" We're all going to die. I just know it," Luna whined as she watched the healers carry the corpse of her classmate Clarissa Marx off the train.
" Shut up, Lovegood!" Draco yelled, shaking in fear as he watched Clarissa's bloody, purple-spotted hand fall from beneath the shroud.
" Now that's enough out of everyone!" Professor Dumbledore said.
" Sir, I can't help but be scared," Luna began, "The healers just said that her disease was contagious. Any one of us could have it."
" Silence, Luna. We're all under duress here. Now I need for everyone who came into contact with Clarissa Marx to come forward. I will place a petrifiying spell over you to freeze you until you can be treated."
Six students stepped forward and accepted Dumbledore's offer. Once he dealt with those six, Draco giddily yelled," now we can get off the train."
" Stop!" Professor Dumbledore called. " No one is to leave this train until it has been disinfected."
" You don't have to worry about me, Professor Dumbledore, sir. She was a filthy plague-sowing mudblood, and I don't hang with their sort," Draco said.
" I warn you, Mr. Malfoy. Another crack like that, and you'll be very sorry," Dumbledore whispered.
" I'm sorry, sir," he said politely. He'd get off the train somehow, and heaven help Dumbledore when his father learned of his outrageous treatment of him. The Old Fool thought he had problems when the basilisk got set loose; boy was he in for a rude surprise.
Draco clenched his fist in solidarity and proceeded in the other direction, rudely pushing his way through the crowd that surrounded him.
The students each returned to their respective compartments and waited for deliverance from the fearsome situation. Then as if by Fate's hand, the sky went grey, and rain poured down on them as if the sky planned to mourn them.
Pansy Parkinson enjoyed a two-hour nap before waking to a killer chest pain just beneath her solar plexus.
"Draco," she wheezed thrashing to reach for him as he watched her writhe and pulled away.
" Get the hell away from me, Parkinson!" he shouted.
" Please. Oh lord, it hurts! Help me!" she screamed.
People rushed in response to the yelling and watched her go from her usual healthy pallor to a sickly lavender. She convulsed and kicked about for a few more moments before lying comatose.
" Get Professor Dumbledore! Quickly!" Hermione yelled. She felt pity stab her heart as she looked upon her former tormentor. Her predicament seemed all too inhuman.
" Your lot did this!" Draco shouted, crying fearfully." You and all your kind made this happen. I say we take our wands put an end to all the mudbloods, starting with you, Granger."
A group of students crowded around to deal with Draco's outburst before Hermione intervened.
" No! Wait, everyone, please. We don't know how she got it! If it is as contagious as the healers say, then going near Malfoy will put us all at risk," Hermione reasoned.
" How dare you, you damned mudblood? You're the filthy one here, not I," he thundered at her.
" Well that's not going to change the fact that you might die, now that you've been exposed, Malfoy," Ron said, hoping to get even with Draco by taunting him. It was pure rapture for Ron to see the proud Slytherin prince stand before everyone wetting his scared little drawers.
Dumbledore arrived just in time to petrify everyone in Draco Malfoy's compartment. People shuffled back to their seats and began gossiping. The headmaster sighed knowing that things would only get worse as time passed. For him, a fight with Lord Voldemort would be just the thing to cheer him at a time like this.
Albus Dumbledore returned to his compartment and did something that he hoped nobody would see. He wept, for the end of life, for the end of hope for the young faces to whom his old eyes had become so well accustomed, and for the death of keep his promise to James and Lily and all those other parents who trusted him to keep their children safe when they were under his care.