THE FIRST FEW hours of being in a flying car had been great.
"Just wait until Fred and George see us, Harry!" Freya grinned as she drove the flying car through the clouds happily.
"Will too!" Harry said thinking of his other best friend and laughing out loud, "He'll think it's brilliant! Right after he complains it's illegal."
"There was no winning with him regardless, because if we hadn't flown, we would've skipped school!"
They shared a laugh about that, and the outlook of their journey looked as bright as the sky had been.
Then the sky had gotten too bright.
"I'm...so...hot," Freya said pained several hours later once they'd finished the chocolate left in the compartment and the fact they were without water became known. "Bloody Hell, why couldn't we get into the platform?"
"That's what I want to know too," Harry said, blinking sleepily as he had been resting his head against the window from the heat and boredom. "But I can't think up even one possibility."
"I can't think at all in this heat," Freya said warily, already tying her mess of red hair into a high ponytail. "I can't-"
Freya stopped. She'd pressed down on the accelerator to go higher into the clouds after checking the Hogwarts Express, but as she did the engine let out a keening whine, sounding almost like a complaint.
She and Harry glanced at each other, alarmed.
"Do you suppose that's something we should be worried about?" Harry questioned, throughly concerned.
"Err, uh. Who knows?" Freya continued driving ahead a suddenly determined expression on her face as she pressed the accelerator again, "Like I said, Harry...I can't think in this heat."
"There!" Freya startled and Hedwig let out a screech of surprise in the back at Harry's sudden outburst as Harry pointed ahead, "Freya, there!"
Silhouetted on the dark horizon, high on the cliff over the lake, stood the many turrets and towers of Hogwarts. Harry felt an immense joy upon seeing it, but the feeling was quickly replaced by sudden dread as the car began to shudder and lose speed.
"Hey, we're almost there," Freya soothed the car as she patted the dashboard like it was an animal, her gaze set intently upon Hogwarts as if she could get the breaking down car there by the sheer force of her will. "Be a good car and keep going, okay? If you do I swear I will never drive you again, so please just-"
The engine sputtered and steam billowed from under the hood. Freya let out a curse and pressed down on the gas pedal as Harry gripped the side of his seat wide-eyed as they began to race over the lake in hopes of making it across.
"Come on," Freya muttered. They had made it over the lake and Hogwarts was only just straight ahead when there was a loud clunk followed by a splatter that led to the engine dying completely.
In the moment of silence that followed, Freya spoke a word that Harry knew Mrs. Weasley would yell herself hoarse over if she'd heard.
Then they began to fall.
"NO!"
Freya screamed as they were heading straight for the castle wall and in a moment of impulsive action, she swerved. They missed the stone wall by inches but were suddenly soaring over the dark greenhouses, then the vegetable patch, and then over the darkened grounds losing altitude the whole time.
"Bloody hell," Freya hissed as she suddenly let go of the steering wheel completely and took her wand from her back pocket as she began tapping it against the steering wheel, the dashboard, the windows- "STOP! STOP! ST-"
"WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE!" Harry yelled, finding his voice for the first time since they started crashing, as he lunged to the driver's side to swerve but was too late-
CRUNCH.
With an earsplitting bang of metal on wood, they hit the thick tree trunk and dropped to the ground with a heavy jolt. Steam was billowing from under the crumpled hood; Hedwig and Scabbers were both screeching and squeaking in terror, a golf-ball-sized lump was throbbing on Harry's head where he hit the windshield; and to his right, Freya inhaled sharply as though pained.
"Freya? Are you okay?" Harry asked, panic going through him as he whirled in her direction.
"My wand," replied Freya in a sort of dumbstruck voice.
It had snapped, almost in two; the tip was hanging limply, held by only a few splinters.
Harry opened his mouth to tell her he was sure they could mend it right once they got to the school but didn't get the chance to, for a second later something hit his side of the car with the force of a charging bull, sending him lurching towards Freya, just as a heavy blow hit the roof.
A few moments later Harry was sure he was done for and that he was going to die by tree with one of his best friends in the world, when the car suddenly started up again as if knowing it was about to be crushed to death had brought it back to life.
"REVERSE!" Freya and Harry yelled as one.
The car shot backward. He and Freya gripped their seats as they backed up at high speed and he heard the sound of the branches whipping just in front of them before they were free and far away enough.
"That," panted Freya as she winced, "was close. I am in your debt, car. If I am to marry, I shall name my child either Ford or Angeli-"
Freya didn't get to finish her promise as the car seemed to have reached the end of its limits and they were thrown out of the car. Harry and Freya first, then their luggage, and finally their pets as Harry caught a screeching Hedwig and Freya caught Scabbers cage-Scabbers eyes wide-open for once with fear.
They gaped at the car as it, in all its scratched, dented, and chipped paint glory rumbled off into the darkness, its backlights flashing angrily.
"Well, ya know what? I didn't even want to name my kid after you! I'm going to name them something cool like...like something, not FORD!" Freya called after it bristling as she turned to look after Scabbers when her eyes widened suddenly and she whirled around, her hand outstretched. "WAIT! WAIT, My dad's gonna kill me!"
Then her eyes widened as her face paled and she reached into her back pocket and pulled out her broken wand.
"No, no, my mum's gonna kill me!"
Then she closed her eyes, pained.
