Patrick Stump and the Flying Car Brigade

Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Tyler's foot slammed on the gas, and the flying car lifted up into the air. He turned on the Invisibility Booster right as he flew out of the Hogwarts grounds and turned towards Azkaban. I took a quick look down, and saw the world growing smaller and smaller. The scenes below changed from the castle and the grounds to small towns, empty fields, and mountains beyond mountains. I reached for Pete's hand and held it all the way to Azkaban. Meanwhile, Tyler and Josh were busy trying to kick each other out of the band, and Andy was trying to advertise veganism to Joe. "Vegan chocolate bars are really quite good," he explained.

An hour passed by before we even got close to Azkaban. As we travelled south, Tyler began to steer the car towards the sea. Finally, I spotted an island with a huge fortress on it. "I think that's it," I said. Josh nodded and told Tyler to land the car on the island. The car plummeted down to the island and landed just outside of the fortress.

"Good luck," Tyler said. "Remember, send out red sparks if you get into trouble, and use code names. We're the few, the proud, and the emotional. If anyone can do this, we can."

"Thanks Tyler," Joe said.

"You mean Blurryface," Tyler said.

"Thanks Blurryface," Joe said.

"You're welcome, Horseshoe Crab," Tyler said, and the four of us stepped towards the prison.

Before we entered, I took one look up at the imposing figure of Azkaban. It was a massive, rectangular tower built out of sturdy stone. On its own, the building was scary, but the sounds coming from it were even more horrifying. Even before I entered the prison, I could feel an overwhelming sense of despair coming from inside its walls.

Entering the prison was surprisingly easy. Oddly enough, nobody had thought to put an Anti-Alohamora Charm on the door into the prison. However, as soon as I opened the door, a huge rush of Dementors came in our direction. All of a sudden, all of my happy memories were gone. I was nearly certain that I could never feel cheerful again. How can I cast a Patronus when I can't even find a happy memory? I thought.

"Talking's just a waste of breath, and living's just a waste of death, and why put a new address on the same old loneliness?" Pete - or Mr Sandman, as I was supposed to call him - mumbled. He weakly tried to cast a Patronus Charm, but all that resulted was a slight bit of mist. The Dementors backed away, but they quickly came back in full force.

"E-Expecto Patronum!" Donnie Catcher exclaimed. A bright white monkey floated out from the tip of his wand. The Dementors glided away, and the four of us were able to pass freely through the prison.

We split up in order to find more prisoners. Horseshoe Crab and Donnie Catcher went in one direction, while Mr Sandman and I went in the other. The first cell that we came across contained a small girl that couldn't have been over ten. The girl was nearly corpse-like, with pale white skin, and she was crying desperately for help. "It's all going to be okay," I said. "I'm Dr Benzedrine, and this is Mr Sandman. We're here to get you out of here. Stand back." I pointed my wand at the jail cell and waved it. "Reducto!" The bars separating us and the girl fell apart, and the girl carefully climbed out of the cell.

"That was so neat," the girl said. "Can I learn how to do that?"

"You will when you get to Hogwarts," I said. "Come along. We have to get everyone else out too, and you can help us bring them to the flying car."

"Do you really have a flying car?" the girl asked.

"Of course we do," Mr Sandman said. "We're called the Flying Car Brigade for a reason." We showed the girl the flying car, and then instructed her to help the other prisoners into the car once we had freed them. After that, Sandman and I ran through the prison, performing the Reductor Curse on each cell. Within a few minutes, every prisoner in our section of Azkaban was in the flying car. Horseshoe and Donnie finished freeing everyone in their half only seconds later. To everyone's amazement, they also managed to find the prisoners' wands.

The car was a little bit crowded, but thankfully, we were still able to take off, even with the Dementors chasing after us. At one point, it seemed that one of the Dementors was about to catch us, but I rolled down the window, focused on my happy memory, and shouted, "Expecto Patronum!" To my surprise, it finally worked. A white rabbit hopped out from the tip of my wand and chased the Dementors away.

I looked around at my fellow passengers. They seemed to come from all walks of life, from Ministry employees to magazine writers to political dissidents. I recognised a few of them, including the editor of the Quibbler, Luna Longbottom. "Thank goodness you boys are here," she said. "I was getting worried about the Nargles."

"What are Nargles?" Spooky asked.

"They're mischievous little creatures," Luna explained. "They were all over the place in Azkaban. Do you happen to be going to Hogwarts? My husband is a professor there."

"Yes, that is where we're going," Blurryface said.

I glanced over at Gerard. His hair colour had faded to white, and he looked considerably older than twenty. "Nobody cares if you're losing yourself," he said. "Am I losing myself?!"

"Gerard, it's just me, Dr Benzedrine," I said. "You're going to be free."

Gerard didn't respond to me. I could only hope that he would be okay. It seemed that the Dementors had been especially rough on him. Horseshoe started giving the prisoners their confiscated wands, which helped quite a bit. Meanwhile, Blurryface kept on flying to Hogwarts.

After an hour, we finally approached the school, but something seemed different. There were other people in the Forbidden Forest. Blurryface dove down closer to the forest, and he saw hundreds of masked men in black robes along with what seemed like thousands of living corpses.

It seemed that the Death Eaters had beaten us to Hogwarts.