Chapter 6: Aerial Adventures

Outside the King's Cross station, Nanoha turned to the little puppy in their group. "Arf, we need some privacy," she said.

Arf got to work. She glanced around, mostly out of impulse, and quickly erected a dimensional barrier around the three magicals. She did not have Yuuno's skill, but neither did she need to contain an all-out battle. The ground around her feet turned black with mottled, bruised highlights where the light struck it. The strange discoloration spread a mere three yards around them, muffling all noise beyond and distorting the view of people as they walked by.

Harry looked around. "What did you do?" he asked.

"It's just a barrier to prevent the muggles from seeing us," Arf said. "As long as you stay inside it, we can talk and act freely." She transformed to her humanoid form to demonstrate – none of the blurry people outside so much as glanced at them.

"Wow," Harry said.

Nanoha clapped her hands together. "Okay Harry, I want you to get on your broom and just hover a bit, okay? Let's see how much weight the Nimbus 2000 can take."

Harry grinned and scrabbled through his trunk to pull out the broom. He knew its specs by heart. Designed for speed, agility, and reliability, it was the most powerful broom on the market. He straddled the mahogany handle and kicked off to hover three feet off the ground.

Nanoha and Fate strapped the trunk to the underside of Harry's broom three times, distributing the weight as best they could with a binding spell from each of them making the ropes. Harry struggled briefly to keep the broom steady and drifted a bit as the girls worked.

"No more," Fate said, scowling. "The broom's built for speed, not cargo hauling. She can't take the weight."

"What if we used a levitation charm on the trunk?" Nanoha wondered.

"We can't," Harry objected. "Underage Sorcery, remember?"

Nanoha pursed her lips. It was highly unlikely that the Ministry would be able to track any spellcasting inside the barrier, as long as they kept the magical discharges to less than having a massive fight over a typhoon. But Harry didn't know that. "Okay then," she said. "We'll just divide the load."

It took the four of them fifteen minutes to get all of their possessions sorted for flight. Harry still got the trunk, but Arf had half his stuff in a big bag they were able to buy at a muggle shop (for about twice as much as they could have bought elsewhere, but the train station was catering to customers with emergency needs). Nanoha and Fate still had their own stuff in the TSAB duffles they had used the previous year, which didn't eliminate the weight of all their supplies but cut out enough that they could fly with it easily enough.

"Ready?" Arf asked at last. She got a series of nods and looked up at the barrier's spherical ceiling. She focused for a long moment and extended the barrier, shooting it up as a cylinder with a steep angle. "Okay, go!" she said tersely.

Nanoha, Fate, and Harry shot up through the barrier, Arf following a moment later. They made it to a height of about a hundred feet before they came out of the barrier, but by then they were going fast enough that a muggle would have to look up at just the right angle to see them, let alone make out what they were seeing.

Nanoha had never flown alongside a broom before. Harry had a happy grin on his face, powering ahead straight and level. Even with his trunk slowing him down, the broom was plenty fast enough to catch the Express and his control over it was nothing short of perfect.

Fate came up behind them. "How do we find the Express?" she asked.

Nanoha pointed up ahead, where London gave way to wilderness. "First we get out into open country. Then we hope the train is just covered by muggle-repelling charms. If we can't find it, we fire off searchers."

It was a good plan, and Harry was the first to spot the train, a scarlet snake among the hills. "There it is!"

"Great," Nanoha called back. "Now we just need to land on it."

"Land on it?" Harry asked nervously. "It's going awfully fast."

"It's not as hard as it looks," Arf said. "We'll get in low and match its speed. Get in lower, lower, let your foot touch it, then just stop flying. Momentum takes care of the rest. And we'll be there to catch you, just in case."

"Come on," Nanoha called. Not waiting, the pink wings on her shoes flared and she shot towards the train head first. Fate followed after her, followed by Harry and Arf.

Nanoha flipped over at the last moment, bringing her legs under her to touch down on the roof of the train as easy as standing. Fate was right beside her and chose a backflip to land low, her feet widely spaced and Bardiche held out like a balancing rod before she stood up and turned to watch Harry.

