I had changed over the summer. Or maybe a better word would be matured.
My face was thinner, jawline sharper. My chest had rounded. My stomach was smaller and my hips were larger. Mother had begun to sit with me, telling me I was a woman now. Telling me I had to be careful now.
Draco was different too, in little ways. His was officially taller than me. His face was handsome and honed. Sophisticated.
And yet I was still surprised when I walked onto the train how many eyes followed me. They devoured me. Feeling uncomfortable, I made it my main purpose to find my friends. After a while I saw Hermione's hair out of the corner of my eye, never hard to miss.
The second I opened the door, she jumped up in delight and squeezed me.
"Oh, Alexandra, I've missed you so much," she beamed.
"Have you styled your hair, Hermione?" I asked, and she blushed. "It looks gorgeous."
When she stepped away to allow me to sit, my eyes instantly found Potter's. I smiled, and he turned crimson.
I also noticed there was someone else in the compartment. He looked older, like an adult, and he was asleep.
"Potter. Get into any trouble in the three months we weren't babysitting you?" I said quietly, not wanting to wake the man.
"Well... I blew up my aunt," he answered. His voice had changed.
My mouth fell open. "You're not serious."
"He's definitely serious. My dad said the Ministry of Magic had to go and deflate her," Weasley confirmed. The only change in him was that the spatter of freckles across his nose had grown.
"Do you think he's really asleep?" Potter asked, nodding to the man.
"I think so," Hermione answered. "Why?"
"I've got to tell you all something," he said, closing the compartment door.
"Let me get this straight," I said, once Potter had finished telling us his story. "Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban to come after you?"
The rain was pelting against the windows so hard, it almost sounded like hail.
"Yeah."
"But they'll catch Black, won't they?" Hermione questioned. "I mean, everyone's looking for him."
"Sure," Weasley agreed sarcastically. "Except no one's ever broken out of Azkaban before. And he's a murderous, raving lunatic."
"He's also my second cousin," I muttered.
"What?" Potter asked in shock.
"He's my mother's first cousin. So my second cousin," I explained.
"That's..." Hermione began, but she was interrupted by a screeching sound, like the brakes of the train being hit suddenly.
"Why are we stopping?" she asked hurriedly. "We can't be there yet."
Potter opened the compartment door again and stuck his head out, but was thrown back from the force of the train's violent shaking, landing on my lap.
"Seriously, Potter?" I asked.
"Sorry," he mumbled.
There was a loud rumbling.
"What's going on?" Weasley asked, holding his pet rat Scabbers up to his chest in fear.
"Don't know. Maybe we've broken down," Potter offered, recovering from his fall. On me. Just then, the lights went out.
"Ouch, Ron, that was my foot!" Hermione hissed.
"There's something moving out there," Weasley's voice wavered as he looked out at the stormy landscape. The lights flickered, but remained off.
"I think... I think someone's coming aboard," Weasley whispered. There was another lurch. I had begun to breath heavily, and I could see my breath coming out in little puffs in front of me. I didn't like this at all.
There was a soft cracking. The window was freezing over. The bottle of water on the small window table immediately turned to ice. I wrapped my arms around myself to stop the shivering.
"What's happening?" I breathed.
Then the train really lurched, sending the back of my head into the wall.
"Bloody hell!" Weasley yelled.
As an answer, a dark shape emerged in front of our icy compartment door. The wind whistled and my teeth chattered. Despite myself, I scooted closer to Potter, convincing myself that it was only for warmth.
Long fingers curled up, and the latch opened. The door slowly slid back. Something I had never seen before entered. It appeared to be levitating, its tattered cloak flowing an inch above the ground. The face was masked by the same cloak, with no eye or breathing holes. There was a strange sound, like a hollow gasp.
I felt clammy and hopeless. All my feeling left me. I was a shell of bad memories. My father despised me. My mother never loved me. My brother thought I was worth nothing.
There was a distorted whooshing, and Potter's face started to lift toward the creature against his efforts to pull away. It moved closer to us. I cowered.
Then, the figure next to me shot up, holding out his wand. A blast of white light came out of it, like a shield, and with a muffled shriek, the cloaked creature disappeared. But I was more focused on Potter's twisted face and pale skin.
"Potter... Potter..." I said frantically, shaking his arm. He dropped to the floor.
We had lifted him up onto the seat as Professor Lupin had told us too. The man who had saved us, from whatever that was, looked older then I initially thought, but maybe it was because of how tired he seemed. He had dark circles under his eyes and wrinkles that seemed out of place.
Potter's eyes finally cracked open, and I wordlessly handed him his glasses.
"Thanks you," he said quietly.
"Here. Eat this. It'll help," Professor Lupin advised, holding out a piece of candy bar. When Potter hesitated, he insisted. "It's all right. It's only chocolate."
Potter took it and sat up slowly. "Wha- what was that thing... that came?"
"It was a dementor," Professor Lupin answered grimly. "One of the guards of Azkaban. It's gone now. It was searching the train for Sirius Black. If you'll excuse me, I need to have a a little word with the conductor." And he got up and left.
