Going off the Rails Full Chapter Version (Patreon)

You all can still blame Tellemicus Sundance for this and the following prompt:

‘I do have one final idea that does break away from some traditional tropes, but it might be too character heavy for you. To be brief, I'm offering you my 'Hogwarts Express and the New World' concept. The how/why it happens doesn't matter so much as that it does. Basically, what happens is that while enroute to Hogwarts and fully loaded with the students, the train gets transported via wormhole to a different dimension! And the rest of the story is how they struggle to survive on the death world they initially land on long enough to be found and then taken out into the wider world/galaxy.’

But now this is perhaps the finished version of the first chapter of this story.  I WILL NOT GO into it more until Magic of the Force is done. I love the SW universe despite all Disney has done to kill it, but I don’t want to add another fulltime HP fic until FILFy is done, and not another SW crossover until Magic is finished. 

To view just the new stuff, go to the * and you can skip right to it. 

Going Off the Rails (No I could not resist.)

Walden McNair was drunk. This was in no way an unusual state of being for the Chief Executioner of the Ministry of Magic’s Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. Those who did not know the man thought that he got drunk like this to drown away the pain of his office. But that was in no way true.

In point of fact, Walden McNair enjoyed being an Executioner. Walden McNair enjoyed killing things. He wasn’t particularly fussy on what he killed either, hence why, at one point, he had proudly warned the robes of a Death Eater, following his Lord Voldemort in his rebellion against the muggle sympathizers in the Wizarding World.

But that was twelve years in the past. These days, having saved himself by following Lucius Malfoy’s plan to plead the Imperious Curse - and given up most of his family’s fortune to the man in the process - Walden sustained himself with what little killing he could get from his job, and drink. A lot of drink.

Most of the time, Walden frequented the bars in Nocturne Alley, but today he’d decided to head to Tom’s instead for his first drunk of the day. The thought had occurred to him that perhaps, with the first day of Hogwarts coming up and the Aurors spread thin dealing with brats trying out their wands, he could get away with a bit of muggle baiting. The lethal kind that left no witnesses.

owever, it was as if the dark Lord had smiled upon him, because today, what should happen but Harry Potter’s return to the Wizarding World.  

“Well, as I live and breathe, Harry Potter!” Walden stared blearily towards where that half-giant freak Hagrid was standing in front of Harry Potter, warding away the crowd that had been summoned by Tom’s exclamation.

The rest of the crowd were practically fawning over the young boy, but Walden wasn’t. He stared at the boy from under his hood, his hand gripping his wand tightly, the other wishing that it had his axe to hand. He tried to stand up, tried to move, but he was too drunk. He stumbled, slipped back down into his chair, then blearily reached for his drink again, watching as Harry Potter and Hagrid moved to the back of the pub, and from there into Diagon Alley.

Walden was still staring as they disappeared throug the wall, and then called for another drink. Given the current hullabaloo, he had to call for it several times, but eventually, it arrived. Walden knocked it back, nodding up at Tom, before pushing himself to his feet unsteadily.

Walden McNair was not very smart. He was a butcher, a killer, and he let the thinking to other people. Yet even Walden knew that he had very little chance against Hagrid. The half-giant could shrug off most spells beyond the three Unforgiveables, and knew them well enough to dodge or shield with something physical if he couldn’t. Worse, if he attacked Harry Potter and was caught, there was no way even Malfoy would be able to get him free.

If there was one thing other than a killer Walden McNair was, it was very very frightened of Azkaban. Well, that and incredibly drunk at the moment.

Perhaps it was because he was drunk that an idea occurred to him. An idea that made the mass murderer practically giddy. At one point, as a young boy just out of Hogwarts, Walden McNair hadn’t yet gotten the job with the ministry. Instead, he’d worked directly for the Hogwarts Express as a boilerman. The Warty Express, it, it goes through a tunnel, tunnel lined with runes. Appears one place, disappears another, he thought drunkenly. Mess with the runes, what’ll happen.  So, something bad at least. Yes!

Walden McNair was not very smart, but he was smart enough to not splint himself while Apparating drunk. So instead of instantly trying to teleport away, he stumbled out of the leaky cauldron, and called for the Night Bus. This turned out to be a very bad poor thing for both him and the bus conductor, as being drunk on the Night Bus was never a good idea. But by the time it deposited him, along with grumbles and glares for the mess he left behind, Walden was just sober enough to think about his plan further.

Think about his plan, and decide that it was still viable even if he was no longer quite as drunk.

Walden waited in a small magical community near the tunnel in question, waiting until it was deep night. Then, his head now somewhat in pain rather than nicely buzzing despite the fact he’d kept on drinking on and off, Walden made his way into the tunnel.  There, he found, in the light of his wand, the runes he was looking for. Indeed, a vast runic array nearly filled the tunnel from one end to the other.

Walden was not very smart. However, he had been paired with some extremely smart individuals during his time as a Death Eater. “Now, what did Dolohov say about these runes once? Time and place are important, right? And something about each cart in turn having another rune on them? They have to work in tandem or something.”

If Dolohov, Ex-unspeakable and one of Lord Voldemort’s most trusted researchers had been there to hear his former compatriot’s mumbling, he might well have killed him just for the sheer effrontery of it. Dolohov had in fact said quite a lot more than that. The runes that teleported the Hogwarts Express from this old, unused, or so the Muggles thought, railway and then into Scotland was a magnificent, ancient, and very detailed example of the runic arts, which he had studied extensively during his time as an Unspeakable.  The idea of someone defacing it would have made him froth at the mouth.

One which Walden began to mess up by the numbers. Taking his executioners axe, he moved through the tunnel until he spotted a few runes whose shape he remembered Dolohov experimenting with under his Lord’s orders. Why he had been doing so Walden couldn’t remember, but he had been in charge of torturing a few Rune Masters to help in the experiment, and the images they had drawn, when they still had hands, remained in his mind despite the years that had gone past.

He had already destroyed several of the rooms when a thought occurred to him, and he paled. “Wait, Malfoy’s boy is going to go to Hogwarts to isn’t he? Along with a lot of other kids too.” He hissed, shaking his head, fearfully wondering what Malfoy would do to him if he hurt his brat.  “Dammit!”

Then he remembered the other half of what Dolohov had said. “But they need to work in tandem with runes that are on the actual train! So if I destroy some of those too, the people in the carts won’t go anywhere. The wrecked array will only transport or whatever the ones that have them!”

In his minds eye, Walden pictured it: a train, loaded with annoying brats, going into this tunnel, and suddenly a few of the carts are transported elsewhere, where he didn’t care. So long as it was at speed it didn’t really matter did it? They’d crash all the same, which was what he wanted. But it would leave the rest of the train behind. “Destroy the runes on the first seven carts, and the Malfoy boy and the rest aligned with us will be all right so long as they’re in the right carts…”

Walden’s eyes suddenly gleamed as he fully recovered from his momentary fear. “Hell! This way, we can also get rid of all the mudbloods too!”

Now more certain than ever that this idea had been sparked by the Dark Lord reaching out from beyond the grave to use Walden as his tool of vengeance, Walden destroyed two more runes in the array inside the tunnel, and then apparated away, back to the Leaky Cauldron. From there, he made his way out into London proper and to the train station, through the nine and three quarters entryway, where he found the Hogwarts Express waiting.

The next day, Lucius Malfoy was puzzled when he was told by his house elf that Walden McNair wanted to speak to him in the Floo.  They did not, to put it mildly, move in the same social circles, not any longer. Unless the fool needs a loan or help to bail him out of trouble. Kneeling down on the padded pillow set there for this purpose, he sneered at the face that hovered in the green flame. “McNair. What do you want?”

“I thought you might want to tell your boy, stick to the front of the train today,” Walden said, grinning like a death’s head.

Lucius scowled, his eyes narrowing dangerously.  “What?”

“AH, ah… Can’t say more. I’m off to get riotously drunk! Over in France,” Walden chuckled at the look on Lucius’s face, delighting in the confusion there before he pulled back ending the Floo Call.

Lucius stared after the man and wondering if he should go through and demand some answers. But he decided against it. Not only did he not know where Walden was calling from but Walden was a buffoon. Whatever he had planned was probably going to blow up in his face without proper adult supervision.

However, perhaps I will tell Draco to gather as many of his friends as he can at the front of the train. And perhaps we will arrive a little ahead of time in order to make that is possible. Better safe than sorry, after all.

Later, after the dust had settled, Lucius quickly realized that he had not in point of fact been nearly safe enough.

OOO(*)OOO

Quickly shifting away from the entryway as more of the… well, the incredibly loud Weasley family came through after him, Harry looked around at the magical train station. It didn’t look all that different at first glance from the ‘muggle’ train station area that he’d just left. If anything, the train ahead of him looked older than the ones that he had seen advertisements for while walking around the ‘muggle’ train station before.

On the other hand, the people were very much not normal as his so-called relatives would use the term. Everyone he saw were trucks dressed in various kinds of robes, ranging from simple maroon robes to old Victorian era suits in the case of a few of the men and everything in between. Harry could also see several other people with owls in cages, a few with cats on their shoulders, and could hear a boy complain about losing a toad.  Definitely not normal, Harry thought, gazing all around him in wonder even as he shifted sideways away from the Weasleys and the entryway they were clogging up.

The oddest-looking person on the platform grabbed Harry’s attention a moment later. He wore, well, to Harry, it looked as if someone had decided to dress up as Indiana Jones for Halloween, and then stopped halfway and changed his mind to going as a generic wizard. He had the pants and the belt of Indiana Jones, complete with multiple pouches, but wore cut-off robe above that, the edges very obviously frayed at the bottom.  The blonde-haired man wore a pair of monocles, not glasses, but rather two monocles, that looked overlarge on his face, and was looking around in an interest, tapping the leftmost monocle occasionally with his wand.

At the sight of the wand and the monocle changing color, Harry could not help the small smile that crossed his face. If I ever tried to bring Vernon or Petunia here, their heads would explode from sheer disgust at the freakishness. Actually, that is kind of a fun image come to think of it.

Still smiling just a little bit of that, Harry shifted further away from the Weasleys as the twins began a long argument with their mother, who was also trying to hold a conversation with her daughter, who apparently wasn’t of age yet to join Harry and Ron at Hogwarts but had been begging to do so. Ron was just standing there listening with a grin, but Harry wanted to continue to look around a little bit.

As he did, Harry realized that the man who looked like a Wizarding World version of Indiana Jones had turned to the Weasleys. As he did, Harry was able to see past him, and saw a small girl who had been standing close to him. The blonde hair and closeness alone was enough to make Harry think that the two of them were father and daughter, but she was also dressed in a similar manner.

She had khakis on and an open Wizarding World type robe although it wasn’t cut off at the belt, and instead just went over the rest of her outfit. Instead of a belt buckle, she had looped suspenders affixed with different pins and small, glowing… well, Harry wasn’t certain what they were, but they looked like the kind of small clay things that kids made in art class to take home. Only instead of being put in the kitchen somewhere, these were small enough to have been pinned to her suspenders. Unlike the man’s hair which was short and stuck out every which way, the young girl had long, messy looking blonde hair, framing a thin face dominated by wide inquisitive eyes that seemed to be looking everywhere but directly at the people around them.

Harry recognized that look. It was the same one he occasionally saw on his own face in windows when around other people.  It was the look of someone who didn’t fit in, who was waiting for the next taunt or jeer to arrive.

“Molly, how are you doing? Thank you for the food you sent to the Rookery two days ago,” the man said, cutting into the Weasley argument with the ease of long practice, or perhaps simply a lack of care. “I’m always happy to have a home-cooked meal, even if it was cooked in someone else’s home, considering how horrible I am at that particular artform.”

Molly turned to the man, and the twins took the opportunity to bolt, both of them easily carrying their trunks on their shoulders in a show of strength that had Harry blinking, while Ron looked as if he would’ve done the same, if not for Molly’s hands on her shoulder. “Ah, Xeno. You’re always willing to share the bounty of your garden with me, the least I can do is share the food I make of it with you.”

The two parents began a back-and-forth on that point, while Ron looked over at the girl, scowling a little. She ignored him and was now staring in Harry’s direction.

