The Mysterious Department
Arc Two- The Mystery Continues
Chapter Twelve: A Choo Choo we Go
"Why are we taking the train today?" Hermione asked as she watched the landscape around her blur, chin propped on her fist in dull nature. Compared to all the magical ways they could travel, why this?
Bellatrix turned the page of the paper she was heavily invested in. "Because."
"That's not an answer."
"Yes, it is."
"Not a very good one."
Bellatrix glared at Hermione over the top of her paper. "I'm trying to read here. I don't need you pestering me like a petulant child. You should be quite happy I even bothered to take you on this case."
"Yes, why did you," Hermione perked up at this point, her ever curious mind hungry for details. "I thought you were going to suspend me?"
Bellatrix rolled her eyes. And did not answer.
Hermione grew smug at this. "Ah, so you tried but it didn't work, did it?"
"Kingsley wouldn't let me, saying I had to take you on cases," she said from the side of her mouth unhappily. "But this doesn't mean you get to help. Stay out of the way and let me do my job."
Hermione's brows pinched at this. Why was Bellatrix so stubborn on this? It was annoying. So what if she wanted to protect Hermione. Hermione wanted to protect her. It was what being partners was all about.
"Could you at least tell me what we're doing here?"
Bellatrix gave her a sharp look, like Hermione was obtuse for asking this. "We're looking for an artifact, naturally."
"What kind? Did Luna leave a note for us about it?"
Bellatrix held up the slip of paper with the information on it between two slim fingers. Hermione immediately lunged for it, knowing it wouldn't be handed over to her other wise. Bellatrix was expecting that and shifted so that Hermione's hands met nothing but air. "Give me that," Hermione huffed as a foot was planted firmly in her abdomen, keeping her grasping hands away as Bellatrix held the paper over their heads.
At last Hermione gave up, sitting back down in her seat, red faced and annoyed. "Honestly, you're like a child."
Bellatrix stuck out her tongue at this for good measure. Hermione glowered at her and folded her arms over chest. Bellatrix was not distracted by this, raising her newspaper up higher and Hermione glared at that, hoping she could bore a hole into it with her heated glaring.
They sat in silence, the only sound the clacking of the train on the tracks. A women passed by with a train cart full of snacks and drinks. Hermione decided to get some, only so she could have something to do. But once she bought some chips and a water and the lady had left, Bellatrix smacked the items out of her hands.
"What are you doing?" Hermione grumbled.
"Don't eat these. There's an artifact on the train. We don't know what it could have affected or what it is," she stressed.
Well, at least now Hermione knew that Bellatrix didn't have any better of an idea about what the hell this object was. They were both in this together. "Why couldn't you have told me this before I spent my food?"
Bellatrix gave Hermione a smug smirk before burying her face into the paper once more. Hermione slumped back into her seat. Nice. So Bellatrix was taking out her frustrations about Hermione not being suspended out on Hermione by being as annoying as humanely possible.
If that was the case, Hermione could be irritating too.
"How long are we going to ride this train?"
No answer.
"Your paper sucks."
Silence.
"You're so annoying. I dislike you."
Still nothing.
Hermione threw her hands up in the air. She gave up. She didn't have the stamina to remain bothering someone. She got up, deciding to go to the restroom.
It was at the end of the cart and she locked herself in so she could splash some water on her face. She wouldn't be surprised if when she came out, Bellatrix was gone, happy to leave Hermione behind.
She looked herself in the mirror, eyes hard. If Bellatrix insisted on not having her help, then Hermione would do things herself. After all, had she not handled the basilisk case perfectly fine? She left the bathroom and decided she would look through each cart for what the object was. She cast the artifact locator spell discreetly, for this train contained muggles and wizards, and found to her disappointment it fizzled out. She had never seen it do that before and she cast it several more times, each time it fizzling out. Was it malfunctioning? Or was the artifact simply not on this train? Still, best to check it out by hand.
