A Changed Lestrange (1-2) (under editing)

5: Beaten Up By A Tree

"Uh oh," said Ron dauntingly, jabbing uncomfortably at the invisibility booster. "it's faulty-" Ashton made a 'hmm' noise with his mouth to Ron as the three of them pummelled the booster as the car went invisible. 

"Hold on!" yelled Harry as Ron slammed his foot on the accelerator; they shot straight into the low, woolly clouds and everything turned dull and foggy. 

"Now what?" said Harry, blinking at the solid mass of cloud pressing in on them from all sides.

"We have owls, idiots!" said Ashton, squinting his eyes to try to make out where the hell the three of them were. "We could've just owled someone!"

"Bit late for that, don't you think?" said Ron as he started trying to think again. "We need to see where the train is so we know where to go,"

"Yeah, well, none of us know a spell to make all the clouds go away so we can see it, can we?" said Ashton pessimistically as Ron began to get fed up with Ashton's negativity.

"Be quiet, would you? You're not helping at all!" snapped Ron as Ashton narrowed his eyes at the ginger as Harry quickly spoke up.

"I can see it!" yelled Harry as the raven and ginger both whipped their heads around to see Harry pointing at the window. "Right ahead - there!" The Hogwarts Express was streaking along below them like a scarlet snake. Ashton had started to compare Hogwarts to a snake, let alone the train.

"Due north," said Ron, checking the compass on the dashboard. "Okay, we'll just have to check on it every half hour or so - hold on-"

"Why did I agree to come here with you two idiots?" groaned Ashton, yanking the gear and pulling it all the way forward as the car's engine boomed and started blasting forward as all three second-years fell back into their seats as the car fell up into the sky. 

"YOU'RE JUST AS BIG AN IDIOT AS WE ARE!" yelled Ron angrily as he tried to get hold of the car again to no avail. 

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 sun. 

"All we have left to worry about is airplanes," said Ron as he and Harry looked at each other and started to laugh; for a long time, they couldn't stop.

Ashton stared between the two of them and started to feel the horrible feeling of realisation wash over him. How close was he even with Ron and Harry? Those two were best mates and could laugh throughout the night, but Ashton was just the grumpy piece of negativity that didn't even fit as a piece into their puzzle. 

As they carried on flying, Harry was regularly checking where the train was in comparison to where the car was as each dip the car did they were welcomed to another view. One minute they could see the amazing urban scenery and then it was all countryside.

Ashton was getting bored of listening to Ron talking about his life at the Burrow so he decided to get out his wand and pretend to do spells.

"Finestra," said Ashton, pointing his wand at his window. Finestra was a charm to shatter glass. Of course, it was much more advanced so Ashton couldn't actually do the spell, but it was worth doing it to see the panicked expression on Ron and Harry's faces. "Relax, I didn't actually do the spell."

After that trick that neither boys greatly appreciated, Ashton began staring out into the sky again where he began thinking how odd it was that they couldn't get through the platform. It looked like it was just the Weasleys' fault for just being so messy and getting them late, but surely there was something beyond that.

- FLASHBACK - 

Ashton was doing his latest punishment for ripping Gerard Santos' latest pre-ripped jeans (which made no sense) which was cutting the grass in the garden of the care home.

He didn't have clippers or a machine to do it because, according to Williams, 1992 technology was way too advanced and he wasn't splashing out cash for Ashton to do his punishment in a blasted lazy way.

So he had to do it with his hands. Leaning down to rip some weeds out by the dead sunflowers, Ashton began to feel some wind brushing past his face. But when he stood up, the wind stopped. That was a bit suspicious, he thought to himself.

"Can't the guy just hire a gardener, the government supplies him with thousands..." groaned Ashton as he ripped out some failed vegetables grown in the flower patch. "not to mention he's the worst gardener in the world."

A few minutes later, after turning around to put the dirt on his gloves in the bin, he saw a very odd figure by the bin. The figure was short and had very pointy and long ears with big green orbs for eyes, similar to Harry's but much lighter. Was it an elf or something? 

Ashton yelped as he saw the 'elf' by the bin as he quickly neared toward it. 

"Ash... ton... Le... stra... nge... must... not... co... me... back to... Hog... warts... next... year," stuttered the elf as Ashton stared at the elf in confusion as he blinked in confusion as as his eyes reopened, the elf was gone and he was on his own in the garden once more.

"Probably just a hallucination," said Ashton to himself. "God, you go to a magic school for one year and suddenly elves exist."

- FLASHBACK -

Ashton still couldn't make it whether seeing that elf was a hallucination or real. And what on earth did it say to him? The words were very distant and far between. 

That situation had Ashton thinking all summer. What on earth happened? He was sure his name was mentioned in the sentence. That meant that the elf knows who he was. But how? And how did it know where he lived and what he was doing? Was he being watched?

"Can't be much further, can it?" groaned Ron, hours later still, as the sun started to sink into their level of cloud, staining it a deep pink. "Ready for another check on the train?"

Ashton was completely disengaged with the two's conversation as he continued to think up possibilities of how the elf could be linked with their disability to get onto the platform.

The elf must have been working for Voldemort to make sure me and Harry don't learn anymore magic so we can't duel him properly, thought Ashton as his first theory. But why the hell would Voldemort employ an elf? Can elves even do magic?

Ron put his foot on the accelerator and drove them upward again, but as he did so, the engine began to whine. And it was at that moment that Ashton began to get back into the conversation, having been jolted away from his theories by the loud screeching of the engine.
"What was that?" he asked alarmingly, beginning to check all the bases of the car. "I swear, if the car plummets and we die, I'm going to kill you, Ronald-"

"Calm down," said Ron, cutting Ashton off. "It's probably just tired. It's never been this far before..."

"That's because it's a car, not a train holding hundreds of students!" exclaimed Ashton, throwing his hands up in frustration. "Honestly, I'd rather still be in care then have to experience this nonsense," 

"Don't worry," said Harry in a dismal attempt of reassurance. "Surely there isn't much further to go, right?"

"Not far," said Ron, more to the car than to Harry, "not far now," and he patted the dashboard nervously. When they flew back beneath the clouds a little while later, they had to squint through the darkness for a landmark they barely made out.

"There!" yelled Ashton, perking up all of a sudden to make Ron, Harry, Hedwig and Ashley all jump. "Bogwarts! Straight ahead!"

"I think you meant Hogwarts," said Harry, leaning forward to Ashton.

"No, I meant Bogwarts. It's a nicer way of saying that this school is full of bogies and warts," smirked Ashton as Ron rolled his eyes and stared to where Ashton was looking.

Silhouetted on the dark horizon, high on the cliff over the lake, stood the many turrets and towers of Hogwarts castle.

"Great, we're almost there! Nothing can go wrong now!"