Chapter 8

Fools and Flying Cars

Harry's time at the Burrow was both educational and incredible. He had never imagined how magical families spent their time, or lived, but every day, he saw something new and exciting. Because they were so far from Muggles, they were also able to play Quidditch without needing to be mindful about flying too high. Everybody tried out Harry's broom, including Ginny who seemed to show a natural talent, much to her brothers' surprise and pride. On top of that, after Harry had explained about the Super Nintendo to Molly and Arthur, Sirius brought a television set as well as the games console for them. Harry had to laugh when he overheard the adults talking about the gifts.

"Sirius, you shouldn't have! It's no trouble, having you and Harry here!"

"Now Molly, dear, it's rude to deny gifts."

"You're just saying that because you want to fiddle around with this Super Nincompoop-"

"It's called a Nintendo, Mum! And Dad, you're not allowed to take it apart. It's super cool but Sirius didn't buy it for you to break the thing!"

"I won't break it, I promise. I just want to see how it works without magic. Muggles are fascinating and their inventions even more so. Can't I just…?"

"No!" All the Weasley's said at once.

Sirius and Harry just laughed, and Sirius finished putting the electronics in the front room. Some nifty spellwork later meant that the muggle technology wouldn't clash with magic, and then there was careful monitoring to make sure that everybody had their turn playing the games.

Before too long, it was time pick up school supplies in Diagon Alley. Molly had groaned in distress when she saw the list, including some new books for Defence Against the Dark Arts which were almost more than double the usual price. She, Arthur and Sirius had gotten into a debate after Sirius had offered to get the books, but Molly and Arthur were proud people and didn't want to accept handouts. Sirius told them to consider it payment for letting them stay there whilst they investigated the house elf, which had turned up no leads.

Arthur wanted to take them all using his Ford Angelia, which had been modified with magic, but Molly refused. The time it would take to drive from Devon to London – "drive, Arthur! No, we aren't going to fly. Even with all the charms added to the car it would be much quicker, easier and less of a hassle if we just used the Floo." – would have eaten up most of their day. When they arrived at Diagon Alley brushing soot and dust off themselves, the group of 9 immediately saw that it was even more crowded than usual.

"What's going on?" Ron asked, looking around. People were pushing, shoving and chattering noisily and the Weasleys plus Harry and Sirius followed the excited crowd to the bookstore; Gilderoy Lockhart, one of the most famous wizards of all, was doing a book signing. Ron, Fred and George groaned.

"Not him, anything but him," Ron complained, giving a witch a filthy look when she elbowed him in the side to get by him.

"Who is he?" Harry asked, noticing that Mrs Weasley had begun to straighten up her clothes with gusto.

Sirius scoffed as he looked at the moving picture of the man. "He claims to have done many amazing things; saved wizards and witches in peril from dark creatures, found lost artifacts, what have you. Some people call him a hero because of it but I somewhat remember the pompous twit from school. He was a few years younger than me, but he was never very good with magic despite being in Ravenclaw, favouring attention seeking behaviours to actual learning. Weirdly enough, though, some of the things he claimed in his books seem to be true, based off interviews with others… but I think he's nothing but a smarmy git," Sirius said softly to Harry, so Molly didn't hear him. "Girls go mad for him though."

"Including Hermione," Harry replied just as quietly, seeing his best friend looking through the crowd at Lockhart as if she were madly in love. "He reminds me a little of Malfoy, actually."

Sirius snorted in laughter at the comment. "Just ignore him. You won't have to listen to him, thankfully," he said, as the group entered the bookstore.

Harry opened his mouth to say something but before he could, he was knocked down to the ground by an overzealous photographer.

"Hey, watch where you're going," Sirius snapped angrily to the reporter, shoving him backwards before reaching down and helping Harry to his feet. "You absolute moron!". Before anyone else could say something, Lockhart had come forward.

