Chapter 10 : The List

Next morning, we got ready early. We cleared our bill. First, we apparated to the Wizton, Antalya. In Antalya, we got out portkey to Larnaka, Cyprus. The portkey was supposed to drop us at 'The Phoenix Shacks' on Dasaki Pylas Beach. It was a popular place in Cyprus. The first day, we went to Aglos Lazaros Church, Tuzla Mosque and Larnaka Fort.

Over the next few days we went to The Pierides – Marfin Laiki Bank Museum, Larnaka Town Museum. We went to the capital city, Nicosia, there we visited – Archbishop's Palace and some churches and mosques. We also visited the Pafos Gate and Pyli Ammochostou, which are two of the three Venetian fortifications in the city of Nicosia.

In Limassol, we visited – Amathous Archeological Site. This place has historical baths and the sanctuary of Aphrodite, Amathous Harbour. We also went to the Kourion Site. Here, we saw the famous Kourion Mosaics, Temple of Appllo Hylates, the theatre. We went to the Lemesos Medieval Castle.

In Pafos, we visited the Frankish Baths, Maa – Palaeokastro settlements, Petra tou Romiou (Rock of Aphrodite), the tombs of Kings which we were told was the a UNESCO world heritage list monument, we had no idea what that meant. Only Pari seemed to understand the implication of that. We also checked out the Pafos Medieval Fort and Saranta Kolones Castle. Both these places were beautiful.

Cyprus was just beautiful. The food was amazing. We decided to keep two days at the end aside, just so we could enjoy the beautiful beaches in the country. We had so much to do here. Everyday, we would go back to the hotel in the evening and just fall asleep because we would be so tired. We even partied one particular evening. The owners of the hotel that we were staying at were throwing some sort of a beach party and all the guests were invited. We decided to just make an appearance just so we are not thought to be rude.

But when we went to the party, we were blown away. We never really partied on a beach before. Though all of us were extremely tired, we stayed till the party ended. With everyday that was passing on the trip, I could feel myself healing. It was not just me, everybody was visibly more happy. Our biggest surprise came when Greg kissed Millie during the party when they were dancing. Even more surprising was Millie kissing him back.

After Cyprus, we left for Greece. I was really excited to go to Greece. Maybe, it's because of Greek Mythology. We went to Athens via portkey. In Athens, we were staying at 'The Wizton' again. Again, we took a villa overlooking the beach. The beach was so beautiful, the first we didn't do anything but just sit on the beach. We swam, we played games, we just lied on the beach, and we even had food on the beach! The first day was just about relaxing and taking in the scenic beauty in front of us.

The second day we just kept roaming around Athens. We, first, checked out the Acropolis Museum. We went to the Temple of Zeus, the ancient theatre of Dionysus where works of Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylos and Aristophanes were performed. When we were standing at the ruins of Asklepieion, I started wondering how did muggles manage to build all of this without magic. In fact, I have been wondering that ever since we started our vacation in Turkey. But Athens was really enchanting. When we reached some sort of a promenade, Pari suggested that we rent cycles and ride them. We were confused, then she pointed at one of the passer-bys who was sitting on a small seat, which was attached to some metal rods and they were attached to two wheels with a lot of smaller metals things, which connected at the centre. People actually used that!

I thought riding this 'cycle' thing would be a piece of a cake. The people around seem to do it really easily. Even Pari was able to ride it without difficulty. I was beginning to wonder if there's anything that Pari can't do. Pari had become good friends with Daph. The others were also pretty welcoming of her, which is a lot for us to do. Slytherins are not very accepting of people. Pansy was the only one, who had some trouble trusting her. After falling a few times, we all seem to have gotten a hang of it. It was actually an enjoyable experience. If there's anything this trip is doing, then it's making me do things I've never done before.

Over the next few days, we traveled through Thessaloniki, Patras, Heraklion and Volos. We visited various monuments, beaches, caves, canyons and volcanoes. Again, we decided to visit the various beaches on the last two days of our stay. On the last day of our stay in Athens, Blaise pointed out something really sensible.

"If we keep traveling every country like this, we will never be able to reach France before our final year at Hogwarts begins in September." The girls had demanded that France be the last country we visit.

"Surprisingly, Blaise is right." I said. We never really planned out the trip, we just left and did whatever felt right.

"Hmm…how about we make a list of the places we want to go? That way we won't go to any place that's not on our list." Trace suggested.

"I think, that's a good idea, Trace." Adrian said. Adrian had developed a huge crush on Trace since the war ended. So, he normally agrees with whatever she suggests.

"Same here." Pans said and everyone agreed with what Trace suggested.

Millie waved her wand and a parchment and a self-ink quill appeared. "So where should be go next."

Theo waved his wand and map of Europe appeared. "I think it will be easier to decide if we had the map with us."

"Next we should go to Sofia, Bulgaria." Daph suggested. Neither of us had any viable reason to refuse so we put it on the list.

"Then Bucharest, Romania." Greg suggested. I was surprised he even made a suggestion. The discussion went on for a very long time. Everyone had different suggestions. Some didn't seem to be very interesting so we didn't add them on the list.

"When we go to Poland, I would really like to go to Auschwitz." Pari said cautiously.

"Why do you want to go to Auschwitz?" I asked curiously.

