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The Hogwarts Express and the New World
Written By: Tellemicus Sundance
Co-Authored By: Fiori75
Chapter 4: This Food Can Fight Back!

Day 4: Late Afternoon

It was the end of another hot and humid day for the trapped magic students. Things had not been going all that well for them since their arrival here. It wasn't just their inability to use their wands to cast magic. It was the growing terror of what lay beyond the safe refuge of the train that kept them trapped. News of the two dead Slytherins had been the first mark of the dangers of this new world. To further emphasize the point, several students had gotten attacked—but thankfully not bitten—by the feral werewolf they hadn't even known was amongst them before he'd run off into the forest and not returned that second night. Now, they were without the assurance of adult supervision and presence to help alleviate their growing fears. If that hadn't been enough, the following morning had forced the students to watch as numerous scavenging pterosaurs dug up the shallow graves and torn apart the bodies of the dead students. After experiencing all of that within the first two days of their time in this world, none of them were having a good time. Thus, trapped within a relatively small space, with Pureblood prejudices flaring up, tempers shortening, and nothing to take their minds off the sorry state they were in, tensions were rising quickly within the train.

But Harry, his friends, and teammates were only really peripherally connected to that developing drama. The group of them were all clustered together atop one of the carriages of the train, a makeshift sunshade hanging overhead, as they lounged about. Despite the relative safety of the past two hours, Hermione still looked rather uncomfortable about being so exposed, but everyone else was just trying to relax. Most of them had foregone any sense of shame in the face of such overwhelming heat and humidity. All of them had long since stripped down to just their underclothes in an effort to help deal with it. Being from a much more northern climate, none of the students were at all prepared to deal with this unexpected dilemma, and thus all were sweating quite heavily. It was just lucky that the water summoning spell was so simple to cast and very magically low-powered, so much so that it didn't risk their wands burning out.

"I'm hungry," Ron stated in an annoyed but resigned voice.

"You're always hungry, Ron," one of the Twins said.

"Besides, we're all hungry," the other added quickly.

"I'm bored," Ron added.

"So are we," Angelina remarked irritably.

"I'm bloody drenched too," Ron said, futilely trying to fan himself.

"Are you trying to get us mad?" Katie demanded, glaring over at where she could barely see Ron's slouched form.

"…Maybe?" Ron admitted.

"Ron, don't antagonize the Chasers," Hermione piped in almost absently as she continued reading her book and stroking Crookshanks.

"But it'd definitely be more interesting than this," Lee Jordan opined calmly.

The 'this' that he was referring to was of course the Gryffindor Team's current biggest issue. That being that they had been effectively grounded with their brooms taken away following Harry and Ron's return that first day with the news of the two Slytherins' deaths. Percy had not been happy to learn that one of his brothers had purposely ignored his order and had flown off into the dangerous forest. The only reconciliation that the eldest present Weasley boy had was that Ron had indeed already returned safely. But that still hadn't stopped him from taking and locking up all of the Gryffindor Team's brooms. Something that drew no small amount of mockery from the majority of the Slytherins, but not the Slytherin Quidditch team. Strangely, Draco had even given Harry and Ron a very formal 'thank you' upon learning of his teammates' deaths.

Ever since, in order to avoid starting a fight with either Percy, the Prefects, or the Slytherins in general, the Weasley brothers had decided to 'go rogue'. They set up this little camp atop the train as a type of rebellion, quickly inviting the rest of the team and some of their closer friends to join them. For the most part, it had been a successful venture.

A loud splash and a scream from down below the cliff momentarily distracted everyone. Despite the loud cries, splashes and sprays of seawater, and the sound of heavy bodies and limbs crashing against each other, none of the gathered students showed concern. A couple of them did glance over the side of the train to see what they already knew was happening just out of sheer boredom.

"Guys, the waterspiders are at it again," Ron complained in annoyance, not having even bothered to look.

"Crabs," Neville corrected softly as he watched the ensuing bloody chaos of low tide erupt once again.

"Same bloody difference," Ron snapped back irritably.

"Language, Ron!" Hermione chastised.

The students aboard had by now acclimated to their watery companions' savage acts of what they could only assume was territorialism or mating displays. It could've only been one or the other since they couldn't conceive of any other reason why the monstrous sized crustaceans had to constantly battle and maul and kill during every low tide. The novelty of watching them fight had quickly worn out during the second day and by now none of the students were even remotely interested in them. Thankfully, the monster crabs didn't bother them since they never seemed to leave the beach far below.

With nothing better to do, Seamus and Ron both stared down almost unseeingly at the monsters.

"Wow, that one's got a big shell," Seamus observed in a dull voice as he watched a dueling pair.

"Yeah, but the smaller one's got awesome scars," Ron countered. "That means it's survived meaner stuff than the other."

"Until now," Seamus replied in a slightly snarky voice, a small grin tugging at his lips. "Now, he's gonna be food for Big Shot down there."

"Oh, come on," Ron shot back in a dissing voice. "Scrapper's gonna make a meal of him!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"My last chocolate frog leg says you're wrong," Seamus challenged.

