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The Hogwarts Express and the New World
Written By: Tellemicus Sundance
Co-Authored By: Fiori75
Chapter 5: Setting Foundations
Day 7: Morning
"Alright, everyone!" a 15-year-old girl's voice called, just being audible over the murmuring of the crowd. Thanks to the added height of her standing upon the stump of a recently cut down tree, everyone could see and hear her. The girl was a rather plain-looking dark blonde with light blue eyes. What set her apart from the usual crowd was the fact that she was dressed in a set of overalls that were so popular among the muggles. It was probably unintentionally, but a large portion of the older boys found her appearance rather appealing because she visibly wore only her bra underneath. This had the effect of pressing her breasts out through the chest area and having her long pale arms visible. It made for a rather attractive worker girl persona despite her otherwise bland appearance.
Once she was sure that she'd managed to get everyone's attention, the girl continued, "My name is Naomi Sharp. Percy put me in charge. Most of you from Hufflepuff probably know me. So, here's what we're going to be doing today." She gestured towards the scattering of trees and brush that surrounded them. "The camp needs wood. So, we need to chop down all of these bushes and small trees for starters. But we also need to start hacking down some of the taller trees so that we can start building a wall around the train."
She waited a few moments to let everyone process what she'd said. Which naturally led to the first questions to be asked.
"Which is more important? The big stuff or the little stuff?" someone called out.
"Technically, the big stuff," Naomi answered. "We need to build a wall quickly to protect ourselves better."
"Then shouldn't we just focus on that first?"
"So, you want to go farther into the dark, scary forest and away from the train and everyone who could see you?" Naomi asked, quirking her eyebrow. No one immediately responded. "Which is why we're working our way towards the bigger stuff. We need to clear out a line of sight to the train. Plus, all of the smaller wood will have uses too. You like staying warm at night, don't you?"
When the kids mostly nodded, she clapped her hands together. "Now, everyone find a tree or bush you like and start hacking!"
Padma couldn't help but let out a sigh of annoyance as she fiddled with the awkward chunk of scrap iron that was the head of her makeshift axe. And it truly was makeshift. She didn't know who had made it, but under Percy's directive, large portions of the destroyed Express engine had been torn apart and repurposed into shovels and axes and other tools. She and the rest of the crowd here were mostly all carrying such tools now.
She moved off to the side after spotting a relatively large bush that she decided looked easy enough to chop. In doing so, she caught sight of Ron Weasley and couldn't help but send him a rather miffed glare. The reason for this glare was due to the large fireman's axe he was using to hack the lower trunk of a small sapling with great ease. He was one of the lucky 20 that had managed to get his hands on one of the few fireman's axes that were inside each of the Hogwarts Express train cars. Originally, the axes were meant purely for decoration. Cause after all why would a regular wizard ever need to use an axe? But now, the many dozens of students were coveting those axes.
Growling slightly, Padma shook her head to try and clear her envy and refocus on her task. As she finally drew up to her chosen bush, she saw with dismay that it was of a particularly thorny kind of bush. And yet, if her eyes weren't playing tricks on her, there seemed to be large and familiar black berries within its thorny confines.
"Uh…Sharp?!" she called out loudly, hesitation in her voice. "Are these what I think they are?!"
Attracted to her voice, Naomi hurried over to her. Her gaze bounced between the girl and her bush as she approached. "Parvati, right? Yeah, those are blackberries." A look of consideration passed her face as she muttered to herself. "Yeah, we probably shouldn't cut those down."
However, Padma didn't hear that. She had found herself going still, her mind blanking as memories both good and bad rushed through her. A younger Parvati throwing a handful of blackberries into Padma's face. Padma yelled in anger as she stood up and grabbed her own handful, chasing after her twin. Pouncing on her, wrestling with one another as the berries were smeared upon their faces and clothes. Then, suddenly, the younger Parvati was gone. Her berry-smeared laughing face had been replaced by the bloody and twisted corpse, her neck twisted at an obscene and unnatural angle, with her face locked in shock and pain.
"—til?! Patil?!" Sharp's voice suddenly cut through the haze that had descended upon her.
Blinking, Padma lifted her gaze up to stare at the older girl for several long, uncomprehending moments.
"I got it wrong, didn't I?" Sharp asked, her voice now soft and conciliatory. "You're Padma. Sorry. Is your sister…?"
Padma didn't answer verbally. She didn't trust her voice. So, she just shook her head.
"Well…" Sharp trailed off for a moment before visibly recollecting herself. "Nothing we can do about that now. If you want, you can tell me about her and I'll tell you about my brother? Still, it's best to just focus on what we can actually do right now. If you're feeling up to it, why don't you pick as many berries as you can?"
Padma just nodded numbly as she realized that, at some point, she'd already dropped her axe. Slowly, almost mechanically, she pulled up her shirt to turn the hem into a lip to collect the berries in. She didn't end up picking all that many due to her newly resurfaced memories of her sister coming back to torment her again.
But her delirium was disturbed not long after by a loud shout from Sharp. "Finch-Fletchley! Get back to work! This isn't social hour!"
Looking off towards where she heard Sharp was, she found the girl standing imperiously in front of Justin Finch-Fletchley. The Hufflepuff boy had apparently been leaning against one of the tree saplings that needed felling, his axe hanging limply to the side, and with very few cuts into the wood. Apparently, he had taken a rather lackadaisical approach to the task.
"Oh, come on, Sharp!" the boy shot back with a plaintive whine in his voice. "Nothing hasn't bothered us that we haven't bothered first. This place isn't that bad."
"Really?" Sharp asked sharply. "Tell me again, how many have died since we've been here? And not the ones from the crash either!"
"Like I said," Justin repeated. "Nothing has bothered us that we haven't bothered first!"
"But we've also established that this place is dangerous!" Sharp countered. "We can't risk being careless!" She paused, looking around at the other students who were nearby. Even with just a cursory glance, Padma could also see that many of them seemed to agree with Justin.
Sharp frowned for a moment at seeing that. But then a rather resolved look crossed her face as she nodded. "Yes, this place is dangerous. And one of the many dangers that we know that is out there: the werewolf! Or have you all forgotten about it?!"
There were more than a few flinches of surprise as they realized that, yes, they had indeed forgotten about the werewolf that had apparently come with them. Padma wasn't too proud to admit that she was one of them.
