Chapter 9 - Train ride.

"Sweet Merlin in an underused kitchen, how long does it take for them to get ready?" Harry wondered out loud, waiting for the Weasley's to hurry up. So far, they were two for two in being late in leaving for the Hogwarts train, Harry couldn't help but wonder why they couldn't do this one thing on time, especially when the Weasley parents had made everyone pack and go sleep early the day before.

"It is getting a bit ridiculous," Hermione agreed whilst holding Crookshanks in her arms, keeping him away from Harry. She didn't really understand why Crookshanks, didn't like Harry, as far as she was aware Crookshanks had never acted so negatively towards anyone else, not even Ronald who hated him. "I do hope they speed up, we'll end up missing the train if they continue at this rate."

"We'll possibly miss the whole school year if they slow down, at least Hedwig should be there by the time we arrive."

"She doesn't like the train, does she?" Hermione asked.

"She's alright with it, I think it's more just being in a cage." Harry sighed, thinking back to his conversation yesterday with Mr Weasley. The man had taken him away from the rest of the Weasley family and had given him a soft warning about Sirius Black, though Harry couldn't help but notice that Mr Weasley had left out a lot of details like the fact that Sirius Black was a bastard who had betrayed Harry's parents and was after him.

'Did he not know or was that one of those 'keep it from him to protect him' deals?' Harry wondered.

'Most likely the second one,' Venom answered helpfully just as the Weasley's finally rushed down from upstairs.

"Right," Mr Weasley said upon spotting Harry and Hermione waiting for them. "you're both ready?" He asked.

"We were ready before most of you woke up," Harry answered honestly.

"Why are all the compartments full?" Ron complained as he, Harry and Hermione walked through the school train, searching for a place to sit.

"Well, Ronald, maybe if you had woken up and gotten ready when you were supposed to then maybe we would have been on time and could have found a great spot to sit in." Hermione gave Ron a light glare.

"It's not my fault!" Ron argued, his face turning slightly red. "Scabbers went missing, I was lucky to find him."

"Lucky?" Hermione scoffed, clearly of the belief that Scabbers would have been better left behind.

"Can you two not even wait until Hogwarts before you start fighting?" Harry asked in an exasperated tone, lately, Harry noticed that he got irritated a lot quicker, he couldn't help but wonder why. 'Venom, is that something to do with you?' Harry accused.

'I do feed on emotions, you know,' Venom replied while Hermione and Ron blushed slightly.

'No influencing my emotions.' Harry was well aware that in his mind he sounded like a parent telling their child that they couldn't have more sweets for the seventh time in a row.

'Spoilsport.'

"Let's just sit in here." Hermione opened a compartment door and stepped in with Harry and Ron following behind her.

"Who is he?" Ron wondered, staring at the man that was already occupying the compartment. He was sitting in the corner by the window, a blanket over his head as he leaned against the wall, clearly asleep.

"That is Professor Lupin," Hermione informed Ron as they put their stuff overhead.

"How do you know that?" Ron blinked.

"Honestly," Hermione sighed as they sat down. "it's on his suitcase, Ronald." She pointed to the suitcase placed above Professor Lupin's head.

"What do you think he teaches?" Ron asked, glancing at the man who honestly didn't look that impressive while sleeping in clothes that were clearly not new.

"Maybe defence against the dark arts," Hermione guessed. "we seem to get a new teacher for that subject every year."

"Maybe," Harry nodded. "hopefully he's a lot better than the last two."

"Yeah, though the bar isn't really all that high." Ron snorted. "Hopefully Hermione doesn't fancy this one as well."

"Shut up, Ron," Hermione gave him a mild glare. "I didn't fancy Professor Lockhart."

"Could have fooled me." Ron snorted once more and Harry couldn't help but chuckle at the look that Hermione was sending Ron. Just then the door opened to reveal Malfoy along with his two friends (bodyguards/henchmen) Crabbe and Goyle.