"And my last three Berty Bots says you're wrong," Ron growled.

"You shouldn't be betting food," Hermione quickly interjected. "We all need everything we've got left!"

"Which is nothing, right?" Lee Jordan pointed out.

Hermione growled but didn't reply.

"Oh, come on, Hermione," Angelina said. "You did inventory. You should know, right?"

"How much have we got left?" Harry asked, finally reinserting himself into the conversation.

Hermione just stared at all of them for a few tense moments before saying in a low voice. "We passed out everything we had left this morning. And none of the other…scouts have been able to find any more nests for eggs within a reasonable distance."

"So, we're fucked," Fred remarked casually.

"I wouldn't say it like that," Hermione tried to say.

"Oh, so we're pretty well fucked," George asked.

"What?! No!" Hermione stammered, looking slightly alarmed.

"Oh! So, we're properly fucked then?" Fred stated knowingly.

Hermione just stared at them, and then at the rest of the group as the growing sense of tension spread.

"Come on, Scrapper!" Ron called out suddenly, thoroughly ignoring the tense silence. "Pinch his legs off!"

As everyone turned to stare at him, Seamus shamelessly added in, "Pin him, Big Shot! Pin him! He's smaller than you!"

While everyone was gawking at the two boys, Hermione couldn't help but shake her head as she lowly muttered to herself, "Sometimes I truly do envy Ron's simplistic nature."

But even as she was saying that, the Twins had shot to their feet and joined their brother on the edge, staring down at the ongoing fight. "Yeah! You go, Big Shot!" "Kick his ass, Scrapper!" Both twins shot each other looks of pure shock and betrayal before they simultaneously pointed and shouted at the other. "What the—?! YOU TRAITOR!"

Sadly, the outcome of the epic match would forever remain unknown as something unexpected happened. The waters surrounding the many different crab monsters suddenly began boiling explosively, hot steam wafting off the water. Almost instantaneously, a din of unified and deafening shrieks echoed off the cliff as the many crab monsters began to be boiled to death.

"Hey! What's going on down there?!" Ron cried out, dismayed that his entertainment was interrupted and curious what was happening.

"Looks like someone's using an area effect boiling charm," Hermione clinically observed, her eyes narrowing in contemplation.

By contrast, Harry's eyes shot open in sudden realization. "Food! They're boiling the crabs!"

"Crab meat for dinner?" Angelina asked, drool metaphorically dripping down her jaw.

"Sounds tasty!" the twins chorused.

"Come on!" Oliver barked, already heading for the ladder. "Let's go help get our dinner!"

"Yeah!" all of the dozen teenagers cheered. Their voices were soon joined by many dozens of others as the hungry kids flowed out of the train and lined the edges of the cliff, searching for potential routes down to the flooded beach below them in impatient anticipation.

The line of hungry students eager to get their unexpected dinner ran into several minor problems in their quest. The first and most obvious problem was having to wait for the boiling seawater to cool down enough for them to safely be able to fish out the newfound seafood. The second problem was how to do that without magic. Though levitation was one of the few magics their wands could safely cast, the surprising weight of the monsters rapidly taxed their wands' limits. It took the combined effort of no less than seven students to hoist up one of the monsters. Granted, the sea monster was by no means small. The average size of the crabs ranged from a large pony to small draft horse and had about double the approximate weights of each due to the large and thick shells they had.

As was probably anticipated by the other Houses, the Gryffindors were the first to try climbing down the cliff to grab at the seafood physically. Led by Oliver, the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team rushed off to confront Percy about getting their brooms back temporarily. But Harry and Ron weren't among them because Ron had gotten an idea for a slightly different method.

Rather than braving the cliff face and potentially falling into the surf from loose or slippery rocks, they were cautiously making their way down the three hanging carriages of the train from the inside. It was a bit surreal to them as they traversed the familiar environs of the Hogwarts Express, but in an entirely different fashion. Having to carefully make their ways down the nearly vertical slope that the interior hallway of the Express had become. Not to mention the large sprays of saltwater gushing in through the smashed sections of the train at the bottom. From their new vantage points, it was a wonder to the boys that the middle and half-sunken carriage of the Express had managed to remain attached at all.

Finally reaching the bottom portion of the vertical carriage they were in, Harry carefully lowered himself onto the portion of wall that was now effectively the floor. The wood creaked and groaned ominously, not designed or meant to support a person's weight.

"I don't like the sound of that," Ron said, having to speak somewhat loudly to be heard over the roar of the surf.

"We'll just have to be quick about it," Harry shot back. But he did stay very close to the wall, maintaining his grip on whatever handholds he could get.

After a moment, Ron joined him, but on the other side. Together, they moved over to one of the smashed sections of the carriage, where the seawater was coming in. Grasping their wands, the two boys looked out through the hole and surveyed what they could. Between the waves, they could see the rocking but lifeless forms of the crab monsters.

