“Blimey…” Ron said softly as he looked up at what appeared to be a door in the sky from which a ramp protruded. Within could be seen the cargo entrance of the ship.

“But won’t anyone notice this?” Hermione asked as members of the crew walked past as they loaded up the trunks. They’d all exited via an attic window big enough to be used as a door that opened out onto a space just large enough for a person to walk with a decorative wall like structure that capped the top of the side of the building. There at the base of the wall below the window was a step-stool to help everyone step up onto the gangplank, a ramp which extended quite a ways from the ship and had no side hand grabs beyond two sets of lifting cables used to hang the ramp. At the moment the ramp was fully extended and just inches away from the wall of the building where boat bumpers were being used to prevent damage to the building. It wasn’t a big gap, but it was a long way down.

“We do employ a spell to encourage the curious to look elsewhere while cloaked,” Brightstar offered as she stepped out onto the ramp. “Welcome aboard the PCAS Lady Grace.”

She’s hardly gotten out her welcome when Ginny and Louise bounced up onto the top of the wall and ran up the ramp.

“Oi, no running on the plank!” Aurora shouted. “Walking only! Don’t make me make you walk the plank.”

“Honestly, you’d make your own sister walk the plank?” Aerie asked as she stepped out the window.

“If I must, I must.”

“Can we just get everyone on board,” Brightstar asked. And yes, she was wishing she’d made that joke. “Ron, Hermione, don’t worry about falling there are plenty of pegasi who can catch you.”

“Why didn’t we just fly over?” Hermione asked as she climbed up onto the ramp. Her fear of heights had kicked in and she was trembling.

“Because you’d still have to land on the ramp and dismount there,” Brightstar informed her with just an edge of shut up and get moving to her tone.

“It’s not so bad,” Ron said as he offered an arm to steady her. “Feels pretty solid. Better then any boat I’ve been on.”

“You been on any boats?” Aerie asked. “I mean besides the one’s at Hogwarts.”

“Ah, well… no, not really. It’s still a lot more solid than I anticipated.”

“Which room do we get?” Louise called from the hold.

“You don’t. We are going to the London City Airport where the Hermes will be waiting.

“The Hermes?” Ginny exclaimed. “That’s the ship that picks up students to go to the Eques Academy. I get to go on the Hermes?!”

“Shouldn't we get going?” Flora asked as she stepped up onto the gangplank. She’d a shoulder bag the rest of her things having already been loaded. Basil followed, and a short time later with everyone on board, the ramp was pulled in and the hatch closed up.

Aerie, Luna, Aurora, Celeste, Louise chose to go forward to sit in a passenger lounge a short way behind the flight deck. Flora, Basil, Justin, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione were soon to follow.

The ship began to slowly lift up until it was over the tops of the buildings by about a hundred feet, turned, and headed down Cambridge street heading in a south westerly direction towards Pimlico Academy and the Thames River. By the time they passed over the school they were at least five hundred feet up.

“Look there, that statue on the pedestal in Saint George’s Square,” Aerie announced while pointing. “That’s not Umbridge is it?”

“Don’t be silly, that’s Queen Victoria,” Hermione corrected.

“I’ve no doubt that Hermione may well be correct,” Luna offered even as they turned to head down the river. She gave Aerie a wink who smiled back.

“So how do we avoid colliding with other aircraft?” Hermione asked as they approached the Vauxhall Bridge.

“Disengage the cloak just as we are going over that big complex adjacent to the school,” Offered a crew member at the aft end of the lounge. From there we travel as though we are a helicopter. Airships are allowed to follow aviation rules for helicopters. And just to be on the safe side, we made sure we’d be OK to do it. By coming out of cloak at a low altitude no one who sees us will realize we hadn’t been there a moment before. Granted that it’d be easier at heigh altitude, but at high altitude it gets dangerous and there is no benefit to it.”

“Oh… oh look, I can see Westminster Abby from here.”

“We will be passing right by it. We’ll be passing right by a lot of famous sites.”

Needles to say everyone’s attention had been drawn to the sites of the city. Especially Ron and Ginny who’d no idea that the city was so huge.

“What’s that!?” Ron blurted out on seeing a huge ship.

“That’s the HMS Belfast,” Hermione supplied. She then went into the history of the ship. Indeed she’d been in her element as she recited the history of many of the landmarks as they came into view. “And that’s the Tower of London…”

“They call that a tower?”

“Originally it was just one tower. As new construction and towers were added it maintained the designation as the Tower of London.”

