The sound grew fainter and fainter, finally dissipating into the darkness like a wisp of smoke.
Harry felt his body sinking, as if he were falling from a great height into a pool of cold water.
Everything around him was spinning; darkness, cold, and screams mingled together, creating a vortex from which he couldn't discern direction.
" Harry! Harry!"
Someone called his name in his ear, their voice urgent and panicked.
The sound seemed to be coming from underwater, indistinct and vague, as if something was shaking his shoulders.
Harry slowly opened his eyes.
The lights in the carriage swayed above his head, the light so bright that he instinctively squinted.
His glasses were askew to one side, with only one temple hanging from his ear, making everything in his field of vision crooked and distorted.
He was lying on the floor of the private room.
Ron crouched down beside him, gripping his shoulders with both hands, his face looking as if he had just been dragged out of a nightmare.
" Harry? Are you alright? Are you alright?" Ron shook him again, his voice filled with a panic that Harry rarely saw on his face.
Hermione stood behind Ron, her face as pale as if all the color had been drained from her.
Neville stood next to Hermione, his face pale. Ginny stood behind Neville, her expression similar to Hermione's, but instead of backing away, she leaned forward to look at Harry.
The lights in the carriage had been turned back on, and a dim, yellowish light streamed down from the ceiling, illuminating everyone's faces clearly.
The clanging of wheels on the rails resumed, and the train seemed to have started moving forward again.
Harry blinked, feeling a tingling sensation on the back of his head, as if someone had patted him on the back.
He pushed himself up from the floor and sat up, Ron quickly supported his arm.
"Are you alright?" Ron asked again.
"I'm fine..." Harry gasped for breath, his voice a little dry.
He straightened his crooked glasses and looked up at the corner of the private room.
Professor Lupin was standing at the door of the private room, his right hand holding a wand, the tip of which was still faintly glowing, as if he had just cast a spell.
His face was pale, paler than any living person Harry could remember, and there was a deep weariness in his gray eyes.
His gaze swept across Harry's face, as if confirming something, then he breathed a slight sigh of relief.
"Who was screaming just now?" Harry asked.
He glanced at Hermione and Ginny, because it was clearly a woman's voice just now.
Everyone's expression froze for a moment.
"Nobody screamed!" Ron said, somewhat puzzled.
"You suddenly collapsed, as if something had been pulled away, your whole body sliding off the seat and falling to the floor—"
"Then you started convulsing," Hermione continued, her voice much faster than usual, "We thought you—"
She didn't finish her sentence, but Harry knew what she wanted to say.
Harry looked around blankly.
Suddenly, there was a click.
The sound was exceptionally clear in the quiet private room.
Harry turned around and saw that Professor Lupin had walked up to them at some point.
He held a large piece of chocolate in one hand; the wrapper had been torn open, and the surface of the chocolate gleamed with a dark brown, oily sheen under the light.
He broke the chocolate into several pieces and then handed the largest piece to Harry.
"Here," he said, his voice calmer than Harry had expected, like handing out exam papers in a classroom, "Eat it, it will help."
Harry took the chocolate.
He popped the chocolate into his mouth and took a bite. The slight bitterness of the cocoa and the aroma of milk melted on his tongue, and a warm feeling slid from his throat all the way into his stomach, as if someone had lit a small lamp inside his body.
The bone-chilling cold finally began to subside, and sensation slowly returned to my limbs from the outside in.
"What is that thing?" Harry asked.
" Dementor," Lupin replied, handing out the remaining chocolates to the others.
" The Dementor of Azkaban."
Everyone stared at him in astonishment.
" Azkaban?" Ron's voice rose a notch, and he even forgot to put the chocolate in his mouth.
"You mean... those prison guards? How did they get on the train?"
"They're searching the train." Lupin crumpled the empty wrapper into a ball and stuffed it into the pocket of his old robe. " Fudge hired them to search for Sirius Black."
Sirius Black.
When that name was uttered in the private room, the air seemed to freeze for a moment.
Harry's mind flashed back to the newspaper Stan had shown him on the Knight Bus; Black had escaped from Azkaban and was supposedly coming to find him.
Hermione frowned. "But Dementor... aren't they supposed to stay in Azkaban? How can the Ministry of Magic let them leave that island?"
" Fudge thinks it's necessary," Lupin said, his tone devoid of emotion.
"This is the first time in history that prisoners have escaped from Azkaban. The Ministry of Magic needs to use every means at its disposal."
"But they made all the students faint!" Ron's voice still trembled. " Harry just—"
" Dementor have a strong influence on people, especially those..." Lupin's gaze lingered on Harry's face for a moment, before he finished speaking.
"Please forgive me," Lupin straightened up and walked towards the door of the private room, "I need to say a few words to the driver."
As he passed Harry, he paused, glanced down at him, and stopped.
There was something in those grey eyes that Harry couldn't quite put his finger on, like light shining through fog.
The sound of wheels rolling over the rails once again filled the silence.
"Are you really alright, Harry?" Hermione took two steps forward immediately after Lupin left and sat down in the seat next to him, her brown eyes full of worry.
The way you were just now... I've never seen you like that before.
"I don't understand..." Harry wiped the cold sweat from his face and looked down at his hand that had just been clutching the chocolate wrapper.
What exactly happened just now?
"Hmm... that guy... that Dementor..." Ron sat down opposite him, his hands resting on his knees, his fingers still unconsciously rubbing together.
"It stood there looking left and right, I mean it seemed to be looking left and right, I couldn't see its face... and then you..."
He paused, as if searching for the right words.
"You seemed to stiffen, fell off your seat, and started convulsing—"
"Then Professor Lupin stepped over you, walked up to the Dementor, and took out his wand," Hermione continued, speaking much faster than usual.
He said, "None of us hid Sirius Black under our robes. Let's go." But the Dementor didn't move. Lupin whispered something, a silver beam shot from his wand, and the thing turned and slid away...
"Silver light?" Harry asked.
"Yes." Hermione nodded. "It looked like some kind of ball of light, the shape wasn't very clear, but the Dementor left as soon as it appeared."
" Professor Lupin stood there, blocking your way, holding up his wand until the thing was completely out of the box."
Harry leaned back in his seat and stared at the ceiling for a while.
His mind was still buzzing, as if something was swirling inside but he couldn't grasp it.
That scream felt so real, so real that he can still hear it even now with his eyes closed.
Just then, the door to the private room was suddenly pushed open from the outside.
Malfoy, his face showing barely concealed anxiety, stood in the doorway, with Goyle and Crabbe on either side of him, the three of them blocking the entire doorway.