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The Hogwarts Express and the New World
Written By: Tellemicus Sundance
Co-Authored By: Fiori75
Chapter 3: First Signs of Trouble
Day 1
Hogwarts Express
Hermione was striding casually through one of the carriages that was still largely intact. She could hear behind her the heavy footsteps of several older students, most of whom were in Ravenclaw, following in her wake. In her hands was a very basic attempt at a clipboard with several feet of parchment rolled and folded upon its surface, littered with a large and growing inventory of the stockpile they had available from the crash. Most of it was, predictably, school supplies with potion cauldrons and basic ingredients, school robes and attire, several dozen brooms, hundreds upon hundreds of kilograms of candy, a thousand textbooks, a least a kilometer of parchment, several thousand inkwells and quills, a few dozen fountain pens—one of which she'd 'requisitioned' for her task—nearly 40 size-enhanced trunks, and uncountable number of random odds and ends that would require much closer investigation for future use.
'Of which,' Hermione grumbled to herself. 'Most of this stuff is useless. The potion ingredients are a godsend, but they have limited shelf-lives, and many have unusual environmental reagents. The Polyjuice Potion is a prime example of that. The robes are probably the most useful things in this pile of junk. They'll at least keep us better protected from the elements, but they will wear out sooner or later. I hope we aren't here when they do wear out. Not even magical candies can provide us with the nutrition we'll need, and they have an even shorter shelf-life than most potion ingredients. The brooms are probably our best resource, but they come with their own potential dangers. I really don't like those birds I'm seeing there.'
As she was thinking that last part, Hermione had glanced out the shattered window of the carriage. In her view, she could see a large flock of avian creatures in the air a good distance off. But unlike the traditional bird shape she was familiar with, these creatures were oddly shaped and proportioned, almost seeming more like pterosaurs than actual birds. And if they appeared that big from this far off, she didn't want to be anywhere close to them without Hagrid nearby.
A sharp glint of the sunlight that had been steadily growing in brightness since dawn two hours ago caused Hermione to break her observation hurriedly as she raised a hand to shield her eyes. In doing so, she spotted two solemn-eyed and grim-faced students who were transporting yet another dead body. Hermione couldn't blame them for being so melancholic as they performed this duty. Tracing their path, she caught sight of a very unpleasant image. There were rows upon rows of bodies lying on the ground a way off. Based off some simple calculations of there being four rows that seemed to have 20 bodies, Hermione could see that there had to be upwards of maybe 80 dead. some covered respectfully while others were still left bare to the world as mourners broke down nearby them.
Her viewing of the mourners had her eyes naturally tracking over them. Even though she was trying not to, she couldn't help but identify several of the students who she was familiar with. The pair that caught her attention the most were Lavender and one of the Patil twins. She initially had had a hard time trying to guess which twin it was, until she noticed the dead body at their feet. Parvati Patil was deathly still in her Gryffindor robes as her best friend and twin sister both cried over her. Even as she was watching, Hermione saw Padma drop to her knees almost limply and reach forward to grasp her twin's shoulders and try to futilely shake her awake. And she likely would've continued for a while had Lavender not dropped down behind her and pulled her into a hug.
As Hermione herself looked down at her deceased dormmate, she found herself fighting back her own tears. She'd known Parvati for two years now and while they weren't close friends, they were still friendly. 'I guess she'll never nag me about putting on makeup anymore. That's a good thing, right?' Hermione tried to grimly joke, but it just tasted bitter. Sometimes she hated the coping mechanism that her father had taught her when her grandfather died. She'd been distraught and he'd made jokes about it. Later, he'd told her that laughter helped you deal with the pain. That if you couldn't laugh at the grim reality, then all you had was the cold, harsh world they lived in. Such as the sad fact that all that had been left of her grandfather—his father—was a sack of soon-to-be-rotting meat that was about to be buried six feet underground so that it wouldn't stink up the place—!
Hermione felt a jolt of startling realization shoot through her. Dropping the clipboard, she leaned her entire body out of the broken window to look up at the sun. As she did so, she became very cognizant of the fact that the sun was quickly starting to heat up the land. The sun was beating down on her with such force it reminded her of the heart of summer, which should've been impossible. 'It's September 2! The middle of fall! How could it already be so hot out?!' Suddenly the image of multiple moons hanging in the night sky overhead came to her mind. 'Idiot! Different worlds! Shouldn't assume same seasonality!'
