Chapter Twenty-Seven: Violently Purple Adventures
As the Knight Bus lurched and flew precariously through the sky Stan Shunpike danced even more erratically, clapping, shuffling his feet and jerking his body to music only he could hear. He was making Harry even more tired than he already felt after the sleepless night he'd had.
Harry was just sitting on one of the four poster beds in the violently purple bus when it suddenly vanished beneath him and he fell to his bottom with a painful crash.
Harry looked on bewildered as the rest of the beds vanished from under their sleeping occupants, who, instead of grumbling angrily as Harry expected they would, bounced back up on their heels and began dancing along with Stan, their stomping and shuffling feet creating it's own beat.
As they danced the lights went out on the bus and a disco ball descended from the ceiling, casting a spinning, glittery light on Stan and Harry's fellow passengers as their dancing intensified.
Harry scrambled furiously out of the way of the hysterical mob of dancers as they lunged, thrusted, clapped and kicked their heels towards him, cracking the back of his skull against the bus for his troubles.
"C'mon, Neville!" Stan cried, reaching out to take the hands of the now undoubtedly concussed boy and lifting him to his feet.
Stan held Harry's hands and began grooving them to the beat of the stomping feet of the other dancers, forcing Harry to dance with him against his will.
"Crikey, Neville, lighten up!" Stan said grinning as he began violently shaking Harry's arms with his own, trying to force his body, rigid with fear, into relaxing.
The Boy Who Danced was alarmed, what in the name of Merlin's waggling arsecheeks was going on?!
Harry saw stars as Stan suddenly spun him in a wild circle, his stomach lurching more violently than the Knight Bus itself.
He just HAD to get off this bloody bus.
"STEP IN TIME, BITCHES!" Stan suddenly yelled, stomping his foot and dropping Harry into an unwilling and stomach churning dip. All the other passengers of the nauseatingly purple bus began stomping their feet even harder and clapping their hands to the beat as Stan pulled his wand out of his trousers and pointed it at the ceiling of the double decker.
"DISCOSA INFERNOSA!" He ejaculated as Harry looked up in horror from his prone position in the conductor's arms and watched as the top of the Knight Bus vanished, revealing a night sky filled with frighteningly large stars and planets all spinning and glittering like Stan's disco ball had.
With a snap of Stan's fingers all the passengers, including himself and a very alarmed Harry, levitated out of the bus through the hole where the roof had been and Harry found himself flying broomless in a circle with Stan and the others, who were still clapping their hands and stomping their feet, even without the presence of solid ground to stomp on.
The stomping and clapping and spinning and whirling through the stars was so much like a bizarre fever dream in an already magical and at times confusing world, that Harry decided that it must indeed be just that, and so he chose to just give in and enjoy the ride, finding that he couldn't help but feel himself beginning to smile as he began stomping and clapping along with them.
Harry could feel something wholly unfamiliar bubbling up inside of himself like a fizzy drink, filling him up and energizing him, and if he had been in front of a mirror he would have seen a smile on his face that was not sly or sarcastic or arrogant or calculated in any way, but was instead a smile of pure, unadulterated joy and happiness.
He finally felt free. Free of the unbearably heavy weight of all the responsibility that had been imposed on him against his will. And his heart was soaring along with his body as he and Stan began dancing and grooving together, grinning at each other wordlessly as they danced through the impossible night sky, with stars and constellations shining as brilliantly as diamonds all around them.
After what felt like a joyous lifetime of shuffling, grooving, thrusting, snapping, tapping and dancing, Stan stopped abruptly and gripped Harry gently by the shoulders, looking deeply into his eyes, his soul, searching for what felt like an eternity and a second all at once, then he nodded and smiled warmly at the scrawny orphaned boy. "It's time." He said and snapped his fingers.
Just as suddenly as Harry had found himself dancing through the galaxy, he blinked and was back to being on his arse on floor of the violently purple Knight Bus, which was once again full of four poster beds and sleeping passengers and slowing to a stop.
"All right, all right, Malfoy Manor!" Stan sang cheerily as he reached out to help a still smiling Harry up off the ground.
As Harry went to disembark the bus, Stan gave him a friendly pat on the back. "You're gonna be just fine...Neville." He said, giving Harry a knowing wink.
Harry couldn't help but laugh as he got off the bus, stopping to shoot Stan a wink and smile back before the purple double decker whizzed away.
It was still dark out and there was a slight autumn chill to the early morning. The grass on the grounds of Malfoy Manor was cold and damp with dew under his bare feet and his pajamas did little to keep out the cold, but Harry didn't care. He felt alive. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to steady himself before facing the destiny that was waiting for him just beyond the gilded gates, and as he exhaled he felt a sense of peace.
Harry looked up at the sky where he had danced so happily moments before and smiled as he spotted the Dog Star, Sirius, shining brightly down on him like a beacon of love, support and acceptance, just as his very own Sirius was. Harry winked happily up at it before placing his hands on the gate and preparing to climb.
"I love magic." He chuckled happily as he broke into Malfoy Manor.