This made Harry a little uncomfortable, and one hand rose to make certain his hair was still covering his scar. Harry was still getting used to people who didn’t look at him with automatic disdain, although this look also didn’t seem to be the same kind of blind worshipful look that he had gotten from a lot of the wizards and witches he’d interacted with since entering the Wizarding World.

“Er… Hello.” He said, more because the look she was giving him was making him feel awkward than anything else.

“Hello, beautiful bird,” the girl said, instantly making Harry relax a little as she seemed more interested in Hedwig than him. “You’re going to be something amazing. I can already feel it.”

Hedwig precked at that, puffing herself up in such a way as if to say ‘of course, such should be obvious!’ and the girl laughed, a sound that caused Harry’s smile to turn into a real one. “Um, her name’s Hedwig. I thought of naming her after a queen or goddess, but I kind of felt that was a little too arrogant sounding, and the one time I tried, she didn’t like the sound of being called Athena.”

“While the ancient witch Athena did like to use owls as her eyes and ears, I rather think that all of them would not have liked to be called her name,” the girl said, turning to him, cocking her head to one side. “And hello to you too, hidden one. It’s nice to know that notoriety won’t go to your head.”

Having already made certain his scar was covered, Harry wondered how she had picked up on that. His smile became a little strained, while nearby, Ginny furled her brow does a little. “I’d, um, I’d like to keep it that way, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course. Such things are always your choice, as so many things in life,” the young girl said.

“Luna, are you going to be going to Hogwarts this year? I thought that your father decided you were still a little too young,” Ginny said, pouting a little. “Like my mom did with me.”

“Oh, no, that hasn’t changed at all. We’re here because my father detected a large gathering of Portentous Pollywaddles,” the girl, whose name was apparently Luna, said, looking around them. “It’s well that we did, they’re positively everywhere here!”

Both Ginny and Ron looked a little annoyed for some reason, but Harry simply blinked, staring all around them, then back at the girl. “What are they? I’m guessing you can see them naturally, and your father can see them with those glasses of his?”

Luna smiled brightly, her eyes seeming to track a little more for some reason Harry would have been hard pressed to name. “It’s always nice to meet someone who doesn’t automatically think that if they can’t see something, it isn’t there. Portentous Pollywaddles are little creatures around the size of two fingers pressed together that look as if an elephant has been shrunk and given wings and lion tails. Whenever they appear in large numbers, something momentous and very odd is going to happen soon. We’re here to to see if we can find out why they are, and to help after whatever happens happens.”

Inwardly hoping it had nothing to do with him, Harry smiled. “That sounds nice, that you want to help people, I mean. I don’t suppose you could spell my glasses to see the same things you do, could you?”

At that Luna positively beamed, her smile somehow transforming to be even warmer. Before she could speak though, Ron interjected, reaching over to Harry’s shoulder as he did.  Unused to people touching him, that caused Harry to flinch away reflectively. “Don’t believe her, man. Loony’s always saying that she and her father see stuff like that, but no one else ever does.”

“This whole place is hidden from non-magical lies is in it?” Harry said, scowling a bit at the attempt to touch him and also suddenly wanting to stand up for the girl as her smile disappeared. “If you all can hide from non-magical people, doesn’t that mean that there could be magical creatures who can hide from you?”

Ron blinked at that, and he and Ginny looked at one another, as if the idea never occurred to them before. Luna’s smile came back at the same time. “After all, you’d be very hard-pressed to see air, but if it wasn’t there, you’d certainly know it,” she said, before looking at Harry closely. “I’m Luna Lovegood by the way, hidden one.”

“Hehe, um, nice ot meet you,” Harry said, not saying his own name.  He didn’t want to be mobbed again.  And this time I wouldn’t have Hagrid around to shield me either.

“You believe that,” Luna said thoughtfully, as if she wasn’t used to people being nice to her.  She then went on a little shyly, looking over at Ron. “If you are going to be a friend of Ronald, I suppose you can call me Loony as well if you want.”

“Why, are you a Looney Tunes fan?” Harry asked, blinking. Luna seemed a perfectly nice name to him, and he’d been confused as to why Ron had called her that.

“What?” Now it was Luna’s turn to look confused, as did Ginny.

“Um, it’s a tele cartoon. If you haven’t seen it, it would take too long to explain,” Harry said, before his face firmed as he realized that Luna hadn’t chosen that name for herself. He gave Ron a sideways glance, wondering if he really did want to be friends with him for a second, although the look on Ron’s face, as if he had never realized something was still there, so he decided to set that aside for a second. “I’m not going to call you that, or any other name but Luna. That’s not what friends do.”

At the word friend, Luna’s eyes widened, something that Harry would’ve never thought possible given how wide they had already seemed. “Friend?”

That caused Harry to once more have a feeling as if the two of them were alike in many ways, and he nodded firmly, holding out a hand to her. “Friends.” After all, if I’m going to be living in the Wizarding World, that means I can make friends right? Without anyone scaring them away or the person just pretending to be my friend in order to set me up for something. Both of those had happened more times than he cared to think about thanks to Dudley’s gang and the rumors Petunia spread about him.

Before Luna could reply, Molly clapped her hands loudly. “Boys, get come on now! Some for you both to get on the train! You didn’t need to stand here and wait Ronald, but since you did…”

With that, Molly reached down and pulled Ron into a crushing hug, embarrassing the boy. “MUM!!” he whined.

Cocking her head again to one side, Luna looked at Harry thoughtfully. She then stepped forward, not to shake his hand which Harry had still be holding out to her, but giving Harry a quick hug. Harry flinched at that, his hands held up above him, unsure what to do with them.  It felt nice, but what the heck was he supposed to do now?

“Is your hugger broken? It this not how friends say farewell?” Luna asked sadly. “Ginny and I do that all the time.”

Ginny began to giggle at that, while Harry scratched at the side of his head, and then hesitantly patted her back, before taking a step away, forcing Luna to break the hug. “I think that’s just girls, and I’m just well… I…”

Something on Harry’s face seemed to give away his real feelings about being hugged, and Luna shook her head. “That just means you need to be hugged more until your hugger heals itself. Don’t worry, I can help with that.”

Blinking, Harry decided to set that to one side, and gestured to the train as Xeno waved his wand over the boys’ trunks, causing them to float into the air. “I, um, I’ll send Hedwig to you with a letter, so we can talk more. Er, I’m certain she’ll be able to find you. I’m sorry you’re not coming with us to Hogwarts, having another friend there would be great!”

That brought Luna’s beaming smile back, while Ginny was back to looking at Harry thoughtfully. However, the trains engine hooted then, and Harry and Ron, grabbing their floating trunks, raced towards it.

Behind them, Luna watched them go, then glanced to one side, where Ginny had begun to question her mother on something. Her father had already turned away looking around the place, his enchanted monocle tracking things that only he and she could say. “Daddy, I’m just going to go and do what I can to help once whatever portentous matter occurs.”

“All right dear, I will see you back in the rookery,” Xeno said somewhat absentmindedly. Or rather, wholly absent-mindedly. Even as young as she was, Luna had realized how her father treated her was quite different in how other parents treated their own young children. He was never quite there in the same way as other parents were. He attempted to care, but it was haphazard at best, his mind always filled with the things the two of them could sense beyond the norm.

Right now, that worked to Luna’s advantage, as it occasionally did. Because she had noticed something that her father might not have. Whatever portentous event was going to occur was centered around the train, not the train station. And if I have a friend, I should put myself in a position to help him, right?

With that, Luna moved away from her father and down towards the end of the train.

No one noticed her go. In point of fact, most adults and even most children went out of their way to not notice Loony Luna.  

Soon, Luna was at the far end of the train station, and hopped aboard easily, as if she was just another student. There, she fiddled with the back entrance to the last carriage, the caboose she had heard it called. A silly word, I rather like it, like butts.  Butts is a fun word, much better than rear, although rump is also funny at times.

The door there was locked, but that was easy enough to deal with. Luna had long since learned the unlocking charm. It helped her get back in the house occasionally when her father had forgotten to unlock it for her when she was out and about. Similarly, she’d had her wand since she was eight, or rather, her mother’s wand, which she kept at the small of her back.

Her father had given it to her to help around the house, and it worked extremely well for Luna, something that Luna always put down to her mother’s love for her, rather than any actually compatibility.  “Alohomora,” she whispered.

The spell unlatched the door, and she entered quickly, closing it behind her.

Luna found herself in a small storage area of some kind, and hastily touched one of her pins, which began to glow a little more, lighting up the area. Looking around, Luna saw most of the area was covered by trunks, each of them piled up on one another.  Evidently, a lot of trunks instead of being stored above the heads of the passengers, were put back here. Only a small area near the caboose’s roof held anything else, a small shelf there being filled with tins of various snacks.

At this point, Luna debated, wondering if she should just pass herself off as another student, before deciding that she was altogether too small for that to work. Unlike Ginny, who looked a little older than she really was, Luna looked a little younger, just like Harry Potter had.  So odd that he would rather hide himself than make his name known, and that he looked so different from the images Ginny used to pine over in the books. 

Shaking her head, Luna decided to simply find a spot among the trunks, and hunker down, waiting for whatever event was going to occur. 

OOOOOOO

Having retrieved her cage from the storage area above them, Harry looked down at Hedwig as Ron went on about how the bushy haired girl who had been asking about Neville’s toad had been mental for some reason. Harry didn’t think she had been, although he hadn’t really liked how bossy she had seemed either. I got more than enough of that from the Dursley’s thanks he thought, reaching into Hedwig’s cage and stroking her head. 

The magnificent snowy owl, the first gift that Harry had ever been given, precked, her plumage fluffing up in seeming annoyance. But Hedwig then nipped his fingers slightly, before shaking her head and raising her wings to bang against the sides of her cage.

Harry understood.  “Yeah, I wouldn’t want to be in a cage either, girl. Ron, when did you see I could let Hedwig out of her cage to fly ahead of us?”

“OH, er…” Ron seemed to have been thrown off by the sudden question, turning from where he had been glaring at the door before shaking his head.  “Oh, um, I think it’s after we passed through this tunnel.” He opened the window and stuck his head out.  “I can see us coming up on it now.”

With a smile, Harry turned back to Hedwig. “I’ll let you out of your cage when we’re through the tunnel girl, then you can fly ahead if you want. Okay?” His owl hooted at that comment bumped her head against his fingers, and then closed her eyes as if waiting.

Harry smiled at that, then leaned back, thinking about what questions to ask Ron about the Wizarding World as Ron began to mumble about getting out some kind of game. He had done so, and had then begun to describe the game before the shadow of the tunnel hit their car, and then pain was all Harry knew.

Pain.

Pain.

Agony! Harry’s head seemed to throb, to explode. So much so that Harry screamed despite knowing from long experience with the Dursley’s that the louder he cried out, the more punishment he earned.   

Harry had no idea where the pain was coming from other than his head, and raised his hands to his forehead. The touch of his hands, and the sensation of his feet leaving the ground came at the same time as everything suddenly began to shift up and down and all around.

Harry’s hands quickly became covered in blood as his forehead scar burst open oozing blackness. Unaware of the world around him, Harry found himself hurled sideways, crashing into the wall, then another wall, as in the distant, there were more cries, more shouts, more screams. Ron crying out in pain in the background was the last sensation Harry felt from the rest of the world as the pain in his mind overrode everything else.

Unknown to Harry, within the curse scar on his forehead there lay a soul shard. A horcrux of the dark Lord Voldemort which acted an anchor to the material world caused by splitting his soul through an act of sheer villainy. In this case, the attempt on Harry’s life.  Whatever was going on had suddenly removed that shard from the original, breaking the connection between them, and thus starting the dissolution of that soul shard.

And what was going on, was madness. The runic array that the Hogwarts Express passed through essentially moved the train from point A to point B by, as high grade mathematicians would put it, folding the paper. As others would put it, shifting the train to a higher plane of existence. However, with the runes to both send them and to set the destination destroyed by a madman with a axe, the train trolleys with the hook rune instanct had been sent somewhere else. Somewhere else in another dimension, in a random location, that judging by the ongoing screaming and the sounds of something slamming into wood and metal, came with its own dangers.

