Chapter Thirteen
The Attack
1
Inside Harry's office, Ginny furiously fired spells from behind her husband's desk. The Neo Death Eater just outside the door was refusing to go down easily. He was obviously very good at ducking curses, both magically and physically, but she couldn't get better shots from her position. If she moved out from behind the shelter of the desk, the child in her belly could come to harm.
However, she eyed Agape's desk and wondered if she could surprise the little tosser while still being protected. The only problem was, she wasn't as nimble in this heavy state and making the dash from desk to desk could get her and her baby killed.
A blast of blue light hit her wooden shield so hard it skidded nearly a foot a cross the floor, taking her with it. Ginny retaliated by squirting a huge glob of goo at him from her wand. The mess hit the man with a satisfying SPLAT and he bloke made a disgusted noise.
Ginny used his distraction as an opportunity to scuttle over to the second desk without him noticing.
Thanks to the goo making his shoes smack against the floor, she could hear the man as he started moving closer. He muttered a few fowl words under his breath and paused behind one of the chairs in front of Harry's desk.
The redhead made an irritated face. Now the idiot had gone back out of her range. However, he thought she was in the same spot, so she still had the upper hand.
Thinking quickly, Ginny suddenly got up on her knees and pushed the mountainous pile of papers on the second desk on top of the masked man's head.
Seeing only a flapping, rustling mass of paper coming at him, the yelled furiously and waved his arms to beat them away, while Ginny, in the mean time, stood straight up and shouted, "Stupefy!"
The man went still at last, and Ginny bolted from the office. But outside the door she froze.
The Auror headquarters was teeming with bodies and alight with flashes of magic. She could barely see a path for all the people fighting. Everywhere she looked was another black mask.
"How did they all get in?" she breathed.
Normally, she would have thought a bunch of Neo Death Eaters bursting into a room full of highly trained professional crime fighters would be a suicide mission. However, in these kinds of numbers, they were holding up pretty well.
A ricochet curse flew by her face and she immediately put a shield up to protect herself. She needed to decide exactly where she was going before charging between the dangerous duels going on around her. She no doubt would have to participate in one of her own before long, so she wanted to get as close as she could to an exit prior to then.
"Ginny!" cried a familiar voice from her left.
She turned to see Tonks struggling with a wild-eyed female Optimates, who had apparently lost her wand and was trying to bit her opponent.
"Merlin's beard, what are you doing here?" Tonks demanded. "It's too dangerous! You're bloody seven months pregnant!"
"Oh, really? I had no idea," Ginny retorted, having to shout to be heard.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw another jet of light coming her way. She quickly readjusted her magic shield and the spell bounced away harmlessly. Tonks stunned the crazy Neo and chained her up.
"I was looking for Harry," Ginny explained, moving her barrier to include Tonks as the talked. "Then all these blighters showed up and now I can't get out."
"I don't know if there is a way out anymore," Tonks replied. "Kingsley told me to go help Harry and the others ages ago, but I haven't been able to get past this lot." She gestured angrily at all duelers.
Ginny grabbed Tonk's sleeve. "Where's Harry? What's happened? Agape said there was a crisis."
"She was right. The Order and the Blood Traitors have gone to fend off an assault on the Hogwarts Express. That's why the Neos have attacked the Ministry – to hold off the Aurors."
A Neo lunged for them and Tonks blew him halfway across the room into an Auror. She and Ginny winced at the sight of the collision, but they didn't have time to stand around.
"We've got to get you out," Tonks said firmly. "And if not, we'll hide you."
"I'm not going to hide, Tonks!"
"Well, it's either that or get yourself and you baby killed!"
Ginny bristled at this. "I can handle myself well enough not to get killed. I've been doing this since I was fourteen."
"We'll I've been doing this since you were fourteen too, and I'm not letting you out of my sight."
"Fine then, where do we go?"
There was an earsplitting BOOM that made everyone flee from the far side of the room.
"That'll be Cordingly over by Investigations," Tonks said dryly. "For once his paranoia is useful."
"They're going to destroy the place," Ginny exclaimed.
"Ginny! Tonks!"
The two women whirled around to find Agape coming up behind them – and with her, her entire class of twenty Aurors in training.
"I got every trainee except Quinlan," the tall woman beamed. "He's with the Order."
Tonks grabbed her in an embrace. "Thank you."
Agape looked taken aback for a moment, surprised she'd finally done something right. Then she had to fire a flash of crimson at an Optimus aiming his wand at Tonk's back and the fight took precedence again.
"Alright, students," Tonks cried as she fended off another Neo. "Keep Ginny there as safe as possible and try to find a way out."
A screaming young man ran toward them at that point, chased by three Optimates. "Help! Help! Help!"
Several of the Auror students dropped his pursuers in mid-stride and he came crashing into Agape's arms.
"What the… Remy?" she cried.
