Chapter 258: Chapter 258: Train ride (Edited)
Tom saw the red steam train again.
This time the Ministry had sent two cars specifically to take the Weasleys to King's Cross along with Harry, Tom, and Hermione.
"Get on," Tom said, standing in front of the compartment door and gesturing for Hermione to follow. But Hermione didn't move; instead, she pointed a little further down. Tom looked in the direction she was pointing and saw Percy talking to a curly-haired girl. She was a girl from the same house as Tom and Hermione, named Penelope, and Percy's badge gleamed on his chest as he spoke to her.
"I didn't think Percy would fall in love."
"They got together last year."
Hermione smiled and boarded the train after witnessing the little show.
By then, most of the compartments were full. Tom was trying to share a compartment with Fred and Jordan when Harry caught up with him from behind, hoping to talk to him and Hermione privately.
If they wanted to talk, they had to find an empty compartment, and Harry and Ron searched the corridors together, but all the compartments on the train were full. They searched unsuccessfully but bumped into Neville Longbottom and brought him along.
Finally, they chose the last compartment on the train, where there was only one adult sleeping.
It was rare to see an adult on the Hogwarts Express. Since it was a special train for students, Tom had never seen any adults on the train, except for the driver and the witch selling food.
Perhaps that's why no one chose to sit in the last compartment. Some people liked sitting in the last compartment. The end of the train or subway was a good place to be—clean, away from strangers, and not crowded when getting off.
Once inside the compartment, Tom and the others noticed that the stranger wasn't in the best condition. He looked tired and sickly, and the robe he wore was torn and tattered, although clean, it had been patched up in several places. Facially, he wasn't too old, but his light brown hair was already slightly gray.
"Is that...?" Ron whispered.
Tom didn't say anything; he simply pointed to the luggage rack above the man's head, where there was a battered suitcase with the words [R. J. Lupin] stamped in one corner.
"This year's Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," Harry said his name softly. "I hope this time the teacher won't cause any problems."
After Harry mentioned Lupin's name, the bulging bag in Ron's pocket suddenly trembled, and Scabbers inside it squirmed vigorously.
Ron grumbled, "I think You-Know-Who's curse is real. Our first-year teacher was possessed by You-Know-Who, the second-year teacher was a fraud and got replaced by the victim's family. I wonder what secrets this year's teacher will hide."
Several people present fell silent.
Lupin: ...
As a werewolf who has been wandering since childhood, Lupin is very vigilant—to exaggerate, he even sleeps with one eye open and one eye closed. The sound of the few people entering had awakened him, but he had only been pretending to sleep to avoid embarrassment.
When he heard the comments from the young wizards, he was momentarily speechless—they had almost stumbled upon his greatest secret by accident.
Lupin was a very skilled wizard, but he had another identity: he was a werewolf. He faced discrimination and couldn't hold a job for long because every full moon he transformed and made so much noise that it was hard to hide from others. If Dumbledore hadn't offered him a job, Lupin wouldn't have known what to do.
The immediate reason for Dumbledore's help was the invention of the Wolfsbane potion.
Harry and the others had a few words of discussion and then sat in the farthest seat from Lupin.
Once everyone was seated, Harry told them what he had overheard the previous night and what Mr. Weasley had told him just before getting in the car. They were all taken aback; no one had expected Sirius to come for Harry.
It was a great topic of conversation, and the group started talking about Black and Azkaban, and from Azkaban to the two wizarding wars. During this time, a gift that Ron had given Harry for his birthday over the summer got damaged, and Ron planned to take it to Hogsmeade to get it repaired. So naturally, the conversation revolved around Hogsmeade.
By noon, everyone was getting hungry, so Tom urged Ron to contribute the pastrami sandwiches he had in his bag, and then showed them how to use the fire spell to heat the food.
The flame-grilled sandwich tasted even better, with the aroma of the meat brought out and the solidified sauce turning liquid between the muscles, combined with the crispy slices of toasted bread on the outside, making it juicy and crunchy on the inside. What's more, Mrs. Weasley didn't include fresh lettuce in the sandwich; instead, she used pickles and sauerkraut, which didn't spoil the taste when heated but utilized their acidity to cut through the fat.
"Phew-phew-phew," Ron took a big bite of the sandwich, exhaling white steam as he burned his mouth. "I didn't realize these sandwiches were so good."
"Because you used to eat them cold. Everything tastes different when it's cold, like fried chicken, cold and hot are two different flavors."
While they ate, the compartment door was flung open, and Draco Malfoy appeared in the doorway with his two lackeys, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.
"Hey, let's see... Harry Breaker, Ron Wesley, Neville Longbottom, tsk tsk tsk, and Yodel and Granger, birds of a feather really do flock together. I didn't think you'd all be crammed in the same compartment." Malfoy leaned against the compartment door, sneering, and said in his lazy, drawn-out tone, "Five in a carriage, but only three have parents-."
There was a blinding flash of red light, and Malfoy was sent flying backward, falling unconscious to the floor. Tom retracted his wand.
"It's been two years, and this guy still hasn't made any progress." Tom looked at Malfoy, sprawled in a mess, with a look of disgust on his face. "Are you staying here to continue being my target?"
He gave a cold glance to Crabbe and Goyle, frightening them into picking up Malfoy and preparing to leave.
"Halt!"
As they tried to flee the scene, the voice that had terrified them resurfaced from behind them.
"You have bad breath, brush your teeth!" Tom pointed at Malfoy's mouth, and immediately a large white foam came out of it. Then Tom told Crabbe and Goyle.
"Get out!"
The two felt so relieved that they scrambled out of the compartment, rolling and crawling.
