OMINIX

CHAPTER TEN-THE MUGGLE WORLD

Professor Dumbledore woke us up at around 8 O'clock the next morning.

Yawning, moaning, stretching and mumbling, every student stood up and waited patiently for Professor Dumbledore's next move.

Sirius was still in dog form.

"Okay, break up into several groups containing no more than 50 students," Professor Dumbledore instructed. "The Gryffindors will go first because they're less."

He looked at us painfully.

Professor McGonagall called us over.

We stood beside her.

"Where'd that dog come from?" she asked lowering her eyes to the dog.

"He's mine," I piped up immediately again. "For therapy. Dumbledore knows."

Professor McGonagall looked over at Dumbledore, who nodded.

"Very well," she sighed. "Follow me."

She led us out side and to the train station. We climbed aboard and found a compartment. We all sat down. It seemed strange not having the entire train filled with laughter and talking of the other students.

"Creepy," Remus said sitting beside Lily.

Hillary, Sirius and I were across from them. Professor McGonagall sat beside Lily.

"I know," Hillary said staring out the window.

"I just don't understand something," Professor McGonagall said slowly. "Where did Brittany come from? The Headmaster said nothing about a new student."

We all looked at each other. Then, it was Hillary who spoke up and began telling Professor McGonagall all about Brittany and how it had all started.

I was even amazed. I just absentmindedly began scratching Sirius' ear.

Sirius just panted and curled up against me with his head on my thigh.

"Good Lord," Professor McGonagall said breathlessly. "Why have you told no one?"

"Because in all honesty, it does sound a bit strange," Remus said seriously. "I knew that Dumbledore would believe us. We just didn't know when the right time would be to tell you."

Professor McGonagall smiled. Something we've rarely seen her do. But it was a nice change.

"I would've most certainly believed you," she replied. "You are my students. I trust you."

Remus, Hillary, Lily and I grinned.

Sirius barked and wagged his tail, but it thumped on the seat.

"And why do you need the dog with you?" Professor McGonagall asked turning to me. "What kind of therapy? And where on earth is Mr. Black?"

It took her just now to realize that Sirius was not among us the way she thought he was.

"Um," Remus said looking at Hillary and Lily uncomfortably.

"He should be along shortly. I think he went to the bathroom," Lily said quickly.

Professor McGonagall frowned but said nothing more.

Dark storm clouds began rolling in darkening everything. Shortly, rain began pounding down streaking across the glass.

"Rain again?" Remus moaned. "I feel like we're being watered."

"Maybe then you could grow and extra arm," Lily joked.

Remus' lip twitched and he shook his head chuckling.

"Or an extra tippy," Hillary cracked.

We all burst into laughter. Professor McGonagall just shook her head.

We were still laughing when Professor McGonagall announced that she had to talk to the conductor. She got up and left.

"Change you mutt," Lily hissed at the black dog.

The black dog raised his head and growled at her.

"You really should," I whispered to the dog. "We can't keep lying to Professor McGonagall."

At that, Sirius changed back into his human form sitting beside me.

"Hey," Lily said. "How come you didn't listen to me?"

"Easy," Sirius said. "I don't like you."

Lily just scowled and folded her arms over her chest.

Remus turned his head and coughed, but it sounded like a laugh more.

Hillary just looked out the window and pretended to be interested in the rain streaking down the glass.

"See, Laura asked nicely," Sirius continued. "When you say, 'change you mutt', I just take that as an order."

Lily continued to scowl. "Well, if you hadn't I was about to tell McGonagall that the black dog was you,"

"Rrrrealy?" Sirius purred. "And what do the rest of you think?"

No one answered. We didn't know why Lily was acting this way. Something was bothering her deeply.

"Was one of our best friends going to rat on me?" Sirius continued in a mocking tone.

"No," Lily snapped suddenly. "I really wasn't going to tell okay? Just leave me alone."

With that, she jumped up from her seat and left the compartment.

"What's wrong with her?" Hillary asked concerned. "Something's bothering her."

"I've noticed," Remus said.

"She's always crabby," Sirius muttered looking upset now too.

"Please go and talk to her," I pleaded. "We really should all stay together."

"Okay, kid," Sirius said affectionately as he playfully ruffled my hair before getting up and leaving the compartment.

He left.

"Sirius has definitely taken a shine to you," Remus grinned.

I just grinned and blushed.

After about 20 minutes, we started to get really worried. Neither Sirius, Lily or Professor McGonagall had come back yet. Suddenly, Sirius burst into the compartment and slammed the compartment door closed.

