Chapter 21: Caught and Cornered

Ron had never been on a real muggle train, and while one would expect him to be excited and asking stupid questions about muggles, he wasn't. He just could not get the gloomy feeling off of himself, nor the anxious one that seemed to follow him around. He was also completely bored; the train compartment he was in was cramped and the seat wasn't all that comfortable. They had been on the train for what seemed to be hours but he knew it had only been half-an-hour or so.

Ron shifted again, trying to find a more comfortable position but failed miserably. In the compartment with him were Hermione, Harry, Ginny, George, Neville and his daughter, and also Andrea; they had all been delegated to share one compartment while the older adults had the one next to them. They were all silent as a foreboding mood continued to settle upon them, oppressing all conversation that they might have. Ron was facing foreword and against the wall and sitting next to him was Hermione. She, like the rest of them, had spoken little since yesterday. There seemed little to actually talk about, except for Voldemort and Harry's recent vision, which they all did not wish to get into.

Having slept badly the previous night Hermione dosed on and off every five minutes or so, but then would jar herself back awake. In the very back of her mind, she was expecting at any moment for a vampire to jump at them, from out of nowhere. She kept a weary eye at the door to their compartment when she was not dosing off.

It wasn't far from the city of Warwick but because the train took a roundabout route to actually get there, it was taking longer than one would expect. They were about 45 minutes into their journey when Hermione had to use the loo. She was dreading using the small loo on the train; it would be cramped, and by all interaction with public loos, she figured it wouldn't smell very good. She got up, said she would be back in a few minutes, and left the compartment, her wand tucked in her pocket. Hermione passed several compartments before she got to the loo, and thankfully it wasn't occupied. After she was done and washing her hands with the anti-bacterial soap that had been provided in a metal dispenser secured to the wall, she felt a sudden jolt of the train; she gasped at the jolt and waited for another, it was as if someone had put on the brakes and then had immediately changed his mind about the brakes and went back to going full speed. She had dried her hands on a paper towel and was just about to open the door when felt it again, but this time the jolt was far more jarring and Hermione lost her balance and hit the wall with a thud. She hit her head and saw stars for a moment. She took a couple of deep breaths and was able to clear her head with a spell.

She opened the door to the loo and saw that several of the other train's passengers had their compartment door open and were talking to each other, wondering what the jolts had been. There was another jolt. This one completely knocked Hermione down on her bum. After the jolt there was no smooth going again like there had been after the first two jolts, instead the train was now putting on its brakes with alarming pressure. She could hear the screeching of the wheels on the rails as the man in charge put on the emergency brake. It was after they had come to a complete stop, when Hermione was able to get to her feet with the help of a middle-aged man with graying hair. She said thank you and nearly ran down the corridor to get back to her own compartment.

When she got there, most of them were all lingering by the compartment door or in the hall.

"What's going on?" Hermione asked, clutching Ron's arm, as she huffed a bit from her run.

"We don't know yet, Dad just went to see what those jolts were. Are you okay?" Ron asked her, looking at her worriedly.

Hermione assured him that she was fine and let go of his arm, realizing that Mrs. Weasley was looking at her strangely. She blushed a bit and took a part of a step away from him so that she was not pressed against him.

Harry was near Ginny, just on the other side of Ron, and he was looking agitated.

"I've got a bad feeling about this…" Harry said, to them all, dead serious and looking somehow pained.

They all turned to him and Mrs. Weasley broke her gaze from Hermione and he son, to look at Harry worriedly.

"Dear, I'm sure it's fine…"

"No," Harry said firmly, "it is not fine. Why would anything that happened around me ever be fine?"

They all shared a look, Remus, biting his lower lip, as he normally did when something of worry was on his mind. Tonks' straight black hair seemed to lose its glisten as she watched Remus bite his lip. She knew him well enough to know how worried he really was.

"Your father should have been back by now," Mrs. Weasley whispered, looking around for him.

"Alright, Molly I'll go find him, the rest of you get off of the train," Remus said, looking determined.

"But Remus…"

"Harry's right. This is bad, how could it not be? Get off of the train any way that you can," Remus said.

He had turned around to leave to go find Mr. Weasley when Tonks suddenly grabbed his arm. Everything was falling to pieces, she had been planning to tell him that he was going to be a dad when they got to Warwick, but now she had the horrifying feeling that she was never going to see him again.

"I'll be fine," he whispered, and threw all past secrets (trying to keep their relationship away from the rest) to the wind and took her by the shoulders and kissed her.

He pulled away and hurried off, leaving Tonks close to tears; she turned around after he left to face the rest, they all looked a bit embarrassed but made no mention of the kiss.

"Come on let's get out of here."

Remus made his way down the train, becoming more and more anxious as he jogged down the corridor. Like Harry had thought, something was gravelly wrong; there was no one in this part of the train, not one single muggle was in their compartment. He hurried even more, hoping that soon he would spot a sign of Arthur; he saw none.

