Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own HP or HOO. *Breaks down and sobs*

chapter 4

Harry POV

Hermione, Ron and I were looking for a carriage. There was one with five people in it and one with Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, all the others were full. It's no surprise that we chose the first one. There was a man in shabby clothes curled up in the corner, sleeping, and four kids sitting down. There were two girls and two boys, one of thee boys, the one with black hair, was sleeping with his head on the other boys, who had blond hair, lap, the blond boy was playing with his hair, weird. The two girls were chatting to the blond boy, both of them had black hair but one had brown eyes and the other blue.

"who's he?" Ron said, pointing at the man.

"Professor R. J. Lupin." Hermione told him.

"how do you know that!" the surprise was evident in Ron's voice,

"honestly, it's on his suit case Ronald." she said, exasperated.

she knocked on the door and asked the kids in there,

"hey, do you mind if we come in here? All the other compartments are full."

"sure!" the blond haired boy said, "I'm Will Solace, this is Nico Di Angelo, he pointed to the dark haired boy, that's Thalia Grace, he pointed to one of the girls, and Reyna-" he was cut of by the girl he was now pointing at.

"Reyna, just Reyna." she glared at the Will.

"um,okay" Hermione said, "well, I'm Hermione Granger, she pointed at herself, this is Ron Weasley, she pointed to Ron, and this Is Harry, Harry Potter, she pointed at me then looked at their reactions. None of them seemed to exited about meeting me, but they seemed to recognize the name.

"well um, what year are you in then?" I asked them.

"third, I think, were the exchange students," Thalia said

ah, that makes sense then, but they all looked like fifth or sixth years, what were they doing in the third year?

"um, sorry but, you kind of look like fifth or sixth years..." Hermione said.

"we all just look older than we are, I'm um, 13,and so are the others." Reyna said, sounding annoyed. We walked in and I sat down next to the boys while Ron and Hermione sat next to the girls. We chatted for until the food trolley came. I then got a heap load of stuff and we all shared it, halfway through the journey, we all changed into our robes. By this time, Nico had woken up. Then, around half an hour before we arrived it happened.

The train started to slow down, then came to a stop.

"doesn't it takes longer than this to get there?" Nico asked.

"yeah, it does." I told him.

"maybe we just broke down?" Will said hopefully.

"yeah, maybe." Thalia sounded doubtful.

Then the lights went out. There was a squeaking sound from where Nico was sitting, I realized it was him wiping the window.

"see anything?" Ron asked him

"there's something moving outside," the boy replied, "it looks like something's getting on the train..." there was a noise from where Professor Lupin was sleeping.

"quiet." he seemed to have finally woken up, "stay where you are," he told us. He got to his feet and muttered Lumos under his breath, he started walking to the door, but it opened before he got there.

Standing in the doorway was a cloaked figure that towered to the ceiling. It's face was completely hidden beneath it's hood. Harry's eyes darted downwards, and he saw something that made his stomach contact. There was a hand protruding from the cloak and it was glistening, greyish, slimy-looking and scabbed, like something dead that had decayed in water. Then it was hidden again by the cloak. The the creature took a long, slow, rattling breath, as though it was trying to suck something more than air from it's surroundings. Then he heard the scream, it seemed to come from Nico, he turned to the boy and heard another scream, but this one seamed to come from all directions, his vision went foggy and his legs crumpled under the wait of his body, he hadn't even known he was standing. And he was being dragged down, there was a loud rushing in his ears, like the water in a fast moving river, then his vision went black. The screaming got louder, more intense, pleading for help. He wanted to help whoever was screaming, but he couldn't... a thick white fog was swirling inside him, he was falling, he was-

"Harry! Harry! Are you okay? Are you alright?!"

Someone was hitting him repeatedly in the face.

"W-what,what happened?"

Harry opened his eyes, the lights were back on and the floor was shaking- the train must be moving again- the air was warmer now and he seemed to be lying on the floor. Ron and Hermione were kneeling next to him, and the exchange students were kneeling by Nico, who seemed to have fainted as well. Will seemed to be giving Nico a flask and, was that chocolate? Professor Lupin was watching the two boys on the floor carefully, holding yet more chocolate.

Harry felt sick, very sick, when he lifted his hand to push his glasses back on, he felt his face drenched in cold sweat. With help from his friends, he managed to get back on to his seat.

"You alright mate?" Ron asked him.

"Yeah" he looked around him, the hooded thing had left. "What happened? Where's that weird thing? Who screamed?"

"Nico, the others are helping him though." Ron said

"No, someone else screamed too, who was it?" he asked

"No-one else screamed Harry." Hermione seemed worried.

"but I heard screaming-" a loud snap made them all jump. Professor Lupin was breaking the chocolate into large pieces. He started handing them out to the students.

"Here," he said to Harry, handing him a particularly big piece, "eat, it will help."

He took it but didn't eat.

"What was that?"

"A Dementor," said Lupin, "one of the Dementors of Azkaban."

Everyone stared at him. He had crumpled up the now empty chocolate rapper and shoved it into his pocket.

"Eat," he repeated, "I need to speak with the driver." he walked past Harry and left the carriage.

"Are you two sure you're fine?" Will asked Harry and Nico.

They both mumbled yes but he made them eat the chocolate anyway. (Harry did have to admit he felt much better after he ate it.)

"what happened?" he asked again, still wiping the sweat from his face.

"Well – that thing – the Dementor – stood there and looked at Nico, then you, then Nico, then you, then-" Ron said, addressing Harry.

"yes Ronald, I think we get it." Hermione said, rolling her eyes, she turned to Harry. "and then Nico screamed, and you both went sort of rigid - like you were having a fit or something – then you both fell out of your seats and started twitching-"

"then Professor Lupin stepped over you and walked towards the Dementor thingy, he said, 'None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks' let this glowing thing come out of his wand and, the Dementor left." Reyna said

"But none of you fell out of you seats did you?" Nico asked bitterly.

"No, Will and Hermione were shaking like mad though." Thalia told him, "It felt like I'd never be happy again."

"Azkaban must be a terrible place." Hermione shivered.

"yeah," Ron agreed.

"Azkaban?" Reyna asked them.

"The Wizarding prison. Did you guys live with Muggles then?" Hermione inquired.

"uh, yeah." Nico told her.

We sat quietly for a while, around five minuets, and then we arrived at the castle. The new kids seemed amazed that this was actually a school. I asked them if they were going on the boats, and they all (Minus Nico) immediately looked at Nico. He shook his head and they said that they would go the way Harry and his friends went. We walked over to the carriages and I saw that all four of the new kids were looking at something that wasn't there.

"um, what are you looking at?" I asked them.

"the Thestrals." Nico said simply, "can't you see them?"

"No." He replied.

"You guys can?!" Hermione sounded surprised, "but, you can only see a Thestral if you've seen death!"

"we have." Reyna said.

"all of us" Thalia said.

Okay, so they've all seen death, no problem, not at all... except that they might be a lot more dangerous than we think. Nah, it'll be fine. I hope.

We walked up to the carriages and got into one. A few minuets later we arrived at the entrance to the Hogwarts castle.

A/N-hi!Wow that's a long chapter... 1691 words! Sorry that it took me a while to write this chapter. Works catching up with me. But anyway, here's your chapter, please review, follow and favourite.

Hope you liked this chapter, sorting next! I need help deciding which house to put Will in. Hufflepuff or Gryfindor? For the others you will have to wait and see...

-Solangelo21