Blood on the Tracks
Potter47

II

"I really don't know how that got there," mused Luna, looking as the rest of them were, at the body laying on the floor. "It seems rather peculiar for a body to be on top of a train... maybe underneath it, since you know, they get run over all the time, but on top... I don't think I've ever heard of that before."

It had been brought down from the roof, and laid in one of the last compartments, toward the back of the train. The prefects had attempted to take hold of the situation, and were now standing outside the door and trying to persuade the students back into their compartments.

"Everyone remain calm."

"Yeah," said Theodore Nott, at the front of the pack of students. "Nothing to worry about—not like a dead body fell out of the sky or anything," he said sarcastically. He didn't seem very sure of himself, however.

Neville understood his uncertainness—it must have been obvious to everybody who'd seen the body brought in that it was wearing Death Eater robes. Nott was probably worried that it was his own father under that silver mask.

...and that led the compartment's occupants to their current predicament. They wanted to unmask the body—but nobody wanted to be the one to do it.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and Neville were crowded into the compartment with some of the other prefects—those whom had been closest, and had gotten there first.

Hermione, as the senior prefect in the compartment, took charge:

"Harry, why don't you do it? You have the most experience with this sort of thing..."

Harry sighed, and glanced down at the silver-masked figure sprawled on the floor between them. "Fine," he said, and reached down, peeled the mask away—

"Who the hell is that?" Ron asked.

It was what everyone was thinking, Neville was sure—the Death Eater was no one they at all recognised, not even the slightest bit.

"I've never seen him before," said Harry. "Not even in any of the... well." He gestured towards his scar.

"Maybe he's a new recruit," said Ginny.

"Was," supplied Luna.

"Maybe he was a new recruit."

"Hate to think what he did to get You-Know-Who angry enough to drop him onto a train," said Ron. He winced. "I mean, what a way to go..."

"I doubt it's as simple as that," said Hermione. "Why would Voldemort have dropped someone on the train? He has simpler ways of killing people..."

"And why did the train stop?" asked Neville, speaking up for the first time.

The others fell silent.

"That's a good question," said Harry.

"There's no such thing as a bad question," said Luna. "Only bad questioneers."

"Questioners," corrected Hermione.

"No, questioneers. It sounds better."

"Heh. She's got you there, Hermione," said Ron.

"That's hardly important right now," said Hermione, back-to-business. "We have a dead Death Eater, a stopped train, and a school's worth of soon-to-be-hysterical students to deal with..."

"This's going to be a fun train ride home."

——

Harry was looking for clues.

Actually, Neville reasoned, Hermione was looking for clues, but she had dragged Harry along with her because the crowd fully expected him to be figuring out what was going on all by himself. He was the Chosen One, after all, the Boy-Who-Lived—he should be the one to figure out why the Death Eater couldn't say the same.

Ron had followed, which seemed only natural to Neville—where Harry and Hermione went, where a mystery was involved, Ron always went too.

Neville, Ginny, and Luna remained in the compartment. With the Death Eater.

Neville tried to keep his gaze off the body, but then he ended up looking at Ginny. And when he tried to keep his gaze off Ginny, he ended up looking at the body and wondering why he was looking at Ginny so much.

"I wonder who he was," said Luna. Luna, alone among the group, seemed largely unperturbed by the whole fiasco. She looked at the body curiously, as if it had merely been very rude in plopping down asleep on their compartment floor.

"Me too," said Neville. "I thought there were enough Death Eaters all ready, without adding more we didn't know about..."

"No," said Luna. "That's not what I meant. I meant, I wonder who he was. Like, what sort of a person he was. Where he lived, if he was married, if he had a family, that sort of thing. What life was like to him."

"Too short, I'd wager," said Ginny.

There came a sudden rapping on the door of the compartment. Neville jumped.

The door slid open, and there stood Theodore Nott, of all people. He looked troubled, and he had his hands in his robe pockets.

"I, um. I was wondering, if..." He seemed to be having trouble with his words, which was oddly out of character for the Slytherin.

