Chapter 10

First Day of Holiday

The Dursley's pulled into their driveway. Mr. Dursley turned around sharply to look at everyone in the car.

"You eight," he said his face turning a brilliant shade of red, "get out of the car in pairs. The neighbors will start to talk and I will not have them knowing that I am housing your lot!"

"Alright," they all murmured and the three Dursley's got out of the car and walked into the house leaving the door unlocked.

"I think that people will think its more strange if we walk out in pairs out of nowhere but you heard the man," said Harry and he and Ron walked out of the car.

As Harry walked to the door he spotted Ms. Figg shoveling her driveway. She waved pleasantly at Harry and he waved back.

"Isn't that the person that went on the witness stand for you in 5th year?" whispered Ron, "cause that's no muggle."

"She's a squib," said Harry, "yeah she went on the stand for me; A really nice gesture. She was treated pretty poorly since she is a squib."

They walked into the house. They waited in the hallway and moments after they sat down on the stairs Hermione and Ginny walked into the door. And then followed Neville and Luna soon after and then Raya and Draco.

"You all go upstairs," said Aunt Petunia, "I have some friends coming over for tea and you all-"

"Stay in our room, make no noise, and pretend that we don't exist," interrupted Harry, "I do believe that was the drill last time I was here."

Aunt Petunia scowled and huffed her way back into the kitchen.

"C'mon," said Harry and they all followed him upstairs.

When they opened the door to Harry's room they all looked around.

"Looks okay," said Ron, "bit too clean for my tastes but it'll do."

"Looks like Aunt Petunia actually came in here and cleaned," said Harry, "and not surprisingly she took down the few Quidditch posters I couldn't fit in my trunk."

"She had someone over," said Dudley coming up behind them, "I had the pleasure of feeding your precious posters to the fire."

"Dudley dear," said Harry sarcastically, "those posters were free gifts that Oliver sent me from a whole bunch of teams that I don't even know. And don't care about. I'm glad you did feed them to the fire because I would have done it sooner or later."

Dudley scowled. Disappointed that he didn't devastate Harry, he walked away in silence.

"So," said Hermione, "Harry. There is only one bed. Should we sleep on the floor?"

"Yeah," said Harry, "the Dursley's have sleeping bags in the closet down the hall. I think they have enough. They had more because Dudley used to be too fat to fit into one so they had to lay out two."

They eight friends quietly tiptoed out the hall when they heard the voices of muggle women laughing. Harry put his finger to his lips, signaling them to be silent. They opened the closet with no noise and made it into Harry's bedroom.

"Everyone lay their sleeping bags out in a circle," said Harry, "it takes up less room than just randomly spreading them out."

They all made a circle. Hermione's next to Ron's, Ron's next to Raya's, Raya's next to Draco's, Draco's next to Ginny's, Ginny's next to Luna's, Luna's next to Neville's, Neville's next to Harry's, Harry's next to Hermione's.

"Now what do we do?" asked Ron, "we can't go anywhere with the giggles downstairs."

"Hello," said Harry, "Ron we can aparate."

"Here?" asked Hermione, "in the muggle world."

"Fine," said Harry, "well then what do you suppose we do?"

"Maybe we can get our Christmas shopping done at a muggle mall," suggested Luna.

"Good thought Luna," said Raya.

"But you heard Aunt Petunia," said Harry, "we can't make any noise. We can't go downstairs to get to the door."

"Who said anything about using a door?" asked Hermione, "we're using the window."

The boys watched as the four girls opened the window and slowly began to climb out the window. Raya, the last to climb out, stopped when she was about to start descending the house. She looked at the boys.

"Coming?" asked Raya.

The boys all looked at each other at the same time. Then back at her, "Yep!" they all said in unison and Raya continued her climb and the boys followed.

When everyone was down they began walking up the street receiving many glances form the neighbors, and they weren't friendly ones.

"Gods!" said Luna, "I feel like I'm on a museum display!"

"Yeah," said Ginny, "they need to grow up."

"Don't ever tell them that," said Harry, "they like never changing. It's tradition for them. That's why the Dursley's are so obsessed with being normal."

They made their way to the busy street and called for a taxi. One pulled up and they all piled in.

"Where to?" asked the taxi driver.

"To the Surrey Mall," said Harry, "please."

The driver took off.

"Harry," said Ron, "I have my money. But its still wizard coins."

"What do you mean wizard coins?" asked the taxi driver looking back.

"Um," stuttered Ron, quickly trying to think of a cover-up, "their foreign coins. All the cool kids called foreign money wizard money. It's the new phase."

"Ah!" said the taxi driver, turning back to looking at the road, "kids these days. They always like coming up with code words that mean nonsense to sensible folks."