"Granger, what's wrong?" one of the Ravenclaws demanded. Marietta Edgecombe, if she remembered right.
Hermione turned her now-frantic gaze to her. "We need to move the bodies!"
"Are you daft?" Marietta asked in a confused tone. "We're already moving the bodies."
"No! You don't understand!" Hermione cried. "It's only been two hours since sunrise and the sun's already beating down on us! It must be 22 to 25 degrees Celsius already!"
"Oh, yes, that could be a problem!" an unfamiliar, wispy young voice spoke up. Hermione saw that it was a waifish blonde girl wearing a necklace of bottlecaps for some reason.
"Who are you?!" Marietta demanded in surprise, jumping slightly at the smaller girl's seeming materialization from nowhere.
"I'm Luna Lovegood, and you're going through my trunk," the girl answered blandly. "I would like to keep all of my shoes. Please?"
Hermione ignored the conversation as she homed in on the fact that there was someone who seemed to have understood her new panic. "We don't know what's out here, but what we can already see is big." She gestured towards the flock of flying creatures off in the distance to emphasize her point.
It was at this point that one of the other attending Ravenclaws eyes suddenly widened as shocked realization started to dawn upon him too. "And if it's this hot already, that means it's only going to get hotter as the day progresses."
"And decay sets in as soon as something dies," Luna said softly, yet her voice seemed to reach the entire cabin.
"And decay brings scavengers," Hermione finished.
Her mania was now starting to spread among the gathered students as the implications of what could happen really started to dawn on them. "We need to move the bodies!"
XxX
"I'm terribly sorry about your wand," Remus was saying with deep sympathy towards the Seventh Year who was escorting him. "I swear I will purchase you a new wand as soon as we get home!"
"It's alright, Professor," Roger Davies said back with discomfort in his voice, feeling uneasy towards the older man's demeanor. "I understand why your wand burned out too. Those were some high-level spells. It was probably a prank from the Weasley Twins, meant to be harmless. I'll be sure to scold them about pranking professors."
"Yes, schoolboy pranks," Remus chuckled awkwardly. After that, he finally turned his attention away from the young man next to him and started looking around the area they were all in.
The only description he could think of to name what he saw was 'chaos.' Students were running about trying to accomplish random tasks. Part of the chaos came from the students that were still, the ones that were still processing everything that had happened, lost in their own trauma. This caused them to be something like rocks in a river, forcing the rest of the students to work around them. There were random clumps of students standing about, arguing with one another about this or that. There seemed to be almost fistfights breaking over some things he didn't understand and would've required more of his time than was available to break up.
"What happened here?" Remus asked Roger. "What's everyone doing? Who's organizing things?"
"That would be Percy Weasley," Roger answered in an almost perturbed voice. "He's been barking orders all morning. A few of them were good. That muggle girl seems to know what she's doing in inventory. He's also sent a few scouts out, but with no clear orders. But he's playing favorites too. Not sending the Gryffindor Team out to scout."
"It's still only been a few hours," Remus said in a consoling voice, having noticed Roger's disagreeable tone that the conversation was starting to take. "Give him a little more time. Who knows, maybe Dumbledore'll find us by the end of the day?"
"Maybe," Roger grumbled. But he didn't bother trying to keep the conversation going as they neared a particular train car and he gestured towards it. "Percy's inside with the injured and a few of the substitute Prefects."
"Right, thank you," Remus acknowledged as he started awkwardly climbing up the stairs. "And, again, terribly sorry about your wand."
Roger just gave him a dismissive wave as he turned and walked away.
Opening the door, Remus found himself almost immediately deafened by the wails and complaints of the many injured. The car was positively crowded as beleaguered students working as impromptu nurses moved about the various compartments. Each of the six compartments were clearly filled to bursting with multiple students squeezed almost on top of each other as they struggled to share bed space. And the space was even more diminished when he realized that there were multiple kids who didn't need to be there, such as a particularly belligerent group of Slytherins. The loudest of which was a platinum blonde boy attended to by two fellow students who could be likened to baby trolls. Just from a passing glance, Remus could tell that the only real wound on the boy was a large cut on his brow that had been bleeding profusely.
