Chapter 4: A Battle on the Train

"Get down!" Harry shouted, rolling beneath the seat.

The Death Eaters were advancing from either side; the muggles had turned to watch.

"CRUCIO!" yelled another one, aiming a green bolt straight for Sarah, who was watching the other two.

Harry rolled into her and pushed her out of the way, the curse barely missing his foot.

"Sarah, stay put and focus on staying alive. Annette, crawl under the seats and get the fire extinguisher at the other end, we can use that as a weapon to get our wands back. I'll distract them."

Harry rolled out into the aisle and grabbed a pole. Gripping as far as he could reach, he pulled himself up, dodging two stunners that collided and fizzled just below him. One death eater was nearing him, and, seeing his face, Harry realized it was Lucius Malfoy. Gathering up all the hatreds he had for Lucius and his son, Draco, he kicked out his feet sideways, gripping the pole tightly for torque. Lucius fell backward into a muggle, and both tumbled to the ground.

Another death eater came from the other side and held his wand towards Harry.

The Death Eater behind him shouted "ENERGESTIA!"

A bolt of lighting arced from the tip of his wand to the tip of the other Death Eater's wand.

That Death Eater turned towards Harry, and, in one fluid motion, shouted "DESTRUCTIFY!"

The pole Harry was holding on to disintegrated. Harry fell onto a nearby unoccupied seat, and climbed to the top of it. He began to run towards the same end of the car that Annette was going to, jumping between the tops of seats.

The empowered Death Eater yelled "LUMOS!"

With the power from the other man's wand in it, the spell created a jet of yellow light that hit Harry. Everything went white. Harry felt himself fall, and desperately climbed under a seat, waiting for the blinding effect to wear off.

He heard Lucius's voice yell "CRUCIO!"

Harry heard it coming from the right, faster than he could counter it. He dodged sideways and felt the wind next to him – it had just missed him. He realized that they weren't trying to kill him; they were trying to capture him alive. Voldemort seemed to want something else with him.

Harry's vision swam back into view. Staring through the brightness, he could see that Annette, on the other side of the aisle, was only a few seats away from reaching the fire extinguisher.

"CRUCI-" Lucius began to yell.

Harry then saw a flash of red hair. Sarah was upon him, kicking and biting, grabbing for the wand with all her strength.

"NO! Sarah, get back!"

But it was too late.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" yelled the empowered Death Eater.

Rather than the usual jet of green light, a rainbow, both beautiful and terrible, arched out of the empowered wand. It was moving much slower than the usual green jet, but somehow gave the impression that it was also far more powerful. Harry looked desperately around as the rainbow got closer and closer. Behind him there was a trashcan. He kicked out at it, praying, and it slid across the floor. Just as the beam was about to hit Sarah, the trashcan hit her instead, sending her flying back in the opposite direction of the end of the car and trailing old banana peals and sandwich wrappers. The beam hit the ground, and the energy spread, killing seven muggles. They simply died, their faces locked in expressions horror. Most of the other muggles ducked for cover. The blast radius sent wind spreading around it that knocked all three death eaters off their feet.

This was his chance! Harry rolled out from under the seat and into the aisle and ran towards the nearest death eater, the one who had empowered the other. It was Macnair, who had Harry's wand in his hand. Macnair sprung up and jumped backwards, arcing over Harry's head, and grabbed Harry in a rather strong headlock. Harry kicked out and hit Macnair in the crotch. Macnair stumbled for a second and fell with a whimper of pain. Harry grabbed his wand and Macnair's and checked on his comrades. Annette was just getting to the fire extinguisher. She smashed the glass. As she did, an alarm went off through the train. Water poured from the ceiling, drenching all of them. Harry then looked back at Sarah. Lucius and the other Death Eater were advancing on her. The other Death Eater was empowering Lucius.

"ISCIO!" yelled Lucius.

All the present water that was falling turned into shards of ice, bouncing off the wet floor. Harry threw the extra wand to Annette, who had the fire extinguisher in one hand. Annette caught it and looked over at Sarah.

"STUPEFY!" yelled Lucius, not giving up on Sarah.

Three stunners shot forth, one to the left, one to the right and one straight foreword.

