AN:- It's been a while with this one hasn't it? Well here we go at last, and I hope it's worth the wait.

Chapter Three: The Dementor

Apparating with a trunk was never an easy prospect, but with Vincent holding the trunk and Selene bringing Lily the Moons made it safely to the arrival point outside King's Cross. There was a Ministry wizard at the entrance to the alleyway marking off families on a clipboard. On a busy day like the start of term they had to regulate the apparition points very closely.

They tramped through the station, passing the muggles, who were milling around complaining loudly about the 8:05 from Doncaster being delayed because of leaves on the line. None of them seemed to notice that some of the trolleys had cages with owls balanced on top, or that there were one or two adults wearing a most remarkable assortment of clothes, none of which seemed to quite match.

They had a short wait to get through the barrier, during which Peter Grissom, one of Vincent's old friends, came over and they got to talking. Lily was happy to sit quietly, listening to the noise of the trains and the crowd. After they watched a woman in a kilt and ruff disappear through the barrier they pushed their trolleys over and passed through onto Platform 93/4.

It was a flurry of activity on the other side. Students and parents were running everywhere, fighting for compartments and struggling to get their heavy trunks up into the baggage area. Selene took charge to lead them through the crowd, navigating with ease to bring them to the train. Vincent hauled her case up and they wound their way back to the front carriages.

"I haven't seen Lisa or Sally yet," Lily said, trying not to sound worried.

"It's okay," Selene said, "they''ve still got ten minutes."

Just at that moment a voice cried out behind them, "Lily!"

She was swept up and spun around by someone while a loud voice whooped and cheered. When whoever it was finally put her back down she staggered in place until George Weasley, for that was who it (probably) was, set her steady.

"And how are you young Lily Moon?" He asked officiously.

"Dizzy," she drawled.

"And who are you?" Selene asked in her most arch tone.

George and Fred immediately stood ramrod straight, like they did when they heard McGonagall coming round the corner. "Gred and Forge Weasley ma'am," said one twin.

"Wedge and Gourd Feasley," said the other.

"So you're the twins I've been hearing so much about," Selene crossed her arms and regarded the two redheads. They were almost as tall as her, but it seemed to Lily that they had shrunk at the tone in her mother's voice. "The twins who thought it was funny to put on fake boils and scare first years when there was a monster causing chaos at the school?""

"Yes ma'am," Fred said in a much smaller voice than normal.

"What a very good idea," Selene's tone hadn't changed. ""It's good that someone tried to raise peoples' spirits last year."

"Uhm."

"Thanks?"

"I hope you're not terrorising my daughter too much," she was back to scary again, but Fred and George brightened.

"Of course we're not," they said in unison.

"We're teaching the girls."

"Nurturing natural abilities is more like it."

"Really?" Her mother's eyebrow turned on her.

Lily shrugged. "They're exaggerating," she said as she shot them a death glare.

George and Fred grinned, bowed to Lily, shook Selene's hand, and bounded away to harass their friend Lee Jordan, who had just arrived.

"Was that the Weasley's?" Mrs Perks asked as she arrived with Sally, looking distinctly less relaxed than she had while on holiday.

Lily nodded as Sally grabbed her in the customary strangulation grip she disguised as a hug. By the time Sally released her the Turpins had arrived as well. Lisa received her own back breaking Sally hug and then she and Lily shared a much less enthusiastic but no less friendly embrace. The clock told them they had only a few minutes left so with a final round of goodbyes from the parents they clambered aboard the Hogwarts Express and started to look for a carriage.

They weren't looking long before two red heads poked out from a nearly empty carriage and broke into wide grins. "Come on in girls!" The Weasley twins said, stepping aside to let them in. Sally went first, carrying her cat Tabby in his basket, followed by Lisa and then Lily.

Once they were all seated Fred and George leaned forwards, their eyes sparkling with identical mischief. "Now then," they said in unison.

"We've seen that you're working on a map of the school," said Fred.

The girls stayed quiet. They had wanted to keep their map of the school project a secret.

"Now we don't want to stifle such creativity from you youngsters," George continued. "Which is why we've decided to help you along a little."

"Help us along?"

"Of course."

"We'll let you know places we've heard about."

"Or know about."

"You can go and check them out."

"And finish your map."

