CHAPTER 3
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.
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When they entered in their room, Sirius went straight to his bed and sat there. He put both of the pictures in front of him, but both with a space missing. A space for the other picture.
"Okay, Sirius" James said closing the door behind him. "Explain"
Sirius sighed. "Ok… uh… remember the day of the train? Well…"
He told his friends everything that had happened to him, What he had seen on the train, and the night he had seen the same little girl in the window from his room… how he had had the need to go to the library, the way that the paper that read 'I love you, Alana' had disappeared in the thin air…
"… and then the other night, the thing of the mirror. I had been on the lake, thinking of everything… when suddenly I felt how someone sat next to me, when I looked up I saw nothing and then somehow… a small hand touched my right arm. It burnt" he hesitated for some seconds and then continued. "And then.. last night, with the water. I just couldn't take my arm from under the water… because there was someone holding me"
"What?"
"What do-what do you mean someone holding-holding you?" Peter asked trembling.
Sirius looked at the floor, not wanting to meet his friends' eyes. He uncovered his right arm. He asked to one of his friends to help him take the bandages from the burnt. Remus helped him carefully. When the hurt was uncovered, Remus had to hold his breath to not scream. Sirius bit his lower lip, as he looked with tears in his eyes the hurt. There was a small hand marked there, but the hand was not only red, no. The shape of the hand and the hand itself were all covered with blisters.
It took a few moments for them to recover from the shock. Poor Peter, he almost passed out from the shock of seeing Sirius' arm. There was an uncomfortable silence, until Remus was the first one to speak. His quiet and manly voice filled the room.
"So, basically, you think that the little girl was the one that made you… this?" he asked pointing at the burnt in Sirius's arm. He nodded. "Don't ask me why, I just know it" he said.
"Fine" James said coming closer to Sirius. He sat on the floor near Remus and Peter. "And what do the pictures have to do with the little girl and the broke Hogwarts Express?"
"Don't you see it, Prongs?" Padfoot asked his friend. "What if the train thing were true? It must have happened seven years before 1933, on…"
"1926"
"1926, thanks Moony. Anyway, do you have other reason for the picture to be missing? When I saw the Hogwarts Train it had already derailed and… somehow, please don't ask me why, I knew that all of the little kids that had died were from the first year" he explained, his voice trying to break down. "If this is true, if the Hogwarts Express has once derailed, killing an entire generation of first years, then they wouldn't have a picture to put 7 years later. Why? Because in 1933 there wasn't a generation that left Hogwarts. They had been killed 7 years ago"
"But…" Remus commented, more like if he were thinking out loud. "… if this is true, everything you told us.. then what does the little girl want? I mean…"
Three of the marauders turn to Sirius, who shrugged. "Don't think I've got the answer… because I don't"
That night, before going to sleep, Sirius put both of the pictures inside a drawer from his night table and then went straight to his bed. He felt more... relaxed now, now that his friends knew what had been bothering him ever since he arrived at the school. If his friends knew, it wasn't that bad right? Now he didn't feel the need to walk alone in the room. Nor did he feel alone. He had his friends who believed his story without hesitation.
Lost in his thoughts, he fell asleep.
Sirius didn't know where he was. He could recognize the landscape.. he had been there before, but right now he couldn't think when. Looking around, scared, he kept on doing small steps, afraid of the place he was… it was almost night, but the last rays of the sun still could be seen. On one moment he stepped on something soft, and the next moment when he realized in what thing he had stepped onto, Sirius had to hold his breath. He bent down and picked up the small, pink little shoe that was on the floor. Whose was it?
He kept on walking with the little shoe in his right hand, looking around. There were more things on the floor. Horrified he noticed that most of the things were school supplies, like books, bags, writing feathers… everything.
He bit his lower lip, something must have happened here. But, what?
