A few months passed and soon the end of Harry's second year at Red Fountain had arrived.
He kept up the time by doing his usual school related activities, doing extra training and frequently keeping in contact with friends/allies on both sides of the Earth/Magix divide.
Along with, of course, spending plenty of quality time with Roxy.
Ron and Hermione were due to leave Hogwarts for the final time as students today, having undergone a celebration of sorts involving taking the boats back across the lake as they had done in their first year at Hogwarts the day prior.
Some students could choose to leave then with the parents who had come to celebrate with their children then or they could choose to take the Hogwarts Express back to King's Cross today if they'd so desired. He knew that they, along with Neville and a few other students he personally knew, had chosen that option.
Harry would have come to witness it and celebrate it with them, but he was out on a mission and as such, was unavailable.
Hermione had promised to send him footage of everything, however. She'd actually managed to teach Dobby how to use the phone he'd given her on his own and had him record whatever he could of the event and send it to him.
When he got back to school, he looked forward to getting ready to leave and see his Earthling friends once again.
He'd finally get to meet his godson, Teddy for the first time.
Harry smiled at the very thought. The only way he'd been able to see the little boy so far was through pictures and he was looking forward to being able to actually hold the little one.
For now, however, he focused on the matter at hand; piloting this ship back to Red fountain, so he could finally pack up and leave Magix at the official end of his Sophomore year in a few days.
Ron, Hermione, Neville and a few other random year mates had gathered in one large cabin, along with a few friends and relatives from other years, celebrating.
"We've finally escaped Hogwarts!" Dean Thomas called out, raising a bottle of Butterbeer.
"Hear, hear!" Ron, Justin and Parvati called out in agreement, raising their own bottles.
"No more staying up late, tackling difficult assignments, no more intense study sessions..." Lavender cheered.
"And best of all, NO MORE SNAPE!" Ron bellowed and they all burst out cheering, even the more reserved of the bunch.
"I already plan on going to a private tutor. If I work hard enough with them, I can still do the NEWT for Potions as an independent candidate. I'll be damned if I let the overgrown bat stop my career ambitions because he's... well, because he's Snape..." Anthony Goldstein piped up. "I got Os in all of my OWLs except that one E in Potions and I'm supposed to let that hold me back from my ambition to become a healer? Certainly not," the (former) Ravenclaw huffed, indignant.
"I'm going back to the Muggle world," Justin said. "and resuming education there. I want to have the best of both worlds. The Wizarding World is amazing, but it can be rather limited at times..."
Hermione agreed with him. "That's why I want to go back there to further my education as well. I'm thinking about pursuing a career in law, but I'm not sure if I want it to be Magical or Muggle..."
"I want to do law as well, but it's certainly going to be Magical for me." Ernie spoke after chomping off the head of a Chocolate Frog and gulping it down.
"Same for me," Susan said. "I want to go into law as well, but I'm not sure what kind of law I'd want to pursu-"
She was cut off by the train suddenly shaking violently, sounds of explosions, promptly followed by the sounds of screaming students.
"What the bloody hell was that?!" Ginny screamed from the floor, cursing as she tried to get up and another explosion rocked the train, throwing her off her feet.
Hermione chanced a glance out the compartment window.
They were still out in the countryside somewhere, grassy mountains and fields surrounding them for miles, no buildings in sight. They were nowhere near London yet.
However, unlike the usual countryside scenery, black cloaked figures, both on broomsticks and others somehow flying independently were scattered around the train, both from the front to the back, all of them wearing silver masks and brandishing wands.
One of them noticed her looking out and turned his wand in her direction, as did others.
Hermione quickly ducked back inside the cabin.
"Death Eaters. We need to get out of here!" she screeched, grabbing Crookshanks' carrier, shrinking it and stuffing it into a backpack much to his displeasure as she ran out of the cabin just before the first spell hit it, sending them all scarpering.
"DEATH EATERS ARE ATTACKING THE TRAIN!" Zacharias Smith screeched as he ran past them in a panic.
"The teachers aren't here to help us and there's not much time to call for help!" Neville exclaimed, narrowly dodging a curse that left a sizzling hole in the wall where his head had been just seconds earlier.
"We can bloody well try! Here's my DA coin! Can't you do something with that at least, Hermione?" Terry Boot tossed it to the witch, who narrowly managed to catch it when another lurch of the train made them unsteady on their feet.