"Save me, please!" he begged her. "I don't even work here and they want to kill me."
"Keep him safe too," Tonks added to the students. "Let's move!"
2
Everyone in the compartment looked up as a series of bangs on the train roof announced the arrival of the Neos.
"Kyla, stay here," Harry commanded. "All of you kids have to stay in this compartment until its safe enough to get off the train. Take others with you if you can, but just get off!"
Kyla nodded, her eyes huge. Then she grabbed Tricia's hand they huddled together next to Monty.
"I want to help too," Trevor spoke up as they moved to leave. "I can, you know."
"Stay with your friends," Gus told him. "Help them."
They left the compartment and gathered at the back door, joined by the rest of the Blood Traitors from the neighboring space.
Alton, holding onto Payton's hand, turned a worried expression toward her. "Stay with the kids," he said. "They'll need help escaping."
She agreed and watched him and the others leave before going to the children.
Harry led the way up the built-in ladder on the outside of the car. Once on the roof, he had to dodge several jets of sparks right away.
He used a banishing charm to knock all of the Neos off their feet – and one off the train completely.
"Don't let them into the cars!" the Auror shouted to his comrades.
It was easier said than done, however. The Order also flooded out of the train near the front and picked up the fight from that end, but there were so many Optimates it was overwhelming. What was worse, half of them were Dante's mutated army using themselves as a first defense to prevent the normal witches and wizards from being caught.
The woman with the metal shield in her skin had apparently recovered from being welded to the door in Morrigan's dungeon, because she was now on the scene. Upon spotting Harry, her face contorted with murderous rage – it was obvious she remembered him.
"You foul PIG!" she shrieked, diving at him with metal fists ready to pound his face in.
He shot her from the air as she jumped and she went crashing back to the roof with a heavy clang. Harry easily leapt over the furious woman and headed for the next car, where several Optimates had already started climbing down to get inside.
"ARRGH!" he heard the woman scream behind him.
Harry paused and turned back in case she attacked again, but found her suddenly distracted by Alton.
"Hi, Enyo," yelled the masked man as he kicked her in her metal chest. But she hardly moved – her weight secured her to the train.
"Watch yourself, Drake," she bit back. "Better not use your kung-fu crap up here. I'd hate to see you fall!" She shot a curse at him, and he and every person behind him had to duck flat against the roof to avoid being hit.
"You are by far the most annoying out of all of them," Alton sneered, unphased. As he jumped to his feet, he ripped his mask down and blew a ball of flames at her from his mouth.
The woman yelped and held up metallic arms to protect her head. The fire was by no means hot enough to melt her shield, but it did scare her long enough to give Alton the chance to charge at her. He sprang into the air and kicked her in the side with his foot.
With another surprised scream, she toppled off the roof and slammed into the bridge below. The ledges where only about a meter wide on either side of the hefty Express, so she ended up hanging half off the edge, her legs dangling over the turbulent river.
He watched to see if he would need to follow her down to finish her off as his friends ran past him to fight off others. To his dismay, someone appeared beside Enyo to pull her back to safety. It was the golden-haired man from Betwys-y-Coed who had trapped them with a circle of fire.
Alton made noise of frustration and hurried to climb back down the train so he could get to them. However, as soon as he was on the ladder, he was slammed into the back of the train by an explosion of flames at the end of the bridge. He could feel the holes melting through his shirt under the intense heat. Thankful he was fireproof, Alton gaped at the blaze. It was an inferno that seemingly raged without much assistance from kindling to feed off of.
He realized it was Marduk blocking their way back. Now they could only go toward the bank the Neos had come from if they wanted to leave the Express.
Meanwhile up top, the Order and BT were trying to get past the Millitis Optime. Imogene and Yvette had caught hold of a flying man and were shredding his wings with their claws. Not far away, Ron and Hermione Weasley were back to back as they shot at the other flying snipers still in the sky. Harry was on the next car, trying to get past a venomous spitting woman. Near them, Logan had been pinned down by the dog mutate and was struggling to reach his dropped wand. A shockwave washed over the first car as McGonagall mowed down a number of Optimates with a single spell. Tundra Lupin levitated two women over her head and smacked their heads together with a sickening thump.
Gus was able to make a shark-mouthed person bite into the metal roof, leaving them momentarily stuck. He clambered down a ladder into the junction between two cars and charged into an open door where he heard young voices screaming.
His eyes had to readjust to the dimmer light after being blinded by the gleaming metal roof for so long. He thought the small, vertical blue and orange circles floating around him were just a strange trick of his vision, but then he realized they were hovering above the heads of nearly every student in sight. Four boys brushed by him to get out of the car and the glowing blue circles stayed fixed above their heads as they ran.
Three masked men and a woman were showering an unfamiliar spell over the kids, making the little circles appear over heads that didn't yet have one.
