As Strong As We Are United
Chapter 31 – Attack on the Hogwarts Express
Ginny and Neville waited on the train platform in Hogsmeade with Charlie and several other faculty members. The Hogwarts Express was due to arrive any minute, and the two teens convinced Charlie that it would be nice to meet their friends right off the train. He finally conceded that with the faculty members and students, it seemed safe enough.
The train pulled into the station right on schedule. The doors opened, but no students descended onto the platform. Only silence greeted the waiting faculty members, Ginny, and Neville.
Those who were standing on the platform exchanged ominous looks, each gripping his or her wand tightly. "Ginny, Neville, go back to the castle now," Charlie ordered. Ginny began to argue, but Charlie did not give her the chance. "I said now, Gin. Someone needs to alert Dumbledore."
Neville grabbed Ginny and pulled her toward the carriages, but instead of climbing inside, he began unfastening one of the thestrels. Realizing Neville's plan, Ginny began to do the same.
Neville started. "You can see them?" he asked.
Ginny nodded, as she continued working unfastening the harness. "I saw a Death Eater fall during the battle last year," she explained quickly, before climbing atop the thestrel.
Neville and Ginny flew like the wind back to the castle. As they dismounted, Professor Dumbledore came racing out of the castle, followed closely by Fawkes. "What happened?" he asked.
"There's a problem on the train," gasped Neville.
"Stay here," Dumbledore called, as he grabbed Fawkes and disappeared in a burse of flames.
"Come on," said Ginny, tugging at Neville's arm. "The others are going to want to know about this."
Neville nodded. "You go to the Scooby common room. I'll get Luna and meet you there." Ginny agreed, and they ran in opposite directions.
Ten minutes later, Neville and Luna entered the common room to find a large commotion. The teens were arguing with Buffy that they should be permitted to go to Hogsmeade to help. "But this is what we trained for," argued Dawn.
"We're Head Boy and Head Girl," argued Ron.
"Hey, I'm a Slayer," Shannon complained loudly.
"It's not like I've never encountered dark magic," Draco informed Buffy, who had enough of the arguing.
"Shut up," Buffy yelled. Everyone did, looking at her in shock. "Hasn't anyone ever told you not to mess with a pregnant Slayer? Now, all the other faculty members are taking care of things. As soon as she knows something, Cat will be back to tell us. So, you might as well just sit down and be quiet."
The students did as they were told for change. "Those pregnancy hormones really are scary," Shannon whispered to Dawn. Buffy shot her sister a nasty look, preventing her from replying.
Nearly an hour later, Cat returned with news. "There was some kind of attack on the Hogwarts Express."
"Oh my God," said Dawn. Hermione, Ginny, and Neville looked stricken. Draco cursed under his breath, while Ron and Shannon cursed loudly. Harry put his head in his hands. Luna just blinked several times.
"All the students are alive and accounted for," Cat explained to the students' relief.
"Why do I sense a but coming?" asked Buffy.
Cat sighed deeply, before continuing. "The conductor and food trolley lady are dead, and the students are all in some kind of enchanted sleep. It may be several days before we figure out how to wake them. For now, the faculty are moving the sleeping students to their dorm rooms. Those few students, who were hear for Christmas, will be staying in guest quarters, and classes won't begin again until this is resolved."
"I need to get back to help move the students. If you want to help, start researching." With that, Cat hurried back out.
Dawn immediately rose. "Where are you going?" Draco asked.
"You heard Cat. It's research time. Library, anyone?" said Dawn. Everyone else rose to follow her.
As they exited the common room, Hermione raised her hand. "Accio parchment and quill."
"Good point," agreed Dawn. "Accio notebook and pen."
"You're never going to learn to write with a quill, are you?" Draco teased
Dawn shrugged. "Why bother?" she countered.
As the students walked to the library, Harry raised the question that was plaguing him. "What was the point?"
"Huh?" Ron asked.
"What does Voldemort gain by putting all the students in an enchanted sleep?" Harry elaborated.
