Dragon Pox

The Thestral-drawn carriages rolled slowly along the drive toward Hermione and the others. Hermione anxiously looked back toward the castle. This was very likely the last carriage, and Allen still had not come out. Just as she was peering around, Neville Longbottom suddenly poked his head out of the carriage that had just set off ahead of them, his eyes widening in surprise. Then he hurriedly rubbed his eyes and muttered, "Oh, I really didn't see that wrong just now. Allen, he—he isn't thinking of taking Helena with him, is he?"

Luna's dreamy gaze followed Hermione's, and a smile surfaced on her face. Allen was hurrying over, with Helena floating behind him. Though her face was expressionless, her held-high head and the way she lifted the hem of her skirt all made her soaring mood unmistakable.

On the road to the Hogwarts Express, the weather was completely different from the torrential rain of the past few days. The sky was cloudless, and beneath that azure expanse, the deep red steam engine was belching thick smoke. Through the smoke, the many Hogwarts students on the platform looked like dark, ghostly shadows—only when they saw the real ghost Helena floating behind Allen and the others did their faces look as if they had seen a ghost.

Mixed into the smoke were the cries of many owls, along with plenty of hushed discussion.

"Did you see? That's The Grey Lady."

"My god, she actually left Hogwarts. Doesn't she basically never even leave the castle?"

Allen and the others sat down in a compartment at the rear of the train. Although they could have gone to the prefects' exclusive compartment, it was obvious that right now they would rather sit together. Hermione walked to the compartment door and gently pulled it shut, blocking