I got such a great response from that last chapter that I figured I'd start in on the next one now. So here we go with the third year!
Dobby's Polka-Dotted Sock
Chapter Eight:
Old Friends Start the New Year
Harry and Leila went running as fast as they could out the door and down the street while dragging along their heavy Hogwarts trunks.
"Did you do that—"
"Was that me or you—"
They both stopped, panting, and continued a little slower now that they knew they weren't being chased by a livid Uncle Vernon. Neither of the twins seemed to know who exactly had blown up Aunt Marge like some kind of sick balloon, but the fact was that they had and it was unlikely they were ever going to be back at the Dursley's again after all the times they had been kicked out.
'Fantastic, bloody fantastic,' Leila thought miserably, 'And we were so close, too! If only Aunt Marge wasn't such a—'
"We should probably come up with a plan," Harry interrupted that particular train of thought. "I mean, we're not supposed to do magic outside of school. Do you think they'll come after us?"
"If they do, we don't want to be here. We'll have to get into London. It's not that long a journey." Here the siblings grinned in acknowledgement of their last trek to London which had resulted in them finding the Leaky Cauldron and first learning of magic. Of course, the Ministry of Magic hadn't been potentially sending people after them that time. Harry's eyes seemed to stop focusing on her and instead were gazing farther down the alley behind her. Slowly turning, Leila thought she saw a pair of luminous eyes staring at them, barely blinking, which belonged to some kind of animal, perhaps a large dog.
Reaching out a hand slowly, she started, "Hello—"
"Look out!" Harry pulled her back from the road as a large triple-decker purple bus blasted into being. Whatever the animal was, it had disappeared.
OoO
"So how was Egypt, Ron?" Leila asked as the tall boy showed her brother some photographs. Everything had turned out fine; they had accidentally called the Knight Bus, which took them to the Leaky Cauldron, and there they found out that the Ministry had indeed been searching for them, but out of worry for their safety. The escaped criminal they had seen on the television was actually a wizard, the first to escape Azkaban, Sirius Black. So, provided they kept to the Cauldron and Diagon Alley, they were allowed to do as they pleased, and had passed the time quite comfortably. To top it all off, the Weasleys had just arrived back from Egypt and were also staying at the Leaky Cauldron the last few days before school.
"Oh, it was bloody brilliant! Bill took us on all these wicked tours, and Fred and George nearly shut Percy in a tomb! He was lucky mum caught them, though."
"Well, maybe it's for the best. After all, what would Hogwarts do without its newest Head Boy?" Harry joked, and all three laughed.
"Thanks for the, er, Sneak-scoper-thing, by the way," Leila said, "We read about it maybe being faulty, so we stuffed in one of Uncle Vernon's old socks just in case it went off at the Dursley's."
"It's a Sneakoscope. We could test it out now, I don't think Fred and George are up to anything at the moment," Ron crossed to the door and shut it, just so as not to bother anyone else, and Harry removed the magic object from his trunk, pulled off the sock, and set it on the nightstand. Immediately it began to flash and whistle shrilly, so the twins quickly shoved it back in the sock and slammed the trunk shut on it.
The door opened and Fred and George peeked their heads in. "Everything alright?"
"Just testing the Sneakoscope. I guess Bill was right, it is faulty," Ron rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Pretty loud, too. I think it even woke Scabbers, and that's near impossible! Sorry about the gift, guys,"
"It's fine," Harry quickly reassured.
"Has Scabbers been feeling any better?" Leila asked, a little concerned for Ron's pet. Sure Scabbers didn't do much, but he had bit Goyle once, and that was more than enough.
"No, if anything, he's lost more weight. I can't tell what's wrong with him," Ron replied, downhearted.
More pet troubles arrived with Hermione's newest acquisition of a rather ugly ginger cat that Leila helped the other girl name Crookshanks. Crookshanks seemed intent on Scabbers, which only fueled the fires of Ron and Hermione's constant bickering. Even further, on a trip to retrieve the rat's new tonic for Ron, Harry and Leila overheard a rather disturbing conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Weasley about Sirius Black, who it turned out, was after Harry and maybe even Leila according to the Ministry.
It was a relief, therefore, to board the Hogwarts Express on the 1st of September, their destination being Hogwarts, largely regarded as the one place Black wouldn't dare try to approach.
"It looks like everywhere is full, so we'll have to just use this compartment I'm afraid," Hermione said, gesturing to the last compartment on the train, currently occupied by a very asleep someone, face obscured by a threadbare cloak.
"You sure we should go in there? He's asleep, and he doesn't look like a student, that's for sure," Ron pointed out.
"Well, it's the only place left, Ronald, and he's probably just a teacher or something," Hermione said, sliding open the door, and they passed through. Leila ended up squeezed between Ron and the mysterious sleeping man, as Harry was sitting on the other side of the compartment so he could brief them all on what the two of them had learned about Sirius Black. The sleeping man had his charms, as he quickly repelled a visit from Draco Malfoy, the other boy concluding as they had that he must be a teacher.
Hermione, glancing around, suddenly spotted something as she said, "You see, I was right! Professor R. J. Lupin. That's who he is." She smiled at having solved the little mystery, but the other three were too busy staring at each other in shock. It couldn't be…
"Mr. Lupin?" Leila asked, shaking the man slightly. He made a sound, seeming to slowly come awake, the cloak falling from his face. Yes, he looked older and more scarred than remembered, but there was no doubt it was kind Mr. Lupin, the friend of Harry and Leila's parents they had met only two years ago.
He looked around blearily for a moment, barely seeming to recognize any of the faces, but then passed a hand over his eyes, more aware now.
"Well, I'll be…" he muttered, staring at all of them.
