Ding Dong Bell. Look Who's in the Well!

[James Blood]

James stood calmly, with his pack, on a barge in the middle of the Black Lake. He faced the viaduct that allowed the Hogwarts Express to pass over the lake to the safety of the castle. James smiled, satisfied with this plan. He needed to make the Ministry stop taking him for granted. Stop taking the werewolves for granted. The humans were obsessed with the marriage law and the command to go procreate.

First of all, James didn't care if they procreated. It had the potential to provide him with more pack members. Secondly, he didn't really understand what the outrage was about. What was the big deal? Go do the deed. Make more of your own kind. It only took a moment or two to do. Just do it and quit carping about it. Seemed a lot of petty griping over something humans did and were 'too sophisticated' to acknowledge they all wanted.

If they couldn't get their heads unstuck, then he would give them a helping hand. This ought to cause a bit of refocusing. They were going to have to acknowledge that werewolves were in more control than the humans had previously believed.

"Aim well now. Just as I taught you," James told them. "The center supports. Take them out."

"Bombarda Maxima!" they fired at the center supports of the viaduct, their collective firepower blowing the supports apart. The viaduct that had stood for hundreds of years broke and part of it sank into the depths of the Black Lake and disappeared, taking railroad track with it.

"They're about to get wet," one of the werewolves laughed, pleased.

"Wait for it," James said calmly. "If they want to live, they'll have to come straight to us. We seem to be the only thing sailing on the lake today. Imagine that."

[Zada Forbes D'Eath]

Zada was sipping what little bit was left in her tea cup, and sitting with a magazine on her lap. She was glancing at it periodically when not talking with her compartment mates.

She glanced out the window of the train as it rounded a curve. She wondered how much longer it would be before they got to the castle. Surely they had to be close now.

She saw a cloud of grey smoke hanging over the Black Lake. Grey smoke? That couldn't be good. Fire? Not likely. Not on a stone viaduct or in a lake. Forest fire? Maybe, but it didn't look like it was the right place. It looked like it was right over the lake, not in the trees. Then she saw it. The viaduct. It simply wasn't there. There was a huge hole where the age old viaduct had been.

There was no time now for the train to stop. In a matter of seconds, they were all going down. The train was going to crash--right straight to the bottom of Black Lake.

"Open the windows! Now!" she told her compartment mates. She opened the door of her cabin and fired her wand--blazing, huge red sparks down the passageway. She didn't want a vacuum being caused where they would not be able to get out of the train.

She used a sonorous next so that the other passengers could hear her. "Quickly! Open your windows and fasten your seat belts!" She tried to brace herself in the passageway, in case someone panicked.

She felt a huge lurching sensation, heard brakes screaming, felt them trying to lock and then going into a slide, The train jerked and cars started to rebel against one another.

She glanced out the window and saw one lonely barge on the river. And on the barge was unquestionably the mammoth form of James Blood and his pack of werewolves.

They'd just been sabotaged.

[Amelia Cooper]

Amelia had been in her study. Unlike some of the other Professor the deputy headmistress had arrived at hogwarts a couple of days before to give her chance to organise a welcome feast with the house elves, carry out any financial administration to allow the new Professors their payment and she'd also been creating the timetables. Trying to form a timetable was always a tricky task, especially when the NEWT students were all doing different subjects and Amelia wanted to have no clashes so that the students wouldn't have to choose between the two subjects. It was this part of her pre-school work she hated the most. None the less Amelia gladly took up the task and had, after three days of week, formulated several timetables for each year group.

The students would soon be arriving at Hogwarts, it was now drawing closer and closer to their arrival time. In about twenty minutes, from her office window, the Professor would see the Hogwarts Express trundle along the viaduct across the Black Lake and come to a halt at Hogsmede Station just outside the castle walls. The first years would sail across the lake whilst the older students would be escorted in Thestral-drawn carriages through the gates and up the path to the Entrance Hall. At least that had been the original plan...

Maybe it was a good thing Amelia was waiting to see the train go past before heading down to the great oak doors to manage the arrival of the students and usher any lingering second years into The Great Hall. Had the witch not been waiting, admiring the beauty of the grounds and the lake, shimmering under the moonlight, would she not have known the exact location of a tremendous 'BOOM' that echoed across the castle grounds and through into Hogsmede.

