𝐋𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐒 ↳ 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝗝𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗣𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗫 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿

SECOND YEAR: The Whomping Willow

The end of the summer vacation came too quickly for Y/N"s liking. She was looking forward to getting back to Hogwarts, but her month at the Burrow had been the happiest of her life. It was difficult not to feel jealous of Ron when she thought of the Smiths and the sort of welcome she could expect next time he turned up.

On their last evening, Mrs. Weasley conjured up a sumptuous dinner that included all of their favourite things, ending with a mouth-watering treacle pudding. Fred and George rounded off the evening with a display of Filibuster fireworks; they filled the kitchen with red and blue stars that bounced from ceiling to wall for at least half an hour. Then it was time for a last mug of hot chocolate and bed.

It took a long while to get started next morning. They were up at dawn, but somehow they still seemed to have a great deal to do. Mrs. Weasley dashed about in a bad mood looking for spare socks and quills; people kept colliding on the stairs, half-dressed with bits of toast in their hands; and Mr. Weasley nearly broke his neck, tripping over a stray chicken as he crossed the yard carrying Ginny"s trunk to the car.

Y/N couldn"t see how eight people, six large trunks, two owls, and a rat were going to fit into one small Ford Anglia. She had reckoned, of course, without the special features that Mr. Weasley had added.

"Not a word to Mol y," he whispered to Harry and Y/N as he opened the trunk and showed them how it had been magically expanded so that the luggage fitted easily.

When at last they were all in the car, Mrs. Weasley glanced into the back seat, where Harry, Ron, Fred, George, and Percy were all sitting comfortably side by side, and said, "Muggles do know more than we give them credit for, don"t they?" She and Ginny got into the front seat, which had been stretched so that it resembled a park bench. "I mean, you"d never know it was this roomy from the outside, would you?"

Mr. Weasley started up the engine and they trundled out of the yard, Harry turning back for a last look at the house. He barely had time to wonder when he"d see it again when they were back — George had forgotten his box of Filibuster fireworks. Five minutes after that, they skidded to a halt in the yard so that Fred could run in for his broomstick. They had almost reached the highway when Ginny shrieked that she"d left her diary (A/N: what would"ve happened if they didn"t stop the car and Ginny left her diary XD). By the time she had clambered back into the car, they were running very late, and tempers were running high.
Mr. Weasley glanced at his watch and then at his wife. "Molly, dear —"

"No, Arthur —"

"No one would see — this little button here is an Invisibility Booster I installed — that"d get us up in the air — then we fly above the clouds. We"d be there in ten minutes and no one would be any the wiser —"

"I said no, Arthur, not in broad daylight —"

They reached King"s Cross at a quarter to eleven. Mr. Weasley dashed across the road to get trolleys for their trunks and they all hurried into the station. Y/N had caught the Hogwarts Express the previous year. The tricky part was getting onto platform nine and three-quarters, which wasn"t visible to the Muggle eye. What you had to do was walk through the solid barrier dividing platforms nine and ten. It didn"t hurt, but it had to be done carefully so that none of the Muggles noticed you vanishing.

"Percy first," said Mrs. Weasley, looking nervously at the clock overhead, which showed they had only five minutes to disappear casually through the barrier. Percy strode briskly forward and vanished. Mr. Weasley went next; Fred and George followed.
"I"ll take Ginny and you three come right after us," Mrs. Weasley told Harry, Y/N and Ron, grabbing Ginny"s hand and setting off. In the blink of an eye, they were gone.

"Let"s go together, we"ve only got a minute," Ron said to Y/N and Harry. Y/N made sure that O/N"s cage was safely wedged on top of her trunk and wheeled her trolley around to face the barrier. She felt perfectly confident; this wasn"t nearly as uncomfortable as using Floo powder. All three of them bent low over the handles of their trolleys and walked purposefully toward the barrier, gathering speed. A few feet away from it, they broke into a run and — CRASH.

All three trolleys hit the barrier and bounced backward; Ron"s trunk fell off with a loud thump, Y/N toppled headlong into the wall, Harry was knocked off his feet, and Hedwig"s cage bounced onto the shiny floor, and she rolled away, shrieking indignantly; people all around them stared and a guard nearby yelled, "What in blazes d"you think you"re doing?"

