“The train will leave in ten minutes.  All Hogwarts students please get your luggage on board.”

Harry tugged his trunk off of the trolley he had wheeled it in on, dragging it towards the train.  The familiar weight of Jardin settled on his shoulder and the raven tugged at his hair, which Mrs. Weasley had insisted on cutting, as it was ‘ridiculously long’.  So now it was back to just gracing his shoulders, which Mrs. Weasley had said afterwards made him look unnervingly like a young Severus Snape.  Niamh had snorted when she had heard that, spraying milk out her nose.

Harry sighed and pulled his trunk onto the train, searching for an empty car.  The only one he found was occupied by the prone figure of a man with light brown hair flecked with gray.  Harry frowned at him for a moment then crept silently into the cab, muttering to Jardin and Hedwig to keep quiet.  Just as he dug out one of the books he had snitched from his father’s collection (a tome on the dark arts that he had cast an illusion over to make it appear as a potions book) Niamh came bounding into the car.

“Oh hap…”

Harry cut her off with a sharp Hush! and a nod towards the sleeping man.  She blinked then nodded and sat beside him, shoving her trunk under the seat.  A moment later Ginny entered, much more subdued than Niamh, and squeezed herself into the space between Harry and Niamh.  Harry simply glanced at the two girls over his book, stretched out his long legs, and read.  He didn’t look up until the cab door opened again.

“C’mon, Ron, there’s room in here.”

Harry looked up just as Hermione entered the car, followed by Ron, who glanced nervously at Harry.  Mika hovered by the door for a moment, frowning, then muttered something and walked off.  A few minutes later he returned and sat on the floor.

“Who’s that?” asked the white-haired boy after a few moments of silence.

“R. J. Lupin,” replied Harry lazily.

“How do you know?”

Harry simply pointed at the battered bag under the man’s arm.  The letters ‘R. J. Lupin’ were stitched into it.

“Oh,” said Mika dumbly.

Harry rolled his eyes and turned back to his book.

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/

A few hours later Harry looked up.  He had felt….something.

Closing the book, he sat up, looking at Hermione, who was the only other person in the car that was awake.  She stared back at him then looked out the window.

“We stopped,” she said simply.

Harry frowned and looked over at the man before turning back to the cab door.  He was getting a bad feeling…

And then the lights went out.

“What the…?”

“What’s going on?”

“Who turned out the lights?”

“How should I know?”

“Quiet!”

Light sprang up in the tiny room, illuminating the pale, drawn face of the older man.  But his gray eyes were bright and alert.  He looked at all of them and said, “Stay here.”  As he rose and reached for the door of the cab, it opened.

And Harry felt a chill like nothing he had ever felt before enter the cab.

A tall, hooded figure slid inside and all the warmth seemed to be sucked away.  The creature let out a rattling breath and Harry saw a pale, scabbed gray hand slid out from under its ragged black robes.  It turned towards him and that’s when it happened.

It started out softly.  The screams.  His screams.  An image flashed before his eyes as he saw his first beating from Argil.  God, how he had screamed.

Then it changed.

He heard more screams.  But they weren’t his.  They were….a woman’s.

Then he was falling….falling in the swirling white mist….

“Harry!  Harry!”

Crack!

Someone slapped him hard, snapping his head to the side.  As they did it a second time, he blinked.  By the time their hand came towards him again he was aware enough to reach up and grab it.  Looking up, he glared at Niamh.

“Do ye mind?”

Niamh gave him a rather strained smile and deadpanned, “You’re alive.”

Harry rolled his eyes and said blandly, “Yer observation skills amaze me.  Now, GEROFF!!”  He shoved her backwards off of him, which sent her and Mika sprawling onto the floor.

“Thank you sooo much, Potter,” grumbled Mika from under Niamh.

Harry smirked and said, “Yer welcome, Davids.”

Suddenly Professor Lupin reappeared in the cab, a large chocolate bar in his hand.  He broke it into pieces and handed one to each of them; the biggest of which he gave to Harry.

