Summer vacation was nearly over, and I was looking forward to getting back to Hogwarts,
On our last evening, Mum conjured up a sumptuous dinner that included all of Harry's favorite things who, I had to admit, had a good taste in food, ending with a mouthwatering treacle pudding.
Fred, George, and I rounded off the evening with a display of Filibuster fireworks; we filled the kitchen with red and blue stars that bounced from ceiling to wall for at least half an hour. Then it was time for a last mug of hot chocolate and bed.
It took a long while to get started next morning. We were up at dawn, but somehow we still seemed to have a great deal to do. Mum dashed about in a bad mood looking for spare socks and quills; people kept colliding on the stairs, half-dressed with bits of toast in their hands; and Dad nearly broke his neck, tripping over a stray chicken as he crossed the yard carrying Ginny's trunk to the car.
When at last we were all in the car, Mum glanced into the back seat, where Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Percy, and I were all sitting comfortably side by side, and said, "Muggles do know more than we give them credit for, don't they?"
She and Ginny got into the front seat, which had been stretched so that it resembled a park bench. "I mean, you'd never know it was this roomy from the outside, would you?"
Dad started up the engine and we trundled out of the yard, George had forgotten his box of Filibuster fireworks. Five minutes after that, we skidded to a halt in the yard so that Fred could run in for his broomstick. We had almost reached the highway when Ginny shrieked that she'd left her diary.
By the time she had clambered back into the car, we were running very late, and tempers were running high.
"You were making that horrid hissing sound again last night (Y/n)." Ron told me.
Harry looked puzzled at this. "What do you mean Ron? He was mumbling something about an orphanage."
"Are you mad? It was that hissing noise again." Ron said.
Orphanage? I don't remember anything about an orphanage. Dad glanced at his watch just then and then at his wife. "Molly, dear —"
"No, Arthur —–"
"No one would see — this little button here is an Invisibility Booster I installed — that'd get us up in the air — then we fly above the clouds. We'd be there in ten minutes and no one would be any the wiser —"
"I said no, Arthur, not in broad daylight —"
We reached King's Cross at a quarter to eleven. Dad dashed across the road to get trolleys for their trunks and we all hurried into the station.
"Percy first," said Mum as we reached the partition between platform nine and ten, looking nervously at the clock overhead, which showed we had only five minutes to disappear casually through the barrier.
Percy strode briskly forward and vanished. Dad went next; Fred and George followed.
"I'll take Ginny and you three come right after us," Mum told Harry, Ron, and me, grabbing Ginny's hand and setting off. In the blink of an eye they were gone.
"Let's go together, we've only got a minute," Ron said us.
Harry went first, making sure that Hedwig's cage was safely wedged on top of his trunk and wheeling his trolley around to face the barrier.
Ron and I then pushed our trolleys into place next to Harry. We all bent low and then Ron and Harry started towards the barrier a few feet away from it, they broke into a run and —
CRASH.
Both trolleys hit the barrier and bounced backward; Ron's trunk fell off with a loud thump, Harry was knocked off his feet, and Hedwig's cage bounced onto the shiny floor, and she rolled away, shrieking indignantly; people all around them stared and a guard nearby yelled,
"What in blazes d'you think you're doing?"
"Lost control of the trolley," Harry gasped, clutching his ribs as he got up. Ron ran to pick up Hedwig, who was causing such a scene that there was a lot of muttering about cruelty to animals from the surrounding crowd.
"Should I go now?" I asked the two of them, starting to push my trolley towards the barrier, as they frantically waved their arms to stop me.
"Why can't we get through?" Harry hissed to Ron.
"I dunno —"
"Do they close the barrier after the train leaves?" I asked nervously.
Ron looked wildly around. A dozen curious people were still watching us.
"We're going to miss the train," Ron whispered. "I don't understand why the gateway's sealed itself —"
I pulled out my old silver pocket watch from my pocket, flipping it open and, ignoring the ancients runes engraved on the inside of the lid I checked the time.
It was ten o'clock.
Harry wheeled his trolley forward cautiously until it was right against the barrier and pushed with all his might. Nothing happened.
"It's gone," said Ron, sounding stunned. "The train's left. What if Mum and Dad can't get back through to us? Have you got any Muggle money?"
"Yeah Ron I just happen to carry about a bag of muggle money specifically for this reason." I said sarcastically.
Harry gave a hollow laughed. "The Dursleys haven't given me pocket money for about six years."
Ron pressed his ear to the cold barrier.
"Can't hear a thing," he said tensely, "What're we going to do? I don't know how long it'll take Mum and Dad to get back to us."
We looked around. People were still watching them, mainly because of Hedwig's continuing screeches.
"I think we'd better go and wait by the car," said Harry. "We're attracting too much atten —"
"That's it!" I said suddenly "The car!"
"What about it?"
"We can steal the car!" I said
"Yeah... yeah and then fly it to Hogwarts!" Ron said
"Well no I just meant we could steal it, but I guess that works too." I said
"But I thought —"
"We're stuck, right? And we've got to get to school, haven't we? And even underage wizards are allowed to use magic if it's a real emergency, section nineteen or something of the Restriction of Thingy —"
"But your Mum and Dad..." said Harry, pushing against the barrier again. "How will they get home?"
