The Hogwarts Express

Niov cackled at Malphas' words fr the effect, though her eyes flashed. She was not quite done, she still had not been entertained. But her leader had spoken, and she would never think of disrupting the chaos they had created by disobeying. She turned back to her prey and bared her teeth.

She held out her hands and a long pillar of stone formed in them. She cracked her neck, sounds like breaking bones emanating from the gruesome gesture. "I leave you with this," she said lowly. And with a touch of irony, she threw the pillar at all of her victims, as it splintered and went for each. She let forth a peal of cackling laughter and slammed her fists together. There was a violent flash of orange and she was gone.

Neqa'el let his hood fall as he walked down to the back of the train two third years ran to block his way "move humans" he said they sent some small jinxes at him which fell off of him like water does to a stone. He waved his hand in there direction they were sent flying away from him a sickening crunch as they hit the wall. He walked to there bodies stepping over them and through the wall as if it no longer existed. He then floated high above the train and the landscape for a few hundred feet around the train turned purple as he disappeared leaving behind a small cloud of smoke.

Malek would have liked to have taken one of the females with him. It might have proven interesting. If he could have gotten her off the train. Stupid humans. When he tried to make off with one years ago, the humans had only banged their heads on the ceilings. Their primitive forms could not pass through matter, Malek had realized, and this had been sorely disappointing. They couldn't even shapeshift. Not most of them anyway.

Oh well, if he had taken one of them, he'd simply have been told he would have to feed it and exercise it and clean up after it. No. That would not be fun. He decided to leave them where they were--at least for now.

His foggy black form lifted out of the car and stretched, glad to be out of small spaces and into the open sky.

The jackal turned on her and Jack's voice caught in her throat as she backed away. Patronuses were supposed to protect, they always brought hope. She tigthened her grip on her wand and pointed it at the jackal. Before she could respond it dissolved and she looked up.

Jack was blinded by a flash of light and suddenly a large brick-like thing hit her. There was another flash of light as Jack fell backwards and hit the ground with a resounding thump. Her eyes went in and out of focus and she saw no more.


Jack groggily blinked. She did not know how much time had passed, but thoughts flooded into her head. She needed to find an adult. Alert the ministry. Check to make sure everyone was okay. Find Chase and Andrew. She felt her entire body go icy and rigid.

Chase. Andrew.

She pushed herself up and scrabbled for her wand. She heard sobbing and cries and crackling fires but she did not care. she turned and ran down the train, stopping at the compartment. "Alohomora!" The door flew open with a bang and she saw a terrified Chase. She was unharmed.

She would worry and gush over her in a moment. "Chase! Where's your owl?" She hurried to her trunk and yanked it down, prying it open and scrambling through its contents. She seized a piece of parchment and a quill, scrawling To who it may concern... Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Injuries/deaths unknown. Send help. -Jack Dyllan. She did not know who to send it to, nor if they would care her name. But she needed to get it sent as soon as possible. She turned to Chase. "Where's the owl?"

Chase spun around when Jack came back in. "What?" She asked blinking slowly as Jack started to rummage through her trunk. She blinked rapidly and then spun around, whistling a few notes and waited for a second. The owl flew back so fast it's feathers were ruffled oddly on it's head. "Sylvia..." She whispered and then turned around, holding her arm out. "She's good for long distances." She said softly.

"What happened out there? What's that smell?" She stared at Jack with curiosity, but the sorrow was gone. The tears were still drying on her face, but she was done. "I'm sorry I didn't help." she whispered and then took a small step forward. "Is everyone okay Jack?" She heard a moan from beyond the door, and her eyes went wide. Going to the door she stared at the destruction. Water, fire, people crying and moaning on the ground. Students were slowly starting to peak their heads out after the initial attack and were starting to come into the hallway.

Chase recognized a scent she wished she had never smelt again. Demons. She fell backwards a step and turned to look at Jack. "The train was attacked." She whispered as though feeling it were final. She hadn't even been able to get up off a seat when the train had been attacked, but she COULD Help the others. "Jack.. are you hurt anywhere?" She asked a new fire in her eyes. She tore out her wand and moved to Jack, looking her over.

Jack shook her head impatiently and rubbed an irritating trickle at her hairline, muttering, "I'm fine, I'm fine. There's people out there who need you more." Chase had said so much more that Jack needed to respond too, and yet she knew that small talk was not a priority. She blinked confusedly a few times, striding over towards the owl and beginning to tie the letter to its leg,. That's when she saw the blood.

She blinked again, blood all over her hand... She reached a hand up and felt blood soaking through her head, on the opposite side of her scars from Vito and Nerezza. She blinked rapidly, her arms shaking as her vision came in and out, distorting oddly. She shook her head, blinking hard and pursing her lips... First things were first. She wiped her head wound on her arm, smearing blood along it and quickly tied it to the owl.

