The Hogwarts Express

Was there really a method to this madness? No, there probably wasn’t actually which was why it was so effective. Was the beginning of the inner monologue directed towards the students or the demons you wonder? Well it wouldn’t have mattered either way because it was an inner monologue for a reason; you weren’t meant to be listening in but it was the demons nonetheless. The Demons seemed to have a guideline or a code if that is what you want to call it and they were following it without fail but there was a large wedge between them and the code, allowing them room to move and to breathe. This fact was becoming more and more obvious as Elijah moved through the throng of people. Not only did the Demons have the upper hand but they weren’t at a disadvantage either. The students were weakened by lack of magical knowledge and strength to put it to use where as the demons...there was nothing, just power.

Then, of course, here was Elijah moving towards the only thing keeping him grounded. Although, his desire to learn about these ...things... was keeping him from jumping head first into battle with them. Elijah knew that at one point, through his ramblings, his grandfather had spoke about knowledge being power and lack of it would mean weakness to those who did not possess it. Once again, he could appreciate the relevance of the statement that had been made so very long ago. The man had gotten a scolding from his wife but by the time she had reprimanded him about saying such things, the words had already sank in. Words were powerful but in this situation incredibly useless, and that didn’t bother Elijah has much as it perhaps should have done.

After shoving a few first years into a compartment and sealing the door, Elijah’s hand went to the handle of the dining car door but he found that it was already open. He held his wand in front of him and stepped inside but regretted it as soon as he did. The walls were pink and the floor and ceiling were the same colour. It was tinged with red, creating a colour that was as grim and as foul as the smell. Elijah was stood behind Angelique and for once he was wishing he hadn’t grown as much as he had. He was tall, incredibly so and that gave him a view he didn’t want to see. He didn’t have to move to see the whole car; he didn’t think he could have even if he wanted to. Someone had died a very painful death. “...shit...” he mumbled forgetting to curb his language although at this point in time it seemed horribly appropriate; at least in his mind anyway. It wasn’t as if he had a preset reaction for something like this.

Awkwardly, Elijah placed one foot in front of the other and found himself approaching a semi-intact...is that a lung? Shuddering as curiosity got the better of him, Elijah squatted down and prodded the organ with his wand. Nothing happened. Well, obviously but what exactly did he expect to happen? He heard the Pygmy Puff scream or squeal and it burrowed itself into the side of his neck, sandwiching itself between the skin and his hair. Elijah placed his wand between his teeth and picked up what was left of the organ. Blood dripped out of the open crevice and he held it up so it could drip out onto the floor. Jen would know whose organ it was. Rob was morbid so he’d probably want it in a jar and the two would dissect what was left or do whatever the hell maddened criminals did with stray organs. He flipped the organ into his palm and squeezed it, allowing some of the juices drip onto his palm. Merlin, he was getting as bad as them. Maybe it was just lack of sleep invoking such an odd response.

“Whoever it was...” He began, taking his wand from between his teeth and tucking it behind his ear, “He died...a very painful yet incredibly interesting death.” And Rob was morbid was he? There was a hypocrite sitting on Elijah’s brain and burrowing itself inside the lobes because he found himself incredibly interested in the death of this person, whoever he or she was. He should have been mourning, not wanting to find out more. This meant that the demons had something else on their side, something that wizards couldn’t combat. But the question was, did they all have this power or was it personal to just one of them? Elijah looked at Amelia...she looked....well it was indescribable and he couldn’t have reassured her or done anything to help at that moment; not while he was fondling a lung or a liver or something. So, he looked back at the organ and watched as the blood continued to drain off of it. “Did it have a name?” He asked idly, referring to the demon. “Or was it not arrogant enough to attach its name to its success?” His eyes tore away from the organ and he looked questioningly at the Keikan twin that was in the room.

Angelique watched Elijah play with what was left of the body. He was probably in shock. For that matter, Angelique was likely in shock, too. She doubted she'd be functioning this well if there wasn't something between herself and reality.

