Author's Note: Hello! Wow! Lots new favs and follows! Hello to you! Thank you all for reading my story! We've reached the Hogwarts Express and the infamous dementor episode. I hope you enjoy it! School starting next chapter! :) Be sure to review! (They may even make the updates come faster, who knows!) As always-
Happy Reading!
~Duchess
As Ivy settled her things into the Prefect's car on the train, she worried about the year ahead of her. Nothing had settled between her new husband and her, not that she expected it to. Things now could only be more complicated, she supposed, since she had her own dorm she could stay in. Ivy desperately wanted at least a stable friendship with her husband before they ended up hating each other. She sat down and leaned back into the cushion of her carriage seat, closing her eyes. She was dreading the meeting with Percy and the other, younger prefects, who she and Percy were assigned to tell the rules to as the sixth and seventh year prefects already knew their duties. She decided then and there that she'd volunteer everyone else to take a patrol before her, so she might go last and have a while to relax.
She'd just started to relax enough to nod off when the door open and two young Ravenclaws stepped in and sat down on the far end of the opposite seat, as far as they could get away from Ivy. She new their names from her list the school had sent with her Hogwarts letter. Their names were Jennifer Goldheart and Corey Hanley. She opened one eye and saw them looking worried to be alone with her. They huddled tightly into the corner, whispering to one another, obviously oblivious to the fact Ivy could hear them as well as if they were directing their conversation to her. Upon hearing the word 'werewolf', she opened her eyes and sat up, giving them a wide smile, making sure all four canine teeth showed brightly. They shied back again.
"Relax, I don't bite. And even if I did, I don't have venom sacks in my gums. Not a werewolf. Honestly, aren't you two Ravenclaw? You think you'd know the difference." The girl, a short and plump sort with thick glasses relaxed a bit. She mumbled a shy sorry to which Ivy gave a smile and nod. "Also, Mr. Hanley, do try to remember I can hear fairly well." The boy, Corey, who was very tall and wiry, with curly ginger hair, said nothing but his cheeks glowed red in embarrassment. Ivy sat up and dug through her bag to retrieve her book to wait until the others arrived so she and Percy could give instructions out. There was still nearly forty-five minutes until the train left.
A few minutes passed in tense and awkward silence, until both the Gryffindor prefects came falling in behind Percy, who looked rather sour as usual, but mostly with the younger students behind him than anything. The Slytherins came in next, then the Hufflepuffs. Ivy scooted over to make room for them next to her. The Hufflepuff Prefects this year were a boy name Andrew Tyler and Savannah Yancy. She was fond of both of them, not only because they were from her own house but because they were genuinely good people. They were holding hands, and Ivy raised an eyebrow, causing them both to blush. She was about to ask when they'd started to date when Percy started to speak, standing awkwardly at the doorway to the carriage.
"Hello everyone. My name is Percy Weasley, this year's Head Boy from Gryffindor house. This is Ivy Holden, this year's Head Girl from Hufflepuff. You eight have been chose to uphold the rules of our school as well as the values and honor of your respective houses. You will have the ability to give out detentions for the evening that the teacher on duty will have to approve the cause for, you may bring students before their head of house or first available professor. You may take House Points away from your own house if you deem necessary, but not from other houses. You may discuss with each other or the older prefects in the next carriage to see if house points need to be taken. There will be a weekly schedule for hallway patrols, in which you will stay up an extra hour past curfew to make sure no one else is breaking curfew." Percy stopped and appeared to be deep in thought. "Ivy, do you have anything to add?"
Ivy shook her head. "No, but I can give a more detailed rundown and get to questions if you'd like to go on and catch up with Penelope. I'm sure we can manage." Percy gave her a curt nod and made his exit. The train gave its whistle and started to move. Ivy smiled sweetly to the eight fifth year students she was left in care of. "Alright you lot. It's not all that business Percy makes it sound. You can have a lot of fun. You will be charged with the care of the first years introduction to their houses upon their sorting. Its not too bad, I'm sure you remember a Prefect showing you to your common room and dorm. You also get to use the Prefect bathroom, which is nice. The first password to that is 'gillywater'. It's on the forth floor." Ivy finished and clapped her hands together, absentmindedly putting her left hand on the outside over the other. The white gold band on her finger caught the light and flashed, catching all their eyes.
