"Pardon me, but this is sort of our compartment," Sirius said, bursting into their usual place on the Hogwarts Express. A couple of first year Hufflepuffs had slipped in ahead of them and were standing on the benches trying to shove their stuff up on the racks overhead. 

One of them looked at the other. "Sorry, but I didn't see a reserved sign on the door or anything," he snickered rudely.

"Yeah," said the other one, "It's not like it's got your names on it, does it?"

Sirius shoved his way into the compartment, drawing his wand from his pocket. "You want our bloody names on the compartment?" he demanded, "I'll put our names on it then!"

Remus was looking over James and Peter's shoulders, "Sirius - don't..."

But Sirius had already leaped forward and waved his wand about the room. "SCELERO!" he said, and with the tip of his wand he drew the letters S.B., J.P., R.L., and P.P. into the trim on the wall paneling. "There you have it, our names are on the compartment. Now get out of here, you lot before I hex you all."

Sirius laughed...

He laughed and in Remus's memory, his head swung wildly with the mirth and his eyes were dark grey, darker than they usually ever were, and suddenly Sirius wasn't the second year carving initials into the train wall but he was the wild and manic young man, clutching the Azkaban identification card with his number on it - laughing insanely, his mouth wide and evil. Howling with laughter. The sort of laughter that Remus had only ever heard him utter after a particularly brutal move in a battle... That laughter had always accompanied Sirius's voice shouting out cruel hexes and spells, followed by the neon colored sparks flew from his wand clutched in his fist of victory... Explosive magic, impressive in its power... Power that had steadily grown greater and greater, power that could only have come from....

From You Know Who.

"What's been going on Sirius? I've a right to know, as your husband I've a right to know!"

"We've both got secrets kept from one another, Remus! I haven't got to tell you anything..."

"Your magic's been so much stronger lately. Why? I demand to know where you're --"

"Don't believe I could simply be learning how to do it myself? That maybe I have a lot more to lose than I've ever had before? Maybe I'm just that bloody good?"

"We both know that it's very tempting to --"

"Tempting to WHAT, Remus? What exactly is it tempting to do? Go on and say what it is that you're insinuating."

"Sirius..."

"Go on and say it -- that I've always been a bit of a loser, that my magic isn't nearly as good as YOURS is? So now you think I've betrayed you... Well. HA. Let's talk about betrayal, shall we, Remus? SHALL WE TALK ABOUT WHO IS BETRAYING WHO THESE DAYS, SHALL WE?"

Remus could see the color in Sirius's face, the heat in his cheeks and the fire in his eyes... the anger... the -- the hate.

The laughter echoed in his head again and again... and then... through the echoing of the barking laughter came... James Potter's voice...

"Sirius Black's come for me... That's what's got everyone so worried, he's mad and he's - he's gotten out in order to come and finish what he's started - to finish me off..."

Scenes from news clippings of the house in Godric's Hollow began flashing upon Remus's closed eyelids and his fingers tightened in his robes pockets. Another voice - Lily's perhaps?

"You'll have to be really, really careful, don't go looking for trouble..."

"I don't go looking for trouble," said James, "Trouble usually finds me."

Remus felt his stomach twist tightly, the jostling of the train shivering through him... the cold of the panel of glass he leaned against.... sleeping... he was beginning to stir, though not entirely... and he turned, repositioning himself, hoping that the phantom of James's voice would fade away, that the barking laughter still echoing in his head would go with it, that he might get at least a pinch of rest...

And Remus dreamed of Hogsmeade weekends with cauldron cakes and James Potter's voice seemed to surround him, floating in and out of his mind in strange broken phrases and tones.

And then Remus felt someone brush against him. "We must be nearly there," said a voice. "I'm starving, I want to get to the feast..."