Seeing that she'd managed to get through to everyone, Sharp called out, "Everyone, get back to work and stay alert!"
The knocking, grunting, and grumbling of the students all started back up again. Padma turned her attention back to the blackberries, but now her mind was elsewhere. Given the topic before, it would've surprised no one to learn she was now thinking about everything she knew about werewolves. Specifically, on how it was commonly believed that werewolves were monsters of body and mind…
Finally setting aside her job, Padma walked over towards where Ron was hacking against his third target. Unlike the previous two, she could see that he'd decided to try his hand at bringing down an actual tree. He was making relatively good progress, all things considered.
"Ronald," she called as she approached, getting his attention and causing him to miss his swing.
"Bloody hell, woman!" Ron yells out as he spun with his swing, fearing that releasing it would cause it to go flying. Finally bleeding off the excess momentum, he turns an annoyed stare on her. "You're lucky you weren't closer! I could've taken your head off!"
Padma paused as she realized that that didn't sound too bad… Shaking her head, she once again refocused on her classmate. "You were sitting with the werewolf in the train, right? What was he like?"
"Huh?" Ron asked, cocking his head slightly. "I hadn't really realized it. He was a werewolf? Wow. But, then again, he was asleep for most of the trip." Looking back at her, he asked, "Why do you want to know?"
"They say that all werewolves are feral beasts, even as humans," Padma stated calmly. "Do you think that it was true?"
Ron's eyes narrowed, first in contemplation and then in suspicion as he looked at her. "I don't really think Dumbledore would've hired someone like that. Do you?"
Padma paused again. "No, probably not." Although that's what she said, that's not what she really thought. From the sounds of it, Ron didn't know because he hadn't had enough time with the creature to know one way or the other.
Finding nothing else worth talking to him about, Padma quickly excused herself and returned to picking her blackberries. As she was doing so, she couldn't help but to wonder. What would it be like? Running under the moon with no care, no sense of remorse or guilt or grief?
Back at the train, Harry felt very out of his depth. He'd rather have been with the labor crew who were responsible for gathering the logs. But because of Percy's latest survey among the students, Harry wasn't allowed to leave the safety of the train. This was due to the decreeing that each and every student's wand and magical supplies needed to be inspected for potential burnout because of rapid residual energy buildup or faults within the items in question. After several days of close inspection, a 7th Year Ravenclaw girl had discovered that unlike back home, this residual buildup took an exceedingly long time to dissipate. It took nearly ten times longer for the magic to disperse here and was the reason for the burnouts that had been occurring.
So, until his wand was returned from inspection, Harry was doing what he could to try and feel useful. This just happened to take the form of spending time with a distraught Angelina. Angelina had taken Oliver's death hard, the whole team had, but she had taken it the worst of them. She felt responsible for it. They had known each other rather well. Harry decided he'd have to tell her that it wasn't her fault when he finally found her. Or he hoped he could convince her it wasn't.
Sliding the latest compartment door open, Harry finally found Gryffindor's lead Chaser. She was seated upon an Express bench next to the window, staring out blankly at the flooded beach beyond. As he entered, Harry could vaguely see that the beach was still overflowing with the numerous crab monsters below. Swiftly turning his attention back to his teammate, he saw that Angelina had twin lines of tears streaking down her cheeks as she silently cried whilst staring at the waves. Moving over, he took a seat across from her, noting that she didn't really seem to respond to his presence at all. With just a flick of his eyes, he spotted the splintered and burnt out remains of a familiar broom lying on her lap.
Returning his gaze to Angelina's face, Harry did the most sensible thing he could think of. He started talking. "Hey, Angelina. Have I ever told you about how I first met Oliver? I had thought that McGonagall was threatening to beat me. It was the first time I realized that rules are constricting. That sometimes rules get in the way of what's important. See, I had just gotten into a little flying contest against Malfoy. He stole something from Neville and I told him to put it down or give it back, he declined. When he saw that I could outfly him despite being my first time on a broom, he turned it into an impromptu Seeker game when he threw it away. I did my very first Wrongski Feint then, even if I didn't know what it was called then. I caught the Remembrall, the thing Draco had stolen, and had made a fool of him as usual. But as I landed, there was McGonagall waiting for me. I had apparently managed to catch it right outside her window."
He paused briefly when he heard a quiet but nasally snort coming from Angelina. With a slight grin, he continued, "See, I wasn't supposed to be in the sky. Madam Hooch had to escort Neville to the infirmary and told us to remain grounded. If we didn't, she'd have us expelled. Which is probably why Draco decided to go flying when he stole the Remembrall. Anyway, McGonagall rushed up to me and was at a loss for words. I thought she was so mad at me for breaking Madam Hooch's rule and flying without permission. So then, she marches me back into the castle to Quirrell's class. When we got there, she asked if she could borrow 'wood'. Now, I might've misheard her but I could've sworn she had asked for 'some wood'. Which kinda confused me for why she would need to go to him for some. So, imagine my surprise when out walks a student instead, with McGonagall chirping 'Mr. Wood, I've found you a Seeker!'. Now, keep in mind that I didn't actually know what that was at the time."
By this point, there was a small but rather charming smile lighting up Angelina's face. "So, Wood got to give you the full rundown of the game."
"Yup!"
Clearly despite herself, Angelina started chuckling at the images brought to mind by Harry's story. "No wonder you were so serious about the game those first few times. Ollie ca—could do that." She paused for a long moment, clearly gathering her thoughts with Harry watching anxiously from across from her. Just when he was about to speak up, she did first. "I wish we could've seen him in his First Year. He must've hated having to just watch the games."
"If he hated just watching," Harry piped up. "Could you imagine him not being in charge?"
"He would've been a menace to the captain," Angelina laughed softly. "Even if he wasn't so brilliant at it, they'd probably have just made him Captain anyway to not drive the team nuts." After that little laugh subsided, Angelina's face and mood visibly fell into something much more dejected. "He was right behind me, Harry. Right behind me! How did I not notice it when he fell?!"
"It wasn't that simple," Harry said softly. "Oliver gave his life for someone else. We couldn't have known because it happened too quickly as we were leaving."
Angelina shot him a somewhat betrayed glare with those teary eyes of hers. But Harry pressed relentlessly. "Could we really have stopped it if we had known?"
"I could've caught him!"
"Maybe, maybe not," Harry countered pensively. "There are plenty of 'what-ifs' that could've happened. Sadly, we only have 'what is.'"