If the shard in Harry’s forehead had been aware, a purposely created horcrux, things might’ve been different in the next few moments as Harry’s soul fought the corruption of the Dark Lord. The sudden snapping of the connection between this soul shard and the others might well have awoken the spirit of Voldemort contained within, to the point where he might have been able to try and take over Harry’s body consciously. And, in such a contest, between a fully grown, fully aware wizard spirit and a young boy blinded by the agony of that spirit’s presence, it would’ve been no contest. A new dark Lord would have arisen in Harry’s body.

But that did not happen. The soul shard was not awake, did not have a fully realized spirit of Voldemort within it for it had been created accidentally. Yes, Voldemort had intended to create a soul shard that night, it was why his soul had been prepared to split. But Voldemort had not intended to make Harry Potter one. That had been caused by the result of his using the Avada Kedavra on Harry after his mother had laid protective enchantments on Harry based on her own life force. The spell had rebounded, killing Voldemort’s physical body, using his own death as the sacrifice needed to create the horcrux that found itself embedded in Harry’s scar.

Now completely cut off from the original spirit and all the other soul shards that Voldemort had created, this shard could not sustain itself. It exploded, causing Harry tremendous agony, and flooding his body with a seventh of the power that Lord Voldemort had gathered to himself through magical rituals, overwhelming his mind and body.

Yet Harry still lived through the experience, where otherwise, he might not have.

Eventually, Harry didn’t know how long, the pain in Harry’s head slowly began to subside and he became aware of distant crying, shrieks of agony elsewhere, and the fact that his arm and shoulder were also in pain. A lot of those sheirks ended, before the pain had fully faded away, and Harry finally pulled his hands away from his forehead.

Harry stared down at them, flinching at the black gunk covered them, the black mixed in with his own blood. He hastily wiped it off on the floor, repulsed and horrified, but then blinked as he realized that that wasn’t the floor. Looking up Harry realized that he had been curled up on the interior wall of the cabin that he and Ron had been in, rather than on the floor between the two benches.

Nearby, Hedwig was precking so loudly it nearly set Harry’s ears to ringing, battering her head against the inside of her cage, her eyes locked on Harry. Fear and worry were in those eyes, a lot of worry, as well as some pain, although it looked as if the cage itself had suffered far more damage than Hedwig. 

“I, I’m all right Hedwig. Just…” Harry shook himself, and slowly pushed himself to his feet,  looking to his other side for a moment as his hand brushed against something, before he yelped in horror, pushing himself away quickly from Ron. He too had been on the interior wall of the train cabin, but unlike Harry, it was very obvious that he wasn’t going to be moving anymore. Living people did not have their neck canted to that kind of angle. 

Harry stared, shivering, then quickly pushed himself to his feet and even further away from the body, moving over to Hedwig to let her out of the cage, trying hard not to stare at the body of the boy who had been so friendly.  Hedwig hooted and flew up to his shoulder, staring at him, then began to use the tips of her wings to wipe away the blood and whatever from his forehead while Harry blinked, suddenly realizing that he didn’t have his glasses. And yet, he could see quite clearly.

“What the bloody hell is going on?” he murmured, shaking himself, trying to look past Hedwig’s worried fussing at his forehead. “I’m okay Hedwig, I’m sore, but the bleeding stopped I think… we need I need to get away from…”

Shivering a little, Harry turned away, trying to figure out how to get out of the upturned cabin. In the news he had seen occasionally about accidents on the road, emergency responders would be on the scene to help quickly, but judging by the shouts he could barely make out in the distance, they haven’t yet reached him. And Harry was not going to just wait there alongside Ron’s dead body. 

He blinked again, gulping. “His brothers! Oh, that, that’s not going to be good.”

Shaking that thought off, Harry turned his gaze upwards. The window directly above where he had been a moment ago was, astonishingly, still intact,. Looking around, Harry decided that he would need to climb up through it. However, when he moved to start to climb up one of the benches to the window, Hedwig smacked him on the back of his head.  “OW… Oh, you don’t think it’s safe out there?”

Hedwig looked at him deadpan, as if to say are you serious? Before pointing at some of the things he was thinking of using as handholds.   Looking at them closely, Harry realized with a start that they weren’t splinters of regular wood stabbed through the bottom of the trolley as he had thought. Rather, they looked almost like spears made of some kind of bone or something.  “Ah… yeah. Okay, Hedwig.  I’ll open the window, you fly out first. But be careful and ready to dodge, okay? I don’t want to lose you.”

Hedwig precked at that, tugging at Harry’s ear lightly before hopping off his shoulder. She waited nearby on one of the spear things until Harry was able to reach and open the window.  At that point she took off like an arrow from a bow, winging herself upwards, exiting the window quickly. 

A second later, a distant voice shouted, “Oy, look at that, ruddy magnificent owl! But---”

“Ron and Harry!” Or rather two voices raised as one interrupted the first one.

Deciding that he wasn’t going to wait longer, Harry moved over and began to climb up. Harry wasn’t very strong for his size, and after a few seconds, he realized something.   This is way easier than it should be. In fact, he felt… good? He was sweating, but not because of the exertion, but because it was so hot in the trolley. His shoulder, side and forehead were still hurting, but for some reason, Harry felt more energetic than he could remember ever feeling. He wanted to move, he wanted to do in a way he never had before.  Weird.

Reaching out to the window and unlatching it so that it opened entirely, was a little more difficult, but by the time he had done that, he felt hands reaching down for him.

Looking up, he quailed a little as those hands belonged to Fred and George Weasley, the two older boys that he had been introduced to briefly who knew how long ago.  “Up you get Harry,” George said, the two boys pulling him up and out of the way, allowing him to stand on what had once been the side of the trolley, before looking down.  “Oh, no…”

Both boys stood there, staring down into the trolley, and Harry felt he had to say something.  “Sorry, I, I don’t know what was, what happened? We were talking and then we hit the tunnel and everything just went wrong! My head there was so much pain and…” He stumbled to a halt, and the two boys along with the others looked over at him.

All of them looked to be in the same age group to Harry or thereabouts.  Certainly, there didn’t seem to be any older students around, something that made Harry wonder where they had gone to.

“It… It’s all right Harry,” Fred said, biting his lip to keep from crying as he turned away for a moment.  “Ron, he’s not the only one. Point of fact, there’re more dead than alive around here. Wherever Morgana’s Hells cursed we are. A lot more would’ve survived if not for whatever beastwas attacking us with those bone spear things.”

At that, Harry glanced around them. The humidity he had been feeling inside the cabin was quickly explained as he found that at least the back third of the train had been somehow transported into a jungle somewhere. A jungle with massive trees growing up all around them, a few of which the train had knocked down its passage, which had been apparently very very quick, and very abrupt.

Looking to one side, he could see where the train had left a kind of groove in the landscape, churning up trees and ground alike. There were also some weird mushroom plants the size of a oak tree, only far thicker.  Many of them looked sickly, but as he watched, a speartip appeared in a small hole around the edge of the mushroom’s head.

A lot of the train was perforated with what looked like the same kind of bone spear thing Harry had seen inside his trolley. There were also bodies. At least tfive he could see from where he was standing.  He gulped, and felt as if he was going to be sick for a moment, but then Hedwig landed on his shoulder, leaning into headbutt him very lightly, crooning in sorrow. Her support allowed him to center himself, pushing away his shock. “What happened?”

“Bloody hell, if The-Boy-Who-Lived can’t tell us, our the rest of us supposed to know?” A sarcastic voice said, bringing Harry’s attention to a boy that looked to his own age who had arrived with the twins. His tone sounded Irish.

“Seamus, that is not fair, and you know it,” That came from the girl who had introduced herself as Hermione. She was sitting nearby on the side of the trolley staring all around them in both wonder and horror, but turned around to address Harry now. She blinked then, pointing to his face. “Oh My, are you all right Harry?”

“I, I’m okay. I don’t know what happened, but my forehead scar, it burst or something. I don’t know. The pains going away quickly, though.” Harry thought about explaining how he also felt more energized and genetic, but didn’t. Instead, looking around them thoughtfully, trying to remember everything he knew about jungles.

As the five of them fell silent, elsewhere, voices continued to be raised. An argument was going on, a very big argument. Turning in that direction, Harry frowned, then he began to move towards it along the ‘top’ of the overturned train.  “I don’t think we should be making so much noise in a dangerous place like this.”

Behind him, Hermione scrambled to follow, along with Seamus. After a moment, Fred and George left where they been staring down at the body of their brother, following after the younger kids.  If they were crying, harry very carefully didn’t look back to notice.

As Harry jumped from that trolley to the next, Hermione, who had some trouble with that move, began to explain.  “None of us seem to know what happened, but suddenly, the last third or so of the train simply well something happened in that tunnel. The older students tell me that nothing like this has ever happened before, but it’s evident that we were teleported somehow someplace where we shouldn’t have been.  Someplace magical.  It’s, its all around us, all of uc can feel it.  It would feel amazing but…”

“We landed so badly it ain’t even funny. Went through plants that acted like these mine things me old man told me about,” the other boy said, before introducing himself formally.  “Er, I’m Seamus, by the way. I... One of the older students was using a kind of cushioning charm to show us some magic, and well everyone in my cabin survived because of that. But a lot of others…” He looked queasy for a second, shaking his head, but Harry didn’t need him to elaborate. Most of the trolley carts furthest away from the trail they’d left behind looked like pincushions.

By that point, they had arrived where a larger group of students were arguing. Or rather, four of them were arguing, a group of older students, all of whom looked to already have been dressed in their Hogwarts approved robes while the rest, all younger students, sat around looking lost, dazed, or angry. Two of the speakers had green and gray ties, while one of the others had a blue and tan one.

The last arguing student had a yellow and black tie.  “And I think we should stay here! Wherever we are, whatever happened definitely made a small splash! Aurors will be here eventually to find us.”

“It’s been more than half an hour, and no help’s arrived, you idiot!” the student with a blue and tan colored tie seemed a little older than the others, far bossier to boot. “I say we get moving! We use some Point Me spells to find civilization, and push through this forest. Much as I don’t like it, Adrian and Marcus have a point.”

Looking at them though, one of the other students seemed older, although he hadn’t said anything as Harry approached.  This older student was also, Harry thought, quite ugly, although why he thought that, he didn’t know.  There was just something about the boy, despite his normal looks, that, that felt ugly to Harry.

“That’s a bad idea,” Harry said. He only realized he’d said that loudly enough to be heard when Hermione and a few of the other students nodded.

All eyes turned to him, and for a moment, Harry quailed, but that same energy that he had been feeling since the pain had stopped in his head came to his rescue, and he moved forward, gesturing all around them. “We don’t know nearly enough about where we are, what’s dangerous and what’s not. I don’t know about any of you, but I’ve never been in a jungle. And well, most of us are first years, right? At least it looks that way to me. Which means most of us don’t have a lot of magic to fall back on.”

Well, unless… uness magic is a lot easier than they make it out to be in those books, Harry thought internally. For some reason, he knew that the feeling that of energy that he had was coming from his magic, as if it was begging him to use it. But Harry didn’t know any spells. He had his wand, having put it in his pocket before trying to climb out of the trolley, but he didn’t know how to use it. He’d read ahead in a few of the books, but transfiguring matches into needles and back-and-forth didn’t seem to be very useful right now, nor did the color change charm or the tying charm.

The boy who felt ugly to Harry sneered at him, glaring at Harry with something malignant but fearful there. “Why would that matter to us?  Bait is always useful, I suppose, but if you can’t keep up, then what good are you even for that?”

“OY!” Roger whirled to the speaker, while Adrian and the other boy, the one with yellow and black on his tie, scowled. “Stuff any of that talk up your arse, Flint. We might not all be ‘Puffs, but we’re not leaving anyone behind!”

“We need to listen to the kid, Roger,” a new voice grumbled, and a girl pushed herself up from where she had been sitting down next two another girl who was laid out, her arm in a sling.  The girl laid out was breathing, but wasn’t moving at all, as if she was unconscious.

