Melancholy || Harry Potter's twin brother

3: chapter six

"So you can see whole past events now, impressive." Hannah commented as they watched landscapes speed past them. They were on the Hogwarts express, and had finally made some sense of what had happened to Sirius. Jane and Ollie had joined them this time, meaning the group was back again.

"It was scary." Sirius said. "They got killed by a mob who accused them of witchcraft."

"They weren't wrong." Jane said morbidly.

"Yeah but it was because they could read." Sirius told her with a frown. "I mean I knew Lianna had a bad death, she told me she had, but she was impaled. Like... like a kebab."

"Thanks for that image Sirius." Ernie pulled a face. "Just what I needed."

"I don't get it, it hasn't happened for ages, what is going on?" Justin mused.

"Maybe it was developing for a bit." Ollie said. "That's why it disappeared."

"Why does everything you say sound stupid and make sense at the same time?" Jane asked mystified.

"Thanks Jane, love you too." Ollie shook his head at his sister.

"Maybe, why isn't anything simple?" Sirius sighed.

"Because that's too easy." Hannah patted his arm comfortingly.

The train suddenly jolted to a stop. "Why've we stopped?" Justin frowned trying to look out the window, but it was freezing over.

"What on earth?" Sirius went over to the door of their compartment and looked out, seeing other people looking around equally confused. "Do you know anything?" He asked them, they all shook their heads.

"This is weird." Hannah mumbled, "it's not Aro is it?"

"No, he wouldn't want to be seen." Ollie replied. Sirius shrugged and closed the compartment door.

All of a sudden, something big and black and cold appeared in the corridor, it had an almost human figure, but was like a floating cloak.

"What is that?" Ernie asked in surprise as it opened the door to the compartment.

"Whoever you're looking for, is not here." Ollie stood up, it looked directly at him and then retreated. "Is everyone alright?" He looked around at them, they had all gone pale and wide-eyed.

"What was that?" Sirius finally asked.

"A dementer, they guard Azkaban." Ollie replied.

"Isn't that a prison, what would they be doing here?" Hannah asked.

"Maybe someone escaped?" Justin suggested. Jane snorted.

"You can't just escape Azkaban." She shook her head. "Unless you're evil."

"Charming." Sirius shook his head and stood up. "I'm going to see if Harry is alright."

"He's probably fine." Ernie tried to comfort his friend who shook his head.

"I'm just going to check, I'll be back soon." With that he left the compartment and wandered down to find his brother. It didn't take him long and he found everyone crowding Harry when he arrived. "Harry?"

"I'm fine." Harry replied. He looked pale, but alive.

"Did you see that thing? Ollie called it a dementer." Sirius told them, they all nodded.

"Sirius did you hear anything?" Harry asked him.

"Like what?"

"Screaming." Harry replied, Sirius shook his head.

"It didn't stay long, Ollie told it to go away and it did." He explained. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"He fainted." Hermione told him, as it was obvious Harry wasn't about to.

"Harry!" Sirius frowned at his brother. "Why didn't you want to tell me?"

"Because I didn't want to worry you." Harry said. "I'm fine, honestly."

"I'm going to speak to the driver." A tall man got up from where he was sat in the corner of the room and left.

"Who was that?" Sirius frowned after him.

"New teacher." Ron shrugged. "He cast some sort of charm that made the dementer go away."

"So we might actually learn something then." Ginny said with a laugh. "He's got to be better than Lockhart."

"Anyone is better than Lockhart." Sirius replied with a laugh.

^^^
At the feast, the new teacher had been introduced as professor Lupin and was to be their new defence against the dark arts professor. The group were sat in a corner of the hufflepuff common room, playing a game of wizard chess in teams.

"Sirius that was rubbish." Ernie scolded his friend, looking at his latest move. Their team was not doing so well against Justin and Hannah, much to the others' delight.

"Sorry, I tried." Sirius sighed. He wasn't as good at wizard chess as the others.

"Checkmate." Hannah declared.

"No." Ernie said in disbelief.

"Yes!" Justin celebrated. None of them had won against Ernie before.

"Rematch?" Ernie suggested.

"Ern, accept it, you lost." Sirius patted his arm.

"So did you." Ernie sulked.

"Yeah but I can handle it." Sirius replied, Ernie pulled a face at him.

"I hate you."

"You know that hurts me, deep inside." Sirius pretended to sob.

"You're so dramatic." Hannah rolled her eyes at him.

"Me? Dramatic? Never." Sirius disagreed with her at once.

"Yeah Hannah, how could you think that?" Justin pretended to be shocked.

"Well- honestly I give up with you." Hannah sighed and Ernie had to agree with her.

"On a serious note." Ernie began.

"I am Sirius." Sirius interrupted seeing his chance and taking it. They all scoffed at him.

"I actually can't believe you just said that." Justin sighed in disappointment. "I mean it's just bad."

"I thought it was quite good." Sirius defended himself.

"Well you would." Hannah shook her head at him.

"What were you saying Ern?" Justin asked Ernie, who was shaking his head at them.

"I was just gonna say that maybe we should keep away from all the weird happenings this year." Ernie told them.

"If there are any." Sirius said optimistically.

"I mean its not like we try to get mixed up in stuff, but we just do." Justin added with a frown.

"I guess we could give it a go." Hannah agreed. "It can't hurt."

"I mean what can really happen this year that hasn't already." Ernie questioned as he and Sirius packed the wizard chess board away.

"I don't know nor do I really want to." Sirius sighed. "Nothing I hope."