𓏲 . THE BOY WHO LIVED . .៹♡
                                            CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
                                              ─── THE DEMENTOR

The last few days of the summer holiday seemed to go by in the blink of an eye. Hermione and the Weasley's had ended up staying at the Leaky Cauldron until the beginning of the term. Mrs. Weasley found it to be convenient if everyone went to the Hogwarts Express together, that way she could do her motherly act of making sure they all got on the train safely.

On September first, Charlus was pulled awake as he felt someone grab his arm. He instantly opened his eyes and was faced with Tom, the innkeeper, with his usual toothless grin and a cup of tea. The light brown-haired boy thanked the innkeeper and politely urged him out of his room.

When Tom was gone, Charlus hopped out of his bed and took a quick shower. He had just finished pulling a sweatshirt over his head when Ron, Alistair and Harry had barged their way into the room. Harry and Alistair were looking oddly amused while Ron was clearly irritated.

"The sooner we get on the train, the better," Ron grunted as he sat down on the bed. " At least I can get away from Percy at Hogwarts. He is being an absolute nightmare! He thinks he's all that with that stupid Head Boy badge."

Charlus let out a chuckle. "What else were you expecting?" he asked. Ron scoffed, "I dunno! Maybe him not mentioning it every five seconds!"

Harry laughed at his friend's clear distressed state. As he settled down, Harry looked towards the door of Charlus' room before he said in a whisper, "Charlus, Alistair, I think it's a good time to tell Ron about what we know about Sirius Black and Daniel White-Riddle. "

The light brown-haired groaned while Ron's ears suddenly perked up. It was way too early in the morning for this, especially that he had only been awake for fifteen minutes.

"What are you on about?" Ron asked them. "Later." Charlus dismissed quickly. Alistair nodded in agreement before he turned to Ron, "Later. We'll tell you later."

Harry and Ron gave a sigh, but understood.

The  four boys headed down to breakfast, where Mr. Weasley was reading the front page of the Daily Prophet with a furrowed brow, Fred and George were teasing Percy about Penelope Clearwater, and Mrs. Weasley was telling Hermione and Ginny about a love potion she'd made as a young girl. All three of them were rather giggly.

While Harry,Ron and Alistair walked over to talk to Fred and George, Charlus walked around the table to take a seat next to Hermione. As soon as she saw him, she instantly excused herself from her previous conversation and looked to the boy instead, smiling, "Good morning,Char."

The  light brown-haired boy  gave her a gentle smile  that put her in a trance every time. A smile that could instantly light up the room, just like the sun did that morning in her room. She felt her heart begin to beat faster. "Morning, Mione."

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The journey to King's Cross was very uneventful compared to Charlus,Harry and Alistair's trip on the Knight Bus. They all had left for the train station after breakfast.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had helped all the kids load their bags in the car. With a small scrap between Fred, George and Percy about who was sitting where, the group of them set off for the station.

They reached King's Cross with twenty minutes to spare; they found themselves trolleys, unloaded their trunks onto them, and hurried to the platform.

Mr. Weasley tried to stay close to Charlus and Harry's elbows all the way into the station.

"Right then," he said and glanced around them as they stood near the entrance of platform nine and three-quarters. "Let's do this in pairs, as there are so many of us. I'll go through first with Harry."

As the two of them went through the barrier, Charlus and Hermione had paired up and followed behind them. When they emerged into platform nine and three-quarters, Charlus saw the Hogwarts Express.

 The scarlet steam engine seemed to be puffing smoke over the platform packed with witches and wizards seeing their children onto the train. It warmed his heart to see the magical view in front of him.

It wasn't long before Alistair and the remaining Weasleys had joined them as well. Harry and Charlus led the way to the end of the train, past packed compartments, to a carriage that looked quite empty.

Charlus loaded his trunk onto one of the compartments before he helped Hermione load her trunk onto it, to which the bushy haired girl was most grateful.