Angelina's teary eyes turned into a heated, withering glare. "You're not very good at reassuring people, Harry."
"Yeah," Harry agreed sheepishly. "Never really got that many reassuring speeches myself. I'm totally winging it here."
"That's sad."
"Eh, it is what it is, but at least I'm trying," Harry stated. "So, my second meeting with Oliver involved bludgers."
"What?"
Elsewhere in the train, Hermione could barely contain her rising excitement.
"So, you really can do it?!" she asked. "With what we have?!"
"Yeah, easily," Ashley Gylder was the student that was standing awkwardly in front of her. "You just need oil or fat, which we're getting tons of from all the frying we've been doing. Then there's lye, which we can get from all the shells. And a bit of wood ash. There're all sorts of ways we can get it."
"Alright then!" Hermione practically sang out. "You are now in charge of getting it done! I am so sick of my clothes stinking! Please get to it, right away!"
"Sure," Ashley answered, already heading for the door. "See ya!"
When the elder girl was gone, Hermione gave off a little sigh of relief at the little victory. She couldn't put into adequate words just how relieved she was at finding Ashely's hidden knowledge. That being that her muggle mother ran a homeopathic store. Apparently, her wizardly father had found the idea of a muggle playing at being a witch 'cute'. But a side benefit from that questionable relationship was that Ashley had a surprisingly in-depth knowledge of how to make soap. Something else they needed besides being able to heal their injuries with magic. Hermione knew that they needed to maintain a good level of cleanliness or risk diseases, which would probably be super-fatal in this new world for them. They had been lucky so far in that most of the injured were no longer in danger of infections, besides those that'd died in the first few nights. Another bonus was that maybe now the kids wouldn't be stinking so much anymore!
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Hermione looked down to her list. Upon the bundle of parchment was a long chart of things that she had determined were needed for basic survival. Those things were listed under the categories of clean water, food, shelter, tools, medicine, and cooperation. Browsing over the list, she marked down and then crossed off 'soap'. It was one item out of many, many others that could reliably be crossed off at this point. There were still so many things they needed!
"I wish I knew more about this," Hermione said to herself. "Who am I kidding? Would a primary school education have been able to prepare me for this? I spent so much time researching the sciences, arts, language, and mathematics. And almost none of it is usable now!"
She couldn't help but to hang her head in slight shame and embarrassment. "I should've read survivalist fiction like all the other kids in school. Goodness knows that I might have some more ideas if I read Robinson Cruso."
Sighing heavily to herself, Hermione lifted the list again to review what they needed most next. "Okay, next we'll probably need a seamstress, someone who works with seams…What kind of clothing should we be wearing in the tropics again?"
Further up the train, a gaggle of students were gathered around a makeshift table within their compartment of collected flora and fungi. There was surprisingly diverse collection among the plants and fungus that the other students had found and brought in. But there was also a surprisingly diverse group of students in attendance as well. Among those in the compartment were 7 Gryffindors, 4 Hufflepuffs, 9 Ravenclaws, and 8 Slytherins. Neville couldn't help but look around nervously as he watched the various students of the different Houses intermingle.
"Kind of weird, isn't it, Neville?" Terry Boot asked from where he was seated in the corner. "So many different Houses working together with so few arguments yet."
"We don't have time for past grudges," Michael Corner grunted out.
"Speak for yourself," Anthony Goldstein said as he shot a glare towards the group of Slytherins, most prominently at Draco. "I'm not gonna forget it."
"Hey, from where I'm sitting, you all look the same to me," Terry shot back, getting several uncomfortable looks from around him and for good reason. He had become one of the more uncomfortable reminders of their situation. Although he had survived the crash, Terry hadn't come out of it unscathed. His back had been broken and none of even the Advanced potion students knew how to fix it. That kind of healing required post-Hogwarts education. So, sad as it was, Terry was relegated to sitting in the corners and needed assistance to get anywhere. Needless to say, his attitude had noticeably darkened with a growing fatalistic streak.
"Alright everyone, pay attention!" came the voice of one of the elder students, earning everyone's attention. "Let's review why we're here."
All of the gathered students settled down as the young man continued. "You all are some of the best in your years in regards to potions or herbology. We have been collecting some of the local reagents from the area. So, now we need your help in figuring them out. Those that would be good in potions, healing, cooking, and even which are poisons." As an unpleasant murmur passed through the students at the word 'poison,' the speaker quickly gestured off to the side where there was a large sackcloth bag. "Thankfully, we still have a decent supply of bezoars available. We don't want to use them too quickly though. So, we won't be using them unless you're clearly dying. Try to use them in moderation!"
"What do you mean 'unless we're clearly dying'?"
A surprisingly sadistic smile passed over the speaker's face as he looked towards the questioner. "You would be surprised at how much poison a person's body can take. After all, all medicine is diluted poison."
Neville couldn't help but glance around. In doing so, he accidentally caught the eye of his schoolyard bully, Draco Malfoy. It was of slight relief to Neville when he saw some rather unmasked fear lighting up the Slytherin's face for a moment. Clearly, even the Prince of Slytherin was as unnerved as he was.
"We have separated you all out based on your weight," the speaker continued. "Now, one person from each group, come over and grab a plate. We'll get started soon afterwards."
As Anthony walked off, Neville blinked suddenly in surprise. He had just realized that he was in the same group of the Malfoy scion. This sent a small wave of panic over him as he suddenly feared whether or not the boy would force Neville to ingest his share and avoid any potentially fatal consequences. Which might also mess with the upper year's calculations whilst also poisoning him, intentionally or not.
'This is gonna suck,' Neville sulked to himself as he watched Anthony return with a large plateful of colorful mushrooms.
Percy was finding that he did not like being in this particular train car. They had converted it into their makeshift infirmary under Henry Bolter's guidance. As an aspiring healer with dreams of working in St. Mungo's and finding a cure for muggle cancer, he was an obvious pick for Percy to put in charge. But this was still the car where the injured students, some of whom Percy had known for several years, had come to die. It was where Penelope had been stuck since the crash. It was starting to leave a bad taste in his mouth every time he visited.
