⌗ ⌗ ⌗

As the Hogwarts Express bleated its horn, Parents hurried their children onboard, tiny siblings waved goodbyes... and Mrs Weasley dashed through the throng and up to an open train window. She was holding Scabbers tightly in her hands.

"Ron!" she called for him.

She handed Scabbers through the open window to him, "Don't lose him!"

The aisle was teeming with students. Iris, Harry, Ron and Hermione worked their way down the aisle, looking for an empty compartment.

"I didn't mean to blow her up. I just..." Harry paused in his story, "... lost control."

"Brilliant!" Ron grinned.

"Honestly, Ron, it's not funny. Harry's lucky he wasn't expelled," Hermione lectured, while Iris nodded her head along in agreement.

"I think I was lucky not to be arrested, actually," Harry commented, looking through compartment windows for an empty one.

"I still think it was brilliant."

SNAP! SNAP! SNAP! A copy of The Monster Book of Monsters scuttled crab-like down the aisle, pursued by Neville Longbottom, a very kind boy, and friend of the four's, in their year.

"Hi, Iris. Harry. Ron. Hermione," Neville greeted as he rushed past.

"Hi, Neville," the four said. As he bumped past, Hermione nodded to a compartment.

"C'mon. Everywhere else is full," Hermione opened the door to the compartment with only one person seated inside.

As they slipped inside, they got a better look at the person and observed him as a man in shabby robes and he was slumped against the window, asleep.

He looked ill, exhausted. The quartet eyed him warily.

"Who d'you reckon he is?" Ron whispered.

"Professor R.J. Lupin," Iris and Hermione said in sync, sitting down. Iris took the seat directly across from the new teacher, inspecting him.

"You both know everything. I get how Iris knows everything, but how is it Hermione always knows everything?" Ron demanded.

"It's on his case," Hermione pointed.

Stamped in peeling letters on a battered case was 'Professor R.J. Lupin.'

While they spoke, Iris took Buttercup out of her cat carrier and placed the cat gently in her lap.

"Is he really asleep?" Harry questioned.

"Seems to be. Why? What is it, Harry?" Hermione answered, but the closer Iris looked at the man, the more she doubted that statement.

"I've got to tell you something," Harry said closing the door as Ron and Hermione exchanged a curious glance.

⌗ ⌗ ⌗

Storm clouds, like dark ghosts, tossed sheets of rain onto the scarlet engine as it headed north, carrying the students toward Hogwarts.

Ron and Hermione stared at Harry and Iris, faces stricken in the lantern light that now glowed in the compartment.

Crookshanks slumbers in his cage, and Buttercup in Iris' lap.

"Let me get this straight. Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban to come after you two?" Ron asked, scared.

"Yes," Harry said.

Iris, meanwhile, hadn't stopped looking at the professor the whole time Harry had told the story.

She was sure, more than ever, that he wasn't really asleep.

So narrowing her eyes at him, she daringly stuck her foot out and tapped him in the shin lightly.

His eyebrows furrowed before one of his eyes slowly popped open, then the other, to look at the girl staring back at him, unblinking.

He held her gaze for a second before winking at her and closing his eyes once more.

Iris had trouble holding back a laugh at the peculiar man, but turned away from him, satisfied that she had gotten an answer.

"But they'll catch Black, won't they? I mean... eventually? Everyone's looking for him," Hermione said, looking concerned.

"Sure-- Of course, except no one's ever broken out of Azkaban before and he's a raving, murderous lunatic..." Iris said casually, looking out the window.

When she noticed the silence she looked back to see them all staring at her.

Just then, the train lurched and began to slow. Ron slid down the seat, pinning Hermione against Iris who got pinned against the window.

Hermione and Ron exchanged an awkward glance, then Ron carefully slid to the other end of the seat while Hermione glanced at her watch and frowned.

"Why're we stopping?" Hermione asked, "We can't be there yet..."

Harry rose and slid open the door, peering into the corridor.

All along the carriage, heads were looking out curiously. 

"What's going on?" Ron inquired, scared.

"Dunno... Maybe we've broken down?" Iris suggested, gripping Buttercup tightly to give bother herself and the, no longer sleeping, cat comfort.

Then, the train jerked, the car swayed, and the lamps running along the ceiling flickered and died for just a moment before returning.

"Ouch! Ron, that was my foot!" Hermione complained.

There was a squeaking sound as Iris, a dark silhouette against the window, wiped a patch of condensation from the window.

"There's something moving out there," she says.

"I think... people are coming aboard," Ron mentions, standing up to look out the clear bit of the window.

Iris noticed the lights in the train corridor start going out, then the one in their compartment and they were enveloped in darkness.

