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ground and the dirty buildings on either side fell away, dropping out of sight as the car rose; in seconds, the whole of London lay, smoky and glittering, below them.

Then there was a popping noise, and the car, Harry, Ron and Y/N reappeared. "Uh-oh," said Ron, jabbing at the Invisibility Booster. "It's faulty--"

The three of them pummeled it. The car vanished. Then it flickered back again. "Hold on!" Ron yelled, and he slammed his foot on the accelerator; they shot straight into the low, woolly clouds, and everything turned dull and foggy.

"Ronald Weasley! I swear if we die, bloody hell Ronald!" Y/N yelled as she grips on Harry's hand.

"We are not going to die, Y/N."

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

"We need to see the train to know what direction to go in," said Ron.

"Dip back down again - quickly--" They dropped back beneath the clouds and twisted around in their seats, squinting at the ground.

"Well come on, then. Let's go lower. We need to find the train." said Y/N.

"Okay," Ron replied.

The car went down over the train tracks, "Now all we need to do is catch up with the train."

"We can't be far behind." Said Ron.

But then a noise came. "Do you hear that?" Y/N asked.

"We must be gettin' close."

"Hold on..." Y/N, Harry and Ron looked at each other with a terrified expression on their faces.

"Aaahhh! Aaahhhh! Aaahhh!"

Ron turns the steering wheel to the left as the car got away from the train. And went down the tracks and went into a loop to loop.

The car door towards Harry suddenly opened. "Wha-aahhh!"

"Harry! Hold on! Take my hand! Hold on!" Y/N tried to reach Harry.

"I'm trying. Your hand to so small!" Harry finally grabbed Y/N hand she put all her power to lift him, which was somehow easy for her.

Once Harry was inside "lock the door" Y/N warned him.

"I think we found the train."

"Yeah."

And they shot up through the clouds. A minute later, they burst out into a blaze of sunlight.

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 white sun.

"All we've got to worry about now are aeroplanes," said Ron.

The three looked at each other and started to laugh; for a long time, they couldn't stop.

It was as though they had been plunged into a fabulous dream. This, thought Harry, was undoubtedly the only way to travel - past swirls and turrets of snowy cloud, in a car full of hot, bright sunlight, with a fat pack of toffees in the glove compartment, and the prospect of seeing Fred's and George's jealous faces when they landed smoothly and spectacularly on the sweeping lawn in front of Hogwarts castle.

They made regular checks on the train as they flew farther and farther north, each dip beneath the clouds showing them a different view. London was soon now behind them, replaced by neat green fields that gave way in turn to extensive, purplish moors, a great city alive with cars like multicoloured ants, villages with tiny toy churches.

Several uneventful hours later, however, Y/N had to admit that some of the fun was wearing off. The toffees had made them extremely thirsty, and they had nothing to drink. Y/N, Harry and Ron had pulled off their sweaters, but Harry's T-shirt was sticking to the back of his seat, and his glasses kept sliding down to the end of his sweaty nose.

He had stopped noticing the fantastic cloud shapes now and was thinking longingly of the train miles below, where you could buy ice-cold pumpkin juice from a trolley pushed by a plump witch. Why hadn't they been able to get onto platform nine and three-quarters?

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

It was still right below them, winding its way past a snowcapped mountain. It was much darker beneath the canopy of clouds.

Ron put his foot on the accelerator and drove them upward again, but as he did so, the engine began to whine.

Harry and Ron exchanged nervous glances. Y/N yawn, feeling tired already from the journey they are on.

"It's probably just tired," said Ron. "It's never been this far before..."

And they both pretended not to notice the whining growing louder and louder as the sky became steadily darker. Stars were blossoming in the blackness. Y/N pulled her sweater back on, trying to ignore the way the windshield wipers were now waving feebly, as though in protest.

"Not far," said Ron, more to the car than to Harry and Y/N, "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 knew.

