My sweetest Clementine,
It breaks my heart that I cannot properly send you off to school like I previously have, but due to the continued spotlight on our family it is best that we aren't seen together. I fear my appearance at the platform would only draw even more attention to you than the Daily Prophet already has. I've said this before and I will say it again, the road ahead will be harder than you could possible imagine and even though you will safely be away at school, even you will not be able to free from all the attention that has come with your uncle's escape from prison.
There are still many questions to be answered surrounding your uncle's escape from prison and many of your classmates will look to you as a source of gossip and fascination. From my own experience of being the victim of school yard gossip, I can tell you that there will be those who will whisper both in front and behind you. Many will point out the similarities between yourself and Sirius, the famous dark features that you know run within the Black family line. Some will hold you accountable for your uncle's actions and say you shouldn't be at school. That you are just as dangerous at the mad man that is Sirius Black. But you must hold your head up high Clementine and ignore those who seek to drag you down.
No matter what any one says, you know the truth.
You know of the family that you came from. The House of Black is tainted with those obsessed with blood purity and the dark arts. Clementine, you may carry the Black name but you do not carry the same darkness within your heart. I did not raise you to be like the rest of our family, I raised you to be better than that. I raised you to be better than them all.
Stay safe.
Remember our words.
All my love
M.
Clementine couldn't help but once again at the letter from her mother that was in her hands, the words of Cassiopeia Black were straight to the point as they warned of the dark times that inevitably lay ahead for her daughter. Yet Clementine couldn't help but smile as her fingers gently tracing over the words written on the parchment, like always her mother had written in her favourite turquoise ink. It was a small measure of comfort even though Clementine knew that nothing, not even her mother's words could prepare her for what was going to come next; the next chapter of the nightmare that Clementine had been living for the last month ever since her uncle, the murderer known as Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban.
It was supposed to have been impossible, Azkaban was meant to be inescapable and yet the seemingly impossible had happened. Clementine's maternal uncle had somehow managed to escape the prison that he had been locked away in twelve years ago after killing twelve muggles and one wizard. Clementine didn't know the finer details of what had happened and why her uncle had committed the crimes he did nor did she really know anything about Sirius. He had been arrested in the early hours of November 1st 1981, the day after Clementine's fourth birthday and she had no real memories of ever meeting Sirius.
She didn't like bothering her mother with questions about Sirius as Cassiopeia never liked to talk about her family in the slightest, as the Black family weren't exactly the warm and fuzzy type.
On the rare occasions that Cassiopeia Black mentioned her brother, she would laugh and say that Sirius had always been mad in more ways than one. Clementine couldn't help but wonder if maybe that was true as what other word could you use to describe the man who had managed to escape from prison that was supposed to be inescapable?
Remember our words.
No matter how many times Clementine had read her mother's letter since she had boarded the Hogwarts Express, she had always ended up back at those significant three words that her mother had wrote. Remember our words. To someone on the outside, they would be mistaken to believe that could Cassiopeia was referring to the motto that belonged to the so-called Ancient and Most Noble House of Black. Although Clementine wasn't sure the Black family could really call themselves noble given how the Black family was mostly made up of criminals and blood purity supremacists, the family tree was pretty much rotten to the core. It made the family motto of always pure 'Torjours Pur' all the more funnier.
All jokes aside Clementine knew that her mother wasn't referring to the Black family motto but rather the motto that she had adopted as her own. Noli pati a scelestis opprimi. It translated to 'Don't let the bastards grind you down'. These were the words that Cassiopeia Black had taken up as her own after being disowned at the tender age of 18 for becoming pregnant with child that had a muggle born father. Clementine always found her mother's motto to be rather ironic in it's own way, considering that she was indeed a bastard. Her parents Cassiopeia Black and Topher Jennings were never married.
Her mother's reference to her own words was meant to remind Clementine to keep her head up as she knew that her upcoming school year was going to be hard. The news of Sirius' escape had reached every corner of the country for both muggles and the wizarding community. That had been expected of course along with all the media attention, given that Sirius was the first person to ever escape from Azkaban. The Daily Prophet had printed numerous stories about Sirius' escape including a full profile on him which named his closest immediate family left as his sister Cassiopeia Black and her daughter Clementine.
