The Whomping Willow
"The willow?" Remus looked sharply at Harry. "What were you doing anywhere near that tree?"
Severus sneered. Now he would find out exactly why the two dunderheads had decided it would be a good idea to fly a car to Hogwarts rather than simply take the train. Now that he knew it was unlikely Harry had done it for attention, the way he had previously assumed, he was curious to hear their reasoning, foolish as it likely was.
"Er…you'll see?" Harry offered weakly. Remus narrowed his eyes while Sirius grimaced.
Summer came to an end too quickly for Harry.
"That's what summer holidays are supposed to feel like," Tonks said fondly.
He was looking forwards to going to Hogwarts, but the month at the Burrow had been the happiest of his life.
Nobody was quite sure whether they felt sad, angry at the Dursleys, or just pleased Harry finally had some good memories and a good friend.
"Even better than Hogwarts?" Ron asked quietly. He knew his friend considered the castle his home.
"Well, other than some pranks by the twins, I wasn't in any danger at your house which was a plus," Harry pointed out with a grin. Ron laughed.
"And they like you. Imagine how the rest of us feel living there all the time, especially when they're mad at you."
"No thanks."
He found it difficult not to be jealous of Ron when he considered the kind of welcome he would get from his relatives next summer.
"You were jealous? Of me?" Ron frowned in confusion.
"Of course, he was Ron," Hermione sighed. "His deepest desire was to be with his family, and you have a large family that all love you. You're welcome in your own house, aren't treated like a house-elf. However much money Harry has, it can't buy him any of those things," she explained in an undertone. Ron gaped. He'd never truly thought about it in those terms. He knew his mum loved Harry like another son, so he'd always felt like he was sharing his family with his best friend, who then also had money and fame and everything else Ron had always wanted. Glancing over at his best friend, he saw Harry practically squirming in his seat and desperately avoiding eye contact with him.
"Harry, I…"
"It's fine, Ron. Let's just keep reading, yeah?" Harry still wasn't looking at him and Ron frowned, having no idea what to say. In the end, he said nothing not wanting to put his foot in his mouth.
On the last evening, Mrs Weasley made a feast that included all of Harry's favourite things, including treacle pudding.
Sirius asked the room for some parchment and scribbled down a note of Harry's favourite dessert. He didn't want to risk forgetting, with his mind the way it was.
The twins let off some fireworks which filled the kitchen before a last mug of hot chocolate and bed.
"How did the fireworks not burn anything if you set them off inside?" Sirius wondered in confusion.
"We got the no heat, wet start ones. They don't set anything on fire," Fred explained.
"They make those? Wicked." Sirius whistled. "Wish we'd had those." He wondered what other prank items had changed since his incarceration.
"Me too," Remus muttered. "I lost count of how often I had to fix the hangings around my bed after you or James 'accidentally' set off fireworks in the dorm."
They were up at dawn the next morning but still seemed to have a great deal to do.
"I always tell you to pack the night before, but do you listen? No!" Molly scolded.
"We pack most of our stuff the day before," George said, "it just gets really spread out after two months."
"That and you don't do your homework until the night before so you can't pack that away until the last minute," Remus guessed, raising an eyebrow.
"Bold of you to assume they don't just do it on the train," Charlie laughed.
"Given the motion of the train, we can usually tell by the handwriting who completed their homework on the train," Filius stated in amusement.
Mrs Weasley was in a bad mood and people kept colliding on the stairs, half dressed with bits of toast in their hands.
Draco wrinkled his nose at the utter chaos that was the Weasley household.
"Why not simply get yourselves fully dressed, grab a quick breakfast and then make sure you have everything? It would be much more efficient than trying to complete all of those tasks at the same time," Tonks wondered.
"Because it's not so much fun being efficient," George grinned.
"It wouldn't be a proper return to Hogwarts morning without utter chaos," Bill said fondly.
Mr. Weasley nearly broke his neck, tripping over a stray chicken as he crossed the yard carrying Ginny's trunk to the car.
The top of Arthur's ears turned red.
Harry wasn't sure how all eight of them, plus their luggage, was going to fit in the old Ford Anglia. He hadn't reckoned on magic.
"Undetectable extension charms," Filius guessed. Arthur nodded.
"Handy. Can't blame you for those at least," Kingsley smiled slightly. The Ministry cars all had them after all. Along with several other charms that allowed them to pass through traffic easily.
He told Harry not to mention it to Molly as he showed him the expanded trunk.
Molly turned to glare at her husband who winced. "I wouldn't have minded the expansion charm. That was a useful addition that wouldn't get you in trouble with the law. Or get you noticed by muggles."
"Ah, well," Arthur rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, "given the previous, er, discussion, I thought it best not to mention any additional magic on it."
"You thought she wouldn't notice?" Remus raised an eyebrow. "No car that small would fit eight people in, even without any luggage." Now Molly was the one who turned red.
"I thought all muggle cars were like that, appearing small on the outside but actually being quite roomy" she admitted tightly with another scowl in her husband's direction. "You wouldn't happen to have put any other enchantments on it, would you, dear?"
"Er…no?" He offered her a winning smile that she didn't believe for a second. He looked rather like his twin sons when they were trying to look innocent.
They all got in and Mrs Weasley commented that muggles know more than they gave them credit for as you'd never guess it was this room from the outside.
A few people chuckled lightly.
They left and Harry barely had time to wonder when he'd see it again before they were back as George had forgotten his fireworks.
"That's what you forgot?" Molly glowered at her son. "You told us you'd forgotten your homework, so it would have taken too long to owl it to you if you needed it the next morning." They didn't like sending Errol on a rush job unless it was absolutely necessary. Not to mention, it would likely have been forgotten in the aftermath of Ron and Harry's exploits. Although, those exploits may not have happened had they gotten there a little earlier.
"Uh…" George offered a sheepish grin. "I forgot that too?"
Five minutes later they were back as Fred had forgotten his broomstick.
"How could you forget that?" Charlie asked his brother in horror.
"It was a hectic morning," Fred offered with a shrug.
