Chapter Nine: The Soulsuckers.
The whole Hogwarts Express was fully occupied, because the new wave of first years was huge – quite an evidence of increase in wizarding children birth rate.
Draco was very happy to see his two best friends after a long break, but he completely wasn't understanding why the hell his friends had so stupid expressions:
A goofy smile was plastered on Ron's face – obviously Luna did something to improve his mood, and the face of Potter mirrored the redhead's one.
The trio finally found an almost empty compartment with sleeping man inside, after scouring the entire Express. He seemed to be around the age of Snape, dressed in some cheap ragged grey robes that were patched here and there.
They made themselves comfortable, sitting on the opposite side of the compartment and chatting - quietly to not wake up the man.
The train started to move, emitting a lot of sound, but the stranger was sleeping so deeply, apparently tired, that he didn't care at all.
A few hours had passed, when the Express abruptly stopped and the window and door of the compartment started covering in a thick layer rime.
"What the heck!" Ron exclaimed
He was pointing to the window, beyond which hundreds of humanoid-like creatures, which were cloaked in ragged hooded robes, their flesh black rotten and covered in scabs, were floating in the air around the train.
"Dementors? What are they doing here?" Harry asked a rhetorical question.
Being very good in Occlumency, they weren't affected so much by the dementor's malevolent aura of despair, but it still made them very uncomfortable and the cold irritatet them.
The door to their compartment opened slowly, revealing a large cloaked figure behind it.
'Expecto Patronum!' Harry cast the spell loudly, revealing a large spectral stag, which drove the foul creature away. It (the stag) started chasing dementors – the terrific guards of Azkaban ran away, wailing in utter horror.
The stranger suddenly woke up, looking around still half-asleep.
"Hhm.. What! Dementors! We all need to..."
His eyes widened when he saw the green-eyed boy.
"Harry?" he asked, shocked as if he saw a ghost.
"Sir, do I know you?" Harry replied dumbly with his own question.
Instead of answering the man embraced Potter in a tight hug, tears of joy in his eyes.
"Harry! It's you! You've grown up so much!"
The boy froze.
"Who are you, sir?"
The stranger looked into his eyes.
"Why, I'm Remus Lupin! Me and your father, with Peter Pettigrew and... Sirius Black", he spat the last name, "were the best friends in Hogwarts!"
The train started to move again.
For the rest of the trip Remus told Harry and his friends stories about the Marauders, as the man and his school friends called themselves.
The Sorting again started with song.
Hello, my friends!
Is there a common problem in your heads?
Please skip this silly piece of rhyme,
Go back to story, then - BED TIME!
You still insist
And want new twist in current year too!
There won't be spoilers in this rime,
So, greedy reader, shoo!
The Great Hall burst in ovations and, once they ceased, the Hat put first years in their new Houses.
The Welcoming Feast started as soon as Dumbledore gave his speech.
".. A very dangerous criminal, Sirius Black, escaped the prison so our great ministry enhanced Hogwarts' defences by sending some of Azkaban's dementors to guard its territory. I warn all of you to not walk on the school grounds after the curfew to avoid any unfortunate encounters with them, or, especially, with Black."
"But enough of sad news! Allow me to introduce the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor to you - Remus Lupin!"
The student population applauded, Harry being the most enthusiastic one. Aforementioned professor stood up, bowed to the crowd and sat again.
"Let the Welcoming Feast BEGIN!" the headmaster exclaimed, clapping dramatically his hands.
The lessons started on the next day, which was Thursday by the way.
What was very special, though, about the third year that it was the time for students to choose elective courses. Two members of the Trio were trying to reason with their redhead friend.
"NO! I won't take Arithmancy and Ancient Runes!" Ron exclaimed in the Great Hall, getting the attention of the whole student body.
"YES, you will, Ronniekins." Harry said.
Snape chose right that moment to pass by the Slytherin table towards the Staff one.
"Professor Snape! Me, Harry and Ronald wish to take Ancient Runes and Arithmancy as our elective classes!" Draco called the elder man.
Severus turned to them.
"Well, I will inform Septima and Bathsheda then, also I don't quite understand why Mr Weasley chose them too..." he told.
Their head of the house continued walking to his destination.