That had been the end of the little anonymity that Clementine had been living under, she had always known that she was related to Sirius but now the rest of wizarding Britain knew it. No one had ever made the link between the two of them until the Daily Prophet named her as the relative of a recently escaped mass murder.
For the last three weeks Clementine had been kept out of sight, sent away to stay with her father to avoid all the scrutiny that had come with Sirius escape but no longer could she hide. Even now Clementine was by herself, hiding out in an empty compartment on the Hogwarts Express as she wasn't ready to face her friends, if she had any left. She supposed now was probably a good time to get on with it and find out if any of her friends were still going to speak to her.
Starting with Fred and George Weasley would probably be the best place to start. If there was any two people who were crazy enough to still want to be her friends then it would be the Weasley Twins .
Folding her mother's letter in half a couple of times, Clementine stuffed the parchment into the pocket of her jeans as she stood up from her seat and ventured out of her compartment. If this was any other year, Clementine would have been sitting in a rather packed compartment with Fred, George and her other friends, swapping stories about their summer holidays. But this summer hadn't been like the usual ones, nor had the back to school, routine. Not in the several years of attending Hogwarts had Clementine dreaded going back to the institute in charge of her magical education. Things weren't supposed to be this way, Clementine was supposed to be excited about going back to school and being with her friends. Yet this was Clementine's new reality and she had to deal with it.
The stares that Clementine was receiving as she made her way through the train carriages were to be expected, she was now somewhat famous by a somewhat familial connection. Clementine could feel countless eyes threatening to burn a hole into her forehead but she continued to walk on, quickly skimming through the glass windows of the compartments for the two lanky redhead twins that she was looking for. Yet so far, there was no luck. The more Clementine walked, the longer and more arduous her task seemed to be.
The something off happened.
From the corner of her eye, Clementine noticed something off coming from above her and she looked up to see that the train lights were beginning to flutter and it seemed like the train was starting to slow down before it suddenly jolted, sending Clementine off her feet. Clambering back up Clementine couldn't help but think that something was wrong and it seemed that others shared that same sentiment as she became aware of people sticking their heads out of train compartments wondering what on earth was going on.
"Clem?!"
"I-I didn't do it!" Clementine barked on instinct as she presumed that someone was trying to place the blame squarely on her but for once she was wrong.
Turning around Clementine saw a female with familiar red hair and instantly knew it was Ginny Weasley, Fred and George's little sister and the youngest of all the Weasley siblings. Ginny wasn't alone either, beside her was the rather forgetful but always endearing Neville Longbottom. Clementine knew them both well enough as they were all in the same house at Hogwarts although they were about to enter their second and third year respectively compared to Clementine who was about to enter her rather dreaded fifth year.
"What's going on Clem? Why's the train stopped?" Neville stammered as he clutched onto his toad Trevor for what seemed to be dear life.
"I'm not really dure Neville, I'm just as surprised as you are even more as this has never happened before as far as I know…" Clementine honestly admitted as this was a first for her, she had seen her fair share of bizarre and unexplainable things given that she was friends with George and Fred but the Hogwarts Express coming to a complete stop was something new and frankly rather worrying. Not once could Clementine ever recall the Hogwarts Express every breaking down in the years that she had been attending Hogwarts. Clementine wasn't even sure that it was possible for the train to come to a stop. . The train was enchanted in some manner by various charms so Clementine wasn't sure what exact magical intervention could cause it to stop running.
Moments after the words came out of Clementine's mouth, all the lights on the Hogwarts Express went out and thrust them into complete darkness and it seemed like Clementine's day was just going from bad to worse.
Something was going and whatever it was, probably wasn't a good thing.
Then there was this odd sound that seemed to be coming from outside the train. Clementine wasn't really sure how to describe what she had heard but it sounded like something had just boarded the train. It had to be impossible yet Clementine was certain of what she head. Something or someone was now on the Hogwarts Express.
