Phoenix Tears

Chapter 19: When the hurly-burly's done

"No, no, no, no, no! This isn't happening!" Harry moaned as he felt a ghastly pull on his heart and the compartment floor seemed to tilt toward the advancing icy air. He was still struggling to disentangle himself from his cloak and drape it over the warm bodies jostling him. He couldn't get the ties at his wrists and ankles undone fast enough.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to get my cloak over you!" Harry said, exasperation threading his voice.

"You need it more than us, Harry!" Ginny said as she tried to shove it back toward him.

Elbows and shoulders were coming at him from all directions, hands and knees pressing into his side, his back; at one point Harry moaned and held the crown of his head after being head-butted.

He felt someone slide off the seat and puddle on the floor beneath his feet.

"Ginny? Ron? Gemma? Who fell?" Harry groped wildly trying to find the prone person in the chaos while still trying to stretch the cloak over his friends. Someone stepped on his fingers and he cried out.

Then a light exploded in Harry's face, seemingly splitting his head open from chin to nape of his neck. He grabbed his eyes, shielding them from the bright light and curled over the figure at his feet. He realized that the light had been preceded by an authoritative voice casting a spell... one he didn't recognize.

"Bloody Bollocks!" Ron shouted, turning toward Harry. "Did you see that thing? .... Er, right. Sorry mate."

"What was it?" Harry said weakly, wincing through the pain in his head and fingers. The room was no longer icebox-frigid and he no longer felt as though he was being drained.

"A gigantic wolf," Ginny supplied from the floor. She was breathing in gulps and gasps as if she too were recovering from whatever it was that had loomed over them.

"A wolf?" Harry said, trying to lift Ginny up and behind him. "Is it gone? I couldn't hear it at all. Are you sure it wasn't a dog? And why was everything so bright?"

"No, it was definitely a wolf," Ron shuddered. "Huge. I've never seen anything like it."

Gemma was signing on Harry's back, trying to get his attention. He turned toward her and nearly toppled over as his feet were still tangled in the invisibility cloak. He signed for her to repeat it... he had no idea what she'd been asking. She pulled him closer to her, helping him disentangle the cloak before slipping her hands under his to repeat her question.

"It was Professor ________."

It took a moment for Harry to remember what the sign meant. He recognized it as one they had made and then it fell into place, "Professor Lupin," he repeated in sign language.

"He was here?" Harry asked Gemma, verbally.

"Who was here?" Hermione asked. "That man? Is that who you're talking about? Who was he?"

"Professor Lupin... he taught at the Center this summer and he's going to be the new DA prof this year. But I didn't think he'd be on the train," Harry said, just remembering to keep his mouth facing Gemma so that she could read the slips of paper, even as he was talking to Hermione.

"Well, he cast the spell that drove off the dementors," Hermione explained. "His wolf-thingy did it."

"It wasn't a real wolf?" Harry asked, breathing in deeply.

"Ha! You thought it was a real wolf?" Ron hooted, shoving his shoulder so that he nearly toppled over again.

"Yeah. I'm chuffed it wasn't," Harry sighed, righting himself by grabbing Ron's arm. Gemma was still helping him untangle from the cloak and everyone's limbs. Finally, he was free and the cloak was secured at his ankles and wrists once more (a few of the ties had to be repaired).