"There is no turning back now, mate." Harry said. He and Draco smiled evilly at Weasley.
Ron hit the table with his head a few times in pure irritation.
"I hate you both so much, morons." he muttered.
The most notable lesson of the first week in school they had had was double Defence with gryffindors on Friday after lunch.
Professor Lupin showed them the Boggart – a shape-shifting creature, which turned it looks in nearest person's greatest fear.
The students approached it one by one and practised 'Riddikulus' charm on it, making it turn in a funny image of their fears.
Some of the children had very stupid fears: Neville had professor Snape, or Hermione was afraid of McGonagall telling her that she utterly failed academically, or Draco who saw his father telling him that he disowned him.
Some were somewhat terrible as Ron's monstrous spider was, or Seamus' banshee.
Harry was the last to near the mimic.
The boggart took the form of a miserable old man with dull green eyes, dressed in some pathetic rags, looking around fearfully, a distinct lightning bolt scar on his forehead.
"I'm pathetic" the man repeated again and again.
"No..." Harry whispered, completely frozen in his place.
Remus had stood in between Harry and the boggart.
The creature shifted into a full moon.
'Riddikulus!'
The moon became a cockroach, which he levitated into the cabinet, imprisoning it there.
"The lesson is finished. You may leave." he half-whispered.
"I see... NO! I won't tell you what I've seen!" professor Trelawney exclaimed dramatically, after examining Harry's cup with leaves on the bottom.
"What have you seen, professor?" the green-eyed boy asked in a completely bored tone.
"A GRIM! I'm so sorry to bring such sad news, but it's a death omen, my dear boy!" All the slytherins rolled their eyes at her antics.
"Frigging old dragonfly" Ron muttered, making all the third years in the class snicker.
In the morning of November First, Monday, Dumbledore announced that this week's Saturday students would be allowed to go to the Hogsmeade Village – all students from third year and higher could go. That made the student body explode in murmurs of approval.
The enigmatic blonde approached one Ronald Weasley immediately after the announcement was made.
"Ronald, don't you want to tell me something" she asked him, her eyes not leaving him – the girl wasn't blinking at all and that fact made her even more not of this world.
Attention of the whole Great Hall was turned to the pair.
"Luna, you are still in your second year – you can't go!" the redhead tried to reason with her.
"Almost true, my sweet orange pie, but my father wrote a special permission that allows me to go there if I'm escorted specifically by you." she said.
Luna lovingly putting a stray lock of his hair behind his ear, which was as red as its left counterpart.
"Th-then I g-guess I'll go with you." he told her.
"Good, see you on Saturday, my sweet muffin." Luna said, kissing him on his cheek and leaving after that.
All the occupants of Slytherin table howled in laugher and Ron's brothers grinned at him.
Harry looked at the Gryffindor table, where Ginny was sitting. She gave him a brilliant smile and a wink, which he returned back shyly. Daphne, who had been the witness of whole exchange, seemed as if she swallowed a monthly dose of Dumbledore's lemon sherbets at once.
Draco was approached by embarrassed Hermione on their way back to the common room. She dragged him by hand a little bit behind, cast a sound-distortion ward around them, and stuttered something to him. He seemed shocked, but after a minute of silently looking her in the eyes, nodded in agreement. They went the opposite ways.
He caught up with his mates.
"What did the pyromaniac want?" Ron asked.
"She suggested going together to the Hogsmeade..." he answered calmly.
"And?" Harry questioned.
"I agreed."
"I thought the scion of the Noble House of Malfoy would never lower himself to go on a date with muggleborn witch." Ron said.
"Says the guy who dates the second strangest person in all the Hogwarts", Draco parried with a snort and continued
"Harry, are you going too?"
"No, guys. On Saturday I must go to uncle, and then to Snape - I'll be waiting for you in the dorms after." Harry answered light-heartedly.
"You are a maniac too! Maybe you, instead of Draco, should go with Hermione? Whatever." Ron said sadly, but suddenly his face lit up,
"BUT. I know for sure that you won't be all alone with first and second years..."
"Who else is staying, Ron?" Draco played along, asking the question too excitedly.