Clementine knew she had to move, herself along with Ginny and Neville were just standing out in the corridors of the carriage and they weren't alone any more. Something was out there with them and Clementine didn't think it was another student. They needed to move. Right now.
Grabbing Ginny's hand and Neville's free arm, Clementine began to drag the two younger students down the corridors of the Hogwarts Express, trying to navigate herself down the dark corridors of the train as best she could but it was rather hard given how dark it was and how her hands were a bit preoccupied with Ginny and Neville so she couldn't use her wand to guide them to a sage place. Finally Clementine came to a stop and making out the handles of a compartment door, she let go of Ginny and Neville before pulling the doors open and roughly pushing the two of them through the doors, once they were in Clementine followed suit and quickly shut the compartment doors. There was quite a bit of noise coming from inside the compartment and it became obvious to Clementine that she hadn't walked into an empty compartment.
"Will you all just be quiet!" Clementine hissed in annoyance as she couldn't figure out what was going on outside with all this nose going on.
"Clem is that you?"
Instantly Clementine recognized that voice straight away as Hermione Granger, another fellow Gryffindor who was in the same year as Neville. Clementine was certain that if Harry was in here then Ron Weasley and Harry Potter were also in this carriage as the three of them were practically inseparable. They were a trio who always seemed to find themselves in peculiar situations. Although Harry, as infamous as he was always seemed to have a knack for finding himself in some kind of trouble.
"No, it's Father Christmas!"
There seemed to be limbs everywhere and being barely able to see in front of her, let alone her own feet Clementine managed trip over something and get sent flying forward somehow managing to land flat on her front and as she did Clementine felt a sharp impact against her nose, which made a loud and quite unnatural sound that left a weird sensation in her nose. Unable to help herself Clementine cried out loud as she clutched her nose in the darkness.
"Shit!"
"Clem! Language."
"Don't mind me Hermione, I'm pretty certain that I've just broken my nose" Clementine retorted as she heard sniggering from beside her, no doubt coming from Ron and Harry over her use of muggle swear words. Clementine chose to ignore them as she felt her nose which was definitely out of shape and bleeding quite a bit. If she had known things were going to end up like this, she would have never left her compartment.
But for now, she needed to get up on to her feet without falling over and causing more damage to her body. Slowly attempting to stand up, Clementine reached up to grab something to help stead herself and to her surprise, whatever it was she had grabbed was rather soft and wriggly.
It was someone's hand.
"Clem is that you holding my hand?" Harry asked rather uneasily.
"Oh right, sorry about that! Just give me a hand up." Clementine replied as she allowed Harry to help her up.
"What the bloody hell is going–" Ron began but Clementine didn't have time to be answering questions that she didn't have the answer to because something was happening outside in the corridor of the train. She had momentarily forgotten that something was going on because of her nose but now it had all come back to her. The lights going out on the train, the sound of something coming aboard the train which is why Clementine had literally shoved Neville and Ginny into the carriage .
."–Shut up! All of you just be quiet and don't say anything…" Clementine hissed in a quiet tone because something was definitely going on outside. If this had been any other day Clementine would have considered herself mad for even suggesting such a thing but she was sure as hell that there was something outside in the carriages and it was moving. Merlin help them all but something was moving out there.
It wasn't good, Clementine could feel a crisp chill in the air and with every passing moment it was getting even colder and she was pretty sure that she could hear Neville's teeth chattering in the background. The coldness only led way to silence and Clementine was now more than certain that she could hear something moving outside. But it wasn't other students. It was something else and it was moving further up the train. Clementine was beyond scared, there was no other way to put it. There was a dark sensation crawling up her skin and her bones seemed to be frozen still.
This could not be happening.
This had to be a very bad dream.
Yet it wasn't.
