Notes and Disclaimers: This story is about Eileen Pierce's summer between "Father Figure" and "Eternal Knight", she visits several of her friends and learns some interesting things about them in the meantime. Each chapter of this story will be about a different person she's staying with and the secrets they indulge. The characters starring in this short story are: Eileen (of course), Cheryl and Gregory Applegate, Artemis Prewett, Lucas, Page, and Roderick Beowulf, Fred and George Weasley, Remus Lupin, and Severus Snape. Special thanks to Starr and Otaku for helping me find my inner New Yawkah! XD Enjoy and make sure you read it, some of this might be referenced in the next story! ~_^
Chapter 1: Eileen
It was the beginning of a long summer and Eileen was excited to spend some of it away from the stuffy confines of her flat. She would be visiting several of her friends during the summer vacation, spreading her visits out over the next two months to keep from going stir crazy.
Cheryl had invited her to her apartment over in America where she stayed while not at school. Though Eileen had only known Cheryl for a few months, through circumstances unknown to anyone else, they had become best friends. It was mostly Cheryl's idea for her to visit but Eileen was excited about seeing a foreign country, after all of Cheryl's extravagant tales of living in New York. She was also curious to see the wizarding school there that Cheryl once attended before unfortunate events resulted in her transfer to Hogwarts. Eileen would be visiting her first, since she was the furthest away from where she lived.
Her next destination was the familiar residence called the Burrows. The twins wanted to show her some of their secret magical creations before school started again, something about a plan to sell them and needing her assistance in making sure they were safe for human use. Though she'd known Fred and George Weasley since she first came to Hogwarts, there still remained many secrets about the twins and their mysterious plans for the future. She only hoped that by being involved in their experiments, she wasn't becoming an accessory to anything illegal.
After she had schemed much devious and possibly dangerous things with her partners in pandemonium, she was to travel to Scotland to visit her friend Lucas. She didn't know him very well but they had become study buddies during the school year, mostly her helping him but occasionally learning something new from the soon to be 2nd year student. From Lucas modest ramblings, she understood that his family was quite well off, owning a vast estate in the highlands of Scotland where their entire family lived in several ancient manors. She'd be spending most of her time exploring the estate and the towns around it, thrilled to experience more Muggle and wizarding culture outside of the school.
Eileen planned a break after her travels in order to check up on her kneazle and await her former Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers visit. Lupin was due to stop by at some point when she was still at home to check up on her since he didn't have a home of his own for her to visit, or at least he didn't want her to see it. Eileen had become fond of the werewolf during the time he taught at Hogwarts, having an accidental bond with him that they shared every full moon. It gave them ample time to share stories and grow closer than just student and professor, she might dare to say they were good friends. But her friendship status with the older man seemed to make him somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of staying for very long, so he planned to cut his visit short, despite her protest. He knew full well whom she was visiting next and did not want him hunting him down out of jealousy.
Her last escapade of the summer was to see her legal guardian, Severus Snape. During many of their letters to each other, he had proposed a trip out to his home at Spinners End. She had never seen his house before and felt extremely honored to have been invited, not hesitating to accept for fear of delay causing some reconsideration. His residence, from what he described, were quite meager and not exactly fit for a child to live in but she didn't care, it meant time to bond with him outside of the strict ruling of school policies. If anything she wished to visit him first but he had insisted on being last, most likely to give him time to overhaul the house and make it not nearly as dreary and dirty as she imagined it being. He did, after all, spend most of his time at the school or away on business and hardly had time to care what it looked like while he was gone.
It was a week after she'd returned from school and she was already itching to travel, sending and receiving many messages from her companions discussing the visits. The time finally came one late Sunday evening for her to be off to America and she could hardly wait to leave. She had packed what little clothing she owned and left Mephistopheles with a method of feeding himself while she was gone. Her downstairs neighbor was fond of cats and she had arranged with her to care for Mephistopheles while she was away, since she thought it too cumbersome to bring the kneazle along with her. Picking up her suitcase and pulling her traveling cloak around her lithe body, she turned to the kneazle and said, "Behave yourself and don't go running around outside unless you have to, okay? I'll be back in a couple months!"
The kneazle merely stared at her and meowed softly, flicking his tail as if to say goodbye.
With a sigh, Eileen looked around the small flat one last time before exiting through the front door. She made her way downstairs to the empty street below; few people were outside, mostly elder couples strolling together as per their daily routine. Making sure to be well out of sight of any person, Eileen walked a few blocks before rounding another corner and finding herself in a side street. Quickly, she stuck out her wand hand as if beckoning a taxi and within seconds, a purple triple-decker bus flew to a stop in front of her.
"Where ya off ter, miss?" A young man asked as the door opened. It was Stan Shunpike, the conductor of the Knight bus, his acne infested face welcoming in the evening light.
"To America, actually. Are you able to get there?" Eileen asked as she boarded the bus.
"Blimey, awfully far way fer ya ter be goin'! Where about in America?" Stan asked as the bus lurched into action, speeding around corners and barreling down streets at unsafe velocities.
Eileen was prepared for the bus and had performed a cushioning charm on her seat so as to keep her from flying around as she spoke. With a lost expression, she said, "Well, it's in New York."
"Ah, the wizarding capitol of America! Quite a fascinatin' place, that be! 'fraid it'll cost ya 1 Galleon ter travel there, miss."
"I have it." She presented the young man with her single gold coin and he took it, smiling merrily down at her as he clung to a pole by the driver's seat.
"So you're going to New York? Fancy a bit o' culture during the summer?" The driver said over his shoulder as he narrowly missed hitting a mailbox.
"Yes, I'm staying with a friend. She lives in some place called 'the projects' in 'the Bronx'?" Eileen looked clueless but the driver gave a knowing nod.
"Many wizardin' families live there, no one suspects nothin' strange in those parts! Right dangerous place though, hope someone's waitin' for ya. Hold on tight, it'll be a long drive!" The old man said as he shifted gears and the bus flew faster than ever before.