Into The Light (Golden Trio Era) {2}

Pandora

Mikayla squinted through the darkness for a glimpse of Hagrid, but there was no sign of him at all.  Harry looked very worried as they shuffled slowly through a narrow doorway onto the road outside with the rest of the crowd. "It's okay." Mikayla tried to assure him. "He's probably got a cold or something..." Harry shrugged but didn't reply. They looked around for Ron and Hermione, but neither of them was anywhere near them, so Mikayla allowed herself to be shunted forward onto the dark rain-washed road outside Hogsmeade station, Harry right beside her. Here stood the hundred or so horseless stagecoaches that always took the students above first year up to the castle. Mikayla glanced at them quickly, turned away to look for Ron and Hermione, then looked back. "Do you see those?" Harry asked her, eyes wide as he stared over at the stagecoaches. "Yes." she breathed.

The coaches were no longer horseless. There were creatures standing between the carriage shafts; if Mikayla had to give them a name, she supposed she would have called them horses skeletons, though there was something reptilian about them, too. They were completely fleshless, their black coats clinging to their skeletons, of which every bone was visible. Their heads were dragonish, and their pupil-less eyes white and staring. Wings sprouted from each wither-vast, black leathery wings that looked as though they ought to belong to giant bats. Standing still and quiet in the gloom, the creatures looked eerie and sinister.

"Where's Pig?" Ron's voice sounded right behind Harry. "That Luna girl was carrying him," Harry said, turning quickly to face him. Mikayla turned as well, giving the weird creatures one last look, she trying to remember where had read about them. "Where d'you reckon-" "-Hagrid is? I dunno," Ron said, sounding worried. "He'd better be okay..." A short distance away, Draco, followed by a small gang of cronies including Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy and Avery, was pushing some timid-looking second years out of the way so that they could get a coach to themselves. Seconds later Hermione emerged panting from the crowd. "Malfoy was being absolutely foul to a first year back there, I swear I'm going to report him, he's only had his badge three minutes and he's using it to bully people worse than ever... Where's Crookshanks?" "Ginny's got him," Mikayla her. "There she is..." Ginny had just emerged from the crowd, clutching a squirming Crookshanks. "Thanks," Hermione sighed, relieving Ginny of the cat. "Come on, let's get a carriage together before they all fill up..." "I haven't got Pig yet!" Ron exclaimed, but Hermione was already heading off toward the nearest unoccupied coach.

Harry and Mikayla remained behind with Ron. "What are those things, d'you reckon?" Harry asked Ron, nodding at the horrible horses as the other students surged past them. "What things?" "Those horses-" Luna appeared holding Pigwidgeon's cage in her arms; the tiny owl was twittering excitedly as usual. "Here you are," she said. "He's a sweet little owl, isn't he?" "Er... yeah... He's all right," Ron said gruffly. "Well, come on then, let's get in... what were you saying, Harry?" "I was saying, what are those horse things?" Harry said, as he, Ron, Luna, and Mikayla made for the carriage in which Hermione and Ginny were already sitting. "What horse things?" "The horse things pulling the carriages!" Mikayla spoke up, her voice showing that she was becoming impatient. After all, they were about three feet from the nearest one; it was watching them with empty white eyes. Ron, however, looked between Harry and Mikayla with a perplexed expression. "What are you two talking about?" "We're talking about, look!" Harry grabbed Ron's arm and wheeled him about so that he was face-to-face with the winged horse. Ron stared straight at it for a second, then looked back at Harry. "What am I supposed to be looking at?" "At the. There, between the shafts! Harnessed to the coach! It's right there in front-" But as Ron continued to look bemused, a strange thought occurred to Mikayla.

"Can't... can't you see them?" Mikayla stammered, looking between the horse-thing and Ron. "See what?" "Can't you see what's pulling the carriages?" She reiterated seriously. Ron looked seriously alarmed now. "Are you feeling all right, Mikayla? Harry?" "Um... yeah..." Harry gave Mikayla a worried look. It was bewildering. The horse was there in front of them, gleaming solidly in the dim light issuing from the station windows behind them, vapour rising from its nostrils in the chilly air. Unless Ron was faking, and Mikayla seriously doubted that he was, he couldn't see them at all. "Thestrals." Mikayla breathed in realisation. "Of course! How could I not realise it sooner. I had read about them. Only the people who have seen death could see them. That's why Harry and I can see them, because she saw Cedric die." "So because you seen someone died you can see a creature that others can't?" Ron questioned, Mikayla nodded, Harry looked at her with a curious expression and Ron definitely didn't believe the girl. "Shall we get in?" Ron said uncertainly, looking at Mikayla worriedly. "Yeah." she nodded in response. "Yeah, go on..."

"It's all right." Came Luna's dreamy voice from behind Harry and Mikayla as Ron vanished into the coach's dark interior. "You're not going mad or anything. I can see them too." "Can you?" Harry asked desperately as he turned to Luna. Mikayla's heart sunk at the memory of Pandora Lovegood, Luna's mum. Enya and Pandora were friends back in school, she had died 5 years ago after one of her experimental spells backfired, in front of Luna. "Oh yes." Luna nodded calmly. "I've been able to see them ever since my first day here. They've always pulled the carriages. Don't worry. You two are just as sane as I am." Luna was smiling faintly, she climbed into the musty interior of the carriage after Ron. Mikayla smiled after her, she missed hanging out with Luna, they used to play together when they were small, Mikayla got into a lot fights with Avery about what was nice and what was mean during those days.

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