Chapter 17 - Closed Barrier at 9 3/4
We all woke up pretty late on the day we were supposed to get to the train station for Hogwarts at eleven which meant everyone running around, well except for Percy. He lived up to his Prefect name by waking up incredibly early and being to snobby to wake everyone else up. Mrs Weasley was the last to wake me and Ginny up.
"Girls!" She called shrilly. "Up now!" She ordered. "We'll be late!" I rolled over and ignored her as she rushed out of the room to make breakfast. Ginny got up and stretched then attempted to get me up.
"Come on, Ash!" Ginny called way too cheerfully. "Hogwarts! We're going to Hogwarts today!" I waved her off in an attempt to make her leave me alone. "I'll go get Harry and Ron." She warned. When I made no attempt to reply she ran from the room and up the stairs. Minutes later she had returned with the boys.
"Ash, you've gotta get up." Harry whispered in my ear trying to coax me up. "We'll be late."
"Harry, let me make this clear, just because you're my brother doesn't mean I won't kick your arse." I muttered while burying my head in my pillow.
"Just get Cedric here." I heard one of the twins say from the door, I didn't look to see which one.
"She'll get up for him." The other ginger twit added. I lazily dragged my hand to the bed side table for my wand and pointed it at the twins.
"Don't make me." I murmured.
"Yeah, right." One scoffed.
"Ooh, Ceddy! Umf!" The croaked as I landed on him and punched him square in the jaw. I stood up to see the other twin was George. I pulled my fist back and punched him too.
"I'm up. Now get out!" I growled. Everyone was laughing at Fred and George's shocked faces as they all left. After I got dressed, it felt like my knuckle was broken so I went downstairs to find Mrs Weasley.
"Breakfast in on the table, dear." Mrs Weasley said to me.
"Can you fix my knuckle? I think I broke it." I replied. Mrs Weasley looked at my knuckle that I held up for her.
"May I ask how you broke it?" Mrs Weasley asked.
"I punched both Fred and George for starting on me about dating Cedric Diggory, which I'm not." I replied. To my surprise, she chuckled. I turned to see Fred and George. Fred had a swollen lip and George had a broken nose. "Please don't fix them, we can tell them apart now."
"I won't, dear. Here. Episkey!" She replied. My knuckle cracked which hurt like hell. "Now come on, breakfast." I sat at the table across from the twins who just glared at me, they then both kicked me which started a kicking war between the three of us. Harry and Ron also got kicked by accident while Percy just sighed. After breakfast I went outside to whistle for Dion, he'd stayed out all night, who came straight to land on my shoulder with Hedwig on my other shoulder. I fed them both a treat then walked inside to give Harry his owl.
"Thanks Ash." He smiled then gently pushed Hedwig into her cage as I did the same with Dion, giving him plenty of treats. Mr. Weasley taught me and Harry a spell to make our trunks lighter called Leggero, he then did it to all of our trunks.
"Does in work on human bodies?" I asked as we were putting out stuff in the trunk of the car, it had been expanded to fit everyone's trunks in, which made everyone give me a weird look. "I'm serious. I mean, if I need to carry someone injured or cart off a dead twin, I mean, body" I grinned at the twins.
"Yes, in that sense it does." Mr. Weasley chuckled. "But it would probably be easier to use Locomotor to just make them float."
"You raise a valid point, Mr. Weasley." I continued grinning as we set off to Hogwarts. The ride was pretty quiet and we arrived in no time. We arrived in no time and were soon at the station running for the train as the Weasley's were late, just like last year. They all rushed through leaving me, Ron and Harry last, again like last year. Ron and Harry took a run at it until they crashed at the barrier attracting unwanted muggle attention.
"Oi!" A muggle train security person yelled. "What do you three think you are doing?" I had no answer.
"Sorry, sir. Lost control of the trolley." Harry lied stiffly. The security guy rolled his eyes and walked off.
"What happened?" I hissed as Ron and Harry were pushing against the barrier.
"I don't know." Ron replied quietly. "I think the barrier has sealed itself."
"Oh no." Harry suddenly said. "The train leaves at exactly eleven. It's gone eleven, now."
"We're doomed." I whined.
"If we can't get through, maybe mum and dad can't get back." Ron said concerned.
"Maybe we should go wait by the car." Harry suggested which immediately gave me an idea.
"The car." I grinned.
"Fly it to Hogwarts?" Ron asked weakly.
"Yeah, you know how to drive it. When we get there we can explain what happened, we'll be in no trouble." I said confidently.
"It's a good idea." Harry agreed.
"Okay, let's go." Ron grinned at my brilliant idea. We rushed back to the car and dumped our stuff in the boot leaving Hedwig, Dion and Ron's stupid rat Scabber's in the back seat. The three of is squished into the front seat and we started flying out of London.
"I don't believe a flying car is something normal for muggle's to see." Harry stated.
"Is this the invisible thingy?" I asked Ron pointing to a shiny silver knob, when he nodded I pushed and made us invisible, it was cool. The rest of the journey consisted on us flying in the clouds in the general direction of Hogwarts and popping out of the clouds to see the train tracks and one time we saw the train. Well, a little bit late, it turned out to be behind us and nearly rammed into us which made Ron almost lose control of the car, which then ended up with Harry dangling out of the car. Me and Ron had to pull him back in. We obviously arrived late at Hogwarts plus we didn't exactly look where we were flying.
