She had thanked Nimue for the ride and went off alone to find a place in the train where she could conveniently park her backpack and parcels. She was planning to ask Mahou to go with her but she could not find the other girl around anymore.

Shinrei walked down the tiny aisle that divided the rows of compartments, scanning for an open, empty one. She was half-hoping to find Jian and make sure he was all right after he had so quickly departed from their group with his bo-staff Portkey. Or perhaps she could find Sarah Taverner and ask her about the dragon kimono. Or maybe her roommates Yvette, Madison and Elia. Where were they?

She had almost reached the edge of the car when a compartment door seemed to slide open by itself, so lazily it was almost a hypnotic sight. Strange, otherworldly light shone from within--it came out streaks, thin and many-coloured, casting on the aisle an ethereal glow.

Instinctively, she dropped everything she was carrying and pulled out her wand from her sleeve. She leapt straight at the threshold of the compartment, very quickly so as to take what was waiting for her by surprise.

"Lumos," she rasped out, the moment her feet had planted themselves firmly by the compartment threshold. The light from her wand conflicted with the strange rainbow light issuing from the compartment.

But this did not faze her one bit. What fazed her was what she saw in the compartment. A human form swathed in black, sitting cross-legged, facing the door.

The strange light was beaming forth from a bewitched shuriken, a razor-edged ninja star. Makura, her owl, was perched on the masked man's shoulder. At the middle of the man's forehead was the Kossawa crest, the familiar ancient silvery characters.

*Gods,* she thought disorientedly.

Before she could make a move, a deep male voice rumbled out: "Shuriken-HA!"

The ninja star seemingly exploded in his grasp and a million tiny darts of blinding light hurtled towards her. She screamed as the force sent her painfully against the opposite compartment wall, bright lights shooting all over her.

She did not realise that the darts were merely illusory. She was too shocked to see the man get to his feet and approach her, going out into the aisle himself.

The masked figure knelt before her. Makura fluttered to her shoulder and nipped at her cheek comfortingly. Shinrei blinked through her shock and dawning humiliation.

"I expected better of you," said the masked man, combined amusement and mockery in his voice. "Shinrei Hikari. Or should I call you Shinrei-sama now?"

*********

Such going on would of course not go unnoticed by the Ministry of Magic. Since the time of The Great War certain precautions had been taken.

With a sound not unlike a very quiet, backwards 'Fizz' three men appear one after each other, no other sound or lights occurred.

The men were all tall. All dressed in exactly the same plain black robes, all holding exactly the same plain black wand and all in exactly the same duelling position.

Their expressions were all the same. That is to say, all completely blank and without any sign on emotion.

"Halt and identify yourself. An unauthorised use of Transportation magic from an unknown source has been track to this location."

The WiB Speaking with a flat, toneless voice stepped forward. "We are authorised by the Ministry of Magic to us whatever means necessary to prevent harm to any occupant of this Train. Cease and desist all Magical activity"

All three wands simultaneously pointed at the Ninja. But no obvious magic was performed.

*********

Back in the compartment where Nimue, Kat and Marvo sat, Marvo continued to eat his fruit.

"I Think Mad Eye has set it up so I can't eat anything that I actually enjoy!" Said Marvo, half-joking, half-annoyed and half grumbling (Hey! It's a magical world! He can have three halves!)

"But at least I can Still...." Before he finished his sentence his eye flashed red and his wand appeared. He leapt to his feet and ran to the carriage door, waving his wand as he did, so it flung itself open before him.

"Trouble. You Girls stay here" Before you could reply he was sprinting down the corridor.

"Stay here?" Nimue shared a look with Kat - this was typical Marvo.

"I don't know about you Kat but...." Nimue got out her own wand and proceeded to follow Marvo.

*******

Shinrei's mind swam with the masked man's mocking declaration. *Shinrei-sama?* What in the name of the gods was he playing at?

Painstakingly, painfully, she braced her shaking hands against the wall and slowly rose to her feet. Every nerve ending in her body seemed shot through with tiny rockets of pain.