“You should eat that.”

Harry took the chocolate, only just noticing that his hand was shaking.  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before biting into the chocolate.  Warmth spread through his slightly shivering body.

“Did anyone else ‘ear?”

“Hear what?” asked Hermione.

“The screams,” replied Harry softly.

Niamh arched her eyebrows while Hermione shook her head.  Mika said, “I didn’t hear anything.  It just got cold and you slid down to the floor.  Gin was shaking like mad, too.”

Harry looked up at the red-haired girl and saw her still shivering slightly, the piece of chocolate Professor Lupin had given her beginning to melt in her hand.  He eased himself up beside her and gave her a gentle poke.  She jumped and stared at him, eyes seeming to be staring through him.

“No…please…don’t….please, Tom.”

Harry’s eyebrows flew up into his hair and he quickly shook the girl.

“Gin.  Gin, snap out o’ it.”

Ginny jumped and stared at him again.  This time her brown eyes were bright and he could see himself reflected in them.

“Oh, God….  What was that?”

“A dementor,” said Professor Lupin.  “A dementor of Azkaban.”

“Dementor,” breathed Harry.  He suddenly noticed that Jardin was lying on the floor in a heap.

“Jar!”

Harry swept the limp bundle up into his arms, pushing up his sleeve to check on Hedwig.  Professor Lupin froze when he saw the pale scars up and down the boy’s arm.  The teen wasn’t paying any attention but his other friends thought he had frozen because of the snake curled limply around Harry’s thin wrist.

“Jar?  Jar?”

Jar, wake up.

The raven stirred weakly and his eyes opened so a pale slit of gold showed.

< Harry? >

Harry’s face broke into a smile.

You’re okay.

Jardin rustled a wing and blinked, eyes steadily opened wider.  Niamh snaked forward a hand and brushed them against the raven’s inky feathers.

You’re not dead.

Jardin gave a throaty laugh in their heads, his eyes glittering with laughter.

< My dear lady, as I told you when we met, the only thing that can kill my kind is Avada Kedavra. >

For which I am glad, said Harry, grinning mentally and physically.  He then turned his attention to Hedwig, who was shivering about his wrist.

“Hed?”

The black snake shivered more but managed a feeble, “Harry?”

Harry handed the recovering Jardin to Niamh, ignoring everyone else in the car as he unwound Hedwig’s coils from his wrist and held her up.  The snake shivered and curled her body up around his hand, her wedge-shaped head turning to rest on his knuckles.  He hissed in a soft voice, “Hedwig?”

Meanwhile, the other people in the car watched this in either awe or confusion.  Professor Lupin was staring openly at Harry.  His mouth moved to silently say, “Parseltongue.”  Niamh cradled Jardin in her arms, watching Harry.  Ginny did as well, listening as he murmured to the snake in Parseltongue.  It sounded nothing as it had the year before at the Dueling Club or from when she could remember him unconsciously cursing in the language.  Then it had sounded harsh and…well, evil.  Now it was almost….soothing.  The expressions on Mika, Hermione, and Ron’s faces seemed to echo her thoughts.

“Harry…” hissed Hedwig feebly, cracking open one eye.  “Ssso cold.”

Harry blinked and breathed, “The dementor.  It affected ye?”

Hedwig closed her eyes and shivered again, whispering, “Cold…”

Harry looked sympathetically at the tiny garden snake for a moment before uncurling her from his hand.  He looked up at Professor Lupin and asked, “Will the chocolate help ‘er?”

Gray eyes blinked and Lupin gave a little shake.  He then nodded and said, “I suppose it will.”

Harry’s eyes flickered at that then he broke off a tiny piece of chocolate from the unfinished slab resting on his leg.  He held it out to the snake and hissed, “C’mon, Hed.  Eat.”

Hedwig’s eyes opened to slits.  “What isss it?”

“It’ll back ye better.”

“Alright.”

