CHAPTER 05: THE WHOMPING WILLOW

CHAPTER FIVE

THE WHOMPING WILLOW

The end of the summer vacation came too quickly for Harry's liking.
He was looking forward to getting back to Hogwarts, but his month
at the Burrow had been the happiest of his life. It was difficult not to
feel jealous of Ron when he thought of the Dursleys and the sort of
welcome he could expect next time he turned up on Privet Drive.
On their last evening, Mrs. Weasley conjured up a sumptuous dinner
that included all of Harry's favorite things, ending with a
mouthwatering treacle pudding. Fred and George rounded off the
evening with a display of Filibuster fireworks; they fiIled the kitchen
with red and blue stars that bounced from ceiling to wall for at least
half an hour. Then it was time for a last mug of hot chocolate and
bed.
It took a long while to get started next morning. They were up at
dawn, but somehow they still seemed to have a great deal to do.
Mrs. Weasley dashed about in a bad mood looking for spare socks and
quills; people kept colliding on the stairs, half-dressed with bits of toast
in their hands; and Mr. Weasley nearly broke his neck, tripping over a
stray chicken as he crossed the yard carrying Ginny's trunk to the car.
Harry couldn't see how eight people, six large trunks, two owls, and a
rat were going to fit into one small Ford Anglia. He had reckoned, of
course, without the special features that Mr. Weasley had added.
"Not a word to Molly," he whispered to Harry as he opened the. trunk
and showed him how it had been magically expanded so that the
luggage fitted easily.
When at last they were all in the car, Mrs. Weasley glanced into the
back seat, where Harry, Ron, Fred, George, and Percy were all sitting
comfortably side by side, and said, "Muggles do know more than we
give them credit for, don't they?" She and Ginny got into the front seat,
which had been stretched so that it resembled a park bench. "I mean,
you'd never know it was this roomy from the outside, would you?"
Mr. Weasley started up the engine and they trundled out of the yard,
Harry turning back for a last look at the house. He barely had time to
wonder when he'd see it again when they were back George had
forgotten his box of Filibuster fireworks. Five minutes after that, they
skidded to a halt in the yard so that Fred could run in for his
broomstick. They had almost reached the highway when Ginny
shrieked that she'd left her diary. By the time she had clambered back
into the car, they were running very late, and tempers were running
high.
Mr. Weasley glanced at his watch and then at his wife.
"Molly, dear -"
"No, Arthur -"
"No one would see - this little button here is an Invisibility Booster I
installed - that'd get us up in the air - then we fly above the clouds.
We'd be there in ten minutes and no one would be any the wiser -"
"I said no, Arthur, not in broad daylight -"
They reached King's Cross at a quarter to eleven. Mr. Weasley
dashed across the road to get trolleys for their trunks and they all
hurried into the station.
Harry had caught the Hogwarts Express the previous year. The tricky
part was getting onto platform nine and three-quarters, which wasn't
visible to the Muggle eye. What you had to do was walk through the
solid barrier dividing platforms nine and ten. It didn't hurt, but it had to
be done carefully so that none of the Muggles noticed you vanishing.
"Percy first," said Mrs. Weasley, looking nervously at the clock
overhead, which showed they had only five minutes to disappear
casually through the barrier.
Percy strode briskly forward and vanished. Mr. Weasley went next;
Fred and George followed.
"I'll take Ginny and you two come right after us," Mrs. Weasley told
Harry and Ron, grabbing Ginny's hand and setting off. In the blink of
an eye they were gone.
"Let's go together, we've only got a minute," Ron said to Harry.
Harry made sure that Hedwig's cage was safely wedged on top of his
trunk and wheeled his trolley around to face the barrier. He felt
perfectly confident; this wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as using Floo
powder. Both of them bent low over the handles of their trolleys and
walked purposefully toward the barrier, gathering speed. A few feet
away from it, they broke into a run and
CRASH.