Shakily, she faced the three black-clad wizards that stood in the aisle and had their wands pointed at the ninja. "Whatever you do, do not kill him," she said, her voice surprisingly steady. "He wears the garb of my clan and I shall deal with him the way we deal with--"

Before she could finish her sentence, three more ninjas Apparated into rather key spots around her, enclosing Shinrei in a tight dark circle. They were all wearing the same Kossawa ninja clothing.

"Traitors," Shinrei finished with a hiss. She watched angrily as one of them bent to pick up her fallen wand on the floor. That did it. She lashed out, aiming a kick that would break the tight circle of the ninjas around her by taking at least two of them aback.

Midway, she heard the lead ninja say the incantation again: "Shuriken-HA!" But she was ready. She would not be going down alone.

"RE-DUC-TO!" The wandless spell crackled from her fingertips like red lightning. The compartment behind the lead ninja seemingly exploded. The entire car of the train shook violently.

Once more, she was sent hurtling through the air by the illusory for forceful dart-like light energy. But she landed in someone's arms.

"Temper, temper, Shinrei-sama," a voice purred in Japanese, only for her ears.

"Now, gentlemen, you were saying?" it continued it English, obviously addressing the three wizards in identical outfits.

*********

They didn't have far to go, as what was happening was close by. Nimue was shocked to see the presence of three of the Ministry's WiBs - the Wizards in Black. Unhappily they blocked her view bur clearly she heard Shinrei's voice 'RE-DUC-TO' and an obvious exchange of magical energy which shook the carriage.

She could sense that the WiBs had erected some kind of dampening field around the carriage which meant the effect was localised but the idea that one of her classmates was under some kind of attack prompted her to step forward.

Kat agreed with Nimue, and nodding followed her as she headed in the direction that Marvo had taken. She surveyed the view that they both had of what was going on. It looked as though they might not be much help with the WiBs here.

Hearing Shinrei's voice she turned to Nimue and whispered, "That is Shinrei isn't it? What do you suppose is going on? Can you see anything?"

*********

Drake and Nathan chuckled, but then startled as they heard an explosion. "What was that?" Nathan hissed, standing up.

"I d-don't know... let's have a l-look!" Drake replied and hurried towards the door.

"Are you coming, Niki?" Nathan asked hastily, already halfway to the door.

Niki was already on her feet. Curiosity. It was hardly a fault, really. Well, all right, it was. But she was curious, and she wanted to find out what was going on.

"Of course," she said, following Nathan and Drake out of the compartment.

The three of them rushed through the train, passing other students who stood blocking their way, chattering nervously, and discussing the explosion.

After a while of squeezing through the masses, Nathan bumped into Kat and Nimue who were standing spying at something.

Ouch!" Nathan hissed. "Dammit!"

Kat staggered a little at the force of someone running into her. "Nathan! You really should look where you are going."

He moved leaned towards Nimue. "What's going on?" he asked whispering.

She looked at him for a minute, remembering the Quidditch accident he had caused last year then realised what he had asked. "We're not really sure what is going on," she whispered. All I can see is the back of the WiBs, but I think Shinrei is in there somewhere..."

Niki tried, with extreme levels of unsuccess, to see over Nathan's head. When she gave this up as a lost cause, she squeezed between him and Kat. Was it students, blasting at each other? Or was there something wrong with the train? That would be very inconvenient. Being late, that is. But it might, possibly, be fun.

Nimue was trying to get a peek around the WiB whose body was blocking the corridor. All she could see was that Marvo was speaking to a man who appeared to have hold of Shinrei.

"Yes, I can see her. Someone has hold of her." She said to the others behind her..

********

The WiBs seemed slightly unsure of what to do. Their 'Orders' were to protect the Students, yet this student was asking them not to kill her attackers, and seemed to be taking part in the fray.

But their next action was clear. Subdue the enemy by whatever means necessary. Their wands were ready, aimed and....

"HOLD!" The voice was firm. Marvo came to a halt just beside the WiBs

"Marvo D Ward. Agent K61092 Auror. Desist action. Set up perimeter -standard no aggressive protection"

Without a word the WiBs moved as one. Stepping apart and then standing at either side of the carriage, blocking the way to any who try to pass.