"We've got to get off," he said breathlessly looking pale and terrified.

We all became alert.

"Why? What's wrong?" Remus demanded.

"Professor McGonagall and Lily are infected...one of the infected got on the train," Sirius breathed.

"But we're in the middle of England," Hillary said looking terrified. "There's moors that stretch for miles."

"Either we stay here and get infected, or we leave," Sirius said as he kept glancing out the compartment door every few minutes.

"We go," Remus said.

We froze as we heard footsteps coming up the corridor.

"NOW," Hillary said as she grabbed my hand and we all fled out of the compartment.

As we glanced back, we could see Lily and Professor McGonagall stumbling up the corridor slowly as if they were drunk. But they were letting out small hisses. They looked exactly like the others.

The train had stopped. We leaped down off the train and landed in damp slippery grass. The rain poured down on us drenching us. Sirius quickly changed into the black dog. I guess the pads on his feet had better traction.

"We can't leave the train like this! They could get out and infect the Muggle world," Remus said as rainwater rolled off his face.

"What do you suggest we do?" Hillary yelled over the howling of the wind and rain.

Remus pulled out his wand.

"I hate to do this, but..." he said swallowing. "ARIMUS EXPLOAM!"

A jet of red shot out from the tip of his wand and hit the engine. The engine exploded, and that set off a chain reaction for the rest of the cars.

From the force, we were all thrown face first into the wet grass. Remus protectively covered Hillary and Sirius put his dog body on top of mine.

Even through the dampness, we could feel the singing heat coming from the train, which was now on fire. Bits of metal, glass and other parts were scattered around. The entire train, was now an empty, burning shell. The flames reached high into the air.

We slowly got up and surveyed the damage.

"Lily's gone," Hillary said as she turned around and buried her face into Remus' damp chest. She began sobbing.

I also began sobbing and dropped to my knees in the grass. Sirius came over and sat in front of me. I wrapped my arms around his furry neck and pressed my face into his fur.

After a few minutes, Remus spoke.

"We'd best get moving," he said quietly. "We need to get to London and to my flat to send an owl to Dumbledore letting him know what happened."

"Good idea," I said swallowing.

Sirius licked my face as I got to my feet. He stood close by me as I walked. Hillary was on my left. She kept her arm around my shoulders as we walked.

ONE HOUR LATER.

"I'm cold," I said shivering.

"I know," Remus said softly. "We should find shelter shortly."

"Hey," Hillary said as she stopped walking. "A barn!"

Sure enough, about 12 feet in front of us was a large barn...and a house.

"Muggles," I said relieved.

We began hurrying to the barn.

We easily slipped inside. The barn was warm and dry. A few horses poked their heads over their stalls.

Remus turned his wand onto himself and a blast of hot air began drying off his robes. Once he was dry, he dried off Hillary and then me. Sirius shook the rain water from his body.

"We just got dried off," I said laughing.

Sirius barked and began eagerly sniffing around the barn wagging his tail.

"Are you okay?" Remus asked me as he came over to me.

"I'm fine. I feel better now that I'm dry," I said grinning.

"I'm sure," Remus said grinning back.

Sirius came over to us eagerly and clamped his jaws on the hem of my gray skirt and began tugging at it.

"Sirius, stop," Remus scolded. "You're going to pull her down."

Sure enough, Sirius pulled too hard that I ended up falling forward and I ended up hitting my cheek on the rough barn floor. A medium sized cut formed and a ribbon of blood began trickling down my cheek.

I got to my hands and knees as Remus and Hillary rushed over to help me get to my feet.

"Are you okay?" Hillary asked worriedly dusting bits of hay and dirt off the front of my uniform.

"Yeah," I said wiping at the cut.

"See what you did," Remus growled at Sirius, sounding like the wolf.

Sirius' head lowered and his tail went between his legs.

"It was an accident," Hillary said.

"I warned him not to pull too hard but he didn't listen," Remus snapped.

The black dog was looking even more upset and guilty now. He cowered and slowly walked over to one of the corners where he just plopped down, tucking his hind legs underneath him and stretched his front ones out resting his bottom jaw on one foreleg. His ears were pinned sideways.

"It was still an accident," Hillary said angrily. "You've made him feel awful now."

"So?" Remus said.

"So? What's your problem?" Hillary snapped.

Hillary and Remus began arguing. I went over to the black dog and kneeled down. He began growling at me.