"What happened to me?" Potter asked shakily.
"Well, you sort of went rigid," Weasley said. "We thought maybe you were having a fit or something."
"And- and did any of you..." Potter trailed off, obviously asking if he was the only one that went unconscious.
"No. I felt weird though. Like I'd never be cheerful again," Weasley answered once more.
"But someone was screaming," Potter swallowed. "A woman."
"No one was screaming, Harry," I said worriedly.
The carriages rolled up the weather-beaten path from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts, the rain on the roof sounding like thunder. Potter still looked half-shocked, and color had yet to return to his face. Hermione and I shared a nervous glance.
When the Sorting had finished in the Great Hall and all students were quiet, Professor Dumbledore rose.
"Welcome, welcome to another year at Hogwarts," his voice boomed. "Now, I'd like to say a few words before we all become too befuddled by our excellent feast. First, I am pleased to welcome Professor R.J. Lupin, who's kindly consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Good luck, professor."
There was some scattered applause, but none clapped as hard as those who had been in his compartment.
"Of course," Hermione said. "That's how he knew to give you the chocolate, Harry."
"Potter," a voice came from behind me. "Potter!" I knew that voice. I turned around simultaneously with Potter to be met with Draco's smirking face.
"Is it true you fainted? I mean, you actually fainted?" He asked while his friends around him laughed.
"Honestly, Draco, how old are you?" I asked, grabbing Potter's arm and tugging him back around. "Just forget it," I whispered.
"Our Care of Magical Creatures professor," Dumbledore continued on, "has resigned in order to spend more time with his remaining limbs. Fortunately, I am delighted to announce that his place will be taken by none other than our own... Rubeus Hagrid."
Everyone clapped, the Gryffindors the loudest, naturally, and when Hagrid stood to greet the applause, he pushed his entire side of the table forward.
"Finally, on a more disquieting note," Dumbledore said, and I knew what was coming. "At the request of the Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts will, until further notice, play host to the dementors of Azkaban."
The students murmured to each other, and I could visibly see Potter stiffen beside me.
"The dementors will be stationed at every entrance to the grounds. Now, whilst I've been assured that their presence will not disrupt our day-to-day activities... a word of caution," Dumbledore said gravely.
"Dementors are vicious creatures. They will not distinguish between the ones they hunt and the one who gets in their way. Therefore I must warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. It is not in the nature of a dementor to be forgiving."
I rubbed Potter's arm lightly when he shivered, but I don't think it exactly stopped him from doing so.
"But, you know, happiness can be found even in the darkest of times," Dumbledore said, flashing his hand over one of the candles next to him and extinguishing the flame. "If only one remembers to turn on the light." He did it again, and the flame reappeared.
We walked back to the common room with the rest of the Gryffindors. Finnigan reached the portrait first and spoke the password.
"Fortuna Major."
The Fat Lady held out her hand, shushing him. She was holding a glass, and from what I could tell by her ear-splitting shrieks, trying to break it with her voice.
"Here listen, she just won't let me in," Finnigan said, turning around to us.
"Fortuna Major," Potter said firmly.
"No, no, wait. Wait," The Fat Lady said, offended that someone had interrupted her.
"Ah, ah, ah.... AHHHHHHHH," she screamed, and when nothing happened, she quickly hit the glass on the marble column behind her.
"Amazing!" She gasped. "Just with my voice!"
"Fortuna Major," Potter said loudly.
"Yes, all right. Go in," she sighed, opening the door.
"Thank you," Potter said, his voice rising at the end sarcastically.
Just before I was about to go off to bed with Hermione, I saw Potter's tie that he had taken off earlier hanging on the arm of a couch.
"You go ahead," I said to Hermione. "I'll just run this up to Potter."
"Alright," she replied, and walked up to the girl's dormitory as I followed the opposite staircase. When I reached the door I knocked to be safe, but no one answered. I slowly pushed it open.
Potter, Weasley, Finnigan, and Longbottom were all sitting around the two beds in the middle, laughing and throwing candy across the room.
"Oh, don't try one of them!" Weasley said just as Potter put something in his mouth.
Potter's face scrunched up and a whistling filled the room. Steam shot out of both his ears and all the boys howled.
Then Finnigan spotted me standing in the door way and said something to Longbottom. Weasley realized they had stopped laughing and looked over at me too, nudging Potter. The way Potter's eyes widened when he saw me was almost funnier than him momentarily turning into a train.
I was suddenly very self-conscious about my current state, realizing just then that I was only wearing a thin lace tank top and loose, silk pajama pants.
"You left your tie downstairs," I said, biting down on my lip very hard for trying not to laugh. "But if any of you were planning on turning into another locomotive, I can leave."
Potter coughed, and his neck turned crimson. "Yeah... thanks."
As he got up to grab it from me, Weasley pushed him and he stumbled.
"Hey, you all right there, mate?" Finnigan asked.
Potter sent him a death stare and took the god for saken tie from me. He half turned back, and then stopped himself. "Steam doesn't always come out of my ears," he said lamely.
"Really?" I mused, and closed the door behind me smiling.