By: Marie-Claire
Author's Note: To all those who reviewed, thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm grateful for your comments, since they certainly give me new insight towards my fic. I've been getting a couple of suggestions from all of you, and I promise, I really will try to see what I can do about them. In the meantime though, here is the second part of the story. I hope you will enjoy it!
Disclaimer: It's not mine.
Chapter Two:
Harry, from his position on the carpeted floor of the train compartment, turned to look out the window. The sky was golden, the horizon a vibrant, bloody red that sent a chill to his bones. Turning away from the sight, he met the frightened eyes of Ron and Hermione, both of whom had gone deathly pale at his words. Ron's freckles were standing out wildly, almost grotesquely against his horribly pale face, and Hermione's eyes were as wide as saucers. Vaguely, he knew that several other Gryffindors were standing near the door, but he paid them no mind. In one smooth. fluid move, he rose to his feet, and after taking out his wand, strode out the door without another word.
The students, all of whom seemed to have poured out to the corridor after the pausing of the train, stopped in their tracks as they all stared in horrified fascination at Harry, who was completely silent as he walked past them. Such calmness in the face of panic would have been enough to guarantee a couple of raised eyebrows and awed stares, but that calmness, combined with the fame of the Boy-Who-Lived Legend and his bloody face was enough to silence the mob. They parted like the sea to let him pass, all of them staring alternately at the blood on his temple, which was steadily flowing, and his thunderbolt-shaped scar, which was a very livid red against his pale face.
He stopped walking only when he reached the doors leading out of the train. Had he looked behind him, he would have seen that he had managed to acquire quite a following, led by Ron and Hermione, the Gryffindor Prefects. He didn't look back. Raising his wand, he pointed it straight at the door and said, very clearly, "Desurrecto Lensaura." A second passed, and then with the awful sound of metal grating against metal, the doors gave way, exploding outwards in a magnificent explosion of steel and wood.
Lowering his wand, he stepped down from the train, looking around him impassively. The other students poured out behind him, fanning out at the sides, while those who opted to lean towards the side of caution stayed inside the train, their faces pressed against the windows as they pushed and shoved for a better view.
"Well, it seems nothing's gonna happen. We had better get back on the train now, right?" Ron said nervously, his gaze flitting back and forth as he looked at the empty fields.
"Maybe the train just malfunctioned, and Dumbledore's sending one of the professors to fix it." Dean Thomas added.
"Oh, I really don't think that's our problem right now," Hermione said in a frightened voice. "Because that's our biggest problem. Look!" She said, pointing at a nearby hill.
They all turned to look, and all eyes widened as they stared horrified at the silent ranks of dark-robed wizards standing at the top of the hill.
"Death Eaters!" Somebody shouted.
And all hell broke loose. Boys and girls pushed and shoved at one another in their haste to get back inside the train and several people actually used spells to get others out of their way. This seemed to amuse the cloaked figures, for underneath their hoods, several smiled derisively.
"What would Dumbledore think if he could see his brave and powerful students now?" One of them remarked mockingly.
"The same thing that your all-mighty Dark Lord will think when we're through with you!" Hermione replied furiously.
"Ooh, the Mudblood speaks!" Another hooded figure countered. "I've decided then, that you will have the honor of being the first… the first to die!" Saying so, he raised his wand, already beginning to utter a Dark Curse.
Harry's eyes widened at the attack and as a purplish-green light appeared on the tip of the Dark Wizard's wand, he jumped in front of Hermione. Before the Death Eater could complete the spell, however, he suddenly crumpled to the ground without a sound. The other Death Eaters stared in shock at the arrow protruding from the body of their fallen comrade, and then shifted to stare at the direction where the arrow had come from.
They saw the archer first, for she was still holding a bow, and had another arrow already notched. A dark lavender cloak partially covered what she was wearing, but even from a distance, the high quality and intricately fine embroidery of the cloth was without question. A hood hid her face, so no one could see or guess who she was. She was standing on top of the train, back facing the fiery glow of the setting sun, and it was as if a heavenly light was illuminating her. When she spoke, it was music in itself. "I wasn't aiming to kill that time. Don't bet on my second shot."
"Foolish girl! You dare play with us?" Saying so, the Death Eater vanished and appeared suddenly on top of the train behind the unknown female. His wand was already touching her back, and he was halfway finished with his curse, when a sword appeared seemingly out of thin air and slashed at the wand holder.
