Saturday 31st March
5:55am
Platform 7½, Kings Cross, London



“Do you know how to kill a French vampire?”
“Hmm…”
“You have to drive a baguette through its heart. Sounds easy, but the process is painstaking.”
“Merlin that’s awful. Thank my wand that’s the train.”

It was the end of Auror Pinn’s Friday to Saturday nightshift, and she had been almost home and dry before the report had come in. A train travelling to London’s platform seven and a half from across Europe had sent an emergency message ahead from northern France before negotiating the English Channel. It had been short, but surprisingly used the word ‘please’, albeit in another language.

URGENT: Vampire dangereux. Arrivée 5h55 Platform 7 ½. Assistance s.v.p.

The message had then hurtled to the Ministry, in more colloquial English. The wizarding government in turn ejected the decidedly weary Nadine onto the scene. Nothing about the incident was bearable so far. Not the time, the terrible jokes from the platform porters, and especially not the mention of vampire.

Nadine disliked vampires. They should have their teeth removed, in her opinion, though she was wise not to share such views out loud. Last time[1] she had suggested anything contrary to Penny Pickler’s Perfect Perceptions of these beings, she had ended up on one of Pickler’s courses[2] learning said alliterative list of essentials. The only pleasant part of this particular platform was the lack of pesky Tristan Vaillancourt, the ‘vampire consultant’ who had made a complaint to cause Nadine and Head Auror Pratt to sit the remedial course.

She and Bailey readied themselves as the train pulled in, hissing and clunking along the platform edge. Several windows were down, faces peering out already. None of them looked panicked, just curious to see two red robed aurors with the porters.

Then with a sigh, the train came to a stop, and there was a terrific rattling as the doors sprung open of their own magical accord. Passengers with trunks and bags began to step out in all manner of fashions and states. Many of them were still rubbing sleep out of their eyes from the early start. Nadine scanned the crowd, but everyone just seemed sleepy.

The porter with the terrible jokes whistled out. He was busy unloading a stack of trunks but pointed his arm without a wand to a tall, brunette witch in similar navy blue uniform with red epaulets and hat, alighting the platform. She acknowledged the aurors with a raise of both hands and a visible Oh! as if she’d forgotten to post a letter, rather than just remembered they’d summoned aurors in an urgent message.

“Thank you, thank you fo’ coming. Ih’ was qui’e the ‘larm[3]. But we …” She wave a hand, lost for the word, “…with her.” The witch had a strong French accent to her English. Nadine’s French wasn’t quite up to conversing about vampires either, and she doubted Bailey’s was any better.

“You contained it?” Nadine asked, then tried another way, “caught it?”

“Oh non, non, non,” more hand gestures from the witch on the train. “Flew away! Off le train.” She mimed a bat, interlocking her thumbs, and waving her fingers as wings. “Désolé!”

“Think you’ve got this one Pinn.” Bailey announced, shrugging, pulling seniority to dump her just before shift change. He gave her a double thumbs up and popped neatly out of sight. Nadine didn’t know whether to curse him or the witch before her. Perhaps she ought to instead thank her lucky stars she wouldn’t have to deal with a vampire after all.

“You could have told us sooner,” Nadine scolded, only to make herself feel better, as the witch curled her top lip, sucked air through her teeth and alighted the train again shaking her head, and a job to do. But the next passenger off seemed likely to make Nadine’s morning all the better.

“Hester!” She exclaimed, and threw open her arms to greet her friend.

1.	18th March 2011 Drink Them Dry
2.	28th March 2011 Penelope Pickler’s Positively Pathetic Programme of Platitudes
3.	Apologies for the mangling "Thank you for coming, it was quite the alarm."

"Wha gwan girl?" Greeted Hester. She lit up. Hugged her friend. Grateful. Lovely surprise. They parted. "That's a long journey." Pointed over her shoulder. Happy to be off the train. She was fast asleep until all the cursing and hexing.
"Deep times?" Asked Hester. Why would Nadine be on the platform in her striking uniform if not some trouble. Looked about them. Nadine was alone. Everyone looked normal. But the guard's reaction had caught Hester's attention. A disagreement.
"You looking for a vampire?" Knew Nadine did not like them. Hester was wary of a blood sucker on a train too. Did not like being trapped with one! "People had serious beef with her. Woke me up, peak. You hear about it?"

“Yeh, that’s why I’m here, Hes.” Nadine felt free to explain.

It was clear the vampire was no secret on the train, and had caused enough of a ruckus to wake the likes of Hester up. That particular train guard wasn’t keen on sticking around to explain, just like Nadine’s fellow auror. Still, she would kick herself if this turned up to be significant later. There had been a number of recent cases that had started out with something small and shrugged off like this. If she had to write something up about the call, then at least she could get the detail out of one of her best friends.

