Hogwarts Legacy: The Dark Veins In Time

Phantom Train (Part Two)

Y/N POV

I just wanted a peaceful train ride back to Hogwarts firmly attached to Ominis' side the entire way - how in Merlin's bloody Beard did it end up like this!?

"Bastian..." I trembled a bit as I painfully bent down to touch the mask. "Please tell me that is not what I think it is."

Sebastian pulled back on me, sending us several steps away from it. "It undoubtedly is. We need to go before someone catches us here." He began to march us to the luggage car door and I resisted his command to leave. "Y/N.. leave it there. The stewards and faculty will find it later, if not on the journey but definitely when we arrive in Hogsmeade. There will be Ministry Authorities there to deal with it."

"But Bastian, if we try to sort out the trunks maybe we can see whom it belongs to!" I said. "You really aren't yourself at the moment if you're trying to say you don't want to find out who it is for ourselves!"

Sebastian sighed, tossing his head back in frustration. "My arm is throbbing, my head is pounding, and all I can think about is us doin- ugh, never mind what I'm thinking about. You're right - check the open trunks, they've at least initials on them if not full names."

We broke our hands apart as I reached for the nearest trunk, examining every side for some telltale of whom it belongs to. Judging by what remained inside it was a male Hufflepuff. Find nothing on the trunk itself I checked the inner collar of one of their house robes. BAB was carefully stitched along the back neckline.

"BAB - Hufflepuff.." I said to myself as I moved on to the next one that thankfully had the owners initials posted in gold lettering along the outside of it as well as my wand that rolled away beneath it. "This one is LSAP but it's completely empty.. I have no idea what house they're in.."

"This one is a Slytherin, GPS but.. erm.." I looked up at Sebastian as he softly kicked the trunk around and some ladies undergarments fell out. "I haven't come across any female Red-Devil Phantoms - I'm not sure they recruit women into their ranks.."

"A Ravenclaw.. ABL.. ABL... Oh no.. Andrew?" Sebastian shook his head at me as I pushed the trunk aside with a sigh to inspect another one. "A Gryffindor.. EN.. Eric? Wait - LSAP.. Leander.."

"Stop naming off my mates, Y/N!" I frowned at Sebastian snapping at me in frustration. He flipped the last trunk over, spilling out a set of Slytherin uniforms. "Last but not least - MMR.. a Slytherin.. I think this is the seventh year who had to take a leave of absence midway last year due to family issues that required him to return home - Marcel? Marceau? Some French name, I think Ominis knew him to some small extent. He seemed a quiet one.."

"BAB, Hufflepuff. GPS, Slytherin, Grace most likely - probably shouldn't count her completely off the hook. ABL, Ravenclaw. EN, Gryffindor. MMR, Slytherin. LSAP, unknown.." I repeated the sentence over and over in my head. Unknown Hufflepuff, Grace Pinch-Smedley, Andrew Larson, Eric Northcott, some French Slytherin, Leander Prewett... The list of names made my head hurt.

Sebastian was squatted down over the mask itself, staring at it as if it would suddenly sprout teeth and bite him when he wasn't looking. His hand made a grab for it and tiny red sparks shot out at his fingertips. "Bloody hell! They're really enchanted? Isaac said he thought them to be.. " He tried once more and it the mask did not attack him a second time.

"Enchanted how I wonder.." I reached out to it, also feeling it's initial tiny sparks jolt out at me on my first attempt but not the second. I traced the exaggerated features of the mask that was cut off as if it would stop right at the top lip of the wearer's mouth, with a set of fangs over each side of it. If I had to identify the expression it was making, I would guess it was laughing. Sebastian slowly brought it up to his face and a sinking feeling in my stomach made me slap the mask out of his hand before it touched his cheeks. "Bastian, are you mad? You have no idea what would happen if you put that thing on. What if it were to shock you to death or something awful!"