Lupin looked perfectly willing to indulge their curiosity, which imdiately
earned him Ron's approval. Ron cast a subconscious glance toward the window,
where Sean was calmly eating a pumpkin pasty and reading his book.
Suddenly, the lights in the corridor and on the luggage racks flickered and
humd to life. The train continued its rhythmic clack-clack, rain drumd
against the glass, and the wind howled outside.
"Wait, are we nearly there?" Ron asked, leaning across Professor Lupin to peer
into the pitch-black night outside.
As if in answer, the train began to slow down.
"Brilliant!" Ron said. "You can get off with Sean then, Professor. Though I have
to say, it's ntal that he owes you wages... were you working at Fred and
George's joke shop?"
"I believe it wasn't a joke shop, but a bookstore," Lupin said mildly.
"A bookstore... you an Green's Bookshop? rlin's beard... does that an you
have the newest edition of Green's Notes?!" Ron gasped, his eyes wide.
"I certainly do." Lupin's eyes crinkled with a smile. He reached into his
battered but fascinating suitcase and pulled out a complete set of the Green
Series. The yellowed edges of the pages suggested he had read them more than
once.
"The Wizarding Magical Annals!" Hermione let out a low, excited cry. "Sean said
he hadn't finished it yet, but you have a manuscript..."
"Oh, yes. Mr. Green and I have shared a long correspondence regarding the
history of magic," Lupin nodded.
He watched the circle of young wizards surrounding him. It was clear they shared
a close bond with his employer. His smile grew warr. It seed he would find
his footing as a professor quite quickly with such a connection.
As the others crowded around Lupin, Ron, who was furthest from the manuscript,
couldn't see a thing. He let out a dejected sigh and stood up, moving toward the
window. "I'm starving. I can't wait for the feast..."
"We can't be there yet," Hermione said, looking up from a page of the
manuscript.
"Then why are we stopping?"
The train was slowing to a crawl. The sound of the wheels on the tracks faded,
replaced by the roar of wind and the lashing rain against the glass. Ron, being
closest to the door, stood up and peered into the corridor.
All along the carriage, heads were poking out of compartnts with curious
expressions. With a violent jolt, the train ca to a complete halt. A series of
loud bangs and clatters echoed from the distance—luggage falling from the racks.
Then, without warning, all the lights went out. They were plunged into total,
suffocating darkness.
"What's going on?" Ron's voice sounded thin in the dark.
"Ouch!" Hermione hissed. "Ron, that's my foot!"
"Sorry—I can't see a thing—"
"D'you think we've broken down?" Harry asked, fumbling his way back to his seat.
"Dunno..."
A harsh scratching sound filled the air. Harry saw Ron's blurry silhouette as he
wiped a patch of condensation off the window to look outside.
"There's sothing moving out there," Ron whispered. "I think... I think
soone's coming aboard..."
"Mr. Green—there you are—"
A low, pleasant voice broke the rising tension. It was Lupin. He had produced
his wand, its tip glowing with a soft light that illuminated the manuscript in
Sean's hands.
"Good to see you, Remus," Sean said, erging from the depths of his study with
a slight smile.
"I don't think Professor Lupin is here to demand back wages, Ron," Hermione
noted thoughtfully.
"Anyone can see that now, Hermione," Ron muttered, rolling his eyes. "Everyone
in the wizarding world wants a piece of Sean... did I tell you? A signed copy of
his notes sold for thirty Galleons last month!"
Ron began to gesticulate wildly, his voice full of its usual exaggeration. "Even
if they don't care about the bookstore, what Ministry official or 'Noble House'
doesn't want to know the man they're calling 'Hers Returned'?"
The group fell silent for a mont. They often forgot the sheer weight the na
Green carried in the wider world.
"You're right, Ron," Harry said suddenly. "But the train's still stopped..." He
looked at Sean, who was now engaged in a quiet conversation with Lupin. "Should
we check it out?"
