"Don't leave that room until it's clean!"
"But-"
"Your parents will be home in two hours, Daniel, I'm not letting them come home to the house in this condition!"
"My room's always in this condition, though!"
"Not anymore. Clean it." Petunia closed the door behind Danny, who stared at the mess in his room. With a disgruntled sigh, he picked up the closest game system and plopped onto his bed to play it. Petunia wasn't his mom, she couldn't make him clean his room.
There was one big problem with being stuck in his room, though. He, Jazz, and Harry had been frantically trying to come up with another plan to tell his parents about magic over the past few days, but hadn't been able to come up with anything. Having no other options, Harry had sent another letter to Mrs. Weasley two days ago. He'd heard back—they would be coming by around 5PM today. If everything went right, Harry, Petunia, Vernon, and Dudley would be on a plane back to England by that time, and the appearance wouldn't startle anyone other than their parents.
So far two things had gone against the plan. The Dursleys plane had been delayed two hours, putting the departure time at 7 instead of 5. Jazz was hoping Petunia's hatred of Amity Park would convince her to leave for the airport at the previously scheduled time instead of hanging around the house as long as possible. Absolutely worst case scenario, though, one look at Mr. and Mrs. Weasley would send her running for the hills, Harry had assured them.
Secondly, Harry was supposed to be helping Jazz and Danny come up with a way to introduce the Weasleys to their parents, but they were all forced into different rooms by Petunia, who was determined to make the house spotless. Jazz was downstairs in the lab, "cleaning up the junk", and Harry was cleaning the kitchen.
An explosion from downstairs jerked Danny out of his thoughts. Throwing his game system down, he ran down the stairs and into the living room, where Petunia was standing, holding a vacuum which a bag that seemed to have… well, exploded.
"What happened?" Jazz shouted, running in.
"This… this vacuum!" Petunia shrieked.
Jazz took the vacuum from her and groaned, "That's dad's ghost catching vacuum. It doesn't even work."
Harry, who was standing in the doorway to the kitchen looking incredibly amused and not even trying to hide it, raised an eyebrow, "Ghost catching?"
"He tries." Jazz rolled her eyes. She tossed the ghost catching vacuum to the side and opened the closet, pulling out the normal vacuum, "I don't think dad's tampered with this one." She said, handing it to Petunia.
Petunia, who had been trying so hard to spend the whole day in the house without complaining, looked like she was about to run out of there with her family and try and forget the experience had ever happened. She took the vacuum, clenching her hand around the handle and forced out, "Thank you, Jazzmine."
"No prob." Jazz shrugged, grabbing the ghost vacuum (or what remained of it, at least), "Just be careful with the appliances in this house. My parents are crazy."
Petunia let this go over her head and just nodded, inspecting the normal vacuum, afraid to turn it on for fear it would explode on her.
"Er, Aunt Petunia." Harry said, "How about I vacuum the living room?"
Petunia's head snapped up and she nodded, "Yes. Yes, that's a good idea. I'll go find Vernon." She wandered off, and Harry suppressed a chuckle.
"Somehow I don't think we have anything to worry about. There's no way she's sticking around any longer than she has to." Jazz laughed.
Harry chuckled and nodded, "Yeah."
"I'd better get back downstairs." Jazz said.
"What are you doing down there, anyway?" Danny asked, "Dad'll kill you if you touch his stuff."
"Playing Solitaire on the computer." Jazz grinned.
Danny grumbled, "Lucky. Harry, do you need help down here?"
"Sure." Harry said, "Weren't you supposed to be cleaning your room, though?"
"My room's never going to be clean." Danny said, "It just… it just doesn't work that way."
Harry laughed, "Sure, I'd love your help then."
Danny grinned.
"Well, have fun." Jazz smirked, walking back down the stairs to the lab, holding the ghost vacuum. As she reached the bottom, the boys heard a crash that sounded like the ghost vacuum hitting a trash can, and Danny laughed.
XXXX
When Maddie and Jack's car pulled into the driveway, Petunia picked up her suitcase, "Vernon, we're leaving."
The man looked up, "But they're not even here yet."
"They're in the driveway. Come on!" she shrieked. "Dudders, get your stuff."
Vernon stood up, grabbing his suitcase, and followed his wife out. Dudley trailed after them, and Harry glanced at Jazz and Danny.
"Well, good luck." He said with complete honesty, "Danny, I'll write you a letter so Hedwig will be here. Write me and let me know how it went."
Danny nodded, "I will. See you in September!"
Harry waved, grabbing his bag and leaving the house. Jazz and Danny followed him to the door. Maddie was saying goodbye to Petunia, trying to convince her to come back inside, but the woman was having none of it. She was trying not to be rude, but she wasn't staying in this town any longer.
Danny laughed at the look on her face. "Should we go out there and save her?"
"Probably." Jazz grumbled, "But I'm not going to. Mom'll connect the dots eventually. I don't think we're ever going to see them again, either."
