Prelude to Moondance

    Remus and Sariyah set off for the front of the scarlet train, looking for the Head Boy and Girl compartment. Students were scurrying everywhere through the corridors of the train, and so were various animals. The Siamese cat inside of Sariyah's cage was peering out with intent blue eyes locked on a rat that a third-year was gripping tightly. Remus narrowly avoided squashing a toad that had found its way to the middle of the train.

    "Has anyone seen my rat?" asked a confused first-year. "He has spots and his name's Marcellus..." His large brown eyes welled up with tears.

    Remus paused for a moment and looked around the train.

     "See anything?" he asked Sariyah.

    "Maybe," answered Sariyah. She pulled out her wand and said "Accio Marcellus!"

    Nothing happened.

    "Well it was worth a shot," Sariyah said, shrugging her shoulders and smiling a little. She tucked her mahogany wand back into her robes, leaving her hand in the pocket for a brief second.

    "Marcellus!!" squeaked a happy voice. The rat had zoomed out of a small hole in the bottom of one of the compartment doors, where he had lodged himself.

    Remus squinted his eyes in slight confusion at Sariyah. "How did you do that?"

    "Do what?" she answered.

    "That rat came out of that hole, but not because of your wand, " he stated, looking quizzically at his friend, and at her pocket.

    "Of course it was my wand, Remus, don't be silly," she said, ending the subject of conversation. "We have to find that compartment, come on."

    She charged forward past Remus and they began making their way again towards the front of the train, Remus shaking his head in confusion.

    "Lupin! Khan! In here, please," said a curt female voice. Remus and Sariyah followed the short witch into a compartment which was different from all the others, with a golden lining around the sliding door. They entered into a dimly lit carriage, and the short witch shut the door behind them.

    Remus strained to see in the darkness of the train cabin, and to his disbelief, he found that he could not move more than two paces ahead without colliding with a thick wall.

    "Patience, Lupin, don't move so much yet," cautioned the witch, smiling in the darkness. "Take out your badges please, and put them into these slots."

    "Slots? What slots? I can't see anything," mumbled Sariyah. She took out her wand and muttered "Lumos". A faint glow filled the room and she found the crevices in the wall that the witch was talking about. She slid her badge into one as far as it would go. She heard a soft click and whirring sound.

    "Now you, Lupin," instructed the witch.

    He unpinned his badge and pushed it into the crevice just as Sariyah had and this time, they heard music playing, very high pitched and chime-like.

    Sariyah squinted her olive eyes in slight shock. "It's becoming less--less solid," she said in amazement, staring at the wall.

    Indeed, the wall had visibly became less solid. It was soon fully see-through, and the witch instructed them to walk through the wisp of a wall. They did so and to their utter incredulity, they found themselves in a hallway with two doors at the other end.

    "Now go to your respective doors, the instructions will be inside." said the little witch. She turned and went back out through the train compartment doors, leaving Sariyah and Remus there alone.

    "This is crazy," uttered Remus. "Just when you think you know almost everything about this world, new things keep popping up."

    They walked to the doors at the end of the hall, which had each side lined with a long glass aquarium that stretched all the way down the corridor. The aquarium was lighted and many colorful fish were darting around in the blue-green water among brightly colored coral. The cat in Sariyah's cage was now squirming again, eyes flashing angrily. She turned the cage towards the aquarium, and immediately the cat was silent, watching the fish and aquarium as intently as Remus and Sariyah were.

    They moved slowly towards the doors at the end of the hall. Upon reaching them, they found that they had been labeled with their names in loopy golden letters. They looked at each other one last time and entered their respective rooms.

    Remus opened the door to his room and carefully stepped inside. He shut the door behind him and suddenly the lights flickered on, one by one, every second. He was shocked to find a fully furnished room with two armchairs, a king-sized bed, a desk, a closet, and a bathroom. His trunk was at the foot of the bed, which was covered in deep red comforters and four gold pillows. He smiled to himself at the color choice in the room, where everything was scarlet and gold, Gryffindor colors. He looked at the desk, where a basket (full of everything from fruits to sandwiches to chocolate frogs) was sitting beside an envelope addressed to him, and near the envelope, his Head Boy badge.

    He picked up the envelope and opened it. It was a letter from Headmaster Dumbledore, congratulating him on becoming Head Boy, and detailing the tasks he had to partake in for the first week, and informing him that he would be required to meet with the Hogwarts staff once a month to keep them informed of the goings-on.

    Remus smiled to himself. This was going to be a fantastic year...apart from a few nights a month. He felt ten times better since he had arrived on the train to Hogwarts, better than he had felt the whole summer, when he had been sick nearly every day, and better since he had seen his friends again. He plopped down on the bed and shut his eyes, but found no sleep.

    Next door, Sariyah had found the exact same surroundings, fruit basket, letter, and her badge. There was also a litter box in the room, along with cat food cans stacked in the closet. She set the cage down on the ground and unlatched the door. A tiny nose poked out, sniffing the air cautiously. The cat then extended his head out, bright blue eyes scouring every corner of the room. Approving, he pranced out of the cage, acting like he was the new owner of the room.

    "You're a spoiled little thing," she cooed. She picked him up and stroked his head, and he purred as if there was a motor running inside him. "Alright, Orpheus, go on then." She let him go and he began his interrogation of the room.

    She sat on the armchair and massaged her head, wondering what to do now. Although the room was very nice, she would much rather have been sitting with Remus, Lily, James, Sirius and Peter in a regular carriage. She got up from the armchair and left the room to knock on Remus' door.

    "Hi," he greeted her, a large smile playing on his face.

    She grinned back and said "I'm bored."

    "Me too," he answered. "Let's go back."

    They went into their rooms, grabbed their badges, letters, and fruit baskets and went back to the cabin in which their friends were chatting animatedly. Sariyah slid the door open and she and Remus were greeted with loud cheers from their closest. They squeezed in and the fruit baskets were passed around, and conversation continued.

    It began getting darker outside, as the scarlet engine neared Hogwarts. The starts began twinkling. The moon, a half crescent, kept a watch over the quick moving train, as it hurried its passengers towards the inviting castle.