Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix [79]
“You okay Hermione?” asked Harry. Hermione was shaking all over. Harry knew Hermione didn’t especially enjoy flying, and this time was no exception.
“Y- y- yeah! I’m just fine!” she stuttered back to Harry, keeping her face and eyes fixed directly ahead. Ron gave Harry a pint-sized thumbs-up too. So far, so good he thought. Harry took the map out of his backpack, avoiding hitting his wings which were flapping quite fast and powerfully. Looking at it, he saw that they still had a long trip ahead of them. The Forbidden Forest only took up a small fraction of the bottom of the map. Ahead there was a large body of water, another big forest, and then a giant green island which Azkaban was on. Harry put the map away, took a deep breath, and then continued on.
* * *
They stopped flying when Harry estimated that they were about halfway to Azkaban. They had been flying all trough the night, and several times, Harry felt as though he were asleep, but his wings were still flapping. Harry didn’t want to take the chance that the next time that happened, his wings may stop flapping, and he’d crash to the ground.
They landed in a small clearing in a giant forest, and set up a small camp, just as the sun was coming up, and animals all around them were waking. Harry and Ron worked on getting food while Hermione set up some magical tents that Harry had brought. They were extremely compact, about the size of a small book when in their state of maximum smallness, but when they expanded, they could reach the size of a house.
Harry and Ron left Hermione to figure them out when they set out into the forest to try and find something to eat. They walked into the forest, wands out and ready to hit any animal that walked across their path. They just went a few paces in, when Ron asked Harry a question.
“Harry, do you think we’re going to make it?” he sounded like a little child, wondering if “we were there yet”. Harry, however, did not know how to answer, so he gave Ron a response that he would’ve given to a child that had asked that question.
“Yeah Ron, of course,” he said. Ron smiled back, and returned back to his work.. But, Harry wasn’t sure at all that they would make it. Even though they made it halfway to Azkaban, they still had the other half to go, and then they had to get inside, and they still didn’t have a good plan on how to do that. What made them think they could actually pull this off?
Just as Harry was contemplating this, he saw something that looked like a large bird rush by him.
“Ron!” yelled Harry, pointing to where he saw the bird fly to. “Over there!” Ron’s head turned just in time to hear the sound of it flying by some leaves.
“Let’s go!” yelled Ron, running after the bird. “Man that thing is big!” They ran after the bird, shooting some beams of light at it, hoping to stun it then kill it on the ground. The bird was moving extremely gracefully, flying through the trees and avoiding them as if it were swimming very fast through a sea of air. Every time Harry got close to it, he felt warmer, and the closer he got, the more he had to back away to escape its extreme heat. The bird made a quick swerve to the left, and suddenly, Harry realized that he only heard one set of running footsteps: his own. He stopped in his tracks, and looked around for Ron, but he was nowhere to be seen. The large bird had gotten way.
“Ron!” yelled Harry. He lit up his wand, and scanned the area. He was still gasping for breath after chasing the bird, and the sweat on his head from the bird’s heat was certainly not helping. Just then, Harry felt his foot slip into an immense hole. He just barely saved himself from slipping inside. Harry looked