The end of the summer holidays came as quick as it started. Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to going back to Hogwarts, but the past month spent at The Burrow had been amazing. Except from the fact, Ginny was there, with her beady eyes staring at Harry whenever they were in the same room.
On our last evening, Molly conjured up a sumptuous dinner which included all of our favourite things, ending with a mouthwatering treacle pudding. Fred and George rounded off the evening with a display of Filibuster Fireworks; they 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 before bed.
The next morning, I woke before anyone else and dressed in black leggings, grey jumper, a denim jacket and my black converse. I'd be changing into my robes on the train. I brushed my hair and left it falling over my shoulder before spraying my perfume on to finish my look.
Everyone else woke up not long after at cock-crow, and it was a very slow start to the morning. Somehow, we still had a lot to do. Molly 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 Mr Weasley nearly broke his neck, tripping over a stray chicken as he crossed the yard carrying Ginny's trunk to the car. It was madness.
"You look nice," Harry complimented me when we bumped into each other on the stairs.
I blushed. "Thanks"
I couldn't see how nine people, seven large trunks, three owls and a rat were going to fit into one small Ford Anglia. Of course, we would, thanks to all the special features which Mr Weasley had added.
"Not a word to Molly," he whispered to me and Harry as he opened the boot and showed us how it had been magically expanded so the trunks fitted easily.
When at last, we were all in the car, Molly glanced into the back seat, where Me, Harry, Ron, Fred, George, and Percy were all sitting comfortably side by side, (me next to Harry, of course!), 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?"
I grinned. If only she knew.
Mr Weasley started up the engine and we trundled out of the yard. Harry turned back, I guess for a last look at the house. We barely made it out of the garden when we turned back because Geroge had forgotten his box of Filibuster Fireworks. Five minutes after that, we skidded to halt in the yard so Fred could run in for his broomstick. We had almost reached the motorway when Ginny shrieked 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.
Mr Weasley glanced at his watch 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"
'If we hadn't had to go back so many times, we wouldn't be late.' I thought, whilst my nose was stuck in a book. Gee, I'm acting like Hermione...what is it with me and reading lately?
We reached King's Cross at quarter to eleven. Cutting it short. Mr Weasley dashed across the road to get trolley's for our trunks and we all hurried into the station.
I had caught the Hogwarts Express last year. The tricky bit was getting onto platform nine and three-quarters, which wasn't visible to the Muggle eye. What you had to do was walk through the solid barrier dividing platforms nine and ten. It didn't hurt, but it had to be done carefully so that none of the Muggles noticed you vanishing.
"Percy first," Mrs Weasley said, looking nervously at the clock overhead, which showed we only had five minutes to disappear casually through the barrier.
Percy strode briskly forward and vanished. Mr Weasley went next, Fred and George followed.
"I'll take Ginny and you three come right after us," Mrs Weasley told me, Harry, and Ron, 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," I told the two boys, getting nervous.
I made sure Hetty's cage was safely on top of my trunk and wheeled my trolley about to face the barrier. All three of us bent low over the hands of our trolleys and walked purposefully towards the barrier, gathering speed. A few feet away from it, we broke into a run and -
CRASH.
All three trolleys hit the barrier and bounced backwards. Ron's trunk fell off with a loud thump, Harry was knocked off his feet, taking me with him, Hetty's and Hedwig's cage bounced onto the shiny floor and they rolled away, shrieking indignantly. People all around them stared and guard nearby yelled, "What in blazers 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 Hetty and Hedwig, who was causing so a scene that there was a lot of muttering about cruelty to animals from the surrounding crowd. Me, I was looking at the barrier wondering why we couldn't get through.
"why can't we get through?" Harry hissed to me.
"I dunno"
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 looked up at the giant clock with a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach. Ten seconds...nine seconds...what are we going to do?
Harry wheeled his trolley forward cautiously until it was right against the barrier, and pushed with all his might. But the trolley didn't move.
Three seconds...two seconds...one second...
"It's gone," I said, stunned. "The trains left"
"What if Mum and Dad can't get back through to us?" Ron asked. "Have either of you got any Muggle money?"
Harry gave a hollow laugh and I shook my head, I used the last bit of my pocket money before I arrived at The Burrow. I watched as 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 all looked around. People were still watching us, mainly because of Hedwig still screeching.
I sighed. "Maybe we should wait by the car...we're attracting too much atten-"
"Bella!" Ron said, his eyes gleaming. "The car!"
"What about it?"
"We can fly the car to Hogwarts!"
"But I thought-" Harry started
"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 Restrictions of Thingy..."