"Hello Potter," Malfoy drawled with an irritating smirk on his face. "I suppose that..."

'Nope!' Venom quickly blurted out before taking control of Harry's arm and using it to close the compartment door right in front of Malfoy. The symbiote was well aware of who Malfoy was thanks to Harry's memories and wanted nothing to do with him until Harry finally agreed to let him eat the boy. The bothersome blonde boy blinked in shock before his face turned red and he opened the door again.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Potter?!" He growled. "Did you really just..." Malfoy found himself cut off as Venom made Harry close the door again.

'Can you stop doing that?!' Harry mentally hissed as Draco opened the door again.

'Why?!' Venom made Harry close it before Draco could get out a single word.

'Because I want to do it, it looks fun.'

'Oh, fair enough.' Venom sounded apologetic, the door opened once more and this time Harry was fully in control of himself as he shut the door. Draco put his foot forwards in an attempt to stop the door, though that unfortunately just led to the door hitting him in the foot.

"Ow!" Draco hissed, pulling his foot back and pushing the door open. "What the hell is wrong with you, Potter? Are you thick?!"

'This guy is starting to piss me off.' Venom let Harry know.

'Join the club.' Harry sent back, having already had more than enough experiences with Malfoy to last a lifetime.

"Did you get this stupidity from these pathetic creatures you call friends or was it the other way around?" Malfoy continued. "Merlin, I hope Black just finishes you off and stops you from spreading your idiocy across the rest of the wizarding world."

'Hey, watch it, pal.' Venom warned despite the fact that Malfoy could not hear him.

"You must have gotten it from that stupid mudblood mother of yours," Malfoy glared at Harry. "a good thing she's dead, or I think that..."

'You son of a bitch!' Venom took control of Harry's body once more, a second later Harry's fist connected in-between Malfoy's legs, causing the boy's eyes to widen as he fell to the floor, curling up into a fetal position while everyone stared at Harry with shocked expressions on their face. Harry blinked at the sight of Malfoy on the floor before he gently reached for the door and closed it once more. He turned to his friends and saw Ron staring at him with wide eyes before he noticed a similar look on Hermione's face just before she shifted into an expression that quickly let Harry know that he was going to be on the receiving end of a very long lecture.

"It's still hard to wrap my head around," Ron said near the end of the train ride. "Sirius Black is after you! I mean...he's one of the scariest guys ever!"

"Second only to Voldemort, who has also tried to off me a few times," Harry shrugged. "my life is basically near-death experiences at this point."

'Harry,' Venom's voice poked through into his thoughts as the three continued talking, Harry lazily kept himself in the conversation, responding with short answers whenever he had a question directed at him, while he kept most of his attention focused on Venom. 'the man, Lupin, he's not sleeping.' Harry glanced at the man and noted that the man had shifted slightly before he looked away.

'Are you sure?' Harry asked.

'Positive,' Venom replied. 'and that's not all, the rat is concerning.'

'The rat? What? You mean Scabbers?' Harry stared at the less than impressive looking rat that was lying down comfortably while resting in Ron's lap but keeping his gaze on the man in the corner.

'Its emotions, they're all wrong.'

'Wrong? What do you mean wrong?'

'Its emotions are similar to a human's emotions,' Venom answered. 'At first, I thought that I was mistaken, but the whole train ride I have consistently detected emotions that are far too similar to human emotions to be a coincidence. His emotions spike up whenever Sirius Black is mentioned, he's scared.'

'Why would a rat be afraid of Sirius Black?' Harry looked away from Scabbers in case anybody caught him staring.

'I don't know, I think that...' Venom's voice cut off so abruptly that Harry couldn't help but wonder if the symbiote had suddenly left him.

'Venom? Venom, you there?' Harry asked.

'Trouble,' Venom's voice replied. 'there is trouble coming.'