Turning his focus away from the injured students, he started to scan for any redheads that he assumed might be the Weasley boy. After glancing in several of the compartments, Remus finally spotted his quarry. The young man was standing in an almost protective stance over one of the young women who seemed especially badly injured. Even though he was holding her hand in a reassuring manner, he had his attention directed towards the gaggle of students who were crowded around the door, clamoring for his attention.
Before Remus could speak up, the Weasley boy's eyes landed upon him, and he visibly perked up. "Professor! They've found you! Come in! Come in!"
Remus limped into the room carefully as he answered, "Mr. Weasley, I presume? I understand that you've been keeping order. What's the situation? How many are injured?"
One of the students, an elder Slytherin by the looks of him, spoke up before Percy could. "Everyone's injured, but some worse than others." His gaze lingered upon Remus's visible limp. Remus noticed that Percy had rolled his eyes in annoyance but didn't seem like he was going to reprimand the other man's interruption. This lack of response was all the prompting that the Slytherin needed to continue. "We have the worst of everyone in here. But it could've been far worse if I hadn't been able to get as many out of harm's way so quickly."
"It was a group effort, Flint," one of the other students snapped back.
"Right," Flint acknowledged. "A group effort under my direction."
"Regardless of who was in charge," Percy cut in. "We have been going through our inventory, moving the bodies safely away, and are trying to treat the injured as best we can."
"Right, bodies," Remus murmured. "Do we know how many we've lost?"
"At present, we have 77 dead, including the trolley witch and the conductor, and about 50 more critically injured," Percy continued.
"Unless we are able to finish some of those potions sooner, we're likely going to lose about 10 more of the critically injured over the night," another of the students piped in.
"Who is brewing these potions?" Remus asked.
"The short answer is everyone who can," Percy answered. "Although I did make a point of only asking for those with EEs or Os OWL students in Potions class. If only we had access to Hogwarts' potions lab… Speaking of injuries, we should really get you looked at too, Professor," Percy said as he looked at Remus's leg. "My brother tells me you broke it."
Remus awkwardly chuckled as he started waving his hand in a dismissive manner. "He must've been mistaken. I only really sprained it. Perhaps he thought it looked worse than it was. Moving on, what's our situation with food?"
Percy nodded agreeably as he answered, "We are still waiting on Hermione for the exact numbers of what we have to eat. But I don't think we have very much available aside from small snack foods. We may have to send out scouts to look for food."
"Yes, the scouts are probably a good idea," Remus muttered to himself. 'We have no idea what's out there. And there's definitely things that seem a little dangerous from what I've seen.'
"That's why I've sent out only a minimal number of scouts on brooms," Percy stated. For some reason, Remus noticed that all of the others present were now shooting Percy looks of distaste at various levels. The Flint boy's look was utterly undisguised contempt.
"That was a good call," Remus said, doing his best to cut through the brewing tension. "We need to focus on keeping the people here safe. Sending out too many scouts is just asking to lose more people."
"So, what do we do now, Professor?" one of the students asked.
"Now?" Remus answered, suddenly feeling uneasy. "Now, we have to focus on fortifying this train. This is where we'd arrived. It stands to reason that any rescue attempts would also arrive here."
"Yes, but what do we do?" another of the students asked, more pointedly this time.
Remus paused, before he looked around the compartment, seeing everyone staring at him with pleading looks for direction. It was a situation he felt very uncomfortable with, especially with how many moons he could still see hanging overhead. Looking up sharply, he stared at Percy as he mustered up as commanding a gaze as he could, "Can I speak to you privately, Mr. Weasley?"
"Of—Of course, Professor," Percy answered, somewhat anxiously. Letting go of the young woman's hand, he gingerly stepped forward and out of the compartment. As he closed the door behind him, he turned and asked, "What is it you need, Professor?"
"Not here," Remus stated, gesturing towards the exit. "Outside, somewhere private."
"You are not putting me at ease, Professor," Percy said as he followed the man outside, despite his mounting confusion and anxiety.
Remus just chuckled anxiously himself but didn't answer. Once they were outside and had walked a suitable distance away from everyone, he finally turned back to the young man.
