Chapter #10: Exploding Snap

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Sorry.

"No," Harry breathed, staring at the raging fire behind them, "No," And with that, he ran out of the engine room toward the back of the train, ignoring Lily and everyone else who tried to talk to him on the way. Finally, he reached the last car still attached to the train, where, to his eternal shock, relieved laughter reached his ears.

"We did it!" a familiar voice roared, right before Harry felt three bodies slam into him, all cheering and yelling at the top of their voices, "We did it! We did it!"

Harry looked at his friend's disguised faces in surprise, "But you… how did you… what…?"

Ginny laughed gleefully, "It was brilliant, Harry! You should have seen it!"

"Death Eaters got onto the last car a little bit after you left Harry," Hermione explained, her eyes shining, "So I got everyone onto the next car while Ron and Ginny held the Death Eaters back,"

"It was amazing! You should have seen us, Harry! We were amazing!" Ron crowed triumphantly.

"Anyway," Hermione continued, beaming, "More and more Death Eaters got onto the last cars, so I decided to bring everyone to this car and hold the Death Eaters off there, and we did! With a little help, of course. And then, when the train began to move…"

Ginny cut in, "Hermione severed the cars off of the main train and when the Death Eaters tried to get back to us, they somehow ended blowing themselves up! Stupid gits," Ginny said the last part with a little bit of fondness.

"So… so everyone's okay?" Harry asked desperately.

At Ginny, Ron and Hermione's enthusiastic nods, he sunk to the ground, "Thank God,"

"How'd the train driver take the change of plans?" Hermione asked once Harry's face regained some color, "Ours didn't like…"

Suddenly, Harry jumped to his feet, "Aiyana!" He'd completely forgotten about the girl in his panic.

"What?" Ron frowned, obviously baffled.

Harry began to make his way back down the train, squeezing between the people in the still-crowded corridor.

"You know that cart I ran into on the station?" Harry called over his shoulder.

"Yeah. You knocked the poor girl's belongings everywhere," Ginny's voice floated to him moments before Ginny herself came up beside him.

"Right. Well, that's Aiyana Ingalls. Her sister is Mrs. Lovegood," Harry threw a significant look over his shoulder to Ron and Hermione before continuing, "Anyway, the driver was dead and I couldn't figure out how to work the train. Luckily, Aiyana knew, or else…"

"Harry!" Lily suddenly appeared in his path, "Is everything okay? What happened to the—"

"We're all fine. The only people in the last two cars were Death Eaters and… well, let's just say they did our job for us," Ginny smirked, looking thoroughly pleased with herself.

Lily looked only slightly less worried, but nodded all the same, "Well, that's… great, Ginny. So, now what?" she asked, looking at Harry expectantly.

Harry felt a twinge of annoyance. How was he supposed to know what to do next? He was just a seventh like her, not to mention a 'new' seventh year. She was Head Girl. Figuring things like that out was supposed to be her job, not his.

"I'm not sure," Harry said a bit coldly, "We should probably find some adult who knows what they're doing to ask…" Couldn't these people fix their own problems? He thought angrily, but then Harry backtracked. It was his mother he was talking to after all, even if she was being a bit annoying. "Good job with rounding everyone up by the way. You were fantastic," Harry sent his mother a small smile, trying not to think of the doe Patronus. He could figure that out later. Lily, meanwhile, returned the smile triumphantly.

"Well, I had a load of help of help, but we did pretty well for a bunch of seventh years, didn't we?"

"It was seventh years who pulled this off? Did any sixth years help?" Ron asked with a deliriously happy look on his face, "Excellent! And everyone's always saying that Harry's the exceptionnot the rule. Wait until I tell Mum ordina—" Ron trailed off awkwardly. Harry could have hit his friend, but, luckily, Lily gave him a curious look, but didn't say anything.

"Anyway, we really ought to be going… need to check on Aiyana and all…" Harry said vaguely as he continued to make his way down the corridor, leaving a confused Lily behind. However, Harry had only made it several feet before he was once again bombarded by bodies.

"That was brilliant, mate!" James laughed, as he untangled himself from the upright pile of bodies.

"Amazing," Sirius agreed, beaming down at the slightly bewildered Harry.

What were they talking about? He hadn't done anything that great that they'd know about, had he?

"They mean your plan," Remus clarified, grinning widely himself.

"Yeah! It was really smart of you," Wormtail piped up, looking just as excited and happy as his friends.

"Er, thanks?" Harry said awkwardly.

"We were enlisted by Lily," James said his future wife's first name with a great deal of pride, "to get people on the train,"

"Great… now, if you'll excuse us…" Harry pushed passed the Marauders, for the first time not caring who they would turn out to be. He wanted to get out of the hall and they were in his way.

"What're we gonna do next?" Sirius hollered after him.

"I dunno! Figure it out!" Harry shot back, irritated.

He continued to march on. However, he, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were stopped three more times: twice by people who had fought with Ron, Hermione and Ginny and once more by some Mary McDonald who was looking for Lily. When they finally reached the engine room, all Harry wanted to do was go back to bed. Today had been long enough, thank you very much.

"Oh, hello Harry. Wasn't sure if you were going to come back or not," Aiyana said brightly, "I'm glad you did though. Did you find out what happened to the last two cars? Is everyone alright?"

"Yes," Hermione said cheerfully, "Everyone's fine, except for the Death Eaters. I'm Hermione Granger by the way,"

"Aiyana Ingalls. Nice to meet you, Hermione," Aiyana smiled, all the while giving Hermione an assessing look.

