Hey guys! Again, so sorry for the extra extra long wait. I never meant for this to wait for like six months. I've just been busy lately! So sorry about that. But I have no plans to wait that long again! Anyway, here's chapter five! I hope you all like it. I'm a little out of practice so don't be too tough on me, okay? Oh, and all mistakes are mine. I'm uploading this immediately after I finished it so I'm not even editing too much. Anyway, enjoy!

"…King's Cross Station."

Ron snorted. "I'd say that'd be interesting."

Hermione and Mrs. Weasley were both looking completely disapproving, something that Sirius was quick to spot. Harry saw his godfather give him a slightly concerned look, eyes narrowed slightly, but he remained silent.

"I was sad to be leaving the Burrow, as living there had made it the best month of my life outside of school," Harry said, hoping to distract the people who were still worried about his scar. And it mostly worked, too. Mrs. Weasley was looking proud and a little bit teary, and Sirius was looking like he was ready to go strangle the Dursleys again.

"You're always welcome back, mate," Ron said quickly. "Anytime."

He smiled at Mrs. Weasley, who was nodding furiously, and continued talking. "We were all up early that morning, but somehow we seemed to be running late anyway. And everyone kept forgetting something or other, which made us even later. But eventually we were all riding along in the car towards King's Cross."

"Hold on, you were all riding along in one car?" Remus asked curiously. "There must have been… what, eight of you? Along with all of your trunks and things? How on earth did you all fit?"

Mr. Weasley began looking very sheepish. "Well, you see, I may have made a few… ah, improvements to the car to make it fit us all." Mrs. Weasley turned an accusing eye on her husband.

"And this was the same car that Ron and the Twins had taken to go rescue Harry from his relatives?" Remus asked, looking impressed.

"Well, yes-"

"Arthur, I had told you to stop fiddling with that car!" Mrs. Weasley said finally.

"Molly, dear, it was very helpful in the end," he said timidly. "And like the boys have been saying, it's all in the past so there's no use getting upset about anything. We don't even have that car anymore, anyhow."

"He is right, mum!" Fred said, causing Mrs. Weasley to turn her glare on him. Harry was forcibly reminded of the morning they'd landed that car at the Burrow and Mrs. Weasley had been storming out, and the thought had crossed his mind then- that she'd looked like a sabre toothed tiger. Her expression wasn't much different now.

"Don't you start!" she said shrilly, turning her gaze back to her slightly cowering husband. "You, I'll talk to later."

She leaned back with her arms crossed, in slightly fuming silence. Harry took it as a cue to continue talking.

"Anyway, we made it to the station with something like ten minutes until the train departed," he said slowly, making sure there weren't any outbursts waiting. "We got all our stuff and headed for the platform, moving as fast as we could. I remember Percy and the Twins going through first, and then Mr. Weasley, then Mrs. Weasley took Ginny."

"And then it was our turn," Ron said, shaking his head. "We knew we still had at least a full minute to get on, but-"

"But when we ran at the platform, we crashed into a solid brick wall," Harry said flatly.

"I still remember bouncing off that wall. That hurt," Ron said, rubbing his head.

"It certainly didn't feel good," Harry agreed, nodding.

"The platform wouldn't let you on?" Remus asked curiously, looking confused.

"Nope," Harry said. "We bounced off and our stuff flew everywhere. Hedwig's cage rolled away and she was shrieking as loud as she could, attracting attention from all the muggles. And we watched the seconds tick by until the clock hit exactly eleven when the train left."

"Why wouldn't it have let you on? It shouldn't seal itself until the moment the train starts moving," Remus said. "That makes no sense."

"Believe me, we were just as confused as you are," Ron said, back to shaking his head again. "And we were lost for what to do."

"The train had left at exactly eleven. We'd missed it by then," Harry said. "We didn't know if anyone could get back through the platform or not, since it was sealed. So we didn't know if help could come that way. And Hedwig was so loud that I suggested we go wait by the car because she was attracting too much attention from all the muggles…"

"You didn't," Sirius said, looking like he knew exactly what they'd done.

"We did," Ron said, smirking slightly.

Sirius threw his head back and laughed. "That must have been brilliant!" Even Remus was hiding a small smile. Mrs. Weasley just made a noise of contempt.

"Well, we didn't know how else we were going to get to Hogwarts," Harry said, trying to rationalize what they'd done over Sirius's laughing. "And we had the means to get there just sitting outside the station."

"And underage wizards are allowed to use magic in emergencies," Ron said. "Though technically, we didn't actually use any magic. We never enchanted the car, we just… used an already enchanted object."

"You took a flying car to Hogwarts," Sirius croaked out, wiping his eyes on his sleeve. "Brilliant. Your dad would have been so proud of you, Harry."

"Sirius, don't encourage them!" Mrs. Weasley said, scoldingly. "They caused a great amount of trouble! There were other ways that they could have gotten to Hogwarts, for Merlin's sake. They were nearly expelled!"

"Well, mum, not quite nearly… Though if Snape had gotten his way, we would've been," Ron said, muttering the last part darkly.

