The Hogwarts Express

Niov let out an amused snarl as the girls again casted the silly silvery apparitions, this time being joined by the weaker guardians of younger children. Another older girl joined the fight, casting a silver jackal her way. The silly thing began to circle her and though Niov felt little weakening she could see the morale of the gathered students rising.

She smirked and began to speak in an ancient, exotic tongue that sounded harsh and evil, sure to send fear into the hearts of the children. Suddenly the patronuses came to a grudging halt. They slowly turned and began to approach their owners, snarling and prowling forward. Patronuses were not offensive beings, but they could look that way.

The younger children let out shrieks and withdrew back into their compartments, their patronuses dissolving. Niov felt her mouth twist into a frightening smile and said in her raspy voice, "Whoopsie."

Aaron swore as he felt a gust of wind rush through the carriage, strong enough to send several bits of broken glass, splintered wood, and all sorts of other rubble flying, including Aaron himself, being knocked off his feet, his wand flying from his hand as he struggled to catch himself, the wand landing far back in the carriage, and Aaron landing on a panel of glass, hearing it crack and splinter off into his hand. Grimacing with the pain he looked as a second demon appeared, and shook his head. It must be a dream he thought to himself.

What followed next can hardly be described, but nails on a chalkboard comes somewhere near it. The demon spoke, almost in a jerky manner, clearly at ease, but still uncomfortable with the language. It asked him why he wanted to live, such an odd... weird question, particularly coming from such an odd Questioner.

With no time to think through his answer, he spurted out the first thing that came to his mind. "I live... to live," he said, the words sounding weird, even in his ears. While he meant what he said, it did need time to explain, time he didn't have. He lived to live, you can be alive, but not live, Aaron lived with the sole purpose to live life to its fullest, to love, to hate, to feel pain and to be numb, to experience, was what it really came down to.

Cowering on the ground he took a fleeting glance at the back of the carriage, where his wand lay, and closed his eyes. It was too far, but he had to try anyway. Launching himself to his feet, Aaron dashed towards the back of the carriage, looking for the exact location of his wand.

Malek considered the young male's words as he watched the human scrambling for the little wooden stick that he put so much reliance upon. Malek had never needed such aids. Humans. They were quite interesting to Malek. This young one had an intense drive to survive, and that seemed altogether pointless.

Malek did not comprehend why mortals struggled so hard against death. It was a notion that eluded him because of his own immortality. He had watched other life forms die and had seen how they had struggled and fought for all they had to hang onto that lifespark, to keep it from leaving their corporeal forms. And for humans, their lives were so incredibly short in comparison to all of eternity that he just did not understand why it mattered so much. He had heard that some humans beleived they lived their lives over and over again as different life forms. Well, that was something he had not experienced himself. Nor did he have any first hand knowledge of what it was like to have one's spirit bound within a corporeal form of any kind. It seemed that it might be most unpleasant. Malek rather liked being able to be as large or small as he liked and freeform, coming and going at will, and materializing in through any space he wanted.

He looked at the young female that he had mounted like a trophy on the wall. Well, she was quieter now. And as he observed her, he saw that she was coming to terms with what she was dealing with. She was smart. That was a refreshing thing. He was considering trying to find a way to keep her. He had never had a pet before. He knew humans had them. Perhaps it was time he should have one too. She would be amusing. The other female, maybe not. She seemed to require...hm..something. Malek knew it was not sustenance. She did not require food, and that was about all he was prepared to provide her if he were to keep her alive. At least if he kept the one he'd stuck to the wall, she could occupy his time with her chatter.

"Get your wand, Human," Malek said to the frazzled male, he himself a bit lazy. He had hoped it would not come to a challenge, but, well, he would give him a sporting chance before he finished him off.

Aaron heard the voice and shuddered again, turning and looking at the demon for a second more, before resuming the search for his wand. Scrabbling about he flinched and swore as he got splinters of both glass and wood from the ground, the broken state of the carriage was proving to be incredibly troublesome.

He saw his wand and snatched it up, pivoting on his foot and shooting a spell at the demon, another fireball, in his desperation, and thoughtlessness, he'd already tried one, and it failed, as did this one, missing in his rush anyway.

Thinking desperately, several things suddenly came to him.
1) They were screwed, for lack of a better term.
2) He, and everyone else on this train stood no chance
Having realised this, what had to follow became very clear. "Expecto Patronum!" He shouted, watching as a silver eagle came forth from his wand, flying off into the distance, travelling at incredible speeds.

Turning back to the demon he waved his wand. "Tempesta," he shouted, a gust of wind blowing through the carriage at the floating cloud.

The last time it had been here, they had called it Anathema. And anything it touched, had also become Anathema. It was not really a name; this creature had come into existence before names had any meaning. It was a description, a literal expression of how humans interpreted it. The Accursed Thing, Devoted to Evil.

The demons lived, if they lived, in the liminal spaces. Humans called them evil because their multifaceted gaze saw no difference between the arbitrary boundaries humans used to protect themselves against their own instincts. The Anathema knew, perhaps better than any of the others, that the only evil in this world existed within the wizards and witches themselves.