"Can't you guess, mate? First name starts on 'D', ends on 'E' with 'A', 'P', 'H', 'N' in the middle?" Ron shouted.
Draco faked an expression of thinking through deeply, then he seemed as if a realization struck him
"Daphne? As the Daphne Greengrass?"
"And you've won one million galleons!" the redhead exclaimed, gesticulating over-dramatically.
Harry hid his face in hands.
"Sometimes, I really hate you, guys..." he muttered.
"My boy, we haven't been discussing how things are going on your personal front for so long. How things are with Ms Greengrass?" Dumbledore asked Harry after they finished their lesson on Saturday.
The boy groaned in annoyance
"Not you too, uncle!"
It was about five pm - the first and second years all were wandering somewhere outside, while the higher years were still lazing around in Hogsmeade. Daphne sat alone in the common room near the fireplace, reading a book.
At least, she was pretending to read one.
The object of her thoughts entered and sat on the chair next to hers and closed his eyes pleasurably – he obviously was tired. Potter suddenly opened his eyes, understanding just who was sitting next to him.
"Hello, Harry." she greeted him softly.
"Hi." he answered dryly.
The silence in the common room became nearly tangible.
They had been sitting like that for a few minutes, when Daphne started to speak
"So, mm... Harry, how are you?"
"Fine, thanks."
"Why didn't you go to Hogsmeade?"
"I was busy"
"Oh... May I ask you a question?"
"You already did"
She was hurt by his rude behaviour.
Harry was seeing an unthinkable right in front of him – 'crazy bitch' of Slytherin house, looking like some sort of kitten that had been hit, hard, with an iron stick, a pointy one.
It melted his cold attitude towards her and warmed up some of his old interest inside.
"Ask."
She looked like the Christmas came two months earlier and she received a thousand and one gift.
"Would you like to go to the kitchens with me?"
Harry looked surprised – he didn't expect such turn of things at all.
"You know where they are? ... Alright, let's go."
He helped her to get up and they simply went there.
Hogwarts Kitchens were located in the basement, right under the Great Hall. The only barrier between them and the rest of Hogwarts was a large painting with a bowl of fruits.
Daphne tickled a pear, which, after bursting in a feat of giggling, transformed into a door knob.
Harry was shocked to see a vast room, similar to the Great Hall with four large and one small table, right under their counterparts from the Hall above. There were more than a hundred house elves, which stopped doing their routines and looked at the pair of slytherins.
One of the elves approached them and exclaimed happily
"Hello, great Harry Potter, sir and Miss Greengrass! Would you like to eat something? Blabber is my name."
Harry smiled kindly
"Hi, Blabber. Yes, my friend."
"Come with me then!" the over-active elf told them and seated them behind a small table next to each other.
It almost crumbled out of amount of various foods on it: meat, chicken, fish, vegetables, fruits, everything fried or boiled or steamed or...
The pair had had a silent dinner, enjoying each other company.
As soon as they finished, they stood up.
"Thank you for showing me the Kitchens, Daphne. It was a great experience. Now. I am sure you want to ask me something." Harry said.
She looked shyly at him - it looked cute, he guessed, but Harry definitely preferred to see her scowling or grinning in an evil way or... just being her unbearable self, not the shy girl that was sitting in front of him.
"Are you and Ginny a couple?" she asked finally.
Harry looked at her incredulously.
"Are they all mad?" he thought.
"No, of course not. We are just very good friends after I saved her from the Chamber." he answered, adding in his mind "with a lot of benefits..."
She seemed very satisfied with his answer.
"I see. Shall we go back?" The brunette girl asked.
"Ok, lead the way."
They left the Kitchens, not hurrying to be in their common room at all.
When they passed a door that led into a little cupboard, she suddenly grabbed his hand and dragged him inside, closing and silencing it with a few spells.
There she had been snogging him senseless for a couple of hours. The girl was absolutely different from Ginny – while the beautiful redhead was slow and gentle though with a firm grip, Daphne was a harsh blur of desire and lust. She lacked the experience the Weasley girl had, but she compensated it completely by her pure enthusiasm and love of experimenting.
When they finished, she kissed him hungrily again, looked in his eyes and left wordlessly. Harry had a lot of bruises and scratches all over himself, but he didn't mind at all, because he could deal with them later with magic.
