Haunted

This school year held a promising cold front, not like any other year where September still carried summer's late heat. It was uncomfortably cold, the sky was a darker than usual it was maleness almost as if the sky was angry, angry because of shedding too many tears and no sunrise to cheer it up.

Ariana Lyall rushed through the train station; pushing her trolley with her suitcase in front of her, to get to platform 9 ¾. Never had she been so late to catch the train as she was this year, her last year at that too. Ariana feared she wouldn't make in time, but luckily the wall between platforms 9 and 10 was still open. She arrived just in time, the train was about to leave.

"Ariana! Ariana, over here!" A boy called.

Ariana looked up to see her three friends; Liam, Mikael, and Rose all gathered to abort the train. She made her way through the crowds quickly to catch up with her friends.

"Ready for our last year?" Rose asked.

Ariana frowned. "I can't believe this is our last year already. It's sort of depressing."

"Ah don't look so grim Ariana. Just think how fun it'll be to bully the first years now that you and I are Head Boy and Head Girl." said Mikael.

"And exactly how is that supposed to reflect on our ranks may I ask?" She smiled.

"Oh come on lighten up, I was only joking."

"Yeah, half joking." Liam piped in.

The four students traveled the rest of the train ride quietly with a few occasional jokes and sharing of the small time in summer they spend apart, but each of them had their own worries in their minds, after all this was their last year at the school, they were never going to return to Hogwarts or Hogsmate for that matter.

When their journey was halfway over the train suddenly came to a halt. "What's going on? Why have we stopped?" Rose asked.

"Maybe the driver fell asleep or unconscious and…"

"Honestly Liam can you ever be serious for once!? It's not funny!" Ariana barked at him.

Suddenly; the atmosphere changed, it was getting really cold rapidly and everything seemed darker. The windows were foggy from the cold air outside, and the train was dead silent except for the metal creaking, it was a perfect set for a horror movie. Then, to their surprise the entire train shook and launched forward causing the two boys fall on the floor.

"What the bloody hell?" Mikael screamed. Other screams and protest could be heard throughout the train, everything became ecstatic. Than as quick as the noise from the other students arouse it became frightening quiet once more.

Ariana looked around to see if she could see anything outside but it was useless, the windows were too foggy and you couldn't see a speck of anything outside. She sat back down with much frustration and hugged her arms in attempt to keep herself warm, the train was getting colder by the minute and you see their breaths become a fog.

"Maybe we've just broken down and the driver is trying to fix..." Said Rose with a shaky voice.

Ariana opened her mouth to protest but stopped, something cached her attention in the corner of her eye. Thereupon she saw it, a black hooded figure hovering towards their train cabin, it was a dementor. Ariana recognized the creature immediately from her studies. But; unfortunately, none of them had the proper training in conjuring a Patronus charm because their previous Professors were 'daft idiots' as Ariana described them.

There was no time to think, two dementors had creep their way into their compartment and were now sucking Rose's and Liam's soul. She had to think of a happy memory and fast.

"Expecto patronum!" A small silver strain shot out from her wand only to feebly disappear again. "EXPECTO PATRONUM" She tried again and her Patronus came out fully developed this time, only to disappear moments later. That's it were done for thought Ariana. Much to her surprise the light of a Patronus surged but not from her wand no, this Patronus was coming from behind the dementors. As quick as they appeared the dementors were now gone again, much to Ariana's relief.

"Liam! Rose! Mikael!" she turned around frighten for her friends. Rose was lifeless in her seat just like Liam, and Mikael was backed up against the corner with wide eyes.

"Oh my god! Liam! Rose! Wake up guys!" Ariana shouted. "Please"

"It's all right. I reckon their just out for the moment." A voice from behind told her. "Here," he knelt down next to her. "When they wake up give them this." Ariana took whatever he handed her not breaking eye contact; this man had her completely hypnotized. "It's alright its only chocolate." he sensed her worry. "And it will help I guarantee. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go speak with driver, we can't have more dementors coming in. I suppose they were searching the train for Sirius Black, but not to worry all is fine now. Your friends will awake soon I'm sure. I'll be back in a few." The man took his leave.

Sure enough he was right, moments later her friends awoke with a rather paler completion. "What happened?"

"It was a dementor." Ariana replied. "Apparently they were searching the train for Sirus Black. Here eat this, it's chocolate the man said it would help."

"What man?" Liam asked as he took a bite of the chocolate.

"I don't know I didn't ask his name but he was the one who conjured the Patronus." She handed a piece of chocolate now to Rose.

"Mikael are you ok?" Ariana asked. Even though Mikael was unharmed by the dementors he looked very peaky, as if he had seen a ghost. Yea sure dementors are scary but Mikael was never scared of anything, he was usually the first to jump out to some dangerous adventure. "Yeah I'm fine.' He replied dryly. Ariana knew he was lying and made a mental note to herself to ask him about it later.

"Oh good you two are up." The man returned. "How are you two feeling." He asked Liam and Rose.

"As good as you can feel after being kissed by a dementor sir." Liam smirked. Well at least he has his sense of humor back thought Ariana.

The man smiled. "What about you young lady, are you all right?" he referred to Rose, she simple nodded.

"Excuse me sir, not to be rude or anything but who are you?" Liam asked.

"Ah! That's not at all rude, forgive me for not introducing myself. I'm Remus Lupin; you're new defense against the dark arts teacher."

Remus his first name echoed in Ariana's head. "Well it looks like we're finally going to have a decent teacher who actually knows his stuff." Liam said. Lupin laughed at this. "Yes I've heard this generation has been to good with my teaching post, not to speak down to my predecessors the job is after all supposedly cursed enough as it is." He smiled.

Ariana still could not avert her eyes from her new professor before her. She didn't know why, t was as if her eyes were glued to his very person and she couldn't avert them. Professor Lupin must have noticed this because he looked at her again.

Finally, realization and embarrassment dawned on her. Ariana just spend a good few minutes just staring at the man before her, oh how stupid! He's going to think I'm such a tosser she thought to herself. She slowly looked up again to see if he was still looking at her, and indeed he was only now he was softly smiling down at her, this caused her to blush even more.

"Well I'll see you guys at Hogwarts." He made his leave once more.

"Great we have a cool teacher for DADA this year it seems." Liam commented. "So….Ariana what did you think of our new professor?" Liam smirked.

Ariana blushed again. "Yeah he was nice." She replied in quite a hushed tone and Liam just simply smiled at her as if he could read her mind.