"Get the Mudbloods!" the woman yelled.
They all seized a child, each one with an orange circle, and Gus shouted at them to freeze. "Let them go, now!" he barked furiously. The Optimates hesitated.
Though Gus had never seen the spell before, he knew what the circles meant now. They were markers to indicate a person's blood status – blue for pure, orange for impure.
"Unhand the students NOW!" he snarled. He'd never been so angry in his life.
But the Neos didn't give him a chance to fire; they all Disapparated, taking the kids with them. The others left in the car saw their chance and rushed toward the door, desperate to get out. Gus let them go, knowing he couldn't stop them if he tried.
"Hide!" he cried after them. "Be careful!"
He was startled by Quin Lupin jumping down from the roof and landing in front of him. "Schmitt!" he said, recognizing the tall Ministry worker. "What do those circles mean?"
"It separates the pure ones from the non-pure ones," he answered angrily. "The slime-balls are only taking the ones who don't come from wizarding families."
Quin's eyes went wide and he immediately got off the car connection to run after the kids. "We have to tell the others," he called over his shoulder as he ran. Gus watched as the young man shot away a couple of Neos, who tried to block the student's path. Lenore Apparated beside him and helped him fend off three more.
Then Gus scowled through the window of the next car and saw more circles appearing within. His wand and latent temper ready, he charged inside.
3
Just inside the forest and very close to the river bank where Roman still stood, the Optimates had placed a large, growing, translucent mass on the ground. This seemingly gelatinous blob was one of the most genius parts of Roman's plans. It was what allowed them to attack a target like the Express in the middle of nowhere. The bubble of magic was easily concealed in a small bag before use, simple to activate (just add space and a bunch of people to it), kept it's prisoners calm with a spell, and, despite how much it weighed later, was a snap to transport so long as someone carried a portkey along for the trip.
This yet unnamed blob could hold as many mudbloods as they could catch and would take them away in a second. It was a black market item, of course – a very useful tool that would be a dream for Ministry law enforcement, but fetched a better price as a terrorist weapon and was sold as such.
Roman watched for a moment as the first few Optimates came back with their captives. They Apparated nearby and flung the wailing, kicking kids at the blob, which enclosed around them and stretched to accommodate each added tenant. Once inside, the spell made the children relax and their faces melted into vacancy.
Malleus was one of the few to come back right away, and he dragged a screaming eleven-year-old along the ground by his robes before shoving him into the clear bubble. Once inside the terrified boy stopped thrashing and sat calmly with a blank expression.
"You were right, Rome," Malleus said, casually coming up to his friend as if he hadn't just participated in kidnapping. "There's a load of people trying to fight us off the train. Sucks to be them, right? Hey, guess what I just heard – the winged fellow guarding my back said my dad was coming soon."
"I know," Roman said, watching as an Optimus woman with a bleeding arm tossed an unconscious student into the growing magical glob. That made ten inside so far.
"You know?"
"I asked him to come see his plans unfold," Roman told him, still not looking at him.
Malleus clapped him hard on the shoulder. "Brilliant! He'll love this. Well, I'm about to go back – you coming this time?"
Roman nodded and they both Disapparated.
4
Trevor peered cautiously out of the compartment door when they heard the Optimates arrive inside their car.
"They're taking kids," he told them tensely. "They just Disapparated with Aaron Sparks and Emma Pearson, but they didn't seem to want Renatus Whisp. They're not taking any of the Slytherins actually."
Payton grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back inside, quietly closing the compartment door.
"They're only taking the Muggle-borns," Patricia whispered in terror.
"Emma isn't Muggle-born," Kyla pointed out.
"But her grandparents are Muggles," Tricia retorted franticly. "Oh God, I'm done for!"
Payton shushed them all. She pressed her ear to the door and heard heavy footsteps quickly approaching. She waved at them all to hide and the kids scrambled around in the small space.
Outside, the Neo searching the last few compartments for stragglers finally reached theirs. He saw a form inside and roughly tore open the door to find a single, very round boy with dark hair standing inside. The Optimus raised an eyebrow at the trembling kid and dusted him with the spell that would show whether or not he was pure.
A small blue circle glowed above his head.
Satisfied, the menacing man started to leave but noticed something orange reflected in the narrow window to the left of the compartment door. He suddenly spun around and pushed the fat boy to the floor. Taking the Otpimus by surprise, another boy suddenly launched himself upright from behind the first kid and slashed at his face with razor sharp fingers.
Trevor, now with his own orange badge above his head, landed on top of the man and stunned him with his own wand.
"C'mon," he said to his friends as he righted himself.
Kyla and Tricia crawled out from under the two seats and Payton dislodged herself from the overhead luggage slot. Monty got up from the floor and eyed the Neo's bloody face.
Putting his fingers back to normal, Trevor clapped his big friend on the shoulder. "That was and awesome idea, mate," he said.
