The journey to King's Cross was very uneventful, even with the ever exuberant Sirius Black driving. After he and Remus had returned to Grimmauld Place, Sirius had expanded his recently purchased car. Even then, he was correct when he had said that it was a tight squeeze. The back seat could have comfortably fit five people with the expansion charm but had seven people seated on it. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley sat comfortable with Ginny in the passenger side of the front seat. Harry was sitting between Ben and Hermione, who herself was seated by the door. Remus had already gone to King's Cross, as the full moon was tonight, and even though he wasn't exactly a werewolf anymore, Harry knew that he still turned into a wolf in a forced and painful transformation. They reached King's Cross with twenty minutes to spare; Sirius helping Mr. and Mrs. Weasley to find trolleys.

Sirius kept close to Harry and Ben all the way to the station. Harry guessed that he was making sure that, in the event that Dolohov appeared, he could keep the pair safe.

"We should go in small groups," Mr. Weasley said. Sirius nodded in agreement before guiding Harry and Ben towards the barrier.

The trio leaned lightly against the barrier, checking to make sure no Muggles were looking at them, before slipping through.

"I don't need to tell you to not go looking for trouble or to stay safe, do I?" Sirius asked once they were on the other side and out of the way.

"No," the pair said.

"Good."

Percy and Ginny suddenly appeared out of the barrier, panting. It appeared as though they ran through the barrier.

"Ah, there's Penelope!" Percy said, smoothing his hair and turning pink. Ginny caught Harry's eye, and they both turned away to hide their laughter as Percy strode over to his curly-haired girlfriend with his chest thrown out so she couldn't miss his shiny badge. Ben was looking at the pair with amusement and wistfulness.

Once the remaining Weasleys and Hermione had joined them, Harry and Ron led the way to the end of the train, to a carriage that looked quite pair loaded the trunks onto it, stowed Hedwig and Crookshanks in the luggage rack, the went outside to say good-bye to the adults.

Mrs. Weasley kissed all her children, then Hermione, and, finally, Harry. He was embarrassed, but really quite pleased, when she gave him an extra hug.

"Do take care, won't you Harry?" she said as she straightened up, her eyes oddly bright. Then she opened her enormous handbag and said, "I've made you all sandwiches. Here you are, Ron… no, they're not corned beef… Fred? Where's Fred? Here you are dear…"

Harry turned and shook Mr. Weasley's hand, as he spoke, "Stay safe."

Ben had just disentangled from Sirius, a scrap of parchment in his hand as Harry made his way over to give Sirius a hug. Sirius wrapped his arms around Harry. Sirius whispered into his ear, "Have a good year. The Ministry may think that Dolohov is after you, but I don't think that's the case. Still, stay safe and don't take any unnecessary actions, alright?"

Harry nodded into Sirius's shoulder. Waving good-bye one last time, the group boarded the train. Ben took the lead from there. "Come on, let's find Remus. he's probably going to be near the back of the train."

Ben led Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny through the corridor, looking for Remus Lupin. As Ben predicted, he was near the end of the train in an otherwise empty cabin. Across from him was a cabin with Tracey, Daphne, and Luna seated inside.

"Well," Ben said, a sad smile upon his lips. "This is where we part for now. Ginny, would you prefer to sit with them or with us?"

Ginny looked at Harry for a moment, a blush blooming on her face before responding. "I'll sit with you."

With that the group split between the two cabins with Harry, Ron, and Hermione sitting with an asleep Remus. With that, the trio started discussing the upcoming school year, as well as what they did during the summer. At one o'clock the plump witch with the food cart arrived at the compartment door.

"D'you think we should wake him up?" Ron asked awkwardly, nodding towards Remus. "He looks like he could do with some food."

Hermione approached Remus cautiously.

"Er - Professor?" she said. "Excuse me - Professor?"

He didn't move.

"Don't worry, dear," said the witch, as she handed a large stack of cauldron cakes. "If he's hungry when he wakes, I'll be up front with the driver."

"I suppose he is asleep?" said Ron quietly, as the witch slid the compartment door closed. "I mean - he hasn't died, has he?"

"No, no, he's breathing," whispered Hermione, taking the cauldron cake Harry passed her.

"Probably a good thing," Harry muttered. When Ron and Hermione looked to him questioningly, he continued. "He looks tired."

He might not be very good company right now, but Remus's presence in their compartment had its uses. Mid-afternoon, just as it had started to rain, blurring the rolling hills outside the window, they heard footsteps outside in the corridor again, and their three least favorite people appeared at the door: Draco Malfoy, flanked by his cronies, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.

Draco Malfoy and Harry had been enemies ever since they had met on their very first journey to Hogwarts. Malfoy, who had a pale, pointed, sneering face, was in Slytherin house; he played Seeker on the Slytherin Quidditch team, the same position that Harry played on the Gryffindor team. Crabbe and Goyle seemed to exist to do Malfoy's bidding. They were both wide and muscley; Crabbe was taller, with a pudding-bowl haircut and a very thick neck; Goyle had short, bristly hair and long, gorilla arms.

