coming aboard...."
The compartment door suddenly opened and someone fell painfully over
Harry's legs.
"Sorry -- d'you know what's going on? -- Ouch -- sorry
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"Hullo, Neville," said Harry, feeling around in the dark and pulling
Neville up by his cloak.
"Harry? Is that you? What's happening?"
"No idea -- sit down --"
There was a loud hissing and a yelp of pain; Neville had tried to sit on
Crookshanks.
"I'm going to go and ask the driver what's going on," came Hermione's
voice. Harry felt her pass him, heard the door slide open again, and
then a thud and two loud squeals of pain.
"Who's that?"
"Who's that?"
"Ginny?"
"Hermione?"
"What are you doing?"
"I was looking for Ron --" "Come in and sit down --"
"Not here!" said Harry hurriedly. "I'm here!"
"Ouch!" said Neville.
"Quiet!" said a hoarse voice suddenly.
Professor Lupin appeared to have woken up at last. Harry could hear
movements in his corner.
None of them spoke.
There was a soft, crackling noise, and a shivering light filled the
compartment. Professor Lupin appeared to be holding a handful of flames.
They illuminated his tired, gray face, but his eyes looked alert and
66
wary.
"Stay where you are," he said in the same hoarse voice, and he got
slowly to his feet with his handful of fire held out in front of him.
But the door slid slowly open before Lupin could reach it.
Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the shivering flames in Lupin's
hand, was a cloaked figure that towered to the ceiling. Its face was
completely hidden beneath its hood. Harry's eyes darted downward, and
what he saw made his stomach contract. There was a hand protruding from
the cloak and it was glistening, grayish, slimy-looking, and scabbed,
like something dead that had decayed in water...
But it was visible only for a split second. As though the creature
beneath the cloak sensed Harry's gaze, the hand was suddenly withdrawn
into the folds of its black cloak.
And then the thing beneath the hood, whatever it was, drew a long, slow,
rattling breath, as though it were trying to suck something more than
air from its surroundings.
An intense cold swept over them all. Harry felt his own breath catch in
his chest. The cold went deeper than his skin. It was inside his chest,
it was inside his very heart....
Harry's eyes rolled up into his head. He couldn't see. He was drowning
in cold. There was a rushing in his ears as though of water. He was
being dragged downward, the roaring growing louder. .
And then, from far away, he heard screaming, terrible, terrified,
pleading screams. He wanted to help whoever it was, he tried to move his
arms, but couldn't... a thick white fog was swirling around him, inside
him
"Harry! Harry! Are you all right?"
Someone was slapping his face.
"W -- what?"
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Harry opened his eyes; there were lanterns above him, and the floor was
shaking -- the Hogwarts Express was moving again and the lights had come
back on. He seemed to have slid out of his seat onto the floor. Ron and