Up above them, they could see several groups of broom riders hovering as lowly as they dared to the water, trying to physically lift out the crabs, with varying amounts of success. One group was doing quite well as they hoisted one of the smaller crabs between them, using either conjured ropes or school robes as nets. Another group had apparently gone too low and had gotten swept up in the waves. Flying brooms weren't designed to take off out of water, so the group was stuck trying to swim back to the cliffs to climb out, much to the amusement of various kids above them.

"I don't know whether to be jealous of those guys or not," Ron observed as he watched the groups in their struggles.

"Let's just try to find something close by," Harry suggested, already looking around.

Honestly, it wasn't that hard to find something. The submerged beach floor had been positively filled with the creatures. The hard part was going to be trying to wrestle one of them out of the water and into the train. The train was rocking back and forth with the surf, as well as the water being as deep as a meter directly underneath their present location. But that measurement changed with each huge wave that buffeted the cliff and train, reaching as high as two meters in some places. Climbing back into the train car whilst carrying even one of the smaller crabs would've been nigh-impossible a task without magic for the two boys.

"Maybe we don't need a whole monster?" Ron said, looking over at Harry. "How about we just grab a few pieces instead? Like pull off a few of their legs instead of hauling a whole one back up the train?"

Harry barely needed a moment to think before nodding in agreement. "Stay here."

Grasping his wand firmly in his teeth, Harry began hoisting himself up. He carefully climbed out of the gaping hole, doing his best to avoid the jagged and serrated edges of the planks and frame. Once free, he slid smoothly into the warm waters and began wading his way to the closest crab. With his wand, a few well placed cutting jinxes, and a bit of muscle, Harry managed to pry off both of the large pincers of the crab. It was as he was making his way back to Ron that Harry came across a potential problem.

Setting one pincer down and holding it under his foot to avoid the surf from sweeping it away, he lifted the heavy claw out of the waters to his friend. "Careful, Ron! It's surprisingly sharp along the edges and spikes."

"Got it!" Ron acknowledged, both to Harry's statement and his pulling the claw inside.

As Ron went about wrapping the claw up in his robe to sling over his back for the climb up, Harry dove under the surface and grasped the second claw. It was as he was lifting it over his head for Ron to take that he noticed something. Something he probably should've noticed a bit sooner. The cheering and hungry murmurs of the crowd overhead had changed. Looking up, Harry saw frenzied activity. The kind of activity one would usually term as 'panicking'. Turning to look over his shoulder, Harry felt his blood run cold at what he saw.

More monsters were appearing. He could see their approaches as the top portions of their shells were clearly visible through the waves. The various broom riders were even more frantically trying to either haul their food out of the water and out of reach of the approaching monsters. That or they were skimming along the surface of the water as they struggled to help the various ones who'd fallen into the sea out. But what made the situation even worse for all involved was the fact that the new monsters were clearly and undisputedly larger. Easily three or four times larger than the biggest of the previous batch!

"Ron!" Harry yelled, dropping the second claw as he scrambled to find a handhold. "Help me!"

"What is it?" Ron asked, distractedly poking his head back to look out to Harry. But then he did a double take upon seeing the approaching monsters. "Oh shite!" There were an awkward few moments between the boys as they struggled to get Harry back inside, but they managed it after a few tries. But what made it slightly worse was that Harry managed to scrape and cut himself upon the jagged edges of the hole despite his best efforts. Harry wasn't sure if those monsters could smell or taste blood in the water like sharks could, but neither he nor Ron were interested in sticking around to find out!

The climb up the train was noticeably quicker. Not just because of the panic the two of them were feeling, but because they were being a lot less cautious in their handholds now. Regardless, those were undoubtedly some of the most stressful minutes of their young lives yet.

"YOU IDIOTS!" was the greeting they got when Hermione managed to track them down. "What were you thinking doing that?!"

"That we were hungry, and someone needed to get some food?" Ron half asked and half stated as he held up the heavy red claw as if their trophy might somehow mollify the girl.

"But climbing down through the Express to get there?!" Hermione yelled. For some reason, the way her bushy hair was billowing around her face, giving her a fuzzy halo, only seemed to accent her fearful rage to her two friends. Freezing them in place and sapping a lot of Ron's witty and not-so-witty retorts. "Do you have any idea how dangerous it was to do that?! Those cars are barely holding onto the train as it is! What would you have done if they'd given way and fallen into the water with you still in them?!"

"…Uuuh," was the unified response from Ron and Harry as they continued staring in fascinated terror at Hermione. This reaction seemed to really amuse a lot of the spectators who'd gathered around them in the hallway of the train car they were in or were peeking at from within compartments to watch and/or listen better to what was happening.

"Now, now, Granger," came the voice of Fred…or George. "Don't steal our thunder."

"While the sentiment is appreciated," came the other twin's voice. "We don't think you need to involve yourself in this matter."

"What?!" Hermione screeched in outrage, whirling to face the Twins. Before she could start yelling at Ron's elder brothers, she was stopped prematurely upon seeing who else was with them.

"After all," one of the Twins continued. "This is a family matter."

"And we believe our dearest brother would like a few words with them first," the other said.

