"I'm warning you, Hermione! Olivia! Keep that bloody beast of yours away from Scabbers or I'll turn both of them into a tea cozy!" Ron yelled at Hermione and Olivia.

"He's a cat, Ronald! What do you expect? It's in his nature." Olivia picked up her scared cat.  As Harry reached bottom and found Ron Weasley protectively cradling Scabbers, while Hermione did her best to restrain a hissing Crookshanks.

"A cat! Is that what they told you? Looks more like a pig with hair if you ask me." Ron snarled and Olivia gasped as she looked down at the two cats.

"That's rich coming from the owner of that smelly old shoe brush!" Olivia yelled at Ron while petting Crookshanks and Snowball.

"It's all right, Crookshanks. You just ignore the mean little boy..." Hermione cooed at her cat. Then, sensing another presence in the room, both turned.

"Harry." All three yelled once they saw him. Olivia ran over to him and Harry hugged her. He had missed his sister over the summer.

A dog-eared clipping from The Daily Prophet.

A headline screams: "GRAND PRIZE WINNER VISITS EGYPT!" In the accompanying photo, the entire Weasley family stood before the great pyramid, waving. Smack in the middle was Ron, Scabbers, perched on his shoulder.

As Ron smoothed the dog-eared clipping onto the table, Harry studied it. Hermione ignored it and stroked Crookshanks. "Egypt! What's it like?" Harry asked as Olivia sat on the ground playing with her cat.

"Brilliant. It's got loads of old stuff. Mummies. Death masks Tombs --" Hermione cut off Ron and Olivia laughed. Ron smiled over to Olivia, he had asked her out a week before Harry had shown up and she had said yes.

Olivia thought it was a little weird dating her brothers best friend, but she liked him. At the same time Olivia as liked Draco.

"You know, the ancient Egyptians of the Nile River delta worshipped the cat goddess Bast." Ron glared stonily at Hermione, then turned back to Harry.

"I also got a new wand." Just then, a commotion was heard. The Weasleys, Percy, Fred, George, Ginny, Arthur, and Molly, arrived in mass, laden with purchases from Diagon Alley.

"Not flashing that clipping about again, are you, Ron?" George or is it Fred, well one of them asked.

"I haven't shown anyone!" Ron yelled and Olivia laughed making Ron blush.

"No, not a soul. Unless you count Tom. The day maid. The night maid. The cook. The bloke that came to fix the toilet. That wizard from Belgium.." Mrs. Weasley took Harry's face in her hands and smiled. As if relieved to see him.

"It's good to see you, Harry and you Olivia." Olivia narrowed her eyes at the woman. Something wrong.

"Good to see you too, Mrs. Weasley." Harry and Olivia said at the same time.

"Harry. Olivia. I wonder if I might have a word." Mr. Weasley asked and Olivia nodded. She stood up and grabbed Snowball. She didn't want Ron to kill her.

"Of course, Mr. Weasley." The two said together; scaring the older man. As Mr. Weasley pulled Harry and Olivia away, the others continued to hover over the clipping.

"George's nose looks positively massive in that photograph." Olivia heard Fred say and she giggled.

"That's your nose, Fred." Ginny told him and Fred gasped.

"Bloody hell. 'Tis, isn't it? Take after your side of the family, don't I, Mum?" Harry noticed Mr. Weasley glancing edgily at a Fugitive poster tacked to the wall.

In it, Sirius Black glowered under the words, "Have You Seen This Man?"

"Harry. Olivia. There are some within then Ministry who would strongly discourage me from divulging what I'm about to tell you. But I think you need to know the facts. Because you're in danger. Grave danger." Harry's eyes drifted to the fugitive poster. Olivia looked down at her cat.

"Has this anything to do with him, sir?" Harry asked and Mr. Weasley nodded.

"What do you know of Sirius Black, Harry?" Olivia looked up and she nodded.