Amelia froze. Up in smoke, a vision a seer could only have foretold, the Professor watched as the bridge appeared to crumble and cave in on itself. Although it was quite a distance away Amelia could almost see the bricks tumbling like a waterfall into the lake beneath it. The viaduct had held strong for over a thousand years, surely it hadn't just fallen with a great gust of wind, not given how it was enchanted to withstand even the harshest of physical weather. Physical weather. The enchantments didn't stretch to that of magical destruction. Then again who in their right minds would want to blow up the viaduct?

The Professor's mind had gone into a state of autopilot. It was once of those fight of flight moments, would Amelia be one to rise and tackle the situation head on or would she dance around in panic. Naturally, given what Amelia had gone through, given the fact she was a Mother the fight instinct had kicked in. Maybe when she was a student herself Amelia wouldn't have known exactly what to do but the weight of the entire student body rested on her shoulders. She didn't want to be the one to inform the parents their children had drowned on the way to what should have been a safe trainride to school.

Hallie. Toby. Robert. Their faces flashed as though on a filmreel in the charms Professor's mind. Amelia didn't need to think any deeper than that, the mere imagine of them as a family, whole again was enough to provide her the happiness required to conjure a patronus: 'Expecto Patronum!'

Another wave of her wand and three patronuses, taking the form of swans, fled through her office window. The first was headed to the Hogwarts Express to inform the staff of the catastrophe that would soon be awaiting them. The second to the ministry and the third to The Three Broomsticks. Chances are there were a few locals sitting down for a friendly beer, hopefully they'd spread the word, alert the village. Amelia would need as many people to help her as possible and who else was better than a group of villagers on hand at the scene. What they would be able to do Amelia wasn't sure but some help would be better than no help!

Waving her wand once more Amelia cast the summoning charm, however didn't dawdle in her office waiting for the broomstick she'd summoned to arrive. Instead she ran full pelt from her office, down a flight of stairs and began to make her way through the castle to the kitchens.

'Stop what you're doing!' Amelia gasped, the broomstick now in her left hand whilst her right clutched the stitch in her diaphragm.

The elves who'd been slicing the final batch of carrots and were now beginning to mix flour and sugar ready for the desserts stopped. The atmosphere was momentarily silent, an ominous draft rustled passed Amelia through the portrait hole behind her.

'The viaduct's collapsed, the Hogwarts Express will be coming across-' Her eyes widened in horror as her watch now told her that there was only ten minutes until it's arrival, '-It'll be here within the next ten minutes. I need you to all get in a few boats, sail across the lake. The driver should be able to stop the train in time but even then they'll be on top of the viaduct over the Black Lake. They'll need the boats to sail to safety and whilst you're there you may be able to help reconstruct the bridge.'

Crack. Amelia was now alone in the kitchens as the house elves had apparated to the boathouse. Perhaps pure bloods often overlooked elvish magic, didn't give them the respect that they deserved but they were rather marvelous creatures. House elves had magic of their own, weren't restricted by anti-apparation charms and didn't need a wand to produce magic.

Nine minutes left.

Amelia burst through the front doors, mounted her broomstick and began to fly across the sweeping lawns towards the lake. She stopped midair. The train had arrived earlier than expected. Amelia could only watch in horror as she saw the great red express engine approaching the edge of it's track where... Where a lone barge of familiar looking werewolves were admiring their work of destruction.

Leaning forwards on her broomstick Amelia zoomed across the lake, flying over the heads of the house elves in the school boats and approaching the disaster.

[Zada Forbes D'Eath]

Zada was hoping beyond hope that the students had heard her. There was no more time. The train was going down. She felt the train starting to fall. Some of the students started to scream.

"Breathe! Deep breath!" she shouted as loud as she could. She braced hard for impact.

The train plunged into the deep, black water, tons of metal scraping, bending, screaming, angry against being made to do something counter to its design. It was deafening.

Roaring, angry, violent black water began to immediately fill up the car Zada was in. They still hadn't hit bottom. They were still falling. To Zada, it felt like time had stopped. It felt like it was taking forever. Hit, already! she thought.