"I didn't mean that," she corrected him. "I meant, the school will probably have to tell people's parents how they died. At least if we knew who this was, it'd be one less name to match to a body when they're trying to identify corpses."

"Which reminds me, we should gather all the dead in one place. I was thinking in here, but now, maybe not. We still need to get to Hogwarts, after all."

"Has anyone checked on the driver?"

Chase had made it to the dining car, and stood silent for a moment, staring at the blood spattered walls and organs still dripping off the ceiling. She somehow found it less frightening to look at then the actual monster. Or even facing Andrew again, no, organs couldn't hurt you, the smell may make you sick, and the blood was gruesome, but it couldn't hurt you, and that was fine with Chase. She strode into the room and glanced around, picking up some scraps of cloth. Her face remained incredibly calm throughout her examination of the room.

"Do we know how many died?" She asked softly, to the room in general. Her voice quiet, but carrying. "Any injured may come to this room." she glanced around again. "After it's cleaned up a bit, the tables can be used to put them on, I'm not an expert healer, but I've studied everything I can about that specific branch of magic, and while I'm taking a course on it this year, I think I know enough to help people as it is. Are there any teachers around?" Chase turned and found the eyes of two Slytherins.

Chase, one who screamed at spiders, flinched at water, and sobbed uncontrollably when someone broke up with her, was level headed and in charge when it came to fixing people up. It was her reality, and she knew that others didn't take it nearly as well as she did. "Does anyone know any spells to get this off the walls? I'm afraid I never studied home magic very well." She said stepping over an organ, which may have been a piece of a stomach from the person. It was gruesome, but she kept repeating the same words over and over in her head. Organs, and blood, don't hurt you. Organs, and blood, don't hurt you.

The organ deflated, making a sound akin to that of helium escaping a balloon. Elijah smirked and let it drop unceremoniously to the floor. It made a squelching sound as it hit the pool of blood lining the floor and he turned held his hand to his face. It smelt like something worse than death which was essentially what it was. He must have been in shock...why else would he have been playing with organs? Well, apart from fuelling his fascination. Bodies and organs and blood, that was all great fun when it wasn’t your own or someone you knew but the realisation that he’d been fondling a previously working organ did creep Elijah out a bit.

“Why do you assume there have been more deaths?” He asked absently, pressing his hand against the wall covered in blood. “The demons might not all have the same...gift. This person clearly combusted and that doesn’t usually happen unless I’ve been missing blood-slicked streets all these years. I must be horribly unobservant.” He didn’t know why he was being so insensitive. If that had been his daughter’s blood on the wall he would have gone completely off of his nut and that would have just been the beginning. There would have been nothing left of the Wizarding World until he had his revenge.

“The driver is probably dead.” He said blandly before turning to the Hufflepuff that walked in, his eyes narrowing. “People are dead, hurt and the first years won’t stop crying. We’re stuck in the middle of the countryside and you’re worrying about whether there are any teachers hanging around on the train that none of them ever board in the first place!? Don’t ask stupid questions you’re putting down the redhead community and we all know that without them the Potters will never reproduce!” He said sharply, being unnecessarily cruel.

Sighing, Elijah dug his hand into the pocket of his jeans and found his cigarettes that were miraculously still intact. He wiped his blood stained hand on one of the legs of his jeans and quickly lit a cigarette. He was in shock, he was stressed and he was getting snippy with females that probably had the brain power to figure out their own stupid questions but didn’t use it. “Try Scourgify and if that doesn’t work, Tergeo.”

Chase started at the boy's words. Her eyes narrowed and she glanced down at the lung by his feet. Her eyes slightly unfocused. He had a reason to be so angry, he was obviously not thinking clearly. She looked back up at him and moved closer so that she was only a few inches from his face. "I don't appreciate your tone, people need help, we have no need to be bickering amongst ourselves at the moment, please, if you're brain has somehow managed to let knowledge into it, I would appreciate it if you would help clean up this mess." She growled and spun away from him. Half walking half slipping towards the door.

