Author's Note: Hello all my lovelies! I know it has been a while, but real life got complicated and pulled me away. I am back now though.
I am so honoured to have you everyone tuning back in for chapter two, and any new people joining us now! I was surprised by the quick response and liking of the story based on chapter one, and have to say, that I am truly astounded that the first chapter was so well received! I do hope that you all continue to support me in my endeavour to write this! Also, on behalf of my fiance, he says thank you all for the kind words, and has been laughing his butt off with "I told you so's". Love him to pieces though. I also wanted to take a moment and thank my first five reviewers -An Anonymous Guest, Stupid Lil Fairy, Beyondthesea16, Pinknose1, and smkennedy007.
Chapter Two finally edited thanks to my lovely beta Kasaki Kihoya~
Chapter Two: Battle at King's Cross
September 1st, 1996. King's Cross Station 10:50 am.
A tense silence had fallen over the train compartment, angry eyes glancing towards Ron. No one was sure what had gotten into the red head, his sudden anger and doubt towards Harry was uncharacteristic. Honey coloured eyes glanced out the window, her breath catching as she saw people hurrying about, nothing that you wouldn't expect with the train about to depart, so she thought nothing about it until red sprayed in the air followed by a piercing shriek.
"What the?" she asked with horror, her head turning to the side to see Harry bolting from the compartment. "Harry, wait!" she called after him, on her feet as more cries broke out. What in the name of Merlin was happening?
She rushed from the small room, noticing people beginning to poke their heads out of the safety of their rooms, her heart dropping as the shrieks grew louder. "Hermione!" a voice called from just ahead of her. "What is going on?" The brunette easily found the owner of the voice, a sixth year Prefect named Mila.
"Keep everyone in their seats, send a patronus to the headmaster, tell him we have trouble," she urged before hastily exiting the train.
Outside was chaos, people running amok avoiding hexes being thrown blindly around. It made her sick to her stomach knowing that there were children at the station being subjected to this.
"Hermione?" Luna's calm voice broke the brunette out of her trance, her head snapping towards her and Neville, noting Ron's absence.
"We have to find Harry, if he falls, then we don't stand a chance!" Both teens nodded, drawing their wands, which Hermione mimicked, before they took off, searching for that mop of black hair among the confusion and chaos.
Another shriek reverberated through the air, steering her in the direction it came from. What she saw made her dry heave and almost lose the contents in her stomach. Her desperation to find Harry lost for a moment as she dropped to her knees, not caring as the crimson liquid from the young boy stained her pants. Dropping her wand and pressing her hands against the gaping hole in his stomach, trying to stunt the bleeding.
He was sobbing, his body wracked with pain making him thrash about. "Focus on me," Hermione said, hoping to distracted him from the pain long enough until help came. The boy thrashed about as more of his blood spilled from his body. "Look at me," she said her eyes locking onto his scared blue ones. "You're going to be okay," she told him, desperation in her voice.
He was too young to become a casualty of war. His hands grasped her arms painfully tight as he sobbed to her, "I don't wanna die!"
"You're not going to die," she hastily replied, though even to her ears it was doubtful. He was losing too much blood too fast, and there was nothing she could do about it. "W-what's your name?" she stuttered out trying to look and sound brave. She wasn't Harry though, she couldn't look on something like this and keep composure like he did.
"D-Derrick T-Thompson." His voice was getting weaker, his moves growing sluggish She knew, knew he would be gone in a few moments. Her heart felt like it was shattering into a million pieces for him, he never got the chance to live and learn about the wonders of magic, and now, he wasn't going to get too.
"Derrick, stay with me!" His hands had slid from her arms, his body convulsing beneath her fingers. "Derrick? Derrick?!" her voice trembled as his lips turned an unearthly shade of blue and his body stopped moving. Her hands moved from the wound in his stomach as she let out a shaky breath before she scooped her wand up and got to her feet.
"Harry," she breathed out, glancing down towards the boy knowing there was nothing she could do for him now before she raced off having to work against the crowd of people who were now running towards the train. She knew in the pit of her stomach Harry would be in this direction.
