A New Year Begins

As usual, Harry and Draco found themselves in a compartment with their friends on the Hogwarts Express. As usual, Crabbe and Goyle were wandering the train gormlessly. As usual, they discussed their summers while playing Exploding Snap, guessing who would be the new Defence teacher.

As usual, the trolley lady came around.

As usual, Harry was deep in thought.

None of them know. It's like nothing's happened. Like mine and Draco's lives didn't totally change over the summer. This is not going to be easy.

"Harry?"

"Sorry, Theo, what were you saying?"

"I asked if you knew this Muggle card game. Poker?"

"I've read about it."

"Of course, he has," said Blaise. "He was too busy reading to actually play with the Muggles."

"Actually, Blaise, it was more like the Muggles hated my guts and tried to beat me if I wanted to join their games."

That cast a pall over the conversation.

"So," Daphne said, her voice full of false cheer, "what classes are you guys taking?"

"Come on, Daph," Tracey moaned, "we spent weeks talking about this last year. Do we really need to go through it again?"

"I'm just trying to make conversation," Daphne hissed back.

"How about Sirius Black?" Theo's voice was grim. "First person to ever escape. Must be a total nutter."

"He must be brilliant," Blaise replied.

"Yeah, but so is Dumbledore. Doesn't stop him from being a nutter."

Everyone kind of just nodded at that.

"How do you think he did it?" Tracey asked, sounding excited.

"Mordred's balls, Tracey, how the hell are we meant to know? I don't even know what Azkaban looks like."

"Father told me once," Draco said, nodding to Theo. "He had to go there for something. He said it was horrible."

"Yeah? I mean, the Dementors are no joke, but—"

"Theo, he said he would rather die a torturous death than be imprisoned there."

Once again, silence fell over the compartment.

"That's what I love about you guys," Blaise said brightly, "you make for such lovely conversation."

"Well, what the fuck do you want us to do, just smile and laugh all the time? That's your thing."

"Oh, shut it, Harry," Blaise threw a chocolate frog at him.

Pansy walked back in, just in time to get hit in the face with a licorice whip.

"Fuck!" she snarled. "Theo! Watch where you put that thing!"

"He should be careful where he puts his thing too," Blaise whispered to Tracey, waggling his eyebrows. She slapped him playfully.

"Shut up, Blaise. You know what I heard in the girls' room?"

"The dulcet sounds of Cho Chang as she—"

This time Daphne slapped Blaise.

"What?" Draco asked.

Pansy flounced onto her seat.

"The new Head Boy is Percy Weasley!"

Wonderful. Another Weasley to hassle me.

"And that absolute bitch Clearwater is Head Girl."

"Okay, we'll just have to avoid them. I mean, God, can you imagine how they'll treat us? Neither of them exactly like our House."

"None of the Weasleys do. I don't know anything about Clearwater."

"Pansy's right, she is a total bitch. You should have heard what she had to say about—"

"Why are we slowing down?" Harry asked, looking out the window. "We can't be there yet, can we? It's only been a few hours."

"Dunno," Theo said, looking at his watch.

The door opened, and Crabbe and Goyle hurried into the compartment.

The group watched in bemused silence as the two large boys took down their trunks and began rifling through them.

"What are you two doing?"

"Changing," Crabbe grunted.

Draco was spared answering as the train jerked to a sudden halt. Harry was almost thrown out of his seat. Tracey actually was.

"What the hell!"

As Crabbe opened the door to look out, all the lights in the train turned off.

"Lumos," Harry muttered. Everyone else followed suit, Theo mumbling, "What the hell is going on?"

"Is it just me, or does it feel really—"

Crabbe stumbled backward, falling straight on his ass, onto the floor. At this point, Harry noticed two things.

Crabbe was shaking like he was under the Cruciatus.

And there was something in the doorway.

Whatever it was, it was tall. Its head just fitted under the roof. It was hooded, leaving nothing of its face visible. Its breathing was horrific, sounding like an emphysema patient on a bad day. It extended an arm, and its hand came free of its long sleeve.

It looked like something dead. Dead and rotting.

Whatever this thing was, it was definitely not human.

Harry raised his wand and was about to unleash hell on the thing when Draco grabbed his arm and began furiously whispering.