Regardless of his personal preference, Percy remained where he was seated: next to his girlfriend as she was being administered one of the remaining potions they had left. If this potion worked, she should hopefully regain consciousness after the last batch had been given. Her body was still heavily bandaged. Percy didn't need those bandages to know that his beloved girlfriend had suffered some truly gruesome injuries. He'd been there when they'd pulled the glass from her eye. When they set her leg back into the proper place. But the worst part he'd been there for was when they extracted her from the wreckage of the Prefect compartments. Percy had had to put her into an immediate stasis charm to save her life, burning out his wand in the process. He hoped she didn't mind him using hers in the meantime.
So, here he was now. Waiting impatiently for her to awaken or any change at all to her state. It would've been nerve-wracking by itself. But he wasn't that lucky. Unfortunately, he had a classmate breathing down his neck again.
"I'm not arguing about this anymore, Marcus," he tried to say calmly. "We are not going to hoard our potions! They have limited shelf-lives as it is."
"So, that's it then," Marcus shot back. "We use up all of our medical supplies for a few pity cases to make ourselves feel better. None of these people you're trying to save will be helpful!"
"That is a lie, and you know it," Percy growled back.
"Really?" Marcus replied. "Boot's helping, is he? How's about Shadwell? McLaggen? Cromey? Matthews?"
Percy almost lost his temper as he shot his classmate a fiery glare. But then he pulled himself back, took a long and deep breath, and shot his sneering companion a smirk. "Yes, they will be very helpful. In fact, I know for certain that Shadwell's father is an emergency medical responder in the Muggle world, a muggle trauma healer. And Matthews was getting O's in Care for Magical Creatures. Boot is off eating random plants in the hope that it might kill him."
"And McLaggen?" Flint pressed, unwilling to admit defeat yet. "What does he bring to the table?"
Percy was actually in the midst of responding when a thought occurred to him and he stopped. He closed his mouth as he properly processed the strange idea that had just come to him. After a moment of consideration, he picked up where he left off, "Would you rather a healthy student in Boot's place?"
Marcus frowned down at him. "No, too many of them are already at risk on that task as it is." Marcus's eyes narrowed as he stared at Percy. "You don't have anything for McLaggen, do you? He's just another mouth to feed, a drain on our limited resources. Useless!"
"Who would you prefer the potions be given to instead then?" Percy asked.
"Save them for in case any of the labor crew comes back injured," Flint stated boldly. "We can't afford to lose Sharp. She's proving herself useful."
Percy's eyes widened as the realization struck him. He truly was in another world! A staunch Pureblood supremacist was willing to leave another Pureblood to die. No, scratch that, the Pureblood was actually advocating a Muggleborn would receive higher priority.
Before Percy could try to give voice to his thoughts, they were interrupted by the arrival of some scouts. He recognized all of them as a group he'd sent out under the leadership of Cho Chang to look for interesting plants. And if he was reading their expressions right, they may have found something!
"What is it, Chang?" Percy asked as he and Flint both turned to face the group.
Digging through her pouch on her side, she extracted a potion vial filled with glowing green liquid. As he peered closer at the fluid, he tried to compare it with what he was familiar with. It didn't look like most of the wound-mending potions he knew of. It actually seemed closer in appearance to maple syrup or honey that glowed green.
"We've been seeing flowers filled with this stuff everywhere," Cho began. "But it wasn't until we saw a wounded monster start rolling in bushels of those flowers that we realized what this stuff could be."
"Well, don't leave us in suspense," Flint snarked at her.
"It's some kind of topical healing agent," Cho clarified. "We watched as the monster's wounds started rapidly healing over after smearing the juice all over them." Then she pointed accusingly over at one of her companions. "And that idiot started rubbing some of the stuff over some of his bruises afterwards. They healed up fine and he's still breathing."
"Any idea what other effects it might have if applied differently?" Percy asked.
"I know Corner's suicidal," Cho commented with a light glare. "But the rest of us have survival instincts, thank you very much! It requires more tests."
"Well, we wouldn't want to risk anyone healthy with that," Flint said calmly as he turned a speculative eye towards first Percy and then pointedly at Penelope. "Thankfully, we've got a willing supply of test subjects right here."
Percy found himself immediately torn. On the one hand, he could easily see where Flint was going with this. Better to test this strange new substance on those that were more likely to die than on a healthy person who was already proving themselves useful. On the other hand, experimenting on people without their consent simply because they might die didn't sit well with him. He had been raised with better morals than that. On the third hand, however, did they really have time for morals?
Before Percy could come to a decision, he was distracted. A sudden tightening of a delicate hand in his grip jerked his attention over towards Penelope as she gasped out, "I'll take a sip of that stuff."
"Penelope!" Percy cried out worriedly. "How long have you been awake?!"
"Long…" she began, before gasping lightly. "Enough… Local healing…plants?"
"We don't know what it'll do," Percy pointed out.
"One…lung," she gasped out. It barely took any hard contemplation from Percy to figure out what she was hinting at. Because she only had one lung still functional, she was more than willing to try it. Penelope slowly and painfully reached out her hand towards Cho. The look in her one eye said it all. 'Give it to me now.'
Cho glanced between Penelope and Percy awkwardly, unsure what she should do. But after a moment of steeling her resolve, she marched forward and held up the vial to Penelope's lips, ignoring Percy's protests. It was a slow process of her drinking down the substance but the results began to show themselves almost immediately. Color began to return to Penelope's deathly pale skin. Her shallow breathing evened out and quickly deepened with each progressive swallow. The light of awareness in her eye grew steadier. By the time half of the vial was drank, she had already taken hold of the natural potion for herself and was calmly finishing it off.
Setting aside the glass container, Penelope pulled herself up into a sitting position with Percy's assistance. As she was doing so, she kept her eye trained solidly on the young man with a questioning gaze. "Last thing I remember is the Express crashing and a lot of pain. What's happened since?"
"Lots of things," Percy stated. "But we can discuss those later."
"No, we can't!" Flint barked out angrily. "We have over a hundred dead. We're running out of potions. Food is questionable. We're not safe until we have strong walls. We're surrounded by Class 5 monsters. And we have no way home."
Penelope gave Flint a long look, followed by a longer blink, before looking back to Percy. "Elaborate?"
Whilst maneuvering Penelope upwards in an attempt to stand fully up, Percy filled her in on what he could. The complete shitshow of their situation and the lingering numbness in her right leg caused Penelope to weakly collapse back onto her rump on the bed again. "Acromantula-sized crabs?"
"Among many other things," Percy said, nodding.
Shaking her head to clear it, she asked, "What's the plan?"