"Harry!" She screeched as she pushed on. She hoped to Merlin that the same fate did not befall Harry as it had Derrick. Finally breaking past the running mass of people, she saw Harry near the front of the train surrounded by dark robbed men. Death Eaters.
"We have to help him!" a male said to her right, her head briefly twisted to the side, seeing Neville with Luna. They must have thought the same thing she had about Harry's whereabouts.
The three of them pushed back their initial fear and rushed to his aid, watching as the cloaked figures apparited and disapparited in and out of sight. Hermione watched as one of the figures raised his wand at Harry, her own lifting as a strangled, "Reducto!" left her throat.
The masked figures head jerked in her direction, blocking the spell with ease as his wand flicked with a silent retaliation.
"Protego Maxima!" Neville shouted, watching as the curse he threw harmlessly bounced into the air and fizzled out. She tossed the dark haired male a thankful look, then fired off several Stupefy's which the cloaked man easily deflected. She was about to send another round at him, but he disappeared making her whirl around, wand raised and spells dancing on the tip of her tongue, ready to be cast at a moments notice.
Duck!
The word whispered seemingly in her mind just in time as she threw her body to the ground and looked up as the jet of green light flew past her head. She didn't have time to ponder the voice that spoke to her as she scrambled to her feet, her back towards the train as she retreated a step away from the cloaked figure and pushed her damp curls from her face.
"Expulso!" the man hissed, his wand pointed to the train behind her and before she could look, the blast from the train knocked her body forward making it crash against the stone floor with jarring force.
She groaned, barely hearing the sound through the ringing in her ears and the new chorus of screams that ricocheted from the train. Painfully slow, her head twisted to the side, her vision blurred and unfocused as hands pounded against the windows of the train.
"Hermione?" Harry's voice croaked nearby drawing her attention from the train. "Hermione?" he asked again pushing himself off the ground a bit.
"I'm fine, Harry," she answered before he called out to Luna and Neville to make sure they were fine. The screams drew her attention back to the train, "We have to help them!" she shouted, her fingers desperately clawing for her wand before she clumsily got to her feet.
"Hermione! Wait!" Harry called out to her, watching as she scrambled towards the train.
The brunette skittered to a stop near the train doors, the hands of the Slytherin's hysterically pointing towards the compartment with the first and second years in them. Honey coloured eyes danced with understanding, and she quickly made her way to the door, swallowing thickly as she shouted in a hoarse voice for them to scoot away.
When they had cleared away, Hermione lifted her bloodstained wand and held it as steadily as she could. "Bombarda!" she cried with a flick of her wand. The door flew off it's hinges, giving the younger students a way out of the burning compartment. She turned her head to the side and saw Luna doing the same for the older students and breathed a sigh of relief.
Hermione looked around now, noticing that the Death Eaters had seemed to vanish as quickly as they came. "Granger," the voice of Parkinson said softly. Turning her gaze to the Slytherin who was nursing several angry looking burn marks on her arms and hands she tilted her head to the side.
"Draco is missing from the train, along with Zabini, you have to make sure they are alright," she said in a pleading tone. She gave the dark haired woman a skeptical look, but relented. She was a softie at heart, and if Malfoy, the biggest prat and part of the family most loyal to the Dark Lord was missing, then he could well be a casualty of this attack. She may not like him, but it was her job as Prefect, and as part of the Resistance to make sure he was okay.
Innocent until proven guilty.
"Alright, Parkinson, I will find him," she assured her tersely. "Luna, take Parkinson and the other Slytherin's and try healing what you can of their injuries until help arrives," she ordered letting her natural bossiness kick in. Luna gave a nod, then called for the Slytherin's to follow her.
Bloody hands came up and massaged her temples, her eyes surveying the scene before her. Many students lay on the ground either injured or dead, and there were many more still on the train or right outside it.
