Ermalene Talon and the Hall of Ancestors - Book One

Welcome ter Hogwarts

Welcome ter Hogwarts

"Zis is absurd," Fleur's accented voice fell funnily over the word absurd. She had her arms crossed. They were standing in the dunes surrounding Shell Cottage, where Hagrid had left his motorcycle. Bill was helping Hagrid to attach a sidecar as Andy tightened the strap of a helmet beneath Ermalene's chin. "Zat motorcycle is dangerous. Do you not remember crashing it the night we all became 'arry Potter?" she demanded.

"It ain't unsafe, Fleur," Hagrid announced, "I drive it all over the place, have bin since Sirius left it with me, haven't I? That crash was because I hit that ruddy purple button to get away from old You-Know-Who."

Fleur did not look at all comforted.

Satisfied with the attachment of the sidecar, Bill walked over to his wife and rubbed her shoulders comfortingly. "It's okay, dear, the motorcycle's just as safe as the thestrals are."

"So take ze thestral then," she said.

"She's still too tired from having the colt," Bill explained. Then, in a whisper, "She would never be able to carry Hagrid, even if she hadn't just had a baby."

Fleur scowled.

They'd agreed, mostly, that is, that Andy and Ermalene should go alone with Hagrid to Hogwarts to see the portrait of Dumbledore as he was insisting. So they'd gone out and conjured the sidecar and now they were preparing to leave. Ermalene had butterflies in her stomach.

"Thank you so much for your hospitality," she told Bill and Fleur - mostly Fleur, though, because of how sullen she appeared.

Fleur's scowl wavered and she pouted as she pulled Ermalene into a hug. "Promise me you vill both be very careful? This prophecy business, it is troublant."

"I promise," Ermalene said.

"Merci," Fleur said as they broke apart the hug. She turned to Andy. "Come back to see us before you go to America," she pleaded, "I wish to know how this all turns out."

"We will," Andy said, and he gave her a hug. "Thank you, gram."

"You are mos' very velcome. You always can come here, Andy," she added and she kissed his cheek.

"Thanks gramps," Andy said as he turned to Bill.

Bill gave Andy a hug, too, "Anytime, my boy," he added. "Anytime."

Hagrid cleared his throat as he climbed aboard the motorbike and attached his own, very large helmet upon his head. Andy and Bill broke apart and Andy helped Ermalene climb into the sidecar before following in himself and they buckled up carefully. Hagrid started the bike and it roared to life, shaking them in the sidecar as he revved it.

"Drive carefully!" Fleur shouted desperately as Hagrid rose off the ground.

"Aye, I will," he shouted back over the din.

The motorcycle climbed up, up, up, up and Ermalene clutched the rim of the sidecar, feeling rather nervous and excited at the same time. She watched as the world below them got smaller and smaller, Fleur and Bill became less and less distinguishable among the marshy grasses and rocks, and soon the cottage itself looked like not much more than a rock far below. Hagrid steered them in a graceful loop, soaring over the ocean and then back over the land and into the clouds. "Next stop, Hogwarts castle!" he yelled like train conductor.

Andy, whose seat was directly behind Ermalene's, had his hands on her shoulders, as though holding her in. She put her hands over his as the motorcycle zoomed through the air, past birds that looked at them curiously. Ever north, they flew steadily for hours and hours, it felt, and Ermalene's legs slowly fell asleep and she got bored with nothing to see but the clouds that surrounded them.