The different groups from every year stood on the Hogwarts grounds, waiting for their departure. Both groups 1a and 1b would leave at five o'clock exactly. 2a and 2b would leave at quarter past five, 3a and 3b at five-thirty, 4a and 4b at quarter to six and the left over groups at six o'clock.
"Nora, Nora!" Hermione shouted as she ran over to where Nora stood, staring lonely at the Lake. Padma and Justin were talking animatedly together and Draco sat in the shadow of a large tree, alone. Nora turned around and was nearly knocked over by Hermione. "Oh, I'm going to miss you so very much!" Hermione said, her eyes brimming up with tears; after all, they weren't going to see each other for more than five months and she couldn't just leave her best friend after Dean's death. Who would take care of Nora when Hermione was gone?
"Yes, I know, I'll miss you too! But we'll owl, won't we?" Nora asked, crying like Hermione and still hugging her.
"Yes, of course! But only at night; McGonagall said it would be too noticeable if owls kept flying to the hotel rooms and tents," said Hermione, not letting go of her friend. They both fiercely wished Dumbledore hadn't split them up, for they didn't know what to do without the other,
"Yes, all right… Oh, hi Terry," Nora said, rather shyly. Ever since the… incident where Dean had been murdered, she just couldn't bring herself to look everyone straight in the eyes, especially not the students she didn't know as well. "I assume you want her back now, then?" she asked, pointing at Hermione, as Terry walked over. He smiled.
"Well, it would be nice. 'Mione?" He asked.
"Hmmm?"
"We have to leave in about three minutes. Dumbledore has asked everyone to stand by their portkey."
"But I don't want to go without her!" cried Hermione desperately. "Or I'll take you with me!" she said excitedly, turning to Nora.
"I'll miss you so very much," Nora said, wiping away her tears. Hermione pouted.
"I'll miss you loads too. Bye…" And with one last hug, which was just a squeeze, as she hadn't let go of Nora yet, Terry dragged Hermione away. Nora watched them as they stood around their Portkey, an old hat, and whispered animatedly with each other. She continued to watch them, there was nothing else to do, and saw Hermione give her one last encouraging smile before they were pulled away into the wizards hat. Then the hat vanished too, and Nora was just staring at empty space, feeling that now two people had been taken from her.
"What's so interesting?" asked a voice.
"Oh, nothing. I was just waving Hermione off," said Nora quietly, looking at Draco and then almost immediately looking away again. Draco could not understand why she was acting this way… as if she was shy.
"Well, we have to leave in about fifteen minutes and McGonagall's asked us to grab a bag with food." Draco turned to leave and led Nora to Padma and Justin, who were standing in front of a table loaded with backpacks. Nora gazed at the table for a while and then grabbed a red one while Padma took a yellow one, Justin a blue one and Draco chose a green one as Padma had taken the last yellow bag. (A/N: yellow is Draco's favorite color, remember? If not, read chapter 6 again. Or don't… whatever.)
"How many more minutes?" Nora asked, eyebrows furrowing as she tried hard not to cry, though she wished she could just burst out in tears; at least then she could relieve herself for a short while of all the emotions that kept bubbling up inside her.
"Seven," Draco said, glancing at his magical watch.
"Thanks," said Nora, and then she ran off, leaving her group members behind looking very stunned. Draco was about to run after her, but then saw that she was heading towards Harry and Ron.
"Hi," Harry said warmly, trying to see how she was doing. "What are you doing here?"
"I c-came to say g-goodbye," Nora gasped, trying hard to breathe. When her heart had stopped pounding against her chest she gave Harry and Ron a big hug each, as if she'd never see them again. When she looked back at her group Draco was tapping his watch impatiently. "I'm so sorry. I have to go now. Bye. I'll miss you both, very much," she told them. Harry and Ron nodded before she sprinted away again, the two boys watching her in worry.
"I just wanted to say goodbye," Nora said, when she finally reached her group again.
"I noticed. Grab the boot," Draco said distantly, feeling a tad jealous without even knowing why.
"Are you all right?" Justin asked him.