The snake flicked out her tongue then took the hunk of chocolate between her jaws.  They waited in silence until she swallowed it.  Immediately she improved, eyes flicking open and brightening.  Harry sighed with relief then looked up when Professor Lupin suddenly said, “We’ll be at Hogwarts any minute.  You all should get your robes on.”

A few minutes later they were scrambling out of the train sans Professor Lupin.  Jardin let out a surprised squawk and tried to burrow under Harry’s robes.  Rain was coming down in sheets on the platform.  Hedwig hissed irritably from under Harry’s hat, which was where she had insisted on being placed.  Harry ended up with Jardin cradled in his arms, the raven looking insolently at anyone who happened to be near.

< I hate rain. >

“You and me both,” said Niamh, pushing her sodden hair back from her face.

“Firs’ years this way!  You lot, alrigh’?”

The six of them turned to wave at Hagrid through the rain before trudging up the hill towards the horse-less carriages.  They all crammed inside one and it set off; yet again Mika sat on the floor.  As they rattled up to the gates Harry felt the cold chill settle about him again.  Peering out the window, he saw two towering dementors hovering about the gate.  He suppressed a shiver and patted Ginny’s shoulder reassuringly as she shivered violently beside him.

A few minutes later they were scrambling out of the carriage and heading up to the castle.  Ron spoke for the first time since they had gotten on the train.

“What are all the dementors here for?”

Everyone but Mika shrugged.  The white-haired boy was chewing on his lower lip, dark eyes unfocused.  Harry nudged him inbetween the shoulder blades and asked, “Oi, Mika, wha’s wrong?”

“Er…nothing.”

Niamh snorted and Jardin muttered, < Nothing, my feathered arse. >

“Somethin’s up.  Wha’ is it?” said Harry, blatantly ignoring the raven.

Mika replied, “I can’t tell you.”

“Why?” asked Ginny.

The boy muttered something that sounded like ‘Auror business’, looking down at the ground.

“Ooooh,” said Hermione.

“‘Auror business’,” repeated Niamh.

Mika nodded.

“Secret stuff, y’know.  If anyone knew my da told me…well, let’s just say there’d be trouble.”

“Why’s that?” asked Hermione.

“Because he’s not even supposed to know about Auror business.”

“Hold on.  He’s an Auror and he’s not supposed to know about Auror business?” said Niamh incredulously.  “That makes no sense!”

“It does if he’s a retired Auror,” muttered Mika.

“Ahhh…”

“Potter!  I heard you fainted!”

< Here comes the Great Idiot. >

Harry growled softly and snapped, “Sod off, Malfoy.”

“Was the dementor that scary?  Did you faint too, O’Feir?”

“Is something wrong here?”

Professor Lupin stepped out of the carriage, his battered case in his hand.  Draco eyed the shabbily dressed man in contempt and sneered, “Nothing wrong, professor.  Just talking with my fellow Housemates.”

Lupin blinked, eyes flicking to Draco’s House badge.  His eyes then went to the group of six that had turned to face him and widened when he saw four Slytherin House badges and two Gryffindor winking back at him.

Draco then smirked at Harry and co and headed up the steps, Crabbe and Goyle trailing behind him.  Harry scowled after him and trudged upwards, taking off his hat to pull Hedwig out of his hair.  They joined the throng of students creeping into the Hall and moved inside.

“Miss Granger!”

Hermione muttered a goodbye and went to talk to McGonagall, who was waving at her over the crowd.  Harry, Niamh, Mika, and Ginny separated from Ron and walked over to the Slytherin table.  They sat as far away from Malfoy and his cronies as they could get, settling back to watch the Sorting.

Afterwards Dumbledore stood and addressed the school.

“Welcome!  I have a few things to say and one of them is quite serious.”

“I am sure you are all aware that we are playing host to some of the dementors of Azkaban, after their search of the Hogwarts Express.  They are here on Ministry of Magic business.”

Niamh leaned over to Harry and whispered, “Dumbledore doesn’t seem too happy about that.”

Harry nodded.  Neither was he, really.