Sure enough, Remus realized he could feel the train slowing, and he sighed for the sleep he'd been getting in the last couple hours - listening to the gentle sound of James Potter's voice echoing in his mind as it had been - had been the most restful sleep he'd had in months... maybe even years... and he was reluctant to let it go, to shake off the comforting feeling of the Marauders presence here in their compartment - names carved in and everything. He kept his eyes closed stubbornly, hoping to prolong the sound of James...

"We can't be there yet..."

"So why're we stopping?"

The train chugged slowly to a halt, the jerk in their bellies gave away when the brakes were pulled on the engine and the Express halted on the tracks, and there were many loud thumps - one of them being Remus's case sliding across the rack above, and in the very instant that he stirred enough to raise his head up from the window, the lanterns shuttered and the compartment when dark.

The darkness was complete.

Remus started, blinking through it, nearly unable to tell the difference between having them opened or closed, save for the pale light of the moon outside of the window. He sat upright, his coat falling from covering over him to the floor.

"What's going on?" the boy who was hungry for the feast asked, voice scared.

"Ouch! Ron, that was my foot!"

"D'you think we've broken down?"

"Dunno..."

Remus's head snapped toward the last voice. That dunno. That dunno - he knew that "dunno" - that was - but it couldn't be. It couldn't be James - yet - yet it - it was - and -.... his heart thundered in his chest as he sat, staring into the complete and total dark in the direction the voice had come from, unable to wrap his mind about what he had heard.

"There's something moving out there," the boy called Ron's voice shook as he spoke. "I think... I think people are coming aboard..."

"Sorry - d'you know what's going on? Ouch - sorry."

"Hullo Neville." James said. 

"Harry? Is that you?" a new voice asked.

Harry. Of course it was Harry, Remus realized, a chill running through him, the realization that he was not mad, that he was not hearing a ghost, but only Harry - James's son - of course if the boy looked like his father, he should sound like him, too, but it had never occurred to Remus - in all the years he'd heard people tell that Harry was just like James, he'd never thought... not this much... 

"What's happening?"

"No idea - sit down -"

A cat shrieked in the dark.

"I'm going to go and ask the driver what's going on," said a girl's voice, then squeals of pain and more people had pushed through the compartment door... 

But even as the new comers squealed, whispered, hissed, and gasped as they fell over one another and recognized who they each were, something outside caught Remus's eyes and he was distracted completely, even as somebody tripped and fell nearly perfectly into his lap. 

Hooded figures, black against the darkness of the night. 

The chill that had run through him, he realized, had not been in reaction to Harry but instead --

"Quiet!" he said sternly, standing up. His voice came out hoarse, but it was harsh enough to instantly silence all of the students that had piled into the compartment. Silence fell over them all as Remus reached for his wand -- but it had been in his coat pocket, which had fallen to the floor, and he sighed, unable to see where it had gone. He needed a light -- so he squeezed his fist, concentrated, and -- a burst of blue flames lit up in his palm as he spread his fingers. It was a trick that Newt Scamander had once taught him. The flames were weak, shivering things, a soft glow at best, but it would be enough to find his wand, and he hurried to pluck it up from the floor.

The shaky blue light illuminated the faces surrounding him, and he glanced over them, seeing several kids that could only be Weasleys, a girl with thick, bushy hair, and -- James. 

No.

Not James.

Harry.

Harry, of course.

"Stay where you are," Remus said, and he held out the palmful of flames, stepping 'round the students carefully.

He'd intended to lock the door, but there was a breeze that shivered through the compartment suddenly, and the windows crackled with an instant sort of frost that spread over them as quickly as if they'd been shattered. Dread filled the compartment, filled the entire train, and utterly filled Remus Lupin's heart. The horror and pain of the full moon seemed to shudder upon him and he felt his bones cracking, felt his heart sinking, felt loneliness and pain and that damned barking laugh, echoing through his mind, sharp as a double edged sword, piercing him clear through.

The hooded figure that suddenly hovered in the doorway, illuminated by Remus's fire, was tall and narrow, towering tall above all of them, even Remus, whose height had always been rather impressive. Great gasping breaths of putrid stink seemed to clutch Remus right about the esophagus and tug, squeezing out every ounce of hope and happiness that he had within him.