"Bless my soul, it's Harry Potter," Lockhart cried loudly, his eyes widening. He pulled Harry away from Sirius and close into a side hug. "Big smile Harry, together you and I are worth the front page!"

The photographer got the photo of the two quickly. As Harry managed to pull free of Lockhart's grip, a bundle of books was thrust into his arms.

"When Harry stepped into this store today, to buy the collection of my books, which I'm giving him free of charge, he had no idea he would be getting the real magical me!" Lockhart declared, before stating how he was going to be the new DADA teacher at Hogwarts.

"Oh, bloody hell," Harry groaned as he ducked under the cheering arms of the crowd, noticing the books seemed to mostly be auto-biographies rather than educational. He was nearly back to his furious looking uncle when a familiar blond Slytherin stepped in the way. Draco Malfoy taunted Harry and the two were about to enter a verbal sparring match when Malfoy's father walked up. He sneered at Harry, scoffing at his apparent fame just as Sirius came over.

"Malfoy," Sirius said, glaring at Lucius Malfoy.

"Black. And here I thought you were done with animals," Lucius said calmly. Harry could see the cold hatred in Sirius's eyes.

"Considering who you're married to, I'm not sure you can speak much," Sirius replied, hands clenched at his side.

"At least I know how to be civilised, Black. You like to hide behind words, don't you?"

"You think so?" Sirius asked, returning Lucius's smirk. In a flash, he pulled back his fist, and punched Lucius in the face. As Lucius fell to the floor, blood streaming from his nose, Sirius stood over him with a look of satisfaction on his face. "I don't think that's called hiding, do you?"

Harry looked on in amazement. Draco was silent, looking between Sirius and his fallen father with an expression of awkward bewilderment on his face. He didn't seem to know what to do. As Lucius returned to his feet, waving his wand to get the blood off his face, Ginny and Arthur Weasley came over.

"Lucius," Arthur said coldly. "Did you know you have dirt on your robes?"

"Arthur Weasley. I thought being a disgrace to the name Wizard would pay more," Malfoy jeered, taking the tattered books from Ginny's new yet rusty cauldron, looking at them with scorn. He shook his head with a tut, before putting the bundle of books back into the cauldron. "Judging from the tat that you buy your daughter, doesn't look like it."

"We have a very different definition of what disgraces the name wizard, Malfoy," Arthur replied, with a glare that could kill.

Harry could see Lucius about to make a move, but Sirius stepped into view.

"Unless you want to feel the floor again, I'd leave, Malfoy," Sirius warned angrily. Was it just a trick of the light or was Sirius's teeth getting longer and sharper? Malfoy glared at him, before taking Draco by the shoulder.

"Let's go, Draco," Lucius said. "We have better places to be." His hand gripped his son's shoulder as the two left the store.

Harry felt the growing tension leave his shoulders and he sighed before turning to his uncle. "Uncle Sirius?" Harry asked, holding his hand. Sirius' angry look vanished as he glanced down at Harry.

"I'm sorry, Harry, I shouldn't have lost my cool like that," Sirius said. "The Malfoys just…."

"I get it, Uncle Sirius, I do. You don't need to apologise," Harry replied. "Here Ginny, you can have these, I'll buy my own," he added, passing the books to her. He made to join the queue, the oblivious witches and wizards too enamoured with Lockhart to acknowledge the altercation that just happened.

"I'll get everyone's books," Sirius offered. "It's a lovely day so go and have some fun. Get an ice cream."

"You sure?" Harry double checked. After Sirius nodded, Harry, Ron and Hermione left the store with relief – well, Hermione had to be coaxed with the promise of treats – and made their way to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. They spent time enjoying sundaes and talking. Harry was glad for the distraction, relaxing and enjoying the weather.

Finally, the day of the return to Hogwarts arrived, and the whole group took Arthur's infamous car to get to King's Cross station. The modifications made the group of 11 sit comfortably and the car drove smoothly for the trip, weaving in and out of traffic with ease. Harry paid some attention when Sirius asked Arthur about the car, particularly when Arthur mentioned that the car often had a mind of its own, but he was distracted by Ginny who looked pale and sick, clutching at what must have been her diary with a death like grip.

