Harry and Fletch walked down the halls of the school, talking companiably. They reached the front doors and Fletch continued to stride forward, starting across the lawn into the cold, crisp autumn air. Harry followed him, uncertain, because they were not moving in the direction of Hogsmeade village, the only place that Fletch could catch a ride off Hogwarts property. Instead they went round the castle and headed towards the Forbidden Forest.

"Harry," Fletch began, "do you remember how you got out of Godric's Hollow, that night when Voldemort fell?"

Harry was puzzled. "I know Hagrid took me, but I don't really remember it at all."

"Yes. Hagrid was the one who removed who from the smoking ruins of your parents' house."

Harry became aware of a low, distant growling noise. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" said Fletch. "So you really have no memories of that night? You don't know how you got to the Dursleys'?"

Harry recalled a conversation he, Ron and Hermione had overheard in the Three Broomsticks. "Hagrid borrowed Sirius Black's motorcycle." He thought of something he had accidentally confessed to Uncle Vernon, a long time ago. "You know, once I dreamed of a giant flying motorcycle."

Fletch grinned. "Did you?"

The growling noise was like thunder, shaking the earth itself.

"Did Sirius ever tell you that he grew up in a Muggle neighbourhood?" said Fletch. "He lived next to an auto garage. He helped the mechanics mend cars and he learned all about motors and engines and all that Muggle automobile technology."

The rumbling was getting louder and louder as they approached Hagrid's cabin.

"Sirius built the bike himself," Fletch said. "He adored it. It caused him great distress to have to leave it with me when he went to Azkaban. Even now he can't use it, because as you know, he's on espionage missions for the Order of the Phoenix. But I hung onto it for him for all these years, until he told me what he wanted to do with it."

The rumbling shook the ground under their feet. They were almost at Hagrid's cabin. Harry looked up at his companion.

"Go," said Fletch, and Harry broke into a run.

He sprinted to the cabin, racing round to the pumpkin patch in the back, turned the corner, and skidded to a stop.

In the middle of the pumpkin patch sat Hagrid, atop a huge motorbike with a great rumbling engine that sounded like the purr of a giant lion. He beamed down at Harry.

"Hi, Harry! Like the bike?"

Harry gaped foolishly.

Fletch came round the cabin and grinned at them. "Hagrid my friend, how goes it in your neck of the woods?"

"All's well up here," Hagrid said, climbing off the motorcycle and shaking Fletch's hand enthusiastically. Fletch came up to Hagrid's shoulders. Harry felt dwarfed by the two colossal men.

"Do you know each other?" he asked.

"Of course! Hagrid was gamekeeper when I was a student," Fletch said.

"Are you part giant too?" Harry asked, before he remembered that it was boorish to talk about giants in the wizarding world. But neither Fletch and Hagrid was bothered.

"The difference between Hagrid and me is that I DID swallow a bottle of Skele-gro when I was little," said Fletch, then both men roared with laughter at Harry's face. "I'm only pulling your leg, Harry you great lout," chuckled Fletch, "don't you know that drinking a bottle of Skele-gro would kill you? Your skin doesn't expand to fit the growing bones, so you'd literally burst out of your skin. Actually, my great-grandfather was a giant, an ally of Grindelwald. My family's heritage put us at odds with other so-called pureblood wizarding families, but I feel that I've shown those snobs what a wizard with giant blood can make of himself."

"A real inspiration for the rest of us," said Hagrid, wiping away a tear. Fletch patted him on the back.

"Harry, this is your motorcycle," Fletch said. "Sirius wants you to have it because he knows you'll take good care of it, whereas I, being no lover of Muggle contraptions, kept it under a sheet in a dark corner of my house." He scrutinized the motorcycle. "I must admit, Sirius was a clever mechaniwizard. The machine magically changes size to fit the rider, and has a Balancing Charm on it so that you can't fall off unless you jump. Sometimes I think Sirius would have been better suited to Arthur Weasley's Muggle Artefacts department. Maybe he wouldn't have gotten into so much trouble." He sighed, then smiled at Harry and gestured to the motorbike. "Go on, try it out."

"It's great fun," Hagrid added.

