Rosabella Black |Daughter Of Sirius Black| (Book 5)

The Department Of Mysteries

Rosabella's Point of View:
Harry grabbed my hand and lead me over to what I guessed was a Thestral. Harry mounted it first and then he reach down to help me. He grabbed my left hand in his right hand. I lifted my leg nearest to him up and with his other hand, wrapped it around my thigh and heaved me up onto the Thestral. It was uneasy sitting on something you can't see so I clung tightly onto Harry,  wrapping my arms around his waist.
The others were all on by the time I was.
Jacob and Ginny were on one and, like me, she was clinging onto Jacob for dear life.
    "Relax, Gin. I'm an excellent flyer." Jacob said, teasingly.
   "I don't think you'd be too comfortable if you were sitting on something you couldn't see." Ginny retorted causing Jacob to laugh.
Hermione and Jason were on another one.
Michael and Luna on another.
Finally Ron and Neville on the last one.
    "We all ready, then?" Harry asked.
They all nodded.
    "OK . . . Ministry of Magic, visitors entrance, London, then. Er . . . if you know . . . where to go . . ." Harry said uncertainly to the invisible Thestral.
For a moment nothing then, with a sweeping movement that nearly unseated us, I felt the horse crouch then it rocketed upwards so fast and so steeply. I closed my eyes and pressed my face into Harry's shoulder as we burst through the topmost branches of the trees and soared out into a blood red sunset. Winter barked after us but as we flew on her barks became fainter.
I did not think I had ever moved so fast.
The Thestral streaked over the castle, the wind caused by its wings hitting us in the face.
We were over the Hogwarts grounds, had passed Hogsmeade. I could see mountains and gullies below us. As the daylight began to fail, I saw small collections of lights as we passed over more villages. If anyone looks out their window and sees this it look incredible strange.
We then passed a winding road on which a single car was beetling its way home through the hills . . .
   "This is bizarre!" Ron yell from somewhere behind me.
Twilight fell. The sky was turning to a light, dusky purple littered with tiny silver stars, and soon only the lights of Muggle towns gave us any clue of how far from the ground we were, or how very fast we were travelling. My arms were wrapped tightly around Harry's waist. How much time had elapsed since Harry had seen Dad lying on the Department of Mysteries floor? How much longer would Dads be able to resist Voldemort?

On we flew through the gathering darkness. My face felt stiff and cold, my legs numb from gripping the Thestral's sides so tightly, but I did not dare shift my position and risk slipping. I was deaf from the thundering rush of air in my ears, and my mouth was dry and frozen from the cold night wind. I had lost all sense of how far we had come.
If we were too late . . .
My stomach gave a jolt. We were descending at last . . . I thought I heard a shriek behind me and Harry and I both twisted around dangerously, but could see no sign of a falling body . . . presumably they had all received a shock from the change of direction, just as I had.
And now bright orange lights were growing larger and rounder on all sides. We could see the tops of buildings, streams of headlights like luminous insect eyes, squares of pale yellow that were windows. Quite suddenly, it seemed, we were hurtling towards the pavement. I gripped Harry with every last ounce of my strength, braced for a sudden impact, but the horse touched the dark ground as lightly as a shadow.
Harry dismounted smoothly from the horse and reached out to help me down.
Ron landed a short way off and, in his rush to get off, toppled immediately from his invisble Thestral on to the pavement.
    "Never again. Never, ever again . . . that was the worst." Ron said, struggling to his feet.
Hermione and Ginny were helped down by Jason and Jacob and the had similar expressions of relief at being back on firm ground. Neville jumped down, shaking. Luna dismounted smoothly and Michael stumbled a little but got off relatively gracefully.
   "Where do we go from here, then?" Luna asked Harry in a politely interested voice, as though this was all a rather interesting day-trip.
   "Over here." Harry said and he gave our Thestral a quick, grateful pat, then led the way quickly to the battered telephone box and opened the door.      
    "Come on!" Harry urged the us, as we hesitated.