Chapter 108: Fly in the Night

It was the night of their Night Flying event finally and a large crowd of third- to seventh-years had gathered at the Entrance Hall with their broomsticks, waiting for the commencement of the trip. All the students present had been briefed on the safety precautions as well as basics of Night Flying. The necessary charms needed, such as the Disillusioned Charm, had already been cast.

"So everyone of you know your respective roles, right??" James asked the gathered group of prefects and the co-opted Gryffindors. "Don't forget, safety first." The group in front of James nodded in understanding. "You guys know what to do. So standby at your respective positions while I inform the Professors." The group returned to their noisy chattering as they dispersed themselves within the student population. The prefects were all wearing white robes so they would stand out from the rest of the students who were wearing the black Hogwarts robes.

"Wait a minute!!" Amos Diggory called out. "Let's have a group photo before we start." The prefects quickly gathered the students and arranged them in rows while Amos used a levitating charm to keep the camera in mid-air. "1, 2, 3." He called out and the camera took a snapshot of the group without anyone operating it.

"Professor, everyone is ready." James told Professor Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Plains. The three Professors would be following the group to ensure the safety of the students outside Hogwarts. The remaining Professors would have to ensure the safety of the students who remained in the castle that night.

"So what are we waiting for??" Professor Dumbledore, in his long white robes, announced. "Let's have our very own Head Boy to start off first." Everyone mounted onto his or her broomsticks excitedly while James and Sirius flew up to lead the way.

"Okay, follow behind." James turned back to the students. A group of Ravenclaw sixth-years, along with their prefects flew upwards behind James and Sirius. Slowly, all the students were hovering above the Hogwarts grounds, stabilizing themselves on their broomsticks. "Let's go!!"

A hundred broomsticks were now floating above the Forbidden Forest, with James and Sirius in the lead and Remus and Peter behind everyone else.

"Look at the forest." Someone commented.

"The canopy is too thick to see anything beneath."

"Cool huh, flying above the Forbidden Forest."

"Looks huge." The stretch of Forbidden Forest extended to some distance away, surrounding the entire Hogwarts castle.

"Look at that, isn't it our Gryffindor tower??" A fourth year pointed at a high turret with red and gold decorations through the windows.

"Definitely."

"That must be the Ravenclaw tower."

"Where's the Hufflepuff one??"

"Okay, so now we shall be heading towards Hogsmeade." James turned around to inform the students.

"Guys listen."A sixth year prefects passed the message to those who were not listening to James. "We're going over to Hogsmeade now."

"Wow!!" From high above, they could see the brightly lit village shining brightly in the night land.

"Hogsmeade never look cooler than this." A sixth-year exclaimed. Most of the students had never been to the village beyond evening time, not to mention flying above Hogmeade in the middle of the night.

"That's the Shrieking Shack over there." A student pointed at the dimly lit area of Hogsmeade, far from the village shop houses. Remus and Peter, who were flying behind and overheard the conversation looked at each other with a darkened look.

"So now we're proceeding out of Hogsmeade." James told the group behind him. "We'll be reaching our first rest point in about ten minutes time."

"Ten more minutes to our first rest point." The prefects got James' message and signal, passed on the message to those who were behind. The students continued to fly above the village in awed, commenting excitedly on how amazing the top view of Hogsmeade was.

"We're going to land down at the field in front." James pointed at the empty field some distance away from the village. "Reduce speed now." He slowed down the speed of his broom, along with Sirius next to him, lowered himself to near ground level before hopping off from his broom.

"Finally!!"

"Yeah!! Break time!!"

"Everyone listen up." James called out to gather the attention. "We shall have a fifteen minutes break here. If you need food or a drink, look for Lily over there. Do remember to keep yourself hydrated and not eat your fill." He pointed to his right, where Lily, along with Stefanie and a few other prefects, were standing next to a newly transfigured table with some disposable goblets and sandwiches. "Washroom is over the other end." A stretch of ten portable toilet cubicles sprang out of nowhere at the other end of the field. "So enjoy your break before we move on." The students dispersed themselves into their cliques, most heading towards the drinks counter.

"This is one of the coolest thing I ever done."

"I can't believe that we're actually flying in the night, through the night, to be precise."

"It's gonna be unforgettable."

"Get the next Head Boy and Girl to organize it once more next year."

