Just like last year, Alycia didn't accompany Audrey, Ebony and Ben to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on September first. But at least Ben knew he and his sister were okay now, and that made him feel so much better.

Audrey had disappeared into the crowd as soon as they arrived. Ben at first thought it was to find Steve, but then he remembered they had broken up. Maybe they were back together?

"I don't see them anywhere, Ebony..." complained Ben, nervously trying to find his friends in the crowd.

"It's alright, don't panic," Ebony reassured him, placing a soft hand on his shoulder. "There's a lot of people at this platform, but you'll find them on the train. They're probably searching for you, too."

Ben hoped it was true, because a week ago he had had a nightmare in which Harry, Ron and Hermione thought he had actually meant everything he said to his father back in July, and in which they had decided to hate him.

"Besides, I think it's not a really good idea to hang out with them in public after telling your father that."

"But I can't just avoid being seen with them forever..." he said thoughtfully. "I doubt I'll be able to keep the secret forever."

"Well, I personally would only worry about the Malfoy boy," she commented, tossing one of her long black braids behind her shoulder. "I can totally see him telling his parents only to... hurt you."

"It wouldn't be the first time..."

She pursed her lips, and brushed one of his strands of hair away from his eyes. "I know, darling, I know..."

"Ebony, can I ask you to do something for me, please?" Ben looked up at her. She frowned for a second, but nodded assuringly. "I don't want to put any pressure onto you... But I'm really worried about-"

"Alycia, I know," she interrupted, lowering her volume. "You know there isn't much I can do, but I will try my best to help you. I promise."

"Thank you, Ebony..."

"But I need you to promise you'll take good care of your new little friends..." she smiled, glancing down at a wicker basket she carefully carried in her hands.

"They're actually my daughters," he smirked, and took the basket cautiously as Ebony passed it to him. He lifted the lid a little, reached in, and smiled as a furry little head rubbed against his hand.

There was a loud whistle, which caused many people to start speaking louder than before and to rush towards the train.

"Go ahead, Benjamin, or you'll lose the train," said the young woman. "Do you want me to help you with anything?"

"No, it's alright, I can do it myself," he answered, wishing he looked strong enough for people to stop asking him if he needed help carrying stuff.

Ebony kissed him on the cheek, which totally didn't make him turn as red as the sweater he was wearing, and he went off towards the train.

The corridors were as full as he had expected them to be. There were so many people speaking at the same time that it was rather hard to understand a thing. But the only thing he was thinking about was his friends, and where they could be.

Barely half a minute later, he caught a glimpse of a red head between the dwindling crowd, walking next to a frizzy-haired girl, and a black-haired boy, and he instantly recognised them as Ron, Hermione and Harry, respectively.

He made his way through a bunch of younger students, and finally reached his friends, who didn't seem to notice he was behind them.

"I didn't mean to blow her up," Harry was saying. "I just- lost control."

"Brilliant," laughed Ron.

Hermione scolded him, stepping inside the compartment, followed by the two boys. "Honestly Ron, it's not funny..."

Ben popped in. "But it kinda is, though."

The three of them spun back at once, startled by his sudden comment.

"Ben!" exclaimed Hermione, smiling at him. She looked different than usual; she had a tan, probably due to her holidays in France, and her hair was of a lighter tone of brown.

"Hey!" greeted Ron, though his light blue eyes were fixed on Scabbers, which he was trying his best to keep inside his pocket. Ben suddenly realised his redheaded friend was probably not going to particularly love the two little individuals who were sleeping inside his basket.

A high-pitched meow was heard, coming from it.

"Was that a cat?" asked Harry, frowning.

Ben looked right at him, and was quite surprised to see how taller he was now. Well, he was still shorter than both he and Ron, but it still felt like it had been a long time since they had last seen each other, because he had grown up a lot. His hair was longer, and messier, too, but it really suited him. He looked nice.

Ben focused back on his cats, and nodded.

"It was Snowflak..." he suddenly realised there was someone else in the compartment. A middle-aged man with mousy brown hair, and an exhausted expression was sleeping next to the window. "Who's that?"

Neither of his friends seemed to have noticed he was there, and they turned to look at him with a frown.

"Professor R. J. Lupin," whispered Hermione at once.

Ron gaped at her. "How'd you know that?"

"It's on his case," she pointed at a small, battered case, with the name 'Professor R. J. Lupin' stamped across one side.

"So he's a new teacher..."

Ron turned to look at Ben with a know-it-all expression that reminded the brunette a lot of Hermione. "No, Ben, 'Professor' is probably his real name."