A Hufflepuff who was watching made an 'eek' sound and ran as a WiB glared at him.

Marvo surveyed the scene. "Konnichiwa Shinrei-San. Please tell your 'friend' that I have the

Authority of the Ministry of Magic and if he does not desist I shall take whatever action is necessary"

He glared at the man with Shinrei and then turned to the Ninjas, he bowed slightly to them. His training had prepared him for this, and as he had been aware of Shinrei's 'Past' he had been doing some 'extra' study in the ways of her people. Honour was important. If these people were true to their 'class' they would not attack him without provocation. But he also knew he was no match for all of them, the best he could do was protect Shinrei and the others until more help arrived.

He turned back to the man.

"You will speak to me or Leave Sir. You are in MY land, and this girl is under my protection"

Marvo stood his ground, his face firm and resolved. But inside... he was scared.

********

Nathan ignored Kat's complaint.

Drake tried to peek inside, but saw only WiBs. "What's Ward d-d-doing in there?" he asked quietly at hearing Marvo's speech. "Thee Magnificent?"

Nathan raised an eyebrow and tried to look in as well. "What was the explosion?" he asked the girls, then remembered Niki.

"Nothing to be seen," he whispered, "just WiBs."

"Do you know Shinrei?" he asked Nimue and Kat. "Any idea why she might be in trouble?"

"I don't know her that well Nathan." replied Nimue, "She is in our dorm but keeps herself to herself. I know that she is under Dumbledore's protection and that she arrived at Hogwarts in mysterious circumstances. I believe she is the heir to her master's position in a Japanese Magical Order - so this may be a kidnapping attempt by his enemies - I just don't know."

She looked concerned at Drake's remark, "Whatever you may think of Malcolm he is authorised by the Ministry to deal with these situations."

She turned her attention back to the trying to see or hear what was going on moving slightly so the others could see better. The WiB blocking her looked stern but did not protest.

Niki waited a few moments, until she was sure the stern-faced WiBs weren't looking her way, and risked sticking out her tongue at them. She was, of course, intensely curious about what was going on, but curiosity could wait a few minutes. Anyway, Marvo was there.

*********

"Saito, tell your minion to give me back my wand." Shinrei's voice came out imperiously, fearlessly, as she wrestled herself free from the grip of the lead ninja.

Saito Tamenaga was Kanjou's herald and right-hand man; her Master's most trusted confidante. His movements and his arrogant purr were unmistakable.

Saito did not hold her back and motioned for his men not to engage in a fight. "As you wish, Shinrei-sama." He took her wand from one of the ninjas and gave it back to her.

Shinrei snatched the wand back and, despite all the pain in her body, turned to face Saito, wand pointed at him. "This shall not be easily forgiven."

She turned to face Marvo and the Wizards in Black; wand still pointed at Saito. "This man--" she waved her wand at Saito--"is Kanjou Hashimoto's herald."

"Now, Saito, unmask and tell them why you are here and why you attempted to hurt me the way you did. Go on."

With a flourish and a bow, Saito reached up and removed his mask. The three ninjas followed suit. Shinrei gasped. The three were first-level trainees, no older than she was. This group was apparently not the kind that was sent into rough fights.

Saito's chiselled, scarred face had a grin, which he directed to Marvo Ward. "You say this girl is under your protection, gaijin? Oh, you are making me laugh indeed."

"Gaijin," Saito continued, dropping his mocking grin and glaring at the WiBs and Marvo, "we come here to deliver a message from the newly elected High Lord of the Order of Izanagi, Kanjou Hashimoto. The old High Lord Yoshihisa Hama perished from age yesterday and the Kossawa elders have deemed it fit to inform Shinrei Hikari of her new role in our country."

"We, of course, were merely testing Shinrei-sama's spirit. To ascertain if she is still fit for her new function. It would be obvious that she still very much is." Saito gestured to the compartment that Shinrei had decimated into cinders with her Reductor Spell.

Shinrei stared, dumbfounded, oblivious to the crowd that was gathered nearby, only blocked by the WiBs. "I do not understand a word that you say," she blurted out. "This place is not appropriate for you, Saito. You have put many lives in danger by your posturing."