"Nice save Ron," mouthed Harry.

"Thanks," he mouthed back.

"So what should we do?" asked Hermione, "I have wizard money too."

"I'm not sure," said Harry, "maybe we'll find somebody that can exchange forms of money."

"There is a coin exchange at the mall," said the taxi driver, "they exchange all sorts of 'wizard' money."

"Thanks," said Harry.

They pulled up to the mall and they all got out.

"Here," said Harry and he gave the driver the little muggle money he had from years past, "thanks for the ride!"

"No problem," said the taxi driver and he pulled away.

"We can't use that coin exchange place!" said Hermione, "these are a little different than foreign coins. They are, to this place, other worldly!"

"Well," said Harry and they began to walk over to the coin exchange that was right in front of the mall, "it's a chance we have to take. If they ask where the money is from we'll just say its money from Zimbabwe."

"Zimbab-what?" asked Ron as they entered the coin exchange.

"Hello! May I help you?" asked a young woman behind the counter.

"Yes," said Harry and he brought his friends over to the desk. They all emptied their pockets of coins and looked up at her expectantly.

She looked at the coins.

"Oh my," she said picked one up and examined it closely and then put the coin down and looked at them. "Do you want it in pounds or dollars?"

"Wait?" asked Harry unable to contain his curiosity, "aren't you going to ask us where it's from?"

"You all aren't very good at keeping yourselves secret are you?" she asked, "you are very lucky that I was on the job today."

They all looked at her puzzled.

"Well," she said laughing, "nobody else on staff is a witch!"

They all dropped their jaws.

"You're a witch?" asked Draco, "then what are you doing here?"

"Well," said the young woman, "I kinda made a bet with my boyfriend that I could make it in the muggle world without any magic for a month. I have three days left."

"What do you get if you win," said Ginny.

"He has to tell his parents about us," said the woman, "they still don't know and we have been going out since our sixth year at Hogwarts!"

"You went to Hogwarts?" asked Raya, "that's where we are students!"

"Really," said the woman, "is McGonagall still there?"

"Yeah!" said Hermione.

"I remember she call me Tina Croswell instead of Cromwell," she said, "she never did get it right."

"Well," said Harry, "we want them in pounds."

"Right away," said Tina and a few moments later she appeared with the pounds equivalent to their coins. "Enjoy yourselves! You're here just for the holiday?"

"Yeah," said Draco, "then its back to Hogwarts."

"What year?" asked Tina.

"7th," answered Neville, "and 6th for them."

He pointed at Ginny and Luna.

"Well have fun," said Tina, "and tell McGonagall that Tina Cromwell says hello."

"We will," said Luna.

"Bye!" they all said in unison and walked out the door.

"That was unbelievably lucky!" said Raya as they walked into the mall.

They all took off their coats and started to walk around.

"Hey!" said Ginny, "let's try this store!"

Ginny and Luna grabbed Hermione and Raya's hands and pulled them towards the store at full speed while the boys followed more slowly behind.

"Why am I starting to think this was a bad idea?" asked Ron and they sat on a bench in front of the store and waited.

An hour later the girls came walking out of the store with large heavy bags. They saw the boys on the bench, all sleeping.

"Wake up!" cried Raya and the boys jumped up all murmuring something about not sleeping just resting their eyes.

"We can go to one of your stores next!" said Luna and the boys took them to a sports store where the boys went wild.

For the next six hours they stayed at the mall either shopping or eating, Ron's favorite.

They were about to leave when Hermione spotted a store.

"Oh Ron," she breathed and Ron looked around to the store she was staring at.

There was a store full of brides' dresses and other wedding related things.

Ron gave Hermione a hug from behind. He kissed her cheek.

"You're gonna look great in one of those," said Ron, Hermione smiled still looking in the display windows.

They walked out of the mall.

"So Hermione," said Ginny, "I've been meaning to ask you something."

"Yes?" answered Hermione.

"Just who are going to be your brides maids?" asked Ginny.

"You three of course," she said giving the girls all a hug.

"And Harry, Draco, and Neville are going to be my best men!" said Ron.

"Ron!" said Hermione, "I want an outdoor wedding! How about in your backyard?"

"Only if you want to," answered Ron, "we have enough space."

"Yes," said Hermione, "it'll be perfect. And your mother can make the cake! She's an excellent cook."

"Hermione," said Ron, "I haven't even told my mother that I'm getting married yet. I think we should just slow down a little bit."

"I know," said Hermione, "but I'm so excited. I get to be Hermione Weasley."

Ron looked nervously at the boys and they all laughed as he loosened his shirt collar.

