A Journey too far.
Chapter One: Discovery
It was a pretty average summers day in Privet Drive, Harry had been home for 4 weeks now and couldn't be more bored of life as a muggle. There was nothing he hated more than summer breaks, except perhaps the Potter Puppet Pal videos Draco had made with Boyle as revenge for humiliating him in Quidditch that time. Life without magic wasn't what Harry hated most about being home, it was the fact that he was away from his beloved Ron. Almost two years had passed since Ron and Hermione first got together, but Harry still couldn't get over his love for Ron. It wasn't so bad when they were all at Hogwarts, at least there he got to spend time with Ron, even if he could only dream of what might have been.
Harry and Ron had planned to spend the summer break together, camping deep in the forbidden forest, but the way things were going he wasn't going to see him at all. Hermione's great Aunt Sarah had passed away and she left a large sum of money to Hermione in the will. It was no surprise to Harry, that she had decided to use this money to take a romantic break with Ron in Venice. They had often talked about going. However he still couldn't help but be jealous of the time she was having with him.
Dobby wasn't exactly helping Harry either. He knew of Harry's feeling for Ron and seemed to take great pleasure in reminding Harry of all he could be missing out on. Harry learnt too late that House elves take it as a requirement to read their masters' diaries. Dobby claimed this was so he always knew how best to help his master, but really he just wanted dirt on Harry that he could sell. It wasn't that Dobby didn't like Harry, quite the opposite in fact, but house elves have no form of numerical currency. To a house elf all things are brought and sold based on the exchange of gossip, and gossip on Harry Potter is a very valuable commodity. Harry had learned from his mistake and now kept his real diary safely hidden in a compartment cleverly concealed in the bottom of Hedwig's cage.
Like I say, today was just a pretty average day at the Dursley's, Harry was sitting in his room half in a daydream about Ron and half revising for the Dark Arts competition that would be held the first week of the new term. He really needed to study, he'd struggled to win last year and if he didn't withhold the title this time the trophy would almost certainly go to Draco. He couldn't focus on Dark Arts, however much he tried, thoughts of Ron lying in the Honeymoon sweet of a posh hotel with Hermione was enough to distract him from almost anything. There was one thing that not even the torments of true love could distract him from however, and that was Dudley whining away about anything and everything to his ever doting parents.
After two hours of listening to Dudley complaining that his peanut butter sandwich hadn't had the crusts removed, Harry decided a walk in the countryside was the best thing for him. Maybe then he could make sense of everything in his life. He couldn't actually go to the countryside however, the nearest his town came to countryside were the fake plants in his local shopping centre. You'd think really, he thought to himself, that that a wizard like me shouldn't have problems travelling a few miles down the road! It wasn't like he didn't have a car either. The Weasley's had kindly given him the ever reliable sky blue ford Anglia, that him and Ron had borrowed all that time ago to get back to Hogwarts. Trouble was he hadn't yet passed his driving test, and he couldn't fly it or he risked being chucked out of Hogwarts and there is no way he could risk that. Harry had wanted to learn to drive for a while now, but the Dursley's wouldn't dream of paying for lessons, and although Harry's parents had left him with quite an inheritance it was all in the wizard bank and no use back in muggle England.
Deciding the countryside was a bit to ambitious Harry settled on walking to the local park. Vandals had destroyed most of the children's play equipment, so it wasn't used much these days. Maybe there he could be alone with his thoughts. The walk to the park wasn't a long one, 12 minutes at the most, but Harry couldn't believe the amount of happy couples he passed on his journey. Its always the way, he thought, when you're kept from the person you love, everyone else seems to be in love but you. Eventually reaching the park Harry lay down on the small patch of grass where a bench once stood, and gazed up at the beautiful pale blue summer sky. As he lay there he looked back on all the times he'd spent with Ron over the years. Ron must have known how Harry felt, the more Harry remembered them the more he realised how unsubtle he may have been at times, in letting his true feelings show. This worried him at first, but at the same time he wanted Ron to know how he felt, and he knew he would never be able to pluck up enough courage to tell him outright. He may have been the 'heroic boy wizard', but saving all of your kind from Voldermort was nothing compared to expressing your true feelings for someone you doubt will ever love you back. The more he lay there the more he started to believe he could see Ron's face looking back at him in the clouds. Seeing faces in clouds was the sort of thing he thought you only read about in Mills and Boon books, but here and now he truly did believe he could see Ron looking back at him smiling.
He must have fallen asleep for many hours because when he came to, it was evening and the sun was slowly setting behind the houses in the street opposite. Harry dragged himself to his feet and started the meandering walk home. He didn't really know what he had planned to achieve in his trip to the park, but one thing he did know is he hadn't achieved it. He missed Ron more than ever now and there was nothing he could do.
On returning home Harry could hear movement in his room, oh brilliant he thought, Dobby... just the thing to make me feel even better about life. He opened his door to find Dobby lying on his bed holding his diary! Dobby was so engrossed in the pages that he didn't even notice his master return home. Harry couldn't believe Dobby had found it, what could he do now, all these deeply personal thoughts about Ron would now be common knowledge in Hogwarts, and Ron would find out the truth. Harry reached over and grabbed the book from Dobby before any more damage could be done.