"Is this about what we should do next?" Percy asked questioningly.
"It's more what you have to do next," Remus stated bluntly. "I cannot lead these students. I am a werewolf. You know they won't listen to or trust me when they learn about this later tonight."
"Tonight?" Percy questioned, somehow managing to fight down his initial flinch at the revelation. "But tonight isn't the full moon."
Remus just shot the boy a commiserating stare before he simply raised his hand and pointed upwards. Following his gesture, Percy looked to the sky and quickly saw what Remus already knew. "Ohhh, fuck."
"Indeed," Remus stated.
"That's why you were locked in the compartment," Percy stated, putting the pieces together. "Was your leg really broken?"
"Yes, but it has since been greatly healed," Remus answered. "One of the depressingly few perks of the transformation."
Percy was silent for just a moment. Then he hung his head as his shoulders visibly sunk. Remus could almost literally see the weight of the responsibility settling upon them. "It's all on me then," the young man muttered very softly to himself. Remus was about to offer the young man a word of encouragement, but he found he didn't need to. The young man quickly recollected himself and straightened up. "Right then. Time to get back to work."
XxX
Day 1: Afternoon
The day had grown incredibly hot and humid, just as Hermione had predicted earlier. The sun was thankfully past its zenith and was beginning its downwards trek toward the horizon. Cho Chang and Duncan Inglebee had seen many things within this time. And from where they were now seated upon the large branch of a great tree, they couldn't help but silently review everything. There was an uneasy silence between the two as they contemplated. Only the sounds of the forest around them broke up the monotonous silence until…
"Well, there was a disturbing image," Duncan muttered.
"Disturbing?" Cho repeated, disbelief rife in her voice. "That thing swallowed the other thing whole!"
"Yeeeaaahhhh," Duncan agreed distractedly. "And those little ones were ripping another to pieces."
As he was saying that, there was a distinct fluttering of feathers nearby. The two of them turned to stare at the sudden arrival of numerous birds that had just landed upon the branch not too far away from them. Unlike most creatures in the forest, they had seen these birds before.
"Oh, look," Duncan said with a snark. "The cleanup crew has arrived. Efficient little buggers."
"It's only been a few minutes," Cho stated with budding respect for the carrion eaters that already started to pick apart the bloody remains below them. As she stared down at the birds tearing apart what little remains of the corpse, she had a sudden and horrifying image pass through her mind. "How many of these birds do you think have flocked to the train?"
Duncan was silent for a moment, processing her question, having his own little revelation, before turning slightly green. "I don't wanna think of that."
Cho nodded in agreement as she forced her mind off the horrible image that might be awaiting them when they returned.
"The Groundskeeper would love this place," Duncan said matter-of-factly.
Cho couldn't help but chuckle wryly at the thought. "Yeah, Hagrid probably would." Playing through both their minds were memories of certain classes within the Care for Magical Creatures where the gentle giant had been called in by the Professor to aid in controlling and subduing the various creatures. It was a happier image from a happier place and time. And the image did its job in keeping their minds off of grim subjects.
Glancing up towards the sun momentarily, Duncan asked, "So, are we heading back now or should we go further?"
"Let's see," Cho stated as she held up her hand to tick off the various points she was going to make. "We've seen giant lizards that can swallow other beasts whole, tons of carrion birds, a few squirrels, a herd of armored dinosaurs, a few pterosaurs, that moss-covered pig in that one tree. Ah yes, let's not forget all the giant trees. So, have we spotted anything useful or just that we're in a scary death world?"
"I'm sure we could find a few useful things for the beasts," Duncan said in a slightly hopeful voice. "I mean, the pig would've been good for food, right?"
"You want to carry a live pig back to the Express?" Cho questioned in a disbelieving voice.
"I would've killed it first," Duncan answered with a wavering voice.
"Oh? And do you know how to field dress an animal?" Cho pressed on. "Without magic?"
"Ahhh…" Duncan blinked for a moment. "I see your point."
Cho hummed thoughtfully. "We're going to have to learn so many things if we're going to survive here."
"You don't know that," Duncan retorted. "The Professors could have us back home by the end of the day!"
"I'm not holding out hope on that," was Cho's rebuttal.