"Pumpkin juice please." Stefanie handed the student with a goblet of pumpkin juice from one of the container.

"Water, thanks." Another prefect filled a goblet of water and handed to the student.

"Tuna sandwich." The house elves had spent the evening after dinner to prepare all the food and utensils for them to last through the whole night.

"Chicken Mayo please."

"We've five more minutes, so chop chop finish up whatever you need to do." Sirius called out to those who were still eating and queuing for the transfigured cubicles. "Don't forget to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate." Sirius went over to help himself with another serving of seafood mayo sandwich and some isotonic drink.

"You, queue up." Stefanie told him in a joking manner.

"Who?? Who??" Sirius pretended to look around and helped himself with another serving of chicken mayo.

"Yes, you." Lily laughed and helped herself with a slice of chicken mayo as well. "Taste pretty good actually." She fed Stefanie, as well as the other prefects whose hands were busy, with the sandwich.

"Yummy, yummy." The fifth year Ravenclaw munched happily.

"Deeelicious." Another prefect agreed, chewing away.

"Jeez, it's only a sandwich." The group of girls laughed among themselves as they continued eating and serving at the same time.

"Professors, are you ready to carry on??" Lily approached the three resting professors who transfigured themselves some decent benches and table.

"No problem." The professors nodded in agreement.

"Okay, folks. Let's get ready to carry on." James gathered the students who were all scattered around the one-acre sized field. The students, some re-energized, some de-energized, summoned their broomsticks and mounted them once again. "Up we go." Remus, with a group of five prefects, transfigured everything back to normal shrubs and bushes, clearing up the mess before following the trail of students.

"Where's our next stopping point??"

"You'll know soon enough." They flew over a large patch of darkness before reaching some lit area.

"Now this is muggle residential neighborhood." James steered his broom upwards. "Let's lower your volume and just make a quick pass." The noise level from the students drastically reduced. As they flew passed the muggle houses, those purebloods gave the electricity-controlled neighborhood strange looks.

"Sometimes I wonder how this electricity works."

"It's a necessity in their life. Like water."

"Muggle lifestyle seems quite amusing. They replace magic with all those don't know what stuffs."

"Ssshhhh.."

"Okay, we're nearing Diagon Alley." James announced in a relatively softer voice. "Just next to the muggle neighborhood." He pointed using his left hand at the street that appeared rather dark and foggy.

"Looks sorta gloomy."

"Hogsmeade looks better."

"We're going to fly pass a muggle industrial estate." James announced once they were some distance away from Diagon Alley. "After that we'll reach a high ground, overlooking some parts of Scotland."

"Did anyone else bring their camera??"

"Are you all referring to the high land over there??" Glideroy asked.

"That's right." At some distance away, a faint silhouette of a hill-like structure could be seen.

"It looks closer than you think."

"So it's pretty far, huh??"

"Approximately fifteen minutes of flying to reach the peak from here."

"You're kidding me. I've been there so many times-"

"I've gone through this route, have you??" The Ravenclaw prefect was a little irritated at the know-it-all attitude from the fifth-year Hufflepuff.

"Up!!" Sirius commanded. Not too far ahead were chimneys of some factories, obstructing their straight route ahead. "Go right!!" He steered his broom towards his right, the rest followed closely behind. "Might get foggy, don't panic."


James cast a clearing spell immediately after spotting some smoke ahead of them. "Speed up here!!" The two leading guys accelerated a little, the prefects passed the message down to the rest of the students. Some of the third- and fourth-years were a little fearful, prefects who were buddies with them had to slow down to make sure all of them make across safely.

"Help. I can't see anything."

"No worries." Remus quickly cast a clearing charm to ensure all the younger students were catching up with those ahead. "Just move a little faster. It's quite foggy at this area." The four juniors, along with two prefects, Remus and Peter, picked up the pace to catch up with those in front.

"Don't rush." Lily called out to the group of guys who went faster than the normal pace. "Five minutes and we'll reach." They slowed down slightly, realizing they were caught for speeding.

"Here we are!!" James stopped at the slightly inclined pastures. "We're going to spend about half an hour here. All of you can only rest within the boundaries of two acres. The usual drinks and snacks," James pointed to his right end of the limit, "and the washrooms, of course." He pointed to his left ends. "You can transfigure benches, tables, carpets, etcetera to rest here. So thirty minutes start from now." The students quickly dispersed and divided themselves to join their friends.

