The Hogwarts Express and the New World
Written By: Tellemicus Sundance
Co-Authored By: Fiori75
Chapter 2: Assemblies of Assumptions

Location: Unknown
Time: 4 minutes after Arrival

"Guys…" Harry said slowly as he sensed Hermione join them at the window to peer outside in confusion. "I…don't think we're in Scotland anymore…"

No sooner had those words left his mouth than did Harry suddenly let out a loud cry of pain. Sharp, fiery agony shot through his head, raking metaphorical claws into his mind. Hands shooting up to cradle the searing spot where the pain was coming from, Harry's cries of pain changed slightly into confused horror for a moment at what he felt there. Something was…moving. It was squirming and pulsing about under his flesh like some kind of disgusting parasitic worm! He lost strength in his legs and dropped down onto his ass, thankfully landing on one of the train cushions and not the glass-covered floor.

Harry was vaguely aware of his friends' questioning and worried voices at his sides, but he just couldn't focus on them. Instead, he was more concerned with the horrid feeling of wriggling and agony that was burning its way outwards from within his skin. The 'closer' the worm thing got to the surface, the more he could feel his skin burning. Given the startled shouts and cries of surprise and disgust that his friends let out, Harry wouldn't have been surprised if the whatever was glowing brightly under his skin as it squirmed about.

Then, he wasn't sure what, he somehow felt something give. A tremendous pressure slammed out of him, pushing his hands away and sending his head jolting backwards. As that happened, a slimy green light burst to life over his head as the burning agony stopped abruptly. The sound of an explosion but with no fire sending wood bursting and splintering outwards went almost unnoticed by Harry as he let out a loud sigh of relief. Now that the experience was over, Harry could place just what kind of sensation he'd just had. It was a feeling akin to popping a pimple. The more pressure that was applied to an afflicted area was exerted, the more painful the feeling of pressure built up under the surface until, in one moment of sharp pain, it was all expelled at once, and was quickly replaced by sweet, sweet relief.

"What the bloody hell was that?!" Ron demanded in a low, cautious voice as he and Hermione both stared up at the blown-out ceiling and section of wall that lie behind Harry.

"I…I don't know," Hermione admitted. "But it was definitely some kind of dark magic. That malignant aura could be nothing else and—Harry! You're bleeding!"

Harry blinked, staring over at Hermione somewhat uncomprehendingly as he continued to somewhat bask in the sweet, sweet sense of relief he was still feeling. With a slow, almost absentminded raise of his hand, he reached up and lightly touched around the area that his famed lightning bolt scar was. Despite feeling no pain whatsoever, he pulled back his fingers to find them bloody. "Oh, uh…? How about that…?"

"Children," the pained voice of Professor Lupin called out from where he was still lying on the floor. Curiously, he had rolled over onto his side and seemed to be trying to stay out of the moonlight for some reason. "I think one of you needs to go and check on the other students. Find a prefect or the Head Boy or Girl. Find out where we are and if anyone knows what happened. Help any students who are hurt."

"What about you, Professor?" Hermione asked, quickly moving over to the man as Ron helped Harry back to his feet. "Anything you want us to do for you? Want us to send someone back here to help you? Maybe bring the prefects or the conductor back here too?"

"No, just… gaaaah," the man groaned out in pain for a long moment. He quickly waved off the trio's approach when he noticed them nearing him. Pushing through the pain, he grunted out, "Just…Find a prefect…and tell the…Head Boy I'm…I'm indisposed for now…"

Hermione nodded quickly to the Professor's words, glancing back at him for a moment before turning and looking at the boys. "Harry, Ron, you go see what you can do about those carriages!" She pointed towards where the train was in an odd position on the cliff. "I'll go try to find Percy."

"That's not what I told you to do!" Lupin barked out. It would've been sternly if the pain hadn't overridden his tolerance.

Harry quickly looked back at the man, what little he could see of him, and saw his twisted leg. The Boy-Who-Lived couldn't help but look away quickly as his face started to pale. Flashbacks of the previous year and having been subjected to Lockhart's tender care shot through his mind.

Hermione only spared the professor a fast glance as she shot back. "Only one of us needs to find Percy. Those students need our help now, or they could die!"

Lupin had no immediate rebuttal, so the trio took his silence as permission and hurried off to their tasks. Once the kids were gone, the professor quickly drew his wand and began casting spells about the carriage in an almost frantic manner. First came a basic Reparo to fix all the damage inflicted upon the carriage around him, then a silencing ward, an area-effect Unbreakable charm upon the walls, ceiling, floor, windows, and door, and finally a basic but powerful locking curse. He'd come to master all of these spells over his life and could do all of them with barely a thought and in just a few short moments. Given his growing panic as he felt his bestial side rapidly rising to the fore, his panic only started to increase. A panic that was compounded further as he felt the wand in his hand rapidly start to burn his palm.