Everyone stopped walking. "That is a good question," agreed Shannon. "It's like Spike says. The Big Bad always has a plan."
"You don't think, he's going to attack soon, do you?" Neville asked. "Maybe he was removing obstacles."
"It doesn't fit," said Hermione. "He needs to take out the faculty, not the students."
"I know what he's doing," said Draco.
"Scaring the hell out of us?" Ginny guessed.
"Exactly," said Draco. "He's showing that we have weaknesses, that he can get to us. This is just a show of his power. It's a warning of what's to come."
"If parents think that Hogwarts isn't safe, they'll pull their kids out," Hermione added. "If that happens, the school will close."
"Which will make for a weaker target," summarized Shannon.
"So why not kill any of the students?" Luna asked.
"Because there were children of Death Eaters on that train," Draco replied.
"It's possible that one of them actually did it," suggested Ron.
Draco nodded. "Killing the two adults would be a typical test for initiation."
"Damn him," Harry cursed. Shannon put a hand on his shoulder, the action calming him slightly.
"Let's get to the research then," said Dawn. The others agreed and continued to the library.
When they finished helping to move the unconscious students, Willow and Lena joined Snape in his private potions lab. "There has to be some kind of potion that can help," Willow mused, as she searched Snape's bookcases.
"I agree," said Snape, joining Willow to peruse the many book titles. He pulled out a volume and handed it to Willow. "We should begin with some of the broader texts and then narrow our search."
Lena took a second volume from Snape and threw herself into a chair to begin reading. She quickly scanned a few sections in the book before moving on to another, realizing that this was going to be a long and tedious process.
As the hours passed and the pile of books that were checked grew, the task before them began to seem impossible. "This isn't getting us anywhere," Lena moaned, as she finished with another book. "If it's a potion we need to counteract then it probably isn't anything ordinary. It may even be something entirely new."
"It can't be entirely new," stated Snape.
"How can you be so sure?" Lena asked.
Snape looked uncomfortable; so, Willow answered. "Because Voldemort would have commanded Severus to create it."
"You're a Death Eater?" Lena asked in a very straight forward manner.
"Yes," Snape replied, assuming that now Lena would leave him alone.
"That makes sense," said Lena with a shrug. "Our side would have to have at least one spy. Don't worry. I won't say anything."
"I was a faithful Death Eater at one time," Snape explained further, though he was unsure why he felt the need to provide this additional information.
Lena looked at him for several seconds, before shrugging again. "People make mistakes."
"I did not figure you for one of those do-gooders, who claim to understand," replied Snape rather icily. "Only those who have experienced true darkness can know." Snape and Willow shared a look.
"I don't claim to understand," Lena shot back, rising to her feet. "I may come off as a bitch, but deep down I'm a good person. I have never intentionally harmed another human being. But, we all make mistakes, and we all have our own sins to atone for."
"It's not my place to either condone or forgive your sins. That's between you and your God. All I can do is accept you as a human being who's screwed up worse than most. You're putting your own life at risk for others. That makes you worth knowing today."
Snape could only stare, as Lena, having finished her outburst, stormed out of the potions lab.
"She's right," said Willow softly. "The only person who can give you the forgiveness you're searching for is you." Willow returned her attention to the book on her lap.
The students were not having any more luck with their research than Willow, Snape, and Lena. Three hours in the library had yielded nothing but a large pile of books to reshelve.
"This is useless," moaned Hermione, casting a book aside. Dawn and Shannon looked at Hermione oddly. They had never heard the Head Girl complain about research.
Ron placed a reassuring hand on Hermione's shoulder. "She always takes it personally, when the library doesn't give her the answers she needs." Hermione swatted Ron's hand away in annoyance, but everyone else seemed to agree with his explanation.
"I see you two still aren't getting along," Blaise Zambini commented, as she pulled a chair up to the table where the group was working.
"What do you want, Blaise?" Draco asked skeptically.
Blaise sneered at Draco, before schooling her features and addressing the group as a whole. "I figured you'd be researching a cure. I want to help."
