Author: Moony Lover
Summary: What if the Hogwarts Train had never arrived to it's destiny?
Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. I only own the characters you don't recognize in the story.
Author's Notes: English is not my first language… I hope you understand that I may make some mistakes which my computer does not recognize as such… be nice to me! Lol.
CHAPTER 2
"What the hell happened to you last night, Sirius?"
Sirius looked at his friend concerned. He could see Remus was truly worried. But he couldn't think of a way for Remus to help him.
What was this all about? First in the Hogwarts Express and now in their room? Who was this little girl? What did she want? Why was he supposed to help her? There were so many questions in his head that he couldn't think of anything else. He had been distant and distracted the whole day, constantly looking out of the window as if expecting for the little girl to come and talk with him.
She was dead, that's for sure. But it was strange for ghosts to haunt you like that. Ghosts only stayed in the Wizarding World if they were unhappy, like Nearly-Headless-Nick…although he had once told him that he had been entirely happy in his life, it was his death that made him so unhappy. But what about this little girl?
Even if he remembered her it was such a creepy thought that…Sirius shuddered every time he remembered her. The first time she had only eye open and had been looking directly at him. This wasn't like the other times, when he used to joke around so that all of the girls looked at him. No. This was different. The little girl was looking at his face.. his hair, his everything. What did she want? Why had she visited him twice in a day? He shuddered to think of her reasons.
"Sirius?"
Sirius looked back at his friends. This time it was James who had called him.
"What has happened to you last night?"
"I… an owl appeared in the window, all of the sudden… I don't know why… it just scared the hell of me''
Neither James nor Remus seemed to believe his story.
The next week Sirius found himself still thinking of the little girl and the things he had seen in the Hogwarts Express. Why was he so worried? Perhaps it had all been a dream… a nightmare, a horrible and creepy nightmare. He had only seen her twice, in the same day. That couldn't mean anything, could it?
Unfortunately for them, Professor Bins gave them an extremely long essay for the following week and, plus the other homework he had to do, he decided to go down the library. It wasn't something Sirius normally did… he usually did his homework the day before the due date, why was he starting now? There was something inside him that was making him go to the library… and somehow he felt he had to do this alone.
At five o'clock he left the common room with no explanation and walked down to the library. He realized as soon as he opened the door that there was something strange there, although he couldn't see what. There was many students there and Madam Pince was cleaning some books with her forehead frowned. He decided to ignore them all and start his research.
One hour later Sirius was totally tired of reading useless books about old witches and wizards, so he got up and started pacing through the bookshelves. He was looking for something to read, perhaps 'Quidditch Through The Ages' or a similar book, when something caught his attention. It was a small, slip paper, lying on the floor. It looked like a female's handwriting. You could perfectly read 'I love you, Alana'
Grinning Sirius bent down and tried to pick up the slip of paper, but when he touched it with his finger, it disappeared into thin air. Frightened, he let himself fall to his feet. He looked back down on the floor where the paper had just been, breathing heavily. What the hell just happened? Another thought came into Sirius' mind. Why him? Of all the strange things that could happen to him he had to be hunted by the dead-bloody-girl and papers that disappeared in the thin air. For one second he had thought it was another of the love-notes he received at least once a month, but none of them had disappeared like this one!
He heard steps on the floor and turned around, to see the face of an angry Madam Pince in front of him. "What do you think you are doing, Black?"
Before he could answer, he was out of the library.
This is enough; Sirius thought to himself as he ran through the corridors, I'm going to tell them. There's no way he had lost his mind, right? None of the things that had happened to him were product of his imagination, were they? He was completely sure he had seen the little girl and the note on the floor… and even though it sounded crazy, he felt it had some sort of connection between both things. It surely was strange.
Once he entered in the common room all sweaty and out of breath it took him a while to see where his friends were. Once he found them (on the couch in front of the fireplace) he ran to them and sat on the floor.
"Okay, we have to talk," he was sweaty, out of breath, and with a strange look on his face… almost is if he were afraid of something.
"Sirius? Are you ok?" James asked worriedly looking up from his new broom.
