Later, the thing that would be the most frightening to Harry was the silence. Rosie flew over the snow, and her pack poured out of the woods on all sides. They were all huge and eerie-eyed, but they seemed to make no sound at all as they closed the short distance. The snow didn’t even crunch under their feet.
Harry cast a Patronus spell and a silver stag was suddenly sprinting back at the wolves, spectral antlers lowered. Most of the wolves scattered, but Rosie tore on. The patronus dissolved and she ran through it as if it was no more tangible than a ghost.
Sirius wasted no more time. If it had been the black wolf who had done that to Tanner, she certainly wouldn’t spare him. He tossed Tanner roughly onto Buckbeak’s back and jumped up behind him. Buckbeak screamed and took to the air. Harry flew upwards too, even as Rosie leaped to catch him. Her teeth clicked together in empty air, the first sound that she had made.
She fell back to the snow, but landed gracefully. Her howl rose up after them, a high and chilling sound. Buckbeak screeched back, but his heart wasn’t in the challenge. He flew high over the trees and headed back to Hogwarts. Sirius was having a hard time staying on his back and holding on to Tanner at the same time.
Harry couldn’t get close enough to help without being hit with Buckbeak’s wings, so he did his best to stay near enough to catch one of them if they should fall.
“That was weird,” Harry said finally. “Do you think he’ll be ok?”
“Even if he doesn’t, taking him back will save us some explaining,” Sirius growled, slipping a few inches and clawing his way back up to Buckbeak’s shoulders. He had to grab for Tanner again and gritted his teeth. “No body is going to care about you being out late and hippogriff sightings if they have an injured stranger to fuss over.”
“Why do you think they turned on him like that?” Harry tried not to look at Tanner’s blood-spattered face.
“Didn’t you say Hagrid told you that the wolves were doing things that wolves aren’t known for doing,” Sirius hooked an arm around Tanner and got smacked by a wing. “Ow...Maybe it’s the Morthahg. You saw how the patronus was nullified. Maybe it has some sort of influence over the wolves.”
“If the Morthahg has a hold on Rosie,” Harry was thinking aloud now. “She might have attacked Tanner because he was a werewolf and not a natural wolf. The Morthahg hates magic, so it would hate werewolves too.” “Could be,” Sirius was glad to see the lights of Hogwarts appear over the trees. “You’re faster on that thing. Go ahead and alert the infirmary that you saw something on the commons. I’ll leave him by the Whomping Willow for them to find and have Buckbeak back in his enclosure before he’s missed. We’ll meet again in the room.”
Harry nodded and sped off.