Chapter 12: Woodmere, New York, Part II
Over the next couple of days, Harry and Hermione were given the usual taste of Danny and Rachel's summers on Long Island, completely unaware of the surprise they'd receive in just a few days.
The next morning, Harry awoke to find a pair of swimming trunks laid out in front of him, while Hermione found a bikini and a set of light clothes. Harry assumed these were for going swimming in Danny and Rachel's large backyard pool, but was told they weren't.
"You'll see when we get there," Rachel promised him.
Harry and Hermione saw no reason to argue and got dressed in their clothes and swimsuits and met Danny and Rachel out in the driveway. Rachel's grandparents were waiting in a brand new Jaguar XJS convertible with an Alpine Green finish and beige leather interior.
Danny and Rachel's parents were also waiting. Danny's parents, Hank and Jill, were waiting by Hank's 1982 Toyota SR5 pickup truck, while Rachel's parents, Ben and Sam, were waiting with Lily and James by their car, which I was too lazy to decide upon the kind.
Anyways, Rachel and Hermione headed for the Jaguar, while Danny and Harry headed for the Toyota and the crew were on their way. They headed over a toll bridge into another town with a sign, which read, Village of Atlantic Beach, Incorporated 1962.
Soon enough, the cars pulled up to a small building with a sign marked, Sunny Atlantic Beach Club.
"Rachel's Pa (Her name for her grandpa, once again) pays for all our memberships to this club," Danny explained, "Today, you're our guests."
After signing their guests in, Danny and Rachel took Harry and Hermione to their private deck, where they, and two other members had cabanas, and they got ready to order lunch.
Today, I forgot to mention, was July 4th, so the club was getting ready for their Fourth of July celebrations. Harry, being English, naturally had no idea what the whole idea behind this holiday was, but he figured it had to be similar to St. George's Day, when he saw that the decorations were in red, white, and blue.
As the four friends chowed down on burgers and fries, Danny turned to Harry.
"What do you think?" he asked.
"Outrageous," Harry answered. "The me in the other timeline's got nothing on this."
Danny didn't quite understand the last part, but I, rationally, wasn't going to tell him. I'm putting my foot down when I say I'm keeping his universe straight. Don't forget it.
The next day, Danny and Rachel took Harry and Hermione to a nearby park called, North Woodmere Park. Rachel's grandparents drove them there and were relieved when they saw the parking situation.
"If today were Wednesday, he'd be honking his horn twice as loud," Myrna told them.
After a comment like that, Harry was surprised to see how much control Herb had while he was driving through the lot (or the car park, as they call it in Britain). With Harry's mother's temper, he'd expect her to just blow right up, even if the situation was no big deal. Hey, you can't argue with what a mother does, can you?
But still, it was unlike anything Harry or Hermione's parents had gone through back in Britain.
"What's wrong with Wednesday?" Hermione asked.
"Wednesdays in the summer are usually so boring that people always go to the park, and it's worse here, because they've got a pool," Rachel explained.
If you haven't guessed, on Wednesdays at this park, the lot was crammed with cars to a point where they blocked out any visible space in between, making it seem almost impossible to find a parking spot. I wrote this before with the kids going here on a Wednesday, then going to see the movie on Thursday, and getting that big surprise I talked about before on Friday, but that was a day when Harry was going to get another nice little surprise, and getting the big surprise would interfere. It's always a pity how in some cases, you always have to sacrifice the smallest bit of comedy just to fix one eensy weensy, but ever so crucial, little tiny detail.
But… I'll get to that later.
Anyways, the kids unloaded their things and headed off to a larger section of a playground with swings near a grassier space, where they'd play catch with a ball and frisbee later. Harry noticed that they also passed a smaller section of a playground intended for very small children.
"If Ron were here, he'd be looking at that, utterly confused," he whispered to Hermione.
It was nice and sunny on that day, so Harry was glad he was wearing Lucky Lennon on his head, and Danny was glad he brought his purple ski shades. Hermione and Rachel's attention was directed over at the sprinkler section of the park. Danny started to pull Rachel away.
"We didn't bring bathing suits or towels," he explained.
"Who cares?" Rachel asked.
"I do," Danny added. "Our parents would kill us if we stepped into the car wearing wet clothes.
As tempting as Harry found that idea… yes to jump in the sprinklers, but really to drive his parents up the wall… he had to drag Hermione away too.
"Come on," he ordered as he pulled Hermione's arm.
After spending some time fooling around on the jungle gym and pushing each other on the swings, they headed for the grass for a game of catch. Harry and Danny used the ball, while Hermione and Rachel used the frisbee. After a while, the four of them decided to make it into a four-way game, where they'd all play together, throwing both the ball and frisbee to each other in opposite directions.
