Chapter Text
"Harry! Hurry, quickly we are running late!” Sirius shouted up.
Harry shoved everything in his trunk, cursing himself for sleeping in and not preparing the night before. Usually Moony would make sure everyone was awake on time, however the full moon yesterday left him drained.
“Master Harry Potter, may I help you?” Dobby asked, watching him. Harry turned in shock; after living with Dobby for the summer he still wasn’t used to him.
“Don’t call me-actually can you?” He asked and the elf snapped everything downstairs.
“Thank you so much!” Harry smiled with relief before running past and down the stairs.
Kreacher glared at him as he cleaned, not taking well to the second house elf still and almost as sour as ever. Almost being the key word, if you asked Harry.
“Okay, if we hurry you won’t miss the train.” Sirius told him, doing math in his head. Math was never his best subject, time especially. “And if we do, you are not allowed to go find a flying car to steal!”
“Yes Dadfoot.” Harry smirked as Sirius helped him with his trunks.
“Get moving, we don’t have time to waste!” Sirius shouted, moving past.
“Shouldn’t I say goodbye to Moony?” Harry asked and Sirius kept moving.
“He’s asleep, don’t worry about it, let’s just go.” Sirius told him and Harry reluctantly followed.
He felt bad for leaving without saying goodbye, but he understood that being a werewolf meant he was exhausted after transforming. Harry decided to write him a letter as soon as he got to Hogwarts.
They made it to the train station with time to spare, to Sirius’s relief. Remus would have killed him if Harry missed the train.
After getting his stuff set in the train, Sirius pulled Harry aside to talk.
“What is it?” Harry asked, looking skittish. He was excited to see his friends again. Especially after being grounded all summer.
“Harry!” Hermione was running towards him, with Draco and Ron in tow.
“Hey guys! What are you doing out here?” Harry asked, Hermione and Draco were usually the first on the train.
“We waited for you to get on the train. After last year no one wanted to be left behind I suppose.” Ron informed him, and both smiled remembering last year.
“Good to see you all.” Sirius gave a sloppy half smile. It seemed they all hit growth spurts over the summer, but they still were adorable to him.
“Hello Mr-I mean Sirius.” Hermione smiled, Draco and Ron both giving an awkward wave and smile.
“I expect all of you to stay out of trouble this school year. Not completely, just no life or death situations.” He told them all in a rather parental way.
“We will.” They all said, Harry rolling his eyes.
“Not to be rude, but we should get moving. There won’t be any compartments left soon.” Draco informed and Sirius nodded. It was all going to his and Moony’s plan.
“Alright. Have a good year kiddo, no getting into any major trouble this year. I know, I know, I already said that but I mean it! If you almost die this year we will send you to an American Wizarding school or worse!” Sirius threatened and Harry hugged him before hurrying off with his friends.
Sirius had to blink away tears this time as the train left, knowing his godson and partner would both be gone nearly the entire school year.
“That boy! He forgot his rat!” He heard Molly’s voice through the crowd. “I suppose he can pick it up at Christmas…”
Harry and friends awkwardly shuffled through the train, trying to find an empty or nearly empty compartment.
He was nearing the end of the train when he found a compartment with a sleeping man. A man that kind of looked like “MOONY!” Harry shouted.
He jumped on his guardian excitedly as his friends all shuffled in, surprised to see Harry’s second guardian on the train.
“Harry, I’m surprised Sirius was able to keep this a secret from you!” Remus chuckled, though his voice was tired.
“Are you going to be our new Defense teacher?” Hermione asked, looking rather hopeful.
“Yeah, Dumbledore brought me on. Don’t worry, I know my stuff.” Remus promised and she and Draco looked delighted.
“As long as you don’t try to kill us, I’m happy.” Ron said tiredly, sitting down.
Hermione sat next to him. Draco choose to sit with Ron and Hermione.
“What about Sirius? Will he be okay on his own?” Harry asked, his smile turning into a worried frown.
“I talked it over with him. Sirius actually insisted I go. Besides, now I can hopefully keep an eye on you.” Remus smiled and Harry nodded, smiling again.