"And us, as well," the first twin finished.

Percy's look of barely repressed anger and worry was more than enough to cool Hermione's writhing emotions. Everyone who saw the Head Boy just then knew without a doubt that both boys (but Ron especially) were in for a very long discussion in the near future.

Day 5: Morning

It was early the next morning. The sun was just starting to crest the horizon with its blinding light illuminating the world and the coastline. Harry lay on the makeshift bed he'd fashioned for himself in the train compartment that he and the other Gryffindor boys of his year had claimed for themselves. He idly traced patterns upon the large claw that he found resting upon his chest when he awoke. He wasn't in a rush to get out of bed today just yet and it was passingly amusing to him to do so. Though he was likely to forever be an early bird, a trait beaten into him by virtue of his upbringing under the Dursleys, that didn't mean he was emotionally or spiritually ready to just roll out of his bed. Instead, he did as he had been doing for the past few days and let his mind wander back over the events that had been occurring since their arrival here, starting with his new bedroom since that was where he was presently.

It had been a somewhat cumbersome affair as they worked out the kinks to their sleeping and storage area. The two benches that lined the wall of the compartment were padded and comfortable to sit upon but had obviously not been made with sleeping in mind. The frames were too short for even their relatively small bodies to lie down on and were barely wide enough to fit one person. Given the new, heavy restrictions on wand usage and their capacity for only the most basic and minor of spells, the boys had had to start getting creative. Though reluctant by virtue against damaging the much beloved Hogwarts Express, they had decided to put pragmatism over sentimentality. Thus, out came the makeshift tools that some of the other students had started fashioning from the pile of twisted metal that the Express's steam engine had become. With a bit of awkward coaching from Harry and Dean on the proper handling and usage of the various 'muggle' tools they had been given, the boys had set to work unfastening the padding from the benches and hacking the bench frames to pieces to make more room for themselves. Surprisingly, there hadn't been any injuries among them. In fact, Seamus and Neville both felt a strange sense of pride in their handiwork afterwards. Why did working like a weak muggle feel…so much more fulfilling? Then again, given their limited repertoire of spells from only two years of magic schooling, they wouldn't have had much other choice than to do things the muggle way anyway.

Once done, they laid out the bench padding into a mishmash form of what could charitably be called a bed. However, even like that, the space available was still very limited. Though they technically could've further separated the cushions into individual beds, by that point none of them had felt inclined to go the extra mile. So, they decided to just make do with what they had. Each set of cushions was only large enough to fit one boy upon each set. They'd managed to come to grips with the necessity of almost literally sleeping in one another's arms. But there were five boys who now slept in this compartment, meaning someone had to either sleep on the hard floor or be willing to get real close to one of the others. Thankfully, it hadn't even become an issue since Harry had claimed that spot without a second's thought. He'd grown up sleeping on the marble tiled floor and cramped confines of a cupboard under the stairs. Yes, his aunt and uncle had been charitable enough to loan him of ratty, thin, and worn blankets and a single pillow, but the principle remained the same. A hardwood floor would've easily been a big step up from the tiles in his opinion. Besides, his roommates were more than willing to loan him their extra robes to use as padding and pillow, so it wasn't like it was that much of a burden.

But the biggest difference between his old cupboard and this compartment was the night's humidity. The boys had used the spare bench's cloth covering to whip up an impromptu set of drapes over the shattered shell of the window. It did a relatively good job of keeping the humidity out. Sadly, like the water it was, the humidity still managed to seep in through the smallest cracks and openings as the nights wore on. So, waking up covered in a thin layer of relatively cold dew and feeling generally sticky was an unexpected burden for him and everyone else. It would take a good amount of time to adjust to, he knew.

Feeling the familiar strain in his lower abdomen is what pushed Harry to finally sit up and climb out of his bed. Dressed in only his standard issue Hogwarts pants, he made his way out of the compartment and got off the train. As he walked along the length of the train towards the massive rock formation the Express had crashed into, he stared down into the surf below. From what he could see, there was an even larger number of crustaceans down there than last night. All of which were greedily feasting upon the large amount of boiled monster crabs that the kids had been unable or unwilling to fish out and left to rot in the sea. He actually paused for a long moment to stare down into the deep water. Was it his imagination or were those shellfish down there bigger than before?

A sudden pulse of pain shot through him and reminded him of his priorities. Shaking his head to clear it of the wandering thoughts, he rushed forward the rest of the way around and over the pile before finding the designated boys' loo spot. It had been decided early on that the other side of the large boulders would serve as a good temporary place to build a basic portaloo. Of course, there wasn't so much anything built there as just a pair of conveniently located boulders that jutted out over the cliff that the kids were using in place of a loo. To go along with that, a large amount of big tree leaves had been gathered to help with cleaning themselves up afterwards.

After finishing his morning evacuations, Harry began a much more leisurely walk back towards the Third Year Gryffindor boys' compartment.

"Hey, Potter," an unfamiliar female called out in a very obviously sultry voice as he was passing under another uncovered window. "Looking good, hot stuff!"