Luna looked at him compassionately. "Don't worry," she said, "it's not him."

Nott looked at Luna strangely for a moment, and then he nodded. "Thank you," he said, voice still a bit too wavery. Another moment of that strange looking-at-Luna, and then Nott departed without another word.

"Wow," said Ginny. "I can't believe he actually came to ask... Malfoy never would've done that."

"Yeah..." said Neville. "I don't think Malfoy would've even cared if it was his father very much—"

"He must've been so worried," said Luna suddenly. "We should've thought to tell him before."

"Half of Slytherin probably has the same right to worry, though—" said Ginny.

"True..."

There was a sort of odd respect in the air for Nott—the son of a Death Eater, yes, but an altogether human one.

——

"There's nothing up here," said Ron.

"We've barely started looking, Ron. There're loads of places we might find evidence—"

"Hermione, we're on the top of a train... how many places could there be?"

"Well... where was the body found?"

"I don't remember... like halfway down?"

"Then we should probably look there, don't you think...?"

They moved along the train, and just as Ron started to say, "I'd say it was about here," there came a voice behind them they hadn't expected.

"I couldn't stand waiting in there," said Luna. "It's so stuffy, especially with Mr Darwin Eckersly on the floor and all—"

"Who?"

"Darwin—the Death Eater. I decided to name him, since we don't know his name and it's a bit more polite than 'the dead body.'"

"Ah," said Harry.

"You're barmy, Luna," said Ron, shaking his head and grinning slightly.

"You say that like it's good thing," said Hermione quietly.

"Well, anyway, it's so beautiful up here, it seemed silly to stay in the compartment... Neville and Ginny are perfectly capable of looking after Darwin, since he doesn't really need much looking after..."

And so, Luna plopped herself down on the roof and looked out over the land.

"What a way to watch the sunset... I should get Colin's camera."

Hermione took to ignoring their new visitor, and decided to keep looking for some shred of a clue that would explain what had happened with the Death Eater—with Darwin.

——

Neville was even less sure what to look at now that Luna had left, so he decided to stare at the luggage rack. It made him realise that he'd left Trevor in the other compartment, and he hoped he'd be able to find the toad before they reached the station... but then, that didn't seem like it would happen any time soon.

He looked down at the body. It's face was covered in the silver Death Eater mask again—someone must have decided it was less disturbing that way, and covered up the face once more.

"Why's it so quiet in here?" said Ginny suddenly. "We should talk, it wouldn't be so weird that way."

"...OK."

"How are you, Neville?"

"I'm... I dunno. I've been better... I've had better train rides, that's for sure..."

Ginny smiled. She had a nice smile.

He added, "How about you? How are you?"

"I'm... well, I've been better as well, obviously. I think I'm still in recovery from seeing him..."

Neville blinked. "Oh, the... the body, you mean, seeing the body—"

"Yes, of course. What else would I have meant?"

Neville shook his head, attempting a small laugh. "Who knows? I'm a bit slow, if you hadn't noticed..."

Ginny frowned. "You're not slow, Neville."

"Yeah... I am. Just ask Gran—"

"No, you're not. I promise. The Neville I know isn't slow at all. He's sweet, and kind, and while not the greatest dancer the world has seen—" Neville smiled, blushing a bit, "—still one of the nicest kids in Hogwarts. And one of the most capable."

Neville had to look away from her, again. Ginny Weasley was complimenting him... but at the same time, the manner of compliment was apparent in every word. She was encouraging him, as a friend. That was all she ever would be doing. He didn't really know why that felt so weird to think about.

"Thanks," he said. "You're out of your tree if you think I'm capable, but still... thanks."

Ginny smiled, again. "I hang around with Luna, Neville—I never was in my tree."

——

"There's nothing here," said Hermione.

"I told you," said Ron.

"I was thinking, though," said Hermione, "I doubt he really got here by falling from the sky. He must've been put here by someone on the ground, and maybe they stopped the train..."