"And why doesn't that surprise me?" Sirius said, shaking his head. Although Harry was pleased to note, he didn't seem too sour about it.

"Because it's Snape," Harry said flatly. "Anyway, we unlocked the car and put all of our luggage in. And Ron started it up, no trouble. He even put on the invisibility booster before we took off so that nobody would see anything."

"Yeah, the only trouble was that the invisibility booster was faulty," Ron said, snorting. "Didn't work too well when we reappeared about ten feet in the air."

"We both pummeled it, but the car just flickered once and stayed visible," Harry said, shaking his head.

"That's because you, Harry, just happen to have the worst luck out of anybody in this room," George said.

"This country, more like," Fred corrected, both of them sniggering.

"I wouldn't even be surprised if that was true," Sirius said, shaking his head. "How did you manage to find your way to Hogwarts, though?"

"We followed the train," Harry said. "We tried to stay mostly in the clouds so we were hidden, but every now and then we'd dip back down to make sure we could still see the Hogwarts Express. We knew it would lead us straight there."

"Smart," Remus agreed, nodding.

"It was quite fun at first, actually," Harry said. "Ron said something like 'the only thing we have to worry about is airplanes' which was quite funny at the time. And riding in the clouds was amazing. But of course the ride to Hogwarts takes several hours, and we didn't have all the comforts of the train."

"It got quite hot and sticky after a few hours," Ron said nodding. "And all we had to eat was a package of toffees in the glove compartment!"

"You mean poor Ronnie didn't have anything to fill his belly with?" Ginny asked, putting on a face of mock concern. The Twins both snorted.

"Oh, shut up," Ron said, his ears slowly turning red.

"He's right, though," Harry said. "We were hot, thirsty, and tired by the time we'd gotten even anywhere close to the castle. And not to mention that the car had started making these awful whining noises."

"That can't be good," Sirius said, looking concerned.

"I just figured it was tired. It had never been that far before," Ron said. "But the noises kept getting louder. And then the windshield wipers started going back and forth on their own, real weak."

"Finally though, I managed to spot the castle," Harry said. "Except the car started kind of shaking and shuddering and losing some speed by that point."

"Of course it did," Sirius said, shaking his head. Mrs. Weasley started mumbling about how dangerous it had been once again.

"We were very close at that point, though," Harry said. "I looked out the window and saw that we were flying high over the lake. Except that the engine then started shooting steam out, and then the car started wobbling."

"And then the engine died completely," Ron said.

There were a few seconds of silence before Remus said, "Remarkable. It's like everything that could have gone wrong for you two actually did go wrong.

"We're not even finished yet," Harry said. "It gets worse."

Sirius groaned. "How can it possibly get any worse than being in a dead flying car hundreds of feet above the lake?"

"Well," Harry said, looking over to Ron. "We managed to make it over solid ground. If Ron had turned the wheel a second later than he did we would have crashed straight into the castle. But he turned it at the right time, and we kept flying. Over the greenhouses and past the gardens… and straight into a tree."

Harry saw Mr. Weasley flinch, and made a mental note to apologize to him at some point.

"That finally put us on solid ground," Ron said. "Of course, that wasn't the end of our bad luck, however."

"Oh, no, of course not," Sirius said sarcastically. "Because missing the train, the car's invisibility booster be faulty, and then having the car die in midair isn't enough bad luck at all."

"What else could possibly have gone wrong?" Remus asked.

"Er… I suppose it's all to do with which tree we happened to crash into," Harry said. "I think you know the one, Remus."

Sirius and Remus looked at each other for a second, before Remus said tiredly, "I don't suppose it would have been the Whomping Willow?"

When neither of the two denied it, Sirius let out another tired groan and started massaging his temples again. "You two do realize that the tree could very well have killed you both?"

"Oh, we know," Ron said.

"It tried pretty hard," Harry added. "It did manage to snap Ron's wand in half. Or it might have already been broken by that point, I don't quite remember. Either way, Ron's wand was broken, we were getting pounded on by the tree, and there was no possible way to make a run for it or else we'd have been slammed into the ground by a giant branch."

Mrs. Weasley was looking like she was ready to go into panic mode once again. Harry figured she hadn't heard quite all the details of their flight before now. Mainly the part about the Whomping Willow.

"In one moment of good luck, however, the car started back up," Ron said. "And it reversed and we backed up far enough where the tree couldn't hit us anymore."

"But then it must have decided it was quite done with us, because it flung us both out, along with our luggage, and drove itself off into the woods," Harry said, making another note to apologize again about the car.

Mr. Weasley, however, was looking somewhat delighted. "You mean to say that the car acted by itself? Like it was its own being? I actually managed to enchant it far enough to give it the will to do what it wanted?"

Harry thought for a moment. "I guess I never really thought about it, but yeah, I suppose that you did."

"Brilliant!" Mr. Weasley said, but before he got too excited he caught his wife's eye.

"Arthur. Absolutely not," she said, glaring at him with one of her harshest looks. Harry thought it was a miracle that he wasn't withering in his seat.

