Old Blood at Hogwarts

The Hogwarts Express drove steadily towards the north. The scenery outside the window became more and more wild. At the same time, the clouds overhead became thicker and thicker, and the sky became darker and darker.Outside the door of the carriage where Aaron and others were staying, people kept walking back and forth.Crookshanks was now secure in an empty seat, his squashed face turned towards Ron, his yellow eyes fixed on Ron's breast pocket.

At one o'clock, the food cart plopped up to their carriage door.

"Do you think we should wake him up?" Ron asked awkwardly, nodding towards Professor Lupin, "He looks like he needs to eat something."

Hermione approached Professor Lupine cautiously.

"Hi - Professor?" she whispered, "Excuse me - Professor?"

Professor Lupine didn't move.

"Don't worry, dear," the witch said, handing Harry a large row of scones. "If he wakes up and is hungry, just go to the driver at the front and find me."

"Is he sleeping?" Ron said quietly, as the witch closed the carriage door. "I mean - he's not dead, is he?"

"No, no, he's still breathing," Hermione whispered, taking the large pan of scones that Aaron handed her.

In the afternoon, it started to rain, and the outline of the continuous hills outside the window became blurred. At this time, Aaron and the four heard footsteps in the corridor again, and then they saw Draco Malfoy and his two close friends Vincent. Crabbe and Gregory Gower.

Draco Malfoy has been against Harry since his first year.Malfoy, a pale and thin man, is a student of Slytherin House. He serves as the seeker on the Slytherin House Quidditch team, while Harry plays the same role on the Gryffindor team.Crabbe and Goyle seemed born to listen to Malfoy's orders.Both of them were large, round-waisted and muscular.Crabbe was taller, with hair cut like a pudding basin, and a thick neck; Goyle was shorter, with much hair, and arms as long as a gorilla's.

"Well, look who this is?" Malfoy opened the carriage door and said in his lazy drawl, "Potter and Weasley."

Goyle and Crabbe laughed wildly.

"I heard your dad finally made a fortune this summer, Weasley?" Malfoy said. "Your mom didn't die of shock, did she?"

Ron stood up.He was so excited that he accidentally kicked Crookshanks' basket to the ground when he stood up.Professor Lupine, who had been sleeping, seemed to be disturbed and snorted.

"Who is that?" Malfoy couldn't help but take a step back after seeing Lupin.

"New teacher." Harry also stood up so that he could pull Ron back if needed. "What were you talking about, Malfoy?"

Malfoy's pale eyes narrowed. He was not stupid enough to provoke a teacher.

"Let's go," he muttered angrily to Crabbe and Goyle.So they walked away.

Harry and Ron sat down again.Ron rubbed his knuckles and said angrily: "Don't let me hear Malfoy's nonsense again this year. I mean it. As soon as he makes fun of our family sarcastically again, I will grab his head -" Ron gestured and scratched his head.

"Ron," Hermione screamed, pointing at Professor Lupin, "be careful..."

But Professor Lupine was still asleep.

The train continued to drive north, and the rain became heavier.The window panes were now a thick, slimy gray that deepened until the lights in the hallway and on the luggage racks came on.The train was shaking, the rain was beating on the windows, and the wind was howling, but Professor Lupin was still sleeping.

"We're probably almost there," Ron said, leaning forward and looking at Professor Lupin, who was leaning against the now completely darkened window.

As soon as he finished saying this, the train slowed down.

"Great." Ron stood up and carefully walked around Professor Lupin to see what was going on outside. "I'm starving. I want to have a big meal..."

"We can't be here," Hermione said, looking at her watch.

"Then why did you stop?"

The train went slower and slower.The sound of the wheels became quieter, and the sound of wind and rain outside the window became louder.Aaron was closest to the door and stood up to look at what was going on in the corridor.In each carriage along the corridor, people poked their heads out to look around.The train suddenly trembled and stopped, and there was a banging sound in the distance. It was the sound of luggage falling from the rack.Then, all the lights suddenly went out, and the entire carriage was plunged into complete darkness.

"What happened?" Ron's voice came from behind Aaron.

"Ouch!" Hermione gasped, "Ron, that's my foot!"

Aaron groped his way back to his seat: "I don't know, but we'd better stay still."

Suddenly, there was a short and harsh sound from outside the car. Through the faint light outside the car window, Aaron saw Ron's blurred black outline.Ron wiped a clean spot on the window glass and looked out.