Harry started, suddenly remembering his manners, "Oh! Right. Aiyana, that's my twin sister, Hermione, and my friends, Ron Westley and Ginny Wheeler. Guys, this is Aiyana Ingalls,"

"Pleasure," Aiyana answered simply before turning back to look out the front window at the speeding landscape.

"So," Ginny began conversationally, "How did you know how to drive the train? It was so lucky you could otherwise I think we may have been dead meat back there otherwise,"

"Oh," Aiyana shrugged, "I always say up here with Bernie," she gestured sadly at the dead driver, "And he taught me. I don't think he would have minded dying on the train, though I have to say it is sort of creepy having him here with us. Do you think we could move him?"

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny all jumped.

"Of course," Harry said quickly, "Ron, help me? We can move him into a compartment or something…" Just like with Dobby, Harry didn't think it would be right to just magic the driver, Bernie he corrected himself, somewhere. So, together, he and Ron lifted Bernie and stumbled out the door.

When the other passengers discovered they had a dead body, they quickly pointed them to a compartment. Inside it, two more bodies had been gently placed on the seats. One was the elderly man Harry had seen fighting at the window. The other was a student, who could have only been about thirteen. Harry and Ron quickly left the compartment after they had placed Bernie down beside them. Harry pushed the sight of the bodies out of his head. He didn't want to think about that. He and Ron then walked back to the engine room in silence.

When they got there, Hermione and Aiyana were having an in depth discussion about how the train worked and how magical trains were different than muggle ones. Ginny was just watching them with an amused look on her face. Harry caught her eye and grinned. Ginny rolled her eyes in reply and then reached into her torn and bloody jean pocket to pull out a deck of cards.

"Exploding Snap, anyone?" She asked lightly.

I gave Death and Luck triumphant looks as I walked around the gaping Head Honchos and pushed my stunned Father out of the way. Then, gently stirring around the sand, I pulled up another, different image.

"Exploding Snap?" Lily said faintly, "They were playing Exploding Snap?"

"Uh-huh," James replied from where he had sprawled himself on the seat across from her.

Lily was in something near shock. She wasn't sure if it was truly shock, but it was certainly close to it.

"You positive this is the same guy who just seriously saved our butts?" Mary McDonald, Lily's best friend, asked incredulously.

"I think so," Lily said dazedly, looking around the compartment she, Mary and the Marauders had claimed as their own for the strange train ride. The window had been smashed and the far upper right corner had been blasted away, letting the cold air come seeping in. However, it was one of the compartments with the least damage so they had chosen it to hold their 'meeting'.

"Maybe it was actually your idea Evans, but you were too—" Sirius began from where he sat sprawled next to James.

"No," interrupted Lily sharply, "It wasn't me. But… Exploding Snap?" She asked helplessly.

"Yep," Remus said dryly from where he say on the floor, leaning against the door to the rest of the train, "The person who saved us all doesn't care how we handle this whole mess and is instead playing Exploding Snap with Ron and Ginny while Hermione talks with…" Remus crinkled his nose in thought, "Alanna Ingalls, I think, about trains,"

Peter grimaced, "I hate trains,"

For some reason Lily could not understand, Sirius let out a bark of laughter at this strange comment. When Lily gave him a bewildered look, he ignored her and turned to Peter, "I can understand why! I'd hate 'em too if I were you," Sirius grinned.

Peter just shuddered.

"So, what're we going to do?" Mary asked, "Now that we know Granger and his friends are playing cards?"

There was a moment of long silence. Lily racked her brains all the while desperately wishing that Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny had at least pretended to care; at least pretended to want to help instead of being completely dismissive with a flippant 'find an adult'. Lily seriously doubted that Harry ever had much use for adults and wouldn't have asked them for help had he cared about what was happening at all.

"I guess we should probably alert Dumbledore and the Ministry," Lily finally said slowly.

"Great," James smiled, "Anyone have an owl?"

Lily's heart sunk. The compartment was silent.

My work room, however, was not. In fact, it was almost as if it had turned into a zoo.

"I can't believe it didn't hit him! How could it not have hit him?" Death whined.

"I don't know!" Luck snapped, looking just as annoyed, "I gave him all the bad luck I could,"

"You did what?" Dad boomed angrily, finally breaking out of his reverie but not managing to look even the least bit frightening.

"Ha, ha!" I gloated before turning to Serendipity, my very new best friend, "Thank you ever so, Serendipity, my girl. I regret not listening to you,"

Serendipity just grinned, "No harm, no foul,"

"Excellent! Then will you join in my quest to stop Death? Well," I considered, "At least temporarily?"

Death's mouth dropped open in shock as Serendipity said, "Done,"

We shook hands. Death swore. I smirked and life was good until Destiny (the fat cow) decided to interrupt.

"And what about showing us the culprit, hmm?" Destiny demanded angrily.

"Erm… Dad can do it!" I suddenly announced, pushing my surprised father forward, "But what about the world? I need to…"

"Figure out how it came to be. That's right!" I beamed as Fate and Destiny led him to the other side of the work room. I smiled with satisfaction. Now if I could just keep Harry from dying, life would be good again.

A/N: Eek! Long wait. Sorry about that everybody! Anyway, this is pretty much a filler chapter with maybe a couple plot points and stuff. Anyway, if you could please review even if it's just to yell at me for how long this took, I would really, really appreciate it. Anyway, I'll try to update pretty soon. Anyway, thanks a ton for those who reviewed last chapter, the people who offered to be my beta and the people who are now beta-ing this! I really, really appreciate it!

One Beta's Note: I MrPowell hereby claim all responsibility for this wonderful chapter being late. ducks arrows and random other objects