"And what would you want in return?" Lisa asked suspiciously.

Fred looked affronted. "Nothing at all," he insisted. "We only want to further the careers of such promising young troublemakers."

The girls looked at each other, then back to the twins. "Okay," said Lisa, "we're in."

"Fantastic," Fred had an even broader smile than usual on his face. The sort of smile that gave the teachers nightmares. "We look forward to seeing you back at school youngsters."

The girls moved on through the chaos. There seemed to be a fight going on in one of the carriages they passed, and when they opened one door a cloud of foul smelling green smoke greeted them. It was the usual Hogwarts Express mayhem.

They were almost to the back of the train before they found a compartment. There were only another two left, one that seemed to have been claimed by a band of Slytherin third years, including Draco Malfoy, and the very back car, which housed a crumpled looking wizard fast asleep against the window. The girls retreated to the empty compartment, trying to shield Lily from Draco as best they could. Pansy Parkinson was hanging off his arm as he gave some great speech, probably about something Harry Potter had done, and his cronies were all watching enraptured.

"I hate him," Lisa said as they sat down. "I really really do."

"No, don't hate," said Sally, putting her cat basket down on one of the seats and checking inside to make sure her cat, Tabby, was okay. Tabby was an elusive feline, and after spending most of first year in the kitchens being spoiled rotten by the House Elves had proceeded to spend second year sleeping under the Hufflepuff beds. Sally was still convinced that he had known about Slytherin's monster somehow, and had been hiding from it. Lisa and Lily privately thought it was just lazy.

As they were settling their bags away Harry Potter and his friends trooped past, looking in to every compartment as they went. He looked just as unimpressive as he had in Diagon Alley, shaggy haired and gangly, his glasses held together with nearly a whole roll of sellotape. His red headed friend seemed to have gained a few inches, and Hermione's spine had an extra hunch, probably from all the new books she was lugging around.

"I heard she's taking every single subject," Lisa said as they huddled up onto the seats.

"How?" Lily asked. "How would she even do that? There's not enough hours in the day."

"Well she's Hermione isn't she?" Lisa said, only mostly bitter. ""I'm sure she'll find a way."

They didn't have long to wait until the train set off, rattling out of the station and away across the countryside. As always, Lily spent the first few minutes looking out of the window as they left London, enjoying the sight of all the muggles milling about in their usual day to day lives. She wasn't a big fan of cities and crowds when she was in the middle of them, but watching them from a distance was always calming for her.

The morning was spent covering the usual topics of homework. They hadn't talked about their homework much while they were on holiday together, and now they needed to do the usual catching up. Sally had a tendency to make up wild claims on her work whenever she found the book too boring, and so Lisa and Lily had got into the habit of helping her to correct the more outlandish statements.

Lily tended to have problems with her Transfiguration work, while Lisa was second only to Hermione Granger. Likewise, Lily was one of Professor Flitwick's favourite students, while Lisa was absolutely hopeless at Charms. Sally loved Astronomy, and between them they could just about finish all of Snape's impossibly complicated Potions homework. In the years before they had also done a lot of their own studying for Defence Against the Dark Arts. When one of your teachers turned out to be a murderous madman and the other a delusional showoff you had to make sure of your own grades.

"I wonder who's teaching Defence this year?" Lisa said as they took a break from their work.

"I don't care," Lily said. "As long as he knows about more than hair care and doesn't turn out to be evil I'll be happy."

"Our lives are weird," Sally mumbled. When Lily and Lisa looked at her she just shrugged. "I'm just saying, weird stuff happens to us."

One o'clock came, and with it the arrival of the food cart. The girls bought their usual assortments of sweets, liquorice wans, chocolate frogs and pumpkin cakes and a pack of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans for Sally, and as they settled in to eat conversation turned to Hogsmeade.

"I've been hearing about it all my life from my mum," Lisa said. "She said there's a joke shop, and a sweet shop that's the best in Britain, and the Shrieking Shack of course, well have to go and see that while we're there."

"What's the Shrieking Shack?" Sally asked. Of course she hadn't heard about it, although her parents had of course signed her permission form, so all three of them would get to go.

"They say it's the most haunted building in Britain."

"Ooh," Sally leaned forwards in her seat. "What makes it so haunted?"