"That means you won't get to see Harry ever again, though." Danny frowned, "I'll see him in school, but…"
Jazz ruffled her brother's hair, "He's already promised to write to me." She said, "So we'll keep in contact."
Danny smiled.
The door opened and Jack walked in, holding his and Maddie's suitcases.
"Dad!" Danny grinned, running over to give his dad a hug. Jazz was right behind him. Jack pulled both of them into a big hug, grinning.
"How are you two?" he boomed, and Danny grinned.
"We're good!" he said.
Jack looked around, "This place looks different."
Jazz rolled her eyes, "That's because it's clean." She said, "Aunt Petunia thought it was a good idea."
"Why's she trying to leave so quickly, anyway?" Jack asked, "I offered to show her our collection of new ghost weapons that we got at the convention and she practically passed out!"
Jazz laughed, but didn't answer him as they heard the sounds of car doors shutting and a car zooming away. Maddie walked in the front door. "Well, I don't understand what her problem is."
Jazz laughed again, running over to give her mother a hug, "She has a lot of problems, mom."
"That's not nice, Jazz." Maddie chided, but she didn't correct her, "How are you two?" she asked, pulling Danny into a hug next.
"Good." Danny answered again, "But… we have to talk to you guys."
Jazz glanced at the clock on the wall. 3PM. They had two hours before the Weasleys arrived.
"Is everything okay?" Maddie asked her son.
Danny nodded vigorously, "Yeah! Everything's great."
Maddie smiled, "How about I make us a late lunch, and we'll talk?"
"Sounds good." Jazz smiled. Jack left the suitcases where they were and they all walked into the kitchen.
XXXX
Danny and Jazz asked their parents about their trip, putting off introducing magic for as long as they could, knowing they had two hours to kill. They couldn't let their parents go off and get absorbed in unpacking or a ghost hunting related experiment because it would be impossible to pull them away from it if they did. They had to keep them in the kitchen.
Finally, at 4:45, they could put it off no longer.
"Uh, so mom." Danny said, starting. They'd never actually decided how they were going to do this.
"Yes, sweetie?" Maddie asked, smiling at her son.
"A… letter came for me while you guys were gone." He said, "It was an… acceptance letter."
Maddie raised an eyebrow, "An acceptance letter to what?"
"A school." Danny answered.
"But you didn't apply for any private schools." Maddie said, "Where is this school?"
"It's in England. It's where Harry goes, actually." Danny said, "It's a… special school."
Maddie just looked confused, "What kind of special school, Danny? What's the name of this school?"
"It's called Hogwarts. And… it's a school for magic." Danny said, hesitant.
Maddie stared at her son, trying to figure out if he was serious, "Magic, Danny?" she asked.
Danny nodded, "Yes, and I know it sounds crazy, but-"
Jazz cut him off, "He's telling the truth mom. Harry proved it to both of us, and we went shopping and got him all his school supplies, and mom, it was so cool."
Maddie's gaze shifted from her son to her daughter. Jazz never believed them when they spoke about ghosts, and she never believed anything unless it was proven. For her to believe so strongly that Danny was telling the truth.
"Magic school sounds like fun." Jack said. Maddie turned.
"Jack, don't-"
"Maddie, if ghosts are real, why can't magic be?" Jack asked, "I think the kids are telling the truth. Danny, you still have that letter?"
Danny grinned and nodded, "I'll go get it!" He tore out of the room to get his letter.
Maddie still didn't look convinced. Jazz went to speak up and tell her mom about magical shopping, and all the magic they'd been shown by Mrs. Weasley when a crack that sounded like a gunshot broke the silence. Maddie jumped and Jack grabbed a frying pan to defend himself, but Jazz stood up.
"No, it's fine!" she said, "Harry asked some friends to come over and help explain magic." She said, "That was just the sound of them…" she thought, trying to remember what Harry had said, "Apparating."
"Apparating?" Maddie asked, incredulous.
Jazz didn't answer, walking to the back door to let Mr. and Mrs. Weasley in. They were both standing there patiently. Jazz smiled, relieved at them. "Thank you for coming."
"Of course." Mrs. Weasley smiled, walking into the house, followed by her husband, "You must be Jazz and Danny's parents. I'm Molly Weasley, this is my husband Arthur."
Another chapter down! Good news guys! Danny goes to Hogwarts in two chapters! So, not next chapter, but the chapter after that. You guys'll finally find out what house he's going to be in!
No big reveals in this for awhile, though.
(Gonna pimp my collab fic now. :D If you guys like Kingdom Hearts, and you like my writing, you should go check out the collab fic I'm writing with my roommate, Jasmine. It's updated weekly, and it's posted on her account. The link's in my profile, the story's titled The Day That Some Things Happened. :D)
Done with that. Anyway, lemme know what you thought! Next one soon, I promise.