"I'm in," Ron said, sliding the door open.
The students filed out into the narrow corridor, leaving Lupin and Sean alone in
the compartnt for a mont. In the darkness of the hallway, soone tripped
over Harry's legs.
"Ouch! Sorry! Who's that? Does anyone know what's happening? Bloody hell—"
"Neville, stay close to ," Harry said, reaching out to pull Neville up by his
robes.
"Harry? Is that you?"
"Yeah, it's . Keep moving—"
"Let's ask the driver," Hermione's voice suggested.
Harry felt Hermione brush past him. He heard another sliding door open, followed
by a thud and two more cries of pain.
"Who's that?" "Ginny?" "Hermione?" "What are you doing here, Ginny?" "Looking
for Ron—" "Right, well, get inside and sit down—" "Don't sit there!" Harry
yelled. "That's ! Ouch!"
Neville let out a pained yelp. The group eventually tumbled back into the
compartnt. It was now incredibly cramped—seven students and one professor.
"Get behind ."
A stern, commanding voice cut through the chaos. The group saw a flash of light
from the amulet on Sean's chest, and his silhouette seed to vanish from the
window seat.
They turned in surprise to find that Sean was already at the front of the group.
With a soft crack, a flickering fla erupted in Professor Lupin's hand. The
light illuminated his tired, grey face and his eyes, which were now sharp and
alert.
"Stay exactly where you are," he said hoarsely. He stood up, holding the handful
of fire before him.
But before Lupin could reach the door, it slid slowly open.
In the wavering light of Lupin's fla, a cloaked figure stood in the doorway.
It was tall, its head nearly brushing the ceiling. Its face was completely
hidden beneath a deep black hood.
Harry, standing right beside Sean, looked down. What he saw made his stomach do
a slow, sick flip.
A hand was protruding from the cloak—a greyish, slimy-looking hand, glistening
with a sickly sheen like sothing that had died and rotted in stagnant water.
The hand vanished as the creature seed to sense Harry's gaze, retracting into
the folds of the black fabric. Then, the thing—whatever it was—drew a long,
rattling breath. It sounded like a death rattle, as if it were trying to suck
more than just air from the room.
An intense, bone-deep cold swept over them.
Harry felt his breath catch in his throat. The cold seeped through his skin,
into his chest, and wrapped its frozen fingers around his very heart. His eyes
rolled back. His vision went white, then black.
He felt himself drowning in the cold. A rushing sound filled his ears like
rising water. Sothing was dragging him down, deeper and deeper.
Then, from a vast distance, he heard it—screaming. Terrible, terrified, pleading
screams. He wanted to help, he tried to move his arms, but his body refused to
obey.
A thick white mist swirled around him, spinning within his mind—
"BE GONE!"
A thunderous command shattered the silence.
A cat—brilliant, silver-white, and radiating a blinding light—bolted past Harry.
It leaped toward the cloaked figure with a majestic, fearless grace. The
Dentor recoiled, fleeing from the silver light like a rat from a cat.
"Harry! Harry! Are you alright?"
Soone was slapping Harry's face.
"Wh-what?" Harry opened his eyes. The lights overhead were bright again. The
floor was vibrating—the Hogwarts Express was moving.
He was lying on the floor. Ron and Justin were kneeling beside him. Behind them
stood Neville, Ginny, Hermione, and Professor Lupin, all watching him with
expressions of deep concern.
Harry felt wretched. As he pushed his glasses back up, he realized his face was
drenched in cold sweat.
A hand reached down to help him.
"You need to rest, Harry."
It was the sa voice that had shouted the command.
"Sean..." Harry's brain felt like mush, but he would never forget that tone.
Sean helped him back into his seat.
"You okay?" Ron asked nervously.
"Yeah," Harry whispered, glancing quickly at the door. The cloaked thing was
gone. "What happened? Where did—that thing go? And who was screaming?"
