The Potter Twins and the Chamber of Secrets

VIII

The day to return to Hogwarts followed not long after our eventful trip to Diagon Alley. After successfully flooing home, Harry and I resolved to never use floo powder again unless absolutely necessary, Mr Weasley and Mrs Weasley took themselves off to have a shouting match about the fight in the shop, where no doubt my name came up at some point, Fred and George disappeared to their room to make some more small explosions, Ron raided the cupboard for some snacks and Ginny wasted no time in evaporating from our sight. Normal service had resumed.

The night before the first day of term, we all ate a huge meal in the evening and then Fred and George set off scores of Filibuster Fireworks, filling the room with bright blasts of red and blue and every other colour before we all traipsed off to bed, Harry and I happily dreaming of another year back at Hogwarts, hopefully a little more uneventful than the last.

We were woken bright and early (too early, complained Ron) by Mrs Weasley, and before half an hour had passed we were eating a hearty breakfast with the trunks stacked into Mr Weasley's car (with the boot magically extended, not to Mrs Weasley's knowledge). "Excited for school?" Ron asked with his mouth full of sausage, to which I nodded and Harry said, "of course." Hedwig and Azure both helped themselves to bacon and we all piled into the blue Ford, much to Mrs Weasley's discontent.

"You go first, Ginny," Ron said to his younger sister when we arrived at King's Cross with all our things. Ginny nervously pushed her trolley through the wall and Harry, Ron and I made to go next, but it seemed we had opened a floodgate for George, Fred and Percy as well as Mr and Mrs Weasley had disappeared before we got anywhere near the barrier. "Let's go, then," Harry said, and Hedwig agreed impatiently with a hoot. "Cheers to that," I said, and set off for the barrier at full tilt, with Ron and Harry following.

I don't really remember exactly what happened next but I do know that my head encountered the stone barrier in an extremely unfriendly manner. The situation wasn't helped by Ron, Harry and all their things crashing down on top of me as I tried to haul myself to my feet, dizzily. "What the hell?" Ron mumbled, as we all lay in a pile at the foot of the barrier, gaining a number of weird looks from muggle passers-by. It took several minutes to recover from the impact, and by the time we'd struggled back into a standing position with all our things intact, Ron looked at his watch and gave a gasp of horror. "It's one minute to eleven. No, wait - exactly eleven o'clock. The train's gone. We've missed it."

I patted every inch of the barrier down like I was a police officer searching for a gun the wall had concealed. "It must be malfunctioning or something if none of us can get through, surely?" Harry looked like someone had wiped all chocolate frogs from the face of the earth as he said miserably, "I suppose we'd just better go and wait by the car."

Ron and I nodded in dismay, and then the red-haired boy gasped. "The car!"

"Yep, that's what I said," Harry replied, turning to go, but Ron grabbed his arm. "The car! We can fly the car to school!"

I grinned widely like all my dreams had come true at once. Mostly because they had. "Best idea you've ever had, Ronald. Let's go."

We all turned and ran with our trolleys like we'd been possessed. I was pretty sure I'd never moved so fast in my life as we threw trunks into the boot and put the owls in the back seat, and then Harry and I promptly started to fight over which one of us would get the front seat. Harry won the match of rock-paper-scissors suggested by Ron, so I had to squeeze in the back seat with Hedwig and Azure, and put up with screeches for the entire journey. I didn't mind, however. What kid could be disappointed while flying a car to school?

We found a bag of toffee in the glovebox and devoured them in less than two minutes. However, the fun soon evaporated. The sweets made us all thirsty and there was no air-conditioning in the car, so we all became extremely hot and sweaty. We stripped off some outer layers and resorted to complaining, although one of my favourite hobbies, about everything and anything. Hours passed, and we dipped below clouds now and then to check on the train. "Can't be long now can it?" Ron croaked, still hours later. "Ready for another look?"

I pulled my jumper back on because the sun was setting, and as we descended, the engine made a worrying whining sound. "What was that?" Harry said immediately.

"Oh, probably nothing," Ron muttered, as we dipped below the cloud line, and I immediately spotted a huge landmark. "There!"

There was the castle with the lake in front of it, glittering in the sunset, and below, the train slowing to a stop and hundreds of children piling off. The building was lit from the outside as usual, and of course it was beautiful, but we were all rather distracted by the rather loud whining the car engine was making as we glided over the lake (thankfully) and neared the castle. Just as we passed the gates, the stuttering began. And the free-fall shortly after that.

"Noooooo!" Ron yelled, wrenching the steering wheel. I squeezed my eyes shut (I couldn't see anything in the back anyway) and muttered things to the owls. All of a sudden, Harry howled, "MIND THAT TREE!", my eyes flew open, Ron yelped in shock, pulled the steering wheel again, the owls screeched, I think I did as well, and there was a sickening crunch as the poor old car smashed into the hefty branches of a very inconveniently placed old tree.