A Time And Place To Grow

Chapter 10: An Outing To Diagon Alley

Harry wondered if he should say anything, maybe yell at Snape not to be a fool, to get out of the car while they were both still alive.

Snape put the car into gear - it was an automatic, and Harry could see the man's foot on the brake pedal, about to lift off. Harry had a fleeting thought that he should be thankful the car was not a manual, but he wondered if a manual car would make for a cleaner, swifter death.

"Floo!" Harry yelled suddenly. "We could take the Floo network."

"Too risky," Snape said, foot still on the brake. "I'm not sure exactly what might happen to you if you tried the open one in my study, given your recent accident. Besides, with your luck, you'd come out of a different fireplace than me altogether. We're driving, so try to sit still."

Snape lifted off the brake pedal and slammed down on the gas. The car shot straight ahead, wheels skidded on the pavement. Snape seemed undisturbed, but Harry could barely breathe as they continued going faster and faster down the driveway. Up ahead was a turn. They were approaching it very fast, and Snape was not turning, and there was a huge tree straight in front of them. If Snape did not turn with the drive, the car would smash into the tree head-on.

The tree was coming closer, they were not turning. Harry found that he could not make a word of protest - his mouth went completely dry. He did the only thing he could at the moment: he squeezed his eyes shut and gripped the armrest as tightly as he could. This was an odd way to die, a part of his brain thought. He had always supposed he would be killed by Voldemort or die of old age, one of the two. Barreling into a tree in a car driven by an arrogant wizard who had only read the manual a few hours ago - that had not been in his plans.

Any second now, they would collide. Any second...

But no crash came - no splintering of glass, no smashing of metal. Had it happened so quickly that he was already dead?

Harry opened one eye warily. They were past the bend in the road, still on the pavement, traveling at fair speed but nothing too dangerous. He glanced over - Snape was definitely smirking.

"Oh, dear, dear Potter," the potions master lamented, "so naïve and gullible. When you do meet the Dark Lord, he'll probably tell you the war was all a joke, that he didn't mean any of it, and you'll believe him, at least long enough for him to kill you."

"What?" Harry demanded.

"Did you think I was so stupid as to drive a car for the first time with you as a passenger, going into London without knowing how to drive?"

"You've driven a car before?"

"Of course, I have. About fifteen years ago, right out of Hogwarts, but it's not something you forget easily. I simply loved that face you made, all screwed up and pinched, your knuckles white as you held on for dear life. Quite amusing."

Harry scowled at him. "Ugly git," he muttered, his heart still pounding in his chest though he tried not to show it.

"Language, Mr. Potter," Snape said though he didn't seem too annoyed. " But I'll try not to scare you again."

"I wasn't scared," Harry stated, removing his hands from the armrests and slouching back in the seat in what he hoped was a careless attitude. "I knew you wouldn't kill me 'cause then you'd have to answer to Dumbledore."

Snape gave the wheel a sudden turn that jerked the whole car, and Harry jumped.

"My apologies," Snape said smoothly. "I wouldn't want to upset your delicate nerves."

"Ha-ha!" Harry retorted. He leaned back again and looked out the window at the green fields and trees on the side of the road. It was pleasantly warm inside the car, and had Harry felt tired, it would have been delightful to doze off in the sunlight from the windows. But he was wide awake, and for the next hour, he amused himself by watching the wind play with the trees and staring at the side of the road which blurred as they drove by very fast.