Suddenly, the car swayed violently... then righted itself. Making everyone stiffen, gasping.

The window next to Iris began to vibrate, frosting over. The compartment lurched again.

"Bloody hell. What's happening?" Ron questioned, as it became freezing cold.

SSSSST! A soft crackling filled the car and flames bloomed in the hands of R.J. Lupin.

In the shivering light, his face looked tired and grey, but his eyes were alert. Wary.

"Don't. Move," he warned.

It became eerily silent, the only sound heard was of the five people in the compartment breathing, because of the cold temperature, you could see the breath of the five.

A hand, slimy and scabbed, a hand of death, gripped the half-open compartment door, pushing it aside revealing a towering, cloaked figure, its face hidden beneath its black hood.

Buttercup mewed loudly, upset, and Crookshanks' hair rose as he hissed...

A horrible sound was made. The folds of the hood trembled. A chill, rattling intake of air is heard. The flames in Lupin's hands sputtered. A sound swelled in Harry and Iris' ears.

Eerie.

Painful.

The sound of a woman screaming.

Iris felt it in her mind and in her body. The cold went deeper than her skin. It was inside her chest, it was inside her very heart...

Across the compartment, Iris could vaguely see through her ever more growing blurry vision, and she watched, helpless, as her brother went down.

That just made her more depressed, more hopeless.

Iris' eyes rolled up, eyelids fluttering, and she went down.

The world spun off its axis and Iris fell, tumbling hard to the ground, the muscles of her jaw twitching. Thunder cracks. Lightning paints the icy windows...

And all went black.

⌗ ⌗ ⌗

With a desperate gasp, Iris opens her eyes, blinking. Dusk was gone. The windows black. The cold back of the seat at her spine was shaking gently.

The train was moving again.

Looking down, Iris was met with a sight that made her jump for a second. Buttercup was two inches from her face, staring at her with large unblinking blue eyes.

Iris sighed at her cat, who immediately nuzzled into her, after realizing she was awake.

Her eyes shifted, seeing a drop of water, newly unfrozen, running slowly down the window next to her.

"Iris? Iris, are you all right?" Hermione's troubled face hovers next to hers.

She nods, before remembering.

"Harry!" Iris lurched forward to see Professor Lupin sitting on the seat next to Harry, who was lying on the floor, passed out.

She gasped and dropped down next to him, checking him over and making sure he wasn't hurt.

She then proceeded to lightly slap him on the face until he flinched, regaining consciousness.

"Harry? Harry, are you okay?" Iris asked him, worried.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine," he said, sitting up.

A pale and nervous Ron handed him his glasses.

"Thanks," Harry slips them on.

SNAP!

Professor Lupin broke two ragged triangles of chocolate off the slab in his hands and held them out to Iris and Harry.

"Chocolate," he told them, "Eat. It'll help."

"What was that-- that thing?" Harry asked, confused.

"A Dementor. One of the guards of Azkaban. It's gone now," Professor Lupin told them.

Harry frowned in confusion.

"It was searching the train, Harry. For Sirius Black," he continued, "I need to have a word with the driver. Excuse me," he stood and opened the compartment door, walking out, "Eat. You'll feel better."

As he left, Harry turned to Ron and Hermione. Iris stared straight ahead at the wall in front of her, stuck in her own head, replaying the moment.

"What happened to me? To us?" Harry asked.

"Well, you both sort of went... rigid. We thought maybe you were having a fit or something," Ron explained.

Harry frowned, "And did either of you? You know... pass out?"

"No. I felt... weird. Like I'd never be cheerful again. But...no," Ron told him.

Harry turned to Hermione. She shook her head and glanced at Iris,

"Iris? Are you okay?" she asked gently.

Iris snapped out of it and looked at Hermione,

"What? Oh yeah, yeah I'm fine," she looked down at the chocolate in her hands and took a small bite.

Instantly she felt warmth go through her body.

Hermione looked back to Harry, "I was trembling. Cold. But then... Professor Lupin made it go away..."

"But someone was screaming. A woman."

Hermione and Ron glanced nervously at each other.

"No one was screaming, Harry," Hermione told him carefully.

"I heard it too," a soft voice spoke up.

The three looked at Iris, who was staring at the floor, hugging Buttercup closely to her and stroking her slowly.

⌗ ⌗ ⌗

Hey Everyone! Let me know how you're enjoying the story so far, and what you think of Iris!

I'd love to get to know you all better, so if you don't know what to say and need motivation to say something, tell me-

What's your Hogwarts house? Mine is Hufflepuff :D

Anyway, thanks for reading!

-Elle