“They are stationed at every entrance onto the grounds, so I must make it plain that no one is to leave the school without permission.  Dementors cannot be fooled by tricks or disguises – or even Invisibility Cloaks (the blue eyes flicked to Harry, who didn’t bat an eye).  It is not in their nature to understand pleading or excuses.  So, I warn you all to give them no reason to harm you.  I hope our prefects and the new Head Boy and Girl will make sure no student runs afoul of the dementors.”

At the Gryffindor table, Percy puffed out his chest.  Further down the table Fred and George erupted in silent laughter.

“And now,” said Dumbledore, eyes twinkling.  “We welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year.”

“Firstly, Professor Lupin, who will take over the Defense Against the Dark Arts post.”

There was very little pause for the gray professor except for those who had been in the cab with him.  Harry, Niamh, Mika, and Ginny were the only ones applauding at the Slytherin table and received dark looks from their Housemates, which were quickly turned aside by an even darker scowl from Harry.

“Lookit Snape!” hissed Mika suddenly.

They looked.  Snape was glaring down the table at Lupin, the look on his face telling loads.  It was a look of loathing.  Niamh looked questioningly at Harry, who shrugged and made a note to ask his father about that later.

“Our second new appointment is for the Care of Magical Creatures position.  Professor Kettleburn, sadly, retired at the end of last year in order to enjoy time with his remaining limbs.  But, I am happy to announce that Rubeus Hagrid will be taking on this position in addition to his gamekeeping duties.”

Niamh burst into applause but Harry gave very little.  He was imagining the Care of Magical Creatures class with Hagrid.  An image of them being chased around the grounds by a giant spider leapt into his mind and he thumped his head down on the table.

“We’re dead.”

Niamh finished her applause and whispered excitedly, “I should have known!  Who else would have given us a biting book?  Harry, mate, what’s wrong?”

“Nothin’, nothin’,” muttered Harry.

< He’s… >

SHUT UP, JAR!

Jardin rustled his feathers irritably.  < Fine.  Be that way. >

Harry let loose an exasperated sigh then sat up as Dumbledore boomed, “I think that’s everything important so…let the feast begin!”

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/

The four full Slytherins trudged out of the Great Hall into the entrance hall, heading for the entrance down to the dungeons.  Niamh suddenly drew her wand and growled, “I’ll be back in a moment.”  She then turned and shoved her way through the crowd, heading towards where the Gryffindors were climbing the stairs.

Mika frowned and asked, “Where’s she going?”

Harry looked after Niamh thoughtfully for a moment then replied, “Going ter hex Ron.”

“Ah.  Fulfilling that promise she made?”

“Yeh.”

Ginny stood up on her tiptoes and squealed, “I want to see!  Curse my shortness!”

“Gin, I think you’ve been hanging around Ni too long.”

“Shut up, Mika.”

“See?” said the boy with a grin, earning a glare from the red-head.

“Harreeeeey.”

Harry rolled his eyes then grumbled, “Alrigh’.  Wait till she starts.”

“Yay!”

“Harry, what are you doing?” asked Mika.

“Ye’ll see,” replied Harry simply.  “C’mere, Gin.  She’s started.”

Ginny held out her arms and Harry picked her up easily, the girl being much smaller than him.  Mika glared up at Harry and growled, “You tall bastard.”

“Language, Davids.”

“Sod off, Potter.”

“Snape,” hissed Harry softly with a grin before turning back to watch Niamh gleefully hexing Ron around Ginny, not catching the stony look Mika had given him.

“What isss going on?” hissed Hedwig from his wrist.

“Niamh’s cursin’ Ron,” replied Harry.

“Ahhh.  Good for her.”

“MISS O’FEIR!  IN MY OFFICE, NOW!”

Harry winced and lowered Ginny to the floor.  The red-head frowned and whispered, “McGonagall.”

“Yeh,” said Harry.  “Le’s go.”

“What about Niamh?”

“She can handle ‘erself.  I’m more worried about McGonagall.”

Ginny giggled and the two of them headed down towards Arx Serpens, Mika trailing after them.