A/n: Aww butts. I totally didn't update for like, ages. Again. (I'll try to do better next time I promise!)
Anyway, Merry Newmas and a Happy Christ Year and all that. And a big thanks to the reviewers who reminded me that this was still a thing!
When Mr Weasley said they were being picked up by ministry cars, he meant the ministry was providing a military-esque escort team.
Ash was impressed, but a little intimidated; not even Hunter J had used as many cars as protection when she drove around, and she had an invisible aircraft. (Of course, she may not need the cars exactly because she had the aircraft, but Ash was pretty certain that Hunter J was one to err on the side of caution.) Ash supposed that this was all something to do with the escaped convict after Harry.
The others were too busy being in awe to be suspicious. Several ministry cars were there just to pick them up, so it was understandable that they'd be excited.
Excitement aside, they were on a tight schedule now to get to the train on time, so everyone piled into the cars and set off to the station.
The car journey was filled with pleasant chatter, then the arrival at the station. With only a few minutes to spare before the train was scheduled to leave, everyone was rushed through the barrier.
Ash noticed that Mr Weasley was sticking unnaturally close to Harry, then pulled him away as they reached the train. Deciding that whatever was going on was none of his business, Ash got Pikachu out of his backpack and the two got on the train.
Due to their lateness, the six (Ash and Harry had eventually caught up with the others during their train wandering) couldn't find an empty car on the train. The closest to an empty one had a strange man in it, who was asleep in the corner.
They decided that this was the only place to sit and did so, looking nervously over at the man.
"Who's that?" Ash asked, knowing that the question was redundant as no one had recognised him.
"R. Lupin." Hermione reported, looking at the name printed on his trunk.
"Is he asleep?" Harry asked. Ron prodded the man slightly to test it, finding him to be fast asleep.
"Hey! Don't poke him like that!" Hermione chided. "What if he woke up? He's probably the new professor!"
Ron rolled his eyes.
"Looks like he isn't waking up for a while." Ash commented.
"Okay." Harry said, looking as though he was about to divulge in some massive secret. He gave a quick glance to Lupin before continuing, "Mr Weasley told me before that this guy, Sirius Black, is after me."
Hermione gasped. Everyone but Ash was shocked, while Ash just thought that he should've realised what Mr Weasley would've been talking about sooner.
"Gosh. That's awful!" Ron said, looking concernedly at Harry, "Do you know why?"
Harry shook his head. "Not really. It's something to do with Voldemort."
"Well, this creates an air of danger for the year, doesn't it?" Cilan said. Iris stopped him from saying anything else with a comment about how Detective Cilan wouldn't be on this case.
"Did you get your Hogsmeade permission slip filled out?" Hermione asked during the lull in conversation.
"Hogsmeade?" Iris asked, "You mean the village near Hogwarts?"
Hermione nodded. "Yeah, that's the one. Didn't you get a letter asking for permission?"
Cilan frowned. He turned to the other two, seeing that neither of them knew about a permission slip either. "No, I can't say I did. But I suppose since our families are in another universe, there's not much point..."
"Well I'm sure the elder wouldn't mind, and your brothers can't really stop you." Iris reasoned. "Besides, do we even need permission? I mean, we all just left our homes at the age of ten and nobody batted an eyelid."
"Mum signed mine when we got back. Maybe she signed yours too." Ron shrugged.
"Hmm." Ash agreed, looking out of the window.
Silence again descended upon the group, broken by the appearance of Draco.
"What do you want?" Harry asked irritably. He was already annoyed after being reminded about his lack of Hogsmeade permission; he didn't have the patience to deal with Draco right now.
Draco smirked. Behind him, Crabbe and Goyle started laughing. He looked over at Ash, but didn't say anything to him.
"Shut up, Potty." Draco said. Apparently, creative insults weren't his forte.
"Go away Malfoy." Ron said, looking over at him irritatedly. "No one cares about whatever you're gonna say."
Draco was angered by that; the visit was clearly not going to plan. "Shut up, Weasel. Your poorness is infecting us, and I don't want to catch the poverty."
He seemed pretty impressed with this attempt, but Iris shut him down pretty quickly.
"If you want to stand here insulting us, we might as well wake up the new professor to let him hear too." she said, her warning clear.
Draco noticed the man for the first time and stopped talking, backing away and leaving now that he could get caught. Ash scowled after him as he left, not impressed by Draco's attitude.