"You want to help us?" Harry asked, the shock evident in his voice.
Blaise flipped her long dark hair over her shoulder. "Right now, I have three roommates who are unconscious. So, yes, I want to help."
Draco snorted. "Slytherins don't help each other unless there's something in it for themselves."
"Draco Malfoy, the self-hating Slytherin. Who would've thought?" Blaise said sarcastically. "Before you got together with Dawn, you were a right little bastard. You had your head so far up your own ass that you never noticed that we aren't all like you."
She turned her attention to the rest of the group. "Pansy, Milli, and Morag are my best friends; so, excuse me, if I want them to wake up."
"We think someone on the train initiated the attack," Harry explained. "And, we all know that more Death Eaters have come out of Slytherin then any other house."
Blaise took a deep breath, dropping her defensive posture. She spoke softly. "We aren't all junior Death Eaters. It isn't really my place to tell you this, but. . . Pansy's disowned her parents. She went home with Ernie for Christmas. Morag's family were never Death Eaters, but they trained her to just keep her head down. And, Milli could never be a Death Eater." Blaise met Harry's eyes. "She's too busy dating your Muggle cousin."
This news caused several people at the table to laugh, as they thought back to Harry's birthday party. Harry turned a delicate shade of green.
"And you?" Draco asked, still not ready to trust a member of his house.
"When I was only a month old, You-Know-Who tried to recruit my parents. When they refused, he murdered my mother. So, no, I do not have plans to support my mother's murderer."
"I'm sorry," Harry mumbled. "I didn't know."
"Now you do," Blaise stated without emotion. "So, how can I help?"
Dawn placed a pile of books in front of Blaise. "You can skim through these. We're looking for anything that could put a whole trainload of people into an enchanted sleep."
Blaise took the book on the top of the pile and opened it. Soon everyone was once again immersed in research.
Lena entered the Scooby common room to find Wesley, Cat, Oz, and Genevieve sifting through a large pile of books. "Please tell me your research is going better than mine," begged Lena.
"Nope," Cat replied. "So far we have a big nothing." Cat stood up and stretched. "I never thought I would miss those days, when the most exciting moments of my life were defined by a new episode of Law and Order or CSI."
"Hey, don't charms and potions leave some kind of magic residue on the body?" Oz asked.
"Yes," the rest of the group answered without thought.
Oz continued his train of thought. "So, is it possible to do the mystical version of a CSI thing?"
Everyone turned wide-eyed toward the young werewolf. "It's possible to test for certain potions ingredients in the blood," said Lena. "We do it all the time, when a new potion goes into the last phase of development."
Wesley suddenly had an idea. "I don't know much about tracing spells, but Fred's done a lot of work in this area. I'll make a floo call and see if Angel and spare her for a few days." Wesley rose to do so.
"And, I'll go give the news to Severus and Willow," Lena volunteered. I'm going to need their help. There are a lot of tests to run. Can someone talk to Dumbledore about getting blood samples from the affected students?"
"I will," said Genevieve, rising from her seat.
"And, I'll let the kids know that we have a plan," added Cat.
As Genevieve mounted the stairs to Dumbledore's office, she heard voices from above. "But, Minister, Hogwarts is the safest place for the students to be," said Professor McGonagall.
"Minerva, the students have been attacked," Fudge replied tersely.
"They were attacked on the train, not in the castle," McGonagall argued.
"Parents are going to be in a uproar, when this gets out. We need answers," said Fudge.
"We'll have answers soon, Minister," said Genevieve, as she entered the room. Fudge moved behind McGonagall, while giving the vampire a wary look. Genevieve ignored him, instead choosing to address the headmaster. "Albus, we have a plan."
Professor Dumbledore gave her a small smile. "As you see, Cornelius, my faculty is already working to resolve our little problem. There is no reason to close the school just yet."
Genevieve explained the plan. Dumbledore's smile broadened, as she explained. Fudge became more and more flustered.
"We are going to depend on an American Unspeakable and some American Muggle. I thought I made it clear that this incident was to be kept quiet," Fudge complained loudly.
