A/N:

Summary: Well, the title is pretty self-explanatory. Four students have been killed and a fifth victim lies unconscious. But, who is she? And why were they killed? And, most importantly, whodunit? Harry Potter & Co. investigate.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything HarryPotterish, JK Rowling does, and I'm not making any money out of this. The plot and the few original characters are mine, if I want them.

Rating: A high PG-13, I suppose, for swearing, violence and gory scenes.

Pairing: Some RW/HG, but I think that main focus might be DM/HP.

Murder in the Hogwarts Express, by Dark Fairy.

Harry pushed his trolley past the barrier and stepped onto Platform 9 ¾, feeling finally at home between the hubbub of students and the noise of the steam engine. His summer had been hell, specially after he wasn't allowed to stay at the Weasleys and he had to stay the whole three months with the Dursleys, locked in the house. Dumbledore had put protection wards all around the house, to alert Harry and the Ministry of a possible Dark attacks, but Voldemort had remained quiet all summer, probably gathering strength. Harry shook his head to dispel the images that had been haunting both his nightmares and his waking hours, images of the Raising of the Dark Lord, that had happened three months before.

"Harry, over here!" shouted Hermione from the window of a compartment, waving so enthusiastically her arm seemed about to fall off. Harry waved back and started hauling the trunk into the carriage; he had missed his friends terribly, and he hadn't even been allowed to send or receive owls.

"Hi, Herm" he said when the bushy-haired girl came to crush him in a bear hug "How was your summer?" That seemingly innocent question raised fire in Hermione's cheeks.

"Well, I stayed with the Weasleys..." she blushed again, and Harry began to understand "Ron was there, you know, and after that letter from Krum, you know...No, of course you don't know! Well, imagine this: Krum writes to me, saying that he's going to be busy training all summer so I can't stay with him, so I got really depressed and so, Ron..."

"He consoled you" said Harry, to put an end to the nervousness of his friend. "Congrats, Herm, I was wondering when you two would notice you're like perfect for each other!"

"You think so? Oh, Harry, thanks, I'm so happy, but I was so nervous!" Hermione started blabbering uncontrollably and Harry asked himself whether she would be spending quite so much time in the library this year.

"Move over, Mudblood, you're occupying too much space with that hair of yours" Harry turned around immediately when he heard Malfoy's sneer for the first time that summer. He hadn't heard it before, when he had spotted Malfoy, the first of all Hogwarts student he had seen, walking with his parents towards King's Cross.

"Look, Malfoy..." Harry was still searching for some appropriate retort when he noticed that the Slytherin had already gone.

"Ignore him, Harry, let's get to our compartment" There, they were greeted by the sound of Exploding Snap, accompanied by cheering when Ginny won the game.

"Hey, guys" greeted Harry, smiling broadly at the innumerable questions about his summer, his health, his broom and his family. Everyone was there, Ron (who blushed like a radish when he saw Harry's knowing wink), Ginny (who blushed as well, without needing an excuse), Lavender and Parvati, Seamus, Dean and Neville. Fortunately the Creevey brothers hadn't found a place there.

The ride started out uneventfully, like it always did. Questions about the new DADA teacher met with blank looks, even from the prefects and Angelina Johnson, the new Head girl. Harry soon forgot all about Dudley listening to Seamus' hilarious stories and shameless flirting with everyone on sight, and he forgot about Vernon and Petunia's fights seeing the mellifluous couple of his bests friends. //Voldemort or not, I'm going to enjoy this first day. I'll worry about him tomorrow//

Harry looked around him and placed his feet on the empty seat in front of him (Neville had gone to look for Trevor, whose only ability was to disappear), feeling satisfied with his life, when an unnatural scream pierced the idle chit-chat and froze everyone on their places. It seemed to come from the compartment on their left, but it was impossible to tell whether it was male or female or even human; it reminded Harry of the golden egg, and he could hear Seamus whispering "Banshee!". The train gave a jerk as it stopped and, gathering all the Gryffindor courage, Harry slid open the door, and peered outside. The only figure on sight was Malfoy, standing a few feet away, in front of the open door of a compartment, with a look of horror and disgust on his face.

