Harry and I were several streets away before we collapsed onto alow wall in Magnolia Crescent, panting from the effort of dragging our trunks. We sat quite still, anger still surging through us, listening to the frantic thumping of our hearts. 

But after ten minutes alone in the dark street, a new emotion over took me: panic. Whichever way I looked at it, we had neve rbeen in a worse fix. We were stranded, quite alone, in the dark Muggle world, with absolutely nowhere to go. And the worst of it was, we had just done serious magic, which meant that we were almost certainly expelled from Hogwarts. We had broken the Decree forthe Restriction of Underage Wizardry so badly, I was surprised Ministry of Magic representatives weren't swooping down on us where we sat.

"Where are we going to go?" whispered Harry. "W-we don't have hedwig..or money..."

"I took down Zoe number" I whispered back "Maybe--"

"I am not going to a slytherin's house" scoffed Harry. I snarled "you live with a Slytherin!" Harry was quiet then "your my sister." he said, looking up "it's different for you." "You insult my house" I growled "you insult me."

Harry just shivered and looked up and down Magnolia Crescent.What was going to happen to us? Would we be arrested, or would we simply be outlawed from the wizarding world?I thought of Draco, Zoe and Nicholas, and my heart sank even lower. I was sure that, criminal or not, Draco, Zoe and Nicholas would want to help me now, but they were all either abroad or too far away, and with Hedwig gone, I had no means of contacting them. 

We didn't have any Muggle money, either. There was a little wizard gold in the money bag at the bottom of our trunks, but the rest of the fortune our parents had left us was stored in a vault at Gringotts  Wizarding Bank in London. We'd never be able to drag our trunk all the way to London. Unless . . .I looked down at my wand, which I was still clutching in his hand. If we were already expelled (my heart was now thumping painfully fast), a bit more magic couldn't hurt. We had the Invisibility Cloak Harry had inherited from our father — what if I bewitched the trunk to make it feather-light, tied it to his broomstick, covered ourselves in the cloak, and flew to London? Then we could get the rest of his money out of our vault and . . . begin life as an outcast.

It was a horrible prospect, but we couldn't sit on this wall forever, or we'd find ourselves trying to explain to Muggle police why we were out in the dead of night with a trunkful of spell books and a broomstick.Harry opened his trunk again and pushed the contents aside,looking for the Invisibility Cloak — but before he had found it, he straightened up suddenly, looking around him once more.

A funny prickling on the back of my neck had made me feel we were being watched, but the street appeared to be deserted, and no lights shone from any of the large square houses.Harry bent over his trunk again, but almost immediately stood up once more, his hand clenched on his wand. I was up before him, wand out in a defensive position. 

I had sensed rather than heard it: someone or something was standing in the narrowgap between the garage and the fence behind us. Harry and I squintedat the black alleyway. If only it would move, then he'd knowwhether it was just a stray cat or — something else.

 "Lumos," I muttered, and a light appeared at the end of my wand, almost dazzling me. I held it high over his head, and thepebble-dashed walls of number two suddenly sparkled; the garagedoor gleamed, and between them I saw, quite distinctly, thehulking outline of something very big, with wide, gleaming eyes.Harry stepped backward. His legs hit his trunk and he tripped.His wand flew out of his hand as he flung out an arm to break hisfall, and he landed, hard, in the gutter, I was too frozen to move — 

There was a deafening BANG, and Harry and I threw up our hands toshield our eyes against a sudden blinding light —With a yell, Harry rolled back onto the pavement, just in time. Asecond later, a gigantic pair of wheels and headlights screeched to ahalt exactly where Harry had just been lying. They belonged, as I saw when I raised my head, to a triple-decker, violentlypurple bus, which had appeared out of thin air. Gold lettering overthe windshield spelled The Knight Bus. 

A conductor in a purple uniform leapt out of thebus and began to speak loudly to the night."Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for thestranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step onboard, and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name isStan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor this eve —"The conductor stopped abruptly. He had just caught sight ofHarry, who was still sitting on the ground, I had moved to is level. Harry snatched up his wand again and scrambled to his feet. 

Close up, I saw that StanShunpike was only a few years older than I was, eighteen or nineteen at most, with large, protruding ears and quite a few pimples. 

"What were you doin' down there?" said Stan, dropping his professional manner. 

"Fell over," said Harry. 

" 'Choo fall over for?" sniggered Stan. 

"I didn't do it on purpose," said Harry, annoyed. One of theknees in his jeans was torn, and the hand he had thrown out tobreak his fall was bleeding. I suddenly remembered why he hadfallen over and turned around quickly to stare at the alleyway between the garage and fence. The Knight Bus's headlamps wereflooding it with light, and it was empty." 'Choo lookin' at?" said Stan. 

"There was a big black thing," I said, pointing uncertainlyinto the gap. "Like a dog . . . but massive . . ." I looked around at Stan, whose mouth was slightly open.With a feeling of unease, I saw Stan's eyes move to the scar on my forehead. 

"Woss that on your 'ead?" said Stan abruptly."Nothing,"I said quickly, rearranging my hair over mu scar, Harry copied me. Ifthe Ministry of Magic was looking for us, I didn't want to makeit too easy for them.

 "Woss your name?" Stan persisted."Neville Longbottom," said Harry, saying the first name thatcame into his head "Um...Pansy Longbottom?". I said uncertainly, after my hair change from last year it was pretty obvious we were twins.

"So — so this bus," I went on quickly, hoping to distract Stan, "did you say it goes anywhere?""Yep," said Stan proudly, "anywhere you like, long's it's on land.Can't do nuffink underwater. 'Ere," he said, looking suspicious again, "you did flag us down, dincha? Stuck out your wand 'and,dincha?"

 "Yes," said Harry quickly. "Listen, how much would it be to getto London?"

 "Eleven Sickles," said Stan, "but for firteen you get 'ot chocolate,and for fifteen you get an 'ot water bottle an' a toofbrush in thecolor of your choice."

 I rummaged once more in my trunk, extracted my moneybag, and shoved some gold into Stan's hand. We and Stan thenlifted our trunks, with Hedwig's cage balanced on top, up the stepsof the bus. 

There were no seats; instead, half a dozen brass bedsteads stoodbeside the curtained windows. Candles were burning in bracketsbeside each bed, illuminating the wood-paneled walls. A tiny wizard in a nightcap at the rear of the bus muttered, "Not now, thanks,I'm pickling some slugs" and rolled over in his sleep. 

"You 'ave this one," Stan whispered, shoving Harry and my trunks under the bed right behind the driver, who was sitting in an armchairin front of the steering wheel. "This is our driver, Ernie Prang. Thisis Neville and Pansy  Longbottom, Ern."Ernie Prang, an elderly wizard wearing very thick glasses, nodded to Me and Harry , who nervously flattened his bangs again and satdown on our bed. 

"Take 'er away, Ern," said Stan, sitting down in the armchairnext to Ernie's.There was another tremendous BANG, and the next momentHarry and I found ourselves flat on our bed, thrown backward by thespeed of the Knight Bus.