Chapter Five
Harry woke a few moments later, lying on the floor of the train which was slowly beginning to move again.
"Up you come Harry." Remus said, half lifting him onto the seat and sitting down opposite.
Harry blinked a few times at the white faces around him. Astoria was crying in the corner, wrapped in Daphne's shaking arms.
"Wh...what happened?" Harry mumbled, feeling dangerously close to passing out again.
"Dementors." Remus shook his head, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have left."
"It's a good job you can back when you did." Draco said, "That thing was almost on top of Harry. Thank you for getting rid of it."
Harry noticed Draco was speaking in a crisp, formal voice, the way he always did when he was scared or upset. Every face in the compartment was stark white and wide eyes; apart from Remus who seemed relatively calm.
"I don't understand." Harry shook his head, he could still hear the scream, like it was echoing around his skull, "They live at Azkaban."
Remus nodded, "Yes and apparently some genius at the ministry thought they would be a good security measure for Hogwarts."
"That's insane." Hermione said, shaking her head in disbelief, "That thing… it made me feel like I was never going to be happy, never going to even smile again. How can they be around the school?"
"I don't know Miss Granger." Remus said, "Now eat this, all of you and I need to go talk to the driver, I'll only be a minute. Harry are you going to be all right?"
Harry nodded and took the chocolate that Remus was handing out around the students.
"Yeah I'll be fine." He said, sounding much braver than he felt.
Remus patted him on the arm and gave him the leftover half a bar of chocolate before leaving them.
"I never want to go through that again." Pansy whispered.
"Did you pass out too?" Harry asked, feeling selfishly hopeful that he wasn't the only one. Now he was feeling less empty and sad he was starting to feel rather embarrassed at passing out in front of his friends.
"No I just felt cold. Like nothing would ever be all right again. Everything was just… wrong." Pansy shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself.
Remus returned quickly and distracted them all with more chocolate and a loud game of twenty-questions. Soon the train was pulling into the station and they all climbed off. Harry could see, and feel, more Dementors in the distance.
"You guys go on." Daphne told them, "I want to drop Astoria off with Hagrid."
They waved goodbye as the Greengrass girls walked quickly towards the towering figure of Hagrid, who looked over and waved, he was also looking a little uneasy. The rest of the little group reached the carriages and bundled themselves inside as soon as possible.
They were silent on the way up to the castle; Remus fell asleep again, his gentle snore the only sound. As they went through the gates the air grew cold again, the Dementors were just outside. Harry looked over and saw Draco and Pansy, clutching at one another's hands.
"What is going on with you two?" He asked, if only to brake the silence.
Pansy blushed, "We sort of… well over the summer we decided that we like spending time together and well..."
"I asked her to go out with me." Draco said, looking rather smug, "And she said yes."
"Wow." Harry said, slightly stunned.
"That's great you two." Hermione grinned.
Neville nodded in agreement. They pulled up to the castle and got out, walking with the crowd of students into the castle.
"Miss Granger, Mr Potter could have a word?" Professor McGonagall said, waiting for them at the large entrance.
"I've literally just got here. What could have possibly done wrong?" Harry huffed, following McGonagall to her office.
"Come in Mr Potter, I'll just be a moment Miss Granger." Professor McGonagall said, gesturing to a seat just outside her office door.
Hermione gave him a weak smile and sat down. Harry went into the cosy office and took a seat.
"I don't want to keep you long Mr Potter but one of my students told me about the Dementor attack on the train and I was… concerned."
"Umm OK?" Harry said, not really sure what the correct answer was, "Thank you?"
"Dementors are cruel creatures Potter, they go after those who's memories are worse and that unfortunately includes you. You'd be best to stay away from them as much as you possibly can. I just wanted to make sure you were all right." McGonagall told him. "Now run along. Professor Dumbledore will have a more general warning to give all the students and I don't want you to miss it."
"What about Hermione?" Harry asked, standing up to leave.
"Miss Granger has the sense not to get herself into trouble." Professor McGonagall told him flatly, shooing him out her office.