It had taken time and effort, great effort, to break in. It was a world of wonders, now, compared to the last time the Anathema had seen it, when people had lived in their own shit and would happily stand witness against a neighbour lest they be accused of the same crime. It had been easier.

The world, now, it buzzed with information. It was in the very air these people breathed. The Anathema's cohorts thought their enemy was the magic users, but their enemy was the knowledge.

Unlike the others, the Anathema did not endeavour to shock with size or strength. She did not try to attempt to overwhelm the children with her ghoulish facade. She faded in amongst them, just another frightened face among the crowd.

Teenager. A new word for a new space. Not quite child, not quite adult.

Malek saw the look in the young man's eyes harden. It was a look he'd seen in other life forms before death. It was their signature resignation and acceptance to the impending loss of life. The young man had foolishly thrown down not only a challenge but had gone on the attack.

Malek did not hesitate. He knew when to attack and when not to. And he had not been created to have the foolishness of compassion that humans had. He spun himself like a boa constrictor around the young man and infiltrated past the corporal form that bound the young man's spirit.

The space was immensely small inside this young human for one so large as Malek. And once inside the young man, it was simple enough work to terrify him into shrinking his human essence to give Malek more room. However, even with the young man mentally and spiritually in submission to him, it was not enough room for Malek. And Malek's evil was an unrestrained toxin in the biological life form. He sensed the body in massive distress and suffering in every cell. The boundless evil, greed, anger, hopelessness, guilt, pain and torture, conceit, self centeredness, vanity, and every other evil in creation all turned loose in this one biological container shared by two spirits.

Malek began to feed on the life energies of the young man who had already given up. Malek did not like the small space this human lived in. He began to push outward, wanting to be free of being trapped in this primitive form. He felt the young man's lifespark leave his body, and not a second too soon

In one terribly sickening sound, the biological form self destructed. It burst into a million pieces as Malek's massive dark form burst free. He noticed fluids, tissue, bone spraying everywhere in the train car. Hm..lesson learned. Human bodies were just too small. That one simply had not fit and had split at its proverbial seams. Maybe he did not need to repeat that experiment. He doubted if the females would provoke a similar challenge of him.

The way the animals were killed astounded Elijah. He was infinitely glad he was now in his mother form and not parading around as a sack of skin and fur although over the summer he had come quite accustomed to having a tail. It felt incredibly weird not to have one but Elijah was refraining from grappling at his backside in an attempt to find the non-existent tail. No, his concentration was on the Demons as he desperately attempted to find out how they worked. The animals had died swiftly but their minds were weak; how else would an unpractised attempt at Leglimens break through? No, they weren’t strong enough. They didn’t have the resolve and they weren’t like magical animals; they were Muggle ones. But the happiness had worked. It had worked, it was proven and it seemed as if the students were figuring that much out as well. But with the negative energies, they couldn’t possibly conjure enough happiness to drive the demons away.

Elijah fumbled with a piece of material attached to his jeans. It had somehow fallen out of the pocket but was still hanging onto some of the fibres. He turned one of the rings on his fingers round the right way and took the fabric into his hands. A small shred of pale pink, faded ribbon lay in his palms. To someone else it would have just been a bit of tat that needed to be thrown away but to Elijah it meant everything. Next to his blurry, fuzzy memory it was all he had left of Alice. With a sigh, Elijah took untied the woven bracelet that was clutching his wrist in a death grip. He took it away and separated the pieces before slowly beginning to weave the fabric around the leather. He could have picked another time, any other time, to do this but to the Bulgarian it seemed necessary. Once it was braided together, he tied the bracelet back around his wrist and looked out of the crack in the door. Patronus’ were finally being used.

But something was wrong. As he watched he noticed the demons seemed momentarily stunned by the Patronus’ but it wasn’t having an effect on them. It was almost as little as the animals. Then what was the weaknesses? Happiness was a terrific waste of time it seemed and the Patronus’ certainly didn’t work. Dumb animals certainly didn’t work, either. This was getting way too complicated. If these things were popping up in history, which was definitely likely from the way they spoke and acted towards humans, then why had no one studied them? The Wizarding World was prehistoric. If he was a bloody Muggle no doubt the Bulgarian would have had some sort of handheld device to search them on.

Cursing his culture, Elijah’s eyes travelled down the train. He lifted his wand to the crack in the door and muttered a spell one of the women in Bulgaria had taught him. She’d said something about never knowing what her sons were up to behind closed doors when they were little. The spell rendered walls transparent for the caster and it was immensely useful in this instance. This was mindboggling. They were having their fun, the demons but were giving the wizards no leeway. Elijah broke the spell with a sigh but not before his eyes fell on the dining. He was in an awkward position and there were a hell of a lot of demons and children between him and Amelia. That fact instantly frustrated the Slytherin more than the Demon weaknesses. An animalistic growl dropped from his mouth and echoed around the room.

