When Harry arrived back at Privet Drive, Aunt Marge was thankfully long gone. Harry and Dudley spent the next few weeks corresponding with their friends and doing homework whenever one of Hermione's letters arrived and made them feel guilty, but otherwise they did very little until their booklists arrived and it was time to go to Diagon Alley.
Harry was hoping that he would be able to find out more about Sirius Black once he was back in the wizarding world. He had ordered a subscription from the Daily Prophet, but the newspaper told him nothing that he hadn't already found out at Neville's house. In fact, he found out more from Neville than the paper revealed, including that one of Sirius Black's cousins was the reason why Neville lived with his Gran. Apparently the whole family was bad, not just Black himself.
It had happened not long after Harry's own parents had been murdered. Black's cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, had hurt Neville's parents so badly that they were still in the hospital, and, as Neville said, barely recognised him. He had even shown Harry his boxful of bubblegum wrappers, and explained that his mother gave him one every time he visited, and it was because of this that he still thought that she might know him, 'No matter what Gran says'. Harry had never realised how much he and Neville had in common, and they had begun writing back and forth regularly.
The trip to Diagon Alley turned out to be just Harry and the all Gryffindors. Blaise, Draco and Anthony had already done all their school shopping before Harry's owl reached them, and Pansy was apparently making a day of it with her mother. Ron would be arriving back from his trip to Egypt at the same time that Hermione was getting home from France, and they planned it so that Harry and Dudley would be dropped off by Uncle Vernon at the Leaky Cauldron and Ron's family would take them all to Kings Cross the next day. Neville had decided to put off going to Diagon Alley as well, in order to come with them, although he wouldn't be staying the night.
Harry and Dudley met Ron and a few of his siblings in the Leaky Cauldron as planned, and they were all extremely freckly, which was no surprise. Hermione and Neville were already there as well, Hermione looking very brown and Neville looking as he had when Harry had last seen him.
"How was everyone's summer?" Harry asked as they walked down the alley, and received a chorus of responses from everyone. It all sounded very positive and exciting. Hermione had apparently done some astoundingly academic things in France, and Ron had sold some of his portion of the basilisk in Egypt and what little his parents hadn't forced him to put in a trust fund was now clinking merrily in his pockets as they did their shopping.
Fred and George, Ron's twin brothers, had joined them, along with their little sister, Ginny. She was as loud as her brothers, it seemed, and seemed to be trying to convince Ron to buy her something. Fred and George walked next to Harry, and from what he knew about them, he felt it prudent to be slightly worried.
He shifted closer to Hermione.
"What classes are you taking this term?" he asked her, eyeing the three stuffed bags she had picked up at the bookstore.
Hermione brightened. "Oh, the usual, you know, Charms, Potions, Defense, Herbology, Transfiguration…then I'm also taking Muggle Studies, Ancient Runes -"
"Hey, me too," Harry grinned.
Hermione smiled at him and continued. "Arithmancy?"
Harry shook his head. "Draco and Blaise are taking that, I think. Anthony too."
"Care of Magical Creatures?"
"Yup."
"Divination?"
"Dudley and I are in Divination," Ron cut in, Dudley nodding next to him. "Magical Creatures, too."
Hermione rolled her eyes theatrically, but with the slightest of smiles. Harry laughed at her.
"I'm not that bad!" Ron said indignantly.
"Of course you're not," Ginny cut in. "In fact, you're my favourite big brother, you know."
"I'm not buying you a broomstick, Ginny," Ron said immediately. "I'm going to buy myself a new wand. Then I'm going to buy myself some robes, and everything else. And then, if I have enough money left…"
Ginny brightened and smiled winsomely.
"I'll buy myself a broomstick." Her smile turned into a pout, and she turned up her nose at him.
"Fine then, Fred and George are my favourite brother," she proclaimed, flouncing over to walk with them instead.
They laughed and slung their arms around her as one.
"That's right, Gin," one of them said with a grin at Ron.
"The girl knows what's what," said the other. "When we're rich and famous, we'll buy her ten broomsticks!"
Ginny grinned and stuck her tongue out at Ron, who made a harrumphing noise and ignored her in favour of Neville and Dudley instead, who had begun a discussion on Quidditch.
"The Kestrels don't have a chance this year, are you crazy?"
Harry turned back to Hermione, who was looking through her own money bag now, and looking up at the stores contemplatively.
"My parents gave me some birthday money," she informed Harry. "I think I might get an owl, but I haven't decided yet…"
"The Menagerie is just over there." One of the twins pointed out a shop up ahead, the Magical Menagerie. "Ron has to get his fleabag rat checked out too, take him with you."
"Mum wants it to'run away', if you know what I mean," the other said with a wink. "We were thinking of taking it off his hands for her, but he practically sleeps with the thing."