 Tier streaks lined the face of the girl who had spoken but she rubbed them roughly, standing up and glaring at the older boys.  She was tall for her age, or at least Harry thought she was. She looked… Kind of pretty, although nowhere near as pretty as a blonde-haired girl nearby that was Harry’s own age. Her skin was the color of caramel, and her black hair fell loosely to her shoulders in ringlets, and she seemed to have a kind of commanding look to her.  “Let’s first put together all we know about jungles and everything else before we do anything.”

Hermione made to speak up, but Marcus whirled, pointing his wand at her.  “When we want your opinion mudblood I’ll ask for it! Be silent and let your betters…”

That was as far as he got before a loud roar was heard from one side of the overturned train. All eyes twitched in that direction, and wands were suddenly in everyone’s hand as they all pointed them in that direction.  Although Harry wasn’t certain what he was going to do with his, and could see the same uncertainty on many of the faces around him. Even so, his magic was blazing, nearly bursting with the need to be used.

The source of the roar came into sight a second later, pushing through a copse of trees that looked a little denser than the others around them. It was a monster out of nightmares. It didn’t look like anything that Harry had ever seen on the TV, or in newspapers or National Geographic magazines in the library the few times he’d been allowed to go there. I’d definitely remember a two-story tall monster of gray skin with arms that are like a gorilla’s only much larger, sharp teeth, lots of eyes, and claws. 

It looked straight at them, then roared again and barreled forward.

Two Harry’s shock, one of the two students who had been trying to take over, the one who hadn’t called Hermione whatever that term had been, turned and leapt off the other side of the upturn train.  “Run for it, idiots!”  He was quickly followed by the other one.

“No!” Harry shouted, although several other students had already done the same thing, hopping off the train on the other side and racing into the woods around them, putting the train and the other students aboard it between them and the monster.  “You’ll get lost, we’ll get separated…!” Harry shouted, knowing that running away without a plan was always a stupid thing to do in the movies.

“Stunners!” The girl who is spoken up earlier ordered. “Stupefy!”

At her shout, several of the students raise their wands, pointing them at the creature.  Luminous red light blasted out from their wands crashing into the creature with no effect.

“Idiots. It’s a monster, don’t go easy on it,” the blonde haired girl snarled, raising her own wand and pointing not directly at the creature, but at the ground in front of it.  “Glacius!”

A spike of ice appeared there, surging up into the creature, but the girl’s self-confidence seemed to die, replaced by a wide-eyed look as the creature took the strike and kept on coming.  Only the jungle itself was slowing the beast down.

Another youngster thrust out his wand.  “PYROS!” From his wand a thin stream of fire flashed out.  But unlike any other animal, this one didn’t seem to care at all about the fire.  It raised a hand, blocking it as it continued forward.

Hermione and Seamus both looked as if they were going to run, while Fred and George began to pepper the creature with other spells as the others kept on trying this stunning spell and the tripping spell, but to little avail.  “Damn it, we’re just entering our third year! We don’t know anything really destructive yet!” One of them shouted.

Staring hard at the creature, Harry racked his brain to think of some way to help, then raced over to the blonde girl.  “That spell, what’s the incantation?”

“Glacius it’s an easy incantation, but it’s wand movements are complicated,” the girl responded, trying to use the spell again, her wand flicking in several directions before pointing again at the ground in front of the monster. “You can control the shape of the ice after you conjure it up.”

“Teach the rest of us,” Harry said, but they were too late. The monster bounded forward with a surprising turn of speed and was within striking distance of the train in an instant, it’s arms lashing out.

Despite that, everyone was able to duck away or leap off the other side of the trolley. All except Hermione, who screamed as one of the claws caught her in the back. It wasn’t a clean strike, but it was enough to knock her off of the trolley to land face first in the ground below facing the creature.

Fred, George, and the girl from before all turned, trying desperately to use other spells on the creature. The twins also began hurling something small at the creature’s mouth with their off hands, trying to get whatever that was inside it’s mouth.

Harry also stopped from where he had been about to jump off the top of the overturned train, gritting his teeth as his magic throbbed inside him, demanding he use it, but he didn’t have any spells!

The next second, Fred, George and the girl were smashed into one another with enough force to toss them off the end of the train to one side. 

His eyes going wide, Harry leaped forward off the train to avoid the backswing by a hairsbreath, the creature’s outer arm barely missing him. He landed next to Hermione, rolling, surprised that he didn’t break his legs when he landed, before coming up, trying to raise his wand, only to stare in horror.

While he hadn’t broken anything in the fall, the fall had certainly broken something. His wand was snapped clean in the middle, so much so that something golden and fiery looking ash had begun to drip out of the broken shaft.  The feather of a phoenix, my wand’s core! 

The beast roared and reached for them both, its mouth open and drooling, but before it could, Hedwig was in its face, screeching and clawing, her talons trying to rake at the creature’s eyeballs. It raised an arm to ward her away, but was way too slow to swat the small creature out of the sky. Yett in turn, Hedwig, despite darting in and out, now using her beak and talons alike, couldn’t do much damage.

Harry stared from his feathered companion down to his wand, desperately wondering what he could do now, pinned here between the monster and the side of the upturned train cart behind him. For a moment, the memory of Ollivander filled his head, ‘the wand chooses the wizard,’ that old man had said. The memory sounded almost condemning, but in that moment, even that voice of adult displeasure could not remain in Harry’s mind for long thanks to the present threat.

 A wand might choose it’s user, but do I really need to choose a wand to do magic? Harry thought desperately. I’ve done stuff before, regrowing my hair, fixing my glasses. Why do I need a wand?

For some reason, he felt the magic within him as well as the magic of this place seemed to approve of that. The ginel on his skin got warmer, and the magic inside Harry began to buzz an electrical charge just waiting to ground itself.

Okay, let’s do this then! With a roar, Harry pushed his hands forward towards the beast as it reached down for him and Hermione. “Get away from us!”

A wide blast of power flashed out from him crashing into the beast, picking it up off the ground and tossing it through the air several yards away. It landed with a crash, but quickly began to push itself to it’s feet, roaring in fury.

Hermione blinked, staring up from where she had been scrambling for her own wand even as her back throbbed. “But, but… What even was that spell?!”

It wasn’t even a spell Harry realized, it was as if the magic inside of me just reacted to my will. Staring at the monster, then down at the ground, Harry closed his eyes for a brief second, imagining what he wanted. I want something that can protect us, something that can fight this monster.

The only image that came to his mind was Hagrid. Hagrid, who had arrived on that little island where his relatives had tried to hide away from the unending messages to Harry. Hagrid, who had told Harry he was magical. Hagrid, who had seemed just too large to be believed, but had been so gentle with Harry, so furious at the Dursleys.  My first friend.

With another thrust of his hands, Harry’s magic reached out to the ground in front of him and Hermione, and from the ground grew a massive version of Hagrid, three times as large as the man himself, towering over the beast who blinked, turning his eyes away from Hedwig to stare. It then bellowed a challenge at this new predator that had suddenly appeared.

Before it could attack, Harry shouted, “Fight that monster!” and his creation obeyed.  Fists the the size of Harry’s own body flashed out, catching the beast in the face, shattering its nose and one of its eyes, sending it stumbling backwards.

The behemoth wasn’t finished though, and bellowed as it charged forwards, but stone Hagrid grabbed onto it, wrestling it in place. 

“Whh… What is that spell? Where did you learn that?” Hermione muttered, shaking her head.

“I didn’t, I’m making it up as I go along,” Harry retorted, before both of them felt something grab onto them, and suddenly they were rising off of the ground flying to the side. Fred and George stood by the end of the train, their wands pointing at the two younger children, while the black skinned girl, her arm looking like it was broken, was holding her wand in her other hand, pointing towards the monster.

Looking back at the monster as he flew through the air, Harry could see a strange yellow thing in the air above the creature. It then dropped down, right into the beast’s open mouth as it made to roared again it stone Hagrid. The monster blinked, then blinked again, and tried to pull away from stone Hagrid, one of his hands going down to his stomach as if it was suddenly feeling sick. This opened it up to a blow that nearly broke its neck, and the next moment, it was on the ground, with stone Hagrid’s weight pressing down on it.

“That’s one of our prototypes, Two Ton Toffee,” Fred said proudly.  “It won’t last long, and it doesn’t really pack much in the way of flavor--”

“And its nearly as impressive as that golem Harry made. Nice work! Where you learn how to do that?” George exclaimed.

Hermione nodded firm agreement to George, but Harry replied in the same manner he had before.  “I’m just making it up as I go along.” Something warned him to turn around, just as the beast on the ground seemed to recover its energy, lashing out with a kick that took the foot of our stone Hagrid out from underneath it. The behemoth then roared, and with monstrous strength, lifted the golem up off of the ground.

Harry’s magic surged within him, still demanding to be used, and Harry obliged. Again he thrust out his hands, and what shot forth from his hand this time was a burst of fire like the one the other student had tried to use.  Only Harry’s was bigger, wider, the fire almost blue with its own heat. It seared across the jungle to slam into the neck of the creature who squealed in agony.

When the tongue of flamed stopped, more than half of its throat was missing, seared away.

The beast stumbled, still alive somehow. One hand went up to its neck, forgetting the weight of stone Hagrid in its grip. A second later, the stone golem crashed down on top of it, burying the beast, shattering itself in the process.

“Cor… Remind me not to get on your bad side,” the girl muttered, grinned at Harry.  “Nice job, though.  I’m Angelina by the way.”

Harry shrugged, looking away, not used to compliments of any kind especially from girls.  “We, we should regroup with the others right? Getting separated is never a good thing in any of the movies I’ve seen.”

Hermione nodded firmly, and Fred and George levitated the pair of them up onto the top of the train again, followed by Angelina, who was still favoring her arm. Then she lifted the twins up as well. They found the blonde-haired girl and a few others including the fire wielder had remained close to the other side of the trolley, something that the blonde spoke about for a moment as she stared at Harry thoughtfully.  “We saw the head of that stone golem and figured we should at least stay and see what happens.”

“Besides… There’sa no sign ofa Adrian, the scaredy ‘puff, Marcus or the others,” the tanned youth muttered.

A heretofore quiet boy, who looked a little meek as well as a little overweight shifted from foot to foot as he stared out into the jungle.  “Erm, a general rule of thumb for plants, magical or otherwise, is that the more colorful they are, the more dangerous. Only here, practically every plant I see looks dangerous. And I think I can see…” The boy paled, pointing ahead of him even as he turned his eyes away. “I think… is that a foot?”

Angelina used some kind of spell that created a small floating light and then directed it into the forest ahead of them. The forest was so thick that even during the day it was hard to see details for more than a few hundred feet away, and not just because of how much foliage was in the way, but how many leaves blocked out the light.

But the younger boy’s words proved accurate. It was indeed a foot, sticking out of a hole in the side of one of the trees.   “Yep. Shite.”

“Language!” Hermione shouted.

The bushy-haired girl blinked as everyone turned to stare at her, before George and Fred, followed by a wincing Angelina, all burst out laughing. It was cathartic that laughter, and Harry found himself joining in.  There might be a tinge of madness to to their laughter, but, it still felt good. Even the blonde girl who had so much self-control it made Harry’s seem next to nothing joined in.

Eventually, the laughter petered out, and Roger put into words what everyone else was thinking.  “Well, what do we do now?”

He frowned thoughtfully, staring from the forest then back to the trolley, thinking about what what he felt they should do, only to blink as he realized that no one else was speaking up. He turned, looking around him, only to find all eyes on him.  “What?”

“What do you think we should do?” Roger asked bluntly.

“Wait, why are you asking me! I’m one of the youngest here. You’re the oldest. You were all for someone taking charge before. If this is something to do with my whole bloody Boy Who Lived nonsense, then…”

“It isn’t and thanka you for pointing out that it isa nonsense, I’ve beena saying that my whole life ever since I heard the fulla story,” the fire user, a boy Harry’s own age said, smirking just a little, his tone and accent strangely foreign sounding before he seemed to concentrate and his accent disappeared.  “No, this has everything to do with the fact that you summoned up a giant golem, and we didn’t even reach Hogwarts for our first year. I’ll hold my hand up to knowing more than I should about antidotes and a few fire spells and I’ll wager Greengrass over their knows more offensive spells to do with cold then she should, but that’s a knut compared to a galleon.”

