Infinity Times Infinity

“I’ll be right back,” you said, opening the door to your shared compartment. “Are you sure you’ll be okay alone?” 

“I’m just going to take a nap, I’ll be okay,” Remus reassured you. “I’m sure you’d like to share a cab with the twins and your friends anyway.” He pulled the collar of his coat up to his face, knocking out in mere seconds of you closing the door. You sent an adoring smile his way, although you knew he couldn’t see it.

With that you made your way down the hallway, peeking through compartment windows until you found the three familiar Gryffindors. Lee had his head resting on Fred’s lap, who was busy petting his hair as he conversed with George. George, on the other hand, had a notebook resting on his lap, his quill busily writing down whatever it was the two were talking about. 

You pulled open the car door and entered, staying in the doorway. “Hello, boys.”

“Y/N!” The three of them shouted. 

You stepped inside the compartment and took the spot next to George, giving each other about a foot’s distance between so you could do the same as Lee. 

“So, how was Egypt?”

“It was amazing!” George said, raking a gentle hand through your hair as he spoke. “Got to see the cursed muggle artifacts.”

“Thought we told you everything in the letters?” Fred asked, warranting a glance at him who was still playing with Lee’s hair. His rhythm had gone a little slower, seemingly distracted by something. 

“Yeah, but hearing it from the two of you is much better than having to read it from letters.”

The two continued to relive their summer spent in Egypt, including other details they spared you from letters, saving them till they could tell you. About an hour passed when you began to shiver slightly from the cold. Odd, you shouldn’t be cold — you don’t get cold easily. Especially since your body temperature was better regulated, it was a werewolf perk that felt like an extra bonus. 

You were about to sit up when the train startled the four of you. It jolted to a stop and sent you flying on top of George, well more than before at least, seeing as you had already been laying your head on his lap. He wrapped an arm around you, holding you steady, then gave the other two questioning glances. 

“We can’t be at Hogwarts already… can we?” Asked Fred, looking out the window. 

“But we left the station not too long ago,” George responded, equally confused.

Lee sat up and hugged himself, scooching closer to Fred. “Bloody hell, it’s freezing!” 

Fred snapped at Lee for being nearly squashed by him, but that only caused the darker Gryffindor to scoot closer. While the two bickered, you gave George a small pat on his arm, signalling for him to let go of you as three shadows ran closer to your compartment. Three boys pulled open the door so quickly that you didn’t have much time to register what was going on. A familiar bed of platinum blonde hair made you relax, seeing as it was only Draco and his two goons. You realized that something was up when you saw the fear in their eyes. All three of them were blanched white, eyes the size of saucers and mouths trembling as they made their way inside. The boy, who you recognized as Goyle, quickly slammed the door shut and turned around to look at everyone inside, eyes still open wide. 

Seeing as you were the only Slytherin in the compartment, you decided to engage in conversation first before the boys tore at each other’s throats. “Umm, boys? Is everything okay?”

Crabbe opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out were unintelligible words and strings of gasps. Draco looked as if he were near the point of dropping unconscious, but managed to squeak out a word. “Dementors.” 

“Dementors?”

All three boys nodded their heads rapidly.

“Oh, come now, dementors? Really?” Teased Fred, finally managing to keep Lee off of himself. “If this is your form of a prank, it’s not really that great.”

“Your acting’s okay, but you’re shaking too much,” George criticized. The twins began to give pointers at how the three could have better executed a joke if they had only —

“We’re not joking, you imbecile —” but before Draco could continue any further a strong sense of dread washed over the compartment and darkness fell. Somehow it had grown colder and the window began to glaze over in frost. 

“Who the bloody hell shut the lights off?” One of the boys shouted. 

“Ow, Lee, you’re on me, mate.”

“Stop shouting, someone’s on my foot.”

