Disclaimer: I own copies of the books, as well as a Hedwig backpack. But that is where my ownership of the series ends.

Chapter 1

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Harry was still thinking about his new-found knowledge of his fathers animagus form. Even his bushy haired friends' exasperated scolding couldn't bring down his happy mood. So, it was with a grain of salt that he listened to her.

"What did you do?" she said fiercely. "You said you were only going to keep a lookout!"

Harry was tempted to just let her yell at him until she got it out her system, but then again, they didn't have that much time and this was the Forbidden Forest. It would be best not to attract too much attention.

"I just saved all our lives…" said Harry. "Get behind this bush-I'll explain." It took a little bit of coaxing to get his temperamental best friend to follow him and quiet down, but soon he was explaining everything.

Hermione listened to what had just happened with her mouth open yet again.

"Did anyone see you?" At her question Harry had to take a moment to breath. Sometimes his friends' need to know every little detail drove him crazy.

"Yes, haven't you been listening? I saw me, but I thought I was-" Harry's excited babbling broke off as the distinct sound of a branch snapping brought him up short. That sounded close, very close. Feeling the blood drain from his face Harry turned to look at the thick bushes to his right as Buckbeak let out an angry hiss. The hippogriffs wings flared behind him in a show of intimidation.

"Hermione," slowly Harry brought up his wand, his eyes scanning the foliage for a glimpse of the whatever was hiding in it, "slowly…get up on Buckbeak. Be careful not to pull his feathers out." A bushy head bobbed once before carefully starting to move around the agitated creature to get to his side.

But it was as she moved that Harry spotted bright amber eyes in the dark, fixed on the slow moving form of his friend. A low growl came from the creature and Harry was moving before he registered the sight of familiar brindle fur and sharp teeth.

A moment before the werewolf, formally known at his DADA professor, plowed him into the ground, Harry thought to himself what a stupid idea it was to run into the path of a monster.

Hermione's scream echoed in his ears as all the air was forced out of him when his chest was all but crushed under a few hundred pounds of snarling werewolf. The thought that he was going to have some impressive bruises by the end of the night flitted across his consciousness before he refocused on trying to breath again. Suddenly the weight was lifted from him and he lay there numbly, trying to fill his lungs with oxygen.

It felt like a lifetime before he could breath again, whilst in realty it was only a few seconds. He tried to sit up, taking in big gulps of air and coughing. He was just in time to see the end of the fight between werewolf and hippogriff, in which the wolf growled, but made no second attempt at the prey behind the bird-horse creature. He slunk off deeper into the woods to find easier prey.

Sitting up fully now Harry winced. Everything ached, "I'll be feeling that tomorrow," he muttered to himself as feeling began to come back to his bruised limbs. A moment later he wished he was still numb, as Hermione attacked him with a hug.

Harry hissed in pain as the hysterically crying girl clung to his school robes. He awkwardly patted her back with his right hand, letting her cry for a moment on his shoulder. "Come on now, Hermione," he sighed, "It's okay."

But this was, apparently, the wrong thing to say as she abruptly leaned back and began to berate him.

"No, it is not bloody well 'okay' Harry James Potter!" Just to prove her point she hit his vulnerable left shoulder making him yelp from the pain. "You could have been hurt" She continued, " You could have... You could have…" her anger died down as she stared at her now blood covered fist, her wide eyed gaze traveled up to his shoulder.

Harry was pale after the hit and trying not to curse the air blue as he held his arm just under the shoulder. Now, it was easier to see the wet stain that covered the part of his clothes over his shoulder.

Harry weakly gasped at his friend, "Bloody hell 'Mione! If this is how you say 'thanks' remind me not to save your life next time!"

Still grumbling, he inspected the blood in his clothes with a grimace, so much for escaping Madam Pomfrey's notice when they got back. By the looks of things it was a pretty nasty cut. Broken out of her shock the witch scooted closer and made to pull his robes off to get a look at the wound.

"Harry! We need to get that taken care of right away!"

He shrugged her off and started to stand up, "No, we'll take care of it later, we don't have time." He hushed her protests with a hand, wincing a little in pain, he crept forward to get another look at where they'd been passed out on the shore earlier. From there they watched as Snape showed up and conjured stretchers for all of them before taking them to the castle.

Hermione didn't look very pleased but nodded, "Right, it's nearly time, we've got fourty-five minutes until Dumbledore locks the hospital wing. We've got to save Sirius and get back to the ward before anybody realizes we're missing…" She took a deep breath in and turned back to Harry with a determined face, "Please let me bandage it for you! You'll be dizzy with blood loss otherwise- and I am not flying on a hippogriff by myself!"

Harry had to laugh a little at that, he nodded and shrugged off his robes from his injured shoulder. It probably would be a bad idea to let Hermione ride Buckbeak alone. His skin, now exposed, was covered in caked on blood that oozed sluggishly from several cuts across his shoulder.

They didn't look too deep so the witch just shook her head and pulled out her wand, "Honestly Harry, only you could get such a wound and not die from it! Infula vocata." With a flick of her wrist bandages sprang out of nowhere to wrap themselves around his shoulder, covering the cuts completely and stopping the bleeding for now. "We'll just have to tell Madam Pomfrey that we forgot to tell her about the wound before."

First aid taken care of they went back to silently watching the grounds for any sign of when they should move.

"D' you reckon he's up there yet?" said Harry, checking his watch. He looked up at the castle and began counting the windows to the right of the West Tower.

"Look!" Hermione whispered. "Who's that? Someone's coming back out of the castle!" Harry looked and the glint of something metal on the man's belt gave him away.

