AN:
Hey guys, sorry it took so long for me to get this next chapter out. I hate to say this and sound like I'm just making excuses, but I really had a lot going on. Between the last post and this one: I moved back to the states, both of my grandfathers died, my sister got pregnant, and returned to school and all the BS that entails. See? Busy. But, now I have a kinda long(at least in comparison to other chapters) chapter for you. So... enjoy!
The plane touched down and Hermione, Ron and Harry waited patiently in their seats for Jo-Ann to join them. About five minutes after landing, they heard the distinct 'pop' of apperation and the three heads turned to the closed door of the bedroom in the back. The sound of retching was the next thing to reach their ears.
Harry quickly got up and was at the door when it started to open. There on the other side was a middle-aged couple. The man, slightly stooped helping the woman stand properly, had dark brown hair; his brown eyes sparkled behind his glasses when they landed on the boy in front of him. "Harry, my boy! So good to see you again!"
Harry smiled, helping the couple to sit down on one of the couches.
"Always a pleasure, Mr. Rowling." Harry smiled at the man once again and turned all of his attention to the woman. "And how are you feeling, Jo-Ann? Is side-along apperation getting any easier for you?" Harry took the bottle of water that Ron handed him and gave it to the woman.
Taking small sips of the offered water, Jo-Ann smiled softly shaking her head. "Some days I wish I was a witch. I have a feeling it would be easier. Lily never seemed to have any problems."
They all shared a laugh before quieting down again.
"Mrs. Rowling," Hermione stood and faced the older woman. "Are you almost ready? We have a car waiting for us at the end of the stairs."
"Yes, yes indeed. Now that you mention it, it seems awfully quiet. I assume that isn't just luck on our part…"
"Unfortunately no," Ron jumped in. "We put up silencing charms up before we left. We can take them down, if you'd like."
"It's quite alright, dear. I'll have to face the music soon, anyway." She shook her head and giggled under her breath.
"And I really hate to do this to you, love, but I have to get back." Mr. Rowling stood and shook Hermione, then Ron's hands. "Can't leave the children with mum for too long."
He stood in front of Harry and waited for him to stand. After a brief hug and much manly back patting, Mr. Rowling bent to kiss his wife and was gone with the faintest 'pop'.
"Well," Jo-Ann said, patting her thighs and standing. "Shall we get this show on the road?"
Stepping out of the plane the little ensemble trudged down the gangplank, entering the airport only to exit quickly after having their passports checked.
'Aw,' Harry thought as they slipped into the waiting car. 'The powers of being famous… and magic.'
"What's so funny?" Hermione asked when she noticed the slight upturn of Harry's lip as they pulled out into traffic.
Shaking his head, Harry looked out the window.
"Harry."
Harry was startled awake by someone calling his name. Looking around the dark interior of the car, his hand automatically went to wipe his mouth.
"Come on. If you don't go and get cleaned up there's no way Hermione will let us go out tonight." Ron whispered, tugging on Harry's arm. "And you promised we'd be able to at least one club per stop we make."
Shaking his head at the serious tone his friend was using, Harry pulled himself out of the car and up to his hotel room to shower and change.
Once he thought himself presentable, he sashayed down the corridor to Hermione's room and knocked, casually leaning against the wall, waiting for entrance.
Ron opened the door and, upon seeing Harry, gave him a once over, nodding with a huge smile at what greeted him. And, man, if he and Harry weren't as familial to him as his other brothers, he'd have definitely wanted to take him back to his room that night.
Harry was dressed in a simple pair of trousers, black, that hugged his ass quite nicely without being ridiculously obscene. The boot cut bottoms were tucked nicely inside of a pair of knee high black boots with more buckles than were practical. After lingering on his crotch for a moment, Ron's eyes shifted up to take in the rest of his best mate's appearance. Instead of the bright green buttoned shirt he was expecting to see, he was a bit caught off guard when his eyes were met with a nice maroon, long-sleeved buttoned shirt. Just the front bit was tucked in, showing off the shiny silver buckle for his belt, a black tie was hung loosely under the collar around his neck.
"Do I pass?" Harry smirked as he watched his long time friend nod somewhat dumbly. "Good, 'cause this is going to be very similar to all of my other outfits." He started to push past the auburn haired man before he paused. "Not so bad yourself."
And it was true. Ron was dressed in a pair of extremely tight fitting dark denims that looked well warn with strategic rips and fading. His torso was covered in an equally tight short sleeved, royal blue shirt that clung to his muscles, almost showing more than if he weren't even wearing a shirt. A black inch thick collar-like necklace rested on his neck, gold buckle visible just above the hollow of his neck.
A throat cleared from within the room bringing both males out of whatever lust filled thoughts they were having.
