Amelia Potter and the Chamber of Secrets PART 1

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turned dull and foggy. 

'Now what?' said Harry, 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!' Harry 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.

'OK, we'll just have to check on it every half an 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.

'All we've got to worry about now are aeroplanes,' said Ron.

They looked at each other and started to laugh; for a long time, they couldn't stop.

It was as though they had been plunged into a fabulous dream. This, thought Harry, was surely the only way to travel: past swirls and turrets of snowy cloud, in a car full of hot, bright sunlight, with a fat pack of toffees in the glove compartment, and the prospect of seeing Fred and George's jealous faces when they landed smoothly and spectacularly on the sweeping lawn in front of Hogwarts castle.

They made regular checks on the train as they flew further and further north, each dip beneath the clouds showing them a differ- ent view. London was soon far behind them, replaced by neat green fields which gave way in turn to wide, purplish moors, vil- lages with tiny toy churches and a great city alive with cars like multi-coloured ants.

Several uneventful hours later, however, Harry had to admit that some of the fun was wearing off. The toffees had made them extremely thirsty and they had nothing to drink. He and Ron had pulled off their jumpers, but Harry's T-shirt was sticking to the back of his seat and his glasses kept sliding down to the end of his sweaty nose. He had stopped noticing the fantastic cloud shapes