"Oh, yes. I feel perfect," Draco replied, somewhat sarcastically. The four of them were now holding on to the old boot that was their portkey. In less than a minute they would be at the airport and go on a plane that would take them far away from their friends and safety. Nora looked over at Harry and Ron, who she wouldn't see for the rest of the year, and saw that they were still looking at her. She gave them a weak, little smile, which they returned with a worried one, and then felt the familiar tug at her bellybutton before she lost view of her friends.
The four landed with a hard crash on a cold stone floor in an abandoned part of the airport and fell over. When they stood up, Nora and Justin looked around at the familiar sightings of an airport. Padma and Draco just looked confused.
"And what is this?" Draco asked, peering around.
"This would be an airport," Justin answered as he and Nora began walking.
"And this thing will take us to Australia?" Padma questioned in disbelief. Justin shook his head, laughing.
"No. An airplane will take us to Australia, not the airport," he said.
"I see. And what exactly is and airplane?" Draco asked.
"You'll see," said Nora, in the quite voice she used a lot nowadays. "What gate do we have to be at?" she asked Justin.
"Gate seven. I think it's over there," Justin replied, pointing to the right. "Hold on, let's look at those signs first." He walked over to a large board. "Yes, it's over there." He and Nora began walking again, Padma and Draco trailing behind. They rounded a corner and knew they were on the right track. The hall was filled with people who bustled about, in and out of shops.
"We go right here, right?" Justin asked
"Yes," replied Nora and they took a right turn. After a lot of walking and whining from Padma and Draco they finally reached Gate seven.
"At last!" Draco said, and he plopped down in one of the plastic chairs.
"Draco?" Nora asked, after having heaved a large and weary sigh.
"Hmmm?"
"Up you get."
"What? No. I want to stay seated!" He whined.
"In the plane are better seats, and you can even sleeeeeeep," Nora said, tugging slightly at his arm, trying to get him up.
"All right," Draco muttered and he got off the chair, causing Nora, who had still been tugging at his arm, to fall on the floor. Draco helped her up, laughing. She just glared at him in return, having fallen hard on her pride, if there was any left… after the… incident.
"Now we just give our tickets and then we're on the plane." Justin told Padma who had asked how much longer it was. The four walked forward and gave their flight tickets to the woman on duty. After Padma had received her ticket back she asked Justin:
"Are we on the plane yet?" Justin laughed uncomfortably as the lady, who was now handing Nora her ticket back, gave Padma a lightly befuddled look. He replied:
"Not yet. We have to walk just a little bit more. She's never traveled by plane," He added, turning to the woman. She gave a small nod, but continued to glance at Padma. When Draco, too, had been handed his ticket they walked down the little hallway and into the plane. Padma and Draco, who had never used Muggle transportation looked around.
"And you're sure this thing flies?" Draco asked Nora as they headed towards their seat. Nora smiled sweetly at the Muggles who had turned to look at the blond boy and used the same excuse Justin had:
"He's never traveled by plane," she assured them. A few people looked away, but some kept staring. When they had finally taken their seats, Nora hit Draco hard on the arm. "You have the mind of a flobberworm!" she hissed. "You know it'll be very noticeable if you keep asking stupid, obvious questions!"
"I was just very curious," Draco huffed back. On Nora's left, Justin was scolding Padma for the same thing.
"But you said…" Padma started.
"I know what I said. But this isn't the magical world, you can't expect to be on the plane as soon as you receive back your ticket."
"But that's what you said!" Padma argued, pouting. She didn't like the Muggle world at all.
"Oh never mind." Justin turned to look out of the window, instead of argue with Padma. Padma turned to Nora, who sat beside her, and asked what that thing was in front of her.
"That's a small television. Every seat has one in the back, so you can watch T.V. when you're bored."
"Interesting. How does it work?" asked Padma. Nora showed her how it worked and when she was done, Draco asked the same thing and she showed him.
"Are we there yet?" Draco asked. Nora had to laugh silently at this, despite the way she felt at the moment: exhausted, lonely, broken… and incomplete.
"Draco," she said, shaking her head slightly.
"What?"
"It's a ten hour flight."
"Oh."
"And we're not even flying yet."