Ignoring the three of them, you stood up and pulled the three Slytherins further into the compartment. There wasn’t much room, but with a quick motion, you sat Draco on the bench while the other two scurried to the wall furthest away from the door, sitting just below the window. With a flick of your hand, blue flames appeared allowing for some visibility. You nearly chuckled at how ridiculously cramped everyone looked inside, but stopped yourself when a rattling breath caught everyone’s attention. Outside, a shadow floated closer towards the compartment, its hooded figure glancing from cart to cart. 

At this point, you had your wand out and at the ready to cast just in case it got too close to everyone inside. It floated just outside of your cart, its sickly hand sticking from out of its cloak when it noticed the many presences inside. It stopped for a moment, almost as if contemplating something. It didn’t take long for it to think seeing as how the dementor grabbed a hold of the compartment’s door and slowly pulled it open. 

It stared at you. Its cloaked face, or what you would assume to be its face, stared right at you. You had never felt a deeper sense of unease ever, and here you were now standing before it. A low growl rumbled in your chest, the wolf inside you desperately trying to intimidate the threat. For a moment’s instance, it stayed there before it retracted its hand and floated away to resume, what seemed to be, a patrol of sorts. Once it was out of sight, you staggered but caught yourself before your movements could alert anyone. 

You released a shaky breath, calming yourself as you caught a glimpse of yourself in the door’s window. Your reflection was relatively normal except for your eyes which were faintly glowing gold. You blinked a few times, wondering if you were seeing things and when you reopened them, saw that they had returned to their normal color. 

Shit. 

Taking in another calming breath, you turned around and sat back down on your previous spot, now nearly being occupied by Draco. He scooted a bit, to allow you to sit, but almost immediately scooted back to sit closer to you. The other two also scooted closer to you, trembling at the recent events.

You felt three pairs of eyes on you. Fred, George, and Lee were all giving you curious looks about the way Malfoy and his goons were behaving, but you waved it off mouthing that it wasn’t something to discuss at the moment. 

“What was that all about?” Snarked George, confused about the entire scene that just played out.

“Yeah, why’d you three run in here nearly pissing yourselves?” Mocked Fred. He was going to get a kick out of this for Merlin knows how long. 

You pocketed your wand, feeling that the dementor probably wouldn’t return, and turned back to glare at Fred. “Fred, now isn’t the time.” He glared at you, but you glared back playfully. “Dementors are no joke. They’re here because of Sirius Black.”

“What do you mean Sirius Black?”

“Yeah, what’s that got to do with the dementors?”

Draco would’ve remarked how stupid they must be, but kept his mouth shut, unsure if his voice would fail him if he tried to speak. He opted to save the humiliation and stayed quiet. You tried recalling what the letter sent to your father entailed.

“Well, if my memory serves me well, since Sirius Black escaped Azkaban, the Ministry’s deployed dementors for his capture. They were sent to secure Hogwarts, hell if I know why Sirius Black would be there anyway.”

“And how do you know all that?” Asked Lee.

“My dad got a letter from the school. The staff is supposed to be alerted about this kind of stuff first. I’m sure Dumbledore will explain this once we’re at Hogwarts.”

Once the frost on the windows began to melt away, and the light from the corridor came back, Draco unstuck himself from your side. He sat awkwardly, now aware of how ridiculous he must’ve acted. The adrenaline had worn off and he seemed unsure of what to do or say next.

“I’m sure the dementors are no longer on the train. You can go to your compartment now if you’d like.” You nudged him softly, hiding the motion by vanishing the flames engulfing your hand.

“Well then, come on Crabbe and Goyle. We ought to return and see if Pansy and Blaise are alright.” He got up, stumbling as he nearly tripped over the two. “Up, you morons, let’s go.” 

The three got up, shook the dust off of their clothes, and glanced at the four of you. The two stockier boys were the first to leave the compartment, talking amongst themselves somehow even in their frightened states. Draco, after fixing his sweater, glared at the three boys. 