"That makes sense," said Harry. "We should look on the ground, then—"

"No," said Luna. She hadn't said a word in a long time, but she said this one fervently. "You shouldn't."

"Why not?" said Hermione.

"There must be evidence up here," Luna said, although she didn't sound very convincing. "You can't look on the ground."

"There's nothing up here. The ground makes sense," said Hermione, and she began walking past Luna.

"You can't look on the ground, or the Ancheknots will get you—"

"Luna," said Ron, "this really isn't the time. He began walking with Hermione, as Luna stood up.

"You can't look on the ground," she said, drawing her wand from her robes, "...or I'll get you."

——

"So what do you think happened?" said Ginny. "I mean, with him."

"I really don't have any idea... it seems to me he must've fallen from the sky, but I don't know why—"

Neville thought a moment, shook his head when he couldn't think of anything plausible, and asked, "What do you think?"

"Well..."

——

"What? Luna, what are you doing?"

"I'm aiming my wand at you, Ronald. And I'm going to Curse you if you take another step, that's what I'm doing."

Ron's jaw dropped. "You did it...? You killed that Death Eater?"

"That's absurd," murmured Hermione, thinking fervently. "She couldn't have..."

Luna didn't say anything.

Hermione seemed to have an idea.

"Look! A Crumple-Horned Snorkack, behind you!"

Luna didn't react.

Hermione seemed to have expected as much.

"Now," said Luna, "we're all going to go back inside..."

Hermione whispered, "It's Imperius. Curse her, Harry."

Harry blinked, and then nodded, slid his hand into his pocket, and—

"What are you doing?" said Luna, seeing Harry's hand disappear. "I don't think so. Don't pull that hand out, or you'll be in trouble—"

Suddenly, Luna was dangling in the air by her ankle.

In the disorientation, Hermione quickly cast a Stunning Spell, and Harry muttered "Liberacorpus."

"Once again," said Ron, almost gloating, "that old book came in handy."

"Let's not forget whose book it was," said Harry, and he shivered as though in self-revulsion.

"Why would someone Imperio Luna?" said Hermione, turning back to the matter at hand. "Who could have done it?"

"I don't know," said Harry, "but they didn't want us looking on the ground, so there must be something down there."

——

"To be honest, I don't really have much of an idea either," said Ginny. "But I think... well, it seems to me that whoever put that body up there wanted someone to find it. I don't really know how they could have expected someone to look on the roof, but I doubt You-Know-Who was just disposing of his Death Eater and decided 'Hmm, this seems a nice place to drop one...'"

"Yeah," said Neville. "It is kinda odd, when you think about it. I mean, the train stopped, first of all... nobody could have looked on top of the train if it was still moving. And then... wait. Why did you go up there in the first place?"

"Luna was looking for Ancheknots," said Ginny. She smirked. "The 'natural enemy of locomotives.'"

Ginny's smirk faded away in a moment. She recalled: "She was looking in all the compartments, and then... then she suddenly decided it had to be on the roof..."

Ginny's eyes widened. "Do you think she might've been Cursed? I mean, to make her to look there? And then, that would mean that somebody else is on the train—oh!"

Neville wondered why she had said "oh," but then he realised—it wasn't the "Eureka!" kind of "oh"—it was the "I wasn't expecting that" kind of "oh," the kind one said when they were struck in the stomach with an invisible spell.

In a moment, Ginny fell back in her seat, Stunned.

——

"Look at this!" said Ron. "There's a broom right in this grass—do you think somebody threw it off the train?"

Harry thought a moment. "Maybe he did, the Death Eater—"

"Darwin?"

"Shut up. Do you think he could have killed himself, up there?"

"Maybe," said Ron. "Doesn't really explain the train stopping, though, or why the heck he would've flown to the top of a train before doing the deed..."

"He didn't kill himself," said Hermione suddenly.

"Then who did?" Ron asked, turning to where she was standing, several feet away.

She held up an empty bottle, which looked to have held a potion. "Nobody did."