"But that's like forgetting your arm or something."
"Not everyone is the fanatic you are," Tonks reminded her best friend.
"The twins usually are," Percy pointed out.
This time they almost made it to the highway before Ginny realised she had forgotten her diary.
Ginny shuddered.
"Ok, now that can definitely be mailed on later," Andromeda stated. "The broomstick I can understand, but a diary is hardly that important when you're already running late."
"Should have left the blasted thing behind," Ginny mumbled to herself. Then she shuddered, realising that it wouldn't have helped. Either her parents would have mailed it to her as Mrs Tonks suggested or she would have just used it the following summer and the end result may have been even worse. She couldn't imagine a basilisk roaming the school on top of the Sirius Black problem and the Dementors.
Mr. Weasley tried to convince his wife to let him fly the car, but she refused.
"Why not floo to the station?" Draco wondered.
"We didn't want to risk Harry having another accident," Molly admitted, making Harry go bright red. "Heavens only knows where he would have ended up."
He told her about the invisibility booster, but she still refused, saying not in broad daylight.
The teachers, except Dumbledore, all looked pointedly at Harry and Ron.
"But with the invisibility booster, and a few notice-me-not charms after you landed, nobody would have noticed," Bill pointed out.
"Bet she just didn't want him to fly the car. Probably thought it would encourage the children," Sirius muttered to Remus who fought to hide a smile.
They made it to the station at a quarter to.
"Cutting it a bit fine," Charlie winced. "Don't think we've ever been quite that late before."
"Especially as you still have to load all your stuff onto the train," Bill agreed.
"We had to hop on while it started moving," Fred admitted.
"Mum didn't want to let go of Ginny," added George.
Harry noted the tricky part was getting onto the platform which wasn't visible to the muggle eye, which had to be done carefully so muggles didn't notice you vanishing.
"Thankfully the notice-me-not charms help a lot with that," Kingsley said.
They only had five minutes left when Mrs Weasley directed Percy through the barrier.
"Wow. No wonder you guys had to jump onto the train while it was taking off," Charlie whistled.
"Next time I am making sure all of you pack the night before," Molly told the group.
Ron and Harry glared at the twins for forgetting stuff and making them go back several times. They didn't want to include Ginny, knowing how she felt about going back for the diary in the first place.
Mr. Weasley went next, followed by the twins. Mrs Weasley went with Ginny.
"If only we'd gone first," Ron moaned.
"Or even just before your mum and Ginny. That way they'd have seen what happened," Harry agreed.
"Stupid Potter luck."
"Yeah, sorry about that."
They headed to the barrier together and crashed.
"Crash!?" Sirius asked urgently. "You can't have got the wrong pillar and the barrier doesn't close for a good thirty minutes after the train leaves."
"How do you know that?" Harry wondered.
"He spent so long getting off the train at the end of seventh year that the barrier had closed, and he had to apparate himself to his flat," Remus chuckled. Sirius glared at him.
"Either way, the barrier shouldn't have closed yet, so why couldn't you two get through?" Emmeline wanted to know.
"Let me guess, 'we'll see'?" Remus said dryly. Harry grinned.
They hit the barrier and bounced backwards, causing Hedwig's cage to bounce on the floor and the owl to shriek indignantly. A nearby guard yelled at them.
Luna cooed, feeling bad for the poor owl.
"Was Hedwig alright?" Charlie asked.
"She was fine. Just a bit ruffled, and not very happy with me," Harry assured him.
"Were you boys, ok?" Ted asked, feeling that was the slightly more important question.
"Some bruised ribs, nothing major," Harry told him.
"The guard could have at least checked you were alright," Molly huffed.
"I'm sure he thought we deserved it for messing around." Harry shrugged.
Harry explained they'd lost control of the trolley. Ron picked up Hedwig as people nearby muttered about animal cruelty.
"What? It was an accident!" Harry spluttered, not having heard those comments previously.
"We know that," Charlie soothed. "You'd never do anything to deliberately hurt Hedwig."
Harry asked Ron why they couldn't get through, but he had no idea. Ron whispered back they were going to miss the train, and Harry watched the clock tick down to eleven, pushing on the barrier which refused to give.
"What in the name on Merlin is going on?" Sirius wanted to know. He wasn't the only one. Severus was eyeing the book with narrowed eyes. He hadn't believed the two boys when they tried to explain themselves in his office, but now he knew they spoke the truth, he was curious.
"Well, so far only one being has shown an interest in making sure Harry doesn't get to Hogwarts," Bill said slowly.
"You don't think…Dobby?" Charlie frowned at his brother.
"Dobby?" Draco exclaimed in disbelief.
"You think a house-elf managed to close the barrier?" Amelia asked curiously. "A levitation charm is one thing, but to close the platform barrier? That's another matter entirely."
"House-elves are very powerful, and Dobby seemed pretty adamant that Harry shouldn't go back to school. It's the only reason I can think of that the barrier wouldn't let the two boys through," Kingsley mused.
Ron noted that the train had left. Then wondered if his parents would be able to get back through before asking Harry if he had any muggle money.
"The barrier was working just fine by the time we came back through," Arthur stated. Harry and Ron exchanged glances. If only they had waited another couple of minutes!
Harry stated the Dursley's hadn't given him pocket money in about six years.
"They gave you any ever?" Neville wondered.
"Only because we were in the middle of town. It was right after I'd been recognised by someone and I guess Aunt Petunia thought they were watching her so when she gave Dudley some money for sweets, she gave me some too," Harry explained.
Ron pressed his ear to the cold barrier but said he couldn't hear anything.
"What did you think that was going to do?" Ted asked in amusement.
"It's a doorway, isn't it?" Ron shrugged. "Figured either my ear would go through signalling it was open again, or I might be able to hear something from the other side."
He asked what they should do. People were still watching them, so Harry suggested they wait by the car. Then Ron suggested they fly the car to Hogwarts.
"What?" Several people stared at the two in astonishment.
"So it was Weasley who came up with such an idiotic idea," Severus drawled.