Hermione tapped it, sending out an alert to all the coins, including those owned by people who weren't on the train, telling them of the situation.
She tossed it back to Terry, just in time to throw up a Shield Charm to protect them from a piece of falling debris.
"Come on, spread out! We need to hold them off! If we go down, I'm damn well not going down without taking down a few of these bastards with me!" Seamus fired off a hex at a Death Eater who'd just flown into the train, pushing him right back out as his own robes began to strangle him.
Ron, Neville, Ginny, Luna and Hermione had all gravitated towards each other in the chaos and were doing their best to make sense of it.
The train was still moving- even though it was still lurching violently as it did so; Death Eaters were swarming the train, various pets had gotten loose and were adding to the confusion, many students were panicking and indeed, they could see that some students had already fallen to the attack.
A mixture of fear and fury ran down all five teenagers' spines.
"Somebody needs to help fight them from the air. Ginny and I can go try to round up some of the Quidditch players and good fliers and see if we can form an aerial defence!" Ron's expression hardened as he drew his wand.
Ginny glanced at her brother, saw his expression and nodded, drawing her own wand.
"Good luck, Ron. Stay safe!" Hermione gave him a quick kiss before he and Ginny ran off, along with some of the other members of their group.
"I fight better on the ground..." Neville murmured.
Luna twirled around and fired off a spell that formed a small tornado that lifted a few Death Eaters (and some random objects around them), hurling them out of the hole they'd juts blasted in the side of the train.
Hermione felt the heat of a spell sear past her cheek and hissed in pain as she whipped around.
The familiar glint of the long, blond hair on the Death Eater with his hood down had her instantly lashing out with one of the most powerful curses she knew.
"My, my... Using Dark Magic now, Mudblood? Who knew that such a... light-sided person would resort to such tactics?" his voice said smoothly even as they fought.
The noise of battle as well as Neville and Luna fighting with her were the only things she heard as she focused on the group of Death Eaters led by who she was sure was being led by Lucius Malfoy himself.
"I've learned quite a bit over the past few years... When fighting scum like you," Hermione fired off another curse that exploded against Lucius' shield. "you put them down permanently so they don't come back to kill again!"
"REDUCTO!" She heard Luna's voice shouting out behind her.
She ducked, narrowly avoiding being hit by a large chunk of train ceiling and as she recovered, threw off another spell at their attackers.
Meanwhile, at the Ministry of Magic, it was bedlam.
The Aurors, Hit Wizards and regular Magical Law Enforcement officers were on high alert as word came in that the Hogwarts Express was being attacked by Death Eaters.
"Come on! We've got to save our children from those scum!" one man called out as he sprinted for the Apparition point in the department, followed closely by his Auror squad.
However, just as they left, black-cloaked figures Apparated in and started firing hexes and curses at random.
"What? No one can Apparate in unless-" another wizard's exclamation of shock was cut off when an "Avada Kedavra!" courtesy of Bellatrix Lestrange (who didn't bother hiding behind a mask).
Arthur Weasley had been caught up in the attack on the Department of Magical Law Enforcement attack when he'd been delivering a report to the head of the Hit Wizards and had barely managed to escape the slaughter.
Fighting his way out into the Atrium, he saw that the entire Ministry had come under attack.
His own son he spotted somewhere across the hall fighting against an employee he vaguely recognised from another department.
His son was limping, even as he fought, the side of his robe was stained red and his glasses were missing.
Arthur moved towards him, blasting any Death Eater in his way aside in his effort to reach his third oldest son.
"I was just on my way out for lunch when he suddenly attacked me! I think he's been Imperiused!" Percy called out, dodging another spell from the other wizard.
"It's a full-on Death Eater siege! Bellatrix Lestrange is here!" Arthur exclaimed.
Percy's eyes widened.
The ground under their feet cracked and they ducked a large piece of concrete that went flying their direction.
"Floo's not working and the other ways out are sealed off! They must have had inside help!" Percy cast a particularly powerful Stunning spell that ended up practically flinging the unfortunate Imperiused wizard across the Atrium.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
A green light came hurtling towards Arthur, he had no time to dodge...
Percy reacted quicker, casting a spell that raised up a chunk of the floor and blocked the Killing Curse, which shattered the chunk into several smaller chunks and dust.