He had to drop his wand and stare at the burn mark on his hand. 'Why now?! The full moon isn't supposed to be tonight!' Looking forlornly up at the night sky, Lupin spotted two full moons and at least two more that were nearly half-moons. Comprehension had just started to settle in on him before a painful transformation started to overwhelm him. 'Multiple moons?! Oh, this is gonna suck!'

Unnoticed by the transforming werewolf, he wasn't entirely alone in that compartment. A fat four-fingered rat was currently hiding underneath one of the trunks.

XxX

Ministry of Magic, London
September 2, 1993

It was organized chaos in the Wizengamot. Everyone was talking to one another. The topic of conversation was the same for all involved and each had their own opinions on the matter. The missing Hogwarts Express and the 367 children aboard suddenly disappearing with only a bizarre ritual site in place had greatly agitated and distressed the many parents and grandparents alike.

What was equally disturbing was how there were still some people missing from this emergency meeting that had been called for late last night. The most prominent of those who were missing were Lucius Malfoy as a representative of the board of governors for Hogwarts, and several other minor administrators who many believed had darker leanings.

There was a slow but steady undercurrent amongst the conversations that seemed to believe that those who were missing were among those responsible for the missing train. Never mind that the number of people missing were wholly incorrect for the amount of sacrifices that had been reported at the ritual site. Still, this did not stop the mob from trying to find justice and throw accusations.

At the ten-minute mark since when the meeting should've started, Augusta Longbottom was the first to stand. "ENOUGH OF THIS! What is being done about this matter?!"

"Madam Longbottom," Cornelius Fudge barked out. "The meeting has yet to begin!"

"And why is that?!" Augusta shot right back.

"W-Well—" Cornelius started.

"Because we're still waiting for your Death Eater spoon-feeder and his lackeys to show up?!"

"Madam Longbottom, you are out of line!" Undersecretary Deloris Umbridge gasped out in seeming affronted shock. "Lucius Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, and Gareth Greengrass were all found innocent of any connection towards He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

"We know damn well what was found!" Augusta snapped back. "And I—!"

She was suddenly cut off as the door to the chamber burst open.

"Many apologies!" a familiar silky voice called out strained and somewhat tiredly.

All heads turned to face the three approaching figures as they trooped inside. Everyone immediately noticed just how uncharacteristically disheveled and dirty Lucius appeared. In fact, his two companions were equally as tired and dirty. They were covered in dust and ash, with minor burn marks and small rips adorning their attire. A few of the closer members of the assembly could somewhat spot small flecks of darkening red in various places upon all three of them as well as having a clinging smell of smoke about them.

Most evident of all was that Lucius Malfoy actually seemed to need the cane that he so proudly carried with him this time.

"Dear Lord, what happened to you three?" Arthur Weasley demanded, looking almost startled at his hated rival's appearance.

"We were having a private investigation involving this matter with the Express," Malfoy responded in a surprisingly blunt manner as they made their way to their seats.

"And what gave you three the right to pursue this matter?" Amelia Bones demanded hotly. As the Director and Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, her being displeased with vigilantes was understandable, even when outside her bias towards the three.

"The fact that all three of our sons have gone missing isn't enough?" Lucius reposted curtly.

"Did you learn anything?" Fudge asked inquisitively, hoping to divert anymore discussion on the topic of Death Eaters.

"Nothing satisfactory," Malfoy answered. "The greatest broker of information on these matters was surprisingly recalcitrant."

"So, you got nothing out of Greengrass?" Bartemius Crouch demanded.

The three new arrivals almost seemed to blink simultaneously in surprise as they all locked gazes upon the accusing man.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Malfoy replied after a few seconds. "All I know is that whoever did this is a complete unknown."

"Then where is Greengrass?" Crouch pressed.

"You mean he's not here?" Malfoy asked in astonishingly genuine-seeming surprise as he looked about the assembly, seemingly searching for the missing man. "I really have no idea where he could be." Philosophically speaking, he was telling the truth since he honestly had no idea what happened to a person after they died.

"Gentlemen, Madams, let us finally get this meeting underway," Dumbledore called out, having finally spoken up for the first time since arriving. "The assembly knows why it has appeared here today. The Hogwarts Express has gone missing, along with all the souls aboard. We are here to share our findings of the disappearance and decide a way forward. Does anyone wish to take the floor?"

