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ESTE BLACK NEVER FELT ANY STUPIDER, her hands tapping around as she felt the invisible body of the thestral. "Please stay still," she begged, finally grabbing a hold of the thestral's mane, placing a foot on a stump nearby, and scrambling blindly onto the horse's back. It did not object, because Este was now sitting atop an invisible horse. Harry was also on his horse, He found there was a way of lodging his knees behind where Este assumed were the wing joints. Neville had heaved himself over the back of the next thestral and was now attempting to swing one short leg over the creature's back. Luna was already in place, sitting sidesaddle and adjusting her robes as though she did this every day. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, however, were still standing motionless on the spot, openmouthed and staring.
"What?" he said.
"How're we supposed to get on?" said Ron faintly. "When we can't see the things?"
"Oh it's easy," said Luna, sliding obligingly from her thestral and marching over to him, Hermione, and Ginny. "Come here. . . ." She pulled them over to the other thestrals standing around and one by one managed to help them onto the backs of their mounts. All three looked extremely nervous as she wound their hands into the horses' manes and told them to grip tightly before getting back onto her own steed.
"This is mad," Ron said faintly, moving his free hand gingerly up and down his horse's neck. "Mad . . . if I could just see it —"
"You'd better hope it stays invisible," said Harry darkly. "We all ready, then?" They all nodded and Este saw everyone's knees tighten beneath their robes. "Okay . . ." Harry looked down and swallowed. "Ministry of Magic, visitors' entrance, London, then," he said uncertainly. "Er . . . if you know . . . where to go . . ." For a moment his thestral did nothing at all.
Then, with a sweeping movement that nearly unseated Este, she felt the wings on either side extended, the horse crouched slowly and then rocketed upward so fast and so steeply that she had to clench her arms and legs tightly around the horse to avoid sliding backward over its bony rump. She closed her eyes and put her face down into the horse's mane as they burst through the topmost branches of the trees and soared out into a bloodred sunset.
Este did not think she had ever moved so fast: The thestral streaked over the castle, its wide wings hardly beating. The cooling air was slapping Este's face; eyes screwed up against the rushing wind, she looked around and saw her six fellows soaring along behind him, each of them bent as low as possible into the neck of their thestral to protect themselves from its slipstream. They were over the Hogwarts grounds, they had passed Hogsmeade. Este could see mountains and gullies below them. In the falling darkness, Este saw small collections of lights as they passed over more villages, then a winding road on which a single car was beetling its way home through the hills. . . . "This is bizarre!" she heard Ron yell from somewhere behind her, and she knew how it felt speeding along at this height with no visible means of support. . . .