Both trolleys hit the barrier and bounced backward; Ron's trunk fell
off with a loud thump, Harry was knocked off his feet, and Hedwig's
cage bounced onto the shiny floor, and she rolled away, shrieking
indignantly; people all around them stared and a guard nearby yelled,
"What in blazes d'you think you're doing?"
"Lost control of the trolley," Harry gasped, clutching his ribs as he
got up. Ron ran to pick up Hedwig, who was causing such a scene
that there was a lot of muttering about cruelty to animals from the
surrounding crowd.
"Why can't we get through?" Harry hissed to Ron.
"I dunno -"
Ron looked wildly around. A dozen curious people were still
watching them.
"We're going to miss the train," Ron whispered. "I don't understand
why the gateway's sealed itself -"
Harry looked up at the giant clock with a sickening feeling in the pit
of his stomach. Ten seconds ... nine seconds ...
He wheeled his trolley forward cautiously until it was right against the
barrier and pushed with all his might. The metal remained solid.
Three seconds . . . two seconds ... one second ...
"It's gone," said Ron, sounding stunned. "The train's left. What if
Mum and Dad can't get back through to us? Have you got any
Muggle money?"
And they marched off through the crowd of curious Muggles, out of
the station and back onto the side road where the old Ford Anglia was
parked.
Ron unlocked the cavernous trunk with a series of taps from his wand.
They heaved their luggage back in, put Hedwig on the back seat, and
got into the front.
"Check that no one's watching," said Ron, starting the ignition with
another tap of his wand. Harry stuck his head out of the window:
Traffic was rumbling along the main road ahead, but their street was
empty.
"Okay," he said.
Ron pressed a tiny silver button on the dashboard. The car around
them vanished - and so did they. Harry could feel the seat vibrating
beneath him, hear the engine, feel his hands on his knees and his
glasses on his nose, but for all he could see, he had become a pair of
eyeballs, floating a few feet above the ground in a dingy street full of
parked cars.
"Let's go," said Ron's voice from his right.
And the ground and the dirty buildings on either side fell away,
dropping out of sight as the car rose; in seconds, the whole of London
lay, smoky and glittering, below them.
Then there was a popping noise and the car, Harry, and Ron
reappeared.
"Uh-oh," said Ron, jabbing at the Invisibility Booster. "It's faulty -"
Both of them pummeled it. The car vanished. Then it flickered back
again.
"Hold on!" Ron yelled, and he slammed his foot on the acceler
ator; they shot straight into the low, woolly clouds and everything
turned dull and foggy.
"Now what?" said Harry, blinking at the solid mass of cloud pressing
in on them from all sides.
"We need to see the train to know what direction to go in," said Ron.
"Dip back down again - quickly -"
They dropped back beneath the clouds and twisted around in their
seats, squinting at the ground.
"I can see it!" Harry yelled. "Right ahead - there!"
The Hogwarts Express was streaking along below them like a scarlet
snake.
"Due north," said Ron, checking the compass on the dashboard.
"Okay, we'll just have to check on it every half hour or so - hold on
And they shot up through the clouds. A minute later, they burst out
into a blaze of sunlight.
It was a different world. The wheels of the car skimmed the sea of
fluffy cloud, the sky a bright, endless blue under the blinding white sun.
"All we've got to worry about now are airplanes," said Ron.
They looked at each other and started to laugh; for a long time, they
couldn't stop.
It was as though they had been plunged into a fabulous dream. This,
thought Harry, was surely the only way to travel - past swirls and
turrets of snowy cloud, in a car full of hot, bright sunlight, with a fat
pack of toffees in the glove compartment, and the prospect of seeing
Fred's and George's jealous faces when they
landed smoothly and spectacularly on the sweeping lawn in front of
Hogwarts castle.