So, it would be examining each cart carefully then, to see if anyone was acting odd or if something was out of place. She began walking through the carriages so she could get to the last wagon where the luggage was. On the way no one stopped her, and so unimpeded she lit the tip of her wand and began to comb through the suitcases, which were all arranged neatly.
She felt like she had wasted her time when she couldn't find anything odd. From there she went from passenger cart to passenger cart, checking to see if anyone was acting oddly or talking about something that raised red flags. The cabin Bellatrix had been sitting in was empty, which made Hermione feel better for wandering around.
Then the brunette detective went to the dining cart, which was stationed almost in the middle of the train wagons. The wonderful smell of food wafted up to her nose. She was a bit peckish and Bellatrix had smacked her snacks away. Hermione figured, what could it hurt if she had something to eat? Surely the artifact couldn't affect the food. She ordered a sandwich and sat at the bar, watching the woman making it.
"Traveling far?" she asked as she made it and Hermione shook her head. "No, not far. Just two or three stops," she said.
"Traveling with anyone?"
"A colleague from work," Hermione said. Her sandwich arrived in front of her and she began to tear into it.
"Enjoy it," the woman said, smiling. "It's got the freshest cuts of meat in it. All natural."
"Thank you," Hermione said and was halfway through it when a hand on her shoulder jerked her out of her attentions.
"You really don't like to listen to me, do you," Bellatrix said sharply and Hermione shot her a nasty look.
"No, not when you're wrong."
Bellatrix snorted to show she didn't think this but she didn't say more on it. "You need to stay put in the cabin-"
"Or I can stay here and enjoy my sandwich, since I'm not supposed to help you anyways," Hermione said with a hint of hurt. "What, are you my baby sitter? Can I not even eat now?"
Bellatrix raised a brow. But she said nothing more, just walked off to the luxury cabin where the bar was and a musician playing some music on a violin.
So infuriating.
Hermione was halfway through her sandwich, absently plotting on what the object could be and what it even did. Did this have to do with the recent string of train murders? About several people on board being found mutilated and with organs missing, the remains of it stuffed into the toilets. They could never find who had done it as there were no prints or any type of evidence at all.
It either was a person who had done this and gone out of their way to venture to several different train routes to do this, or the artifact was on the train- specifically this train as it was the one from the papers- and being activated accidentally. But what object could destroy a human body like that?
And there were no connections between the victims so even if it was a person in charge of this, they didn't know why these people or why these certain train routes. This train had been rerouted several times, but it was always this train that had those bodies on it. It was called a cursed train and attendance of people who used it had dropped. People would rather wait or take more convoluted lines rather than this one. Hermione didn't fault them.
Suddenly all the lights went out.
Passengers gasped and began to whisper, wondering what was going on. Hermione had a feeling Bellatrix was behind this. So much for her being convert. Several seconds later the lights flicked back on. And everything changed.
Hermione's eyes went wide as she saw what the hell was on her plate. It wasn't a sandwich with turkey meat and lettuce, but with a hand. A bloodied, raw hand, and her teeth marks were on it where she had bit into the flesh and eaten it.
She jerked back from the chair so fast it fell on the floor and other people around her began to scream, suddenly awake to the other horrors around. But Hermione was focused on the food. No...no she couldn't have eaten that. She couldn't have. Somebody had to switched it out in the dark. As a sick joke.
She felt queasy.
She looked at the woman who had served it to her. She was nothing but a skeleton.
"What, don't like your fresh meat?" she asked, teeth clacking hideously.
Everything came up at that moment. Hermione closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the bites of flesh that came up with it. Oh Merlin.
She should have listened to Bellatrix. She fucking should have. What the hell was going on here? When nothing else would come up, Hermione shakily got to her feet and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, tasting bile and blood on her tongue. People shoved and pushed around her and she took this time to look around her. Holy hell...what was this?
The tasteful wallpapers were gone, replaced by slimy walls, that moved and pulsating like a giant intestine. The floor was the same texture. The furniture were made from flesh and so were the lamps, some sort of bio-luminescence providing a glow from them.
Was this train alive?
