CHAPTER 31
| IMAGINE WHAT OUR OBITUARIES WILL SAY |
"How could someone forget their own kid?" James questioned.
"Don't judge us." Cathy replied.
The screen shifted back to Kings Cross station with Harry, Ryan, Ron and Neville. The words 'A FEW MINUTES EARLIER' was labelled across the screen. The four young wizards were already to go in after Cathy had just vanished into the barrier.
"Let's go." Harry said as he and Ron pushed their trolleys forward and broke into a bit of a run. Ryan and Neville stayed back and waited for the two of them to pass through to the platform first. "Aah!"
"What happened?" Remus wondered.
"Maybe they're at the wrong place." Peter suggested.
"Literately everyone else went through the same wall though." Lily pointed out.
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?"
"Ooh!" Ryan winced imagine the pain of them crashing into the brick wall.
Neville immediately rushed over and picked up Hedwig's cage whilst Harry and Ron got up off the ground.
"Sorry." Harry apologized to the station guard. "Lost-lost control of the trolley."
Neville went over to the barrier and touched it with his hand. He pressed against it and found it still solid brick.
"Why can't we get through?" Neville asked in a panicky voice.
"Let's see." Ryan placed his hand against the brick wall and his eyes lit up in their usual golden color. "Someone's magic is messing with the integrity of the barrier."
"What? Why would someone do that?" Ron questioned.
Ryan tilted his head to the side and had a thoughtful look on his face. "This magic...feels sort of like..."
"Sort of like what?" Harry pressed his cousin for an answer.
"Like elf magic." Ryan answered.
"It's that elf!" Sirius declared.
He and Harry shared a look and realized what was happening. "Dobby." They said in unison.
"Yeah him."
"What do we do?' Neville questioned. "How do we get on the platform?"
"Guys." The three boys turned to Ron who was looking at his watch. "The train leaves at exactly eleven o'clock. We've missed it!"
"Oh no!" Neville's eyes began to well up with tears.
"Let's stay calm." Ryan said. "We should all just relax. Let's just wait. Surely one of our parents would have realized that we're not with them by now."
"Ryan's right." Harry said. "Maybe we should just go and wait by your dad's car."
An idea immediately came to Ron. "The car..."
The immediately went back to Cathy, Regulus and the rest of the gang all rushing to the barrier. Looks of worry and anxiety were displayed on all of them.
"I can't believe we forgot Ron." Molly said in a horrified tone. "If anything has happened to him, I'll never forgive myself!"
"God, what if something's happened to them." Cathy looked to her husband worried. "Can you imagine?"
"Ryan's would hold this against us forever." Regulus stated. Cathy nodded with Regulus while Evan and Mary gave the couple strange looks.
"That's what he's worried about?" James looked in disbelief. "That Ryan will have something to use against them?"
"Understandable." Fleamont nodded. "There's nothing worst than your child holding something like this over your head.
"Indeed." Augusta nodded.
"Yes." Orion agreed.
When they got to the barrier, they all passed through the brick wall without any trouble. They were on King's Cross Station, looking around and flooded with worry.
"Where are they?" Walburga questioned. "Are you sure this was the last place you saw them?"
"Yes." Cathy answered. "They were right behind me. I thought that they had come into the platform after me. See this is why we shouldn't have more kids. We barely can manage with the ones we have right now!"
"Wait! Arthur what about the car?" Molly turned to her husband.
"Yes, the car!" Arthur said. "They might be waiting for us by the car."
"Where did you park?" Regulus asked. Arthur immediately led to the parking lot. "Oh, I'll never forgive myself if anything happens to Ron!" Molly cried.
The scene shifted again to the parking lot. Everyone was standing in front of an empty parking space with Arthur looking absolutely horrified.
"I'm going to kill him." Molly said in a tone completely void of sadness and fear but was instead full of anger.
"Oh, a complete one eighty shift." Cathy commented.
"You don't think something terrible happened to them, do you?" Halley asked her parents. Walburga hugged her granddaughter tightly.
"I hope not." Cathy leaned closer to Regulus and lowered her voice. "Knowing Ryan, they might have decided to go on a little joy ride or something."
"And miss the train?' Regulus questioned.
"Let's just calm down." Evan told everyone. "They could have had a good excuse for stealing the car, I mean let's not jump to the worst-case scenario."
"I'm telling you Sarah; I know what I saw. it was a flying car!" everyone turned around and saw a burly old man talking to another woman. "It was just up in the air like magic!"
"That's not good." Regulus commented.
"Well...this is problematic." Mary murmured.
The scene changed again, returning to the boys in the Weasleys flying car. Harry and Ron were seated in front with Ron driving, while Neville and Ryan were sitting at the back.
Harry looked outside the window and saw that several people were looking up at them and pointing with shocked expressions.
"Ron," Harry turned to his friend, "I should tell you, most Muggles aren't accustomed to seeing a flying car."
"Uh, right. Okay." Ron pushed a button and the car began to faded way in the sky until it became invisible.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Neville enquired.