"Duck!" screamed Annette. Sarah did so, but the stunner shooting straight at her seemed to home in on her, aiming down. She couldn't get down the aisle because of the other two stunners blocking the way. But, Annette had a plan. "ACCIO SARAH!" she yelled. Sarah slid along the wet corridor, passing just under the two additional stunners and flew to the end of the car. Macnair recovered, and the Death Eater that Harry had not yet seen the face of threw Sarah's wand to him.

"Sarah! Open the door!" yelled Annette.

Sarah pushed open the door that led to the next car, which was the last car on the train. It was empty except for one muggle at the middle of the car who was covering himself under his seat. Annette rolled the fire extinguisher down the aisle towards Macnair.

"DESTRUCTIFY!" Harry yelled, pointing his wand at it.

The fire extinguisher exploded into a blast of liquid CO2 which sent Macnair flying up to the ceiling. Harry heard a crack, and Macnair's limp body fell to the floor. Lucius and the other Death Eater jumped over it.

The other death eater broke off the empowerment and yelled "ACCIO ICE SHARDS!"

The shards of ice that Lucius's cold spell had produced flew up and hovered before him.

Harry and Annette followed Sarah quickly into the last car. The fire alarm was going off in here too, and the ceiling was diligently raining down cascades of liquid. The Death Eaters disparated from behind them and apperated at the end of the car. The mysterious Death Eater flicked his wand and the ice shards shot forth like a machine gun at three renegades. Annette slid under the seat to the right and Sarah to the left, leaving Harry to fall down and skid foreword across the wet ground dodging heavy fire of ice particles.

"STUPEFY!" yelled Harry, aiming right at the feet of the mysterious Death Eater, who folded up and fell to the ground. Lucius was the only Death Eater left.

"CRUCIO!" yelled Lucius.

The curse sped through the air straight at Harry. Harry was in between seats and had no where to dodge. He gritted his teeth and awaited the pain he had experienced once before, a pain great enough to make Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom insane.

"Take this! WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!" Harry heard Annette shout as she sent the muggle's suitcase flying towards Harry.

Harry grabbed it and held it up, blocking the curse. The entire suitcase exploded in his hands, but Harry was unhurt. The other death eater was back on his feet.

Both Death Eaters yelled "CRUCIO!" simultaneously, and there were no more suitcases with which to block the curse.

Harry rolled to his feet and jumped against the wall. Pushing with all his energy, he rebounded against that wall and went shooting across the car, above both curses. He hit a window on the other side and fell down into a seat. He was only one row away from Lucius and the other Death Eater, but at such a close range, Harry wouldn't have time to dodge any curse they sent at him. The Death Eaters seemed to realize this.

Lucius empowered the other death eater with an "ENERGESTIA!" and the other one yelled "CRUCIO!"

The spell was rapid-fire. Dozens of smaller curses shot all over the area. Harry had to jump to avoid them as they smashed on the ground and ricocheted off in all directions. He looked hastily behind him. Sarah and Annette were both nearby. Harry made a desperate lunge and grabbed Lucius by his feet. Lucius plummeted to the ground. The other Death Eater looked up at Annette, who was preparing to cast a spell, and seemed to deem her the bigger threat.

He pointed his wand at her and yelled "EXPELLIMENTARUS!"

Macnair's wand, which Annette was using, flew into the Death Eater's waiting hands. The Death Eater smiled in triumph. Lucius kicked Harry hard. Harry slid back across the floor to next to where Sarah was crawling underneath a seat, just as Annette flew back to a seat just in front of them on the other side. Harry looked desperately around – he couldn't fight two fully-trained Death Eaters alone, as both Sarah and Annette had no wand, and he couldn't bet that his luck that he'd been having recently would continue. It was difficult to think with the searing pain in his head from Lucius's kick. However, Sarah found the answer.

"Get to that emergency escape!" Sarah screamed, water pouring off her hair.

Harry, being the tallest by far, jumped onto a seat near it and pushed himself through onto the top of the train car. He looked back down, and pulled Sarah through.