Harry came in low far more deliberately than the mages had, pushing his broom to precisely match the train's speed. He added a bit of drift, centering over the train and coming in lower. He paced the train for a minute at shoulder height while Nanoha and Fate pulled his trunk off the poor broom. He lurched forward when the weight was removed but recovered almost instantly, a work of precision flying that would have had Hooch handing out points by the bucketful. When he actually did touch down it was graceless but entirely functional – he simply rolled upside down and gently lowered himself into lying down on the train.

Arf lowered herself to the roof feet first and raised an eyebrow at Harry. "Interesting approach."

Harry got to his feet unsteadily. "With all the shaking this train is doing, I wanted to hold onto my broom as long as I could," he answered. He had to shout to make himself heard.

"Now we just need to get inside," Nanoha shouted back.

Everyone looked at each other

"We didn't think this through," Fate observed.

Nanoha pointed to the gap between cars. "Ladder!"

Harry pointed to his luggage. "Trunk!"

"Broom?"

"Not bloody likely!" He'd have to get the broom sideways to fit between the cars and even he couldn't match this speed like that, especially if the train turned!

"Arf? Teleport?"

Arf frowned and shook her head. "Moving too fast," she called back. "Drop and catch?"

Fate thought that over. "Fragile?" Harry nodded, his trunk had a lot of Potions glassware in it.

"Other bright ideas?" Arf challenged.

No one had any. Arf jumped down between the cars and took a wide stance. The three students dragged the trunk over and dropped it on her. She caught the weight easily, but winced at the sound of something breaking inside.

Harry, Nanoha, and Fate clamored down and slipped inside the train. "Now we just need to find a compartment and hope that no one saw that," he said.

"Harry Potter, what on earth are you doing?"

Harry winced and tried to smile. "Hi, Hermione. Have a good holiday?"

The bushy-haired Gryffindor was in no mood for pleasantries. "Were you on the roof? Why do you have your broom out? What was that noise?"

"Maybe we should talk inside," Nanoha spoke up, nodding to the compartment Hermione had stormed out of.

"What?" Hermione asked irritably. "Oh, fine. Come on in. I'm sure Ron will want to hear this, too."

Nanoha walked into the compartment after Harry and Fate. Ron was in there already, looking at them with bald curiosity. Hermione sat down next to him with a scowl. Nanoha ignored her for the moment, slinging her duffle from her back up into the overhead rack. Satisfied that her luggage was stowed properly, she turned her attention to Ron. "Hey, Ron. How was your summer?"

Ron grinned. "I'd say your adventure in Surrey was the high point," he drawled. "I don't suppose you took pictures?"

"Honestly," Hermione huffed, "I get that they were horrible people but did you have to attack them like that?"

Fate sighed. Honestly, no they didn't have to, and they had the reprimands and lost wages to prove it. "I'd do it again," she said calmly.

Arf scowled at Hermione. "Of course we would!" she exclaimed hotly. "People like that need to be stopped, no matter what, before they can cause any more suffering!" She stepped up to Hermione and shoved a finger in her face. "You don't come from a bad home so you don't have any right to-"

"Arf," Fate said quietly, "enough."

Arf stopped talking instantly, visibly swallowing whatever else she had to say. She turned around with a "hmpf!" and transformed into her puppy form to sit at Fate's feet with her back to Hermione. For her part, Hermione looked mildly intimidated by the larger, seemingly older, undoubtedly stronger girl getting in her face.

Fate sighed. "I apologize for Arf's behavior," she said politely. "She gets extremely protective about...cases like this. We both do."

"We all do," Nanoha jumped in. She clutched a fist to her chest. "And we'd rather the Dursleys had been open to talking things out, but when people don't listen to words the only thing left is to go all out and don't hold back until they understand your feelings." Idly she wondered why Hermione's nervous eyes had switched from Arf to herself. And why Ron looked just as nervous. Was there something on her face?

"Anyway," Harry squeaked into the silence. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Anyway, about, uh, today. We had a bit of a problem."

"What kind of problem?" Hermione asked suspiciously.