Harry couldn't help flinching badly, eyes widening, and face rapidly flushing. 'Don't look back! Don't look back! Keep walking!' He glanced back reflexively, seeing the likely young woman who'd called out to him grinning and waving at him. But what made this innocent seeming gesture so scandalous was the fact that she was practically nude, leaning out over the window frame at just the right angle for him to be able to see down that valley of her (thankfully!) bra-covered bosom. 'I said don't look, you fool!' When she saw that he'd gotten a proper view of her assets, her innocent smile turned into something decidedly more triumphantly impish and lecherous.

"G'morning," he managed to call back in a feeble voice. But he'd increased his pace threefold, so it was questionable if she even heard him. Needless to say, he was having some very colorful thoughts by the time he'd gotten back with the rest of his Housemates. As well as a rising condition in his trousers that he did his best to ignore.

"Morning, Harry," Dean slurred out from his place on the edge of the bed, clearly still somewhat asleep. Seamus and Neville were both awake by this point, sitting up and sorting through the pile of their clothes in a futile search for something relatively fresh to wear. Ron was still snoring away like a lawn mower as usual.

"Morning," he said back. He quickly took a seat next to his own sleeping spot and grabbed ahold of the large crustacean claw that he'd been toying with earlier.

It was a piece of a red pincer roughly the size of his entire arm. Wedged up inside the surprisingly sharp and strong shell of the pincer had been enough crab meat to easily feed him and the rest of his classmates for the evening. However, he found he hadn't needed to share much. Each of the others had managed to grab chunks of the various monsters to eat for themselves thanks to the efforts of the broom riders hauling a surprising number ashore. Now he was peeking down into its greatly hollowed out shell in search of any more potential meat for his breakfast. 'Yes! Still some left in there!' Poking his hand and forearm inside, he delicately began scratching and pinching at the remaining meat, coaxing it loose of the shell as quickly as he could before popping it into his mouth.

"Muuuum," Ron slurred out as his eyes began slowly drifting open. "W'ens brek'fest?"

"In just a few minutes, honey," Seamus answered, pitching his voice to make it sound as girly as possible. Harry almost choked on his mouthful as he reflexively tried to both laugh and stifle it at the same time. "Why don't you go back to sleep and keep dreaming about Hermione's ass? I'll call you when it's ready, sweetie."

"M'kay," Ron slurred, eyes drifting closed and sighing softly as he started falling back asleep. Each of the boys just sat there, waiting and watching. Dean, now much more awake, silently held up his hand and started counting down the fingers. Five…Four…Three…Two…One… Right on cue, Ron's whole body stiffened, his breath hitched as his eyes snapped open, and his face flushed a deep crimson. Slowly, robotically, he growled out, "Wait a second…"

Unable to hold it any longer, all four of the other boys in the compartment broke out into raucous laughter. Ron's loud shout of indignation only deepened their humor, made worse when the embarrassed Weasley boy made a lunging tackle towards Dean to try and both alleviate his embarrassment and distract the others from it.

"Harry! Ron!" Oliver's voice called out from the shattered window. "You in there?"

Rapidly moving to the covered window, Harry pulled the makeshift curtain down and spotted the grinning face of his Quidditch captain. "What's up, Oliver?" Then he spotted the bundle of wood that the older boy was carrying tucked under his arm. A very familiar looking set of wood.

"We're not grounded anymore!" Oliver declared triumphantly, selecting and holding out a pair of brooms to Harry. "Cedric, Roger, and Flint helped me change Percy's mind! Now, come on! Get dressed and get out here! We're on retrieval duty this morning!"

"What?" Harry asked. Even though he was somewhat confused, he was still grinning happily as he took his beloved Nimbus 2000 back and absentmindedly handed Ron his battered old Cleansweep. "Retrieval?"

"Yeah, Percy said they're planning on boiling the beach again for breakfast," Oliver revealed. "So, if you want breakfast, hurry up!"

"On our way!" Ron called, already hurrying for the door. Harry was on his heels just seconds later.

The feeling of lifting off the ground again after so many days was still as amazing as the first time he'd done so. Harry couldn't help putting himself through a small aileron roll in celebration as he and Ron joined the hovering crowd of Quidditch players and other broom riders in the air. Looking around from his new vantage point with the rest of the Gryffindor team, Harry scanned the immediate area that the boiling beach was set to take place. Just as it had been the last time he'd seen it, the Hogwarts Express was a crumpled, compressed mess atop the cliff. But after the events of the previous day, Harry's gaze naturally gravitated towards the three cars dangling off the edge of the cliff. Specifically, the smashed hole that he and Ron had used to collect their claw.

'Huh, from this angle,' Harry reflected contemplatively. 'Those cars look a lot more dangerous hanging like that than they did from the inside. We were very lucky!'

"So, any idea how long this'll take?" one of the Ravenclaws asked.

"No idea," someone answered.

"Why haven't they started yet?"

"They're probably arguing over who should cast the spell. Remember, this large scale probably causes a burnout very quickly."

