章 98: Chapter 98: Dealing with Malfoy (Edited)
When they reached the platform, Tom heard the little wizards around them talking. Some swore they had seen a car flying in the sky. But this was refuted by many of the young wizards, whose perception was that Muggle cars couldn't fly, and even if a wizarding family has a flying car, who would dare to drive it?
As night fell and a cold air settled on the platform, the young wizards walked a little further away from the station with the crowd, as they talked vehemently about "flying cars". Tom saw Neville walk past them a little startled, looking around on tiptoe.
"Neville, are you looking for someone?" Hermione, always a kind-hearted person, saw that Neville looked anxious and unconsciously asked if she could help him.
"Harry and Ron are missing, I've been looking for them on the train, but I haven't seen either of them." Neville spoke quickly.
"Longbottom, if you had bought a copy of the Prophet, you would have understood everything." An annoyingly lazy voice sounded behind them, and without turning around they knew it was Draco Malfoy.
Malfoy waved the evening paper that had just come to his hand, smiling broadly, and read aloud from the paper, "Muggles are amazed as the Ford Anglia flies. Two Muggles in London are convinced they have seen an antique car fly past the Post Office building...in Norfolk at noon, while Mrs. Hetty Bellis was drying her clothes... Mr. Angus Fleet of Peebles informed the police... half a dozen Muggles in all and that's not counting those who saw them and didn't call the police
Merlin up there, even if it was a flying car that got you into Azkaban, use a better one! I remember when your old Arthur worked for the Department of Misuse of Magic, and had a big raid over the summer, AND the biggest offender turned out to be Arthur himself!"
Malfoy and the students around him laughed.
"I'll be sure to send a letter to my father, and then... poof, there'll be no Arthur at the Ministry of Magic, and maybe there should be a policy of allowances so that some pureblood family doesn't starve at home." said Malfoy with a bright face, an idea that was becoming more and more plausible to him.
"What makes you think that's the Weasleys' car?" Hermione retorted angrily, just a little unsure of herself.
"Use your head, Granger!" Malfoy smacked his forehead and tried to say something else, but Tom interrupted him, "One more word from you and I'll publish an article about Elizabeth I's letter in the Daily Prophet, I'm sure wizards are interested in why Queen Elizabeth never married."
Malfoy froze instantly.
A few young wizards from pureblood families who knew something of the ancient mysteries looked thoughtful, but most of them were still confused.
Malfoy left in a huff.
Tom, Hermione, and Peggy followed the crowd; Peggy didn't seem too happy about following Hagrid on the boat, but went with him anyway. Tom, Hermione and Neville walked up a muddy road lined with hundreds of horseless carriages.
"Are these alchemical carriages?" Hermione looked curiously at the empty front of the carriages, wondering. It was the first time she had ever seen a horseless carriage.
Tom looked at Hermione and Neville, and from their reactions, Tom thought Hermione hadn't seen the Thestral pulling the carriage, but Neville had, which surprised him a little.
"This is a carriage that is actually pulled by a magical animal," Tom replied to Hermione's question for her, "This animal is called a Thestral, which you can understand simply because they are invisible."
"They can only be seen by those who have witnessed and understood death." said Tom, looking at the skinny, bony Thestrals in front of the carriage.
It was normal for the average citizen not to see Thestrals. Harry had seen his mother killed when he was born, and he himself had taken out Quirrell in first year, but he still had to wait until after the Triwizard Tournament to see Thestrals. This is because he was young when his mother was killed, and fainted when he finished off Quirrell.
This means that seeing death is not the only requirement, I'm afraid, you have to know and feel something about it.
But Tom was able to see the Thestrals.
Thestrals have a very "unsettling" appearance. They have no flesh on their bodies, their black fur is directly over their bones, making the bones visible and giving them goose bumps.
The Thestral's head looked a bit like the head of a fire dragon, and Tom could see its milky white pupil-less eyes as the Thestrals stared at it.
One of them stretched out its wings, a pair of bat wings growing between its shoulder bones.
Looking like that, it was no wonder that for centuries he had been considered an unlucky symbol, due to his hideous appearance and the fact that he could only be seen if he witnessed death.
"Can you see them too?" asked Neville in a soft voice as he leaned closer to Tom. At that moment Hermione looked as well, not realizing that the two boys around her had seen death, "I did it for my grandfather, did you?"
"For a lot of people." Tom wasn't lying, the Ukrainian wizard, Quirrell... Had actually seen a mountain of blood and corpses.
Neville was directly silent.
Thestrals, though terrifying to look at, are actually loyal creatures who can tell if they are friend or foe, and help them when they need to travel. The Thestrals at Hogwarts were well fed, well trained, and very docile.
They stood motionless, watching the four two-legged beasts with boredom, and Tom saw the one on the right straddle the one in the middle and rub his head against the cheek of the one on the left, which could only be described as an idiom: "ear rubbing."
The middle Thestrals raised his head in a very human way, showing a look of unkind despair.
Suddenly, the terrified feeling in them dissipated greatly.
"You can try touching them if you want, Hogwarts Thestrals don't harm students." Tom walked over to the three Thestrals and placed his hand on one of them, stroking its mane.
Hermione was brave enough to touch him as well, but she touched the Thestrals' ribs, and the Thestrals turned around and licked Hermione's hand, his rough tongue running along the back of Hermione's hand, causing a rubbing sensation that gave Hermione goosebumps.
Neville followed suit and found a Thestrals to pet.
The three of them petted the Thestrals for a while before climbing into the carriage and heading to Hogwarts.
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