"Any questions?" Ivy asked, quickly putting her hand back to her side letting her robe sleeve fall over her knuckles. The younger students shook their heads and Ivy sat back, sighing lightly. "Well, if you think of any, let me know. You'll be pulled out by the sixth year prefects one house at a time to do a train patrol. It's short, don't worry. Until then, relax. Enjoy the trip. Have a snack from the trolly, she'll be here in a moment." The younger witches and wizards struck up conversations amongst themselves and Ivy went back into her book for a while, until the door open and Cedric Diggory stepped in and beamed at the younger Hufflepuffs, the Ivy. He made a waving motion for the other students to move and sat down next to Ivy.
"Hello Ivy!" he turned to her and shook her hand, which he held and turned to see her wedding band. "I saw the paper about the law. You alright?" Ivy gave him a nod.
"In one piece and still in school, so as good as I can be I suppose." She smiled weakly at the boy. It was a bit more complicated than she'd care to share with anyone, although Ivy liked Cedric in a younger brother sort of way. He was very kind hearted.
"Good. Glad to hear it. Not being mistreated by some bloke then?" Ivy shook her head. Cedric smiled. "Not mistreating some bloke?" Ivy laughed and shook her head again.
"No, I actually got some help from Dumbledore. He knew someone to set me up with. Between you and I, I'm a bit fond of him." Ivy blushed slightly and Cedric smiled again.
"Wonderful! I hope it all works out!" He turned to the other students and stood up, gesturing for them to do the same. "You two are with me and Gabriella for your patrol. She's waiting outside." He gave Ivy a wave and set out.
Remus had never been fond of the train ride to Hogwarts. Even with the Marauders to keep him company, something about the train made him feel a bit uneasy. His friends had always found a way to distract him from it though. He often get to be too busy laughing to care how the motion made him feel. He found the compartment they'd always sat in on their way to school and upon discovering it empty, settled inside and pulled his cloak up over his head and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to will himself to sleep.
After about half an hour the compartment door open, jolting Remus awake, though he decided to stay in place rather than make whatever students that had joined him more uncomfortable. He listened to a young girl fussing at two boys about something, and telling one of them his name from the case over head. He decided to try and go back to sleep when someone said 'Harry'. His heart raced. He hadn't considered what meeting him now would be like. It had been twelve years since the tiny boy had crawled up into his lap and called him 'unca mooey', and he wouldn't know him now. He tried to relax when Harry started to tell his friends about a conversation Harry had held with Mr. Weasley.
"He said Black escaped prison to find me. That he's murderous and out to finish the job, since I survived when my parents died." Oh, Harry if you only knew Remus thought. It suddenly made sense to him why Dumbledore insisted he come to work at Hogwarts. If Sirius was going to try and get Harry, Remus would protect him. Harry was still talking about what it all could mean, the girl telling him not to go looking for trouble. Behind the cloak, Remus smiled. Of course Harry would be the sort to go looking for trouble. A few moments later three other voices came into the compartment, giving the three children inside grief until the girl Remus now understood to be 'Hermione' pointed out that there was a sleeping teacher in the corner and they took their leave.
A few moments later the train screeched to a stop, making several students throughout the train mumble loudly about the fact that they should only be half way to school. Remus tensed as he felt a chilling cold come over the train, the windows freezing over on the outside even in the summer air. Only one thing could be causing that, Remus thought. Dementors. The lights flickered and failed off. He slid his arm into his cloak pocket and gripped the handle of his wand. Two other children suddenly fell into the compartment, causing a loud commotion as they settled in with their friends in the darkness.
"Shut up" Remus growled, realizing that he may sound a bit too harsh, but not having time to apologize.
The compartment door slid open and in glided the dark shadow of a creature, a deep sense of dread filling the small room. The creature quickly targeted Harry, pulling the happiness from him in visible white wisps. Remus flung his cloak to the floor and raised his wand to the dementor's chest. "None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go!" He shouted at the creature and a bright white light poured forth from the tip of his wand to the of his wand, pushing the creature away and back. He followed the creature into the train's walkway, letting a silver wolf run away from his wand and chasing the dementors from the train. He sighed and leaned against the doorway.
Inside the compartment Hermione was kneeling next to Harry, who had passed out. Remus stepped in and popped open the bag he'd brought onto the train with him, pulling out a chocolate bar and waiting as Hermione and another, smaller girl with bright red hair brought Harry round from his fainting state.