The blonde nodded equably to that, saying nothing, staring at Harry in a way that made him uncomfortable as the other boy went on.  “No, this has to do with the fact that you somehow did incredibly advanced magic, and we’re going to need some of that going forward.”

Harry blinked, then slowly stared at them all, one after another. Fred and George nodded firmly, and Hermione beamed at him, bouncing on her toes as it eagerly waiting an opportunity to ask him more questions about how he had done what he had. The others all looked more or less resigned to it but listening.

“I’ll own up to the fact that I’m a little advanced when it comes to runes,” Angelina said, shrugging her good shoulders, although she looked a bit embarrassed at needing to rely on Harry, unlike the others, and she looked down at her arm for a moment before her face firmed.  “I’ve been wanting to study runes since the moment I heard learned about them, but I’m pants at Defense against the Dark Arts type spells. You were both a voice of reason, and the one to fight off that monster most effectively. I think that puts you in charge.”

“I…I…” Harry wanted to run, he wanted to fold in on himself, to hide. The very idea of people looking at him like that, looking at him and expecting something, was entirely foreign to the youth who had spent most of his life living in a cupboard under the stairs. He wanted to say that he had just done what anyone could’ve done, that he wasn’t special. But the looks on everyone’s faces told him that they wouldn’t believe him.

After a moment, he slowly nodded straightening his back as Hedwig landed on his shoulder, puffing herself up proudly as if wanting to take some of the accolades for herself.  “Well, okay then. I, I’ve got a few ideas, but after I say them, I want everyone to start pitching in with their own. For now, though, I think we need to at least set up a partial defense of this place.

(*)

“I, in this case, defense means eyes on every direction watching out for more trouble. The…” Harry gulped, shaking his head, looking queasy as he continued, his thoughts on something he’d been trying hard not to think about for a bit. “The bodies, the smell of them, and the damage the train did to the forest will draw in animals, maybe more of those giant creatures.”

“Actually, it isn’t all that likely that we will see more animals like that one,” Hermione interjected, shaking her head. “That was very obviously an alpha predator of some kind.”

“Whata does that meana exactly?” The slightly tanned looking youth asked, one eyebrow rising interrogatively, his accent coming back.

“It means that animal will have had a set hunting territory, into which other alpha-sized predators, predators that are as large as it or eat the same things, will not enter outside of specific conditions. A tiger wouldn’t have any other member of that race inside its territory, much like a pride of lions wouldn’t have another pride of lions nearby. We might run into animals like the equivalent of wolves, small to medium scale pack hunters, though,” Hermione explained crisply.

Even from such a short amount of time around the bushy haired girl, Harry could see that she liked to share her knowledge with other people. At one point he might have thought her bossy, but after today, that thought didn’t seem right.  She was just eager to help, and seemed to like learning.

“So with that predator dead, how fast is word going to spread that this area is now free for another predator of that size to try and claim?” George grumbled. “I don’t think we could deal with another one. Harry dealt with that one well enough, but the rest of us were next to useless against it, even with my and Gred’s Two Ton toffee. We just don’t know enough magic, not without any of the older students around.”

At that, Harry hummed, looking back at the train. George’s words made him realize something that should have been obvious before. “We need resources,” he said, not noticing how his thoughtful tone drew everyone’s eyes to him again. “We might not have older students around, but shouldn’t there be some of their trunks aboard the train? Or were all of them with the older students in the front of the train?”

“The prefects’ trunks!” Angelina shouted, hopping to her feet and staring at the back of the train too, before wincing at the pain in her arm. “AKK, ow, fuck.” 

Hermione swiftly stood up, moving to Angelina. “Here, let me help.” Part of her dress robe, which she had changed into the moment she had gotten o the train, had been torn in the battle against the giant beast, and now she finished the job, tearing a long strip off it’s bottom.  “I know how to make a sling. Does anyone know any medicine, or how to check for broken bones?”

“It’s not broken,” Angelina smirked, shaking her head. “I think I sprained my wrist and badly bruised my elbow.  Nothing major.”

Hermione blinked, but Fred chuckled, the earlier moment of despondency as he remembered that his little brother’s body was among the dead in the train fading for now. “Our Angie’s on the Gryffindor Quidditch team with me and Forge. And quidditch isn’t for the faint of heart—-”

“Especially when playing against slimy Slytherins,” His brother finished.

“What were you saying a moment ago, Johnson?” the blonde girl asked, her tone that of someone getting annoyed quickly at what they thought were unimportant things.

“Oh, right, and it’s Angelina, girl.  Last names and houses don’t matter here.” That caused not only the blonde but the others to blink and frown, but Angelina continued thanking Hermione with a smile as the younger girl finished her sling. “The prefects get their own car on the train, it’s really lavish and has drinks and other things at the front of the train.  But their trunks are stored at the far back in the storage car. Their trunks and those of the head boy and head girl should still be there. They’ll definitely have something we can use.”

“Right!” Fred and George said is one, hopping to their feet. “And there will be at least a few other trunks from older students.”

“Wands, books, potions, trunks, food,” the blonde girl mused, counting points off on her fingers thoughtfully. As she finished, all of their stomachs began to growl, although only Daphne seemed to be embarrassed by it as she held her stomach, trying hard, and failing to look as if she wasn’t flushing a bit. “We, we should all be able to find at least some of that.”

“I seema to recalla that someone said something abouta the snack lady having dieda as well? I’ll volunteer to finda her trolley,” the tanned boy said said. “So long as I can also stopa by and get my trunk. I think it will be a majora help here.”

“You won’t be bothered by the… um, I saw her and it wasn’t pretty,” Angelina worried shaking her head. “She kind of, well she kind of got bounced around, along with her trolley.”

“It will not be the first dead body of seen, indeed, none of these were,” the youth answered dryly, shocking most of his listeners.

The blonde on the other hand snorted, getting over her earlier moment of embarrassment quickly. “I’d always wondered if the black widow rumors were true, Zabini.”

At that, the tanned boy smirked. “Why do you think my trunk contains so many bezoars, Daphne?” When he noticed Harry’s confused look, he shrugged. “Poison antidotes. Which I imagine that wherever we are, will come in handy.”  He looked around at the others.  “Ina the interest of getting alonga, I’m Blaise Zabini, the daughter of the notorious Black Widow of Italia.”

Everyone else quickly introduced themselves at that, during which Harry learned the blonde girl was named Daphne Greengrass and that the still-unconscious older girl was called Tonks.  At that point, Fred and George gathered everyone’s attention their way again by shouting, “Brooms! there’s sure to be a few brooms aboard this train, maybe enough for all of us. If we decide to move off, we can do that.”

“We’re not going to move anywhere until we are certain we have all of the supplies we can get from the train,” Angelina said firmly, her tone very much that of someone used to taking command. “And we can’t take that many trunks with us. Let’s bring them all out of the train, pile them up, and go through them. Unless any of you firsties know that you have something special in your trunks like Blaise, though, we’ll probably be leaving most of them behind. The older students here can help you learn the spells that you need from first year, and there’s not going to be any kind of essay writing, theory work, or anything else like that here.”

Hermione looked a little affronted and sad about that, while Harry was still staring at Fred and George as they talked excitedly about what kind of brooms they might be able to find. He had seen brooms at one of the stores in Diagon Alley and had been enchanted at the very idea of using them to fly. To be away from everything, to soar above it all, that sounded… well, that sounded the closest thing to heaven that Harry could think of.

As if she knew Harry’s thoughts had turned a little morose there, Hedwig nuzzled into his head from one side, her wing wrapping around his head in a hug, and Harry leaned into it, breathing deeply as he took solace in his first real present and first real friend, although that reminded him of the other friend he’d made earlier that day.  Portentous Pollywaddles, well, Luna, looks like you were right.

“Erm, wh, what about animals?” Neville asked hesitantly. “I haven’t seen my Trevor anywhere, and I’m almost certain that he, um…” He sheepishly made a clapping motion with both hands, shrugging his shoulders. “But, um, what about cats and other creatures like that? Should we search the wreckage for them as well?”

The others blinked at that, as Hedwig was the only owl or of any kind of animal that they’d seen so far. But it stood to reason that there should’ve been at least a few cats and other owls. “Could they have all escaped and run off into the forest at some point while we were busy with ourselves?” Angelina asked looking around. “Surely not all of them died in the crash.”

“My owl, Herodotus…” Daphne said hesitantly, before shaking her head sadly. “I had just begun to let him out of the cage, when whatever it was happened. He wasn’t in the train trolley with me when I woke up after getting knocked out, but I saw a lot of feathers and blood around the shattered window.  I… he might’ve been crushed once the train went on its side..”

The others didn’t seem to have boarded the train with any animals, although Roger mentioned he had been sharing a compartment with a cat when he’d woken up.  “Although I doubt it will have stayed around.”

Hedwig precked, then flew into the air.  She stood out in the midday sun and began to preck loudly.  As the magic users all watched, this was answered by a few answering precks.  Most came from the forest, while one came from the train.  Within a minute, other owls had flown up to meet Hedwig.

Daphne looked up at them all, then shook her head sadly, absentmindedly scratching at her forearm. “Well, none of them is Herodotus, but I suppose having more birds around to keep watch is a good idea.”

Blaise and Hermione stared at her forearm, then suddenly began to look around and then down at their bodies in horror. That drew Harry’s attention from the owls. “Hermione, Blaise, what’s…”

“Bugs!” Blaise shouted, followed by Hermione shouting, “disease!”

That caused everyone to look at her in confusion, and she went on hurriedly, “the local variant here, they might carry venereal diseases. Mosquitoes actually kill more people every year around the world more than anything else. At least I think so, but I know they carry diseases! We need a spell or something to keep them away from us.”

Daphne paled, looking down at her arm and pulling her hand away hastily.  “I, I,” she dithered, her normal cool control gone now. “Do you…”

“We’ll find some medical books or charms to help with bug bites,” Angelina soothed, even while she frowned internally. “And you know we magicals are able to beat off nonmagical diseases easily.”

Hermione blinked at that, looking interested, and Daphne breathed a sigh of relief.

“U, um, I can actually help there. I, I know a spell that helps me keep bugs away from me when I’m working in the gardens,” Neville said hesitantly. That seemed to be his normal state judging from what Harry had seen so far, which Harry could easily relate to. If not for everyone looking to him for leadership for some reason, and the fact that he still felt his magic bubbling within him, Harry would probably be even more eager to stay in the background than Neville. “Only, I can’t, well, that is you don’t want me to try to use it myself. I know the want movements and the words, though.”

“What do you mean you can’t use it yourself? If you know know it so well to teach us why can’t you?” Roger asked, looking worried. “Did something happen to your wand, Neville?”  Harry might be able to use magic without a wand, but what about the rest of us?

He then looked over to Blaise, Fred and George, who had all burst out laughing at that, rolling his eyes. “Grow up you, three!”

“Why? Being a kid is—

“more fun!” The twins said, still snickering.

Not understanding the joke or why Angelina was smirking and Daphne and Hermione looking affronted, Harry made sure that he smiled gently at Neville as he spoke. “You can tell us, Neville.  We won’t judge you for whatever you’re going to say.”

“I… well, my wand, it doesn’t really work for me. Once my family realized I wasn’t a squib as they all thought for so long, they had me try out with my wand a few spells. None of them worked right,” Neville admitted. “Not even the spells that I really wanted to learn like the ones to keep bugs away or help me with plants.”

“That’s kind of strange. I’ve never known old Ollivander to mess up when pairing someone with a…” Roger broke off as Neville looked down at the ground in front of him, as he realized what the problem might be. “It’s not your want is it Neville? Someone your family gave it to you? But why? No offense to the Weasleys, but I know why they have hand-me-down wands occasionally, but the Longbottoms are one of the richer families in the Wizarding World.”

“Wizarding Britain,” Blaise interjected dryly. “Not the whole world. That label can only be sent toward the Potters and the Greengrass’s way, I believe.”

“And do you see my money or my family’s connections mattering much here Blaise?” Daphne retorted while Harry just looked confused.