“Oh this is so exciting!” Hermione said, over the moon about the fact a competent, nonlethal teacher had finally been hired in the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.
“Fred and George are going to freak.” Ron realized, now realizing he could look forward to their reaction at the sorting ceremony.
“Didn’t Professor Snape want that job?” Draco asked, only half sure.
“Yes, however it is hard to get a good potions professor. They are rather rare.” Remus said before yawning. Too much was going on.
“I’m going to take a nap. Feel free to talk.” Remus told them, before slumping over.
“So, Harry, how was your summer?” Hermione asked cheerfully.
“Great! Hagrid stayed over a few days, Severus rode my arse about my potions homework,”
“Language.” Moony mumbled.
“And I wasn’t allowed to leave the house all summer for almost getting killed again. Uncle Sev gave me lots of extra homework to do, so this year I might get better grades. Watch out Hermione, I’m coming for your spot.” Harry smiled, saying the last statement in a joking manor. “What about you guys? ‘Mione I barely heard from you!”
“My parents allowed me to get the text books for the classes I wanted early as a birthday present. I was so busy reading up on everything I forgot to write to you guys. I just can’t wait to get started. Especially on Arithmancy! Though I am happy you studied over the summer Harry, maybe aim a bit lower.” Ron and Harry rolled their eyes.
“Guess I’m behind you again.” Harry sighed dramatically. “Looks like my new target will have to be Draco. Sorry, love.”
Draco’s cheeks flushed slightly.
“You wish. And Merlin, Hermione. I’m never going to catch up with you this year! I spent my summer in my family library and quidditch pitch. Father seems to be ignoring the fact I was branded as a blood-traitor, and mother and I never really chatted before. I can’t believe how much time I spent following and listening to my Father as a kid. It was honestly better than most summers I’ve had though. We have a very extensive collection on almost everything but muggle studies. Though I doubt my summer reading will do much good, most of it isn’t in our curriculum.” Draco told the group, “Guess you are next Weasley.”
“Well, as you all know my family won the lottery and went to Egypt. And you’ll never believe what else; we are going to be in the paper! Egypt was wicked and the tombs were so cool!” Ron said excitedly, and Harry felt happy for his closest friend. Ron loved attention and danger, something Harry was mostly impartial too. He preferred to go by mostly unnoticed, however life did not have that planned for him in any aspect it seemed.
“I can’t wait to see! You must tell me all about Bill and his curse-breaking.” Hermione smiled, her curiosity and thirst for knowledge matching that of a Ravenclaw’s.
The group ended up chatting throughout the ride about Ron’s trip until the suddenly stopped.
“We can’t possibly be here yet.” Hermione and Draco said at the same time.
“Maybe someone drove a car in front of the train again?” Harry asked, smiling.
“Something could be seriously wrong Harry!” Hermione glared and Draco nodded in agreement.
“Did it just get cold in here or did Draco’s soul leave his body?” Ron asked, shivering slightly.
“At least he has a soul.” Hermione joked, making only Harry smile.
Hermione’s jokes usually weren’t funny to purebloods and they were on the rare side but most people who knew muggle culture smiled at them. Hermione was proud of this fact.
The windows began to freeze.
“Well that can’t be good.” Harry stated, wondering how the windows were freezing over during this time of year.
Shadowy figures moved outside their compartment. The door opened, and everyone in the compartment felt frozen in fear. The creature looked like what many pictured death would appear to look.
It went for Harry immediately, attacking him.
“MOONY!” He shouted before it felt as if life wasn’t worth living, and terrible thoughts of how unbearable he was flooded his mind. He was worthless and insignificant. He was a disappointment. Sirius and Remus only saw his father when they looked at him. He would never be their real son. He would never be looked at like that. He deserved to die instead of them. Why didn’t he die that night? He wanted to die. He heard a scream of a woman before everything faded.
“MOONY!” Remus woke with a start, immediately seeing James in danger and had his wand at the ready. He thought quickly of his friends becoming animagi, of the pranks they used to pull, of his first date with Sirius, of his new odd family spending a day together traveling. He needed to save Harry.