They made regular checks on the train as they flew farther and
farther north, each dip beneath the clouds showing them a different
view. London was soon far behind them, replaced by neat green
fields that gave way in turn to wide, purplish moors, a great city alive
with cars like multicolored ants, villages with tiny toy churches.
Several uneventful hours later, however, Harry had to admit that
some of the fun was wearing off. The toffees had made them
extremely thirsty and they had nothing to drink. He and Ron had
pulled off their sweaters, but Harry's T-shirt was sticking to the back
of his seat and his glasses kept sliding down to the end of his sweaty
nose. He had stopped noticing the fantastic cloud shapes now and
was thinking longingly of the train miles below, where you could buy
ice-cold pumpkin juice from a trolley pushed by a plump witch. Why
hadn't they been able to get onto platform nine and three-quarters?
"Can't be much further, can it?" croaked Ron, hours later still, as the
sun started to sink into their floor of cloud, staining it a deep pink.
"Ready for another check on the train?"
It was still right below them, winding its way past a snowcapped
mountain. It was much darker beneath the canopy of clouds.
Ron put his foot on the accelerator and drove them upward again,
but as he did so, the engine began to whine.
Harry and Ron exchanged nervous glances.
"It's probably just tired," said Ron. "It's never been this far before
......
12
And they both pretended not to notice the whining growing
louder and louder as the sky became steadily darker. Stars were
blossoming in the blackness. Harry pulled his sweater back on, try
ing to ignore the way the windshield wipers were now waving fee
bly, as though in protest.
"Not far," said Ron, more to the car than to Harry, "not far
now," and he patted the dashboard nervously.
When they flew back beneath the clouds a little while later, they
had to squint through the darkness for a landmark they knew.
"There!" Harry shouted, making Ron and Hedwig jump.
"Straight ahead!"
Silhouetted on the dark horizon, high on the cliff over the lake,
stood the many turrets and towers of Hogwarts castle.
But the car had begun to shudder and was losing speed.
"Come on," Ron said cajolingly, giving the steering wheel a lit
tle shake, "nearly there, come on -"
The engine groaned. Narrow jets of steam were issuing from un
der the hood. Harry found himself gripping the edges of his seat
very hard as they flew toward the lake.
The car gave a nasty wobble. Glancing out of his window, Harry
saw the smooth, black, glassy surface of the water, a mile below.
Ron's knuckles were white on the steering wheel. The car wobbled
again.
"Come on," Ron muttered.
They were over the lake - the castle was right ahead - Ron
put his foot down.
There was a loud clunk, a splutter, and the engine died com
pletely.
"Uh-oh," said Ron, into the silence.
The nose of the car dropped. They were falling, gathering speed,
heading straight for the solid castle wall.
"Noooooo!" Ron yelled, swinging the steering wheel around; they
missed the dark stone wall by inches as the car turned in a great arc,
soaring over the dark greenhouses, then the vegetable patch, and then
out over the black lawns, losing altitude all the time.
Ron let go of the steering wheel completely and pulled his wand out of
his back pocket
"STOP! STOP!" he yelled, whacking the dashboard and the
windshield, but they were still plummeting, the ground flying up toward
them
"WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE!" Harry bellowed, lunging for the
steering wheel, but too late
CRUNCH.
With an earsplitting bang of metal on wood, they hit the thick tree
trunk and dropped to the ground with a heavy jolt. Steam was
billowing from under the crumpled hood; Hedwig was shrieking in
terror; a golfball-size lump was throbbing on Harry's head where he
had hit the windshield; and to his right, Ron let out a low, despairing
groan.
"Are you okay?" Harry said urgently.
"My wand," said Ron, in a shaky voice. "Look at my wand -"
It had snapped, almost in two; the tip was dangling limply, held on by a
few splinters.
Harry opened his mouth to say he was sure they'd be able to mend it
up at the school, but he never even got started. At that very moment,
something hit his side of the car with the force of a
charging bull, sending him lurching sideways into Ron, just as an
equally heavy blow hit the roof.
