The long summer had finally come to an end and school was to start again in a couple of days. Darius was getting all his stuff ready, new books into his expandable trunk, stocking up all his potions ingredients, refilling all the ink and quill requirements etc. He did not know what exactly this year had in store for him but he was ready to face it head on. Freeing Sirius through the trial was the first major alteration he had made to the timeline and he didn’t know how it would affect things.

It was on 31st August, the day before he took the Hogwarts Express, that the news broke out. The papers were plastered with the photos all over. There were interviews from several eyewitnesses and the story was explained in detail. Peter Pettigrew had ESCAPED!

As the news article went, Peter had been placed in the Auror department’s temporary holding cell, where they got all the details of the incidents that occurred. The transfer of prisoners to Azkaban only took place once a month, so they had to wait until the end of the month. Minister Fudge had decided that he wanted to be the one to escort Pettigrew out of the cells, likely so that some more photos of him were taken leading Pettigrew by chains to bolster his public image. He brute forced his way into the transport detail by using his status.

But as it turns out, he goofed up big time. Not being a trained Auror, he did not activate Pettigrew’s manacles properly and the anti-magic and anti-animagus cuffs did not activate properly. Halfway to the ministry exit, Pettigrew took the opportunity and snatched Fudge’s wand. Banishing the man to the side, he took the couple of seconds the Aurors took to react while he got his cuffs off. Madam Bones had got there by the time and managed to blow Pettigrew’s right arm clean off the shoulder along with the minister’s wand but he managed to transform and scurried away to escape. The minister was carried away to Mungo’s and saved though it was a shitstorm that awaited him after his discharge. The ministry and the Wizengamot was up in arms over this and Fudge’s already minimal reputation took a heavy hit after that fiasco.

Fudge had to stand before the Wizengamot as a motion of no confidence had been called against him but he managed to barely scrape through. It was mainly the people in the dark faction who wanted a minister who was in their control and a large part of the neutrals who were either blackmailed or bought over by Malfoy money. But despite that he was on extremely shaky ground and he did the same thing as in the original timeline. In an effort to make it look as if he was actually doing something, he made the foolhardy decision to call in the dementors. Just when Darius was looking forward to a relatively calm year, the situation was shaken up again and the timeline was distorted again.

It was a disaster for Darius plans. He had wanted to deal with Voldemort with as little collateral damage as possible. He was already down four Horcruxes and one more would be destroyed once he got the locket to the school. He could have asked the goblins to do it but doing it in the RoR would yield him another Grimoire, something which was extremely rare and the more he had the better. He couldn’t wait to get one more of these grimoires.

Pettigrew escaping a year early could have major consequences. If he went and re-joined Voldemort in Albania now, it could speed up the timeline drastically and that wasn’t something he really wanted to see. Well, there wasn’t exactly anything he could do about it anyway.

Finally, it was time to leave and Darius and his mother used the floo to get to the station. There was actually a room at the back of the station warded for only wizards and set up with a number of fireplaces for wizards to floo in. They were going to meet Sirius and Harry on the station as well and the others would join them on the train soon enough. Sirius had been extremely agitated for the past couple of days. The rat bastard who had sold out hi best friends which lead to their murder, the one who framed him and got him imprisoned for so many and kept him away from Harry had managed to escape. And it was all that incompetent minister’s fault. He had barely managed to hold himself back from going to the ministry to rip that arse a new one. He was seething about the issue but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. But the other problem was that it was even harder to go to Hogwarts now. With the dementors hovering all around the school, it would be hard enough to pass them without collapsing but they may even want to go after him, seeing as he was their former prisoner.

Darius was already wearing his robes when he was on the platform. Most wizards preferred to do so and after more than a decade in this world, he had gotten used to the custom as well. Pinned on his chest was the new Prefect badge that he had gotten. He had not been sure whether he would get it or not, what with Dumbledore’s thought process but it seems there was nothing to worry about. He wasn’t like Percy, all puffed up with pride but it was still a good feeling to wear the badge. Unfortunately, that also meant that he would not be able to sit with the twins or Harry, Mione and Neville as he had to do rounds on the train. It was one of his duties as prefect, at least for the first half of the journey, he would be able to join the others later.

They all got on the train soon enough and Darius headed to the front to get to the Prefects carriage. He had only heard about it and never seen this carriage before. He went ahead with his trunk and put it up on top of one of the seats. It seems he was among the first to arrive and the others had not gotten here yet. According to the letter from the school, there was to be a meeting with the other Prefects and the Head boy and girl on the journey.

The other Prefects filed in soon and by the time the train started the carriage was full. It was an extended carriage with no separate individual compartments so that all the Prefects could sit together. The head boy was Percy and he started lecturing us on all our duties in his usual pompous manner, though he was mostly ignored by the Slytherins. Eventually he was done with that and all the Prefects were told to patrol the carriages according to their schedule.

Darius went down the train, greeting all the students he was familiar with. He met the Patil sisters and Lavender who were pleased to see that he was prefect. He also met the trio of girls from the house team, Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell and Alicia Spinnet. Those girls were already talking about the season’s quidditch matches and even asked if DA classes would be continued this year. Darius peered into one of the compartments and found Daphne, Tracy and Blaise Zabini sitting together and greeted them as well. All three were DA members and knew me well. The twins had a compartment all to themselves and were poring over papers. From what he could make out they were trying to improve some of their Skiving Snackboxes. Thoe had become all the rage in the school since last year and were high in demand. Darius wished them luck and moved on. He woul return after he was done with his patrolling. Though the twins were endless in taking the micky out of him for becoming a Prefect.

