Salvation

Journey To Hogwarts

"Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself."-Hermione Granger Aka .Gryffindors Golden Girl.Word had already gotten out that the coven of dorm room 13 was behind the grand performance at the station.We were infamous for our tricks.And even more infamous for getting away with them .Our coven was a big deal back at Hogwarts.

We arrived at nightfall.The Hogwarts Express slogged to rest at the station.Sleepwalking students crowded onto the platform.Huddling together for warmth.Sixth Year students illuminated the way , calling out to their assigned groups , who responded with dragging feet and constant yawns.Gradually , we all filed onto the platform.A mass of hooded grim reapers under the burning stars.

Cloaks buttoned up to our necks , hands stuffed deep into pockets.We leapt down from the train and joined the semi conscious throng.We stuck close , Pansy flanking my right , Ebony even closer on my left.Pirate huddled under her cloak.The mass of students snaked upward , following a moon lit trail into a thick woodland.In silence we hiked towards the wood.Our boots charmed with a modification spell , making them more suitable for hitchhiking.Ridges worn into the side of the slanted cliff , created by decades of students on this same journey , acted as our winding stairway.The imposing trees stretched towards the moon , their twisted , clawed fingers ascending towards the infinite heavens.Sixth year lanterns cast ghoulish shadows from the foot of the trees , as they directed exhausted first years through the terrain of exposed roots and thick mist that swirled around our waists.

Our ragged breaths rose into the icy air and dissolved .Pan gripped the tails of my cloak as the trail became narrower through the haunting wood.Sixth Years echoed through the evening , lanterns making shadows twist and coil around us.Frost bit at my face , causing discolouration in my lips and cheeks.Shuddering , we picked up the pace , weaving through lagging second and third years , avoiding emerging roots and swinging lanterns.I spotted several final year girls from last year , their faces equally grave.

First Years branched off towards the boats  , for their first look at Hogwarts.Reflected upon the onyx lake ...as soon as they crossed the enchantment line , where the air seemed to liquify and swallow you whole...before delivering you to the other side.

Something I'd never forget ...

"To the carriages !" Disembodied voices called into the night.Directing us deeper into the centre of the wood . To an overgrown crossroad , there stood the remains of a finger post.Two had given in to frostbite , the third to Ivy .But the fourth sign , pointing straight ahead , still displayed four faded letters...

Styx

Awaiting not thirteen footsteps ahead , in a forest clearing , stood thirty -one eerily empty carriages.In a clearing.Each one upright on two , large , spindly wheels .Each with it's own ghostly lantern that held a dwindling white light.Mist swirled about them , curling round the wheels and trying to distinguish the flames.Swelling and tumbling in waves and tides.Like a lake or sea.

Drawn by thirty -one identical Thestrals.

A darker breed of winged horses with a sickly skeletal appearance,their ink black skin stretched so tight over their bones they where almost translucent under the moonlight.Spines painfully prominent , shallow , raspy breaths displaying their hollow rib cages . Each rasp forcing the skin tighter and tighter , a half's breath away from splitting it completely.They had disconcerting reptilian features.Empty eye sockets , barley a shell of a thing.Their vast , leathery wings , resembling a bats all folded .Stiff.No warmth circulated through them , no heartbeat sounded , for it would shake the very foundations of the things.Silently they stood , unseen , unknown to the lucky ones.

In ignorant bliss both Pansy and Ebony keenly mounted their horseless carriage , vitality sparkling in their blind eyes.Pulling my hood tighter round my face , like a horse blinder , I climbed the carriage , just as it creaked forward.Delivering it's reapers across the misty meander ...