She used the time where Charlus was busy loading the compartment, to focus on the boy and notice things that she hadn't before. He had grown a few inches over the last year. His light brown hair was messier than the months before. His facial features had become more chiseled; his jawline was sharper and his dimples were deeper. It was clear that he had gained some significant muscle.

Charlus seemed to notice her gaze, as he looked at her. He gave the girl a cheeky wink, which caused her to blush. She bit her lower lip,  as she could not take her eyes off him.

Then a sudden realization hit her. Why was she thinking about him like that? Why was she acting like this? And why she almost kissed him a few days ago? Did she like-

No. No she did not.

Hermione couldn't, she couldn't fall for him.

That was impossible. This was her best friend.

It's just a silly thought, nothing serious.

"What's all that, Hermione?" Charlus asked, pulling her from her thoughts, pointing at not one but three bulging bags on the floor next to her.

"Well, I'm taking more new subjects than you, aren't I?" Hermione started to say, which caused Charlus to raise a brow. "Those are my books for Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, the Study of Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies — "

"What are you doing Muggle Studies for?" Ron said, joining the conversation with Harry and Alistair, rolling his eyes. "You're Muggle-born! Your mum and dad are Muggles! You already know all about Muggles!"

"But it'll be fascinating to study them from the wizarding point of view," Hermione said earnestly and took her gaze off of Charlus for the first time in awhile.

"Are you planning to eat or sleep at all this year, Hermione?" Harry asked, while Charlus,Alistair and Ron sniggered. Hermione ignored them and rolled her eyes before going to say good-bye to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.

Charlus helped his brother load the last of the trunks onto the compartment. They stowed Phoenix, Hedwig, Blacky and Crookshanks in the luggage rack, then went back outside to say good-bye to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.

Mrs. Weasley kissed all her children, then Hermione, then Harry, then Alistair and then finally, Charlus. He was embarrassed, but really quite pleased, when she gave him an extra hug. 

"Do take care, won't you, Charlus?" she said as she straightened up, her eyes oddly bright. "And don't get into too much trouble."

The look in her eye was something that Charlus couldn't decipher. It was almost like she was worried for him, but he had no idea why she would feel that way. 

He shook off the thought and  gave her a mischievous smile. "I can't promise that, Mrs. Weasley." he said, which  caused Molly to punch him playfully on the shoulder, "Oh, you!"

Charlus turned on his heel and ran to the compartment door which Ron threw open to let him on. All of them leaned out of the window and waved at Mr. and Mrs. Weasley until the train turned a corner and blocked them from view.

As they walked down the isle, Fred, George, and Percy had wandered off on their own. Leaving Ginny, Hermione, Harry, Ron, Alistair and Charlus to find an empty compartment.

While looking, they passed by Dean, Seamus, Matthew,Adrian and Neville, in an already packed compartment. They quickly greeted one another before they set off to find a seat once again.

"Did you really  blow up your aunt?" Hermione asked in a very serious voice as they walked. "It's not like I meant to do it! I just..." Charlus replied, trailing off for a moment to relive the memory, "...lost control."

"Brilliant!" Ron said happily while Alistair roared with laughter. Hermione couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Honestly, Ron, Alistair, it's not funny." she said sharply. "Charlus was lucky not to be expelled. "

"He was lucky not to be arrested, actually." Harry said to them. "Yes, that is true. But let's be serious — It is a bit funny," Alistair smiled, and nudged his best friend lightly. "I still think it was brilliant!" Ron agreed , which earned a slap on the arm from the bushy haired girl.

Charlus laughed as he walked alongside Ginny, who had remained silent, but kept glancing up at Harry every now and then. Poor girl — she still had a crush on his brother.

"Anyways, I think it's time we had a talk. There's something Charlus,Alistair and I need to tell you two; in private." Harry muttered to Ron and Hermione, who both looked to Charlus and Alistair for confirmation as the train picked up speed.