"Who screamed?" Harry asked, sitting up and rubbing his head. "I heard a woman, screaming for help." The boy with dark brown hair spoke up from behind the rest of the group.
"Nobody was screaming, Harry." he said. The boy looked pale though, and Remus snapped off a small piece of the chocolate bar and handed to him before handing the rest to Harry.
"Neville's right mate, but I felt weird though," Ron said "I felt like I'd never be able to be cheerful again."
Harry turned to Remus. "What was the thing you saved us from, sir?" Remus wanted to laugh at being called 'sir' by James' son, or maybe cry. The boy looked back at him with Lily's vivid green eyes and James bewildered expression and tussled hair. He smiled and nodded toward the chocolate in Harry's hand.
"That's just chocolate, I haven't poisoned it. It'll help you feel better. The thing was a Dementor, our Ministry employs them in a way, they guard Azkaban. It was looking for Sirius Black. Why they were allowed on this train full of children is beyond me. Aurors were standing guard at the depot, more will be at Hogsmade awaiting the train's arrival. It's safe." Remus sighed and stood up. "Eat. You'll feel better. I'm going to have a little word with the driver about student safety." He gave them a small smile and slid the door closed behind him, heading toward the front of the train.
The compartment Remus had been sitting in was near the back of the rather long Hogwarts Express. Near the middle of the train, his ears perked up as he heard Ivy's voice coming from inside a compartment with several students audibly crying. He slid the door open and took in the scene. Ivy was sitting in the middle of what seemed to be a pile of first year girls, who were all visibly shaken. He smiled to his wife when she looked up from her place, comforting the kids. 'First year muggle borns' she mouthed to him, he gave a nod.
"Girls, this is Professor Lupin, he teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts, why don't you sit up a bit and let him tell you what the things were" she said with an almost hidden mock cheerfulness. 'And since you won't hush and listen to me' she said under he breath.
The young girls sat up and rubbed the tears off their faces, and made attempts to fix their hair and robes upon seeing Remus which made Ivy roll her eyes. There was a group of seven girls, all of them squeezed into the compartment, as the group muggleborns usually find a way of doing their first trip to school. Remus smiled and leaned against the door frame as they all settled their attention on them.
"That was what we call a dementor. They guard the high security wizarding prison known as Azkaban, and they were searching for an escaped prisoner. He's not on board the train, and the dementors have gone as well. There is no reason to be frightened any longer. Are you young ladies all alright?" He flashed a smile and all the little girls giggled and nodded their heads. Remus nodded in return and gestured toward the hallway passage of the train. "Miss Holden, a word?"
Ivy stood and smoothed her school robes. "Of course, Professor. I'll be back in a moment girls." They stepped into the hall passage and Ivy slid the door shut behind her. "Yes Professor?" she smirked at the look on his face of pure annoyance at the title.
"Ivy." His face started serious but burst into a chuckle quickly. "What happened?" He gestured toward the door.
"Well..." Ivy twisted her face in thought. "I was making my round when the train stopped, and I was actually hiding in a compartment about three down and I heard them screaming. I ran in and found one of the dementors preying on the blonde girl, Madison. Shot a patronus at it... Well a bit. I was panicked. It wasn't corporeal." She crossed her arms. "Why were they here? Why did we stop?" Remus let out a puff of air and shrugged.
"I'm not sure what they were thinking. They were looking for Black but stopping the train- Especially with the muggleborns on board is ridiculous. I'm going to speak to the conductor now. I'll- I'll see you at the feast Mrs." He stopped and cleared his throat "Miss Holden." He gave her a nod and walked quickly away. Ivy rejoined the group of first years girls who were gossiping. Ivy heard them giggling about 'the handsome teacher' and she smiled.
"Ivy?" One of the young girls looked up at her as she walked in.
"Yes?" Ivy said, sitting down in between two of the girls.
"Will that thing be back?" the young girl, called Jemma, looked sheepish at the older witch.
"Maybe. There is a bad man on the loose, and those things are looking for him, so they are probably patrolling the outer part of the grounds at school. You won't have to be near them again though. Not too close." Ivy looked out the window and saw from the rocky landscape they were getting nearer to the school. "I have to finish my patrol now, but if you girls need anything, from now forward- I'm Head Girl Ivy- Hufflepuff House. I will help you no matter your house. Don't be afraid to find me. See you girls at the feast!" She smiled to them all and waved as she walked out and toward the front of the train.