suddenly stood up, as though he had found a lifeline.
"What can Dumbledore do to help us?" Ron asked quietly.
But Harry didn't want to think about that now. Dumbledore was his last hope, and he had to seize it. He couldn't let anyone destroy it again.
He pulled out the Invisibility Cloak, draped it over himself, Hermione, and Ron, and they sneaked out of the common room together.
They went downstairs all the way to the gargoyle on the third floor. None of the three knew the password, so they could only plead with it.
"Please help. We want to see Professor Dumbledore. Please, let us see him!"
The gargoyle remained silent, as though communicating with someone, then opened the entrance for Harry and the others.
They didn't hesitate, immediately following the spiral staircase to the Headmaster's Office on the seventh floor, pushing the door open and hurrying inside.
Dumbledore looked very surprised to see them arrive in such a panic.
He set down his quill, looked at them, and comforted them gently.
"Don't be nervous. What business do you have with me so late? It should be curfew, shouldn't it?"
Harry could barely contain himself. He was afraid that if they waited any longer, things would truly be beyond repair.
He recounted the entire sequence of events at a rapid pace, with Hermione and Ron filling in the parts he missed because of his agitation.
Very quickly, Dumbledore understood what had happened.
"Professor, can you stop those Dementors from killing Sirius?" Harry pleaded. "He really was framed. The person who caused my parents' deaths was Peter, not him!"
Dumbledore shook his head beneath Harry's desperate gaze.
"I have no authority to command the Minister for Magic, and no one will believe what you say. They will only think you have been bewitched by Black's dark magic."
Harry stared at that serious face, feeling as though the ground beneath his feet had disappeared. He had grown accustomed to believing that Dumbledore could solve any problem.
He expected Dumbledore to produce a solution, but there wasn't one. His last hope had been shattered.
"What we need now," Dumbledore said slowly, his light blue eyes moving from Harry to Hermione, "is more time."
"But..." Hermione began, then her eyes widened as though she had realised something. "Oh!"
Harry and Ron were completely confused by their exchange, but by then Dumbledore had already risen from his chair. He pulled out a pocket watch and checked the time.
"It is now twelve-forty after midnight. It needs four turns," he said quietly. "I will leave this room first. If all goes well, you can save more than one innocent life tonight. But remember this—all three of you must remember. You must not be seen. Miss Granger, you know the law. You know what is dangerous. You must not be seen."
Before Harry could understand what was happening, Dumbledore had already turned around. As he reached the door, he looked back one last time.
"Good luck."
"Good luck?" Harry repeated as the door closed behind Dumbledore. "Four turns? What is he talking about? What are we supposed to do?"
Hermione, however, was excitedly fumbling at her collar, finally pulling out a delicate gold chain.
Harry and Ron were still completely bewildered, but Hermione had already looped the chain over all three of their heads. Then the chain slipped free completely, revealing a small, shining golden timer hanging from it.
Hermione didn't explain much. She simply turned the timer back four times.
The softly lit Headmaster's Office vanished. Harry and Ron felt themselves flying—flying incredibly fast, flying backwards.
Blurred clouds and shapes flashed before their eyes, and something pounded in their ears. They tried to speak but couldn't hear their own voices. Then they felt their feet touch solid ground, and everything came back into focus. They were standing beside Hermione in the empty Headmaster's Office.
"We've gone back four hours, to when we were preparing to go to Hagrid's hut!" Hermione grabbed Harry's and Ron's hands and led them out of the Headmaster's Office.
Harry and Ron still couldn't understand. Ron asked in disbelief,
"That timer can turn back time?"
"It's called a Time-Turner," Hermione whispered. "Quick, put on the Invisibility Cloak, Harry."
The three of them donned the Invisibility Cloak and headed downstairs. Hermione also found time to explain the Time-Turner.
"I got it from Professor McGonagall on our first day of school. You have to be a model student at Hogwarts to apply for one from the Ministry of Magic, and it can only be used for studies. Professor McGonagall made me swear not to tell you, so I never said anything. That's how I've been able to take several classes at once!"(TN: Dumb thing to give a 13 year old.)
Harry's breathing quickened.
"But even if we can go back to the past, how does that help Sirius?"
Hermione shook her head. She wasn't sure either.
"At this time, Buckbeak hasn't been executed yet. We might be able to save him. We'll save him first, and then wait to see what happens next."
Using the Invisibility Cloak, the three of them successfully sneaked behind Hagrid's hut and managed to free Buckbeak before the Ministry's executioner arrived.
Afterwards, they quietly followed their earlier selves and personally witnessed the scene where they were cornered by Sherlock and the other two.
"My expression back then was really stupid," Harry muttered beneath the Invisibility Cloak.
They hid on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, not daring to get too close.
It wasn't until a group of people emerged from the Forbidden Forest with Peter that they followed them again.
Once more, they witnessed the scene where Sherlock and Snape disappeared before their eyes, while Lupin transformed into a Werewolf and Sirius led the others away.
Harry and the others didn't immediately follow their earlier selves. Instead, they watched Werewolf Lupin brutally bite the unconscious Peter lying on the ground.
With the very first bite, Peter was jolted awake by the unbearable pain.
He wailed and struggled to sit up, but Lupin mercilessly bit him again, tearing a large chunk of flesh from Peter's shoulder.
Accompanied by a piercing scream, Peter vanished the next moment.
Harry knew he had transformed into a rat to escape. He raised his wand, intending to stop Peter, but Hermione pulled him back.
"Don't go. Being bitten by a Werewolf means he'll become one too. For a normal wizard, that's more painful than death."
They ran forward, following Sirius and the others, and watched Sirius separate from them to lure the Dementors away.
"I understand..."
Harry murmured to himself as he looked in the direction Sirius had fled. He remembered the silver light he had seen from the corridor, illuminating half the sky.
Harry left the Invisibility Cloak with Hermione and Ron and charged into the night alone, running towards Sirius.
"Wait for me here!"
The night wind whistled around him. At that moment, Harry's mind was filled with memories of Sherlock teaching him the Patronus Charm.
"Happy! Happy!" he kept muttering, drawing closer and closer to the outskirts of the Dementor swarm.
He thought about travelling with Sherlock during the summer. He thought about his terrible birthday, the only one in thirteen years that someone had remembered and celebrated with him. He thought about meeting Sirius, and how Sirius had hesitantly told him that he was the guardian appointed by Harry's parents and that Harry could live with him during the holidays.
Harry hoped. He hoped for a future that would surely be wonderful.
The cold radiating from the Dementors constantly eroded him, and his mother's voice seemed to echo in his ears once again.
But it was no longer a desperate plea. Instead, she seemed to whisper gently,
"Live well, Harry."(TN: How wtf?)
Countless Dementors circled around him. Harry could already see Sirius at the very centre, collapsed on the ground, his body blue with cold, unable even to transform into his Animagus form.
He raised his wand, treating the black-robed ghosts circling him as though they were nothing.
His heart no longer knew fear. He grabbed Sirius's icy hand and shouted the incantation.
"Expecto Patronum!"
A brilliant silver light erupted from his wand. No longer a shapeless mist, it became a magnificent silver stag!
Its radiant glow illuminated half the sky. The shining stag charged into the swarm of Dementors. The Dementors retreated, scattered, and disappeared into the darkness, fleeing in panic.
"Wake up! Sirius! Wake up!"
Harry called his name. Beneath the silver light, Sirius slowly opened his eyes and stared at Harry.
"Go, quickly!" Harry urged. "Minister Fudge is coming. Go!"
Sirius looked at Harry one last time.
"Wait for my letter."
Then he transformed into a large black dog and disappeared into the vast night.