"Yes, perfectly fine… or at least I think so"
"You doubting of any of your skills, Sirius? This has to be big" and with that Remus sat straight on the couch and put the book he was reading behind. James did the same thing, looking funnily at his best friend.
Sirius took a deep breath. He had to tell them… but what would they think? Surely, Sirius had joked of seeing ghosts before... but now this was real! He had seen the little girl, twice, the paper… it couldn't just be a product of his imagination, could it? Not even in the wizarding world this things were normal. Not even in the wizarding world.
Sirius opened his mouth but no noise came from it. He wanted to tell his best friends but couldn't. Why? He didn't know. The only thing he knew is that his friends weren't going to treat him as if he were crazy, were they? But then again… this was no ordinary thing that was happening to him. Although... what if it all was a prank? His best friends were capable, perfectly capable, of doing such things and if they knew they were having the effect on Sirius just like they were having, no, he wouldn't give them such a pleasure.
Why was he doubting of his friends? Neither James, nor Remus or Peter would do something like that. Sirius knew that. Then what was it? He decided to do more research before telling them. Perhaps it was better so.
"Sirius?"
"What..uh? Sorry James… I.. I forgot something in the library" and before any of his friends told him anything he got up and ran away from the common room.
What had happened to him? Sirius sighed as he sat on the grass near the lake and put his head in his hands. His long hair fell forward. The moon was already visible, it's light reflecting on the lake.
This was the first time that he couldn't tell something to his friends. This had never occurred before. Why had he doubted? Of course he could trust his friends, then why…?
He felt someone sit next to him, but when he looked up he saw no-one there.
"Wha…?"
An invisible arm grabbed a small stone and threw it in the lake, making small circles where it fell. Shocked, Sirius stretched his arm to where the invisible-being was supposed to be sitting. Horrified, he realized that whatever it was, it was as cold as ice. Sirius got up and walked backwards, looking at the place where he had just been sitting. Afraid. That's how Sirius felt. Scared, alone, helpless. His breathing getting heavy with time, sweat started to fall from his forehead… Sirius had to get the hell out of there. When he was about to turn around he could feel that someone grabbed him from his arm and didn't let him run away.
This was the first time that Sirius actually screamed with fear, "LET ME GO!" He shook his arm and breaking free, he ran away, scared and frightened, to his room.
He sat on his bed shaking.
That night, Sirius could not go to sleep. He hadn't gone to dinner either, something really, really strange for him. His friends were starting to worry, but when they asked him what his problem was, he gave them a fearful look and then turned around, not wanting to talk to anyone.
Sirius sighed and sat on his bed. He felt so lost and helpless. And the worst thing of all is that he had no idea what this meant or what he was supposed to do.
He touched his right arm, in the place where he had felt someone grab him. It still hurt, as if he were burnt. What the hell did it mean? Ghosts were not supposed to burn, or that's what he thought.
He turned on the light next to him and realized, with horror, the mark he had on his arm. This wasn't there before! The burn he had where the invisible being had touched him had a shape! The teenage wizard contemplated for some seconds, fear starting to appear once again. He was trembling, when he realized what it was. It was the hand of a small girl, not older than the one he had seen before.
Nervously, he got up and ran to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. He didn't know, but he had awoken his friends.
Turning the tap, he put his arm under the stream of cold water. The cool liquid running on his arm made him close his eyes and enjoy the short moment. His arm didn't hurt anymore and, when he opened them once again, he realized that the small hand was gone. Sirius smiled relieved, his breathing coming back to normal.
But the happiness and relieved moment didn't last long. He tried to turn the tap off but couldn't. He watched horrified as the faucet from the hot water started to open itself slowly, while the one from the cold water closed itself. The water was hot now, very hot. It started to burn his arm and Sirius could do nothing against it. He screamed, trying to get his arm off of the water but couldn't. Something was holding him back. Sirius screamed once again, trying to fight the invisible strength that was holding him back but there was nothing he could do against it. The steam was starting to fill the room… everything was so hot…
Scared, Sirius heard like someone from the other side of the room was yelling at his name. "SIRIUS! OPEN UP!"
Horrified, Sirius kept on trying to take his arm from under the water running. It was absolutely boiling, and starting to hurt his arm. The steam was taking over the whole room, making Sirius cough from time to time.
