Chapter 303: A New Means of Transportation, and Conversations Along the Journey

Truthfully, Snape had become increasingly accustomed to the role of Headmaster.

Not only had he learned to think for the students and worry about improving their learning efficiency—

he had also become increasingly skilled at another important leadership trait:

throwing work onto other people.

That habit was probably learned from Dumbledore.

After all, during his years as Headmaster, Dumbledore frequently tossed responsibilities onto Professor McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress—

while he himself hid inside his office eating sweets.

At that moment, the house-elves finished preparing Harry’s breakfast.

Harry accepted the sandwich before suggesting,

"Let’s head out. I can eat while we travel."

Nobody objected.

Arthur then said,

"Harry, take out the disc I gave you."

Harry retrieved the disc and handed it over.

Arthur couldn’t help feeling somewhat speechless.

After going in circles, the thing had somehow returned to his own hands again.

The group stepped outside Arthur’s house.

Arriving at the open area in front of the door, Arthur waved his hand—

and a car suddenly appeared.

He opened the driver-side door and sat inside.

Meanwhile, Hermione transformed into her Animagus form and immediately leapt into Arthur’s lap.

Melina followed after her and sat in the passenger seat.

This time, there were simply too many people traveling together.

Arthur’s flying sword naturally couldn’t carry everyone.

Even a flying carpet wouldn’t have enough room.

So during the night, Arthur had hurriedly modified a flying car specifically for today.

The rear seats had been expanded with an Undetectable Extension Charm.

Even with four people sitting in the back, it would still feel spacious.

Arthur turned around—

only to discover that one old man, one teenager, and two middle-aged men were all still standing there blankly.

He knocked lightly on the car door.

"What are you standing around for?"

"Get in."

Harry stared at the car and swallowed nervously.

"Arthur..."

"This isn’t going to be another flying car like Ron’s family’s one... right?"

Truthfully, Harry still carried psychological trauma regarding flying cars.

Back in second year, he had nearly been beaten to death by the Whomping Willow after Ron’s flying car lost control.

Arthur nodded casually.

"Of course it is."

"If we used a normal car, we probably wouldn’t find Voldemort even by nightfall."

After all—

who knew where Voldemort was hiding?

For all they knew, he might not even be in Britain anymore.

In the end, Harry was physically shoved into the car by Snape.

Once everyone had taken their seats, Arthur muttered to himself,

"Hm... now let me think..."

"How exactly do you start this thing again?"

Harry nearly spat out the sandwich in his mouth.

After desperately swallowing it down, he stared at Arthur in horror.

"You don’t know how to drive?!"

Arthur immediately burst into laughter.

"Relax."

"Of course I know how to drive."

"I was just joking because you looked too nervous."

As he spoke, Arthur turned the ignition key.

The car started smoothly.

After driving forward for a short distance, the vehicle suddenly seemed to climb onto an invisible upward slope.

It rose steadily into the air before flying toward the direction indicated by the disc.

At the same time, the Muggle-Repelling Charm and Disillusionment Charm placed on the car activated, concealing the vehicle completely.

Seeing this, Dumbledore quietly sighed in relief.

Thankfully, Arthur had remembered to hide the car.

Otherwise, as Minister for Magic, Dumbledore would have had to stop him on the spot.

What?

Arthur was illegally enchanting Muggle objects?

Nonsense.

Hadn’t the Minister himself already approved it?

...

The car soared through the skies.

Aside from Harry, the remaining three passengers curiously observed both the car’s interior and the scenery outside the windows.

As wizards, their usual methods of transportation were either Apparition or magical carriages.

They rarely rode in ordinary cars.

As for flying cars—

this was their first experience.

Among the group, only the widely knowledgeable Dumbledore was truly familiar with automobiles.

He looked toward Arthur and asked,

"If I remember correctly, in the Muggle world, people must reach adulthood and obtain a driving license before operating a vehicle, correct?"

Arthur naturally understood that Dumbledore was simply making conversation.

Since when had wizards cared much about Muggle laws?

Sometimes they didn’t even care about wizarding laws. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Hadn’t Harry and Ron recklessly flown a magical car to Hogwarts back in second year?

"That’s correct," Arthur replied.

"Why?"

Dumbledore smiled.

"No particular reason."

"I’m simply curious where you learned such skilled driving."

Arthur answered casually,

"Simple."

"I just hired an instructor."

At that moment, Harry suddenly asked from the back seat,

"They teach underage people how to drive?"

If that were true, then Harry absolutely wanted to hire one too.

That way, the next time Ron invited him into the Weasleys’ flying car, he would at least feel slightly safer.

Arthur immediately shattered his hopes.

"You’re overthinking it."

"Of course they don’t."

Harry continued,

"Then how did you convince the instructor to teach you?"

Arthur grinned.

"That’s easy."

"You just need to use a tiny bit of magic."

"Ahem."

Dumbledore coughed lightly.

"A reminder, Arthur."

"Ministry regulations prohibit the casual use of magic in front of Muggles."

Arthur shrugged.

"Relax. I didn’t actually use magic."

"The instructor simply looked at my height and appearance and assumed I was already an adult."

"Besides..."

"Even if you’re underage, plenty of people are willing to teach you as long as you pay enough money."

Harry thought about his current height—

which still hadn’t reached one hundred and sixty centimeters—

and immediately concluded that bribery was probably the more reliable option.

The topic naturally ended there.

Soon afterward, Dumbledore brought up another subject.

"Speaking of which..."

"I wanted to ask this last night already."

He turned toward Melina in the passenger seat.

"And this young lady is?"

Arthur introduced her casually.

"Melina."

"She’s Ranni’s distant cousin."

"She’ll be attending Hogwarts after term starts."

The moment that topic came up, Snape’s mouth twitched violently.

Back when Arthur asked him to process Melina’s enrollment paperwork, she had looked only eleven or twelve years old.

At the time, Snape had even worried whether other students would object to such a young transfer student entering fifth year.

Yet only a few days later—

when he saw Melina again—

she had already grown into the appearance of a fully mature woman.

If Snape didn’t know Arthur wasn’t the type to do something so ridiculous—

he genuinely would have suspected Arthur of using the Zen Garden to artificially accelerate Melina’s growth.

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