"What's happen -?"
Ron gasped, staring through the windshield, and Harry looked around
just in time to see a branch as thick as a python smash into it. The tree
they had hit was attacking them. Its trunk was bent almost double, and
its gnarled boughs were pummeling every inch of the car it could
reach.
"Aaargh!" said Ron as another twisted limb punched a large dent into
his door; the windshield was now trembling under a hail of blows from
knuckle-like twigs and a branch as thick as a battering ram was
pounding furiously on the roof, which seemed to be caving
"Run for it!" Ron shouted, throwing his full weight against his door, but
next second he had been knocked backward into Harry's lap by a
vicious uppercut from another branch.
"We're done for!" he moaned as the ceiling sagged, but suddenly the
floor of the car was vibrating - the engine had restarted.
"Reverse!" Harry yelled, and the car shot backward; the tree was still
trying to hit them; they could hear its roots creaking as it almost ripped
itself up, lashing out at them as they sped out of reach.
"That," panted Ron, "was close. Well done, car -"
The car, however, had reached the end of its tether. With two sharp
clunks, the doors flew open and Harry felt his seat tip sideways: Next
thing he knew he was sprawled on the damp ground. Loud thuds told
him that the car was ejecting their luggage from the trunk; Hedwig's
cage flew through the air and burst open; she rose out of it with an
angry screech and sped off toward the castle
Y5
without a backward look. Then, dented, scratched, and steaming,
the car rumbled off into the darkness, its rear lights blazing angrily.
"Come back!" Ron yelled after it, brandishing his broken wand.
"Dad'll kill me!"
But the car disappeared from view with one last snort from its
exhaust.
"Can you believe our luck?" said Ron miserably, bending down to
pick up Scabbers. "Of all the trees we could've hit, we had to get
one that hits back."
He glanced over his shoulder at the ancient tree, which was still
flailing its branches threateningly.
"Come on," said Harry wearily, "we'd better get up to the school
......
It wasn't at all the triumphant arrival they had pictured. Stiff, cold,
and bruised, they seized the ends of their trunks and began dragging
them up the grassy slope, toward the great oak front doors.
"I think the feast's already started," said Ron, dropping his trunk at
the foot of the front steps and crossing quietly to look through a
brightly lit window. "Hey - Harry - come and look - it's the Sorting!"
Harry hurried over and, together, he and Ron peered in at the Great
Hall.
Innumerable candles were hovering in midair over four long,
crowded tables, making the golden plates and goblets sparkle.
Overhead, the bewitched ceiling, which always mirrored the sky
outside, sparkled with stars.
Through the forest of pointed black Hogwarts hats, Harry saw a long
line of scared-looking first years fiIing into the Hall. Ginny
was among them, easily visible because of her vivid Weasley ha-ir.
Meanwhile, Professor McGonagall, a bespectacled witch with her hair
in a tight bun, was placing the famous Hogwarts Sorting Hat on a
stool before the newcomers.
Every year, this aged old hat, patched, frayed, and dirty, sorted new
students into the four Hogwarts houses (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff,
Ravenclaw, and Slytherin). Harry well remembered putting it on,
exactly one year ago, and waiting, petrified, for its decision as it
muttered aloud in his ear. For a few horrible seconds he had feared
that the hat was going to put him in Slytherin, the house that had
turned out more Dark witches and wizards than any other -but he had
ended up in Gryffindor, along with Ron, Hermione, and the rest of the
Weasleys. Last term, Harry and Ron had helped Gryffindor win the
House Championship, beating Slytherin for the first time in seven
years.
A very small, mousy-haired boy had been called forward to place the
hat on his head. Harry's eyes wandered past him to where Professor
Dumbledore, the headmaster, sat watching the Sorting from the staff
table, his long silver beard and half-moon glasses shining brightly in the
candlelight. Several seats along, Harry saw Gilderoy Lockhart,
dressed in robes of aquamarine. And there at the end was Hagrid,
huge and hairy, drinking deeply from his goblet.
