I'm so sorry for the wait everyone! I was working on a fic that required all my time for the month of June! I'm a terrible person. And after all those sweet reviews. SEVEN of them! And it took me a month to update! But I promise, I will update sooner this time.

On with the show!

Hermione's POV

I sensed powerful dark magic during the entire encounter with Lucius Malfoy, but it was most likely just Ron.

My suspicions were confirmed when the feeling followed us back to the Weasleys.

I was able to bewitch both my parents and the Weasleys into allowing me to stay with them for the rest of the summer. All the better to keep an eye on Harry.

It wasn't until we reached Kings Cross Station, that we were separated.

I had gone ahead, to clear the way for any spells that Ron may have placed ahead of time, somehow.

Besides, Ron was with the Weasleys, in a crowded place. It's not like he could hurt Harry inconspicuously.

Ron's POV

Harry looked at my seriously.

"Let's go," he said, as he began pushing his cart toward the barrier.

The train was just about to leave. If I could somehow slow him down, delay him in anyway…

But I couldn't without acting suspicious, so I just followed him as we ran toward the wall.

Suddenly, Harry stopped, violently, causing me to smash into him, and topple over.

What the bloody…

A series of unpleasant curses swarmed through my head, as I tried to figure out why he had stopped.

A conductor than reprimanded us for having the audacity to crash into something and hurt ourselves!

After Harry waved him on with the world's lamest excuse, he turned to me.

"Why can't we get through?"

Was that what was wrong?

"Uh, I don't know," I said, buying time as I reached out to touched the platform wall.

Solid.

Interesting. So Harry hadn't just stopped, he had crashed into it.

I briefly wondered if the crash might give him a concussion, before dismissing the thought.

Noting the clock ticking away, I threw out a few more clock eaters.

"The gateway's sealed itself for some reason!" I said, stating the obviously.

The clock struck eleven.

I mentally fist pumped.

Harry, not wanting to be outdone by my stating the obvious, threw in, "The train leaves at exactly eleven o'clock, we've missed it!"

He stared at me so distraughtly, I felt like I was missing some queue. Oh, right, I'm supposed to be related to the people on the other side. What would a concerned son say…

"Harry, if we can get through, maybe mum and dad can't get back!"

Harry nodded solemnly, as if my statement was at all relevant to our situation.

"Maybe we should go wait by the car."

A flying car. No supervision. Endless opportunities to kill Harry…

"The car," I repeated.

Harry stared at me for a minute, completely at a loss as to what I was suggesting.

I grabbed his arm and pulled him off to the car.

First things first, try for a cheap shot at getting us expelled. No invisibility.

To my credit, it wasn't until we had taken off and were flying over London for Harry to realize we were in danger of exposure.

"Ron, I should tell you, most muggles aren't accustomed to seeing a flying car."

No, really? They don't see those normally? Well, gee, Harry, thanks for telling me!

"Uh, ok," I stammered, wasting a few more precious seconds fumbling for the invisibility gauge.

Finally we were invisible.

Next matter of events. Shoving Harry out.

That was when I realized that the lock on the car wouldn't open unless it wasn't flying, or in a situation deemed dangerous enough that the passengers of the car would need to escape. The only reason we could open them at Harry's house was that I hadn't engaged the locks beforehand; but, it appeared, in a stroke of luck, he had hit the locks when he came in. Or maybe it was a muggle reflex. They did drive cars a lot.

Suddenly this whole thing seemed like a waste of time.

I couldn't attack Harry too blatantly or risk hurting myself. If I had been on the Hogwarts Express, well, the atmosphere there is so thick with magic mine would go unnoticed.

Up here? I cast any advanced magic, and I've immediately got fifty ministry officials ready to arrest me.

So I had to wait. It wasn't the end of the world. Another bummer was that the car had somehow picked up on our destination. I had little control over its flight pattern.

Then I had an idea a few hours in. One that should have been obvious and required no magic, and only minimum acting.

I turned the invisibility off.

"Oh no!" I lamented, giving a few weak presses on the button, not enough to turn it on, but enough to give the impression that I was trying. "The invisibility booster must be faulty!"

