A Train Ride!

It was cold—a deep, seeping shiver prickling along my skin. Having lived in Birmingham my whole life, I was used to handling the winters, but something about this cold was more sinister and more real.

I was stuck in what felt like a weird dream. I'm pretty sure that I was staring into a white light, with a distant scream echoing in the background. My thoughts flowed quite easily, even though I was what it felt like in a dream.

"...HARRY!"

The scream became audible after a moment as the light receded. My vision was unclear and unfocused, and the last thing Morpheus claimed me was the blurry visage of some cloaked figure floating in front of me.

...

...

"Harry! Harry! Are you all right?" Someone was slapping my face. The bizarre situation startled me, and before I could curse Emily to cut it out, I noticed the same haziness in my vision.

"W -- what?" I spoke and then stopped. That wasn't my voice; it came out much more boyish than I'm used to hearing. With my vision apparently taking a vacation, the moving floor, and the flickering lights above my head, It was quite clear that something was wrong.

Or I still was in a very lucid dream.

I tried to sit up and address the blobs of unfamiliar people because even though I couldn't see their faces, I didn't know anyone with that color of red hair.

"Here--" her soft yet worried voice cut through my confusion as I was handed something. It was cold to touch, and I felt like it would fall apart, but with practiced motions that felt a little alien, I placed the round glasses onto my face.

Every other time, I would have laughed and made a Harry Potter reference, but as my sight was restored and I looked up at everyone, the laughter bubbling up in my throat dried up.'

...

[Remus Lupin Lv ?]

[Ron Weasley Lv 9]

[Hermione Granger Lv 14]

[Neville Longbottom Lv 10]

[Ginny Weasley Lv 7]

...

I stumbled on my way up, my arms giving away, but I hadn't quite collapsed onto the rumbling floor yet. The redhead, Ron, and the tired-looking middle-aged man, Remus, grabbed onto me. I was slowly lifted and settled down onto the couch like a train compartment.

'What the fuck is going on...' The question popped up even though I didn't have the time to quite comprehend what was going on as the brown-haired girl slid into the seat beside me, her arm grabbing onto my shoulder as she asked, concern laced in her voice, "Harry, are you alright?"

Her voice was soothing, and I found myself nodding. Words still escaped me, and as her frown increased, I found myself finding my voice, "Yeah-" I looked toward the door, which was now closed.

"What was that?" I asked, only to be met by silence.

~Snap~

A loud snap was heard, and everyone jumped slightly. The tired-eyed man, Remus Lupin, according to the floating screen above his head, was breaking an enormous slab of chocolate into pieces.

"Here," he said, handing me a particularly large piece. "Eat it. It'll help." He then began distributing several remaining pieces to the rest of the cohort. 

A series of audible snaps later, he finally spoke, "A dementor." He paused momentarily, motioning for me to eat the chocolate, "One of the dementors of Azkaban."

As I looked down at the piece of chocolate, a sense of Deja Vu hit me. "Eat," he reiterated. It'll help. I need to speak to the driver. Excuse me..." With that, the man passed everyone and closed the compartment door. 

"What happened?" I asked, my throat still a bit dry, and eating chocolate likely wouldn't help with it. But as I had now realized the impossible scenario in which I was, I knew the chocolate would help. Hesitatingly, I took a bit, and it worked like it was shown; a sense of warmth flooded me, and the dreaded and stabbing cold that was digging into my skin receeded.

'Dementors, chocolate, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville.' Familiar names and familiar conversation flowed around me as my hand shot up, tracing the remains of a scar that was etched onto my forehead. I hadn't noticed it till now, but it was the only place where the cold was still digging, as if the dementors were still focused on the scar even though no one was in sight.

"...I thought you were having a fit or something," said Ron. He still looked scared and a bit pale. "You went sort of rigid and fell out of your seat and started twitching -"

"-Professor Lupin stepped over you, he walked toward the dementor and pulled out his wand," Hermione continued, cutting off Ron, "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. 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..."

My eyes shifted to the last member of this ragtag group of Gryffindors; she was huddled in the corner, the farthest away from the entrance; her eyes were wide but glassy as she looked far away into nothingness. I felt myself move as I moved toward her; I bent down in front of her and felt her eyes focus on me. I could see the terror on her face, and a second later, she was gripping onto me.

Her hands went around my shoulders as she trembled and hugged me. My left hand rubbed her back as the right one still had the chocolate in it. It didn't take a genius for someone who knows the plot to figure out why she was affected like this.

"It's okay, Ginny, he's not here. I destroyed the diary, remember..." I whispered in her ear and felt her grip relax; I had purposefully avoided saying his name. Leaning back, I presented her with my half-eaten chocolate, and when she opened her mouth, fed it to her. Color slowly returned to her face as she blushed, her panicked expression now devoid of the earlier terror as she shied away.

'Right, she should still be crushing on Harry Potter during the start of the third year.' I thought as I turned back to look at Ron and Hermione. Both of them had a questioning look on their face, and I just shook my head. I was about to say something, but the door opened, and Remus once again came in.

The distraction was further enhanced by the new notification screen popping up in my face.

'Wait, what?'

...

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AN: Timeline set to start of 3rd year.