"I don't blame you," I said softly. "I know it was an accident."

The dog just continued to growl at me now.

"Sirius please," I pleaded. "I'm not blaming you. Please stop growling at me."

I reached forward and went to pet him but he sat up on his haunches now and snapped his jaws at me. I yanked my hand back just in time. I sat shaking.

The dog curled up facing the wall and that was it.

I got to my feet and angrily stormed over to Remus and Hillary.

"Nice going, Remus," I snapped. "Now Sirius hates me. He tried to bite me."

"WHAT?" Remus bellowed.

"BECAUSE YOU PISSED HIM OFF!" Hillary yelled. "IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT AND YOU KNOW IT! WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?"

I glanced over at the black dog. One ear was erect. He was listening to what we were saying.

"WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?" a male voice boomed loudly from the barn entrance.

The black dog woke up abruptly and stood squarely on all fours. I heard low growls coming from Sirius.

"Oh," Hillary said looking relieved and a bit scared. "We're sorry. We just needed to get out of the rain."

"Where are your parents?" the man asked in a more soft tone.

"Um," Remus began looking at Hillary for help.

"Well, they're not here. We're orphans," Hillary said quickly. "We were heading to our grandmum's place in London."

"Aw, why don't you come on inside the house? I have tons of food and places for you to sleep. I've got some dog food for your pooch," the man said kindly.

"Thanks," Remus said.

The man turned his back and began heading back toward the house. I looked at Sirius with an amused expression wondering how he'd take to be called a 'pooch' and resort to eating dog food.

But the dog walked out of the barn without so much as a backward glance to Remus, Hillary and I.

"You've really did it now," Hillary hissed at Remus as she too, began following the dog. I glared at Remus and followed Hillary out.

SIRIUS.

I followed the man into the house and was shortly accompanied by Hillary and Laura. I wasn't really mad at Laura or Hillary. I was more mad at Remus.

I felt awful for what I did. I never, ever wanted to hurt Laura. I shook myself, glad to be out of the rain again. I sent water droplets flying.

"Your dog doesn't like rain too much huh?" the man grinned.

"Yeah," Laura said as the man gestured to the kitchen table.

"Please sit," he said.

Laura and Hillary sat. Remus entered next and took a seat across from Laura and Hillary.

I sat on my haunches beside Laura's chair. She glanced down at me. I looked up at her pleadingly. I wanted to apologize to her, but I couldn't change now. The man would be wondering where a fourth human came from when all he saw were three kids and a black dog.

Laura looked down at me also. She looked awful...pale, and just a mess. The cut on her cheek was still red but no blood continued to flow.

She slowly reached her hand out. I began licking her hand gratefully.

She broke into a grin and I knew that we were okay again.

"So, what are your names?" the man asked.

"I'm Jenny," Hillary said quickly. "This is Dave, Katie and Boomer."

She gestured to Sirius sitting beside me.

"I'm Adam Travis," the man introduced himself.

The man was in his 40's with graying black hair and blue eyes. He was dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans with construction boots.

The man reached into the cabinet and pulled out a can of dog food. He opened it and plopped it into a bowl. Then, bent down and put it under Sirius' nose.

"There you go fella," Mr. Travis said brightly.

The kitchen was fairly modern with bright white tiles and like a 50's motif. It was overall welcoming and comfy.

Sirius lowered his head and just stared at the dog food. I could literally see the repulsion in his eyes.

"Um, Boomer only likes a certain kind of dog food," Remus said. "Don't be insulted if he doesn't eat it. He's very picky."

"Oh," the man's face fell. "I have some Alpo if he likes that."

Sirius growled at Remus and then to my surprise, began eating the dog food.

"Must be hungrier than I thought," Remus said shrugging.

Low growls continued to come from Sirius as he ate.

I felt bad.

"Well, would you kids like something to eat? You must be starved," Mr. Travis said.

"We are a bit hungry," Hillary admitted.

So the man began cooking us some pork chops, mashed potatoes and carrots.

He plopped the plates down in front of us.

"I must tend to the horses. I will be right back. You eat up," he said and then pulled on a yellow rain coat, hat and left the house.

I began feeding Sirius some of my pork chop which he gratefully ate.

"He's got his food," Remus said frowning.

"Would you like a taste?" I shot back angrily. "You started this whole thing."

After that, I just ignored Remus. The man came back in and sent us to rooms for the night. Hillary, Sirius and I shared one room and Remus had another. We settled in for the night.