"You don't need to worry about that yet," Percy said in an attempt at a comforting tone of voice.
Penelope's gaze sharpened upon the boy for a moment before looking over towards the rest of their audience. "May I have a moment alone with Percy, please?"
"What do y—?" Flint began but was immediately cut off when he found himself the focus of Penelope's lone hazel eye.
"You have been complaining incessantly about our dwindling medical supplies," she began. "So, why aren't you already out there trying to find more of this miraculous healing flower that Chang mentioned finding? Or maybe you can go out hunting for something. We always need more food, don't we? You said we needed more, didn't you? You have so many concerns. Why don't you go address them for yourself?"
Flint just stared at her with wide, considering eyes for a long moment. Unnoticed behind him, the younger students were giving Penelope wide-eyed stares of surprise at how quickly and easily she'd already taken command. Finally shaking himself out of his bemusement, Flint just shot her a curt nod, turned, and left without another word. Once the room was emptied of the others, leaving just Percy and Penelope, the young woman turned her gaze upon her boyfriend.
"Penny, you don't need to—"
"Percival." The sound of barely restrained emotion in her voice silenced Percy's objection as he focused upon her. As he stared, he saw her body begin trembling uncontrollably. Her eye was rapidly moistening as tears gathered. Her hands, which had been steady earlier, lashed out and gripped him tightly on the shoulders, forcing him to stare at her bandaged face. "I almost died!" Her voice was audibly trembling with the raw emotion. "And then I come to to this. With so many others dead! Percy, I need to do something. If I don't, I'll break."
"What do you want to do?" he asked uncertain of where she was going with this.
"I need to be in control," she said as she relaxed her grip upon him, her hands nestling into her lap. Her voice was wavering heavily as the strength of controlling her emotions grew weak.
"Of what?" he asked.
"Whatever I can be," she answered as she ran her hands down her legs. "I can't feel half of my toes. I can't feel the outside of my leg. I'm blind in one eye. I'm probably covered in scars. I must be hideous!"
"You're not," Percy stated reflexively, fighting to remain calm in the face of her roiling emotions. "You could never be."
Penelope turned her lone eye onto him. After a long moment, Percy's nerves started to rise. What was she going to say? Or do? Just as he was about to break and ask, she spoke up first, "Prove it." There was a smoldering look in her eye as she said that. She leaned forward towards him but stopped just short of kissing him. Percy knew what she wanted and he did so without hesitation, leaning forward the rest of the way. After a few moments of this tentative kiss, things started to heat up as he gently wrapped her in his arms.
With a sigh of relief, Dean finished pulling up his pants and started to refasten his belt. He had needed that! But, hopefully, the woodcutting crews wouldn't be coming in this direction anytime soon.
"You done, Dean?" Seamus asked from around the trunk of a large tree nearby.
"Getting my britches on," Dean answered. "Almost."
His eyes began to wander the area as he was doing so. What he saw was what he expected. A whole lot of trees, ferns, dirt, and rocks, with a hefty amount of monster tracks and a rising smell that wasn't too dissimilar to his own excrement. That stink had been the primary reason for why he'd chosen this area. Blinking, he finally noticed a break in the tree line and something familiar just outside that.
"Seamus, come here," Dean called out.
"I don't want to see it!" Seamus called out petulantly.
"Not that, you prat!" Dean snapped back. "I think I found something! Follow me!"
"Oh, alright," Seamus growled. "But if this is somehow a trick…"
Dean paid the grumbling boy no further mind as he hurriedly moved through the underbrush towards the sunlit clearing he spotted. After a few moments, he carefully pushed aside one of the huge fern leaves and peered into the open area, his grin widening. "Yes! I knew it!"
Quickly joining him, Seamus let out a small grin as well as he took in the sight of numerous large bird-like nests that were all filled with large eggs. "How many do you think there are?"
"Enough to feed a good many mouths. Ours included!" Dean crooned back, already starting to push forward. As he was doing so, the sudden rustling of leaves and footsteps caught his attention and froze him in place as his gaze swept to the source of the noise. The boys' grips on their makeshift axes tightened as they raised them into feeble defensive positions, readying for a hostile monster mother's emergence. With how badly those fern tree things were shaking, the monster must've been positively massive!
But then out stumbled a familiar pair of boys.
"Oh, it's just you two," Dean said with audible relief.
"Hey, get away from our food!" Crabbe ordered loudly.
"Yeah, we found it first!" Goyle snapped out. To his credit, the boy was indeed carrying a large basket lined with spare robes to soften the contents from jostling.
"Oh, shut it, you two!" Seamus barked back. "Food's shared! This wouldn't all be for you, you gluttons!"
"But finders get the best portion!" Crabbe stated possessively.
"Let's just pack them and go," Dean interjected. "The more hands we have, the more we can carry back." He put words into action by casually setting his axe aside as he knelt down to the closest nest and started to examine the eggs within. "Huh, they look like ostrich eggs. Wonder if they taste like them?" he wondered aloud as he started scooping them up. Seamus and the two Slytherins quickly started copying his actions.
In short order, the four boys had gathered up a majority of the eggs. Goyle and Crabbe managed to fit at least four whole nests' worth of eggs within their basket. Although they started out by trying to use their shirts as makeshift bags, Dean and Seamus had ultimately decided to copy the Slytherins. They loaded up at least two other nests' worth of eggs into a single nest and carrying the flimsy-seeming structure between them. Thus, within ten minutes of their arrival, they all departed carrying their precious cargo.
"What a haul!" Goyle started to cheerfully croon in victory as they hurried back to the Express.
"Yeah!" Dean agreed. "This is gonna be a good dinner!"
"It was a spot of luck that nothing was guarding those eggs," Seamus stated lowly, his dour mood still very prevalent.
"Don't tempt fate like that, buddy," Dean rebutted happily. "We've got enough to worry about. So, try to focus on the good things!"
Even if the idea of Slytherins and Gryffindors working together was still somewhat of a novel thing to the various students, none of the four boys paid any of their glaring and muttering fellows any mind as they passed the logging crews by on their trek. More than a few of the loggers came to a surprised halt in their jobs as they noticed the large amount of eggs that the quartet were hauling between them. Although kids finding random bits of food was becoming a more common sight, the sheer quantity of their find was what was surprising. Much as the four boys would deny, none of them could resist somewhat soaking up the attention and building praise as they started purposefully strutting back towards the encampment.