“Guard said it left the train before the station. Do you know if that was still in France, or did it get into the country?” Admittedly this was a long shot that Hester knew. It would have been dark and the train hurtled through at a magical pace on a track that defied Muggle physics. Nadine was fuzzy on the magic that allowed the locomotive to cross water. Perhaps Rex would fill her in if she asked. It sounded like something he would have obscure knowledge in, or have a friend in Transport who’d feel inclined to draw a diagram…

“You going home?” Nadine asked, feeling somewhat deflated for the lack of action. “Want to get breakfast? A bite to eat since you escaped one on the neck?”

"Sure Leaky does breakfast this hour. I aint talkin bout vampires round muggles girl." Said Hester laughing. She put her bag on her shoulder. Clapped arms with Nadine. They disappeared in a blink. Above them... unseen on the carriage roof... a bat flapped unsteadily.

Their plates were stuffed full. Hester would need to run ten miles chased by a vampire to stop getting fat.  But it was what Merlin ordered. She had been gone all week. A Cauldron greasy fry up was tonic. Hester alternated between eating and recounting.

"So I slide open the door. Big mistake. They fall clean through it. Almost took me out. I were shook." Hester puffed out her cheeks. "But vampires are strong girl! I never seen one fight. Threw the guy off her like he was a blanket. Out of my compartment. She was right next to me. Closer than you are now. Psycho eyes. Hissing. Teeth and everything." Waved her hand front of her mouth.

“You were up close then?” Nadine asked. Hester was sat opposite her. Making slower progress through the food than Nadine purely because Hester was doing all the talking. The auror had shed her crimson robe as they were sat so close to the fire. It might be the end of March but spring still felt a long way away. “You and the guard both called her female. What did she look like?”

Vampires didn’t change their appearance too easily, apart from through clothes and employing disguises. If this one had been fighting so physically like Hester described, she wouldn’t have easily held a disguise without proper magic. It sounded like it had snuck on hoping for a passage to England without having to pay from what Hester had already described. The train had travelled overnight from across Europe with mostly sleeping passengers. Or maybe the bloodsucker had got on board for some terrible advent calendar of fresh necks to suck. Nadine had rubbed her own neck at the thought.

"For a second." Said Hester. "Long hair right down her back. Dark. Tattoos on her hands. Bit of a nose. Taller than me. Dressed all in dark clothes. Leather. Looked like she shopped somewhere the Capture Unit like." The WCU had a unique taste in fashion. Severe. Chains and leather. Hester saw Muggle kids in London dress like it. Other muggles called them goths. "I did not hear her speak. She escaped out the window as a bat. Some witch forced it out with garlic. That's how she was found someone said. In someone's compartment and they tried to banish it."

Nadine made a note. Sounded like the stereotypical vampire out of a text book, apart from being female and the tattoos. Those were a bit more unique. Something that would be recognisable if she was seen again.

The comparison to the WCU made Nadine chuckle. You could hear Bagnold and his team coming because of the way their silver jangled. He was just missing the eyeliner to complete the look they were both coincidentally visualising.

“… That’s how she was found, someone said. In someone’s compartment and they tried to banish it.”

“So maybe she was just fare dodging,” Nadine reasoned. Plenty of wix tried to do it, and if the vampire was holed up as a bat, it was laying low. “Unless it was just creeping and waiting for the person to go to sleep so they could strike...?” Nadine pondered aloud, a little more relaxed on her questioning because it was Hester and they were eating breakfast. “No claims anyone was bitten though? And do you think they went out this side of the Channel?”

Hester chewed on a grilled tomato. Thought about the question. Shook her head. "I think it was this. I guess they wanted to stay on until they could get out. I am not even sure what happens if you go out the window of a train. Should there not be charms to keep you in? Is it like falling off a broom?" Hester cringed. "Is there mangled vampire bat somewhere?"

Nadine mirrored Hester’s cringe, but wrote down the details all the same. Would it really be such a loss?

“If there is, then they won’t be missed,” she said with confidence, smirking. One less near immortal being on the planet was a good thing. Nadine tucked away her quill and notebook, considering the details adequate, or adequate enough for the time it was in the morning.

“I don’t care what Penny Pickler patronises, or Vaillancourt tries to convince Ceph, they should not have the freedoms they have." Nadine waved a finger back and forth. “Hmph. I’ll write this up as a statement, Hes, ta, but it probably won’t come to anything... But I’d wear a garlic scarf next time you’re travelling on the sleeper train if I were you.”

End