Chapter 259: Chapter 259: Hermione and Her Useless Man (Edited)
Throughout that time, Professor Lupin had been sleeping in a corner. His body twitched slightly as Malfoy continued ranting, but no one noticed his small movement. After Tom instantly knocked out Malfoy, Professor Lupin resumed pretending to sleep, and not even the arrival of the food trolley managed to wake him.
There came a point where there was nothing more to talk about, so Tom took out his new version of magical chess and played against Harry and the others.
When Tom pulled out Tom's homemade magical chess set, he also pulled out a newspaper, the same one he had taken from Harry yesterday. Ron was instantly drawn to the still drawing.
"Is it a Muggle newspaper?" He immediately saw Sarah's motionless face on the paper.
"Yes," Tom handed him the newspaper, "It's about a Muggle archaeologist's discovery." He glanced at Hermione, who was fiddling with the wicker basket strap holding Crookshanks.
Indeed, Ron's attention shifted.
"Don't let that thing out!" Ron threw the newspaper and said hurriedly, but it was too late as Crookshanks agilely jumped out of the basket, stretched, and leaped onto Ron's lap, only to be pushed away by him.
"Ron!" Hermione shouted at him, somewhat annoyed, and grabbed Crookshanks in her arms, lightly scratching his chin. After a few moments of petting, she handed him to Tom so he could also experience the pleasure of stroking him.
Tom held Crookshanks, who felt heavy and warm in his hands. He stroked the cat's head, running his hand down its fur and petting Crookshanks, who puckered his lips in response, indicating that he should be petted all the way to the base of his tail.
After a few repetitions, Crookshanks rolled in Tom's arms and rubbed his head against him flirtatiously. He was very close to Tom and even allowed him to put his hand on his belly, just like Hermione.
Crookshanks had finally calmed down in his hands but still looked at Ron often with his squashed face, fixated on the pocket of his chest.
At three in the afternoon, it was raining outside, and the mountains became blurry through the window. As the train headed north, the rain showed no signs of stopping but grew more intense, cascading down the window.
The sky darkened, and the lights in the corridors and compartments were turned on. The wind howled outside, and the rain pounded on the windows, making them tremble and shake. But these changes didn't hinder Professor Lupin's sleep, as he slumbered deeply with his head resting against the window.
As darkness fell outside the window, the train began to slow down and came to a stop. Tom sighed and approached Hermione.
"Great, we've arrived," Ron exclaimed happily, "I'm starving..."
Hermione silently tugged at Tom's sleeve and extended her wrist in front of him, revealing a delicate ladies' mechanical watch.
The time was wrong.
The speed of the Hogwarts Express was constant, and the arrival time never deviated too much, and there was still nearly half an hour left until the scheduled arrival.
"We haven't arrived yet. The train stopped in the middle of nowhere," Hermione whispered.
By then, the other wizards on the train had also realized the problem and were poking their heads out of their compartments, trying to figure out what was happening. The train had come to a complete halt, and the noise of the storm outside the carriage had intensified.
Suddenly, all the lights went out, and they felt a chill.
"Lumos!" Tom cast his first illumination spell, lighting up the compartment.
With a creak, the compartment door opened, and Ginny rushed in.
"Ron..."
"Sit down first." Tom gestured to Ginny to find a seat, secretly tensing his nerves.
He looked outside, disappointed to see that the entire train was in chaos, everyone swarming like flies in the dark... but not many of them were using the illumination spell.
It was the simplest of spells, yet not a single wizard on the train had the common sense to cast it!
If Grindelwald had seen this, he would have given up on the idea of wizards ruling over Muggles in an instant and developed a spaceship to roam in space.
Tom sighed and sat back down.
As soon as his bottom touched the seat, the compartment door opened, and an extremely tall figure stood in the doorway. Their head was almost touching the compartment ceiling, and they wore a tattered cloak that covered their face completely. From beneath the cloak, a gray hand extended, resembling a corpse decaying in water...
A gurgle emanated from their throat as they exhaled slowly, and in an instant, a chilling cold invaded the place, causing Professor Lupin's eyes to immediately open, and he stood up.
Tom felt the shiver piercing through his clothes, penetrating his chest, traveling from skin to muscle...
He knew the hooded monster was an Azkaban Dementor, but he had no idea it could be this terrifying. His ears were buzzing, and he felt as if he were submerged in icy water, pain and suffocation overwhelming him.
On the other side, Harry's eyes rolled back, and he fainted, falling from his seat. Tom was in a similar state, struggling to hold on.
The Dementor noticed the violent reactions from Tom and Harry, but Tom seemed more appealing to it, and the large, pale hand landed directly on his shoulder, which Tom unconsciously grabbed, but the approaching Dementor intensified his reaction, and he fainted.
The buzzing in Tom's ears grew louder, and for a moment, Tom felt as if he were underwater, sinking slightly, and the next moment, he felt as if he were still in the dreary orphanage, with his memories shattered like broken glass. In this despair, Tom couldn't move, not even lift his arms.
But then, suddenly, a beam of light appeared beneath the dark water.
The fainting of Harry and Tom made the carriage even more chaotic. Lupin stepped forward and drew his wand, but before he could do anything, Hermione pointed her wand at the Dementor and angrily shouted, "Expecto Patronum!"
The three-headed dog roared, knocking the Dementor out of the compartment, and it turned around, pursued and bitten by the three-headed dog, floating away in disarray.
When the Dementor disappeared, the lights in the carriage returned to normal.
Professor Lupin looked at Hermione with a certain surprise; he couldn't imagine that any of the students had mastered the Patronus Charm, and they weren't even in their third year!
Furthermore, the girl's Patronus...
But at that moment, Hermione didn't care what others thought. She embraced the unconscious and trembling Tom in her arms.
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