Hogwarts: From Squibs to Greatness

Chapter 68 Riding Thestrals and Harry Finally Free
As described in the book "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them".

A creature that seemed to have stepped out of hell appeared in front of John at this moment.

The skinny body of a mummified corpse, the dark skin and flesh tightly attached to the skeleton, outlines a strange arc.

The horse-like, dragon-like head turned to Johann, watching him with pale pupils.

Just like this, John stared at the group of thestrals from afar.

As if aware of the faint threat coming from John, the leader of this group of Thestrals, a Thestrals whose body size surpassed that of other grown-ups and whose height could even be compared with Sharma, walked out slowly.

In fact, John had noticed this unusually large Thestral as early as when he first saw this group.

According to Master Newt's research, many magical animals have a long lifespan, and most magical animals grow larger as they get older.

As for the leader of the thestral horse in front of John, he estimates that it is close to five hundred years old. I am afraid that this thestral horse once followed his teacher.

Looking at John's dragon eyes, the leader of thestrals stood quietly, and it felt a certain familiar aura from John.

But the group behind the leader of thestrals is different. Facing a pair of strange eyes, even if their eyes did not fall on them, the young ones stepped on the ground restlessly, while the grown ones kept screaming in warning. .

After confronting like this for a long time, in the end, the Thestral leader didn't feel any malice from John. Although the strong sense of threat made him uneasy, the familiar aura made the Thestral leader slowly approach John.

Only by observing at a close distance can John feel some kind of strange magic power fluctuations from this death-linked creature.

It wasn't as cold as John imagined, but it was a kind of tranquility, a kind of tranquility like death.

And unlike rumors that thestrals are very unlucky and will bring all kinds of terrible disasters to those who see them, thestrals are actually very kind creatures.

Or this creature will express kindness to everyone who sees its presence.

John guessed that this creature might really be related to death, but it wasn't that the mainstream speculation would bring disaster, but some kind of comfort full of kindness.

You can only see them if you have seen death, and you can only feel their kindness if you see them.

As if sensing the change in John's breath, the Thestral leader slowly stepped forward, lowered his head, and John naturally reached out and stroked his neck.

The first feeling to the touch is hard, and its skin is quite tough.

The second is smoothness. Although the Thestral looks like a haggard mummy overall, it is not difficult to touch, as if something is separating the protruding joints of its body.

This may be the reason why even Dumbledore can ride a Thestral. If the other party is really uncomfortable to ride, there will not be so many wizards in history who choose Thestral as a mount.

"Take me for a ride, how about it?" John asked with a smile.

Hearing John's words, the Thestral leader nodded slightly, so John walked to the side and directly rolled onto his back with his strong physique.

Just as John thought, the touch from under his body is not irritating, but a different kind of comfort. Thestrals may be born as magical creatures born in this world as mounts.

John lightly touched the Thestral under him with his heel, and in the next second, the leader of Thestral who received the command suddenly spread out the wings that were tightly attached to his abdomen.

The leader of thestrals rushed out like an arrow from the string, and then the wings like bat wings fluttered vigorously, and directly rushed into the sky.

It's completely different from riding a broomstick. The speed of thestrals can be said to be close to the speed of John using the flying magic device, but compared to the fact that there will be corresponding magic to resist the airflow generated by high-speed advancement, riding thestrals can feel it better. The feeling of speed.

Of course, ordinary people can't bear the wind pressure caused by the Thestral moving forward at the highest speed, and only an existence like John with inhuman physical fitness can do it.

Flying around the entire space a few times, the leader of thestrals landed next to the group again with John's signal again.

This time, the thestrals didn't show any uneasiness in the face of John, and even some bold little thestrals approached John, who got off the back of the Thestral leader, and rubbed his arm, showing a look of groping.

John touched these little thestrals with a smile, and after playing with them for a while, John bid farewell to the leader of thestrals and his group, and returned to the house to continue the research on the Philosopher's Stone.

It's just that unlike John's relaxed atmosphere, Harry felt that what he had experienced in the past few days was worse than being left alone in the office by Snape.

Not only because of the attitude and treatment of him from the Dursleys, but also because on his birthday, he knew the reason why any friend had written to him during this period of time.

He wasn't forgotten, and his experience at Hogwarts wasn't a dream, it was all caused by a house-elf named Dobby.

Dobby had suddenly appeared on his bed, and at first Dobby's humble attitude towards him made Harry think that Dobby had come to help him leave the Dursleys.

As a result, the other party not only repeatedly said that he would not be allowed to return to Hogwarts, but also took out the letters that Hermione, Ron, and Hagrid sent him.

What's worse is that in order to further prevent himself from returning to Hogwarts, he used magic, which caused him to be warned by a letter from the Ministry of Magic, and even indirectly caused the business deal with Uncle Vernon to fail.

This also exposed his inability to use magic outside of school.

This caused Uncle Vernon to completely let go, taking his spellbook, wand, robe, cauldron, broomstick, and Hedwig out of the storage room and throwing them into the room where he was.

Then Uncle Vernon had iron bars put on the windows of his room, and he himself fitted a trapdoor in the bedroom door, through which a little food was sent in three times a day.

Except for going to the toilet every morning and evening to come out for a while, he is locked in the house at other times.

And this time Uncle Vernon seemed to be really cruel. He had been imprisoned for four full days since his birthday.