"Well, it was a Nazi camp during the World War II. Jews were held there and they were tortured under Hilter's command." Then she told us about World War II during which this guy Adolf Hitler captured Jews in these concentration camps in Auschwitz. He had them tortured and murdered ruthlessly. When she told us this, I couldn't help but feel a strange sense of similarity between the British Wizarding War and World War II. 'He' was like Hitler. 'He' went after muggle-borns and muggles like Hitler went after Jews.

"If it was a place were people were tortured and murdered, then why do you want to go there?" Pans asked. I could sense that everyone was a little uncomfortable after her story about World War II. That's when a thought hit me. The whole muggle world fought a war against each other, how come there was no mention of it any of our books. Was the wizarding world affected by this war in anyway?

"I've always wanted to go there. I tried to go there a couple of times but I sort of chickened out. That place has seen so much suffering that I get goosebumps just thinking about that place. One visit to that place can make any person in this world see that targeting a particular religion or community is not worth it. It's much better to find a way to co-exist then kill people over some different practices and thoughts. Trust me, you go there one time and you will completely forget about your pureblood and 'mudblood' discrimination." We cringed when she used that word.

"How do you know about that?" Millie asked

"Let's just say, I've a lot of free time and I may have done some detailed of research on Wizarding World since I started hanging out with you guys. It's good be informed."

"You sleep at nights, don't you?" Daph asked me.

"Of course, I do. What do you think I am?"

"A genie." Blaise said with an impassive face. Then everybody started chuckling.

"Very funny, Blaise."

So finally the list contained the following places –

Sofia, Bulgaria.

Bucharest, Romania.

Budapest, Hungary.

Auschwitz and Warsaw in Poland.

Prague, Czech Republic.

Vienna, Austria.

Rome, Milan, Florence, Pisa, Naples and Venice in Italy.

Geneva and Zurich in Switzerland.

Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and Frankfurt in Germany.

Copenhagen, Denmark.

Stockholm, Sweden.

Oslo, Norway.

Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Brussels, Belgium.

Madrid, Barcelona, Huelva, Malaga and Valencia in Spain.

Lisbon, Portugal.

Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Paris, Marseille, Nice, Cannes, Bordeaux, Dijon and Lyon in France.

After making the list we realized that we wanted to spend most of our time in Italy, Germany, Spain and France. Paris was supposed to be our last stop. Now that we had a list it was easy to plan our days accordingly. Originally, we decided to return home two weeks before school began. But seeing the number of places we wanted to visit, we were now going to go back home a week before school began. We wanted to go back with two weeks to spare because we wanted to get our books and supplies before it got too crowded on Diagon Alley. The last week before school re-opens is the most crowded week ever on Diagon Alley.

I had avoided talking to Pari as much as possible since we spoke in Istanbul. What she told me was so confusing. I'm pretty sure even she was confused about what she said. She tried talking to me but I would not say anything back. I could see that she was hurt. I just didn't know what to do or what to say. After a couple of days, I was not angry with her. I understood that, if someone were around for almost 3000 years, you would not want to be alone. Everybody needed company. I realized that during the war. It was the only time in my life I felt so alone. I had no one to talk to.

She did say she didn't love him. She felt she would fall for this other guy eventually. I still have my chances, don't I? Nobody seemed to notice the rift in between Pari and I except Blaise. He even asked me about it.

"So, what's going on in between you and Pari?" he asked pretty seriously.

"I don't know, what you're talking about."

"Drake, please. You think, I didn't notice? I've seen the way you look at her when she's not looking at you. You like her. I have a feeling it may even be love." It surprised me how much my best friend knew me. He even figured out when I sort of had a crush on Granger. It's a different thing that I never admitted it.

"Blaise, I've no idea what to do. I feel something towards her. It's really strong. When I have her in my arms, Merlin, it's like I never want to let her go. But she's a genie. She apparently promised some other genie bloke that she'd marry him in case they both would ever get free. That bloke recently got his freedom."

"Pari has a boyfriend?" He was shocked.

"No, he's not her boyfriend. As of now, it's a completely platonic friendship. He's her best friend."

"She only promised the guy, she'd marry him. You're talking like she already married the guy. If you really like her that much show her that you like her. If you keep your distance from her how will she ever know? Even you were supposed to marry Astoria, but after the war didn't you tell her that you didn't want to do it? Genie or not, girls need to be shown that they are loved." He told me this very seriously. He did have a point. She was not married. Heck, she was not even engaged.

"Since you're telling me all this, does it mean that you are finally going to make a move on Weaslette this year?" I wiggled my eyebrows.

"You know, Ginny is with Potter. Everybody except Potter could see she's in love with him even before they went out."

"Actually, from what I heard before we left, they sort of were not able to make it work. While we were restoring the castle, many of the times I saw, Potter trying to avoid Weaslette as much as possible. Weaslette seemed distressed, no doubt, but not as distressed as I would have expected her to be. I think, there maybe a chance for you."

"Are you sure?" I could see a hint of a spark in his eyes.

"Positive."

"Good. I guess, I'll have to find a way to grab her attention soon when we get back. We all know she doesn't like to stay single for a long time. But right now, you need to think about Pari. If you think, she's the girl for you then you should not let her go without even trying."

Blaise was right. I need to try at least.

Yay! Chapter 10! I'm happy, I could write 10 chapters! Please read and review. Thanks for reading!

Neepa :-)