"So, we might be out here for a while," Katie stated, looking about before drifting off to the side. "In that case, I'm gonna sunbathe!"

As she landed upon a relatively smooth sea stack that was situated about half a Quidditch pitch's distance from the cliff, her arrival naturally spooked off a collection of large seagull looking avians. As the large birds squawked indignantly as they flew off, Katie immediately dropped down to her rump and setting her broom aside as she pulled her shirt off. Numerous wolf whistles shot through the hovering crowd for a few moments, but soon most of the others were copying her actions. In groups ranging from 3 to 7, the flyers all landed upon the scattered sea stacks that littered the area and set about waiting.

After a length of time that quickly began edging from reasonable to exasperating to ridiculous to outright absurd, a series of glowing spell bolts were finally cast. They impacted the sea water in measured distances and brought the flooded beach area to a rolling boil within just a few moments. As had happened previously, loud cries and roars of agony erupted from the large cluster of sea monsters that filled the beach area. Everyone watched with impatience, waiting for the monsters to stop moving and thrashing around as they were boiled alive, the steam wafting up into the air in visible hazes. The area of effect was so widespread that it even reached the various sea stacks the flyers had taken roost on.

"Is this what its like to be in a sauna?" Harry asked in distracted curiosity.

"Maybe?" Katie answered, equally distracted. "Hopefully not with the monsters down below, though."

"That wouldn't be much of an incentive to go to one," Fred remarked.

"Then again, there are probably other stuff that'd make it worth it?" George said, turning a long and appreciative look over Angelina's slightly lounging half-nude body. That remark earned him a rather sultry wink from the girl and Harry's face flushing for a reason besides the high humidity around them.

"Focus," Oliver chided, his eyes locked on the monsters below them.

The boiling of the monster crabs must have taken upwards of ten minutes before their death cries started petering out. After that, the various flyers waited an additional length of time to try and give the raw seafood a chance to be properly cooked. It was a long, boring, and sweltering wait for the scattered flyers. However, as annoying as it was to have to wait for so long, no one was in a rush. They all knew the dangers of eating improperly cooked normal meat. Who knows just how dangerous improperly cooked monster meat could be to them?!

Finally, after an agonizingly long time, the boiling waters began to subside and the steaming mist gathering over the area began to clear as the strong coastal winds were finally able to start blowing it away. When that started to happen, the more impatient flyers took to the air and began scanning their options. Even though he was indeed hungry, Harry decided to wait for the waters to properly cool down first. Thus, he and the Gryffindor team were among the first to take notice that something wasn't right.

Namely because the sea stack they were still seated upon suddenly gave an unexpected lurch and jostle.

"What the?!" Oliver said in surprise.

"Did the rock just—?" Alicia began.

A loud roar of pain and fury cut through the air as the seawater below them suddenly burst upwards, spraying all of them with the still relatively hot water. As this was happening, the large boulder they were on began rocking, shaking, swaying wildly about in a somewhat chaotic fashion, sending them sliding down the water-slicked rock towards the dangerously thrashing waters. They were fortunate to have all had their hands on their brooms. This allowed the Gryffindors to quickly mount their brooms and take flight before any of them were submerged.

As they were circling their strangely moving sea stack, Harry was finally able to realize just what was happening. "That wasn't a rock! It was a giant crab!"

Looking about, he saw to his horror that it wasn't the only one either. All of the sea stacks and large rocks that were in or around the boiling area were now moving and thrashing, waving massive pincers and claws in the surf and air at anything that came near them. Fortunately, most of the flyers were able to go into wild dodges and maneuvers as they flew away.

"Well, this just complicated things!" Graham Montague yelled out angrily.

"What do we do?!" Anthony Rickett asked, somewhere between resigned and terrified.

"They're trying to steal our food!" Marcus Flint snapped, anger clear in his voice. "Don't let them!" He put words to action by diving for the water, leaning over his broom and grabbing ahold of one of the smaller and most assuredly deceased crab monsters. The rest of his team quickly followed his example, rushing to help him.

"Let's go!" Oliver yelled at his team, rivalry clearly burning in his eyes. "No way is Gryffindor letting Slytherins outdo us in anything!" Harry (and most of the team) rolled his eyes before following his captain.

Flying down towards the water surface, Harry and Ron both momentarily came together. After a short moment of sorting out which ends to grab, the two friends drifted apart as a large metallic netting dipped into the water below. As they were scraping the metal net along the bottom of the beach, Harry couldn't help looking around worryingly towards the advancing giant crabs. Thankfully, none of them were close enough to be an immediate threat. Thanks to his surveying, he saw that the giant crabs seemed to be heading over towards and cannibalizing most of the larger members of the already deceased crustaceans.

"Dammit, they're going for all the big ones!" Ron grumbled irritably.

"Let's just focus on what we can get," Harry advised as they started drifting upwards, pulling the net out of the water.

"Yeah, I guess we've already got a good haul anyway," Ron said, looking down into the surprisingly full net they were carrying. "We've even gotten a few fish! Didn't have any of those yesterday. I call dibs!"

