The Morenians

By Onira

Chapter Two

The Burning City

Autumn picked Nightmare up as soon as she got to the 9 ¾ platform. The last thing she needed was to loose the little guy amongst the various students and pets bound for the school of magic. As soon as she thought that, Nightmare gave her a slightly sarcastic look as though to say that he was above getting lost.

"Oh shut up. You're nothing more than a baby. Of course you'd get lost." She scorned playfully, setting him on her shoulder.

She hefted her trunk, tossing it onto the train car with considerable difficulty. Nightmare jumped in after the case, miraculously making it. 'The butter-milk mix really restored him.' Autumn thought. 'It's like he can do was a kitten twice his size could.'

Autumn picked up the kitten and put him back on her shoulder, pulling her bag down the isle as she searched for a free seat. Nightmare jumped off her shoulder and ran down the corridor, darting into a compartment a ways down.

"Hey! Get back here! You're going to scare somebody!" Autumn called after him, following the mischievous kitten into the compartment. She found Nightmare on the lap of a rather distressed looking redhead boy, his two friends looking curiously at the kitten who was sniffing at the redhead's pet rat.

Autumn recognized them. The three Griffindoors were all in her year. She knew hem by rumor only. She had heard that a lot of stuff went on with these three, but she made a point of not listening to exactly what. She avoided gossip in general, as it was frequently about her.

"Hehe, sorry. He's quite harmless really. He hasn't figured out that he's got claws and all he's got aside from them are milk teeth." Said Autumn, trying to comfort Ron who was clearly worried for his pet. Nightmare sniffed the rat's nose, promptly sneezed and jumped away, his fur standing on end. Autumn scooped him up, settling him back on her shoulder.

"Guess he doesn't like rats." Commented Harry.

"Apparently. I found him in the attic. He was probably scared by the rats that live there."
"Why not get a charm to get rid of them?" Asked Hermione.

"The make good vacuum cleaners." Autumn said, grinning crookedly. Nightmare once again left Autumn's shoulder and took a moment tog et acquainted with the fluffy ginger cat on the window seat before trotting out and down the hallway.

"Oh, Nightmare! Get back here." Autumn said, backing out into the hallway. "It was nice to have met you all. " She waved then hurried after Nightmare.

"Get back here you dork." She called. Nightmare abruptly stopped and glared back at her, his look clearly stating his indigence at being called a dork. He then walked a few steps farther to the next compartment door and sat down in front of it, looking proud of himself.

"Yes, yes. I see you've found us a compartment. Don't get cocky." Autumn said, sliding the door open.

Within a few minutes Nightmare was curled up and quite content to have the window seat to himself. Autumn had rolled down the window and door screens and had just finished changing into her robes when the food cart came. Two silver coins bought her a lovely sum of chocolate frogs. Shutting the window and doors, she let the candied amphibians loose for Nightmare to play with. He, of course, was delighted and proceeded to chase them around the compartment, whilst Autumn went through the cards. Nothing of any particular interest captured her eye.

Instead, she focused on rescuing Nightmare from the frogs, which seemed to be using his head as a springboard of sorts. She took her hat off, a slightly overlarge brown caddie cap and snatched the frogs one by one from the floor, window and nightmare's head. She turned the cap upside down on the seat, trapping the frogs beneath and crossing her fingers momentarily that none would escape. Then she picked up Nightmare.

"Now I hope you didn't eat any of those 'cause you still have to eat your dinner." Autumn told him, fishing his mix out of her shoulder bag. Nightmare looked at her as if it would have been her fault if he had eaten any since she was the one who let them loose. Nevertheless, he allowed her to feed him.

Nightmare was soon sleeping, belly round, full and very apparent with him sleeping on his back, paws curled cutely up in the air, snuggled into Autumn's lap. Autumn looked at the kitten enviously, wishing that the odd, unsettling feeling that was plaguing her would cease so she could sleep.

She was staring out the window when she heard shouting in the next compartment. It was something along the lines of "Get out before we throw you out!" and "Make me!" soon followed by a sharp crack and a thud, then a murmur that sounded something suspiciously like "good riddance." Autumn stood slowly, resettling Nightmare on the seat next to her.

She peered out the door and saw a boy with white-blonde hair, about her age. His robes weren't school-standard and Autumn couldn't be sure which house he was in. Shrugging, she hauled him into her compartment, pulling him onto the spare row of seats. If he had been stunned there wasn't much she could do except wait. They were still technically forbade from using magic, and would be until they reached Hogwarts itself, but so many students broke that rule that it was no longer truly enforced. Otherwise, a quick enervate and the boy would be as good as a cup of coffee.

Nightmare, being his insufferable self, had decided that the boy should wake up now. The kitten jumped up onto the wizard's belly, walked up his chest and put his paws on the boy's chin, promptly biting the wizard boy's nose. He had to leap away rather quickly however. Either that or be catapulted across the compartment. The boy was up like a shot, sitting bolt upright and looking startled something awful. He immediately grabbed his head, laying back down slowly with a groan.