To quite a few peoples' surprise, a grey cloaked figure stepped forward. The cloak was unmistakably that of the Unspeakables. "Chief Warlock," the man said in an indefinable voice. "The Department of Mysteries is willing to share it's findings with the assembly."

"Proceed."

"First, the nature of the ritual site," the man began. "It is still somewhat of a mystery. But from what little we've been able to divine, this was not a typical Death ritual. Yes, the six sacrifices were meant to fuel the ritual. But it was not powered by the death of them, but the fact that there were seven bodies worth of blood available. Upon closer examination of the runes involved, as well as postmortem of the bodies, we believe we've discovered the initiator of the ritual: Adam Tahan."

The Unspeakable paused in his speech to let his words sink in for the audience. Among the various wizards and witches, Lucius Malfoy couldn't help leaning forward slightly against his cane as he contemplated hard on where or if he'd ever heard that name before but kept drawing up a blank. 'Who in Merlin's name is that?!'

"And just who is this 'Adam Tahan?'" Augusta Longbottom demanded.

Before the Unspeakable could answer, a red cloaked Auror spoke up from the side. "According to our own investigations, Tahan is a first-generation immigrant from Alexandria, Egypt. He moved here due to his brother becoming a cursebreaker for Gringotts six years ago. No known jobs and the few people who knew him described him as being a homebody."

"What of his brother?" Augusta pressed.

"That would be…Participant #3 in the ritual," the Unspeakable answered. "Which leads me to my next point. The runes we've found upon the sacrifices seem to all be bastardized versions of Arabic, Mesopotamian, and Sanskrit in nature. As far as we understand it, the ritual itself is derived of Ancient Mesopotamia with the purpose of draining and refining magic. However, the best we can tell is that it creates new life out of death. But as for why they were-"

"Wait!" Goyle shouted in outraged disbelief. "Are you telling me that someone murdered my son to grow trees?!"

"Ahhh…?" the Unspeakable looked momentarily off balance at the unexpected shout. "It would appear so?"

For just a moment, there was a deep and haunting silence that hung over the chamber. No one moved. No one breathed. Then, a sense of mounting rage began to fill the air.

"I'm gonna kill them."

No one would ever know who spoke that line. But it was a sentiment that quickly spread throughout the assembly. From where he was standing, Dumbledore couldn't help but stare in muted horror as the prophecy began to unfold before his eyes.

XxX

The Hogwarts Express
September 2, 1993: Early morning

No one had gotten much sleep last night. Everything had been a downright chaotic mess and no one was exempt from adding to it just a little, Harry idly reflected. From his perch upon the top of a nearby boulder that jutted out into the air with his beloved Nimbus 2000 resting against his shoulder, Harry had a pretty good view of the surrounding area. Ron was next to him, likewise with his own hand-me-down broom, not wanting to get caught up in the crowd. Hermione had taken one look at them drifting upwards and scoffed before moving off to join their Housemates.

About five meters down below them, Harry watched as the considerable horde of students started to gather around the Express's engine. The younger years were still understandably terrified. Not only had the experience of whatever had happened been a very disorienting and painful one for all of them, but it was made abundantly clear to everyone very quickly that they were no longer in Scotland or even on Earth anymore. A starry night sky with no known constellations visible and eight moons hanging overhead made that point excruciatingly obvious. Add to that they were clearly somewhere near the coast, instead of much farther inland where the traditional route of the Hogwarts Express usually went.

Specifically, the train had come to a crashing halt along the top edge of a cliff face with the salty seawater beating against the rocks just ten or so meters below. The spot where three of the train cars had fallen over and were still hanging off the edge turned out to be a soft spot in the cliff that had apparently crumbled and given way as the train's weight settled upon it. While the numerous moons had provided more than ample light to see with, there was something to be said about having actual daylight to see through. Harry could see all of this because off on the horizon to his right, a thankfully yellow sun was starting to peek out over the ocean and cast its illuminating rays upon this strange new world directly. The morning light had been steadily approaching for the past two hours and now the day had finally come. It was a sight that nearly all of the students had witnessed with growing trepidation.

If not for the destruction of the train and all of the chaos involved, the natural beauty of the scenery would've been truly something to behold for Harry. The sight honestly reminded him of some tropical island and coastal region pictures he'd seen in National Geographic magazines when he was in primary school. 'This would be a great place to build a house.'

