𝙳𝚎𝚊𝚛 𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚢,
𝙷𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚢 𝚋𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚍𝚊𝚢! 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚋𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚘𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚋𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚍𝚊𝚢. 𝙸 𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚖𝚞 𝚖𝚞𝚖 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚎𝚝 𝚖𝚎 𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚒𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚒𝚗 𝙻𝚘𝚗𝚍𝚘𝚗, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍𝚗'𝚝 𝚕𝚎𝚝 𝚖𝚎. 𝚂𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚊𝚒𝚍 𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚝𝚘𝚘 𝚍𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚂𝚒𝚛𝚒𝚞𝚜 𝙱𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚜𝚎.
𝙸𝚝'𝚜 𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚜𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚢, 𝚒𝚜𝚗'𝚝 𝚒𝚝? 𝚂𝚒𝚛𝚒𝚞𝚜 𝙱𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝚎𝚜𝚌𝚊𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝙸 𝚖𝚎𝚊𝚗. 𝙸 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚑𝚘𝚙𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚌𝚑 𝚑𝚒𝚖 𝚜𝚘𝚘𝚗. 𝚆𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚊 𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚎𝚝 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛 𝚊𝚝 𝙷𝚘𝚐𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚜, 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚠𝚎?
𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚢, 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎'𝚜 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙸 𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚢𝚘𝚞. 𝙸𝚝𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚊𝚝 𝚖𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚏𝚎𝚠 𝚍𝚊𝚢𝚜. 𝙸'𝚖 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚐𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚗𝚘𝚠, 𝙸'𝚍 𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚒𝚗 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚘𝚗.
𝙰𝚗𝚢𝚠𝚊𝚢, 𝙸 𝚑𝚘𝚙𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚕. 𝙸'𝚕𝚕 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚘𝚗 𝚂𝚎𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝚜𝚝.
𝙺𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚎.
***
September 1st arrived in the blink of an eye and before Katie knew it, she was boarding the familiar scarlet steam engine with Chris and Leo.
"See you guys later." Katie nodded to her brothers, who went off to find Niall and Oscar. It didn't take Katie long to find the carriage that was holding Harry, Ron and Hermione, though she was surprised to see a fourth person curled up in the corner of the seat. Katie pulled back the sliding door and furrowed her eyebrows in suspicion.
"Professor R.J Lupin, apparently." Ron shrugged, answering Katie's question before she even had time to ask.
"What's he doing in a student's carriage?" Katie asked as she plopped down beside Harry, who greeted her with a friendly smile.
Hermione shrugged. "I don't know. He was already here when we arrived."
There was a loud crunch as Ron took a large chunk out of a pumpkin pasty. He chewed noisily, earning himself a scowl from Hermione. Ron, not understanding what he was doing wrong, squinted his eyes in confusion, before an expression of realisation fell over his face. He held his pumpkin pasty out to Hermione.
"Want some?"
"What did you want to talk to me about?" Harry casually asked Katie. "You know, the thing you told me about in your letter." This caught the attention of Ron and Hermione, who were suddenly staring at Katie and listening attentively.
Katie gulped. "Later."
***
Katie heard a string of footsteps in the corridor and then the carriage door slid open once more, and the Gryffindor's least favourite people stepped inside. Ron let out a very audible groan and bounced his head against the wall to express his annoyance.
"Nice to see you too, Weasley," Draco Malfoy snarled. "I heard your father finally got his hands on some gold this summer. Did your mother die of shock?"
"Classy as always, Malfoy." Katie quipped. Malfoy, who had clearly been too busy creating a list on insults in his head to fire at Ron and Harry to notice Katie sat in the carriage, almost jumped at the sound of her voice. Draco's eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at Katie.
"You changed your hair." he stated.
"I grew it out," Katie responded. "You changed yours."
"I grew it out."
Ron and Harry seemed visibly uncomfortable as they exchanged bewildered glances and shuffled around in their seats. Ron, on the other hand, was too full of rage to pay any attention to the strange conversation that was dancing around the compartment.
Lupin let out a sudden snort, startling the Slytherin boys.
"Who's that?" Malfoy said quickly, stepping back.
"New teacher." Harry smirked. Hermione had decided to completely exclucde herself from the scene as she scooped Crookshanks, her new cat, up in her arms and placed him on her lap.
"C'mon," Malfoy muttered to Crabbe and Goyle before looking back at Katie. "See you in the common room."
Katie let out a deep sigh and slumped back in her seat. She massaged her temples, and Ron done the same, though Katie didn't know that.
"Why is everyone so attractive this year?" Katie mumbled, oblivious to the fact that it was audible to everyone in the compartment.
"What did you just say?" Harry asked quickly.
Katie's eyes snapped open. Ron looked horrified.
"Did you just call Malfoy attractive?" Ron almost gagged on his own tongue as he said the words, and his face had tinted a sickly green colour.
Katie shrugged nonchalantly. "Well he's hardly ugly."