"Where to begin?" she murmured to herself. Wand still in her hand, she walked towards the crowd, stopping to inspect each person laying on the ground, and then reassure them that help was on the way.
Never had she seen such an attack on children, and she was appalled that the Death Eaters would risk the well being of their own families and friends to do this. Her mind replayed the attack as she kept picking her way towards the crowd as an important question came to her mind, where was Ronald, and who had told her to duck earlier?
Weariness beat at the brunette as the healers took the last of the seriously injured away, sighing heavily. Dumbledore had arrived moments after the Death Eaters retreated and did his best to calm down the terrified students and assisted with as much healing as he was able before turning his attention to the vulturous media reporters.
She hadn't seen Harry since the attack ended, assuming that he was helping elsewhere or talking to Aurors who had appeared along side the reporters. She made a mental note to find him later and make sure he hadn't sustained any major injuries before scolding him on how reckless it was to run off like that.
"Hermione," Mila approached, her left hand bandaged from her knuckles to her elbow. Honey coloured eyes studied her face, easily able to see the aristocratic ties she probably had with her heavy lidded brown eyes, pale skin, strong jaw line, and the mass of riotous black curls hazardously pinned up. She saw someone closely following behind her, noting that they were a first year wondering if Mila had helped this girl somehow.
"Dumbledore said they will be portkeying us to Hogwarts in groups of ten here soon, he wants the Prefects and heads to go first to help set up the Great Hall." Hermione nodded, figuring it was probably to monitor all the injured students and to make sure fights didn't ensue.
"Alright," she sighed. She was too tired to argue, and in all honesty, she just wanted to lay down and sleep. Mila turned and walked off towards where Dumbledore was standing and Hermione followed. "Mila, have you seen Malfoy or Zabini?" she asked, at least wanting to make good on her word to Pansy, though she didn't deserve it.
"Yes, they are alive," she answered. That was all Hermione needed, knowing Pansy would find them at school since she hadn't seen either taken by the healers.
Walking in the direction Mila had, she stopped when she saw Harry surrounded by a group of first years. "Who were those men?" a girl asked in a timid voice.
"Death Eaters," Harry answered, a muscle in his jaw ticking as he said the name. "They are followers of Voldemort." Some of the children let out horrified gasps at the use of his name and Hermione cringed. It was a natural reaction for her, after all, the man wanted her and people like her dead. "Most of them come from the Slytherin house," he continued, his green eyes looking up towards Hermione.
More whimpers ensued. "W-what if we get sorted into Slytherin and we don't want to be?"
"Impossible," Harry assured, his tone softening. "You need only ask the hat to place you somewhere else and it will," he told them. "I did when I was a first year. That hat does take in consideration where you want to go." A collective sigh of relief was released at the news.
A smile tugged on the brunette's lips as he gave them a smile, even though it didn't reach his eyes. He was trying at least. "Harry," she said, sliding up to his side. "Dumbledore is going to start portkeying students to Hogwarts," she murmured. The raven haired teen nodded slowly, his green eyes looking over her. She assumed she looked horrible with the blood staining her jeans, hair, and face. She was looking forward to a nice hot shower when she got to school.
"Where you hurt?" he whispered back to her. Shaking her head, her eyes mimicked Harry's searching for any visible injury. "I'm fine," he said, as if reading her mind.
"Okay," she softly said, noticing that the Prefects were gathering near Dumbledore. "We will talk later," she promised in that tone that said she meant it.
He wordlessly nodded his head, watching as she rushed off towards the other Prefects. He knew what the conversation would consist of, having been subjected to it many times before.
Author's Note: Alright, once more I want to apologise for the long wait, and the short chapter. I had to restart this like five times because my daughter wiped my hard drive, then my computer broke, then I didn't like the opening. I finally settled on this one. I hope that next chapter might be longer, but I kind of also think that the shorter chapters are easier to read.
As I stated before, if you review, I will send you the first two pages of the next chapter before I post it online. :)
Also, Mila is my OC and you will learn of her heritage. I am taking some liberties here!
Mila Reeves