This was the first he’d heard of his family coming from money, and if that was true, he felt that the Dursleys would’ve been trying their damnedest to get a hold of it in some way. On the other hand, it really was important now, much like Daphne and said, so he simply shrugged his shoulders and listened as Neville explained.

“I, my grandmom, she told me to use my father’s wand, said it would help bring out the lion in me. Only, it really doesn’t work well.”

Seeing Neville look so shamefaced, Harry decided to help, speaking up. “Actually, I don’t think wherever we are we need wands. I didn’t, after all.”

The others all looked as if they didn’t quite agree with that, but didn’t stop Harry as he stood up, and gestured Neville to do the same. “Show me the wans movements and tell me the spell, I didn’t need either of those before either, but for maybe specific spells like this they’ll help.”

Roger looked as if he was going to object, but subsided, while Angelina leaned forward along with Fred and George. Daphne’s eyes were locked onto Harry like they were magnets, while Hermione looked slightly annoyed but also intrigued.

Feeling those eyes on the made Neville very nervous, which forced Harry to try to mask his own nerves. Neville brought out his wand, which was a little shorter than Harry’s, and looked older, more worn. He waved it in the air, and Harry matched his movements with his fingers, getting the movements right while the others watched on, with Hermione actually standing up and joining them, moving her own wand in the same movements.

Soon the others were also standing up with their wands out, and Neville looked both pleased, and even more embarrassed than before. “The spell’s word is éntoma makriá (Bugs Away). Don’t forget the flick at the end.”

Breathing in deeply, Harry moved his hand through the motions one more time, before doing so again then pointing his fingers at his own chest and saying the word. The first time, nothing happened, but after a moment, Harry closed his eyes and tried again.  I want to keep bugs away, I want to stop them from landing on me, or finding me interesting. With that, Harry reached out to the bubbling, churning feeling of his magic and directed it outward as his hand once more moved through the motions.  “Éntoma makriá!”

Instantly, a feeling of cool air flashed over him, along with a slight feeling of added stickiness. Given how hot it was here, and how all of them were already sticky with sweat, that feeling went away quickly, but he reported all this to the others, and Neville nodded, looking a little awed. “T, that’s it! That’s how it always feels, a little sticky, that’ll subside, but it’ll last at least a few hours and keep anything that tries to land on you away.”

Biting her lip, Hermione was the first want to try the spell, and it fizzled out.  Not like with Harry’s first attempt. Harry could see a puff of something come out of her wand, but that was it. “I, I can’t get it she admitted after two more tries. “Am I doing something wrong?”

“No, it’s just that,” George began.

“Harry got it too quickly,” Fred teased. “It normally takes wizards and witches at least—”

“—A few tries to get spells right, especially little firsties—”

“—Who don’t have as much control over their magic, and haven’t had any instruction. Harry is—"

“—just unique!” The pair finished.  A second later, they were the next two to get the spell right while the others kept on trying.

At the twin’s words and the others looks, Harry shook his head, almost wanting to take a step back from the others, to say that he wasn’t anyone special. But since they were judging him simply by what he could do, rather than the boy who lived nonsense, it was a little easier to deal with. He still didn’t like being in the spotlight, and he doubted he ever would. But being judged by his own merits, Harry could understand.

Roger and Angelina followed the two twins in figuring out the spell quickly, and they cast it on all the other teens, even the stubborn Hermione who at first looked as if she wanted to keep practicing. For a moment, they all then looked to Harry, as if waiting for him to give them specific orders, but Harry just stared back at them.

Realizing Harry wasn’t about to just start issuing orders to follow up on his earlier ideas, Angelina clapped her hands loudly. “All right! I think it’s time to split into teams. Harry was right, we need eyes to watch out for the jungle all around us for more threats. Fred, George, I know you’re good at DADA, and Blaise and Daphne, you two proved you had some… Interesting spells you’ll be up top on the train watching out for trouble. When we find some broomsticks, we’ll pass them up to you George, Fred, and you can start circling the area on them.  Between the four of you and the owls circling above us, we should be good for now.”

Angelina’s voice had gone a little… off, judgmental maybe, to Harry’s ears whe she spoke to Blaise and Daphne, but she went on in a more normal sounding tone as she turned to Harry and the others. “Neville, could I ask you to stay here with Tonks, watch out for her? The rest of us will start at the back of the train and make our way forward gathering trunks and any other supplies we find.”

Angelina thought that by doing that, they would be able to both find magical trunks first: trunks that were specially expanded, either in terms of simple size or set up to hold specific things. Such trunks would be very useful, and the prefects trunks at least would also give them more resources right off the bat.

At that, the groups split up. As they began to make their way along the train towards the back of it, Harry found himself at the back of the group, almost automatically having shifted so that the others walked ahead of him along the area of the jungle next to the train. However, Hermione followed him and reached out hesitantly. Harry almost flinched when she touched his hand, but didn’t, looking at her sideways. “U, um, wh, what’s wrong?”

Hermione smiled at him hesitantly.  “I, I just wanted to say, you are really brave! I wanted to thank you for helping against the creature.”

Harry looked away, scratching his score arc awkwardly. “I just did what anyone else would have.”

“No you didn’t,” Angelina said from ahead of them, making both Hermione and Harry twitch, as they realized that the others had overheard. “Roger, myself, Fred and George? None of us were about to jump down and face that monster head on. You did. With that kind of attitude, I’m definitely thinking you would’ve been a Gryffindor.”

“Whereas Hermione would’ve been a Ravenclaw,” Roger said firmly, smirking a little.

Shaking her head, Hermione turned back to Harry, reaching over and pulling him into a quick hug. It felt nice, like Luna’s had, but just like that hug, it also felt awkward, unnatural to Harry, and he was grateful when Hermione pulled away. “Well, I just wanted to say thank you!”

A moment later, they reached the end of the train, where Angelina began to hoist them up onto the top of it so they could enter by one of the windows. Once inside the train, movement became difficult as it was on it’s side, along with the doorways.  But even so, they were able to move around easily enough, even if the inside of the train had already begun to smell.

Seamus and Hermione were sent to one of the nearest train cars to gather a few trunks there. As the two of them and Harry muscles the trunks up and out the open windows onto the ‘roof’ of the overturned train, Angelina and Roger worked on opening the door to the storage caboose. This took them a while as neither had studied the unlocking spell before, by which point the others had already pushed out several trunks.

All three were looking a little queasy at the bodies they’d found, to the point where Harry agree with Seamus about wanting some whiskey to deal with the shock.  Seeing kids their own age that had been rattled to death, much like Ron had been, was disturbing in the extreme.

Eventually, Roger’s Alohomora worked, and they were able to get the door open. Looking inside, they saw all manner of trunks strewn about the storage area, along with what Angelina recognized as food containers and tins that had been equally tossed around laying mostly on top of the trunks. “We’ll want to get those out first, I… does anyone else hear something?”

Harry cocked his head to one side as did the others, and a second later, he heard what sounded like a groaning noise for a few seconds before a voice ahead of them muttered, “Flippiting gibbets, what in the Snorcack’s name happened?”

His eyes widening, Harry darted forward between Roger and Angelina, climbing over the trunks. “Luna!”

Behind him Roger gaped, mouthing the name ‘Luna’, but none of the others made to help until Harry started to try and shift some of the trunks.  At that point, Roger and Seamus hurried forward to help, followed by Hermione.  Angelina, in contrast, stood back and, with her wand in her uninjured hand, directed a few of the trunks up and over their heads out the door.

Soon an arm could be seen, followed by a head of blonde hair, and Harry gasped in relief at seeing her all in one piece. Now aware of where she was, Harry gave into the urge, reaching for his magic again.  A moment later, the trunk he had been pulling at lightened under the touch of his magic, and Harry lifted it up, pushing it lightly through the air over Seamus’s head.   “Luna, w, why are you here!?  Are you okay?”

As a last trunk which had been on her body was removed, Luna pushed herself to her feet, smiling airily at Harry. “Hello Harry, I see the Portentous Pollywaddles were a good indicator of momentous events again.  I am unharmed other than a few bruises.”

She watched as Roger joined Angelina in using magic to move the trunks, then lifted her wand, staring at it for a second before smiling and closing her eyes, seeming to sway in a breeze for a moment. “Oh my, that feels quite nice… There’s so much magic here! It’s almost… Alive, but not quite.”

With that she waved her wand, and astonishing the others, the last trunk keeping her legs trapped shifted. Quickly she began to help Harry removing trunks, setting them out past the others into overturned hallway beyond, until she hopped forward, grinning as she hugged Harry.  “Hello!”

“Ack! Luna!? I, I don’t think friends hug that often, at least not guy or girl-guy friends,” Harry muttered, embarrassed as Seamus began to snicker and Roger chuckle.

“Poo,” Luna sighed sadly. “Well, I’m a girl and I declare I’m going to give you hugs until your hugger is fixed.”

“Hugger?” Angelina snickered, shaking her head.

Hermione, while somewhat agreeing that Harry didn’t seem to know what hugs were and thus should be given many of them, had her mind on something more important. “How are you doing that?” she asked, feeling a little jealous. Are all students who born into the Wizarding World this far ahead of me?

Stepping away from Harry, Luna looked at her, then the others, shrugging her shoulders. “How aren’t you doing it? You’ve been doing things without a wand for years, weren’t you? The magic isn’t in the wand. It’s in you and all around us.”

“Don’t let Lune get to you, Hermione. The Lovegoods have always had a fundamentally different and yet incredibly good connection to magic in general,” Roger said, shaking her his head, as Angelina helped Luna forward over some of the fallen food tins, looking down at where she was favoring one of her legs.

“While it’s nice to see you Luna, why exactly am I seeing you here?” she asked, pulling the shorter girl into a hug. The two of them had met once when Angelina went to the Burrow.

Luna leaned into it, sighing faintly and happily as she explained. The others all looked at her in surprise and Harry in wonder at the fact that she had basically stolen her way aboard the train in order to help out after whatever happened happened.

“Wait, but if you had warning, couldn’t you have told someone in authority?” Seamus asked.

“No one would’ve believed her. While the Lovegoods are sometimes accurate about things, most of the time, well, people, people don’t believe them. But color me a believer now,” Roger muttered, shaking his head.

“Even I didn’t predict such a big upheaval from would occur.,” Luna mused, looking upward through one of the car doorways and then up through a window. “We are no place on earth.”

Hermione blinked. “That’s a line from a movie, I think. But surely…”

Luna interjected, holding up her hand, and then, with a smile, closed her eyes, thrust out her hands to both sides as she stood away from Angelina. For a brief second, her entire body glowed white, filling the compartment more than the lumos spells that Roger and Angelina had used to give them more light than the sun had been able to inside the train.

As she did, Luna hummed loudly, as if relishing in using magic in a way that Harry could easily relate to. I wonder if she feels the same bubbling, buzzing feeling inside of her?

“I’ve been in a lot of places with my father,” Luna said, as she stepped forward, wincing a bit as she went but otherwise ignoring the bruises visible on her. “I’ve never been in a place that is as intrinsically magical as this one. Not even in the Amazon rainforest, the Himalayas, or the depths of Africa. A place this magical, it would’ve been found long ago by the Wizarding World, or be caused by wizards in the first place. But it isn’t, is it?”

The others all looked at one another, then Angelina clapped her hands briskly, taking charge again. “Let’s get these trunks and everything else in here up on top of the train before we continue this discussion. We need to keep moving forward boys and girls.”

Nodding, Harry and Luna sent the floating trunks upwards. With Hermione and Seamus heading up to direct them further along the roof of the overturned train, soon, the entire storage area was emptied, and the others had been called in for a brief and altogether too sugary meal. The train’s supplies didn’t have anything beyond snacks, but right now, sugar and energy were important enough that even Hermione, who professed to being the daughter of dentists, didn’t turn her nose up against the sugary sweets. “Although don’t expect me to eat anything that moves. Those frog things are quite disturbing.”

Luna’s presence had caused some shock from Fred and George, while Daphne, hearing the story simply looked at her with interest. “I’m trying to decide whether or not you would’ve been a Slytherin or a Hufflepuff. A Hufflepuff’s quick and certain loyalty, but with a Slytherin’s disdain for the rules.”

