Out of this World – Part 4
The train to Hogsmeade wasn't very crowded. The conductor showed them to a large and comfortable compartment. Remus thought how much nicer it was than the Muggle trains he had travelled on in Europe. This compartment was much larger than those, big enough to walk around, and with a proper table in the centre and four bunks along the walls. It seemed wider than was possible given the width of the train, but Remus didn't worry about that. Magical transport was often like that, and with good reason. He shoved his suitcase on the rack and sat on one of the bunks.
Looking at Andrea as she took a seat opposite, he thought he wouldn't care at all if the compartment had been smaller than the crowded third-class one on the train in Albania.
They rode north as the sun sank below the horizon, talking of their plans and of the information James had provided them, eating the supper that magically was served at their table.
When it began to get dark, Jenny and Andrea went off to explore the train and look for the washroom, leaving Remus and Sirius gazing out into the night.
"It's rather nice here," Remus said quietly. He glanced at Sirius, trying to decide what his friend was thinking. "I could get to like it here."
"So could I," Sirius said. He stared at the table, as if trying to read the patterns in the wood. "So could I."
"I'm sure – James is Minister, after all…" Remus trailed off.
"You think he'd let us stay?" Sirius challenged him.
"You think he wouldn't?"
"I'm sure he would. I just don't know if we should."
"Don't you want to?"
"I want to. I want to, Remus." Sirius sighed and shook his head. "There haven't been many things in this life I've wanted more. I'm sure it's the same for you."
"A thousand reasons to stay." Remus smiled. "Most of them are Andrea."
"It would be so easy to stay, wouldn't it?" Sirius glanced at the small suitcase that lay half-open on Jenny's bunk. "So easy."
"Stay here, settle down, marry – " Remus hesitated. "Marry Andrea, like I want to."
"Yes."
"If I did, I'd never have to worry about full moons again." Remus glanced over his shoulder instinctively, though there was nobody else in the compartment. "Wouldn't have to try to get Snape to make my potion, and worry that some month, he'd lose it and poison me. Just another reason…"
"It is rather tempting, the idea of a place where no one even wonders whether I might not have worked for Voldemort." Sirius took a drink and half-smiled. "Not many downsides to this place."
"Except," Remus said after a moment, "what we both feel, I think."
"Yes," Sirius said slowly. "Yes."
"We don't belong here, do we?" Remus looked around the train compartment and out at the lights of towns rushing past the window. "No matter how hard we'd like to think so, this isn't where we belong."
"I know." Sirius sighed. "And at home – well… Dumbledore's going to need us, I'm sure, when Voldemort comes back. He's not young, and Harry – Harry's so young. We can't leave them to face Voldemort."
"No," Remus said. "And Harry's another thing. We can't just leave him."
"I know, I'm his guardian, and he needs me. When we were talking to Lily, I realised that I do have to go back and take care of him there. There's no way he can come here. And I am supposed to be teaching…"
"But that doesn't make it easy."
"No. If I could, I'd say forget it and stay here. I'm sure I could be happy."
"I know I could be." Remus sighed. "But we both know…"
"Yes." Sirius stared once more off towards Jenny's bunk. "Don't say anything to Jenny about this," he said, sighing. "Just maybe we can figure something else out… but if not, I'll tell her myself."
"Yes," Remus agreed. How will I ever tell Andrea goodbye? How can I do that?
The door to the compartment opened. Jenny and Andrea came in, still laughing at something one of them had said. Sirius seemed to snap out of his pensive mood at once.
"What's so funny?" he asked. "Got slime in my hair, have I? Like Snape?"
"Like who?" Both Jenny and Andrea looked puzzled for a moment. Remus opened his mouth and shut it again, a suspicion in his mind.
"Severus Snape the slimeball Slytherin," chuckled Sirius.
Andrea gasped. "Severus has been dead for fifteen years," she said quietly. "He's one of the great heroes of the last time Voldemort invaded." She crossed the room to sit by Remus. "He's – alive? In your world, I mean."
"Yes," said Remus soberly. "Very much so." How strange, he was thinking. There are more and more differences.
"He's alive and he's the most arrogant, know-it-all greaseball you can imagine," said Sirius, speaking with great force.