"Hang on. . . " Harry muttered to Ron. "There's an empty chair at the
staff table .... Where's Snape?"
Professor Severus Snape was Harry's least favorite teacher. Harry
also happened to be Snape's least favorite student. Cruel, sarcastic,
and disliked by everybody except the students from his own house
(Slytherin), Snape taught Potions.
"Maybe he's ill!" said Ron hopefully.
"Maybe he's left," said Ha-rry, "because he missed out on the Defense
Against Dark Arts job again!"
"Or he might have been sacked!" said Ron enthusiastically. "I mean,
everyone hates him -"
"Or maybe," said a very cold voice right behind them, "he's waiting to
hear why you two didn't arrive on the school train."
Harry spun around. There, his black robes rippling in a cold breeze,
stood Severus Snape. He was a thin man with sallow skin, a hooked
nose, and greasy, shoulder-length black hair, and at this moment, he
was smiling in a way that told Harry he and Ron were in very deep
trouble.
"Follow me," said Snape.
Not daring even to look at each other, Harry and Ron followed Snape
up the steps into the vast, echoing entrance hall, which was lit with
flaming torches. A delicious smell of food was wafting from the Great
Hall, but Snape led them away from the warmth and light, down a
narrow stone staircase that led into the dungeons.
"In!" he said, opening a door halfway down the cold passageway and
pointing.
They entered Snape's office, shivering. The shadowy walls were lined
with shelves of large glass) ars, in which floated all manner of
revolting things Harry didn't really want to know the name of at the
moment. The fireplace was dark and empty. Snape closed the door
and turned to look at them.
"So," he said softly, "the train isn't good enough for the famous Harry
Potter and his faithful sidekick Weasley. Wanted to arrive with a bang,
did we, boys?"
"No, sir, it was the barrier at King's Cross, it -"
"Silence!" said Snape coldly. "What have you done with the
car?"
Ron gulped. This wasn't the first time Snape had given Harry the
impression of being able to read minds. But a moment later, he un
derstood, as Snape unrolled today's issue of the Evening Prophet.
"You were seen," he hissed, showing them the headline: FLY
ING FORD ANGLIA MYSTIFIES MUGGLES. He began to read
aloud: "Two Muggles in London, convinced they saw an old car
flying over the Post Office tower ... at noon in Norfolk, Mrs.
Hetty Bayliss, while hanging out her washing ... Mr. Angus Fleet,
of Peebles, reported to police ... Six or seven Muggles in all. I be
lieve your father works in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office?"
he said, looking up at Ron and smiling still more nastily. "Dear,
dear ... his own son. . . "
Harry felt as though he'd just been walloped in the stomach by
one of the mad tree's larger branches. If anyone found out Mr.
Weasley had bewitched the car ... he hadn't thought of that ....
"I noticed, in my search of the park, that considerable damage
seems to have been done to a very valuable Whomping Willow,"
Snape went on.
"That tree did more damage to us than we -" Ron blurted out.
"Silence!" snapped Snape again. "Most unfortunately, you are
not in my House and the decision to expel you does not rest with
me. I shall go and fetch the people who do have that happy power.
You will wait here."
Harry and Ron stared at each other, white-faced. Harry didn't
feel hungry any more. He now felt extremely sick. He tried not to
look at a large, slimy something suspended in green liquid on a
shelf behind Snape's desk. If Snape had gone to fetch Professor
McGonagall, head of Gryffindor House, they were hardly any better
off. She might be fairer than Snape, but she was still extremely strict.
Ten minutes later, Snape returned, and sure enough it was Professor
McGonagall who accompanied him. Harry had seen Professor
McGonagall angry on several occasions, but either he had forgotten
just how thin her mouth could go, or he had never seen her this angry
before. She raised her wand the moment she entered; Harry and Ron
both flinched, but she merely pointed it at the empty fireplace, where
flames suddenly erupted.