Soon enough, Harry and Danny caught a glimpse of some other kids playing baseball. Danny sat down to watch them play and he ended up having to explain to Harry the differences between baseball and cricket. The girls saw this as an opportunity to ditch the boys and sneak off to… guess where.
About halfway through the game, Harry and Danny noticed that Hermione and Rachel were gone.
"Where'd they go?" Danny asked.
"Well, where do you think?" Harry answered.
Knowingly, Danny shook his head as the boys headed over to the sprinkler area to find the girls fooling around and jumping in the water puddles like a couple of little girls. Rachel saw who was coming and it took her three tries to get Hermione's attention so she could see it too. The boys were standing by the entrance to sprinkler area. Harry had his arms folded and Danny had his hands on his hips. They seemed to have the disappointed parents' look on their faces, but anyone with eyes could see they were faking it and couldn't mask it very well.
"You seem surprised to see us, young ladies," Danny mock scolded.
"Yeah," Hermione answered. "And have we got a surprise for you."
"What?" Harry asked.
"This," Rachel answered, as splashed Danny in the face.
"Hey!" Danny shouted.
"You're only in trouble if you get caught," Rachel teased.
"Similar to someone else I knew in the other timeline," Hermione added.
While we at home, or some other place read this and laugh at that, Danny and Rachel just stand there scratching their heads.
"Oh yeah?" Harry smiled.
He splashed Hermione back and the four friends spent the rest of the afternoon splashing in the sprinklers at the park before finally going home in miraculously dry clothes. Harry and Hermione thought this was all my doing, but Danny and Rachel, having absolutely no clue that I exist, just associated it with your average everyday unpredictable summer heat.
When Hank saw their ridiculously giddy expressions as they came back into the house, he had to ask,
"Anything interesting happen at the park?"
To which Danny answered,
"Not really"…
…all the while still smiling really hard, and not even trying to keep a straight face.
Then again, I wouldn't blame him, I mean what do you expect from a 13 year old kid who's been splashing in the sprinklers all day with his girl, living his literally wet dreams.
But I digress. This story is about Harry, not him.
Anyways, later that evening, Hank took the kids out to Lido Beach, which wasn't too far away from Atlantic Beach. They were headed out for a little something that would make the Weasleys' mouths water more than anyone else's, even to a point where they'd practically be drooling a river… or a lake… or an ocean. They pulled into the parking lot of an ice cream stand called Marvel, with a large sculpted ice cream cone at the top.
"This is the best place to get ice cream during the summer," Rachel exclaimed, as she excitedly got out of the car.
Rachel ended up eating her favorite ice cream with her favorite toppings; vanilla with a chocolate shell and rainbow sprinkles. Hermione had to agree with her when she ordered her favorite; vanilla with chocolate sprinkles. If you're a lover of ice cream and you think this sounds a little too plain, remember, in all the other fanfics, one of her best qualities, at least from Harry's standpoint, is the vanilla scent brought on by the bathroom products she uses.
Harry and Danny were busy eating their ice cream over by the car. Danny had vanilla with rainbow sprinkles, Harry had strawberry with a chocolate shell and chopped nuts. Sounds almost like the original timeline, doesn't it? After all, in my other stories, I retained his love for treacle tarts and Quidditch.
Harry thought that if Ron were here, he'd order chocolate with a cherry shell and chocolate sprinkles. Or if Ginny were here, she'd order pistachio with a cherry shell and rainbow sprinkles. Notice how I doubled on Ron's chocolate, considering how many Chocolate Frogs he eats. Ginny, on the other hand, would order any ice cream that came in green, because it matched Harry's eyes. Harry even imagined Ron trying to sample Hermione's or Ginny's ice cream and both girls growling at him to stay away so each of them could hog it all to herself. But… I digress.
"Rachel thinks this ice cream is the best, but I see very little difference between Marvel and Carvel," Danny commented, only to find that Harry wasn't really listening.
"Harry?" He called.
Harry now had one other thing on his mind, and I think you can guess what. Especially since he saw a poster for it at the Long Beach Cinema they'd passed along the way. Danny could immediately tell this, being the good friend he was, especially to Rachel, and found a way to get his attention.
"We can go see the movie tomorrow," Danny offered. "How does that sound?"
"Brilliant," Harry smiled.
The next day was Wednesday and the day that Harry's been waiting for. I've taken up too much space here, trying my hardest to come up with things for them to do in the Woodmere, NY area, so I'll tell you all about it in the next chapter.
So stay tuned…