"It'll be okay," Harry reassured her. "We'll all be there for you, if you need any help with homework or anything."

Ginny nodded stiffly, avoiding his eye contact.

They arrived with barely any minutes to spare. In their rush Harry's trunk fell off the trolley and Ron yelled at the others that they will be there in a moment as he helped his friend. In groups of two the rest of the party passed through the wall, and the two young Gryffindors heard Hermione yell "hurry!" just as she went though. The two of them steadied Harry's trunk and ran at the wall. It was solid, and the two crashed. Hedwig screeched loudly in protest.

"What the fuck?" Ron swore as he pressed a hand against the brick. "We have 60 more seconds before the gate closes, why can't we get through?"

Harry, smoothing down Hedwig's ruffled feathers, said, "we sure we have the right platform?"

"Duh, Harry, we just saw everyone else go through! I don't understand why it's closed. What if the others can't get back?"

Just as Ron spoke the station clock struck 11 and Harry felt a wave of anxious nausea flow through him. "The train just left. What are we gonna do?"

"If mum, dad and Sirius can't get back, how do we get to school?" Ron asked, looking around hopelessly. He slapped his hand against the wall again. "What do we do?!"

"We could go back to the car and wait for them? If the barrier stays closed, can't they just apparate back to it?" Harry asked.

Ron looked at him with a sudden beam crossing his freckled face. "The car! We can take the car! I can fly the car to school."

"Ron, are you kidding? That's insane!" Harry exclaimed. "We can wait for them."

"We don't know how long they will take. We can't wait for the Express to get to Hogwarts, turn around and return here to pick us up again. You need special permission to Floo to the school and you can't apparate into the school grounds. Do you wanna miss the feast? Do you want to take the chance that we won't get to school?" Ron asked. "Come on, Harry."

Harry sighed as they walked to the station exit, back to where the car was parked. "This is not a good idea…I just… I don't know if we should. Uncle Sirius didn't raise me to take silly risks, and after last year…"

"It isn't a silly risk. I know how to drive the car, the thing practically does it all anyway. It'll be fine."

"Fine, but if this goes wrong…"

"It won't, trust me mate," Ron replied, grinning as he used magic to unlock the car. They loaded their trunks, got in the front, and looked at each other. "This is gonna be fun," Ron promised as he started the car.

The ride in the car hadn't been fun, at all. First, Ron had forgot to make the car invisible until Harry reminded him. They almost crashed into the trees before the car seemed to remember how to fly. Then when they finally reached the steam train, they almost crashed into it as well. They followed just above it and the hours later, Harry sighed when he saw the train pull into Hogsmeade.

"I knew this was a bad idea." He was hungry, thirsty and tired. He wished he had stayed at the station and waited. Why didn't he just insist?

"We're almost there," Ron said. He also looked tired, and his growling stomach betrayed the fact that he was hungry too. Hogwarts was rapidly growing as they neared it, the lights flickering in welcome. Just then the car began to sputter and smoke, drifting to the side.

"Ron, what's happening?" Harry asked, holding on to the dashboard as the car began to jerk.

"I don't know, but I think you were right! This was a bad idea," Ron cried out, the car falling towards the grounds. They screamed as the car crashed into a large tree, tumbling to the floor with a crunch. Harry and Ron took a breath and looked at each other.

"Thank goodness we didn't get hurt," Harry said. "How do we get out?"

"Carefully?" Ron joked, but the smile turned to a look of horror as a branch came crashing down on the car, another smashing one of the windows. The tree was attacking them!

A few moments later, after revving the car out of the way of the swinging, angry tree, the boys were forcefully thrown from the battered car, along with their trunks and a very perturbed Hedwig. The car then drove itself towards the forbidden forest, horn wailing angrily.

"What the hell?" Ron said, his hands around the quivering, squeaking lump in his hoodie pocket.