"Well, look who it is," said Malfoy in his usual lazy drawl, pulling open the compartment door. "Potty and the Weasel."

Crabbe and Goyle chuckled trollishly.

"I heard your father finally got his hands on some gold this summer, Weasley," said Malfoy. "Did your mother die of shock?"

Ron stood up so quickly he knocked Crookshanks's basket to the floor. Remus gave a snort.

"Who's that?" said Malfoy, taking an automatic step backward as he spotted Remus.

"New teacher," said Harry, who got to his feet, too, in case he needed to hold Ron back. "What were you saying, Malfoy?"

Malfoy's pale eyes narrowed; he wasn't fool enough to pick a fight right under a teacher's nose.

"C'mon," he muttered resentfully to Crabbe and Goyle, and they disappeared.

Harry and Ron sat down again, Ron massaging his knuckles.

"I'm not going to take any crap from Malfoy this year," he said angrily. "I mean it. If he makes one more crack about my family, I'm going to get hold of his head and -"

Ron made a violent gesture in midair.

"Ron," hissed Hermione, pointing at Remus, "be careful…"

But Remus was still fast asleep.

The rain thickened as the train sped yet farther north; the windows were now a solid, shimmering gray, which gradually darkened until lanterns flickered into life all along the corridors and over the luggage racks. The train rattled, the rain hammered, the wind roared, but still, Remus slept.

"We must be nearly there," said Ron, leaning forward to look past Remus at the now completely black window.

The words had hardly left him when the train started to slow down.

"Great," said Ron, getting up and walking carefully past Remus to try and see outside.

"I'm starving. I want to get to the feast…"

"We can't be there yet," said Hermione, checking her watch.

"So why're we stopping?"

The train was getting slower and slower. As the noise of the pistons fell away, the wind and rain sounded louder than ever against the windows.

Harry, who was nearest the door, got up to look into the corridor. All along the carriage, heads were sticking curiously out of their compartments.

The train came to a stop with a jolt, and distant thuds and bangs told them that luggage had fallen out of the racks. Then, without warning, all the lamps went out and they were plunged into total darkness.

"What's going on?" said Ron's voice from behind Harry.

"Ouch!" gasped Hermione. "Ron, that was my foot!"

Harry felt his way back to his seat.

"D'you think we've broken down?"

"Dunno…"

There was a squeaking sound, and Harry saw the dim black outline of Ron, wiping a patch clean on the window and peering out.

"There's something moving out there," Ron said. "I think people are coming aboard…"

The compartment door suddenly opened and someone fell painfully over Harry's legs.

"Sorry! D'you know what's going on? Ouch! Sorry -"

"Hullo, Neville," said Harry, feeling around in the dark and pulling Neville up by his cloak.

"Harry? Is that you? What's happening?"

"No idea! Sit down -"

There was a loud hissing and a yelp of pain; Neville had tried to sit on Crookshanks.

"I'm going to go and ask the driver what's going on," came Hermione's voice. Harry felt her pass him, heard the door slide open again, and then a thud and two loud squeals of pain.

"Who's that?"

"Who's that?"

"Ginny?"

"Hermione?"

"What are you doing?"

"I was checking on you lot -"

"Come in and sit down -"

"Not here!" said Harry hurriedly. "I'm here!"

"Ouch!" said Neville.

"Quiet!" said Remus suddenly.

Remus appeared to have woken up at last. Harry could hear movements in his corner.

None of them spoke.

There was a soft, crackling noise, and a shivering light filled the compartment. Remus appeared to be holding a handful of flames. They illuminated his tired, gray face, but his eyes looked alert and wary.

"Stay where you are." he said a hoarse voice, as he had before, and he got slowly to his feet with his handful of fire held out in front of him.

But the door slid slowly open before Remus could reach it.

Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the shivering flames in Lupin's hand, was a cloaked figure that towered to the ceiling. Its face was completely hidden beneath its hood. Harry's eyes darted downward, and what he saw made his stomach contract. There was a hand protruding from the cloak and it was glistening, grayish, slimy-looking, and scabbed, like something dead that had decayed in water…

But it was visible only for a split second. As though the creature beneath the cloak sensed Harry's gaze, the hand was suddenly withdrawn into the folds of its black cloak.

And then the thing beneath the hood, whatever it was, drew a long, slow, rattling breath, as though it were trying to suck something more than air from its surroundings.

An intense cold swept over them all. Harry felt his own breath catch in his chest. The cold went deeper than his skin. It was inside his chest, it was inside his very heart…

Harry's eyes rolled up into his head. He couldn't see. He was drowning in cold. There was a rushing in his ears as though of water. He was being dragged downward, the roaring growing louder…

And then, from far away, he heard screaming, terrible, terrified, pleading screams. He wanted to help whoever it was, he tried to move his arms, but couldn't… a thick white fog was swirling around him, inside him -

"Harry! Harry! Are you all right?"