"There!" Y/N shouted, making Ron, Harry, Red and Hedwig jump. "Straight ahead!"

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

But the car had begun to shudder and was losing speed.

"Come on," Ron said cajolingly, giving the steering wheel a little shake, "nearly there, come on--"

The engine groaned. Narrow jets of steam were issuing from under the hood. Y/N found herself gripping on Harry's arms very hard as they flew toward the lake.

The car gave a nasty wobble. Glancing out of his window, Harry saw the smooth, black, glassy surface of the water, a mile below. Ron's knuckles were white on the steering wheel. The car wobbled again.

"Come on," Ron muttered.

They were over the lake - the castle was right ahead - Ron put his foot down. There was a loud clunk, a stumble, and the engine died ultimately.

"Uh-oh," said Ron, into the silence.

The nose of the car dropped. They were falling, gathering speed, heading straight for the solid castle wall.

"Noooooo!" Ron yelled, swinging the steering wheel around; they missed the dark stone wall by inches as the car turned in a high arc, soaring over the shaded greenhouses, then the vegetable patch, and then out over the black lawns, losing altitude all the time.

Ron let go of the steering wheel entirely and pulled his wand out of his back pocket--

"STOP! STOP!" he yelled, whacking the dashboard and the windshield, but they were still plummeting, the ground flying up toward them--

"WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE!" Harry bellowed, lunging for the steering wheel, but too late--

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE YET!" Y/N screamed as her grip to Harry's arms tighten.

CRUNCH.

With an earsplitting bang of metal on wood, they hit the thick tree trunk and dropped to the ground with a massive jolt. Steam was billowing from under the crumpled hood; Hedwig was shrieking in terror, Red was screeching in anger; a golfball-size lump was throbbing on Harry's head where he had hit the windshield; and to his right, Ron let out a low, despairing groan.

While Y/N, was still in shock and scared. "Are you okay?" Harry said urgently.

"A-Are we dead?"

"My wand," said Ron, in a shaky voice. "Look at my wand--"

Y/N turns towards Ron, "I'll get you a new wand." It had snapped, almost in two; the tip was dangling limply, held on by a few flakes.

"Where in the world is she?" the four Slytherin students mumbled.

"Hey, Grey, Hamilton, Parker and Knight. Where is Y/N?" Adrian Pucey asked.

"We don't know, all we know was she was still with the Weasleys, Potter and Granger." Benjamin Parker spoke, one of the four Slytherin friends of Y/N.

"Weasleys? Potter? And Granger? Why in the world would she be with them?" Pansy Parkinson rolled her eyes.

"Mind your business. She's been with them since the summer holidays." Kayden Knight looked around the great hall.

She noticed one particular professor was not with the other professors.

"they're in trouble." she pinches the bridge of her nose.

At that very moment, something hit Harry's side of the car with the force of a charging bull, sending him lurching sideways into Ron and Y/N, just as an equally heavy blow hit the roof.

"What's happen-?" Y/N uttered.

Ron gasped, staring through the windshield, and Harry looked around just in time to see a branch as thick as a python smash into it. The tree they had hit was attacking them. Its trunk was bent almost double, and its gnarled boughs were pummeling every inch of the car it could reach.

"Aaargh!" said Ron as another twisted limb punched a significant dent into his door; the windshield was now trembling under a hail of blows from knuckle-like twigs and a branch as thick as a battering ram was pounding furiously on the roof, which seemed to be caving in.

"Run for it!" Ron shouted, throwing his full weight against his door, but next second he had been knocked backwards into Y/N's lap by a vicious uppercut from another branch.

"We're done for!" He whimpered as the ceiling sagged, but unexpectedly the ground of the car was vibrating - the engine had restarted.

"Reverse!" Y/N yelled, and the car shot backwards; the tree was still trying to hit them; they could hear its roots creaking as it almost ripped itself up, lashing out at them as they sped out of reach.

