Early the next morning, after enjoying a lavish feast in the festively decorated Great Hall, the young witches and wizards preparing to go home happily discussed their holiday plans.
Compared with their bewilderment in their first year, everyone knew the routine much better now.
Their wardrobes were empty, their belongings packed into trunks and carried out to the carriages by the hardworking house-elves.
Every student received a notice warning them not to use magic during the holidays ("This thing's just scrap paper," Malfoy said with a sneer).
The first-year Wizards followed Hagrid aboard the fleet of boats crossing the lake.
With the lake wide open and covered in thick ice, the little boats were actually just sliding across its frozen surface.
The older students, who did not have to take the boats, grinned gleefully as they watched the tiny first-year Wizards shivering in the bitter wind, their heads tucked down like little quails.
Ron watched with his mouth open for a while, then asked in confusion:
"Why do they have to cross the lake? It's frozen over!"
Harry guessed, "Maybe there's some enchantment on the carriages that means first-years can't ride them?" He pointed at the apparently empty space where the creatures pulling the carriage should have been.
There were actually Thestrals there. Only people who had witnessed death could see them. Zhang Xiao could see them, but he could not for the life of him remember when he had witnessed a death.
What puzzled him, though, was why Harry could not see them when he had clearly witnessed death more than once.
"Surely they wouldn't do something that pointless." Malfoy snorted and joined the discussion. "I think it's probably meant to teach them a lesson or something. Let them get a blast of cold air so all that excitement