The Outcasts Of Hogwarts

Chapter 24 Buckbeak's Trial

"Why is it always that cat?" Amaris asked as they walked back down a staircase.

They'd thanked Sir Cadogan and had hurried off before he'd had a chance to tell them another story. Leaving him in his lonely corridor.  Now, they were making their way back to their table in the library so they could discuss their findings.

"What do you mean by always?" Asked Kim.

"All that stuff I was telling you about Ron and Hermione falling out," Amaris replied.

"That's only one other thing," Matt pointed out, "and I think that's more the fault of the humans involved rather than the cat."

"Well, yes," Amaris conceded, "but what about when I saw the dog at the edge of the forbidden forest? Crookshanks was there, looking right at this animal that seems to be helping Black."

"Wait, wait, wait," Matt said holding up his hands, "are you suggesting that the house cat of Hermione Granger is in league with the escaped Azkaban prisoner?"

Amaris shrugged, it really did sound stupid, "I don't know! It's not my job to come up with explanations. My job is to luck myself into information, you guys are gonna have to be the ones to make sense of it all."

"Or to be precise," Kim added, "That's Steffan's job."

"Hmm?" Steffan was a few paces behind them and he blinked as he came out of his thoughts. "Here's what I'm wondering, how is it that Sir Cadogan heard the dog leave but didn't see it enter with Sirius Black?"

The three of them looked between each other but it didn't seem that Steffan was expecting an answer.

"And, how come he saw Sirius Black enter, but didn't hear him leave? We must be missing something important," he muttered to no one in particular, "or we've got something that isn't really there."

They reached the library and sat at their normal table, all deep in their own thoughts. Kim was picking at a new loose thread in her jumper, staring at nothing in particular. Matt was looking up at the ceiling as he rocked his chair back and forth with his foot pressed on the edge of the table. He somehow managed to do it without disturbing Steffan who had been writing in his notebook the instant he was in his chair.

He probably had a million theories already but all Amaris could think of was that cat. She knew it was stupid, it clearly wasn't the most important piece of information they had learnt. But she couldn't get it out of her head. It also reminded her of the owner of that cat.

So Amaris spent the rest of the week in a different part of the library from where her friends always sat. Instead, she poured over endless books, scrolls and old newspapers with Hermione. Buckbeak's court case was at the end of the week and the two of them were making a last-minute dash to ensure Hagrid was as prepared as he could be.

On Thursday, after several hours, Amaris stretched out her back and clicked her neck. There weren't any tables close to this part of the library and since it was mostly deserted, they'd decided to sprawl out on the floor. It meant they had more room and they didn't have to cart books back and forth but it did mean that Amaris was starting to get cramps. Being just a few days from the next full moon didn't help either.

She stared back at the page in front of her. It was a record of all the evidence for a case against a gnome that had supposedly broken someone's foot. It was very long and written in the complicated language of law which made it very difficult to read and incredibly boring. Amaris rubbed her eyes and refocused on the page but it was no use. She was reading the words but she wasn't taking in the sentence.