All too soon they left the river as they entered into the flight-path for runway Zero-niner. And landing, well, technically they didn’t land, they just skimmed down the runway slowing to taxi speed at an altitude of ten feet off the ground, down the third taxi way, and right up to the main terminal building beyond was the Hermes where she lay at harbor in a man made bay. To Hermione’s eyes she looked very much like a small star-ship. To Aerie’s eyes it was a supersonic flying boat the size of a seven-forty-seven. Either way it was impressive. And yes, there was security all over the place to include airport security and Akkadian security forces. On the far shore several people with cameras had gathered in a car park.

“Should we even be here?” Ron said in a hushed conspiratorial tone as the airship touched down. “I mean…”

“Akkadian air ships are technological, not magic,” Aerie pointed out. Granted that there was magic involved, but no one in the government needed to know.

“I hope every one enjoyed their flight,” Brightstar offered as she came back into the cabin. “Dee-boarding will commence shortly. The local government insists that we tie it down and shut down all engines before passengers are allowed off. But what can I say, they think this ship works the same way as their big airships work. The whole lighter than air thing. We are not slaves to the wind while on the ground, and the engines are only dangerous if you get in front of them.”

“Why, what could happen?” Ron asked.

“Sucked in and chewed up,” Hermione offered.

“Sucked in, yes, not the chewing up part. Our engines are Ion drives. They’d spit you out extra crispy. Just not chopped.”

“Can’t say I like the sound of either,” Ron bemoaned.

“Not to worry, it’ll be off.” Brightstar reassured him. “Miss Ginny, are you alright?”

“What? Who me? … I’ve never seen so many things and places all the same time. All this, from where we started till now was all built by muggles?”

“A good deal of it, I’m to understand.”

“We don’t really see very much from the train,” Ron admitted.

“That’s because the muggles like to hide the train. Behind buildings, down in cuts, tunnels, and behind hedge rows,” Aerie offered. “All the while the muggle world grows bigger and bigger while wizard kind turn their backs on what’s going on around them. And wizards aren’t building much of anything. Why Mr Ollivander’s wand shop dates back to the Romans.”

“That last wizard war didn’t help,” Aurora offered.

“Even so, I can’t help but think that Wizard kind have been on decline for a very long time.”

“I think I get it,” Ginny offered. “We need to do something to shake things up because if things keep going the way they have Wizard kind might fade away, or worse yet, pushed out of existence.”

“I think Mrs Silverwood has the right idea,” Brightstar offered. “Trick the muggles into thinking magic is technology. Get people accustomed to things that are hard to explain, and by and by Wizard kind won’t have to hide.”

“All secure,” offered a crew-member coming forward. “We are ready to transfer the passengers and their luggage.”

“Well then, allow me to see everyone off.” And with that Brightstar walked through the cabin while beckoning everyone to follow. From there they made their way back to the rear hatch and the gangplank. The ground was a lot closer this time, and Hermione was just fine with that. Outside there was a corridor of sorts that was marked with tall traffic cones and orange plastic chain everyone was meant to walk through while crew loaded luggage onto luggage carts pulled by something that looked a bit like a small postal truck. The path they were to follow went straight out to the far corner where there was a footbridge that lead down to a small dock where boats waited.

“Oh look, boats,” Ron announced as they came into view.

“I’ll be saying good by to everyone here,” Brightstar offered.

“Not coming?” Aurora asked.

“Oh, I’ll be along soon enough. We’ve volunteered to be part of the security at the venue.”

“Wait, before you go,” Hermione called. “If it’s not lighter than air, how does it work? The airship.”

“Sorry, afraid that information is classified.”

“Come on Hermione,” Aerie prompted and then whispered, “They are using magic to achieve neutral buoyancy when the engines are activated via a special generator. It’s all hush hush sort of stuff that the non wizarding world will never be able to achieve until they realize that there are indeed ways to cheat physics.”

“Oh, alright then…”

Aerie lead Hermione down to the dock and from there everyone loaded into the boats and out to a small dock that extended from the side of the craft with stairs coming down from midships a short ways from the waterline.

“It’s like going on a cruse ship,” Flora said excitedly as she climbed onto the dock. Aerie was delighted to see the inside was every bit as opulent as a modern super yacht.

“Welcome aboard,” Isolde offered cheerfully from the entry hall.

“Isolde!” Louise and Ginny cheered, ran to her and hugged her.

“We are sharing a room, come on, I’ll show you which one.” The three ran down the hall a moment later.

“Well, that’s them…” Nova Silverwood offered as she came down the hallway. “Welcome aboard, and don’t worry about your luggage, the crew will take care of that. I see you’ve brought along some extra guests.”

“We’d some crossed signals,” Flora offered. “I hope you don’t mind?”

“It’s fine, there’s plenty of room. Keep in mind that this ship can accommodate all the students coming from England to attend the Eques Academy.”

“All?” Basil asked.

“Bigger on the inside,” Aerie supplied. “Displaced space. Is Kitsu on board?”

