Harry Potter - Fanfiction

Year 5 - The Department of Mysteries

Harry clumsily gets onto his horse while it still tries to lick the blood off of his robes. Neville heaves himself over the back of the next Thestral and is attempting to swing one short leg over the creatures back. Luna is already in place, sitting side-saddle and adjusting her robes like she did every time we flew together.

"Here Neville, let me help," I say, pushing his leg over the horses back, while the others stand motionless on the spot staring at Harry, Luna, and Neville as they all forgot the fact that they can't see the horses.

"Thanks, Nyx." Neville smiles at me feebly, a little embarrassed.

"What?" says Harry to the others.

"How're we supposed to get on?" says Ron faintly. "When we can't see the things?"

"Oh, it's easy," says Luna, sliding obligingly from her Thestral.

"Luna and I will help," I say as we walk over to Ginny and Ron.

We pull them to the other Thestrals standing around and help them onto the backs of their mounts. They both look extremely nervous as we wound their hands into the horses manes and tell them to grip tightly.

Luna gets back onto her own steed and I walk over to Tenebrus.

"Come on, Hermione," I beckon her over.

She walks over shakily as I continue, "this is Tenebrus, I only fly on him so you can trust him to get us there safely."

She attempts a smile, but it comes out all crooked. Helping her onto Tenebrus' back, I then climb on in front of her and immediately she grips tightly around my waist.

"This is mad," Ron says faintly, moving his free hand gingerly up and down his horses neck. "Mad... If I could just see it –"

"You'd better hope it stays invisible," says Harry darkly. "We all ready, then?"

We all nod.

"Okay... Err, Nyx, how do we tell them where to go?" Harry asks uncertainly.

Rubbing Tenebrus' neck I say with certainty, "take us all to the Ministry of Magic, visitors' entrance, London."

For a moment, the Thestrals do nothing. Then, with a sweeping movement, the wings on either side extend, the horses crouch slowly and then rocket upward so fast and so steeply I feel Hermione squeeze tighter with a sharp intake of breath.

We burst through the topmost branches of the trees and soar out into a bloodred sunset. I give a fulfilling howl, spreading my arms wide, as the wind slaps me in the face, my sister screaming out in terror. The Thestrals streak over the castle, its widespread wings hardly beating. I look behind us to see the others soaring along, each of them bent as low as possible into the neck of their Thestral to protect themselves from its slipstream.

"How do you enjoy this!" I hear Hermione scream and I let out a hearty laugh.

We are over the Hogwarts grounds and passing over Hogsmeade, where mountains and gullies stretch far below. In the falling darkness a small collection of lights can be seen as we pass over more villages, then a winding road on which a single car is beetling its way home through the hills.

"This is bizarre!" I hear Ron yell somewhere from the back. I can't even imagine what it must feel like speeding along at this height with no visible means of support...

Twilight falls: The sky turns to a light, dusky purple littered with tiny silver stars, and soon it is only the lights of Muggle towns that give us a clue of how far from the ground we are or how fast we are travelling.