"Oh?" Nora reached to grab her bag, looking for something interesting to do. She had wanted to bring a book, but reading in planes or cars always gave her a headache. There was nothing in her bag except for a lot of food, some extra parchment, a bottle of ink, a list of tasks, a contact device, a packet of exploding snap and a bag of Muggle and Wizard money. She kind of wanted to play exploding snap, but since she was in a plane full of Muggles she decided against it and instead grabbed the headphones on her right and decided to listen to some music instead. And while listening to music seemed to make her troubles wash away the instantly flooded back when two hands grab her right arm. She opened her eyes and looked into the frightened face of Draco.
"What?" she asked worriedly, taking her headphones off.
"What's that feeling?" he asked in fright.
"It's just the plane moving, don't worry." Draco let out a sigh and loosened his grip. When the plane began moving faster, however, he squeezed her arm again.
"I'm… kind of scared," he whispered. Nora gazed at him, thinking he looked rather fragile and cute, though she knew he wouldn't have admitted it to anyone else.
"Don't be. Once we're in the air you won't even notice we're flying." She looked at Draco comfortingly. He looked so fragile now, so frightened, almost not at all like a Malfoy. Nora put her left hand on his hands, trying to soothe him a bit. It helped slightly but as the plane lifted into the air he began to tense up again. Nora heard quick breaths coming from the left and she knew Padma was feeling just as scared as Draco. She could hear Justin talking to her, trying to take her mind off of the flight. Suddenly, an idea sprang to mind.
"Why don't you listen to some music? It might help you feel better." She leaned over him and grabbed his headphones, which she then put on his head. After about a song or two, Draco let go off Nora's arm and was humming with the current tune. Padma had started watching T.V. with Justin and Nora had fallen into an irregular and uneasy sleep.
Hermione and her group landed hard on the ground and they all fell over. As Hermione stood up and brushed the dirt off of her clothes she saw the familiar King's Cross building.
"Where do we go now?" Hannah asked, looking at her group members
"We go to platform three and take the train to Paris," Terry answered. He grabbed Hermione's hand and went inside. Hermione wasn't really paying attention and just let Terry drag her around. She was a little homesick, already. She wouldn't see three of her best friends for the rest of the year. Yes, she was with Terry, but that didn't make the lonely feeling go away. She had no one to have girl talk with. All right, she had Hannah, but she didn't know her that well and so she wouldn't be able to spill her secrets to her like she did with Nora. Sure, she could write it in a letter to Nora, but that wasn't very safe, was it? It might get intercepted and then some creep would know too. And Nora… Hermione was afraid her best friend wouldn't be all right. What if something happened to her? What if she sank into a deep depression because of what happened, who would be there to take care of her? To comfort her? To make her feel better?
"Honey?" Hermione was dragged out of her thoughts by Terry's concerned voice.
"Hmmm?"
"Are you all right?"
"Yes, I'm fine." As Hermione gazed into Terry's eyes she felt her troubles begin to drain away, but when he turned his head to see if the train was coming yet, they flooded back in, leaving her quite desperate.
"There it is," Timothy said a bit bored, pointing to a train that was nearing them. Timothy was the Slytherin in their group and they didn't know if he could be trusted or not. So far he wasn't that bad but they'd have to wait and see.
"Come on, 'Mione," Terry said, tugging at her arm. Hermione followed him slowly into the train and they entered the first empty compartment they could find. The two sat across from each other. Hannah seated herself next to Hermione and Timothy sat beside Terry.
"So…" Terry said, trying to start up a conversation. "What task will we be doing in Paris?" Hannah took out the list in her bag and looked at it.
"We have to… eat baguettes and drink coffee?" she said, unsure if it really was the task or some kind of prank. Timothy grabbed the parchment out of her hands and stared at it.
"It really does say that… What kind of a task is this? I expected questions about the culture or that we had to learn to speak French. At least something slightly more… intellectual than food."
"Well, maybe we have to see if French food is different from English food and how," said Hermione.
"Maybe… but it's still stupid," Timothy muttered.
"Do we have to change trains at any point?" Hermione asked. Hannah shook her head. "Good."
"Hermione?" Hannah asked quietly.