"That he escaped from Azkaban. That he killed someone..." Olivia mumbled before trailing off.

"Harry, thirteen years ago, when you stopped..." Mr. Weasley hesitated, unable to continue.

"Voldemort...?" The two asked, Olivia was not afraid to say his name. Not anymore.

"Black lost everything. But he remains a loyal servant to this day. In his mind, only you stand in the way of..." Mr. Weasley nodded nervously. Once again, Mr. Weasley hesitated.

"Voldemort?" The two said again. Harry motioned for her to stand next to him.

"Harry, Olivia, I hate it when you say." They both nodded. Olivia stood next to Harry and Harry stroked Snowball.

"I know, sorry. Ron hates it too." Olivia told him and he nodded.

"In Black's mind, only you two stand in the way of You-Know-Who returning to power. That's why he's broken. That's why he's broken out of Azkaban. To find you. And..." Mr. Weasley hesitated yet again.

"Kill us?" Mr. Weasley nodded nervously.

"He better get in line then." Olivia told him and Harry smiled.

"Harry. Olivia. I want you to swear that whatever you might hear you won't go looking for Black." Olivia was startled that was the exact same thing her father said to her.

"Mr. Weasley, why would I go looking for someone who wants to kill me?" Harry and Olivia asked.  Mr. Weasley nodded and then clapped Harry and Olivia on their shoulders.

"Just watch yourself, will you, Harry? Olivia?"

——

As the Hogwarts Express bleated it's horn, the milling horde of students. Parents hurried their children onboard, tiny siblings waved goodbyes and Mrs. Weasley dashed through the crowd and up to an open train window.

"Ron!" She handed Scabbers through the open window to him. The aisle teemed with students. Harry, Ron and Hermione worked their way down the aisle, looking for an empty compartment.

"I didn't mean to blow her up. I just..." Harry looked troubled by the memory. "lost control." He finished and Olivia understood.

"Brilliant!" Ron laughed and Olivia jabbed him in the side. Ron muttered a sorry and grabbed her hand.

"Honestly, Ron, it's not funny. Harry's lucky he wasn't expelled." Olivia told Ron softly, making Harry's eyes narrowed. Olivia told Harry that over the summer Ron had asked her to be his girlfriend.

Olivia had said yes. "I still think it was brilliant." A copy of the The Monster Book of Monsters scuttled crab-like down the aisle, pursued by Neville Longbottom.

"Hi, Harry. Olivia. Ron. Hermione." Neville said as he tried to catch the book.

"Hi, Neville." As he bumped past, Hermione nodded to a compartment.

"C'mon. We're in here." As they slipped inside to find a man in shabby robes slumped against the window, asleep. He looked ill and exhausted. The four eyed him warily.

"Who d'you reckon he is?" Ron asked and Olivia looked at his bag.

"Professor R.J. Lupin." Olivia told them and Ron looked at her with wide eyes.

"You know everything. How is it she knows everything?" Ron asked Harry and Olivia laughed.

"It's on his case." Hermione pointed out. Stamped in peeling letters on a battered case is "Professor R.J. Lupin."

"Is he really asleep?" Harry whispered as they sat down.

"Seems to be. Why? What is it, Harry?" Hermione asked and Olivia looked at the man. Olivia felt like she know the man.

"Close the door." Hermione and Ron exchanged a curious glance, then Ron rose to slid the door shut.

Storm clouds, like dark ghosts, tossed sheets of rain onto the scarlet engine as it headed north.

Ron and Hermione stared at Harry and Olivia, faces stricken in the lantern light that now glowing in the compartment. Crookshanks and Snowball slumbered in their cages.

"Let me get this straight. Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban to come after you two?" Ron asked eyes wide as he looked at Olivia.

"Yes." The two said together making Hermione shiver.

"Stop doing that!" Hermione snapped and Olivia giggled. "But they'll catch Black, won't they? I mean... eventually?" Hermione asked and Olivia shrugged.