"If, as I believe, Voldemort has done this as a show of his strength, it will not be possible to keep the incident quiet for long. Our enemies will leak the story," said Dumbledore.
"As for depending on two American women, I assure you that each is exceedingly competent and trustworthy. Madame Rago is already in the castle, visiting her cousin. And, Miss Burkle has been a guest of my faculty members several times during the past two years. Though she is a Muggle, she knows more about magical theory than most wizards."
"Now, if you will excuse us, Cornelius, we do have quite a bit of work ahead of us."
Dumbledore turned his attention to his two faculty members, effectively ignoring Fudge. "Genevieve, would you be so kind as to ask Fillius to be available to charm Miss Burkle's equipment to work within Hogwarts? After you have done so, please bring Miss Burkle and your group to the Great Hall."
"Minerva, I need you to speak with Poppy about taking blood samples from the sleeping students to be used for potions testing. Have the samples available for Madame Rago. Then, gather the remaining faculty and all the students, who were not on the train, and bring them to the Great Hall."
"I will be there in one hour's time to address everyone. First, I need to speak with Moody and Kingsley about what, if anything, they discovered on the train."
Lena poked her head into Snape's private lab to find he and Willow in the same position she had left them. "Excuse me," Lena said to draw their attention.
"Have you remembered something else that you wish to yell at me?" Snape asked without looking up from the book in his lap.
Lena stepped fully into the room. "I'm sorry for my earlier outburst. It wasn't my place to say those things."
"Is that all?" Snape asked, finally putting his book aside and looking up at Lena.
"No," she replied. Snape raised an eyebrow at her response. Lena smiled. "We have a plan."
"We have a plan?" Willow echoed. "We have a plan. What's the plan?"
"All potions and spells leave something of a magical residue. Our answers lie in that residue," Lena explained.
"That's brilliant," said Willow.
Lena smiled. "It was Oz's idea."
"But how are we going to test this residue?" questioned Snape. "I must admit that I have not done such a thing since I was an apprentice more than twenty years ago. And, I'm not sure that anyone here has done that type of work with spells."
"Wesley is calling in someone he knows to test for spells," Lena informed Snape.
"Must be Fred," said Willow. "She's a Muggle physicist, who's been doing extraordinary research on magical signatures. You've both met her." Neither Lena nor Snape showed any recognition. Willow sighed. "Texan, tiny slip of a girl, works with Angel."
"I spoke with her on Christmas," Lena noted. "I didn't know she was a physicist. I think we talked about taco."
"We still don't have anyone, who knows how to test for potion residues," interrupted Snape.
"Yes, we do," Willow contradicted him. She gave Lena a knowing look.
Lena sighed. "I guess it's time for me to come clean."
"Come clean?" asked Snape.
Without meeting his eyes, Lena explained. "My full name is Leanora Luisa Rago. I'm a fairly accomplished potions master."
Snape's eyes widened. She could not be, whom she claimed. And yet, suddenly everything made sense. Snape finally spoke. "I wouldn't say fairly accomplished. Off the top of my head, I can name at least five potions you have created about which I have read. It's rumored that you have created many, many more that are classified by the American Ministry of Magic."
"The question I have," Snape continued, "is why you felt the need to hide your identity from me, when obviously others know." Snape glared at Willow, who smiled weakly.
"I didn't want anyone to know. I asked Cat and Professor Dumbledore to keep it quiet. Unfortunately, some of the students noticed my name on my luggage tag, when I arrived," Lena explained.
"And, why did you want to keep your identity a secret?" Snape asked.
"Because this was supposed to be my vacation, and I didn't want to spend it discussing my work. Besides, I find that people in your position, more specifically men in your position, tend to find me intimidating. And, since I found you attractive. . ."
Snape ignored the last part of her explanation. "I do not find you intimidating. I find you irritating."
Lena smiled. "Good. So, I guess you're willing to help me do some testing."
Snape ground his teeth. "Yes, I am willing to help."
