Chapter 3: The Express
Reddington Manor
It had not taken long for Arthur to pack his belongings to go to Hogwarts. He was of the mind to just go straight away, but one set of clothes and no toiletries just would not do for him. He quickly packed his clothing, and some other tools. He had almost decided against taking some of his father's old weapons, but if he were going to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts, he would teach them every aspect of self-defence that he knew, magical or non-magical. Swords, axes, staffs, daggers, and everything else that his father had in his possession. Some of his items were odd, like the batons attached by a chain, but some of them held sentimental value, like his staff and wand.
Arthur took out his own wand and compared his own wand to his father's. Arthur's was a 13 inch Ebony wood wand with a Thunderbird feather as a core, in comparison to his father's 11 inch Yew and Rougarou wand.
However, the staff was extremely ornate. A shining metal staff with the head of a dragon on one end and a wolf on the other. The eyes of both animals contained beautiful sapphires, but in comparison to his own staff, it looked exactly the opposite, just like Edric and Arthur themselves. Arthur's own staff was an intricately carved oak staff with a roaring bear as the head to represent Grizzly. If Arthur was going on an adventure or some kind of expedition, Arthur would take both his wand and staff with him.
And Hogwarts always counted as an adventure.
Remus had kindly waited for Arthur to pack his bags and prepare some of equipment. Arthur had a quick shower, told his mother about where he was going and before long, Lunafreya had ran downstairs straight at her older brother.
"We've just lost Father, and we don't want to lose you too..." Lunafreya mewled.
"I know," Arthur said. "But you won't be losing me any time soon. I'll be in Scotland."
"Remus? Is that you? Really you?" Lunafreya asked, finally setting eyes on the elder man.
"You must be Lunafreya. It is a pleasure to meet you. Don't worry, Lady Lunafreya, I will keep good care of your brother." Remus replied cheerfully.
Remus had always been like that. He was always cheerful or ignorant to the anger or sadness around him, and he had always managed to keep Arthur focused when they were off adventuring and gallivanting around the globe. He kept him from thinking off the homesickness that he felt wherever they were.
"You bloody well better, Professor Lupin." Celestine warned as she walked in from the relaxation room.
"Please, Mrs. Urien, just call me Remus. Professor makes me sound old."
"You are old." Arthur managed to mutter.
Remus and Arthur began to laugh at each other, and soon left after saying their goodbyes to Celestine and Lunafreya. Remus had to admit that when it was only Arthur, Lunafreya and Celestine, they were the perfect family, or at least that was what he thought. However, he was never going to pry about the rest of the family, lest he risk his friendship with Arthur.
The two began to walk over to the collection of cars that Edric Urien had collected from his time in past. What Edric had not told anyone is that he may or may not have broken the laws of time in his adventure. Whilst Arthur had admonished his Father for breaking the laws of time for a few bloody cars, Arthur had to admit that they looked absolutely stunning. The cars from the future included things like a Mercedes Benz, BMWs, and even a Lykan.
Whatever a fucking Lykan is…
Arthur had not bothered to even try any of the cars that his Father owned, he only needed one car, and that was his Regalia. At least, that is what he had taken to calling the Cadillac Ciel that his Father had so lovingly gifted to him for his eighteenth birthday. He had not particularly cared for cars, but it was the best thing his father had given him apart from his wand, and he had decided to care for the car like he cared for his creatures, like it was a real living thing.
"What in the name of Merlin is that?" Remus said as he looked at the Regalia.
"What? The Regalia?" Arthur answered back.
"You named… your car?"
"Yes. I named my car."
"Is it a flying car?" Asked Remus inquisitively.
"No, it is a regular car, Remus." Arthur replied. "Go on, place your things in the boot and hop in."
Arthur was not stupid enough to not magically enchant the car, it was his car. His car needed to be the best, and he needed to be noticed. People would need to know who Arthur Noctis Uriel was. He could not be seen prancing around in some sub-standard car.
No, that simply would not do.
Remus sat in the car and looked expectantly at Arthur. "Come on then, we can't miss the train."
"Wait." Soon Onyx leapt into the back of the car as well, giving a loud howl before lying down in the back seat, and Pincher settled next to him, pecking and cleaning his feathers.