Harry just chuckled at his friend as they started angling towards the cliff and the train.

Panicked shouting and twin splashes of water drew Harry's attention as he and Ron crested the cliff to deposit their bounty. Looking over towards where the shouts were once again coming from, Harry felt his stomach drop as he saw a familiar pair of redheads splashing about frantically in the waters. What made this worse was the fact that there was a giant crab monster that was scarily close to them.

"What are those idiots doing?!" Ron shouted after he saw what happened to his brothers.

"Let's go!" Harry cried out, already shooting towards the twins.

Naturally, he wasn't alone in these actions. The rest of the Gryffindor team had likewise been attracted to their teammates' distress and were all converging upon them. Thanks to him being upon a Nimbus and its greater speed, Harry arrived first. Leaning over his broom, he reached out his arm to grab ahold on one of their flailing hands. Once doing so, he started pulling up and dragging the teenager out of the water. A feat made all the harder due to the fact that the boy hadn't released his grip on the net he'd been holding.

"Fred! George! Whoever you are! Let it go!" Harry barked through his clenched teeth, straining to hold onto his friend.

"No! It's a big one!" the twin yelled. He looked remarkably like one of Ron's petulant 'bacon defense' faces in that moment.

"I know! Which is why you need to drop it!" Harry yelled. "I can't carry you and the food! Besides, you got a monster on your heels!"

"Aaaah! Bugger all!" the redhead yelled as he glanced down towards his feet. Much to his discontent, he saw that Harry was right. The giant monster crab was literally scraping at his heels. The big black eyes upon its stalks were staring unerringly both himself and the large net that he and his twin (who was being hoisted up on Alicia) was desperately clinging to.

"What the hell happened?!" Alicia demanded loudly, also straining.

"We don't know!" the other twin shouted.

"Our brooms failed!"

"Forget the brooms! Drop the net!" Harry shouted, putting as much emphasis on his command as possible.

The reluctance was great in both twins to do so. But it was a decision made all the easier when they saw the crab's massive claw reaching out of the water at a disturbing height and grasping the net. With yelps of surprise and shock, both boys released it, and Harry and Alicia flew back towards the cliff.

As they were flying away, Harry suddenly began hearing more panicking shouts and splashes of water. Dropping off the twins, he quickly scanned the area to see the situation. The younger students and the non-flyers were all gathered along the cliff edge, shouting and screaming towards the food collectors. But that was where the crises were happening. Even as he watched, he saw at least three other flyers suddenly drop. Thanks to the position of one, he could see that the bristles on the broom had caught fire before the broom suddenly took a nosedive into the water. Another flyer had been in highspeed motion towards one of the flyers who'd already fallen in. The flyer's broom also caught fire which in turn caused him to go skipping awkwardly across the water's surface for a few paces. Ominously, Harry saw that that particular flyer didn't resurface after his submergence. In fact, he felt his stomach constrict tightly when he spotted a large bloom of red liquid staining the area around where the flyer vanished.

"RON!" Hermione's voice cut through his dazed state of shock like a knife through butter. His eyes immediately jumped from flailing swimmer to flailing swimmer before he spotted where his best friend was reemerging from the water. To his distress, Ron was close enough to be in danger from one of the larger still-living crabs. A crab that was already starting to turn in his direction! Harry shot forward like a bullet. But he didn't even cross half the distance when someone else beat him there. The sheer surprise of who was rescuing Ron actually brought him to a stop a split second later.

"MALFOY?!"

"You want someone else to save you, Weasley?"

"I'm not complaining!" Ron cried out. "Just surprised!"

"Move it!" Harry shouted as he reluctantly turned his attention to helping someone else.

Things became a bit of a blur for Harry after that. He focused on pulling as many people who'd fallen out of the water as quickly as he could. An act that soon transitioned into him helping pull the last few nets of food out as well. The entire process only lasted a few minutes, but it seemed to stretch on for an eternity to Harry. He only really started to come out of that fugue towards the end. He was breathing hard and soaked to the bone. He wasn't even sure just how much of that was sweat or seawater. Someone had also draped a blanket or some covering over his shoulders. He might've felt a touch too warm wearing it whilst under the hot sun, but he never felt so grateful for the comfort it offered.

"Alright!" Percy's voice called out as loudly as he could. "All flyers sound in! We need to know who we lost!"

Looking around himself, Harry found that he was standing upon the roof of the Express. Around him stood most of the Gryffindor team and his other Housemates who'd brought their own brooms. Off to either side of their chosen car, he could see most of the other flyers had likewise chosen to land atop the train. He could see that there were noticeably fewer among them than there should've been. Harry tried his best to not remember the crunching sounds and desperate screams being cut off by gurgling noises.

As he was looking around, he saw that there was someone of note missing from the Gryffindor contingent.

"Where's Oliver?" he asked, a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"He was right behind me," Angelina said, looking around as she too realized their captain was missing. "We were pulling a net out just a few moments ago!"

Harry cast his gaze around himself, from face to face, in search of his annoying but enthusiastic captain. But no matter where he looked, Oliver was not to be seen.

