Love In Translation

Chapter 10. ATTACK ON THE TRAIN

A few hours later, we found ourselves together in the same compartment on a train heading to Rome. Angy and I were sitting close to one another; Marco had taken the seat in front of us, and Crookshanks was purring in my arms.

Suddenly, my attention was drawn to the nearby empty seat, where there was an English newspaper; I found the headline on the front page very interesting. Exceptional Solar Eclipse Due March 3: It's going to be a really unique experience, after 300 years!

I thought. There are only a few days left until the solar eclipse.

I turned to Angy, who was sleeping by the window; then I faced Marco, who was busy staring at her with great intensity. Maybe Angy's deep aversion for the boy had aroused in him a sort of interest in her.

I still couldn't understand Angy's stubborn antipathy toward Marco. After all, he wasn't that bad. He was almost as old as us, and he was handsome, tall, and tanned, with black eyes and curly brown hair.

Crookshanks was staring deeply at him, and then suddenly he jumped onto Marco's knees and curled up, purring. I was really surprised by his behavior; he had never shown such confidence around other people. He didn't even want Angy to come close to him.

"Your cat is really cute. What's his name?" Marco asked, caressing him gently on the head.

"His name is Crookshanks, but he isn't completely a cat. He's half-Kneazle," I replied, smiling.

"What did you say? I've never heard of such a thing!"

"A Kneazle is a magical creature that's really smart and with a particular talent for recognizing wizards with bad intentions." I explained to him.

"Oh. I understand. But tell me, are there whole cities full of people like you?" Marco asked, curious.

"Of course! And we also have a district in London with several magical shops. Then we have a special bank where we keep our magical money. There are also post offices, where letters are delivered by owls, and then..."

"All right, all right. It's all clear, Hermione. I think I'm getting a headache now." Marco cut me off, and I stared at him, amused. "Those things you're talking about are so...odd to me! How can I explain? In the real world, you always hear about magic, wizards, and so on, and you don't think that any of it exists for real, but then, when you are actually living all this, well, it seems completely mad. It's like a dream!"

"I can understand, you know? My parents are muggles, and I discovered that I was a witch when I got a letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry shortly before my eleventh birthday. In the beginning, I couldn't believe it, but then I realized that magic has always been inside of me and that I don't really belong to the muggle world but to the magical world."

"And this boy, Harry, have you been friends for a long time?" he suddenly asked.

"We've been friends forever, it seems like! We started at Hogwarts together, and we have had so many adventures, so many that I could write thousands of books," I replied.

"I'd like to tell you about an odd dream I had just before waking up in your hotel room in Venice," Marco said with a slightly malicious tone.

"What was it about?" I asked, without fully realizing yet what the subject could be.

"I heard a voice that was talking about love to me." Marco stared into my eyes, and I suddenly understood what he was talking about. I turned to Angy, fearing that she was going to hear of the confession I had made to Marco, thinking he was Harry. Luckily, Angy still seemed to be in a deep sleep.

"Life is strange, you know? You spend a long time with a person, and then this person falls in love with someone else," Marco said, still gazing directly into my eyes. I didn't answer but lowered my gaze and started to nervously play with my sweater sleeve.

"Can you tell me why those bad wizards kidnapped him? What has he done to them?" he asked, breaking the awkward silence that had fallen between us.

"Well, it's a long story, and I won't tell you everything now. All you need to know is that Harry is a very powerful wizard, the only one able to finally defeat the dark side and its leader, Lord Voldemort. For this reason, his life is in real danger now."

"Hermione! How dare you say the name of the Dark Lord?"

I jumped off my seat, my heart racing. Angy had woken up and was listening to our conversation.

"Are you mad, shouting at me in such a hysterical way? Why shouldn't I say his name? We can't always fear him like that! Harry will defeat him someday, and then everybody will know that after all, that monster wasn't really invincible!" I protested.

"All right, but until that day comes, don't you dare say again his name in my presence!" Angy shouted. She stood up and left the compartment in a fury.

"But why is she behaving so foolishly?" Marco asked, surprised.

