The Dementor

He awoke to darkness and jumbled voices.

"Come in and sit down - " a young voice was saying.

"Not here!" another said hurriedly, "I'm here!"

"Ouch!" yelped another.

Having gathered his bearings by then, knowing that he was on the Hogwarts Express and that it should not be so dark and still, he hissed, "Quiet!"

Instantly, there was silence in the compartment.

Drawing his wand to conjure up a handful of flames in his free hand, Remus Lupin gazed at the students that filled the compartment with hidden surprise. By some twisted chance of fate, Harry was in the same compartment as he was.

James's son.

Harry Potter.

"Stay where you are," he managed to speak, but his voice was hoarse again, this time with suppressed emotion rather than fatigue.

Remus got to his feet, still holding out the flames, keenly aware of Harry's gaze on him. Intending to talk to the conductor about the unexpected delay, he reached for the door, but it slid open before he could get there.

Standing in the doorway, barely illuminated by the flames in his hand, stood a -

'Oh God,' Remus thought, his brows coming together in dismay. 'A dementor. Not again.'

The all-too familiar cold washed over him, choking him, drowning him, and his breathing became shallow as he closed his eyes.

'No...' he thought, dimly, reaching for his wand. A Patronus would drive the thing away.

But his hand felt numb and heavy, his thoughts clouded and dark, and suddenly he was there again.

He was very excited.

He was going to have a little brother or sister today! He knew it would be today, because his mummy had demanded to go to the local hospital after screaming something about the water being broken. He didn't understand that, even though he had read all about babies after finding out that his mummy was pregnant, but it didn't bother him at all.

He wasn't allowed inside the room, so he stayed just outside the door, like daddy told him to. He wanted to run and jump and tell everybody, but one of the hospital rules was to be quiet.

If he concentrated harder than normal, though, he could hear his mummy screaming and crying, and he wondered why rules never applied to adults. Mummy was being far louder than he ever could be!

But then the screaming stopped, and mummy was just crying. Then there came the sound of the baby crying, loud enough to make Remus screw up his face, then mummy was laughing, and daddy was laughing, too.

Loud footsteps interrupted his listening, and there was a conversation inside that he didn't hear as Remus glanced up to see three men. They paused a moment when they saw him, and one of them gave him a bad, mean look.

Frightened, Remus scurried to the side as they passed him and barged into the room where his mummy was, and the mean man sneered at him.

He concentrated hard on hearing again, wondering why they were allowed inside and he was not. They were strangers, and mean ones, too!

"What is the meaning of this?" the Healer was asking, outraged. "This woman has just given birth!"

"We're here for the baby," one of the strange men said.

There was a loud gasp, and, outside, Remus gasped too. They couldn't take the baby!

"You can't do that," Remus heard his daddy say, in his angry voice. Normally, the angry voice scared Remus, but this time he was glad that his daddy had the angry voice on. Those men deserved the angry voice, if they were going to take the baby away.

Another man said, "You knew this was coming when you kept that werewolf."

Remus slid down to the floor. He knew he was a werewolf, and that the way the man had said that word made him feel like crying.

"He's our son!" his mummy screamed, suddenly, and she had her angry voice too. "You wanted us to condone murder!"

"It's a werewolf," the man from before snarled. "It's a danger to society!"

"He's six!" his daddy roared back. "He can't help it!"

"It's a danger to society, and to that baby!" the third man argued. "The law says that as long as you continue to have a werewolf in your home, you may not raise a child under the same roof. Give us that baby, or give us the werewolf!"

His mummy screamed again, but this was a wordless scream, and there were scuffling sounds and grunts. Something clattered on the floor loudly, and Remus closed his eyes tightly.

And then his mummy screamed, and wouldn't stop this time, and the door opened. The three men stalked out of the room.

The first one had a bundle of blankets in his arms, and Remus just knew it was his new little brother or sister they were taking. The second one trailed after the first, not even glancing at the young boy's crumpled form, but the third on stopped.

It was the mean one from before, and he stooped down so his face was right next to Remus'.

"Remember this, werewolf," the mean man said darkly. "Remember that you have a little sister. Remember that her name is Buffy. Remember that she was taken away from your family. And remember that it was all your fault."

Remus stared at the man, wide-eyed, the words branding themselves into his memory.

And he could still hear his mummy screaming.

A loud 'thud' resounded from behind him, and startled yelps woke him from his worst memory.

"Harry!" a girl was shouting, and the mention of James' son grounded him in the face of that rattling breath and shadowed form.

Remus didn't look at Harry, merely stepped over the shaking boy. He looked past the dementor, slightly over its shoulder, and spoke as calmly as he could, his wand clutched tightly in his hand.

"None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go."

But the dementor didn't move, and, angry at the reminder of the reason behind the grief that had eventually been the death of his parents, Remus pointed his wand at the dementor.

"Expecto Patronum," he muttered in a sotto voice, and a silver form leapt out from his wand.

At the face of a Patronus, an a fully corporeal one at that, the dementor retreated. Somehow, it was not satisfying, and something in him wanted to attack the dementor and rip it apart with his bare hands, even though he knew it was impossible.

Behind him, the same girl was saying frantically, "Harry! Harry! Are you all right?"

Slowly, Remus Lupin turned away from watching the dementor glide away.

And he could still hear his mother screaming.