"SIRIUS!"
"I CAN'T!" was all he screamed, and continued coughing. Desperately, he tried to open the cold water faucet but failed. "I'M TRAPPED!"
"HOLD ON!"
Seconds later, Sirius heard a loud scream and then the door got easily open. Both James and Remus entered in the room, looking around worriedly. Peter was still on his bed, afraid of everything, not wanting to get in the bathroom.
"Sirius!" James screamed and then ran to help Sirius. Tears were streaming down his face; he was suffering from immense pain. James realized that Sirius had blisters all over his right arm. "Take it out!" he screamed as he moved his head trying to clear the view from the steam.
"Oh very funny, James!" Sirius screamed angrily. "As if I haven't thought about it!"
"Sirius, hold on" Remus said and then tried to close the faucet from the water running. "Damn! It's really hard… James!"
James went to his friend and tried to close the faucet from the boiling water, but the only thing they managed to do was break it.
"Shit!"
Just when they put their hands in Sirius' arm to try to break it free, the water stopped slowly from running and Sirius' arm broke suddenly free. The three of them fell backwards on the floor.
"Are you ok, Sirius?" Remus asked concerned. But Sirius didn't answer. He had tears streaming down his face, and a horrified look on it. When Remus followed the gaze to where Sirius, and now James, looking, Remus gasped.
In the mirror of the bathroom, in a childish writing, you could perfectly read 'Please, listen to me'
"Who on his right mind dares to play with boiling water at 2 am?"
Sirius didn't answer, neither did James nor Remus. They only heared Madam Pomfrey complaining of Sirius arm and giving him an angry look as she cured the blisters on it. She didn't seam to realized anything strange on them, but Sirius and his friends did. Perhaps because of the fear, or just because it was too late to argue with the nurse, they all were quiet as she cured Sirius' arm and put some bandages around it. Once she was finished, she gave him a bottle of lotion and told him to rub some on as soon as it started to hurt.
"You can go, Mr Black," she told him angrily. "I want you to come here tomorrow after classes so I can have a look at your burn" Sirius said nothing as he got up from the chair he was sitting in. "Now, GO"
The three teenagers nodded and walked slowly and quietly to their room.
When they opened the door, Sirius entered first. He walked to his bed, looking down, and entered in it. "Sirius?" James asked. Sirius looked up and realized that both James and Remus were looking at him concerned. "What happened?"
He only shook his head. "I need to sleep a bit… perhaps tomorrow"
Neither of them told him anything, and went straight back to bed.
The next day when classes were over, Sirius went straight to Madam Pomfrey. She put a new set of bandages on his arm and a healing cream on the blisters. It still burnt. Pomfrey told him nothing and when she was finished she gave him a concerned look. Sirius thanked her and then walked away.
James and Remus were concerned. Both had seen what has happened yesterday at the bathroom and they couldn't help but wonder what had happened. It wasn't normal that you just couldn't close the faucet of the bathroom, and even worse, the fact that someone had written on the mirror 'Please, listen to me'.
Both teenagers were worried for their friend. Sirius had barely said anything in the whole day, had barely paid attention to the teachers during classes and even worse, he had completely ignored when Snape had insulted him. Sirius was not Sirius. They had tried to talk to him but they couldn't get complete answers. The only thing that their friend managed to say was 'Yes' 'No' and sometimes a 'thank you'. But apart from that, Sirius had turned into a complete and distant being. When they finished their classes, Sirius went to the infirmary to get his arm healed. Alone. James and Remus decided to go and wait for him on the door. They needed to talk to Sirius… now.
They found him when he went to the corridor on his right. He didn't look good at all. It was a sad image: the usual and cheerful Sirius was now turned into a quiet one, with his dark hair messier than usual, dark bags under his eyes, the smile he always used to carry no longer in his face… it was a devastating image. He was walking slowly, holding his injured arm with the other one. Only looking at the bandages, not even caring where his legs were taking him. He was even paler than usual, and that was saying too much.
James gave Remus a concerned look and they both walked forwards, stopping in front of Sirius. He sighed and tried to continue walking. His friends stopped him. "Sirius?"