Shinrei turned to face Marvo. "Ward-san, if they need to answer to the laws of this land, I shall not oppose."

*********

"I saw David earlier in Diagon Alley with his friend Jake and I would expect that he and Jake are still together somewhere on the train. Shall I come and look for him with you?" Sarah had said to Ruth.

Nathaniel was gazing out of the window when the mostly-black kitten caught his attention by dabbing at his hand with a paw. Earlier the kitten and the boy had spent some intensive training time together, with the end result that the boy started to pay attention when the kitten wanted something without the kitten having to resort to claws.

Nathaniel was vaguely aware that the lesson should have actually been something along the lines of the kitten learning not to claw him, but the end result had been more or less what was wanted, so he didn't object that badly.

"What now...?" he asked the kitten, who lay down on the seat on its belly and put its paws over its ears.

Nathaniel looked at Ruth who was still standing up, and acting on instinct, stood up to move between her and the doorframe. When the explosion rocked the compartment a moment later, Ruth was flung into Nathaniel, not the hard doorframe.

"Ooooof..." Nathaniel gasped as the young girl knocked all the wind out of him, but as he'd braced himself against the frame, he hadn't been that badly hurt.

The train ground to a halt. "Do you get bombs on magical trains as well as muggle trains?" he asked Sarah urgently, catching his breath and steadying Ruth.

People started running up and down the corridor.

Ruth turned quite pink at falling into Nathaniel, but she shook her head vehemently. "It wouldn't be a Muggle bomb, that's for certain. But there are plenty of magical ways to attack... Still, I don't think it would happen to the *Hogwarts Express*! Nearly all the wizarding children in England are here." She paused. "Well, maybe that's the point," she added.

"What better way to wipe out the next few generations of wizards, apart from to blow up the school..." Nathaniel smiled a grim smile. "Are there wizards that would like that to happen? Maybe these 'dark wizards' that people keep alluding to but not being any more descriptive... . do wizards have terrorist organisations too I wonder...?"

He straightened up and pushed away from the doorframe, acutely aware that he'd had the doorframe rammed right through his spine from the feel of it. Still a bruise was a small price to pay... Ruth might have killed herself if she'd hit her head on it hard enough...

Scooping up the kitten, which was looking suitably smug, Nathaniel tossed it up onto its vantage point on his shoulder.

"Anyone know what's going on?" he stuck his head into the corridor and got back some garbled nonsense about samurai and the 'Wizards in Black'.

"My god," he said bleakly, "We're in the middle of a rerun of Shanghai Noon with guest appearances by Agents Jay and Kay."

"Did they say Wizards in Black?" Ruth wondered aloud. "Oh, dear, that's not good at all. I don't suppose that Dark wizards would want to attack the train...after all, they have children who go to Hogwarts, too."

She peeked out the doorway and breathed a sigh of relief. "David!" she called, and a tall, skinny boy with a mop of wild white-blond hair hurried over.

"Ruthie!" he said in relief. "You're all right?"

As he took in the other occupants of the compartment, nodding to Sarah and looking at Raphael and Nathaniel with interest, Ruth nodded. "I'm fine. This is David, Nathaniel, and as you can see, he's not a millipede."

"Indeed he's not." Nathaniel nodded at Ruth, still distracted by the goings on.

"Hullo David, at last I get to meet a man with almost more names than limbs.... hold on, Ruth.... dark wizards have children at Hogwarts.... but what the hell is a dark wizard then?"

The mostly-black kitten on Nathaniel's shoulder waved a lazy paw at David.

"A wizard who uses Dark magic," Ruth said, as if this was obvious.

David rolled his eyes. "There...used to be a really evil wizard. People still don't like to say his name. He and his followers killed and tortured a whole lot of people, and they were finally defeated, but there are still evil wizards in the world. They do Dark magic--you've heard of that, in stories and whatnot?--and so they're Dark wizards."

Ruth looked very forlorn at the moment, and David squeezed her hand. "But I don't think that's it. They wouldn't send WiBs after Dark wizards, Ruthie. It's okay."