Harry returned to the common room, smiling stupidly. He had seen his two best friends, which were in the same state, and approached them.
"I saw Daphne entering a few minutes before you did. She looked like a cat that ate a can of sour cream. She somehow reminded me of Luna with her dreamy gaze..." Draco said.
Ron nodded his head, acknowledging what the blond boy said.
"Don't know what you are talking about..." Potter answered in a sing-song voice, sitting in an empty chair and closing his eyes, being completely content with his day.
The Christmas Break began, so our trio of friends bid each other's goodbye until the end of it. As usual, Harry stayed in the school, but not him only, though – Daphne made sure he didn't have a boring break.
He gifted "Fifty creative uses of magical fire" book to Hermione, Zonko's hundred galleons gift certificate for each twin, a white Quick-Quotes quill for Percy, Malkin's two hundred galleons certificate for Ginny, and the group photo of him, Ron and Draco together, sitting on chairs in front of the fireplace, talking and laughing, to his best mates.
Harry opened his presents, beginning with a long and thin package. The boy was stunned by what he saw. He received the best broom on the market – 'Firebolt' was proudly engraved on the right side of its glittering handle, whilst on the left was a golden registration number.
It came without any note, so, after initial shock and dancing happily in his dorm room, he decided he would visit Dumbledore and ask the old man to check it.
He received a hair-gel from Ron, along with a luxurious hair-comb from Draco, a one feet and half tall plush replica of himself with an apparent red lipstick mark on its left cheek with a note in its hands that read 'Merry Christmas, Harry!' from Ginny, and a dark green wool sweater from Mrs Weasley, who apparently represented her family.
When he went to the common room, Daphne dragged him into the large seat in front of the fireplace – she had been giving him the best present ever until he was half-dead, tired but happy.
Dumbledore was checking the broom for almost an hour and ensured the green eyed boy that it was safe. As safe as one with a hundred fifty miles in ten seconds acceleration could be.
The Spring semester was boring for Harry with its routine of studying – the only remarkable thing about it was how quickly it ceased and the finals began.
On the Divination Final the old dragonfly called them one by one.
After Ron returned, it was Harry's turn. He climbed on the ladder and entered the classroom, which smelled like incense with something else as much utterly annoying, and approached Trelawney, who was sitting by a crystal ball, allegedly seeing something important in it.
"Tell me, Harry, what do you see inside?", she asked, gesturing towards the orb.
Harry faked an expression of complete concentration and, after about five second passed, started feeding her with some stupid nonsense for half an hour, then he pulled an ace from his sleeve.
"I... I see... a... dragon... it is angry... IT LOOKS AT YOU, PROFESSOR, RUN!"
The last part was exclaimed by him with expertly simulated look of fright and shock.
Trelawney actually ate that piece of rubbish – she started to wail and run around the classroom, gesticulating her hands chaotically in panic.
Harry cast a cheering charm on her.
"Calm down, professor. Everything is going to be fine!" he said soothingly.
She looked much better now – the charm must have started working.
"Yes-yes, my boy. It seems as you are an outstandingly talented seer – do be proud, not everyone receive such a gift. And you've done excellent work - I reward you with 'O'!"
She smiled in her usual crazy weird way, but then her face became expressionless and stare empty. It made Harry freak out even more than Ginny's eyes did.
"The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to re-join his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever before. Tonight ... before midnight ... the servant ... will set out ... to re-join ... his master ..." She spoke in a grave voice.
When she finished talking, her face changed to normal crazy self again.
"Oh, did you say something, Harry?" she asked him.
He stared at her incredulously.
"No, professor.. May I go?"
"Yes-yes! Don't forget to meditate on every second Tuesday of a month to not lose your gift!" Harry descended from the classroom by ladder as soon as possible.
Ron apparently went to the common room – he was nowhere to be seen.
"Good" Harry thought "No need to explain anything to them now."
Potter entered the headmaster's office, immediately telling the prophecy he heard from Trelawney to Dumbledore.
The old man had been deep in thoughts for several minutes. Then his gaze - a serious one, without any twinkling - met Harry's.
"We need to check the school grounds, my boy. Look for anything out of place."
