[1] PARADIGM ↳ Harry Potter

-FOUR: HOGWARTS

THE LIGHTS ONCE again illuminate the corridors on the train, and it is moving towards Hogwarts once again. Raven returned her wand to its original place inside her jacket. Professor Lupin is sitting up, opposite Harry and Raven, next to Ron.

    Raven's only focus is on Harry, who's eyes slowly begin to flutter open. He quickly becomes alert as he remembers what happened before he fell unconscious and his pupils dart around the compartment, looking for the thing he saw.

   "Are you alright, Harry?" Ron speaks nervously.

    "Yeah," Harry answers. Raven frowns at his failure to be convincing, but he is not looking at his brunette friend. He is looking at the door, for the hooded creature. "What happened? Where's that --- that thing? Who screamed?"

    "No one screamed," Ron continued, voice still showing the nervousness he is feeling.

    "But I heard screaming," Harry insists, just as confused as the others are.

    The sound of something snapping causes the four to turn their heads to Professor Lupin, who is holding chocolate and breaking it into pieces.

    He hands a large piece to Harry. "Here. Eat this, it'll help." The raven haired boy cautiously takes it before looking at the man opposite him.

    "What was that thing?" He questions.

    "A dementor," Raven answers first. All the heads in the compartment turn towards her, silently asking how on earth she would know that. She continues on, only looking at Harry. "One of the guards of Azkaban." Then Raven turns to the Lupin, as if expecting him to tell her otherwise, but he only smiles at her approvingly before turning to Harry again.

    "Eat," he says. "It'll help. I need to speak with the driver, if you'll excuse me..."

    He slides open the compartment door, exits, and closes it once again.

    Ron is the first to ask.

    "How do you know what that was?"

    Raven turns forward, ready to answer. "My mum works for the Ministry. She's taken it upon herself to learn just about everything within her reach, and she then passes it along to me."

    "And that spell," Hermione interrupts. "What was that? I've never seen anything like it." Raven is amused by the curious tone of her friend's voice, but answers without calling it out.

    "A patronus charm," she replies. "Quite simple, but a bit tricky." Then, she shakes her head, moving the topic of patronuses to the back of her mind for later, as she turns to Harry, anxious. "Are you alright, Harry?"

    He does not bother to give a direct answer. "I don't get it... what happened?"

    "I thought you were having a fit or something," Ron says shakily. "You went sort of rigid and fell out of your seat and started twitching---"

    "And then Raven did that charm," Hermione continues. "That... that--"

    "--patronus--"

    "Patronus charm. She did that, and a silvery blue light came out of the tip of her wand that sort of, repelled the dementor. Drove it away."

    "I felt weird," Ron shudders, "like I'd never be cheerful again."

    "But did any of you... fall out of your seats?" Harry asks awkwardly.

    "Well, no," Raven answers. "But Ron was shaking like mad." The Weasley narrows his eyes at her, both of them knowing that he was shaking simply out of fear.

    Lupin comes back and informs them that they are coming to their stop, only ten minutes left until they arrive at Hogsmeade Station. The four manage to get changed into their robes before leaving their compartment and getting off the train.

    The rain comes down hard and cold. Raven feels bad for the tiny little first years who have to cross the Black Lake and get to the school in boats. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Raven take a carriage up to Hogwarts, like the rest of the students except the first years.

    As the carriage approaches the familiar iron gates of the front entrance, Raven notices two dementors standing like guards on either side of the entrance. She feels cold just looking at them, so she breathes deeply and turns her head away.

    When she turns her head, her eyes are met with Harry's, who is looking at her in a way that causes her to find yet another place to train her eyes.

    Raven is the first one to leap down from the carriage, followed by Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

    "You fainted, Potter? Is Longbottom telling the truth? You actually fainted?"

    Raven narrows her eyes at Draco Malfoy, the rude and annoying white haired boy who has not left Harry alone since first year. He is always looking for a way to pick at him, and it pisses Raven off to no end.

    "Bugger off, Malfoy," she sneers as Draco blocks their entrance up the stone steps. He only looks amused and turns to Harry again.

    "Did your girlfriend faint, too?" He snickers. "Poor little salamander—"

    "Scamander," she corrects sharply, but it is no use, for she has corrected his incorrect use of her last name since second year, and he still says it wrong, just for entertainment purposes, Raven assumes.

    "I suppose that's what you get for having a boyfriend like Potter," Malfoy finishes, smirking.

    "Is there a problem?" A voice says behind the students. Raven turns to see Professor Lupin walking away from a nearby carriage and towards the group. Raven turns back to Malfoy and notices the way the boy takes in the Professor's appearance with disgust, before smirking and dragging his minions, Crabbe and Goyle, inside the castle.

    Hermione, Ron, and Harry set forth inside with the group of kids, but Raven stays behind looking at the new Professor.

    "Thank you for that, Professor," she says quickly, before scurrying off after her friends before Lupin can answer.

***

    Ron and Raven sit through half of the sorting by themselves, wondering where the hell Harry and Hermione could be. Ron informed Raven that he noticed Professor McGonagall drag the two away after they entered the castle, but that a while ago now.

    Halfway through the sorting of the first years, Harry and Hermione come in, trailed by McGonagall, who goes straight to her seat at the staff table.

    "What was that all about?" Ron whispers to Harry as he sits down. He does not get a reply because a few moments later, the headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, begins to speak loud enough for the whole Great Hall to hear.

    "Welcome!" The headmaster greets the children happily. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way, before you become befuddled by our excellent feast..."

    Raven sighs as Dumbledore continues. "As you will be aware after their search of the Hogwarts Express, our school is presently playing host to some of the dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business.

    "They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds. And while they are with us, I must make it plain that no one is to leave school without permission. Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises, or even Invisibility Cloaks." Raven, Ron, and Harry all looked at each other.

    "It is not in the nature of a dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I therefore warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to the prefects, and our new Head Boy and Girl, to make sure no student runs afoul of the dementors."

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finally an update! i have had exams all week so i haven't had much time to write