"I thought I was going to pass out," Monty admitted, still shaking.
Tricia wrapped her arms around the tall boy's neck and hung there, her feet suspended several inches from the floor for a moment. "That was so brave Monty. You're my hero." She let go and then seized Trevor. "You too, Trevor."
She wasn't letting go of Trevor, and the poor boy looked rather awkward. He peered at Kyla for help.
"Okay, we have to move out of the open," Kyla said, patting Trish on the back.
The blond girl finally let go and they followed Payton down the car.
"Why aren't we going out of the back?" Kyla asked.
Payton paused at the front of the car to peer out of the window to check for Optimates. She made a hand sign to Trevor, who told Kyla it meant fire.
"Fire?" frowned the girl. She looked back toward the back door found that indeed there were flickering flames outside. "Oh.."
Payton took them outside and they started slinking around the sides of the train along the narrow bridge. Tears started running down Tricia's face when she saw how far above the water they were. She squeezed Kyla's hand painfully tight.
They were suddenly surprised by an Optimus leaping in front of them from one of the car links. She looked equally shocked to see them sneaking about, but she had a wand and Payton didn't. Tricia screamed as the woman fired a jinx at them and they all ducked.
Payton grabbed a handful of the dirt on the bridge and flung it into the Neo's eyes before Kyla knocked her hard against the train wall with a charm. The mute woman grabbed at the kids and forced each one to quickly go by the blind and dazed Neo. She signed to Trevor to keep going and she would be right behind them. He nodded and took the lead.
"Ohgodohgodohgod!" wept Tricia while Kyla tugged her along.
Payton was just about to follow them, when her head was jerked backward without warning. The Optimus woman had a handful of her hair and was pushing her toward the edge of the bridge. Payton struggled to fight her off, but soon the woman grew frustrated and finally kicked her hard on the hip.
Payton lost her balance and fell over and over until violent waters engulfed her.
5
Jett had carried Jules into the Minstry in her pocket as a snake. The animagus had slithered out of her robes in the lift and morphed into human form when she saw her friend being picked on. Now the two women had met up again in the battle. They halfheartedly put on a show of dueling with each other as they concentrated on making their way to a certain hallway.
They passed a large group of young men and women chaining up Optimates left and right. Jules noticed Agape and Ginny Potter fighting among them, with the Auror Tonks in the lead. She hoped they would turn the tides enough to over power the intruders.
Nearby, Gus's boss, Garry Moore shouted irately as he physically pounced on his opponent and they started shooting curses at each other on the floor. Jules and Jett had to jump away from each other to keep from being tangled up in the men's flailing arms and legs.
They reached the right hall at last, and as soon as they were mostly out of sight, they stopped dueling to swiftly walk by the many offices in search of a certain name plastered on one of the doors.
They stopped in front of a Mr. Adam Huxley's office.
Huxley was one of only two authorities in charge of judging whether or not law enforcement should be involved in serious situations outside of the Ministry jurisdiction. Situations like keeping students at Hogwarts for another day until a proper investigation of the threat of an Optimates attack could take place.
Mr. Donovan Hellewege was the second judge, but they would deal with him shortly.
Most of what these two men did everyday was put their signatures at the bottom of a form. However, they had obviously refused to sign Kingsley's request to send Aurors to Hogwarts. It was a decision they would soon regret making.
Jules and Jett blasted Mr. Huxley's door wide open and went inside. After looking around for a moment they found him hiding under his desk. He spotted Jett's masked face first and panicked, shooting a poorly aimed stunning charm.
Jett twitched her wand once and his weapon zipped out of his grasp. Jules jumped onto his desk top and leaned over to peer at him. She not amused by his show of cowardice.
"Why aren't you out there helping the others?" she inquired flatly.
"Or more precisely, why aren't you assisting your Death Eater friends?" Jett said.
He looked back and forth between them, unsure of what was going on. "I'm not trained in combat," he offered, then immediately knew he'd said the wrong thing.
"So, you are with the Neos, but instead of fighting alongside them, you hinder the Ministry with parchment and quill," Jules concluded.
"I… No, I… What do you want?" he demanded at last.
"Just for you to be recognized for your work, Huxley," Jett answered with a twinge of disgust in her voice.
"I just work for the Ministry –"
Jett cut him off. "You don't remember me, of course," she said, "but I brought you the message from Morrigan, warning you not to give the Aurors permission to protect Hogwarts if they came to you. I'm quite positive you don't just work for the Ministry."
His eyes widened. "B-but aren't you a Neo?" he asked, trembling.
"Good question. You're not as asinine as you look," Jett replied.
Jules stupefied him in the next moment and Jett used her wand to burn OPTIMUS into his forehead.
"You know, he is a scum bag," Jules said, looking at Jett's handiwork, "you didn't have to use such nice penmanship."