For four days, every day at a certain time, Aunt Petunia brought in a bowl of canned soup through the trapdoor, and it was never cold.

At first Harry had the guts not to drink the cold canned soup, but after being starved all night, Harry didn't care about that anymore.

He didn't want to experience that feeling of being so hungry that his stomach hurts again.

Under such torture, Harry was already exhausted and hungry. Except for the meal time, Harry lay powerless and motionless on the bed.

And unless he was extremely sleepy, Harry would try to keep himself from falling asleep.

Because the feeling after falling asleep is really bad, he always dreamed repeatedly that he was locked up in a zoo for exhibition like an animal.

The card on the cage said "Little Wizard", and people watched him through the iron bars, lying on the straw, dying of hunger.

More than once he had seen Dobby's face in the crowd in his dreams, and Dobby had called out to him with a wry smile, "Harry Potter is safe there, sir!"

After speaking, as he always did, he snapped his fingers and disappeared without a trace.

And he also naturally saw the Dursleys, Dudley would shake the iron cage railing and laugh at him loudly.

Harry lay weakly on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. If his chest was not still heaving, anyone would have mistaken him for a corpse at first sight.

Only unbeknownst to Harry, his redemption is at hand.

Just when Harry was half asleep and half awake, he heard someone calling himself outside the window.

"Harry, Harry!"

Harry stood up reluctantly and looked out the window.

Moonlight shone in from between the window bars, and someone looked at him in shock through the iron bars.

Freckled face, red hair, long nose, Ron Weasley was outside Harry's window at the moment.

"Ron!"

Harry called out in surprise, but soon he covered his mouth and listened carefully to the movement outside, making sure that Uncle Vernon and the others didn't hear him.

Then they tiptoed to the window and pushed it up so that they could talk through the iron bars.

Lowering his voice, Harry said cautiously, "Ron, what are you... what is this...?"

He couldn't see clearly in the room before, but after getting closer, Harry could see the scene outside the window clearly.

Ron was looking at him now from the rear window of a turquoise car parked in mid-air, with Ron's twin brothers Fred and George sitting in the front, grinning at him.

But this time Ron was not as usual, because Harry showed a surprised expression and began to proudly introduce this magical speeding car.

Instead, he looked at Harry with a worried expression: "Harry, are you okay? You haven't replied to my letter. I asked Hermione and Hagrid, and they also said that they didn't receive your letter either."

"I didn't know that you were imprisoned by the Dursleys until I asked John, and before I came, my father came back from the Ministry of Magic and told me that you were warned for using magic in front of Muggles..."

"It wasn't me. It was a house-elf named Dobby. I didn't reply and he was still playing tricks! All the letters were hidden by him halfway, and I didn't receive a single one!"

Harry lowered his voice, excitedly accusing Ron of what Dobby had done
"House elf?" Ron was a little surprised. "How could it do such a thing? Someone must have ordered it to do it."

"Don't talk about this now, Ron, can you tell the school that the Dursleys have locked me up and won't let me go back to school." Harry spoke very quickly, "Obviously I can't use magic to escape, because The Ministry will think I use magic twice in three days, so..."

"Stop talking nonsense!" Ron interrupted Harry. "We're here to get you out of here."

"But you can't use magic, and this car..."

"Oh, that doesn't count," Ron patted the car triumphantly. "We just borrowed it. This is Dad's car. We didn't cast magic on it, and we don't need to cast spells either."

Ron shook his head toward the front row with a smile and said, "You forgot who I was with."

"Hey, Harry, happy to help you," George said back

And Fred took out a bundle of rope from the storage box of the car.

"Tie it to the bars," said Fred, throwing one end at Harry.

"If the Dursleys wake up, I'll be dead." Harry said with a worried look on his face, as he tied the rope firmly to an iron bar, Fred started the car.

"Don't worry, we won't let this happen," Fred said with a smile. "Stand back."

Harry retreated into the shadows, approaching Hedwig.

It also seemed to know the stakes were high, and remained motionless in its cage.

The car motor sounded louder and louder, and suddenly there was a rattling sound, the iron fence was uprooted, and Fred drove straight into the sky.

Harry ran to the window and saw the grille dangling a few feet from the ground.

Ron gasped and dragged it into the car, and Harry listened worriedly. There was nothing going on in the Dursleys' bedroom.

The window grille was safely lowered into the seat next to Ron, and Fred reversed the car to get as close to Harry's window as possible.

"Get in the car," said Ron.

Thanks to Uncle Vernon having thrown everything into the room, Harry didn't have to figure out how to open the storage room door and get things out.

Harry stuffed everything into the car, just wondering if something stung Hedwig, and Hedwig let out a shriek, followed by Uncle Vernon's growl.

"Come in!" George yelled at Harry.

Harry forgot about his hunger at this moment, like a vigorous wild cat, he got into the car in an instant, and because of too much force, Harry slammed into the door on the other side.

Ron immediately yelled, "Put on the gas, Fred!"

Fred put his foot on the accelerator, and the car slammed toward the moon.

Harry couldn't believe it!He was free, and now Harry felt a long-lost joy.

Rolling down the car window, the evening wind was blowing against his hair, and at this moment he felt extremely relaxed.

Looking down, the roofs of Privet Drive dwindled below him, and he could even see Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley leaning out the window of his room and staring blankly.

"See you next summer!" Harry shouted, laughing.

(End of this chapter)