Arthur breathed heavily, his eyes wide at the near-death experience he just had.
"Father, you need to stop getting into these life-threatening situations in the Ministry..." Percy coughed, much of the dust going up into his nostrils.
"It's not as if I want to get into them..." Arthur pointed out.
Several of the Floo fireplaces began flaring up and desperate people tried going for them in an attempt to escape the chaos.
When Percy saw that it had indeed worked for a few of them, he summoned more strength and speed than he ever knew he had and grabbed his father's hand, practically dragging him towards the fireplaces, hauling him into one and tossing down the Floo powder, calling out their destination and escaping just before that fireplace was destroyed by a Death Eater's curse.
Molly was at home with Fred, George, Bill and Fleur, who had stopped by for a visit when the family clock made an ominous chime, drawing their attention to it.
Ron's, Ginny's, Arthur's and Percy's hands on the clock all suddenly turned to Mortal Peril.
Molly let out a small screech of horror as her eyes widened.
"Mum, calm down." Bill put his hands on his other's shoulders. "We don't know..."
"Calm down?!" Molly screeched as Fred got up to turn on the wireless to search for any news. "The Clock's never been wrong and it's saying that three of my children and my husband are in Mortal Peril! How is one supposed to be calm in that situation?!"
"Reports coming in that the Hogwarts Express had just come under attack from Death Eaters..."
"This just in... The Ministry of Magic is under siege by Death Eaters..."
Fleur's eyes widened and she too screeched in horror.
"How could we not have seen this coming?!" George wondered aloud.
Fred went over to the fireplace and attempted to make a Floo-call, but the fire remained its default reddish-orange colour.
"Floo's down..." he actually began to look worried.
"My babies and my husband are out there in danger!" Mrs Weasley fretted. "I need to do something!"
"Mum! We can't just jump into things! We don't know what's happening! We don't know where exactly the Hogwarts Express is on its route, the government is under attack..." Bill hugged his mother reassuringly.
"I shall make tea for us all, until we can get word on what has happened. It will help us calm down, oui?" Fleur shook herself out of it and headed towards the kitchen.
The stories kept coming in over the wireless.
Describing the chaos on the Hogwarts Express, efforts by law enforcement to fight off attackers on both scenes...
They vaguely recognised Lee Jordan's voice as one of the newscasters.
"It's the boldest move that You-Know-Who has made in several months now..."
"Padma!" Parvati shrieked as her twin was blown through a hole in the side of the train, her hair whipping about violently in the wind.
Padma barely managed to latch onto the edge of the train with her bloodied fingers, screaming as she did, her wand almost falling from her grasp.
"Parvati! Help me! I don't want to die!" Padma wailed.
"I don't want you to die either!" Parvati exclaimed, ignoring the bleeding gash across her cheek she'd just gotten from a flying bit of debris.
The train rocked, throwing them both off.
They plummeted to the ground, screaming as they fell to their deaths...
Or at least, they would have, if they hadn't been caught.
Dean flew over, narrowly catching Parvati by the hand and pulling her onto the back of his broom while Terry positioned his broom to catch Padma on the back of it perfectly.
The Ravenclaw twin held onto him for dear life.
"To think that Potter isn't even here and things like this are happening..." Dean noted wryly, doing a roll to avoid a Killing Curse that had Parvati screaming again.
"I really don't like heights..." she swallowed, glancing down at the train where many battles still raged on, the colours of various spells and their sheer power pulsating enough for them to feel it even from their position in the sky.
"Confringo!" Padma cast the spell at a Death Eater's broomstick, making it shatter and him fall from his broom, only to knock into another Death Eater, sending him off his broom as well, both plummeting towards the ground until the teenagers could no longer see him.
"We need to try helping the others from up here!" Terry said.
Ron and Ginny had obtained brooms somehow and were also fighting.
Dean, Terry, Parvati and Padma regrouped with them and a few other student fighters.
"What do we do now?" Parvati questioned.
Ginny looked her in the eye.
"We fight. We fight and take out as many of them as possible before help comes." Ginny said. "We may be young, but we're the only help we've got right now. We have no choice..."
Parvati glanced down at the fight below them again and swallowed her fear.
"Fine. Let's show them why they shouldn't attack a train full of children and young adults, thinking they'd completely win, shall we?" Parvati nodded.
They all agreed and flew back into the thick of the fight.