Dobby jumped into the corner, and immediately started hitting himself with one of Harry's shoes. Normally Harry would try to stop Dobby from attacking himself but this time he was in no hurry to.
"Dobby is Sorry Master, Dobby only wanted to help you... Please forgive Dobby Sir".
Harry was in no mood to forgive Dobby this time, he'd gone to far. It was then that Harry decided there was nothing else for it. He would have to travel to Venice there and then and tell Ron how much he loved him, before he found out through someone else. He quickly grabbed a few things and ran out to the Ford Anglia parked on the drive. He knew that flying a car outside the grounds of Hogwarts would almost certainly get him expelled but couldn't care any more. All he cared about was Ron, and if losing his place at Hogwarts was what it took for him to be able to declare his love, then it was a sacrifice worth making.
As he started the engine he could see Mr Dursley glaring at him out of the window and shaking what appeared to be a pepper grinder at him. Why he was so concerned at Harry leaving was a mystery to him as he didn't like Harry staying in their house at all anyway.
Harry didn't even have a clue which direction Venice was in, but level heading thinking was out of the window at this stage. He waved his wand and the car took off over the roof of the house, knocking the Dursley's satellite dish down as it passed.
Chapter two: The Journey
Almost an hour had passed since Harry had taken off from Privet Drive, he still had no idea which direction he needed to be going. The night was a cloudy one and Harry wasn't even sure where he was most of the time. A near miss with Canary Walff suggested he may have been in London, but he was basically flying blind. All the things he'd learnt in Hogwarts that would almost certainly never be of any use, but map reading and night vision we're two things Dumbeldore had left off the syllabus.
Harry was starting to fall asleep, maybe it was tiredness but more likely it was the stress getting too much for him. Just as his head was about to hit the steering wheel, a voice made him jump. Harry looked around shocked, Dobby must have snuck into the car whilst he was packing, he had gone too far this time. "Don't be shocked" said the voice, "I don't mean any harm." It was then that Harry realised the voice wasn't that of Dobby, or indeed any other small elf like creature, it appeared to be coming from the vents in the dashboard. He knew Mr Weasley had put a spell on the car, but to his knowledge it wasn't in the habit of making conversation. "But you cant talk can you" Harry murmured shyly. "I have remained silent it's true, but only because I didn't want to intrude on my passengers business. You on the other hand, seem in need of some company."
"Its true" Harry said, "the way things are going for me, I just don't know what to do any more. I've lost the person I love and now I'm doing this, I'm going to have lost my place at Hogwarts too. I don't think things can really get any worse." The Car seemed very sympathetic to Harry's predicament, "Calm down, first things first where are we headed, once that's sorted you can tell me what's on you mind".
Chapter Three: Thinking things through
Someone to talk to was just what Harry probably needed, although it did feel odd for him at first, pouring his heart out to a car. Harry soon got used to the idea however, he'd seen enough strange things in his time. Before he knew it, it was daylight and they we're flying over the Alps. The Anglia began to land, "Think you need time to think about what you're going to do". They landed on a remote mountain edge, overlooking a distant cliff side town. Harry lay in the crisp snow alongside the Anglia. It still really hadn't settled in Harry's mind that in the last 24 hours, he'd lost his place at Hogwarts, fallen out with his lifetime servant and travelled half way across Europe without really knowing what he was going to do. He couldn't just walk in on the happy couple unannounced, suddenly declaring his love for Ron. For a start they didn't even know he was gay.
Harry started to explain to the car about him and Ron, surprisingly the car was a great listener and soon made Harry feel considerably better about his situation. Time seemed to fly by, it didn't seem like more than an hour had passed. However they soon found themselves as close to 'in each others arms' as it is possible to get when talking about a car, watching the sunset on a warm summer evening. Harry wouldn't admit to himself but he was starting to form an attraction to his ever faithful car. It had such a caring and sympathetic personality and got on with harry well. Having feelings like that for an inanimate object was just plain wrong wasn't it? He was just a piece of metal, fair enough an enchanted piece of metal but. But a machine none the less.
That night tucked up in a warm blanket on the back seat of the Ford, the same thoughts kept going over and over in his mind. As if the last two days hadn't been weird enough already, now he felt his feeling for Ron we're deteriorating in favour of a car! Never mind the whole car thing, but after all these years how could his feelings change so suddenly, maybe he wasn't as in love as he thought.
Morning came, Harry felt far from refreshed after the night of mental anguish. What was he going to do now? He didn't want to go and see Ron any more but he couldn't tell the car that because then he might start to get suspicious. "Are you ready to set off Harry?" the car said. What could Harry say, he couldn't risk showing his new found feelings. "um.. well I think I still need to think things through a bit more first, we may as well head for Venice though". The car took off into the sky, with Harry still curled up on the back seat. Within a few minutes Harry was fast asleep, the cars gentle rocking as it flew must have sent him to sleep at last.
Chapter Four: Table for two?