"Don't smoke." She growled over her shoulder. "Killing your body and everyone around you, and enough people are dying already." She said, and she knew it was her own reaction towards the smell that made her grouchy. She would have liked nothing better then to spin around, take the cigarette, and put it to her own lips. Inhaling the calming scent, but she had promised herself she'd quit cold turkey. But it was horribly tempting, and she knew that this year would be hard, and she'd probably have to sneak out of the dorm a few times in order to get in a smoke.

She stopped at the far end of the dining hall, before turning back to the Slytherin boy. She felt a small smile cross her lips when she looked at him. "Sorry, I was rude, Chase Moor." She did a small curtsy to him. "Hufflepuff Seventh year." she felt a small smile cross her face, but it turned to a grimace. "And if you have any of those left." She said gesturing towards the cigarette, find me later." she made a face and strode off again, heading towards the drivers compartment to see if he had lived or died.

Just like the girl had obviously been, Elijah had been startled by her words. She’d been almost as cutting as he’d been except he thought he’d been wittier about it. He had managed to make a joke at the expense of the Potters in the same sitting. It wasn’t as if he’d lied. They truly had a thing for redheads. Well, the males did anyway. Elijah didn’t remember Lily complaining once but he wouldn’t dye his hair for anyone unless it was Fauve or a clown. Why the clown he did not know but it seemed a good idea. Elijah watched as she attempted to walk towards the door without slipping over. Intestines would have been a fun thing to trip on at that moment. But she was feisty. He and the Potter family had something in common, they both loved feisty redheads. For Elijah they were fun to antagonise and/or bed but for the Potters in was romance. He wasn’t sure if he was bitter about that or not. He doubted it anyway.

“Sweetheart,” He purred, “I’m a wizard, I’m sure the Healers have some kind of cure. Besides, there’s a lung there I could use if all else failed.” Elijah smirked and took the cigarette from his lips. He blew smoke rings up towards the ceiling and looked back at the girl. He smirked again and rolled his arm forward before bending his back in an exaggerated bow. “I apologize as well milady. Elijah Krum. Slytherin, Sixth Year.” He replied, mirroring her words with his own details. When she added the last bit, a sly grin pulled at Elijah’s lips. “I’ve got a trunk-full, love. Wilson’s been known to rid me of my effects upon my entrance to class in the past...it’s better to be prepared. I might just have to oblige you.” He winked at her and watched her leave with a look of interest on his face. Merlin was supplying the world with Hufflepuff redheads and Elijah wasn’t complaining one bit.

He turned around and flicked his wand around the room, muttering the necessary spells to clean the room up. Once the room was clean he got rid of what was left of the furnishings and refurnished it, adding chairs and sofas for the wounded when they filtered in. He was horrid at Healing spells but household spells he could do. Finally, his nanny’s strict rules on how to bring up a Pureblood were paying off. Thank god she was six feet under otherwise she would have slapped him red raw with her ruler had she seem him today; dishevelled, smoking and wearing a collar around his neck like some kind of animal. To be fair he was but it was a choker that he’d added a bell to as well as a few other bits of metal.

Elijah made his way over to Amelia and knelt down. He positioned the cigarette so the smoke wouldn’t drift her way and he put a hand on her shoulder. “Mia?” He murmured quietly, the bell on his choker jingling as it bounced against is adam’s apple. He began to move his thumb in a circular motion against her shoulder, hoping to give her some kind of reassurance. He was about to say something else but the Pygmy Puff emerged from his neck and hopped onto his arm. Once again it morphed but this time into a smaller version of Amelia except...with a hat. Stupid thing Elijah thought. He turned his attention away from the charmed Pygmy Puff and gently squeezed Amelia’s shoulder. “C’mon beautiful...you’ve got to move. You can’t sit there all night.” He released her shoulder and rose back up to his full height. He popped the cigarette back between his lips and conjured a load of blankets. Taking one off of the top of the pile, he opened it out and draped it over Amelia’s shoulders. They needed to get the train moving regardless of whether the driver was dead or not. They couldn’t stay stranded out there. What would they eat? Pumpkin Pasties?!