Sirius raised his head up. Both of his friends held their breath when they saw the look Sirius had. His dark eyes seamed to look nowhere special, as if they were completely lost in themselves and couldn't concentrate on anything in special.
"Hi, pal, we need to talk"
Sirius said nothing.
"Let's go for a walk"
And they set off, Sirius in the middle walking slowly as the others had to adapt their walk to their friends'. How should they start? It was no easy thing. You just couldn't go and tell a friend 'they, dude! What's all of the ghost writing on the mirror the other day?" You just couldn't. And it was even worse when your friend seamed lost in his own thoughts, not wanting to communicate with anyone or anything.
"Sirius" James repeated the name once again. He realized that the only reason he was calling his friend so many times was because he was waiting for him to react, jump up, and start laughing as he always did.
"What happened last night?"
Sirius shook his head. It looked like he didn't want to talk.
"Has this happened to you before?" Remus asked now.
Another shake of head.
"Then what was it?"
No response, at all.
"Sirius.. have strange things have been occurring around you?" Remus asked, suddenly. James looked at him questioningly Remus just put a face that clearly said what he was talking about. James nodded and then turned to his friend, who was nodding.
"What sort of things?" James asked surprised at his friends' response. Now he understood why had Remus asked that question. He remembered the day of the train, and the way Sirius had screamed. And then the other night, when he had woken them up because of his screams. His only answer was that there was an owl, but they both knew he had been lying at the time. And then… the day that Sirius had gone straight to the library? He had come back out of breath and looking scared. Had this anything to do with what had happened last night? Both teenagers hoped they would find out soon enough.
"I…I don't… I don't know"
"What do you mean you don't know, Sirius?"
They kept on walking through the empty corridors, not even caring where their legs were taking them. Sirius opened his mouth to answer, when he suddenly stopped.
"Wha…?"
"Why..?"
"Shhh!"
As if by art of magic, Sirius had suddenly 'woken up' from his world and was now looking with wide-open eyes at all around. He started to turn around in his place, trying to catch up something, but neither of his friends knew what.
"Sirius…?"
"Can't you hear it?" he asked stopping to face his friends. They gave him a what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about look making the boy roll his eyes. "Can't you hear it?" he asked again. Both, James and Remus, shook their heads starting to worry about the mental-health of their friend.
"Be quiet… you'll hear it! I swear!"
One moment Sirius was almost a walking zombie, and now he was out of breath, nervously looking around for something he had only heard… he had only heard?
The three of them were quiet for some seconds, and it was enough for them to get chills and hold their breaths. They heard a sob… a sob from a little girl, and it was coming from the next corridor! James and Remus looked at each other and then at Sirius… only that Sirius wasn't there anymore. He was running through the corridor, looking all around, desperately.
"Damn!" they both said and then ran to catch up with their friend.
"Sirius! I'm sure it's nothing…!"
"It must be Peeves! You know how he likes to fool with us…!"
"It's not Peeves!" Sirius screamed without stopping. "That's not Peeves voice!"
When the corridor finished, there was a junction. Sirius didn't even think twice, he chose the right path. Remus and James were running as fast as they could to catch their friend, but they couldn't. Sirius was surprisingly fast now, something very strange considering that James was the fastest of the four of them and that Remus had some traits of his lycanthropy while being a human.
They heard a familiar voice coming from the right corridor. "Sirius!"
"Sorry, Pete! No time for you!" they heard Sirius scream.
When they came to another junction, James and Remus stopped. "Did he go straight?" James asked fast and out of breath while he and Remus continued running as fast as their legs let them.
"What the hell is happening here?" Peter screamed.
"You just follow us!"
Peter sighed and then ran behind his friends as fast as he could.
"Sirius stop!" James screamed. A distant response came from very ahead: "Can't…!"
James groaned angrily.
After a long run, they finally saw Sirius, he had stopped running and was looking all around. "Sirius don't move!"
"I can't!" was all he answered, but James was sure he didn't know he had just said that. It didn't look like Sirius was with them… he had his mind in somewhere else.
