𝐀𝐈𝐌 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐘𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐘┊ᴴᵃʳʳʸ ᴾᵒᵗᵗᵉʳ

33 ✥ 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚁𝚒𝚜𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙲𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚘

࿔₊° ࿔₊° ࿔₊° ࿔₊° ࿔₊°

❝ You look like a toad and you just spoke like one! ❞

࿔₊° ࿔₊° ࿔₊° ࿔₊° ࿔₊°

𝕮RYSTAL 𝖂AS several streets away before she collapsed on the pavement, panting from the effort of pulling the heavy trunk. Tears stung her eyes again at the constant burning sensation on the back of her hand plus the stinging from the gash in her palm, dripping blood everywhere.

Despite that she sat quite still, anger still surging through her, listening to the frantic thumping of her heart.

It was the first time she had this overwhelming surge of anger. She breached the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry, not that she regretted it, but all her hard work of the past two years could go in vain if she got expelled from Hogwarts or got in trouble with the Ministry. She already had got a warning last year and mail must be on its way.

"Damn it! Damn it! What have I ever done to them?" Crystal yelled to herself in the eerily silent street and furiously wiped her tears with her sleeves, "Urgh! Don't cry, you idiot! The damage is already done! Find a solution! Think of something!"

She tried to run her brains but nothing seemed like a feasible idea, she won't be able to keep herself hidden in London if she went to Samantha's or her office in The Polaris, she'd have to leave the country for good. Then she realised what she was thinking and mentally scolded herself for trying to run away like a coward.

Taking a few deep breaths, she calmed herself down first and thought rationally.

"I won't run. They can't expel me from school just for this, right? Well not that I'd have cared if this happened after I had become the Head of Calistos... " Crystal thought out loud and gently wrapped her hand in a small scarf to prevent the exposure of the wound. "Cash is not here or I'd have at least informed Harry and his parents,"

Crystal opened her trunk and kept some money in her pocket before closing it. She picked up her wand again but stood up at once with her hand clenched on her wand. She had sensed, or rather than heard it: someone or something was standing in the narrow gap between the garage and the fence on the other side of the road.

Crystal squinted at the black alleyway. If only it would move, then she'd know whether it was just a stray cat or - something else.

"Lumos," Crystal muttered, and a light appeared at the end of her wand, almost dazzling her. She held it high over her head and the pebble-dashed walls of number four suddenly sparkled; the garage door gleamed, and between them, Crystal saw, a figure, quite distinctly, the hulking outline of something very big, with wide, gleaming eyes. Then the eyes disappeared replacing the moving branches.

Crystal gasped a sharp breath to stop herself from screaming and stepped backwards. Her legs hit her trunk and she tripped falling back and sitting on top of her trunk.

There was a deafening BANG, and Crystal covered her eyes to shield them against a sudden blinding light -

A gigantic pair of wheels and headlights screeched to a halt exactly where Crystal had just fallen. They belonged, as Crystal saw when she raised her head, to a triple-decker, violently purple bus, which had appeared out of thin air. Gold lettering over the windshield spelt The Knight Bus.

Crystal was stunned, frozen wondering if she was dreaming and this night never happened, but the pain in her hand seemed to be too real for a dream which dragged her back to reality.

Then a conductor in a purple uniform leapt out of the bus and began to speak loudly to the night.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board, and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor this eve-"