Sol launched a barrage of spells at the red-haired Patricia. Unable to keep up, she was relegated to only defending. The spells bounced off her shield and created a colorful display. The scenery started to blur around them as the train picked up more speed.

“This isn’t going to end well. I have to finish this quickly,” Sol thought with a sense of urgency. As he was about to pick up the pace, something unexpected happened.

He cast Stupefy towards her, and this time - Patricia didn’t chant Protego to protect herself. The spell launched her up and backward, and due to the train’s speed, Sol was quickly moved to where she flew. He saw her hands moving and something glistening. Instinctively, he ducked, and Patricia moved over his head. When he turned around, he saw the space swirling on her body, and she disappeared with a pop!

Sol grimaced, “Disapparated.” Meanwhile, something was slipping off the train. Sol glanced down and shivered. It was a knife! “I really miscalculated this time,” Sol realized he had grown really conceited this time. Underestimating your enemy was a rookie mistake, one someone like him never should’ve made.

Sighing, he carefully scampered inside the train carriage. He needed to get to the engine. So, quickly, he made his way there while taking out the wood splinters he had in the more noticeable areas. Episkey was a great spell to have for this.

Opening the door to the next carriage, Sol bumped into Fred and George, who looked elated and concerned upon seeing him.

“Blimey, Sol, where the bloody hell did you run off to?” Fred asked quickly.

“Did Ginny get back safely?”

George nodded, “Yeah, she and a bunch of her friends.”

“The train’s started to speed up. Do you know something about it, Sol?”

Sol shrugged, “I was on my way to check out the engine when I bumped into you guys.”

“Let’s go together then,” George offered.

“One of you stay with Ginny and the others.”

“Don’t worry, they got Ron and his pals with them,” Fred tried to assure him.

Sol cocked an eyebrow. It was an expression that clearly said, “Really? You trust Ron?”

“Alright, I’ll stay,” George relented and returned to their cabin. The train was still moving quite fast. At this speed, they’d reach Hogwarts in about fifteen minutes. But that was if they could successfully make the last corner before reaching the school and not fly straight off.

As they walked towards the engine, Fred suddenly said, “I reckon you should have more faith in ol’ Ronald. He may be clumsy, but he’ll-”

Sol cut him off, “It’s not that I don’t trust Ron. I know very well that if something were to happen to Ginny, he’d protect her with his life on the line. But that’s the problem for me. He’d have to put his life on the line.”

Fred frowned and went silent. Sol continued, “Unless it’s absolutely necessary, I don’t want the kids from third year and down to have to fight.”

“And when it’s ‘absolutely necessary’?”

“It shouldn’t ever be,” Sol smiled faintly, “Isn’t that the kind of world we aspire to create?”

Fred stopped asking questions. They entered another carriage and kept on walking. Immediately, Sol dug into his satchel and took out a vial full of an unknown potion. They walked past Sol’s cabin, and Fred stopped. He pointed inside and said to Sol, “Oi, you trapped them in here?”

Sol walked back and took a peek inside. Katie looked out the window sulkily, and Cormac was banging on the door and mouthing the words, “Let us out!”

Sol opened the vial and poured its contents through the gap in the sliding door. The door let out a sizzling sound. With an elated expression, Cormac tried to open the door, but it still wouldn’t budge.

As funny as it was seeing Cormac deflate, Fred asked, “What did you do? Wasn’t this supposed to free them?”

“It will, ten minutes later,” Sol said and kept walking. Fred caught up to him and asked, “You have a potion that does something…ten minutes later?”

Sol sighed, “This is the diluted version. The original would’ve freed them right away.”

“I won’t ask why you diluted it. Something tells me you already thought something like this would happen. At least tell me why you locked them up.”

“They’d get badly hurt if they tried to fight the morons who hijacked us. The hijackers might be morons, but they’ve been in fights while we haven’t. I only trust the 6th and 7th-year students to fend them off.”

