That Damn Weasley Charm II G.W

Part 3, Chapter 5- Dementors... Really?

About halfway into our trip, it starts to rain heavily outside, making the booth we are sitting in so much cosier. Emma and Walter are asleep, leaning on each other for support. Fred and Lee are writing down different predictions for the school year, many involving how badly Harry Potter is going to mess up the year for everyone else, or what quidditch incident is going to happen and how much hair Oliver is going to lose because of it.

George and I, on the other hand, spend the time listening off as many words that we can think of that start with the letter Z.

"Zipper"

"Zebra"

"Zesty."

"Zoo."

I hear a soft bang coming from somewhere else in the train. "What was that?" I look out the window into the dark rain.

"Violet that doesn't start with Z, so I win!" George says cheerily.

Fred looks over at us. "Fookin finally, that was so annoying to listen to."

I wave my hand to get them to shut up. "No seriously. What was that?" Everyone stays quiet. Suddenly there it is again, a faint bang coming from far away.

The train lurches, then slowly slows down. "We can't be there already, can we?" Lee says. He gets up from his spot, stepping on Fergus' tail in the process. Fergus hisses and jumps onto my lap to protect himself.

"Oi! Watch my fookin cat Jordan." I say to him stroking Fergus' soft fur.

"No, it's only five o'clock. We get to Hogwarts around eight usually." Fred points out. The train slows down more and more until it comes to a complete stop.

"Washappenin." Walter mumbles, he stretches really big, knocking Emmas head off his shoulder and waking her up too.

"We've stopped. But we aren't anywhere close to Hogwarts." Fred says, catching the two sleepy heads up on what they've missed.

The whole train shakes, Emma screams and grabs onto Walter for dear life. Then the lights go out. "What the fuck is happening?" Walter says clearly freaked out.

"I dunno, I can't see a damn thing." I say to everyone. I wipe some of the fog from the window, cup my hands around my eyes and peer out hoping to spot something. "It looks like someone's coming on board." I whisper.

As soon as I say that the temperature in the train drops like twenty degrees. Ice starts forming on the window. The booth door creaks open slowly. I grab ahold to what I assume is George's hand in fear. A huge skeleton like hand snakes into the room and forces the door the rest of the way open. My eyes can just make out a massive hooded figure standing in the doorway.

No one moves as far as I can tell, not even Fergus who is still curled up in my lap. The figure stays there for a moment before closing the door and moving down the hall. No one says anything for a long time after that.

"Okay I definitely didn't have 'creepy hooded thing stops the Hogwarts train' on my list of predictions." Fred whispers cutting the tension.

"What the fuck was that?" Emma hisses, you know its serious when Emma swears because she tries her hardest not to use that kind of language.

"I feel drained. Like it took my energy. Took the happiness right out of the room." I say in a very hushed tone.

Now I know I'm holding Georges hand because he kisses my knuckles and squeezes it hard. The lights come back on and a mixture of clapping and screams can be heard throughout the train. I look at all my friends faces. Each one of them is pale and full of fear and confusion.

"What the fuck was that?" Emma says again, clearly looking for an answer.

"I think it was a Dementor. One of the guards from Azkaban." Lee says quietly.

My heart beat picks up. Its because of my cousin that it came onto the train. Buy why would a Dementor think that Sirius Black would be on the Hogwarts Express. Unless... unless Sirius is looking for either me or Draco and that's why Uncle Lucius didn't want us to know too much about the situation. But why would he be looking for two of his cousins from a family that disowned him at the drop of a hat?

Then another thought came into my head. My mother and father are in Azkaban. Being watched by those things constantly. My whole body shakes at the thought. If they can make me feel so alone when I'm surrounded by some of the people that I care the most about in the world... how would it feel to be locked away with them. Tears start to well up in my eyes for people I can't even remember, but all of a sudden I can feel their pain, I can feel my connection to them.

"Violet?" George whispers to me snapping me back to reality. All my friends are looking at me with concern. "Are you okay? You sort of disappeared there for a second."

"Yeah, oh no I'm fine. Just thinking about things." I don't say anything else but by the look on George's face he's going to ask me about it when we are alone.

The rest of the ride to Hogwarts was uneventful, thank god for that. George helps me get Fergus back into his cage when we get close to the school and we all take turns changing into our robes. Emma, Walter, and I leave the boys and head back to the Slytherin car at the back of the train.

"Oh I'm sure nothing bad will happen this year Emma. The chamber of secrets was opened and closed, nothing bad is going to happen I'm sure of it." Emma says in a high pitched voice clearly mimicking someone.

"What are you on about?" Walter says, holding the door to the Slytherin car open for us.

Emma huffs. "My mother. She jinxed this whole year so I'll me miserable and agree to be transferred. I swear. I mean seriously? We aren't even at Hogwarts yet and there's a Dementor roaming around?"

Walter and I look at each other and shrug. She's got a point. Ever since Harry Potter started at school everything just went downhill. Well everything at school went downhill. My social life has never been better.

"And now we have to get off the train in the freezing cold rain!" Emma groans. The train slowly comes to a stop at Hogsmeade station and students scramble to get off.

Walter, Emma, and I stand in the middle of the car staring at each other for a second before silently agreeing to step off the train and into the miserable weather outside. The good thing about the Slytherin car, is that its at the end of the train, right beside the spot where the self-drawn carriages line up. I clutch Fergus' cage close to my chest and together we all race towards the nearest carriage. Thankfully, Dumbledore put coverings on the carriages this year so we don't have to sit in the rain all the way to the castle but it doesn't stop the wind and the cold air from getting to us.

I take a small tag from the box on the carriages seat and pull a quill from my pocket. I scribble down my name and my house and attach the tag to Fergus' cage so the house elves know where to bring him during our feast. Rumor has it that one of the seventh year Slytherins that were here when I was in first year forgot to put a tag on their very expensive pure blood toad and Hagrid just released it into the forbidden forest instead of bringing it to the common room.

I put Fergus down in the pile of pet cages in the front hall of the castle and the three of us walk into the great hall for the first feast of the year.

"Thank god they lit all the fires beforehand. I'm bloody freezing."