Further along were Harry, Mione, Neville, Luna, Susan and Hannah. They were all talking about their summer vacation and the upcoming DA classes. They were pleased to see me and all of them had expected me to be the next Gryffindor prefect. Darius did warn them that the Dementors around the castle may try to board the train so they should have their wands ready to fire off a Patronus if needed. All of them could manage one, though Susan and Hannah could only do the incorporeal one. They nodded in thanks and decided to practice a couple of times. Darius moved along and reached the Slytherin carriage. Well, not that it belonged to them per se but they all liked to generally sit together, mostly to boast to each other. He just ignored them and moved along. Though he didn’t buy onto the thought that every Gryffindor must hate Slytherins and vice versa, there were a lot of people who did and he didn’t want to get into an altercation on the first day back. He finally finished his rounds and headed to sit with the twins.

The twins were still working on the snackboxes and Darius began to help them figure out some of their problems. They may be excellent potioneers but with his mother’s training he was well beyond ordinary potioneers. In fact, he was nearly at the level to attempt the Potions Master exam. The problem with Snape was that he just gave out the instructions and did not expalin the theory behind potion-making at all. Why leech juice had to be given at a certain temperature only, how fluxweed reacted with other ingredients, the colours of the potions when mandrake was use, compatibility of ingredients and so forth. Without knowing all this, there was no chance of anyone ever becoming a Potions Master or even making any potions of their own creation. The twins were at least better than most of the school, in that they actually knew the basics and thus were able to whip up their own products.

It was when we were getting close to Hogwarts when the train started slowing down. The train jolted to a stop and then suddenly all the lamps went out. They were loud cries of surprise and people were poking their heads out of their compartments with their wands lit up to see what was the commotion. But Darius knew what was happening. The dementors were here.

The temperature in their entire carriage seemed to go down a notch.

“Fred and George, there are Dementors outside. We need to get rid of them. We can’t let students get exposed to them.”

“Right you are, Darius. We take one side and you take the other, I reckon?”

“Yeah, we’ll do that!”

They faced down both ends of the carriage, the twins one way and Darius the other, back to back.

First Darius decided to warn the rest of the students. He cast a sonorus and began to speak.

“ALL STUDENTS, PLEASE CALM DOWN! ANY PANIC WILL ONLY ESCALATE THE SITUATION. SOME OF YOU MAY KNOW THAT THERE ARE DEMENTORS STATIONED AROUND OUR SCHOOL AND IT IS THEIE PRESENCE WHICH HAS CAUSED THE DARKNESS. THEY HAVE NO RIGHT TO BE ON A TRAIN FOR STUDENTS AND WILL BE SHORTLY EXPELLED. BUT IN THE MEANTIME, I URGE ALL STUDENTS TO GET BACK IN THEIR COMPARMENTS AND SEAL OR LOCK THEIR DOORS. ALL STUDENTS CAPABLE OF THE PATRONUS CHARM MAY HELP WITH THEIR OWN PATRONI. THANK YOU.”

All over the train students heard the booming voice and quickly followed it. They had been all running like headless chickens and a firm order settled them for the moment. It also helped that the mere name of dementors shook up most of the people who knew about them and those who didn’t were quickly informed by those around them. Doors to compartments slammed shut all over the trains except the few students who waited to cast their Patroni. There were a couple of upper years who were capable of it but the remaining 10 or students were all members of the DA. Other members of the DA who were incaple of it quickly barricaded themselves and shut their doors with a strong colloportus.

Meanwhile, the chill spread further and the dementors managed to enter the train.Darius could hear some light screams down the train and had to force himself to concentrate when the dementors finally entered the carriage. There were two of them, one from each direction. The twins fired off powerful twin Patroni, both in the form of shining silver weasels and Darius sent of a swarm of three Patroni by himself. The weasels and the three cats rushed forwards and sent the dementors scurrying in no time. Multiple Patronus was a powerful bit of spell-work and three of them was just inside Darius’ limits. The Patronus continued to charge ahead and rout all the dementors in their way. Darius could see bright silver flashes in the distance as well, clearly visible in the near complete darkness. Those must have been the other DA members casting their own Patronus. He couldn’t have felt any prouder at that moment. With so many people working together, the dementors were forced away in a short while and the train lights finally came on. The train slowly started again and began to move towards Hogsmeade.

It had been a far more harrowing experience than Darius had expected. Casting a Patronus inside the safety of the castle or in his home was completely different than when he was directly facing a dementor. Luckily, he got off the spells while they were still a distance away. It might have proven to be a far more tough task had he delayed even a little bit more.

But Darius had thought that something like this might happen was prepared for it. He ducked back into the compartment and took out a bag full of chocolate bars. He went down the train handing bits of chocolate to all the students who looked a bit peaky, or pale or were shivering and told them to have it. Quite a few thanked him for the timely warning. He passed Remus on the way, probably going to the engine room and Remus looked impressed with him as he nodded to him in passing. Good deed for the day done, he returned his compartment, just as the train was pulling into Hogsmeade.

With a start to the year like that, he didn’t even want to think about what the rest of the year would be like. But one thing was for sure, he may have a lot more students to train after this, especially for the Patronus charm. There was no way today evening’s incident would have no reactions!