Remus stood in the middle of the platform, the only one around, taking in the sight of the Hogwarts Express. He hadn't seen the train in fifteen years, but it looked exactly the same; not a flaw in the shining, scarlet metal, the compartment windows open to reveal the same comfy seats inside, even the steam smelled the same as always, taking Remus back to when he first saw it. Nervous and shaky, he hadn't truly believed he was getting on the train back then, to a school of magic, where he could learn without his classmates in fear of him.
Even now, looking at it, he still held that same nervousness. No matter Dumbledore's confidence in him, Remus Lupin, the werewolf, would never forget what he was and how people would treat him if they found out. Things wouldn't be so bad, if Lilly, James, and Peter were alive, and Sirius not an escaped criminal. Although, Remus wouldn't know what he would do if he came across the traitor…
Remus took a deep breath and looked at his watch. It was ten o'clock, an hour early, but this way he could find a compartment and get some sleep.
He boarded the train and made his way to the compartment at the very end, sitting himself next to the window in the far corner. If anyone had to share his compartment, he wanted to be as little a nuisance as possible. He wrapped his cloak around him and placed his head against the wall, and felt his tiredness stumble onto him, like it always did when he managed to get a break, and he dozed off quickly.

It was probably an hour later when his slumber was disturbed. He didn't open his eyes, hoping that it was just some students passing. He could hear the babble on the rest of the train that indicated they were about to leave for Hogwarts, full of the students lucky enough to go to a Wizarding school.
But against his lucky, the door opened, and he continued to pretend to be asleep. He didn't want to make the students nervous.
"Who d'you recon he is?" A boy's voice hissed as Remus heard more than one student come in. It sounded like three, and they took the seats furthest from him.
"Professor R.J Lupin," A new voice said, belonging to a girl.
"How d'you know that?" The first voice said.
"It's on his case." The girl replied.
Remus tried not to smile a little. Clever. I bet that's a Ravenclaw.
"Wonder what he teaches?" said the boy again. Remus was surprised that the other hadn't spoken.
"That's obvious," whispered the girl. "There's only one vacancy, isn't there? Defence Against the Dark Arts."
Right again.
"Well, I hope he's up to it," the first boy said doubtfully, "He looks like one good hex would finish him off, doesn't he? Anyway," the boy directed his attention away, "What were you going to tell us?"
It was the third student, and Remus' heart jumped into his throat when he heard them speak.
It can't be, don't be stupid. James is dead.
The more he listened in on the conversation, the more the dots connected, and Remus' heart was beating so hard he was afraid they'd notice. But no, they were too consumed talking about Sirius, and the Weasley's were mentioned.
Finally, the girl said, "Sirius Black escaped to come after you? Oh Harry…"
It IS Harry!
"… you'll have to be really, really careful. Don't go looking for trouble, Harry-,"
"I don't go looking for trouble, trouble usually finds me."
Merlin's beard, he's so like James, Remus thought, trying not to get emotional. He risked cracking his eyes open a fraction, and his heart skipped a beat when he saw the boy, for the first time since Lilly and James' death. Harry.

Remus must have fell asleep again, dreaming about his old friends and their time at Hogwarts, when he was awoken with a jolt. The train had stopped, and rocked suddenly. The lights were out, and a cold was seeping unnaturally through the glass.
Oh no, Dementors. Remus knew immediately the feeling.
He opened his eyes in the dark, but there wasn't much difference. There was, however, more voices in the compartment, hushed and slightly panicked.
"-Who's that?"
"Who's That?"
"Ginny?"
"Hermione?"
"What are you doing?"
"I was looking for Ron-,"
"Come and sit down-,"
"Not here!' Harry said hurriedly. "I'm here."
"Ouch!" Said another newcomer. Remus could feel the Dementor getting closer, and spoke up.