"So, what?" Duncan asked. "You're just going to assume the worst?"
"Yes," Cho answered quickly. "That way, I'll be ready mentally for when disaster hits."
"So, I take it that we are heading back to the Express?" Duncan asked.
"Might as well," Cho stated. "There doesn't seem to be much more we can find out here."
Duncan hummed dispassionately for a moment. "You sure we can't try to catch the pig? I'm not looking forward to eating just sweets tonight."
Cho's face twisted up in annoyance at the reminder. She fully agreed with her teammate on that subject. "Unless we find an easy-to-cook meal, we don't have a choice."
Duncan's face twisted in disgust before he turned to stare down at the forest floor below. After a long moment of staring, his face suddenly lit up with a grin. "Eggs! We could find some eggs!"
"What are you talking about?" Cho asked.
"Well, there's birds. There's lizards. Those things come from eggs, right?"
"Well, obviously," Cho answered. "But we don't have anything to cook them in."
"Not with us, but we can take them back to the Express, right?"
"Supposing that we do manage to find any eggs, yes," Cho said.
"Let's follow the birds!" Duncan said excitedly as he mounted his broom.
"You want to eat carrion bird eggs?" Cho asked in disgust.
"Not a good idea?"
"Not a good idea."
"Then where would you look for some eggs?" Duncan challenged.
Cho pointed off into the distance. Specifically, the trail of destruction that the armored dinosaurs they'd seen earlier had tramped as they ran. "We'll follow those."
"Ohhh!" Duncan almost purred out. "And those eggs would be quite a bit bigger than the birds! Good idea!"
XxX
Day 1: Afternoon
There was a heated debate that was occurring back at the Express. Things had not been going well for the past few hours. Hermione's prediction on scavengers being attracted to the dead bodies had proven all too accurate. Swarms of crow-like birds were circling above as various students scrambled to scare off the birds while others were frantically digging graves. The students who were not doing these duties were cowering within the Express.
This made it far easier for Marcus to find his target. With only having to walk through the Express, it was only a matter of time before he came across him. He finally found his prey in a deep discussion with a filthy mudblood. He wasn't sure just what they were speaking of, but it had something to do with using the twisted metal remains of the Express engine to craft yet more makeshift tools for something.
"—and you're sure this'll be good enough for the trees?" Percy was saying when Marcus drew close enough to hear.
"Well, I can't be sure until I start chopping them," the mudblood said, his eyes drifting over Percy's shoulders and landing on Marcus. Marcus didn't like the Cockney accent on that filthy mudblood. "But it appears you've got a visitor. I'll be on my way then."
Percy looked over his shoulder and grimaced as he saw Marcus. As he turned to face Marcus, the mudblood turned and walked off, much to Marcus's relief. Focusing his attention back on the Head Boy, he shot his yearmate an angry look. Before he could say anything, Percy spoke up first, "What do you want, Flint?"
"You've conscripted too many people into doing your bidding, Weasley," Marcus snarled.
"My bidding?" Percy repeated, having the gall to look confused and affronted. "I wasn't aware that ensuring we all survived was 'my bidding.'"
"Oh, come off it!" Marcus snapped. "Having all my Slytherins digging your graves while your Gryffindors just watch can't be called anything less!"
"I'm not just conscripting your Slytherins. Everyone has been doing it!" Percy rebuked. "Besides, what would you have them do?"
"Most of my team is back," Marcus stated. "But Peregrine Derrick and Lucian Bole are still missing. You taking everyone to dig graves means I have no one to go look for them!"
"It's still barely past midday, not even evening," Percy said. "They could still just be scouting."
"When all the rest of the team's already come back?" Marcus challenged.
"Maybe they're not cowards like the rest of you," Percy shot back.
This earned a deep glare from Marcus. He was of course referring to how each of the Slytherin Team had seen a monster or two and had immediately returned to the safety of the Express rather than go deeper into the forest, as so many of the other Quidditch players had. It was a growing sore of embarrassment for the Slytherins as they found that the rest of the students weren't nearly as terrified by the beasts they'd seen as they thought they would've been.
"You sent out more flyers to find eggs," Marcus argued back. "But you won't send out anyone to find my teammates?!"
