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HP Chapter 60: Discussion
🕑 Added 2025-08-29 14:00:09 +0000 UTC“Anne!” On Saturday morning, as Anne yawned her way out of the Slytherin common room and onto the first floor of the castle, she was suddenly pulled into a tight hug. She didn’t dodge, she’d already guessed what had happened the moment she saw who it was.
Hermione clung to Anne’s shoulder, sobbing miserably. A few steps behind, Fanny held up a crumpled piece of parchment, her expression bleak.
“Hagrid just sent this to us by owl… He lost the case. Buckbeak has been sentenced to death. No execution date yet.”
At the words “sentenced to death,” Anne felt Hermione squeeze even tighter. She quickly began reassuring her.
“Hmm… maybe we can still file an appeal?”
Hermione choked out, “Malfoy’s father threatened the committee into doing it. You know what he’s like. The committee’s just a bunch of doddering old fools, completely intimidated by him. Even if we can appeal, I don’t see any hope. Nothing can change it now.”
Since Sirius Black’s second break-in, the school had tightened security. Visiting Hagrid at night was no longer an option.
“We’ve got Care of Magical Creatures on Monday afternoon. We’ll talk to Hagrid then... maybe there’s still another way,” Anne said softly, patting Hermione’s back to comfort her.
When the three of them reached the corridor outside the Great Hall, Harry and Ron came rushing over.
“Great, you’re all here!” Harry said.
“We were going to look for you, Hermione, but you weren’t in the common room…” Ron added hastily. He then noticed Hermione and Fanny’s gloomy faces and asked, “What happened?”
Harry had noticed too and looked toward Anne for an explanation.
Glancing around, the corridor wasn’t crowded yet, Anne suggested, “Let’s go to the second floor and find an empty classroom to talk?”
She didn’t wait for a reply and headed upstairs. The others followed.
Anne took a seat at the back of the room and began rhythmically tapping a silver Sickel on the desk. Once everyone was seated, she raised her brows at Harry.
“So, what’s going on?”
“I was bored last night and flipping through the Marauder’s Map…” Harry began, launching into his story. “And I saw an unbelievable name on it!”
Hermione and Fanny both turned their attention to him.
“Peter Pettigrew! I saw Peter Pettigrew’s name, right outside the Gryffindor common room!”
Both Hermione and Fanny gasped.
“That’s impossible!”
“Peter Pettigrew is dead!” they exclaimed.
Anne kept tapping the coin and motioned for Harry to continue.
“Yeah, we all heard it from Fudge, Peter’s supposed to be dead. So I went out to check.”
“Harry!” Fanny burst out.
“Oh my God, Harry! How could you?” Hermione added.
Harry ignored their scolding and pressed on. “When I got to the corridor, it was empty. No one was there. But according to the map, I was getting closer and closer to Peter. Still, no one. I figured maybe the map was acting up and turned to head back to the dorm, and that’s when I ran into Snape.”
“Professor Snape, Harry,” Fanny corrected.
“He found the map. Luckily, I’d already closed it, but he tapped it with his wand, and it insulted him!” Harry couldn’t help but grin. “It was Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, all mocking him!”
“Of course Snape was furious. He was going to give me detention, but then Professor Lupin showed up and stopped him. Lupin said he just happened to know about the map but wasn’t going to punish me over it, he just confiscated it.”
“Snape also asked me something weird. He wanted to know if I’d gotten the map directly from its creators. I asked Professor Lupin about it, and he said the map’s creators might’ve made it to lure students out of the castle, that it was meant to be fun.”
“He also said he’d met the creators… and that I shouldn’t be wandering around alone at night…”
Once Harry finished, the tapping stopped. The room fell silent.
One event after another, things never seemed to stop happening around the trio. Anne had originally just intended to help Hermione, but now she’d been drawn into the trio’s mess too. Still, with their friendship mended, maybe it was time to start stepping away. There was no longer a reason to stay involved.
“Hermione, what do you think about all this?” Anne tossed the question to her.
Hermione blinked, frowning slightly at Anne. She had a strange feeling Anne was trying to distance herself. The others simply saw it as another one of Anne’s curveball questions and turned to Hermione.
Anne met Hermione’s gaze directly and gave a slight smile, silently telling her to speak up.
“…Okay, I have a question. Harry, did you tell Professor Lupin that you saw Peter Pettigrew’s name on the map?” Hermione asked directly.
Anne nodded and looked at Harry, as did the others.
“I did. Before I left, I told him I thought the map was wrong, that I saw Peter Pettigrew’s name on it…”
“What did he say?” Fanny asked.
“He said, ‘That’s impossible.’”
“‘Impossible’?” Hermione frowned. “Did he mean it’s impossible that the map was wrong? Or that Peter appearing on the map was impossible?”
