Shadows Of The Past: A Marauders' Tale

7 | The Dementor

~1st of September, 1993~

Remus Lupin

Remus shifted in his sleep, his mind momentarily regaining consciousness. He decided against opening his eyes and was about to fall back into the darkness when he noticed that the train was slowing down. Were they at Hogwarts already?

There was a sudden movement in the compartment. Somebody had gotten up from a seat beside him and opened the door of the compartment. Remus remained seated, deciding to pretend to be asleep until the students leave the compartment and therefore avoiding a rather awkward situation. 

A moment later the train stopped with a jolt, causing the luggage in other compartments to fall out of the racks. Remus felt his heartbeat increase slightly and his mind becoming alert. He doubted that the Hogwarts Express started using its emergency breaks instead of its regular ones on a daily basis. To further confirm his doubts the light, which was shining through his eyelids, vanished and was replaced by darkness.

"What's going on?" said a boy's voice.

"Ouch!" a girl gasped. "Ron, that was my foot!"

"D'you think we've broken down?" another oddly familiar voice said. 

"Dunno..."

There was a squeaking sound, and Remus lifted his eyelids ever so slightly to look at the children in the compartment, but could only see a dim black outline of a boy wiping a patch clean on the window and peering out.

"There's something moving out there," he said. "I think people are coming aboard..."

Remus frowned. Who could be boarding the train? Aurors perhaps? Searching the train for Sirius? It had to be someone from the Ministry or the train wouldn't have stopped... Was Sirius capable of stopping the train? No. If Sirius was boarding the train, people would be panicking already. But why did the lights go out? Why was the compartment getting colder and colder? Remus could only see one logical reason for the sudden change of the atmosphere and he didn't like it at all.

The compartment door suddenly opened and someone fell painfully over the boy sitting next to Remus, causing the row of seats to bounce. 

"Sorry! D'you know what's going on? Ouch! Sorry --"

"Hullo, Neville," the boy with the familiar voice said and Remus felt a cold feeling travel up his spine upon realizing that the boy who had just arrived was Neville Longbottom - the son of Alice and Frank, who-

"Harry? Is that you? What's happening?"

Remus felt his lungs temporary incapable of accepting any air. His surroundings became blurry, the sound of the students became muffled. That's why his voice was so familiar. Harry Potter was sitting next to him. 

James's son was sitting next to him.

Remus suddenly felt torn between running out of the compartment and hugging him.

'No,' Remus said firmly to himself. 'This is not the time to get emotional. Focus. Dementors are on the train.'

The door of the compartment slid open again and two loud squeals of pain brought Remus back to his senses. 

"Who's that?"

The compartment was getting colder.

"Who's that?"

A prickling sensation started travelling up Remus' spine.

"Ginny?"

He needs to find a happy memory.