The door snapped open, and Hermione couldn't be happier to see Bellatrix on the other end of it. "What the hell did you do?" Hermione asked. She still had tears in her eyes from the ordeal with the sandwich. She wiped at them hastily so Bellatrix wouldn't see her weak. Bellatrix saw and gave her the look of one who was right. "I felt something was off about the giant chandelier in the middle of the train. Call it a gut instinct. So I attacked it. It turned out doing so turned the glamour off of whatever this is."
"And what is it?" Hermione asked, amidst the chaos around them.
"The train is the artifact," Bellatrix hissed out, eyes going dark.
"How the fuck are we going to fight a whole train?!" Hermione made out through her shock.
"The only way we can. With magic," Bellatrix brandished her wand.
"And what of the people?"
"We ignore them. They'll only get in our way."
"They can get hurt. We should explain to them-"
"No," Bellatrix said callously. "Our first imperative is to get this train out of commission. And everything else goes after that."
Hermione swallowed harshly. "And how do we stop it?"
"Well, since this thing seems to be alive, what better way than to mess with it than to get into the brain of it?" Bellatrix said as she led the way to the front of the train. They edged past panicking people. People trying to get off this train, people sobbing, or people screaming in terror. Hermione felt bad for them. No doubt she wouldn't want to be stuck in a situation like this without explanation.
But she had to stop this train first.
She tried to shake off her lingering revulsion and looked at Bellatrix's strong back in front of her rather than the walls of pulsating nasty around them, holding them in. How strong must the magic have been that it could trick so many people at once? What even was the point of this artifact? To kill people and serve them? She shuddered at this.
"How do you think the train killed the people?" Talking kept her mind off of the horror of their situation.
"I don't know," Bellatrix grunted out. "The most important part is stopping it from hurting anyone anymore." They powered on to the next wagon. "Oh, this isn't good," Bellatrix hissed from between her teeth a second later.
"What. What's happening now?" Hermione blurted out.
"Look."
Hermione looked. "The walls- they're closing in!" Indeed they were, with the intent to crush the people inside. Maybe even to digest them.
"We need to hurry," Bellatrix picked up the pace, running even faster down the halls, shoving people out of the way.
"B-but the people!" Hermione blurted out, waffling in her motions in helping them. She paused only for Bellatrix's hand to find hers and tug her forwards roughly. There was a hint of worry in her dark eyes over Hermione.
"There won't be a way for us to save the people if we don't save ourselves first and stop this train!"
Hermione grit her teeth but she could see the logic in this. She just hoped that they could be fast enough about it.
They burst into the next wagon, space increasingly disappearing. "Almost there!" Bellatrix said, zapping the walls with a bolt of electricity from her wand and making them inch back enough so that they could get to the last door. Bellatrix tugged on the handle only to find it was jammed. "Stand back," she instructed and Hermione did, gulping as the convulsing walls came close once more. If she extended her hand, she could touch them.
"Alohomora!" And the door swung open, allowing the two of them in before shutting behind them. The front of the train was empty, no one there. No one but the brain of the train. The furnace was hot and it swung open, revealing rows of hungry teeth. Eyes formed out of the forward facing windows, angrily glaring at them. Tendrils of flesh erupted from the floor, reaching for them.
Bellatrix was already on the defensive, shooting them down with her wand. Hermione joined her too, though she feared she wasn't much help. She ducked and put up a shield more than she cut them down.
"We need to hit the furnace with the neutralizing spell," Bellatrix roared out. "I'll cover you, you get closer and hit it!"
"Right," Hermione nodded her head grimly, a bit overwhelmed by all this. Not once again did she hanker for the easier days of not having to deal with such bullshit. But, it was almost as if the train could hear them.
There was a great shudder as the train hit something and both Bellatrix and Hermione went flying, crashing into the wall of the train, Hermione smacking right into the black haired witch. Bellatrix was up on her feet right away, Hermione taking a bit longer to get up.
She peered out the unobstructed window that wasn't an eye, and gulped loudly. "Uh, the train just derailed." Her eyes went wide and her throat dried out. "And it's heading towards a cliff!" As if they hadn't had enough to deal with before.