"You didn't need to do that. He would've woken up on his own." Autumn scolded, picking up the indicted feline. "That was definitely not the brightest thing you could've done." Autumn said, turning her gaze to the young wizard on her compartment seat. "You were hit with a stunning spell. Or had you seen that before you went out?" Autumn said, snatching a chocolate frog from beneath her had, which was wriggling as though it contained a vast population of Mexican jumping beans.

"Here." Autumn said, offering the candied amphibian to him. "Don't ask. Chocolate makes magical effects fade faster." She explained when he gave her a weird look.

"Uh, thanks." He said awkwardly, taking the frog and carefully sitting up.

"You're welcome." Autumn replied. "Sorry about the rude wake up by the way. He, this little guy, decided that you'd slept enough." Autumn pointed at Nightmare, who had also decided that the newcomer required a thorough inspection as well, and was climbing up onto his head.

"Yeah, it's fine. Look, thanks for your help. But I've got to go." He said, looking around nervously. He pulled Nightmare off him and left without another word.

Hmph, that was polite Nightmare said huffily. Yanking on me like that

"Yeah, I mean I could have just left him out in the-" Autumn broke off her sentence, staring that Nightmare.

What?

"Have I gone crazy?"

No… Nightmare was, however, looking at her as though that was exactly what she was.

"Okay, so you are talking to me then." She said, picking the kitten up and placing him on the seat beside her.

Yeah… Wasn't I before?

"No, you just gave me these… looks."

So that's why you didn't say anything when I told you that that boy was hit with a sleeping spell, not a stunning one Nightmare said absently, putting his paws on the window. These windows are cold He noted.

"I wouldn't know." Autumn said. "Everything feels cold to me."

What the devil are you talking about?

"I mean that my nervous system can only sense cold temperatures. Everything feels cold."

Ok. But seriously, come feel this Nightmare said, tapping the glass with his paw. Autumn eyed the window warily. Stop being stupid Nightmare scolded.

"I'm not being-!" Autumn's voice was lost beneath the screech of the train wheels. The two struggled to maintain their seating as the Hogwarts Express squealed to a halt. The lights went out almost instantly after the train stopped fully, plunging the compartment into half-darkness.

For the record, that wasn't my fault Nightmare said. Autumn scooped him up.

"Shh." She whispered, tucking him close to her body.

You're crushing me why? Autumn loosened her grip. Better

"Because I feel something out there, and I'm scared." If Nightmare thought she was being a ninny, he said nothing. In fact, he didn't move at all.

"Nightmare?" Autumn whispered, now properly frightened. "Nightmare!" He wouldn't answer, all he did was leap off her lap and disappear within the nearest shadow.

"Don't-!" Motion in the corner of her eye cut off Autumn's words. Frost crystals were forming on her window. Autumn curled her arms around herself as she began to see her breath billowing before her.

Footsteps, just outside her door. Autumn saw a shadow fall over the door-window. It was then that she began to feel cold, icy rivulets seeping into her bones, for the first time in her life. The knob turned and the door slid open, a bony, rotting hand clutching the frame and pulling the connected body into the doorway.

Hissing came from the shadows where Nightmare hid, but Autumn barely heard him, as though he were on the other side of a wall. Her ears were filled with the screams of thousands, her eyes refusing to see anything other than flames, stretching out for miles. A burning city.

Autumn saw a spire of flame rise above the others. A clock tower burst aflame in a blaze of red, yellow and white, the glass of the face shattering, the fragments falling like crystalline snow into the inferno below. Thatch roofs fell apart amongst the outskirts, glowing brightly as the burning grass gained the oxygen needed to flare before dying out quickly. Many dark shapes dashed about within the flames. They were people, running about madly as they died. A face rose out of the flames. A wizard, it was someone Autumn knew, and knew well. But how? His face contorted into a wicked smile as his hand rose, then swiftly fell; the signal for his soldiers to charge, to come forth like a tidal wave and extinguish the city that had stood citadel and home for so many. Autumn could see them, amongst the city folk. The wizards, warded against the flames, walking imperiously through the streets and killing any and all who still lived. Her vision blurred and Autumn felt a cooling moisture on her cheeks, shielding her from the heat of the flames for a brief moment before evaporating in the very same heat.

Somewhere in the back of her mind Autumn felt the creature, robed in black shreds and wisps of cloth, had grabbed hold of her upper arm, pulling her up off her seat.

Her eyes fell from the city, no longer wanting to watch it. Autumn now saw a little girl's hand, trembling horribly. A ring, still molten and burning from the forge was placed on the hand. A scream followed, and then another ring, placed on the other hand, just as blazing and molten as the other. It was then that she realized that the screams were her own, as were the hands.

Autumn felt a blast of incinerating heat, magic colored black, green, blue and black blazed in her eyes. Autumn felt as though her body was aflame. Somewhere along the line she felt the wraith's touch leave her skin, it's presence fading from her mind. Then the magic faded, giving way to the black of a dreamless sleep.