'What are you...' Harry's thought was suddenly cut off as a wave of coldness crashed into him, he blinked and looked around the compartment and quickly realised that he wasn't just imagining it. The windows were slowly being covered in ice as a foggy mist filled the compartment, Ron and Hermione were shivering just like him. "What is that?" Harry asked just before hearing a loud noise come from outside of the train. "Something's moving out there." Harry echoed what Venom had told him in his head.

"What's going on?" Hermione asked, shaking as she did so.

"Not a clue," Harry answered honestly. "but whatever it is, I don't think it's good." A second later another loud noise was heard.

"It's on the train." Ron whimpered, holding Scabbers tightly in his hands, though the rat was too scared to even make a squeak.

'What's happening to me?' Harry asked as he felt a sudden change in his emotions, suddenly feeling like there would never ever be even a side of happiness in his life again.

'Whatever is coming is messing with your emotions!' Venom hissed, sounding very angry. 'Not on my watch!' Harry suddenly shivered as he felt his emotions return to normal, or at least normal for his standards.

'Thanks.' Harry mentally blurted out.

'You're welcome.' Harry heard Venom reply just before he felt a heavy presence making its way towards them.

Suddenly the door to the compartment opened and the first thing that Harry saw was a massive hand with long fingers, its shape made it look like a big skeleton's hand except it was covered in black and decaying flesh, the hand was attached to a skinny arm made of the same flesh and led up to a cloaked being that had its head covered by the very cloak that covered the rest of it body. It most likely didn't have legs given that nobody in the compartment could see any and that it was floating off the ground. Whatever it was, it wasn't human, even the sounds of its breathing sounded otherworldly. The creature locked its gaze onto Harry and moved its head closer to him.

As it neared, as Harry glimpsed under the hood and saw a decaying black skull that had no eyes, ears or anything else beyond a hole for a mouth, a voice pierced through his thoughts. Except that this time, it didn't belong to Venom.

'Harry!' He heard a woman's voice scream, a scream so loud that it blocked out the rest of the world. At least, it did until Harry suddenly found himself snapped back to reality and back to the creepy creature in front of him.

'Blast it!' Venom roared in his head, having used his control to make Harry grab and aim his wand. Harry quickly realised that it had been Venom who had snapped him out of whatever had just happened, he just as quickly realised that now was not the time to question him about it and that he would be better off doing what Venom suggested. With that thought, Harry fired off the first spell that he could think of.

"Incendio!" Harry bellowed, sending a fire blast at the dementor, a part of Harry hoped that fire would be helpful given the creatures apparent love of the cold. Harry could feel Venom's unease with the use of fire but ignored that in favour of noting the creatures unease as it let out a small shriek as it glided back slightly. The creature hissed and lunged forwards, only to be slammed away by a bright white light that knocked it out of the compartment.

"Sirius Black is not here," A soft but firm voice spoke. "leave this train, now." The light brightened and the rest of the compartment watched as the dementor flew away, the light slowly died down once the dementor had left, revealing Professor Lupin standing in the middle of the compartment as he lowered his wand. "Are you all okay?" He asked the trio of students before reaching into his suit pockets.

"W...what the bloody h...hell was that?!" Ron shivered.

"A dementor, a guard of Azkaban, they were on the train looking for Sirius Black," Lupin answered as he pulled out a chocolate bar and broke it into pieces before handing them out. "eat this. It's chocolate, it'll help with the effects." He added before looking at Harry. "That was quite impressive, Mr Potter, I've never seen your age stand up to a dementor like that." He praised, looking very surprised.

"I'm...unique." Harry breathed out before he took a bite of the chocolate, his stomach and Venom let him know how much they appreciated it. "Thanks," Harry added appreciatively. "that's some damn nice chocolate."

"I'm glad you like it, now are you sure that you're okay?" Professor Lupin asked in a concerned voice.

"Just peachy." Harry bit into his chocolate again before he quickly ate down the rest of it. "I'm fine, honestly, though if you don't mind, I'd like to go to the toilet." Without waiting for an answer, Harry got up and walked out of the compartment. "Wow, I didn't even make it to school before getting attacked this time." He realised.