"Ron, who would know far better than Harry just what a terrible idea that is," Percy added.
"Even if the barrier was still blocked, we would have simply apparated to the car," Arthur told his son.
Harry isn't sure but Ron reminds him they are stuck and have to get to school. They are allowed to use magic if it's a real emergency.
"This hardly counts as a real emergency," Kingsley said dryly. "If you waited by the car for five minutes or so, I'm sure your parents would have turned up."
"There were many other options instead of running the risk of breaking the Statue of Secrecy and endangering your own lives," Minerva told them. "An owl, the Knight Bus which I'm sure Mr. Weasley knew how to summon, waiting for your parents."
"We were out by five past eleven," Arthur added. Ron and Harry both blushed. It had felt like they had been there for far longer than three or four minutes.
"They were twelve and panicking," Sirius pointed out with a shrug.
"Where was this attitude when we went after the stone?" Harry wanted to know.
"That was completely different. There, you were chasing after a dark wizard who had already tried to kill you, with no other plan than 'get lucky'," Sirius reminded him grimly. "Here you were trapped in the middle of muggle London. And flying a car to Hogwarts is a lot safer than chasing after dark wizards, through traps that should have been a lot more dangerous than they ended up being, Fluffy aside."
"Not to mention, you had all day to plan that particular adventure, misguided as it was, and you didn't even consider getting down the trapdoor or getting back out again. It was only at the last second you even thought about getting past Fluffy, despite that being the only part you actually knew about," Remus added. Harry winced. That hadn't been his finest moment.
"Unfortunately, twelve and panicking doesn't actually stop them from breaking the law. As I recall, they were seen by muggles," Amelia pointed out. "However, that issue has already been dealt with, there is nothing more to be done."
Harry wondered how Ron's parents would get home. Ron told him they could apparate and wouldn't need the car.
"So, you thought we'd just go home and leave the car there until next summer?" Arthur raised an eyebrow. Ron turned red.
"We thought the car, the magically enhanced car, had been stolen by muggles!" Molly scolded her son.
"That would have been bad," Tonks winced.
"Sorry," Ron muttered.
Severus was surprised by just how resistant Harry seemed to be to the idea of flying the car. Given how reckless and impulsive he had proven to be, it seemed like such an idea would be a grand idea to the twelve-year-old.
Harry's feeling of panic turned suddenly into excitement.
Everyone groaned.
"I'm honestly surprised it took him that long to cave. To two twelve-year-olds, I'm sure it seemed like a grand adventure to fly a car to Hogwarts," Bill put in.
"So many other, better options," Pomona sighed.
"Which were? Ron, however misguided his belief was, somehow thought his parents might just apparate home so didn't think about waiting for them," Sirius pointed out. "Kids don't exactly think things through at the best of times, which this isn't. Yes, it's a stupid idea but with the invisibility booster, they should be alright."
"Sending an owl? I'm sure Mr. Weasley knew how to summon the Knight Bus. Head to the Leaky Cauldron to get help," Filius reminded them.
"An owl would have taken far too long. They were two twelve-year-old boys in the middle of muggle London. Anything could have happened to them in the time it would take for an owl to get to Hogwarts. Or even to the Burrow," Remus stated. "And one of those boys was Harry Potter. If the wrong person recognised him…" he trailed off. Everyone winced at that.
"Even if we had thought of it, I certainly didn't know how to get to the Leaky Cauldron from King's Cross. And I doubt Ron did either," Harry pointed out.
"They still had to find their way to Hogwarts. Assuming Mr. Weasley even knew how to fly the car," Filius reminded them.
"That is a good point. How did you know how to fly the car?" Molly rounded on her son.
"Er…I watched the twins when we went to get Harry?" Ron offered weakly.
Ron said it was no problem when Harry asked if he could fly it.
Molly threw a glare in the twins' direction.
Ron said they should hurry so they could follow the Hogwarts Express.
"Which could easily be well out of London by then," Kingsley pointed out.
"We found it easily enough." Ron shrugged. "I knew the general direction to take."
They headed back to the car, and they got in. Ron told Harry to check no one was watching as he started the ignition.
"At least you had some sense," Emmeline sighed. She could sort of understand why they had decided to fly the car, and she was sure a large part of it was simply the idea of an adventure as opposed to simply panicking, but that still didn't make it a good idea. She was certain that James and Sirius would have done exactly the same thing, even without the circumstance of the barrier being closed, if they had had access to a flying car during their Hogwarts years.
Then he pressed a silver button, and the car vanished, along with Harry and Ron inside. Ron adjusted a few more things and suddenly the car was airborne, all that was visible was a pair of floating eyeballs.
"It was really weird, even after using the cloak," Harry said with a slight shudder.
"Well, you did only use the cloak a total of, what, four or five times?" Sirius pointed out with a pout. "It's no wonder you weren't really used to it."
Things went wrong at once as the invisibility booster failed and Ron and Harry reappeared along with the car hovering in mid-air.
"Of course it did," Tonks groaned.
"I blame Harry's luck," Ron put in quickly.
"I blame Harry's luck too," Harry agreed with a grimace. Several people chuckled at that.
"Get into the clouds, quickly," Percy advised.
Ron smashed the button several more times, but nothing happened, and he groaned that it must be faulty. Instead, he revved the engine and shot the car up into a bank of clouds.
"You can't stay in the clouds forever if you're going to follow the train," Remus pointed out in concern.
"We only popped down every now and again quickly, to make sure we were going in the same direction," explained Ron.
"Good job you didn't fly into London," Bill muttered.
"A few notice-me-not and muggle repelling charms would have done the trick," Arthur said quietly.
Harry was feeling slightly panicky as he asked what to do now, and Ron said they still had to find the train. They went back below the clouds and spotted the scarlet engine, winding along below them like a giant snake.
Everyone who knew what happened that year, flinched.
"Foreshadowing much," Hermione murmured.
Ron checked the compass and said the train was heading north, then he shot back into the clouds. Going up even higher so that they were now skimming above the endless shapes of grey.
