Chapter 23: The battle of Hogwarts train continues

Snape walked slowly through the storm. The snow had mounted up on the roof of the carriage and the fire behind him burned brightly. He’d lost Shona in the snow as he headed to the undamaged carriages.

"Get him!" A caped figured shouted loudly, Snape’s hair whipped round his face as the people approached him

One of the men slipped on the covered ice and fell to his death, the other seemed unaware of the ice as well, Snape treaded carefully as the man approached

"Sectumsempra!" he yelled over blizzard, the man couldn’t doge the made spell and was blown over, is blood leaked into the snow. He slowly got up and moaned "curse you!" he yelled. He ran into Snape and ruby tackled him. They slipped and uncontrollably fell, Snape smashed his head and was dazed for a bit, while the other started to slip of the edge. He grabbed Snape’s ankle and Snape realised he was being grabbed to his own death. Snape’s numb hands scrambled for his ankle as the slope got faster. Quickly Snape felt the ice underneath him, thy both screamed as the felt their feet go over the edge. Their bodies smashed against the side of the cabins as Snape tried to hang on. The children cowering inside ran as they saw two bodies dangling for their life.

"Damn you!" the man said as he held onto Snape’s arm. Snape tried to sake him off while trying to keep balance. The man started to kick him and Snape kicked back, he tried to get his wand from under the snow but his numb fingers disallowed the movement.

"Die!" he yelled at Snape as he half hoisted himself up and bit into the snow. He caught part of Snape’s hand and he cried out. His hand fell and he could see the blackness of the lake hundreds of meters below. The man had accidently bit Snape’s left hand and he lost his grip, the man screamed as he fell blow into the wispy blackness. Even if he survived the fall then he wouldn’t survive the ice water. Snape breathed hard as he slammed his bitten hand onto the frozen metal roof. He gingerly pulled himself up and searched for something to grab onto

"Quick!" A girls voice said and Snape looked up. He couldn’t see through the chaotic blizzard so threw on of his hands randomly into the air, he felt another catch it by the wrist as he fell a couple of inches. He claimed his grip as Shona pulled him up.

"That was a bit close" Shona gasped

"We need to go inside" he rasped, they where both shivering

Shona agreed and they went back to the main teachers carriage

"Severus, glad to see your still alive" Dumbledore said seriously as Shona and Snape climbed back through the shattered window.

"We need to plan it through" Snape breathed as Jessica gave him a worried look. The teachers hadn’t moved from there spot, they had stayed at the bar.

"We need a good plan" McGonagall said calmly. The teachers huddled up and left Shona and Snape to themselves

"Get Lucy" he told her. Shona nodded and ran to the train.

"Severus!" Jessica gasped and hugged him. He shivered franticly "your frozen"

"Yes well, the dementors aren’t helping that, they can change weather like that" Snape replied. He didn’t want to scare her about is near death free fall

"Put this on" Jessica said and handed him is new coat. He placed it on quickly and was surprised at the warmth "it’s the coat I bought you. My uncle makes the finest around the village"

"Right here’s the plan" Dumbledore said quickly. Snape finally took his eyes off Jessica and listened to the plan

Kingston bellowed at Lucy as he swiped for her again, Lucy dived as his claws embedded into the wood behind

"Die!" a guard shouted and kicked her

"No! I will kill her!" he said as he dug his already blooded claws into the mans forehead. He let out a painful scream and laid in a heap on the on the floor. Lucy’s wand laid on the floor under a broken table, lonely and forgotten. Kingston was about to attack the girl again until he realised his and wouldn’t come out of the wood.

"HEY THIS ISNT CUSTUMER SERVICES! WILL LUCY SNAPE GET HER SORRY ASS UP TO THE FRONT OF THE TRAIN!" Shona’s voice bellowed throughout the trains microphones. Lucy sped away from the cursing vampire as he sent splinters everywhere

"Ok so Severus will adventure out onto the roof alone, Shona and Severus’s daughter will stay here, it is far to dangerous" Dumbledore said

"Right" Snape said, feeling the back of is head. Wen his withdrew his hand there was blood in the creases of his hand

"I’ll fix that" Madam Pomfrey said, she muttered some words and Snape felt his bruised head recover from its bang

"The rest of us teachers will go see if the other students are ok" Dumbledore said. The teachers nodded as Lucy ran in

"Dad! What’s going on!"

"Lucy, your alive!" Snape sounded relived; he ran over and hugged her

"Aww happy families!" Shona joked as she walked in

"Miss McGuire, welcome back. I did like that comment you made on the speakers, very amusing" Dumbledore chuckled

"Er thank you" Shona muttered before returning to Snape and Lucy’s side

"Good luck Severus" Dumbledore said trough his beard, he teachers strode out and left Jessica, Lucy, Shona and Snape alone. Snape briefly explained the plan and how he was going to scale the roof alone

"Its too dangerous!" Lucy whined

"We do dangerous things every day" he replied

"Yes but I wouldn’t call scaling a frozen train with hidden ice on the roof and everyday thing" Shona told him. Snape gave her a look and she quietened

"I’ll be fine" Snape whispered, stroking Lucy’s hair "don’t you trust me?"

"Yes, but its the end of the world out there! I can hardly see out the windows"

 Snape didn’t reply to the answer. He kissed her on the cheek and made is way to the window. He nodded at Shona and se nodded in return, he smiled at Jessica who was quivering with fright. He made his way out of the broken window and onto the roof above. They could hear dull thuds of his feet making contact with the roof, through the ever-mounting snow and disastrous ice. 