“What tells you that they’ve been in fights?”

Sol spread his hands helplessly, “Then do you think seven years’ worth of Defense Against Dark Arts classes amounts to nothing?”

“That makes sense….” Fred nodded. As they passed by the cabins, they saw each filled with more than six people. Some were vigilant against threats, others panicked, and others kept their heads down in fear.

Fred felt slightly angry, “Do you know which buggers decided to attack us?”

“Not a clue,” Sol replied with a straight face.

Fred hesitated before asking again, “Do you think it’s You-Know-Who?”

Sol stayed silent. Saying anything might have a negative consequence, but his silence was confirmation for Fred. Cursing inwardly, Fred continued to follow Sol.

They entered the carriage just before the engine and were greeted with a depressing sight. Just like the end carriage, this carriage also had a hole blown in its side. There were 7th-year students constantly casting Reparo to patch it up while others administered first aid to the wounded.

“What in the bloody hell happened here?” Fred exclaimed. Percy, his brother, one of the few people fixing the carriage, turned around and barked, “Fred, quieten down. There’s injured here.”

“Alright,” Sol calmed the two down. “Just tell us what happened here.” Saying so, Sol quickly went around and cast some healing spells on the injured. The healing spells he knew would only keep the grievously injured from the brink of death. And for now, that’s fine.

“Well, they blew up the carriage with some kind of spell and entered and started attacking everyone here. Me and the other prefects and tried to keep them at bay with the 7th years and some 6th years. It’s only after the train started moving again did they disapparate out of there.”

“They?” Fred questioned, “Who’re ‘they’?”

“I… don’t know,” Percy said, somehow looking incensed that there was something he didn’t know. “We only know that some, if not all of them, had a snake and skull tattooed on their forearms.”

“Snake and skull?” Sol and Fred echoed. Percy nodded.

“Which group uses the skull and snake as their symbol?” Sol thought as he patched up some more students and received gratitude from them. “Honestly, only Voldemort’s followers fall in the category. Snakes are very Slytherin-like. But we’ll see….”

He heard one of the 7th-year students say, “Well, at least it’s good that the train’s now speeding off. We’ll be back in Hogwarts in no time, so don’t worry.”

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” Sol said without looking at who it was.

“What are you talking about?” the Ravenclaw student frowned.

“Remember that we have a bend before we get to Hogwarts. We’ll fly off the tracks with this speed when we try to swerve.”

“D-Doesn’t Hogwarts have some sort of enchantment in place for that not to happen?”

Sol got up and moved to the last injured student and cast Episkey. After he was done, he looked at the Ravenclaw student and cocked an eyebrow, “You really want to bet on that?”

The student felt speechless. One of the Slytherin students asked, “Then what do you suppose we do, Smarty-Pants?”

Sol looked at the girl with utter disdain for even saying, ‘Smarty-pants.’ Under his clearly contemptuous gaze, the girl blushed and shrank her head back. Sol exhaled and said, “We simply try to stop the train.”

“And how do we do that, Sol?” Percy asked.

“Why are you asking me like I have an idea? All I know is we got to stop it before we may or may not plunge to our deaths.”

“Then take Fred and go to the engine and see if you can do something.”

“Aye,” Sol nodded and looked at Fred, “Come on.”

“Got it, Captain.” Fred grinned and joked, trying to lighten the mood. But one quick glare from Percy and Sol shut him up.

Opening the door to the engine, they immediately saw the problem. The driver was on the floor, and all the dials on the speedometer were pointing at the maximum. Sol quickly ran forward and placed two fingers on the driver’s neck.

“Dead,” Sol announced grimly.

“What do we do now?” this news certainly didn’t help Fred’s nerves.

Sol searched around the engine. There was no firebox and no coal to put in. So, the train runs on magic. He looked at the dash of the train. There were a lot of gauges and a place with a thrust lever. The lever base had markings indicating the speeds, but the actual lever was missing.

“Fuck me….”