"We need food," Percy replied sharply. "Besides, we don't even know if anything's even happened to your teammates."
Marcus glared hard and long at Percy, who met his gaze levelly. "So, that's it then? My boys are missing and you're doing nothing?"
"If you think this is so important," Percy said bitingly. "You can take your broom and go look for them yourself."
"If they were Gryffindors, you'd have conscripted the whole train, right?!" Marcus snapped back.
Percy remained silent, which was answer enough for Marcus. Marcus's furious frown deepened. "I'll remember this for when you need me!"
With that said, he turned and stormed off, roughly brushing past anyone who got in his way. The Head Boy sighed in annoyed resignation as he knew that this would come back to bite him again somehow. But as he was turning back to his previous tasks, he failed to notice a certain boy who'd been hovering near the destroyed windows turn to fly off.
XxX
"Remind me again why we're looking for a couple of snakes," Ron grumbled in an irritated voice.
"Because it's the right thing to do," Harry reposted in a deadpan voice. Then he turned a knowing smirk on his friend. "Besides, Percy has been being an ass and you were bored."
Ron just gave Harry a snort of amusement. "As if you weren't feeling stifled as well."
Harry met Ron's amusement with a matching grin before having to refocus his attention back around him again. The pair of them were flying at an easy pace through the forest upon their brooms, trying to keep a careful watch out for possible monster attacks as well as the aforementioned missing Slytherin students. They weren't entirely sure just where they needed to go, but they did at least have a general idea of the direction.
The two friends continued their wayward flight through the trees and foliage of the alien forest for several quiet minutes. As they were passing over a small herd or family group of some clearly herbivore type of creature, Ron spoke again, "We sure this is the right direction, though?"
"Well," Harry commented. "We know that the Slytherins went straight into the forest and that they came back pretty quickly. So, they couldn't have gone far."
"Yeah, I know that," Ron replied. "But didn't they all fly off in different directions?"
"Which is why we're not going to fly too much deeper and start going in a different direction along the coast."
Ron looked up to the canopy above and the flecks of sunlight beyond that. Grimacing, he asked, "Harry, which direction do you think is north in this place?"
Harry paused, his flight actually coming to a momentary halt, as this potential problem came to light in his mind. "Well, assuming this place isn't too different from Earth, the sun rose from that direction," he pointed off in a vague direction. "So, that should be east, and north should be that way." He pointed in another direction.
"I suppose so," Ron acquiesced.
The pair of boys fell into companionable silence after that, keeping their gazes locked mostly down upon the ground that they were flying over at a relatively slow speed. As they flew, they couldn't help but be slightly swept up in the beauty and wonder of the massive but alien forest they were skirting through the edges of. The trees were positively massive, the creatures bizarre and many, the air hot and humid, and the shadows providing only temporary relief from the sun's blistering heat.
Both boys were trying very hard not to think too hard about the quickly growing problem they and everyone else was fast in coming to grips with. What would they do if they got into trouble? Their wands seemed to have very finite abilities here and very short lifespans due to 'over usage'. In fact, it was quickly becoming known that only the weakest of First Year spells could be reliably used with their wands without the magical foci burning out after a few minutes. This was a very dangerous handicap when they were trapped in a strange world and surrounded by unknown and large monsters.
As such, in an effort to avoid trying not to think too much about the very real danger they might actually be flying unknowingly into, they were focusing much more of their attentions upon what they were doing than they probably normally would've. And it was thanks to this increased focus that it was Ron who spotted the first signs.
"Harry, look!" Ron hissed, pulling his broom to a halt suddenly as he pointed off to the side.
Following his example, Harry came to a stop and looked in that direction. What he saw was both promising and damning at the same time. There was a large tree limb that had a series of very large leaves sprouting out of its branches, large enough to have been used as umbrellas. Several of those large leaves had clearly been recently disturbed, broken or twisted at odd angles. And along the surface of the tree limb, following along with those broken leaves, was a distressingly large trail of darkening blood. A sudden feeling of foreboding settled upon the boys as they realized just what that blood could and probably did mean.
