Chapter 3
Harry, Hermione, Cassidy and Ron hurried onto the Hogwarts Express, Cassidy still wincing from the pain of her new braids. She mentally made a note to ask the braiders at Twist and Flick not to do them so tightly next time.
Harry was explaining to Hermione and Ron what happened with his aunt, and Cassidy struggled with her owls cage as they tried to find a cabin to sit in. Moony had become really clingy this year, for some reason, like he couldn't bear to be away from Cassidy. So she'd decided to bring him onto the train.
"...honestly, Ron, it's not funny. Harry was lucky it wasn't a big spell." Hermione scolded Ron, who thought the idea of Harry's aunt blowing up was absolutely hilarious. Cassidy agreed, but she couldn't tell him that; she was still bickering with him.
"I still think it's brilliant." Ron repeated, grinning stupidly. Cassidy rolled her eyes, and Ron caught it.
"Oi, Cass, you've got a problem, or is your face just stuck like that?"
"Yes, actually, Ronald, I do have a problem. You're—"
"Will the both of you stop it?" Hermione sighed, stopping in front of a cabin that looked to have a sleeping man in there. He looked far too old to be a student. "Come on. Everywhere else is full."
Cassidy shuddered as Hermione opened the door.
"He looks homeless." She whispered.
"You look like a troll." Ron shot back, causing Cassidy to smack his head, hard. She looked to her owl cage as she sat, and Moony was fast asleep.
Hermione sat closest to the door, Ron sat next to Hermione, and Cassidy sat next to Ron, by the window and directly across from the sleeping man. Harry sat next to the man, but to the further end, right opposite Hermione.
"I wonder who that is." Ron observed. The man didn't stir, and Cassidy looked at her sleeping owl, Moony, once again.
"R.J Lupin." Hermione said.
"Do you know everything?" Ron said, holding Scabbers carefully as he got comfortable. "How is it she knows everything?" Ron asked no one in particular. He looked at Cassidy, but she was staring out the window, quiet.
"It's written on the suitcase, Ronald." Hermione said, pointing to the man's case. Cassidy noticed how very tattered his robes were. She couldn't see his face, however, and he breathed so shallowly that she thought on multiple occasions that he was dead.
"Do you think he's really asleep?" Harry observed, trying to get a better look at this Lupin fellow.
"Maybe he's dead." Cassidy said, squinting at his figure. He took a shallow intake of breath again. "No, never mind. He's not dead. Yet, by the looks of it."
"Cassidy, you're being rude." Hermione huffed haughtily. Cassidy threw up her hands in surrender, not saying anything else.
The train kept chugging along for hours, the group talking about little things that made their summer, and, of course, the situation with Sirius Black. Harry told them all what Mr Weasley had told him in the Leaky Cauldron.
Sirius Black was after him.
"Sirius Black's escaped from Azkaban to come after you?" Ron said, worried. Cassidy had leaned forward, looking at Harry carefully.
"Yeah." Harry said.
"This is terrible." Cassidy breathed.
"But they'll catch Black, won't they?" Hermione said, ever the optimist. "I mean, everyone's looking for him."
"They still haven't found him, 'Mione, it's been a month." Cassidy said, playing with the hem of her shirt nervously.
"On top of that, no one's ever broken out of Azkaban before, and he's a raving, murderous lunatic." Ron said.
"Thanks, Ron." Harry said sarcastically.
"Why do these things only happen to us?" Cassidy groaned, falling back into her seat and covering her face.
Harry shrugged and gave her a weak smile. "No idea."
Cassidy's owl, Moony, didn't wake up and start hooting once during the entire trip, which she thought was rather odd. The man named R.J Lupin stayed fast asleep, and they thought nothing much of it.
"Hey, you guys." Cassidy said suddenly, drawing the groups attention.
"What's up, Cass?" Harry said not-so-casually, the fear of Black coming after him still hanging in the air. Hermione stroked Crookshanks absentmindedly.
"Is it just me, or... it looks like the world's drained of color?"
Ron scoffed. "You've gone absolutely mental. There's a lunatic on the loose and you're talking about colors—"
"No, Ron, I'm serious." Cassidy's tone was firm, and the group looked up at her. She was looking out of the window, into the gloom, as R.J Lupin slept opposite her with Moony.
"The first two years we've had together, everything seemed so colorful. But now, it's all—"
"Grey." Harry completed. Cassidy looked away from the window to look at Harry, her expression unreadable.