“Not a word,” he said, pointing at the twins and Lee, the latter three laughed amongst themselves. Draco then turned around and made his way towards the door, Crabbe and Goyle already outside waiting for him. He took one last glance at you and nodded before closing the door and walking away with the other two Slytherins.

“What was that about?” You looked at Lee, a glint of curiosity in his eyes as he spoke.

“What was what?” You questioned.

“That.” Fred piped up. “He was so fast to insult us. How come he didn’t insult you?”

“Did you want him to insult me?”

Fred’s face flushed for a second. “Well, no —”

“Then what’s there to question?” 

“I bet it’s some unspoken Slytherin rule to not insult one another or something.” Mumbled George, spreading himself along the now spacious compartment. “Wish it was like that for the other houses, then we wouldn’t have to hear him rambling on and on.” 

The three of them rolled their eyes and laughed, pushing that aside and falling into easy conversation. It had been a few minutes before something outside caught your attention. The door opened once more and a head poked in, his soft amber eyes looking over the group. Seeing as no one seemed hurt he gave a relieved sigh and smiled.

“Oh, hello Mr. Lupin.”

“Hello, Lee. George, Fred.” He gave short nods then looked at you. “Y/N. Are you all okay? Did the dementor pass through?”

“Yeah, but it didn’t come inside. It only stopped for a bit before leaving.”

Your dad rummaged through a pocket in his cardigan, pulled out a slab of Honeydukes chocolate, and handed it over to George, who was closest to him. “Just in case, have some chocolate. Share it amongst the four of you. I’m going to talk to the conductor.”

Once your dad closed the door and walked out of sight, you stood up and headed for the door. During the commotion, you completely forgot about your other friends and chastised yourself for doing so. You had to make sure Adrian and Solaris were okay. Just as you opened the door, you heard Fred speak up.

“Where are you going?”

You turned around to face the boys, hand still on the door handle. “I need to check if Solaris and Adrian are alright. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

At the mention of Adrian’s name, Fred’s movements stopped. “Can’t we wait till we get to Hogwarts? I mean, we’re almost there anyway.”

“I’m sure they’re fine, but I’m just worried,” you said, one of your eyebrows raised a little higher than the other. You didn’t say much else and instead left the compartment, now in search of the two other Slytherins. 

You were gone and out of earshot when the boys begin to question Fred’s antics. 

“What the hell was that, Fred?” Asked George, pulling his body up from the bench. He sat up, leaning casually against the backrest, giving his full attention to the odd way his brother had been acting a few seconds prior. 

“What was what?” Fred asked, oblivious to what his brother was insinuating. Or perhaps, he wished his brother hadn’t insinuated anything at all.

George raised an eyebrow, perplexed by Fred. “‘Can’t we wait till Hogwarts?’ Really? She’s worried about her friends and you tell her that?”

Fred looked away, eyes trailing something outside of the now moving train. He said nothing. A smug look grew on Lee’s face as he pushed himself closer to Fred. 

“I think someone’s jealous,” Lee sang teasingly, nudging Fred’s shoulders with his own.

“I’m not jealous,” Fred huffed. “Why would I be jealous?”

George’s eyes opened wide, a sudden realization hit him. He knew his brother, they were twins and so much closer than the rest of their siblings, he always had an inkling of the other’s feelings, but it hurt to be proven right. He guessed he always knew. His smile faltered for a moment but forced it back onto his face. “Does little Fredikins not want Y/N to be around Pucey?” 

Fred glared at George, seemingly ready to pounce on him, but Lee was still leaning most of his weight on him. “Fred fancies Y/N—”

“I do not,” he retorted.

“Oh, stop lying to yourself, Freddie.”

“Stop putting words in my mouth, I don’t fancy her — Oh, will you stop it?” Lee was doing kissing noises while George began to sway with a stupid smile on his face. Fred groaned and buried himself into the corner of the compartment as the two continued to tease him. Merlin, if they could only arrive at Hogwarts sooner.