"That," panted Ron, "was close. Well done, car--"

The car, however, had reached the end of its tether. With two sharp clunks, the doors flew open, and Harry and Y/N felt their seat tip sideways: Next thing they knew both of them was sprawled on the damp ground.

Loud thuds told them that the car was ejecting their luggage from the trunk; Hedwig's and Red's cage flew through the air and burst open; they rose out of it with an angry yell and sped off toward the castle without a backward look. Then, dented, scratched, and steaming, the car rumbled off into the darkness, its rear lights blazing angrily.

"Come back!" Ron yelled after it, brandishing his broken wand. "Dad'll kill me!"

But the car disappeared from view with one last snort from its exhaust.

"Can you believe our luck?" said Ron miserably, bending down to pick up Scabbers. "Of all the trees we could've hit, we had to get one that hits back."

He glanced over his shoulder at the ancient tree, which was still flailing its branches threateningly.

"Come on," said Harry wearily, "we'd better get up to the school..."

"The professors are probably looking for us." Y/N nibble her thumb.

It wasn't at all the triumphant arrival they had pictured. Stiff, cold, and bruised, they seized the ends of their trunks and began dragging them up the grassy slope, toward the great oak front doors.

"I think the feast's already started," said Ron, dropping his trunk at the foot of the front steps and crossing quietly to look through a brightly lit window. "Hey - Harry, Y/N - come and look - it's the Sorting!"

Y/N and Harry hurried over and, together, they and Ron peered in at the Great Hall.

Innumerable candles were hovering in midair over four long, crowded tables, making the golden plates and goblets sparkle. Overhead, the bewitched ceiling, which always mirrored the sky outside, sparkled with stars.

Through the forest of pointed black Hogwarts hats, Y/N saw a long line of scared-looking first years filing into the Hall. Ginny was among them, easily visible because of her vivid Weasley hair. Meanwhile, Professor McGonagall, a bespectacled witch with her hair in a tight bun, was placing the famous Hogwarts Sorting Hat on a stool before the newcomers.

Every year, this aged old hat, patched, frayed, and dirty, sorted new students into the four Hogwarts houses (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin). Y/N well remembered putting it on, exactly one year ago, and waiting, petrified, for its decision as it muttered aloud in her ear.

For a few horrible seconds, she had feared that the hat would not be able to sort her to any houses because everyone keeps reminding her that she has all the traits of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin.

But she had ended up in Slytherin, along with Kayden, Ben, Henry and Easton.

The last term, Harry and Ron had helped Gryffindor win the House Championship, beating Slytherin, her house for the first time in seven years.

A tiny, mousy-haired boy had been called forward to place the hat on his head. Y/N's eyes wandered past him to where Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster, sat watching the Sorting from the staff table, his long silver beard and half-moon glasses shining brightly in the candlelight.

Several seats along, Y/N saw Gilderoy Lockhart, dressed in robes of aquamarine. And there at the end was Hagrid, gigantic and hairy, drinking deeply from his goblet.

"No way, he's really there. Ugh, disgusting. What is going on to grandpapa's head when he hired that man." Y/N stared at Gilderoy Lockhart, who she thinks another paedophile.

"Hang on..." Y/N muttered to Ron and Harry. "There's an empty chair at the staff table... Where's uncle Severus?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" asked Harry. Professor Severus Snape was Harry's least favourite teacher. Harry also happened to be Snape's least favourite student. Cruel, sarcastic, and disliked by everybody except the students from his own house (Slytherin) and his dear niece, Y/N, who is also on his house. Snape taught Potions.

"Maybe he's ill!" said Ron, hopefully.

"Maybe he's left," said Harry, "because he missed out on the Defense Against Dark Arts job again!"

"Stop being mean to him! Or maybe he needs to take care of something."

"Or he might have been sacked!" said Ron enthusiastically. "I mean, everyone hates him--"

"--Ronald! Not--"

"Or maybe," said a very cold voice right behind them, "he's waiting to hear why you three didn't arrive on the school train."