"Well they say that there's ghosts there."

"But there's ghosts in Hogwarts as well. Why is the Shrieking Shack so special?"

"Well these ghosts are supposed to be violent. People have heard them screaming and breaking chairs and throwing things for years."

"Wow." Sally had the wide eyed look she always sported when she found out new things about the wizarding world. "We've got to see that."

Talking about Hogsmeade lasted them for hours, until the sky started to go dark and they had to put on their robes. Outside the rain was pounding against the windows and they could hear wind whistling through every crack and crevice in the old train. Outside the lanterns flickered on, then inside the carriage as well. Lily took her wand out of its box and slipped it into one of the pockets inside her robes. It was one of her favourite little rituals before going back to Hogwarts.

It was nearly six o'clock when the train rumbled to a stop. Lisa was up immediately, peering out of the window. "What's going on?" She muttered. "We can't be there yet."

Lily was up as well, going to the door and opening it. Just as she had put her head through all the lights went out. She restrained a scream and managed to bring it down to a yelp. Others further up weren't so quiet, and soon there were shouts and cries up and down the carriages.

Footsteps came closer and she ducked back in to the carriage, but before she could close the door bodies piled in. "Ow!" Sally said as someone fell onto her, but the most Lily could manage was a muffled grunt as she was squashed against the wall by a hulking figure.

"Get out of my way." She recognised that voice immediately. Draco Malfoy had come to their carriage for some reason. "Why have we stopped?"

"No one knows Malfoy." Lisa's voice was filled with contempt. Even in the pitch black Lily knew exactly what her expression would be. "Why are you even here?"

"Everyone was coming down here. I wanted to see what was going on."

"Can you hear that?"

They went silent, listening for whatever it was Sally had heard. There was a noise, something so unsettling it made the hairs on Lily's neck stand on end. Faint rustling of a cloak brushing against the walls, and a hoarse rattling breath that sounded like nothing she had heard before. It sounded wrong, like it was coming from something that had no right to be breathing.

Malfoy marched to the door and flung it open, looking out into the corridor. Lily was close enough to hear him gasp, then a second later he had gone, his terrified whimpers following him down the corridor. "I wonder what was wrong with him?" It was Luna, and immediately things felt better. She sounded entirely nonchalant about the entire situation, and as she moved to sit next to Sally the carriage felt lighter, despite the darkness.

"Close the door," Sally said, still sounding scared.

Lily stood and put her hand on the door handle, but before she could close it something appeared in front of her. She fell back onto her chair, too terrified even to scream. Towering from the floor to the ceiling, clad entirely in black robes, and breathing that cold dead rattle. It breathed in, and cold swept over them.

Lily struggled for breath, but even as she tried she could hear voices in her head, whispers in her ears in voices she knew.

Muggle-lover

Nerd

Swot

Four-eyes

Useless fat weird loner freak clumsy muggling-lovingfreaknerdfoureyeswasteofspace

She felt like cold water was being poured over her, she heard the mocking laughter of Pansy and Millicent and Tracy. She curled up tight and squeezed her eyes shut against it.

The sensation vanished, but the feelings remained. She was lying on the seat of the Hogwarts Express, her arms wrapped around her knees and her glasses on the floor. Her cheeks felt wet with tears and her nose was running. She couldn't seem to stop crying, and although the words weren't there anymore, she could still remember them.

She became vaguely aware that her friends had crowded around her. Sally was holding her in an awkward horizontal hug while Lisa stroked her hair. Luna was sitting by her feet, resting a hand on her knee. "What's wrong?"

"Didn't you hear it?"

"I heard something," Lisa said. "Like people laughing at me. And I felt so cold."

Sally nodded. "I felt bad. I felt so sad. I was suddenly thinking about when my grandma died. What was that thing?"

"It's called a dementor." Luna said. "They guard the wizard prison. They suck all the happiness out of you."

It sounded almost like one of the many non-existent creatures she routinely talked out, but it was too real. "What do we do?"

Luna went over to their stash of sweets and started rummaging through the discarded wrappers until she found a bar of unopened chocolate. "My dad always says that chocolate makes everything better," she said, breaking the bar up and handing them each a piece. "I remember when we had my mum's funeral he made me hot chocolate and I felt a little better."

