snake in the lions den|| WTM

Twenty-one

Suddenly there is a loud honk and a tall, skinny purple bus pulls up infront of her. A man stands at the back entrance starts talking in a bored tone "Welcome to the Knight Bus.. Emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor for this evening." Stan looks around and then spots Ada on the floor. "What you doing down there?"

"I fell over." She looks around like it was obvious.

"What you fell over for?"

"I didn't do it on purpose." She says rolling her eyes and getting up. "Well come on then. Lets not wait for the grass to grow." Ada looks behind the purple bus towards the bushes that the dog was in but sees nothing. Suddenly Stan pops up next to her looking at the bushes "What you looking at?"

"Nothing."

"Well come on then. In." Ada goes to collect her trunk off of the floor but is stopped. "No no no. I'll get this. You get in." Ada slowly makes her way into the bus while Stan grunting as he struggles to hold the trunk, placing it into the bus with no grace.

Ada passes a wizard dead asleep, snoring with holes in his socks and a hat on. She observes more of her surroundings and notices that there are no seats, just beds and a few floors. "Come on. Move on, move on, move on." Stan ushers her and gives her a ticket.

Knocking on the glass behind him "Take her away, Ern." Stan says and the shrunken head repeats his words "Yeah, take it away Ernie. It's going to be a bumpy ride." An old man with thick round glasses wakes up, takes a bite of his sandwich and starts the bus.

Ada is thrown back onto a bed that rolls back and forth due to the speed of the bus. Stan looks at Ada with a questioning look "What did you say your name was again?"

"I didn't." Ada say holding on to the bed as it moves around.

"That whole bus ride was horrible, they really need to strap the beds down or something." Ada mumbles and some people who have been on the knight bus agree. The knight bus was like a dodgy rollercoaster you'd find at a cheep amusement park.

"Whereabouts are you headed?"

"The Leaky Cauldron."

"You hear that Ern? The Leaky Cauldron." Stan laughs and the shrunken head starts talking again. "The Leaky Cauldron. If you have the pea soup.. make sure you eat it before it eats you." He cackles and Ernie violently moves the wheel weaving through the cars on the road.

"What about the muggles. Can't they see us?" Ada questions though she expects that they can't see anything.

"Muggles? They don't see nothing, do they?"

"If you jab them with a fork, they feel." The shrunken head laughs.

"The fuck is he on about?" Sirius asks confused about the whole chaotic scene. "I think he means that even though the muggles can't see them, if they were to hit them, they'd feel it." Mattheo tells the man. Sirius nods even though he is still a bit confused.

"Ernie, little old lady at 12 o'clock!" Ernie pulls the brakes and the bus abruptly stops, throwing Ada to the floor, just missing the old lady crossing the road. The old lady with her walker slowly walks across the road as the bus patiently waits.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four three, three and a half, two, one and three quarters. Yes!" And off they go in a flash. Ada is once again thrown on the bed as it rolls around. She sees a man screaming on the front page of the daily prophet that Stan was reading.

"Who's that? That man?"

"It's meeee! Sirius Lupin-Black" The man in question says with a smile, Remus shakes his head "Well done pads, you're right, it is you." He says like he is talking to a child. Sirius pouts at his husbands tone but quickly gets over it when Remus kisses his cheek.