Harry suspected Hagrid only liked the machine because its engine sounded like the roar of a monstrous beast, but he did not give voice to his qualms, and approached the idling motorcycle cautiously, having never been near one before. Dudley had once had a non-motorized racing bike, which may have kept him from reaching the proportions that he currently held if he'd used it more often, but Dudley often enjoyed asking for things merely for taunting Harry with. Harry had never so much as touched a bike of any kind in his life.

He carefully swung one leg over the seat and hauled himself on. To his surprise, it shrank to fit him.

"Yeh have to kickstart it," said Hagrid.

Harry pulled back one foot and kicked the machine with his heel. Immediately the idling machine jolted into life and roared up into the air.

The motorcycle launched itself high over the heads of Fletch and Hagrid and soared through the sky over the castle. Harry cried out in panic and gripped the handlebars tightly. It was nothing like a broom. Harry could control the Firebolt, unlike this machine, which seemed to have a mind of its own. He wondered how he was supposed to steer. He tilted his weight to the left, but only made the motorcycle swerve in the air and turn round. It roared back down towards Hagrid's cabin. A crash looked imminent-but Harry managed to pull up and landed with an earth-shaking thud in front of Fletch and Hagrid. The motorcycle engine dropped into an innocent purr again.

The two men grinned at him. "How did you like it?" Fletch asked.

Harry was about to answer that it was disagreeable, but his face involuntarily split into a smile. "It's fantastic!" he blurted out, suddenly realizing why Sirius had loved the great machine.

Hagrid advised him to keep his head down when kicking up the machine, if he didn't want to take off into the air. Harry tried this, and the purring turned back into a roar as the motorcycle took off on the ground. Harry steered it across the lawn, where strangely it left no trace on the grass, and past the front doors of the school, on the road to the town of Hogsmeade. Hagrid and Fletch ran after him, both laughing like mad.

The motorcycle took Harry all the way into Hogsmeade, halting in front of the Three Broomsticks pub. Harry was climbing off when a slim, dark-haired woman came out of the pub and smiled at Harry. Harry recognized Perdita Clemens, the Phoenix who had burst into Dumbledore's office the other night.

"Harry Potter," she said. "It's nice to see you again."

"Hello," Harry said, pleased that she was more civil to him today. He noticed a bump on her slender figure that he had not seen in the dim light in Dumbledore's office. Perdita was several months pregnant.

Perdita indicated the motorcycle. "Is it Snuffles'?"

"Yes," said Harry. "He's giving it to me though."

Perdita smiled placidly. "He is a kind godfather, isn't he? Perhaps he will consent to becoming a godfather again." She touched her stomach.

"What are you naming your baby?" Harry asked.

Perdita made a vague movement with her hand. "We haven't decided yet. Albus, Mundungus, Theophrastus. So many lovely names." Her eyes were bright as she rubbed her stomach.

Hagrid and Fletch caught up to them then, out of breath from their run. Hagrid patted the motorcycle fondly while Fletch took Perdita Clemens' small hand and kissed it.

"My darling," he said tenderly.

Perdita smiled. "Mundungus my dear."

"I don't believe you know my fiancee Perdita," Fletch said to Harry.

"Dumbledore has introduced us," said Perdita. "Harry's just been asking about the baby."

Hagrid stooped by Perdita and touched her stomach gently. "Have yeh named 'im yet? Rubeus is a nice name," he said hopefully.

Fletch and Perdita laughed. "Maybe, Hagrid," Fletch said. "I only hope he'll have his mother's fiery Spanish features."

Perdita smiled demurely. Harry was amused that she did not disprove the compliment.

"Have you had any news of Snuffles recently?" Perdita enquired. When Harry gloomily shook his head, she smiled. "I think you will, quite soon. Perhaps from a local post owl?" she said, gesturing to the post office. Taking Fletch's arm, she nodded to Hagrid and Harry. "Good-bye for now."

Harry stared after them. "Does she mean Si- er, Snuffles is coming back here?"

"If Perdita Clemens says it, it must be true," Hagrid said. "She'd know. She's high up in the. Ministry." Hagrid looked dejected. Harry had noticed Hagrid jealously eyeing the gold rings on Fletch's and Perdita's fingers.

"Are you not in the. ah, Ministry, Hagrid?"

Hagrid shot him a searching look. "I hope to be."

So Fudge still had some influence on the Order of the Phoenix. "One day you'll get your ring, Hagrid."

Hagrid grinned. "I reckon we both will, Harry! Someday."