BANG! The first blast of the engine and the front cars hitting the bottom came. Zada felt like it was going to burst her eardrums. The pain in her skull was searing. For a moment she heard nothing. Nothing at all. She felt car, after car hitting the bottom, and then she was jolted hard, thrown into the wall of the passageway and then up onto the ceiling, as the car rocked back and forth and settled on its side. She finally landed again against the wall of the passageway, narrowly missing being thrown through a glass window in a compartment door.

Get out, she thought. She heard Lorcan's voice in her head. Reach for it. The students. In another time, she'd have left them on their own. This wasn't what Lorcan had assigned her to do. No. Her orders now would be to save as many of them as possible. Damnit.

[Belladonna Nott]

So the far the journey had been rather enjoyable, more enjoyable than Cynthia had thought. Of course she would have liked to have practised some magic but the arrival of the Professor - who appeared to be the new potions teacher - and a fellow first year had prevented that from happening. Cynthia could have attempted her hand at a few basic charms but the idea of failing to produce it's desired effects didn't bode well with her. Instead the first year had asked the Professor several questions, talked a little about how she was most excited to study potions and re-read the most of one thousand magical herbs and fungi.

The light outside of their compartment window had began to fade suggesting that they would soon be arriving at the castle. The suspense was gradually killing Cynthia. It wasn't that she was excited to see the castle, be amazed at it's wonderful grounds and twisting turrets. Instead she was more excited about the prospect she'd get to learn magic within the next few hours. Of course there would be a sorting ceremony but after that Cynthia was hoping to catch a prefect and ask them to teach her a thing or two to give her a head start above the other students. In spite of her excitement the girl tried to channel her attention into memorising what dittany was and it's uses in potions, not that this was successful thanks to the sudden cries from the Professor in her compartment.

Not really paying too much attention as Cynthia was in a slight state of shock the first year watched as another girl hopped onto the seat and pushed open the widow from the top. What was so important about having the windows open? There was no horrific stench to get rid of? To Cynthia there appeared to be no threat at all, however the wide eyed, jaw-dropped express on the student who'd just opened the window said otherwise.

Turning around and pressing her face to the glass Cynthia soon watched in horror as the Hogwarts Express began to screech along the tracks as it neared a break in the viaduct. They were going to roll right off the edge into this big body of water!

Horror had struck within Cynthia. She was too young to drown, she hadn't had the chance to prove her worth, hadn't had the opportunity to display how marvelous a witch that she was. Cynthia hadn't yet followed and surpassed her Mother's healing skills and this was her ending? A freak train accident?

'No!' She screamed, not really to anybody as she continued to watch as the Express neared the edge. 'I-I-I have to get out!' She screamed, not paying any attention to the notice that they were supposed to be putting on their seat belts.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! One thousand magical herbs and fungi clearly wasn't as strong as she'd hoped. Breaking through the window and jumping onto the viaduct before the fall didn't appear to be an easy escape option. She was going to die...

'BREAK THE WINDOW!' She screamed at the Professor, although it was too late, Cynthia felt an unfriendly lurch in her stomach. Now she really was going to die.

Cynthia's body crashed against the wall of the compartment as the train now verticle rocketed over the edge. The cold rush of icy water hit her skin and it was only in the nick of time that Cynthia managed to hold her breath, not that that would help much. She couldn't swim, never had a lesson in her life and here she was at the bottom of the Black Lake. Now she was really really going to die...

[Lucien Holt]

It had been years since Keiran Hayes had found reason to board the train to Hogwarts alongside the students. In the past, he would have been in his office, preparing for the school year and for the sorting ceremony and all the rest. It struck him as odd, then, when he glanced out the window and saw that the train would be passing over the black lake. It had never done so in the past, considering the lake was on school grounds. But perhaps things had changed and he had just never looked outside to see it pass by. Fairly incapacitated, though he was, the ex-professor and new counselor was eager to arrive, if only so he could go meet with his wife and their kids. He hadn't dared ask her to put off getting them settled or getting herself settled just to come with him on the trip. After all, he had spent the ride with a few of his past students (as much as admitting they were no longer his students made him ache inside), so something good had come from his trip.