"Oliver?!" Katie Bell shouted. She and the rest of the team were now looking around frantically. That sinking feeling was growing rapidly now between them.

"H-Harry?" Colin Creevey's voice called out meekly from under the edge of the train. Moving over to the edge, Harry and most of the team looked down upon the small boy who was looking up at them with red, puffy eyes that were clearly tear-stained. In his hands was an all-too-familiar broom, the bristles burnt, and the shaft broken. No words needed to be said. They all knew what had happened.

"And, finally, we lost Maxine O'Flaherty of Hufflepuff," Hermione said in a dull voice as she methodically crossed off the last name from the long list that she'd compiled. The list she was holding had the sum total of all of the students' names who'd been aboard the Hogwarts Express. There was a disheartening number of names that had been crossed off, representing those who'd died.

"How many have we lost overall now?" Percy asked in a heavy voice.

"Let's see," Hermione hummed. "80 from the crash, 15 from injuries afterwards, 2 among the scouting team, and now 23 from this morning's debacle," Hermione listed off. After running the numbers quickly through her head, she concluded with, "All totalled, we've lost 120 out of 565. We've lost more than a fifth of the students in less than five days."

A heavy silence descended upon the group as they mulled those facts over. The unspoken thought amongst them was how much longer could they manage to survive. The odds were very clearly not in their favor.

"We need to change how we're doing things here," Marcus Flint suddenly said, earning everyone's attention.

"What would you have us do?" Percy asked wearily, knowing full well Marcus's naked ambition. "Do you have any actual suggestion to offer?"

"Yes, actually, I do," Flint growled as he shot Percy a disparaging look. "We need to get things around here properly organized."

"Organized how?" Hermione asked.

"For one thing," Flint responded in a surprisingly civil tone. "We need to find out who's actually useful and for what. For example, you've proven your worth in inventory. No one told you to do that, but you did it anyway and a good job of it." Despite herself, Hermione flushed in embarrassed pride at the rare praise she'd just received. And from a proud Pureblood supremist no less!

"So, you think we need to get a tally on people's more…esoteric skills?" Roger Davies asked. He might've only been the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain, but they and everyone else still saw him as a form of authority among the Ravenclaws.

"Exactly," Flint stated. "Our wands and brooms are failing. We need to know who can do what and get them doing that as soon as possible. If we don't conserve our magic, we'll be no better than muggles."

"And yet we'll have to be living as muggles if what you say is true," Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff pointed out grimly.

"But we'll still have our wands if we need them," Marcus defended.

"Only some of us," Percy pointed out with a knowing look in his eye towards the Slytherin. But then he shook his head and nodded. "You do make a good point though. Hermione, think you can get on that?"

"I can get started on Gryffindor," Hermione said. "But I'm still only one person."

"Don't worry," Roger piped in. "We'll handle our own Houses." Cedric and Marcus both nodded agreeably. "Speaking of which, how many brooms do we still have left?"

"Well," Hermione said, pulling out her inventory notes and hurriedly scanning down it. "This morning we had upwards of 100. Now, the number is closer to 70. And, after some close inspections, I can safely say that at least half of that number are brooms that are already showing signs of burning out. The only common factor I can see between them is that the newer or high-quality brooms, like the Nimbus 2000s, are in markedly better condition. So, hopefully, they'll last longer than the others."

"Yes," Percy said contemplatively. "Let it be known that from now on that flying is going to be strictly monitored. We are not wasting such a precious resource!" Everyone nodded in agreement, even Flint. "But, back to the previous discussion, are there any suggestions for what skills we'll need?"

"Well, to start with," Cedric said. "We'll probably need people who are good in hunting, camping, general wilderness skills, cooking… And who made the shovels? Those things were useful."

"A Muggleborn," Hermione stated. "I believe it was Leonard White."

"Anyone else think of any other important skills?" Percy asked.

"Shelter?" Hermione suggested. "The train is here, but it's not exactly comfortable, safe, or good for morale." She added in a quiet whisper that all of them still managed to hear. "There are still bloodstains everywhere…"

"Well, if there's nothing else, I guess we can meet back up after lunch is cooked," Percy said. "In the meantime, everyone gets started on cataloguing potential skills we'll need and who can do them. This is probably going to take a while, so don't feel rushed."

"Or do feel rushed," Marcus cut in with a wry grin on his face. "After all, it's not like we'll be attacked by more giant monsters in the near future."

"Thank you, Flint," Percy sighed in resignation.

The meeting broke up after that.

(Tellemicus's Note) Huh, I can honestly say that I'm surprised. I hadn't expected my muse to still be so active. Sadly, I have no idea how long the next chapter might take to come out. Heh, I hope it'll stick around for a while longer. It's been a while and I'd somewhat forgotten how much fun it is to write stories...

Wow, did that sound as blasphemous to anyone else as it did to me? I must be getting too involved in Warhammer 40k and the Inquisition's way of thinking. Or maybe the Ecclesiarchy would be more appropriate?

Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as Fiori75 and I did working on it!