My Love ✧ George Weasley

97 - Back to Hogwarts

Adriana

"Good morning," Tonks said as George, Fred, Ginny, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I all entered the kitchen and sat down at the table.

"Morning," I said back as we all gathered up some breakfast for ourselves. "What brings you here?"

"I'm here to escort you guys back to Hogwarts with Remus," Tonks answered.

"Are we going to walk to King's Cross again?"

"You won't be going to King's Cross at all, actually," Tonks said. "We'll be taking the Knight Bus straight to Hogwarts."

"The what now?"

Tonks looked at me with confusion. "You don't know what the Knight Bus is?"

"She's basically a muggle, Tonks," George said. "You'd be surprised at the amount of magical things I've told her about since I first met her."

"...So is someone going to tell me what the Knight Bus is or do I just have to guess?" I asked after a second.

"It's a bus for witches and wizards," George told me.

"Yeah, I sort of figured that out on my own."

"People usually use it for emergency transportation, or underage witches and wizards will use it to get to places," George explained further. "Harry actually used it in the summer before his third year to get to Diagon Alley."

"So, is it like a last resort type of thing?"

"I guess you could describe it like that," George said. "It's a very popular method of traveling, but people will typically try to avoid taking the Knight Bus unless they absolutely have to."

"Why?"

"Well..." George said. "You see, it's a very rough ride... The bus tends to go very fast and manoeuvres to avoid hitting anyone or anything, which makes it so you are very likely to get thrown around."

I stared at George for a moment, before I looked over at Tonks and asked, "Do we really have to take this magical bus thing?"

"Yes, we do," Tonks replied. "It's the safest way, to make sure we can keep an eye on you lot all the way to Hogwarts."

"But like," I started, "do we have to? There must be a better way than a bus that throws you around."

"Unfortunately, it's the best option," Tonks said. "I'm not that excited about it either. My word of advice is to think of it like a roller coaster."

"But on a rollercoaster, you're strapped down," I pointed out. "And having fun. This bus doesn't sound like fun. Nor does it sound like you're buckled in."

"Yeah, I'm not sure why they haven't implemented seatbelts on the Knight Bus," Tonks said. "Or bolted the seats to the floor... Although, they do change out the seats for beds at night, so that might be why... But we also have magic up our sleeves, so I still don't see why the chairs can't be stuck to the floor."

I sighed and stayed silent afterward, eating my food and hoping it wouldn't be on the ground once we got to Hogwarts. Once we had all eaten breakfast, we said our goodbyes to the adults, minus Remus and Tonks, and left Grimmauld Place. After we were gathered up on the sidewalk outside, Remus flung out his right arm, and I was jumpscared when a purple, triple-decker bus appeared out of nowhere with a loud bang, almost hitting a lamppost in the process. I was surprised, though, when the lamppost jumped out of the way.

"So," I started, turning to look at Tonks, who had disguised herself as a tall woman with gray hair, "that's the Knight Bus?"

"Indeed it is," Tonks responded, as a man in a purple uniform exited the bus.