"I think it's a D-Dementor. Don't make it angry."

The Dementor stepped into the compartment, and cold flooded the room. He was freezing. There was no longer blood in his veins; rather, there was ice.

Someone was screaming. Harry couldn't tell who, but it sounded like one of the girls.

Wait. Are they screaming my name?

The cold sank deeper, into Harry's very bones. He hadn't managed to turn and see who was screaming by the time the Dementor moved forward, closer toward him, dead hand outstretched.

He was being impaled. The pain was worse than anything he had experienced. Worse than anything Joseph had ever done to him. He was bleeding around the mass pushing into him, and he was bleeding from where he had bitten clean through his lip.

"You like this, don't you?" his tormentor asked, grunting throughout.

"No," he answered, tears streaming down his face, screams locked in his throat.

His shoulder was being pinched, hard. He could feel skin breaking. A fist punched his side, once, twice, three times.

"I said. You like this, don't you?"

Harry gasped, trying to get his breath back. He couldn't scream. He would be in worse pain if he did.

"Yes," he managed, finally drawing enough air to speak, "I like it."

"Tell me how much."

And throughout this all, there was the voice of Joseph shouting insults.

And in the background, there was a woman screaming his name.

His head blazed with a pain that almost matched his ass, and everything went black.

Harry came to slowly, the comforting motion of the Hogwarts Express back in action below him. Someone had moved him onto a row of seats and taken his glasses off.

He started sitting up, and there was an explosion of voices.

"He's awake!"

"Daphne, where'd you put his glasses?"

"Theo, give Harry some of the chocolate now!"

His glasses back on, Harry saw his friends sitting around, eating chocolate, which Daphne was now holding out to him. Everyone looked pale, and Theo looked like death warmed over.

"What the absolute fuck was that?" he asked, waving her chocolate away.

"Harry," she said, in a tone that brooked no argument, "eat some chocolate. It helps."

He took some and started chomping it. It actually did seem to do something. The cold that had settled into his bones was being replaced with a pleasant warmth.

"Ancient feminine wisdom?"

"No," she said, smiling back, "new Defence teacher. Seems like he actually knows his stuff."

"What happened?"

"Well," Daphne said, a bit uncomfortably, "the Dementor came into the compartment. It was—horrific."

"Terrible," Tracey muttered. She was huddled in the corner next to Theo.

"You—you just started shaking. You fell over and started shaking. Then you just stopped. I thought you were—"

"Did anyone else faint?" Harry interrupted.

"No. It looked a bit close for Theo, though."

Theo was staring at Harry, eyes narrowed.

"What you looking at?" Harry barked at him, and he hurriedly looked away, muttering, "Nothing."

"So anyway," Daphne continued, "suddenly this silver-thing just charged at the Dementor, and it ran—well, glided away. So in comes this guy, who tells us he's Professor Lupin, the new Defence teacher. He checked you out, said we should let you sleep, and gave us all chocolate. It really does help."

The rest of the ride passed in subdued silence. Harry noticed Theo giving him odd looks a few times but brushed it off. It was pretty embarrassing to have been the only one to faint.

When they got onto the carriages, Draco gave a small gasp.

That's right, he couldn't see Thestrals before. Seems like those Muggles were good for something after all.

Harry had a nasty laugh at the thought and immediately felt sickened.

Fuck. How can I think like that?

As they arrived at the castle, Professor Snape pulled Harry aside to a small room where Madam Pomfrey was waiting. She immediately began fussing over him, waving her wand.

"Dementors!" she huffed, "what are they thinking?"

"As usual, they were not," Snape replied.

"And they're always the worst on the fragile ones."

"I'm not fragile!" Harry exclaimed hotly.

"Mind your tongue!" Snape hissed at him.

"You won't be the only one who faints. Here, have some chocolate."

"I already did. Lu—Professor Lupin gave us some."

"Did he now?" The plump matron said, regarding him thoughtfully. "Perhaps we finally have a Defence teacher who is not totally useless."

Snape snorted at that, before saying, "So Potter is alright?"

"Yes, yes. He can go to the dratted feast."

"Thank you, Poppy. Potter, with me."

Harry followed as Snape billowed out of the door. Followed him all the way to the Great Hall. Just outside the doors, Harry called him, softly.