Jett rolled her amber eyes. "Well, you can write it as crappy as you want on Hellewege's face," she said, turning to leave.
Jules got off of Huxley's desk and they left in search of Donovan Hellewege's door.
6
Payton struggled to stay afloat in the river's split-rib current and swam desperately for the bank. She had it in her sight at one moment, only to be turned around by the waters and end up looking back at the bridge. Then her back hit something very solid and pain shot up her spine.
It was a large rock smoothed by the river and she had to cling to it with all her strength. Slowly, she was able to pull herself mostly out of the water and sit on the cool surface, gasping huge breaths into her lungs. She looked toward the train on the bridge and saw the battle ensuing there. The blaze still roared behind the caboose, blocking off any escape rout.
She wasn't doing much good sitting there on a rock, so she looked about for a way back to land. Luckily, she wasn't far from the bank the Optimates had come from – the problem was staying that way once she was back in the water. Then she noticed a large tree nearby, whose branches fanned out toward her, but remained just beyond her reach. If she could jump and grab hold of the branches, she could use it as an anchor against the current.
Payton attempted to move into a crouch on the rock, but her sneakers slipped on the slick surface. She barely managed to hang on and not fall in prematurely. Taking a breath, she tried again and was able to stay upright. Adrenaline surging through her as she judged the distance, the woman sprang off of her island and seized the closest branch, bending it downward as gravity reclaimed her and she hit the water again.
Waves splashed over her head, but she used the limb to pull herself up. Her legs paddled with everything she had as her hands moved over the rough bark, hauling her closer and closer to the bank. The smaller twigs snapped under her palms as she held on, but she was able to gradually crawl up to the stronger wood and set her feet in shallower waters. Nearly exhausted, she waded to the bank and had to sit down for a moment.
She was just about to get back up when she heard voices not far from her. Then she heard a child screaming.
Payton immediately sprang into action, stooping low to the ground as she moved toward the noise. She hadn't gone far when she saw the Optimates towing several students into the forest. She had to dive into a bush to keep from being discovered.
Her mouth dropped open when the Neos shoved the kids into a monstrously large bubble-like prison.
As soon as the Optimates left, she cautiously moved closer. She was horrified to see that the children inside the blob looked drugged or stunned. Staying hidden behind a tree trunk, she was able to get within arms reach of the translucent mass.
She realized a bit too late that it was unwise to touch the blob; she stuck her hand inside to try reaching for a student, but ended up almost sucked in as well. It took a great deal of tugging on the tree beside her to free her arm, and it was covered in sticky slime even then.
Payton heard the popping noises of returning Optimates and, knew she had run while she could so she could get someone with a wand to help the captives. As quietly as she could, she moved behind the magic glob and crouched through the forest. Once she could no longer hear the voices of the Neos, she broke into a full run until she reached the bridge.
Once there, she darted by Fred and George wrestling kids marked by orange circles away from two Neos. Pausing for a second, she managed to kick one of the Optimates very hard in the back of the knee and he fell backwards with a yelp. Fred seized the man's young captive and stunned him, causing a big enough distraction for George to do the same to the second fellow.
"Thanks!" they called after her in unison.
She didn't slow down again, bolting along the narrow space of the bridge that wasn't taken up by the train's bulk. Most of the fighting was still inside the cars, and she searched the windows as she passed, hoping to find one of her friends.
Suddenly she slid to a stop as she heard someone calling her name.
"Payton! Thank god," Alton shouted from a window just ahead of her. He disappeared back into the train in the next second and they both ran to meet each other at the car junction. He leapt down and seized her in the tightest hug he'd ever given her as the battle raged on around them.
"When I couldn't find you with the kids I didn't know what to do," he said into her hear.
Relief to see him swept over her as well and she kissed the side of his face repeatedly before finally pulling back.
'I fell in the river,' she signed.
"Holy crap!"
'It's okay. Listen, I saw where they're taking the kids.'
Alton's eyes went wide as galleons and followed her pointing finger over toward the East bank.
'They're right inside the trees in a big bubble prison.' She showed him her goo covered arm. 'We have to get them out.'
Hope lit his face and he smiled hugely at her. "They're so close…Brilliant! Let's tell Sydney and Ferris." Catching her slimy hand he led her into the car he had just come from.
It was packed full of students of all different ages, most of which had glowing orange marks over their heads. They all looked terrified and huddled close together. Payton was glad to see Trevor and his three friends there as well, though it was a bit disconcerting to see the young boy covered in blood. Ferris and Sydney were near the front of the car, obviously helping Alton guard all the students. They both looked rather beaten up, but not down trodden.
Sydney gasped when she saw Payton, "You're all wet! Did you fall in?" When Payton nodded, she gasped again. "How did you get out?" she asked, amazed.
Payton shrugged incredulously, not knowing how she had ended up so lucky.