"Hey, you guys!" a now somewhat familiar female voice cried out from the side as they were nearing the end of the work area. "Where did you lot go? Where are your tools? And what have you been doing? We've lost precious worktime without you lot pulling your share!"
The commanding voice pulled all four of them to a stop reflexively as they turned to face the approaching form of an angry Naomi Sharp. Showing his Gryffindor side, Dean bravely spoke up, "Sorry, Sharp. I needed to take a loo break. When I finished, Seamus and I found these." He gestured towards the large stack of eggs that were being carried.
"Figured food was more important than wood?" Sharp demanded in a cross voice.
"Um, yes?" Dean asked more than stated.
"And just what were you going to use to cook those eggs with without wood or magic then?" Sharp demanded. "If you had found a food source, you should've come to me first. Then I could've gotten a proper work crew assembled to get all of it!"
"And give up our finder's cut?!" Goyle demanded back, shooting a nasty glare at the elder girl.
Naomi rolled her eyes derisively at the boy's defense. "That's not how the finder's cut works. You would've gotten your fair share at dinner."
"Fair according to whom?" a scathing voice called from the watching students. It surprised no one to see that it was another Slytherin, specifically Theo Nott, who'd spoken.
Naomi visibly ignored the outburst as she continued with her previous line of questions by asking, "Where are your axes?" All four boys couldn't help freezing up in surprise as they realized that they had forgotten something important. Naomi pounced on this in an instant. "Were you four so caught up gathering food that you forgot to bring vital equipment back with you?!"
"Their just twisted pieces of metal," someone else called out from the crowd. "What do they matter?"
Naomi rounded upon the new voice with a positively thunderous expression. Much to the relief of the speaker, she couldn't find who had spoken, so instead settled for yelling at all of them in the vicinity. "These 'useless, twisted pieces of metal' as you call them are our best means of defense!" She accentuated this point by lashing out with her own axe. Despite the clunky and makeshift nature of the scrap metal, the log that she struck was still split cleanly into two pieces. "That was a monster's head! Tell me again why we shouldn't use and maintain these 'useless' hunks of metal when they could potentially do that to any monster that decides to come take a bite out of us!"
It was almost ironic at how perfectly timed the roars of the monsters were. No sooner had Naomi finished speaking than a series of hissing cries erupted from the forest as a rush of large reptilian bodies came barreling through the underbrush. With just a passing glance, all of the kids found that they somewhat recognized the general shape of these new monsters to be those similar to spiked iguanas. But that recognition didn't stall any of the kids from crying out in fear, turning, and fleeing in a large mass back towards the safety of the train. Cursing virulently, Naomi gave up on her initial attempt at rallying the kids into a fighting line. Morale had broken at the first cry of the monsters, and she was no warrior herself. So, while she could swing an axe with surprising power, she was forced to join the exodus towards the train.
But as she was going, she cried out loudly enough for all to hear, "Get to the train! Don't stop running!"
Not that she needed to have given those commands. Everyone was already obeying them. The sudden onrush of terrified students was quickly noticed by those who were still in or around the train already. As the labor crew looked up from their piles of logs and spotted what was coming, they quickly sprinted for the train themselves. Much to the rising terror and fury of the oncoming students, some of those early boarders shut and clearly began to block the entrances to some of the doors in an effort to save only themselves.
Hearing the commotion, Harry and Angelina both got up from their seated positions and exited their compartment, moving over to the other side of the train and staring out at the approaching mass of panic. Despite himself, Harry couldn't help but marvel at the ridiculous scene before them. Easily over 200 students were fleeing in terror of barely a dozen relatively small monsters. His hands began flexing, needing to grip something, preferably a weapon of some sort. As that realization hit him, Harry briefly found himself yearning for the presence of Gryffindor's sword. If it had help him kill a basilisk, surely it could've helped him kill this pack of large iguanas, right? This caused him to start somewhat looking around for any type of weapon he could use to defend himself. He was just about to turn and face Angelina to ask what she thought they should do when he noticed her moving forward. Much to his surprise, she easily jumped out of the shattered window and started quickly making her way towards the monsters.
"Angelina! What are you doing?!" he yelled out at her in surprise. Though, much to his relief, he saw that she hadn't left the train unarmed. She had one of the improvised hammers in her grip.
Not receiving an answer from the girl, Harry's gaze turned back to the compartment as he rapidly started searching for a weapon again. Nothing quite met his specifications for a weapon. The closest he could find was a long shaft of wood in the approximate shape and length of a spear. A sudden idea struck him. Grabbing the shaft of wood, he turned and rushed back towards his Year's compartment. Inside he found the now-emptied crab claw right where he left it. Rushing to his trunk, he yanked it open and hurriedly started ruffling through it before finding the Spell-O Tape that he was searching for. Normally, he only really needed to use this to bind his glasses back together over the summer months. But now he started frantically rolling long lengths of the material around the base of the claw after he slammed the new spear shaft into place. Spell-O Tape was similar to regular muggle-style duct tape but enchanted to be vastly stronger.
With his impromptu weapon made, he turned and rushed back to the open compartment across from him. He would've tried to leave the train using the stairwell, but he could already hear the oncoming screams of the panicked students. They were already clogging the entrance way, so trying to get off the same way was impossible. No, the fastest way off would be the same one that Angelina had taken. So, carefully avoiding the sharp edges of the broken glass still embedded in the frame, he vaulted himself out of the window and into the crowd of students outside. It was hard going at first as he fought to push against the crowd. But eventually, the crowd started to part around him as they saw both his newfound weapon and the direction of his travel. Finally clearing the crowd, he was able to locate the oncoming horde of monsters.
Bursting through the crowd, Harry was given a split second to make a decision on what to do as he took in the scene. By this point most of the large iguanas had managed to catch up with the line of students and chosen targets to attack. At least two of those students had fallen and were each being savaged by three of the iguanas. Another four of the iguanas were making lunges and slashes at some particularly brave students who'd managed to work up the courage to fight back. The fights were fairly awkward in appearance as the students swung their feeble weapons at the monsters, which in turn could easily dodge the clumsy attacks. Thankfully, though clumsy, those same attacks were also keeping the monsters somewhat at bay. The last two of the monsters had managed to get all the way up to the train itself. But rather than chase after the large group of prey, they were trying to climb up inside the train itself. Numerous random bursts of magic and simple brute force via poles and thrown objects were doing a suitable job of keeping them out for now. Then he spotted Angelina. She was making a suicidal charge towards one of the downed students that was being savaged. He knew why she had chosen this student as they were still managing to scream, unlike the other that had gone silent.
