June 1986
The Hogwarts Express sat abandoned in the silence of a dark meadow. The train was no longer red; it was black and gray, covered in thick layers of mud from the assault. Mud surrounded the train and covered four miles of the tracks that lead back to Hogsmede. Mud hung from the undersides of the train cars and coated the wheels, axles, and bearings. Pieces of shattered glass were mixed in the mud and scattered through the grass around the train. The roof of one of the train cars had collapsed from the weight of the mud during the attack. Two students had died inside. One had been crushed. The other had suffocated.
The wind howled across the meadow and pulled at the curtains that hung inside the train compartments. Light came from Dumbledore and Moody's wands. The train conductor and Hagrid walked ahead of them, carrying lanterns.
Abandoned luggage, covered in mud, spilled out of the train cars. Hagrid bent down and picked up a crushed container of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beams. He wiped off the mud covering the label and swore. When he had arrived to help recover the bodies of the five students killed in the attack, he had cried. One of the students had been a First Year, a small girl named Raye. He had carried her on his shoulder once, when she was lost on the grounds after a flying lesson. Hours ago, he had carried her lifeless body, closed her eyes, and watched her parents as their world collapsed.
The conductor pointed beneath a train car. "See this here? The way the wheels and axles are warped? It almost overturned."
Moody walked between two train cars and stepped over the coupling. He had already pulled and examined the conductor's memories. He wanted to recover the memories from the trolley witch, if he could. She was missing. The conductor had last seen her on top one of the train cars during the attack, casting shields and screaming Confringo at the sky.
"At some point," the conductor had told Moody, "she must have been knocked off."
And dragged beneath the train.
Moody pulled an arm and part of a shoulder out from beneath the train car. There wasn't any sign of the head, or the rest of the body. Dried blood covered the side of the train car, illuminated in the light from Moody's wand. He used the levitation charm to raise the arm and shoulder over the coupling and dropped the body parts at the conductor's feet.
"That her?"
The train conductor leaned over and retched on the ground. Once he emptied his stomach, he dry heaved a few times before he said, "That's her. All the bracelets."
In the conductor's memories, Moody had watched something move in the storm. Whatever it was weaved in and out of the downpour of mud, but nothing was clear enough to identify. The conductor hadn't seen what, or who, the trolley witch had been screaming at, her cast spells mixing with the lightning and blocked from view by the torrential mud. The conductor had focused on keeping the train upright and intact, casting his own shields and tearing through the onslaught.
Moody walked alongside the train. He had expected to find more, but whoever attacked the train hadn't left anything behind apart from train cars filled with mud and death.
Hagrid started to collect the abandoned luggage. The conductor joined him. Hagrid would take the luggage home, clean it, and get it back to the students. They should have their things. When he found the luggage that belonged to the dead, he would use extra care to clean it and return it to the families.
Dumbledore reached down and collected a handful of dried mud. He squeezed it in his palm until it disintegrated and spilled out through his fingers.
No one is safe. And you can't protect your own students.
Moody joined Dumbledore. "It doesn't fit the patterns of the previous killings."
"Is that all you got from this?" Dumbledore asked. The rage built inside of him like it had in the Wizengamot dungeon. "You and the rest of the Aurors are no better than the damn Ministry."
Dumbledore didn't have time to react. Moody grabbed him and pulled hard. He was on the ground, choking, with Moody's wand pressed into his throat. The light at the end of the wand took on a red tint.
"Don't make me your fucking enemy, Albus."
Dumbledore stuck out his hand and hit Moody with a concussive wave of force.
"Stupefy!" Moody said as he flew backwards, but Dumbledore had already torn his wand out of his hand.
Moody landed hard.
"This is what they want, Albus! For us to be fucking divided!"
Dumbledore let the rage build inside his body. The force of it traveled down his arms and his hands blazed white and red. The ground shook beneath him.
"You were right, Alastor," Dumbledore said. "You are one of the fucking too old ones. You can't do a damn thing to stop the killings."
Moody stood and looked at the energy collected in Dumbledore's fists. "They won't need to attack if we kill each other!"
Dumbledore released whatever held his mind together and embraced madness. Bright flames erupted from his hands. He turned and ignited the closet train car.
Moody rushed him, but he couldn't break through whatever force field surrounded Dumbledore.
He's got my fucking wand.
Hagrid and the conductor forgot the luggage and ran toward Dumbledore and Moody.
Dumbledore turned and set the next car on fire, his eyes filled with flames. "Did you collect enough evidence, Alastor?! Did you see enough to satisfy your curiosity?!"
"Albus, stop!"
"Five students died on this fucking train," Dumbledore said. "I'm not stopping."
Flames poured between Dumbledore and the train. The cars heaved and twisted from the heat. Metal gave way.
The fire spread through the cars. Dumbledore lifted himself into the air and flew above the burning train. He stopped over the engine and covered it with flames.
"No! Albus!"
The engine exploded.
The blast knocked Moody unconscious.
When he woke up, Hagrid supported his head and Dumbledore was gone.
