Yay! You've made it to Chapter 4! This makes me very happy! Enjoy!
THE HOGWART'S EXPRESS
Harry was shoved into one of two dark green old-fashioned cars and followed soon by Hermione, a Weasley Harry had never met before, and Ronald, who took one look at Harry and instantly tried to get out of the car, only to be shoved back in by his father.
"Dad!" The boy complained, attempting another escape. "I won't be in the same car as Potter!"
"Ronald!" Mr. Weasley pushed hard on Ronald, so that the boy fell over the three laps of the car's other backseat occupants. He slammed the door before the boy could try again and the driver, adorned in a suit of emerald velvet, immediately started driving.
"Get off!" The unknown Weasley shoved Ron, so that he was propped against the door, looking completely disgruntled.
Hermione turned to Harry then. "Um...we've met before...in passing...but I'm Hermione Granger."
Harry cleared his throat and murmured, "Er...yes. I think I've met you before too. You're the smart one, right?"
She blushed at this and amended him, "Well, I read a lot."
"Oh."
"I'm Percy." The older Weasley introduced himself. "I don't believe we've met yet, Harry Potter."
"Y-yeah." Harry nodded. "I was at your...house...last year."
"Did you hear the way he said "house", Percy?" Ronald hissed, scowling at Harry. "Like it's not really a house?"
"You called it something else." Harry tried to fix his mistake. "But I couldn't remember."
"The Burrow." Percy informed him. "And I was very busy last summer with homework. This is my last year at Hogwart's and..." He flashed a badge on his chest. "Now I'm Head Boy."
Harry almost gulped, knowing that a Gryffindor Head Boy was always a bad thing for a Slytherin. He'd have to watch this one.
Giving a loose casual smile, Harry congratulated him and then asked Hermione if she was close to the Weasleys.
"Mostly Ginny." Hermione told him. "But also Ron and the twins."
"Ah."
An awkward silence fell over them and Hermione tried to break the tension with her own question, "Do you have any friends?"
It had come off sounding much ruder than Harry was sure she meant it and it caused Ron to start laughing very loudly as if the idea of Harry having friends was the most hilarious thing he had ever heard. Hermione blushed, apologizing profusely and trying to amend her statement, but this only made Ron laugh harder. Percy elbowed him, but really made no other effort.
Harry told Hermione it was fine and said, no, he really didn't have any friends. Dumbledore and Professor Snape didn't count, given they were teachers and Hagrid...well, Hagrid was an adult and it was different then having a friend his own age.
"You're not buddy/buddy with that Malfoy boy?" Ronald asked, giving Harry a dark look.
"No." Harry shot back, sure his tone had been as snarky as his favorite Professor's.
He was thankful when they then arrived at the station and he was soon on the Hogwart's Express, trying to find himself an isolated compartment away from any Weasleys or Gryffindors for that matter. The only one he found had an adult in it, who happened to be sleeping, his jacket pulled right up over his nose like a much too small blanket. Harry surveyed the tattered clothes and wondered why an adult man was on the Hogwart's Express, when it was usually reserved for students, aside from the witch who pushed the food cart. He didn't ponder it long and closed the door.
He was surprised when no one tried to share his compartment, though it did look like some had planned on it until noticing the two occupants.
Glancing around, he caught sight of the the name Professor R. J. Lupin stamped cross one corner of the man's small rather battered case, which had definitely seen better days. He instantly realized this must be the new D.A.D.A. teacher, which meant this man would be reaping a good dosing of Professor Snape's loathing.
With a sigh, Harry opened up his potions textbook and began reading, knowing that his Head of House had a tendency to pop quizes about the material most students hadn't bothered to read yet.
He went rather undisturbed, thankfully, until midafternoon when Draco and his two lackies, Goyle and Crabbe, spotted him and opened the compartment. While, he wasn't enemies with the boy, Harry certainly wasn't buddy/buddy with him either, so was rather shocked he was given a warning instead of an earful.
"Potter." Draco hissed at him, giving a small smirk. "I hear Weasley's looking for you. Best of luck."
Suddenly, Harry wished he was "buddy/buddy" with Malfoy as it meant the platinum blond might have stuck around and at least pitted Harry some better odds than the one on four which arose only a couple minutes later when Ron and the three members of his gang (boys named Seamus, Dean, and Neville, from what Harry had gathered) opened up the compartment. Of the four, Harry feared Neville the least, since the doppy boy was already trying to encourage Ron on a different course of action, not that Ronald was easy to sway.
As it turned out, the shaggy professor had his uses.
"Who's that?" Asked Dean, probably the smartest of the four, pointing at Lupin and causing the rest of the gang to give pause.
"New teacher." Came Harry's reply and he then gave a "please, do continue" look to Ronald.
There was a long moment where Ron contemplated how much trouble he wanted to be in, but in the end he turned and him and his gang left.
Harry let out a heavy sigh and tried to relax his nerves. This was his first trip on the train with Ronald as an enemy. His first trip, they had been friends (a feeling that was so alien now it felt like it had been something he read about in a fantasy book instead of a memory) and he had missed his second trip. He leaned his head back as a memory of Ronald and his gang coming up to him in first year only a week into the term began to fill his head. It was a terrible memory, forever sealing away any hope he had retained of them becoming friends. He remembered the hex sent his way, a spell he hadn't yet learned because he was new to the wizarding world. He recalled falling backwards over himself, robes wrapping up around him, and feeling the stinging sensation swelling up his face.
"Weasley!"