"RON!" Harry yelled which made us both look.
"TREE!" I cried as we crashed into a big arse tree.
"My wand." Ron whimpered as I looked up to see almost fully snapped in half. "Look at my wand."
"You're lucky it's not your neck." Harry muttered. "It's lucky this tree is here." He said as a big arse branch of the tree prepared to smash into us. I immediately pulled up my feet.
"No it's not!" I shrieked as it impacted with the front of the car.
"Reverse! Reverse!" Harry yelled which Ron immediately tried to do. We got about halfway backwards before the tree started attacking us again. I continued screaming as all this happened. Ron eventually got us out of the tree while I decided to completely lean over to try and hit us but we managed to get away. The car actually threw us out of it followed by our pets and finally our luggage. It then drove away leaving attempting to chase it.
"Come back!" Ron was yelling. "Dad'll kill me!" When the car disappeared into the tree Ron turned on me. "Great plan, Ash!" He yelled at me sarcastically.
"Yeah, well done for crashing the car into a bloody tree!" I yelled back as sarcastically.
"Stop it!" Harry hissed. "Both of you. We have to get inside before someone sees." We both agreed with Harry so we ran inside leaving our trunks and pet's with everyone else's stuff. We ran up the stairs towards the Great Hall too, that was until we bumped into Filch.
"You should take a good look while you still can." Filch leered at us. "I expect it will be your last night. Oooh, we are in trouble, aren't we. Professor Snape." We span around on the stairs to see Snape walking up behind us, his face much happier than it should have been.
"Follow me." He said coldly. We followed him back down the stairs to his cold dungeon. "In." He orded again. "So, the train isn't good enough for the famous Harry Potter and the pure blood Aurora-Shaw Hyde plus their little Weasley sidekick. Wanted to arrive with a bang, did we?"
"Ron is not our sidekick!" I shrieked. "And I resent you assume the fact my blood has anything to do with this. If I cared about my blood status I'd be in Slytherin like so many other dark wizards."
"30 points from Gryffindor for your insolent little comment. A brilliant start to the year, Miss Hyde." Snape grinned while I glowered at him both boys grabbed my arm so I didn't do anything stupid like attack a teacher.
"The barrier at Kings Cross..." Ron started before Snape coldly cut him off.
"Silence! What have you done with the car?" He asked.
"It took off into the forbidden forest." Harry replied hoarsely.
"You were seen by no less than seven muggles!" He hissed. "It's all over the Evening Prophet. I also noticed you ravaged the whomping willow which has been on these grounds since before you were born. If you had been in my house you'd be out of this school immediately..."
"However, they are not." We heard behind us. We turned around to see Professor Dumbledore, looking grave, and Professor McGonagall who looked angrier than we had ever seen. "They're fate is decided by Professor McGonagall." With how angry she looked, I knew we were going to be expelled. I felt like I was going to cry. Harry grabbed my hand and squeezed it while looked at the floor.
"I'm sorry, Professor. We didn't think." I croaked.
"That much is obvious." McGonagall sighed. I looked up to see both of their faces had softened significantly.
"We'll go and get our stuff." Ron said in a hopeless voice. Apparently I wasn't the only one who saw the inevitable.
"What are you talking about, Weasley?" McGonagall barked.
"Well, you're expelling us, aren't you?" Ron asked.
"Not today, Mr. Weasley." Dumbledore said. I immediately looked up, I'm sure they could see the tears in my eyes that were yet to fall. "But I must impress upon the three of you the seriousness of what you have done. I will be writing to your families tonight. I must also warn you that if you do anything like this again, I will be forced to expel you. The three of you will also receive detention but seems as the term has not started yet, I see no reason for any points to be taken." My face lit up. I felt the need to not only hug both Dumbledore and McGonagall but laugh in Snape's face.
"Professor, I have already taken 30 points from Gryffindor for a very insolent comment from Miss Hyde." Snape informed.
"May I ask, what the comment was?" Dumbledore asked.
"I said that Ron is not Harry and mine's sidekick as Professor Snape said and that I resented the fact that Professor Snape assumed that my blood status has anything to do with us using a car to get to Hogwarts when the barrier sealed itself from letting us through." I said angrily. Both Dumbledore and McGonagall looked shocked at what I had just said.
"Miss Hyde then made a direct comment about Slytherin and Dark Wizards..." Snape started but I still cut in.
"Who care about their blood status?" I finished for him.
"I believe that Professor Snape will forget about this comment as we will his. Now the three of you will get back to your dormitories. Your password is wattlebird." Professor Dumbledore said as a finality. The three of us rushed off as fast as we could to Gryffindor tower.
"Password?" The fat lady asked.
"Wattlebird." Harry replied. I sat on the sofa and wiped my eyes while Harry had sat next to me and threw his arm around me for comfort.
"I thought we'd had it." Ron sighed dropping next to me.
"Yeah." I whispered.
"So did I." Harry muttered.
"Stupid barrier." I murmured angrily. "I'm going to bed. I don't want to see anyone. Good night."
"Night, Ash." Harry smiled and hugged me.
"G'night." Ron sighed and pulled me into a hug. I sighed before retreating up the stairs, quickly getting changed and jumped into bed, falling asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.