The Young Padfoot *Book One*

A Howler to Remember

They never showed up. Not as we waited for the sorting to start, not through the Sorting Hat's song, not even when Ginny was announced to be a Gryffindor. Something was seriously up because knowing Ron, he would never voluntarily miss his sister's sorting. I had also noticed that Snape wasn't in his seat like he usually was. Was he with Harry and Ron?

My worries were then realised when rumours started spreading around the room as we helped ourselves to the food. Several people had started pointing out of the windows and were speaking excitedly about something.

Hermione, Ginny, and I glanced over to the windows just in time to see a blue car flying passed the window. Wait, why was there a flying car? Seeing this, I noticed Ginny's complexion pale slightly as she leant over to me and Hermione.

"That's dads car. I reckon Harry and Ron are the ones flying it," Ginny muttered to us.

Hermione and I shared a glance before looking back over at Ginny.

"That's your dads car?" I asked. "Do Harry and Ron even know how to drive a car?"

"Never mind that," Hermione countered, biting her lip anxiously. "What if they were spotted by a muggle. I mean, they aren't accustomed to seeing flying cars on their daily walks."

"Well, to be honest, neither are wizards," I muttered.

Just as we were talking, Dumbledore and McGonagall left the hall, clearly going to sort out the situation.

"Oh, my gosh! What if they get expelled?" Hermione panicked.

"Hermione, calm yourself. Harry is Dumbledore's star student; he won't get expelled and well, there is no Harry without Ron so Dumbledore won't expel him either," I assured her.

"Although I get the feeling that my mum won't be particularly pleased. I'm betting anything that I have that Ron will receive a howler in the next few days," Ginny betted.

"Somehow I think you may be right," I agreed.

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After we had finished our meals, everyone returned to their dormitories. Except from me and Hermione, who had snuck away to try and find the others. Hopefully, they hadn't been expelled. That would really suck if they had.

Hermione was in a sort of denial that they would have done something so stupid, despite the fact that we had seen the car with our own eyes.

We had just decided to retreat back to our common room and wait for them there when we saw a certain jet haired boy and a ginger hair boy looking around helplessly at the portrait.

"There you are!" Hermione exclaimed beside me, rushing over to Harry and Ron. "Where have you been? You can't have seriously been flying that car here. Have you been expelled?"

"No, we haven't been expelled," Harry told us.

"Nice driving by the way. Did you really hit the Whomping Willow?" I asked, a smile forming on my face.

"We didn't mean to," Ron muttered.

"Emery, you should not be encouraging this type of behaviour," Hermione scolded me, but the smile never left my face.

"Skip the lecture, Hermione. Just tell us the new password," Ron groaned.

"It's wattlebird," I told them.

Hermione attempted to scold them some more but it was cut off as the portrait swung open and a storm of clapping washed over us. Most of Gryffindor had stayed awake and were now welcoming Harry and Ron as though they were heroes.