The voice turned out to belong to the man with the scars on his face (whose name, according to his case, was Professor R. J. Lupin), who had just awoken. It was only now he'd drawn attention to himself that I fully took in his appearance. He was wearing an extremely shabby set of robes, which had been darned and patched multiple times, and were, in some places, even more ragged than the ones I'd been forced to wear at the Manor. He was so thin and pale that it was clear he must be really ill, and though young, his brown hair was flecked with grey. I could also recognise the all-too-familiar signs of desperate hunger in him, and was immediately worried. Did he not have enough to eat? Maybe he was too poor to buy the food he needed - that would certainly fit with his clothes and battered case. Or had he perhaps just escaped from a life of suffering at the hands of others, like I had? That would fit with the scars, as well as how shabby his belongings were.

Just as Professor Lupin opened his mouth to say something else, I felt a sudden wave of hopelessness wash over me, bringing with it an icy coldness that seemed to spread to my very soul. I looked down the corridor, trying to find the source of this horrible feeling, and was met with a cloaked figure that towered to the ceiling, its face completely hidden by its hood. Apparently sensing my gaze, it glided towards me; I stumbled backwards into the compartment, slamming the door shut.

"What is it?" Ginny asked, her voice quiet and full of fear.

But before I could answer her question, the door slid slowly open once more, moved by a greyish, slimy, scabbed hand, which looked like something dead that had decayed in water. The ball of light I'd conjured flickered, then vanished altogether, plunging us into darkness once more. And finally, I made sense of everything.

Dementor - Azkaban - Sirius Black - Patronus!

"E-expecto patronum," I half whispered, my voice trembling from the icy cold that had once again spread through me. A silvery mist burst from my outstretched fingertips, halting the inevitable attack for just a moment.

And then the thing beneath the hood - the Dementor - drew a long, slow, rattling breath, as though it was trying to suck more than air from its surroundings. My feeble Patronus disappeared almost instantly; my body grew cold and rigid; my heart seemed to freeze. I was vaguely aware of my legs giving way beneath me as a fog clouded my brain. Then I heard it.

"How dare you disobey my orders? HOW DARE YOU?"

"P-p-please, I'm s-sorry - it won't happen a-again - no - please - PLEASE-"

Then the screams came - terrible, drawn-out screams that seemed to cut right through me. I wanted to help whoever it was - I knew what it was like to be in pain - but my brain seemed like it was no longer connected to my body; I couldn't move; there was a fog swirling around me, inside of me, growing faster and faster-

"Ivory! Ivory, are you ok?"

Someone was shaking me; the shoulder their hand was on felt like it was on fire.

I opened my eyes. There were lanterns above me, and the compartment was shaking slightly - the Hogwarts Express was moving again, and the lights had come back on. I was lying on the floor, with Ginny kneeling next to me, and I realised that it must have been her who'd pulled me out of my memory. For I knew now that that was what I'd been hearing - a memory from when I was three, when Mother had finally had enough of my disobedience, and had punished me properly for the very first time.

"Are you ok, Ivory?" Ginny's voice came again, more urgent this time.

I quickly forced myself to my feet, putting my emotionless mask on by instinct as I reverted to the years of 'training' Mother and Father had put me through. The mass of other people's terrified thoughts pushed themselves into my mind, giving me a near-unbearable headache, but I was too weak to summon my Occlumency defences to stop the pain. Instead, I just tried to act like it wasn't hurting.

"I'm fine," I said somewhat coldly, though my words were contradicted by the fact I'd just had to grab hold of the doorframe to stop myself collapsing again.

Ginny raised an eyebrow at me, as if to say, 'do you really think any of us believe that?' then sat down, pulling me onto the seat next to her. It was rather squashed, as the round-faced boy and Professor Lupin were both on that seat as well, and the close contact with Ginny was making that side of my body feel horrible - but despite all that, and although I didn't show it, I was thankful she was trying to help even after I'd gone into 'heir mode'.

"What happened? Where's that- that thing?" Harry Potter asked. He was deathly pale, and easily looked the worst out of the others in the compartment. "Who screamed?"

"No one screamed," Ron said, very nervously.

"But I heard screaming-"

"I heard screaming too," I said, using the last dregs of my energy to keep the emotions out of my voice. The headache was somehow getting worse now, but I simply tried to ignore it, hoping it would go away soon.

Everyone looked at me.

"You heard her?" Harry asked, seemingly thankful that he wasn't the only one to have heard screaming.

"I heard a girl, a young girl, screaming. She was being tortured." My voice shook on the last part, and I dug my nails into my arm to punish myself for showing weakness whilst in 'heir mode'.

The reaction to my revelation was not a good one. Harry, Ron, and Hermione Ron all looked at me wide-eyed, their faces showing varying degrees of fear; Ginny started shaking beside me; the round-faced boy looked as though he might throw up; Professor Lupin's tired face suddenly contained a mix of emotions that I couldn't quite discern.

A sudden snapping noise made us all jump. Professor Lupin was breaking an enormous slab of chocolate into pieces. At least, I thought it was chocolate - I'd never actually had any before, but I more or less knew what it looked and smelled like from the time I'd seen my cousin Draco eating it, when we were both about seven.

"Here," Professor Lupin said, handing particularly large pieces to Harry and me. "Eat it. It'll help."

A conflict started in my mind. On the one hand, that had been a direct order, which I knew from experience I wasn't allowed to refuse. But on the other hand, Father had forbidden me to eat anything for two weeks, and I still had a couple more days before that ban ended. Either option would lead to a punishment, I was sure - so which should I choose?

Perhaps Professor Lupin won't punish me as badly as Father would, I thought hopefully. I should wait and see how patient he is before making my decision.

There was a moment of silence, then Harry haltingly asked, "What was that - that thing?"

"A Dementor," Professor Lupin said, now handing pieces of chocolate to the others. "One of the guards of Azkaban."

Everyone else stared at him as he crumpled up the empty chocolate wrapper and put it in his pocket. I flinched almost imperceptibly as he stood up, trying to make myself seem as small as I could without the others noticing. I was sure the inevitable punishment would happen now, adding to the already agonising pain of my Legilimency-induced headache, and the almost unbearable feeling of prolonged touch that seemed to be making my arm burn.

"Eat," Professor Lupin repeated, looking at my face searchingly. "It'll help. I need to talk to the driver, excuse me..."

And, to my surprise, he simply strolled past me and disappeared into the corridor.