She said to Sylvia, the owl, "The ministry. As high as you can go. Auror or someone, anyone. Fly as fast as you can." She stared into its large eyes and nodded, running a finger down its back encouragingly before letting her hop out the window and into the slipstream of air outside the train.

She turned to Chase, her vision still blotting funkily and she stumbled into a chair. Expecting Chase to begin to fuss she waved her non-bloodied arm and said, "Go, help others. I'm a little...shaken, but I'll be fine in a minute or so. Just....help them." She shook her head and wiped her arm against her jeans, breathing in sharply.

Chase gasped, seeing the blood as it started and immediately rushed to her. Jack was busy with the owl, but the second Jack sat down, she was at it. Waving her wand quickly, muttering a few spells she had read and practiced with, but hadn't really had formal training with. "Shut up Jack, you need help first." She muttered and continued to work, muttering the spells as she ran her wand over the wound. It was deep, and was bloody, and it was hard to get the blood off without dousing Jack's head in water. And water was one thing Chase wanted to avoid at the moment.

"There.." She said softly, and then ran her fingers along the new, much smaller scar. She had tried not to scar to badly, but it had been deep. "Sorry... there's a small scar.." She said gently and looked at Jack. "Thanks for saving me Jack." She said softly, and then turned around and started to grab her trunk. Ripping it open, she pulled out some shirts and pants. Using her wand to start a cut, she ripped them into pieces, finally giving into the need for water, she doused them in cold clear water from her wand, before turning to look at Jack. Putting one on her head, she wiped away the blood, and then put her hand on Jack's forehead. "Stay here for a second, let your blood regain, you'll be alright, you might have a concussion though, so don't fall asleep whatever you do!" She said looking concerned.

"I'm going to go help the others alright?" She looked at Jack and felt a small smile flit across her lips. This was where Chase belonged. On the front lines of anything, healing the wounded, using her own clothes as bandages. Chase seemed to fit right in, knowing what to do, and when she didn't know what to do, would resort to some of the stuff she saw on Muggle television back home. She loved watching medical shows, and even kept her own little book of herbs that were helpful. With pictures she had drawn herself to show what the plant was. Chase was a healer, and she loved what she did. So, without another look at Jack, she was out in the hall, helping kids up, getting them water, and healing or bandaging their wounds from the demons. There were quite a few burns, and other problems, but also a few self inflicted problems, wands backfired, and magic seemed to turn against its owner. But Chase worked hard, going up and down the train helping people as the initial shock started to die down.

Jack grumbled as Chase began to worry and flit about her, but she knew it would be a better use of their time to just let Chase heal her rather than waste ten minutes pushing her away just to get healed in the end. Jack's hand went up to feel the new scar once Chase was through and found that her hair would easily hide it. Total head scars were now up to four, only one of which she had caused and that was when she was eight and had decided cliff diving would be a good idea.

Chase said that she needed to go help the others and Jack said gruffly, "Go." She began to stand but there was reason in Chase's words so she slowly sat back down. Even though she itched to go and help, she knew that she would be of little help if she collapsed or something in the middle of healing someone.

She ran her hands through her hair, one after the other after the other after the other, until her hair resembled a terrible mullet. She sighed and pushed her hair forwards back into its usual mess and sighed, realizing she had torn out small hanks of hair. Ah... That was probably not good.

Finally she could stand it no longer and she stood to her feet, dizziness gripping her, and left the compartment, drawing her wand. She immediately ran into a third year with a rapidly swelling lip and torn face. Jack reached out a hand to stop her and pointed the wand in her face. "It's okay. Can I heal you?" The girl nodded and Jack said "Episkey." For these small wounds, Jack could manage a healing charm or two, but for the major stuff... Chase or someone was better suited. She began down the corridor, popping her head into compartments saying in each, "Anyone hurt or worse needs to find help. Come out. If you are hurt, please speak up..."

The fox that Brienne had cast out had turned and attacked her, but dissolved before it could do anything. She saw something coming toward Luna and her, a large splinter of stone pillar. Luna jumped in front of Brienne, letting the pillar piece hit her instead. She pushed it away from Brienne and let it roll a little. She fell down and her mentor took her up onto the seat.

Brienne healed Luna with a few spells. She took one of the warm blankets that Daniel packed for them and threw it over Luna. She asked the kids in the adjacent compartments if they needed healing. All four did. She took them to her compartment and healed the minor injuries on them. It was taking a little bit out of her, but she needed to do something.

With Jack and Chase sending for help and Brienne healing people, it seemed the task of accounting for the dead had fallen to the Slytherins.

Angelique made her way towards the dining car; it might be big enough to deal with the volume. However, she wasn't prepared for what she saw upon arriving. Blood splattered across the walls was the least disturbing thing. It was the torn pieces of skin and unidentifiable internal organs along with the very organic smell that made her retch.

The figures of Amelia Lyons and one of the Keikan girls (Angelique could never figure out which was which) splayed on the floor were a secondary consideration.

"Do either of you know who that was?" she asked, trying not to imagine how that could ever have been a person.