September 2012

The day had come, the first of September, time to return to Hogwarts. Harry and Ron had returned to the music shop to get their instruments shrunk, it would've been a pain in the arse to carry the full sized instruments onto the train without drawing unnecessary attention, which is exactly what Harry wanted.

Before they left the leaky cauldron, Harry was privately accosted by Mr Weasley, "Harry, a moment please." Harry knew what this was about.

"Mr Weasley, don't bother, I overheard you the other night, about Sirius Black..." Harry said.

The two were briefly interrupted by Ron and Hermione engaging in a small shouting match about Hermione's new cat, Crookshanks, but Mr Weasley continued the conversation. He was slightly taken aback, "Well then Harry, I won't have to tell you most of it, but there is something else." He said cautiously, "There are a lot of rumours going around, to the point where I don't even know what's true anymore, but you have to promise me, that whatever you might hear, you won't go looking for Black."

Harry was startled, "Mr Weasley, why would I go looking for someone who wants to kill me."

...

By the time they got on the train, it was almost full, the compartment left was one with a middle aged man seemingly sleeping in it. "Who d'you think he is?" Ron asked to the air.

"Professor R.J Lupin." Hermione responded matter-of-factly.

"How do you know everything," Ron asked, outraged "How is it that she knows everything!"

"It's written on his suitcase Ronald..." was the response that he received.

"D'you think he's really asleep?" Harry asked

"yeah, why?" Ron responded.

"I need to tell you guys something..."

...

"So Sirius Black escaped from Askaban to come after you?" Ron asked, horrified.

"Yeah..." Harry said.

Hermione was slightly cautious, "Well, it might make sense in his mind, you stopped you know who, being dead might be the linchpin to bring him back."

"We should write a song about it mate," Ron said enthusiastically, "It'll go, he's coming after me, he's coming after me, I'll be found while I'm having a wee."

Harry laughed, while Hermione shamed Ron for his poor songwriting skills. All of a sudden, the train lurched to a stop.

The weather was poor, it was cold and wet outside, but all of a sudden it was cold inside as well.

The windows of the train fogged up, and then they turned to ice. The breath of each member of the trio appeared to visibly freeze in mid air as it left their mouths. Ron's rat Scabbers seemed to go mental and dove into his pocket, Crookshanks did a similar action with Hermione. There was an air of fear in the atmosphere, pure terror, as a long, bony hand, black as night opened the door to the compartment.

Harry could hear muffled shouting, like an argument, but just extremely quiet. The voices attempting to claw their way into his head in the most awkward way possible. He couldn't make out what was being said, but it was growing louder as the faceless creature approached him, and only him. The voices built up, still unintelligible, until they climaxed when the creature was floating directly over Harry. In a moment, a piercing scream split Harry's head, and all he could hear was this blood curdling scream, and a bright light, possibly the brightest Harry had ever seen, enveloped the room.

Harry awoke to the faces of Ron, Hermione and the teacher, Harry had forgotten his name. "Ah Harry, you're awake, good, sit up and eat some of this," The mysterious professor said, handing Harry a large piece of chocolate. "It's all right, it's chocolate."

Harry had many questions, but he started with, "what was that?"

"A dementor, one of the guards of Askaban, it was searching the train for Sirius Black, who is evidently not here." He said grimly, "if you'll excuse me, I need to speak with the driver..." He left the compartment, and the trio began conversation.

"You alright Harry? We thought you'd had a fit or something." Ron said, rather anxiously.

"Yeah, I'm fine now, but who screamed?" Harry responded.

"Screamed?" asked Hermione "No-one screamed..."

"Did you hit your head Harry?" Ron asked dumbfoundedly.

Harry irritably responded "no, did you guys not see the bright light then?"

Hermione was quick to answer "Actually we did, that was Professor Lupin, he used some spell, it sent the dementor away."

"And neither of you two feinted?"

They both shook their heads, and causing a prolonged and very awkward silence. The silence was broken by Hermione, "We should get ready, we'll be arriving soon." Harry hoped that the rest of the night would be uneventful, he was wrong. The moment they reached the castle, Harry was whisked away by Professor McGonagall to the infirmary, where Madam Pomphrey obsessed over his wellbeing.

After much protest, and explaining that he had already eaten some chocolate, Harry was finally allowed to leave, he missed the sorting, but was able to eat something in the Great hall before all the food vanished before their eyes.

As usual, Professor Dumbldore began his speech, which was more sour than previous years. After introducing Professor Lupin, and acknowledging Hagrid's new position as the teacher for care of magical creatures, the speech turned towards the Dementors. "As most of you already know, a criminal named Sirius Black, escaped from Askaban prison several weeks ago, for your safety" He sighed a long sigh "The ministry for magic has decided that Hogwarts shall play host to the Dementors of Askaban until a time in which Black is caught, or it is clear that he is not a threat."

There was an extremely loaf murmur from almost everyone in the hall, but Dumbldore spoke again, "While I have been assured that the Dementors will not be a danger to you, and they will not be disturbing usual school life, I must caution you, the Dementors are ruthless creatures, they will not distinguish between the one they hunt, and the one who gets in their way." He paused, almost for dramatic effect "but you know, happiness can be found in the darkest if places, if one only knows how to turn on the light."

With this last line, he looked directly at Harry, obviously giving him a message. As the Great hall emptied, Harry began to think about how convenient a lot of things seemed, too convenient. Like how, of all the compartments on the train, he sat in the one with the person who would save his life only a few hours later, and Harry also thought about how this year was going to go, if the last two were any indication, it would end with Harry and Sirius Black in a room together, and Harry would have to fight for his life.

Harry decided that this would be different, Harry would have a plan.