"Hmmm?" said Hermione, turning her head to look at the blond girl beside her. Hermione was a bit confused by the look Hannah had in her eyes.
"I'm scared," whispered Hannah, so that Terry and Timothy wouldn't hear. Hermione was shocked.
"Uhm… well… don't be. You're perfectly safe here," she whispered back, trying to think of comforting things to say.
"But what If the Death Eaters come here? No one will be able to protect us." A nasty thought entered Hermione's head and she had no idea where it came from. 'No wonder she's in Hufflepuff.'
"First of all, Death Eaters won't come here, it'd be taking too much risk. Second of all we can protect ourselves. You were in the DA too, you were very good. And third of all we have the contact devices. Don't worry," she said. Hannah leaned back in her seat, not too reassured. Hermione decided to just talk away, maybe they would get to know each other better.
"So… excited about Paris?" Hannah's face lit up.
"Definitely. I'm going to do loads of shopping there. Wanna join me?"
"Sure! I need some new clothes anyway and Paris is the best place to get them," Hermione said, glad her plan had succeeded. Hannah nodded her head in agreement.
A while later the two girls were still jabbering about Paris and clothes and Terry and Timothy had taken up to talking about the Death Eaters at Hogwarts and who had died that they had been close to.
Harry and Ron watched the retreating form of Nora. They were both thinking the same thing: will they ever see her and Hermione again? They saw Nora talk to her group members and then, reluctantly, grab an old boot that was probably their portkey. Harry and Ron saw her look at them one last time before she disappeared. Their hearts sank. The Gryffindor four would be split up for the rest of the year.
"I have a funny feeling in my stomach," Ron stated. Harry looked at him.
"Me too."
"What is it?"
"Love, I suppose."
"What? No way!" Ron never had been too good with feelings.
"Don't get too worked up about it: it's friendly love."
"Oh, thank Merlin." Ron sighed in relief.
"I'll miss them… a lot."
"Me too." They stood there in silence for a further ten minutes before Parvati and Lavender came over.
"How're you guys holding up?" Parvati asked.
"Fine." The two boys sighed.
"I sure hope you act that way whenever I'm not there," Lavender told Ron playfully. He kissed her on the cheek. She always made him smile, and she could even make him stop feeling miserable.
"Come, we have to grab our portkey Harry," Parvati said. She gave Lavender a big hug and then walked off with Harry to Crabbe and Crystal-Rose.
"Us too, Ron," Lavender said after Parvati's hug and they left to meet Goyle and Mandy. Ron was deep in thought about the way Parvati and Lavender had said goodbye to each other, and the way Hermione and Nora had. To him, it seemed as if Parvati and Lavender hadn't really felt too sad about saying goodbye, but then he remember that they were both going to the same places and he felt sorry for his two friends that they'd have to be apart for the rest of the year. As Harry and Ron felt the familiar tug at their bellybutton they looked at each other. Both of them smiled and then chuckled. It had been exactly as Nora and Hermione had done it: one last look before they left.
When Harry and his group landed, they found themselves lying at Hogsmeade station. From there they were supposed to take the train from platform one and go to London.
"All right, let's go," Harry said. He got up and walked inside the station, the rest following him. It was a ten minute wait before the train finally arrived and when it did they were able to get a compartment all to themselves. Crystal-Rose and Parvati were talking about the trip and Harry and Goyle were talking about… classes. Imagine that: not Quidditch but an intellectual subject that Harry had always thought Goyle knew nothing about. They were discussing Transfiguration when the train took off.
When Ron and his group fell to the floor they were already in London and all they had to do was look up the hotel they were staying in.
"Which way?" asked Lavender, who was not good with maps at all.
"Don't ask me, I always get lost using a map," Mandy replied.
"And I thought you were a Ravenclaw," Lavender teased. Mandy smiled.
"I am, I'm just not very good reading maps," she replied, shrugging. "The sorting hat did try putting me in Hufflepuff, but it decided against that. And I'm quite glad too," she added, whispering. Lavender smirked.
"I know what you mean. But I don't think it's that bad. Better than Slytherin anyway."
"That's because everyone sees Slytherin as the Voldemort and Death Eater house. It's really not that bad, not if you know the right people and act the right way," Goyle cut in. Mandy and Lavender looked at him in shock.