They called a taxi and talked all the way to the Dursley's. They got out and walked to number 6 Privet Drive.

The door banged open and Aunt Petunia stood in the doorway.

"Where have you been?" her shrill voice echoed in the empty hallway.

"We just went out," answered Harry.

"I did not say you could go anywhere," said Aunt Petunia.

"We're seventeen," cried Harry exasperated.

"That doesn't mean you can go prancing about!" shrilled Aunt Petunia.

"Stop pretending you care," said Harry and the eight friends stepped in the hallway to the house and took off their coats.

"Petunia dearest?" called Uncle Vernon's voice from upstairs. "Dinner ready?"

"Yes Vernon!" said Aunt Petunia happily than her face turned grim as she faced the teenagers. "You will be joining us for dinner. Go wash up."

The witches and wizards ran upstairs and washed their faces and all came downstairs about ten minutes later.

When they walked into the dining room Harry noticed that Dudley wasn't there. He had always been the first one at the table for every meal Harry had ever eaten here.

"Where's Dudley?" asked Harry as he took his seat next to Raya.

"Never you mind," said Uncle Vernon and at that moment Dudley walked into the room.

"Dudley!" cried Aunt Petunia, "how was tea?"

"Excellent!" said Dudley, "the Parsons are truly marvelous people."

Dudley sat and everybody began to eat. Ron dug in as fast as he could as usual.

"Ron!" said Hermione, "don't be rude."

"Sorry," said Ron with his mouthful and Hermione rolled her eyes. Ron spotted the eye roll immediately.

"Hey!" said Ron, "you're going to have to deal with this everyday once we're married."

"You two are getting married?" asked Dudley looking at both Hermione and Ron.

"Yeah," said Hermione, "at the end of the year."

Hermione smiled over at Ron, once he had swallowed.

"So," said Draco to all the witches, "we were at the mall today and the boys and I went into a store and we bought a football (Soccer ball if you're American, which I am but this goes better with the story)."

"I can't wait," said Harry, "I love football!"

"We don't know how to play, well except Harry, you know," said Neville, "Is it too much different than Quidditch?"

"No, not really," said Harry, he looked over at the Dursley's a saw them squirming uncomfortably in their seats.

"So your teach us to play football?" asked Draco.

"That's right!" said Harry.

"I want to learn," said Raya.

"Me too!" said Luna, Ginny, and Hermione all at the same time.

"Hermione!" said Ron surprised, "I didn't know you liked sports. You never get into it."

"Well that's Quidditch," said Hermione, "I hate flying on brooms. I am scared of heights. I do believe soccer is played on the ground."

"Hermione," said Harry, "you're muggle born. You've never played football?"

"No," said Hermione, "my parents were never into sports. They were all about the smarts."

"I see now where you get it," said Ron nudging her softly with his elbow.

After dinner the wizards excused themselves and walked into the living room where they had their television and Harry turned the channel to a football game and explained the rules while they all watched. Aunt Petunia began clearing the table. Muttering to herself about nobody helping her.

"No Aunt Petunia," said Raya, "let us."

The witches got up.

"Wingardium Leviosa," they all said in unison and the plates, cups, and silverware all flew into the sink.

They muttered more spells and in a matter of seconds the dishes were washed, dried, and put away.

"Thank you," stuttered Aunt Petunia amazed ten she remembered herself and replaced the look of awe with a frown. "I could have handled that myself."

The girls exchanged glances and walked out of the kitchen into the living room. Raya looked back and saw Aunt Petunia opening a cabinet and admiring how clean the dishes were. Raya smiled to herself.

The girls sat down on the floor beside Harry, Draco, Neville, and Ron.

"Hey!" said Ron putting his arm around Hermione and kissed her on the cheek. "Football is fascinating."

"Great! Another sport you'll never stop talking about!" said Hermione laying her head on Ron's shoulder to try and watch the game.

After about twenty minutes the game stopped and commercials came on.

"What's this?" asked Ron.

"Commercials," answered Harry, and noticed Ron's puzzled look, "people try to sell their products to people by advertising their product on television."

"Oh!" said Ron in realization.

A commercial came on about a vacuum, a CD, and a computer all of which Harry and Hermione had to explain to their solely wizarding world friends.

After two hours of watching football on television the eight friends walked upstairs and climbed into their sleeping bags.

Everyone was asleep except Raya she sat up and looked around the room. She heard a sleeping bag rustle behind her. She turned around to see Draco sitting up slowly.

"Raya?" asked Draco sleepily, "what's wrong."

He yawned.

"I sense something," said Raya, "or someone."

"What do you mean?" asked Draco a little less sleepily and more concerned.

"We aren't alone here," said Raya, "they know."

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