Ben rolled his eyes, and he sat next to Hermione, in front of Harry.

"So, you have a cat now?" he asked.

"Two, actually," answered the boy, opening his basket. A tiny, scrawny black cat poked its head out of it. "This is Snowflake. She likes boxes and climbing on top of doors."

Harry smiled at the kitten, his eyes brighter than usual.

"Awe!" cried Hermione, approaching Ben and extending a finger to tickle the cat.

"Snowflake?" repeated Ron, furrowing his eyebrows. "But that cat is black."

"And I've always wanted to have a cat called Snowflake," admitted Ben, lifting the lid again to try and let the other cat out.

"Don't you have another one?" asked Harry, looking up at him.

"Yeah, her name's Boots. It's because her feet are black but the rest of her fur is grey... You'll see it if I manage to get her out of here..." said the blonde, struggling to take the smaller cat out of the corner she was hiding in. "She doesn't like people she doesn't know- Or just people in general."

Snowflake, who was climbing up the seats, meowed loudly at Hermione's basket. The girl was fumbling with the straps of it as she looked at the black cat with heart eyes.

"Don't you dare let that thing out!" shouted Ron, and then Professor R. J. Lupin gave a snort and the redhead turned paler than usual.

"What thing?"

A large, fluffy orange cat with a squashed face climbed out of the basket, then proceeded to yawn dramatically and turned to Snowflake, who was smelling the air with curiosity.

"This is Crookshanks," Hermione pointed at her cat. "He's-"

"A monstrosity," finished Ron, making Harry laugh.

"He's adorable," said Ben. Harry and Ron shared glances.

"Cats are taking over the world..." grumbled Ron angrily, covering the pocket in which he had kept his rat in a protective gesture.

Ben chuckled. "I hope they do, they're adorable."

"You know, Ben," said Harry, sitting up straight. "I always thought you'd be a dog person."

"Why?" he asked, smiling happily when he felt the other cat beginning to calm down inside the basket.

Harry shrugged. "Just thought you were."

"Well, I think this whole cat versus dog argument is stupid," he said. "Why should we pick a side when both are great?"

"Good point."

Boots finally deigned to jump out of the basket. She stretched out on the floor, and after looking at everyone with her big blue eyes, she hid under the seats.

"Don't mind her, she'll eventually get out of there." commented Ben, and got up to move Snowflake away from Ron. "Sorry, Ron... I promise she won't hurt Scabbers, she just likes observing everything."

"How are you so sure about that?" he asked defensively. "Maybe they join together to attack Scabbers while you're away!"

"They're both sick, Ron... They barely have strength to move sometimes," said Ben monotonously. "We found them on a muggle street two weeks ago, starving and trying to find food in the trash."

"Wasn't their mother around?" asked Hermione, stroking Crookshanks's fur.

Ben pursed his lips. "We found her... dead, behind the trash. Ebony said she'd been poisoned, and told Alycia and I to move away from her. Mother and Father let us keep them mostly because she likes cats more than her own children-"

His friends were staring at him, wide-eyed, and he looked down at Snowflake, who was climbing onto his lap, probably tired of exploring the whole compartment.

"I'm s-" began Hermione, but there was a weird sort of whistle coming from somewhere, and they all lost their focus.

"What's that noise?" asked Ron. They all looked around the compartment, until he pointed at the luggage rack. "It's coming from your trunk, Harry."

Harry got up, and began rumbling between his stuff. As the black-haired boy moved, Ben caught a glimpse of a necklace over his shirt. He felt a strong happiness when he understood Harry was wearing his gift.

"Is that a Sneakoscope?" Hermione stood up for a better look. Harry showed it to her.

"Oh, those are really cool," commented Ben.

"Mind you, it's a very cheap one," Ron said. "It went haywire just as I was tying it to Errol's leg to send it to Harry."

"Were you doing anything untrustworthy at the time?" Hermione raised an eyebrow at him.

"No!" he exclaimed, looking offended. "Well... I wasn't supposed to be using Errol. You know he's not really up to long journeys... but how else was I supposed to get Harry's present to him?"

Harry sticked the Sneakoscope back into his trunk, fearing its piercing whistle would wake Professor R. J. Lupin up.

"We could get it checked in Hogsmeade," suggested Ron. "They sell that sort of thing in Dervish and Banges, magical instruments and stuff. Fred and George told me."

"Do you know much about Hogsmeade?" asked Hermione eagerly. "I've read it's the only entirely non-Muggle settlement in Britain-"

"Yeah, it is," Ron brushed it off like it wasn't an impressive fact. "But that's not why I want to go... I just want to get inside Honeydukes!"

