𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃, 𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙿𝚘𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛

3:𝑫𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒓

       ————-˚✧₊⁎❝᷀ົཽ≀ˍ̮ ❝᷀ົཽ⁎⁺˳✧༚————

Someone was slapping Harry.

"Harry! Harry! Are you all right?"

"W -- what?"

Harry opened his eyes; there were lanterns above him, and the floor was shaking -- the Hogwarts Express was moving again and the lights had come back on. He seemed to have slid out of his seat onto the floor.

Ron and Hermione were kneeling next to him, and above them he could see Neville and Professor Lupin watching. Harry felt very sick; when he put up his hand to push his glasses back on, he felt cold sweat on his face.

Ron and Hermione heaved him back onto his seat.

"Are you okay?" Ron asked nervously.

"Yeah," said Harry, looking quickly toward the door. The hooded creature had vanished.

"What happened? Where's that -- that thing? Who screamed?"

Has he gotten insane? Brexel thought.

"No one screamed," said Ron, more nervously still.

"Yeah, no one did" Brexel added.

Harry looked around the bright compartment. Ginny and Neville looked back at him, both very pale.

"But I heard screaming --"

Maybe I'm the one who's insane, Brexel thought.

A loud snap made them all jump. Professor Lupin was breaking an enormous slab of chocolate into pieces.

"Here," he said to Harry, handing him a particularly large piece. "Eat it. It'll help."

Harry took the chocolate but didn't eat it.

"What was that thing?" he asked Lupin.

"A dementor," said Lupin, who was now giving chocolate to everyone else. "One of the dementors of Azkaban."

Everyone stared at him. Professor Lupin crumpled up the empty chocolate wrapper and put it in his pocket.
"Eat," he repeated. "It'll help. I need to speak to the driver, excuse me...

He strolled past Harry and disappeared into the corridor.

"Are you sure you're okay, Harry?" said Hermione, watching Harry anxiously.

"I Don't get it.... What happened?" said Harry, wiping more sweat off his face.

"Well -- that thing -- the dementor -- stood there and looked around-- and you -- you"

"I thought you were having a fit or something," said Ron, who still looked scared.
Brexel giggled silently, Hermione glared at her.

"You went sort of rigid and fell out of your seat and started twitching --"

"And Professor Lupin stepped over you, and walked toward the dementor, and pulled out his wand," said Hermione, "and he said, 'None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go.' But the dementor didn't move, so Lupin muttered something, and a silvery thing shot out of his wand at it, and it turned around and sort of glided away.... "

"It was horrible," said Neville, in a higher voice than usual. "Did YOU feel how cold it got when it came in?"

I felt weird," said Ron, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably. "Like I'd never be cheerful again...."

Ginny, who was huddled in her corner looking nearly as bad as Harry felt, gave a small sob; Hermione went over and put a comforting arm around her.

"But didn't any of you -- fall off your seats?" said Harry awkwardly.

Brexel shook her head.

"No," said Ron, looking anxiously at Harry again. "Ginny was shaking like mad, though...."

Harry didn't understand. He felt weak and shivery, as though he were recovering from a bad bout of flu; he also felt the beginnings of shame. Why had he gone to pieces like that, when no one else had?

Professor Lupin had come back. He paused as he entered, looked around, and said, with a small smile, "I haven't poisoned that chocolate, you know...."

Harry took a bite and to his great surprise felt warmth spread suddenly to the tips of his fingers and toes.

"We'll be at Hogwarts in ten minutes," said Professor Lupin. "Are you all right, Harry?"

Harry didn't ask how Professor Lupin knew his name. "Fine," he muttered, embarrassed.

They didn't talk much during the remainder of the journey. At long last, the train stopped at Hogsmeade station, and there was a great scramble to get outside; owls hooted, cats meowed, and Neville's pet toad croaked loudly from under his hat. It was freezing on the tiny platform; rain was driving down in icy sheets.

————-˚✧₊⁎❝᷀ົཽ≀ˍ̮ ❝᷀ົཽ⁎⁺˳✧༚————

Brexel went inside the Great Hall, she was currently finding a certain blonde hair and brown eyes like hers. At last, she finally saw her brother, who was standing beside Andy, a brown haired boy with bright brown eyes.

Andy saw her and nudged  Vincent, they both went to turn to her and waved. She waved back, smiling.

She went to sit beside Luna Lovegood, a 2nd year Ravenclaw.

"Hello" the blonde hair girl, who looked like an angel ( in Brexel's point of view), greeted her dreamingly.

"H-hi" she responded, with a small smile.

"You must be Brexel?" Luna asked.

"Yes!, how did you know?" she asked.

"Some of my classmates last year talked about you, well I only listened to them of course, I didn't join in" she said with a slight smile.

"Oh" she muttered. Were they talking badly of her? For Luna to say, "I didn't join in"?

Merlin, do people really dislike me for being that loud?

"Hey, I only know a little about you, but I think you're unique" Luna said as she patted her back.

"Thank you" she responded, she already liked this girl.The two girls talked for a bit, then suddenly the sorting ceremony was about to begin.After Professor McGonnagal instructed the first years, she then started calling out names of the first years.

"Andy Morrison!" Professor McGonnagal called out. Brexel watched as he sat down on the stool and Professor McGonnagal set the sorting hat on top of his head.

"Slytherin!"

Brexel clapped cheerfully as the other Slytherin students also clapped loudly.

"Vincent Ravenhart!" Professor McGonnagal called out. Brexel watched excitedly as  Vincent sat down on the stool.

"Oh, this is quite a hard one. Hmm, so much courage and also very hard-working..." the sorting hat said. Brexel listened attentively.

"But you'll most likely fit in-"

"RAVENCLAW"

Brexel stood up, cheering loudly. Vincent ran towards the Ravenclaw table and high-fived his sister, they both sat down side by side.

"Congratulations Vinny! Ma will be happy to hear that we're in the same house!" Brexel said happily.

"She sure will!, I wished Andy was Ravenclaw though, I didn't expect him to be in Slytherin "

"That's okay, you will probably have the same classes together!" Brexel assured. Vincent smiled at her.

"HUFFLEPUFF" the sorting hat shouted as it placed the last student in her new house.

"Now, Professor McGonnagal, will you please call the girl that I've been discussing?" The sorting hat called out to the Professor who looked unsure. Professor McGonnagal nodded.

The other students attention transferred to Professional McGonnagal who shouted-

"Brexel Ravenhart!"