“Obviously the second one!” Ron jumped in. “You know what Black did to him. After Peter died, his mother only got a finger and a Merlin First-Class medal!”
“You’ve mentioned that before…” Fanny said flatly.
Ron, unfazed, continued loudly, “Yeah, and the Aurors saw it happen!”
Fanny tilted her head in thought. “Still… something about it feels off…” She turned to Anne. “Anne, what do you think?”
Anne spun the coin in her hand. “I don’t think it matters. Harry, you’re leaning toward the second possibility, aren’t you?”
Harry nodded. “Yeah. I think the map is accurate. Peter is dead… but I still saw his name, ‘Peter Pettigrew’, on that map!”
“Hermione, what do you think?” Anne asked again.
“I don’t know…” Hermione looked at Anne and then asked back, “Anne, are you leaning toward the first option?”
Anne stopped playing with the coin, pressed it to her finger, and with a flick, launched it into the air. It fell with a sharp ding, landing on the back of her hand.
“Tails or heads… let the goddess of luck decide.” She lifted her hand to reveal the coin.
“Heads. Well, there’s my answer.”
Pocketing the coin, she straightened in her seat.
“So, most of us think the second possibility is more likely. Since Professor Lupin has the map now, let’s leave it to the professors to deal with. They’re more capable than us, and they see the bigger picture.”
“And Black won’t get in so easily next time. As long as we don’t go wandering, we’ll be safe. But there’s something else right now, something urgent, Buckbeak!”
“You two don’t know yet, right?” she said to Harry and Ron. “Hagrid lost the case. Buckbeak’s been sentenced to death, but the date isn’t set yet.”
“What?!” Ron jumped up.
“They can’t do that! Buckbeak isn’t dangerous!” Harry added in disbelief.
“We have to help Hagrid!” Ron turned to Harry, who nodded, he knew what Buckbeak meant to Hagrid. When Hagrid had to send off a dragon, he’d been devastated. If Buckbeak were executed, Hagrid would be crushed.
“Any ideas?” Harry asked the girls.
Hermione stared at Anne. Anne had a feeling she’d been found out but stuck to her decision to act clueless, calmly returning the gaze.
Fanny noticed the exchange between them and answered, “At this point, probably the only thing we can do is appeal. But Hermione thinks there’s little hope. You know Malfoy’s father definitely threatened the committee.”
“Ugh, Malfoy again!” Ron growled. “We’ll help! This time, all five of us, together, we’ll make a difference!”
“Yeah! We should visit Hagrid too, he must be heartbroken!” Harry added, only to remember Lupin’s warning. He couldn’t leave the castle for a few days.
“Not right now,” Anne said, stretching. “We shouldn’t try to sneak out either. But we can go to the library over the weekend to look up anything useful. It’s lunchtime now, I’m heading to eat. You staying or continuing this?”
The four exchanged glances. Anne had already reached the door. Fanny gave a quick apologetic look to the others and followed her.
Fanny caught up, but before she could speak, Hermione came running after them. She stopped in front of Anne, hesitating. She had questions but didn’t know how to ask them.
Anne had to steady herself to avoid bumping into her, and realized something: she’d grown. She was now eye-level with Hermione.
Grinning, Anne held up her hand to compare, “Whoa, I think I’ve gotten taller! I’m the same height as you now, Hermione!” She turned to Fanny. “Fanny, come look! Aren’t we the same height?”
Anne placed her hands on Hermione’s shoulders, happily saying, “Don’t move… just a sec…” She stepped in closer. Their eyes met, Hermione could see the bright little flames of excitement dancing in Anne’s amber eyes. She felt her face heat up.
Fanny stepped to the side and confirmed, “Yep. Anne, you’re the same height as Hermione!”
“Fantastic!” Anne beamed, stepping back.
“Is that… something to be so excited about?” Fanny asked, confused.
Anne raised an eyebrow and made a grand gesture.
“There’s a saying, ‘To see far, you must stand tall.’ But I prefer, ‘The taller you are, the farther you can see!’ Height is an advantage!”
You’d never understand the trauma of growing up barely over 150cm in the south.
Seeing their confused looks, Anne chuckled.
“Anyway, I just think growing taller is worth celebrating. That’s all. Now, time to eat, I’ve gotta keep growing!”
She took a few steps, then turned around.
“Oh right, Hermione, did you have something to tell me?”
Hermione looked at her smiling face and shook her head.
“Alright. Oh? Harry and Ron came out too? Great, let’s all go eat! Food’s life, after all, skip a meal, and you’ll feel faint! I only had two slices of toast and a glass of milk for breakfast… was thinking of sneaking into the kitchens…”
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A/N: Part of this chapter draws from the film, part from the original book. Honestly, the differences between the two are huge, I only realized it after reading the book properly.
