plained everything. Fudge had been 
lenient with him because he was so relieved to find him alive. He'd made 

56 



Harry promise to stay in Diagon Alley where there were plenty of wizards 
to keep an eye on him. And he was sending two Ministry cars to take them 
all to the station tomorrow, so that the Weasleys could look after Harry 
until he was on the train. 

Harry lay listening to the muffled shouting next door and wondered why 
he didn't feel more scared. Sirius Black had murdered thirteen people 
with one curse; Mr. and Mrs, Weasley obviously thought Harry would be 
panic-stricken if he knew the truth. But Harry happened to agree 
wholeheartedly with Mrs. Weasley that the safest place on earth was 
wherever Albus Dumbledore happened to be. Didn't people always say that 
Dumbledore was the only person Lord Voldemort had ever been afraid of? 
Surely Black, as Voldemort's right-hand man, would be just as frightened 
of him? 

And then there were these Azkaban guards everyone kept talking about. 
They seemed to scare most people senseless, and if they were stationed 
all around the school, Black's chances of getting inside seemed very 
remote. 

No, all in all, the thing that bothered Harry most was the fact that his 
chances of visiting Hogsmeade now looked like zero. Nobody would want 
Harry to leave the safety of the castle until Black was caught; in fact, 
Harry suspected his every move would be carefully watched until the 
danger had passed. 

He scowled at the dark ceiling. Did they think he couldn't look after 
himself? He'd escaped Lord Voldemort three times; he wasn't completely 
useless.... 

Unbidden, the image of the beast in the shadows of Magnolia Crescent 
crossed his mind. What to do when you know the worst is coming... 

"I'm not going to be murdered," Harry said out loud. 

"That's the spirit, dear," said his mirror sleepily. 

CHAPTER FIVE 

THE DEMENTOR 

57 



Tom woke Harry the next morning with his usual toothless grin and a cup 
of tea. Harry got dressed and was just persuading a disgruntled Hedwig 
to get back into her cage when Ron banged his way into the room, pulling 
a sweatshirt over his head and looking irritable. 

"The sooner we get on the train, the better," he said. "At least I can 
get away from Percy at Hogwarts. Now he's accusing me of dripping tea on 
his photo of Penelope Clearwater. You know," Ron grimaced, "his 
girlfriend. She's hidden her face under the frame because her nose has 
gone all blotchy..." 

"I've got something to tell you," Harry began, but they were interrupted 
by Fred and George, who had looked in to congratulate Ron on infuriating 
Percy again. 

They headed down to breakfast, where Mr. Weasley was reading the front 
page of the Daily Prophet with a furrowed brow and Mrs. Weasley was 
telling Hermione and Ginny about a love potion she'd made as a young 
girl. All three of them were rather giggly. 

"What were you saying?" Ron asked Harry as they sat down. 

"Later," Harry muttered as Percy stormed in. 

Harry had no chance to speak to Ron or Hermione in the chaos of leaving; 
they were too busy heaving all their trunks down the Leaky Cauldron's 
narrow staircase and piling them up near the door, with Hedwig and 
Hermes, Percy's screech owl, perched on top in their cages. A small 
wickerwork basket stood beside the heap of trunks, spitting loudly. 

"It's all right, Crookshanks," Hermione cooed through the wickerwork. 
"I'll let you out on the train." 

"You won't," snapped Ron. "What about poor Scabbers, eh?" 

He pointed at his chest, where a large lump indicated that Scabbers was 
curled up in his pocket. 

Mr. Weasley, who had been outside waiting for the Ministry cars, stuck 

58 



his head inside. 

"They're here, he said. "Harry, come on." 

Mr. Weasley marched Harry across the short stretch of pavement toward 
the first of two old- fashioned dark green cars, each of which was 
driven by a furtive-looking wizard wearing a suit of emerald velvet. 

"In you get, Harry," said Mr. Weasley, glancing up and down the crowded 
street. 

Harry got into the back of the car and was shortly joined by Hermione, 
Ron, and, to Ron's disgust, Percy. 

The journey to King's Cross was very uneventful compared with Harry's 
trip on the Knight Bus. The Ministry of Magic cars seemed almost 
ordinary. though Harry noticed that they could slide through gaps that 
Uncle Vernon's new company car certainly couldn't have managed. They 
reached King's Cross with twenty minutes to spare; the Ministry drivers 
found them trolleys, unloaded their trunks, touched their hats in salute 
to Mr. Weasley, and drove away, somehow managing to jump to the head of 
an unmoving line at the traffic lights. 

Mr. Weasley kept close to Harry's elbow all the way into the station. 

