The Hogwarts Express

The shouting and rumbling had stopped. Whatever it was that had boarded the train had either left, or... Cassie's face scrunched up in revulsion at the thought. She pulled her wand out of her robe, not that she would be a match for anything she encountered. Few things were likely to be scared off by wand sparks.

She was one of the few people in a compartment all on her own. From what she'd been able to determine, there weren't many other people going into her year, probably because of the Death Eaters at Hogwarts. Those who were had been running around the corridors when the train had lurched to a halt, whereas Cassiopeia had been patiently waiting for someone with an ounce of sense to find their way to her compartment.

Silently, the door to her compartment slid open, and Cassie's fears were immediately allayed. Her wand was stowed back in her robe's pocket and she followed the crowd as it drifted towards the dining car, staring at her injured schoolmates as they passed by. Whatever had happened to delay the Express must have been horrifying. That didn't stop Cassie from mentally congratulating herself on being sensible during the emergency, though.

((OOC: I apologize for not waiting for Amelia to answer my char, but I fear I'll be completely lost soon if I don't post xD too much stuff is going on at once! ))

Everything happened too fast. Hidama had barely had time to ask the red head those questions, before her gaze flew back to the demon and the boy. Is he challenging him? For a strange reason, she got the feeling that the boy would not be leaving that unharmed and she wondered why he didn't back off, or try to save himself. Clearly no magic they would cast was going to affect that thing. Another demon entered also around the time that the awful thing happened, but Hidama could only see what was going on with the boy. She saw when the first demon literally went -into- him, and she closed her eyes and swallowed at the agonizing look on the student's face. It wasn't easy to get the Keikan girl disturbed, but this she was not liking the least bit. She might have been feisty and adventurous, and also a bit of an ass to those around her which she thought deserved it, but there were rare occasions in which she liked seeing or thinking about someone die. How she knew this was going to be his last moment was probably just a hunch, but she could have bet her own life that the demon wouldn't leave without executing at least one of them first.

She opened her eyes again, saw that the boy had fallen to the ground, and then with a scream she grabbed her face as the sickening sound of his body exlpoding filled the room. Warm blood was sprayed a little over her, she could smell the blood everywhere, the organs. Slowly she let her hands fall down, and just stared ahead of herself at the bloody mass that had once been a human. Her face was completely white from the paleness, and for a moment she wondered if this was even real. The demon was looking her and the girl next to her over, making her wonder if he had decided it was their turn now. But to her surprise, then he left along with the other demon. Just as simple as that. Left her and the girl in the cabin with that... thing she couldn't even think of as a body. Her hands were shaking as she kept swallowing, not wanting to show just how much this was affecting her. I must stay strong... must stay strong.. The only thing she needed and wanted now, was to find her sister and feel her embrace.

A new girl came walking in, just as Hidama was done standing up with some effort. Her legs were completely numb, and her whole body was still shaking slightly. Turning her head slowly, very slowly towards the new person Hidama blinked once before looking ever so slowly back to the leftovers of the boy. Angelique Pyrites.. A fellow Slytherin had finally come. "I....have no idea who that was... maybe someone from Hufflepuff." She let out a slightly hysterical laughter, clutching her hands in front of herself. "Is this even real? How can someone just.. explode like that?" She shook her head, trying to clear her mind. Momo, her ferret, peeked up from the pocket on her coat. It's small nose flickered slightly as it was sniffing the air, before making a very displeased sound as it hid itself again.

"Have you seen my sister?" Hidama's voice sounded a bit strange, like this wasn't even her talking. Her dark eyes rested again on Angelique, while she waited for the answer. It was just then which she noticed the tall boy that had also entered the cabin. It was another Slytherin, Elijah Krum. It seemed like her brain was too slow at the moment to process anything in a normal speed. A name...? Her eyes went down to the lung the boy was literally playing around with, making her look away and start to feel sick as she remembered again what had happened. Is he for real? Is that guy some sort of a psycho?

Another person, a girl, entered the room. And with no interest nor the ability to really respond, Hidama heard her voice, watched her lips move but didn't really get what she was saying. Clean this stuff? Clean up the boy? She just looked away, trying to think about where to search for her sister. She and Hinode had never been that much for bonding with others, so Hidama didn't expect anyone to really care that much. After the walls and cabin had been cleaned, she walked a little further away from Amelia and leaned against one of the walls while trying to gather her thoughts. She flinched as her bruised back touched the wall, but pain was good. Pain would help her get out of the stupor. Pain would remind herself again of who she was. A small smirk entered her lips as she watched what seemed to be the flirting of the Slytherin boy and that new girl, which she thought was from Hufflepuff. How ridiculous... She closed her eyes and leaned her head slightly back.

