Chapter 2
Messed up Friendship
"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. Harry 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. They illuminated his tired, gray face, but his eyes looked alert and wary.
"Stay where you are," he said in the same hoarse voice, and he got slowly to his feet with his handful of fire held out in front of him. But the door slid slowly open before Lupin could reach it. Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the shivering flames in Lupin's hand, was a cloaked figure that towered to the ceiling. Its face was completely hidden beneath its hood.
An intense cold swept over them all. Harry felt his own breath catch in his chest. The cold went deeper than his skin. It was inside his chest, it was inside his very heart... Harry's eyes rolled up into his head. He couldn't see. He was drowning in cold. There was a rushing in his ears as though of water. He was being dragged downward, the roaring growing louder. . And then, from far away, he heard his mom screaming, terrible, terrified, pleading screams.
"Harry! Harry! Are you all right?"
Someone was slapping his face.
"W - what?"
Harry opened his eyes; there were lanterns above him, and the floor was shaking - the Hogwarts Express was moving again and the lights had come back on. He seemed to have slid out of his seat onto the floor. Ron and Hermione were kneeling next to him, and above them he could see Neville and Professor Lupin watching. Harry felt very sick; when he put up his hand to push his glasses back on, he felt cold sweat on his face. Ron and Hermione heaved him back onto his seat. "Are you okay?" Ron asked nervously. "Yeah," said Harry, looking quickly toward the door. The hooded creature had vanished.
Harry looked around the bright compartment. Ginny and Neville looked back at him, both very pale. 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." Everyone stared at him. Professor Lupin 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... He strolled past Harry and disappeared into the corridor. "Are you sure you're okay, Harry?" said Hermione, watching Harry anxiously.
"I Don't get it... What happened?" said Harry, wiping more sweat off his face.
"You went sort of rigid and fell out of your seat and started twitching." Said Ron, staring strangly at him. I had a feeling he was trying to say something to me ever since, Mr. Malfoy dropped me off at the station. (Can you Guess What?)
"Then 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, who was huddled in her corner looking nearly as bad as Harry felt, 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 Ron, looking anxiously at Harry again. "Ginny was shaking like mad, though..."
Harry didn't understand. He felt weak and shivery, as though he were recovering from a bad bout of flu; he also felt the beginnings of shame. Why had he gone to pieces like that, when no one else had? Professor Lupin had come back. He paused as he entered, looked around, and said, with a small smile, "I haven't poisoned that chocolate, youknow..."
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?"
"Fine," he muttered, embarrassed. They didn't talk much during the remainder of the journey. At long last, the train stopped at Hogsmeade station, and there was a great scramble to get outside; owls hooted, cats meowed, and Neville's pet toad croaked loudly from under his hat. It was freezing on the tiny platform; rain was driving down in icy sheets. "Firs' years this way!" called a familiar voice. Harry, Ron, and Hermione turned and saw the gigantic outline of Hagrid at the other end of the platform, beckoning the terrified-looking new students forward for their traditional journey across the lake. "All right, you three?" Hagrid yelled over the heads of the crowd. They waved at him, but had no chance to speak to him because the mass ofpeople around them was shunting them away along the platform. Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed the rest of the school along the platform and out onto a rough mud track, where at least a hundred stagecoaches awaited the remaining students, each pulled, Harry could only assume, by an invisible horse, because when they climbed inside and shut the door, the coach set off all by itself, bumping and swaying in procession.
The coach smelled faintly of mold and straw. Harry felt better since the chocolate, but still weak. Ron and Hermione kept looking at him sideways, as though frightened he might collapse again. As the carriage trundled toward a pair of magnificent wrought iron gates, flanked with stone columns topped with winged boars, Harry saw two more towering, hooded dementors, standing guard on either side. A wave of cold sickness threatened to engulf him again; he leaned back into the lumpy seat and closed his eyes until they had passed the gates. The carriage picked up speed on the long, sloping drive up to the castle; Hermione was leaning out of the tiny window, watching the many turrets and towers draw nearer. At last, the carriage swayed to a halt, and Hermione and Ron got out.
Spending a summer with Malfoy, in a huge mansion, and collapsing from a dementor on the train was enough to name Ron; my enemy, like I even care! But, still not being in the best of moods, I decided to skip the opening ceremonies, quickening my pace toward Moaning Mortles Bathroom. Last year after I killed the old basilisk, Koto, I had placed a new one; Niginia named after Voldment's snake, inside the Chamber of Secrets. It wasn't a big secret, the ministry of magic even signed off on the arrangement. The only sad thing is, I had to agree to blind her and she didn't like me much after that. Marian, on the other-hand was always welcome.
Sighing sadly, I called out the password and descended down the spiral steps. Remodeling the chamber had taken over the last three months of school, but looking around the place; it was worth it. I repainted all the original shapes on the wall, used magic to scrub the pipes, created a basilisk toilet, disposed of all the skeletons and drilled a tunnel into Slytherin tower. Smiling at myself I proceeded into the chamber.
As expected Niginia wasn't happy to see me; sniffing murderously, she growled and tried to smash me with her tail. I've of course been learning self-defense or martial-arts and could easily doge ever blow. She groomed her silver body and opened her hollow eye lids, screaming charged. As time passed her attacks continued to grow more vicious and cowardly I sank back into the entrance. I suppose it was stupid for me to try and speck to Niginia without Marian. Slightly pissed, I walked off toward Slytherin tower.
The next morning, I wake up at the sound of Hedwig and Ravena. Relieving that Marian had sent me a message I quickly got out of bed and read it:
A TRIBUTE TO MY BELOVED 'ARRY!
;was posted in huge golden letters on the first page. I pondered between throwing the letter overboard or reading it and then burning it. Sighing heavily, I began again:
OH SWEET 'ARRY! I KNOW HOW YOU MUST MISS ME SO! BUT, I HORRID TRAGEDY HAS HAPPENED! So, I inform you I walnut be in Hogwarts for another 2 months. SORROW NOT!
Sighing slightly as I burned the letter, and sent Ravena away. Padfoot, the name I had chosen for the dog, I meet the night I left, was still fast asleep in my confortable luggage.
I hurried down the steps only to be greeted by a very cheerily Malfoy. He blobbed off about his father and the pathetic now defense against the dark arts teacher, but I wasn't really listening. My head was pondering about incomplete work and new dark spells. I also needed to work on getting a few test subjects for some of the really horrible curses, I had been working on. I'll never know if a spell worked unless I tried it a few times.
After he went down to flying lessons, I hurried into the restricted section.
OK, that's the end of this chapter. First, I would like to apologize, for redoing Chapter 1 and thank all of the people who added me to their favorites or alert list. Second, I would like to tell you about the next chapter.
The next chapter will be based on what happened to Voldemort after Harry destroyed him and trust me, it isn't what you expect. We're going to see a little side reverse and Voldement will later be fighting against Harry for Muggle rights! :)