——

Neville's eyes were wider than they'd ever been—what had happened? How had Ginny just... just... collapsed? Like she'd been Cursed, but... but who would have Cursed her?

He looked over to the compartment door, pulled the shade back and looked outside—nobody was out there, just the prefects keeping the other students from looking in. It couldn't have been one of them, could it? They weren't looking in, they were facing the other way and talking nervously to each other. They hadn't noticed anything else had happened...

But then what had happened? How had Ginny... how had she... Neville was alone, who could have—

And then his eyes widened even further than they had before.

He wasn't alone.

The body wasn't just a body anymore—it was a person, standing tall in black robes, silver mask gleaming. A Death Eater. Neville grasped for his wand, in his robes, but the Death Eater pointed its own wand at it, and summoned it before he'd even had a proper grasp.

Then he pointed at the door, murmured a locking charm—some other charm, and the windows were blocked completely—

And Neville was trapped.

——

Ron rammed himself against the compartment door, a bit foolishly so that his shoulder would very much hurt. "GINNY!" he called. "NEVILLE!"

"Alohomora," said Hermione. She tried the door again. It was still locked. She began a more complicated unlocking spell...

Harry had joined Ron in the battering of the door. "GINNY! Please be OK..."

"They're trapped in there with a live Death Eater, how do you expect them to be OK?"

"They can defend themselves," said Harry. "That's what the DA was for..."

"Ginny's just a kid, how's she supposed—"

"Will you two just shut up?" demanded Hermione. "I have to start again, you're distracting me... and throwing yourself at the door like that isn't going to accomplish anything."

"Sorry," they said, and backed away from the door—from Ron's face there was nothing he would have liked more than one more good ram, which surely would have opened it this time...

Hermione started murmuring her spell again...

——

The Death Eater, then, did something entirely unexpected.

He lowered his wand.

Neville blinked.

In a graceful motion, the silver mask had been divested, and Neville's jaw dropped.

"Wha... wha... wha... no..."

There—in long black robes, silver mask at his side, and odd smirk upon his face—stood Neville's greatest fear.

"Hello, Longbottom."

"Snape..."

"It's been awhile, hasn't it? No time for catch-up." The smirk was gone, replaced by a look of utter seriousness. "This is very important, Longbottom, I need you to listen—"

Listen...? How could he listen...?

Before Neville even knew what he was doing, he had let out a grunt of rage and—was it really him doing these actions, it didn't feel like it—launched himself at his former professor.

This attack knocked Snape off balance a bit—but nothing more, and he had soon recovered, grasping Neville tightly by the arms.

"Fool, Longbottom! You have to trust me. There's no time to explain why I'm not killing you this very moment, but it should be enough to know that I'm not killing you, for you to believe that the two of us are on the same side."

"But—but—you killed Dumbledore—"

"I cannot explain that today, Longbottom. But listen to me, for once in your life, pay attention to these instructions and don't bungle it up.

"I'm here on a mission from the Dark Lord—I was to infiltrate this train, capture Potter, and in a 'blaze of glory' for Lord Voldemort, make sure the Hogwarts Express never ran again. I was to pretend to be dead, to be brought inside—oh, get that blank look off your face, Longbottom."

"Bu—how?"

"The Draught of Living Death, along with a bit of Polyjuice to obscure my identity—" He sounded very proud that his beloved potions had done their job.

"Weasley was right—the Dark Lord assigned Theodore Nott to find someone on the train to Curse, and to force them to look on the roof."

Nott...? thought Neville. But then that meant that Nott's worry for his father had been an act... Neville felt infuriated that they'd fallen for it. I told Ginny I was slow...

"Then, when I had been brought inside, Nott was to awaken me with a nonverbal counterspell to the potion—which he did."

"But why?" said Neville, and he was suddenly overwhelmed by the distinctly unwelcome knowledge that he was speaking to not only his least favourite person in the world, but to the man who killed Dumbledore—how could he still be on the Order's side if he'd...

"I was to wait for my chance, and strike Potter when he least expected it. I told you, my task is to bring Potter to the Dark Lord."