“On the bridge, she’ll drop by later. And given that it’s bigger on the inside it’s a good thing your luggage doesn’t count as displaced space,” Mrs Silverwood offered as their luggage was being brought in.

Every aspect of the craft was like being on a small cruse ship. Mrs Silverwood lead them down the hall which lead to a grand staircase in the center of the craft. The grand stairwell gave evidence of two hallways that ran the length of the ship on that floor. Each hallway having rooms on either side. From there they went up the stairs which opened up to a grand promenade containing a dining area and several lounges forward of the stairs. Aft of the stairs there was a single hallway with room on either side.

“You all get to stay in the deluxe rooms…”

“How are those windows even possible?” Hermione asked in astonishment at the site of huge picture windows. Indeed there’d been no evidence of large windows from the outside. What they were looking at was rows of three large screens with an actual window dividing the screens the size of a normal aircraft window.

“View screens. Come on, let’s get you set up in your rooms…”

“View screens,” Hermione said softly as Ginny, Isolde, Louise, and a happy little phoenix came dashing out of the hallway, around the stairwell, and headed for the front of the craft.

“..and then we’ll get going.”

Aerie and Aurora got a suite consisting of a room and lounge all to themselves. Luna and Mrs Summers each had their own room and lounge, Basil and Flora had a shared room and lounge, Justin and Ron shared a room, and Hermione had been provided her own room.

“Look, there goes the Lady Grace,” Aurora announced as she looked into the view screen. So good were the screens that it was hard to remember that they weren’t actually looking out windows.

“I am definitely going to have to ask Mrs Silverwood how she has flat screens that are like twenty forty years ahead of their time,” Aerie remarked as she watched the airship heading for the runway.

“Snagging tech from another dimension is my guess.”

“Ladies, your luggage,” Offered a young man in a crew uniform at the door. The two had left the door open and there was another crew member behind him, a young woman.

“Oh, hi. Bring it on in,” Aurora replied.

“Are you regular crew?” Aerie asked.

“Temporary. We’re students at the Eques School of Technology,” the young woman offered. “I’m Daisy Fields.”

“A pegasus?” Aerie asked.

“No…”

“I am,” offered the young man with a big smile. “It’s an English name. She’s a witch. “I’m a Silverwood. Aegnor Silverwood, at your service.”

“Are you related to…”

“A grand nephew, yes. Trust me, she doesn’t play favorites. I got to be on this trip by merit. There are a fair number of us who claim the Silverwood name. There’s a security detachment with us too.”

“Yes, I saw them on the way over,” Aerie replied as she fished bits out of her purse. “Um… Am I supposed to tip or not?”

The two looked at each other and then back to Aerie. “We won’t object,” Aegnor said with a grin. Aerie smiled, handed them five bit coins each and thanked them. They’d barely made it out the door when they froze.

Daisy was the first to turn back. “A five bit Equestrian coin? We can’t… it’s too valuable.”

“What? A five bit coin?” Aerie asked.

“You gave them Equestrian bits?” Aurora asked sounding amused.

“They’re just bits?”

“Something tells me there aren’t a lot of bit circulating.”

“She’s right,” Aegnor offered in agreement. “They are usually only kept as mementos or traded among collectors. “They’ll literally fetch better than their weight in gold.”

“What about wizard money? A little extra spending money for the World cup?”

The two agreed, the coins were exchanged and Aerie and Aurora set about unpacking the items they figured they need for the next three days.

“Bit, was it?” Nova Silverwood asked from the doorway. “I overheard. I was talking with Luna.”

“That’s what came to the top of my bag. Heck, you should have been there when Aurora gave Pinkie a hundred bit Royal.”

“A Royal?!”

“It was for Scootaloo’s first flight party.”

“That must have been one heck of a party. Might even be the one I remember hearing about.”

“I was at a legendary party and didn’t even know it,” Aerie’s face broke into a big grin.

“Ya, that’s the problem with being at a legendary party. You won’t know it was legendary until years later,” Aurora commented, her smile wide as well.

“I bet, just don’t be tossing about Equestrian coins in Wizard country. It might attract the wrong sort of attention. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get to the bridge.”

“We’ll see you later then?”

“I’ll be down for dinner, and make sure everyone is strapped in before we take off.”

“In that case we better go find the girls.” Aurora said and closed up her wardrobe.

“Do we get keys for the room?”

“Keys, right, right there on the table by the door. Not that you’d need one. By the way, where is your Moonie?’

“Given she’s not in her carrier I’m assuming out exploring the ship.” Aerie touches her amulet. “Moonie?”

“Yes?” Asked the cat from the sofa. She has Silvermoon, Mr’s Silverwood’s Moonie, with her.

“Dare I ask what you two were up to?” Nova Silverwood inquired.

“Letting Airport security chase us.”