The twins exchanged envious looks. They almost wished they'd missed the train as well. They had never taken the car out for any long trip. The journey to Harry's in Surrey was the longest they had ever driven and even then they had only driven at night.
Ron voiced that now all they had to do was check on the train every so often, and they'd be good to go.
"You do realise the train can go quite far in half an hour, maybe in a different direction. It doesn't travel in a straight line the entire way," Minerva pointed out.
"We noticed," Ron said dryly.
"How many times did you nearly lose the train?" Remus wondered.
"Too many."
All they had to worry about now were airplanes.
"How do you know about airplanes, but can't use a telephone?" Harry wanted to know. Ron shrugged.
Then both boys started laughing, and had a hard time stopping. At first, Harry loved this method of traveling.
"That won't last," Remus chuckled.
"It's a long enough journey on the train with plenty of space and refreshments," Ted agreed. "I'm sure the novelty will wear off sooner or later."
The beautiful patterns and different colours that the sun made as it reflected off of the puffy clouds easily held his attention, and after searching the car a bit, they found some toffees to share.
"That'll only make you thirstier. And I doubt there was anything to drink in the car," Bill warned.
"Yeah," Harry grimaced. "The fun wore off."
"Maybe that will put you off such foolish stunts in the future," Minerva said, though without too much hope.
"Also, not a satisfactory meal," Andromeda stated.
"They would probably only be eating sweets on the train anyway," Charlie guessed.
Harry was eagerly awaiting their arrival at the school, where they would surely swoop down on the lawn to the cheering crowd of students and jealous faces of Fred and George.
"Ha!" The twins burst out laughing. "How did that go for you?" George asked.
"You were still jealous," Ron muttered.
Emmeline suddenly had a thought. "I'm guessing the landing didn't go smoothly?" The boys shook their heads grimly. "And does a certain tree from the chapter title have anything to do with that?" They winced.
"Oh no!" Remus breathed in horror.
They regularly went back down to check on the trains progress, watching the world below become wilder every time as the city quickly evaporated into small towns, and eventually the scrubby outlands.
"It was pretty interesting in the beginning," Ron admitted.
After hours of this though, the thrill began to wear off.
"Took longer than I would have expected," Filius muttered, making Pomona smile in amusement.
"Especially with the lack of proper food," she replied.
Both boys were wishing they had been on the train. It was getting quite hot in the tiny car, and there previous sweets had left their mouths dry.
"It really was hot. I almost burnt myself when I accidentally touched the door handle," Harry muttered.
It also reminded them of their original problem, how come they hadn't been able to get onto the platform? They wondered how much further it was.
"It never seems quite so long on the train," Ron muttered.
"There is a lot more to distract you there. And it's probably a lot more comfortable," Charlie pointed out, looking unsympathetic.
Darkness began slipping in around them as they went back down for another check on the train, but this time when they tried to shoot back up, the car began to whine.
"That's not good," Sirius muttered anxiously, even more worried since Emmeline's comment about the Whomping Willow being involved somehow.
"It doesn't sound dark enough for you to be there yet. You must still have a little way too go," Bill mused worriedly.
"Longer than we would have liked," Harry agreed.
"I assume the car has never flown that far before?" Kingsley looked to Arthur.
"No. I think the boy's trip to Surrey and back would have been the longest it's ever been flown. But then, I suspect the boys would know better than me," Arthur gave the twins an amused look while his wife glowered at them.
"Harry's was the longest trip we made," George confirmed.
The boys exchanged an uneasy look, Ron trying and failing to reassure that the car may just be tired, as it had never travelled this far before.
"Just brilliant," Remus muttered.
So, they both decided to ignore the growing whine from the car.
"I'm not sure that's something to ignore," Ted pointed out.
"It's not like they could land and fix it. They wouldn't have a clue where to start and neither of them is allowed to use magic which is most likely what it's lacking. I assume the car runs off of magic and needs a boost at the very least. They would get an underage magic warning and Harry's already had one of those," Kingsley pointed out. "Two in two months would not look good on his record."
"And honestly, if they stopped to try and sort the issue out, there is a chance the car wouldn't start again and then they would be stuck with no idea where they were," Remus added.
As true night settled in and the stars started making an appearance, a cold chill began creeping in, and the windshield wipers began waving around as if the car were in protest.
"Er, how long exactly have you had that car, Arthur?" Emmeline wanted to know.
"Hmm, ten years or so."
"And how many different enchantments did you put on it?" Filius wondered. "It should take longer than that for an object that large to grow a consciousness of its own. Especially if the enchantments like the invisibility booster are not used often."
"It definitely had a personality of its own," Ron muttered grumpily.
"I assume the strain of such a long journey speed up the process," Filius mused to himself. Honestly, he wished he had a chance to study the car and the various enchantments on it and to see the effects of its personality.
Ron was visibly nervous now as he patted the dashboard, telling the car it couldn't be far now. When they went below the skyline this time, Hogwarts was finally visible in the distance.
"At least you know roughly where you are now," Tonks said. "If you have to send for help."
"It wasn't required," Harry told her.
The car still didn't seem happy about this though, now shuddering so hard it knocked their teeth together. Ron encouraged it on just a little farther, but Harry could now see steam beginning to pour out from under the hood.
Arthur sat up, wondering if he was going to find out what had happened to his car in the end. He'd honestly just assumed the Ministry had confiscated it, well, that a teacher from the school had sent it on to the Ministry who then confiscated it.
"Just a little further," Sirius urged under his breath.
Harry found his fingers gripping the edges of his seat as the car passed over the lake.
"I think I'd rather have crashed into the lake than the tree," Ron muttered quietly to his friend. "At least the squid would have helped us out rather than try to beat us up." Harry nodded in agreement.
Suddenly the car jerked to one side, hard. Ron's knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel, pleading with the car now just a few feet more and gave the gas pedal one more push, then the car stuttered, and died.
"Oh, not good. Very not good," Sirius muttered to himself, clutching Harry tightly.