Someone was slapping his face.

"W-what?"

Harry opened his eyes; there were lanterns above him, and the floor was shaking — the

Hogwarts Express was moving again and the lights had come back on. He seemed to have slid out of his seat onto the floor. Ron and Hermione were kneeling next to him, and above them he could see Neville and Remus watching. Harry felt very sick; when he put up his hand to push his glasses back on, he felt cold sweat on his face.

Ron and Hermione heaved him back onto his seat.

"Are you okay?" Ron asked nervously.

"Yeah," said Harry, looking quickly toward the door. The hooded creature had vanished. "What happened? Where's that - that thing? Who screamed?"

"No one screamed," said Ron, more nervously still.

Harry looked around the bright compartment. Ginny and Neville looked back at him, both very pale.

"But I heard screaming -"

A loud snap made them all jump. Professor Lupin was breaking an enormous slab of chocolate into pieces.

"Here," he said to Harry, handing him a particularly large piece. "Eat it. It'll help."

Harry took the chocolate but didn't eat it.

"What was that thing?" he asked Remus.

"A Dementor," said Remus, who was now giving chocolate to everyone else. "One of the Dementors of Azkaban."

Everyone stared at him. Remus crumpled up the empty chocolate wrapper and put it in his pocket.

"Eat," he repeated. "It'll help. I need to speak to the driver, excuse me…"

He strolled past Harry and disappeared into the corridor.

"Are you sure you're okay, Harry?" said Hermione, watching Harry anxiously.

"I don't get it… what happened?" said Harry, wiping more sweat off his face.

"Well - that thing - the Dementor - stood there and looked around (I mean, I think it did, I couldn't see its face) - and you - you -"

"I thought you were having a fit or something," said Ron, who still looked scared. "You went sort of rigid and fell out of your seat and started twitching -"

"And Rem - er, we really should be calling him Professor Lupin stepped over you, and walked toward the Dementor, and pulled out his wand," said Hermione, "and he said, 'None of us is hiding Antonin Dolohov under our cloaks. Go.'But the Dementor didn't move, so Lupin muttered something, and a silvery thing shot out of his wand at it, and it turned around and sort of glided away…"

"It was horrible," said Neville, in a higher voice than usual. "Did you feel how cold it got when it came in?"

"I felt weird," said Ron, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably. "Like I'd never be cheerful again…"

Ginny, who was huddled in her corner looking nearly as bad as Harry felt, gave a small sob; Hermione went over and put a comforting arm around her. Harry noticed that Ben, while being fussed over in his cabin, looked very much like Ginny.

"But didn't any of you - fall off your seats?" said Harry awkwardly.

"No," said Ron, looking anxiously at Harry again. "Ginny was shaking like mad, though…"

Harry didn't understand. He felt weak and shivery, as though he were recovering from a bad bout of flu; he also felt the beginnings of shame. Why had he gone to pieces like that, when no one else had?

Remus had come back. He paused as he entered, looked around, and said, with a small smile, "I haven't poisoned that chocolate, you know…"

Harry took a bite and to his great surprise felt warmth spread suddenly to the tips of his fingers and toes.

"We'll be at Hogwarts in ten minutes," said Professor Lupin. "Are you all right, Harry?"

"Fine," he muttered, embarrassed.

They didn't talk much during the remainder of the journey. At long last, the train stopped at Hogsmeade station, and there was a great scramble to get outside; owls hooted, cats meowed,

and Neville's pet toad croaked loudly from under his hat. It was freezing on the tiny platform;

rain was driving down in icy sheets.

"Firs' years this way!" called a familiar voice. Harry, Ron, and Hermione turned and saw the gigantic outline of Hagrid at the other end of the platform, beckoning the terrified-looking new students forward for their traditional journey across the lake.

"All right, you three?" Hagrid yelled over the heads of the crowd. They waved at him, but had no chance to speak to him because the mass of people around them was shunting them away along the platform. Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed the rest of the school along the platform and out onto a rough mud track, where at least a hundred stagecoaches awaited the remaining students, just like last year. Harry noticed that Ben had stopped and stared at the carriages, wide eyed, before Luna took his hand and whispered something to him. Afterwards, he got into the carriage and, like Harry, rode up to the school.

AN: I'd first like to apologize about missing the deadline, writing is not something that I naturally do. Secondly, the introduction of Remus as Professor to the school and other subsequent conversations can be filled out by rereading the final bits of Chapter 5 of the Prisoner of Azkaban. Finally, I do hope that you are enjoying this and I will try harder to keep to my every other weekend schedule.

Uploaded Mar. 10th, 2021