"You know the barrier onto Platform 9 ¾?" Harry asked.

"Of course."

"It wouldn't let us through," Nanoha said.

Ron blinked and asked, "It...what? How'd you get on the train?"

Hermione moaned and held her head. "That's why you have your broom." Harry, Fate, and Nanoha all nodded.

Ron's jaw dropped. "You flew onto the train? Wizard."

"That's nothing to be impressed by, Ron!" Hermione snapped. "They could get into so much trouble!"

"As much trouble as not showing up at all?" Harry asked. "It's fine. No one knows but us, so as long as we don't say anything, we won't have a problem. Right?"

The long ride to Hogwarts passed comfortably. Hermione, of course, wanted every conceivable detail of Harry's rescue, the Arthra's layout, the kind of magic Harry saw. Nanoha and Fate fielded most of the tough questions, of course, while Harry just provided the outsider's view on what MidChildan tech looked like. Then, almost before they knew it, the sun was setting and the train was stopping.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" came the familiar bellow of Hagrid. Nanoha looked over to see the massive man waving a lantern over a sea of children. She saw Harry wave and added her own, but of course the man was too busy to more than wave back. The kids looked positively terrified.

A hand pushed against her back. "Go on," a girl's voice encouraged. Nanoha craned her head around and up. The girl wore Hufflepuff robes and looked to be sixth or seventh year, with a prefect badge on her shirt. "All the first years get a special trip their first time," she said kindly. She nudged Nanoha towards Hagrid again.

Nanoha shifted slightly to push back. "I'm a second year," she complained.

The girl hesitated and bent down a bit to get a closer look. "Eh? Oh, you're Takamachi, aren't you?"

"That's right," Nanoha said.

"Sorry about that. Every year there's at least a couple first years that just follow the crowd and avoid the bearded giant man with the scary voice," the prefect said dramatically.

"That's okay," Nanoha said. She glanced around and saw Fate and the others watching her a few paces away. "So, um, where should we go, then?"

"Oh, right. Just follow the crowd and pick a carriage. They'll take you right up."

"Thanks!" Nanoha chirped. She ran to rejoin her friends.

The carriages turned out to be old-fashioned stagecoaches, fully set with tack and harness floating in the air where a horse should be. But the horses were unlike anything Nanoha had ever seen.

Skinny, that was her first impression. She hadn't exactly seen many horses but she didn't think those spindly legs and narrow bodies were quite right. They were pitch black, which was a bit creepy but normal enough. The wings, those she knew were wrong. Leathery, looking more bat than anything else, she was pretty sure she could cross "pegasus" off the list of "what am I looking at?" As they got closer she could make out the scaly flesh of the head and a jaw with teeth suited to a scavenger. Or a predator.

"What are those things?" Fate asked.

"The coaches?" Harry asked.

Nanoha frowned. Okay, they never had anything quite like that in Japan, but that was beside the point. "The horse things," she said, wondering. They were the obvious thing to be freaked out by, weren't they?

"What horse things?" Harry asked.

Nanoha looked at Fate and Arf, both of whom shot puzzled looks at Harry. "Uh, the things attached to the coaches," Fate said, pointing right at one.

Hermione followed her finger. "That's the harness. On a muggle coach that would be what the horse wears to pull the carriage. These are just enchanted to float."

Fate blinked repeatedly and looked at the harness that was almost completely covered by a black, leathery wing. "You're telling us you really don't see those creatures?" she asked.

Hermione, Harry, and Ron all shook their heads.

Nanoha turned to the pendent on her necklace. "Raising Heart, scan," she ordered.

"Yes, my master." The red jewel pulsed once with power.

Fate turned to her own device. "Bardiche, link to the embassy database and search."

"Yes sir."

"We need to actually get in the carriages," Hermione stressed. She grabbed the shorter girls by a hand each and dragged them forward. The boys followed and they all piled in to one carriage. It was a bit cramped for five, but no one was in the mood to challenge Hermione's "do what I say or else" tone at the moment.

The carriage was more than halfway to the castle when Bardiche found a match. "Thestrals," he reported. He made a detailed report available to Fate telepathically.