“Expecto Patronum!” He called out and the dementor quickly disappeared.
“Harry! Harry, wake up!” Remus shook his charge, who eventually blinked awake.
“What the hell was that?” Ron asked as Remus dug through his pockets.
“That was a dementor. A being that feeds off of happy memories, they guard Azkaban.” He took out some chocolate. “Eat this. It’ll make you feel better.”
“Didn’t realize you were a drug dealer Moony.” Harry smiled before eating the chocolate. Remus gave him a fake scowl, making Harry smile. “Do you always offer candy to children?”
“What are they doing here if they guard Azkaban?” Hermione demanded, electing to ignore Harry’s stupidity, horrified at the thought of such creatures near Hogwarts.
“I couldn’t tell you.” Remus said apologetically. “I must go check if everything is alright with the conductor and the rest of the train.”
“Harry are you okay?” Draco asked worriedly, finally getting over the shock of what had just happened.
“Yeah, just feeling a bit off.” Harry sighed, slumping back in his seat. “Any chance anyone else heard a scream?”
His three friends looked at each other in confusion and worry.
“Great. Bloody brilliant.” Harry sighed, all in one breath. “Who had dementors? Hermionec right?”
“Nah mate, that was me.” Ron smiled, somewhat proudly before changing topics. “Now what was that about me not having a soul?”
He was changing topics because, while he was aware he was dense in many aspects of his life, he also knew sometimes Harry needed to just ignore problems.
“Ron, you are a ginger.” Harry informed him, and both Draco and Ron looked at him like he was stupid. “Right. Erm it’s a muggle thing.”
“Muggles believe gingers have no soul?” Draco asked, very curious, looking towards Hermione now.
“Yes. It is rather hard to explain, but muggles like to poke fun at people with ginger hair.” Hermione said, deciding to write to her parents to ask the origin of this belief.
Ron looked absolutely horrified, his face making his three friends smile. Ron was always rather expressive.
“So Hermione, where do we go?” Ron asked awkwardly, as he and Harry were, for some reason, ahead of Draco and Hermione.
“Honestly Ron, just follow everyone that doesn’t look like a first year.” Hermione rolled her eyes, and Harry wisely choose just to casually fall behind to behind Draco.
“Did we look like that?” Draco asked, shocked at how the first years already looked like babies.
“No. You were way cuter.” Harry smiled, wrapping his arms around him.
“I was wondering when you’d do that.” Draco smiled, pulling away awkwardly. His face was slightly flushed again.
Harry gave his best innocent smile, which made Draco slightly redder.
The group got on a carriage, Harry and Ron on one side and Draco and Hermione on the other.
Harry briefly wondered what kind of magical creature pulled the carriages. They were really cool.
Fred and George quickly hopped in with them. Harry was pretty sure George was the twin next to him.
“How’s our favorite quartet?” Fred asked, ruffling Draco’s hair. Draco let out an annoyed huff.
“Been better. Got attacked by a dementor. Usually it takes at least a week before I get outright attacked.” Harry said.
“Bloody hell, Harry. Are you okay?” The twins asked at the same time.
“Yeah. So you two think of any new pranks this summer? We didn’t get nearly as many letters from you two.” Harry asked, and both looked over joyed.
“We have an entire new line to try out.” “The new defense teacher won’t know what hit him!” They exclaimed.
Harry almost wanted to tell them, but choose to leave it to be a surprise.
“Took us the entire summer,” “to create some of the stuff we got.” “Didn’t even get our homework done!” They joked, smiling.
“Does anyone in your family come here for school besides Percy?” Hermione groaned.
“We had homework? I thought you guys just were doing school work for fun?!” Ron asked allowed, making Draco groan.
“Of course!” “Just not us!” “Because it was boring.” They said proudly, answering Hermione’s question.
The carriage stopped, and they all got out.
Harry looked up at the castle, mentally preparing himself for another taxing year. At least this time Moony would be there so he wouldn’t have to worry about some sketchy DADA teacher.