Chapter Twenty: Flying to Hogwarts

The next morning after breakfast the Snape family and the Weasley family was headed to King's Cross Station. Mr. Weasley had offered to drive them all there in his new Ford Anglia in which he had only bought a week before. Patches, Hedwig, Erroll, and Scabbers was used to this since the year before,.. but for Ginny's kitten Cobalt this was an all-new adventure. Once Ginny was safely through the barrier both of her parents went after her to make sure that she could find a seat on the train.

Meanwhile, Severus was already waiting for Harry and Ron while Lily hugged and kissed Harry goodbye and then disapparated back home with the rest of her children. "Are you ready?" Ron questioned as Harry nodded back at him.

"Yeah." He replied as both of them started racing towards the wall with their carts, but instead of passing straight through the barrier they ran smack dab into the wall disturbing the cages of their animal friends. That's when suddenly a muggle policeman stopped and turned his head over to face them with a really confused look on his face. "Sorry, lost control of the cart." He told him.

"Mhm." He simply just replied with a shake of his head before he turned around and walked away.

"Why can't we get through!?" Harry exclaimed in a whisper while Ron started touching the wall.

"I don't know, the gateway's sealed itself for some reason." He replied before letting out a rather worried gulp. "Harry, if we can't get through perhaps Mum and Dad can't get back." He said as Harry turned his head and looked at the clock.

"Oh great! The train leaves at exactly eleven o'clock we missed it!" He cried as he started to think. "Well, maybe we should just go and wait by the car." He suggested when suddenly Ron's eyes widened in excitement.

"The car! Harry, that's it!" He cried.

"Ha, ha very funny but we're just kids. We're way too young to have our driver's licenses." Harry pointed out.

"This isn't any ordinary car though Harry, it can fly,.. it's not like we would be driving it amongst the London traffic." Ron told him as they started making their way back towards the car. "And it's not all that difficult to work, it's just like a driving game at a muggle arcade." He added.

"Yeah, well at least you can't die from it then. I just hope to God that you know what you're doing." Harry said as they started packing the car back up with their luggage and then Ron got into the driver's seat and Harry got in the passenger's side and they both shut their doors tightly, strapped on their seatbelts, and then Ron turned on the engine and hitting the accelerator they started hovering off the ground which was more like a broomstick than a flight in an airplane to Harry.

As a bunch of spectators from the ground looked up at them wide-eyed in shocked something suddenly occurred to Harry. "Ron, I should probably tell you that most muggles aren't accustomed to seeing a flying car!" He exclaimed.

"Right!" Ron cried in response with a nod before hitting a silver button on the dashboard.

"What's that?" Harry wondered as he didn't remember seeing anything like that inside his mother's car.

"It's an invisibility cloak, that way muggles won't spot us." Ron explained as Harry nodded at him.

"Alright, go lower,.. we need to find the train." Harry pointed as Ron silently nodded and then pulled the gear shift forwards and lowered them towards the ground and that's when suddenly they heard the train whistle.

"We must be getting close." Ron said as Harry got a sinking feeling while he turned his head and looked over his shoulder.

"Hold on,.." He began and Hedwig's eyes widened and Patches whimpered as the Hogwarts Express was chugging along five feet behind them. The boys let out agonizing screams and Ron quickly turned the steering wheel away from it and drove back up into the sky. "At least we found the train." He said as Ron nodded.

"Yeah,.." He replied shakily and it as it grew darker the boys could finally see the castle come into view and Harry grinned but that's when the car started running out of gas and started heading towards the ground.

"Stop!" Harry exclaimed while Ron tried to slam on the brakes.

"I'm trying! It's not working!" He cried and Harry grabbed the gear shift and tried to pull it, but it was already too late as they had landed in a tree with a great big thud making Hedwig hoot and flutter her wings. As the car rocked for a few moments it finally landed on the ground in front of the tree and to Ron's horror his wand snapped in half.

"My wand! Look at my wand!" He cried.

"Just be grateful that it's not your neck." Harry pointed out but that's when suddenly the tree magically moved one of its branches and it smashed down on top of the car and both of the boys sunk low in their seats and avoided being hit. Luckily, it missed the animals that were stored in the trunk of the car. "Drive!" Harry yelled after the boys avoided several more blows and the Ron quickly started backing up and then drove far away from the tree before the car finally had enough and threw their seatbelts out and tossed them out of the car before their pets and luggage.

Both of the boys landed flat on their backs. Hedwig's cage landed very close to Harry while he caught Patches inside his arms as Ron caught Scabbers. "Do you think that they're alright?" Ron questioned anxiously.

"Yeah, they should be but we should probably have Hagrid check them out later on just in case." Harry replied before the car slammed its doors shut again and started driving towards the Forbidden Forest by itself.

"The car!" Harry and Ron cried out together while they got to their feet and then quickly hurried after it, but once it disappeared out of sight they knew that it was no use.

"Dad's going to kill me." Ron stated.