"Can cars do that?" Harry asked as he pushed himself to his feet, staring after the fading headlights of the car.

"Well, Dad did say that the car has a mind of its own…"

Harry looked at Ron, running a hand through his scruffy hair. "That was the dumbest thing we've ever done."

"Even with the dungeons last year?" Ron asked with a nervous laugh.

"Oh, this tops that," Harry said, getting Hedwig's cage. "Are you okay Hedwig?" Harry asked, looking at the snowy owl. She hooted softly as Harry opened the cage, and affectionately nipped his finger. He left it open, and she hooted before taking flight to the owlery. "Let's not do anything like that again."

"No arguments here," Ron agreed. He gasped as he pulled out his wand, which was hanging together by a thread. "Oh no… this is…"

"Can it be repaired?" Harry asked. "We can ask Hermione when we get into the castle."

"I hope they haven't locked the doors yet," Ron said, as the two of them began to drag their trunks towards the entrance.

"I still don't get what happened with the gateway," Harry thought aloud, as they neared the castle.

"What if it was that Dobby? He said you couldn't return to Hogwarts, and the day you come back, we can't get through?" Ron pointed out.

"Can House Elves do that?"

"House Elf magic is different from wizard magic; they can do things wizards can't. Goblin magic is different as well, and there's always been a bitterness between wizards and goblins."

"I still don't get why, though. Dobby seemed nice, and I don't think he's doing things as a joke or anything… he seemed genuinely scared when I originally saw him. I know Uncle Sirius alerted Professor Dumbledore about what Dobby did, and the Headmaster swore to keep an eye on things, but I still think we should be careful," Harry exhaled heavily, sweaty while dragging the magically lightened trunk. "I hope he's okay and got out Platform Nine and three quarters..."

The boys froze as got to the entrance of the castle. Minerva was standing at the entrance with Professor Dumbledore. Both of them looked relieved to see Harry and Ron, and yet there was a look of disappointment and anger in Minerva's eyes.

The transfiguration professor ran over to Harry and pulled him into a hug. "What were you thinking?" she asked, and Harry could hear the fear in her voice. "You foolish boy, why didn't you stay at the car with your Uncle? He's been frantic and out of his mind with worry!"

"I… I…" Harry froze as he looked into Minerva's eyes. "I'm sorry Aunt Minnie, I… I was worried that we wouldn't be able to get here…"

"It's my fault, Professor," Ron spoke up, sounding glum. "I panicked, and I came up with the idea to get here with the car. I convinced Harry that I could get us here," he added. Harry felt a swell of affection for Ron. "Harry said we should wait by the car, and I should have listened."

"Thank you for saying so, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore said softly. "I will confess that I am disappointed in your method, but it shows character that you are willing to accept your role in this."

"Your Uncle will be here soon, and he wants to have a word with you, Harry," Minerva said. "Both of you… Harry, if anything had happened… if we had lost you…"

"I'm so sorry Aunt Minnie," Harry said, looking at the ground with shame. "I was silly, and I just… we just… the barrier was blocked…"

"Yes, we are aware of what happened. You did cause a stir at the ministry as several people saw your flying car, Mr. Weasley, but that has been sorted. Why did you not send an owl to us, however? You do have one?" Dumbledore asked, pointedly looking at Hedwig's empty cage.

"I'm sorry Professor, I didn't think of that," Ron admitted. "I know Harry was worried about his Uncle, and I thought quickly and recklessly, to try and make him feel better so we had an immediate solution."

"Sometimes, the first thought we have is not the best thought," Dumbledore stated, in his usual thoughtful tone. "Your mother is coming as well, and in fact, I believe they have arrived," he added. Harry and Ron turned, seeing Molly, Arthur and Sirius running towards them. Harry let out a squeak as he was scooped up into Sirius' arms.

"Thank Merlin you're okay," Sirius said, breathless. "Harry, I've been so worried about you. What were you thinking?"

