Hogwart's Future - Book 2 ✔️

Chapter 37

~Meanwhile~

Seraphina's POV:

I slid the door to the compartment open and dragged my suitcase in from behind me. I glanced up at the shelves above the seats, and back down at my heavy case. Deciding that it wasn't worth the effort and was much easier this way, I waved my cedar wood wand. "Wingardium Leviosa." The suitcase rose off of the ground and slid itself on the shelf. I grinned and sat down underneath it, waiting for Mia to get on the train. She had warned me in advance that she might take longer as she had to go down so many stairs. I waited patiently with my legs crossed and head rested against the window.

I really hadn't wanted to leave. Instead I wanted to stay at Hogwarts and help find Derek and the missing students, I think it was up to twenty now, but uncle Albus had sent me home, being my guardian while at Hogwarts. Saying that my family would be upset if I didn't stay with them for Christmas.

More like he doesn't want me to go missing too.

The detentions went similarly to the first one. I would sit at the desk and talk to uncle Albus, tell him what I was worrying about and why. Kinda like therapy. It really helped.

I started drumming my fingers on the seat beside me just as Mia opened the compartment door again and sat down opposite me. Doing the same with her case as I had done with mine. "Sorry I took a while, the stairs were crowded and one of them moved while I was on it, so I had to take a longer route."

"It's okay. I haven't been waiting that long actually. Only just got here." I assured her.

"Oh, good. I didn't want you to have waited too long."

I smiled at her, Mia and I had talked more over the last couple of days here and had reassured me that the teachers staying behind would find Derek. -Some teachers were on the train with us to tell families and the ministry what had happened. Pushing this to the back of my mind, I removed my favourite book, 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them', from my suitcase. Mia did the same, but removed 'Quidditch Through the Ages' instead. I flicked through the book, searching for my favourite creature, the bowtruckle.

The trainride passed quite quickly and soon the train was pulling into King's Cross Station. I pushed my face against the window, hoping to see my little sister. As we slowed down, I saw the duo of my mother and sister, they were standing with a trolley to put mine and Catherine's bags on. I jumped up and was halfway through saying the levitation charm to removed my bag, when there was a sudden lurch and I was thrown backwards into Mia.

"What's going on?!" She cried.

I rubbed the side of my head that had hit her knee and stood up again. "I don't know.." I peered out the window to see that, instead of the train stopping and letting us get off, the train had started going backwards. "The train's gone mental!"

Mia looked out with me. "Merlin's beard.."

As we were staring out, trying to wrap our heads around what was happening, I heard a faint meow coming from a couple compartments down. I snapped my head around. "Did someone let their Cat out?"

A croak. Another meow. A hiss. A growl. A roar. A howl. A bark.

I ran forwards and unlocked the compartment door. Now in the hall, the noise was much louder and I started to identify different sounds. I felt a hand on my shoulder, "What's happening?" Mia asked from behind me.

I reply, I cautiously walked down the hall a couple paces, until I was at the door to the compartment next to us. And then I looked in... And screamed.

The students inside had gone rabid! They were clawing at each other, ripping apart the seats and tearing up clothes from cases. I quickly backed up as one of them, a fourth year Gryffindor, saw me and slammed herself at the door in an attempt to open it.

I was quickly stopped though, as I bumped into a frozen Mia. I twisted around and tried to push her back into the compartment, but she wouldn't move. She was just standing there, her eyes looking in opposite direction to the compartment I had looked in. And that's when I saw it.

A dimly lit figure was striding down the hallway. I tried to make it out, but all I could see was their small stature and long hair. They had their wand raised, and in the darkness, I saw wisps of smoke emitting from it.

Breaking out of my stunned state, I resumed pushing Mia into our compartment and locked the door. I raked my brain for any protection spells I knew.

Why had I spent so much time on Transfiguration and Charms! I need DADA!

Turning to my only option left, I shook Mia. "Snap out of it! Do you know any protection spells?!" I exclaimed desperatly. "MIA!" In a final attempt, I slapped her.

Immediatly, her hand shot up to touch her now red cheek. "Ow!"

I grabbed her by the shoulders. "Do you know any protection spells?"

Mia nodded and raised her wand. "Protego!" The smoke attempting to slip under the door stopped and started to rise, trying to find a way inside. "I can't hold this for long. It's a pretty hard spell to cast."

I raised my wand in responce and tried to cast the spell. "Protego!" Nothing happened. I glanced at Mia, her hand was starting to shake and the shield had started to shrink around us. I tried again. "Protego!" Still nothing. I swivelled around, looking for any means of escape.

The window!

I pointed my wand at the window instead. "Bombarda!" The glass shattered and I grabbed my broom from the shelves. "Mia! Stop the spell!" At my command, Mia loweres her wand and jumped on the back of my broom, it wobbled under our weight.

The smoke was advancing towards us now, I didn't hesitate. I crouched low, Mia holding on to me, and zoomed out of the broken window. I then turned around and yelled,"Reparo!" At the glass. Soon the window was fully repaired with the smoke trapped inside.

I breathed out.

"What do we do now?" Mia's shaky voice asked.

"We-" The broom suddenly dropped a couple meters. "-We need to get off of this broom." I looked around for a place to land. We were hovering over the middle of a large lake and if I tried to move too far, I knew the broom would give in to our weight. "There's only one place we can land."

Mia groaned from behind me, figuring out what I was getting at. I slowly started the broom forwards, -Towards the roof of the train.