difficulty and pulled on their school robes. She and Ron pinned their prefect badges carefully to their chests. Harry saw Ron checking his
reflection in the black window.
At last, the train began to slow down and they heard the usual racket up and down it as everybody scrambled to get their luggage and pets assembled, ready for departure. Ron and Hermione were supposed to supervise all
this; they disappeared from the carriage again, leaving Harry and the others to look after Crookshanks and Pigwidgeon.
‘I'll carry that owl, if you like,’ said Luna to Harry, reaching out for Pigwidgeon as Neville stowed Trevor carefully in an inside pocket.
‘Oh—er—thanks,’ said Harry, handing her the cage and hoisting Hedwig's more securely into his arms.
They shuffled out of the compartment feeling the first sting of the night air on their faces as they joined the crowd in the corridor. Slowly, they moved towards the doors. Harry could smell the pine trees that lined the path down
to the lake. He stepped down on to the platform and looked around, listening for the familiar call of ‘firs’ years over ‘ere ... firs’ years...’
But it did not come. Instead, a quite different voice, a brisk female one, was calling out, ‘First years line up over here, please! All first years to me!’
A lantern came swinging towards Harry and by its light he saw the prominent chin and severe haircut of Professor Grubbly-Plank, the witch who had taken over Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures lessons for a while the
previous year.
‘Where's Hagrid?’ he said out loud.
‘I don't know,’ said Ginny, ‘but we'd better get out of the way, we're blocking the door.’
‘Oh, yeah...’
Harry and Ginny became separated as they moved off along the platform and out through the station. Jostled by the crowd, Harry squinted through the darkness for a glimpse of Hagrid; he had to be here, Harry had been
relying on it—seeing Hagrid again was one of the things he'd been looking forward to most. But there was no sign of him.
He can't have left, Harry told himself as he shuffled slowly through a narrow doorway on to the road outside with the rest of the crowd. He's just got a cold or something....
He looked around for Ron or Hermione, wanting to know what they thought about the reappearance of Professor Grubbly-Plank, but neither of them was anywhere near him, so he allowed himself to be shunted forward onto
the dark rain-washed road outside Hogsmeade Station.
Here stood the hundred or so horseless stagecoaches that always took the students above first year up to the castle. Harry glanced quickly at them, turned away to keep a lookout for Ron and Hermione, then did a double-
take.
The coaches were no longer horseless. There were creatures standing between the carriage shafts. If he had had to give them a name, he supposed he would have called them horses, though there was something reptilian
about them, too. They were completely fleshless, their black coats clinging to their skeletons, of which every bone was visible. Their heads were dragonish, and their pupil-less eyes white and staring. Wings sprouted from
each wither—vast, black leathery wings that looked as though they ought to belong to giant bats. Standing still and quiet in the gathering gloom, the creatures looked eerie and sinister. Harry could not understand why the
coaches were being pulled by these horrible horses when they were quite capable of moving along by themselves.
‘Where's Pig?’ said Ron's voice, right behind Harry.
‘That Luna girl was carrying him,’ said Harry, turning quickly, eager to consult Ron about Hagrid. ‘Where d'you reckon—’
‘—Hagrid is? I dunno,’ said Ron, sounding worried. ‘He'd better be okay....’
A short distance away, Draco Malfoy, followed by a small gang of cronies including Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy Parkinson, was pushing some timid-looking second-years out of the way so that he and his friends could get a
coach to themselves. Seconds later, Hermione emerged panting from the crowd.
‘Malfoy was being absolutely foul to a first-year back there. I swear I'm going to report him, he's only had his badge three minutes and he's using it to bully people worse than ever.... Where's Crookshanks?’
‘Ginny's got him,’ said Harry. ‘There she is....’
Ginny had just emerged from the crowd, clutching a squirming Crookshanks.
‘Thanks,’ said Hermione, relieving Ginny of the cat. ‘Come on, let's get a carriage together before they all fill up....’
‘I haven't got Pig yet!’ Ron said, but Hermione was already heading off towards the nearest unoccupied coach. Harry remained behind with Ron.
‘What are those things, d'you reckon?’ he asked Ron, nodding at the horrible horses as the other students surged past them.
‘What things?’
‘Those horse—’
Luna appeared holding Pigwidgeon's cage in her arms; the tiny owl was twittering excitedly as usual.
‘Here you are,’ she said. ‘He's a sweet little owl, isn't he?’
‘Er ... yeah ... he's all right,’ said Ron gruffly. ‘Well, come on then, let's get in.... What were you saying, Harry?’
‘I was saying, what are those horse things?’ Harry said, as he, Ron, and Luna made for the carriage in which Hermione and Ginny were already sitting.
‘What horse things?’
‘The horse things pulling the carriages!’ said Harry impatiently. They were, after all, about three feet from the nearest one; it was watching them with empty white eyes. Ron, however, gave Harry a perplexed look.
‘What are you talking about?’
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