"I've looked everywhere, but I can't find Harry or Ron... Has anyone seen them?"
Hermione's voice was laced with anxiety. Her hair was a wild, bushy mess, swaying slightly as she spoke, her words punctuated by the rhythm of her nerves. The others in the train compartment glanced between her and Luna, their eyes darting back and forth.
Terry mumbled something under his breath that sounded vaguely like "two broomsticks."
"Hm," Hodge Blackthorn responded absently, his gaze flickering upward. Harry and Ron were probably zooming through the sky in that flying car right about now.
"Did they go to get snacks?" Michael Corner ventured.
"Or maybe they missed the train altogether?" Anthony suggested.
Hermione shot down both ideas. "They came through the platform together—Harry, Ron, Ginny, Percy, Fred, George, and the Weasleys. And I asked the trolley lady—she hasn't seen them either... I mean, they're pretty noticeable, aren't they?"
Hodge understood what she meant. Harry with his lightning-shaped scar and Ron with his fiery red hair—they weren't exactly easy to miss.
"What about Ginny? What did she say?" Hodge asked.
"She told me to calm down, that maybe Harry and Ron are just hiding, pulling some kind of prank..." Hermione bit her lip, falling silent for a moment. When she spoke again, her words came slower, as if she were choosing them carefully. "I'm a bit worried... We talked about it at the end of last term... About what happened to Professor Quirrell."
"He's still in the intensive care ward," Hodge said. "The healers can't do much for him—his soul's been too badly damaged."
Just a couple of days ago, Hodge had visited St. Mungo's. With Evelina Selma working as his inside source, he'd even gotten a look at Quirrell's medical file. The poor sod's condition could be summed up in four words: beyond all medical help.
Hermione was at a loss.
"So—"
"We could write a letter," Hodge suggested.
"Oh, right!" Hermione smacked her forehead. "We need to let a teacher know as soon as possible."
"Not a teacher," Hodge corrected. He exchanged a few quiet words with Luna, who tore a page from her little notebook. Hodge tapped his wand on the paper, and words began to appear, one by one.
In his mind, it was only sensible to remind Harry and Ron to stay discreet—especially not to forget the car's invisibility function.
He folded the note carefully, making sure no one else saw its contents.
With that done, he raised his wand and pointed it at the luggage rack overhead. The door of an owl cage sprang open, and a tawny owl glided down gracefully. "Deliver this to the right person," Hodge instructed Nyx, his owl. He opened the compartment window and watched as she spread her wings and soared into the sky.
Above the scarlet steam train puffing along below—
An old Ford Anglia soared through the clouds, surrounded by fluffy, cotton-like masses. "We should drop down a bit to check our bearings," Harry said. Ron turned the steering wheel, guiding the car through the clouds. Below, a red snake of a train sped through the fields.
"There it is, that way. We can climb back up now. Hang on, I think I see something—a black dot. Maybe a bird?" Harry said uncertainly. Ron, still maneuvering the car upward, glanced downward. "Where? You sure you didn't imagine it?"
Harry scanned the misty clouds. "It's an owl!" he said, finally spotting it clearly.
The two boys exchanged uneasy glances. They both knew what owls were used for. Harry silently prayed it wasn't someone who'd spotted them. But, as always, the thing you fear most has a way of happening. The owl drew closer, eventually circling right above them.
It dropped a folded piece of paper onto the back seat of the car.
Harry and Ron stared at each other, neither daring to touch the note at first. The owl let out an impatient hoot. "Might as well open it," Ron said. "Could be Hermione. She knows this car can fly."
Harry wasn't so optimistic. He doubted Hermione would think of something like this—Fred and George were far more likely to. Nervously, he unfolded the note and scanned it quickly. Ron kept one eye on the sky and the other on Harry.
"Who's it from?" Ron asked.
"Hodge," Harry replied.
Ron let out a visible sigh of relief.
"Hodge won't rat us out. He probably saw us from the window or something, so he's giving us a heads-up—you know, since we dipped down a few times," Ron said.
He remembered last term, when they'd summoned Dumbledore with the phoenix and signed their names on that piece of parchment together.
Harry glanced at the note again. "He doesn't say how he figured it out. Just reminds us to use the car's invisibility function if it has one. Says a flying Muggle car would make big news." Ron's mouth fell open. "Oh, and he says to destroy the note—burn it to ash," Harry added.
The car roared through the clouds, the high-altitude air whistling past their ears. For a moment, neither Harry nor Ron spoke.
"Sneaky git, isn't he?" Ron said.
Harry nodded faintly, then reconsidered, feeling it wasn't quite the right response.
Nyx gave Harry's finger a light peck. "Alright, alright," Harry muttered. "I bet your master told you to make sure we destroy this note, didn't he? Top of the class for a reason..." Grumbling, he tapped his wand on the paper, and it burst into flames.
Just before the fire reached his fingertips, Harry tossed the burning note out the window.
Nyx spread her wings and darted out like a falcon, her brown feathers blending with the scattering ashes. Harry felt a strange twinge of admiration.
"Does this car even have an invisibility function?" he asked, suddenly uneasy. It was as if countless eyes on the ground were watching them, maybe even snapping photos.
Ron seemed to share the sentiment, though he didn't say it. He pushed the car to climb higher.
He pressed a button on the dashboard, and the car vanished—for about ten seconds. Then, with a clunk, it reappeared in the clouds. "Well..." Ron said, his face falling. "That's not great. The invisibility's knackered."
With no other choice, Harry took on a new job: pressing the invisibility button every so often. Sometimes it worked for a few minutes; other times, it did nothing at all. Eventually, they spotted vast, rugged mountains below, desolate and empty, which eased their minds a bit.
"Could we send Hedwig down to nick some food?" Ron asked an hour later.
"Don't," Harry said.
Ron knew it was a bad idea anyway and muttered something before dropping it. Harry knew he was thinking of the chilled pumpkin juice and odd little snacks from the train trolley. Truth be told, Harry was too—chocolate frogs, pumpkin pasties, cauldron cakes, even a pack of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans would do.
Hours later, the sun sank below the sea of clouds, splitting the sky into two worlds. Above, a dazzling pink ocean stretched out; below, the twilight grew dim, trees casting heavy shadows. Luckily, the train's bright red color stood out, making it easy to keep in sight.
As night approached, the car began to sputter, slowing down under Harry and Ron's horrified gazes.
But none of this concerned the others on the train. They had already climbed into carriages, rattling along the path toward the distant spires of Hogwarts Castle.
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