Little Brave Hearts || Neville Longbottom

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

The trip back to Hogwarts might have been what Maykha needed the most after everything. More than anything, she wanted an escape from the reality of her life and her identity, and Hogwarts was just the perfect place for her.

As they were walking through the aisle of the Hogwarts Express, looking for an empty compartment to settle in, she could not quite get a glimpse of Neville yet, and that made her feel as if something was lacking.

"Why don't they just add another car in this bloody train? I swear, it gets harder to find a compartment each year," Ron complained.

They all could only silently agree, when they finally saw a compartment, only it was occupied by a sleeping man. Seeing that they no longer have other choices left, they entered the compartment carefully as to not wake up the sleeping man.

"Who do you think that is?" Ron asked, looking at the man who slept with his coat covering his face.

"Professor R.J." Hermione answered.

Ron scoffed at her, "You always know everything. How come you always know everything?"

"It's on his suitcase, Ronald," Hermione said, pointing at the suitcase. Maykha looked to confirm and true enough, there was 'Professor R.J. Lupin' written on the name tag. She wondered if he was their new professor at Hogwarts.

Hermione held Crookeshanks on her lap, her new cat that she apparently bought back in Diagon Alley when Maykha stopped by Ollivander's. Much like her owner, the cat did not seem to take fancy on Ron's rat, Scabbers, as it would often chased the poor rat into the brink of insanity.

"Ron, can you please hide your rat away from Crookeshanks?" Hermione said as she tried to hold onto her cat who was already hissing at Scabbers.

"Why does it have to be my rat who needs to adjust? Train your cat to do something else like, I don't know, read or something!"

As they started to bicker, Maykha noticed that Harry, who was sitting next to her, had something else in his mind as he stayed quiet, looking at the floor.

She nudged the boy to have his attention, "A sickle for your thought?"

Harry looked hesitant to share what was going on in his mind, and it took him a minute to finally speak. "Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban to come after me," He sighed, "at least, that was what Mr. Weasley told me."

There was silence inside their compartment, no one dared to speak as everyone seemed to come with a mutual understanding of how heavy the news was for all of them.

The silence was broken off when Ron cleared his throat, "Sorry, mate, I must have heard it wrong. I thought you said that Sirius Black is coming after you? That murderous, raving lunatic?"

"Yes, and thanks, Ron, for making me feel better about this whole thing," Harry said sarcastically.

"Well, I'm sure they'll catch Black, won't they? I mean, the ministry is quite frantic about looking for him," Hermione said, attempting to make Harry feel better.

Maykha, however, could not bring herself to agree with Hermione as deep down, she knew it would not be easy to catch a wizard who managed to escape an unescapable place such as Azkaban. Sure, there were news about prison break in the Muggle community too, but she was certain that it was not as bad as it was in the wizarding community.

"Harry, you'll be fine. You're not alone," Maykha could only console her friend as she brought her hands on his, pressing it firmly to assure him even just for a little.

Just then, she let out a loud gasp when the train suddenly stopped.

"What's that? Why are we stopping? We can't be there yet," said Hermione, and though the girl tried to act tough, it did not escape from Maykha's eyes that her hands were shaking a little.

The compartment started to get colder, and even with her jumper on, it was not enough to shield Maykha from the shiver it brought her. It did not help that the lights suddenly went off, making it dark for them to see something.

"Hey, is it just me or it's suddenly cold in here?" Maykha said as she hugged herself.

"Considering how we're all shivering and there's literally ice forming on the window, no, Maykha, it's just not you," she heard Hermione said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I'm sure it's nothing, perhaps something must have just broken down, I'll go check outside," Harry said, but before he could open the door, Maykha's hand was fast to grab him.

"Don't you dare step out of this compartment, you idiot."

There was a sudden nauseous feeling that surrounded Maykha as they all looked at the windows of their compartment that oversaw the train aisle, and it was made worse by the slow appearance of a black hooded creature that seemed to be approaching them.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Maykha whispered to herself.

And it did not take long for her feelings to be proven true when the hooded creature slowly opened the door of their compartment. As if being pulled by the heavy feeling that the creature brought, no one dared to speak, no one even dared to breathe, hoping it will be over soon. But when the creature seemed to have found what it was looking for, it locked its face on Harry. Maykha had witnessed it vividly as if Harry's face was being sipped out.

Maykha had no time to let out a voice of panic when suddenly, the man who was sleeping next to her got up and pointed his wand on the hooded creature. The wand created a very bright light that almost hurt Maykha's eyes, and when it was done, the hooded creature was also nowhere in sight. But there was no time to be relieved as when she looked back at Harry, he had already passed out.

"Harry! Harry, wake up, you git!" Maykha tried to slap Harry on his cheek to wake him, but it was to no avail. She looked at others who looked just as worried as she was.

"It's okay, child," she heard the professor say as he placed his hands on her shoulder to soothe her. "He's going to be alright. He may have just passed out because of fear, let him rest a bit and he'll wake up in no time. Those foul Dementors often have this kind of effect on humans, unfortunately."