"Shite, you arsehole train!" Bellatrix spat out and ducked the tendril of flesh the train sent at them, trying to get them closer to it's hot billowing mouth. Hot coals spat out of it, sizzling on the floor where they landed. There wasn't enough space around here.
She whipped her wand around her, slicing through the air and cutting through the tendrils.
Hermione readied her wand and began to announce the neutralizing spell, causing her guard to be down. A tendril wrapped around her ankle and lifted her from the ground, holding her upside down.
"Oh, fuck!" Hermione cursed as she found her wand falling from her hand.
"Are you serious!" and Hermione wasn't sure who Bellatrix was yelling that at- the tentacle or Hermione's clumsiness. There was a flash of magic and Hermione fell flat on her face, hurting it. She let out a groan and fumbled for her wand, hastily rising to her feet.
"We're running out of time!" Bellatrix announced. The cliff was getting ever closer. And the train was suffocating the people it had inside it.
"Can't you cast a Fiendfyre and just get rid of it that way?" Hermione poised as she flicked a tendril away from her again. Another one slapped her across the face and she spat out the slimy deposit it had left on her lips.
"Are you an idiot? There's not enough space on this train to do it. I could burn us all up!" Bellatrix said savagely and went into a risky roll, rolling herself closer to the furnace and somehow avoiding most of the mass of the tentacles. One grabbed her by the arm but Hermione was prepared. She zapped it from her spot while Bellatrix stuck her wand right up and uttered the neutralizing spell.
The furnace twisted up, the train weakening. In the other wagons, the walls moved back, releasing the people it nearly tried to digest. But despite this, the train was still going full steam ahead.
The tentacles retreated into the floorboards, allowing Hermione to rush across them to the brake. She pulled the lever down, but nothing happened. So she pulled it up and back down again. Still, no result.
"It's broken!" she cried out in panic.
"I can bloody see that!" Bellatrix hissed out, before quickly shedding her jacket and putting her wand between her teeth.
"What are you doing?" Hermione asked.
"I'm going to stop the train," and then Bellatrix was gone, moving out the window and climbing almost onto the front grill of the train.
"She's bloody insane!" Hermione cried out, hands itching to help her, but not sure how she could. In a burst of adrenaline she decided to follow Bellatrix out, though less elegantly.
She found the woman was hanging off the side, shooting freezing spells at the train wheels. There was a terrifying screech as they froze, Hermione quickly getting the idea and clambering to the other side to do the same. Outside the wind whipped her hair back and forth and she could feel the terrible thrumming of the heavy machinery under her, bringing them closer to the brink. They were less than thirty seconds away from the edge.
Hermione's spells hit and the train began to slow down, but it had too much momentum to stop completely. The wagon's behind it piled up on the front wagon and the ground was ripped up as the train slowed, but still the cliff was coming and they were going too fast.
Hermione panicked. She didn't know what else to do. She was frozen in terror, feeling like the end had arrived.
"Hold onto something!" Bellatrix screamed out over the howling wind and screeching of metal and cast her wand at the space in front of them. Stringy material materialized between the two trees on the edge, catching onto the grill of the train and putting resistance onto it. The train jolted forward harshly as the material stretched but kept the machine put with a tremendous groan, the trees roots ripping out a bit as they were lifted from the dirt, threatening to fall into the water.
Hermione didn't know exactly what happened afterwards, because the huge jolt of the train had been too much for her to hold on. Her grip wasn't strong enough and she was flung off the train, over the material and right over the edge to the water.
"Hermione!" Bellatrix cried out, somehow having managed to stay on the train. But Hermione couldn't even scream, she was so in shock. All she could do was watch wide eyed as the water rushed up to her.
She fell in with a hard impact, the breath getting knocked from her lungs. Dark water covered her head and she couldn't see jack shite. Her wand had been flushed out of her hand and she blindly grasped, as if she could find the surface this way.
But she was lost, lost to the powerful waves and she couldn't breathe. Bubbles escaped from her mouth as she felt the cool and hungry water grabbing her, tugging her down.