Chase was gone for quite a while, until she came back, her face pale, her her hair a bit messy, where she had run her hand through it so many times. She glanced around the newly cleaned room and smiled lightly. People were already showing up, hurt and confused about where to go, but her eyes found the Slytherin boy from earlier. Striding across the room, she knew word was being spread that anyone hurt in the attack was to go to the dining cart. She looked up at the incredibly tall Slytherin and reached out without thinking. Taking his cigarette from him, she put it between her lips and drew in a deep calming breath of the nicotine enhanced smoke. Letting out a soft sigh, she gave it back to him.

"Driver's dead.. looks like a demon got him pretty.. bad...." She glanced around the slowly filling room. So many injuries, she wasn't a real healer, but none of them looked to badly, maybe cuts and bruises, with a few major wounds. "Is there anyone that can heal? Come over here!" She called across the room and then glanced back up at Elijah. "Are there any adults on board? Do they seriously put a bunch of kids on board, with only a candy lady and a driver to protect us?" She looked around hopelessly. "It's such an odd thing to do.." She looked a bit hopeless as she waited for healers to join her. The room was starting to smell of blood and pain, if pain had a smell anyway, and it was starting to affect her brain, now that she was waiting and not doing anything.

She had given him back his cigarette, but now she desperately needed her own. "Got another one?" she muttered to the sixth year. "I'm dying here, why the hell did I start anyway?" She muttered darkly. Her mind flashed to Andrew screaming at her, and she put her hands over her ears, a look of pain crossing her face briefly before disappearing and replaced with the same dead look as before. A small weakness, that she knew wouldn't stop happening any time soon. She probably looked like she was insane, but she knew if she didn't cover her head, she would do something a lot worse then that in the future.

People were beginning to filter in now and Elijah was looking over them, supplying a few with blankets and scolding some of the idiot first years that were still crying. He would never make a Healer. It was amazing that he hadn’t hung Fauve upside down for being annoying but she wasn’t annoying. That was one thing that he loved about being her father. She didn’t drive him insane and her conversation actually meant something. She was witty and entertaining. The first years who were at least five years older than herself were naive and stupid it seemed. With a sigh, Elijah draped another blanket around someone shoulders and walked away from the small gaggle of girls that were trying to consol each other. Someone’s pet had died apparently. I wonder how that happened Elijah thought with a grin.

He heard footsteps heading towards the dining car and he looked up to see the feisty redhead enter the room. She approached him with ease and Elijah smirked a little to himself. But that smirked dropped from his face when she took his cigarette from him. He didn’t share cigarettes...ever. He’d sooner punch anyone brave enough to do it yet he wouldn’t for two reasons, the first being that she was a woman and the second that he was fairly amused at the sight. Elijah crossed his arms over his chest and watched the Hufflepuff, a sly smirk returning to his face. She had balls and Elijah admired that. He was possessive about a hell of a lot of things, his daughter, his cigarettes and his wine being the first there with his art being his fourth. Feisty redheads stealing his clothes he’d had before but feisty redheads stealing his cigarettes...now that was a first.

“The train is protected with spells, incantations and other charms.” He explained smoothly, continuing to watch her. So the driver was dead...that was inconvenient. “They don’t expect the train to be boarded. The Dementors in ’93 weren’t exactly expected despite being authorised by the Ministry.” He shrugged non-comittedly and heard the Pygmy Puff squeak in agreement. “That candy lady was ancient anyway...it’s surprising she wasn’t already dead. She’s devoted to the train so maybe she’ll come back as a ghost.” Elijah added with a hopeful tone in his voice.