"She found the captured students when she did," Alton told them in a raspy voice.
Several of the children perked up at this, hoping to hear what had happened to their friends.
"Really?" Ferris said eagerly. "Can we get to them?"
Payton nodded, but started as a loud thud sounded over their heads. Something, or rather someone had just hit the roof.
"That must be Harry," Alton said brightly. "He was the closest last I checked. He and the others are keeping the Neos busy on either side of us so they don't find all the kids we're hiding. We've been fighting off the few that get past." He coughed a few times, clearing the soot from his throat, and sounded less raspy when he spoke again. "I think we should get everyone out of here before it's too late. I'll tell Harry to guard us."
He started to move toward the door again, but Ferris shouted, "Wait! There's too many. How are we supposed to leave without becoming a bigger target than we already are?"
"Hey!" cried a first-year boy sitting in the middle of the car.
Everyone turned to look at him.
"I'm sitting on a little door," he told them, pointing to the floor. "Does that help?"
There was a short pause from everyone, and then Kyla said, "Well, open it and find out."
The boy stood and the people around him squashed closer to each other to give him room to straddle the small door and tug it open by an embedded handle.
"I see the ground!" a girl proclaimed, looking down the hole.
"It's a way out!" cried another.
The first year beamed at the adults, delighted with his discovery.
Alton and Ferris exchanged looks across the car.
"Go tell Harry we're escaping under the train," Ferris said. "We'll go toward the front, since the back is blocked by fire. We can go into the forest and hide there."
"Right," said Alton. "Then we'll need to get the Neos away from the front. I'm gone!"
He kissed Payton once, made the hand sign for 'I love you,' and ducked through the door, vanishing up the ladder to the roof.
"Okay, everyone," Ferris said, and the students all looked at him. "You have to be absolutely quiet. Stay between the track rails and keep crawling forward. If one of us gets caught, all of us get caught, understand?"
They all nodded silently, some looking ready to go, others were horrified.
"Trevor, you go first and lead the way," Ferris told the rust-haired boy. "Sydney, you and Payton will be somewhere in the middle. I'll guard us from behind. Let's go – quietly."
Trevor easily slipped down into the hole and started crawling eastward beneath the undercarriage. His classmates followed him without question. Some of the older, larger students had a harder time fitting through the small trap door, but even Monty manage to shove himself down. Ferris counted as each head before they disappeared, stopping them once the number reached fifteen. He sent Syd down and let seven more kids go, then Payton, the last eleven kids (including his cousin), then he followed, pulling the door closed to leave no evidence of their departure. He'd counted thirty-four children in all, and prayed this would work.
7
Alton hoisted himself back onto the roof and found Harry quite nearby, but he didn't expect to see the person he was facing off with.
Standing one car away from the Auror was the tall attractive form of Roman. One of his hands held the collar of a teenage girl's shirt; the other pointed a wand at her temple. He'd removed his mask and had obviously just stopped in the middle of capturing the girl to converse with Harry.
The seventeen-year-old beside him was on her knees and looked torn between fear and anger. She was such a carrot-top her hair nearly matched the orange color of the circle hanging over her head. Black horn rimmed glasses perched precariously at the tip of her nose, threatening to fall.
Alton could hear their conversation as he came up behind Harry.
"You are one arrogant bugger," Harry was saying, his wand trained in turn on the Italian.
Roman's expression was stony and impenitent as his gaze shifted to the approaching Blood Traitor. Alton stared back at him, disgusted.
Harry continued. "Looks like you've chosen the wrong side, Luciano."
"That's what it looks like."
"You really want to hurt a bunch of kids?" Alton snarled. "Are you the big man who worked this whole attack out? Kid of easy targets, don't you think?"
"I didn't choose the targets," Roman reminded him calmly.
"But you sure don't mind terrifying all of them," Alt retorted.
"Let her go, Luciano," Harry said with a warning tone. "I've never liked you enough not to drop you where you stand."
Roman's expression never changed. "Good to know there's no love lost."
"You might as well do as he says, Roman. It doesn't matter anymore," Alton proclaimed, a triumphant gleam in his eye. "Payton found your little hide out in the woods. She said you're putting kids in a bubble on the east bank."
Harry looked at him quickly, then over at the mentioned area.
"Does that make you angry, you tosser?" Alton went on. "That a mute Muggle could ruin your plans so badly? All we have to do is go over there and kick you asses on the bank instead of right here."
But the thing was, Roman didn't look angry or even slightly irritated. His face held no emotion at all and his eyes were dark. Alton wondered if this was his friend being a bad person, being the villain. Was this what it took to be an Optimus? Become a blank slate?
"You sure did make them easy to find," Harry commented, still squinting toward the east bank.
"Lucky for you, isn't it?" Roman replied.
