บท 115: Oleandra Almost Becomes a Tasty Snack

After a few more tries (Oleandra almost wrecked the motor by trying to restart it while in overdrive without disengaging the gears with the clutch pedal), the flying car was finally moving! Horizontally, that is.

"Good," said Ginny. "Now keep going on and— WATCH OUT FOR THOSE ROCKS!"

Oleandra swerved, nearly missing a small cluster of boulders. Ginny was beginning to regret getting Oleandra to drive. But then again, Voldemort had never obtained his driving licence of his living, either!

"That was too close for comfort," Daphne commented from the back seat. "Mind stopping the car? I'd rather walk, thank you very much."

"All right," said Ginny, ignoring the backseat drivers. "Carefully move up the gears one by one for now; we can leave gear skipping for later."

"No wonder Cousin Ron crashed," Oleandra said, sweating bullets. "These things are death traps!"

(Incidentally, the Weasleys' Ford Anglia had also been a manual transmission)

Nevertheless, Oleandra did as she was told. The car lurched forwards, engine groaning, and after a few manipulations, the car's wheels left the ground; they were finally airborne!

Now that they were in the air, Oleandra's gang had a much better view of the terrain than when they had camped near the small hill. However, there still wasn't much to see. Grassland for miles around, the mountain range, and the solitary mountain so tall that its peak was hidden by the clouds.

"Look, down there!" said Tracey, pointing out of her window. "Those sheep, they're huge!"

It was the white dots Oleandra had previously spotted from a distance. They were almost perfectly spherical, had curved horns, and just like Tracey had said; they were huge! About the size of an African elephant, by Oleandra's reckoning.

"I thought this place was supposed to be full of dwarfs," said Draco snarkily. "Why is everything so big?"

"Shut up, Dra—"

Just as Oleandra was about to fire off the wittiest response she could imagine to get him to stop complaining, an ear-splitting roar shook the small cabin.

"Oleandra, the—" Ginny warned.

"I know, I know!" Oleandra shouted, slamming her fist down on the Invisibility Booster.

As soon as she pressed on the button, the entire car, along with its occupants, turned progressively see-through, and a second later, complete invisibility had been attained. It was a peculiar experience, being invisible; Oleandra couldn't even see her own body. It was an even more strange experience driving an invisible car; she couldn't see the steering wheel or anything on the dashboard!

Since everything had turned perfectly translucent, Oleandra obviously couldn't look in the rear-view mirror, so she craned her neck backwards to get a look at the source of the roar.

"Why did I ever think this was a good idea?" shrieked Draco. "We're all going to die!"

Right behind them was the maw of some enormous dragon-like creature; it looked as if it could swallow the car and its occupants in a single bite! Oleandra didn't have the luxury to look some more, as they were all about to meet a gruesome end unless she did something fast.

"Not if I can help it," growled Oleandra through gritted teeth. "Hold on tight!"

Upon saying these words, she turned the steering wheel as far as it went, transitioning from a barrel roll into a sharp dive. Unfortunately though, the dragon seemed to know exactly where they were, as it quickly dived in after them.

"It's not after us!" Daphne's disembodied voice shouted. "Get away from the sheep!"

Of course a tin can wouldn't interest a dragon, Oleandra realized. This dragon was on the hunt; it was hungry for meat, not gold! Although, with its yellow coat of paint, the car might as well look like it was made of the perfect metal to a dragon!

The dragon crashed talons first into one of the fluffy creatures and slithered its elongated body around it, choking the life out of it. As the gigantic sheep bleated in pain and confusion, the dragon beat its mighty wings twice to right itself, inadvertently sending the invisible car spinning out due to the hurricane-level gales of wind. With a single devastating bite, the dragon severed the sheep's spinal cord and raised its head to roar one more time in victory; the hunt was over.

"Get us out of here!" urged Tracey. "While it's distracted! …Ughh…"

Oleandra couldn't tell since they were all invisible, but had they not been, she imagined the girl would have been as green as the hair on Daphne's head!

As for Ginny, she had been this close to Disapparating from the car there and then; but had she abandoned the others to their deaths, she would have been stranded in this strange land for the rest of her life. In retrospect, she had made the right decision by staying.

"Sister, did you notice anything strange about that dragon?" Oleandra said after she regained control of her vehicle.

"You mean apart from the fact that it almost ate us whole?" said Draco sarcastically. "Father brought me to a dragon farm once. Even the biggest dragons back home are nowhere near that size. That thing must have been over two hundred feet long, at the very least!"

"I noticed," said Daphne quietly. "It looked like the creature the Boggart turned into during our first Defense Against the Dark Arts class. What was it you had called it? The Lindwurm, yes? It even had that on its forehead."

Daphne tapped her forehead for emphasis; she was referring to the sigil of the Helm of Terror.

"Strange?" Ginny thought. "Have I missed anything?"

Ginny had paid close attention to the twins' discussion. She hadn't spotted anything out of the ordinary on the Lindwurm. At least, nothing extraordinary for an overgrown lizard, that is. What on earth were they talking about?

"It didn't just look like the Lindwurm from class," Oleandra snapped. "It looked EXACTLY like it! Only ten thousand times bigger!"

"But that doesn't make sense," Tracey said fearfully. "Why would the specific monster a Boggart thought you found was the scariest thing in the world show up in a place where you've never set foot before?"

The answer to that question was easy; the Boggart had read her unconscious mind, where the knowledge that came from the memories of the stars had been buried, but Oleandra wasn't ready to share the extent of her link with the stars. However, that wasn't what was really important here.

No, the real question was, why had this monster scared the Asgardians so much that it had been engraved into Star Memory? And supposing the Æsir had been around for tens of thousands of years, why was this specific Lindwurm still alive?