He came to a closed door, leading from one part of the train to the other. He shivered when he saw that there was smoke curling from between the door and the floor. Remus preformed a bubblehead charm and few other anti-fire spells before he tried to open the door. When he opened it, smoke seemed to spill out in waves, but there was no sign of fire. He looked around, his vision cutting through the thick smoke, searching for a sign of Arthur. Thankfully he was not in that part of the train, so Remus continued on. He found the source of the smoke in the next part of train, that particular part of completely ablaze, fire creeping up the walls and to the ceiling. The heat was horrible and Remus felt sweat dripping down his face.

He searched for Arthur and found him slumped down in one of the seats. Mr. Weasley was lying partly on the floor and partly on a fabric covered seat. Remus rushed over to him, thankful to see that the fire had yet to get to him, but it was getting closer, slowly burning its merry way toward him. He checked for a pulse, and he sighed with relief when he found one, it was faint, but there all the same.

Remus had just begun to lift him when he heard a sudden sound of rustling behind him; he turned quickly, wand at the ready. What he saw he had never even seen in his nightmares. It was hunched over, drool dripping to the floor, it stood at about five feet, and it looked like a cross between a wolf and a human; it reminded Remus horribly of his own transformations, as if it was in the middle of turning into a werewolf, but it hadn't quite made it all of the way.

The creature was looking at him curiously, as if it couldn't quite make out what he was. But before it could make up his mind, Remus quickly cursed it, and the creature fell over, landing in the approaching flames. He turned back and lifted Arthur up and with the older man steady in his arms; he made his way toward the ajar door. He left that room and walked through the smoke filled one and back into the smoke-free part of train; he put Arthur back down, propping him up against a wall, took off the charms he had placed on himself, and bent down to where are the other man was, looking over him carefully. Arthur thankfully didn't acquire any burns or other outward signs of injury, which made Remus believe that he had breathed in too much smoke, causing his unconsciousness. Not knowing exactly what to do, Remus cast another bubblehead charm, this time on Arthur, hoping that the purest air would help him breath.

Remus looked around, again noticing that very strangely, there was not a sign of any living soul; no muggles rushing around, no muggle officials with hoses to put out the fire. What he had been hoping against was clearly coming true, the fire and the reason why the train had stopped, were all made by Death Eaters. He again lifted Arthur and tried to find his way out, his eyes open for Death Eaters or any more of those creatures. He finally reached their own compartment, and was thankful that they had all gotten off of the train; all of the muggles too were gone. It was then that he saw a partially open outside door, where they had all exited the train; he headed for that door, but was stopped suddenly in his tracks by a laugh.

"Hello, Lupin…"

Remus turned around, Arthur still unconscious, and faced the Death Eater behind him. It was the Death Eater Avery, his gray cloak on but no mask. Remus knew Avery quite well, they had dueled several times before, once on a rescue mission to help several Order members, another rescue mission when Harry had been captured, and then when Hogwarts had been taken by Voldemort.

"Pleasure to see you again Lupin."

Remus didn't answer back, instead his mind was racing to find a way out of train with out dieing in the process.

"Are you not going to answer me, werewolf? Your manners always seemed a bit better, what would your half-blooded whore say?"

Remus's blood boiled, how could they possibly know about him and Tonks? Unless she had been captured and the Death Eaters had tortured it out of her…

"Go to Hell," Remus hissed.

It was then that the hairs on the back of Remus's neck seemed to prickle and stand up on end, there was someone else there, and he was no normal Wizard or Muggle. The Death Eater didn't seem to have any idea that there was someone else there at all, in fact he just sneered at Remus.

"Oh, so the werewolf does spea-," Avery started to say but then was cut off by a curse from the left.

Remus's wand was trained at the left part of the corridor, waiting for who ever or what ever had curses Avery. It was just a second later that a tall figure stepped out of the shadows, looking pleased with himself. Remus recognized him immediately; it was Derek, the vampire who had saved Hermione from the rest of his kind.

The two did not speak for several long moments, as they sized each other up. Remus's senses were heightened due to the fast approaching full moon and he could almost smell the hesitation around him.

"Derek… What are you doing on this train?" Remus asked, slowly lowering his wand.

The vampire looked at him with his pale green eyes. "Apparently saving you," he answered simply.

"You knew that the Death Eaters were coming, didn't you," Remus said, Arthur still unconscious and hanging from his arm.

"Yes. Now come, Potter and the rest are in trouble."

They left Avery where he was, Derek saying that there was no use in killing him; Remus doubted this but decided to trust the vampire. Derek helped him get Arthur off of the train and down onto the soggy ground and then they too got off. They had just begun to walk away when there was a sudden deafening boom. Remus whirled around and watched, shocked as the train suddenly exploded. While Remus looked shocked, Derek seemed unfazed.

