𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝; 𝐲𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐡.𝐩

𝓨𝓮𝓪𝓻 3, 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 3: The Knight Bus

~ chapter three: the knight bus ~

Harry and Y/N were several streets away before they collapsed onto a low wall in Magnolia Crescent, panting from the effort of dragging their trunks. Y/N sat quite still beside Harry, anger still surging through her, listening to the frantic thumping of her hearts.

But after ten minutes alone in the dark street, a new emotion overtook her: panic. Whichever way she looked at it, she had never been in a worst fix, and neither had Harry. They were stranded, quite alone, in the dark Muggle world, with absolutely nowhere to go. And the worst of it was, they both had done quite serious magic, which meant that they were almost certainly expelled from Hogwarts. They had broken the Decree of the Restriction of Underage Wizardry so badly, they were surprised Ministry of Magic representatives weren't swooping down on where they sat. She fought the urge to look at Harry to see if he looked as she felt.

She shivered and looked up and down Magnolia Crescent. What was going to happen to them? Would they be arrested, or would they simply be outlawed from the wizarding world? She wasn't sure which was worse. She thought of Ron and Hermione, and her heart sank even lower. She was quite sure that, criminal or not, Ron and Hermione would want to help them out, but they were both abroad, and with Hedwig and Hades gone, the two of them had no means of contacting them whatsoever. 

Neither of them had any Muggle money, either. There was a little wizard gold in the money bag at the bottom of Y/N's trunk, but the rest of the fortune her parents had left her was stored in a vault of Gringotts Wizarding Bank in London. Harry's fortune was also in the bank. They'd never be able to drag their trunks all the way to London. Unless...

Y/N looked down at her wand, which she was still clutching in her hand. If they were already expelled (her heart was now thumping painfully fast), a bit more magic couldn't hurt. Harry had the Invisibility Cloak he had inherited from his father, and she had Mariana Black's dagger. What if they bewitched the trunks to make them feather-light, tied them to their broomsticks, covered themselves in the Cloak, and flew to London? Then they could get the rest of their money from their vaults and... begin their lives as outcasts. It was a horrible prospect, but they couldn't sit on this wall forever, or they'd find themselves trying to explain to Muggle police why they were out in the dead of night with a trunkful of spellbooks and a broomstick each.

Harry, apparently having the same idea as her, opened his trunk and pushed the contents aside, looking for the Invisibility Cloak—but he suddenly straightened up, looking around him, and Y/N did the same, understanding why. 

A funny prickling on the back of her neck had made her feel she and Harry were being watched, but the street appeared to be deserted, and no lights shone from any of the large square houses. 

Harry bent over his trunk again, but almost immediately he and Y/N stood up once more, their hands clenched on their wands. They had sensed rather than heard it: Someone or something was standing in the narrow gap between the garage and the fence behind them. Y/N squinted at the black alleyway. If only it would move, then she would know whether it was just a stray cat or—something else.

"Lumos," she and Harry muttered in unison, and lights appeared at the end of their wands, almost dazzling them. They held them high over their heads, and the pebble-dashed walls of number two suddenly sparkled; the garage door gleamed, and between them Y/N saw, quite distinctly, the hulking outline of something very big, with wide, gleaming eyes.

Y/N and Harry stepped backward, Harry holding out his free arm in front of her as they stared apprehensively at it. However, their legs hit their trunks and they tripped. Their wands flew out of their hands as they flung an arm out each to break their falls, and they landed, hard, in the gutter—