"It's my fault, Mr. Black, sir," Ron said, before offering his explanation. "I'm sorry mum, I was an idiot."

"Ron, you were foolish, but thank you for admitting the truth," Molly replied, kissing his forehead. "I'm just glad you're okay."

"Albus, do we know how the barrier was sealed?" Sirius asked, still holding Harry in his arms.

"No, but there is a full investigation going on right now. I believe the ministry is putting a lot more precautions in place to prevent such an occurrence ever happening again," Dumbledore informed the group. "I have arranged for some food in one of the classrooms, to allow all of you some privacy," he added, as they all walked into the castle.

"I'm sorry about the car, dad. I hope… I hope I've not got you in trouble," Ron said meekly.

"Don't worry about it, Ron, I can deal with it. You made a mistake, but you stepped up and took responsibility. That shows character and decency, and I'm proud of you for that," Arthur smiled at his son. "We're just glad you aren't hurt."

As they reached the transfiguration classroom, the tables had been moved to allow for one big table, which had plates of food for them to enjoy.

"I still don't understand how the barrier was sealed. I thought there were protections in place to prevent it, especially given we're talking about kids here," Molly said, as they began to eat.

"I agree, there needs to be something done. Right now, I'm not sure I want Harry, or anyone, to use that barrier again," Sirius said.

Harry looked at them. "You're not angry with us?" Harry asked.

Sirius smiled softly at him. "I'm angrier that the situation arose in the first place. What you did was very foolish… although I know your father would have done the same and people would have called him a legend," Sirius added, with a chuckle.

"Sirius," Minerva scolded him with a glare.

Sirius smiled cheekily at her, and then his smile vanished as he looked at Harry.

"It was foolish, and dangerous. What if the car had failed? Or crashed harder than you did?" Sirius asked. "I know you're impulsive Harry, and that can be good at times, but you do need to think more carefully, both of you do."

"I will, Uncle Sirius," Harry promised, before taking a sip of pumpkin juice.

"Were you hurt?" Molly asked.

Ron shook his head, before slowly and carefully taking out his wand. "Can… can this be repaired?" Ron asked, voice choking up.

Minerva looked closely at it. "No, I don't think so. You'll need to get a new one, Mr. Weasley," Minerva said apologetically.

"Molly, Arthur, before you say anything, let me get that sorted. This all happened because we were with you, and I feel bad as well," Sirius said just as Ron held back a sob. Harry remembered something Sirius had told him when the truth came out that he was a Wizard; that a Wizard's wand was an extension of that person and losing or otherwise being parted from their wand was like missing a part of themselves. Harry patted Ron's shoulder in sympathy.

"Sirius, it's not your fault. It's that house elf whose to blame," Molly said fiercely.

"Let me do this," Sirius insisted.

Arthur put a hand on Molly's shoulder. "Thank you, Sirius, we appreciate that," Arthur said, eyes on his distraught son.

"Minerva, I'll take Ron by Portkey or Floo Powder to Diagon Alley in the morning, if you don't mind. I'd like to stay with Harry tonight," Sirius said.

"Professor Dumbledore has already arranged accommodation for you all tonight, and Mr. Weasley is excused for the morning to allow you to get him a new wand," Minerva agreed. "Harry, Ron, I will be giving you each a detention, however, for not thinking more clearly," she added. Ron and Harry nodded.

"Yes Professor," they both said at the same time. As they continued the meal, Harry knew they were lucky to be alive, and lucky that they had parents who cared enough to be there to make sure they were okay. They learnt Ginny was also in Gryffindor, and as they went to the temporary accommodation wing for the night, something neither Ron nor Harry knew existed.

As the boys fell asleep that night, Harry's thoughts returned to the mysterious House Elf. Harry knew they'd have to be a lot more careful. After all, if Dobby could seal a barrier that had protections, what else would he do in his attempt to try and 'save' Harry from whatever mysterious evil that was supposedly going to happen at Hogwarts this year?