第 8 页

holding Ginny's old Transfiguration book. He thrust it at her, his eyes

glittering with malice.

"Here, girl - take your book - it's the best your father can give you -" Pulling

himself out of Hagrid's grip he beckoned to Draco and swept from the shop.

"Yeh should've ignored him, Arthur," said Hagrid, almost lifting Mr. Weasley

off his feet as he straightened his robes. "Rotten ter the core, the whole family,

everyone knows that - no Malfoy's worth listenin' ter - bad blood, that's what it

is - come on now - let's get outta here."

The assistant looked as though he wanted to stop them leaving, but he barely

came up to Hagrid's waist and seemed to think better of it. They hurried up the

street, the Grangers shaking with fright and Mrs. Weasley beside herself with

fury.

"A fine example to set for your children . . . brawling in public . . . what

Gilderoy Lockhart must've thought -"

"He was pleased," said Fred. "Didn't you hear him as we were leaving? He was

asking that bloke from the Daily Prophet if he'd be able to work the fight into

his report - said it was all publicity -"

But it was a subdued group that headed back to the fireside in the Leaky

Cauldron, where Harry, the Weasleys, and all their shopping would be

traveling back to the Burrow using Floo powder. They said good-bye to the

Grangers, who were leaving the pub for the Muggle street on the other side;

Mr. Weasley started to ask

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them how bus stops worked, but stopped quickly at the look on Mrs.

Weasley's face.

Harry took off his glasses and put them safely in his pocket before

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helping himself to Floo powder. It definitely wasn't his favorite way to

travel.

C H-H A P T E RR F I v E

THE WHOMPING

WILLOW

he end of the summer vacation came too quickly for Harry's liking.

He was looking forward to getting back to Hogwarts, but his month

at the Burrow had been the happiest of his life. It was difficult not to

feel jealous of Ron when he thought of the Dursleys and the sort of

welcome he could expect next time he turned up on Privet Drive.

On their last evening, Mrs. Weasley conjured up a sumptuous dinner

that included all of Harry's favorite things, ending with a

mouthwatering treacle pudding. Fred and George rounded off the

evening with a display of Filibuster fireworks; they fiIled the kitchen

with red and blue stars that bounced from ceiling to wall for at least

half an hour. Then it was time for a last mug of hot chocolate and

bed.

It took a long while to get started next morning. They were up at

dawn, but somehow they still seemed to have a great deal to do.

Mrs. Weasley dashed about in a bad mood looking for spare socks and

quills; people kept colliding on the stairs, half-dressed with bits of toast

in their hands; and Mr. Weasley nearly broke his neck, tripping over a

stray chicken as he crossed the yard carrying Ginny's trunk to the car.

Harry couldn't see how eight people, six large trunks, two owls, and a

rat were going to fit into one small Ford Anglia. He had reckoned, of

course, without the special features that Mr. Weasley had added.

"Not a word to Molly," he whispered to Harry as he opened the. trunk

and showed him how it had been magically expanded so that the

luggage fitted easily.

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When at last they were all in the car, Mrs. Weasley glanced into the

back seat, where Harry, Ron, Fred, George, and Percy were all sitting

comfortably side by side, and said, "Muggles do know more than we

give them credit for, don't they?" She and Ginny got into the front seat,

which had been stretched so that it resembled a park bench. "I mean,

you'd never know it was this roomy from the outside, would you?"

Mr. Weasley started up the engine and they trundled out of the yard,

Harry turning back for a last look at the house. He barely had time to

wonder when he'd see it again when they were back George had

forgotten his box of Filibuster fireworks. Five minutes after that, they

skidded to a halt in the yard so that Fred could run in for his

broomstick. They had almost reached the highway when Ginny

shrieked that she'd left her diary. By the time she had clambered back

into the car, they were running very late, and tempers were running

high.

* 66

Mr. Weasley glanced at his watch and then at his wife.

"Molly, dear -"

"No, Arthur -"

"No one would see - this little button here is an Invisibility Booster I

installed - that'd get us up in the air - then we fly above the clouds.

We'd be there in ten minutes and no one would be any the wiser -"

"I said no, Arthur, not in broad daylight -"

They reached King's Cross at a quarter to eleven. Mr. Weasley

dashed across the road to get trolleys for their trunks and they all

hurried into the station.