"Can you please help us to transfigure a carpet??" The prefects were going around, helping the younger students to transfigure items that they had yet to learn from their Transfiguration lessons.

"The stars looks so bright and beautiful from here." Lily commented to her food and beverage team of prefects.

"It would be a romantic night if there wasn't a hundred people over here." Samantha observed.

"Not forgetting we have our teachers, as well." Joey pointed out. The four girls were all in the food and beverage team along with four other helper prefects.

"But for a couple to travel all the way here from Hogwarts is a little too far."

"Considering we spent about three hours flying here."

"Was it really that long??"

"Half the night had passed."

"I supposed it's so enjoyable that I can hardly feel it."

"And tomorrow you're going to spend all day in bed."

"Imagine no one around for breakfast tomorrow."

"Except the first-and second-years."

"This is too much for them to handle."

"And they are too difficult for us to handle."

"Transfiguration has never been tougher than this." James and Sirius had walked over to join the group of girls at their food and beverage counter.

"Since when did you guys have a problem with transfiguration??" Lily teased.

"Since the third-years were so particular about the chairs and tables they want." Sirius groaned and helped himself with the food because no one bothered to serve him.

"What happened??" Stefanie asked in surprised.

"That group of Hufflepuffs want us to transfigure their common room couches for them." James said a slightly exhausted manner. "And they want the look and texture to be the same." The girls burst out laughing upon hearing James' comical comment.

"That's not the worst." Sirius told the girls, rolling his eyes at the group of Ravenclaw fourth-years. "That group of girls over there absolutely wanted nothing lower grade than a Persian carpet."

"Sounds like a challenge for you guys." Lily shook her head and laughed at the guys' expression.

"Considering we never had the need to transfigure a Persian carpet in the last seven years other than during Transfig. Lessons."

"And we barely see the Hufflepuff couches, not to mention how soft and squashy they're supposed to be."

"You guys are professionals at transfiguring anything but furniture??" A prefect asked.

"Not that of course. But they want quality. And after half a night of lead flying, we are not exactly in our peak." The girls laughed again at Sirius hilarious comments accompanied by his funny expression.

"Cool off, here's some energy drink for you two." Lily took two disposable goblets of isotonic drinks for the two guys.

"Energy boosters, indeed." Stefanie agreed heartily.

"Lucky you girls come up with this energy drink." James said gratefully. "Otherwise everyone will probably be knockout by now."

"Yeah, so you guys should appreciate the team who prepared the food and drink more than just a word of thanks." Lily joked.

"In what way do you want us to show our appreciation??" Sirius asked cheekily.

"An expression of thanks."

"There you go." James used his wand and wrote the fiery word 'thank you' in mid-air.

"Very well indeed."

"Maybe you guys wanna check out the toilet crew over there." Lily pointed across the field at Remus and Peter along with Amos and Severus for the toilet in-charge.

"They can manage without us." Sirius said. Across the field there was a group of guys congregated together in front of the toilet, apparently something was wrong.

"Padfoot, let's check it out." James dragged Sirius away from the group of girls to the other end of field.

"No worries, they're just dungbombs." Remus was trying to coax a frightened third-year about the mild explosion in the cubicle.

"What happened??" James asked the prefects in-charge.

"Someone planted re-bombable dungbombs in all the units." Peter told them. "It exploded when the girls were inside.

"Who did it??" James asked the group of students. "Who planted the dungbombs in the toilet??" Everyone just looked at one another, waiting for someone to own up. "Never mind. We do it when we're back in Hogwarts." He personally transfigured three new units for the three frightened third-years.

"I assure you this three units are fine. We're here to make sure it's ok." Sirius told the three girls and led them to the toilet. "Don't worry about it."

"Replace all ten units." Remus instructed. The dungbombed toilets disappeared and Remus re-transfigured seven new units out from the shrubs.

"No problems, right??" Sirius asked the three girls who just came out from the toilet.

"Thanks." They nodded and thanked them before returning to join the group of Ravenclaw friends.

"We've about ten more minutes here before we proceed." James announced. "Just finish up whatever you're doing. And don't forget to hydrate yourself!!"