Pushed by his friends, Harry advanced towards Malfoy and the open compartment, with a nagging sense of danger. The Slytherin had recovered his expressionless façade, and Harry's eyes were drawn to a red stain on the floor. It was a thick puddle, which advanced slowly towards Malfoy's impeccable Italian-leather shoes; besides the stain, Trevor the toad croaked mournfully. Harry didn't take his eyes of the advancing scarlet substance until he was well within sight of the compartment and its content. When Harry raised his eyes, the first thing he did was grab Malfoy's arm to stop falling, and the Slytherin didn't bother to move away.

The only thing Harry could discern was blood, the red substance that had already pooled on the corridor, sending many girls into fits of hysterics. Then, as in a dream, Harry began to spot familiar things here and there: a round, forgetful-looking face, a thin arm, the blond pigtails of a girl, a bare feet coming out of blood stained robes. //This isn't happening. This isn't happening// repeated Harry as a mantra. His eyes scanned the carnage in front of him, and he could barely register anything; sounds seemed muffled, and the pushing and drawing away of people at his back didn't affect him. The only thing he felt real was the strong arm, covered in silk, of the boy at his side. His eyes continued to watch the horror on their own accord, and after a while, he distinguished something else. A girl, apparently crouching on a corner of the compartment, almost hidden by the bodies and covered in blood. //She can't be alive; no-one can be alive there, there's just too much blood// It was the first time he saw death in cold-blood. When Cedric had been killed there were more pressing matters to deal with that looking at him but now, Harry felt that the only thing he could do was watch the blood and the corpses, for what seemed like a very long time.

"Harry, come on" said a voice behind him, while a strong hand shook him roughly. The boy raised slowly his green eyes to met Dumbledore's blue ones and he said slowly.

"They're dead, Professor"

"I know, Harry" said the Headmaster heavily "Let's go"

"No, Professor, you don't understand. They're dead" repeated Harry, although he allowed himself to be lead away from the dreadful scene, he was still clutching Malfoy's arm, and the Slytherin had no option but to follow them into an empty compartment.

Harry crumbled onto a seat, finally letting go of Malfoy, who automatically brushed his silk shirt, and sat opposite the Gryffindor.

"I'll be here in a moment, boys, don't step out of the compartment until I come back, is that clear?" asked the Headmaster sternly. Harry nodded numbly, his head full of images of blood and dead bodies and blood, and a girl crouching in a corner. He only awoke when Malfoy stood up, and leaned over him to reach a heavy trunk, from which he drew out a massive book and started leafing through it.

"How can you read?" asked Harry in disbelief, watching the steady hands of the blond Slytherin.

"Why shouldn't I?" answered Malfoy, dog-earing a page, and moving on with his search.

"They're dead" said Harry, feeling that those words explained all.

"I know. My cousin was there" replied Draco, looking at Harry for the first time; the Gryffindor had the feeling that his enemy was more hurt that he let on. "He was going to start at Hogwarts this year. And yet I can read" Those beautiful silver eyes returned to the book, and Harry fell silent; he didn't have time to go back to his meditation, though, because the door slid open silently and a procession of people entered their carriage. The first was Snape, carrying a limp body in his arms; behind him came Madam Pomfrey, Dumbledore and a young, blond man, dressed in heavy woollen robes and cloak. Snape placed the body on the seats and Madam Pomfrey moved forwards to examine it.

Harry put down the wand that had flown to his hand when the carriage had opened, and looked at the body. It was a girl, about sixteen years old, but the amount of blood that clung to her didn't allow Harry to make any other observations. He turned to the teachers and saw all the fire gone from Dumbledore's eyes. Snape was fumbling with the lock of a wooden box, and the young man re-entered the compartment, looking rather shaken and pale.

