The Hogwarts Express

Malphas chuckled a deep, loud, echoey laugh, one that boomed through the train, and the area around it. The children were fighting, how cheerful.

Having heard enough he recomposed himself, shrinking to a smaller figure, around the size of one of the children, he liked to see what was going on. "Child," it said in a deep, rumbly voice. The spells Jack had shot at Neqa'el disapearing, not being blocked, not being absorbed, but simply disappearing.

"You mortals, so difficult, so fierce, i remember the last time we surfaced, you fought back then as well, the time before that too, in fact, i think this is the third time we've come back, and yet each time the stories of our conquests are forgotten, over the centuries fact becomes fiction, story becomes legend, which becomes myth, and each time we come back the same thing happens, you fight, we win, check you history, you should find us," it said in perfect English. "I like this language better," he said, "Some of your race's past ones... they've been interesting, this one makes more sense," he said.

"Now, before i decide whether we kill you or not, i think we shall have some fun," he said before grinning a pointy toothed grin, flames issuing from behind them.

Without another word Malphas grew again, this time pushing up through the roof of the carriage, and letting his wings become apparent again, cracks of fire begining to form like cracks in a windscreen all over him, with another roar, this time deafening, and finishing in an incredibly high pitch, it sprung its wings open, looking to the sky and sending a pillar of flame high into the air, before swinging his arms down and crushing one of the carriages compartments, killing all of its remaining occupants, several continuing to scream for help after the final piece came down. Without a word it shot a ball of flame down the corridor, searing hot to incinerate anyone it met.

The creatures could apparently think of no reply to Angelique's question, for it gained her a brief reprieve. Brienne named them demons, and the clue sent 'Lique's mind racing while the battle raged all around her.

Angelique could think of two things that might defeat a demon. Either love, like the spell that had saved Harry Potter's life as an infant, and she doubted anyone here knew how to perform that, or something holy and somehow, she didn't think a cross was going to suffice.

"Jack, Brienne, stop fighting! They can't-"

Angelique's revelation was cut off as one of the demons attempted to incinerate the carriage.

"Protego Totalum!"

When the train lurched to a halt, Elijah was thrown forward. He hit the floor with a smack and his temple connected with the splintered edge of the other bench. His shout was loud but it was nothing that could alert attention. He pushed his hair out of his eyes and looked up to see Nachash slither through the window at a rate which he hadn’t seen her move since...well, since the day they first met. Her hisses didn’t make an ounce of sense when put together but Elijah managed to decode most of it to the point of fact that decomposing ‘demons’ were on the train. Which made Elijah wonder what the freaking hell happened to the driver. He sighed and put his fingers to his head. No blood; not yet anyway. He was alone, unnoticed and forgotten -- the three worst things, in his view, that he could ever be. But if Nachash was right then perhaps it was better to be alone. Well, that’s what the Slytherin in him was saying. Self-preservation, self-preservation. But he was lead-headed. Hiding wasn’t going to work for him. He had responsibilities – responsibilities he would have rather forfeited. The first years wouldn’t be missed if that’s all the ugly brutes wanted. Then again, he’d be cornered if they came in through the compartment door.

With a growl of frustration, anger and fatigue, Elijah jumped up and whipped out his wand. With a quick spell, the glass in the window shattered. The snake hissed again and Elijah picked the long slithery bit of quivering mess up. She was never brave but neither was her master so what a pair they made. He didn’t have a will and he sure as hell didn’t have a lot to lose. Fauve he had to lose but her life he’d already sorted out. If that was the only thing he’d done that was useful in his life, he’d confirmed that Fauve would have a future however distorted it would be. Elijah bundled the snake up and put his wand to her, creating a bubble around her. She hissed again and he muttered a few soothing words to her before pushing her out the window. If anyone back at the castle cared then they’d come and help. Jen would out of pure.... enjoyment? Rob would follow and the two of them would successfully blow up the train. Now, if Elijah could procure some of their wild determination and arrogance then he’d be set but he wasn’t entirely sure where either of those was going to come from. He wasn’t a Gryffindor so he wasn’t stupid but at the same time he was a Slytherin. Which meant, he could do things his way.

Once Nachash was a spec in the distance, Elijah slipped down into his Animagus form. He was lithe in his mother form but it was easier to move as a cat – or as fluffy as Fauve had Christened him. Dispelling all thoughts of his daughter, Elijah brought Alice back up. Her death and his revenge. Perhaps a bit of involuntary rage would do the trick. Maybe that was what Jen used. No, she just liked to play. Well, perhaps he could learn to do the same. He was a feline after all and cats just loved to play. With a grin to himself, Elijah threw all of his body weight at the door of the compartment. He was quick to defend his weight in his mind... It was all muscle of course. The compartment door was down with a crash and the glass in the one opposite smashed as the metal broke through. The cat looked up frowned. They truly were ugly. Elijah wasn’t going to do anything particularly brave but there’s one thing that always did interest him...animals. He slunk down the corridor, keeping to the shadows, and slipped into the compartment the animals were kept in.