But Clementine was too scared to freak out, she couldn't run and hide in some corner like she wanted to as there were others with her and she had to put them all first. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Ginny. They were all here in this compartment and out of all them Clementine was eldest and it was her responsibility to protect them. She had to keep them safe from whatever it was that was lurking outside in the corridor. Her feet felt like they were dead weights as Clementine shuffled closer to the door of the compartment, pulling her wand out of the back pocket of her jeans and holding it out in front of her.
She waited. They all just waited but nothing happened, it just got colder and colder… The carriage was completely silent, no one said anything, no one moved, no one dared to breathe but yet Clementine had never known her thoughts to be so loud before in her entire life.
Whatever was outside was coming increasingly closer and she had no idea what to do, she felt frozen solid. Clementine could barely think let along act so when a crackling sound came from behind her, she was at a loss. She was way too freaked out from what was going on from outside the compartment to be getting worked up about was going on inside this compartment. All Clementine knew was that things were just getting even more stranger and they hadn't even arrived at Hogwarts. Yet, Clementine's attention couldn't help but be drawn to whatever it was that was occurring behind her and she turned to look over her should to see this faint glow coming from within the compartment all of a sudden.
It was coming from someone.
A man.
Clementine hadn't been aware that anyone else was in this compartment, she hadn't even thought to ask, as she had assumed that it was only herself and the others but apparently she was wrong. Yet what was even more disturbing to Clementine was that she knew this man. If it wasn't for the fact that she was so scared, Clementine would have fainted at the sight of the person sitting calmly in the midst of all the chaos carrying the light that looked like flames. Remus Lupin. He was an old friend of Clementine's mother. But it had months at least since Clementine had seen him. Even though Clementine was certain that it was him, Lupin was a far cry from how she had seen him the last time.
He was dressed in robes that had seen better days and he had brown hair that had flecks of grey in it along with this huge scar that ran along his face. He wasn't old but he looked older than he probably was.
Just what the bloody hell was he doing here of all places?
"Stay where you are."
There was this calming authority to Lupin's voice as he rose from his seat and Clementine felt mildly better that there was an adult who seemed to be willing to face whatever it was that was going on outside as she was in no way qualified to take on whatever was outside. Clementine opened her mouth to attempt to ask Lupin what was going but he simply shook his head at her and turned his attention to the door.
All Clementine could do was nod her head in a dumb manner before her attention soon drifted back to what was going on outside. The door was slowly opening.
Someone was opening the door from outside and Clementine felt her breath get caught in her throat as she caught sight of whatever it was that had been lurking outside. It was a creature, a hooded cloaked figure that was hovering in the doorway and Clementine instinctively felt dread. She felt a mixture of things, sadness, fear but most importantly dread and death for some reason. An intense cold breeze swept over her and Clementine felt the chills going down her spine and right down to her toes. Clementine stumbled back a few more steps, she stumbled back into someone but she didn't look to see who it was as her eyes were preoccupied with what was it in front of her or rather what it was. It had taken a few moments but Clementine realized that she knew what the dark figure towering over them was.
It was a Dementor. Clementine should have realized it sooner… They were the fowl creatures who were tasked with protecting Azkaban. Never before had Clementine seen one in person but she had grown up hearing all about them and they were so much worse than anything that she could have dreamed of. No matter how scared she was, Clementine couldn't tear her eyes away from the dementor, Clementine's blood ran cold, she didn't know what was going to happen but she felt more scared than she had ever felt in her entire life. Clementine honestly felt like she was about to be scared to death. The fear, unhappiness and the cold all surrounded her until she heard something fall to the ground and Clementine looked round briefly to see Harry on the ground looking like he was having some kind of fit.
"I-I…" Clementine stammered in shock, unable to form an actual sentence together as her brain was currently empty. There was nothing going on inside her brain, she was too freaked out to form words in her head let alone get them out of her mouth. Clementine didn't know what she should do, she didn't know how to protect everyone else. All she could do was just stand there whilst she was being all but scared to death.