"Sit," she said, and they both backed into chairs by the fire.
"Explain," she said, her glasses glinting ominously.
Ron launched into the story, starting with the barrier at the station
refusing to let them through.
"
-so we had no choice, Professor, we couldn't get on the train."
"Why didn't you send us a letter by owl? I believe you have an owl?"
Professor McGonagall said coldly to Harry.
Harry gaped at her. Now she said it, that seemed the obvious thing to
have done.
"I - I didn't think -"
"That," said Professor McGonagall, "is obvious."
There was a knock on the office door and Snape, now looking happier
than ever, opened it. There stood the headmaster, Professor
Dumbledore.
Harry's whole body went numb. Dumbledore was looking unusually
grave. He stared down his very crooked nose at them, and
Harry suddenly found himself wishing he and Ron were still being
beaten up by the Whomping Willow.
There was a long silence. Then Dumbledore said, "Please explain why
you did this."
It would have been better if he had shouted. Harry hated the
disappointment in his voice. For some reason, he was unable to look
Dumbledore in the eyes, and spoke instead to his knees. He told
Dumbledore everything except that Mr. Weasley owned the
bewitched car, making it sound as though he and Ron had happened to
find a flying car parked outside the station. He knew Dumbledore
would see through this at once, but Dumbledore asked no questions
about the car. When Harry had finished, he merely continued to peer
at them through his spectacles.
"We'll go and get our stuff," said Ron in a hopeless sort of voice.
"What are you talking about, Weasley?" barked Professor
McGonagall.
"Well, you're expelling us, aren't you?" said Ron.
Harry looked quickly at Dumbledore.
"Not today, Mr. Weasley," said Dumbledore. "But I must impress upon
both of you the seriousness of what you have done. I will be writing to
both your families tonight. I must also warn you that if you do anything
like this again, I will have no choice but to expel you."
Snape looked as though Christmas had been canceled. He cleared his
throat and said, "Professor Dumbledore, these boys have flouted the
Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry, caused serious
damage to an old and valuable tree - surely acts of this nature -"
"It will be for Professor McGonagall to decide on these boys'
punishments, Severus," said Dumbledore calmly. "They are in her
House and are therefore her responsibility." He turned to Professor
McGonagall. "I must go back to the feast, Minerva, I've got to give
out a few notices. Come, Severus, there's a delicious-looking cus
tard tart I want to sample -"
Snape shot a look of pure venom at Harry and Ron as he allowed
himself to be swept out of his office, leaving them alone with Pro
fessor McGonagall, who was still eyeing them like a wrathful eagle.
"You'd better get along to the hospital wing, Weasley, you're
bleeding."
"Not much," said Ron, hastily wiping the cut over his eye with
his sleeve. "Professor, I wanted to watch my sister being Sorted -"
"The Sorting Ceremony is over," said Professor McGonagall.
"Your sister is also in Gryffindor."
"Oh, good," said Ron.
"And speaking of Gryffindor -" Professor McGonagall said
sharply, but Harry cut in: "Professor, when we took the car, term
hadn't started, so - so Gryffindor shouldn't really have points
taken from it - should it?" he finished, watching her anxiously.
Professor McGonagall gave him a piercing look, but he was sure
she had almost smiled. Her mouth looked less thin, anyway.
"I will not take any points from Gryffindor," she said, and
Harry's heart lightened considerably. "But you will both get a de
tention."
It was better than Harry had expected. As for Dumbledore's
writing to the Dursleys, that was nothing. Harry knew perfectly
well they'd just be disappointed that the Whomping Willow hadn't
squashed him flat.
Professor McGonagall raised her wand again and pointed it at Snape's
desk. A large plate of sandwiches, two silver goblets, and a jug of-iced
pumpkin juice appeared with a pop.