"Sure -- Of course, no one's ever broken out of Azkaban before and he's a raving, murderous lunatic..." Just then, the compartment rattled. Lanterns flickered as the train lurched and began to slow.

Hermione slid down the seat, pinning Ron against the window. They exchanged an awkward glance as Hermione carefully slide to the other end of the seat and glanced at her watch. Frowning.

"Why're we stopping? We can't be there yet..." Harry rose from his seat and slid open the door, before peering into the corridor.

All along the carriage, heads looked out curiously. Then the train jerked the car sways and the lamps running along the ceiling flickered and die.

One by one. Until all was Dark. "What's going on?" A thin wisp of steam escaped Ron's mouth. Harry and Olivia were the only ones to notice.

"Dunno... Maybe we've broken down?" Olivia suggested and Harry nodded.

"Ouch! Ron, that was my foot!" Ron, a dark silhouette against the window, wiped a patch of condensation from the window.

"There's something moving out there. I think... people are coming aboard." Suddenly the car swayed violently before righting itself. The metal window trimmed at Ron's fingertips began to vibrate.

"Bloody hell. What's happening?" A soft crackling filled the car and flames bloom in the hands of R.J. Lupin.

In the shivering light, his face looked tired and gray, but his eyes are alert. Wary.

"Don't. Move." A hand slimy and scabbed a hand of death gripped the half-open compartment door and pushed it aside.

A towering, cloaked figure, it's face hidden beneath it's black hood. Crookshanks' hair rose and as she hissed. Snowball's fur was white with some red, as she tried to escape her cage. The folds of the hood trembled. A chill, rattling intake of air was heard.

The flames in Lupin's hands sputtered and a sound swelled in Olivia's ears. Eerie. Painful. The sound of a woman screaming. Harry and Olivia's eyes rolled up and their eyelids fluttered, snd then a slivery white light drifted from their mouth.

The world spun off its axis and Harry fell glasses tumbling hard to the ground then Harry the muscles of his jaw twitching. Olivia cried out.

Thunder cracked. Lightning painted the icy windows white, black, white, black. With a desperate gasp, Olivia opened her eyes. Blinking.

The windows were black. The floor at his spine was shaking gently. The train moving again. Their eyes shifted, see a drop of water, newly unfrozen, ran slowly down the window.

"Harry? Olivia, are you all right?" Hermione's troubled face hovered above them. They nodded and sat up. Ron pale, nervously extended his hand. Harry's glasses.

"Thanks." Harry slipped them on. Discovering the cold sweat glazing his brow. Professor Lupin broke a ragged triangle of chocolate off the slab in his hands and held it out.

"Chocolate. Eat. It'll help." He told the two siblings and they take it.

"What was that -- that thing?" Olivia and Harry asked.

"A Dementor. One of the guards of Azkaban. It's gone now." Harry and Olivia frowned in confusion.

"It was searching the train, you two. For Sirius Black." Olivia shuttered and leaned on Harry.

"I need to have a word with the driver. Excuse me." Lupin pointed to the chocolate. "Eat. It'll help." As he left, Harry turned to Ron and Hermione.

"What happened to me?" He asked and Ron eyed the two nervously.

"Well, you two sort of went... rigid. We thought maybe you were having a fit or something." Ron told them and Olivia nibbled on the chocolate.

"And did either of you? You know... pass out?" Harry asked and Ron shook his head.

"No well Olivia did. I felt... weird. Like I'd never be cheerful again. But... no." Harry turned to Hermione. She shook her head.

"I was trembling. Cold. But then Professor Lupin made it go away..." Hermione muttered and Olivia coughed. The three kept an eye on her till she stopped.

"But someone was screaming. A woman." Hermione and Ron glanced nervously at each other.

"No one was screaming, Harry." Harry looked to the window.

"I heard it." Olivia was so quiet that they barely heard her.