"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Ben.

"What's that?"

"A sweetshop," answered Ron dreamily. "Where they've got everything... Pepper Imps,  and great fat Chocoballs- you love those, Ben, don't you? They're full of strawberry mousse and clotted cream, and really excellent sugar quills, which you can suck in class and just look like you're thinking what to write next–"

"But Hogsmeade's a very interesting place, isn't it?" Hermione pressed on eagerly. "In Sites of Historical Sorcery it says the inn was the headquarters for the 1612 goblin rebellion, and the Shrieking Shack's supposed to be the most severely haunted building in Britain-"

Ron visibly didn't care in the slightest about what she was saying. "And massive sherbet balls that make you levitate a few inches off the ground while you're sucking them."

"I can't wait to go there, it's going to be wonderful!"

"Won't it be nice to get out of school for a bit and explore Hogsmeade?" Hermione asked Harry, who had been oddly quiet.

"'Spect it will," he mumbled stiffly. "You'll have to tell me when you've found out."

"What?"

"I can't go. The Dursleys didn't sign my permission form, and Fudge wouldn't either."

"You can't come?" shouted Ron. "What are you going to do, then? Stay at the castle on your own?"

Harry shrugged.

"No," Ben shook his head.  "We'll find a way for you to come with us."

"Maybe McGonagall can sign the form for you..."

Harry gave a hollow laugh. "I doubt, especially now with Sirius Black on the loose."

"What'd you mean?"

"Is that what you wanted to talk to us about, Harry?" asked Hermione.

"Yes."

"What? What's happening?"

Harry shifted in his seat. "Last night, I overheard your parents in their bedroom, Ron."

Ben frowned, horrified.

"Ben! That's not what I mean!" exclaimed Harry, closing his eyes tightly as Ron made a disturbed noise. "They were talking. About Sirius Black. You know, the murderer-"

"I know who Sirius Black is, everyone does."

"Yeah, okay," he said. "They were saying that he... um- He was one of Voldem-" three gasps interrupted him. "Sorry, I mean You-Know-Who's followers. And they think that Sirius Black broke out of Azkaban to get revenge and kill me because of what happened that night."

Ron, Hermione and Ben stared at him, wide-eyed.

"Sirius Black escaped to come after you? Oh, Harry... you'll have to be really, really careful. Don't go looking for trouble, Harry..." cried Hermione, covering her mouth with her hands.

"I don't go looking for trouble," remarked Harry. "Trouble usually finds me."

"How thick would Harry have to be, to go looking for a nutter who wants to kill him?" asked Ron shakily.

"Don't worry, Harry..." said Ben nervously. "They'll definitely catch him before he even tries to touch you. You'll be okay."

———————————————

Quite a lot of hours had passed, and it was getting dark outside. Boots had finally decided to stop hiding, and had jumped to sleep between Harry and Professor Lupin. Harry had extended a finger to tickle the cat between her ears, and she had surprisingly not had a heart attack.

Snowflake, on the other hand, had been watching Crookshanks while the older cat slept, until she got bored and wandered around the compartment again, and then sprawled across Ben's legs and fell asleep.

All of a sudden, the train began moving slowlier.

"Are we there yet?" asked Ron, rubbing his eyes.

Hermione checked her clock. "No, it's way too early."

"Then what's happening?"

Harry got up and stuck his head out of the compartment to check the corridor. The train jolted, and Harry fell back into his seat.  And, a second later, the lights went off.

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

"What's going on, Harry?" asked Ron.

"Dunno, maybe we've broken down?" he suggested.

Ron moved closer to the window, trying to see through it. "I think there's something moving out there..." he placed his hand on the glass, and it was slowly covered by a layer of frost.

"I-Isn't it cold here?" asked Hermione, shivering.

Snowflake's eyes snapped open, and she looked at the door in fear. Boots jumped back under the seats, followed by her sister. At first, Ben didn't understand what was happening, until he saw the door slide open.

A giant hooded... thing slowly floated inside the compartment, and the temperature decreased even more, causing them all to shiver, and Crookshanks let out a screech.

Ben moved as close to the wall as he could, to avoid being in the creature's field of vision. But then it turned to Harry, and he panicked for a second when he saw its hand; a dark shade of grey, slimy-looking and skeletal at the same time, and realised it was a dementor, and it was hurting Harry.