"Quiet!" his voice sounded hoarse, even to him, and everyone in the compartment feel silent, obviously shocked to hear him for the first time. He shifted to be more comfortable, and put his coat on, before casting silently in his head, and a small fire appears in his hands. Five anxious faces looked up at him. He must have looked ragged, especially in this light, but his eyes were fixed on the corridor beyond the door.
"Stay where you are." He said, and got slowly to his feet, careful not to trip on any of the many legs. But he had to stop.
In the doorway, stood a Dementor. Remus had forgotten how tall they were, how foreboding. His heart sank as the cold crept up his fingers and down his throat. Then, he took in a long, rattling breath, which Remus immediately recognized, and tried pushing away horrible thoughts and memories in his mind, of times he'd watching his fingers change before him under the light of a fierce, blazing moon…
Harry went stiff beside him, then slid to the floor next to him, and his friends gave out gasps of worry, and a girl with bushy hair knelt next to him, but she looked up again at the dementor.
Remus clenched his jaw and gathered his wits, and stepped over Harry carefully. He drew his wand, and pointed it at the Dementor, who stopped its terrifying breath.
"None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go."
The dementor seemed to consider him, but then loomed forward. Remus scowled, then muttered,
"Expecto Patromun," thinking about happy memories of his friends, all sitting at the Potter's house, watching a young Harry play with a small Griffin toy. His Patronus' true form didn't appear, but enough of it did to make the Dementor retreat down the corridor, and Remus stepped into the hallway to make sure it exited the train fully.
Then, they all waited a tense few moments, then the light flickered back on, and the train gave a jolt as it started up again. Remus let out a breath of relief and leaned against the door frame.
There was sudden movement, as the tall, red-head boy knelt on the floor as well, a red-head girl leaned from where she was sitting and a round-faced boy had to lean against the wall, still shaking slightly.
"What's wrong with Harry?" The red-head boy asked.
"I don't know Ron, I don't know what that thing was so I don't know how to-,"
"He'll be alright," Remus said calmly, standing straight. "Dementor's are nasty, especially for people like Harry."
The girl with bushy hair went tight-lipped, then looked down at Harry and started gently slapping his face, "Harry! Harry! Are you all right?"
Harry's eyes flickered open a little. "W-what?"
Everyone gave a small sigh of relief, and Remus couldn't help but smile a little. Harry blinked a few times, and then put his glasses back on. The red-head, Ron, and the girl, helped him clamber back into his seat, where he sat and obviously tried to remember what just happened.
"Are you okay?" Ron asked Harry.
"Yeah." Harry looked towards the door suddenly, remembering what had been there only minutes before. "What happened? Where's that- that thing? Who screamed?"
Remus frowned, along with everyone else around Harry.
"No one screamed." Said Ron, sounding nervous.
Harry looked around at his friends, while Remus reached into his pocket and grabbed out a bar of chocolate, something he carried with him at all times. Sirius used to tease him for being an addict.
"But I heard screaming-," Harry said, just as Remus snapped a piece off and made everyone jump. He smiled apologetically, then handed a piece down to Harry.
"Here. Eat. It'll help."
Harry took the piece gently, looking at him curiously, but he didn't eat it. "What was that thing?"
"A dementor. One of the dementor's of Azkaban."
Everyone stared, as he handed them all the remaining chocolate and crumpled up the wrapping. They all looked so young.
So young to be caught up in all this madness. The word madness made him think of Sirius, so he wuickly pushed the word away, focusing again on Harry.
"Eat," he repeated. "It'll help. I need to speak to the driver, excuse me…"
Remus turned and left the compartment, making his way down the corridor, occasionally stopping at places and reassuring students that there was nothing to fear, the Dementors had gone. A pair of red-headed twins that Remus suspected were relatives of the Ron boy, were angry in their nervous state, saying that Dementors shouldn't be allowed to patrol trains without someone keeping an eye on them, and Remus couldn't help but agree, but also struggled to think of anyone who would be willing to work with Dementors round the clock.