There was a squeak from behind him and the Bulgarian turned. He looked around the room and his eyes fell on a small cluster of cages in the shadows. They looked no different from the rest but he could see tufts of mauve from behind one of the fallen pieces of carved metal. He moved across the room and squatted down in front of the cages, a look of bemusement on his face. He pushed one of the cages away and heard another squeak. But this time he found where it was coming form. It looked like a Pygmy Puff but it most definitely wasn’t. How did he know that you ask? Well, how many Pygmy Puffs wore boots, hats and had spoons for arms? You know, apart from this one. Did Pygmy Puffs even have arms? Reaching out with his hand, Elijah leaned forward but the odd creature darted forward, teeth bared and sunk his pearly whites into Eli’s hand. A badly muffled curse echoed around the room and the Pygmy Puff squealed, darting to the back of the cage as it did so. But it also...changed. Gone were the boots and the hat and the spoons and in its place was a replica of Eli’s hand, rings and disfigured scar all in place. The skin between his thumb and forefinger looked as grim as it did on the real thing and Elijah felt a little bit self-conscious.

His left hand reached out for his right and cradled it in its grasp. Eli looked at the strange creature and nibbled on his lip. “I’m not going to hurt you...” He murmured. The creature squealed and the hand melted down into a mass of mauve fluff with the hat once again returning. Wide eyes appeared on the front and Elijah smiled a little. The creature moved forward and hopped onto the Slytherin’s thigh. Elijah cupped his hands together and held them down to the odd animal. He watched as the creature sniffed his hands before jumping into the palms. Elijah lifted the creature up to his face and studied it silently. “What on earth are you?” He murmured. “You must be some sort of the charmed Pygmy Puff....but that...that isn’t in the textbook.” The creature looked affronted, if at all possible, by the comparison of itself and a Pygmy Puff, eliciting a laugh from Elijah. “Alright...so maybe not,” He amended once he’d sobered. “But you are incredibly...may I say odd?” The creature gave some sort of shrug and the Slytherin grinned. “Right, okay. Well you are odd but I like odd. I think I suit odd as much as you do.”

A mouth spread onto the creature’s face(?) beneath the eyes and it widened into a toothy smile. Elijah returned it. He raised his hands to his shoulder and the mauve ball of fluff jumped onto his shoulder. Elijah rose up to his full height and removed his wand from his pocket. He opened the door fully and out of the corner of his eye, saw the hat on the mauve creature’s head turn into a helmet. Elijah smirked and stepped into the corridor. He pointed his wand at a compartment filled with younglings and locked it although making sure the lock was inside just in case they needed to get out if a demon decided to appear in there. “Well...” He mumbled to the creature. “Off we go.” And so, he entered the throng of demons and students towards Amelia and the bizarre looking Demon that was like ..smoke almost. That would make weaknesses considerably harder to find and Eli wasn't looking forward to it one bit.

(reposting as my post wasn't seen. I'm joining Malek)



There was a bright flash of purple light as Neqa'el appeared next to Malek. Neqa'el appeared this time wearing his hood over his face so it would appear as a black void. He floated slightly he would look like a dementor but instead of the torn robes they wore his were nicely pressed and clean. He gave the smoke form a small bow before he faced the humans. He waited for his presence to be fully comprehended by all in the room he was fully healed from his small encounter with one of the small humans on the train. He could hear fighting throughout the train he knew they were winning though.

((Perhaps they saw it and just didn't respond to it? That's the third time i've seen something incredibly similar to that post, don't copy paste...))

Aaron held his breath as more of the demons arrived, and watched as the cloud disappeared. His heart pounding he realised that he was still holding his breath, and gulped in the air, looking for the one that appeared to have taken an interest in him. He coughed heavily, wretchedly, like having a tickle in his throat. Then it started, a dull throbbing in his mind, he kneaded his forhead for a second, before letting out a cry of pain, then the rest of his body felt funny, he tried moving forward, one leg lifting and travelling forward, before just staying there, as he fell to the ground, tears beginning to well in his eyes something began to dawn to Aaron Gillard, the final thought he ever really had really.

It was a frightening one, not something anyone ever really wanted to think, or realise, and he would've been much better off if he'd just continued, for the seconds that remained, in blissful unawareness. As his systems began to shut down, he felt his heart stop, start, go into overdrive, clammer, then stop for a final time, as the thought left his mind. It's in me, was the thought, and with that. He died.

Not a second to soon, as what followed could only be described as macabre, and with my good intentions, and responsibility as a writer, i'll leave it at "He exploded," it efficiently sums up what happened, and the results were horrific, one carriage, now red and pink, with it all over everyone and thing in the carriage. What was it? Well, it was him.

Malphas laughed his deep, rumbly laugh, letting it echo through the train. He surveyed the sight before him, many of the demons were killing people, with one poor child suffering at Malek's own fun little way of killing.

Hissing something in latin he jerked his head skywards. "Come, leave the little ones, we've had our fun," he shouted, laughing again and unfurling his wings, jumping into the air and rising without any effort. "Children, consider yourselves lucky," he said, still a bit uncomfortable with the language. "We leave you now, but next time, you wont be so lucky," he said, smiling a fiery smile, gesturing for the other demons to come too, and revolving on the spot, disappearing in a fiery flash