Chapter 7: Bal Harbour, Florida, Part I

It was Sunday, December 19, 1993. Harry and Hermione were in their third year at Hogwarts and had come home for Christmas holidays just the other day. The day before, the Potter and Granger fathers, godfather, and honorary uncle had taken them to see Disney's Aladdin, which had just been released in the U.K., at the Plaza in Liverpool, along with the Weasley siblings, including the older ones. This became Bill Weasley's first and favorite Disney film, especially because of the fez that Harry got him from his trip to EuroDisney, the previous summer. In return for the gift, he provided some monkeys from Egypt to the Potter Family Menagerie as a little surprise.

Speaking of surprises, Harry got a pretty big surprise last night, when his parents told him that they'd purchased a condominium apartment in Bal Harbour, Florida, a luxury residential district in Miami. He was told that his family (including Sirius, Remus, and Dora), along with Hermione and her family would be staying there for the next couple of weeks. Harry didn't know what to expect out of this. He never had any thought that he'd ever even visit Florida, let alone have a place there. He was also told that he was allowed to bring Hedwig with him, and he assumed Hermione would be allowed to bring Crookshanks, as well. She added an undetectable extension charm to her rucksack, so not only did she bring her cat, but she also brought her Light-Up plastic Beauty and the Beast enchanted rose from EuroDisney, and a lot of books, including the Beauty and the Beast book she'd gotten at EuroDisney.

"If we're going to be by the sea for the next two weeks, I might as well bring something to read," she insisted.

But she had yet to realize that with this trip, there'd be more Beauty and the Beast than she was expecting.

Harry couldn't help but wonder how Hedwig would feel about having to go into the cargo section of the plane, in her cage.

But the real surprise came when the families left the house and got to the airport. Just like with the EuroDisney trip, a door emerged from underground, slinked out into the streets and released the Rolls-Royce limousine. They retrieved the car this way, because on this street, there was no room for visible garages. So, naturally, I gave a notice-me-not charm to the whole scene, so only the people getting into the car would see it. Once they got to the airport, they sent the car back home, but didn't check their bags in with all the other Muggles. They were all gathered in a spot where the Muggles couldn't see them, and their backs mysteriously disappeared. The children were about to protest, but the adults calmed them down, looking like they had everything under control.

When they went into the airport, the children noticed that they weren't going through security. They were about to protest again, but the adults, once again, calmed them down. They pointed out that the Muggles still couldn't see them. They eventually reached Gate 10 at Terminal B and were all gathered at the support beam between Gates 10 and 11.

"Go on," James directed.

"Go on, what?" Harry asked.

"Go on, and run straight at the support beam between Gates 10 and 11," Sirius explained.

"Why?" Harry asked.

"You'll see on the other side," James replied.

Harry was still unsure, but his father and godfather looked like they knew what they were talking about. He ran with his towards the support beam, and, much to his surprise, he found a whole nother gate, labeled Gate 10 ½, on the other side. Soon enough, Hermione and the rest of the two families arrived at the gate.

They noticed the sign read,

Potter Airlines Flight #001 – London to Ft. Lauderdale -NOW BOARDING

Harry and Hermione couldn't believe what they were seeing, until they noticed an old-fashioned, but top condition private plane outside with a logo, which read, Potter Airlines. As they boarded the plane, Harry found an even bigger surprise in the cockpit; James and Sirius were sitting in the pilot and copilot seats, wearing pilot caps. When they noticed he was there, they each held up their newly acquired pilot's licenses.

"Well, what do you think?" They asked him.

"Wow, that actually explains a lot," he replied, remembering the sudden interest they had in the pilot on their flight to Paris, the summer before.

"We could have called it Marauder Airways…" James begun.

"... but we thought that wasn't quite funny enough," Sirius continued "so we suggested.."

"Potter Airlines," they finished, trying to make an appropriate pose to go with it.

"But your logo seems so crudely painted," Hermione pointed out.

"That's why it's so funny," Sirius explained. "And that's not the best part."

"This plane also cuts the normal Muggle flying time in half," James explained. "So what takes Muggles nine and a half hours to fly from here to Florida, will only take us four hours and a quarter."

Hermione could hardly muster a disbelieving comment.

"Courtesy of the Macey Family of Magical Entertainers and Entrepreneurs," James finished. "But even that's not the best part."

He turned Harry and Hermione around to see the inside of the cabin. It was even larger and more spacious than a Muggle passenger jet, the walls were white with wood paneling in between the windows, and the carpet and seats were all red and velvety, so it looked like a more spacious version of Elvis Presley's private jet. The red velvet seats reminded Harry very much of the Gryffindor common room and his bedroom back in Liverpool, so he felt right at home. But even that wasn't the best part. No, the best part was what the seats could do. They could recline, they could turn into beds, about as comfortable as the ones they had at home, and they could turn in towards the center of the cabin. What was even more incredible was that Hedwig and Crookshanks were waiting by two seats for their masters to sit. Harry and Hermione eagerly took their seats and got comfortable.

