Author's Note: A reviewer mentioned that it was a shame the U.S. didn't have a Wizarding community. While it was not mentioned in the books. Pottermore (J. K. Rollings hidden items game site) does mention a U.S. version of the Ministry of Magic which means there is a U.S. does have a wizarding community.
Which means I need to make a mention on why they didn't invite Willow or Dawn to a wizardry and witchcraft school. Using the backstory for Tara as established in BTVS canon its likely Tara's father would have turned down any invitation for Tara to attend such a school. I also need to probably mention why the American version of the Auror's weren't sent out when Willow tried to end the world. Or why the American version of the Ministry of Magic did not try and rehabilitate or even send Willow to a prison like Azkaban.
Chapter 14: Dementor
The only available compartment had only one occupant, a man sitting fast asleep next to the window. The Hogwarts Express was usually reserved for students. Dawn and Willow had gotten special permission from Dumbledore to ride the train with Harry and normally would have been the only adults aside from a witch who pushed around a food cart.
The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizard's robes that had been darned in several places. He looked ill and exhausted.
"Who d'you reckon he is?" Ron hissed as they sat down and slid the door shut, taking the seats farthest away from the window.
"Professor R. J. Lupin," whispered Hermione at once.
"How d'you know that?"
"It's on his case," she replied, pointing at the luggage rack over the man's head, where there was a small, battered case held together with a large quantity of neatly knotted string. The name Professor R. J. Lupin was stamped across one corner in peeling letters.
"Wonder what he teaches?" said Ron, frowning at Professor Lupin's pallid profile.
"Probably," Dawn said. "History of Magic. Dumbledore told the staff via owl post that Professor Binns had not returned. It is now believed he has crossed over. So there is a vacancy in History of Magic."
"Well, I hope he's up to it," said Ron doubtfully. "He looks like one good hex would finish him off, doesn't he? Anyway…"
Dawn decided now that they were in semi-privacy to tell Harry and Willow what she had heard Mr. and Mrs. Weasley say.
When she'd finished, Ron looked thunderstruck, and Hermione had her hands over her mouth. She finally lowered them to say, "Sirius Black escaped to come after Harry? Oh, Harry … you'll have to be really, really careful. Don't go looking for trouble, Harry—"
"I don't go looking for trouble," said Harry, nettled. "Trouble usually finds me."
"Harry's not going to go looking for trouble," Dawn said. "Because he will report anything he finds to me and Willow, immediately."
"No one knows how he got out of Azkaban," said Ron uncomfortably. "No one's ever done it before. And he was a top-security prisoner too."
"But they'll catch him, won't they?" said Hermione earnestly. "I mean, they've got all the Muggles looking out for him too…"
"What's that noise?" said Ron suddenly.
A faint, tinny sort of whistle was coming from somewhere. They looked all around the compartment.
"It's coming from your trunk, Harry," said Ron, standing up and reaching into the luggage rack. A moment later he had pulled the Pocket Sneakoscope out from between Harry's robes. It was spinning very fast in the palm of Ron's hand and glowing brilliantly.
"Is that a Sneakoscope?" said Hermione interestedly, standing up for a better look.
"Yeah… mind you, it's a very cheap one," Ron said. "It went haywire just as I was tying it to Errol's leg to send it to Harry."
"Were you doing anything untrustworthy at the time?" said Hermione shrewdly.
"No! Well… I wasn't supposed to be using Errol. You know he's not really up to long journeys… but how else was I supposed to get Harry's present to him?"
"Stick it back in the trunk," Harry advised as the Sneakoscope whistled piercingly, "or it'll wake him up."
He nodded toward Professor Lupin. Ron stuffed the Sneakoscope into a Harry's socks, which deadened the sound, then closed the lid of the trunk on it.
"We could get it checked in Hogsmeade," said Ron, sitting back down. "They sell that sort of thing in Dervish and Banges, magical instruments and stuff. Fred and George told me."
"Do you know much about Hogsmeade?" asked Hermione keenly. "I've read it's the only entirely non-Muggle settlement in Britain—"
"Yeah, I think it is," said Ron in an offhand sort of way, "but that's not why I want to go. I just want to get inside Honeydukes!"
"What's that?" said Dawn. She and Willow had not been able to get to Hogsmeade last year.
"It's this sweetshop," said Ron, a dreamy look coming over his face, "where they've got everything… Pepper Imps—they make you smoke at the mouth—and great fat Chocoballs full of strawberry mousse and clotted cream, and really excellent sugar quills, which you can suck in class and just look like you're thinking what to write next—"
"But Hogsmeade's a very interesting place, isn't it?" Hermione asked eagerly. "In Sites of Historical Sorcery it says the inn was the headquarters for the 1612 goblin rebellion, and the Shrieking Shack's supposed to be the most severely haunted building in Britain—"
"—and massive sherbet balls that make you levitate a few inches off the ground while you're sucking them," said Ron, who was plainly not listening to a word Hermione was saying.
