The World Turned Upside Down - Hogwarts Express June 2023

[Irina Rose Krum]

The end of another year at Hogwarts always meant the train ride on the Hogwarts Express home to Kings Cross station for Irina Krum.  Even though her brother had graduated at the end of the year, he chose to take his final ride on the train instead of going home with his siblings, one last hoorah for the eldest Krum Irina supposed.  The year they had had was one for the record books, between James finding the first year on the train coming to Hogwarts, all the way to the kidnappings in April, and the death of Ethan the Ravenclaw.  Irina was still having nightmares of watching Moreta getting dragged off by the kidnappers, screaming for her friend but being unable to do anything about it.  Though Mori had returned safe and sound, not everyone did, and she knew she wasn't alone in the nightmares; more than once had she woken up in her dorm to find one of her roommates beds empty or one of them staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep.

The week before though, Irina had had a rather strange nightmare.  Kings Cross was busy with people heading home early from work to enjoy a sunny summer day. The Hogwarts Express was chugging its way to Platform 9 3/4, as it was at this moment, ready to deliver the students to their parents for the summer holiday. At first, nobody noticed the figures in black that began to filter in and out of the station, heading for the solid brick wall between Platforms 9 and 10. They did not go noticed for long though. The masked figures disappeared as if by magic, and on the other side, pandamonium set in. Rails being torn apart, guards throats being slashed; this was no mere coincidence, it was an attack.

Irina shuddered at the thought of that nightmare, and she leaned her head against the cool windowpane of her compartment and gave a small sigh, prompting a Look from her brother.  She rolled her eyes at him and he left, letting her go back to staring out the window.  The day was lovely, sunny and warm.  Perfect for the beach.  She felt an unsettling feeling settle into her stomach and she rubbed her eyes.  It was June for Merlins' sake, of course the weather was allowed to be nice the day they get back to London.  It was just leftover anxiety from the kidnappings and just simply expecting things to go wrong.  She'd be back in London and off to vacation with her fmily soon enough.

At almost the same time she thought this, the train began to slow down.  Irina lifted her head, squinting up ahead, confused as to why she didn't see any of the tall buildings that had come to symbolize London.  She pulled out her wand and lowered the window with magic; ever since turning seventeen in April, she admittedly used magic for many simple things she might not ought to.  She stuck her head out and looked both ways, noticing others were doing the same.  Pulling her head back in, she left her compartment and made her way down the hallway.  "What's going on?" she asked several of her fellow students, but nobody seemed to know what was causing the Hogwarts Express to stop in the middle of its' journey.

Then, a shout was heard, and someone came running down the corridor yelling "Attack!  Attack at Kings Cross!"  Irina went pale and her ears began to ring.  As the students surrounding her cried out and floundered about in panic, Irina numbly walked back into her compartment and sat down.  An attack on Kings Cross, just like in her nightmare.  Except it wasn't a nightmare, it was coming true.  She heard people shouting news as it came to them; masked figures, rails being torn from their beds (which explained why the train was stopped) and people dying.  Slowly, with a weight as heavy as an anvil, Irina realized that her nightmare was no normal dream.  It had been a vision of the future.  As the full scale of this revelation hit her, Irinas' eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she slumped sideways in her seat, out cold from the weight of it all.  Irina Krum was a Seer, and if this vision was any indication, only worse things would be coming.