"But Molly, this is amazing!" he said. One more glance at her and he added, "Of course, I won't ever enchant anything like that again."

"Good. You'd best not," she huffed, turning herself back to face Harry. But he didn't miss the quick wink that Mr. Weasley sent to the Twins.

Harry snorted slightly, covering it up with a cough. "Anyway, we gathered up all of our stuff and dragged it to the castle. But Ron noticed that the feast had already started and we stopped to look through the window for a minute."

"The first years were just starting to come in when we looked, as well, right Harry?" Ron said. "We saw you walk in, Ginny."

"Lovely," Ginny said sarcastically. "I remember wondering where you'd gone. I saw Fred and George and… well, everyone but you."

Harry marveled at the way the atmosphere tensed every single time Percy was brought up. He shook his head slightly, not even bothering to look at Mrs. Weasley, as he already knew the expression on her face.

"We were watching you!" Ron said. "You just couldn't see us."

"And that's not creepy at all, is it Ron?" Hermione said, smirking at him.

"Well, no I mean-"

"Anyway," Harry said, amused at Ron's ears once again turning red and pleased at Hermione for diffusing the tension in the room. "I noticed that all the teachers were there except for Snape. And of course, we got excited because 'What if he's been sacked? What if he's ill? What if he's left because he didn't get to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts again?'"

"Or maybe," Ron said in his best imitation of Snape, "he's waiting to hear why you two didn't arrive on the train."

"You got caught by Snape?" Sirius groaned. "Honestly, you two. Missed the train, the invisibility booster was faulty, the car died in midair, you crashed into the Whomping Willow, and then Snape caught you. How could that day get any worse?"

"At that point, we didn't think it could," Ron said, shaking his head. "It was awful."

"He took us right past the Great Hall, and I remember thinking that everything smelled so good and how hungry we were. But he led us straight to his office in the dungeons. I was shaking from how cold it was and from nerves as well, because Snape catching us was the worst thing that could have happened," Harry said thoughtfully.

"What did he say to you?" Sirius asked, narrowing his eyes.

"He was absolutely furious," Ron said. "I don't think we'd ever seen him that mad."

"He yelled at us for a bit. Saying things like 'So the train isn't good enough for Harry Potter and his faithful sidekick Weasley?' and 'What have you done with the car?' and he looked to Ron and said 'I believe your father works with the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office? Dear me, his own son…'" Harry said.

"He wouldn't let us get a word in, every time we tried he'd told us to be quiet," Ron said.

"And then he told us that unfortunately he didn't have the power to expel us, but he was going to go and get the people who had that happy power and left," Harry said.

"We'd been in trouble before, but nothing as serious as that our first few years," Sirius said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, It wasn't much fun," Ron agreed. "We just sat there for ten minutes until he came back… with McGonagall."

"I don't think we'd ever seen her that mad before either," Harry said.

"Not even when she found you three standing next to the carcass of a mountain troll?" Sirius asked.

"Well, she was more surprised than mad then. This time she was just pure anger," Ron said. "And then Dumbledore was there and we had to explain everything to both of them. I thought for sure they were gonna expel us both."

"But they didn't, obviously," Sirius said proudly. "Was Snape disappointed?"

"He looked like Christmas was cancelled. He tried to fight them on it as well, but neither of them listened to him. Dumbledore just told him to go back to the feast with him because there was a tasty looking pudding he wanted to try," Ron said.

"Good old Dumbledore," Sirius said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, good old Dumbledore," Harry said. He kept any other remarks to himself. "Anyway, I convinced McGonagall not to take any points from Gryffindor, seeing as technically term hadn't even started when we took the car."

"Good logic," Remus said, nodding his head. Mrs. Weasley looked at him and he shrugged in response. "Well, it was."

"I remember getting the letter that night saying what you'd done," she said sternly. "At least we knew what had happened to the car. We'd thought someone had stolen it. Imagine if a muggle had taken it!"

"Well, they didn't," Ron said sheepishly. "It's just living in the forest now."

"Brilliant," Mr. Weasley muttered again.

"Anyway, we both got detentions and we both had letters sent home," Harry said. "I wasn't worried about the letter to the Dursleys, I figured that they'd just be disappointed that I hadn't been killed by the tree."

Sirius huffed in the corner, but Harry ignored him and kept talking.

"McGonagall conjured us up some sandwiches and pumpkin juice, so we ate in Snape's office and went up to the dorms. It seemed like everyone had waited up to congratulate us, though," Harry said, grinning slightly.

Hermione slapped them both on the arm slightly, saying, "You shouldn't have had a welcome like that at all."

"Of course they should have! It was rather brilliant, crashing a car into the Whomping Willow, since neither of you two got hurt badly," Sirius said proudly.

Hermione rolled her eyes but let the subject drop, knowing she wasn't going to get anywhere with it. "Well, you two weren't so proud of yourselves the next morning, were you?"

"Why was that?" Remus asked curiously.

Harry and Ron exchanged glances, both of them remembering the Howler at breakfast that morning.

"Well…"

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