The wind had really picked up for a while there, but Keiran was pleased to see that things seemed to be more calm now. Or, they did until a loud explosion like one would see in a Muggle film sounded, rattling the entire train nonetheless Keiran's compartment. His hand shot out, bracing himself with his cane even as he held Katherine to her seat. Kit looked up at him with wide eyes but said nothing, seemingly of the same mindset: Whatever this was, it was terribly unhelpful and undoubtedly going to cause some serious problems.

Standing despite the shaking of the train car, Keiran leaned against the window in an attempt to see what was happening. In the end, he held his hand out towards the door, ordering the students out of the compartment. If the train fell to bits, better that they were closer to the center of the car than at the windows. It wasn't actually going to save them if anything too horrible happened, but it was like with tornados and other natural disasters: the more surrounding you when it hit, the more likely you were to survive. Glancing over, he saw Katherine ushering the other students into the aisles, and it briefly passed through his mind that the girl, as quiet and withdrawn as she seemed, could truly find herself in situations like this. Where she needed to take the lead and be sure of herself.

Keiran didn't have time to consider or question it, though, because as the tracks curved, he could see the front of the engine trying desperately to slow down, but tipping over the edge of the chasm regardless. They were going down, and fast. There were options, though, he mused as he tried to cover everything mentally, as rapidly as he could manage. The lake would be at least a semblance of a barrier. Except the patronus from the Deputy Headmistress was a little too late reaching him. He knew full well what was happening. His eyes darted over the surface of the water, taking only a breath for him to lock his gaze on a collection of what could only be James's pack. It wasn't like Keiran hadn't heard about them. But how the hell had they gotten onto the Hogwarts Grounds? It made no sense.

The students, though, had to get off and away from them. That would be the goal, inevitably, to ensure that they kept the castle safe. Figuring out how to keep the werewolves out would have to come later. There was no choice. Forcing himself from the window, Keiran made his way into the hallway, where most of the students had collected at the back of the train. Apparently, many had figured it out as well. Some looked to him expectantly, and Keiran couldn't help but find himself reliving the fiasco with the Death Eaters. The one with Ana's daughter. The bit with Millie and Alphie. Was he really being set up to fail again?

Swallowing hard, he drew his wand, determined to use the tools of his trade to find a way out. A barge they could land on. A- a slide. He didn't know. Deciding to do anything and everything he could think of, Keiran started with the slide idea, knowing full well it wasn't perfect and was actually fairly ridiculous. But it was like they found in airplanes - it would at least send the students the right direction: away from the werewolves. So he moved into the compartment on the far side from where he had seen the wolves standing, and just prayed that there weren't more waiting on the other end of the lake. His wand came up, directed at the wall of the train, changing the surface to one rather like in the girls' dormitories where it turned slick to keep intruders out. It elongated, directing itself towards the water, hopefully close to the bank. The train may have been moving, but it was the best he could come up with through the pain of his leg and the anxiety from everything else he had witnessed. It would have to do.

He leaned out into the hall once more, shouting to the students. "C'mon! This is our best shot, right now, of not getting driven into the lake."

Immediately, Kit stood, gesturing for the younger students to head out first. At least the elder ones had a few more years of experience, where the first and second years were nearly on their own in this. She was quite right, Keiran found, and he stepped into the compartment to extend a hand to the first student. Another jolt hit the car, and Keiran was terrified to find that he was quite sure it was the first part of the train having crashed. Their time was running out and the train was tilting towards the side where he had transfigured the slide. Soon enough, the whole thing would fall off the track and into the drink.

[Anastasia Nott]

Anastasia & Francesca:

It was manic. The sound of screaming students, screeching brakes and the magnified voice of a booming professor filled the young Gryffindor's ears. Like the others in her compartment she too had jumped to her feet ignoring the Professor's instructions to sit down and fasten her seatbelt. Did that woman, whoever she was, really expect people to do that? Trap themselves as they plummeted into the dark, icy depths of the black lake. Not Anastasia Nott. She may be brave but she wasn't stupid.