"Right then," he said, glancing around them. "Let's do this in pairs, as 
there are so many of us. I'll go through first with Harry." 

Mr. Weasley strolled toward the barrier between platforms nine and ten, 
pushing Harry's trolley and apparently very interested in the InterCity 
125 that had just arrived at platform nine. With a meaningful look at 
Harry, he leaned casually against the barrier. Harry imitated him. 

In a moment, they had fallen sideways through the solid metal onto 
platform nine and three- quarters and looked up to see the Hogwarts 
Express, a scarlet steam engine, puffing smoke over a platform packed 
with witches and wizards seeing their children onto the train. 

Percy and Ginny suddenly appeared behind Harry. They were panting and 
had apparently taken the barrier at a run. 

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"Ah, there's Penelope!" said Percy, smoothing his hair and going Pink 
again. Ginny caught Harry's eye, and they both turned away to hide their 
laughter as Percy strode over to a girl with long, curly hair, walking 
with his chest thrown out so that she couldn't miss his shiny badge. 
stood back to let him on. They leaned out of the window and waved at Mr. 
and Mrs. Weasley until the train turned a corner and blocked them from 
view. 

"I need to talk to you in private," Harry muttered to Ron and Hermione 
as the train picked up speed. 

"Go away, Ginny," said Ron. 

"Oh, that's nice," said Ginny huffily, and she stalked off. 

Harry, Ron, and Hermione set off down the corridor, looking for an empty 
compartment, but all were full except for the one at the very end of the 
train. 

This had only one occupant, a man sitting fast asleep next to the 
window. Harry, Ron, and Hermione checked on the threshold. The Hogwarts 
Express was usually reserved for students and they had never seen an 
adult there before, except for the witch who pushed the food cart. 

The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizard's robes that 
had been darned in several places. He looked ill and exhausted. Though 
quite young, his light brown hair was flecked with gray. 

"Who d'you reckon he is?" Ron hissed as they sat down and slid the door 
shut, taking the seats farthest away from the window. 

"Professor R. J. Lupin," whispered Hermione at once. 

"How d'you know that?" 

"It's on his case," she replied, pointing at the luggage rack over the 
man's head, where there was a small, battered case held together with a 
large quantity of neatly knotted string. The name Professor R. J. Lupin 
was stamped across one corner in peeling letters. 

60 



"Wonder what he teaches?" said Ron, frowning at Professor Lupin's pallid 
profile. 

"That's obvious," whispered Hermione. "There's only one vacancy, isn't 
there? Defense Against the Dark Arts." 

Harry, Ron, and Hermione had already had two Defense Against the Dark 
Arts teachers, both of whom had lasted only one year. There were rumors 
that the job was jinxed. 

"well, I hope he's up to it," said Ron doubtfully. "He looks like on, 
good hex would finish him off, doesn't he? Anyway..." He turned to 
Harry. "What were you going to tell us?" 

Harry explained all about Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's argument and the 
warning Mr. Weasley had just given him. \When he'd finished, Ron looked 
thunderstruck, and Hermione had her hands over her mouth. She finally 
lowered them to say, "Sirius Black escaped to come after you? Oh, 
Harry... you'll have to be really, really careful. don't go looking for 
trouble, Harry --" 

"I Don't go looking for trouble," said Harry, nettled. "Trouble usually 
finds me." 

"How thick would Harry have to be, to go looking for a nutter who wants 
to kill him?" said Ron shakily. 

They were taking the news worse than Harry had expected. Both Ron and 
Hermione seemed to be much more frightened of Black than he was. 

"No one knows how he got out of Azkaban," said Ron uncomfortably. "No 
one's ever done it before. And he was a top-security prisoner too." 

"But they'll catch him, won't they?" said Hermione earnestly. "I Mean, 
they've got all the Muggles looking out for him too...." "What's that 
noise?" said Ron suddenly. 

A faint, tinny sort of whistle was coming from somewhere. The, looked 
all around the compartment. 

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"It's coming from your trunk, Harry," said Ron, standing UP and reaching 
into the luggage rack. A moment later he had pulled the Pocket 
Sneakoscope out from between Harry's robes. It was spinning very fast in 
the palm of Ron's hand and glowing brilliantly. 

"Is that a Sneakoscope?" said Hermione interestedly, standing up for a 
better look. 

"Yeah... mind you, it's a very cheap one," Ron said. "It went haywire 
just as I was tying it to Errol's leg to send it to Harry." 

"Were you doing anything untrustworthy at the time?" said Hermione 
shrewdly. 

"No! Well... I wasn't supposed to be using Errol. You know he's not 
really up to long journeys... but how else was I supposed to g