"No one was screaming, Harry," Ron said, looking even more worried.
Harry looked around the brightly lit compartnt. Ginny and Neville were both
deathly pale.
"But I heard it—"
CRACK.
The sound made them all jump. Professor Lupin was breaking an enormous slab of
chocolate into pieces.
"Here," he said, handing a particularly large chunk to Harry. "Eat this. It
helps."
Harry took the chocolate but didn't eat it. "What was that thing?" he asked
Sean.
"A Dentor," Sean replied, watching as Lupin distributed chocolate to the
others. "A guard of Azkaban."
Everyone stared at Sean in shock. Professor Lupin crumpled his chocolate wrapper
and stuffed it into his pocket.
"Eat," he repeated. "It really will help. If you'll excuse , I need to speak
with the driver..."
He stepped past Harry, pausing for a second beside Sean. "An exceptional
Patronus Charm, Mr. Green. A corporeal form at your age... truly remarkable."
"I'll go with you to speak with the driver," Sean said, glancing at the dark
corridor. "Not every compartnt has soone capable of casting a Patronus."
Lupin hesitated for a second. "A wise point. Co along then, Mr. Green."
"I'm coming too," Justin added.
"Mr. Finch-Fletchley, I'm not sure that's—" Lupin began.
"I'm going," Hermione said, standing up firmly.
Lupin looked between them and sighed. "Very well. Stay close."
The four of them disappeared into the corridor. Sean held his wand aloft as they
walked, his mind turning over the details of the encounter.
The Dentor had targeted Harry—or rather, its presence had affected him more
than anyone else. Even though it hadn't made a specific move against him, the
reaction was violent.
It's his soul, Sean thought. Even with the Horcrux gone, the shadow Voldemort
left on Harry's spirit for all those years hasn't fully faded.
"Are you sure you're alright, Harry?" Ron asked, watching his friend with
concern.
"I don't get it... what happened?" Harry wiped more sweat from his forehead.
"Well—that thing—the Dentor—it just stood there," Ron said, looking shaken. "I
couldn't see its face, but it was looking around. Then you... you... I thought
you were having a fit."
"You went rigid," Ginny added quietly, her voice full of awe. "You fell off your
seat and started twitching. And then Mr. Green stood up."
"He just pointed his wand and said 'Be Gone,'" Ginny continued. "This silver
thing shot out of his wand—a cat made of light—and the Dentor practically
scrambled to get away."
"It was terrifying," Neville said, his voice higher than usual. "Did you feel
how cold it got?"
"I felt weird," Ron said, shuddring. "Like I'd never be happy again..."
"But none of you... fell off your seats?" Harry asked awkwardly.
"No," Ron said, though he kept his eyes on Harry. "Ginny was shaking like a
leaf, though."
Harry couldn't understand it. He felt weak, his limbs trembling as if he were
recovering from a severe bout of dragon flu. He felt a pang of humiliation—why
was he the only one who had completely lost it?
The door slid open again. Sean and Lupin returned.
Lupin paused, looking around the compartnt with a small, reassuring smile. "I haven't poisoned the chocolate, you know..."
"Eat so, Harry," Sean said gently.
Harry finally took a bite. To his imnse surprise, a wave of warmth suddenly
flooded through his body, reaching down to his fingers and toes.
"We'll be at Hogwarts in ten minutes," Lupin announced.
"Dentors feed on human happiness," Sean explained. "Sweets act as a
counterbalance; they help stabilize the mind."
He reached into his Wizard's To and produced a steaming hot pumpkin pie.
"Would anyone like a piece?"
"I wouldn't say no," Justin grinned.
"Bliy, Sean, having an Undetectable Extension Charm on your pocket is the best thing ever," Ron said, helping Harry sit up straighter.
Hermione, however, was staring at Sean with a different focus. "Your Patronus...it was a cat, wasn't it?"
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