Charlus and Alistair nodded quickly, which caused Ron to step in front of his little sister. "Go away, Ginny," he said, dismissing her from following them any longer.

"Oh, that's nice," Ginny said huffily. Alistair gave the girl an apologetic smile before she stalked off.

Charlus, Harry, Ron,Alistair and Hermione set off down the corridor, still looking for an empty compartment, but all were full except for the one at the very end of the train.

This had only one occupant, a man sitting fast asleep next to the window. Charlus, Harry, Ron,Alistair and Hermione looked in from outside of the threshold. The Hogwarts Express was usually reserved for students and they had never seen an adult there before, except for the witch who pushed the food cart.

The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizard's robes that had been darned in several places. He looked ill and exhausted. Though quite young, his light brown hair was flecked with gray. He had his head leaned up against the window, which was currently being attacked by rain and wind. The weather outside was horrific; had been since they got on the train.

"Who d'you reckon he is?" Ron hissed as they walked in, sat down and slid the door shut, taking the seats farthest away from the window.

 "Professor R. J. Lupin," Hermione whispered at once. "Do you know everything?" Ron asked annoyed before he turned to Charlus,Harry and Alistair, "How is it that she knows everything?"

"It's on his suitcase, Ron," Alistair replied while he pointed at the luggage rack over the man's head, where there was a small, battered case held together with a large quantity of neatly knotted string. The name Professor R. J. Lupin was stamped across one corner in peeling letters.

"Wonder what he teaches?" Ron said, frowning at Professor Lupin's pallid profile. "That's obvious," Hermione whispered. "There's only one vacancy, isn't there? Defense Against the Dark Arts."

The five of them had already had two Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers, both of whom had lasted only one year. There were rumors that the job was jinxed.

"Well, I hope he's up to it," Ron said doubtfully. "He looks like on, good hex would finish him off, doesn't he? Anyway..." He turned Charlus,Harry and Alistair. "What were you three going to tell us?"

Charlus,Harry and Alistair took turns explaining what Mr. Weasley had told them about Sirius Black and Daniel White-Riddle. When they'd finished, Ron looked thunderstruck, and Hermione had her hands over her mouth.

She finally lowered them to say, "Sirius Black and Daniel White-Riddle escaped to come after you,Charlus, Harry? Oh, god... you'll have to be really, really careful. I mean it, the three of you" — she looked from Charlus to Harry to Alistair — "shouldn't go looking for trouble —"

"We don't go looking for trouble," Charlus said with a playful smile , as Harry and Alistair nodded in confirmation. "Trouble usually finds us."

This earned a scolding glance from Hermione as Ron spoke, completely unaware. "How thick would Charlus and Harry have to be, to go looking for nutters who wants to kill them? What was my dad thinking?" he said shakily.

They were taking the news worse than Charlus had expected, considering the fact that Sirius Black and Daniel White-Riddle weren't even after them. Hell, Ron and Hermione seemed to be much more frightened of Black and White-Riddle than he and Harry were.

"No one knows how they got out of Azkaban," Ron said uncomfortable. "No one's ever done it before. And they were  top-security prisoners, too."

"But they'll catch them, won't they?" Hermione said earnestly. "I mean, they've got all the Muggles looking out of  them, too.." "Who knows?!" Ron  said nervously, "They are  raving, murderous lunatics!"

Alistair's face fell slightly, while Hermione hit Ron on the shoulder as a scolding technique. Charlus simply sighed before he said in a sarcastic tone, "Thanks, Ron. That's surely going to make things easier for us."

"Oh," Ron said softly before he looked at Alistair, "Sorry."

Just then, the compartment began to rattle. The lanterns began to flicker on and off creepily as the train lurched and began to slow down.

Due to the sudden movement, Hermione had grabbed hold of Charlus' hand out of fear. The two of them shared an awkward glance. Even in the darkness, they could make out each others features. Hermione had glanced to their interlocked hands multiple times as a blush crept up on her face. Charlus, on the other hand, found comfort in her touch. Both of them didn't move, almost as if they were waiting to see who would pull away first.