Remus growled at the younger man sat next to him. He heard the radio begin to turn on, and then looked at Arthur who was beginning to sing the opening line of Bohemian Rhapsody.
"Momma, just killed a man…." Arthur had the cheesiest grin on his face.
"Oh, good lord. Not again."
"Put a gun against his head…."
"Arthur, for the love of my ears, please stop!"
Arthur revved the Regalia's engine, and continued to sing. Remus continued to groan and sigh as Arthur continued to sing Bohemian Rhapsody.
"Pulled my trigger and now he's dead..."
X-X-X
The Leaky Cauldron
Harry woke up and the first thing he had began to think about was where he would live. He would not go to Privet Drive again, he outright refused to do it. He did not care what Dumbledore told him, he'd rather be mobbed by crazy fans than put up with one more insult from those horrible people that he had to call his Aunt and Uncle. No, he was better off without them. He'd find somewhere to live, he always did.
"Tempus." Harry whispered, and the time soon revealed itself to be 10:00
Bloody hell, I slept in. Again.
Harry quickly jumped out of bed and threw on a white long-sleeve shirt and some blue jeans. He packed his books into his trunk and prepared to return to Hogwarts for another year. This year would be better than normal, now that he no longer had to worry about having to go back to the Dursleys at the end of the year. No, he would find somewhere else, he was sure of it. Then again, every year at Hogwarts was better than spending a year with the Dursleys at 'St. Brutus'. Anywhere was better than Privet Drive. He would have rather slept in the bloody Astronomy Tower than at Privet Drive.
He left his room and began to go downstairs and get some breakfast from the bar. He knew Tom the Barkeep relatively well, so he did not have to worry about the awkward socialising. He heard a loud howl, and then the housekeeper marched away half-heartedly away from the room where the loud howl had came from. He then noticed the rat running down the hall and down the stairs, with a kneazle in close pursuit of the rat.
Harry decided to follow the two animals, with less gusto as he was too tired to run all the way down the stairs. As soon as he reached them and began to descend, he heard two familiar voice that were bickering, although to Harry it sounded more like an old married couple that were arguing again.
"Honestly, Ron. It's a cat, what do you expect?"
"I expect it not to be chasing my bloody rat, Hermione!"
Of course, Ron and Hermione are arguing…
"Hey, guys..." Said Harry.
The two teenagers stopped their arguing and turned to see their best friend standing at the top of the stairs.
"Alright, mate! How've you been over the summer?" Ron jumped on the opportunity to talk to his best mate.
"Average, just like normal. How was Egypt?" Harry replied.
"Oh, mate! Where do I start? There were pyramids, and tombs, and mummies. It was bloody brilliant."
"You do realise the Egyptians worshipped cats?" Hermione interjected.
"Yeah, along with the dung beetle."
As soon as Ron had finished his sentence, the rest of the Weasley clan had marched down the stairs. Arthur, Molly, Percy, Fred and George and Ginny who was trailing behind at the back of the pack. As soon as Fred and George caught sight of the Daily Prophet copy that featured the Weasleys on the cover they begin to mock Ron again.
"You love showing everyone that, don't you?" Fred started.
"I do not!"
"Oh really?" George began. "Hermione."
"Tom."
"The day maid."
"The night maid."
"The housekeeper."
As the Weasley Twins began to pepper Ron with mockery, Harry had gone over to Molly and Arthur to introduce himself once more. As expected, Molly had taken Harry and crushed him with one of her signature hugs. Arthur was much more relaxed and contained, shaking Harry's hand before taking him somewhere where they could not be heard.
"Harry, what do you know of Sirius Black?" Arthur began.
"Not much, but the conductor on the Knight Bus said he was the first person to break out of Azkaban, than and he was on Voldemo-"
"Shh. Don't say the name. You were right though, Harry. He was a rather avid supporter of..." Arthur took a deep breath. "You-Know-Who, and he lost everything when he was gone. He was insane, always had been, and he was crazier when he was in Azkaban. I'm telling you about this because I want you and the rest of them to be safe this year. Can you promise me to stay safe, Harry?"
Harry swallowed. "Yes, Mr. Weasley. I promise."
"Good, now go on and get some breakfast before you miss the train."