"You both know the sex would be fuck-hot, so why don't you just shag already?" Hermione's voice was a mixture of frustration and amusement as she planted her hands on her hips and mock-glared.
The two men simply looked at each other mentally debating who should answer, and evidently they both decided Harry was the one that night. "I have no doubt that the sex would be amazing, and yes we are awesome friends, I just don't think it could ever really work."
"Yeah," Ron piped in. "He's hot as hell and as much as I'd love to pound into him, hell, even have him drillin' my ass, I don't think we could ever get over the awkwardness afterward." Ron admitted.
"Yeah, we'd either not be able to talk to each other or we'd ignore it ever happened." Harry shrugged, thinking back to all the reasons he and Ron would just never work out as an item.
"But what would be so wrong with ignoring it?" Hermione seemed genuinely curious, sitting down on the couch. "You could have sex, ignore that you did and have a normal… whatever, and then have sex again. It's like it wouldn't even interfere with your life."
"I don't know about Harry, but I don't want someone to fuck. I know it sounds super-camp, but I want to be able to do couple-y things." Ron walked over and put his arm around the girl. "Having a grade-A fuck-buddy isn't really all that high on my list. I'd rather have it mean something other than just a means to an end, especially when I have to spend the next however many years trying to act like nothing happened, you know? Plus, we'd hate to leave you out of anything, and I just don't swing like that. Sorry, love."
Harry listened, pensively. He absolutely agreed with everything the man was saying, but something was nagging him. "Ron, if you don't want 'a means to an end', why the fuck are we going out tonight?"
Ron sighed, rolling his eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Quite simple, love. While I don't necessarily want to be all sorts of awkward around you, I would still like to get laid. Tonight and every other night that we are here, preferably. Plus, we're in fuckin' America. I want to see how the scene changes from state to state and be able to rate it, as well as it's men, accordingly. It also helps that there appears to be nothing else to do tonight. So, are we ready?"
Hermione and Harry rolled their eyes simultaneously and Hermione stood grabbing her clutch.
That's when Harry finally saw her outfit. Definitely not the most showy thing he'd ever seen her in, but at the same time he was immensely glad that Jo Ann had a dinner party to attend. Her dress was a deep hunter green halter-top, the hem of the skirt just touched the backs of her knees, coming around to rest on mid thigh in the front. The neckline was actually quite moderate, but the back was completely gone from the neck to the small of her back. Looking at her, you'd never have guessed that this was the shy mousy know-it-all they knew back in school.
Pulling on their light jackets, the trio rode the elevator to the bottom level and made their way out of the hotel. When they exited they saw a gigantic mass of people, some were screaming, some were holding signs, all seemed really excited and anxious to be there.
"Why are all these fuckers here?" Ron asked as he leaned in close to his friends.
"For Harry," Hermione stated simply.
Ron scoffed. "Not bloody likely."
Harry raised an eyebrow. "How is that so hard to believe?"
"I just don't." Ron shrugged.
"Fine," Harry reached over and tapped a nearby girl on the shoulder. "Wos goin' on here? Who are you lot waiting for?"
The girl turned to him, looking at him as though he'd lost his mind. "Seriously? You don't know? The writer of the freaking Harry Potter books is staying in there. We just want to try and get an autograph before she leaves or something."
Hermione looked back at Ron with a smile that had 'I told you so' written all over it.
"Whatever, let's just go." Ron started to shove his way through the crowd, headed for the car waiting to take them to the club.
The club, sadly, wasn't all they (read: Ron) thought it should have been. This, however didn't stop him from chatting up some poor, unsuspecting, yet very cute, bloke and taking him back to his hotel room before Hermione was ready to leave.
The next morning they all swore that clubbing was not going to happen again the night before a signing, but it happened again in North Dakota and again in Illinois and again in Texas. They took the night off from clubbing in Colorado, simply because Harry and Hermione thought the night was just too beautiful to stay indoors. In the end, somehow, Ron got them all invites to a roof party, so they could do both. They didn't ask and he never told but after that short 'break' from the clubbing scene, they got right back into it on their stop in California and again in Tennessee.
Remarkably after, and sometimes during the middle, as well, Ron was able to pick up a different guy at every single club/party they attended. Harry and Hermione started placing bets, in Ron's presents, about when Ron's libido would just give out or when he would keel over, exhausted from fucking so much.
Ron would simply roll his eyes and make fun of them for not having picked up a single person.
They had come to the just over half way point in the tour and all of the signings where starting to blur together.
Harry and Hermione would often spend their free time talking about how excited they were for the end of the tour and to see Forks in person (another thing Ron made fun of them for) even thought Harry was still a bit bitter about his sneaky female friend and her total disregard for his rule of no one-on-ones. But every time he would complain, he'd simply receive a slap on the back of the head and the small statement, "I have a good feeling about it."