After a moment or two, the bushy haired reluctantly pulled her hand away.  Charlus frowned at the loss of contact as he watched Hermione check the watch on her wrist. "Why are we stopping?" she asked, "We can't be there yet."

The train was getting slower and slower. As the noise of the screeching train tracks fell away, the wind and rain sounded louder than ever against the windows.

Harry, who was nearest to the door, got up to look into the corridor. All along the carriage, heads were sticking curiously out of their compartments.

The train came to a stop with a jolt, and distant thuds and bangs told them that luggage had fallen out of the racks. Then, without warning, all the lamps went out and they were plunged into total darkness.

"What's going on?" Ron said in a high-pitched voice, as he scrambled to look out the window.  "For Merlin's sake, stop moving Ron!" Alistair demanded when Ron stepped on his foot.

Harry felt his way back to his seat. "Do you think we've broken down?" he asked. "Dunno..." Charlus said, trying to see his way through the darkness. "Something is definitely wrong."

There was a squeaking sound, and Charlus saw the dim black outline of Ron, wiping a patch of frost clean on the window and peering out.

"There's something moving out there," Ron said. "I think people are coming aboard...." "It can't be Black and White-Riddle, can it?" Alistair asked nervously.

There was a soft, crackling noise, and a shivering light filled the compartment. The five of them stopped moving. It was silent, none of them dared to say anything. Charlus could've sworn that his heart was beating so fast that it was a mystery how no one heard it.

The room grew colder as ice and frost began to form on the windows. The light brown-haired boy had moved closer to Hermione to comfort her, which she gladly leaned into. Screw the awkwardness, this was some scary stuff.

It was then that the door to their compartment slid open. Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the moonlight coming in from outside, was a cloaked figure that towered to the ceiling. Its face was completely hidden beneath its hood.

Charlus' eyes darted downwards, and what he saw made his stomach contract. There was a hand protruding from the cloak and it was glistening, greyish, slimly-looking and scabbed, like something dead that had decayed in water.

But it was visible only for a split second. As though the creature beneath the cloak sensed Harry's gaze, the hand was suddenly withdrawn into the folds of its black cloak.

And then the thing beneath the hood, whatever it was, drew a long, slow, rattling breath, as though it were trying to suck something more than air from its surroundings.

An intense cold swept over them all. Charlus felt his own breath catch in his chest as he watched in fear as a thick white fog was swirling around his brother. He looked to Hermione,Alistair and Ron for any ideas on how to stop it, but they were just as scared as he was.

When Harry collapsed further into his his seat, the dark-hooded figure turned towards Charlus. The boy suddenly felt that the cold went deeper than his skin. It was inside his chest, it was inside his very heart...

Charlus'eyes rolled up into his head. He couldn't see. He was drowning in cold. There was a rushing in his ears as though of water. He was being dragged downward, the roaring growing louder...

Suddenly, Professor Lupin opened his eyes and got up. He pulled his wand out and shouted an incantation towards the door. A silver creature that looked like some kind of wolf or big dog was shot out of his wand, and towards the cloaked figure, which stumbled and floated away in pain.

Meanwhile, from far away,  Charlus heard screaming, terrible, terrified, pleading screams. He wanted to help whoever it was, he tried to move his arms, but couldn't...a thick white fog was swirling around him, inside him --

"Charlus! Charlus! Are you all right?" he heard a voice in the distance. He also felt shaking, someone was shaking his shoulders.

"What the bloody hell happened?" Charlus asked as he opened his eyes. There were lanterns above him, and the floor was shaking — the Hogwarts Express was moving again and the lights had come back on.

He seemed to have slid out of his seat onto the floor. He looked sideways and saw that Harry seemed to have suffered the same fate, but he wasn't awake. Alistair, Ron and Hermione were kneeling next to them, and above them, he could see   Professor Lupin watching.