"Yes?" Snape turned around to face Harry.

"Why did the Dementor affect me so badly? Is it—am I—"

Snape's gimlet eyes glinted as he looked through Harry. "Dementors pull out one's worst memories. They force you to relive the worst, the most terrible moments of your life. You have had worse experiences than most."

"How do you kill them?" Harry whispered.

"And I thought you were intelligent. Dementors cannot be killed. They are not truly alive."

"But, Lupin did something to scare it away. He shot something silver at it, and it—"

"The Patronus," Snape said harshly, "is a highly advanced spell, that indeed, will fight off and negate the effects of a Dementor. But it—"

"Will you teach it to me?" Harry asked. The Dementor had done more than bring up bad memories. It had made him feel weak, had made him feel vulnerable. He would not allow that to happen in the future.

"Mind. Your. Manners. Boy," Snape snarled. Breathing deeply, he continued in a more normal voice. "I will attempt to teach it to you. It will be difficult. Particularly with the spells you were being trained in over the summer."

"The Cruc—"

"Shut up! Idiot boy! Don't speak of such things!"

Rage flashed through Harry for an instant before giving way to shame.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"We will speak of this at a later stage," Snape said, giving him a look that was usually reserved for Longbottom.

Harry followed Snape into the Great Hall, sidling up to the Slytherin table and making his way to his seat, next to Draco.

"What was that about?" Draco whispered to him.

"Pomfrey wanted to check me up."

"Oh. I thought—"

"Not here."

Draco leaned back, abashed.

Harry had arrived just in time for Gregor Yardley to be placed in Hufflepuff, and then the feast began.

"I'm telling you, he might look like shit, but he'll be good."

"You say that, Daphne, but I'll wait to see what his lessons are actually like."

"Come on! He made a Dementor run! Besides, Lockhart dressed well, and—"

"We know he dressed well. We saw how you watched."

"Draco! Enough about—"

Daphne was cut off again as Dumbledore stood up at the podium.

"Welcome! And welcome back! I have a number of announcements to make, so if you will all bear with me, I'm sure your beds will wait patiently."

He looked over the sea of faces.

"As always, I must warn you against venturing into the Forbidden Forest. It is forbidden for a reason."

"I also wish to announce yet another updated version of Mr. Filch's forbidden item list. I am sure he will be more than willing to explain everything on the list, and the punishments for owning said items."

Dumbledore's face grew more serious, losing all humor.

"As you are aware, due to the train being searched, we will be hosting some of the Dementors of Azkaban for this year. They will be on guard at all the entryways to the school and will be patrolling the grounds. I beg your caution. They do not take kindly to jokes or attempts to trick them. They do not listen to excuses. Nor are they fooled by glamours, disguises, disillusionment, or even invisibility cloaks."

Harry and Draco shared a look.

"The Ministry has placed them here for your protection. Do not fool with them."

Dumbledore let an ominous silence fill the room before clapping his hands.

"On another note, we have some additions to the staff to introduce. Firstly, I am proud to welcome our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Remus Lupin."

Polite applause filled the room, although the Gryffindors got way too into it.

"Secondly, Professor Kettleburn has decided to retire from teaching Care of Magical Creatures, to fulfill his dream of spending time with his remaining limbs, and writing the definitive book on Basilisks. I am therefore pleased to announce his successor, our very own Rubeus Hagrid, who will be taking teaching on in addition to his groundskeeper's duties."

There was stunned silence for a moment, and then the Gryffindor table simply exploded.

Weasley seemed to be shouting something about a fighting book, and the enormous oaf just sat in his seat at the staff table and wiped tears from his eyes.

He is a Professor? He's thick as a brick!

"And finally, Professor Binns has moved on to a well-deserved rest. In his place, I would like to welcome our new History of Magic teacher, Professor Olga Chronicle."

Again, polite applause as a cheery witch in a striking purple robe waved.

"As long as she's less boring than Binns, I'm happy," Harry muttered.

"Yeah? Then when will you sleep?" Blaise snarked.

"Let's begin the new year, with a good night's sleep," Dumbledore said, clapping his hands again. "Off to bed."

Lying in bed, Harry barely had time for one coherent thought before sleep took him.

Dementors. Fucking Sirius Black.