He remembered his Head of House almost running their direction, looking furious and intimidating and absolutely loathing of what the "Gryffindor brats" were doing. He scolded them, took away ten points from each of them, and assigned a night's detention for Neville, Dean, and Seamus and an extra night's worth for Ron. Harry had been so grateful...he had started crying, though claimed it was because the stinging hurt so much. His professor had cast the countercurse and asked him if he wanted to go to the infirmary, but Harry had said "no" because he was better now. And then he had found himself in the dungeons, in the Potions classroom, helping his now favorite Professor with preparation for his first ever potions class that he would be having in an hour. He had been so happy...for the first time since the word "Slytherin!" had been shouted from the sorting hat's mouth, Harry had been happy about being at Hogwart's.
He felt the train stop and he opened his eyes, realizing only then that he had dozed off and it was dark outside. He glanced around, wondering if they were already there, when suddenly the lamps snapped off.
In the other compartments, doors were flying open and there were bangs and confused voices and squeals as everyone began to move around, trying to figure out what was going on. Harry sat very still where he was, heart beating fast.
It is one thing for lights to go off on a train when you are in a compartment with your friends. You all worry, you all wonder, you are all confused, but you have each other. It is a totally different thing for lights to go off on a train when you are alone in your compartment. Despite the sounds of others moving about beyond his compartment and the fact that there was someone sitting right across from him, Harry felt very alone. He contemplated waking the man, but wasn't sure if he would wake and he wasn't really inclined to disturb an adult, since such a thing usually ended badly for him in the past.
"Hello?" The hoarse voice that suddenly spoke caused Harry to jump.
Professor Lupin appeared to have finally awoke. There were movements coming from his corner and then a soft, crackling noise followed by a shivering light filled the compartment. The professor held up a handful of flames which illuminated his tired, gray face and the alert wariness of his eyes as they looked right at Harry.
"Hello." Harry croaked out finally.
The man nodded to Harry and, in the same hoarse voice, commanded, "Stay where you are" as he stood slowly and made for the door.
There was a sensation of panic welling up in Harry as he realized he would be utterly alone the moment Lupin exited the compartment, but he never got to experience that feeling.
The compartment door slid open just as Lupin began to reach for it and the worse thing Harry had ever witnessed in his life slid in. It was a tall willowy figure in a flowing black tattered cloak, it's face masked by a hood. A motion caught Harry's attention and his eyes rested upon a decayed-looking hand withdrawing into the folds of its robes.
He heard a rattling breath being drawn and a chill like none other that Harry had ever felt caught the very breath in his chest. The whole world went black around him as wind rushed past his ears. Somehow it felt as if something was dragging down to the bottom of a deep lake, the cold intensifying inside of him and the rushing growing louder.
And then he heard screaming. It wasn't the scream of sudden fright though, but of pleading, of ultimate fear that something, the most precious something, was about to be taken away from them and they couldn't bare the thought of it, that they'd die if it was taken away. He wanted to help! He wanted to do something, but he couldn't! All around him, a thick white fog was beginning to swirl...
"Harry! Harry! Are you all right?"
Someone was slapping his face.
"W-what?"
When Harry opened his eyes, the lantersn were back on and the Hogwart's Express was moving again. He was on the floor, somehow, and Professor Lupin was leaning over him, looking all the bit as worried as Harry was beginning to feel. Gut churning sickeningly and face covered in a cold sweat, Harry pushed his glasses back onto his face.
"Are you okay?" Lupin asked, helping Harry sit up slowly.
"Yeah," Harry looked to the door and was thankful to see the monster had gone. "What happened? Where's that...that thing? Who screamed?"
Lupin patted Harry's shoulder before reaching into his pocket. "There was no screaming, Harry." He produced a large slab of chocolate and broke off a piece before offering it up to Harry. "Here. Eat it. It'll help."
"But I heard screaming..." Harry took the piece, but didn't eat it. "What was that thing?"
"A dementor." Lupin told him. "One of the dementors of Azkaban."
Harry stared at him, having recalled the look on both Stan Shunpike and Ernie's faces on the Knight Bus when the former had begun talking about dementors. Now, he understood what the man had meant.
"Eat." The professor told him. "It'll help. I need to speak to the driver, excuse me..."
He strode out into the corridor, leaving Harry alone in the compartment.
Wiping sweat off his face, Harry tried to orient himself and eventually did finally take a bite of the chocolate. He was mildly surprised to find warmth spread through his whole body, practically washing away the chilly clammy feeling the dementor had left behind. He pulled himself upright and into his seat before finishing his piece of chocolate.
Professor Lupin returned with the words, "We'll be at Hogwarts in ten minutes. Are you all right, Harry?"
Harry didn't ask how the man knew his name.
"I'm fine..." He felt a tinge of embarrassment and then asked as the professor took his seat, "How did you get the dementor away?"
"Took a spell." Lupin replied casually. "Dementors are difficult creatures to convince...well, impossible, really."
"You didn't faint?"
"No." Lupin answered slower this time. "But this is a perfectly normal reaction to a Dementor, Harry. Don't feel ashamed."
But Harry did feel ashamed. Sure, this Professor Lupin was an experienced wizard, but how did a person not feel ashamed when they had fainted, no matter the reason.
"Did anyone else on the train faint?"
By Lupin's long pause, Harry knew already the answer, and apparently the professor figured this much out as well. He gave a sigh. "Harry, I want you to understand that...everyone reacts to a dementor attack differently and this is based off of their past, especially the horrors they've had to live with. You are not weak."
Harry nodded, but he didn't believe the man for a moment and they didn't speak for the rest of the train ride.