"What about you, Willow?" Lena asked.
Willow shook her head. "I'll probably work with Fred. She'll need some help too. But, you guys might want to get some of the kids to help."
An hour later, everyone was gathered in the Great Hall. "We will begin in a few minutes," Dumbledore announced. "We are still waiting for a few crucial people."
The doors to the Great Hall opened, and Genevieve, Spike, and Wesley entered with Fred. The group was carrying several large bags of computer equipment. "Sorry, I'm late, y'all. We had to finish taking care of a Bezoar in the basement of our offices, before I could leave."
Buffy made a face. "You didn't happen to figure out a way to get that black goo out of clothing, did you?"
Fred shook her head. "Nope, but at least we get to expense the cost of new clothes from the firm."
"I have to talk to Giles about the Watchers Council setting up a reimbursement program for the Slayers," Buffy noted, thinking back to all the outfits she had ruined over the years.
"Let's begin," said Dumbledore, calling everyone's attention to him. "We are going to divide into four groups. Madame Rago and Professor Snape will need help testing blood samples in the potions lab."
Professor Snape stepped forward. "I would like to ask the following students to help us: Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zambini, Terry Boot, Mandy Brocklehurst, Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley, and Hermione Granger."
Dumbledore spoke again. "Miss Burkle will be working to identify traces of spells performed on the students. Professors Rosenberg, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Vector, as well as myself, will be available to her for assistance."
"Professor Wyndam-Pryce will lead a research group. This group will serve two purposes. They will be available to look up any information needed by the other two groups. The research group also will attempt to put together the information that is discovered into a theory of what happened on the train. Everyone with research experience, who is not already assigned to one of the first two groups, is asked to help this group."
"The last group will be lead by Professors Weasley and Sanguine. This group will coordinate communication between the other three groups. I ask that all students in the fifth year and below work with this group. The ghosts will also help this group."
Harry, Hermione, Draco, Ginny, Blaise, Terry, and Mandy each took their own table in the potions lab. Snape looked at the students with disdain. He had chosen them, because they were the only N.E.W.T level potions students, who had not been on the train. Lena had persuaded Snape that their work would go more quickly if they could test several samples at once.
"The work we will be doing today is very complex," Snape informed the students. "We are fortunate to have an expert to guide us. You will give Madame Rago your undivided attention. She is to be treated with the utmost respect."
The students exchanged glances. They were surprised by Snape's up front defense of Lena. There were very few people that Snape respected. Lena was obviously one of them.
"Thank you, Professor Snape," said Lena, as he took a place at one of the tables in the front of the room. "We are going to be testing these blood samples for evidence of various chemicals common to potions ingredients. We will all perform the same procedures one step at a time. Now, before we begin, I want all of you to put on the masks, goggles, and gloves that are on each table. We don't want to be accidentally infected by anything in the samples."
The students quietly did as instructed, before Lena continued. She uncorked a vial of blood that stood on the table before her. "First, we add eight drops of blood to our cauldrons.
Fred finished setting up her equipment in the hospital wing, and Professor Flitwick worked to charm everything; so, it would work properly. Fred tested her equipment, before speaking to the assembled faculty members.
"The first thing I'm going to have to do is recognize and screen our all of the usual magic surrounding Hogwarts and the magical signatures that surround any witch or wizard. Would y'all mind if I use y'all as my control group to calibrate the instruments?"
Fred was silent for a moment, obviously thinking. "Slayers also give off an additional magical signature. Maybe we should stick with the students, who aren't Slayers to start."
Willow volunteered to be the first subject. She lay on one of the empty beds. Fred used what looked like a small fluorescent light to scan Willow's body. As Fred slowly moved the light from the top of Willow's head to the tips of her toes, thousands of data points scrolled across the screen of the laptop computer.
A small first year girl entered the potions lab. Lena smiled at the girl. "Do you have some information for us?" Lena asked.
The girl shook her head. "Professor Wyndam-Pryce says that there are no natural substances with the chemical structure that you have found so far."