“Oh for harmony’s sake,” Nova Silverwood replied, turned and headed down the corridor.

“Come on, let’s go find the Musketeers,” Aurora suggested and a moment later they were headed forward.

On their way forward Aerie noticed the lounges were numbered, even on one side, odd on the other, and couldn't help but smile when she discovered the bow lounge was numbered ten. The others had all gathered there and were watching the comings and goings of the airport.

“So, what do you think?” Aerie asked as she sat near Ron.

“I never knew any of this existed.” His tone soft and contemplative.

“The more advanced the non magical community gets, the harder it’s going to be for Wizard kind to remain hidden,” Luna told him.

“Not hide?” he asked, a tone of fear in his words. He looked to his sister who was in rapture at everything she saw.

“May I have your attention please?” asked a crew member as they came into the lounge. “We need everyone to turn your seats to the forward facing position.” Suddenly the vessel began to move. It was barely noticeable without looking out the windows and or screens but they were moving. “And I’ll need everyone to put on their seat belts.” They preceded to go around and make sure everyone was locked into position with the seat belts on. When they’d finished they pointed out a couple lighted signs. The seat forward fasten seat belt signs were lit. All the seats were captain chair style capable of turning three sixty degrees.

“A few things before we get going. I’m Lieutenant Brushwood, and I’ll be giving you your safety briefing. The first thing on the list, pay attention to the signs, and follow crew instructions. There is no smoking or magic on board at any time. We don’t want any accidents. Ensure your luggage is not blocking any exits and properly secured. Not to worry, the crew has gone through to make sure everything is properly secured for take off. Take care when opening cupboards as things may have shifted during take off, flight, and later on after landing. That said, I expect the take off to be the most exciting part of the flight. Keep your seat belt fastened and your seats in the forward position while the seat belt light is on. In the event of an emergency go to your rooms, they are escape capsules. If you are on the lower deck you’ll want to go to one of the outer rooms. In the event of a water landing, don’t worry about it, this thing floats. It’s a flying boat.”

“We’re moving,” Ginny said excitedly following one long blast of the ships horn. Aerie’s ears picking up a mechanical sound turns to spot that the wings are folding in.

“Not to worry about the wings. We have to pass through a draw bridge to get to the bay that will allow us room to take off. Officially.” He added the last with a wink. “We could take off right from where we are but we don’t want the non magical community to know we can do that and it creates a big fog bank from all the water that gets atomized.

“In the event that the cabin loses pressure at altitude there are breathing devices in the right armrest.” he reached down, and pulled one from an unoccupied chair. It was literally nothing more than a mouthpiece, with a small pressurized air tank, and straps that fit over the head.

“A couple things before I’m done, no one is to attempt to go outside during take off, the run up to take off, during flight, or while landing. Especially if you are a pegasi. Doing so, you risk getting your wings ripped off, you will asphyxiate at altitude, and possibly freeze to death long before you impact whatever we may be over. Further, for those who can apparate or teleport, don’t even think about it. You will die and if we are at speed you will kill everyone on board. There is a strict anti apparition field in place for those who want to try it.

“Finally, if we should find ourselves in an extreme emergency and you can’t get to your pods, it is recommended that you not try to take anything with you.”

“Nova…” Aurora began. Luna had given her a look too.

“We save my luggage,” Nova said softly.

“Pardon?” The lieutenant asked. “The instructions are that in an extreme emergency we leave luggage behind.”

“If anything happens to Aerie’s trunk, bad things could happen. Especially if it were to fall into the ocean.”

“I think it’s water tight, in which case we’d just have to find it and hope for the best. I’d be more worried about an explosion.”

“Hang on, what’s so special about your luggage?” Hermione asked.

“Oh, nothing much. It just that the enchantment on it should it blow up or the lid be sprung below water the results could be devastating.”

“How devastating could it be?”

“Do you want to tell her, or should I?” Luna asked.

“Her luggage is a trans-dimensional doorway,” Flora offered.

“Flora?!” Aerie protested.

“Well, someone had to say it. Hermione, the contents of the box are literally a cupboard back home.”

“What?”

“The house could turn into a sinkhole from which sea water would continue to rush until the pressure equalizes.”

“Cool,” Ron said sounding delighted. Isolde looked at him and bust up laughing. Hermione went into a tirade about the regulation of magical luggage and the fact that they are prohibited at Hogwarts. Aerie had to tell her that McGonagall knew about it and they were passing under the bridge by the time she’d calmed down. The lieutenant decided to let the crew know that rescuing that specific piece of luggage was going to be a priority.

Author's Note

If anything happens to Aerie’s trunk, bat things could happen

Just a little goof I spotted that I thought I'd share. 🦇 LOL

Marry Christmas, Hearths Warming, and all them other holidays too.