Harry woke suddenly, his head banging hard on the train compartment's window. He sat up, looking around blearily at the other occupants of the crowded compartment.
Ron was munching on a chocolate frog and petting Scabbers, who had fallen asleep on his lap. Hermione had her nose stuck in a book, as usual, and was also clutching a pet.
"Introducing Crookshanks, The Amazing Obese Feline!" Harry muttered under his breath, grinning to himself.
"What was that, Harry?" Hermione said, dragging her face from between the pages of Hogwarts: A History, which she was rereading for the fifth time.
"Nothing, Hermione. I was just thinking out loud, I 'spose."
"Oh," she murmured, clearly not paying attention to her friend in favor of her book.
Harry smiled and shook his head.
With nothing else to do, he turned to look at the final occupant of the compartment. Remus J. Lupin, the trunk above his head read. The new DADA professor, Hermione had told him.
"Poor Snape. Lost out on the position again." Harry thought, not really caring for the greasy git at all.
The ride went on in silence for a while longer. Then, suddenly, the train stopped. Hard.
Harry drew in a sharp breath as the train rocked into a stop, his back making harsh contact with the stone-like bench behind him.
"What's wrong? Why're we stopping?" Ron said, his eyes darting to look out the window, and then to Harry and Hermione, and back to the window again.
"I don't know. We can't possibly be there already!" Hermione said.
All of a sudden, Harry began to feel very cold. And it wasn't normal cold. It was as though his bones and blood and heart were freezing.
"Harry?" Hermione said, her voice coming in a choked whisper. "What's going on?"
"I don't know Hermione. I-" He went silent as a dark shape glided in front of the compartment door.
"What's that?" Ron whispered, obviously terrified if the earthquake tremors in his voice were any indication.
Neither of the teenagers had a chance to answer, because just as the last syllable came from Ron's mouth, the door slid open, and the most terrifying thing they had ever seen floated into the compartment.
Harry shrunk back, almost against Mr. Remus J. Lupin, trying his hardest to get away from the thing. Harry's hands trembled as he watched it, slowly turning it's head to look the cabin up and down.
He pressed against the still sleeping for of their soon-to-be-professor, and even in his fear he was apologizing silently for mussing the man's cloak.
But all his attempts to hide were not enough, and the thing turned to him. Harry found himself staring into a bleak, black dark nothingness, unable to look away. The desperation of it made Harry want to cry.
He felt as though something were pulling at him, like a vacuum or a whirlpool, and he could do nothing to stop it and all of a sudden he was falling into darkness...
"Sevvy! Sev, where are you?" the little girl cried in a sing-song voice, her dark auburn braids swinging as she tossed her head back and forth. She turned and locked eyes with something in the distance. Then she vanished.
The girl appeared in the same place, evidently older, the same auburn hair now falling in messy curls down her back as she struggled to pin it up. "Oh, I hope Sev likes my dress. And my hair. And my shoes. Oh, no my shoes!" she ran off into the distance, her hair forgotten as it tossed wildly in the wind. And she too vanished into the distance.
The same girl soon appeared back where the other two had been. She stood, clutching her stomach. She was just beginning to show.
"What am I going to tell Sev?" she whispered, tears coursing down her face. "And James? Oh...!" she moaned softly, covering her face with her hands, and vanished.
Now a woman reappeared in her place, looking straight ahead, at Harry.
"Harry. Harry, darling, listen to me. Go to Sev. Don't refuse him. Harry, please," She reached out to touch his cheek, but her hand went straight through him. She began to sob.
"Harry, please! Let Sev help you. Don't-"
And she vanished, leaving Harry grasping for the air where his mother had been.
"Harry. Harry. HARRY!"
Harry jumped at the yell in his ear and sat up, looking around blindly. Gentle hands placed his glasses on his face, and he whispered a thank you. Hermione nodded softly, looking concerned.
A chocolate frog was pressed into his hand by someone, and Harry looked to see who.
He came face to face with two people. On the left was a man he'd never seen before. Scruffy and kind-looking, he was the one pressing the candy into his hand. Harry guessed it was Professor Lupin.
"Eat it. It helps, really it does." The man said, eyes twinkling.
Harry smiled softly and unwrapped the chocolate, biting off a tiny peice. Professor Lupin smiled.
Harry then turned his attention to the man on the right.
It was none other than his dreaded potions master, Looking at him with something akin to...concern? No, that couldn't be right. Right?
Harry turned back to Professor Lupin as the man turned to said potions master. "Do you have any calming draught, Sev? I think this little one needs it."
Something clicked in Harry's mind when Professor Lupin said 'Sev'.
At the same time, he realized his heart was beating ten times as fast as normal, he was trembling like a newborn kitten, and his breath was coming in gasps. He did need that calming draught.
Snape nodded, and reached into his cloak, producing a vial of liquid, colored a gentle blue.
He got up from the floor where he had been kneeling to look at Harry, and sat on the bench beside him, close enough that Harry's shoulder was pressing lightly against his chest. He pulled the cork out of the vial and held it to Harry's lips, placing a cool hand on the back of his neck to steady him.
Harry started to pull away, but thought better of it, and drank the liquid in one smooth gulp. Suddenly feeling very drowsy, he wavered for a moment, swaying gently, and then, unable to help himself, slumped against his potion's master.
"It's not supposed to make him react like that, Remus." He heard Snape say, as if through a fog.
"He's just had a run-in with a dementor. He's exhausted. Let him sleep, Sev."
"There's something I'm supposed to know about that name," Harry thought as he drifted off to sleep.
The last thing he thought about was how good it felt to have strong arms wrap around you and hold you tight...