Now, he had a choice to make.
It was a choice he barely even had to consider. Hefting up his spear, Harry rushed over to cover his team's chaser. He was practically in autopilot as he approached and jabbed his spear into the side of one of the iguanas' necks. The feeling of his spear sinking into a creature's flesh, the sight of the red blood gushing out around the wound he'd inflicted, and the wet gurgling sound that escaped out from around the wound, the recoiling of agony that the monster went through but was unable to vocalize, the thrashing of the monster that almost ripped the spear from his suddenly numbed limbs. It was all a surreal experience that he almost felt himself going into shock over. Was he really doing this? Attacking, stabbing, and likely killing a creature that had done nothing wrong to anyone to have deserved this fate? What had brought this situation about and why?
The thrashing iguana managed to turn about enough to both free itself from his spear and whack him in the torso with its large meaty tail. The impact knocked both Harry's breath from his lungs and him off his feet but he still managed to keep his grip on his spear reflexively. Quickly rolling over onto his hands and knees, Harry looked up and spotted both the forms of the savage student, still barely clinging to life, and Angelina as she brought her hammer down upon the foreleg of another lizard. The bloodied face of one and the tear-soaked face of the other were more than motivation enough to snap him out of his earlier fugue and recenter him. He couldn't think of the creatures as innocent as they were trying to eat them after all. And if he didn't do this, Angelina might die.
Climbing back to his feet, Harry let out a cry of challenge as he hefted his spear. The first lizard he'd stabbed was already starting to list off to the side, bleeding profusely as it struggled to breathe. Within only a few more moments, it collapsed limply to ground. Seeing that, Harry immediately switched his target to the uninjured monster that was starting to circle Angelina. Swinging the long weapon like a bat, the spikes and sharpened edge of the claw managed to smack into the barrel of the lizard, leaving some shallow punctures marks and a long cut along its side.
Hissing angrily, it turned its attention to him. Harry kept his spear leveled between them as he sent a challenging grin towards it. "Well? Come on then!" The creature might not have been able to understand his language, but it certainly seemed to understand the challenge he provoked. With an especially loud angry roar, it lunged. Rather than face a monster that was probably twice his own weight head on, Harry rolled to the side. He was hoping to be able to catch the creature in its backside after it's lunge. But his feet sliding upon the loose gravel and dirt, as well as hitting the side of a protruding stump, disrupted his balance and caused him to stumble. Thus, he was unable to make that quick recovery and lunge that he'd wanted. He was only able to reset himself and heft up his spear again by the time the lizard had recovered and turned back to face him.
"Well, that didn't work," he grumbled loudly to himself. He scowled angrily as he noticed that the creature suddenly seemed wearier of him now, moving in a more stalking manner than simply trying to lunge him again. Apparently, these creatures were capable of recognizing threats and seeing potential patterns in attacks. Harry scowled deeper as he tried to put his back towards where Angelina had last been. "What to do now?"
Before any deeper thought could be put into the matter, a frenzied cry cut him off. Both he and the lizard glanced off towards the side where the cry had come from. Much to Harry's distress, he spotted Ron charging the same lizard he was facing, axe raised. Harry could only really stare as Ron managed to reach the lizard before it could react to his sudden appearance. His friend brought the axe down in a single, decisive chop, burying the axehead deep into the back of the lizard. The lizard cried out in agony as it dropped limply to the ground, thrashing about. Ron just barely managed to yank the axe out of the creature and back away before it was able to turn and snap at him.
As Ron hurriedly backed away, Harry saw something that both relieved him and sent a spike of pity for the monster through him. Apparently, Ron's attack had severed its spine. The monster was still moving and very much alive, but it's hindlegs and tail were dragging limply behind it, no longer seemingly able to carry its own bodyweight. With its attention solely and understandably focused on trying to escape, Harry lunged forward. He had to dodge a swipe of the lizard's claws, but he was able to stab his spearhead into the base of its neck like the previous one. Unlike the first one, he clearly missed hitting its windpipe. But it started bleeding profusely nonetheless.
Pulling his spear back and backing away, he turned to face Angelina again as Ron hurried to his side. Much to Harry's relief, she wasn't fighting alone anymore. Fred and George had joined her, using their own Beater bats as they bludgeoned the last lizard to death alongside the girl. It was slow going but making steady progress as the creature fell to the ground, becoming increasingly more unresponsive.
"Bloody hell!" Ron cried out, his hand coming up to rest against his wildly beating heart. "I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life!"
Harry turned an almost blank look upon Ron. "Even after Aragog?"
Ron paused for a moment. Then he suddenly perked up and shot Harry a strained grin. "Actually, no. This isn't nearly as bad as that!"
Harry nodded agreeably with Ron, as he turned to look over towards the other monsters. As he did so, he couldn't help but mumble his own reassurance. "And these aren't nearly as bad as the basilisk." His point to himself was proven by the fact that most of the other monster lizards had either already been killed somehow or had been run off after seeing some of their packmates being killed so relatively easily.
"Hey, you five!" a loud Slytherin's voice called out. "You lot gather up some wood! We're going to be filleting us some monsters tonight!"
"It looks like meat's on the menu tonight, boys!" someone called out cheerily.
Ron turned and shot Harry a confused look. "We're going to be eating the monsters?"
Harry scratched his head as his gaze bounced between the two monsters he had killed. Looking back at his friend, he just shrugged as he answered, "Call it karmic justice. They'd have done the same to us."
"Yeah, but…" Ron trailed off. "Lizard? Never had lizard before. What if I don't like it?"
"You? Not liking food?" Harry shot back with a cheeky grin. "I don't think that's possible." Seeing Ron's somewhat affronted look, he quickly added, "There's always the crabs. We could go fishing again."
Ron grimaced before quickly replying. "Lizards it is!"
"Hey, someone go get the knives!" the Slytherin called out again. Now that they were actually starting to pay attention again, Harry and Ron saw that it was Cassius Warrington who was trying to start directing the students. Apparently, he seemed to know a great deal about rendering a creature carcass, as well as cooking it. Neither of the boys wanted to consider where he got that skill set.