X-X-X
"Can you go just five minutes without singing?" Remus asked.
Arthur and Remus had parked the Regalia just outside of The Leaky Cauldron. Remus had been keeping track of the time and they had more than enough to make it to the Hogwarts Express. The Leaky Cauldron looked rather full, mainly due to the massive congregation of red headed children in the middle of the room, with trunks and animals beside them.
"The Weasleys." Arthur muttered.
"You know them?" Remus asked again.
"I know their two eldest sons, Bill and Charlie. Bill is a curse-breaker and Charlie works with Dragons in Romania."
"I take it Weasley Senior works in the Ministry?"
"You would be correct, but I have not talked to him much, or his wife or other children."
Arthur was watching with amusement as the two tallest boys, who seemed to be twins as well, began to pester and annoy their younger brother, who was stroking his pet rat.
Who the hell has a pet rat?
Arthur ordered a fire-whiskey and downed it quickly, in comparison to Remus who was slowly sipping at his glass of water. Arthur raised an eyebrow at that, considering that Remus was always drinking fire-whiskey when Arthur was with him.
"Not having a fire-whiskey, Remus?"
"You do realise we are teachers? We are going to have to be responsible people if we are to teach children."
"Yes, but we aren't teaching yet."
Remus sighed, before downing the glass of water and began to stare intently at Onyx and Pincher. "May I ask why you decided to bring them with you?"
"They're my familiars."
"You can only have one familiar, Arthur."
Arthur began to pet Onyx and gave pincher a little seed to peck at. "Pincher's mine, and Onyx is Father's. Onyx has basically made himself mine now. That, and he is nowhere near as annoying as the bird."
Remus harrumphed and before long they began to march through Diagon Alley to get some last minute supplies, before running off to Platform 9 ¾ They had scoured the train to get a compartment that was not already taken. They threw their trunks into the shelves above them and began to wait for all of the students to board as well. Remus threw his jacket over him and without warning Arthur, began to snooze.
"Bloody hell, Remus." Arthur muttered. He patted the space beside him and Onyx hopped up, lying down next to Arthur, laying his head on his lap.
"Yeah, you're a good wolf, aren't you boy? Yeah, not like Moony, are you?" Arthur began to stroke Onyx's ears before lightly stroking the grey-black fur.
"I can hear you, I'm not sleeping just yet."
"Even better then, Onyx is better than you."
"Shut up."
"Of course, Moony, wouldn't want you to lose your precious beauty sleep."
Remus kicked Arthur's shoulder slightly before dozing off again. Arthur laughed at the tired werewolf lying next to him, and patted his leg in a friendly manner before turning all of his attention to his familiars.
X-X-X
"Bloody hell, did you see him in The Cauldron?" Ron asked, still bewildered from the sight at the Leaky Cauldron.
"Yes, Ron, we did see him. We aren't blind." Hermione replied, stroking Crookshanks.
The sight had been a weird one. Two men had entered The Leaky Cauldron as the Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys had been having breakfast. One of them was dressed in a rather patchwork suit, and looked rather ragged as he sat at the bar alongside his companion. The other man however, looked as if he dressed to impress. The man was rather pale, and he had blackish-brown hair that was cut short on the sides but was almost long enough to tie as a ponytail. The clothes he wore looked expensive, and something that a muggle would wear, however he clearly was not a muggle.
He was wearing shining Oxfords, and the slim black business trousers, and he wore a snow white button up shirt and a jet black waistcoat, and Harry could just notice the small floral stitching along the back and sides of the waistcoat. He had took a seat next to his friend in the patchwork suit and began his day by drinking two glasses of fire-whiskey.
What was extraordinary about the man was the animals that followed him around. There was a rather annoying crow that cawed every chance it got, but then there was the wolf. The wolf prowled into The Leaky Cauldron, eyeing up everyone as a potential threat before lying down next his master's seat. The wolf must have been domesticated, it was the only way it could have not been allowed into the inn.
The lupine beast was beautiful, and Harry wished that he could have had an animal like that as a pet. The beasts eyes were a sea of yellow and orange, and the fur was clinging to the wolf's skin neatly and the slight breeze in seemed to make the wolf's fur move in black and grey waves as if it were an ocean.