Running from her compartment she was greeted by other anxious students panicing. One student had managed to open one of the carriage doors and was debating about jumping out. At the moment they were still on the track, if they were to jump they'd land onto the viaduct. Would they be injured? Yes. Was it scary? Yes. Was this boy going to be the first to jump?

'MOVE!' Anastasia cried, pushing him aside and jumping from the carriage door. Evidently he wasn't the first to go. Neither was Ana.

After harshly hitting the floor of the bridge, her leg suffering a painful laceration from the corners of the wooden track Anastasia looked around, wide-eyed in fright as the remaining carriages rocketed past and over the edge and out of sight.

A girl, a couple of years older whom Anastasia had never spoken to, was clutching her chest attempting to breath fast. A few other girls who had already jumped from other carriages were screaming about breaking their leg on their fall but a deafening splash soon numbed their pain. The atmosphere on the viaduct was eerie. They were lucky, they'd survived but that couldn't necessarily be said for her peers.

The Hufflepuff girl with a ponytail of dark hair was still clutching her chest but besides the shock she appeared uninjured and had managed her jump well, which was rather surprising owing to the lack of muscle on her skeletal frame. Francesca Bloom had been one of the lucky few that hadn't sustained an injury from their jump out of a carriage door. Unfortunately the same couldn't be said for Anastasia.

'Ahh!' The pain of her leg and the sight of the blood brought her back to the stinging reality. Anastasia was safe but injured, her leg was badly cut and blood was oozing onto the gravel that served as a bed for the track.

[Amelia Cooper]

She had been too slow. The boats containing the house elves had managed to reach the viaduct but as the Hogwarts Express was dragged down into the lake the wooden row boats weren't strong enough to withstand the force. The house elves had wisely disapparated in time, they were safe but the same couldn't be said for the boats. Some of them capsized, whilst others were flipped over, some sent rocking wildly on the water and one bow was shattered into strips of wood as a wave caught it side on.

Looking over her should Amelia noticed a group of people at the gates of Hogwarts in the distance. Well, there was no point asking them to come and help if they couldn't get in. Aiming her wand at the gates Amelia lifted the protective enchantment that only allowed students and authorised guests to walk through the gates, then she refocused her attention on the matter at hand.

Students were tumbling out of the train on the viaduct. A familiar fifth year Ravenclaw with a mop of brown hair had escaped down a slide alongside other students whilst the others ... The others had plummeted into the water.

Amelia was no longer focused on James Blood and the threat he posed there were students heading to the bottom of the black lake as she thought out a plan. The students who had slid down the slide would be able to get to a rowboat and hopefully sail their way to the sure - Amelia was relying on the older students to do that. Meanwhile she would have to go into the water herself and personally search and rescue for any unlucky passengers who hadn't escaped the train. As for the villagers and ministry officials, well, at least they would be at the shore ready to conjure up warm blankets for the students who would dock in their row boats.

Waving her wand Amelia cast the bubble head charm and, once the water had stopped rocking dangerously, slide from her broomstick into the icy depths.

It was cold, colder than the Professor had expected. Her toes felt as though they were about to break off from frostbite, her leg muscles stiffening from the sudden shock and her fingers were already turning a delicate shade of purple. Shaking this icy fright off Amelia swam down towards the bottom of the lake.

She could see the carriages that had come to a resting point in the sand but no students appeared to be making an exit from the train. Had they blacked out from the intake of water? Amelia wasn't sure how long a person could survive after drowning but she sure as hell didn't want to find out!

Approaching the carriages Amelia noticed she wasn't alone in her rescue mission. The merpeople that lived in the lake were making their way hurriedly towards the sunken train. She nodded, showing her gratitude before aiming her wand to the side of the first carriage: 'BOMBARDA MAXIMA!'

A silent 'KABOOM' rippled around them and Amelia smiled at her handy work for the side of the carriage had broken exposing many students and a future teacher floating in their carriages. The blast from her spell may have caused some physical injuries but right now that was the least of her worries for she'd made it a lot easier for the merpeople to enter and rescue.

[Khaat Lupin]

Khaat and Robert always immediately got any and all alarms that were sent to the ministry, even though no one expected them to respond. Simultaneously, Brian and Angus also got the calls that were sent to the aurors. Michael got an alert as an Unspeakable.

