Echo | Harry Potter - George Weasley

Chapter 30: What Friends Are For

Shaye chuckled quietly to herself as she watched Ron lean out the open window of the moving train and take Scabbers from his mother's hands. Once again, he had lost his rat and this time he had nearly left for school without him.

"A cage," Shaye told him as he pulled the rat through the window and held him tightly. "That's all I'm saying."

"Scabbers doesn't like to be kept in a cage," Ron replied. Harry and Hermione rolled their eyes.

Shaye just shrugged. "Well, it's that or Crookshanks' lunch."

Ron gasped and place a finger over each of Scabbers' ears. "You can't say that!"

With that, Shaye pushed Ron down the aisle of the locomotive and the four friends searched for a compartment to sit in. Because of Ron's wandering rat, however, most were already full.

"Anyway, as I was saying," Harry continued the story he had been telling before about his rude aunt's visit and how he had accidentally performed magic on her out of anger, "I didn't mean to blow her up. I just  ... I lost control."

"And by 'blow her up', you mean ...?" Shaye cocked a curious brow.

"She inflated like a balloon and drifted out of the house." Harry clarified.

Ron grinned. "Brilliant."

Hermione, on the other hand, wasn't nearly as amused. "Honestly, Ron, it's not funny. Harry was lucky not to be expelled."

"I think I was lucky not to be arrested, actually," Harry said.

Ron snickered some more. "I still think it was brilliant."

Coming across a compartment that was almost completely empty, save for a man who was sleeping in the corner, Hermione slid the door open and ushered the other three inside. "Come on. Everywhere else is full."

Shaye eyed the man carefully, but because he was sleeping in a slumped over position with his jacket draped over himself like a blanket, she couldn't see his face or any defining features. Beside him, a bottle of water sat on the windowsill and a single bag sat on the luggage rack overhead. 

"Who do you think that is?" Ron asked as the group of four filed into the compartment and took their seats.

"Professor RJ Lupin," Hermione stated matter-of-factly.

"Do you know everything?" Ron marvelled. "How is it she knows everything."

A look of utter annoyance danced across Hermione's face as she pointed up at the bag on the luggage rack. "It's on his suitcase, Ronald."

And sure enough, just as Hermione had said, the suitcase bore the name RJ Lupin. Shaye had never heard of that name before so she gave up on trying to identify the man. Obviously, it was someone that neither of them had ever met.

"Do you think he's really asleep?" Harry leaned in and watched the man's chest rise and fall rhythmically.

Shaye observed the man before nodding. "Seems to be. Why?"

"I gotta tell you something." Harry stood and slid the compartment door shut. 

As the train travelled through the countryside, the sun falling, rain started to pour down hard and a thick fog began to form as Harry explained to his three friends what Ron's father had told him back at the Leaky Cauldron. 

The short version of the story was that Sirius Black, who had once been a follower of You-Know-Who and had lost everything when he had been destroyed, had escaped Azkaban to get his revenge on Harry. It was a rather dark tale and the glum weather outside matched the atmosphere inside perfectly.