"Oh please, we all know your father went to Azkaban because he's a Death Eater," Mandy told him.
"That doesn't make me a Death Eater, does it?"
"Then how come you acted like one all of these years?" Lavender asked, not believing a word Goyle was saying.
"Because of his father," Ron said slowly, thinking of Nora and Draco. His three group members looked at him.
"What?" Lavender and Mandy asked.
"His father made him."
"And how do you know?" Mandy questioned, not believing that a Gryffindor would take the side of a Slytherin.
"It's the exact same story why Draco isn't being such a nosy snobbish know-it-all anymore, isn't it," Ron replied simply.
"And how do we know Draco isn't just acting it all up?" Lavender asked. Ron thought for a second, before replying confidently:
"I trust Nora on that."
"What?" Mandy and Lavender asked, again at the same time.
"I trust Nora on that. She says she can see that he's not acting and that he's really a nice person… and I believe her," said Ron.
"What if he's put her under some spell?" asked Mandy, hands on her hips.
"Draco wouldn't do that," Goyle said, turning the attention of the other three on him.
"Why should we believe you?"
"Look, I had to act like a Death-Eater-to-be because of my father. If I didn't he would probably kill me."
"What?" the other three exclaimed.
"He'd kill you just because you don't want to be a Death Eater?" Lavender asked. Goyle nodded.
"How come you acted like you were stupid, too?" questioned Mandy.
"So that I wouldn't attract too much attention, like Draco did. I didn't want people asking me too much questions, for fear that I accidentally revealed something they're not supposed to know of."
"Now that that's cleared up, can we please find the Hotel? It's pretty cold out here," Ron said. The others nodded and Ron and Goyle led the way, reading the map, as neither of the two girls knew how.
Harry and his group arrived at King's Cross late that night and immediately started search for their Hotel, feeling very tired. It didn't take them as long as Ron and his group, who had gotten lost a few times. They checked in and were each given a key to their suite-like room. As they entered it they stood in a small hall with a coat rack, which led to a nice living room with a large sofa and a television. On the left were two doors that led to two bedrooms, each with two separate beds, and on the left was another door that led to the large bathroom. Their trunks were already waiting in their rooms. Harry and Crabbe entered one room, Parvati and Crystal-Rose taking the other one. They fell asleep almost at once.
Hermione and Hannah were both asleep, their heads leaning on each other. They had talked most of the ride to Paris about shopping and had really gotten to know each other. Hermione now knew that, if she had a problem, she could go to Hannah with it. The big problems she'd write in code to Nora, though. Terry watched his girlfriend with an amused little smile on his face. She looked so beautiful and fragile there that all he wanted to do was hold her and kiss her. The train began to slow down and he got up to wake the two girls. It took a while before they were fully awake and were ready to get off the train. As they stood outside they smelled the fresh air.
"What time is it?" Hannah asked.
"Four in the morning. We'd better hurry, I want to get some sleep," Timothy said. The others agreed and off they were. They found their hotel fairly quickly. Their room looked like the suite Harry and his group had. They found their trunks in their room and they got dressed into pajama's as fast as they could, dozing off as soon as their heads touched the pillow.
Nora and her group were still in the plane. Nora was watching 'Nightmare on Elm Street'. Padma and Justin were asleep, Padma's head on Justin's shoulder, and Draco was listening to music. It was completely dark around the plane as it flew over Asia. Nora gasped in fright as a girl in the movie got out of bed due to a soft tapping noise on the window.
"Nora?" She gave gasped again, but calmed down when she saw it was Draco.
"What? You scared the bloody hell out of me, you know?" she asked, trying to calm her racing heart down; she never really liked watching scary movies, but she needed the distraction so badly.
"I want to keep my hand," Draco told her. Nora looked puzzled. What kind of information was that?
"Excuse me?" She asked confused.
"And in order to keep my hand, it needs blood." Nora frowned at him. She had no idea where this conversation was going and wondered if it was just something he came up with so that he could talk to her.
"And in order for my hand to get blood, you need to let go of my wrist." Nora looked down in shock and saw both her hands clutching Draco's. She immediately let go, embarrassed.