"Alright, everyone!" Percy's voice yelled out loudly, amplified by the Sonorous charm. Harry returned his attention back to the gathering below him. The entire student body who were all still capable of standing and walking under their own power, for the most part, quickly quieted down as they too turned their attentions to the Head Boy. Harry was hardly surprised at what he saw. Even after the disaster they had just went through, a lot of them were still grouped up together by their various Houses, as shown by the colors of their school uniforms that most of them were wearing. "Listen up! Now, I know that things were pretty bad last night. But—"

"No thanks to you!" an angry voice called out from near the front of the crowd. Harry didn't know who yelled it, but it definitely came from the clump of Slytherins.

"Shut up, snake!" someone else yelled from the group of Gryffindors.

"Don't tell me what to do, mudblood!"

Harry couldn't help but sigh in annoyance. Of course the Slytherins would just have to pick, poke, and prod against any type of authority that a Gryffindor might've held over them. Although, to a certain degree, he supposed they did kind of have a point. Unlike a good number of students, the Head Boy had not tried to help with the rescuing of the injured students from the dangling carriages, nor even with collection of the…corpses that were left behind. He had had his hands full coordinating, monitoring, and aiding with the wounded Prefects and various others that were scattered throughout the front couple of carriages. And Harry knew that the Slytherins knew that too. So, of course, they just had to jibe and provoke the stressed out Head Boy all the more because he had the misfortune of not only not being a Slytherin himself, but a Gryffindor to boot.

"QUIET!" Percy yelled out, silencing the group from the positively thunderous roar of his voice. "Thank you. Now, as I was saying, something powerful and very magical happened last night and we are clearly no longer on Earth anymore. But don't let that discourage you! Our absence from Hogwarts will be quickly noticed and I'm sure that Unspeakables and the Ministry as a whole are already working towards finding and rescuing us. Now, that being said, until we are rescued, we have to keep our heads. I want all Houses of all years to stay together whenever possible. No one goes off on their own. Because most of our prefects were injured during the crash, I want each House to vote on temporary replacements. Their duties are to keep a headcount of all of us at all times!"

"What about the first years?" Hermione called out from her spot down in the Gryffindors. "They still haven't been Sorted yet. Should they just choose a House for now?"

"As far as I'm concerned, the first years are everyone's responsibility." Percy said with almost negligence. "Now, does anyone know how to brew any healing potions or elixirs, or maybe know any healing charms? If not, does anyone have any expanded trunks you'd be willing to donate? If something unexpected happens, I want our wounded to be safe or taken care of."

There was another reason why Percy was so determined to see the wounded healed as quickly as possible. His girlfriend, Penelope Clearwater, had been in the Prefects carriage when the train crashed and was among the more badly injured with numerous broken bones and open wounds. Harry had stopped counting how many there were injured when he reached 50, but there were still quite a few more. And that wasn't even counting the number of dead…

"Also, in case anyone is otherwise unaware of it yet," Percy continued. "I want no one to be casting any spells or magic needlessly. There seems to be something…potent about the ambient magics of this realm that causes our wands to burnout!"

"What's a burnout?" a young and noticeably high-pitched voice asked loudly from somewhere in the crowd.

"For those who don't know, a burnout is what happens when a witch or wizard forces too much magic too quickly into his wand while trying to perform a spell," Percy explained, having seen more than a few confused faces on numerous students throughout the entire horde. "What happens is either that the core of the wand will burn itself out and become magically inert, basically dead and useless. Or, if the magical buildup is too powerful, there have been some cases of wands literally exploding in the wizard's hands! Trust me, it's not a pleasant experience. So, please, everyone refrain from using magic as much as you can and be very cautious in your casting if you're forced to!"

Percy paused, allowing the students a few moments to contemplate and converse with one another on what he'd just shared. "Now, that being said, there are still some things that need to be done. We need to set up vigils over the…over the corpses. Make sure that no more harm comes to them. I want an inventory of all our supplies. Not just our basic school stuff, but also anything extra that was brought along. We don't know when or how or if such things might become useful while we're here!" He paused for a moment, his gaze panning over the crowd before they settled upon someone. "Granger! I want you in charge of that!"

"What?!" a boy from the Ravenclaws called out. "Why's a Third Year in charge?"

Although numerous older students looked likewise confused, Harry, Ron, and quite a few others who knew of Hermione's nature all let out loud and amused scoffs at that. It just made sense for the most meticulous of perfectionists to be in charge of inventorying. And she'd probably have it done within an hour, two at the most, in the boys' opinions.

Not deigning to give an answer to the question, Percy went on, "I want any and every Fourth Year students and above with an EE or O in Potions to start brewing various types of healing potions, elixirs, and antidotes!" Percy paused, once again scanning the crowd. "Aedan Locks! You're in charge of that." The Sixth Year Ravenclaw looked a bit surprised at being chosen but quickly nodded his head.