Hidama was trying to think of any place where Hinode could be. She knew she wasn't dead, and she suspected she wasn't that badly hurt. But she needed her now, more than anything. "How nice it is to be able to be this relaxed over someone's death. I never could have guessed a death scene would be the place to sparkle some romantic feelings." She drawled those words out, not caring who heard her or didn't hear her. The best defense was being aggressive, and she did not want anyone to know about her shaken state. That was just showing weakness, and no one in the Keikan family tolerated something like that. She scowled at a first year that came to close to her, while noticing that some of the others were staring at the blood that was on her hands and her clothes, the small, red drops in her face.

Jack continued to flit down the train, checking for deaths and helping anyone who was severely injured into more capable hands. She slipped into another compartment full of second year Slytherins, three of which were hovered over another who looked pretty badly injured. She shooed them away and knelt next to the young boy. "Hey, mate. I'm gonna help you up, alright?"

He stared at her wide eyed and reproachfully as she reached out to help him. She gave him an irritated look. Was he frightened because she was older? Or because she was obviously a Gryffindor? (The homemade button sporting 'Gryffie Pride' gave it away.) She noticed his eyes were particularly attached to one part of her face, as were the eyes of the others. She touched it and felt the wetness of the blood that had not been cleaned and shrugged it off.

She pulled him up and he hobbled next to her as she helped him out. A sixth year walked by, leading a bleeding third year. Jack followed them, having reached the front of the train, and began walking along until she reached where Chase, Elijah, and various others were congregated. She told the boy to sit down and wait. For a moment, she was tempted to go back into the thick of injured, but she knew it was best to see where she was needed most.

She turned and caught sight of her reflection. The whole left side of her head was caked in blood. She flinched and raised her wand to her head, siphoning off the dried and wet blood before turning back around. She looked at the chaos that was going and realized... she was meant for this kind of thing. She could handle the responsibility and the leadership. She cleared her throat and said, "Those of you are healing, thank you. Please move into compartments with the injured. I'm going to move the people who are fine to the front, and the injured to the back. We need to get a list of the injured so the healthy can know what happened to their friends. Just names should be fine. Sound like a plan?"

The train suddenly lurched forward and she reached out to steady herself, grabbing a door frame. She shook her head. "We'll be arriving soon, it seems. Thank you for your hard work!" She did not care if she sounded pompous; if it got results, who cared.

She turned and began walking the length of the train, telling people in compartments that they should move as far front as they could if they were okay and help any hurt to the back. To her surprise most people seemed to listen, as she helped herd people this way and that way.

Brienne got up out of her compartment, then walked down the aisle as the train lurched. She felt a leadership opportunity.

"Those not healing and uninjured, help clean up the mess. We don't want anyone getting pieces of glass embedded in them. Healers, keep healing. Those who are wounded, but not seriously, signal to the healers that you're alive and need assistance so they know where you are. If you see any unconscious or otherwise too weak people, signal the healers as well".

She felt pride that she was helping out with the effort. She healed some others in a compartment not too far from where she started barking orders.

Robert Lupin had slipped away from his office in the Ministry as the Head of Law Enforcement and went to the Leaky Cauldron to get a bite of completely unhealthy fish and chips. A rare indulgence, but he did allow it every so often. He hadn't been at the Leaky long enough to even receive his order when Katherine came in. She had a huge freaking snake draped around her shoulders that she appeared to be getting on with quite well. Katherine! She could make friends and talk to nearly any animal alive. She just was gifted that way. The more Robert looked, he recognized the snake. It was Eli's. Nachash. He remembered. Katherine's face was a bit pale and very serious. She bent down and whispered into Robert's ear. His face became blank, as it always did when he was extremely serious. The more serious a situation was, the more blank his expression always became. He looked straight ahead, his mind working at light speed.

And then his eyes came to rest on someone he hadn't even seen in the pub before. Rob. Freaking Rob Dent. Well, Rob did have skills. And he could be useful. And right now, Robert needed another man to help him. He made a portkey quickly from a coin in his pocket, rose from the table and took long, strong, purposeful strides over to Rob. He took the tankard from Rob's hand abruptly and forcefully and slammed it down on the bar. He grabbed Rob by his jacket collar.