The area of Britain that they were traveling through was predominantly agricultural, which meant there was a lot of dairy farms. The train tracks meandered through the rolling hills and sometimes through patches of wooded lands. Hermione was thankful of only one thing: that they weren't near any Muggles who could get caught in the crossfire. Hermione's back was pressed up against a tree trunk as she gasped for breath, looking down in horror at the sight of the dead vampire who had taken her ages to kill. Around her everyone was dueling, them against the Death Eaters and a few vampires. It was a battle that would be difficult to win, but at least it was possible, they were evenly matched against Voldemort's groupies.

Hermione could only catch her breath for a moment before she back in the fight, this time with a Death Eater who had clearly needed braces as a teenager. They threw curses back and forth, the Death Eater sneering at her with hatred in his eyes. It was not a curse from Hermione's wand that brought down that particular Death Eater but a falling tree, hit by a stray curse.

"Hello Aphrodite, have you missed me?" a sudden voice whispered behind her.

Hermione's very blood ran ice cold and her heart stopped and froze. She heard that voice in her nightmares, taunting her and then the fangs sinking into her skin. Hermione whirled around so fast that her long hair flew behind her like a banner, and she faced the vampire. He had not changed at all; his face was still thin and altogether pointy, like a rat. She only knew that the vampire's name was Adeben and that apparently he remembered her.

"I told you I would be back. Why did you run from me?" he hissed, and in the midst of the dueling going on around them, time seemed to stop as he touched her cheek with an icy hand.

Hermione's mind screamed at her to do something, to run, to fight, and to curse, but she could not move; she was numb all over, as if the blood had stopped running through her veins. Adeban smirked down at her, strangely not blinking as he did so, and licked his thin red lips.

"Don't you fucking touch her."

The voice that came from behind the vampire, snapped Hermione out of her heavy daze, and caused her to jerk back. She took a few hasty steps backward and tripped on an exposed root, falling on her rear.

The vampire quickly turned around and with a menacing growl pounced, a lot like a cat would have. Hermione saw a flash of red hair and thought it was Ron again coming to her rescue, but instead it was George, looking far angry than she had ever seen him. She scrambled to her feet, but was shaking so badly that she could not find her wand where it had apparently dropped to the ground.

George moved out of the way with surprising speed as the vampire charged at him. The vampire had a wand out but had apparently forgotten how to use it because he had not even made an attempt to curse George. George also had no wand but a short wooden stake, pointed at the end like a sharp knife. His large hands were grasping the stake tightly, his knuckles white as he gritted his teeth. George found his mark and charged at the vampire, the stake pointed at the creature's heart; the vampire had expected this though and jumped sideways, George skidded passed him and slammed into a tree with a sickening crunch. The vampire stalked toward the dazed red head and grabbed a hold of his gray shirt and dragged him backwards, George now struggling. He got a grasp of the vampire's long sleeve, and pulled with everything he had; the vampire went tumbling over him and landed on his back, just near George's feet. George was on his feet so fast that the vampire didn't have time to react before the stake was being driven into his heart. The vampire seized up, becoming rigid, and the vampire gasped and gagged, unable to take in air. The vampire died there as George rushed to Hermione's side.

While George had been fighting with the vampire Hermione had collapsed, all of the fight and energy having been drained from her, and while she lay there, on her side amongst the leaves, she watched as Neville dueled with a man. And through Hermione's foggy brain she realized that for some reason it looked familiar. She realized only later that one of her visions had come true. She was partially snapped out of her daze by the touch of George's hand on her arm, he asked her if she was all right. Hermione gave a choked yes. She felt strange, like a part of her was oddly missing…

The others were soon at her side, miraculously none of them were hurt, and asking what happened. Ron arrived, and he looked scared out of his wits. He pushed the others aside and asked, his voice showing how frightened he really was, "are you alright love?"

She just nodded and threw her arms around him, sobbing. It was then that Remus arrived with Arthur, now revived and running behind him. With them was also Derek, looking at Adeban curiously. It was also then, as Arthur went around, making sure his family and friends were all right, they realized that in the fray, one of them had gone missing. They looked around for Ginny, but never found her. They looked high and low, and preformed a locating spell, the spell had no affect.

Ginny had either gotten separated from the others in the wood, or, none of them even wanted to think it, captured. Harry became so frustrated that he punched a nearby tree, breaking his hand and causing him to scream out in pain. With more Death Eaters approaching they stopped their search and apparated away to Derek's hide out, to the coast of Southern England.

A/N: Well, intense stuff or what? I had a blast writing this chapter (I always like doing action stuff) and I hope you all had a blast reading it too. ;) This story is coming to a close now with about 10 chapters left (or so, it might be more or it might be less) so, please let it go out with a bang, by reviewing! My stats say that 107 people visited or read the last chapter, and only 3 people reviewed (thank you to those people), so please everyone review!

Thanks to my beta fanfictionsissy, as always!