It felt as though everything was happening in slow motion. Harry was shaking, and then he wasn't, and Ben feared the dementor had somehow killed him. Professor R. J. Lupin's sleep had obviously been perturbed by all of this, because he suddenly got up, pulled his wand out and shouted an incantation at the dementor.

A silver creature that looked like some kind of wolf or big dog was shot out of his wand, and towards the dementor, which stumbled and floated away.

Hermione, Ron and Ben all jumped towards Harry at the same time, worried about their friend. He had fallen down, passed out, over the seats.

"Harry, Harry!" Ben tried to shake him awake.

"Harry, wake up!" cried Hermione.

Ron suddenly slapped him awake, panicking.

"What the heck, Ron?"

But Ron didn't have the chance to say anything, because Harry had woken up. Hermione gave him his glasses and he took them, sitting up slowly.

"Harry, are you okay?"

He nodded, and a second later he had a piece of chocolate inches from his face. Professor Lupin was offering it to him, along with a sweet smile.

"It's alright," he assured. "It's just chocolate."

Harry took it hesitantly, and stared at him for a good couple of seconds, until he finally spoke, his voice trembling slightly. "What... What was that thing?"

"It was a dementor... One of the guards of Azkaban," said Professor Lupin. "It's gone now, it was searching the train for Sirius Black."

"Does the Ministry really think a mass murderer would be hiding here, on the Hogwarts Express?" inquired Ben, eyebrows raised.

"You can never be too careful when it comes to someone like... Black," he answered, and a confusing expression flashed in his face, but he soon recovered and left the rest of the chocolate bar next to Harry. "If you'll excuse me, I need to have a little word with the driver."

He got up and headed for the door. Snowflake came out from under the seats, curious to see if she could manage to explore the rest of the train.

Professor Lupin gave Harry a smile. "Eat." And left, closing the door behind him.

———————————————

Ben had already been in the carriages that lead students to the castle last year, but he was still fascinated about the fact that it wasn't normal horses, but invisible ones, which carried the coaches.

Well, they weren't horses, technically. They were thestrals, magical creatures that did resemble winged horses, but he had never seen one in real life.

However, Ben didn't have too much time to think about that, since he was too busy discreetly looking at Harry to see if he was feeling okay. Both Ron and Hermione were doing the same, and the boy didn't seem too happy about it.

And it got worse when they stepped out of the carriage, and a certain annoying Slytherin decided to pay them a visit.

"You fainted, Potter? Is Longbottom telling the truth? You actually fainted?"

Neville had gotten inside the compartment a while after Professor Lupin had left, and then said he'd try to find some help, even though Harry had told him around fifty times that he was okay.

When both Ron and Ben were about to snap at Malfoy, another voice was heard from behind the five of them.

"Truly obsessed, aren't we, Malfoy?"

They all turned around to see two younger students standing there. One of them was a girl in a Ravenclaw uniform, whose dark hair was in many small braids that fell over her shoulders. Ben had seen Ebony wear similar ones before she cut her hair short some years ago.

The one who had spoken was a Slytherin boy with curly black hair and a playful smirk. Ben couldn't help but smile when he realised it was Thomas, the boy who had defended Harry last year, when everyone thought he had petrified Filch's cat.

"What are you even trying to say?" spat Malfoy.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," began the girl, a hint of irony in her voice. "But I highly doubt Longbottom decided to tell you out of everyone in the train that Potter fainted."

Malfoy rolled his grey eyes. "Of course he didn't. He was searching for someone who could help Potter, I guess."

"Hm... So I suppose you got a medical degree this summer, right Malfoy?" asked Thomas sarcastically.

The girl laughed, "That's a rather impressive achievement."

"Especially for someone with a brain as small as yours."

Malfoy was looking furious, and spat one of his usual "My father will hear about this!" threats before leaving.

Thomas raised his eyebrows. "I wonder when he's gonna finally understand that nobody gives a single shit about his father..."

"It feels like he's made it part of his personality," commented Harry.

"More like he made it his whole personality," corrected Ron, making them all chuckle.

"To be honest, Longbottom was trying to find some help," said the girl, shrugging. "We were just messing with Malfoy."

"Yeah," nodded Thomas. "My name's Thomas, by the way. Thomas Stonem. And she's Leah."

"Leah Adams," she added, and both of them offered them their hands to shake.

"Nice to meet you," said Harry. "I'm Harry Potter."

"We all know who you are," laughed Leah, and looked at Harry's friends. "And pretty much everyone knows who you three are, too."

"The perks of getting into trouble and almost dying every year, I suppose," shrugged Ben with a grin.

A/N: yess, third year is finally starting! i'm really excited to write this!