A Different Story

Chapter 35

1st Of September, 1993

Helena woke Harry the next morning. Harry got dressed and was just persuading a disgruntled Hedwig to get back into her cage when Arcturus banged his way into the room, pulling a sweatshirt over his head and looking irritable.

"Come on, Harry, the sooner we get on the train, the better," Arcturus said. The two of them headed down to breakfast, where Ignotus was reading the front page of the Daily Prophet with a furrowed brow.

Harry and Arcturus sat down and started to eat breakfast "They still had not caught black." Ignotus said angrily, while reading the newspaper.

After everyone was finished eating breakfast, they all floo'd to platform 9¾. Helena started hugging her children's' "Harry,” said Ignotus quietly, "Come over here for a moment." He jerked his head towards a pillar, and Harry followed him behind it, leaving the others crowded around Helena. "There’s something I’ve got to tell you before you leave." Ignotus said in a tense voice.

"You know how Black escaped Azkaban, right?" Ignotus asked, as Harry nodded. "Listen, I want you to give me your word Harry. Swear to me you won't go looking for Black."

Harry stared, "What!" There was a loud whistle. Guards were walking along the train, slamming all the doors shut. "Promise me, Harry," said Ignotus, talking more quickly still, "that whatever happens —"

"Why would I go looking for someone I know wants to kill me?" said Harry blankly. "Swear to me that whatever you might hear —"

"Ignotus, quickly!" cried Helena

Steam was billowing from the train it had started to move. Harry ran to the compartment door and Damian threw it open and stood back to let him on. They leaned out of the window and waved at Ignotus and Helena until the train turned a corner and blocked them from view.

Harry, Arcturus, Iris, and Damian set off down the corridor. On the way, they found Hermione and Daphne. They all started looking for an empty compartment, but all were full except for the one at the very end of the train.

This had only one occupant, a man sitting fast asleep next to the window. They all checked the threshold. The Hogwarts Express was usually reserved for students, and they had never seen an adult there before, except for the witch who pushed the food cart. The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizard’s robes that had been darned in several places. He looked ill and exhausted. Though quite young, his light brown hair was flecked with gray.

"Who do you think he is?" Arcturus asked as they sat down and slid the door shut, taking the seats farthest away from the window. "Professor R. J. Lupin." whispered Hermione at once. "How’d you know that?" Harry asked.
"It’s written on his case," Daphne answered for Hermione, pointing at the luggage rack over the man’s head, where there was a small, battered case held together with a large quantity of neatly knotted string. The name Professor R. J. Lupin was stamped across one corner in peeling letters.

Arcturus nodded and then his head turned towards Harry, "What did dad tell you on the platform?" Harry explained the warning Ignotus had just given him. When he’d finished, Damian looked stunned, and Hermione had her hands over her mouth. She finally lowered them to say, "Sirius Black escaped to come after you? Oh, Harry, you’ll have to be really, really careful. Don’t go looking for trouble, Harry"

"I don’t go looking for trouble," said Harry, nettled. "Trouble usually finds me." Hermione was taking the news worse than Harry had expected. Hermione seemed to be much more frightened of Black than he was.

"No one knows how he got out of Azkaban," Arcturus said with a sneer. "No one’s ever done it before. And he was a top-security prisoner too."

After a while, 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, Professor Lupin slept.

"Why are we stopping? we can’t be there yet," said Hermione, checking her watch. 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.

Professor Lupin 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. Professor Lupin 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 in a hoarse voice, 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 Lupin 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 the 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. All of his friends were kneeling next to him, and above them he could see Professor Lupin watching. Harry felt very sick; when he put his hand up to push his glasses back on, he felt cold sweat on his face.

Damian and Daphne heaved him back onto his seat. "Are you okay?" Damian asked nervously.

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

"No one screamed," Damian said, more nervously. Harry looked around the bright compartment. Arcturus and Hermione 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 Lupin. "A dementor," said Lupin, who was now giving chocolate to everyone else. "One of the Dementors of Azkaban was looking for Sirius Black."

Everyone stared at him. Professor Lupin 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.

Harry ate the chocolate as he had read about dementors in his family library and knew that chocolate could help.