They were crying, screaming and doing what animals did when they could tell their familiars were distressed. That was probably how Nachash, the great lummox, broke out – out of fear for him. Elijah took a moment to be proud of his friend before looking out of the gap he’d left between the door and the window pane. He could feel the rage rolling off of the students, the need to beat the decomposing beasts. That anger, that rage, it was as if the demons were...feeding off of it. Instantly, the anger he had drawn up, left his body and he felt his ridged shoulders relax slightly. They were creatures of darkness were they not; it was only rational to feed of negative emotions? Had no one even stopped to think or was it just him doing all the thinking? The latter was most likely seeing as everyone else was busy throwing spells when really all they should have been doing was aiding the decomposition and thinking happy thoughts. Happy thoughts, pixie dust and then we’ll fly... Eli thought with a grin.

It was probably the mind of a cat. Cats were less complicated than humans, they didn’t have to think as much to get things done because they didn’t overanalyse. If the demons were pissed off because no one was offering them body parts every Halloween then they should have just gone and found themselves out some...oh wait, yeah that’s what they were doing. A growl escaped Elijah’s mouth and he lifted a paw to cover it. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts. Birthday cake, muffins, chocolate brownies....Fauve! Maybe that’s what he needed to do. Think of everything that made him happy in his life and just literally run with it. Although, terror was not going to help said happy thoughts. Bloody hell, the Death Eater’s would have been easier to deal with but the Death Eaters were on the side of the school. The irony was unbelievable and because of it they were going to die. Fabulous.

Elijah rose back out of his feline form and the bell on his choker tinkled. He glared at the piece of silver and opened the door a bit more. He was happy, overjoyed, elated and soon he was beginning to feel just that. The only thing he needed now was a dress and the ability to skip. Laughter, love and general positive emotions were man’s greatest ally. That had been proved time and time again, Lily Evans being one of those people that proved that. Elijah opened the door and pointed his wand at the animal’s cages. He was an established Occlumens but Leglimens would be a first. Mumbling the spell and throwing the magic around the room, Elijah planted happy thoughts in the heads of the animals. It was the strangest experience he’d ever had. It was like he was inside a mesh of some sort bouncing around and leaving seeds in the ground. He left their minds of the animals and stumbled back a little. With a flick of his wand, he opened the cage doors. In an instant, animals of all shapes and sized bounded out of the compartment and down the hallways towards where the students and demons were, each with matching grins on their faces. Elijah was in shock, mostly from being knocked around but if this didn’t work and they all died then he’d have to break out one of his sister’s skirts and put on a show. He’d also have a lot of pets to buy. “Happy thoughts,” He mumbled to himself. “Pixie dust and then you’ll fly...”

Brienne looked at Angelique, "I know what just might defeat them. You know how a Patronus is all the positive emotions of a human being? I know it works on Dementors, but it might work in the case of demons as love is one of the positive emotions that is included in them, right? If all the old-enough students on the train could cast one, it may drive them away."

"What's a Patronus?" Luna asked.

"It's something very special".

Malphas grinned again, once again revealing his pointy white teeth and the flames that lurked below, he turned and saw one, a little girl trying to act the hero, as all humans seemed to want to.

Watching as she waved her wand he laughed loudly, yet again in his deep unearthly matter, before looking back to see his fireball continuing down the corridor.

"My Magic isn't like yours, it's a little more... real," he told her, giving her a small hint, he was, in all reality, the most inquisitive Demon, always throwing a bone to the humans to see if they could figure it out and take it. Sometimes, however, he had been known to throw one covered in poison, but that was just part of the fun, would she figure it out? Thank the lord, for her sake, it was slow moving.

Angelique could not have cared less for how real the demon thought its magic was. She was too shocked that its fire ball had shattered her shield.

"Aguamenti," she doused the fire, leaving a smouldering mess but less destruction than the demon had obviously intended, before replying to Brienne's comment.

"I didn't even think of that!"

Angelique crossed to the nearest compartment and wrenched open the door to reveal a group of frightened looking students.

"Can you cast the Patronus?" she asked the oldest of them.

The boy gave her a terrified look and nodded mutely.

"Don't worry, they're not dementors; they're demons. Now get out there and cast it."

She moved on to the next compartment.

Jaquellene "Jack" Dyllan wrote:Jack stepped back as the demon fell to the ground, burning and she raised her arm to shield her eyes from the gruesome sight that was the writhing, burning mess. Suddenly he was standing again, his face even more grossly disfigured and she quickly took up her dueling stance again, trying to face him with as much courage as she could muster.

She hesitated as he reconjoured the birds, bringing them back to life and they began to flutter around his head. Suddenly they transfigured into a single, ugly crow. Suddenly it began to tear to pieces, like a tearing of scraps of paper. Disgust and revulsion flicked between Jack's eyes but she forced herself to smile at him, though she could feel herself beginning to shake. She ran a hand through her hair to calm her tremblings and quickly regained her posture.

"You like to play, then?" Jack said, anger and a challenging attitude sparking in her chest. "Well I've been playing all summer, so this might be a fun little distraction." It was true; near death experiences were not on short supply this summer it had seemed. And the summer was not over yet. "We can play."

