Lucy

I woke that next morning and looked over to Payton's bed. I saw that it was untouched. Payton didn't come home last night. I wonder where she spent the night. I got up and headed for the stairs.

At the head of the stairs were Logan and Shea straining to hear the voices that were coming from downstairs. By the tone of the voices they weren't happy ones. They heard me come up behind them. They smiled at me. I was about to ask what was going on but Logan put a finger to his lips to make sure that I was quiet.

"I wish we could hear what they are say," Shea whispered. I smiled because I thought that I had an Extendable Ear in my trunk.

"Wait I think I have something in my trunk," I didn't wait for them to say something. I ran back to my room. I found it on the bottom of my trunk. I checked to see if it was still working. I smiled and went back to Logan and Shea. "This will help," I showed them.

"Is that an ear?" Logan asked. I nodded.

"It is called an Extendable Ear my uncles George and Fred invented them." I lower the ear and waited until I could hear the voices clearly.

"…you came in just as your father and I came downstairs." I caught them in mid-sentence. I give the ear to Logan so he could hear what was being said. He mouth to us what they said. I got that Payton was grounded for the next month and see couldn't see this boy named Miller.

I heard footsteps coming and I grabbed the ear from Logan and we ran to Shea's room before someone caught us at the top of the stairs. Logan closed the door just in time that we saw it was Payton who was coming upstairs. She stopped just passed Shea's room. "You can come out now," She said. We waited until we heard her door close before heading out.

We enter the kitchen to find my aunt and uncle there. Aunt Mariah was at the stove making breakfast while Uncle Tim was sitting at the table reading the paper. Aunt Mariah smiled at us as we came in. "I made you a pot of tea, Lucy. I know how you like your tea."

"Thank you," I went to the cabinet and grabbed a mug. Shea took a seat at the courter watching her mother cook breakfast and Logan took a seat at the table with his father. I took a seat next to Shea with my cup of tea. This was real tea. I sighed as I had some.

"It is good?" Aunt Mariah said. I nodded. "I haven't lost my touch at making tea after twenty years." I laughed because of the way she said it. Uncle Tim rolled his eyes at her. She leaned closer to Shea and I. "This why you don't marry a foreigner." She said loud enough that Uncle Tim heard.

"You could have married an English man," He said without looking up from his paper.

"Yes, but I wouldn't have been as happy as I am now even with a daughter staying out all night." Aunt Mariah blew a kiss his way. She finished making breakfast and put two plates in front of me and Shea and brought the other to Logan. She took a seat next to Uncle Tim.

"What do you have planned for today?" Aunt Mariah asked her children.

"I'm going to hang out with my friends," Logan said with his mouth open.

"I'm going to over to Britany's house." Shea said. She had gotten up to pour her a glass of orange juice.

"Logan close your mouth while you are eating. You're fifteen. What about Lucy is she to spend the day in the house?" She asked her children.

"Don't worry about me. I got some school work to do today. I'm sure that they will do something with me tomorrow. Right?" I looked at both of my cousins, who nodded.

"Alright," Aunt Mariah said. "If you are sure," I nodded. We finished eating while Aunt Mariah was telling us stories.

I placed my plate in the sink before going upstairs to change. I got to Payton's room and knock on the door to make sure I wasn't bothering her. I didn't hear anything on the other side of the door. I opened the door to find Payton sleeping. I went over to my stuff quietly and got my clothes before heading out to the bathroom to wash up.

I put my things away and grabbed some of my school stuff so I could leave Payton to rest. I went outside through the front door. I sat on the front pouch and open my book and started to work. Both Logan and Shea came out of the front door.

"Thank you for what you did in the kitchen," Logan said. I waved him off. "It's just we had these plans before we knew you were coming."

"I understand and if Payton doesn't sleep all day. I might do something with her." I said.

They nodded. "We'll do something tomorrow." I watched them walk away. One went to the left and the other went to the right. I shook my head at them. I knew about wanting to do your thing. I have ten cousins who wanted not to be known as the Weasley pack.

I started to work on the paper that I needed to do for Herbology.

"Hey, what are you doing?" I looked up and saw that some time had passed by the sun. I saw Austin smiling down at me.

"Homework," I put my paper in my book and sat up to look at Austin.

"Why are you doing homework on a beautiful day like this?" He asked. He was standing there in a pair of cutoff jeans and tee-shirt.

"Well, all of my cousins are doing something else. So I thought I would do some work."

"Why don't you put that away and I'll show you New York like a true New Yorker?" He smiled at me. It made my heart beat a little faster.

"Sure," I placed my books inside and left a note for my aunt and uncle.