Hermione wrinkled her nose at the idea and called Ron over to go into the shop. Harry followed the rest of the group over to Fortescues to get some ice cream while they waited.
"What do you have left to get?" Dudley asked Neville as they all sat down in a booth with their cones. Ginny sat down next to the three of them and squealed when one of the twins playfully flicked some of his ice cream at her.
"I already got most of my stuff, including a new wand," Neville said, pulling it out and proudly showing Dudley and Harry. "Cherry and unicorn hair, eleven inches."
"Nice," Harry said, admiring the new wand. "What classes are you taking then?"
"Care of Magical Creatures," Neville said. "Divination, don't know how Ron convinced me, and Gran spent the summer telling me what a 'wooly discipline' it is, but -"
Neville was interrupted by a commotion from the direction of the Magical Menagerie.
"Scabbers!" Ron came dashing out of the shop and threw himself down in front of a dustbin, apparently trying to coax his rat out.
Hermione emerged from the shop several minutes later, holding a large ginger cat and beaming.
"I still cannot believe she bought that monster," Ron grumbled for possibly the hundredth time the next day, sitting on the train and staring grudgingly at Hermione and cat curled up on her lap. Dudley sat with him, also eying them warily. Both of them had been pretty badly scratched up during the trip to Kings Cross that morning.
Harry sat between Neville and Pansy, who had found them before the train left and was, along with Hermione, engaged in playing with Hermione's cat and ignoring Ron. Blaise and Draco had found them an hour or so into the train ride and were now engaged in a game of chess, and were also ignoring Ron. The ride had been peaceful so far with the heavy rain hammering down on the windows, and it was getting dark when a there was a loud crash at the compartment door.
"What was that?" Neville asked, looking up from the book he'd been reading. Harry got up to look out into the hall curiously. Crabbe and Goyle were down the hall a ways, bumping into doors and walls as they ran, chortling.
"Draco's bodyguards," Harry said, and Draco rolled his eyes as he ordered his bishop to kill Blaise's knight.
"They're not my bodyguards," he said over the screams of the chess pieces. "I talked to them toward the end of the year and we agreed that they both have better things to do than follow me around."
"Really?" Blaise asked. "I don't remember that. What about your father?"
"They're going to make it up," Draco explained. "And they're going to tell me what they tell their fathers so I can have the same story. And then we go our separate ways, they're happy, Father is happy, everyone's happy."
The train was starting to slow down now. "We're nowhere near Hogwarts yet," Hermione said, checking her watch with a frown. "Why are we stopping?" Ron got up to look out in the corridor, as he was nearest to the door.
The train came to a sudden, jolting stop and, just as suddenly, the lights went out. Draco and Blaise's chess game ended up all over the floor, much to the pieces' rather vocal displeasure, and Ron jumped back just as the door slammed shut where his head had been.
"What's going on?" Pansy asked, sounding worried.
"There are people boarding the train," Neville said suddenly, looking out the window. "I-"
The door to the compartment slid open. "Ron?"
It was Ginny. "Over here," Ron replied. "Ow! My foot!"
"Sorry..."
"I'm going to go ask the driver what's going on," Hermione said.
"I want to know why it's so cold," Pansy said, wrapping her arms around herself.
Harry watched as Hermione's silhouette made it's way toward the door and suddenly stopped.
"It is rather cold in here," she agreed anxiously. "Is anyone else feeling particularly...uncheerful?"
Harry nodded to himself as the door slid open once again. Hermione stumbled back from the door and fell partly over his feet.
Harry hardly noticed this though, because there was a dark shape in the doorway that was making an awful rattling sound. The cold was intense now. Harry's eyes rolled up in the back of his head, and all there was was terrified screaming and a white fog.
"Harry! Harry wake up! Are you alright?"
"Wha...?"
"Are you alright?"
"I...who screamed?"
"What?"
Harry opened his eyes to see Blaise, Pansy and Hermione leaning over him, looking pale and concerned.
"Someone was screaming," Harry explained, sitting up and putting his glasses on when they were handed to him. His face was covered in a cold sweat.
"No one was screaming, Harry," Hermione said, Pansy nodding along. Harry looked around the brightly lit compartment and saw that everyone looked rather shaken up, Neville, Draco and Dudley in particular. He also saw another person that was entirely out of place on the Hogwarts Express, an adult with threadbare clothes and a large bar of chocolate.
"Hello Harry," the man said, breaking a large chunk of candy into pieces. "My name is Professor Lupin. Eat this." He handed Harry a piece of chocolate and passed the rest of it out to everyone else. Harry looked down at it and back up at the professor.
"Eat it," he repeated. "It'll help."
"What was that?" Harry asked, although he had a feeling he knew because of Hermione's comment from before.
