Let's continue, shall we?
Fern didn't know the Weasleys especially well, apart from Ron himself. She'd only met Ron's parents very briefly, and she'd hardly spoken to any of his siblings except Ginny.
They first met in the bar of the Leaky Cauldron. Ginny blushed when she saw Harry, as per usual. He'd basically saved her life the term before. She'd also supposedly sent him a singing Valentine, which had been performed in front of half the school.
Percy acted very formal. He was already wearing his Head Boy badge. He'd always been pretty self-important, having been a Prefect for two years, but Fern had to stifle her giggles when he greeted them.
The twins made fun of Percy by acting in the same way, laying it on thick. They hadn't been made prefects, and they didn't care. They were the troublemakers of the generation at Hogwarts. Fern couldn't tell them apart, since they nearly always used the typical twin trick of saying Fred was George or vice versa. Sometimes they called each other Gred and Forge.
The next day, it was time for the group to go through the pillar for Platform 9¾, as usual. The older boys went off with their friends on the train (In Percy's case, his girlfriend), but Ginny hovered near the four third-years.
Immediately the train rounded a corner, Harry muttered to the rest of the Quartet "I need to talk to you in private."
"Ginny, go away." Ron said bluntly.
"Oh, be nice!" Fern said as Ginny stalked off huffily, to find some other second-years, one could assume. The Quartet was left to find an empty compartment. The best they could find was one with only a sleeping man inside.
"Who do you reckon he is?" Ron whispered.
"Professor R.J Lupin." Hermione whispered back straightaway.
"How do you know that?"
"It's on his case."
"This year's Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, I suppose." Fern muttered. "I just hope he's better than last year's." The most she had learned from the last DADA was not to let Cornish pixies run wild or cast a Memory Charm with a borrowed faulty wand. He'd ended up being sent to St Mungo's, a wizard hospital, after he tried to use Ron's old broken wand to wipe Fern and the boys' memories (Hermione was in the hospital wing, Petrified at the time). It was a good thing Ron had a new wand.
"Well," said Ron, looking at Lupin. "I hope he's up to it. He looks like one hex would finish him off. Anyway," he turned to Harry. "What were you going to tell us?"
The whole group listened as Harry explained. On the news, there had been warnings of an escaped murderer, Sirius Black. Even Fern and Hermione's families knew of it, since it had been on TV. However, what they weren't told was that Black was not just anyone – he was an escaped convict from Azkaban, the wizard prison. He was the first person to ever escape. And all signs pointed to him having escaped to go after Harry. He'd heard Ron's parents arguing over whether to tell him or not the night before, and Mr Weasley had warned him about it just before he got on the train.
"As if you needed someone else!" Fern muttered under her breath. Why were so many people trying to attack one of her best friends? Oh yeah, because he was the Boy Who Lived.
"You'll have to be really really careful." Hermione warned. "Don't go looking for trouble."
"I don't!" Harry protested. "Trouble usually finds me." His friends had to agree.
"Why would anyone do that, anyway?" Fern asked. "Look for someone who wants them dead, I mean? Yeah, yeah, it's the whole 'kill him before he kills me' idea, but honestly, would any of us have enough heartlessness to do that? And how stupid would we be to try and attack and defeat an ingenious infamous dangerous murderer at the age of thirteen?"
"No one knows how he broke out of Azkaban." Ron added. "No one's ever done it before. And he was a top-security prisoner too."
"But they'll catch him, won't they?" Hermione said, her confidence returning. "I mean, they've got all the Muggles looking out for him, too."
Fern stared out the window silently, for a moment. Suddenly, she scowled. "I can't stand this!"
"What?" asked her friends.
"Everything!" Fern said harshly. "Don't get me wrong, I love being a witch, but this is so stressful. First year: We have to go out at night, get attacked, then all get points for it. Second year: One of us gets Petrified, and the rest of us battle the ultimate evil. Third year: A murderer's on the loose. It's been getting so stressful that just about anything would set me off. This time, it's all the information we get to show just how dangerous Black is."
Everyone changed the subject to Hogsmeade. Fern was starting to feel better after her outburst. Although she'd seemed fine after her breakdown after the Chamber of Secrets thing, she had still felt a bit shaken. Now she was more ready to move on from that than ever. She was still silent, though, even when Harry said that he couldn't go to Hogsmeade, since the Dursleys refused to sign his permission slip.