"Lost control of the trolley," Y/N gasped, clutching her ribs as he got up. Ron ran to pick up O/N, who was causing such a scene that there was a lot of muttering about cruelty to animals from the surrounding crowd.
"Why can"t we get through?" Harry hissed to Ron.

"I dunno —" Ron looked wildly around. A dozen curious people were still watching them. "We"re going to miss the train," Ron whispered. "I don"t understand why the gateway"s sealed itself —"

Harry looked up at the giant clock with a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. Ten seconds . . . nine seconds . . . He wheeled his trolley forward cautiously until it was right against the barrier and pushed with all his might. The metal remained solid. Three seconds . . . two seconds . . . one second . . .

"It"s gone," said Ron, sounding stunned. "The train"s left. What if Mum and Dad can"t get back through to us? Have you got any Muggle money?"

Y/N gave a hollow laugh. "The Smiths haven"t given me pocket money for about six years."

Ron pressed his ear to the cold barrier. "Can"t hear a thing," he said tensely. "What"re we going to do? I don"t know how long it"ll take Mum and Dad to get back to us."

They looked around. People were still watching them, mainly because of Hedwig"s continuing screeches.
"I think we"d better go and wait by the car," said Y/N. "We"re attracting too much atten —"

"Y/N!" said Ron, his eyes gleaming. "The car!" "What about it?" "We can fly the car to Hogwarts!"

"But I thought —"

"We"re stuck, right? And we"ve got to get to school, haven"t we? And even underage wizards are allowed to use magic if it"s a real emergency, section nineteen or something of the Restriction of Thingy —"

"But your mum and dad . . ." said Harry, pushing against the barrier again in the vain hope that it would give way. "How will they get home?" "They don"t need the car!" said Ron impatiently. "They know how to Apparate! You know, just vanish and reappear at home! They only bother with Floo powder and the car because we"re all underage and we"re not allowed to Apparate yet. . . ."

Harry"s feeling of panic turned suddenly to excitement. "Can you fly it?"

"No problem," said Ron, wheeling his trolley around to face the exit. "C"mon, let"s go. If we hurry, we"ll be able to follow the Hogwarts Express —"
And they marched off through the crowd of curious Muggles, out of the station and back onto the side road where the old Ford Anglia was parked. Ron unlocked the cavernous trunk with a series of taps from his wand. They heaved their luggage back in, put Hedwig and O/N on the back seat, and got into the front as Y/N climbed into the back seat with the owls.

"Check that no one"s watching," said Ron, starting the ignition with another tap of his wand.

Harry stuck his head out of the window: Traffic was rumbling along the main road ahead, but their street was empty.

"Okay," he said. Ron pressed a tiny silver button on the dashboard.

The car around them vanished — and so did they. Harry could feel the seat vibrating beneath him, hear the engine, feel his hands on his knees and his glasses on his nose, but for all he could see, he had become a pair of eyeballs, floating a few feet above the ground in a dingy street full of parked cars.

"Let"s go," said Ron"s voice from his right.

And the ground and the dirty buildings on either side fell away, dropping out of sight as the car rose; in seconds, the whole of London lay, smoky and glittering, below them. Then there was a popping noise and the car, Y/N, Harry, and Ron reappeared.
"Uh-oh," said Ron, jabbing at the Invisibility Booster. "It"s faulty —" Both of them pummelled it. The car vanished. Then it flickered back again.

"Hold on!" Ron yelled, and he slammed his foot on the accelerator; they shot straight into the low, woolly clouds and everything turned dull and foggy.

"Now what?" said Y/N, blinking at the solid mass of cloud pressing in on them from all sides.

"We need to see the train to know what direction to go in," said Ron. "Dip back down again — quickly —"

They dropped back beneath the clouds and twisted around in their seats, squinting at the ground.

"I can see it!" Y/N yelled. "Right ahead — there!"

The Hogwarts Express was streaking along below them like a scarlet snake.

"Due north," said Ron, checking the compass on the dashboard. "Okay, we"ll just have to check on it every half hour or so — hold on —"

And they shot up through the clouds. A minute later, they burst out into a blaze of sunlight. It was a different world. The wheels of the car skimmed the sea of fluffy cloud, the sky a bright, endless blue under the blinding white sun.