When Harry awoke about an hour later, he was surprised to look out the window to see water passing along just below the window, they we're floating on the canal! " your awake, are you feeling any better" the car said. "not really" Harry replied, "what are we doing here". "Well you wanted time to think things through, so I thought we might be nice to go for a little ride, there's a nice restaurant up here why don't we stop for lunch."
Harry still didn't have any money, especially any euros but that didn't matter. He'd already broken the rule of not using magic outside of Hogwarts so he had no reason not to again. The restaurant was packed, the seating was all outside by the water front and waiters busily ran in and out of the door serving all the romantic couples. After a few moments a waiter brought out a big bowl of Spaghetti covered in Parmesan cheese. "wingardium leviosa" Harry called out, and with a quick flick of the wrist he lifter the bowl out of the waiters hands and flew in into the car. Unsurprisingly the sight of a flying bowl of pasta made the waiter feint and he fell into the water, but was soon saved by 2 of the customers who were trying their best to to laugh.
They sailed on in an difficult silence, Harry wasn't really enjoying his pasta despite being some of the finest around. The same thoughts kept going round in his head, each time becoming more heavy in his heart. What could he do, he came here to declare his love for Ron, but all he could think about now was the car. Unlike Ron the car had always been there for him, granted this was only for the whole 2 days they had known each other. Ron never had such a connection with Harry, and eventually after many individual strands of pasta had been swirled around his plate he came to a decision... well sort of, he decided not to go and see Ron, but had no idea about what he was going to do about his new found love.
Chapter 5: A Question Broached
As Harry awoke for is 3rd day as a secret illegal immigrant in Italy, he looked out of the window to find they we're parked on the roof of the central church. It was the highest point in Venice, and in the purplely morning light, the town looked almost magical. Nothing compared to Hogwarts of course, but that is truly magical so it would be hard for a muggle city to better it.
Harry gazed out of the window for a few minutes, just watching the people below, he'd completely forgotten about Ron until he spotted him and Hermione punting down a canal below, being serenaded by a rather short gentleman with a violin and a hat that looked far to feminine to be normal. Seeing them didn't have the effect Harry thought it would, he wasn't jealous any more. He just wanted to be as happy as them. That was it, he'd have to broach the question when the car awoke. As he lay there he must have drifted off, because when he awoke he was lying in the middle of a poppy field, and the car was nowhere in sight.
Harry couldn't control his emotions, another person I love has left me, he though. Tears streamed down his face, moistening the poppies below. After what seemed like an eternity he reached into his pocket to get a tissue, only to find a note. It was from the car! The note explained how he was well aware of Harry's feelings and that although it had only been a few days he knew Harry was the only one for him. Harry read on... " I'm sorry to leave you as I have, but its only because I'm not good enough for you as I am. If you do love me as I hope you do, there is something first I must do. By the time you read this I will be in Hogwarts, I hope to persuade Dumbeldoor to lift my spirit from this car, and give me a new form, one more suitable for our relationship. I do hope he understands, because I don't know what ill do if I have to stay like this."
Harry kept fighting back the tears, only now they we're tears of happiness. So he hadn't been abandoned like he thought. He got up to move to a different section of the field, the current one having become rather to wet to sit on due to the floods of tears. There was nothing else to do but lie back and wait for his loves return. Luckily being a wizard meant he was able to magic some food and a toilet, which was convenient as the field didn't have particularly adequate wash room facilities.
Meeting once more:
That night, harry just lay in the field, looking up at the sky as he'd done only a few days before in the park. Only this time Ron wasn't on his mind, Sure he was unbelievably hot, but the Ford had a personality he couldn't fault. He'd never felt more safe in his life. The adopted parents and having two worlds to life in, can leave a person felling very disjointed and alone. But not any more. He was soon to have his one and only back with him. For the first night in months Harry drifted of to sleep happily, dreaming of what he might awake too.
As dawn broke to the sound of cockerels calling, harry rolled over, still half asleep. He was soon awakened however as he'd rolled onto the very wet poppies he'd spent yesterday crying over. As he sat up, he saw what appeared to be Ron walking towards him, with a massive smile on his face. Harry was rather confused at this point as would be expected. How did Ron know I'm here? And what's with the smile?
They ran towards each other, arms outstretched. (If it we're a film, it would have been in slow motion with some violins playing in the background). As they embraced a voice whispered in Harry's ear; "Do you know who this is...".
Startled Harry jumped back... "You mean..."... your not Ron? Of course it wasn't Ron, but the car. Dumbledoor had done a wonderful job, you wouldn't have been able to tell them apart.
"But... why did you ask to look like Ron" Harry inquired with a shy tone. "Because I love you Harry, but I know you also passionately crave Ron, this was we can both be happy forever".
Harry could contain himself no longer, he wrapped his arms round his love and started to kiss him passionalty. He'd waited to long to take things slow. They spent the night in the field, finally able to have what they'd both been craving. Where they'd go from here they didn't know, Harry probably wouldn't be welcomed back into Hogwarts, and even if he was a second Ron might prove hard to explain, but he they didn't care. That was another day, and they we're to busy enjoying this one to care.
Lizzy Bakewell