"At least they are on school grounds now. Someone should be able to reach them quickly enough," Remus reminded, as much for himself as for Sirius.
The car began a nosedive, heading straight for the castle wall. Ron yelped and swung the steering wheel, hard. He managed to swing the car in a great arc away from the stone walls.
"At least the steering still worked," Bill heaved a sigh of relief. "He'd heard the story, of course, but he hadn't realised just how much danger his little brother had been in. Either his mother hadn't known or had left it out of the story. He found the latter rather unlikely.
Ron released the steering wheel and instead pulled out his wand again, bashing it against the car and yelling 'stop' at the top of his lungs while they continued to head towards the ground.
"What good did you think that was going to do?" Fred scoffed.
"It's not even a spell, that's just wishful thinking," George agreed.
"Definitely not my best idea," Ron muttered bitterly. If he'd kept his wand in his pocket, it might well not have snapped.
"Hey, if it hadn't broken we might not have had our memories and Ginny would be dead," Harry replied in an undertone. Ron went ghostly pale at that. So did Sirius and Remus who had both overheard with their canine hearing, though they had no idea how a broken wand would fix either of those situations.
Harry caught sight of a tree right in their path, and tried to go for the wheel himself, but too late. There was a terrible sound of metal being smashed against wood as the car finally landed at the base of a giant tree.
"Of all the trees," Remus moaned.
It had taken quite the beating, as steam was still coming out of its hood. Hedwig was shrieking in the backseat,
"That poor owl," Luna murmured.
"Yeah, we wondered why she was giving you the cold shoulder during that term. Normally she's always coming to breakfast, even without mail," Fred commented.
Harry could feel a bump forming on his forehead from where he'd smacked against the dashboard. To his side, Ron let out a groan.
"Were you ok?" Charlie asked his brother in concern.
"Yeah. I wasn't hurt, just concerned."
"Please tell me you both got checked out for any injuries?" Andromeda asked.
"Er, we were fine." Harry shrugged. The witch came dangerously close to actually rolling her eyes.
Harry quickly asked if he was okay and found Ron stammering something about his wand. Harry saw himself that the wood looked nearly snapped in two, only hanging on by a few splinters.
"You broke it at the start of the year?" Molly demanded. "I thought you had broken it when…well, at the end of the year."
"Er…" Ron winced.
"You spent a whole year with a broken wand? One that hadn't even chosen you?" Remus asked. "How on earth did you get through your lessons? And how did none of the staff notice?" Ron shrugged.
"You didn't actually keep using it, did you?" Bill gaped. Ron blushed.
"I didn't want to write back for a new one. Well, after how expensive the supplies were that summer and with the, er, letter from mum the next morning, I figured I wouldn't bother."
"Foolish boy!" Moody barked. "Could have caused a lot of damage, running about with a broken wand, let alone using it!" He turned to Dumbledore. "This is why you shouldn't have taken out the course on wand safety!"
Minerva and Filius both exchanged looks. They had noted the greater than normal number of accidents Ron had had with spellcasting that year, but by Halloween there had been other things on their minds.
"The staff were a bit distracted that year," Harry muttered.
"But I'd be amazed if he could perform any spells with his wand in that condition. Surely one of the casting classes must have noticed?" Emmeline frowned.
The teachers exchanged more guilty looks. Ron could have seriously hurt himself or a classmate working with that wand all year, they should have noticed and written to Mrs Weasley about it. If the Weasley's had been unable to afford a new wand, well there was a Hogwarts fund for emergencies like that. A working wand was a necessity.
Harry was fixing to reassure him that he was sure someone at the school could fix it, but never even got started.
"Nothing is fixing that wand," Bill shook his head.
"Back then I still thought magic could fix pretty much anything," Harry admitted.
Before he could speak a word, something smashed into his side of the car like a bull, the force of which sent him crashing into Ron.
"Get out of that car!" Charlie yelped.
"Honestly, they might well be safer inside. At least they have the car for cover. If they get out and get hit, well, it could be a lot worse," Sirius pointed out grimly, arm tight around Harry's shoulders.
"Honestly, why is that tree even there?" Tonks wondered. "I don't recall studying it in any Herbology lessons."
"It was for a…student project," Minerva lied with only a slight hesitation. Remus fought to hide a cough.
Ron tried to ask what was going on, but then they both caught sight of a branch as thick as a python smashing down on the windshield.
"Please tell me you reinforced the glass?" Molly begged her husband.
"Of course I did," he assured her, hugging her tightly. "All of the windows were charmed to be unbreakable."
"That's something at least," Sirius sighed.
The tree was attacking them. Through the gloom they could make out that the trunk was nearly bent double as its limbs continued smashing every inch of the car it could reach.
"I really hope those charms hold," Remus muttered.
"They can't stay there forever, either way. The charms will break before that tree runs out of energy," Sirius pointed out worriedly.
"Hopefully the tree would be distracted by the car if they make a break for it," Bill offered hopefully.
"It would be attracted by the movement," Neville shook his head.
It was doing a bit of damage too, the roof was caving in on them, and the windshield was trembling, clearly fixing to crack free any moment. Ron tried to get out and make a run for it, but a branch snapped forward and kept the door closed.
"Now would be a good time for the flip side of the famed Potter luck," Bill mumbled to himself.
"I'm going to kill that house-elf," Sirius growled.
"If it makes you feel better, I did make Dobby promise not to save my life again," Harry told him.
"Actually, that doesn't. Because that means he probably did something even worse before you made him promise that." Harry grimaced.
"He had the best intentions."
"That have almost killed you twice and you've barely made it to Hogwarts yet, where there is supposedly more danger waiting!"
Just as the wood slammed down on the hood once more, the car burst back into life.
"What? How?" Arthur wondered in surprise.
"Don't question a good thing. Just hope it gets them out of there!" Charlie said.
Without any prompting it shot itself backwards, clear of the tree which was now nearly ripping itself out of the ground as it continued trying to lash out at them. Ron was just coming back to his senses when the car seemed to decide it'd had enough of them. The car doors opened on their own, the seats tipped sideways, and Harry found himself sprawled out on the grass.
