Chapter 2 : Talks and Laughter

I could not sleep much after I woke up. I stayed in my bed thinking about various things, wholeheartedly wishing I could fall asleep again. After the first ray of the sun entered my room, I got up because I had no more patience. I brushed my teeth, took a bath and got dressed quickly. We took the Villa at the Wizton because we all felt much better having each other close rather than stay at different rooms on different floors. The Villa was close to the beach as well.

The Villa was painted in cream colour. There were pictures and paintings hung on the walls. The furniture in the Villa was in warm, earthy tones. The Villa is charmed to provide the number bedrooms and bathrooms required by the guests. The bedrooms were all on the first floor. All the bedrooms lead to the same balcony. The ground floor had a sitting room with a few shelves of books. The books were mainly about the History of Magic and it's evolution in Turkey, there were some fiction novels by some local authors and they also kept some muggle novels about the various legends and myths that were famous in these parts. That should be fun. The ground floor even had a dining room and a kitchen in case the guests felt like cooking. The kitchen would be stocked with supplies at the request of the guests.

I picked up a book called 'The Arabian Nights'. I decided to take it to the porch at the back and read it there. The back door of the Villa opened to the porch that had some beach chairs. The beach was right in front of me. It just looked beautiful. The blue water and the sand, they just looked magical together. Not that I have never been to a beach before but there was some sort of serenity in here that made me feel good. I settled on one of the chairs and opened the book. I soon found out that this particular book was a collection of short stories.

I read a story called 'Aladdin and the magic lamp' about this boy named Aladdin and how he found a magic lamp with a genie in it. There was a black and white illustrations of important incidents in the stories, occasionally. The genie looked pretty terrifying. I wonder how Aladdin didn't get scared of him. The rest of the story was pretty good. I read a couple more stories – 'Ali Baba and the forty thieves', 'Sindabad, the sailor' and a few more. But I really liked Sindabad, the Sailor a lot.

I started thinking about how almost all these stories had at least one genie. I heard before, that in Asia particularly the countries on the south part of the continent and the countries on the border of Asia and Europe believe in genies and their legends. In Britain though, genies are considered to be a myth. We are magical folk but there are some things that even we don't believe. From what, I heard genies have not been spotted or sighted since the beginning of the first century A.D. That's a long time! But no one in the European Wizarding world will believe in the existence of genies.

I started hearing noises in the Villa. Finally, my friends got up and got ready. They were at the dining room when I got to them. They were deciding on the breakfast they wanted to order. Blaise was the first to notice me.

"Hey Draco, good morning! Where were you? You weren't in your room when I went to call you for breakfast." Blaise somehow always seem to pick up on my mood changes before anyone else. That's why I call him my best friend, I guess.

"I was on the porch, reading." I gestured to the book in my hand.

He snorted and said, "You were reading 'The Arabian Nights'? Didn't think muggle literature for children interested you so much."

I just shrugged. "I got up early and I didn't know what else to do."

"Draco, you could have woken us up or at least one of us." Said Pans. Even though, Pans and I had broken up a long time ago, sometimes she is still possessive about me. I don't like that much. I keep wishing that she moved on already.

"I didn't want to disturb anybody. Besides, I'm still allowed to have some alone time."

"What do you guys want to do today? I was thinking we should go and check out some of the sights." Daph asked quickly before Pansy or I could say anything more. I looked at her thankfully and she nodded at me in response.

"We should go do some shopping as well." Tracey said very excitedly. What is it with girls and shopping? While the girls agreed with equal excitement, the guys refused at once.

"No way, Trace! We are not taking you girls shopping. Who suggested that we bring the girls along with us?" Theo asked. The girls glared at him. Millie who was sitting next to him gave him a smack on the hand.

"You girls will suck the fun out of the entire trip if we go shopping." Greg said rather harshly. Since the war ended, either Greg would be too silent or be too angry for anyone's liking.

"That was mean, Gregory." Millie said glaring at him. Greg cowered under her glared. Greg never said anything when Millie would send her death glare at him. Greg was always different in front of Millie. I wonder if there's something going on in between them.

Ad cleared his throat and said, "I agree with Daph, we should go sight seeing and relax. We can keep shopping for another day, Trace."

The discussion went on for a while. We were still deciding what to have for breakfast. We checked the menu. Whatever we wanted to order, we just had to point our wand at the name and our order goes to the kitchens. Everybody finished ordering and we dove right back into the discussion about what to do today.

I had enough of this discussion. We were getting nowhere. "I think, today we should just lay low. The beach is really beautiful. We could swim in the sea or just sit by and relax. We could try to some of the restaurants in the hotel for lunch and dinner. Maybe we could hit the club in the evening and party and drink to the end of the war. Tomorrow, we start sight-seeing, shopping or whatever."

Everyone thought about what I said. "How about we go to watch some belly dancers in the evening, I heard they are absolutely exquisite." Blaise asked. He got a look from the girls. "What are you girls looking at me like that for? We are here, we might as well catch at least one performance. So, we know what it's all about."

The guys agreed instantly, the girls came around eventually. We decided to stay at the beach during the day. There was a knock on the door.

"Ahh! Breakfast is here." I was really starting to get hungry. We asked the person to enter. The waiter was here with a trolley filled with food. As soon as, the waiter left we started eating. While eating we talked about all the things possible. For the first time in months, eating felt good. With 'Him' at home, no matter how good the food looked and tasted, it just didn't feel good. Now, I felt like I was freed from all those things that worried me. I was here with people who wanted to heal as well. I reminded myself to thank Blaise later, for suggesting this trip.

After breakfast, we went to our rooms to change into our beachwear. At first, we just put the towels on the sand and sat on the beach, each doing their own thing. Some of us were reading, some were just watching the beach, some just sunbathing. After about an hour or so of human silence, Daph suggested we go into the water and have some fun.

Daph, Blaise, Trace, Ad, Millie, Theo and Greg went to play in the water, leaving Pans and I. Pans was sunbathing, I was reading the book I picked in the morning. She kept looking at me and it was making me uncomfortable. "We are never going to happen again, are we?" She asked so quietly, that I almost thought I imagined it.

"I'm sorry, Pans. I don't mean to hurt you or make you sad. The war changed a lot. It changed everything. I can never go back to who I was before. I feel so lost. I need to find myself, first. I really hope you find someone who can appreciate you. It's just not me, Pans. I really want to be friends with you."

She looked like she was struggling to hold her tears back. "I'm really trying, Draco. I thought once the war was over, everything would go back to how it was before. But you're right. It's changed a lot in me as well. I feel like all the things we were made to believe in, have no relevance at all. I don't think about you like that anymore but sometimes I guess, I just can't help it. It just comes out, it'll go away with time I guess."

"I know, it will, don't worry. Don't ever forget, I love you, Pans but as a friend."

"I know, I love you too, Draco." She brightened up a little and said, "So, how about we go into the water now?"

I smiled, "That sounds like a good idea." We got up to go where the others were having fun. When we very closed to the water, I carried Pans, which completely shocked her. She kept shrieking in my ear to put her down. By then, we reached the others.

"As you wish, Pans." I said with a mischievous smile and dropped her in the water.

"Dracooooo…I'm going to get you for this." She shouted in annoyance but no one took her seriously and started laughing. We kept splashing water on each other, playing silly water games that the girls came up with. We raced each other on the beach. The sound of laughter was making me feel human again.

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Neepa :-)