"Mr. Lupin, what are you doing here?" Leila asked, grinning at the man.
"You're a teacher now?" Harry added, equally surprised yet happy at the change of events.
"Yes, yes I—but never mind that," he stood quickly shaking each of their hands, "Harry, Leila, Ron, my how you've all grown so much- has it really been just two years? Er, who's—"
"Hermione Granger," Harry introduced, and the new professor shook hands with Hermione as well, who for her part was very confused. They explained the meeting of Professor Lupin from two years prior, and quickly resumed conversation with the man.
"I'm afraid it hasn't been much of a life for me these past two years, I've been in and out of work so often. I truly am grateful to Albus for offering me the position as Defense teacher. But never mind that, how have you all been? What are your favorite subjects? What houses are you in?" And on the questions went. Lupin wanted to know everything, and no matter what response he received, he always seemed impressed- even proud. A warm feeling seemed to spread through Leila, not unlike the feeling of hearing a phoenix song.
But just as quickly, that feeling seemed to have been doused by ice water, the lights dying along with it as the train ground to a stop in the middle of nowhere. She thought she saw a terrible cloaked figure with a rotted hand slide open the door, but then it was like she was struggling through fog just to think, and there was nothing in front of her but this endless expanse of fog and despair. She was trying to think, trying to get away from the fog- she wanted to see –but it wouldn't stop. The screaming wouldn't stop. And it hurt, 'It hurts', because somewhere through the fog a woman was screaming, screaming, and she would never stop, she would never stop until Leila could find her, until she could struggle through the fog and find her- 'Save her, somebody! I can't I can't, the fog's too strong!'
And then black.
"Hey, Leila, wake up!" Ron's worried face swam into view right over her and she blinked into focus. He helped her sit up- somehow she had ended up on the compartment floor –and she looked around. Harry, also on the floor, was being handed a piece of chocolate from the Professor Lupin. Hermione was eating her own piece and checking on the animals in the compartment.
"Here, you two," Lupin said, handing them their own share, "It'll help make you feel better. If you don't mind, I'm going to go talk to the driver. I'll be back." And with that he vanished into the corridor.
"What was that thing?" Harry asked, voicing the question most of them had.
"Dementor, it had to be," Ron said quietly. He bit into the chocolate and swallowed. "They guard Azkaban. Dad had to go there once about work, he said it was awful, like he'd never be happy again." That was certainly how Leila felt and she quickly bit into the chocolate, allowing it to begin warming her.
"But he didn't faint, did he?" Harry asked, turning a bit red.
"Well, no," Ron admitted, "But it's alright Harry, I almost wish I had blacked out, it was awful."
"Yeah, don't feel too bad," Leila said, patting his shoulder, "least you didn't hear some woman screaming her head off somewhere."
"But I did."
They locked eyes and could tell Ron and Hermione were looking at them oddly. No one else had heard her, then. Whoever 'she' was.
"Maybe they're looking for Sirius Black," Hermione suggested.
"Yeah, making sure he's not trying to sneak in under their noses or something. They're being pretty thorough about this; mind you I don't really like Dementors being here."
"I don't think anyone does," Harry returned.
They arrived at the castle, only for Harry, Leila, and Hermione to be swept away by McGonagall. Leila glanced back to see a slightly lost and put out Ron, who eventually wandered into the Great Hall hopefully finding someone. She felt a little bad that he had been left behind.
After an embarrassing five minutes where Madam Pomfrey fussed over them, they were allowed to wait in the corridor for Hermione who was speaking to Professor McGonagall about something.
"What do you think it's about?" Harry asked, jerking his thumb at the door.
"I dunno, maybe her schedule, you know she's taking every class?" Leila guessed.
"I know, she's bonkers! I'll probably struggle just with the classes I am taking," Harry shook his head at the thought of Hermione's crazy new course regimen.
"Well, you do Quidditch on top of all that, so no one's expecting anything from you what with Wood's obsession and all." Though both knew people did expect things from Harry. Great things, as Ollivander had put it once.
"Did you two wait for me? Thanks," Hermione said, coming out of the classroom.
"No problem, we should go back, Ron's all alone," Leila pointed out, and the three snuck into the Great Hall amid the applause for the Sorting Hat's latest song. She felt a little bad about missing it two years in a row, but she doubted the Hat cared that much.
"There you lot are, what did McGonagall want?" Ron asked and she felt grateful that he'd even saved seats for the three of them.
"Well," Harry said sitting down on the bench, "Pomfrey was being paranoid again and wanted to make sure that we were alright, you know," Ron nodded to show he understood, "And Hermione, er—"
"We were talking about my schedule," Hermione supplied, confirming the suspicion while she fiddled with her collar.
"Right, and I can't believe it, every class Hermione? That's mad! No one would dare, not even Percy!" Here the Head Boy, further up the table, turned sharply to them and whispered,
"No talking during the Sorting!"
Ron rolled his eyes, the Potter twins snickered, and Hermione had the decency to blush for the group, though she looked a tad amused as well.
The four of them clapped at the announcement of Lupin's new professor status, and he awarded them with a smile, while they managed to get all of Gryffindor house applauding for Hagrid's elevation to Care of Magical Creatures Professor.
"Brilliant!" Ron roared above the cheering, "Knew it was a good idea to take that class!"
They all grinned at each other, happy to be back at Hogwarts, and certain that the year would turn out even better than the last two.
Ok, shorter, but I think that's a good stopping point for this chaper. The next one will get into classes, plus the infamous Dementor Quidditch game is coming up soon. And will Hermione be able to hide the secret of her crazy schedule from a friend who shares her dorm? Thanks for reading everyone, you truly keep this story going!