Chapter 22: Hogwarts
Hailey never knew how she kept Ginny from finding out she turned into a boy when she slept for a whole month, despite sleeping on the other side of the same small bed, but somehow, she had.
But finally, despite several setbacks, they reached King’s Cross, and started through the barrier to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. All of the foreigners had already gone through- and, after the rest of the Weasleys, it was just Ron and Hailey left.
They glanced at each other- and while some people might have rushed at the barrier, Hailey knew that would attract far too much attention, so the two of them pushed their trolleys much more sedately up to the barriers and through them.
Only, they didn’t go through. They crashed.
Fortunately, they weren’t going very fast, so nothing tumbled anywhere.
“What the-?” Ron began. “It’s not supposed to seal itself!”
Hailey scowled. “Then why…?” she mumbled.
They both propped their carts against the barrier and leaned on them, looking up at the clock and pretending they had put them there deliberately to chat.
“It’s gone,” Ron muttered, the moment the clock struck eleven.
“Not yet,” Hailey told him. “It’ll take time to get going. We’ve still got… maybe a minute.”
One minute quickly became three, before Hailey spoke again, scowling. “We’d probably better go wait by the car,” she told Ron. “We’re too much of a spectacle.”
Ron gasped. “Hailey! The car!”
“What about it?”
“We can fly the car to Hogwarts!”
“No.” The single word came out as a command.
He stared at her. “But we’re stuck,” he said. “And even-!”
“I said no,” she repeated. “Classes will not begin until tomorrow, and I would like to watch the Sorting as much as you would, but we will wait for your parents. If they choose to fly us to Hogwarts, then it is on their heads if something happens. Not to mention, when they come back, they are going to expect to find the car where it is right now, not forty miles in the sky.” She took a deep breath. “We will wait for them. And whatever they tell us to do, we will do.”
Ron sighed. “Oh, alright,” he agreed, and they pushed their trolleys back out of the station.
On Platform Nine and Three Quarters, Molly and Arthur Weasley watched the cars their children had clambered into vanish into the distance.
“Hailey and Ron never got onto the station, did they?” Molly asked, suddenly.
Arthur looked around. “... I don’t remember them,” he agreed.
They both turned, and headed straight back out the archway. “You don’t think they got snatched?” Molly asked.
Arthur scowled. “No, can’t have. Even the Statute has exceptions for emergencies, and Hailey is just too good to let someone snatch her.” He paused. “Or Ron,” he added, as an afterthought.
They passed through the archway, and looked around. Molly scowled. “Where’d they go?”
“Maybe back to the car?” Arthur suggested. “I know that’s where I’d go.”
“Unless they’ve been snatched,” Molly scowled.
“If they had been, we’d see their luggage,” Arthur pointed out.
She glanced around. “... True.” Then she rounded the corner, and saw their car. “Ron! Hailey! What happened?”
Ron looked up. “Donno,” he answered. “The barrier just randomly decided to lock us out.”
“Can’t have been random,” Hailey scowled, leaning against the side of the car while Molly and Arthur ran towards them. “But I can’t think of any reason it would have done that, either.” She shrugged. “It behaved like the solid metal barrier it looks like, for a few minutes. Good thing we didn’t rush it.”
Ron snorted. “Good thing, yeah.”
“Anyways,” Hailey looked expectantly at the two adults. “I thought we’d wait for your suggestion before we did anything else.”
Arthur scowled. “I could fly you to Hogwarts,” he mused.
Hailey raised an eyebrow, while Molly was still blinking in shock. “Can that invisibility booster keep it invisible for that long?”
He blinked. “Er- no. We’d fly above the clouds. I know where Hogwarts is.”
Hailey rolled her eyes. “And when we inevitably cross a patch of clear sky?”
“Ahh…”
She shrugged. “How about, it’s a car. How close to Hogwarts can we get on muggle roadways, and how much slower would it be?”
He scowled. “I don’t have any muggle maps up there,” he mumbled.
“Alright then,” Hailey said, still sounding perfectly reasonable while Molly struggled to follow the conversation. “How about some other kind of magical transportation I haven’t learned about yet, like Floo Powder?”
The engine died.
“Uh-oh,” Arthur Weasley said. He’d been babying the car for the last couple of hours, but they had still used the Invisibility Booster whenever they went below the clouds to double check their location, so he was reasonably sure that they hadn’t been seen. Unfortunately, it seemed that the strain was too much for the car.
Fortunately, though, he knew his spells. With the main power source out of action, the car would ‘glide’- the spellwork burning up his speed in order to keep him aloft and let him rotate the car.
But the ‘lift’ it provided, and the ‘aloft’ it sought, was only in line with the car, not with the ground, allowing him to ‘glide’ the car, so long as he kept it pointed at least a little bit down. The moment it stopped moving forwards, it would fall.
So he did exactly that. He pointed it down until they stopped losing speed, and drew his wand to start trying to figure out why the engine had stopped, correct that, and restart it. It would be next to impossible to land without an active power supply. It didn’t exactly help that he was dreadfully thirsty.