Harry had to wonder how someone had such wonderful beasts.
"Mione, you know everything. Do you know who he was?" Ron asked, holding Scabbers close to his chest.
"I have an idea." Hermione almost whispered.
"Go on then, tell us!"
"I'll let you figure it out, Ronald." Hermione gave a sly smile as she continued to search for an empty compartment.
Soon, they realised that the compartments were all full, and would just have to share a compartment with some other people. Harry did not personally have a problem with it, as long as they weren't friends with Malfoy. They soon reached the final carriage and the final compartment, and even that one was occupied, and to the trio's surprise it was the two men who they had caught at The Leaky Cauldron.
"Bloody hell, it's them!" Ron exclaimed.
"Hush, Ron! One of them is clearly sleeping." Hermione had managed to observe one of them with the coat over his head.
"We're just going to have to squeeze into this one." Harry stated, before moving in.
Harry opened the door to the compartment and looked to the man who appeared to be reading a book whilst stroking the wolf. "Excuse me, but can we sit here with you? We've got nowhere else to sit."
"Of course." The man replied. "As long as you don't make too much noise to awaken my colleague here."
"Thank you."
The three teens managed to get inside the compartment as quietly as possible and place their trunks into the shelves above them. Ron couldn't help but continue to stare at the man, bewildered by the tamed wolf. Hermione tried to stop him from gawking but it was to no avail. The man stifled a laugh before speaking.
"Curious?" The man asked.
Ron was caught in his stupor, and Hermione answered for him. "It appears that Ron is very taken with your..." She stopped, unsure what to call the creature.
"Wolf. This is Onyx, and the annoying little creature on my shoulder is my familiar, Pincher."
"Excuse me, but we never caught your name." Hermione said, stroking Crookshanks.
"My name is Arthur Noctis Urien, and my colleagure here is Remus Lupin." Replied Arthur.
"Sorry for interrupting," Harry began. "How come you're on the train?"
"Lupin and I will be your Defence Against the Dark Arts professors for this year."
"Well, you can't be worse than Lockheart. You at least look as if you can handle yourselves." Said Ron.
"Ron! I'm sorry, but we haven't introduced ourselves." Said Hermione. "I am Hermione Granger, and my friends here are Ron Weasley and Harry Potter."
"Well, it is wonderful to meet you three. I hope we all get along, I would hate to give any of you a detention."
"Professor Urien?" Hermione began. "You wouldn't happen to be related to Sir Edric Urien would you?"
Arthur's eyes widened with surprise. Clearly the girl was intelligent. "You are correct. I'm his son."
"Wait, you're related to one of the Knights of the Round Table?" Harry asked, eyes wide in disbelief.
"Yes. I am. Now it's my turn to ask the questions, two for two. Weasley, you would not happen to be Bill and Charlie's younger brother?"
"The red hair gave it away, didn't it?" Ron asked.
"Sort of. Now, you are somebody I've heard a lot about the boy in front of me. Harry James Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived? It's a pleasure."
"The pleasure is all mine." Harry began to shrink into his seat, his fame once again becoming the forefront of the conversation.
It was clear to Arthur that Harry hated his fame, and hated being known as the Boy-Who-Lived. He could understand it, he was always known as the son of Edric Urien, successful millionaire and secret wizard, but that last part was kept hidden from the muggle masses. Ron could not keep his eyes off of Onyx, and Onyx managed to stay asleep for a majority of the trip. Pincher was still his annoying self, and Arthur had to keep him occupied so he would not wake up Remus from his slumber.
The three teens managed to make some polite conversation. Harry was obviously the most socially awkward out of the three, and Hermione was the most curious. Ron did not say much, mainly because he kept on staring at Onyx for the majority of the journey to Hogwarts. The conversation was nice, and it was certainly a lot more interesting than reading The Once and Future King for the third time in a row. It was certainly an interesting take on his father and his fellow knights.
Who ever knew that Lancelot was such an arsehole?
Arthur had never brought up the topic of the other knights, mainly because every time he tried his father stifled a few tears and told him that he would tell him about it when he was older. Arthur knew he would never get the true story now, so he had to rely on whatever the bloody historians had said. There was much debate, like if Lancelot was actually a nice guy, if Galahad actually ever went to heaven via angel pickup, and whether Mordred was actually King Arthur's son or cousin.