Just when Draco was reaching a safe enough distance away for someone to comment again, a high pitched screeching sound was heard. Even without the sudden thrust forwards that happened directly after, Ash knew that this meant that the train was stopping.
The question was not what's happening, but why was it happening?
And why could he never just have a normal train journey?
"Is everyone okay?" Cilan asked, checking himself over.
"Yeah. Looks like the train stopped." Harry stated the obvious. "Isn't it a bit early to be arriving at Hogwarts?"
"Yeah..." Ash said, looking out of the window. As he spoke, the lights started to flicker. "Someone's cut the power. But why?"
He only received shrugs in return.
"Hey," Ron spoke up, "Did that Lupin guy wake up yet?"
Hermione checked, but didn't see any change in his state. "No. I guess he must be really tired."
"Or just like Ash!" Ron joked, lightening the atmosphere. The lights were off completely now, bathing the train in darkness.
"Isn't it supposed to be light outside?" Ash asked, looking back to the window. Where he'd just been able to see a pleasant view of the countryside, there was a swirling expanse of darkness.
Suddenly, a chill crept onto the train. Ash shivered slightly, wondering what was going on. The darkness outside had an unrecognisable aura, which was hard to look at and seemed to be the thing making it cold. All the unrecognisable auras in the area were making his head spin, so Ash had to concentrate on not using his aura sight.
"What's that?" Cilan piped up. He sounded more curious than scared, but was still frowning as he pointed to the doorway.
Ash looked up. Standing there was a hooded creature, slightly resembling the one from the forbidden forest in the first year. It had no visible face, and a large cloak covered its body. It didn't appear to have feet, and if it did it wasn't using them, as it hovered about a foot off the ground.
They watched in mild horror as the creature raised a hand, covered with a grey, translucent skin that showed its bones easily.
The compartment got even colder; so cold it was hard to breathe. Ash froze as he heard a yell, his own, then collapsed.
Images flashed by as he lay there. They all contained himself, with various others joining in.
The first scene he didn't recognise; a mass of pokemon battling against each other, with no rhyme or reason. Ash watched as a younger version of himself rushed between two particularly large attacks, dropping to the floor as they collided.
The scenes changed quickly, all having the same theme. They all seemed to be memories: a collection of the worst moments in Ash's life. Celebi's near death; Lucario's actual death; his own slipping consciousness as he let out a single tear, having been unable to help Victini.
Even the adventures at Hogwarts were there. Just as the image of himself, curled protectively around Pikachu, started to fade, he heard voices.
"Ash!"
He looked around. There was nobody here to have spoken his name, but he'd heard it.
"Ash!"
There it was again, a different voice, but still just as urgently calling his name.
"Pikapi!"
That caught his attention. Ash's eyes shot open, searching wildly around.
"Pikachu?" He called out, not seeing his partner.
"Pikapi!" Suddenly he came into view. Ash realised that he wasn't translating properly, and concentrated more on the mouse's words. "Thank Arceus, you're okay."
"What happened?" Ash asked, looking around the compartment. The lights were back on, and whatever had been in the doorway before had left. Everyone else was awake, though Harry looked as though he'd just woken up too.
"Well, when that thing came in, you and Harry fainted." Cilan explained, "Then Professor Lupin used some kind of spell that made the... thing go away, and he rushed off to the conductor."
"Hmm..." Ash said, scratching Pikachu's ear as he thought, "Only me and Harry fainted?"
"Yeah." It was Iris's turn to explain, "Me and Cilan got this feeling, like... like we were never gonna be happy again. Then we started remembering all of the adventures we've been on with you, but... only the bad and scary bits."
"It was the same for us, but without the memories." Hermione supplied, gesturing to herself and Ron.
"What about Pikachu?" Ash asked, looking concernedly down at the pokemon.
"Oh, yeah! He fainted too!" Ron remembered, "He kept on saying stuff, like, 'Pikapi'. And then when he woke up he was screaming it then."
Ash hugged Pikachu a bit tighter. "Yeah, I think I know what he was dreaming about."
"What were you dreaming about?" Hermione asked, "You were muttering loads of stuff too."
"Same as Iris and Cilan, but I guess I had to faint to see it?" Ash said.
"Yes. Some people have worse reactions than others." Ash looked up, seeing that Professor Lupin was in the doorway. "It's based on your past experiences. The worse they are, the worse the Dementor will affect you."