"That's two down." The speaker, a handsome guy with incredible amber eyes and very messy dark brown hair, stepped to the side of the archer and raised his sword in a stance that clearly suggested that those who would try to harm the girl would die a severely painful death.
"Seven down, actually." Another male voice said. And true to his words, Five more Dark Wizards were knocked down by some unseen force silently and without trouble. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the rest of the students turned to gape at the second guy, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere and was now standing beside them. He was wearing flowing black robes with dark blue detailing and was wielding a golden staff that they had never seen before. Several people backed away at his appearance, slightly creeped out by his serenely mischievous smile and beautiful violet eyes twinkling playfully behind his glasses.
Suddenly, a dark-haired girl wearing a ruby red Chinese style dress appeared behind the Death Eaters. She was apparently carrying two deadly daggers, for before the two wizards in front of her could even react, she had already slashed at their backs and like puppets with their strings severed, dropped down to the grass. "Two more and that's nine."
Another girl, this one wearing purple robes appeared behind the final wizard. She quickly brought down the metal fan she was carrying and finished him off without further ado. "That's the last one." She smiled serenely as she and the other girl strolled down unhurriedly from the hill. The deadly weapons they held were in complete contrast to their smiling faces.
The students were speechless for a few moments, as they all processed the fact that these five people had effectively taken care of ten Death Eaters in no less than a couple of minutes, and without even breaking a sweat!
"Bloody Hell!" Ron finally exclaimed, effectively breaking the silence. "Who the hell are you guys and how did you do all that?!"
Several students echoed his questions. While a lot of them were seemingly in awe, a few were still looking with frightened eyes at the newcomers.
The dark-haired guy smiled and raised his hand, and magically, the stream of babble stopped. "Your questions will all be answered when you get to your school. As of now, all you need to know is that we are friends, and that we mean you no harm."
"Why not answer now?" Harry, who had been silent through everything, finally spoke up. He was looking with distrust at the newcomers.
The two who were still on top of the train jumped down with ease and walked up to them. Still carrying his sword, the green-robed guy said calmly, "Because the answers will come when the time is right."
"Besides," a soft, feminine voice came from the hooded girl, "we have a lot to tell you, and we do not wish to speak with those people on the windows hanging on to our every word."
"Morons," snorted the dagger-wielding female.
"Meiling, be kind," admonished the other girl with the long, flowing raven-black hair as she folded her fan with a 'snap!' "They are simply curious, is all."
"I'll show them curious when I gouge their eyes out," the other girl muttered as she sheathed her daggers at her waist.
The amber-eyed guy spoke up at that. "Stop it, Meiling," he said, though he was also looking at the students as though he wanted to do them physical harm as well. "Threatening them at this point will do no good, especially since they don't really trust us at the moment, am I right, Mr. Potter?"
Said boy's face flushed as the other guy's gaze turned to him.
"How'd you know his name?" A small boy who was already wearing his black school robes and the Crest of Gryffindor asked aloud.
The bespectacled male laughed at his question as he looked over to them from where he was quietly conversing with the lavender-cloaked girl. "Come now, Mr. Creevey. Surely you know how popular young Harry Potter is, especially in your world."
This time, it was Hermione who frowned suspiciously at him. "Our world? Isn't it your world as well?"
Suddenly, before he could answer, long purple robes swirled beside him as the female with the amethyst eyes who had taken care of the last Death Eater looked at him with the frown. "We should leave now, Eriol. A few minutes more and I am afraid that we will have more unwanted guests, and we are already late for the meeting."
The one she had called Eriol nodded. "You are right." His long black cape twirled along with him as he turned around and addressed the students who were still milling about. "All of you, back to the train right NOW!"
With surprising speed and without a lot of questions, his order was quickly followed for in no less than a few seconds, everyone had boarded the train except for Harry, Ron and Hermione, who were still looking at them suspiciously.
"What are you really doing here?" Harry asked, still not letting go of his wand. "Who are you people? And how did you manage to defeat those Death Eaters, ten of them, no less, so easily?"
But the only reply he got was a laugh, before they suddenly found themselves once more on the train and moving, inside their own compartment, with the window fixed.
All that had happened, was, of course, attributed by the Hogwarts students to rotten food…stale pumpkin pasties or too many pepper Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans perhaps?…and hallucinations.
And within nightfall, they had arrived once again…
To Hogwarts.