Ron and Hermione looked between the two, confusion all over their faces. Before they could say anything, however, the train grinded to a halt with a deafening screech.
"Why're we stopping?" Hermione said worriedly, and Cassidy subconsciously shifted closer to Ron. "We can't be there yet."
Harry got up then, opening the cabin door to check outside. Other students were checking outside their cabins too, and Cassidy could hear muffled voices.
Suddenly, the train jerked, causing Harry to fall back in his chair and other students to scream.
Moony the owl stirred in his cage.
"What's going on?!" Ron exclaimed, and Cassidy felt a terrible sinking feeling, the same tightening in her chest when something bad was about to happen.
"I don't know," Harry said, unaware of Cassidy's condition. "Maybe they've broken down."
"Something bad's about to happen." Cassidy whispered shakily.
The entire group turned to look at Cassidy just then, and saw how her hand had clutched around her necklace tightly. And despite the fact they'd been arguing for the past two days, Ron placed his hand over hers as she started to breathe heavily.
"Is it warm again?" Harry asked slowly, like he was afraid to hear the answer.
Slowly, she looked up at Harry and nodded.
Just then, the lights in the train went out, sending them into darkness.
"Ouch, Ron, that was my foot!" Hermione said, indignant. Ron ignored her, taking his hand away from Cassidy's and looking out the train window.
"There's something moving out there." He said, voice wavering. Cassidy couldn't shake the rising panic in her chest, and suddenly, the fight in the Chamber came back to her. The Basilisk, Riddle, him stepping on her hand as she reached out—
"Cassidy, you're okay." Hermione whispered, and Cassidy saw that she'd reached out to hold her hand tightly. She squeezed it back gratefully, using it to ground herself.
"Thanks, 'Mione." Cassidy whispered back, and Hermione withdrew her hand as the group looked out the window warily.
"I think...something's coming on board." Ron whispered shakily.
As if on cue, the train shook again, making Cassidy's necklace dangle loosely from her neck.
The cabin became deathly cold.
Ice spread across the windows, and the warmth from Cassidy's necklace became non-existent, something that rarely happened. But it wasn't just an absence. It was like it was absorbing the chill around them.
Their breaths fogged in the cold air, and R.J Lupin was still asleep. Moony would've usually fussed about the temperature, but the owl continued to doze, its head tucked under its wing.
Silence.
Then the train shook again. This time, Ron latched onto Cassidy's arm, startled. Cassidy didn't even register it as she whirled around, wide-eyed.
"Bloody hell!" Ron cried. "What's happening?!"
Harry looked to her necklace, and Cassidy swore she'd never seen someone go so pale.
"Cassidy." He whispered.
"What?" Cassidy said, shaking.
Harry pointed to the necklace.
Slowly, she looked at her necklace, which had started to feel heavier.
The gem itself, which was usually a jaunty purple, or orange, and last year, even green, had turned completely black, devoid of warmth.
"What the fuck?" Cassidy whispered shakily, looking to the cabin's door. A dark silhouette appeared, its bony hand reaching for the door handle. A bony hand reached out—not to turn the handle, but to command it open.
Slowly, the door drew open, and a cold air rushed in. Cassidy found herself being unable to move, as the thing's bony, calloused and slimy hand took ahold of the door. A cloaked being faced them, floating. Crookshanks hissed violently, back arched.
Cassidy's breath hitched—then, suddenly, her head flooded with whispers.
They weren't hers.
They were screams. Wailing. Echoes of something lost, something gone, something that would never come back.
They filled Cassidy's head, and she felt nothing but sorrow and grief and loss, in her skin, her bones, her soul her very being her everything and nothing. She heard the sufferings of the woman in her dreams, she was shouting my baby my baby and she was anger and she was fear and she was grief and she knew not of love of happiness all she knew was anger anger ANGER it wouldn't stop stop STOP.
And then the evil thing the EVIL thing looked at Harry and Cassidy wanted to do something DO SOMETHING but she could not she sat there useless useless USELESS as it took away the good in Harry Harry's good is GONE and he is being fed on by the EVIL thing how does she know?
It's being filled hunger satiated life ending but someone rises up, someone awakens and stands.
And she sees it is R.J Lupin, and R.J Lupin sees it is her, and for a split second they lock eyes and he whispers a word to her that will change her life forever, one word before he saves Harry Potter's life, a word that will link them and break them.
"Noelle?"
And then he turned to cast the evil thing out.
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