"Macnair!" said Harry. "The executioner! He's gone to get the dementors! This is it, Hermione-"

One terrifying flight later, for Hermione at least, and they were rapping on the window of Sirius' makeshift prison. The gaunt man ran to the window and after cutting off his questions they unlocked the window. The thin man slipped out quickly and they closed and locked it again to buy some time.

As soon as they were safely landed on the West Tower's battlements Harry and Hermione slid off Buckbeak.

"Sirius, you'd better go quick," Harry panted. He blinked a few times to stop the dizziness he was having from blood loss. "They'll reach Flitwick's office any moment , they'll find out you're gone."

Buckbeak pawed the ground, tossing his sharp head. He was ready to take off again but the man astride his back hesitated, "What happened to the other boy? Ron?" croaked Sirius.

"He's going to be okay. He's still out of it, but Madam Pomfrey says she'll be able to make him better. Quick-go-" But Black was still staring down at Harry.

"How can I ever thank-"

"GO!" Harry and Hermione shouted together, Harry throwing up his hands in frustration.

Black wheeled Buckbeak around, facing the open sky.

"We'll see each other again," he said, glancing back one last time, "You are-truly your fathers son, Harry…" With that he kicked his heels gently into the hippogriffs sides and together they took off into the night sky. The two slowly faded into the distance, getting smaller and smaller with each passing second…..until as a cloud covered the full moon they disappeared completely from view…somewhere in the forest a mournful howling could be heard.

Harry would have been content to just sit and stare in the the darkness but luckily Hermione was there to tug at his robe sleeve and get him moving with a reminder of how little time they had left to get to the Hospital Wing.

A near miss with Peeves later and they were panting heavily from the run as they came around the corner in time to hear Dumbledore instructing them on how many turns they should use. He turned and a wide smile lifted his silver mustache. "Well?" He listened to their exclamations of success with a twinkle in his eye before locking them in, again. With matching grins they snuck back to their beds as Ron snored softly. It was just in time as not a moment later the mediwitch came striding out of her office like a thundercloud.

"Did I hear the headmaster leaving? Am I allowed to look after my patients-good heavens!" Now that she was closer she could see the dried blood that covered the boy's shoulder and was wondering just how she'd missed that not five minutes ago. Quickly running to his bedside she pulled out her wand.

"Mister Potter!" she shrieked as she made him sat back more comfortably on the bed, "What in heavens name happened?"

Harry hissed a little in pain as she began to magically cut the robes and shirt under it away from him. She paused a moment seeing the bandages but cut those off as well. Casting a glance at Hermione, who was keeping out of the way and obediently eating the chocolate provided for her, he tried to come up with something believable quickly.

"Ouch! Sorry Madam Pomfrey…I meant to tell you sooner but then the Minister-" he cut off to bite his lip as the last bit of bandage was peeled away, exposing the sensitive and raw skin to the air.

At the reminder of the men who'd been obstructing her attempts at healing her patients the witch's normally kind eyes turned steely. "Never you mind." she reassured him as she began to inspect the blood caked wound gently, "Honestly, men can't even give me a moment to get you lot set up before they come barging in upsetting you! Now, how did this happen?" To her trained eye she could spot at least four entry wounds in a half circle around the boy's shoulder.

The sudden swing from angry rant to medical questions made Harry blink a little in surprise and it took his brain a moment to catch up. "Er…when Professor Lupin transformed…he went to jump at Hermione. So I ..er…sort of jumped between them…"

At the mention of her colleague the mediwitch froze, and before he'd even finished explaining she stepped in Hermione's line of sight and began casting a few scourgify spells to see the wound better. "Eyes forward please Mister Potter." she admonished him as he turned to look at the damage himself. He snapped his gaze forward immediately.

She poked at the wound for a moment with her wand, muttering under her breath so quietly that he couldn't make out what she was saying. "Mister Potter, if you would please follow me, I've left the ointment I need in my office."

Putting a steadying hand on his back she led him out of the common room and towards her office. Harry cast Hermione a confused look, which she returned, before he was out of sight.

Her office was much like the Hospital wing, clean and well organized. There was a spare bed in addition to her desk nearby for patients and it was to this she took him. She shut the door with a flick of her wand and in the same movement summoned a jar of vile smelling ointment from the shelves on the west side of the room.

"Try to hold, still, this'll sting a bit." she warned him before applying the salve. Sure enough as soon as it touched his skin Harry yelped and jumped, but a stern look and he was sitting quietly under her not so gentle ministrations.

Wounds cleaned and covered with medicine, she began to wrap his shoulder, starting around the arm. By now Harry was more than a little confused and very nervous. He knew, from much experience, just how skilled the witch was with her craft. She could heal broken bones in a moment, and close open wounds in a breath; so then why was she not doing that now? Why was she only bandaging his shoulder?

She worked in relative silence and he was didn't to disturb her. But all too soon she finished and took a seat next to him on the bed with a sigh. Harry could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stick up in apprehension for what she might say.

When she didn't say anything for a little while he shifted nervously and ventured a timid, "Madam Pomfrey?" Then she turned to him, eyes solemn.

"I'm sorry Mister Potter, I can't heal those cuts. Cursed wounds are resistant to magical healing." Harry felt his face freeze into a mask of shocked disbelief, he must have heard wrong. Poppy looked like she wanted to say more but was interrupted when an enraged scream sounded above them.

A/N: Hello and welcome to Harry Potter and the Ghosts of Hogsmeade!

A big thank you to Shona-Ann for taking my mess of scribbled ideas and grammar mistakes, and transforming them into an understandable story.

Another thanks to Unique .F for your tips and ideas!