"They don't need the car!" said Ron impatiently. "They know how to Apparate! You know, just vanish and reappear at home! They only bother with Floo powder and the car because we're all underage and we're not allowed to Apparate yet..."
"Can you fly it?"
"How hard can it be?" I said, before Ron cut me off.
"Oh no you're not driving, you sent us into a nose dive."
"Oh come on Ron I just wanted to see if it was possible!"
"C'mon, let's go." Ron said wheeling his trolley around. "If we hurry we'll be able to follow the Hogwarts Express —"
And we marched off through the crowd of curious Muggles, out of the station and back onto the side road where the old Ford Anglia was parked.
Ron unlocked the cavernous trunk with a series of taps from his wand. We heaved Ron and Harry's luggage back in, mine in the backseat with Hedwig, and Ron and Harry got into the front, while I clambered into the back.
"Check that no one's watching," said Ron, starting the ignition with another tap of his wand. Harry stuck his head out of the window:
"Okay," he said.
Ron pressed a tiny silver button on the dashboard. The car around us vanished — and so did we. I could feel the seat vibrating beneath me, hear the engine, and feel my hands on my knees but for all I could see, I had become a pair of eyeballs, floating a few feet above the ground in a dingy street full of parked cars.
"Let's go," said Ron's voice from in front of me.
And the ground and the dirty buildings on either side fell away, dropping out of sight as the car rose; in seconds, the whole of London lay, smoky and glittering, below us.
Then there was a popping noise and the car, Harry, Ron, and I reappeared.
"Uh-oh," said Ron, jabbing at the Invisibility Booster. "It's faulty —" The car vanished. Then it flickered back again.
"Hold on!" Ron yelled, and he slammed his foot on the accelerator; we shot straight into the low, woolly clouds and everything turned dull and foggy.
"Now what?" said Harry, as I looked out at the mass of cloud around us.
"We need to see the train to know what direction to go in," said Ron.
"Well fat chance seeing anything through the cloud." I said
"Dip back down again — quickly —"
We dropped back beneath the clouds and twisted around in their seats, squinting at the ground.
"I can see it!" Harry yelled. "Right ahead — there!"
The Hogwarts Express was streaking along below them like a scarlet snake.
"Alright, it looks like the tracks bend a bit over that way." I said squinting towards a bend in the tracks. "We could probably cut it off if we turn left here."
Ron nodded at this, turned left sharply, before flying back up into the clouds. Overall the ride wasn't terrible, although we didn't have any food, and after around an hour my legs began to cramp horribly.
"I spy with my little eye something... blue." I said.
"FOR THE LAST BLOODY TIME (Y/N) ITS THE SKY!" Ron roared at me from the front. I may have been asking the same question every minute for last half hour.
"Just trying to past the time." I muttered turning back to look out the window.
"We'd better dip back down and check the train." Harry told Ron, who angled the car down and we flew out of the clouds.
"Alright directly above it." I said, able to see the train directly below us.
"Looks like we can continue straight for a bi- oh no!" Ron said as the car suddenly jerked to the side.
"What's going on!" I asked nervously, as the car lurched to the side again.
"I dunno!" Ron said struggling with the wheel. "The controls have gone all wonky!"
He started pressing random buttons at the front, yanking the wheel as he went. Suddenly the car rolled to the left, and the door next to me sprung open.
I flew out of the door, only just able to grab the door handle with one hand, and my trunk with the other.
"(Y/N)!" Harry and Ron cried.
"I'm alright I'm alright, just hanging out... although I would like to get back in." I called to them.
"I'm trying I'm trying!" Ron cried yanking hard on the wheel trying to flip the car back round, but it wouldn't budge.
My hand started to slip on the door handle. "Uhh guys not to rush you but my hand is starting to slip a little." I yelled to them.
"Hold on (Y/n)!" Ron cried, but it was too late, my fingers slipped off the handle and I fell towards the train.
Thinking quickly I pulled my wand out of my pocket, feeling the smooth bone in my hand.
"Arresto Momentum!" I cried, remembering reading about it in the spell book for this year. It was the first I had tried it, but what's better than a near death experience to try out a spell.
It did work though... mostly. It was able to slow my descent enough not to break anything, although it hurt quite a bit.
Thankfully, but some stroke of luck I had managed to land on top of the Hogwarts express.
I lay there on my back for a while grinning up at the sky, before sitting up and, upon noticing the car in the sky, gave Ron and Harry and thumbs up. I wasn't sure if they saw me or not but I hope they had.
"Well how am I going to get on the train?" I said to myself. I slowly made my way to the edge of the roof, reaching my hand over and knocking on the nearest window.
The window popped open, and the blond haired head of a girl poked out.
"Hello." The girl said in a dreamy voice. "What are you doing up there? Did you fall off a Crumple Horned Snorkack?"
"Grumbling Worn Ballsack?" I asked, hardly able to hear her over the deafening wind.