"Can you fly it?" Harry asked excitedly at the same time I said:
"That's a bad idea, we should just wait-"
"No problem," Ron said to Harry and ignoring me. He wheeled his trolley around to face the exit. "C'mon, let's go, if we hurry we'll be able to follow the Hogwarts Express"
Sighing, I followed the boys as they marched off through the crowd of curious Muggles, out of the station and back onto the side road where the car was parked. Ron unlocked the cavernous boot with a series of taps from his wand. We heaved our trunks back in, Put Hetty and Hedwig on the back seat and climbed into the front.
"This is a really bad idea," I say in the middle of Ron and Harry. "We should wait"
"Oh, stop complaining and live a little Bella," Ron says. "Do you want to get to school or not?"
"Well, yeah but-"
"Then shut up and let me take you there"
I huffed.
"Check no one's watching," Ron said, starting the ignition with another tap of his wand. Harry stuck his head out of the window, and much to my dismay, our street was empty of traffic.
"Ok," Harry 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, feel my hands on my lap and the feeling of Harry's leg brushing against mine, but for all I know, I could have become a pair of eyeballs, floating a few feet above the ground in a dingy street full of parked cars.
"Let's go," Ron said.
"We're doomed," I sighed.
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 them.
"Still think it's a bad idea, Bella?" Ron asked grinning.
Just then, there was a popping noise and the car, me, Harry, and Ron reappeared.
"Uh oh," Ron said, jabbing the Invisibility Booster. "It's faulty-"
"Yes, I still think this is a bad idea!" I screamed as we all pummelled it. The car vanished. Then it flickered back again. "We should have just waited for Mr and Mrs Weasley to come back!"
"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. I somehow managed to get onto Harry's lap, but I made no sign of moving and Harry made no sign of pushing me off.
"Now what?" Harry asked, blinking at the solid mass of cloud pressing in on us from all sides.
I roll my eyes. "Well, since you two love this idea, we now need to see the train to know what direction to go in"
"Dip back down again - quickly," Harry told Ron.
We dropped back beneath the clouds and twisted around in our seats, squining at the ground-
"I can see it!" I yelled pointed at the red train. "Right ahead - there!"
The Hogwarts Express was streaking along below us like a scarlet snake.
"Due north, "Ron said, checking the compass on the dashboard. "Ok, we'll just have to check on it every half an hour or so. Hold on..." And we shot up through the clouds. A minute later, we burst out into a blaze of sunlight.
I realised I was still on Harry's lap. "I'll sit back in my seat now," I moved back to the middle.
Looking out of the window, it was like we were in a different world. The wheels of the car skimmed the sea of fluffy cloud, the sky a bright, endless blue under the blinding white sun. It was beautiful, and even though I'm against this idea, Ron had a point. We had to get to school somehow and you don't get this kind of view from the train.
"All we've got to worry about now are aeroplanes," Ron broke the silence.
We all looked at each other and started to laugh, the tension between us all breaking away, and for a long time, we couldn't stop.
It was as though we had been plunged into a fabulous dream, and I thought this was the only way to travel. We passed swirls and turrets of snowy cloud, in a car full of hot, bright sunlight, with a fat pack of toffees in the glove compartment, and the prospect of seeing Fred and George's jealous faces when we landed smoothly and spectacularly on the sweeping lawn in of Hogwarts castle.
We made regular checks on the train as we flew further and further north, each dip beneath the clouds showing us a different view. London was soon far behind us, replaced by neat green fields which gave way in turn to a wide, purplish moors, villages with tiny toy churches and a great city alive with cars like multi-coloured ants.
And suddenly, all my doubts were going away. This was actually going to work!
Several hours later, however, Harry admitted that some of the fun was wearing off and I had to agree with him. My head rested on his shoulder and my eyes were drooping, the threat of falling asleep taking over me. The toffees had made us extremely thirsty and we had nothing to drink. Harry and Ron had pulled off their jumpers, I had pulled off my denim jacket and was left in my grey jumper which was making me sweat, but I can't take that off. I had stopped noticing the fantastic cloud shapes now and was thinking longingly of the train miles below, where you could buy ice-cold pumpkin juice from a trolley pushed by a plump witch. The question, however, remains, why hadn't we been able to get onto platform nine and three-quarters?
"Can't be much further, can it?" croaked Ron, hours later still, as the sun started to sink into their floor of cloud, staining it a deep pink. "Ready for another check on the train?"
I yawned and sat up. The train was still right below us, winding its way past a snow-capped mountain. It was much darker beneath the canopy of clouds.
Ron put his foot on the accelerator and drove us upwards again, but as he did so, the engine began to whine. We all shared nervous glances.
"It's probably just tired," Ron said. "It's never been this far before..."
How very wrong he was.