Maybe now I could stealthily lower the car below the clouds. Of course, I'd have to be careful to avoid suspicion from Harry. No way would he want us to be viewed, (especially after he was blamed for a house elf's magic.) He'd want to stay up where we were safe and-

"Well, come on, then. Let's go lower, we have to find the train!"

"Uh, ok," I said, startled at this sudden stupid lack of common sense. 'Oh, now that we can be seen, let's go down!'

So, what was I gonna do? I lowered the car!

Actually, I lowered it all the way down on the tracks. Harry seemed perfectly fine with this.

He just commented, saying "Now all we have to do is find the train."

Didn't he realize that it was behind us?

"We can't be far behind," I commented.

This was actually perfect. The train tracks were charmed to be invisible (otherwise muggles would inquired about it not being used.) With that strong of magic, a simple apparition to my agency would go completely unnoticed. Even in the investigations that would follow the crash.

Behind us, the train blew its horn.

I inwardly cursed the damn horn. It was gonna give us away!

Harry looked at me. "Do you hear that?"

Man, even Harry's not dumb enough to miss it.

I grinned. "We must be getting close," I said, with a laugh.

For a moment, it seemed he would fall for it, but then Harry said, "Hold on…"

No, please, it was so close! Just stay ignorant a second longer…

Harry started to turn at me, a look of growing panic on his face.

I tried to mimic the look, though I'm sure I looked like a total idiot.

Then he whipped around, and I was forced to look to.

We both yelled like idiots, and I turned around, intent on staying on the tracks as long as possible.

Come on come on come on! How fast is this car?

A few seconds later I realized that with my hands gripping the wheel so tightly, I wouldn't be able to grab my wand to apparate. I could let go of the wheel to grab my wand, but then I'd risk the chance of the car crashing before I could escape.

I had no choice. I spun the wheel, whipping us off the track, and back into the air.

I kept turning it, as a new plan formulated in my head. We were still close enough to the train and tracks that very minor magic would go undetected.

So I shot a nonverbal 'Alohomora' at the door, causing Harry to fly out.

Unfortunately, he grabbed on.

But any second now he'd let go…

Hermione's POV

What was I supposed to do! This was insane, this should never have happened.

Why did I go ahead? Where were they? Was Harry dead?

Yes, I was freaking out, but why shouldn't I?

I was tearing up the corridor, hoping (though it was foolish) that they would somehow turn up, just lost in the train.

Suddenly, I heard a gasp from a girl, staring out a window.

I briefly glanced a wave of relief pouring over me as I saw a car spiral through the air, two boys inside, yelling their heads off.

I called over more people. The more people watching, the less Ron could risk a completely obvious attack.

More people were rushing to the windows now, alerted by their friends' callings.

I looked back at the car, my eyes training on them.

Ron's POV

"Harry!" I called out in 'concern.'

My eyes scanned for any witnesses, to make sure my shoving him off wouldn't seem too obvious.

Unfortunately, as I glanced down at the train, I saw that over a hundred people were staring up at the car. Way too many people to mind erase without someone slipping through, and giving my identity away. And if my identity got out, I could forget about getting another job for the next thirty years.

"Hold on!" I called. Come on, just let go!

I flew the car up higher. Maybe the height would give him vertigo, and he'd let go.

Still, I reached out, yelling, "Hold my hand!"

Let no one say I didn't try.

Actually, I was reaching for the door, to try and shake him off, while appearing like I was trying to pull him closer.

He latched onto my hand, but soon slipped out.

"Hold on!" I repeated, hoping to sound concerned as I reached for the door again.

"I'm trying!" He whined. Then, "Your hand's all sweaty!"

Is now really the time to be insulting my hands, Harry? Besides, it's not like my hands are 'sweaty' by accident.

Just as I thought I'd reach the door, he latched on again.

For a split second, I considered letting him hang. He'd let go eventually.

Then I felt myself sliding from the car. No, he wasn't going to let go. He was going to drag me down with him.

Sighing, and gritting my teeth, I grabbed his hand back, and pulled him up.

We both panted as he swung back in.

There was silence and then…

"I think we found the train."