“I rather think I would’ve been a Ravenclaw actually. Wit beyond measure is the truest treasure,” Luna answered, her last sentence coming out in a singsong as she stared all around her, absentmindedly finishing off her chocolate frog with enthusiasm, ignoring the frantic waving of its little legs as she bit down on its body. “And my wit is telling me now that we are nowhere on Earth. Perhaps we’re in another dimension?”

“It has long been postulated that teleportation spells mess with dimensions and that they basically, how to put this, fold the page so to speak?” Roger mused, while the others all looked a little confused.  “So if we got lost in the folding, we could have appeared on any other page.”

Angelina did not look up from where she was forcing some water down Tonks’s throat, shaking her head as she felt the eyes of the other younger kids on her. “Don’t look at me, I might be a third-year like Roger, but I signed up for Ancient Runes, not Arithmancy or Spell Theory.”

Hermione’s eyes gleamed at the names of the classes, but Fred and George had their minds set on other things right now. “Another dimension? Does that mean—

“—that you think no one’s going to be coming to get us anytime soon?”

“Try never,” Luna said bluntly, staring all around her. “After all, how would they know where to search for us?”

“I…” Roger’s words stumbled to a halt, shaking his head. “I don’t… I can’t think of anything that, well I’m only a third-year, maybe some of the upper years know a way to find someone across dimensions, but since I’ve never heard of it I can’t really dispute Luna’s words.”

Fred and George moved away from one another, grabbing up bits of the wrapping of some of the snacks, setting the trash on their open palms. The twins then brought their wands down to tap lightly on the trash and intoned as one, “Point Me the Burrow.”

All the teens looked confused save Blaise, who stood up and tried the same spell. Although in his case, instead of saying home, he said “Point Me, Mama.”

Nothing happened with his spell either and Blaise scowled. “I am afraid our little stowaway is correct. That spell, I’ve used it before under wards and outside of them to find someone on the inside. You can see whatever you’re using move a little bit, before stopping. Here, it’s as if there’s literally nothing to latch onto.”

The others all looked at one another, a sudden bout of shock and despair go through them. Before, despite how unusual the surroundings were, most of the young teens had hoped to survive long enough for someone to try and find them. Now, not only was that an impossibility, but all of them were dealing with the idea that maybe they’d never be able to go home, something that none of them had really thought about before this.

Looking around and seeing everyone’s faces falling, their bodies drooping, Harry realized that it fell to him again to get them moving. Of the entire group, only Harry didn’t care at all if he ever returned to Earth. There was literally nothing there for him, bar maybe his semi-friendship with Hagrid.  And that wasn’t nearly enough to dappen Harry’s glee at never seeing the Dursleys again.

Harry didn’t like doing it. He didn’t like being the leader, but the others had all looked to him for leadership once already. So stepping forward again didn’t really make much of a difference. He stood up, and, taking a page out of Angelina’s book, slapped his hands together loudly. When that didn’t work he did so several times, until everyone was looking at him. “Wherever we are, or whatever we’re doing in the long term, we can’t stay here.”

He pointed up to where Hedwig and the few other owls were circling. “Hedwig and the others, they’re not a big enough defense against anything finding us, and we can’t protect this whole train, to say nothing about if it begins to rain or thunder. We need to get moving, which means we need to speed up gathering resources.”

With that, Harry looked along the length of the train in one direction. He stared at the trunks that it already been brought out for a moment, picturing them and others in his mind as he held out his hands. Closing his eyes, Harry concentrated on those images, the images of the floating trunks, shifting them away from where they were, pulling them out and upwards through the windows.

As he did, one after another more trunks appeared, hovering in the air as everyone, even Luna this time, stared. Even Roger, the oldest and best of them when it came to a Leviosa spell could never have done more than three or four trunks at once. Let alone maneuver them so well.

Angelina was the first to shake off her momentary stupor and slurping down the last of her Sour Strips. “All right! Blaze, Daphne, Hermione, Luna, open up the prefect trunks we’ve pulled them out and start organizing.”

Since they were all on the rooftop now, Angelina figured they didn’t need to worry about setting someone up specifically as a guard.

 See if any of them are magical, and if you recognize your trunk and you know it’s magical, call it out. Seamus, Neville, let’s start organizing these trunks by grade as Harry pulls them out. George, Fred, I know you’re dying to do it, so go but down in there and grab some broomsticks. After that, join the owls and patrol. Roger, you and I going to open the head boy and head girl trunks, they are likely our best bet to find some really useful. Remember everyone to pile clothing in one large clump.  Whatever kind of clothing it its, it’ll be useful in some way.”

“Got it, boss lioness!” The twins shouted as one, causing Angelina to roll her eyes, prefer Roger to snort a laugh. The others just looked confused, until a few moments later when Roger explained in a low tone that Angelina was known as one of the strongest witches in the school, as well as the lead lioness of the Gryffindors. “Think of her as a head girl almost without the title.” He then trailed off, shaking his head. “Damn, but I wish those two were here now. Or any of the upper years really.”

The only upper year there was Tonks, and she was still unconscious. The seventh year would undoubtedly be a lot of help, as Angelina knew the girl had her wand on her and it had survived the journey, but she hadn’t stirred at all since being knocked out in the crash.

This continued for a while. Harry used his magic or made suggestions as they began to organize their findings, while Angelina would give out orders, shifting the groups around as need be. Soon, Fred and George were in the air on the two best brooms they could find, what they had called Cleansweep Sevens. The others, fourteen, all told, had been stacked to one side, although four of them had been damaged in the catastrophe.

 However, at Hermione suggestion, even those would be taken along when they left. Who knew when they might come in handy, or what they could learn by taking them apart after all?  

That idea had Fred and George look at Hermione as if she had just blasphemed or insulted their mother, but Angelina and Daphne both looked interested. Seamus, on the other hand, did not. “Ugh, brooms? Why not magic carpets or something better to sit on?  Or better yet, something with a real engine so you know what’s going on?”

While the two ginger wizards began to fly around the area along with the owls, warding away dozens of small and medium-sized birds that were coming down to investigate the train, the others continued to get more organized.

Two sets of every book they found were set to one side.  Soon every book in that pile began instead to be put into a library trunk that a student had brought along. It wasn’t unfortunately, very full before that, having instead housed what Angelina recognized as several sets of runic arrays, and books on that subject alone, which she gazed at avidly. The library trunk, though, was a magnificent find, complete with an enchanted list of the books within, and a spell to let someone pull out the specific book they needed. Any book they found only one copy of joined that group as well, which had the group finding some very esoteric books to go with the entire curriculum.

Two more, simpler expanded trunks were found among the prefects’ trunks. These quickly began to hold all the clothing they could find. All of it, regardless of shape size or anything else, as Angelina had ordered. Much like with the broken brooms, who knew when they would be able to find anything like clothing on this weird planet. Especially, a horrible thought that only Angelina hoped had occurred to her so far, if it was completely uninhabited and it was just them here.

Potions ingredients, potions, and other things went into a specialized lab trunk, which Roger recognized as belonging to Adrian Pucey. “Given what we saw of his foot, I don’t think he’s going to be using it anytime soon,” the older boy muttered, a faint, if dark smirk appearing on his face for a second.

“I think we’ve gotten really lucky at how many expanded trunks we’ve found,” Daphne mused. Her expanded trunk was one of the ones that currently being used for potions ingredients and other sundry items, with all of her own stuff having been dumped out, but she couldn’t argue with that distribution.

“Maybe,” Harry said, using another spell to sort through the books of still more of the trunks. “I think I’d have preferred us to find something like a magical tent if such a thing exists.”

“Actually, there are magical trunks like that, trunks that have living quarters inside,” Luna said, skipping over to the pair. “I slept in one before. Are you getting tired, Harry?”

“UM, sort of, my body is, at least. I… Using my mother magic isn’t like using a muscle or something. At least not yet, if it’s supposed to be. Right now it’s feeling more like like it’s still bubbling up inside of me, demanding I use it.”

“That’s very interesting. I feel invigorated by this place too, although I wouldn’t say that my magics calling out to me so much as the magic of this place is,” Luna said, her eyes closing for a moment as she seemed to sway, before opening and staring at Daphne with intensity. “Are you a Greengrass? If so, would you be willing to teach some of us your family’s ice spells?”

Daphne hesitated. Normally that kind of question would seem incredibly rude, but right now, she understood the necessity. “I… I don’t know many of the spells myself. And one of them I won’t be teaching anyone else for a bit until I get to know you all better. But I suppose I can teach you a few.”

Luna nodded equably at that, then bounced over to where Neville was going through a few of the potion supplies with Blaise, kneeling down and beginning help them.

“That girl is quite odd, though also extremely observant. I’m not quite sure what to make of her,” Daphne mused, as she pulled out another book from a trunk looking at it, then snorting, and setting it into the discard pile. I don’t think we need children’s books, especially not the collected adventures of Mad Martin the Marvelous Muggle. “Although I do think I like her.”

Harry chuckled at that, before both of them looked up as Hedwig and the other owls began screeching. Near the frontmost portion of the shattered train, two of the owls dove down into the forest, breaking off almost instantly as something huge jumped up out of the foliage. Several somethings, really, with a few going toward the owl, and  the others towards the nearby George, who quickly yelped and with a shout of, “Merlin!” rolled to the side to avoid the lashing blades of the creature.

The creatures were at least as tall as a grown man, seemed to have six legs with blue or black bodies marked with red and white undersides. Their heads, small at the top of longish necks, had horn-like protrusions, with bulbous red eyes that looked like those of flies, and all of their legs ended at long, pointed and sharp looking blades like those on a praying mantis.

The three creatures who had leaped upward out of the forest aiming for the nearest twin and the two owls missed their targets, disappearing again into the foliage almost like fish falling back into the water. A second later, several other similar creatures burst out, racing towards the train from the same direction the monster from earlier had been. At least five or six more, while on the other side of the train, the noise of those strange, offensively minded trees could be heard.

Realizing what that meant, Harry began to bark orders all hesitancy gone in a crisis. “They’re surrounding us! Daphne, Angelina, protect this side of the train, Hermione, Seamus, watch our back, Blaise, protect the left flank with Roger. I’ll protect the front of the train, that’s where they seem to be coming from.”

Turning away from Daphne and the work they been doing, he let the spell holding up the various books fade for a moment before Harry had a better idea. All the books that have been moving towards the discard pile remained in the air above the train, and he flung them forward, using them almost like ammunition. The charging creatures stumbled as each of them was hit by several of the books, with two of them even going down permanently as they fell awkwardly, breaking something in their legs or next. Another wave of his arm, and the ground surged upwards in a wave. 

Harry didn’t have time to really visualize anything as he had when he had transfigured the Hagrid golem out of the ground, but with his magic thrumming inside him and the world around him responding in some fashion he could barely understand, Harry could still create something.  A wide, fanlike wave of mixed dirt, rocks and roots crashed over the creatures, burying some entirely, halting others, and stopping the monsters attacking the young teens from the frontmost portion of the train.

Meanwhile, Angelina had joined the others, using smalltime spells to distract or slow the monsters as Daphne used her own ice-based spells to kill several. Blaise used a fire spell  that stopped most of the creatures in their tracks on that side of the train. Most animals had a fear of fire, which Roger and the others added to with simple Incendio spells, setting things around the train on fire.

However, the bug monsters eventually overcame their fear of fire in a way animals back on earth wouldn’t have been able to. They charged forwards, leaping up towards where the defenders stood on the top of the overturned train, causing screams and shouts from the defenders while Roger, George and Fred began to use lethal spells.  Roger was the only one who had really learned such from his Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, while George and Fred had learned a few spells from their curse breaker brother, Bill. Cutting spells hit many of the bug monsters, exploding or slicing them into ribbons.   

On the other side of the train, Daphne was forced to raise an ice wall in front of one creature that had gotten past her and the other’s spellfire. Fred twisted around, darting down to kill that bug monster, but another leaped up and over the wall, only to eat a empty tin to the face, that caused it to flinch. Daphne barely had a moment to look over to where Hermione had thrown the tin, before the bushy-haired girl shouted, “Aim for their eyes. If fire won’t frighten them, then going for their eyes will!”