Both boys shot hesitant but resigned looks at one another before they started slowly drifting their way in that direction, following the blood trail and broken leaves. All too soon, the leaves trail ended, and the blood dripped off the edge of the limb. Harry drifted carefully towards the ground, making sure to always stay a good five meters over the underbrush below. The deepening shadows of the lower elevation and the afternoon sun made it somewhat more difficult, but he did eventually manage to find the blood trail once again and started following it, beckoning towards Ron the direction it seemed to be heading.
After several more stressful moments of following the blood trail, they finally heard noises coming from further up ahead in the jungle. It was the rustling of leaves and grasses, the squawks and snarls of some kind of avian creatures, and the crunching of something wooden sounding. Harry and Ron both quickly pulled themselves up against the nearest tree they could reach and started silently drifting forward, trying to locate the sounds of the feasting creatures. It was thanks to this caution that they came across the scene not five minutes later.
A flock of some six to nine large pterosaur avians were scurrying about on the forest floor just ahead of them in two distinct piles. From between the heaving, thrashing, flexing, and pulsing masses, Harry was able to glimpse a grisly pile of crushed bones, torn clothing, and shredded meat, all surrounded by a bloody puddle of mud. Next to him, Harry could feel as much as hear Ron suddenly start rapidly heaving and swallowing, fighting to keep himself from violently vomiting at the bloody scene they were witnessing. Harry certainly wasn't in any better shape, feeling his head start to lighten and spin as his vision became spotty and blurry. It was only through sheer stubborn willpower that both boys managed to keep themselves upright, aloft, and silent.
"Gonna be…sick," Ron hissed in a very weak voice.
"Me…too," Harry admitted, nodding.
"…Still…we…found them," Ron pointed out. "But…now what?"
"We can't…bring them back to the train," Harry said slowly. "It'd be…awkward carrying what's left."
"More like 'messy'," Ron agreed. "But we can't just leave them here, like that…can we?"
"It would be…disrespectful," Harry nodded. "Plus, their parents would probably want them put to rest somehow, right?"
"And we'll need…proof of their deaths, somehow," Ron pointed out, looking ready to vomit again. But again, somehow, he managed to force the bile back down.
"Maybe their uniforms? Or brooms?" Harry suggested.
"Works for me," Ron nodded as he turned a more calculative look upon the scavengers. "Now, how to deal with them…?"
"I've an idea," Harry said simply. Then, feeling impatient about the situation, before Ron could question him, he drifted out from behind their cover and drew his wand. Weaving his wand about, he launched two simple Lumos spells towards the two piles. The balls of light landed, if not perfectly within the feasting piles, then close enough to be immediately noticeable as they suddenly flared into a blinding burst of light. All the avians squawked in distress at the blinding light that had suddenly interrupted their meal and, driven by instinct, immediately took flight to escape whatever had startled them.
Both boys watched and waited as the pterosaurs disappeared into the foliage, rapidly vanishing from sight with their alarmed cries fading into the distance.
"Blimey, Harry," Ron groused as he drifted past him and towards the two corpses. "That was blood…dy brilliant." His enthusiasm faded fast as he unintentionally reminded himself of what they were about to set themselves to do.
"Yeah, let's just get this over with," Harry suggested, also feeling his own unease and distress rapidly returning.
"Right."
Needless to say, both boys were fast to void their stomachs after they'd completed their grisly task and had flown a fair distance away.
(Tellemicus's Note) Uuuh, I still live? Huh, who'd have thought?
Sorry about the long wait. My muse dried up for a long time. The stressful crap I presently have to deal with IRL aren't helping matters either. Losing my job, my mom divorcing my (druggie and narcissistic) stepfather, trying to separate their properties, and looking for a new home. And all of that literally happening within just a few days' time back in March, which is only now starting to speed up again since we've finally accepted an offer on the house and have less than a month to move out. Yeah, things are stressful for me at the moment.
So, finding that I still have a smidgen of creativity to devote to this surprise of a chapter was a very welcomed surprise and relief. Hopefully, I'll be able to dedicate some more time to the next chapter a bit sooner than this one. I can promise that things are going to start taking a drastic turn towards the dark in the next chapter or two as more and more deaths start to pile up.
Huh, maybe that's why I sudden, if bleak, burst of creativity...?
Anyway, to all Americans out there, Happy 4th of July! And, to everyone else, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to the next one!