"You were far enough away from the tree, right?" Remus double checked.
"Yeah," Harry assured him. "It couldn't reach us where the car dropped us."
"That is quite the personality it's developed there, if it's actually able to chuck you both out," Filius noted. He dearly wished for a chance to examine the machine.
Several loud thunks suggested that their luggage was being ejected as well, as well as their pet's cages. Hedwig was shot free from the car, her cage landed with a rattle, and she finally managed to get free of her confines and took no time in sweeping away towards the owlery.
Harry winced.
Done with its set tasks, the car revved its engine one last time and made a beeline for the darkness. Ron yelled after it, demanding it come back or his dad would kill him.
"I don't think it's dad you had to worry about," Fred pointed out.
"Yeah. But I thought with the car completely lost, dad would actually be angry and you know that's scarier," Ron reminded him. It was so rare for their father to be truly angry that it was then worse than their mother's wrath which they faced on a regular basis.
"Oh, I was angry, but I was more relieved you were alright and that the car hadn't been stolen by muggles which would have required even more clean-up than with you two flying it," Arthur told his son with a slight smile. "And I thought your mother's punishment was enough."
The car paid him no mind and disappeared from sight. Ron bemoaned their luck as he went to fetch Scabbers' cage and his luggage, grumbling that of all the trees they could have hit, they just had to pick the one that hit back.
A few people chuckled now that they knew both boys were relatively unharmed.
The boys grabbed their stuff and began trudging up towards the castle, far more dejected than they would have expected. It was hardly the triumphant arrival they'd been expecting.
The twins smirked.
"How late were you guys?" Remus wondered.
"The sorting was happening, we saw it through the windows," Harry told him.
"So, late enough to be quite noticeable when you enter," Sirius grinned.
"If we'd have gotten that far," Ron muttered grumpily.
Glancing through the window, they saw the sorting taking place and Harry spotted Ginny and recalled his own sorting and how he was sorted into Gryffindor over Slytherin, helping them to the house cup.
Draco scowled at the reminder.
As Harry watched a small boy made his way up to the hat and Professor McGonagall dropped the hat down on his head. Harry instead began inspecting the other teachers, easily picking out the Headmaster Dumbledore, the newest teacher Lockhart, Hagrid...as Harry did a tally he realized that one was missing, Snape. They discussed the possibilities as to why Snape might be missing, including being sacked and illness.
"Oh, he's going to be right behind you, isn't he?" Tonks groaned.
"Er, how much of that did you overhear, sir?" Harry asked weakly.
"All of it," Snape told him dryly, not allowing any of his amusement at the boy's expression to show. Both boys winced.
A voice behind them stated he might be waiting to hear why the two of them didn't arrive on the school train.
"Of all the people to catch them," Charlie groaned.
"I'm sure Sniv…Snape couldn't wait to offer to find them once he knew who was missing," Sirius snarled.
Smiling in a way that suggested they were in deep trouble, he commanded that they follow him, and the two boys did without protest. They trailed behind him, down into the dungeons below. Once inside his office, full of things Harry didn't want to know about, he immediately began tearing into them, saying the train wasn't good enough for famous Harry Potter and his sidekick.
"Ron's no sidekick!" Harry protested as he hadn't been able to then.
"And there you go again, not even giving them a chance to explain themselves." Remus shook his head in disapproval.
"It really wouldn't have mattered if he did. It's not like he would have listened," Harry pointed out with a shrug.
Harry tried to explain but Snape told him to be silent. Then he demanded to know what happened to the car.
"How did you know about the car?" Bill asked in surprise. Snape simply gestured to the book.
Sirius grimaced. He had a bad feeling about this.
Harry felt a prickle of unease, this wasn't the first time Snape had given the appearance of being omniscient, but this time in answer he pulled out an evening copy of the Daily Prophet which had the bold headline stating that a Flying Ford Anglia had Mystified Muggles.
Everyone winced, even those who had already known.
"Oh, that's not good," Charlie grimaced.
"It could have been a lot worse," Arthur sighed.
Snape began reading from the front cover about how the car had been seen all over the country, by seven Muggles in total. Snape continued by mocking Ron, stating that his own father worked in the misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, and what a disgrace this must be for him.
Arthur sighed. At least this mess had already been dealt with, so there would be no further repercussions with the Ministry workers reading this information.
"Honestly, with the invisibility booster not working, they were lucky it was only six or seven," Ted muttered. "Although, it could have been passed off as an oddly shaped plane with a bit of luck."
"The muggles all had their memories modified, that was the easy bit. The problem was that it was required in the first place," Amelia stated. "I hope it was impressed upon you two exactly how serious this was?" Both boys nodded vigorously. Harry still felt awful about the fine the Weasleys had received, when it had been him Dobby had wanted to stop getting to the school.
Harry worried about how much trouble Ron's dad would get into when people found out he'd been bewitching a car.
"And that is not your responsibility," Arthur told him kindly. "It was wrong of me to enchant the car in the first place, and I knew that full well. Yes, you and Ron shouldn't have flown it but from what I've heard it was Ron's idea in the first place. You were both young and desperate, and the car was my responsibility."
Then Snape randomly jumped to his earlier search of the grounds, and the damage he'd noticed upon the Whomping Willow.
"Like you care about that tree," Sirius scoffed.
Ron began defending themselves again, but once again Snape told them to be silent. Then he kept going in as close to a happy voice as he could, stating that if they'd been in his house, they would have been expelled that moment. Sadly, he didn't have that power, and he was going to get the people who did.
"I don't know why you're so happy, Severus. You know full well Dumbledore would never expel Harry Potter," Emmeline pointed out. "And, honestly, as Arthur said, yes they did break the Statue of Secrecy but it wasn't them who enchanted the car in the first place. Lots of detentions are in order, but not expulsion."
"Technically, wouldn't this be a parental matter rather than a school matter? It was before the start of term," Ted wondered.