"No, no, Will's gonna kill me! He'll tell me before they come to kill me that I deserve it, and I'll die from the sheer effort it'll take to not destroy him!" She looked at Harry with an expression of despair, "Why didn't that tree just kill me?"
Harry stared at her for a moment.
Then his lip twitched upwards.
And then, for the first time in how many hours, he began to laugh.
"IT'S NOT FUNNY!" Freya roared as Harry bent down holding his knees his stomach hurt so much, "Oh my god, I'm dead! Standing right here is the boy who lived and the girl who's going to die three times over! It's not-"
Freya paused staring at Harry who was leaning against Hedwig's tree wheezing and she let out a huff of laughter, running a hand through her hair as she looked around at the darkened grounds that they stood in the middle of on their first day back at school.
"Come on, Harry..."
Freya smiled as Harry stood up, wiping tears from her eyes as she shook her head.
"I guess we have to walk the rest of the way home."
Not being able to get through the platform barrier, the heat of the car ride, the fighting tree, the breaking of Freya's wand, and the loss of Mr. Weasley's car had all been very very bad.
Being taken from their arrival into the dining hall by Snape and having to follow him silently into his office in the dungeons was far far worse.
"So," Snape said softly, as he walked away from closing his door to circle the two of them to get to his desk, "the train isn't good enough for famous Harry Potter and his Weasley sidekick?" Freya looked like she was about to argue the sidekick bit but thought better of it at a glance at Snape. "Wanted to arrive with a bang, did we?"
"No sir," Harry winced. "The barrier wouldn't let us-"
"I do not want to hear your excuses, Potter." Snape hissed and he suddenly looked even angrier as he turned on them. "Now what have you done with the car?"
Harry felt his blood run cold. He can read our minds.
Thankfully, that wasn't the case. Horribly, however, was the fact that their flying road trip was known because it turned out, that despite considering themselves hidden, they had been seen. It was some of the worst moments in his life the next couple of minutes as both Dumbledore and Professor Mcgonagald came in and the torture of their disappointed gazes seemed to last for hours…
Finally, they were free from it and told that their guardians were being contacted (bad for Freya, not bad for Harry), they both had detention (they were both getting kind of used to detention by now), and they were not allowed to join the feast but were left in Snape's office to eat sandwiches.
Once Professor Mcgonagald closed the door behind her, Freya let out a long low whistle as she sat down and grabbed a sandwich, biting into it hungrily.
"I rvly thut we had it." Freya said with her mouth full of ham and cheese before she swallowed, shaking her head. "Fred and George must have flown it a thousand times and they hadn't been seen!"
"I just want to know why we couldn't get through the barrier." Harry frowned, taking a pepperoni and cheese sandwich for himself. "I guess we should be careful from now on…"
Once they finished as many sandwiches as they could hold (for him it was three and for Freya, it was five, which she boasted about as they walked up the stairs) they went to the Gryffindor common room, the tiredness of the events that had taken place beginning to seep in.
"Password?" the fat lady asked when she saw them approach.
Freya and Harry glanced at each other, momentarily stumped, but help came almost at once as they heard the sound of rushing footsteps, and they turned to see Will Granger coming toward them looking annoyed.
"There you two are! Where have you been? There are these ridiculous rumors- someone said you'd been expelled for crashing a flying car-"
"Well, we haven't been expelled," Harry said in what he thought was a reassuring tone.
Will's brows shot up. "You're not telling me you did fly here, are you? Please tell me you are not telling me-"
"We're not telling you anything," Freya interrupted as she gestured toward the equally impatient-looking fat lady. "So could you kindly tell us and the lady over here the password?"
"It's wattlebird," Will said rushed as he shook his head, "but beyond that-"
His words were cut short, however, as the portrait of the fat lady swung open and there was a sudden storm of clapping. It looked as though the whole Gryffindor house was still awake waiting for them to arrive because suddenly arms reached through the portrait way to grab Harry and Freya, pulling them in, leaving Will to scramble inside after them.
"BRILLIANT!" Lee Jordan crowed. "INSPIRED! What an entrance! Flying a car into the whomping willow, WOO!"
"Good for you," said a fifth-year Harry had never spoken to as others congratulated him and Freya.
Freya looked startlingly surprised at all the compliments next to him, but she positively beamed when Fred and George pushed their way to the front and said together, "Why couldn't we've come in the car, eh?"
It wasn't until Harry saw Percy trying to get to them, visible over the head of some first years, that Harry nudged Freya and directed her attention away from the complementors. She got the hint and soon the two of them were making their way for the staircases, each saying to others that they were tired from the trip.
"Night, tell Will I said the same to him," Freya whispered to him just before she went to the stairs where Lavender and Pavarti were waiting to hear the story straight from her as well.
Will was waiting for Harry at the top of the stairs, frowning.
Harry grinned sheepishly at him, "Freya says night."
Will rolled his eyes as they made their way to their room, "Please tell me you didn't enjoy all the attention you got for doing something idiotic and reckless?"
"Well-" Harry didn't get to reply before their room door shut behind them and voices began shouting over each other at once.
"Unbelievable!" beamed Seamus.
"Wow, you and Freya, Harry." Dean agreed.
"Brilliant!" said Neville looking awestruck.
Grinning sheepishly still, Harry looked over at a half-amused and half-exasperated Will and couldn't help but laugh in reply.