Hermione looked around at Harry. "Won't it be nice to get out of school for a bit and explore Hogsmeade?"
"Of course it will," Willow said answering for Harry. "Which reminds me. We forgot to sign your permission form."
Harry pulled out the form, a quill, and some ink and handed them to Willow.
Willow and Dawn signed the permission form and handed it all back to Harry.
Hermione fumbled with the straps of Crookshanks's basket as she spoke.
"Don't let that thing out!" Ron said, but too late; Crookshanks leapt lightly from the basket, stretched, yawned, and sprang onto Ron's knees; the lump in Ron's pocket trembled and he shoved Crookshanks angrily away.
"Get out of here!"
"Ron, don't!" said Hermione angrily.
Ron was about to answer back when Professor Lupin stirred. They watched him apprehensively, but he simply turned his head the other way, mouth slightly open, and slept on.
The Hogwarts Express moved steadily north and the scenery outside the window became wilder and darker while the clouds overhead thickened. People were chasing backward and forward past the door of their compartment. Crookshanks had now settled in Hermione's lap, his squashed face turned toward Ron, his yellow eyes on Ron's top pocket.
At one o'clock, the plump witch with the food cart arrived at the compartment door.
"D'you think we should wake him up?" Ron asked awkwardly, nodding toward Professor Lupin. "He looks like he could do with some food."
Hermione approached Professor Lupin cautiously.
"Er—Professor?" she said. "Excuse me—Professor?"
He didn't move.
"Don't worry, dear," said the witch as she handed Harry a large stack of Cauldron Cakes. "If he's hungry when he wakes, I'll be up front with the driver."
"I suppose he is asleep?" said Ron quietly as the witch slid the compartment door closed. "I mean—he hasn't died, has he?"
"No, no, he's breathing," whispered Hermione, taking the Cauldron Cake Harry passed her.
Midafternoon, just as it had started to rain, blurring the rolling hills outside the window, they heard footsteps in the corridor again, and Malfoy, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle appeared in the door.
"Well, look who it is," said Malfoy in his usual lazy drawl, pulling open the compartment door. "Potty and the Weasel."
Crabbe and Goyle chuckled trollishly.
"Mr. Malfoy," Dawn said.
"Professor," Malfoy said, his eyes narrowed. He wasn't fool enough to pick a fight right under a teacher's nose, regardless if she was what he considered a mudblood or not.
"Unless you want to start the school year with detention. I suggest you move along," Dawn said.
"C'mon," he muttered resentfully to Crabbe and Goyle, and they disappeared.
"I'm not going to take any crap from Malfoy this year," Ron said angrily. "I mean it. If he makes one more crack about my family, I'm going to get hold of his head and—"
Ron made a violent gesture in midair.
"Ron," Dawn said. "If I hear any more talk …"
"I know, Dawn," Ron said with a sigh. She was after all a teacher and when they got to Hogwarts couldn't play favorites because he was her nephew's friend. Which meant if he did something to Malfoy and she saw she would have to give him detention or take away house points … or something else.
The rain thickened as the train sped yet farther north; the windows were now a solid, shimmering gray, which gradually darkened until lanterns flickered into life all along the corridors and over the luggage racks. The train rattled, the rain hammered, the wind roared, but still, Professor Lupin slept.
"We must be nearly there," said Ron, leaning forward to look past Professor Lupin at the now completely black window.
The words had hardly left him when the train started to slow down.
"Great," said Ron, getting up and walking carefully past Professor Lupin to try and see outside. "I'm starving. I want to get to the feast…"
"We're not there yet," Dawn said her Slayer eyesight telling her what the others could not see.
"So why're we stopping?"
The train was getting slower and slower. As the noise of the pistons fell away, the wind and rain sounded louder than ever against the windows.
Harry, who was nearest the door, got up to look into the corridor. All along the carriage, heads were sticking curiously out of their compartments.
The train came to a stop with a jolt, and distant thuds and bangs told them that luggage had fallen out of the racks. Then, without warning, all the lamps went out and they were plunged into total darkness.
"What's going on?" said Ron.
"Ouch!" gasped Hermione. "Ron, that was my foot!"
"D'you think we've broken down?"
"Dunno…"
"There's something moving out there," Dawn said. "I think someone might be coming aboard."
The compartment door suddenly opened and someone fell painfully over Harry's legs.
"Sorry—d'you know what's going on?—Ouch—sorry—"
"Hullo, Neville," said Harry, feeling around in the dark and pulling Neville up by his cloak.
"Harry? Is that you? What's happening?"