"A dementor," Lupin said, confirming Harry's suspicions. "One of the dementors of Azkaban." He looked around at the group again and gave a reassuring smile. "Eat the chocolate. Now, I need to speak to the conductor, excuse me."
Harry waited until the professor left before asking, "What the bloody hell just happened? Where did he come from? What happened before?"
"He was in the compartment next to us," Blaise explained. "I saw him earlier when I was looking for you lot."
"We think he's the new Defense teacher," Pansy added. "It would make sense, with Lockhart gone. He looks pretty shabby, but he scared the dementor away awfully quickly."
"But what happened?" Harry asked, wiping some sweat off his face and climbing back up onto the seat. Everyone else looked at him in concern for a moment. "What?"
Hermione attempted to explain. "Well the dementor kind of stood there and looked around... I mean, I think it did... and you..."
"You fell off your chair and started twitching," Dudley explained, still looking rather scared. "Thought you were having a fit or something."
"Neville and Draco weren't all that much better. Shaking like mad, the both of them," Blaise said, putting a comforting arm around Draco's shoulders. He was still deathly pale, staring down at his feet, huddled in on himself.
"Did anyone else...pass out though?" Harry asked, feeling embarrassed at the negative response from Pansy and Blaise.
"I felt strange, though, like I'd never be cheerful again," Ron said uncomfortably, his sister nodding emphatically next to him.
Neville was sitting by the window, watching the scenery go by with his arms wrapped tightly around himself. Harry suddenly remembered a part Hermione's explanation of dementors in first year. He knew Neville had some pretty horrible memories he might have been relieving, and moved closer, putting a hand on Neville's shoulder. Neville gave him a small smile and relaxed slightly.
No one said very much until the train came to a stop at Hogsmede station, eating their chocolate quietly. It made Harry feel surprisingly better.
Harry missed the Sorting, having been summoned by Professor Snape when he reached the entrance hall.
"An owl was sent ahead by Professor Lupin saying you were taken ill on the train," Professor Snape explained, sneering Lupin's name. They were nearing the hospital wing, and Harry felt a twinge of embarrassment and no small amount of curiosity about what Snape had against the new professor.
"I'm fine, sir."
"Be that as it may, Mr. Potter, Madam Pomfrey would like to see you." It wasn't sneered this time, but Professor Snape's tone was final.
Harry sighed in resignation, face still a bit red. He wasn't about to argue with Snape.
"Where'd you guys have to go?" Blaise asked when he arrived back in the Great Hall, just in time to miss the Sorting.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked. "It was just me, Madam Pomfrey wanted to see me."
"Well where'd Hermione go then?" Pansy asked. "She's only just now got back, we thought you were somewhere together."
Harry looked over at the Gryffindor table to see Hermione being questioned as well. He shrugged. "Not a clue."
Up at the head table, Professor Dumbledore was explaining about dementors being posted on the grounds.
"They're going to be here as well?" Blaise exclaimed quietly. "We'll never get anything done with those wretches around."
Harry and Draco nodded vehemently. Draco looked to be feeling much better now and had been since they'd gotten off the train, although Pansy was still keeping a close eye on him and Harry as well now that he was back from the hospital wing.
Dumbledore announced the first of two new teachers for the year, a very tall, very wide man that Harry was pretty sure he'd seen around the grounds before now.
"The gamekeeper is going to be teaching Care of Magical Creatures?" Draco asked with a slight sneer, confirming Harry's suspicions. "This ought to be good."
"Told you he was the new Defense teacher," Pansy whispered as Lupin stood for his lukewarm applause.
Harry clapped for both of them. "Look at Snape," he said, nudging Blaise and Draco. Snape was glaring venomously down the table at Lupin.
"What do you think Lupin did to him?" Pansy wondered.
"He sounded like he already knew Lupin earlier," Harry said, explaining about the walk up to the infirmary.
"He's probably just angry because he didn't get the Defense job again," Draco suggested dismissively. "I mean, he's always wanted it."
The conversation lapsed after that and turned to other things, and soon the feast was over and they were heading back to their dorms.
"So Sirius Black is going to try to break into Hogwarts this year," Blaise observed when they'd reached the common room. "I wonder what he's after."
Harry looked around at his friends and realized they were watching him. "You think he's after me," he stated flatly. Blaise raised an eyebrow.
"It only makes sense, Harry," Draco explained, Pansy nodding in agreement. "Why else would they put dementors around the entrances if they didn't think he was coming here? It's fairly obvious."
"Did you see Dumbledore?" Blaise asked them. "He didn't look at all happy. And who else would Black be after?"
Harry frowned. It did make sense, they were right. Black was most likely after him.
"I'm going to bed," he said abruptly. "It's been a long day." His friends stared after him as he headed toward the dormitories.
"He's right." Harry could hear Draco following him. "This day has been far too long."