What, seriously? What kind of idiot says that after almost dying?

"Uh, yeah," I said, still breathless, wondering how else I was supposed to respond.

Unfortunately, Harry had, once again, activated the locks, so he was gonna be safe for the rest of the trip. And there would be no way I could swerve so dangerously close to the train without people wondering what I was doing. All I could do was follow the train, and hope that I could find a way of killing him once I was at Hogwarts. The car was also on an even tighter autopilot, since our dangerous encounter.

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad, though. Surely we had to get expelled. We were risking the entire existence of the wizard world! There was nothing legal about anything we were doing right now!

So I bided my time until we arrived at the school.

Then, a new plan formulated…

The car had now arrived in the school grounds, so its autopilot was off.

I had complete control of the car.

I grinned widely, before covering up any suspicious behavior with a quick, "Welcome home."

Harry grinned back, about to say something, but before he had the chance, I began jolting the car around.

I had to keep it inconspicuous, so I acted like the car was out of control.

I was a much better driver than Harry gave me credit for. I was able to act like none of the controls were working, all while driving the car erratically past the great hall, giving everyone inside a chance to see us, teachers included.

Then I looked for a good place to crash the car. Another thought entered my head, one I had contemplated earlier. If I could break my wand now, I'd get a new one. And I probably wanted to do this as soon as possible.

"MIND THAT TREE!" Harry roared, pointing at the whomping willow.

Great idea!

I steered the car into the tree, and whipped out my wand, smacking it against the steering wheel, yelling "Stop, stop, STOP!"

We crashed into the tree, destroying branches in a glorious display of destruction, coming to a rest near a clump of branches.

Harry stared forward for a bit, and I felt my wand required a comment.

"My wand! Look at my wand!" My voice squeaked and broke, my facial expression was one of stupidity and confusion, my face was all sweaty. There was no way he'd fall for it. I mean, "stop stop stop" isn't even a spell!

Harry sighed, irritated with my 'stupidity'. "Be grateful it's not your neck!"

A smile began to grow on my face, until the whole car jolted and the tree came alive.

"What's happening!" I squeaked. Yes, I was playing the role of a terrified kid, but I actually had just realized that I couldn't get out of this.

Wow, I was actually being stupider than Harry. My mind had been on two separate tracks, one thinking about getting rid of my wand, the other thinking about killing Harry.

The two thought processes hadn't even considered to consult with each other, and now I was stuck in a tree that wanted to kill me, with a dysfunctional wand!

Quickly, I threw the car into reverse, survival training taking over. Yes, I screamed like an idiot, but my mind was focused on surviving this. Unfortunately, the car's wheels weren't touching anything, and flight was too risky.

I could only hope that the thing would knock us free, and I could get us out. I focused my attention on rocking the car, shifting our weight, trying to wiggle the car free.

Finally we were thrown free.

The tree lunged back for another attack, and I briefly wondered if I could maneuver the car so that only Harry would be crushed…

Then I realized I didn't have the time to plan it. Harry was yelling at me to drive, so I bloody drove.

The trees branches fell a few inches away from the car, the twigs at the end scraping it.

Now that we were on Hogwarts ground, I could cast spells freely.

I tried to cast a mutiny charm on the car, with a bias against Harry, but my broken wand caused it to come into action before the last part was enforced.

It threw us both out, chucked most of our luggage out, and then began driving towards the woods.

Images of my final suitcase, loaded with weapons and traps, flashed through my mind.

I glanced at my stuff, but it wasn't there.

"The car!" I lamented, tearing after it.

We were too late. We watched helplessly as it disappeared into the forbidden forest.

I stared at it, glumly. Even worse, that car had really meant a lot to my host family. They weren't going to be pleased when it disappeared, and too many people knew about it to erase it from their memories.

"Dad's gonna kill me," I whispered.

I'll stop here.

Sorry for this poor excuse for a chapter! I really needed to churn it out, to get my creative juices flowing.

And, I swear, no more 25k fics in a month. If you guys review, I will update. Promise.

And thank you soooooo much for those who reviewed on the last chapter.

Also, suggestions and complaints are always welcome! You guys help me write a better fic!