"They did crash on school grounds. And as they were travelling to school, it could be considered a school matter," Kingsley mused.
"And with the exception of the forest detention, I'd rather have Hogwarts punishing Harry than getting the Dursleys involved," Remus pointed out.
"They'd just be disappointed Harry didn't get himself killed," Sirius scowled.
Harry and Ron waited in terrified silence, but didn't have to wonder long as Snape soon returned with Professor McGonagall. She didn't look any more pleased than the other teacher, and Harry either had never seen, or had forgotten just how thin her mouth could go in anger.
"I suspect you haven't seen her that angry," Sirius chuckled slightly.
She raised her wand the moment she entered; Harry and Ron both flinched.
"I wouldn't curse my students," Minerva stated with a frown.
"Instinct." Harry shrugged.
"Habit. Mum favours a stinging hex when she's really mad," Ron stated.
She only started up a fire in the empty earth. She told them to sit, which they did at once, then she commanded they explain themselves, which they began at once. When they were done, her first question was to Harry, demanding to know why he hadn't simply used his owl to ask for help. Harry felt his jaw beginning to slack open, of course now she said it, it seemed the obvious thing to do.
"Not really," Tonks said. "As was already pointed out, two twelve-year-old boys hanging around London without any adult supervision for several hours is hardly safe. Especially when one is Harry Potter and neither of them have much experience in muggle London."
Harry began stammering that he hadn't thought, and McGonagall curtly replied that this was obvious.
Several people chuckled.
Then a knock came from the door, and Snape opened it to reveal Dumbledore. At the penetrating look he received from the headmaster's blue eyes; Harry suddenly decided he'd rather be back outside with the Whomping Willow.
"Yeah. He has that effect," Sirius muttered.
He softly asked Harry to explain himself, and Harry repeated his tale, having only left out the part that he knew the car belonged to Mr. Weasley, making it sound more like they'd just happened to stumble upon a magic car.
"Nobody would believe that," Draco snorted.
"But it was very good of you to try," Arthur said with a slight smile.
"Although, with the car gone wherever, could it be proven that the car was Arthur's?" Ted wondered.
"Unfortunately, yes," Arthur sighed. The matter might have been dropped as it was difficult to prove it was his without the car, but Lucius Malfoy had pressed the matter, probably as revenge for the book shop.
Dumbledore didn't question it, so Harry finished his tale. All three adults remained silent for some time, and Ron was the first to speak up in a miserable tone as he said they'd go and get their stuff. Dumbledore corrected them, saying they weren't going to be expelled, not today.
Severus huffed, but without as much emotion as he had felt previously. Especially knowing exactly what expulsion would have sent Harry back to. He didn't want to think about the Dursley's reaction to Harry turning back up on their doorstep and being informed he would never be going back to Hogwarts.
Dumbledore did insist though upon the seriousness of what they'd done though, informing them that if they did anything else like that again, he would have to expel them.
Severus barely managed to supress a snort at that.
Harry and Ron exchanged grins. "Well, we never did fly a car to Hogwarts again," Harry noted.
"Or any other vehicle," Ron added.
He would also be writing home to their families and informing them of what happened.
Ron winced, thinking about the howler he had received.
Snape looked as though Christmas had been cancelled. He tried to change the elder man's mind, pointing out that they had broken several laws, damaged an old, valuable tree.
Sirius scoffed once again at Snape pretending to care about the tree. He hated it and everything it represented.
"The damage was hardly that bad, Severus," Pomona said mildly. "Of course, it would have healed a lot more smoothly if he hadn't kept butting in," she added with a slight snarl that looked completely out of place on the mild woman's face.
But Dumbledore cut him off, reminding that they were in McGonagall's house, so she would decide the punishment. Then he escorted Snape out of his own office, leaving the boys with their head of house, who was still eyeing them like a watchful bird of prey. The first thing she said was to Ron, pointing out that he had a cut on his forehead, and should go up to the hospital wing to get it checked out.
"What?" Molly shrieked.
"Mum, it was just a tiny cut. I was fine," Ron assured her quickly.
"You could have had a concussion. It sounded like you got beaten around quite a bit," Bill said in concern.
"I was fine," Ron repeated exasperatedly.
Ron easily sidestepped this, saying it was only a scratch. Ron then asked if he could go upstairs for the end of the sorting, he wanted to see his sister-, McGonagall cut him off and informed him the Ceremony was complete, and Ginny had joined him in Gryffindor.
Ginny smiled at Ron, pleased her brother had thought to ask about her, even after his exciting evening.
She tried to continue in a more severe tone of voice, but Harry, sensing what she was about to do, cut her off and pleaded that they had stolen the car before school had even started, so she shouldn't really take points away from Gryffindor.
"Woah. You actually got away with that?" Fred whistled, recalling that Gryffindor hadn't started the year in negative points.
"You did?" Sirius asked in astonishment.
"Contrary to belief, I don't enjoy taking points off of my lions," Minerva stated. "And it was a reasonable argument."
"That was almost...Slytherin of you, Harry," Draco drawled.
"Well, that hat wanted me there for a reason," he grinned back.
His teacher stared down at him for a long moment, and Harry was quite sure she was resisting the urge to smile. Her mouth looked less thin, at any rate. She agreed not to take points but stated they would both have detention. Harry decided he'd take that.
"Only one?" Bill asked in astonishment.
"I've had detention for a month for less than that! They broke the statute of secrecy!" Charlie complained.
"Us too," Sirius agreed.
"Are you saying you want your brother to be punished more heavily?" Minerva asked him in amusement.
"Well, no, but…I…" Charlie spluttered.
"It's the mess with the points from first year and the forest detention all over again," Neville muttered to himself.
"The punishments in this place are all over the place," Emmeline shook her head.
"Rewards too. Children need structure and consistency," Andromeda agreed.
"I agree the system needs looking into," Minerva sighed. Which would fall to her as deputy headmistress. It was a good job she had decided to step down as Head of Gryffindor. "I should be able to have a new punishment and reward system in place for the start of next year."