"But you can't—"

"I know I can't, Longbottom, listen to me. Potter is not ready to face the Dark Lord, he needs more time. And so this plan must fail. There are two ways for it to fail—for me to be killed, or for me to be captured."

He smirked. "That's your choice."

"Wha...?"

"You either have to capture me, or to kill me. It's not that difficult to comprehend."

"Ca—captured," said Neville. As much as he hated Snape, he knew he couldn't kill him... Even if he killed Dumbledore...

"I thought so. And that is why I came to you—I could have chosen Weasley, and many would have found it more likely she could manage it. But you are my perfect downfall, Longbottom. You're the one I would overlook."

"Good... to know..."

Snape smirked, again, handed Neville back his wand, and said: "Stupefy me, then, and conjure ropes to bind me. It'll be just like your dreams."

"Stup—!"

"Wait." Snape made a complicated gesture with his wand. With a jolt, the train started to inch forward again on its tracks. He turned to Ginny, and whispered "Ennervate." She began to stir.

He turned back to Neville. "Go ahead."

"Stupefy!"

——

Just as Snape's body collapsed to the ground, Ginny's eyes opened. She blinked a few times.

"Neville?" she said. "What happened?" She looked round. "Did I fall asleep? Why did you move the Death—is that Snape?"

"Um... yeah. He Stupefied you."

"He's alive?"

"Yeah... I guess there's some stuff to explain..."

He did so, and when he reached the end, Ginny was grinning.

"See, Neville? I told you you were capable."

"But... he told me to Stun him..."

"Not just in Stunning him... you did what needed to be done." She smiled, and kissed him on the cheek.

He grinned rather sheepishly. "I guess..."

He knew it hadn't meant anything—that she only thought of him as a friend. But somehow, he didn't mind. The way she was talking about him... maybe he wasn't so bad after all. Maybe... someone, someday, might think differently.

The compartment door burst open, then, and Neville suddenly remembered his surroundings, what had happened, everything...

Nott...

"Ginny!" said Ron and Harry, together.

"Thank goodness you're OK," said Hermione. Harry sat down next to Ginny and hugged her tightly, whispering something. Neville smiled.

"What happened?" asked Ron.

"Professor Snape! What ha—is he dead?"

"No... I'll explain everything afterwards, but you have to find Nott. He's a Death Eater... he cursed Luna... Where is Luna?"

"She's out here, she's Stunned."

"Harry, let's find Nott," said Ron. "Harry?"

Harry didn't seem very intent on letting Ginny go any time soon. And she didn't seem to mind. Broken up, indeed...

Neville stood: "I'll go instead."

——

From the outside, the Hogwarts Express appeared as something out of a fairy-tale, or a children's story—a great, steaming train marching steadily across the landscape, chugging along the tracks as if it would like nothing in the world. It had missed this feeling, this gathering of speed. It loved it.

The way the summer sun shined off the metal, you could have sworn the train wore a merry, sleepy grin.

Fin

Author's note: You may have noticed a difference between this and the other entries of the challenge (although I haven't managed to read all of them, yet, so I don't know if anyone else did this as well): not all of the required five clues were written for the characters—many were written for you. They should be quite apparent on a second read through, and indeed, there are more than five of them. This is not against the rules of the challenge, for they state only that "there shall be five clues," not "for the characters to figure out."

I hope you enjoyed this story—as you can see, I cut it rather close on the deadline. The ideas weren't coming very well for this challenge, even though I loved it the moment I read it. I'd written a chapter of my novel-length called "Murder on the Hogwarts Express"—this was the type of challenge I've dreamed of, and now that it came I couldn't think of a story for the life of me. (Although I suppose it makes sense; I've been rather busy lately...)

When the story did finally come, it was one of those things you just don't want to stop writing—I wrote well past midnight the last few nights on this story, something I haven't done in a long, long while. I really enjoyed it, and I was honestly very worried I might not finish in time. Thankfully I did. :) And hopefully, you've enjoyed it as well. :)