Arthur shivered. Why would King Arthur ever consider such a thing? The word 'incest' came to mind and Arthur shivered in his place again.
"Just out of curiosity, which of you is best at Defence?" Arthur asked.
Ron and Hermione spoke at the same time. "Harry is."
"I'm really not." Harry managed to say.
Arthur managed to smile before feeding Pincher another seed, and the crow began to peck at the seed in the palm of his hand before taking it in his beak and perching himself on top of Onyx, who only gave a quiet growl in response.
"Professor, how is it you have such… unique familiars?" Hermione asked.
"Good question, Miss Granger. I found Pincher when I was on an expedition with my father in Russia. Onyx, the big softie that he is, was my father's."
"Was?" Ron blurted out.
"He's mine now, I guess. Ever since Father passed." Arthur sighed. "He just skulked around the manor, and soon enough he just started following me. He's not as bad as Pincher, not as annoying."
The trio laughed as quietly as they could when the crow began to stare at him and began to caw loudly. Arthur quickly threw another seed at him so the bird would shut up.
Then the train screeched to a halt. Arthur nearly flew out of his seat and into the teenagers in front of him. The animals went deadly quiet, and even Pincher had stopped pecking at the seeds and stopped cawing. Arthur began to tap softly on the Remus' chest, before almost smacking him so he could wake up.
"Remus, get up."
Remus began to rub his eyes and wake up, placing his coat on the table and taking a sip of the water on the table in front of him.
"What's happened?" Remus asked.
"The train stopped."
"At Hogwarts?"
"No, it's too soon."
Arthur drew his wand from his holster and kept it trained on the door. From the other compartments , it was possible for the two professors and the students to hear the screams coming from other pupils. Arthur jumped out of his seat and Onyx was quickly at his side.
"Whatever happens, keep the door locked." Arthur ordered.
"Wait!" Hermione begged, but it was too late for Arthur to respond as he had leaped into the fray in the other carriages.
Remus had warned him of the threat already, but he had a bigger problem with the fact that the students had not been warned before they had gotten aboard the train. That was one of the problems Arthur had with Dumbledore, he withheld information for no reason, even if it meant harm coming to one of his students.
And Arthur would not allow that to happen.
If the train had stopped, then it was for a reason, and if Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban, then that only meant one thing was searching for him.
Dementors.
Arthur hated the things. Sad beasts that sucked the life and happiness from everyone and everywhere they went. Arthur could not understand why Dumbledore had not alerted the students to their presence, so they would surely be more ready if one came crawling through the train. He never thought such a scenario would happen, but apparently Arthur was wrong.
I hate being wrong.
Arthur checked the other compartments, and some of the students had already locked the doors to keep themselves safe to a degree. Arthur made sure they were locked properly before he moved on, he could feel the cold become closer, and soon he was freezing in his waistcoat. He wished he had brought his jacket with him, but that was too late. He wouldn't be bothered by the hypothermia. Not until the Dementors were gone.
As Arthur began to traverse the other carriages, he noticed that some of the children were just eleven. Far too young to even comprehend what a Dementor could do. Arthur groaned, and behind him, Onyx gave a loud growl, which meant he was close. Arthur looked at some of the windows, and noticed that they had almost completely frozen over. Another side-effect of Dementors being let loose was that they brought the harsh cold with them wherever they went. That, and it seemed like all the happiness in the world had just been sucked down a drain.
Arthur hated that feeling.
He entered the next carriage, and he had finally caught sight of the Dementor. He could see a rather tall looking girl lying on the floor, her blonde hair splayed out all over the floor, her bright blue eyes frozen open as the Dementor hovered over her, sucking the life out of her. Arthur was of the mind to tackle the demon and beat the ever-loving crap out of it, but he knew that would be a useless endeavour.
"Expecto Patronum!" Arthur yelled out, and the Dementor finally turned to face him.
The demon tried to get close to him, to try and do the same to him. However, that was not going to work. Arthur's Patronum had made sure of that. The white wolf howled at the shadowy creature before forcing it out of the train, and soon the Patronum began to hop around Arthur and stand next to Onyx, before slowly disappearing.