When James, Remus arrived to where Sirius was they realized what he had stopped: they were in the moving staircases. The one they were in started to move slowly, making the three friends grab themselves to the railing of the stairs. When the staircase was about half meter away from the corridor, Peter arrived almost out of breath.
"PETER, JUMP!"
"WHAT!" he asked, suddenly afraid.
"JUMP!" both James and Remus screamed.
Peter gave them an I-hate-when-you-do-this-to-me look. He sighed and then went a few steps back. He then took a deep breath, ran and jumped. He fell on the cold floor of the staircase, on his right arm.
"Are you ok?" both of his friends asked concerned, as they bent down to help Peter up.
He nodded. "This is going to hurt tomorrow" he said rubbing his arm. He then turned his head to Sirius. "What's wrong with him?"
"We don't know"
Peter nodded but said nothing, he just continued rubbing his arm.
Five minutes must have passed, when the staircase finally stopped. It led them to a door. It was open. Sirius was the first one to enter in the room, followed by his three friends.
They looked around; the candles in the wall poorly illuminated the room. Something really strange. It was full of trophies and pictures from former classes from Hogwarts. They were in the Trophy Room.
"Why are we here?" Peter asked at his friends. They only told him to be quiet as they looked at Sirius. He was looking at the pictures, not even caring that his friends were there and were giving him worried glances.
"Sirius…?"
"Shhh"
They looked at Sirius for some seconds, until they finally understood (or at least they thought so) what he was doing. He was looking at the pictures… but why? As they had nothing better to do, and they were in a room fool of trophies and photos that were screaming to be seen, they all decided to give them a look.
The photos were from the classes on their 7th year, on their graduation day. There were photos from at least 150 years back.
"Hey!" James said laughing happily. "Here's my mother!"
Remus and Peter ran to where James was pointing at. He was right, there was his mother, with her long brown hair as always, and a big smile on her face. One moment she was talking with the boy next to her and then the other she looked at the camera. She had the same look that James had. "See? Class of 1954" They all started to read the names until they found the name of James' mother. "See? Joanne Owens" James gave a few steps to his right. "So, if my mother is here then my father should be…here! Here he is! Look at his face!" James laughed hardly this time, as he pointed at his father. "Generation of 1952" You could perfectly see his father with his black hair, messier as always, and a serious look on his face. He wasn't even moving. "Oooh, I'm going to tease him about this! He hates people making pictures of him!"
"So… if your mother is here, Prongs, then my mother should be… here" Remus said contemplating at the picture near the picture from Miss Potter. "Yes, here she is" he said pointing at a young woman. She was from the class of '1955' And way under you could read the name 'Jacqueline Miller' Her red straight hair was moving, as she laughed with a friend and then the second later she looked at the camera.
"Nice picture" James said making Remus smile. "Your father is not here, right?"
His friend shook his head. "No, he must be in Beauxbatons"
"Right"
"So, Pete! Where are your parents?" James asked happily to his friend. Peter was looking straight at two pictures, but not from his parents. "Hi, guys! Come and see this!" he said to Remus and James. "There's a generation missing!"
Surprised, James and Remus went to where Peter was standing, but Sirius was faster. "What?" he asked looking at the pictures.
"Yes! Look! Class of 1932, Class of 1934!" he said pointing at both of the pictures. "As far as I know, there should be a picture here in the middle that reads 'Class of 1933', right?"
"Perhaps it's missing" Remus said not taking his eyes off of the picture.
"I don't think so" James said pointing at the pictures, frowning. "If it were missing then there would be a space here, between both pictures but no, there isn't any. These pictures were put like this on purpose."
"The train…" Sirius breathed. His friends looked at him quizzically. "What?"
Sirius said nothing; he just took off both of the pictures with the wand. "Sirius!" they told him but he didn't care. "Let's go to our room" he said and then walked away, putting the pictures under his robes.
Moony VS Padfoot: hi! I'm really glad you liked the chapter… sorry it took me ages to update, but school is killing me! Was this chapter as good as the last one? I hope it was! LOVE!
Wytil: hi there! The time frame is just when the Marauders are at school (I think it's their last or 6th year at Hogwarts…) it's a pre-harry era fic. I hope you liked this chapter and understood it better now!
and now.. DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!
Love
ML