He made it to the driver, checking on him. He was shaken like everyone else, saying he couldn't turn them away, trying to explain to them that Sirius couldn't possibly be on the train hadn't worked. Remus reassured him that this was normal Dementor behaviour, and advised him on eating a chocolate frog while he drove them the rest of the way to the school.
Remus then made his way back towards the compartment with harry and his friends, and paused as he saw none of them had eaten. They all looked at him in a certain awe, though Harry looked slightly suspicious.
Such a smart boy already, but such a shame to be so untrusting at his age.
"I haven't poisoned that chocolate, you know…" he told them.
harry took a bite, and Remus suspected it was out of politeness rather than a desire to eat, but Remus saw his slight surprise at the chocolates effect.
"We'll be at Hogwarts in ten minutes." He told them all as their faces gained some colour back from the chocolate. "Are you alright Harry?" he asked, and saw Harry's slight balk. Of course, he doesn't know how I know his name.
"Fine." Harry muttered back, not looking at anyone. Remus realised he was probably embarrassed at being the only one who fainted.
No one talked much during the remainder of the journey, and when the train finally pulled in the Hogwarts platform, there was a nervous hurry in everyone's movements to get off the train, like Rats in a nest that had just been disturbed.
It was freezing outside, and Remus pulled his thinned, frayed coat around him, but it didn't do much good. He could hear Hagrid's rough, jolly voice in the sleeted darkness, but the cold and recent events prevented him from smiling. Remus made his way to the coach's, pulled by the Thestrals, that none of the students seemed to see. Remus, seeing them glistening in the dark, swallowed nervously.
It's just the dementors still messing with your head. Stop thinking about it. He climbed into one of them, not joined by anyone else as they took off quickly to get out of the cold, towards the castle.
It was making their way up the stone steps that Remus spotted Harry and his friends again, who had been stopped by a sneering boy with almost white-blonde hair, with two troll-like boys flanking him. Remus recognized the boy's pointed face and cold eyes immediately. Malfoy.
His suspicions were confirmed when Ron growled through a clenched jaw, "Shove off, Malfoy."
"Did you faint as well, Weasley?" the Malfoy boy said loudly, drawing a few eyes from other passing students, but everyone seemed too keen to get inside to much care. "Did the scary old Dementor frighten you too, Weasley?"
Remus rolled his eyes and approached.
"Is there a problem?" he asked quietly.
The Malfoy boy was not intimidated, and his judging stare was fearless as he took in Remus' undoubtedly ragged and sorry appearance, right from his greying hair, sallow face, to his old clothing.
"Oh, no- er, Professor." The Malfoy boy said, hiding his sneer as poorly as his father would have, then turned and went up the stairs to the castle.
The bushy-haired girl gave Remus a thankful smile, then prodded Ron in the back and they made their way quickly up the steps.

Remus was filled with a familiar wonder as he entered the castle, looking around with lifted spirits. He, like Harry he suspected, only ever truly found home at Hogwarts. Before, his parents had forced them to stay on the road his whole childhood, and he hadn't known friendship until he'd come here. He remembered James's face appearing out a crowd and Sirius smiling behind him, and clapping him on the shoulder.
"You look like you could use a good feed, come on, I hear the feasts here are excellent."
And they had been. And the classes. And the grounds. And the dorms. And the teachers. And, most importantly, Dumbledore. However, Remus still felt guilt at going behind Dumbledore's back and helping his friends with the Animagus enchantment.
Remus even soar Peeves and smiled, despite Peeves recognizing him immediately and taunting about being 'Rugged, Ragged, wretched Remus,' and 'Luny, Loony, Loopy Lupin.' Luckily, the students simply thought that he was repeating 'Loony' twice, instead of referring to the full moon phase that turned Lupin into a hungry, blood-thirsty wolf.
After the feast, and trying not to meet Snape's leeringly angry eyes, Lupin made himself at home in his new office, taking deep breaths and hoping he wouldn't have nightmares about the dementors.
He didn't, but instead his dreams were filled with familiar faces and the smell of parchment.