"So sorry," she whispered, blushing, before turning to the movie. Draco shook his left hand a little so his blood would get running again, before listening to music again.
When the plane finally landed it was ten o'clock in the morning, at least in Australia. They hurried through the airport wanting to get into a soft bed as soon as possible.
"Should we take a cab? I'm really too tired to walk," Padma asked her group.
"Me too," Nora agreed. Draco and Justin nodded and the four stepped up to a cab waiting for a passenger. After twenty minutes they were finally at their hotel and Draco checked in for them. Their room was on the fifth floor and they took the elevator up, almost falling asleep right then and there. When they entered their room they couldn't wait to get into a comfortable bed. Nora and Padma immediately took the nearest room, leaving Justin and Draco with the other one. Padma fell asleep immediately, but for some reason Nora couldn't. After a while she got up and went into the bathroom to get a drink. When she came back into the living room she shivered. One of the windows was open and her shorts and long t-shirt weren't exactly warm. She took one step towards the window to close it but stopped. She'd heard something. Because all of the curtains were closed, blocking out almost all of the light, it was incredibly dark in the room and she couldn't see very well, which only scared her more. Nora listened closely. She heard a soft tapping noise on the window. She gasped and dropped her glass. It was exactly like Nightmare on Elm Street. Just then Draco came running in, in just his boxers.
"What happened? What's the matter?" He asked her urgently, gazing intently at her through the dark, as though he had expected something to happen before now. All Nora could do was stare at the window; afraid Freddy Krueger might jump in at any minute. Draco walked over to her. He could see she was shivering furiously. "What happened?" he asked, a bit softer now. Nora opened her mouth but nothing came out. She pointed at the window. Draco looked at it.
"Look, I'm really bad at charades, could you just tell me?" Nora shook her head. At that moment she heard the soft tapping noise again and began shaking. It was all too frightening for her; apparently she did not handle scary movies very well. Draco understood the problem.
"Here, sit," he said, guiding her to the sofa. She sat down, curling her feet underneath her, frowning in confusion and sadness, and Draco walked over to the window and closed it. "I'll get you something to drink, all right?" He made to walk to the bathroom but Nora grabbed his arm. She did not want to be left alone now.
"Stay," she whispered. Draco hesitated, but then sat down next to her. Nora grabbed his arm and held it tightly, crying silently. She knew she was acting childishly, but she really was terrified and because it was so dark, everything seemed scarier than usual. And she felt helpless. She felt helpless and she didn't know what to do anymore. Slowly she fell asleep. Draco stroked her hair before conjuring a blanket with his wand, which he always kept with him. After a short while he fell asleep too, though looking highly confused.
Nora was having yet another dream with Dean in it. It had started out normal, she had been swimming in the ocean with Hermione, the giant squid and a Unicorn, and then, all of a sudden, Dean had come into view.
"It has started," he had said, and then he had disappeared.
She was woken that morning… or rather, evening at seven o'clock by Padma who was gazing peculiarly at her. Nora looked to her left, wondering what that soft warm thing was she had been sleeping on and noticed it was Draco. Subconsciously she understood what Dean had said, but it didn't tell her conscience that. It had meant that her love for Draco had started, which her sub-conscience found absolutely ridiculous.
Nora got up very slowly not wanting to wake up Draco.
"You want to call room-service and order some food here? I really don't feel like going out to eat," Padma told Nora quietly. Nora nodded and went into her room to change. They all had a major jet lag now and it was going to take some time to overcome. Nora came back into the living room in shorts and a tank-top as it was summer here now, and went over to the phone where Padma was sitting, waiting very impatiently. The two girls ordered everything that looked or sounded even the slightest bit tasty and it was brought up to their room just as Justin and Draco were both getting up. Padma and Nora, both dressed, brought the food over to the two boys who were sitting on the couch, both still in their sleeping things.
They had already planned what they would be doing that evening: nothing. They would just stay here in the Hotel and see what they could do here.
A/N: Good? I've decided to write a bit about Harry, Ron, Hermione and Nora's trip for now, but I might decide against it later; I might run out of ideas.