Hearing that, Seamus and Neville, following Hermione’s example, raced around the top of the train, avoiding the various windows with difficulty as they tossed anything they could at the creatures. At one point, Seamus flung several books from the keeper pile, but for the most part, it was textbooks from the disposable file the proved the best weapons, much as Harry had learned moments into the fight.

Meanwhile, Fred and George zoomed through and directly behind two of the attacking creatures, makeshift beater bats made from bits of wreckage from the train slamming out with bone crushing force, and then were away before any of the other creatures could react. At the front of the train Harry continued to finish off the monsters he had trapped using a fire spell similar to the one he’d used earlier before.  He took one of the other creatures in the head, searing straight through and dumping its body into the dirt below, then another, and another.

Several closed through his spellfire, but Harry still stood there, protecting that avenue of attack on his own, letting the others defend from the other two directions.  Thankfully, while many of the monsters got close to the train, including one that died right at Harry’s feet, only two got up onto the train itself.  There were a few close calls, but eventually, the young wizards and witches fought off the monsters, with the last few creatures retreating after a vast number of them had already been dealt with.

Staring at that, Luna, who had been unable to do more than throw things despite her ease with magic, slowly shook her head. “That is not a good sign. Most animals, especially pack animals, once they take even a few losses, they retreat, they know when to give up. These animals didn’t care until there were only a bare few of them left. That means their self-preservation instincts are extremely skewed.”

“That’s interesting, but I think we have outstayed our welcome here,” Daphne said, scowling as she fought the urge to slump back onto her rear as the adrenaline left her.  Using that much magic had taken it out of her, and she looked toward Harry once more, who still stood there near the front of the train, half a creature slowly falling off the roof in front of him as he turned away. How is Harry able to throw so many spells around?! How strong is he?

“Agreed. I don’t think we want to be in so open a location when nightfall comes,” Luna said instantly, nodding her head and moving over to Daphne. “Let’s finish gathering supplies and get out of here!”

“Where to?” Seamus asked, scowling a little as he thumped onto his rear. He didn’t like the fact that he, Luna and Hermione had been next to useless in that fight, while Harry had once again stepped up to the bad in a big way. Damn, but there might be something to that Boy Who Lived hero stuff.

In the distance, there was a bellowing noise, which reminded all of the ones who’d been conscious forward of the monster that Harry had dealt with a few hours ago.

“You’re thinking about this the wrong way. The correct idea is from. To can sort itself out once we start moving,” Blaise said firmly.

“I hate the idea of leaving any books behind, even if we’ve got copies of them. But… I can also see some clouds over there. I’m not going to argue,” Hermione said tremulously, staring at where one of the monsters had come so close to her that It’s talons had clawed into the roof of the overturned train as if the wood there was foam before being blasted away by a spell from Angelina.

For his part Harry just nodded, fighting back an urge to gasp.  His magic was no longer frothing within him, demanding Harry use it. Rather, he could fill it sputtering inside him. He could also somehow rapidly fill up from the magic around them, but his magic wasn’t yet ready to be used as much as he had just done. There also seemed to be some kind of physical component to using his magic ,as his mind and body both felt far more tired now than before.

Thankfully, with all the work they’d already been doing before the monsters had shown up, it was an easy task to finish off the trunks containing clothing and the massive library trunk. Finishing off finding foodstuffs, potion supplies, and other kinds of items was a little more difficult, but eventually, Angelina decided that they had discovered enough for now. More roaring could be heard in the distance, in several directions, as if numerous creatures the same as the one Harry had dealt with before had suddenly realized that this territory was open for expansion. And none of them wanted to be here when those monsters try to move in. 

Worse yet was the weather.  The clouds that Hermione had spotted in the distance had moved in rapidly, and by the time Angelina was satisfied they had begun to turn dark. At that point, however, they ran into the problem that only the older students knew how to fly. While Daphne, Neville and even Blaise had been on broomsticks before, none of them had ever controlled them, rather they had been riding behind someone else, or in Neville’s case, dangled on the front of one by his great uncle.

Hermione Seamus and Harry had never even touched magical brooms before, although Luna happily admitted that she had gone flying several times.

Confused,  Fred and George looked at Luna, who was humming happily to herself standing next to one of the brooms. “Okay, I’ll bite, how do you know how to fly, Luna?”

“You think you two are the only ones who snuck out at night to try and get some flying in? Whenever I stayed the night, Ginny and I would always sneak out to try Bill’s broom.”

Blaise muttered something under his breath to that which earned him a foot stomp from Daphne while, Fred and George simply nodded, and soon Luna was rising into the air to join them. Down below, Roger and Angelina conducted a brief overview of how to control your broom, directing Harry and the others to stand beside the brooms that were in the best repair.

Harry got it instantly, his broom actually slapped into his hand hard enough to cause a yelp of pain. Daphne was next, catching her broom as it floated up into her hand. Neville Hermione and Blaise all struggled but eventually got it.

“You’ll all be paired with one of the more experienced flyers and in the air, you’ll obey our orders. No flitting about,” Angelina said, just as thunder began above them. With the clouds overhead it was so dark that it looked as if evening had fallen, and all of the kids stared up at the clouds in fear and worry.

“I don’t think we are at all in the mood for flitting, but we still don’t know where were going,” Hermione protested looking as if she wanted to be anywhere but there just now even as she sat astride her broom a few inches off the top of the train.

Angelina shook her head, patting Roger on the shoulder, indicating that Fred had finished tying the unconscious body of Tonks to him. Unlike the others, Roger would only be carrying the still unconscious second year. The rest had several half-shrunken trunks on their brooms. That spell had taken it out of Angelina and Roger alike, but they’d been able to shrink the trunks down to a fourth of their original size.

Looking at the girl with the raven-black hair, Harry hoped she would wake up soon as frankly, even with all the supplies they’d gathered, he was still very certain they needed all the help they could get. More importantly than that, while the others had been getting some instruction on how to command their brooms, Harry had been talking to George and had learned about the Point Me spell that Blaise, Fred and George had tried to use earlier. He hadn’t been able to make it work, as there was nothing really specific he was looking out for, and unless you knew the specific name of the person or place you were looking for, such spells didn’t work.

Yet ever since, he had been getting a feeling, a tug almost, as if the magic of this place was directing him somewhere. He said this aloud now, and the others all looked at him in confusion, but Luna nodded, and zipped up into the air, her broomstick laden down with four of the shrunken trunks. “I feel something of the sort as well. The magic itself is telling me where a place safe for us to sleep might be.”

Fred and George looked a little confused and worried, but the others all just nodded. “Let’s face it, Harry’s been the one leading the way in terms of being able to use magic here for a while. If he tells me he’s feeling something, I’m going to go with that,” Angelina said, shrugging her shoulders. I can’t feel anything, but who knows? I’ve never been good at those kinds of charms.

“It’s not a spell or anything like that, simply close your eyes, and ask for a place of safety, think of someplace safe. That’s all I was doing, and magic responded,” Harry said, shrugging his shoulders a little self-consciously.

The others all looked at one another in confusion. That was totally against what a Point Me spell should work like. But Daphne, shrugging her shoulders, closed her eyes, concentrating as Harry had described.

Soon, added by how organized her mind was normally, she too nodded. “It isn’t like following a Point Me spell, nothing so solid. But I’m feeling something out there too. I think we’ve all underestimated precisely how magical this place is. Luna was right, it’s not quite alive, but it’s strong enough to give sensations like that.”

Once everyone was airborne, Harry closed his eyes and concentrated on the feeling, the feeling of finding a place of safety. He twisted around a few times, then began to point in a direction left and just towards the board most portion of the train below them as more lightning began in the distance. “It’s somewhere in that direction. I’m sorry, I can’t tell a distance.”

Raindrops the size of Luna’s hands began to spatter down all around them, and Angelina shook her head, pointing ahead of them. “Doesn’t matter, let’s go!”

With the owls moving all around them under Hedwig’s direction watching out for trouble through the rain, the group moved off, moving out through the storm.

The rain began to pummel them as they moved, and soon, all of them were drenched. This was the worst storm any of them had ever seen. Even Luna and her time in the Amazon rainforest hadn’t seen anything like this. The rain was coming down in sheets, so much so that even the owls were forced to land on brooms scattered throughout the group and only a few of the magic users could see further than the range of their arms. 

Soon, the only thing guiding them forward was Harry, Daphne and Luna’s assertions that they could feel something pulling them, something directing them forward.

None of them knew how long they flew, but soon, it was a trial for Hermione, Neville and Seamus to remain in the air. Fred, George and Roger moved closer to them, grabbing onto their brooms and basically hauling them through the air still, as the younger students and the one-armed Angelina clung grimly on, the only saving grace being that it was so warm that the wet rain wasn’t freezing them through their cloaks.

Luckily, they had the owls, and even in this torrential rain, they at least were able to see. Hedwig steered them away from a few larger trees that loomed up out of the forest like Giants, or rather, like super giants among just slightly smaller giants, and the party continued on, until Harry felt the tugging shift, not forward, but down into the side.

It was only as they began to move in the direction that the group realized they’d been moving into a mountain range, their brooms having carried them ever higher as they flew through the storm. Which, thankfully, didn’t seem to have much thunder or lightning to it.

Now, Harry guided them towards what slowly began to look like a cave, with Daphne and Luna both shouting agreement that this was where their feelings were taking them to. Landing, a pain-racked Angelina directed everyone inside quickly, and once they were all inside, she helped Roger remove the girl from his broom, while George and Fred went around with drying charms, suing them on all the other students one after another.

The trunks were set to one side and enlarged then Fred and George offered Blaise their makeshift beater bats, which he set alight not so much for light, simply warmth and cheer. All of them were still feeling miserable, beaten down, battered by the weather and the events of the day.  Bruises, welts and cuts they hadn’t noticed before were now stinging something fierce, and none of them had much energy to spare. Hermione and Seamus in particular had to have their grips slowly undone on their brooms and almost carried inside they were so exhausted. Both of them fell asleep almost instantly, slumping onto the ground of the dry cave.

Under Angelina’s direction, Daphne pulled out some more cloaks that they’d brought along with the rest of the clothing from one of the trunks, donating three to each of them, and dumping three on top of the two sleepers. Roger also pulled out some of the food from train’s stores, sharing it out.

“We’ll have to start testing food around here, meats and vegetables at the very least,” Hermione mumbled, woken up by Harry holding some water to her mouth. She took some sips then bit down on a chocolate frog, not even noticing its frantic movements. “This kind of food won’t sustain us for long, it doesn’t have any nutritious value whatsoever.”

The others all nodded, even Harry knowing about nutrition. But right now, there was nothing they could do about it. There were a few things they could do though, and having pulled out sufficient cloaks, Fred and George used a spell to knit them all together creating a makeshift tarp over the entrance to the cave. With that, and with a few other bits of clothing, briefs and pants that were far too big for any of them to use they created a sufficiently large enough fire to warm and light the cave.

All of them were exhausted, but Harry spoke up, staring out past the makeshift tent flap. “I realize we’re all tired, and we’ve done enough to make this place livable for the night. But I don’t think we should all go to sleep. I’ll stay up on watch for a bit and then nap when it’s daylight out. If we can tell when it starts to be daylight in this rain.”

Blaise shook his head, while Roger reluctantly agreed, and Luna moved over, slumping down next to Harry, almost leaning into him, causing him to twitch a bit at the contact, but when she made no move to move away, he resigned himself to it. The three of them stayed there, while Angelina moved over to check on Tonks before turning in for the night as the twins had already.

The rain continued to fall outside the cave in an unending torrent, the sound almost soothing now that they were no longer in it, as the trio on watch, slowly began to see a difference in the light above, showing that evening was falling. Nothing was said for a time, all of them too exhausted to talk, even those on watch, but the silence was more companionable than anything else with the fire behind them. Proof positive, perhaps, that together, they had already overcome the odds, and dangers, and would continue to persevere.

While elsewhere, the magic of this universe continued to ripple.

END Chapter

Hope you all enjoyed this.  I will take tomorrow to finish the monthly outlines, then shut down the Patron poll on the 7th. Until then, folks!

.