"First class has got nothing on this," Harry thought to himself

"Ladies and Gentlemen," James's voice spoke over the PA system, "Thank you for choosing Potter Airlines. We know you have over a forty percent chance of landing safely. Enjoy your flight."

The runway was pretty much all theirs, and since the plane was enchanted, it could go anywhere on the ground or up in the air by itself, so they were able to transfer from taxi to takeoff all on their own. Soon enough, they were up in the air and on their way. As soon as they were high enough in the air, Lily was reclining in her seat, while the other two couples (Paul and Jane and Remus and Dora) had their seats turned towards the center and converted into beds. Actually, the ladies had their beds converted so the men could curl up with them. Sarah, also, was lounging, while Harry and Hermione turned their seats towards the center. Hermione was busy reading her Beauty and the Beast book, as Crookshanks was curled up on her lap. Harry was still looking for something to do. Hedwig sat perched on the armrest, disappointed that she wouldn't be able to fly, and instead, had this giant tin can to do it for her. She was about to screech, until Harry said,

"Stop complaining. You can stretch your wings when we get there."

Naturally this made Hedwig think,

"This is going to be a long flight."

Anyways, soon enough, he had an idea. He pulled out a VHS copy of a movie he'd wanted to bring on the trip; Steven Spielberg's Hook. If you remember from Muggles and their Disney Movies, he had the SEGA game, obviously because he'd seen the movie before. They had a television set with a VCR hooked up in the plane, so they could watch movies, and this flight seemed long enough to watch a movie, or two on this flight. The families had brought as many movies as they could pack, so Harry walked up to the front and pulled the microphone out of the intercom.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your in-flight movie is now being presented. Your flight attendant will pass through the cabin to serve refreshments momentarily" he spoke.

He smiled towards the cockpit, obviously glad to have inherited such acting skills from his father and godfather. He put the tape into the VCR, but when it started, Hermione put her book down. She looked up at Harry and held up a VHS copy of Beauty and the Beast, which she brought just for the occasion.

"When this film is over," Harry promised.

I could make Harry go to the back of the plane to collect refreshments, but it will be funnier if Lily reluctantly got up to do it. Despite Harry's so-called "acting skills", he still had this one claim,

"No matter how private our plane is, I will never be your personal flight attendant."

Don't take that too seriously, though. I just wrote that in for laughs.

Anyways, there isn't a whole lot to talk about for the rest of the flight, so I'll just cut right to the chase. The plane landed at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. It was enchanted so that muggle authorities couldn't see it. Note that I said "enchanted" rather than "charmed" or whatever. The differences between charms, spells, and enchantments are just too much to figure out, right?

As I was saying, after landing, the families disembarked in their warm winter clothes, now wanting to get into something lighter and enjoy the newly-discovered Florida sunshine. They collected their baggage as James sent the plane back to the storage space, where the Potters kept all their vehicles. It was in that same door that came out of the ground where they retrieved the Rolls-Royce. This time, they had the Rolls-Royce magically converted to left-hand drive, and also so that the driver could conform to all the rules of the road wherever he drove.

Wow, the things a narrator can't dream up these days?

After packing their bags into the Rolls-Royce, the families got in and soon enough, they were on their way. Soon enough, they made their way towards Bal Harbour, which seemed to be a very nice neighborhood. But it was when they saw the palm trees lining the streets, they knew they weren't in Kansas anymore. Don't take that literally, of course. They arrived at a building where the sign read, BalMoral. All they needed was the lobby to spell "luxury" for them.

When they got to the elevators, they found there wouldn't be enough room for all of them at the same time. Sirius was in the mood to enchant them, until he remembered not to complain about long car rides or cinema seating, and he hadn't complained about a thing since this whole trip started.

It didn't take long to get to get two empty elevators. They found they were staying on the eighth floor, in apartment 8A. The walls were all white with a cream linoleum floor and in the living room was light red linen furniture on a white woven carpet and a large screen television with a VCR. The whole thing was complete with a view of the ocean, but what was strange about it was that it was incredibly spacious.

"It's charmed so that it can hold all of us, and to Muggles, it looks about the same size as all the other flats here," Lily explained.

Anyways, it was nighttime now, and everyone was tired from the trip. Lily noticed that they had a pool, so she decided they'd all go down to use it in the morning. Harry and Hermione, obviously, ended up sharing a room, so they settled down to bed, they even had a TV-VCR combo in their room, but they had yet to realize that the real excitement of this trip was to come in the morning, when they'd meet some rather interesting new friends…