"I wish I knew. Sometimes, it seems as if Angy is hiding something really serious from me," I said under my breath, without realizing that Marco had overheard.

"What do you think she's hiding from you?" he asked.

"Nothing!" I replied sharply. Then I stood up and went after Angy.

I exited the compartment and was heading to the back of the train when I heard people shouting in a nearby carriage. I cautiously moved closer to the glass door to have a look. Horrified, my eyes widened in surprise at the sight of two tall, hooded figures who were inspecting each compartment, causing great confusion among the passengers on the train.

I shuddered, deeply shocked, and I slowly and quietly crept back to my compartment.

I went in and immediately closed the door behind me, and then I closed the curtains and turned to Marco, completely terrified.

"What happened to you? It looks like you just saw a ghost!" Marco said, smiling.

"They're here. The Death Eaters are on the train. They're looking for us." My brain was frantically working on a solution as I spoke.

"The bad wizards? They've found us? What are we going to do now?" Marco stood up, worried, letting Crookshanks fall to the floor.

This time, we could take no chances: Those Death Eaters were going to find us soon and kill us. But where was Angy?

I heard people shouting in the nearby compartment, and I realized that they were coming closer.

Come on, Hermione...think quickly...think...think... I was repeating to myself in my head, when suddenly, the conductor's voice came over the loudspeakers on the train.

"Florence...Next stop, Florence..."

"We'll get off in Florence!" I said abruptly to Marco.

"But they're going to find us anyway. How can we..."

"Come here!" I cut him off and grabbed his arm, and then I took out my wand and tapped him lightly on the head. "Disilludo!" I whispered, and Marco disappeared from sight, taking on the exact colour of the seats behind him.

"Cool!" he said, and I put the Disillusionment charm on myself. We were just in time because the door opened, and the two hooded Death Eaters entered.

"This compartment is empty!" one of them said.

"Let's go to the next compartment, and if we don't find them, we'll start the inspection again over the whole train. We have to find them!" the other one said, and they both went out into the corridor again.

I sighed in relief, realizing that I had been holding my breath the whole time.

"Marco, you must be ready. We'll take our luggage with us, and as soon as the train stops, we'll get off."

"I'm ready! But where's Angy?" Marco asked, worried.

"We'll look for her along the train," I answered, and then we quickly gathered all our belongings. I put Crookshanks in his basket and stuck my head out the door to check if the coast was clear.

The Death Eaters had reached the next compartment, and the train was already stopping at the Florence station.

We rushed out of the compartment and headed to the back of the train. We had just reached the door, which a few passengers had already opened, when we saw Angy coming toward us.

"Angy! It's Hermione! We must get off the train now. Death Eaters are here," I told her and grabbed her arm.

"Come this way! We've found them!"

Horrified, I realized that the two Death Eaters had just intercepted us. Panic overtook me, and I suddenly pushed Angy out of the train.

It was difficult running across the crowded platforms and pushing through all the people. The Death Eaters were after us, and our only hope was to disguise ourselves in the crowd. Naturally, I knew that they were following Angy since Marco and I were invisible to them.

"Immobilus!"

"Stupeficium!" our enemies shouted, casting tons of red and blue rays of light.

Then something horrible happened. I had just realized that a train was coming at high speed along the platform where we were running. Terrified, I saw that one of the spells had caught Angy right between her legs, making her lose her balance.

"Angy! Watch out!" I shouted desperately, but it was too late.

Everything happened in a fraction of a second: Angy was falling right in the middle of the rails. In that moment, I saw a horrified look in her eyes that I'll never forget.

4

Page: 1
Au: "Next March 3" implies next year.

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Um, I'm not sure if there are any solar eclipses that are 300 years apart? But I don't know astronomy. This doesn't sound much like a newspaper subhead. I'm not sure what else to suggest, though.

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Why is this curious? I assume it might relate to what the Death Eaters are going to do? Maybe she could think that? (If that's the case.)

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"Race" is only used to refer to people, not animals.

Page: 4
Are they still carrying their suitcases and the cat while they're running? Would the suitcases be affected by the spell on them?

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OK?