The arrival of another Neo caught everyone's attention. "Need some assistance, Julius?" asked Marduk.
Alton's eyes narrowed at the softly glowing phoenix mutate.
"Not really," Roman replied to the question. "But it looks as though Drake is ready for a fight. Perhaps you can formally introduce yourself at last."
In his own conservative way, Marduk looked as though he'd rather chew glass than do anything Roman said. However, he obeyed and suddenly appeared behind Alton.
The smaller man whirled to face him, thinking he would be struck from behind, but apparently Marduk was not that kind of fighter. He actually bowed his golden head to his opponent before ever lifting his wand.
Alton stared at him as if he were crazy.
"Can you handle him by yourself?" Harry said quietly, his eyes focused back on Roman.
"Of course!" Alton snapped.
"Good. I'm going to get the girl away from Luciano, then go to help the trapped kids."
"A bunch of the ones we saved are under the train right now," Alton whispered back. "They'll need help too."
Growing impatient, Marduk called to him: "Are you not ready yet, Drake?"
"I'm just thinking I've never actually dueled with a lefty before," the Blood Traitor covered, gesturing to the hand Marduk was holding his wand with.
"I'd assume the spells come out the same," said the younger man dryly. "I can switch if you'd like."
"Ah, stuff it! Let's go!"
The two started fighting, and Harry Apparated behind Roman. The Neo whirled around quickly, anticipating the move, but the girl he held hostage had had enough.
"Get away from me!" she cried, getting hold of Roman's wand hand and biting into it with all her might.
"Aaagh!" Roman snarled, shoving her away and holding his bloody hand.
The girl gasped and tried to cling to the slick roof as she slid off the side.
Harry charged Roman and he immediately Disapparated, stopping the Auror in mid stride with no target to aim at. Then Harry noticed the seventh-year was barely holding on and he dove instead to catch her slipping fingers.
She looked frightened at first, but once he pulled her back to safety, she picked herself up and straightened her glasses, breathing a little easier.
"Thanks," she said. "It would be hard to swim if I broke my leg falling off this bloody train."
"Are you alright?" Harry asked automatically.
"Fine now, thanks to you. I'm Antonia, by the way – recently graduated and willing to help if you need it."
A blast of flames on the next roof distracted them. Alton and Marduk had resorted to their fire powers relatively quickly. Smoke billowed from Alton's mouth as he shouted insults and obscenities. Marduk looked irritated, but stayed calm as he hurled fireballs from his hands. The only problem with them using their powers, was that they were both fireproof as well. It was a pretty even match, even though Marduk had more tricks.
Harry frowned at them, and then turned back to Antonia. "Do you have your wand?" He asked.
"Yeah."
"Can you help some of the other kids? I seem to have run out of allies who aren't trying not to die."
"Absolutely," she said with a resolute nod.
They hurried down the nearest ladder and started running toward the front of the train. They hadn't gotten far before another explosion startled them into looking back. The flames mushroomed upward from the train roof and the cloud of smoke produced blocked the afternoon sun for a moment, but their eyes were fixed on the person who flew through the air far past the bridge and plummeted into the river below.
Harry's blood went cold. He looked over the edge of the bridge to try and see who it was, but no one came back to the surface. Then he jerked his head back to the roof, and sure enough, someone came to the edge and peered down at the water. Harry sighed in relief when he saw Alton's form and shaggy blood-red hair emerging from the smoke instead of the Optimus.
8
"This is marvelous," Odin breathed, standing on the short roof of the steam engine and gazing around at the chaos all around. "Just marvelous."
"You should have seen the Ministry," said Nolan Quentin beside him. The vampire fiddled absentmindedly with the pendant around his neck, which held the same type of stones Ima and Yvette wore on their fingers to protect him from the sunlight. "The Aurors didn't know what hit them. It was easy for me to get out with all of them distracted."
"You have no idea how happy hearing of their incompetence makes me," Odin replied smugly. He took another glance at the duelers and screaming children below before turning his head a fraction toward Quentin. "Go have fun. You've earned it."
Nolan grinned wickedly and jumped off the train to do just that.
Odin spotted two pairs of eyes on him from a few cars away. He smiled and waved at the Lupin couple. They held their wands up and moved his direction, so he leapt from the engine to the first car to meet them halfway.
"Remus, Tundra," he said, holding his arms open as if greeting old friends. "I haven't seen you face to face in years. How are the pups?"
Odin began to laugh as they fired at him simultaneously, and the dangerous duel was started.
9
"What do we do, Vaughn?" hissed the girl behind Trevor as they lay on their bellies beneath the Express. "We can't stay under here without someone finding us."
"I know," Trevor whispered back. "But I don't know which way is less dangerous. They're fighting everywhere on both sides of the engine."
"Hey, why did we stop?" a young voice demanded from further back. "I don't want to die under here! Please go!"