Ash nodded. Well, it certainly made sense for him and Pikachu to collapse. They'd both seen some adventures in their time, and they may have ended well, but a lot of bad things happened in the meantime. Pikachu wriggled his way out of Ash's grasp to greet the professor, but didn't leave Ash's shoulder.
Professor Lupin handed Ash and Pikachu a bar of chocolate each, then gave one to Harry. It surprised them, causing them to stare at it blankly for a second.
"They'll help." He explained, "Eat it."
The three complied, finding that they did perk up a bit after consuming the sweet treat. Pikachu gave out a contented 'chaa' that had no real meaning, and Ash felt his aura starting to strengthen again.
The train slowed to another halt, this time planned, and it was time to disembark and go to Hogwarts. Walking up the pathway, they reached the carriages that took them up.
"Oh, yeah. It's your first time seeing these, isn't it?" Hermione realised, looking at Ron and Harry. "Isn't it fascinating how they pull themselves?"
"Pull themselves?" Harry echoed, "But... those weird horses are pulling them!"
Ash agreed, and received odd looks from the others. "They were here last year!" he insisted, "Didn't you notice?"
Iris looked ahead uncertainly. "There... there really isn't anything there, you two."
Ash frowned. Nobody had mentioned them last time, but he didn't think that was because they couldn't see them.
"Maybe I'm just a bit tired from the Dementor." Harry said, not quite believing his own words.
"Yeah..." Ash relented, looking at the strange horses.
"Don't worry, I can see them." Pikachu assured. "Really weird, skeletal horse things..."
Ash nodded, making a mental note to ask someone about it later. Perhaps Lupin; he had seemed to know a lot about magical creatures.
They got into the carriage, being carted up to Hogwarts. When they arrived, Ash and Harry were grabbed by Professor McGonagall. Hermione followed, and they all went off away from the Great Hall.
They were taken straight to Madam Pomfrey, while Hermione and McGonagall went into her office.
Madam Pomfrey frowned as Harry and Ash walked in.
"Why is it always you two?" She asked, looking at them both with a judging eye.
"Because he's the Chosen One." Pikachu deadpanned, causing Ash to chuckle. "I'm serious! All the legendaries, every time! Completely useless, the lot of them..."
"-fine! Really!" Ash tuned back into the human conversation just in time to hear Harry trying to convince Madam Pomfrey that he was well enough to go to the feast.
"Okay." Madam Pomfrey said hesitantly, "You two can go..."
Ash smiled, turning around to rejoin the feast. As he left, he was issued the order to eat lots of chocolate for dessert.
As it turned out, walking through the halls of Hogwarts took a very long time when you were exhausted and hadn't eaten in a while. Ash discovered this as he slowly made his way down flights of stairs that he was almost certain hadn't been there on his way up, almost wishing that Madam Pomfrey had ordered him to stay in and sleep after all.
"Maybe I'll just skip tomorrow." He said to Pikachu as he neared the doors.
"Yeah... that sounds nice." Pikachu, usually the one to at least caution Ash against taking such action, was too busy falling asleep on his shoulder to disagree.
Ash walked into the hall halfway through Dumbledore's speech, as he was telling everyone that the dementors were to be there all year round.
Ash frowned at the news, hoping that he didn't have to have another confrontation with them. The fainting wasn't a very fun activity, and the negative light the memories shone on his past adventures weren't appreciated either.
On a lighter note, it was revealed that Lupin and Hagrid were joining the teaching staff that year, as Defence Against the Dark Arts and Care of Magical Creatures professors respectively.
There was polite cheering for the two of them, then the feast began.
Ash tucked into the meal with his usual vigour, only stopping briefly hen Iris caught his attention.
"What?" He asked, taking another bite of his food. With that bite he cleared another plate and started loading it again.
"Isn't Pikachu going to eat something?" She asked. Ash stared at her for a moment, then realised that Pikachu was still sat on his shoulder.
"You okay buddy?" He asked.
"Yeah..." Pikachu sighed happily, "I'm just gonna... go to sleep here... so comfy..."
Ash laughed. "He's still tired. I'll sneak something for him for later." With a mental note to make sure that the something he snuck was something chocolaty - even though Pikachu would probably complain that it wasn't ketchup - Ash continued eating.
Hopefully we'll see an update this time next week. If not, I forgot again.
Please review (especially if it's been ages and I need to update again!)