And then.. he saw it. The same thing he had already seen. Sirius suddenly recognized where he was: he was walking near the accident of the Hogwarts Express. He held his breath once again when he started recognizing the things that were on the floor like shoes, clothes…everything was tainted with the blood of the little kids. He felt so miserable and scared at the same time…
Now he could see people walking around him, although none of them saw he was there. It was as if he didn't exist in that tragic world.
Kids running and crying all over the place, mediwizards trying to heal the ones injured, everything was a total chaos. Even the grown ups weren't doing the best job they could. Some of them were crying, as the others were doing their job with lots of difficulties. And then, he saw it. A mediwizard taking out the body of a little boy, he had red hair and… Sirius stopped walking in shock. The face of the little boy was absolutely destroyed. Full of blood you could barely recognize his eyes, his mouth or his nose, it was all… as if he had crushed with something sharp. His hands were doubled in a really strange angle. One of his feet was horribly.. amorphous. Sirius shuddered. Poor Kid, he thought to himself as he tried not to be sick. Another shiver took over his body.
They took another lifeless body… and then another one, and another… on and on, the dead bodies being taken out only from the two last wagons…
He didn't realize, but he had stopped walking long ago, frozen by the terrifying scene in front of his eyes. And then, he felt a deja vú. He saw how a man took out the body of a little girl, she had curly brown-reddish hair, a pink dress with pink shoes and white gloves. Or at least they had been white, for now they were all covered with blood, like her clothes, her hair… When they put her body down on the floor an older woman ran crying to it. She bent over and grabbed the little girl's dead body. A man was behind her, his head looking down, not able to see the picture in front of him. Sirius knew who this girl was, but he had to see her better, he made a step forward and came closer to the woman but the second he stepped forward, the head of the little girl fell aside, revealing an open eye.
It was looking directly at him.
Scared, Sirius fell backwards into the grass. His hand touched something. It was a small, slip of paper. Intrigued, he grabbed the paper and realized it had something written on it. He recognized the writing immediately. It was the same note he had seen in the library. Once again, he read it. 'I love you, Alana'
Realizing what had happened and whose note was it, Sirius raised his head up once again to look at the sobbing woman with the little girl. However, now the little girl's eye was closed…
Sirius woke up with a start, and tried not to scream. He was breathing heavily, agitated, as if he had just ran 10 miles and was now having a rest. Turning his head to the sides he realized it was still night. He was about to turn around and try to keep on sleeping when he felt something on his hand. He raised his hand and realized it was closed, holding something.
A paper.
Sirius didn't need to open it to realize what paper was it. It was Alana's note.
James was having a quiet night, sleeping with a Quidditch match. All of the sudden the match stopped and he jumped off of the broom. He walked to the Great Hall and found that it was now turned into a big scenario. In the scenario there was a small dragon, setting in fire everything with the fire brewing out of his nose. Out of the blue, the little dragon looked at James. And then the earth started moving.
"James! James wake up!"
"No… no….I… haven't… no! NO!" Sweating, James sat straight on his bed. He was breathing heavily from his dream. Looking around, he couldn't distinguish anything, so he started to look on his night table, his hand shaking, until he found his glasses. As he put them on he could feel someone calling his name ('Jamsie! Jamsie!') but he was far to asleep to even try to recognize whose voice was it. Minutes later, when he was able to focus he realized that there was someone sitting on the edge of his bed, and that someone was no other than…
"Black, give me one good and credible explanation that justifies you waking me up like that" he said roughly. Sirius didn't even bother to tremble by the tone on James' voice.
"James, look" and then Sirius gave him the note. James grabbed it and then he approached it close to his eyes. It took him a while to realize what he had in his hands. Once he did, he stared at Sirius for some moments.
"Is this from…?"
"The little girl? Yes"
"How…?" James asked looking from the paper back to his friend and vice versa
"I dreamt it" Sirius explained his dream to James, and how he was surprised to see that after he had grabbed the paper the eye of the little girl had shut itself in a matter of seconds.. perhaps even less. James shuddered. He gave his friend a sad look and then told him. "Look, Sirius, its 3 am in the morning… perhaps it's better if we talk about this in the morning, with Remus and Peter, is that ok with you?"