Harry had caught the Hogwarts Express the previous year. The tricky

part was getting onto platform nine and three-quarters, which wasn't

visible to the Muggle eye. What you had to do was walk through the

solid barrier dividing platforms nine and ten. It didn't hurt, but it had to

be done carefully so that none of the Muggles noticed you vanishing.

"Percy first," said Mrs. Weasley, looking nervously at the clock

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overhead, which showed they had only five minutes to disappear

casually through the barrier.

Percy strode briskly forward and vanished. Mr. Weasley went next;

Fred and George followed.

"I'll take Ginny and you two come right after us," Mrs. Weasley told

Harry and Ron, grabbing Ginny's hand and setting off. In the blink of

an eye they were gone.

"Let's go together, we've only got a minute," Ron said to Harry.

Harry made sure that Hedwig's cage was safely wedged on top of his

trunk and wheeled his trolley around to face the barrier. He felt

perfectly confident; this wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as using Floo

powder. Both of them bent low over the handles of their trolleys and

walked purposefully toward the barrier, gathering speed. A few feet

away from it, they broke into a run and

CRASH.

Both trolleys hit the barrier and bounced backward; Ron's trunk fell

off with a loud thump, Harry was knocked off his feet, and Hedwig's

cage bounced onto the shiny floor, and she rolled away, shrieking

indignantly; people all around them stared and a guard nearby yelled,

"What in blazes d'you think you're doing?"

"Lost control of the trolley," Harry gasped, clutching his ribs as he

got up. Ron ran to pick up Hedwig, who was causing such a scene

that there was a lot of muttering about cruelty to animals from the

surrounding crowd.

"Why can't we get through?" Harry hissed to Ron.

"I dunno -"

Ron looked wildly around. A dozen curious people were still

watching them.

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"We're going to miss the train," Ron whispered. "I don't understand

why the gateway's sealed itself -"

Harry looked up at the giant clock with a sickening feeling in the pit

of his stomach. Ten seconds ... nine seconds ...

He wheeled his trolley forward cautiously until it was right against the

barrier and pushed with all his might. The metal remained solid.

Three seconds . . . two seconds ... one second ...

"It's gone," said Ron, sounding stunned. "The train's left. What if

Mum and Dad can't get back through to us? Have you got any

Muggle money?"

And they marched off through the crowd of curious Muggles, out of

the station and back onto the side road where the old Ford Anglia was

parked.

Ron unlocked the cavernous trunk with a series of taps from his wand.

They heaved their luggage back in, put Hedwig on the back seat, and

got into the front.

"Check that no one's watching," said Ron, starting the ignition with

another tap of his wand. Harry stuck his head out of the window:

Traffic was rumbling along the main road ahead, but their street was

empty.

"Okay," he said.

Ron pressed a tiny silver button on the dashboard. The car around

them vanished - and so did they. Harry could feel the seat vibrating

beneath him, hear the engine, feel his hands on his knees and his

glasses on his nose, but for all he could see, he had become a pair of

eyeballs, floating a few feet above the ground in a dingy street full of

parked cars.

"Let's go," said Ron's voice from his right.

And the ground and the dirty buildings on either side fell away,

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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, and Ron

reappeared.

"Uh-oh," said Ron, jabbing at the Invisibility Booster. "It's faulty -"

Both of them pummeled it. The car vanished. Then it flickered back

again.

"Hold on!" Ron yelled, and he slammed his foot on the acceler

* 7 0

ator; 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 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.

"I can see it!" Harry yelled. "Right ahead - there!"

The Hogwarts Express was streaking along below them like a scarlet

snake.

"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

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.

60

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

They 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 surely 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

* 71

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 far behind them, replaced by neat green

fields that gave way in turn to wide, purplish moors, a great city alive

with cars like multicolored ants, villages with tiny toy churches.

Several uneventful hours later, however, Harry had to admit that

some of the fun was wearing off. The toffees had made them

extremely thirsty and they had nothing to drink. He 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.

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Harry and Ron exchanged nervous glances.

"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. Harry pulled his sweater back on, try

ing to ignore the way the windshield wipers were now waving fee

bly, as though in protest.

"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 knew.

"There!" Harry shouted, making Ron 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 lit

tle shake, "nearly there, come on -"

The engine groaned. Narrow jets of steam were issuing from un

der the hood. Harry found himself gripping the edges of his seat

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 splutter, and the engine died com

pletely.

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

The nose of the car dropped. They were falling, gathering speed,