"MISS STONE, WHAT IS THE PLAN?"

"Well, the teachers are going to keep the students under control and stop Kingston. Severus is going to get the people of the roof, then we can call the ministry for backup if we cant get the train running"

"You cant get it running," Shona said "one of the carriages is one fire and a couple are on their side... I’m surprised that nobody’s died"

"A six grader has. Killed for fun by Kingston" Lucy muttered as Jessica went behind the bar. She took out a Russian made vodka and placed the contents into a glass

Lucy ticked the minutes in her head, how long had it been now? ten, fifteen minutes? She ticked the seconds away in her head. The carriage shook every now and then and Lucy shuddered.

"We need to out there" Shona said calmly

"So your going to leave me?" Jessica said sarcastically

"That would be nice, but your going to need to help us" Shona sighed

"Come on" Lucy muttered and they went to the window

It didn’t take long to find Snape, he was on the next carriage fighting a rampageous gang. Footprints dazzled the snow and then scattered into the air. Lucy stomped over to Snape’s side quickly, leaving Shona to jump over the massive gap between the cabins. It was a good jump and she’d beaten Lucy to Snape’s side

"What the hell are you doing here! Go!" Snape yelled as he casted a spell. He swerved to doge a green spell before noticing Lucy

"Stupefy!" Lucy yelled, her hand pulsing. The wizard hadn’t noticed her through the blizzard and was stuck in the leg. He moaned and laid over in pain

"YOU SOULDNT BE HERE!" he roared as the storm got louder. The wind picked up incredibly and Lucy held onto Snape as she saw another wizard flung off into the ice water below. Jessica retreated back to the teachers cabin, fearing her own life.

"Severus! Come back!" She yelled after him, bur they had been engulfed in snow and Jessica was forced into the cabin. Cursing her cowardliness, she headed to the train and looked for the driver, to see if she could get a better look.

The wind whipped round Snape’s ears as he clung onto Lucy. He could feel her beside him but the numbness was killing him, Snape dragged her down into the snow, protecting them from harm. But as suddenly as it had started the snow stopped. Snape looked up to see faint snow flakes falling softly on them, like back at the station. Snape was bewildered at this occurrence as he saw the waves of the dementors coming closer. They where over the lake now and where floating up to them, distress filling the trio up

"What the? What’s going on with the snow?" Shona questioned Snape. He swung round realising he’d totally forgotten about her. A wave of guilt went through him, he’d bothered to care for his daughter and not tried to help another student. It was just as bad as saving a family member instead of trying to help both of the people.

"Dad!" Lucy said fearlessly as the first wave emanated from below

Snape was caught back to reality as he saw the talons reach up and grab the air. Their rotting hands swung in the air as the advanced to them all. The surviving wizards from the gang stood up and laughed

"Smithy boy! Clever!" one muttered as the dementors flowed by them and to the Hogwarts students and teacher. Snape picked up Lucy and pushed her behind him 

"They’re coming" she whispered harshly. Snape held up his hand to stop her and waited

"Snape?" Shona asked confused as the dementors approached

"Dad!" Lucy whined as the creatures came closer "do the patronus charm!"

"Wait" he told her. He watched as they surrounded them, the only exit was the steep drop where the cabins connected, ice paved the ladder and it would be a death trap if they went down there. They inched closer, Snape pulling Shona back from them. The gang watched intensely as Snape let the dementors floated, inches away from them. One was dangerously close to Snape’s face and stared at him. It began to suck his memory’s but Snape reacted quickly

"Expecto patronum!" he yelled into the dementors face, the doe pelted the dementor in the face and ran through the huddle.

"Expecto patronum,!" Lucy yelled, her patronus made a kind of shield to Snape’s left. The incoming wizards stopped and a dementor flew away. Snape smiled as the doe rammed its head into another dementor

"Good thinking!" he told her. Lucy smiled at Snape’s praise as Shona took out her wand 

"Expecto patronum!" Shona yelled as she skidded to face the train, stopping three stopping demenotrs that where going to attack from behind. The light was blinding and the children underneath wondered if they died and gone to heaven. Dementors prayed away and soon there were none left, the lights dimed and the muggers fled.

"Wimp..." Shona tutted at them. She laughed and soon both of them where chuckling for no apparent reason. When they stopped they realised that was only one of there problems

"Oh my god! Look!" Shona pointed to the hills, another wave of dementors where forming and when they looked down to the others cabins to see at least fifteen more prowling wizards

"Damn" Snape muttered

He  prompted the girls to follow him back to the tea cabin

"We need to get back" he moaned as Lucy resisted his hand. Shona leaped over the hole in the carriages, letting Lucy help Snape over

Suddenly there was a screech from in from of them and the train quivered. It was like a massive earthquake like tremor and Snape waved his hands for control. Lucy and Shona grabbed each one of his hands as his back grew dangerously low to the hole. They pulled violently and Snape tumbled forward and into the snow. The train at the front screeched its funnel, its horn sounded like a cat being strangled. It trudged slowly and pulled all the carriages

"It wont be able to take carriage two!" Shona screamed over the screeching of metal. Sparks flew behind them as carriage two was dragged slowly, they felt the carriage trudge before letting out a deafening screech. Metal flew and the train zoomed forward, pushing all the teachers to the ground. They watched in terror as carriage three rolled on its side again

The train rolled out of control and into the distance, pulling only two of the fifteen carriages with it...