He clapped his hands and some strange red spherical light-projection appeared on his desk.
Albus touched something on it and the full volumetric scheme of Hogwarts and its grounds appeared – all the inhabitants were there, the dots with names written above them being their impressions.
Harry didn't have enough time to be awed, so he searched for anything strange. Then he saw a dot 'Percival Weasley' and 'Sirius Black' very close to each other and moving towards the Whomping Willow.
"Uncle! There!" he pointed.
"Excellent, my boy. Fawkes, if you would be so kind?"
The phoenix in question trilled and flew to Albus' shoulder, making all three disappear in a fiery flash of fire.
Sirius Black, being in his large black dog animagic form, was silently dragging one Percy Weasley through the secret pass between the Whomping Willow and the Shrieking Shack.
The reason he kidnapped the boy was that he had seen the group photo of Harry and Weasley family in their household in the Prophet. More precisely, he had seen a rat on Percy's shoulder, that didn't have one finger on its front paw.
The aforementioned rat currently slept in the pocket of Percy's robe, oblivious to his possible, soon, but not so swift death.
The dog animagus finally brought the unconscious boy into the shack. Sirius reverted back into the man form, took the boy's wand and conjured a small cage.
He subtly put the sleeping rat inside and cast locking and unbreakable charms on the cage, ensuring that the bastard wouldn't run.
"Sirius Black..." the man heard a very familiar voice from behind him.
He instantly turned around and saw nobody but Albus Dumbledore himself. The old wizard was completely calm, but that Sirius wasn't stunned, incarcerated and on his way to receive the Dementor Kiss, was a very good sign for the man with long black filthy mane of hair.
The escaped convict dropped the wand on the wooden floor of the shack and tried to reason with the powerful wizard in front of him.
"Albus, let me explain."
Suddenly, taking off his invisibility cloak, a smaller and younger of James appeared next to Dumbledore. Harry gave Sirius an accusing stare and exclaimed
"You! What do you want to explain? The reasons to sell out my parents? Or maybe you want to feed me the rubbish that you actually regret what you did?"
The boy's tirade was stopped by Albus' hand placed on his shoulder.
"Harry, calm down. You always should try to get all the pieces of mosaic first if you can and only then start firing off the spells. Let Sirius explain."
Black had told them his own version of what happened on Halloween of 1981. To prove his point, he asked Dumbledore to completely isolate the shack.
The old man did as Sirius asked then and the cocoon of violet light appeared around them in twelve feet diameter, which was impossible to pass through from inside.
Black released the rat, which shrieked and tried to escape to no avail. Sirius cast a spell on the rat, reverting it back into a man, although the man still reminded everyone of rat he used to be a moment ago.
Dumbledore gasped in recognition.
"Peter?" he asked disbelievingly.
Peter Pettigrew knew by this moment that he had big problems.
"Mph, what happened? Where am I?" Percy started to wake up.
'Stupefy!' the redhead was swiftly stunned by Harry, who wasn't in a mood to be gentle at the moment.
Sirius and Pettigrew were both escorted by a group of aurors, who were fire-called by the headmaster, to the containing cells in the Ministry.
Albus went with them and had returned in two days with excitingly good news – Sirius was released and completely cleaned from all charges with a very nice compensation and public apology to boot, whilst Peter was nicely put in the highest security level cell, designed specially for animagi, in Azkaban.
Black told Harry by then that he was his godfather and they could live together in his old house in London. Harry felt like Christmas fell on his head three times in a row instantly. One thing was clear for sure - the boy's life would never be the same again.
The End Of Part One (Prologue.)
AN: Hurray! I finished the Prologue! The story pace now will be completely different – much less rushed and more detailed, although I won't describe how slowly, from which angle, on what trajectory, moves Harry's shit wiping hand. I hope you like this 25k prologue, at least a little. I know the Third Year is very rushed, but it's so boring to write about it.
AN2: Dear readers, I hope you find edited chapters much easier to read. Thank you for reviewing.
AN(06.10.2011/10.06.2011): as I promised, ladies and gentlemen, there is the ninth and final(yahoo!) revised chapter of the Prologue. NOW I can finally finish Chapter 14(or Five - it depends on how you count).