Harry glared at her as the door closed behind Hermione going into the office and wondered what she was summon for. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and moved quickly to the great hall, slipping in just as the sorting hat finished it's song.
"And so, and so that is what makes Hogwarts great!"
Harry joined in the applause and took his seat next to Daphne; Draco and Pansy sitting opposite. Professor Snape stepped forward with a long scroll of names and began to read out the names. The sorting went on much as usual.
"Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Ravenclaw, Slytherin."
Harry raised himself up in his seat as, "Greengrass, Astoria." was called. The worn and patched old hat sat on her head for a few minutes, Daphne growing more and more nervous beside him, before the hat finally shouted out,
"Slytherin!"
Daphne jumped to her feet and started clapping loudly as her sister ran over for a hug and sat down with them.
A few more names went by before there was another name that caught his attention,
"Lestrange, Gemini."
A pale faced girl with long jet black, messy curls stepped forwards. She didn't look the least bit nervous or concerned with the sorting as most students were. Her heavily lidded, shiny brown eyes looked over the room judgingly before the hat covered them.
"Is that her?" Daphne whispered to Draco, all four of them were straining to get a better look.
Draco nodded, "Yep, My darling cousin."
"I've never even seen them, let alone met them." Pansy said, "She's quite pretty. Looks a lot like her mother."
Harry was looking at the girl, he'd forgotten they were even coming this year. As Pansy had said, they'd never even met the Lestrange children before so it was strange to see them here, like that many eyes on them would make them crumble to dust.
The sorting hat was barely on her head before it shouted Slytherin. She waited for Snape to remove the hat before walking calmly over to the Slytherin table and sitting down, apart from all the other students.
"Hi." Draco said, "Glad to be in Slytherin?"
Gemini looked over him with superiority, "Where else would I be cousin?" she said calmly and waved her hand as if to dismiss him.
"Lestrange, Rodolphus." Snape called out.
Harry saw a boy with shoulder length black hair, more wavy, than curly like his sister's, move towards the hat. He had the same calmness in his movements and the same brown shiny eyes the pierced into you. He was also sorted quickly into Slytherin and sat with Gemini, ignoring the other students.
"Uncle Rod wont be pleased." Draco said shaking his head and playing with his fork.
"Why? Wouldn't he want them both in Slytherin?" Daphne asked.
"I mean that Gemini went first." Draco explained, "He's very proud of his oldest child being a son. You'd never think there was only twenty-seven minutes between them they way he treats them."
Harry was about to ask more questions when Dumbledore stepped forward and cleared his throat. The sorting hat had been cleared away and Snape was sitting back at his normal seat.
"Welcome all of you to the start of a new year, I know you all, like myself, are waiting to dig into our marvellous feast but first I must steal a few minutes of your time. Firstly; our excellent caretaker Mr Filtch would like me to remind you that magic is not to be used in the corridors between classes and that the Forbidden Forest is strictly out of bounds to all students. Next I would like to introduce two new teachers firstly Professor R. J. Lupin has graciously taken over as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Second our very own Rubeus Hargid has taken the role of Care of Magical Creatures Professor as Professor Kettleburn has retired to spend more time with his remaining limbs. I am sure you will all make them feel most welcome."
There was a short round of applause. Hagrid beamed down at them from his seat, his cheeks red from smiling so much.
Dumbledore raised his hands and the clapping died down,
"Now for a most serious matter which I pray you will all listen to. As I am sure you will have noticed this year the school is playing host to a few of the Dementors of Azkaban. This is a ministry decision that has been put in place for your safety. However Dementors know not friend or foe, they will feed on anyone who crossed their path. They can see through spell, potions and even invisibility cloaks. Do not anger them, Dementors know no kindness or forgiveness. Just remember happiness can always be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to switch on the light."
Dumbledore paused to let the students take in this information before continuing.
"Now lets all enjoy our wonderful feast shall we?" He clapped his hands once and the plates filled with food.