"All Quidditch teams," Percy called out. "I want a survey of our area. Anything of interest you can find. Wildlife, food, civilization? Anything and everything. We need to know what's out there. But I want everyone back here before midday! Orsino Thruston, you're in charge of that."

That caused more than a few curious questions and indignant squawks from numerous people, including Harry and Ron. But, most curiously despite being a Slytherin, even a handful of those angry looks were coming from the House of the Snake. Most especially from the Slytherin Quidditch Captain, Marcus Flint, who seemed unable to decide whether he should be glaring at Percy or his Housemate.

"Okay, I think that's everything for now!" Percy stated. "Everyone, keep calm, stay close to the train, and try to find something constructive to do if you're not helping in any of those tasks. Oh, and will the Gryffindor team hang back for a moment? I need to speak with you guys privately."

Ron and Harry shared a look with one another as the crowd of students began to quickly disperse after that proclamation. Shrugging to one another, they both mounted their brooms and casually drifted down to the ground in front of Percy with the rest of their team. Once most of the students had left and it was just the Head Boy and his House team, Percy spoke up again, much quieter now since he'd finally cancelled the Sonorous Charm.

"So, what's the problem, boss?" Oliver Wood asked in an almost playful tone. Like the rest of his team, Oliver wore the a curious and puzzled expression on his face.

"I want you guys to fly overwatch of our immediate area," Percy said bluntly. "You're all our best flyers. So, you're going to be our last response team if anything too dangerous follows the rest of those out scouting back here."

"…What?" more than one voice demanded, some sounding offended, some relieved, and others just confused. "Why?"

"I've already given my reasons," Percy stated curtly, narrowing his eyes slightly in annoyance. "Don't make me repeat myself."

"This is totally unfair, Percy!" Ron snapped out, easily the most upset out of all of them. "Why can't we go out and explore?! There's so much out there and—!"

"And you're going to stay right here—where it's safest—little brother," Percy snapped back, matching his younger brothers' glares with equal heat. "I'm not going to explain to Mom and Dad that you all got hurt or possibly killed when I could've done something to prevent it! …Besides, Ronald, you aren't even a reserve player for the team yet. So, you have absolutely no business being in the air to begin with."

"We're not little kids anymore!" both Weasley twins yelled in perfect unison.

"We can take care of ourselves!" Ron protested. "And we've got everyone else—!"

"I've made up my mind!" Percy declared hotly. "And that's final!"

A moment of heated silence hung heavy in the air for a moment before all three younger Weasley boys grabbed their brooms and marched off, fury still etched onto their faces. More than a few of their teammates now shared their anger as well, even Harry shot Percy an upset glare before he rushed after his friend.

Once most of his team had drifted away, Oliver gave Percy a somewhat measured deadpan stare. Of his team, he was easily the most calm since he'd come to know his classmate rather well over the past seven years. He understood his motivations rather well, even those that weren't being said aloud. "You do realize that when the rest of the school figures this out, there's gonna be a backlash to this, right?"

"I honestly don't care," Percy answered, giving his classmate a likewise measuring stare. "We are lost and probably in a great deal of danger. If grounding the entire team is what it takes to keep my most reckless of family members safe, then I'm going to do it."

Oliver just let out a long, slow sigh of disappointment until he turned and walked off. He already knew that this wasn't going to work out as Percy wanted, nor would it probably end well.

Tellemicus's Note: So sorry about the LONG wait for this chapter. Between holiday overtime, dealing with snowy roads (a rarity in Tennessee!), and helping Fiori75 out with brainstorming his own original story idea, I've been rather distracted these past few weeks. But, hopefully, that's coming to an end now and I can resume my work on this story here.

Speaking of which, yeah, can anyone guess what was suppose to have been so familiar about this story now? It's basically my third rewrite of 'World Beneath', just with a MUCH larger cast of characters. Before anyone panics, no, I don't intend to have a ton of different povs from characters we know next to nothing about. I'm gonna be restricting myself to mostly the main cast we're all familiar with (IE: Harry, Ron, Hermione, etc).

However, I going into this story with a fairly open plotline. As in, so open that I've really only planned out three (3) potential story arcs so far! So, if anyone has got some ideas they'd be willing to share, I'd be quite happy to hear them! Just send me a PM and we'll discuss what you have to offer. Granted, because this is still only chapter 2, Fiori75 and I still haven't yet been able to unveil a few more of the surprises that're to come for you and the kids.

Please remember to review! I can't improve this story if I don't know what's wrong with it after all!