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people to think it's clever, arriving by flying car.'
When they had eaten as many sandwiches as they could (the plate kept re-filling itself) they rose and left the office, treading the familiar path to Gryffindor Tower. The castle was quiet; it seemed that the feast was over. They walked past muttering por- traits and creaking suits of armour, and climbed narrow flights of stone stairs, until at last they reached the passage where the secret entrance to Gryffindor Tower was hidden, behind an oil painting of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.

'Password?' she said, as they approached.

'Er –' said Harry.

They didn't know the new year's password, not having met a Gryffindor Prefect yet, but help came almost immediately; they heard hurrying feet behind them and turned to see Hermione dashing towards them.

'There you are! Where have you been? The most ridiculous rumours – someone said you'd been expelled for crashing a flyingcar.'

'Well, we haven't been expelled,' Harry assured her.

Harry fell to the floor with a sudden force hitting him making him scream in surprise. It felt like he had just gotten hit by something or someone. 'Hello Potter.' Harry looked up to see Ameoia now sitting on top of him grinning down cheekily. 'Guess who learned how to turn invisible over the summer? I have been waiting to do that for weeks' Harry groaned. 'Good for you. I think I broke a rib," Amelia felt Harry's ribs through his thin shirt.

'Do you have shortness of breath or chest pain?'

'Yes, becouse you are sitting on me!' Harry yelled. Amelia rolled her eyes and got up helping Harry up. 'You're fine.'


'You're not telling me you did fly here?' said Hermione, sounding almost as severe as Professor McGonagall.

'Skip the lecture,' said Ron impatiently, 'and tell us the new password.'

'It's "wattlebird",' said Hermione impatiently, 'but that's not the point –'

Her words were cut short, however, as the portrait of the fat lady swung open and there was a sudden storm of clapping. It looked as though the whole of Gryffindor house was still awake, packed into the circular common room, standing on the lop-sided tables and squashy armchairs, waiting for them to arrive. Arms reached through the portrait hole to pull Harry and Ron inside, leaving Hermione and Amelia to scramble in after them.

'Brilliant!' yelled Lee Jordan. 'Inspired! What an entrance! Flying a car right into the Whomping Willow, people'll be talking about that one for years!'

'Good on you,' said a fifth-year Harry had never spoken to; someone was patting him on the back as though he'd just won a marathon. Fred and George pushed their way to the front of the crowd and said together, 'Why couldn't you've called us back, eh?' Ron was scarlet in the face, grinning embarrassedly, but Harry

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