"There's something moving there," Ron said. "I guess someone got on..."

Suddenly, the door of the carriage was opened, and a black figure fell in from the outside.

"I'm sorry! Do you know what happened? Oops! I'm sorry-" the black figure said.

"Hello, Neville," said Harry.

The black figure was Neville, and Aaron vaguely saw Harry on the opposite side in the darkness pulling Neville up.

"Harry? Is that you? What happened?" Neville said.

"I don't know! Sit down-" Harry answered.

There was a loud hiss and a cry of pain. It turned out that Neville had sat on Crookshanks by mistake.

"I'm going to ask the driver what's going on." This was Hermione's voice.

Aaron felt her walk past him, and then heard the carriage door open again, as if someone came in and bumped into Hermione, making a loud noise.

The new person seemed to be a girl, and Aaron heard her and Hermione cry out in pain at the same time.Then I heard them say:

"Who?"

"who is it?"

"Ginny?"

"Hermione?"

"what are you doing?"

"I'm looking for Ron-"

"Come in, sit down—"

"Not here!" Harry said hastily. "I'm here!"

"Ouch!" cried Neville.

"Quiet!" Suddenly a rough voice said.Professor Lupine seemed to have finally woken up.

Aaron could hear movement on Professor Lupine's side.None of them spoke.There was a slight crackle in the carriage, and then a trembling light appeared.Professor Lupine seemed to be holding a fire in his hand.The firelight illuminated his tired, gray face, but his eyes were alert and cautious.

"Stay where you are." He stood up slowly. He stretched out the fire in his hand and wanted to look outside.But before he could reach the compartment door, it was slowly opened.

The flickering fire in Lupine's hand illuminated the doorway, where a cloaked monster as tall as the ceiling stood.Its face is completely hidden beneath the hood.Aaron's eyes dropped downward, and what he saw made his stomach clench: a hand emerged from the cloak, a gleaming hand, gray, thin, and scabbed, like something dead and Soaked in water and rotted again...

The monster under the cloak seemed to feel Aaron's gaze, and his hand suddenly retracted into the folds of the black cloak.Then the thing under the hood, whatever it was, took a long, slow, shaky breath, as if trying to suck in something other than air from around it.

Everyone felt a chill pass through their bodies.Aaron felt his breath catching in his chest.The chill penetrated his skin, reaching his chest and his heart... Aaron felt a little dazed in consciousness, and he hurriedly bit the tip of his tongue to keep himself awake.

Suddenly, there was a "pop" sound next to him, and Aaron turned his head to look.Harry slipped from the seat next to him and fell to the ground twitching.

At this time, Professor Lupine stepped over Harry and walked towards the monster.He took out his wand and said, "None of us has Sirius Black under the cloak, let's go."

But the monster didn't move.

Professor Lupine muttered something under his breath, and his wand immediately emitted a silver light and shot towards the monster.The monster seemed to be shocked and quickly turned around and slid away.

After the monster left, everyone let out a sigh of relief, and the depression in their hearts disappeared instantly.

"See how Harry is doing?" Hermione said and Ron knelt down next to Harry to check on him.Aaron, Neville, Ginny and Professor Lupin also gathered around.

Ron slapped his face and shouted: "Harry! Harry! Are you okay?"

"What - what's wrong?" Harry opened his eyes.

At this time, the lights in the carriage came back on, and the Hogwarts Express started running again.

Ron and Hermione helped Harry back to his seat.

"Are you all right?" Ron asked nervously.

"It's okay." Harry said and looked towards the door, "What happened just now? Where-where did the monster go? Who was screaming just now?"

"No one screamed," Ron said nervously.

Harry looked around the bright carriage and said, "But I heard screaming..."

Suddenly, there was a "pop" sound from the side. Everyone jumped up in fright and quickly looked towards the place where the sound came from.It turned out that Professor Lupine was breaking a large piece of chocolate into small pieces.

"Here you go," Lupine said to Harry, handing him a particularly large piece of chocolate. "Eat it, it will be good for you."

Harry took the chocolate but didn't eat it right away.

"What was that just now?" he asked Lupin.

"A dementor," Lupine said as he handed out chocolates to everyone. "A dementor from Azkaban."

Everyone stared at him.Professor Lupine crumpled the empty chocolate wrapper into a ball and put it in his pocket.

"Eat, it's good for you." He added, "I want to say something to the driver, I'm sorry..." He walked past Harry and disappeared into the corridor.