James Potter is dead and Sirius Black killed him. James and Peter both... He betrayed you all, he'll come for you before he's caught by the Ministry... he'll come and kill you, like the ferocious, horrid man he is... and when he's finished with you, he'll laugh. He'll laugh just as he did when he was caught after killing Peter... Head thrown back... gasping for air... He was always evil... You should've known, you should've seen it coming... It was you, all you, all your fault, you're the reason that Sirius Black was able to kill James Potter... Remus, you -- you -- you did it, you did it, you did it, you --- werewolf. Filthy dirty no good werewolf...

Remus's heart seized. 

And then he heard a cry of pain - James's cry of pain.

No.

Not James.

Harry.

Harry had fallen to the floor, clutching his head in pain.

The dementor extended his hand, attempting to reach around Remus, and suddenly Remus realized that it was only him there to protect Harry, and he rounded on the dementor, his heart bursting with the thought of Harry alone... "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" he shouted, and he watched as a shaggy dog bounded from the tip of his wand.

The dementor fled, followed by the dog as the dog hurried after the cowardly blighter, and Remus gasped in relief, sitting quickly onto the bench once again, staring after it, even as the compartment lights came back on.

Remus shook as though every nerve in his body had turned to gelatin.

"Harry! Harry are you alright?"

The others in the compartment had descended upon Harry, who lay on the floor, weakened by the dementor's attempt. "Are you okay, Harry?" the boy called Ron asked, frantic, and the bushy haired girl was kneeling on the floor.

"What happened? Where's that - that thing? Who screamed?" Harry was gasping loudly from the floor.

Remus turned and grabbed his briefcase from the floor shakily. He opened it and dug about for the hollowed out book...

"No one screamed," Ron said, his voice trembling unevenly with worry.

"But I heard screaming," Harry protested.

CRACK!

Everyone turned to look at Remus. He had pulled his book out of his briefcase and opened it up and found the Forbidden Forrest Fudge bar he'd been saving in there. The thick bar had made a terrific sound as he'd broken it, interrupting Harry's inquiries. He broke it up into bits and handed the largest piece to Harry, holding it up.

"Here," Remus said, staring at him, breathlessly. "Eat it. It'll help."

Harry took the chocolate, and his eyes met Remus's.

Remus's heart lurched. James in body and voice, but Lily in the eyes. He'd never seen such striking green eyes on anyone else in all the world. The bright emerald orbs stared up at him from beneath James's floppy black hair and the reflection of his own face staring back at him in the spectacles. 

"Wh- what was that thing?" Harry asked.

"A dementor," Remus replied gently. He numbly handed the chocolate out all around, looking at the girl with the bushy hair, and the Weasleys. There was no mistaking the Longbottom boy, either, for Neville looked like a perfect blend of Frank and Alice. "One of the guards of Azkaban," he added, when his eyes turned back to Harry to find a look of confusion there. "Eat. It'll help." He crumpled the empty chocolate wrapper, putting the last bit of the fudge bar into his mouth and allowing it to melt on his tongue. He stared at Harry, hardly able to tear his eyes from him.

Harry stared back.

Remus felt a hundred thousand things catch in his throat, then. A million things he wished to say. He was transported, staring at the boy like this, to another place in time, when he'd stood over a crib and sung lullabies with Lily, or telling the baby stories with Sirius... stories about a dog named Snuffles...

"I've got to talk to the driver," Remus said suddenly, getting to his feet. He nearly tripped headlong into the wall, but managed only just barely to catch himself. He took one last look at Harry, then hurried to duck out of the compartment. "Excuse me."

The moment the compartment door closed, Remus backed up from the door, his back against the far wall of the corridor as he closed his eyes and drew a breath that trembled through him. The dementors were gone, but the haunting feeling still filled him completely up.