The last thought in her head was that maybe Bellatrix had been right in stopping her from going on these cases. She had been over eager to prove herself, and now this was happening. She thrashed in the water, the panic only making it worse. Her vision was blackening. She was so cold.
Her eyes slipped closed.
Hermione could make out muffled screaming, but she couldn't make out what it was saving. Her body felt cold. Heavy. And she couldn't breathe.
But her mouth was warm, and so was her waist. She forced her eyes open a sliver and found herself surrounded by black. Was she still in the water? If so, how was she alive? But then the black moved away and as the curls shifted, Hermione saw that it was Bellatrix. A sodden looking Bellatrix who was straddling Hermione's waist and now was placing her hands on Hermione's chest and pumping rhythmically.
"Come on you idiot, bloody get up," she growled, though it was more of a panicked sound. Hermione's throat gurgled as she felt water harshly moving inside her. All the water she had swallowed. She tried to move her body, find the words to tell Bellatrix she was okay but she couldn't. There was too much water in her and she couldn't breathe right.
When the pumping didn't work, Bellatrix leaned back in once more and did mouth to mouth on Hermione. Hermione's eyes bolted open at this, and she was so shocked. So shocked by the feel of her partner's mouth on hers she inhaled deeply, deep enough that suddenly all the water wanted to come rushing out. Bellatrix pulled back, allowing Hermione to turn her head to the side and cough up the water. It hurt coming up and tears formed in Hermione's eyes.
A not so gentle hand clapped her on the back, helping her cough the rest up. When she was done she sat up, trembling with cold and with what just happened. Oh god. It all felt so surreal.
Bellatrix was next to her, watching with careful eyes. They were guarded now, but Hermione knew she hadn't imagined the panic and concern the dark haired witch had had moments ago. Nor could she forget the way her mouth had felt on Hermione's. If she wasn't so shaken, she would have been blushing right now. But she certainly did notice Bellatrix's soaked through shirt. The white fabric clung to her and did nothing to hide her curves. Hermione averted her gaze, the two of them just sat on the bank of the river, not saying anything to one another.
At last when it didn't burn to breathe, Hermione spoke, arms wrapped around herself to stop the shivering. "What happened?"
Bellatrix snorted, getting up. "I had to save your dumb arse because you clearly couldn't hold on."
"Thank you...for that. I realize you didn't have to do that," Hermione said.
"I couldn't let you die so idiotically. It would make me look bad," the older witch said haughtily, flipping her wet hair over her shoulder. "Go home. I'll handle the clean up for the rest of the case."
"Did we...did we save them?"
"Yes, we did," Bellatrix said, waving her wand and drying her hair and outfit with it. She turned to Hermione and was kind enough to do the same to her. But despite the dry clothing and hair, Hermione felt chilled to the bones by the water. "I couldn't save your wand. You might have to get another one."
"That's alright," Hermione said, getting up. Her voice shook, for she was still in shock over this. "I think I need a nice long nap." And then she allowed Bellatrix to apparate her away, before she went back to the scene of the case, Hermione feeling slightly guilty for leaving Bellatrix behind to clean up the mess, but knowing that she wouldn't be of anymore use to her after this. She went, took a hot shower, drank some hot tea and then crawled into bed, looking up at the ceiling.
The image of Bellatrix straddling her waist, freaking out over her, was something she couldn't forget. Despite everything, Bellatrix had saved her. She didn't have to. But she had. Risking even her own life. Luna had said Bellatrix cared for her, and wanted to protect her, and this was the proof that made Hermione believe it. Believe the fact, even if Bellatrix lamented that she wanted her old partner back, and that Hermione was no one important to her.
Hermione had to find a better way to thank Bellatrix for rescuing her.
And as she drifted off into a fitful slumber, her finger unconsciously traced her lips.
A/N: A kiss that's not a kiss. Certainly will cause some things to change...
So, arc two is done. Arc three will be out in three weeks time on Thursday and will be heavily Bellamione-centric. Finally, some good progress for our leading ladies.