"And so the manner to defeat these dark wizards is to let their kids go to school with the rest of us?" Nathaniel asked, obviously horrified and confused in equal parts by now.

He strode back to the window, to the door again, and then back to the window like a tiger paces its cage.

"Ah hell with it.. Who said this wizarding world had to make any more sense than the last muggle one." he heaved a sigh and glared at the busy corridor. "What's happening, any ideas?"

"A giant vat of marmalade in one of the student's trunks exploded, and had a rather unfortunate reaction with their admittedly elderly socks," David hazarded.

Ruth stamped hard on his foot. "DON'T tease," she said firmly.

"Well, don't ruin my feet! Honestly, I haven't any idea.. Ruthie, I'm going to find Jacob. Can't leave him alone now, all right? Do you want to stay here?"

Ruth looked around. "Well," she said shyly, "if it's all right with them..."

"Plenty of room." Nathaniel said brightly. "We'll just throw my trunk out if we run out... You have a perch next to Breana, Ruth, can't have you getting knocked down in the corridor." he steered the younger girl to a seat and nodded at David as if to say that she'd be okay with them.

"Can you get sparks out of your wand?" he asked Ruth in an attempt to distract her.

"Not very well," she said in a disappointed sort of way as David hurried out the door and began to move against the stream of the crowd, rather like a salmon, although he would, presumably, not be spawning at the end of his journey. "And I haven't had very many opportunities to practice because magic upsets my Gran. It's a bit weird, really, since Grandad is a wandmaker."

"Oh.." Nathaniel said brightly, producing his own wand and sitting down next to her. "I wouldn't worry too much, you can already do better than me. Show me your patent pending wrist flick, and show me how its done..."

He cast a quick glance at the others in the compartment before devoting almost fifty percent of his concentration to Ruth. Best to keep her occupied, if she was likely to get worried and start panicking.

Ruth grinned and produced her wand from her pocket. It looked chipped and battered, but had been recently cleaned and polished. She waved it a moment, then paused, disappointed, when nothing happened. She gave it another try, and this time was rewarded with a few golden sparks that floated up into the air and vanished.

"It's not too hard," she said dubiously.

******

Luis had managed to find an empty compartment in the train and was glad that no one had joined him there. Actually, there were those who asked if there was still room but a well-executed Snape-like snarl of "What's it to you?" was enough to make all of them high-tail it to other compartment options.

He had just taken out his sketchpad when a sudden explosion made him drop everything he was holding.

His first thought was that /they/ had finally found out where he was. And they had gone after him, right here at the Hogwarts Express where there were so many other lives that could be jeopardised.

Luis left the compartment; hand securely gripping the wand nestled within his leather jacket. If ever it was really /them/, he would not be an easy target to contend with.

Students jostled him and he was thrown backwards by a group of younger students excitedly running towards the farthest end of the car. "There was an explosion caused by a student," a Hufflepuff gasped out when Luis halted him long enough to ask what was going on. "I'm not sure but they're saying it was by a Gryffindor weirdo. Some girl."

Luis let the Hufflepuff go and wove his way through the crowd. He located Nimue Hawkwood close by the car's far end. He could not see any further, as some strange-looking men in black were blocking the view.

"Miss Hawkwood" he said, tapping her on the shoulder, "what's all the excitement about? What have I missed?"

There were, at the moment, very few things Niki would not have given to switch heights with Luis. Or Nathan. Or the wall, for instance. Her view consisted of the lower back of one of the WiBs, singularly disinteresting--particularly because whatever sort of strange fabric it was didn't reflect light.

"There was some kind of explosion, and the Wizards in Black are here, and now Marvo Ward is in there," she said, then went back to trying to stand on her tiptoes and catch a glimpse of the proceedings.

Nimue turned to address Luis' question. "It seems something has occurred involving Shinrei Hikari. She was with me this morning in the Alley before we met. I think it is all right - she caused the explosion through a rather vigorous response to some sort of ritual attack that was some sort of testing. The man with her is the herald of her Master Kanjou Hashimoto."

She could hear Marvo and the other man exchanging more words and turned back to listen