Chapter 13 – The Dogtorcycle
"Hermione, are you MAD? Do you really, really think we'll be able to get to London on Sirius's motorcycle?" asked Ron.
He, Harry and Hermione were at Sheeba's home, standing in front of a frightened Smiley, who was definetely resolute not to open the garage for them, for he did not want at all to face the 'dogtorcycle', as himself called it.
"Ron, we don't have any other choice... if you think it's not going to work, we can go back to Hogwarts and leave everything up to Sheeba... look!" she showed them the 'Eye of the Tiger', in which there was an image of Sheeba running through a tube.
"How did she give you this?"
"She trusts on me."
"Oh, sure. And you're going to betray her trust by taking Sirius's motorcycle from here..."
"Hermione," Harry cut Ron off, "how will you be able to drive the motorcycle? Have you ever driven one?"
"No, but I've got a feeling."
"Marvelous. Harry, have you already breaken your neck? Hermione's inviting us to do it."
"Listen, the two of you. Come here," Hermione dragged them to a door in a corner and opened it, "I've seen Sheeba put him here earlier," by the gap, they could see inside the room a big wolf sleeping, "that's Professor Lupin. I guess he won't be able to help us out. Snape's missing and Dumbledore's at school. Who could try anything?"
"What about Cho?"
"I've got a feeling that when we solve everything, we'll find her too."
"Hermione, what's going on?" asked Ron suspiciously, "You've never had any feelings, forebodings and so..."
"Okay, I'll tell you. I'm a Sniffer."
"What? A Sniffer?" asked Harry and Ron simultaneously.
"Exactly. That's why Sheeba gave me an 'Eye of the Tiger' and..." Hermione glanced at the gem and noticed that the reflection had faden out, "God! The reflection has vanished. We need to hurry. Smiley, please, tell me how can we get to the garage."
"No! Dogtorcycle will kill the three of you. Smiley can't tell, it can't tell."
"Smiley," Hermione looked furious, "I own a key of your Mistress's house and I work with her. I'M DEMANDING!"
The house-elf looked down and said, "All right... Smiley's duty as a house-elf is to serve everybody who its mistress trusts on... take it, lady, garage's key, dogtorcycle's key, roof's key, chains' key..." there was about ten keys, each one of them opened a different padlock. He handed her the keys and hid himself under a table, very scared.
"Hermione, I'm amazed," said Ron teasingly, "As a girl who claims she loves house-elves, you were very harsh to Smiley."
They got into the garage and the vehicle automatically made a noise as if its engines were speeding up. Harry had never seen a motorcycle that huge before. It was really enormous: big and black and silver. Now he understood why Hagrid used it to bring him to Privet Drive when he was a baby. It might be the only vehicle in the world that was proportionate to Hagrid's size. And listening to the roaring sound that came from the motorcycle, he thought that Hagrid would love to have such a vehicle.
"How can Sirius use such a thing?" asked Ron. As it listened the name of its owner, the motorcycle made a loud speeding noise, and this time Harry thought it sounded much like a bark. He looked at Hermione, who was walking around the motorcycle, staring seriously at its two enormous headlights. They switched on and Hermione shut her eyes closed; the vehicle seemed to have growled again.
"Hello," she said, "you're missing your keeper, aren't you?"
The motocycle sped up and perished various times.
"You also don't like to be chained, do you?"
The vehicle seemed to agree again.
"What about a ride?"
The motorcycle made noises that sounded like the bark of a very excited dog.
"How long do you take to take me to London?"
It honked twice.
"Two hours from here to London?" said Ron, "It can't be true."
The motorcycle started growling again and Hermione shot Ron an angry glance and mouthed, "Don't insult it!"
"See, these boys are Harry and Ron... we're going to set you free, but you have to be quiet, okay? I promise you that when we arrive at London, you'll be able to see Sirius," it made the motorcycle get really out of control. Harry could swear it was drooling.
While they were unlocking the chains that kept the vehicle linked to the floor, Harry asked "How did you know Sirius's motorcycle was a dog?"
"Actually, I thought it could find Sirius by itself. This kind of magical artifact usually is very attached to its owner. When Smiley called it a 'dogtorcycle', I thought I could try something, and used some of my Truth Sniffer skills to see what it wanted, and it wasn't very difficult. I used to have a dog, and when it was kept chained for a really long time, all it wanted was to run a lot."
Ron had just opened the roof. The motorcycle was seized by only a chain; the back tyre was about three feet away from the floor, running on wheels excitedly. Above them, the full moon was shining brightly in the sky. Something popped into Harry's mind and he asked the motorcycle, "Could you take us to Sirius? He's at London."
The vehicle made a deep and mighty roar that sounded like a 'yes'.
"Hold on!" shouted Harry. He unlocked the last padlock and the motorcycle darted as a bullet, upright, heading to the sky. They could not help but screamed. When they got really high (many clouds later), it sped up and turned right, as a jet. It flew above Hogsmeade, roaring very loud and heading to London.