Fate winced as certain facts manifested in her mind. "Uh, well, not everyone can see thestrals, apparently. They're winged, carnivorous horses. Carrion feeders."

"What do you need to do to see them?" Hermione asked curiously.

Fate sent a helpless look to Nanoha, who was getting the same report from Raising Heart. [What do I tell her?]

Nanoha sighed heavily. "It's not something you can choose to do," she said. "You have to...experience..." she stumbled over her words and sighed again. "Anyone who can see a thestral has been through something pretty terrible."

Hermione looked like she wanted to ask more questions but Harry cut her off. "That sounds really personal. Hermione, look it up if you want to know. It's in the library, right?"

"Yeah," Nanoha said. "The books on more dangerous creatures."

"Dangerous?" Ron asked. "They're pulling carriages for kids and they're dangerous?"

"That kind of worries us, too," Nanoha admitted.

They parted ways in the Great Hall, Gryffindors to their table while Nanoha and Fate hurried to sit down with the Ravenclaws.

"Nanoha! Fate!"

Fate grinned. "Cho!" They ran to the older girl and glomped into a big hug for a moment.

Cho backed off a bit and laughed. "Oh, it's been so long. I was afraid you wouldn't be coming back."

Nanoha smiled sheepishly. "We couldn't just abandon our friends."

"That's right," Fate agreed. "Besides, the Academy offers summer classes." They sat down at the table and quietly tuned out the Sorting.

Cho shook her head. "Just like a pair of muggleborns. It seems like half of them spent the summer with tutors learning all sorts of mad muggle stuff."

"Ravenclaws," Nanoha pointed out.

Cho giggled at that. "Fair enough. Fate, are you going to stay with the team?"

Ah, quidditch. It was only a matter of time before the seeker brought that up. Fate offered a feral grin. "I want that cup," she answered.

The youngest Weasley was last to be sorted, heading to Gryffindor with her brothers. Then Dumbledore stood up. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts, and to our new faces, a very happy first meeting. I have some start of term announcements, but I'm afraid I've lost my notes underneath a dinner plate." He spread his arms and the quiet magic of Hogwarts and elves filled the tables with food. "Do try not to eat them. Let the feast begin!"

"Do you think he really hid his notes in the feast?" Nanoha wondered.

"I'd be careful just in case," Cho laughed. She passed over a salad and picked up a chop for herself.

Dumbledore picked up his empty plate when he stood and spun it in his hands. The gold disk transformed into a long scroll that unraveled all the way to the floor. "Now that we are all fed, I believe I have found my notes. Hmm," Dumbledore ran the absurdly long scroll up through his hands, and as the top of it flopped over the children laughed. It was completely blank. "Ah yes, here it is," Dumbledore announced as he held the very last few inches of parchment, the rest of the scroll now an ungainly heap on the table in front of him. McGonagall calmly moved the candlesticks away before the little stunt became spectacular.

"Mr. Filch would like me to remind you that magic is strictly prohibited in the corridors and has added another half dozen items to the list of banned substances, which can be found on his office door." And was probably the least looked at bit of writing in the entire castle. None of the new items were dangerous enough to put emphasis on, so Dumbledore moved on. "New students should be aware that the forest beyond the school grounds is called the Forbidden Forest for a very good reason. Older students should probably remember that as well, we can only hope." He paused for sheepish laughter and meaningful glances at the Weasley twins. "The third floor corridor continues to be out of bounds until renovations are complete. And finally, it is my pleasure to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."

Dumbledore gestured to his right and a man stood. He was broad-shouldered and had a hint more muscle than most wizards, wearing new and tailored robes that had an unusually stiff cut over the shoulders. He had a sad face with steel blue eyes and silvery gray hair, a product of age given his many wrinkles. Mustache and beard were the same color, and lent the man a distinguished look. He stood straight and firm, and looked more like his wrinkles came from the miles behind him, far moreso than the years.

"No way," Nanoha whispered.

"It can't be," Fate agreed.

"Professor Gil Graham, retired Admiral of the Time-Space Administration Bureau," Dumbledore introduced.

Edited: Typos