She smirked and raised her wand. "Defodio!" She shot the gouging spell at his face, hoping to spill some demon blood and distract him. "Rictumsempra!" She wondered how the tickling charm would affect the creature. She shot it again. "Rictumsempra!"

Neqa'el felt some of his blood fall down his face but by the time it hit the floor his eyes had healed (assuming that what i think the spell does) He then felt something odd. Some sort of feeling he had never experienced. He brushed it off only to feel it yet again he felt the spell fall away from his body a second later. He raised his arm so it was sticking straight out at her. He then opened his hand and sent a jet of fire at her. He was done playing games. Now she would die for inconveniencing him.

Blood spilled from a gash on his face and Jack felt the fleeting swish of victory until the wound healed over. The tickling spell hit him and again she felt as though she had won for the split second that the spell seemed to have an effect on him, until it seemed he had overcome it. A fireball whooshed by her and she pressed herself against the compartment, looking back to see what had caused it.

She turned back to her demon to see a jet of fire coming towards her. She should have expected it, and yet here she was. She turned and rolled out of the way, though her hair momentarily caught on fire. It was extinguished as she rolled and she glared up at the creature, yanking her arm from under her and firing a tripping jinx at him before yelling "Augumenti! Lumos!"

She assumed that these things had a weakness, and since she saw that they liked fire and darkness, she hoped water or light may do something more productive than the spells she had already tried.

Malek saw a young redhaired female come into the car as he uncurled himself from the older female that he had left lifeless on the corridor floor. It had been easier to take the older female's life energies. His yellow eyes focused on the new human--the young one who had either been foolish enough or unfortunate enough to encounter him by herself. Hm. His yellow eyes narrowed slightly as he studied her. At least this race was proving to be a bit more interesting than the last life form they had destroyed. And this female before him? As for this one, she was more spirited. The energies of youth coursed everywhere through her corporeal form. Malek could feel it. It was tangible, palpable, full of the benevolent spark of life--but there was more. Much more. He could feel her fear mixed with courage. Inner conflict. How interesting! She had, as all humans seemed to have, some darkness within, and it struggled with the desire to be filled with nothing but the things that this species found worthy and desireable. Perhaps he would not kill her. Not yet, at least. Perhaps he would see what would happen to her if he consumed from within her merely the emotions that humans considered positive and worthwhile.

He approached her silently and let his formless dark foglike essence become even more formless, large and imposing, enough to fill the space all around her. He surrounded her without curling around her enough to consume her life energies. He didn't want her to die. Not immediately, anyway. His plans for this human depended upon keeping her alive--at least for a few moments. He wanted to see how she responded to him. He wound about her, swirled about her slowly at first, very slowly and threateningly, gradually picking up speed to catch her up in the darkness he wove around her and was working at attempting to force himself into her brain.

He began to pull on her emotions that made her feel good--things humans valued such as hope, love, faith, mercy, grace, joy, happiness, and all the rest of it. He was working to draw them off of her inner spirit, to draw them out of her and leave her without the things she found so necessary to existance. He did not see that positive feelings had any purpose for physical existance. What would a human be like without such fantasy? And as far as Malek was concerned, humans depended on the illusion of goodness and light in order to make their small and brief existence have some sort of purpose. They seemed to need to feel like they were not given life without some divine, superior reasoning. What if he stripped all that away from her? He began to surround the space all around her with pain, depression, anger, malace, shame, guilt, arrogance, greed, hopelessness, helplessness, doubt, terror--things that were, in Malek's mind, more realistic and more the true state of the condition of these small primative beings.

His interest was in seeing how she responded to someone working to draw away the things she had been trained to value, while working to fill her with every ethic and value that humans were typically trained to despise and reject. Would she have the inner strength to resist? And if so, how would she fight nothing more than what probably seemed like smoke to her? And if she did not resist, would she surrender? Or would she self destruct? A blatant rejection of any goodness within and an embracing of the evil that he knew all humans were very capable of would not only be very rewarding for Malek, but it would be a very interesting study in how these lifeforms responded when faced with something that, for them, was promising to be indestructable. It was a useless fight, but they did seem to be a spirited life form who seemed to depend on some sort of sensation of being in control, with a lack of helplessness. Well, he was about to make them experience something different. It promised to be interesting indeed.

Brienne pointed her wand at the two demons near her compartment.

"Oh, now you'll pay" she smirked. She thought of her most positive emotions, the most powerful ones she ever had.

Love. For Daniel and Luna, and the late Silas.

Pride. Earned from accomplishments, and the kind she felt in her friends. Driving away the negative narcissistic kind.

Joy. From each time she had fun, or felt great for something.

Peace. Like that in the household that made her feel great, and allowed her and friends to enjoy the home they held so dear.

She felt these gather at the very pit of her heart, fighting away the negative emotions of fear, sadness, hate or whatever else was there.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

Her wand sent out a swirl of silver that soon formed into a fox. The fully corporeal Patronus swiftly rose to its feet, then rushed to the female demon first.