"Well, we do still have several more tests to complete," Snape said to Lena, a note of assurance in his voice surprising everyone.
"Excuse me," said Hermione. Snape glared at her, but she did not seem to notice. "Is it possible that what we are looking at isn't natural? Could it be something that Muggles would synthesize in a lab?"
"Like some kind of drug," said Harry, understanding what Hermione was thinking.
"I didn't even consider that," said Lena, looking at the chemical structure that she had begun writing on the chalkboard. She suddenly dropped the piece of chalk in her hand. It smashed to the floor.
She picked up another piece of chalk and circled a piece of the chemical equation. "That's acetaminophen," she said aloud. "It's a Muggle pain reliever. It wouldn't put anyone to sleep. The answer is in the rest of the chemical structure."
Lena turned her attention to back to the small first year. "I need you to ask the research group to go online and find out what Muggle drugs are commonly prescribed with acetaminophen."
The young girl nodded and ran from the room. "Back to work then," Snape ordered.
"Okay," said Fred, pointing to one of the graphs on her computer screen. "I'm sure that this signature is from some type of explosion spell."
"But there wasn't any damage consistent with an explosion on the train," McGonagall noted.
"The intensity is low," said Fred. "It wouldn't cause any real damage, but it could've been used as some sort of catalyst, maybe a release mechanism for something."
Fred's explanation was interrupted by the arrival of Spike with some news. "Potions team seems to think that some kind of Muggle drug was used, but the research group can't come up with how it would have been ingested by everyone," he explained.
"Could they have inhaled it?" Willow asked. "That would explain the explosion spells. They could have been used to release a drug into the air."
"But I can't think of a drug that would knock everyone out for so long, unless . . ." Fred began typing frantically. Several more graphs appeared on the screen.
"Do you have something?" McGonagall asked.
"Maybe," replied Fred. "Is there a charm that can increase the potency of a drug or potion?"
"Yes," said Professor Flitwick.
Fred dug in her bag for nearly a full minute, before pulling a bottle of aspirin from it. "Could you do the charm on this?" she asked Flitwick.
"Of course," he replied. She placed the bottle on a small table. Flitwick swished and flicked his wand twice. "Intensio."
Fred scanned the bottle and went to work at the computer. Nearly five full minutes elapsed, before she yelled, "Eureka."
"I thought only Wesley actually says, 'Eureka,' when he has one of these moments," commented Willow.
Fred showed the group two graphs. One illustrated the readings she had taken from the students, and the second illustrated the readings from the scan of the aspirin bottle. They matched.
Spike ran off to inform the others.
Cat sat back from the computer that she was using and laughed. "What is it?" asked Wesley.
"I can't believe that I didn't think of this earlier," she replied. "Acetaminophen is Tylenol. So, what Tylenol product would make someone fall asleep?"
"Tylenol PM?" Dawn guessed.
"Exactly," said Cat. "Tylenol PM is acetaminophen with diphenhydramine."
"That's an antihistamine," said Wesley.
"One that knocks you out," added Cat.
"But, it wouldn't knock someone out for days," argued Dawn.
"It would if it were magically enhanced," said Spike, who had just walked up to the table where the research group was working. "Fred found traces of an enhancing spell."
"Spike, can you give this formula to Lena?" Cat asked, scribbling a note for her cousin. "Ask her if this is present in the students' blood. Tell her that it's the other ingredient in Tylenol PM. Then tell her about the magical enhancement."
"I'm on it," said Spike, as he took the note and ran from the library.
"C-13, H-2, NO, HCl," Snape read, as Lena circled the formula on the chalkboard.
"That's it," she said. "I think the best course of action is to remove the magical enhancement. The un-enhanced drug will work its way out of the students' systems over eight to twelve hours. Then, they'll wake on their own."
"I'll pass that message onto the charms group," said Spike, as he again raced off.
Dumbledore charged his faculty members with the task of casting the counter-charm on all of the students. By the next morning, they had all woke from the enchanted slumber. The students were groggy and disoriented, but otherwise unharmed.