"What was it, Ethan?" asked the Headmaster.

"I don't know" replied the man, sitting down "It wasn't vampires or lamiae, but they were certainly bled to death. How is this girl?"

"She's unconscious, but otherwise she's unharmed. The only damage she has received id this" Madam Pomfrey raised the thin arm of the girl and showed them a row of pinprick wounds on the crook of her elbow.

"Let me see, Poppy" growled Snape, applying a green substance to the arm. Meanwhile, McGonagall came in, dabbing her eyes with a lace handkerchief.

"The Ministry officials are here." she announced "I've also got the names, Albus: Susan Bones, Hufflepuff; Neville Longbottom, Gryffindor; Blanca Bloodroots, Ravenclaw; Angus Noisette, hadn't been sorted yet"

"He would have been in Slytherin" said Malfoy, with a hint of bitterness in his voice. "All our family has been" Dumbledore nodded heavily.

"Thank you, Minerva. Will you contact the families, please?" The Transfiguration teacher left the compartment again, and after moment of silence, the train started moving again.

"She received blood transfusions" announced Snape, looking critically at the purple colour of the potion he was examining "Four different types of blood, all human"

"So, we've got four students, one from each house, bled to death, and another girl who presumably received blood from them" summed up the young man, who received a death stare from the Potions Master.

"What is it, Mr Malfoy?" asked the Headmaster, looking at the wry smile on the Slytherin's lips.

"They're all purebloods, sir." said Malfoy "And all of them had more or less firm claims of carrying the Founders' heritage. Angus was the son of Miriam Halley, a descendant from the oldest branch of the Frigg's of Austria and they always claimed to be secondary descendants of Salazar Slytherin. Longbottom" Draco allowed himself a small sneer, and Harry barely refrained his urges to punch him "comes from a pureblood family, associated with the last known heir of Gryffindor. Bloodroots allegedly was daughter of the Duke of Kent, whose family is related in several generations to the now-extinct Ravenclaws. Bones... her mother's surname is Hufflepuff" Malfoy raised his grey eyes from the book he had used for his demonstration and looked calmly at the Headmaster.

"Damn!" growled the young man, balling his hands into fists. "Someone used the Reuniatos Spell"

"I should think so" nodded Malfoy, leaning back against his seat and looking at the girl laying on the seats. "But, who and who is she?"

Harry, who had been listening attentively to every word said, turned to the limp body on his left; he certainly didn't remember ever seeing her, and the blank looks of everyone around him told him he wasn't the only one.

"The question is not who, but how?" asked Dumbledore worriedly "The Hogwarts Express, and Platform 9 ¾ have wards to stop anyone from Apparating or taking a Portkey, and the girl couldn't have used the normal entrance without a ticket"

"What is the Reuniatos Spell?" asked Harry timidly, feeling all eyes on him.

"I don't know, Harry," answered Dumbledore, to the Gryffindor's great surprise "but our new DADA teacher, Mr Grimm, or maybe Mr Malfoy might explain it to us"

"It's complicated." stuttered the new teacher "Besides we're nearly arriving at Hogwarts and the parents of the dead students will want to see you, Headmaster. I will give you a thorough explanation this evening"

"Very well, Ethan" replied the Headmaster resignedly "Be sure to be in my office after the Welcoming Feast" The train stopped at the Hogwarts station and the massive silhouette of Hagrid could be seen in the distance. "Well, boys, make your way to the castle, I'll see you later"

Malfoy and Harry left the compartment and entered the flow of hysterical, crying students. Harry soon found his friends and in the carriage he told them everything, between Ginny's heartrending sobs and the Irish cursing of Seamus. //So much for enjoying my first day// thought Harry gloomily, watching Trevor croak in Hermione's trembling hands.

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A/N: Well, how was it? I need my ego frequently stroked, so click the button on your left to review and no flames, please!