Sirius thought about it for some seconds and then nodded. "Yes, it's better. Go back to sleep, Jamsie"
He then went straight to his bed, in less than five minutes James snoring could be heard again. Padfoot grinned, knowing that his friend loved to sleep.
His hand touched once again the note he had put on the night table. He grabbed it and then approached it closer. 'I love you, Alana' What did the girl mean by this? She didn't love HIM right? She sure must have been mistaken, but… then again, to whom was the note?
"C'mon Alana…" he whispered, not taking his eyes off of the note. "To whom is it?"
A sudden shiver took over his body. C'mon… he was trying to encourage himself to think further of the note, but deep inside he knew he was trying to encourage little Alana to come over to him and tell him to whom was the note and what he could do to 'listen to her' What did she want?
"ALL ABOARD!"Surprised, Sirius started looking around trying to find a way out. Where was he? He was on the train Station, right? Next to him the great Hogwarts Express was starting to take smoke of his chimneys. He looked around, trying to find someone that could help him, but when he stopped to ask people something they just wouldn't stop. Once again, he was being ignored by all sort of people around him.
"Mummy, I don't want to go…"
Sirius heard a little girl sobbing to her mother, as her mother tried to get her on the Hogwarts Express.
"You have to, sweety. Don't worry, ok? Mummy will write you"
He recognized the little girl immediately. It was Alana, and she was with her mother, a young witch, the same one he saw that ran to the dead body of his little daughter and cried on it. He felt something strange take over his body. He felt sadness… and sorry, for he knew what was going to happen.
"But…"
"You have to go, darling" And with that she grabbed the kids hand and took her running to the last wagon of the train where kids of same age were supposed to be. Some of them were crying, some laughing, some green and some too shocked to say anything. "Mummy, no!" But Alana couldn't do anything to avoid her mother from getting off the train. Alana tried to jump but she couldn't: the door got suddenly closed with an abrupt noise. She ran to the last wagon and opened a window to call for her mother. The young witch ran and touched her hand through the window's train. "Everything's going to be ok, sweety," she smiled and then the train started to speed. "Have fun!" Alana let go her mother's hand and ran to get something from her bag. "I love you" the mother said and then the train went so fast that was quickly out of her view.
Moments later Sirius realized that he had been staring at Alana and her mother, non stop. Apparently, she didn't like the idea of going to Hogwarts and live separately from her mother for so long, and it looked like her mother didn't like it much either, but there was nothing she could do to avoid it. Sirius sighed, when he realized that the woman had tears of mirth in her eyes. She smiled at the place where the Hogwarts Express had just been and then walked slowly away.
And then, it hit him.
The Sirius Black that was living in the dream had Alana's note on his hand. And he knew exactly what he had to do. He stepped forward to catch the mother when…
Riiiiiing
Riiiiiiing!
Groaning, Sirius turned to the other side of his bed and grabbed the magical Clock on his night table. He threw it away to the other side of the room. For the noise it had made in the crush, it looked like it had just broken down in hundred pieces.
He got up and then walked straight to the bathroom, not even caring that his friends were giving him a curious look from their beds. Why had Sirius decided to set off the alarm on a Saturday?
He went out of the bathroom twenty minutes later, wearing his school robes and ready to go down to the classes. "What?" he asked angrily when he realized that neither of his friends had their robes on.
"Uh… Sirius?" James told him raising his eyebrow. "How come you wanna go to the classes on a Satur…" he couldn't finish the sentence, because a yawn took over him.
"Saturday?" Padfoot asked looking at Remus. "It's Saturday?"
Remus nodded from his bed. "Yes" he answered, still a little asleep.
"Oh! Damn it!" the boy stated angrily and then started taking off his robes. He didn't stop until he was in boxers. "Who the hell set the alarm for…9 am! Who the hell was it?"