Lily nibbled on the chocolate, and felt warmth spreading back into her chest. She ate a little more and the warmth came back to her hands and feet as well. She stopped crying, and was able to sit up and wipe her face. Sally handed her a handkerchief and she blew her nose a few times. Lisa still had a hand around her shoulders, and she leaned into the hug gratefully. As they sat there eating their chocolate a man came past the carriage, putting his head through the door.

He looked shabby. His hair was graying and there were old scars marring what might have been handsome features. At first Lily thought he was at least as old as her own father, but then realised he was probably ten years younger at least. Despite his alarming appearance his smile was warm and comforting. "Are you girls alright in here?"

"Yes thank you," Luna said cheerfully. "But why was there a dementor here?"

The man looked impressed. "I suppose it was you who got the chocolate Miss?"

"Luna Lovegood, and yes."

"Well good work. I need to talk to the driver, but if you four are okay in here?" He waited until they had all nodded before moving on.

"He seems nice," Luna said. "I wonder who he is."

"No idea," Lisa said, still focused on Lily.

The chocolate was all eaten now, and she felt a lot better. She sat up properly and pulled her hair back into its usual ponytail, taking a moment to clean her glasses before setting them back on her nose. She felt close to normal now. The man who had come by earlier had returned as well, and opened the door again. "Is everyone okay in here?"

They all nodded. Before he could leave Luna asked bluntly, "who are you?"

He smiled, and it did a lot for his face, making the scars seem less prominent. "Professor Remus Lupin, at your service," and he was gone.

"Professor?" Sally said.

"He must be the new Defence professor," Lisa said. "He seems quite nice."

"And he knew about the chocolate," Luna said, as if that settled everything.

The train had started again. Slowly at first but gathering speed. Outside the landscape was the wild and hilly country they knew signalled that Hogwarts was near, but the rain continued to come down in sheets, hammering the windows and walls. Finally, the train slowed and pulled into Hogsmeade.

AN:- The problem with this book is that this is the one where I'm hoping I can finally go completely off the rails and write my own stories that are happening with very little interaction with the main characters. However, that's requiring a lot more planning than the last two fics required. Ah well, it'll be worth it.

So some stuff about this chapter.

There is a point to Fred and George helping them with the map, both from an in-universe and meta standpoint. It should become more clear with the 4th and 5th books though.

Sally is starting to remind me a little bit of Phoebe Buffay. Which is okay, because I love her. Perhaps a little less scatterbrained though.

The reason I had Draco and crew come into their cabin was because Neville and Ginny came into Harry's. i imagine when the train stopped a lot of people started moving around, so i thought Draco might follow the noises and end up following Neville and Ginny, ending up in the girls' cabin. I had Luna there because Luna is awesome and fun to write.

Ah, dementors. What do they make you see and feel? For Lily it's the previous two years worth of bullying. She feels the physical sensations of the pranks, hears the same words, hears Pansy et al laughing at her. Lisa had the experience of being bullied while in a muggle primary school for being 'weird' and Sally's was more internal, dealing with her own insecurities at not fitting in with her friends and not being smart enough. Luna of course experienced her mother's death again. I wasn't really sure how to write Sally and Luna's experiences. I've seen people who portray them as not allowing that sort of stuff to affect them at all and others who portray them as breaking down completely. I do think that Luna has some very dark moments she needs to deal with, but in Book 7 (spoilers) she helps Harry to find hope again. But at 12 I don't know if she would have had the same strength. So I just didn't really address it.

I don't like people depicting Lupin as being really handsome. He's described as pallid, pale, scarred, thin, prematurely grey and wrinkled, and looked very ill and haggard. He may still be good looking, and his personality makes up for a lot, but there's a tendency in fanart and fanfic to describe his amazing good looks, flowing hair and etc etc etc. Just a personal peeve. He's not ugly, but he's not bishie.

Hestia11 asked for some actresses to help visualise the girls, so here's a very quick guide.

Sally: Kate Hudson in Almost Famous

Lily: Sort of a mix. I imagine she looks kind of like Stana Katic, Angelina Jolie, Kristen Stewart. Generally pale skinned brunettes. But she also wears glasses.

Lisa: I actually ran Lisa through morphthing. Morph Natalie Portman with Keira Knightley. That's what Lisa looks like in my head.