Austin grabbed my hand that sent sparks through my arm. We disapparate away. We came to an ally and I could hear the noise right away. Austin was still holding on to my hand as we went towards the noise. We stood at the opening of the ally and my eyes couldn't move fast enough to take everything in. There were yellow taxis everywhere, going every which way. People were walking trying to get where they needed to. Austin pulled me to the right. We came to a building. Austin smiled.

"This is Empire State Building," He said. We followed the people in there and went up to the Observatory. He help me out to the deck.

"Wow," The view was amazing. I couldn't put it into words to how great this is. Austin followed me around the deck as I took everything in. "This is beautiful," I said. I thought that Lily would just love it here. She could sit here and draw all day. "Where to next?" I asked. Austin smiled.

"Follow me," He grabbed my hand. He took me out of the building and found an ally were we disapparate. We came to another ally. We came out and started to walk.

There was area that looked beautiful. "What is this?" I asked Austin.

"This is the 9/11 Memorial." He said.

"Can we take a look?" I asked. He nodded and followed in. I walked around to find out what happen because Austin wasn't going to tell me anything about this. I saw people crying on the square box with names on it. There was the America flag all over. I came over to area that no one was by but they were walking right pass. This must be only for wizards. At this Austin stood away as I went closer, I saw that it was for witches and wizards. I traced the names on it.

"That is my uncle's name," Austin came and stood next to me. He pointed to the name Steven James Brown. "He died on that day." I turned to look at him.

"I'm sorry," I said. I wanted to wrap my arms around him but I just stood there.

Austin smiled. "I never got to know him. He was my dad's big brother but on this day is hard for my dad because they were close." I nodded. "Come on, let's get out of here." I nodded again and followed him out.

We started walking around downtown Manhattan. The building were amazing. Austin told me some of the history of the city while we walked. The sun was setting and getting harder to see things. "Are you hungry?" Austin gave me a half smile. I nodded. "I know this great place." We disapparate and came to a place with a lot lights. There were billboards with food to things. There were stores and restaurants all over. Austin grabbed my hand and led me down the street to the restaurant.

It was a little place and again it was like we only we could see it. We went in and Austin put up two fingers to the host. They nodded and had us follow him to a table for two. He handed us menus after we took our seats. Someone came and brought us some water as I looked at the menu.

"What is good here?" I asked.

"Everything," Austin said without looking up from his menu. I nodded and picked something off the menu. The waitress came and took our order.

"So, Austin how was growing up here?" I asked.

He laughed. "How was it growing up in England?" I laughed.

We talked about our childhoods and how they differ. There were laughter. The food was great. Austin paid for dinner. After dinner, we walked the streets. We went into some of the stores and had fun trying out their products. When I let out a yawn, Austin decide it was time to go. We found an ally to disapparate from.

The pouch light was on and there was a light on in the inside. Austin walked me up the stairs to the front door. "Thank you for taking me out, Austin."

"You're welcome," He smiled. He looked at me, his eyes looked bright from the night sky. His hand moved a piece of my hair out of the way. I leaned forward as he leaned in. His lips pressed against mine. His lips were soft and the kiss was firm. I moved my hands to wrap around his neck but I stopped and pulled away from him.

"We can't do this," I said. Austin frowned.

"Why?" He asked.

"All we would have is a summer and I have a feeling that I'm going to fall for you. I don't want to go home with a broken heart because long distances don't work." I saw the hurt on his face. "I'm sorry, Austin." I didn't wait for him to say something, I went in the house. I closed the door and leaned against it. I could feel the tears pooling in my eyes. Some reason I had a feeling that I was going to regret this.

I looked out the window to see that Austin was gone. I turned the lock and turned off the pouch light. I made sure all the lights were off downstairs before heading upstairs. I saw there was a light in my aunt and uncle's room. There was a light on in Payton's room. I didn't want to go in there after what happen with Austin. I opened the door to see that Payton was still up. She smiled at me.

"I heard you went out with Austin Brown today," She said as if everything was going great. I finally let the tears out and I wished that Roxanne was here with me. Payton got off her bed and helped me to the camp bed. She took a seat next to me. "What happen?"

"I did something I going to regret later," I told her what happen. "I think he won't want to see me again after what I told him."

Payton smiled for the first time after she saw me crying. "If I know Austin, he not going down without a fight. At the party yesterday, I sense something with the two of you." She hugged me. "There is still hope for both of you." I nodded.

"Thank you," I smiled at her. Payton got up and went to her bed.

"Goodnight, Lucy and think of ways you could make it up to him." Payton settle in her bed. I changed into pajamas and crawl in mine.

The next morning I wrote to Roxanne.