Ron, riding passenger, pulled out his wand and started uselessly whacking the dashboard, yelling “Stop!” Mr. Weasley didn’t have the heart to tell him he was asking for the wrong thing.
And finally Hailey, who had been getting delirious- he was fairly sure it was dehydration- in the backseat, let out a sudden yell. “Look out!” she cried.
He looked up, through the windshield, and yanked on the steering wheel just in time to avoid slamming headlong into the brick outer wall of Hogwarts Castle.
However, he wasn’t in time to avoid the Castle entirely. Moments later, the front bumper smashed through a window, both sides clipping the bricks- and all three of them were instantly knocked unconscious.
Dumbledore knocked on the infirmary door. Madam Pomfrey had told him that afternoon she planned to join them for the Welcome Feast this year- but then, she hadn’t. Now, with the students sent to bed, he was curious why.
“Come in,” Madam Pomfrey’s voice came back, sounding harassed and irritated.
He entered. She was bending over a bed, on which he recognized Ronald Weasley, and brandishing her wand, ignoring the slow ooze of blood from her own cut cheek.
He blinked. “What happened?” he asked. Even as he asked, he looked around the room- and realized that three of the beds were occupied. The second was Hailey Potter- and the third, wasn’t a student.
She looked up at him, eyebrows raised- and wordlessly pointed at her office door… Which, now that he looked, there seemed to be a lot of dust and bits of brick trailing out of it. He walked briskly over to look inside.
Right in the middle of the room, tilted haphazardly because of one wheel on Madam Pomfrey’s bed, was a turquoise car, surrounded by the shattered remnants of a window, the wall around the window, and the car’s own body panels. Its entry path was clearly visible, as the gaping hole in the wall above her desk, where there had once been a window.
He turned around. “Wh… Who was driving?” he asked.
She pointed at Aurthur Weasley, on that third bed.
He took a deep breath. “How long?”
“Oh he’s only got a concussion,” she barked irritatedly. “A potion when he wakes up and he’ll be fine.” She gestured down at Ron. “Ron here managed to break his wand in the crash, and filled his arm with bits of glass, alongside his own concussion.” She cast one last spell, nodded, and turned back towards the middle bed. “Hailey, on the other hand, has gone into a coma. Completely aside from a long list of other injuries- which, unless I miss my guess, includes getting blasted by the broken wand.” She sighed. “The other two will be out of here tomorrow, but she’ll be here for a while.”
Dumbledore winced. “It’s not like Angelina, is it?”
She shook her head. “Oh, no, I’ve already got her stabilized. And she will recover, it will just take time.” She sighed. “And there’s no point sending her to St. Mungo’s, either. They won’t get her back on her feet any faster.”
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Regardless of how badly things turned out, thank you Hailey for sparing yourself and Ron needless detention!
I think winding up in the willow would have been better than smashing right into the castle. For those inside it anyway
Arthur is no better then Ron lol
Seriously, you never thought to simply just by a map?
Yeah, why don't you simply apparate them their, or to a nearby place, like Hogsmeade for example. From there on it would only be a short walk to the castle.
10977152
I'm fairly certain Mr Weasley was just using this as an excuse I mean its a totally justified reason to fly a muggle car right?
10977205
If, this version of him is like in the books/movies, then an excuse like this doesn't come as a surprise.
Arthur, youre supposed to pull the sword from the stone, not put the car in.
We are going to fly in the car.
Surely you cant be serious.
I am serious, and dont call me Shirly.
That was just a little bit less stupid than the the book. But very, very believable
Ok now I'm curious about off there will be unexpected consequences to H. Potter from being shot by Ron's unstable wand.
Huh, kind of disappointed the potential drama from last chapter was resolved with a 'welp guess it just worked out' at the start of this one.
10977080
Who do you think Ron learned his driving skill from?
Why couldn't they just call knight bus? It's an emergency, and I am pretty sure Hailey could pay.
10983440
They didn't know about it, I guess... or maybe it didn't even exist yet? Rowling invented it for 3rd year, after all...
10983582
It says that Knight Bus first made in 1865 ( I suppose originally a horse carriage). So, by the universe logic wizards should be able to know about it. It was specifically made for underage wizards who couldn't teleport, use floo powder, didn't like to use portkeys. All they need to do is just summon it with their wand while standing on the side of the road.
10983663
yeah but the billionaire bigot hadn't thought of it until she was writing prizoner of azkaban
Flying car pets. Owls
Heck, get a Pegasus to fly them in.
10999233
It’d have to be a British pegasus…
10999705
Well, the movie gave us a British unicorn, so maybe ... :-)
10999846
They also gave us thestrals and hippogriffs…. But interestingly enough, no pegasi.
10999862
I believe that would be an Abraxis at least according to Hogwarts Mystery.
Uhm, isn't St. Mango's for the Bats?
Just hope I don't drive anyone Batty with this comment..
Sorry, but this just had to be said..