Ron almost threw up on the spot and he shoved his fingers in his ears while violently shaking his head. "Nope, no, nuh-uh, don't wanna hear anymore. Nope, no, definitely not. Disgusting. No, no, no—"
"Oh relax, Ronald!" Hermione sounded exasperated. "Forget about Malfoy, you're ignoring the fact that Katie said everyone is attractive this year."
Ron perked up and his face twisted into a smug smirk. He ran a hand through his fiery hair. "Yeah, especially me." he joked, making his friends laugh aloud.
"I didn't mean everyone." Katie defended, her face heating up ever-so-slightly.
"But you said everyone." Harry pointed out.
"Well, I only meant a selective few."
"Yeah? Like who?"
"Merlin's beard! Will you leave her the bloody hell alone, Harry! She's obviously talking about me." Ron piped up.
"Right, enough of this. I'm going to get changed," Hermione announced. "Katie, are you coming?"
Katie hummed a yes and brought herself to her feet, but just as the girls stood up, the train begun to slow down. Ron snorted.
"Looks like you two are a bit late."
Hermione sneered at Ron and checked her watch. Her eyebrows knitted together. "We can't be there yet."
"So why're we stopping?"
The train was gradually getting slower and slower. As the noise of the pistons fell away, the wind and rain could clearly be heard thundering against the window panes. Harry, who was closest to the door, got up to look out into the corridor. Almost every compartment door had been heaved open as students who had the same idea as Harry poked their curious heads out of their carriages.
With a jolt, the train came to a stop, and all of the lamps went out without warning, plunging the train into darkness. Everything happened so quickly, and before Katie could say Quidditch, a startled Harry Potter fell into her lap.
"I'm so sorry!" he cried, springing up and hitting his head off the ceiling. He let out a wail of pain and massaged his head.
Ron put his hand on the window pane and squashed his face up against the glass as an effort to make sense of what was happening outside in the dark.
"There's something moving out there." he whimpered.
"Don't be ridiculous," Hermione scoffed. "It's probably just an owl."
"Oh shove off, Hermione." Ron snapped.
"I beg your pardon?"
"My pardon has been begged."
"That doesn't even make sense!"
The compartment door suddenly opened and somebody fell over Harry's legs.
"Sorry! D'you know what's going on?Ouch! Sorry—"
"Hello, Neville." Harry said as he and Katie felt around in the dark, grabbed Neville by the cloak and heaved him to his feet.
"Harry? Is that you? What's happening?"
"No idea! Sit down—"
"I'm going to ask the driver what's going on." came Hermione's voice. She stood up and carefully thread through the pitch black towards the door. Just as she made it, however, a giant thud occurred and two loud squeals of pain erupted.
"Who's that?"
"Who's that?"
"Ginny?"
"Hermione?"
"What are you doing?"
"I was looking for Ron—"
"Come in and sit down—"
"Not here!" Harry yelped. "I'm here!"
"Ouch!"
"Quiet!" said a hoarse voice suddenly.
All the racket had appeared to finally have pulled Professor Lupin from his slumber. None of them spoke as Lupin whipped out his wand and muttered some words, and a tiny ball of light appeared on the end of his wand, illuminating the compartment.
Ron let out a cold laugh. "Right, Hermione, if you're so brilliant, then why didn't you think of that one?"
Hermione whacked Ron with the back of her hand. "As a matter of fact, I did think of that one, thank you very much, but I'll have you know that we're not allowed to to magic outside of school."
"Oh, bugger off! We're allowed to in life-or-death situations."
"The lights blowing out is not a life-or-death situation, Ronald!"
"You don't know that. There could be vampires roaming around out there," Ron jabbed his finger at the window. "But we wouldn't know until their teeth were in our bloody necks because Hermione Goody-Two-Shoes-Granger would rather be killed than expelled!"
"Enough, enough!" Professor Lupin bellowed. Hermione and Ron, who had clearly forgotten about Lupin's presence, instantly shut their mouths. Hermione blushed in embarrassment while Ron folded his arms and scoffed.
"Stay where you are." Lupin said. As he stood up, the light from his wand momentarily shone on his face, revealing his pale skin and tired eyes, as well as a deep gash across his face.
Lupin made for the door but, to the horror of the students within the compartment, it opened before he could reach it. A grey, hooded figure drifted in, and it sucked in a rattling breath, and it let out a high-pitched wail, deafening Katie and everyone else in the carriage. She felt herself be completely drained of warmth, completely drained of happiness.
Without hesitation, Lupin flourished his wand at the creature.
"Expecto Patronum!"
The cloaked beast vanished, the lights flickered back on, and Harry collapsed on the floor.
"Harry!" the all screamed in perfect sync.
"Well, what do you know, Hermione... Looks like it was a life-or-death situation after all."
Hermione elbowed Ron in the ribs.