This wasn't good.

"Stay here," her father told her, standing up.

"No," she said fiercely.

"You can't help!" he told her, grabbing his bottle of polyjuice. There would be two Michael Tremaines, most likely, again.

"Stay with Marcus, no matter what," Brian told her, knowing he wasn't going to stop her.

"Where are you going?" Kate asked.

"Hogsmeade," Angus said.

"No," Robert said. "Its the school."

"Oh, God," Khaat said, feeling panic. The train. The train was running today.

"Go," Robert told them. "Use your portkeys. Let us hope Amelia Cooper still has her wits, whatever this is about." He ported out. One by one they followed. Brian, Michael, Angus, and Marcus with Khaat.

They arrived at the school grounds. The gates stood wide open.

"Go!" Robert ordered. He saw the chaos of people racing all over the grounds. "Where is it?" Robert shouted.

"The lake! The lake!" a student shouted. They ran, as fast as they could go.

"This way," Marcus told Khaat. He took her back out of the gates and they apparated around to the other side of the Black Lake, away from the school.

What Khaat saw horrified her. The viaduct was destroyed. The train was nowhere in sight. There was wood, twisted metal, and rubble in the water. And in the distance, she saw a barge--with James. He was laughing, amused.

"James!" she shouted, outraged.

James looked up at her, delighted she decided to show herself. This might work out better than he had expected.

"They shoulda been werewolves," James shouted back, shrugging carelessly. She understood what he meant. If they'd been werewolves, he was suggesting, they'd have either been safe with him. He didn't believe the beasts needed school.

She jolted forward, intent on apparating to the barge to kill him. Marcus held her fast.

"They've got bigger problems," he told her.

Brian outran the others with him. He reached the shores first. Angus was the next one there, followed by Robert and Michael--or rather the twin Tremaines. They quickly cast bubble head charms and dove into the lake to see if there was anyone who survived.

[Katherine Avery]

One of the Ravenclaws from Keiran's compartment had made it out, diving over the side of the viaduct as they made it off the end of his transfigured escape route. Several of the younger students had made it out as well, leaving the older ones to cast charms on the remaining ones who would be forced to jump if they wanted a chance at making it out. As for the counselor himself, Keiran was growing more and more anxious, trying not to rush the students as they assisted with the charms, but also trying to get them out as fast as possible.

The train was tilting all the more off the side of the dismantled viaduct, and in the end they had no choice but to jump and hope for the best. Bracing his cane against the wall closest to the water, Keiran reached for Kit, his fingers finding purchase on her upper arm. "There's no time," he shouted, the whole world feeling much louder than it naturally should have been. A terrified expression flitted across her face before she took hold of one of the first years and sat them down in front of her on the slide. She pushed the pair of them off and out of the train, sending them careening towards the surface. The sound of the water splitting to let them in was also too loud, making Keiran wince.

But as he turned, Keiran realized his mistake too late. The slide wasn't long enough now that the train was tipping over the side. If the students didn't get out of the way in time-

Of course they couldn't. Because just then, the train leaned too far, the top of the carriage car suddenly becoming the bottom as it flipped, sending Keiran crashing to the ceiling - or, floor, now - even before it hit the water. He had heard rumors that things like this often felt like they were happening in slow motion. But it broke the surface of the water, and suddenly it was like someone had opened a drain at the bottom of the lake. Water was sucked inside and everything around the area where the train hit was pulled towards the center like magnets.

Although Katherine had edged out of the way, the panicking first year was too afraid to move after having caught sight of the werewolves. To add to the list of traumatic things in her life, she had to watch as the girl was drug under, caught by the edge of the train car, obviously unable to find her way back to the top alone. Kit had no chance, though, if she followed. She knew that, even as she backed away. Yes, she was selfish sometimes, but she did know more about what it felt like to lose people now. To lose herself. Tears stung her eyes as she moved, searching for anyone else who had been on the train.

Then it hit her. Professor Mr. Hayes was missing. It wasn't like people could usually apparate on school grounds, so where had he gone? Her movements halted aside from what it took to keep her afloat, staring as the train sank and was swallowed up by the water, wishing desperately that she had made the man come with her.