She only came to life when the door slid open and Draco looked in, flanked by his two minions, Crabbe and Goyle.
"Well, look who it is." Draco said mockingly. "Potty and the Weasel." His minions laughed.
Fern stood up, with a sweet smile gracing her face. Her retort was said in her sweetest tone. "Well, look who's here. Is it Team Rocket? Oh, my mistake, is it the Warner Brothers and the Warner Sister? Oh, wait, now I've got it, you must be the Powerpuff Girls!"
The rest of the Quartet exchanged grins, although Ron in particular had never watched TV and didn't have a clue what Fern was talking about. Draco, being a pureblood, would never have watched TV either, but Fern knew he was intelligent enough to work out that she was making fun of him and his minions.
Draco ignored her, anyway. "I heard your father finally got his hands on some gold this summer, Weasley. Did your mother die of shock?"
At that moment, the sleeping Professor Lupin gave a snort. "Who's that?" Draco asked.
"New teacher." Harry told him. "What were you saying, Malfoy?"
But it seemed that the Slytherins weren't going to start a fight in front of a teacher, even if they were comatose. Draco and his minions left.
Fern smirked at her friends. "I have to say, that was impressive. I like our new teacher already." she laughed. "So what did you think of what I said?"
"Well..." Ron admitted. "It was funny, but I didn't get it."
Hermione smiled. "That's because she was making references half the people on the train wouldn't have watched. They're all trios from television."
The train ride was going smoothly. Until the train stopped. And the lights went out, followed by Neville and Ginny coming in, and Neville nearly sitting on Crookshanks, who was out of his cat basket.
Suddenly-
"Quiet!" Lupin had finally woken up. Everyone fell silent. "Stay where you are." he warned, before starting towards the door. But the door slid open, and a cloaked figure with a hood and no face appeared. Fern's eyes adjusted, and she gave a squeal of fear at the creature. Suddenly, a feeling of cold swept over her, and she immediately saw images she had tried to forget since the day she saw them. She was remembering being in the Chamber of Secrets, watching Harry battle the Basilisk, about to die...
She was suspended in silence until the train was moving and the lights were back on. Everyone looked serious, but there was no damage done.
Well, Harry had passed out, but they were soon able to wake him up. Lupin explained that the cloaked figure was a Dementor, a type of creature that guarded Azkaban. He gave all of the kids a piece of chocolate, saying that it would help, before leaving briefly.
Fern cautiously took a bite of the chocolate, and the horrors she had relived faded slightly. "It really does help!" she mused out loud.
Harry was too preoccupied to think about the chocolate. He was saying that he'd heard someone screaming, yet no one had.
"Maybe it was from a memory?" Fern suggested. "I felt like I was back in the Chamber of Secrets."
It didn't take much longer to get to the station platform, and they were soon on the carriages, then at the door. But as they stepped off, the Quartet heard Draco again.
"You fainted, Potter? You actually fainted?"
Fern scowled and yelled back "I'll bet you fainted too, snake!"
"Shove off, Malfoy." Ron added.
"Did you faint as well, Weasley?" taunted Draco. "Did the scary Dementor frighten you too?"
The group began to go into the Great Hall, but almost immediately, Professor McGonagall called Harry and Hermione over while Fern and Ron went to the Gryffindor table by themselves while the Sorting took place. The other half of the Quartet only got back after the Sorting finished.
There was also a warning about the Dementors. They were being stationed around the school in case Black tried to break in – which was probable. They were warned to stay away, since Dementors didn't always distinguish between innocent teenagers and hardened criminals. Then there were two new teachers. The first was Professor Lupin, who was of course, taking DADA.
"Considering the chocolate's effect, I have a good feeling about him." Fern whispered.
The second teacher wasn't really new. He was taking Care of Magical Creatures after the original teacher retired. It turned out to be...Hagrid. That pleased the Quartet, although the textbook they had for the class kind of gave it away. CoMC required a textbook which tried to attack people. That was very much like Hagrid, since he often made friends with the most dangerous of creatures.
"Well," Fern remarked as everyone tucked into the start-of-term feast. "It seems like it will be another turbulent year." She grinned.
OK, I know that was the longest chapter so far, but who cares? Please review!
Really, please review. No one reviewed last chapter, and I know people are reading it. So review!