"I didn't do it"
"Me neither"
"Nor was I"
"So you are trying to tell me that none of you wanted to pull a prank on your so beloved friend?"
"On a Saturday morning? No thanks" James shook his head, ironically.
Sirius sighed. "Oh, never mind. It's good to have you awoken. I need to talk to you"
From under his sheets, he told his three friends all that had happened tonight. How he had dreamt of the little girl, the paper and how all of the sudden he had it in his hands.
"Yes, I knew that" James told him. Sirius nodded. "There's still more"
"More?" James asked, surprised. His friend nodded. "After you fell asleep I tried to sleep as well… but I couldn't, I've been doing some thinking of the note and the little girl and everything… and that's when I fell asleep… and then I understood"
"Understood what, Padfoot?"
He told them about the second dream, where he saw how his mother put the little kid on the train without her wanting to go, and how she told her that she loved her and that they would see each other very soon. How the train set off and how the mother walked away, with tears of joy and sadness in her eyes.
"So… on my dream I stepped forward… I know it was because I wanted to give the woman the note but couldn't… so, when I gave the first step forward, that darned thing started ringing and that's when I woke up"
"What do you think of this?" Remus asked after a long silence.
"I think… I think that after the train set off Alana wrote this note to her mother, but couldn't ever give it to her. I think that's why I went forward in my dream. I was about to give it to her"
"Then why didn't you?" it was Peter the one taking now, his voice a little weaker than usual. The covers were covering him up to his neck, and you could see he was trembling a little.
"Because the alarm set off, Pete" Remus said, but Sirius shook his head. "No"
"Then why?"
"Because I wasn't supposed to give Alana's mother just then"
They were silent for some seconds, until James finally spoke:
"So you are telling me, that a third person set off the alarm?"
Sirius nodded. "It was Alana. I'm sure of that"
Sirius thought for a moment of what he had just said. He knew, because he already knew, that it was Alana the person that had set off the alarm and he knew exactly why. But, if she wanted him to give the note to her mother (he couldn't find another reason for Alana to chase him like that) then why had she stopped him there? Wasn't it easier if he gave the note to her mother, woke up, and then it was all gone? Dead ghosts happy, probably dead woman happy, and teenage boy happy. They could move on! But Sirius knew that if she had done that, then there must have been a reason. And he would not stop until he figured it out.
The rest of the day went fine, they pulled some pranks, ate a lot, the usual stuff, although Sirius didn't look completely focused today. His mind was back in his room, where the note that Alana had written to her mother was guarded… inside one of his books. ('Quidditch and Wizards: Why do they match together so well?) He couldn't stop thinking of his dreams, and the fact that he had even been on one of them. He had the note, he knew that Alana had written it… then what was missing?
Once in the common room, Sirius apologized and walked back to his room. He opened his book and took out the note. Staring at it, he didn't think of another way to connect with Alana. Please…he made a plea in his mind, hoping that Alana would somehow hear it. I have the note… I think I know what you want me to do with it… but is it really what you want? He sighed, feeling stupid as he thought those phrases knowing that nobody would answer him. Or maybe…
It took him a while to understand that he wasn't alone in the room. Neither was he in his mind. It was a strange feeling, as if all of the sudden you could share your mind with another person… and that person could read your thoughts, and somehow answer them back! How did he know there was someone IN THERE if there was no way to prove it?
Smiling, Sirius thought of a perfect way to ask Alana what he wanted, but he forgot that she could read all of his thoughts. He didn't even thought that magic could go that far.
And then… she appeared. A sad image as always, she was covered in blood, looking sadly at Sirius, but this time he didn't try to run away. He looked at the little girl and opened his mouth to ask her something. "Is it really what you want?" he mumbled slowly and carefully, not taking his eyes off of the little girl. She nodded without saying a word. "How?" Sirius asked once again. She gave him a meaningful look, then shook her head, and before Sirius could say anything else, Alana vanished into the thin air.
Woken up by a sudden lighting, Sirius Black realized he had been dreaming.
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ML