He looked at the cigarette she’d handed back to him and smiled. “Enjoy that?” He put the cigarette back between his lips and fished the packet out of his jeans. He flipped back and pulled one up for her to take. He then retrieved his lighter from his back pocket and ignited the flame. “When you start down this road, darlin’, after a while it gets harder and harder to turn around. But there are new destinations...better ones.” He murmured silkily.

Chase smirked at him and looked around the room. She felt a stab of annoyance and then sighed. "If you aren't actually hurt, or here with a friend who is hurt, please leave the room and go back to your compartments!" She cried out, her face flushed as the nicotine worked through her system. Once people started to look away, she took the cigarette and took a deep inhale, feeling a calming effect flow through her body. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." She muttered. Her mind flashed to Andrew, and she closed her eyes, her hands tightening into fists.

"Hey... I don't mean to make assumptions, but I'm not into flirting with you, I just want a cigarette, my boyfriend just broke up with me, I'm pretty beat up.." She muttered. "So if I act like I'm flirting.. I'm not." She muttered and waited for people to join her. A few students came over, she sent them to heal up some smaller wounds. She spun and looked at him. She smiled lightly at him and backed against a wall, breathing deeply and taking a deep breath from the cigarette. "what are we doing to do about the driver? We need to get to the school... and soon." she said looking up at Elijah and sighing lightly. "Please tell me you know someone can drive a train.. it shouldn't be hard, I mean, just get it started and go." She said softly.

"Lets heal people." She said finally and put out the cigarette and pushed off from the wall. She moved out across the people, healing simple wounds and giving the remaining bandages to people who she knew she couldn't heal. She only had so much ability, and some of the wounds weren't in that ability. Some of them were really deep, and she had no idea how to handle them.

Nicotine did fun things but it wasn’t as fun as alcohol. Fun wasn’t exactly what Elijah was going for at that moment in time. As Chase had pointed out, they needed to get the train moving. Maybe they could put the first years in the boilers. Elijah figured that the demons had merely braked the train by drifting in amongst the years so they’d just need something to jerk it back into movement. He tapped his cigarette, getting rid of some of the ash and continued to think. He wasn’t a mechanic by any stretch of the imagination but it couldn’t be that hard to program a train that depended on magic to work. That was hardly rocket science. It was magic. Magic was something everyone on the train was gifted in except maybe the first years so it wouldn’t be that hard to get the damn thing up and running.

Chase speaking again broke through Elijah’s thoughts and his eyes drifted to her. He felt a smile tug at the sides of his lips and his mouth curved into a smile. “Flirting would generally be the last thing on a young woman’s mind after her separation from her lover, no?” He asked. “But it’s therapeutic and it irritates the hell out of them.” He chuckled and shook his head. “I have some Firewhisky in my trunk. That’s more therapeutic than cigarettes and flirting. I’ll break that open if you want.” He ran a hand through his hair and frowned a little. “It runs on magic and the guy must only oversee it right?” Eli looked thoughtful and his mind began to drift off again. He was absolutely shattered, his mind was overworked and the nicotine was relaxing him but he knew he needed a little bit more adrenaline yet to keep him moving. Otherwise he was likely to pass out somewhere.

Elijah frowned to himself and flicked the cigarette away, earning a glare from one of the students who quickly stamped it out. Yeah, the last thing they needed was a fire. Elijah ducked out of the dining car and made his way up to the driver’s room. He opened the door and found himself a little bit in over his head. The driver was dead, slumped in the chair and there were a load of buttons, leavers and goodness knows what else on the dashboard. With a growl Elijah pulled the man out of his chair and dropped him on the floor but not before stealing his hat. Elijah put the hat on his head and leaned forward, looking at all of the dials. God, wizards were useless. Did Muggle trains have this much stuff in the front? He was sure it was connected to something else not just the train. This must have been the magical hub for the whole train. “Oh bloody hell...” The Bulgarian groaned, sounding positively British. This isn’t fair He thought sadly.