But then both Death Eaters pointed their wands straight at Annette and in tandem yelled "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

The killing curses shot straight for her and were moving quickly. Harry grabbed her hands and pulled mightily. The curses ever got closer. Harry wished he was as strong as Dudley. Spending most of his life reading books and studying wizardry didn't help build muscles. However, Sarah helped, and at the last second they pulled Annette up and locked the emergency escape, hearing the curses smash the opposite wall.

They now stood atop a moving car, and, judging by the end of the train, a car that was disintegrating from the end. The Death Eaters must have been trying one last-ditch effort to capture them. "C'mon!" Harry said, and they started to run foreword. The disintegration was going faster then they could run with their slippery feet. Within a few inches of the end, it caught up.

"Jump!" yelled Harry.

They flew through the air between the cars. Harry and Annette landed safely on the other side, but Sarah was hanging on to the car by just her hands. Her body flailed wildly. Harry and Annette tried their best to help her, but the train as going so fast it was useless. And then there was a jolt. One of Sarah's hands slipped off the train. She was screaming, blowing from right to left. Harry extended his hand, and nearly fell off trying to catch Sarah. The train began to slow down and Sarah banged gruesomely into the end. Finally, they arrived at the next station, and Sarah dropped off. There were no muggles around. Harry and Annette pulled Sarah out of the track, and they went back into the first car they were in. The surviving muggles took one look at them and fled off the train.

"Whew! We made it!" Annette said, panting.

"That was fun!" said Sarah. "Let's do it again!"

"No, let's not," panted Harry with difficulty. "Once was more than good enough for me."

They looked around the now-empty car. There was a big hole blasted from where the fire extinguisher had exploded. The cascades of water had finally stopped. Macnair's body was gone; the Death Eaters must have picked it up. There were still some ice shards that littered the floor. The car looked like it had been attacked by terrorists, which, in a way, it had. Sarah and Annette had both lost their wands to the Death Eaters, but Harry still had his.

A silence filled the car. None of them talked as they went into London. But they now shared a bond of trust. They had all helped each other to defeat a common goal, and the uncertainty that the Forgotten had about Harry was gone. Harry eventually took out a book Ron had given him a long time ago called Flying With the Cannons, about his favorite Quidditch team, the Chudley Cannons. Harry hadn't looked through the book in a while, but he needed something to take his mind off all things that had recently happened.

As they went into London, some muggles got on the train, and, looking at the mess, went quickly into another car. When they reached Waterloo, all three stepped out into the bustling train station as friends. Looking up, they saw a news flash on one of he news tickers: "Train Crash: 8 Killed, 3 Wounded."

"Ooh! I've always wanted to be on the news!" said Sarah.

"You're not… unless you were wounded or killed."

"But I helped make the news! This is so much fun!"

Her speech was greeted with silence.

"Where'd you say you have to go?" asked Annette.

"12 Grimmauld Place," said Harry.

"Okay, let's take the subway."

Just as they were going towards the escalator, they saw a flash of red.

"Ooh!" said Sarah, as excited as ever. "She looks just like me! She could be my long-lost twin!"

Harry turned around. Ginny, Ron and Arthur Weasley were smiling and beckoning Harry and the Forgotten over.

"Hey, guys! How are you?" said Harry, running up.

"Couldn't be better," said Ron happily. "Mum says between Percy, the twins, and the comeback of You-Know-Who she's a wreck with stress and she needed to clean before you arrived, so that's why she's not here. Lupin sent us a note that you would be coming in. We've moved back to the Burrow, Grimmauld Place was just too creepy for us."

"Cool. What have you been up to this summer?"

"Well, we were questioned by the Ministry about the events at the end of last year, and then I went to visit the twins. Their joke shop really took off. They're expanding their franchise into Europe."

"Oh, cool. Have you seen Bill or Charlie?"

"Nope. Percy's back in good favor with Mum, but he still doesn't get along well with Dad."

As Harry and Ron were catching up, Ginny and Sarah were talking animatedly about their resemblance. To Harry, Ginny seemed much more level-headed in personality than Sarah, but they seemed to be getting along very well. Arthur was leading the party out towards a Ministry of Magic car that he had barrowed, and Annette walked behind, feeling sort of out-of-place. They stopped at Burger King and left, setting out for the Burrow. As they drove off, Harry smiled. It was the first time all summer he had been with friends.