"You will eat in here and then go straight up to your dormitory," she
said. "I must also return to the feast."
When the door had closed behind her, Ron let out a long, low whistle.
"I thought we'd had it," he said, grabbing a sandwich.
"So did I," said Harry, taking one, too.
"Can you believe our luck, though?" said Ron thickly through a
mouthful of chicken and ham. "Fred and George must've flown that
car five or six times and no Muggle ever saw them." He swallowed
and took another huge bite. "Why couldn't we get through the barrier?"
Harry shrugged. "We'll have to watch our step from now on, though,"
he said, taking a grateful swig of pumpkin juice. "Wish we could've
gone up to the feast ......
"She didn't want us showing off," said Ron sagely. "Doesn't want
people to think it's clever, arriving by flying car."
When they had eaten as many sandwiches as they could (the plate
kept refilling itself) they rose and left the office, treading the familiar
path to Gryffindor Tower. The castle was quiet; it seemed that the
feast was over. They walked past muttering portraits and creaking
suits of armor, and climbed narrow flights of stone stairs, until at last
they reached the passage where the secret entrance to Gryffindor
Tower was hidden, behind an oil painting of a very fat woman in a
pink silk dress.
"Password?" she said as they approached.
"Er -" said Harry.
They didn't know the new year's password, not having met a
Gryffindor prefect yet, but help came almost immediately; they heard
hurrying feet behind them and turned to see Hermione dashing toward
them.
"There you are! Where have you been? The most ridiculous rumors -
someone said you'd been expelled for crashing a flying car
"Well, we haven't been expelled," Harry assured her.
"You're not telling me you did fly here?" said Hermione, sounding
almost as severe as Professor McGonagall.
"Skip the lecture," said Ron impatiently, "and tell us the new
password."
"It's `wattlebird,"' said Hermione impatiently, "but that's not the point -
"
Her words were cut short, however, as the portrait of the fat lady
swung open and there was a sudden storm of clapping. It looked as
though the whole of Gryffindor House was still awake, packed into
the circular common room, standing on the lopsided tables and
squashy armchairs, waiting for them to arrive. Arms reached through
the portrait hole to pull Harry and Ron inside, leaving Hermione to
scramble in after then-t.
"Brilliant!" yelled Lee Jordan. "Inspired! What an entrance! Flying a
car right into the Whomping Willow, people'll be talking about that
one for years -"
"Good for you," said a fifth year Harry had never spoken to; someone
was patting him on the back as though he'd just won a marathon;
Fred and George pushed their way to the front of the crowd and said
together, "Why couldn't we've come in the car, eh?"
Ron was scarlet in the face, grinning embarrassedly, but Harry could
see one person who didn't look happy at all. Percy was visible over
the heads of some excited first years, and he seemed to be trying to
get near enough to start telling them off. Harry nudged Ron in the
ribs and nodded in Percy's direction. Ron got the point at once.
"Got to get upstairs - bit tired," he said, and the two of them started
pushing their way toward the door on the other side of the room,
which led to a spiral staircase and the dormitories.
"'Night," Harry called back to Hermione, who was wearing a scowl
just like Percy's.
They managed to get to the other side of the common room, still
having their backs slapped, and gained the peace of the staircase.
They hurried up it, right to the top, and at last reached the door of
their old dormitory, which now had a sign on it saying SECOND YEARS.
They entered the familiar, circular room, with its five four-posters
hung with red velvet and its high, narrow windows. Their trunks had
been brought up for them and stood at the ends of their beds.
Ron grinned guiltily at Harry.
"I know I shouldn't've enjoyed that or anything, but ='
The dormitory door flew open and in came the other second year
Gryffindor boys, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, and Neville
Longbottom.
"Unbelievable!" beamed Seamus.
"Cool," said Dean.
"Amazing," said Neville, awestruck.
Harry couldn't help it. He grinned, too.