July - fireworks; "If a week goes by and your friends are not completely confused or terrified by one of your actions, you're not doing your job."
Meg was bouncing with excitement. She was so glad that she had managed to organize Harry, Ron and Hermione visiting her in Canada. They would be spending the last week of July and the first week of August at the cottage, with Meg's parents.
Meg jumped out of the car almost before it stopped in front of the little cottage.
"Ta-da!" she sang. The cottage was a ramshackle little thing that had recently been re-shingled. It was also the graveyard for any furniture that was no longer wanted in the house in Ottawa.
But it wasn't the cottage that Meg wanted to show her English guests, it was the lake. She led them right past the cottage and down onto the dock. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful view.
"Wow, there's nothing like this in England," Hermione breathed. Harry and Ron nodded. This was uniquely Canadian. There were a few cottages visible, but most were obscured by trees. There was a savage beauty about the lake and the forest. It was so vast and the trees were so dense. It looked like the opposite shore was entirely trees.
"I never knew it could be so quiet," Ron said. Far away, a loon cried its mournful song.
Meg then took her friends on a quick tour. And quick it was since the cottage was so small. The door led right into the main room that was kitchen, living room and dining room in one. Off the main room was the bathroom, two bedrooms and the enclosed porch that had been converted into a bedroom.
"Ron and Harry get the porch and Hermione, you're with me," Meg waved vaguely in that direction. "Now, first rule of the cottage: don't drink the tap water." Meg turned on the kitchen faucet to demonstrate. The water was slightly brown tinged. "It comes straight from the lake and will make you sick. We brought jugs of water up from the city, drink that. Second rule: Don't leave any food unsealed. The mice or the bugs will get at it. Put it in the fridge or in the cooler under the counter."
"It's very...rustic," Harry said after an awkward silence.
Meg laughed. "Man, you're lucky there's running water."
"You didn't have running water?" Hermione, the city-slicker, said. She sounded horrified.
"Well, that's not really true," Meg admitted. "There's always been running water but the shower was only put in last year."
"How did you bathe before?" Ron asked.
"When you go swimming every day, you keep pretty clean. We just washed our hair in the lake."
"The lake?" Hermione gasped.
"You are such a city kid, Hermione," Meg teased. "You want the Canadian experience? How about going out in the middle of the night to use the outhouse, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and black flies and then running into a grizzly bear going that's through your garbage?"
Hermione just stared at her.
"Don't worry," Meg said quickly. "There's a toilet inside and we never put the garbage out overnight just for that reason."
"What? So you just say these things to frighten me?"
Meg laughed. "If a week goes by and your friends are not completely confused or terrified by one of your actions, you're not doing your job. And by you I mean me. Now come on. We have to unload the car and then start dinner."
The sun had set by the time they'd finished their dinner of corn-on-the-cob and juicy barbecued hamburgers. After spraying everyone with bug spray, Meg took her friends down to sit on the dock and look at the stars.
She shined her flashlight on the star book that they had brought down. "See that bright one? That's Polaris, the Northern Star. And those stars above it, that kind of curve, make up Ursa Minor. And over there is the Big Dipper."
"You can't see the stars from the city. It's so huge," Ron said. "Makes you feel sort of insignificant, doesn't it." They sat on the dock in silence, staring upwards.
"What's that?" Harry pointed to the sky.
Meg looked up and gasped. "The Aurora," she whispered. And then the sky lit up. Pink lights danced in the sky, like from a giant's paintbrush and the sky was his canvas. The trees stood out in relief from the brilliant sky. The lights flickered up and down, dimming only to swell all the more powerfully a second later.
Meg shivered, but not from the cold. It really did make you feel insignificant.
"I thought I loved fireworks," Hermione said quietly. "But this is better. It's unbelievable. What makes it do that?"
"Something to do with the sun and magnetic fields. Here," Meg handed Hermione the star book and the flashlight.
"Oh, I'll look it up later," Hermione said absently.
The beauty of the Aurora made even Hermione forget her earthly concerns.