Harry Potter 05 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

arms; the tiny owl was twittering excitedly as usual.
    ‘Here you are,’ she said. ‘He’s a sweet little owl, isn’t he?’
    ‘Er … yeah … he’s all right,’ said Ron gruffly. ‘Well, come on then, let’s get in … what were you saying, Harry?’
    ‘I was saying, what are those horse things?’ Harry said, as he, Ron and Luna made for the carriage in which Hermione and Ginny were already sitting.
    ‘What horse things?’
    ‘The horse things pulling the carriages!’ said Harry impatiently. They were, after all, about three feet from the nearest one; it was watching them with empty white eyes. Ron, however, gave Harry a perplexed look.
    ‘What are you talking about?’
    ‘I’m talking about – look!’
    Harry grabbed Ron’s arm and wheeled him about so that he was face to face with the winged horse. Ron stared straight at it for a second, then looked back at Harry.
    ‘What am I supposed to be looking at?’
    ‘At the – there, between the shafts! Harnessed to the coach! It’s right there in front –’
    But as Ron continued to look bemused, a strange thought occurred to Harry.
    ‘Can’t … can’t you see them?’
    ‘See what ?’
    ‘Can’t you see what’s pulling the carriages?’
    Ron looked seriously alarmed now.
    ‘Are you feeling all right, Harry?’
    ‘I … yeah …’
    Harry felt utterly bewildered. The horse was there in front of him, gleaming solidly in the dim light issuing from the station windows behind them, vapour rising from its nostrils in the chilly night air. Yet, unless Ron was faking – and it was a very feeble joke if he was – Ron could not see it at all.
    ‘Shall we get in, then?’ said Ron uncertainly, looking at Harry as though worried about him.
    ‘Yeah,’ said Harry. ‘Yeah, go on …’
    ‘It’s all right,’ said a dreamy voice from beside Harry as Ron vanished into the coach’s dark interior. ‘You’re not going mad or anything. I can see them, too.’
    ‘Can you?’ said Harry desperately, turning to Luna. He could see the bat-winged horses reflected in her wide silvery eyes.
    ‘Oh, yes,’ said Luna, ‘I’ve been able to see them ever since my first day here. They’ve always pulled the carriages. Don’t worry. You’re just as sane as I am.’
    Smiling faintly, she climbed into the musty interior of the carriage after Ron. Not altogether reassured, Harry followed her.

 
     
— CHAPTER ELEVEN —
     
The Sorting Hat’s New Song
    Harry did not want to tell the others that he and Luna were having the same hallucination, if that was what it was, so he said nothing more about the horses as he sat down inside the carriage and slammed the door behind him. Nevertheless, he could not help watching the silhouettes of the horses moving beyond the window.
    ‘Did everyone see that Grubbly-Plank woman?’ asked Ginny. ‘What’s she doing back here? Hagrid can’t have left, can he?’
    ‘I’ll be quite glad if he has,’ said Luna, ‘he isn’t a very good teacher, is he?’
    ‘Yes, he is!’ said Harry, Ron and Ginny angrily.
    Harry glared at Hermione. She cleared her throat and quickly said, ‘Erm … yes … he’s very good.’
    ‘Well, we in Ravenclaw think he’s a bit of a joke,’ said Luna, unfazed.
    ‘You’ve got a rubbish sense of humour then,’ Ron snapped, as the wheels below them creaked into motion.
    Luna did not seem perturbed by Ron’s rudeness; on the contrary, she simply watched him for a while as though he were a mildly interesting television programme.
    Rattling and swaying, the carriages moved in convoy up the road. When they passed between the tall stone pillars topped with winged boars on either side of the gates to the school grounds, Harry leaned forwards to try and see whether there were any lights on in Hagrid’s cabin by the Forbidden Forest, but the grounds were in complete darkness. Hogwarts Castle, however, loomed ever closer: a towering mass of turrets, jet black against the dark sky, here and there a window blazing fiery bright above them.
    The carriages jingled to a halt near the stone steps leading up to the oak front doors and Harry got out of the carriage first. He turned again to look for lit windows down by the Forest, but there was definitely no sign of life within Hagrid’s cabin. Unwillingly, because he had half-hoped they would have vanished, he turned his eyes instead upon the strange, skeletal creatures standing quietly in the chill night air, their blank white eyes