Jenny looked at him sorrowfully. "Well, I suppose you weren't to know. He saved our lives. I know you didn't like him when you were students, but – well, you know he had a crush on Lily?" Sirius and Remus both nodded, Sirius grinning a little. "Well, we were all working for the League together on something, and Voldemort got wind of what we were doing and tried to kill us. If it hadn't been for Snape, he's have succeeded. Poor Lily, she felt awful, because he did it to save her."
Remus caught his breath, tightening his arm around Andrea where she sat. The thought that she owed her life to Snape was hard to accept. Sirius looked a little bit abashed as well. The silence was a little bit awkward. Remus was thinking about the many things he didn't know about Andrea's life, the things he'd never know.
"Well, if we're going to spend tomorrow hunting Wormtail we'd better get some sleep," said Andrea after a moment. She climbed up to her bunk above Remus' and began to get changed. The others followed suit and soon were all stretched out on the bunks. Remus listened to the rumble of the wheels and tried not to think about the fourteen years until he fell asleep.
~
"Remus, wake up." Andrea's soft voice penetrated into Remus' uneasy sleep, and he opened his eyes. The compartment was dark, but he could feel Andrea's hand on his shoulder.
"What is it?" he asked drowsily. "It's the middle of the night, love, go back to sleep."
"Wake up," she repeated. "There's a girl here to talk to us." Remus yawned and sat up, stretching out his arms and brushing his hair out of his face. As he looked around, he could see the shapes of Sirius and Jenny getting out of their beds, and also another shape in the middle of the room. He began to get up and struck his head on the bottom of the bunk above him.
"Hang on, I'll put a light on," said Andrea. A moment later the compartment was bathed in light. Remus blinked rapidly, rubbing his head. He looked at the girl. It was Ginny Weasley.
"Hi, Professor Lupin," she said, smiling at him. She seemed wide awake, and she glanced at Sirius, and then with some curiosity at the two women. Remus crossed the room to her, completely confused.
"What are you doing here, Ginny? How did you get onto the train?" he asked.
"Well," began Ginny, "there are some things I have to tell you…"
~
"So, what do we do now?" Remus looked at Sirius, sitting around the table in the swaying train compartment, early in the morning. He was dressed but looked tired. "I still don't really believe it, little Ginny Weasley an enchantress. She seemed much older."
"Well," began Sirius, "I think we do what she suggested. Use Pettigrew to lure Voldemort back to our world."
"It's so odd," said Jenny slowly. "I mean, there is no Ginny Weasley here. I know Molly and Arthur, and they've got six sons."
Andrea looked sombre. "They wanted a daughter," she murmured, "but Molly was ill, and she miscarried."
Silence fell again, only broken by the train's rattle and the sounds of the four eating breakfast.
"I didn't think that rat could get any worse," muttered Sirius. "But he let Voldemort put a life in him. I don't get this nine-life stuff at all. How can Voldemort just stick a life into someone else?"
"You probably have to be an enchanter yourself to know the answer to that," said Jenny. "Why didn't you ask that girl, if you're so curious?"
Sirius shuffled a little and said nothing, and both Remus and Jenny grinned, knowing the answer to that question. Sirius would hate to have to ask one of his former students for explanations like that.
"If Voldemort's a nine-lived enchanter," began Remus thoughtfully after another pause, "then how come he can be in your world and the one we've come from at the same time? I mean, I suppose it's quite a good thing, really, it means that there's only one of him in the Related Worlds."
"Oh," said Andrea, "that's straightforward enough. He isn't here all the time, in fact, he's only been here twice before that I know of. Once quite a long time ago, when I was still at school, he was here for about two years, and then he vanished. The second time was when he – he killed you." Remus flinched a little from her words.
"How long was he here for then?" asked Sirius between mouthfuls of toast.
"Four years. They're called the Dark Years in history books now." Andrea smiled a little. "Anyway, I suppose he just moved between the worlds when he felt like it. It would be easy enough, if he can get into other worlds the way Ginny did."
"I suppose so." Remus looked troubled. "I wonder how many worlds he's attacked."
The train gave a whistle and they pulled into Hogsmeade Station.
Sirius got up and swallowed his toast. "Well, we'll just have to get him out of this one," he said in a determined tone. "Let's hunt for Wormtail."
Thanks for reading – Part Five, the end of this story, is already up.
B & KB