"None of us are hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go…"
Clementine hadn't even noticed that Lupin had managed to get in front of her, his arms spread out to protect them all. Her mind just kept stopping and starting. Whatever was happening, her mind couldn't even begin to comprehend but she could recall seeing a bright light and within moments the Dementor was gone. Seemingly banished from the compartment and off to somewhere else. Clementine didn't know where it was going nor did she care, she was just glad that it was gone. It didn't take long for the lights came back on and Clementine felt mildly better now that she could see better although she used the word mildly rather reluctantly. Despite the fact she couldn't form a word or even a sentence to thank Lupin who had pretty much saved them, Clementine did managed to let out a somewhat strangled sigh of relief despite the fact that her mouth was pretty much covered with her own blood.
The last few minutes had been the worst of her life and it seemed to have gone on for hours rather than some agonisingly slow minutes and apparently the others felt the same. Ginny was cowering in fear in the corner, no doubt terrified out of her mind, Clementine would have gone to comfort her if it wasn't for the fact that she wasn't sure where to even begin. Then Neville was doing something that Clementine wasn't too sure of what it was but he seemed to be doing okay for the most part which was good. Hermione and Ron were busy on reviving Harry, who seemed to come round after being poked and prodded for about thirty seconds.
Upon seeing Harry's eyes open Clementine let out another sigh of relief before using the sleeve of her jumper to wipe her mouth and nose, wincing ever so slightly as the material of her jumper came into contact with her nose. It was definitely broken but everyone was okay… For the most part. Although Clementine knew that there was no way she was getting any sleep tonight after what they had all gone through.
"Are you okay?" Ron asked and Clementine wearily glanced over to a pale looking Harry who seemed rather green and moments away from being sick, which Clementine could sympathise with. She felt like she could be sick any minute now after what had just happened.
"Yeah…" Harry wearily replied and Clementine caught him quickly glancing towards the door no doubt looking for the Dementor which was now gone. "What happened? Where's that - that thing? Who screamed?"
"No one screamed." Ron replied at the moment and Clementine couldn't help but awkwardly look away as now that her brain was finally catching up to her emotion, she realized what this all meant. This was all about Sirius. There was no other reason for Dementors to be here and since this was about Sirius, Clementine knew it was only a matter of time before it led back to her given her familial relations to Sirius. Clementine hadn't even arrived at Hogwarts yet but already Sirius was causing her even more problems. It was one thing having ministry officials coming to her home at all hours of the day but this was something else and Clementine felt like she had aged 10 years in the last few weeks because of this Sirius ordeal.
"But I heard screaming -" Harry insisted and Clementine didn't know what to say to this so instead she just looked over to the Lupin. She still didn't understand why he was here of all places. It was so random.
"Here, eat it. It'll help."
"What was that thing?" Harry asked and no one said anything because nobody in the room seemed to know what it was except for Clementine and Lupin and he seemed rather reluctant to speak up. So before she knew what she was doing, Clementine decided to be the one to speak up and answer Harry's question.
"That thing? It's called a Dementor. It's pretty much the physical manifestation of pure darkness and more than capable of sucking out your soul if it gets too close to you. It's why they are tasked with guarding Azkaban." Clementine replied in a grim tone of voice as she explained to the others the creature that they just had the misfortune to meet. But as soon as the words came out of Clementine's mouth she regretted it, even more so when several sets of eyes were looking straight at her. Clementine could see them connecting the dots from Dementors and Azkaban to Sirius Black and herself. It was clear as day in their eyes, the Dementor was looking for Sirius but they came across Clementine instead.
Although she wasn't a mind reader Clementine thought she could read people well and she was certain that she knew what everyone was thinking. The Dementors had come looking for a Black and they had found one, just not the right Black. Clementine looked round the compartment one last time, taking in all the stares that were coming her way and she felt trapped. She felt naked exposed and she needed to get out, she needed to flee so she did. Clementine moved towards the compartment door, pulled them open and ran. She couldn't be there any more, Clementine had to get away and so she ran down the corridors of the train, ignoring all the stares that were coming her way. Clementine just had get away from it and go somewhere she could be alone and pull herself together.
This year was not getting off to a good start.