"Hold on," Trevor told them.
"I'm scared!" insisted the second kid.
"Shut up, Marius!" said a third student. "They don't even want you – you're a pure blood!"
Out of nowhere, Trevor saw a pair of legs speed by on the right side.
"Hey! You buggers with the masks!" shouted Ferris's voice.
Trevor moved closer to the edge of the undercarriage to see better. Several Optimates turned to look at him, as did some of the Order members fighting with them.
"You want a Mudblood?" Ferris called, holding up his wand in a blatant challenge. "How 'bout the son of a Muggle who fought against Voldemort?"
He'd succeeded in catching their attention.
Trevor bit his lip nervously as he watched four Neos aim their wands at his friend. He and most of the other kids flinched when they fired four spells at once. Ferris was ready for the spells, but he was knocked to the ground by the force of them hitting his hastily conjured barrier. He sprang back up as the four Optimates advanced on him.
"A Mudblood who's better than you no less," Ferris spat at them as he backed up.
He was leading them away from the engine so they wouldn't see the kids escaping toward the forest. The only masked people left were too busy dueling to do anything. Trevor slid out from under the train and glanced back at Ferris still blocking the Neos' attacks.
"Hurry," he hissed to the kids behind him. "Get out and run as fast as you can to the trees."
They all started emerging and ran desperately to the woods, their only chance of escape. Trevor helped some of them pull themselves upright and kept an eye on the duelers. The first few students made it past them without being noticed, but now the Neos could see what was happening and it was all the Order could do to hold them back. One man slashed Charlie Weasley with a bright purple spell that made him hit the ground face first. The Optimus started aiming similar spells at the children running past, who screamed and ducked to avoid being hit. One of them used a bat bogey charm to blind him and Trevor took the opportunity to strike.
He charged then, twisting around until his hands hit the ground, used his momentum to kick the man in the gut with both feet. The Neo flew backwards and hit the ground with impressive force. Then Trevor was on top of him, holding five knifelike fingers to his throat.
"Keep going!" he yelled at his classmates.
The Neo tried to pull his wand on the boy pinning him down, but Trevor sliced it into five pieces with his other hand.
Sydney and Payton slithered out from under the train and split up, Syndey going to help Trevor and the Order hold of the Optimates, while Payton kept the students moving in the right direction.
Ferris, on the other hand, was on his own and loosing ground.
"Feeling suicidal today, Mudblood?" asked one of the four men moving ever closer. "'Cause we're gonna blow you into little pieces."
Ferris shrugged. "At least when they collect the bits, they'll only find ten fingers instead of twelve. Tell me, what's it like to call your father 'Uncle Dad'?"
The curse the Neo shot at him then could not be blocked and Ferris was slammed into the ground, an enormous gash slanting across his chest.
Gasping in pain, he tried to retaliate, but didn't have to. A burst of light suddenly flashed in front of one of the Optimus's face and he reeled backward screaming, "My eyes! I can't see!"
Another spell shot from somewhere and knocked out a second Neo. Ferris looked wildly around from the ground as the last two masked men aimed up toward the roof. They never got a chance to curse the snipers as Ferris's saviors appeared behind them and stupefied them both. As their bodies slumped to the ground – taking the blinded man with them – Harry and Antonia were revealed.
The Auror stepped over the four men and helped Ferris to his feet.
"Well, isn't it a small wizarding world?" Antonia said. "Who would've thought, sweet, smart Thorpe would be a vigilante."
Ferris smiled slightly. "Don't tell anyone."
"Come on," said Harry, "we have to help the kids."
It hurt to run, but Ferris managed to keep up. Antonia helped the last few children out from under the train while Harry put up a massive block to guard them from the remaining Optimates. Ferris found Tricia and grabbed her hand as they bolted for the trees.
However, the leader of the flying mutates was still loose and Ferris could see his shadow looming on the ground long before the man landed, blocking their path. Tricia screamed hysterically and Ferris stepped in front of her. He was easily knocked to the side by one of the monstrous wings and the Optime seized Tricia's throat in one hand.
"NO!" Ferris yelled, but he couldn't get up in time.
Fero shot a curse right between Tricia's eyes and she went limp.
Trevor was suddenly there, claws out, but Fero slammed his fist into the boy's face, sending him spinning away.
Ferris grabbed Tricia and hoisted her into his arms, trying to make a dash into the forest. The winged man saw this and turned to go after them when two pops sounded and two men cut him off.
Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom sprayed lengths of chain at Fero, wrapping him up from head to toe.
"Go on!" Ron told the last few kids.
Harry and Sydney guarded the students as they ran past. "Thanks, mates," the Auror said to his friends. "Meet us on the East bank." Then he disappeared into the shade of the trees.
(I chose a real original title this time, right? Excuse rough sentences and bad grammar - I'm not going to edit the last chapters for lack of time.)