Charlus immediately pushed himself into a sitting position. "Harry?"  he  said urgently before he tried to shake him awake. Eventually, he had given up to do it on the soft way and slapped his brother in the face.

"What the heck, Charlus?"

But Charlus didn't have the chance to say anything, because Harry's eyes snapped open, and cold sweat clung to his face as he confusedly looked around.  Alistair gave him his glasses, which had fallen on the floor. "Thanks." Harry said, rubbing his eyes.

Alistair, Ron and Hermione heaved Charlus and Harry back onto their seats

"Are you two okay?" Ron asked nervously. "Yeah," Harry said and looked quickly toward the door. The hooded creature was definitely gone. "What happened? Where's that — that thing? Who screamed?" "No one screamed," Ron said, more nervously now.

"I heard it too," Charlus replied hoarsely before a loud crack made them all jump. Professor Lupin was breaking an enormous slab of chocolate into pieces. "Here," he said to the Potter twins, handing the both of them a particularly large piece. "Eat it. It'll help."

Charlus took the chocolate and bit a piece off it. Soon, he realized that he felt like he was warm again, like blood had rushed back to him. Harry, however, did not. "What was that thing?" he asked Lupin. 

"A dementor," the new teacher explained, as he handed out the chocolate to the others. Alistair's eyes widened, "One of the dementors of Azkaban?"

Everyone stared towards Alistair. Professor Lupin simply nodded as he crumpled up the empty chocolate wrapper and put it in his pocket.

"Eat," he repeated, noticing that Harry hadn't touched his piece yet. "It'll help. I need to speak to the driver, excuse me . . ."

He strolled past the five kids and disappeared into the corridor. "Are you sure you're okay, Charlus,Harry?" Hermione asked, watching them anxiously. "I don't get it . . . what happened?" Harry said, wiping more sweat off his face.

Alistair tried to explain, "Well — that thing — the Dementor — stood there and looked around , but you two —" "I thought you were having a fit or something," Ron said, who still looked scared. "The two of you went sort of rigid and fell out of your seat and started twitching—"

"And Professor Lupin stepped over you two, and walked toward the Dementor, and pulled out his wand and pulled out his wand," Hermione continued, "He did something; this silvery thing shot out of his wand and when I looked back up, the dementor was gone."

 "And did any of you—" Charlus began to ask , looking at the others, "You know... pass out?"

Hermione shook her head quickly. "No, but it was horrible," Alistair said. "Did you feel how cold it went when it came in?" "I felt weird though," Ron said, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably. "Like I'd never be cheerful again...."

Harry didn't understand. He simply just kept replaying the information over and over in his head while his three friends returned to their seats.

"But what about the screaming?" Harry asked again. Hermione looked to Ron and Alistair, who both shrugged, before turning back to the boy with glasses, "No one was screaming, Harry."

At that moment,Professor Lupin came back.He paused as he entered, looked around and smiled slightly as he saw that Charlus was the only one who had eaten the chocolate. "I haven't poisoned that chocolate, you know..."

Charlus nudged his brother and Harry took a small bite out of the chocolate in his hand, clearly at odds with the situation. To his great surprise he felt warmth spread suddenly to the tips of his fingers and toes.

"We'll be at Hogwarts in ten minutes," Lupin went on. "Are you all right, Charlus, Harry?" "Fine," Charlus muttered before he looked out the window, where rain violently clattered against the glass, to avoid the confused and worried glances of the new teacher, his brother and his friends.

Charlus thought to himself silently on the way; this train ride to Hogwarts was literally indescribable and so damn strange. So much happened in such a short period of time.

The dementor attack was one thing, but who was that woman screaming when he passed out? It felt so familiar that it almost made him feel nauseous, but he couldn't pin point where he'd heard it before.

━━ AUTHORS NOTE

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