"Knives? What knives?" one of his helpers asked.
"The potion knives!" Cassius snapped in exasperation as he started examining one of the corpses by hand. "We're going to need those to fillet these things. And…judging by how much muscle I'm feeling here, grab a dozen cauldrons while you're at it!"
In short order, Cassius managed to get his group to start skinning, deboning, and chopping the monsters into bite-sized pieces. They even had a bunch of fresh eggs to add to the pot. Normally, the sight of such activities would've disgusted a large percentage of the children, and none would have been watching. However, all of the students were feeling a touch of vindictive thrill at seeing their attackers being made into meals before them. Their hunger pangs certainly helped to alleviate their former squeamishness.
In the end, there were a total of seven of the lizards killed by the students' hands. By comparison, only two of the students had been killed by the monsters. Although, that number might include one more. If they couldn't get any potions into the kid that Harry and Angelina had worked so desperately to save. The kid was right on death's door. But, overall, the many students still considered this a massive win on their part. Not only had they just beaten off an attack by some of the monsters from the forest, but they'd also earned themselves a truly delicious dinner and would be sleeping with a full belly tonight!
Harry and his gaggle of friends were once again seated upon the roof of their train car. They had found it necessary to relocate up here. After all, Harry, Ron, Angelina, and the Twins were all heroes of the hour to the rest of the students. Seeing the Gryffindor team's courage at rushing back out to fight against their attackers had galvanized some of the other students into fighting back more fiercely. Thus, while they weren't the only ones, the team was still given the majority of the credit. If not for the strict eye of Percy, they would've undoubtedly have been given a lion's share of the food.
Thus, the group had taken up their former residence on the top of the train to avoid the well-wishers as they tried to eat. Harry would've normally found the well-wishers annoying, but oddly this time he didn't. If he had to compare his feelings, he'd say that he felt as though he and his team had just won a particularly tough Quidditch match. So, while he had played a part, he wasn't the central focus of the victory. And it was something he had actually done of his own volition and effort. So, yes, he was feeling unusually proud of himself.
Reaching forward, he carefully scooped out another bowlful's worth of the stew that Cassius and his cooks had managed to whip together. Though a large portion of the stew was boiled lizard meat, the broth was made of a mixture of the bone marrow, blood, and a bit of seawater for flavor. Combined with some foraged vegetables of carrots, potatoes, and even a handful or two of blackberries, the stew itself was relatively tasty. The only downside was the meat of the stew was incredibly chewy and had strange very spicy taste to it. This unexpected spice made the blackberries inclusion all the more necessary. And Cassius had recommended that all cauldrons were to remain boiling and cooking to help further soften the tough meat.
Even though this wasn't technically their first time doing so, Harry still found it a novel experience to be using their potion cauldrons to cook up a stew like this. It somewhat amused when he tried to picture what Snape's reaction would've been if he saw his students disrespecting his craft like this. This humor was further compounded when he imagined what Aunt Petunia would've thought of his using his magic cauldron to cook up a mundane stew like this.
Blowing softly upon his spoon, Harry watched as Neville stumbled into the firelight of their little campsite.
"Where have you been all day?" Ron asked.
"He was testing potion reagents," Hermione answered helpfully as Neville continued his slow, stumbling approach.
"You got food there?" Neville asked in a bleary, almost disconnected voice. "I still keep seeing the smells."
"Seeing the smells?" Alicia asked, looking dumbfounded.
"Hermione?" Katie Bell spoke around her mouthful. "What would 'testing reagents' entail?"
Hermione looked somewhat sheepish as she awkwardly answered. "Generally speaking, given our total lack of any type of suitable magic facilities, potion lab, or abilities to test the reagents in a properly safe environment, we have had to default back to using the…classical means of testing."
"Which entails…?"
"Well, we need to see what these things do to a human body individually," Hermione hemmed, still looking incredibly embarrassed and awkward as Neville finally collapsed into a seated position next to the Twins.
"I ate a mushroom," Neville stated happily.
All of the gathered group looked first at his still somewhat dopey expression and dilated pupils before turning searching gazes onto Hermione. "Y-Yes, they each have to try the reagents while others document the effects. As long as they weren't killing him, it was decided to let each patient ride out the effects naturally."
"So, he's been tripping on shrooms all day?" one of the Twins asked.
"Even during the attack?" asked the other.
"An attack?" Neville asked softly from around his own mouthful of stew.
"He must've really been out of it!" Lee piped in.
"I met God," Neville seemingly agreed. "He was a dick."
"Oh? Why was that?"
"He asked me to justify myself," Neville answered as he took another bite. "So…I told him to justify himself, that Mr. Fancypants with that glowy hair."
After a moment, everyone turned somewhat accusing looks upon Hermione, who flushed under their gazes. "It is perfectly safe. He'll be fine."
"So, Neville," Harry called out. "God told you to justify yourself. What was the conclusion?"
"I found religion," Neville answered in an almost whimsical voice. "And my own self-worth."
"What are the tenets of your religion?" Angelina asked, finally speaking up for the first time since the attack.
Neville proudly brandished his spoon as though it were a mighty scepter towards one of the distant moons as he loudly proclaimed. "Fuck God! Stay alive! Fight back when pushed! Seize the day!"
After a moment of silent staring, all of the listeners turned back to Hermione once again. "This is okay?"
The girl's beet red face somehow managed to flush even deeper. "He'll probably be back to normal by tomorrow. For now, just keep an eye on him."
(Tellemicus's Note) Yup, that's right! Neville, Draco, and several others spent a large chunk of the chapter tripping on shrooms! You guys cannot imagine just how annoyingly persistent Fiori75 was on adding that part to the chapter! Honestly, if it wasn't because of the already large amount of stuff that were happening in this chapter, I truly do think he'd have insisted on us writing in a small piece detailing Neville's argument with 'God'. It was actually Draco he was arguing with, who was also up going on his own trip and undergoing his own revelations.
So, the kids have officially beaten back their first true monster attack! Let's hope they start getting arrogant as a result of this success. I wonder if any of you guys have been able to determine just where the kids potentially are yet? We've been trying to litter the story with some small clues, though admittedly through the lenses of wizardly kids with their own preconceptions... Okay, I wouldn't be surprised if none of you have figured it out yet. Don't worry, you'll all be getting a major clue in the next chapter or two!
Anyway, thank you for reading and please remember to post a review!