Arthur picked the girl up from the floor to make sure she was alright. Arthur checked her pulse before the girl in the compartment next to him opened the door, ushering him and the girl inside.
"Ennervate." Arthur whispered and the girl opened her eyes slowly.
Arthur soon realised that the girl was Daphne Greengrass, Cyrus Greengrass' eldest daughter. The girl who had opened the door had began to lightly tap Arthur on the shoulder.
"Excuse me, but who are you?" The girl asked.
"Professor Urien, Defence Against Dark Arts, and you are?"
"Tracey Davis. Thank you for saving Daph, I didn't know what to do."
The girl looked as if she were about to cry, and Arthur could understand why. Dementors had that aura about them, and it brought out the worst in people. Arthur could remember when he encountered a stray Dementor in Ukraine, and it sent one of his fellow travellers into tears before it had been sent off. He wasn't surprised that this had happened again. He was more disgusted with the fact that Dumbledore had let it happen in the first place.
Daphne began to breath a bit better, and noticed who was knelt in front of her. "Arthur?" She asked, clearly befuddled.
"It's Professor Urien now. Come, Professor Lupin will want to check you. Miss Davis, you are allowed to come with us as well."
Arthur picked Daphne bridal style as she was too dazed by the Dementor to stand up straight, let alone walk. Tracey followed behind them, making sure to stay just behind the new professor. They traversed the other carriages, and Arthur had now told the students it was fine for them to move about the train again. They soon reached the final compartment in the final carriages, and Arthur was bewildered to have seen Harry sitting on the floor, looking just as dazed as Daphne.
Remus let out a sigh. "Another Dementor was on the train. It got to Harry but it's gone now. I suspect the same happened on another carriage?"
"It appears Miss Greengrass was overwhelmed by a Dementor, and had been struck down. I saved her before any real harm could be done." Arthur replied, laying Daphne in his place in the compartment.
Remus reached into his pocket and pulled out a large bar of chocolate, handing them to both Harry and Daphne. As they began to eat the chocolate slowly, Harry and Daphne began to make some small-talk, and surprisingly, were not arguing. When Cyrus allowed Arthur to teach Daphne some out of school curriculum, she had revealed that she was a Slytherin, and that during school-time she was paired with Harry Potter in Potions, who was obviously a Gryffindor. Apparently the two managed to get along well enough considering the houses that they had been placed in.
"So, Potter. Dementor got you?" Daphne said, with a smirk on her face.
"I could ask the same to you, Greengrass." Harry shot back with a smile.
Hermione was too busy looking after Crookshanks and reading her book, and Ron was in shock that his best mate was actually talking to a Slytherin. He had turned so red that he looked he was about to turn into a tomato.
"Harry, why are you talking to them?" Ron asked, scowling.
"Because it is possible to have friends that are in other houses, Ron." Harry replied.
"But Harry, they're slimy snakes!" Ron exclaimed. "You can't trust any of them."
"I'm pretty sure I trust Greengrass in Potions. I don't see the problem with that." Harry replied once more, munching on some more chocolate.
"Only because I do most of the work, Potter." Greengrass almost whispered.
Arthur could tell that Harry and Daphne got along alright, even though Daphne had deemed that not important enough to tell Arthur during their free-time. Ron had turned beet-red once more, and had taken to focusing all of his attention on Scabbers the rat. Onyx had began to growl loudly, and had began to stare at Scabbers intently.
"Oh, hush you harmless dog. It's a rat."
Onyx only mewled in response, but went quiet again. The train had gotten going again, and soon enough they had finally arrived at the station just away from Hogwarts. The teachers and the students went to retrieve their bags before hopping into two of the carriages that would take them all the way to the school entrance.
"Looking forward to this, Arthur?" Remus asked with a smirk.
"Maybe." Arthur grunted.
"Don't lie. You know you are looking forward to it."
"Possibly."
"You're so impertinent, you know that?" Remus began to poke Arthur for fun, and in response, Arthur began to growl. "I'll take that as a yes then, shall I?" Remus smiled.
Arthur gave an exaggerated scowl. "Yes."
"Hah!"
X-X-X
Remember to follow, favourite and review!
~THE REAL ITALIAN STALLION~