"No idea—sit down—"
"Neville!" Hermione said.
"Sit here," Dawn said as she moved over into Willow's lap.
"I'm going to go and ask the driver what's going on," came Hermione's voice. Harry felt her pass him, heard the door slide open again, and then a thud and two loud squeals of pain.
"Who's that?"
"Who's that?"
"Ginny?"
"Hermione?"
"What are you doing?"
"I was looking for Ron—"
"Come in and sit down—"
"Not here!" said Harry hurriedly. "I'm here!"
"Ouch!" said Neville.
"Quiet!" said a hoarse voice suddenly.
Professor Lupin appeared to have woken up at last. They could hear movements in his corner. None of them spoke.
There was a soft, crackling noise, and a shivering light filled the compartment. Professor Lupin appeared to be holding a handful of flames.
"Why didn't I think of that," Willow said. "Fiat lux!"
The compartment was suddenly lit by diffused light.
"Wiccan?" Lupin asked.
"Yes," Dawn and Willow said.
"Stay where you are," he said in the same hoarse voice, and he got slowly to his feet.
But the door slid slowly open before Lupin could reach it.
Standing in the doorway was a cloaked figure that towered to the ceiling. Its face was completely hidden beneath its hood.
The thing beneath the hood drew a long, slow, rattling breath, as though it were trying to suck something more than air from its surroundings.
An intense cold swept over them all. Harry's eyes rolled up into his head and he slid to the floor.
"Harry! Harry! Are you all right?" Willow shouted as she and Dawn leaned over Harry.
"None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go," Lupin said. But the thing did not move. "Expecto Patronum!" Some kind of silvery mist erupted from the end of his wand driving the thing off.
Dawn slapped her nephew as the train began moving again. "Harry?"
"W—what?" Harry opened his eyes just as the lights came back on. "Aunt Dawn?"
"Are you okay?" Willow asked, concern etched in her voice.
"Yeah," said Harry as Dawn and Willow helped him back in his seat. "What happened? Where's that—that thing? Who screamed?"
"No one screamed," said Ron.
Harry looked around the bright compartment. Ginny and Neville looked back at him, both very pale.
"But I heard screaming—"
"No one screamed," Dawn said.
A loud snap made them all jump. Professor Lupin was breaking an enormous slab of chocolate into pieces.
"Here," he said to Harry, handing him a particularly large piece. "Eat it. It'll help."
Harry took the chocolate but didn't eat it.
"What was that thing?" he asked Lupin.
"A dementor," said Lupin, who was now giving chocolate to everyone else. "One of the dementors of Azkaban."
"That was one of the guards?" Dawn asked as Lupin nodded. "What is it? My Slayer senses started going off the moment it appeared.
"No one is exactly sure what the dementors are," Lupin said. "Only what they can do." He looked back to Harry as he crumpled up the empty chocolate wrapper and put it in his pocket. "Eat," he repeated. "It'll help. I need to speak to the driver, excuse me…"
"I'll come with you," Dawn said as she followed Lupin and they disappeared into the corridor.
"Are you sure you're okay, Harry?" said Willow, watching Harry anxiously.
"I don't get it… What happened?" said Harry, wiping more sweat off his face.
"Well—that thing—the dementor—stood there and looked around (I mean, I think it did, I couldn't see its face)—and you—you—" Hermione said.
"I thought you were having a fit or something," said Ron, who still looked scared. "You went sort of rigid and fell out of your seat and started twitching—"
"And Professor Lupin stepped over you, and walked toward the dementor, and pulled out his wand," said Hermione, "and he said, 'None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go.' But the dementor didn't move, so Lupin muttered something, and a silvery thing shot out of his wand at it, and it turned around and sort of glided away…"
"It was horrible," said Neville, in a higher voice than usual. "Did you feel how cold it got when it came in?"
"I felt weird," said Ron, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably. "Like I'd never be cheerful again…"
Ginny gave a small sob; Hermione went over and put a comforting arm around her.
"But didn't any of you—fall off your seats?" said Harry awkwardly.
"No," said Willow, looking anxiously at Harry.
"Ginny was shaking like mad, though…" Ron said.
Lupin and Dawn came back. Willow moved back beside Dawn and Harry as Lupin looked around. He smiled. "I haven't poisoned that chocolate, you know…"
Harry took a bite and to his great surprise felt warmth spread suddenly to the tips of his fingers and toes.
"We'll be at Hogwarts in ten minutes," said Professor Lupin. "Are you all right, Harry?"
Harry didn't ask how Professor Lupin knew his name.
"Fine," he muttered, embarrassed.
For the first time since waking up Lupin got a good look at Willow. "Tigerlily?"
"Excuse me?" Willow said.
"Sorry, you just looked like someone I knew when I went to Hogwarts," Lupin said.