"Make yourself useful, Boy," Robert demanded. He apparated away with Rob and apparated them onto the Hogwarts Express. "Go to the engine. See who's engineering this bloody train," he ordered Rob. "If there's no one there, learn how to steer and brake--in a hell of a hurry. Look for anything that does not belong on this train. Do NOT attack it because it will kill you. Just get the hell out of its way. Don't even antagonize it. "

Robert took long powerful strides back the other direction through the train, his wand drawn. "Anyone hurt?" Robert called out, figuring he and Rob might be the only adults alive on the train at all.

Jack heard a deep voice call out and she whipped around, seeing a man standing a ways down the train. She muttered a thank goodness and hurried down the aisle, trying to keep herself from falling inti her bad habits of pushing, shoving, and elbowing. These people were hurt.

She reached him and stood in front of him, nodding at him firmly and saying, "I'm Jack Dyllan." She knew there was little time to waste and a lot to be done, so she continued right on. "The train was attacked by demons. I'm not sure how many, I only saw three but I'd day there were around a half dozen. There was two deaths, I heard. Student and driver. We're working on healing wounded and getting the healthy out of the way. What do you need us to do?"

She would do what was needed to help out her peers and the ministry, even if she did not always agree with them. She knew though that this was a matter of life and death in quite a few ways, and it would be best to just shut up, let the man do his work, and do whatever she could to help.

"Robert Lupin," he introduced himself, eyeing her and scanning the scene around him. "I'm the Head of Law Enforcement with the Ministry. I'm an auror. I'm also a healer. Where are the dead? We want to get the students out of those areas immediately. Are the demons still on the train? If so, where are they? If they are not here, we need to get the students back to their compartments on the train."

Robert saw the abandoned sweets trolley. "Jack, can you get the students back to their compartments? Take some sweets of that trolley and some of the cold drinks and give them something to eat and drink. Not only will it be helpful if any of them have some depleted magical energy levels from being around all that negativity, but it will help to calm them and help them start to settle down a bit. That's what we need to have happen right now. Let me know of anyone who needs a healer. I will get to them in the order of severity. If anyone has life threatening injuries, that's something I need to know right away.

"Do you think you can handle that for me? If you find anyone else who is calm enough to help you, that would be a good thing. Have them report to me directly."

He knew he had given her massive amounts of information, but he recognized her strength of character. he believed she could answer his questions and then help him gather the students back to their compartments.

"Is there anyway I could help?" Brienne said as she stepped toward Mr. Lupin. She'd finished healing a couple compartment full of people, and making sure that the healthy ones would clean up.

"I have people cleaning up the guts and blood and shatters, and others helping me heal the injured, others still are injured and signaling me and other healers for help." Brienne was a leader during desperate times, especially if someone was helping her lead. When that person didn't even know she was helping her lead. She had dirt, blood and other debris on her face, which she hadn't bothered with yet.

"If Patronuses didn't help the demons go away, what did?" Brienne asked. She hoped for an answer.

School hadn’t been something Rob had been looking forward to which was why he’d been hiding out in the Leaky Cauldron for most of the morning. Jen had been finalising a few things and brewing potions while fixing up the Slytherin common room. She’d apparently had half a mind to give Eli his own dorm but Rob had warned her not to play favourites despite openly favouring the boy. If she had her way then she’d have him living with her over the summers, Fauve, snake, cats and all. She completely adored him. But apparently Rob’s teaching duties had come quicker than he’d wanted. Apparently he was needed on the train, Robert as well, although why the Head of Law and Enforcement was in the Leaky Cauldron Rob didn’t know. But Robert had grabbed him by the collar and before Rob could register what the bloody hell was going on he found himself beside the man in the corridor of the Hogwarts Express.

Without muttering a word to Robert, the Animagus began to make his way up to the driver’s cabin where the central hub of the train was. But he wasn’t entirely prepared for what he found when he opened the door. The corpse of the driver was on the floor and Elijah Krum was splayed next to him with some kind of Pygmy Puff on his back, squeaking at him. The kid groaned and looked up, meeting Rob’s gaze. Rob grinned at the Slytherin and squatted down in front of him. “You alright mate?” He asked with a lopsided grin. “You do know that if you don’t get up someone will mistake you for the dead.” He reeked of cigarettes although Rob couldn’t really complain. It was part of Elijah’s signature scent - expensive cologne, sex, cigarettes and Firewhisky. How the kid could smell of all those things at once Rob didn’t know but it was unique to say the least. It was probably his scent that made Jen as besotted with him as she was.