Under the deep cover of night, Harry, Ron, and Neville paced uneasily outside Hagrid's Hut.
"Why isn't Jerry here yet? Don't tell me he forgot!" Ron breathed out a cloud of white mist and kept moving to stay warm.
Winter had passed, but nights in the forest were still bitterly cold. After Hagrid's arrest, the Ministry of Magic had locked his hut beside the Forbidden Forest. Harry and the others had tried the Unlocking Charm several times, but the door would not budge. With no way inside, the three huddled against a wall to shelter from the wind.
"I doubt it. Jerry isn't Neville!" Harry pulled his coat tighter and rubbed his hands together. "Besides, Jerry doesn't have an Invisibility Cloak. Sneaking out of Hogwarts can't have been as easy for him as it was for us."
Neville: "..." What did I have to do with it?
Not far from the three of them, an unusual Raven perched on a branch. His crimson eyes held a deep, mysterious intelligence. In the moonlight, his purple-black feathers gave off a glow so faint it was almost invisible, yet it lent him an uncanny air.
Jerry had reached Hagrid's Hut even before Harry and the others. Rather than show himself, he had stayed in Raven form, perched quietly in the shadows of a high branch as he watched Harry, Ron, and Neville shiver below.
Earlier that day, Jerry had been wondering how to draw out whoever had slipped into his Dormitory the night before. Then Harry and his two unlucky friends had offered themselves up. He had needed bait, and it had practically fallen into his lap.
No sense wasting bait that volunteered itself!
Unfortunately, even after Jerry had brought the bait outside the Castle, most of the night had passed without any