"We'll help," Filius offered immediately.
"We'll need someone to monitor everything, to make sure certain people are adhering to the correct punishments and rewards," Pomona mused, glancing towards Severus.
"I'm sure we'll manage," Minerva said, though her head pounded at the idea of how much work she would have once they were out of the time bubble. Especially considering the extra work she already had coming up with the tournament being held the next school year. They were learning so much about the school and its inner workings. She could hardly believe how out of touch the professors had become. Still, it would be worth it in the end.
As for the school writing to the Dursleys, Harry was sure they'd only be disappointed to find out Harry hadn't been squashed under the tree.
Several people scowled at how true that was.
Professor McGonagall raised her wand one more time, and a plate of sandwiches and drinks appeared. She instructed them to eat in here and then go to their dormitories when they were done, then she excused herself and left as well.
"Excuse me!" Severus exploded. "You left two Gryffindor twelve-year-old boys alone in my office!" Honestly, he was lucky that Harry was nothing like his father or godfather or else his office would have been left in ruins.
"Ah, apologies Severus, I wasn't thinking," Minerva winced.
The boys instantly spouted their relief as they each took a sandwich, while Ron grumbled about their luck. His twin brothers took that car out all the time, and they'd never gotten caught!
"Excuse me?" Molly glared at the twins.
"Molly, we already knew this, and we no longer have the car. There is no point telling them off again," Arthur sighed.
Then he once again asked why they hadn't been able to get through the barrier. Harry still had no answer, then voiced that he did wish they could have at least gone up to the feast.
"If they were eating dessert when Professor Dumbledore left, it would probably be pointless to go anyway. They'd end up with only sweet things and no proper food all day," Tonks pointed out.
Ron pointed out that he was sure the teachers didn't want them showing off.
"That too," Charlie laughed.
Continuing by speculating they didn't want the rest of the school to know that they'd arrived by flying car.
"It was in the evening edition of the Prophet, someone will have seen it and spread the news around the school," Remus pointed out.
"And people overheard the teachers talking about it," George added. "We all knew by the time they made it to the common room."
"Of course, there were also rumours going around that they'd been expelled," Fred put in with a laugh.
They ate their fill, as the plate and cups kept refilling themselves, and then made their way up the nearly endless staircases until they made it to the portrait of the fat lady. She asked for the password, but Harry could only err.
"Now, was that deliberate or not?" Sirius wondered with a glance towards his old head of house.
"That was not deliberate. My apologies Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley. It slipped my mind that you wouldn't know."
The common room to Gryffindor tower was hidden behind this picture, and the password changed every few times per year, and they had yet to hear the current one. They were saved though by someone coming up behind them, Hermione.
"Perfect timing, as always," Harry grinned at her.
"I was so worried when I couldn't find either of you on the train. Especially as all of Ron's siblings were there and had no idea where he was either," she said.
"We didn't mean to worry you," Ron told her.
She was already talking as she approached, trying to laugh at this ridiculous story she'd apparently been hearing about how they'd arrived by flying car and been expelled for it. Harry assured her that they hadn't been expelled. Hermione began exclaiming in surprise that they hadn't flown there.
"I'm impressed you had heard and had already had time to start looking for them," Ted noted. "That is quick, even for Hogwarts."
Ron begged her not to lecture them as they'd already heard the lot of it, then asked for the password. Hermione gave it, but tried to continue with her point anyways.
Everyone laughed.
"If you wanted them to listen you really shouldn't have given them the password until you'd finished," Bill told her.
"I know that now," Hermione sighed.
Both boys eagerly stepped forward, trying to avoid said point, only to step into a swarm of applauding Gryffindors.
"Only Gryffindors would be pleased by such a stupid stunt," Draco said, shaking his head.
"It's not like it lasted," Harry muttered bitterly.
"But we love any excuse to party," George grinned.
"Even right after a feast?" Pomona raised an eyebrow.
"Even then," Fred agreed. Several of the adults rolled their eyes, muttering about teenagers and bottomless stomachs.
The whole of the house was standing around, laughing and congratulating both boys on the stunt they'd pulled and how people would be talking for ages about this one! Fred and George fought their way over, though they hardly looked happy as they demanded to know why they hadn't been asked to come along.
"It wasn't exactly planned," Ron said dryly.
"Well, we know that now. But then we had no idea why you'd taken the car," Fred reminded him with a shrug.
"Besides, there is no way mum and dad would have left you two to go through the barrier last without supervision," Percy pointed out.
"True," George acknowledged.
Ron looked abundantly pleased with himself, but Harry caught sight of a less pleasant Weasley, Percy. He was trying to fight his way over as well, wearing a face that just screamed he had every intention of telling them off.
"Ah, we wondered why you beat such a hasty retreat," said George.
"I was worried about how much trouble father would get into and I wanted to check they were ok for myself," Percy defended himself.
"Sorry, Perc. We really didn't need a lecture though after we got through with Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore," Ron pointed out. "And mum's response." Percy had to admit he had a point.
Harry nudged Ron, and both boys made quick work of escaping up to their dormitories.
"It wasn't easy," Harry muttered.
"At least you could slip through the tiniest of gaps. I'm not a skinny midget," Ron complained.
"Oi!"
"Hey, at least it worked in your favour," Fred grinned.
Harry called a goodbye back to Hermione, who had an expression remarkably close to Percy's. Ron and Harry made busy of themselves getting ready for bed as the rest of their dormmates came up and congratulated them one last time. Harry couldn't seem to wipe the smile off his face for the rest of the night.
"Boys," Hermione muttered, shaking her head.
"Well, that was a long chapter," Moody grunted. "It's over now thankfully."
"One more and then I think we should stop for this evening," Molly suggested glancing at the time. "My, we are getting through this slowly," she fretted.
"It's a time bubble. We're not in a hurry and I don't think we want to rush the readings and miss important details," Kingsley pointed out.
"True," Minerva agreed.
"Who hasn't read yet?" Moody asked.
"I'll take a turn," Percy offered. He took the proffered book and located the correct page.