"Yeah." Ron nodded. "We take the car to Hogwarts and then we tell the professors about the whole situation. I mean what else were we supposed to do?"
"Off the top of my head? Maybe wait alongside the car until a parent came to get us." Ryan answered.
"Yeah, that would have been the more logical thing to do." Remus nodded.
There was a silence that filled the car as no one said a word.
"That actually might have been the smarter thing to do." Harry said.
Ryan leaned in close to Neville. "Listen up." He whispered. "If anyone asks, they forced us into the car kicking and screaming, got it?"
"Okay." Neville nodded.
"What was that?" Ron asked.
"Nothing." Ryan smiled.
The scene fast forwarded to show the Weasley car flying through the country.
"Oh no!" Ron looked outside and noticed that the car had suddenly become visible again. "The Invisibility Booster must be faulty!"
"Well come on, then. Let's go lower. We need to find the train." Harry said when they spotted the train tracks.
"Okay." Ron said as he had the car descend and hover slightly over the tracks.
"Tell us when you spot the train." Ryan said as his eyes were focused in the book that he was reading.
"Now all we need to do is catch up with the train." Harry told them.
"We can't be far behind." Ron stated.
The sounds of the train whistle were heard around them. Soon the sound of the gears on the tracks started to become apparent and loud.
"Do you hear that?" Neville asked.
"We must be gettin' close." Ron smiled happily.
The sound of the train seemed to get even louder and louder. The trains whistle seemed to be more violently rung.
"Hold on..." Harry said.
Ryan, who had been up until now was busy reading, finally looked up from his book. He turned his head to the side to see a terrified Neville. The two of them continue to turn their heads and finally turned around to see the Hogwarts express rushing toward them.
"Aaahhh!" They all screamed as the train came even more closer.
"Oh my god!" Euphemia gasped.
"We can't die like this! Imagine what our obituaries will say! Turned the damn car!" Ryan shouted at Ron.
The red head obeyed and turned a sharp left. The car went left and spiraled around in the air. The sharp turn had thrown Harry off balance and the door opened and Harry fell out. Luckily, Harry managed to grab on to the door of the car.
Neville got up from his seat and reached for Harry. "Harry! Hold on! Take my hand!" Harry tried to grip Neville's hand but couldn't lock onto it. "Hold on!"
"I'm trying. Your hand's all sweaty." Harry told him.
"Let me." Ryan said. Neville sat back down as Ryan got up and reached for Harry. Harry threw his hand onto Ryan's and managed to grip it tightly. Neville grabbed onto Ryan's arm and together they pulled Harry back inside.
"I think we found the train." Harry said after he closed and locked his door.
"Yeah." Ron sighed.
The scene shifted to the car driving through the night sky but this time it showed the Hogwarts castle.
"Welcome home." Ron said.
"I can't believe we made it." Neville laughed. Suddenly there was a bump in the car and frightened all the boys. "Ron, what was that?"
"Um-" Before Ron could answer the car began to lose altitude and fall.
"Why are we going down?" Harry questioned as the car continued to fall.
Ron tried to make the car rise back up in the air. "It's not working! Ahhhh!"
"It's just one trouble after the other with these four." Evan said.
"Ron!" Ryan yelled. "Watch out for that tree!"
"Stop! Stop! Stop!" Ron commanded the car while whacking his wand against the wheel. He only stopped when he finally broke his wand. "Huh?"
Before Ron could react to breaking his wand, the car crashed into the tree that Ryan had previously warned them about. After the crash and the car finally stopped moving, the boys all looked around themselves to make sure that none of them were injured.
"Ron, I said watch out for the tree, not aim for it." Ryan told him.
"Ahh-ha-ha! My wand. Look at my wand." Ron cried at the sight of his wand.
"Be thankful it's not your neck." Harry told him.
James and Sirius broke out into sniggers at Harry's comment.
"Ha! Good one, Hazza!" Ryan said.
Before anyone could say anything else, the tree began to creak and move.
"What was that?" Ryan asked.
"Oh no." Cathy covered her mouth with her hand.
"What is it?" Regulus asked.
"Am I the only one who's realized what tree they just hit?"
"What's happening?" Ron shouted as a branch broke through the windshield. The tree that they had landed on came to life and started to attack the car that they were all in.
"It's the Whomping Willow!" Neville shouted.
"Reverse!" Ryan yelled at Ron.
"Come on! Go! Fast!" Harry said.
Ron followed their words and reversed the car out of the tree. When it hit the ground the doors of the car opened up and threw all the boys out of the car.
Once they all got back up to their feet, the car tossed Scabbers, Trevor and Hedwig out of the car too. Luckily, their respective owners caught them.
"Scabbers, you okay?"
"Trevor!" Neville hugged his toad closely to his chest.
"To think, of all the trees on school grounds, we just had to hit the one that hits back." Ryan sighed.
The car finally threw out all of their luggage and drove off past Hagrid's hut and into the Dark Forest.
"The car!" Ron called out. "Dad's gonna kill me."