Chapter 34: Across the Globe
"Hi Mr. and Mrs. Ho." Lily greeted her parents' friends politely after Petunia. They had just arrived at the local airport and the two adults had come to fetch them to their house in Taiwan.
"Oh my, Lily and Petunia are so big already!! The last time when we meet up was about ten years ago." Mrs. Ho exclaimed after Dawn gave her a big hug.
"Yes, that was ages ago. We're going to trouble you for two weeks, Hank." Daryl said as he gave a slap on his old friend, Mr. Ho's back.
"Let's get going. We can talk on our way." Hank told the four visitors.
The four adults were chatting and reminiscing about their old university times. Petunia and Lily were totally bored, but no matter what, they were not talking to each other. They rather check out the Taiwan streets and people from the black-tinted Limo's window. This went on for another twenty minutes before they started to see some residential estates.
"Girls, we're here!!" Dawn exclaimed as the black Limousine drove through a large gate.
"Finally." Lily muttered under her breath. Suddenly floo powder sounds first class after all these traveling. My butt is so numb now. The seats in the car were cushioned and very comfortable but to Lily, who was a hyperactive girl, found it too tedious to sit in the armchair for so long.
Lily stepped out of the posh car and muttered a quick 'thank-you' to the chauffer who opened the door for them. Wow!! What a big house!!
"Here we are." Hank told the four visitors.
"Janet, go upstairs and get Yvette to the dining hall." Mrs. Ho instructed one of the ten maids who were standing at the entrance, welcoming all of them.
"Yes, Madam." The maid name Janet quickly left and went up a flight of curved staircase towards the second story and disappeared from view in a corridor.
"C'mon in, I show you your rooms." Mrs. Ho told them while Hank instructed some menservants to carry the luggages from the car.
"Your house seems different everytime we come for a visit." Daryl commented admiringly as they walked up another flight of steps that leads to a different corridor from the one the maid went earlier.
"We renovated three years ago. And the last time when you visited was more than five years ago. It was too long until I can barely remember how long." Mrs. Ho said modestly.
"Iris, you're really lucky to have a husband like Hank." Dawn commented.
"It was because of you that's why I know him in the first place." Iris replied in a sincere manner.
"Well, the four of us should sit together and have a long talk somewhere soon." Dawn said animatedly.
"Definitely. Tonight dinner time would be good." Iris replied and opened a door. "Here's your room."
The room was spectacular. Huge was an understatement. There were large windowpanes at one side of the room overlooking the swimming pool. In front was two armchairs lined with sheepskin with a Persian carpet in front. A king-sized bed was in the middle of the room. At a corner was a multi shelf rack with a twenty-one inch television and hi-fi. The other side of the wall was lined with a four-door wardrobe and a full-length mirror. The room had a cottage style, cozy yet stylish.
"Wow, this is breathtaking!!" Lily said in awed.
"This is such a beautiful room, Iris." Dawn said, too touched for words.
"I know you love countryside style. I never forgot the time when we went on a holiday together." Iris said.
"Neither did I. Thank you so much!! You really shouldn't have." Dawn replied. Just then two menservants came into the room carrying Daryl and Dawn's suitcases.
"C'mon girls, I show you your room. It's two separate rooms next to your parents." Iris told Lily and Petunia who were admiring their parents' room for two weeks. Iris then led the two girls to their respective bedrooms while leaving their parents alone in the guestroom.
"Both of your rooms were be beside Dawn and Daryl. All three rooms are identical, except for your parents room that is catered for two people." Iris said as she smiled kindly of both the girls.
"Thank you very much for your hospitality. It was very kind of you." Lily said sincerely.
"Don't mention it. Dawn had been my good friend for ages." Iris said as she opened the room on the right of her parents' bedroom.
"It's beautiful. Thank you very much!!" Lily said excitedly. The room was equally big, but appeared more spacious with only one armchair and a smaller cupboard. Other than that, everything appeared identical.
"Treat it as your own home, dear. See you at dinner time."
"Thank you so much, Auntie Iris." Lily said before Iris closed the door after her and led Petunia to her room. This is so beautiful!! Auntie Iris and Uncle Hank must be really rich!! This room is bigger than my living room. It could be compared to James' house, except his is even bigger and nicer. Even Stef' and Remus' house are slightly bigger than this. Wow. They're so lucky. Lily thought dreamily as she plopped onto the king-sized bed.
"I wonder how's Lily doing over at Taiwan now." Stefanie tried to speak underneath her SK II facial mask.
"Well, we can't owl her. She's staying with muggles. They might freak out." Arabella replied practically inaudibly under her mask.
"Just one and half week before we can see her."
"When do we have Dumbledore's training at Potter's Manor??"
"I don't know. He hasn't owl us yet."
"At least we can use magic this holiday."
"We can start practicing now."
"You can, but what about me??"
"You can try reading my mind??"
"I think I already know nearly everything in your mind."
"I don't doubt that."
"We had been doing nothing but all these beauty regime and talking for the last three days."
"Too bad Lily can't be here with us."
"Too bad we can't be there with her."
"That's definitely no way. We don't really want to freak out her hosts. She warned us. They're old friends of her parents."
"We can do something more interesting than this."
"What do you suggest??"
"I don't know. I don't think you need to shop. You already have a walk-in wardrobe that can ensure you never wear the same clothes twice." Arabella said as she moved a little to ease the stiffness on her back.
"This beauty treatments and relaxation stuffs really getting boring after some time."
"Books?? Library?? Swimming?? Gym??"
"We just swam this morning, work out yesterday. We've been spending after mealtimes in the library waiting for food to digest."
"Don't tell me quidditch or something. We've been playing three consecutive days for three afternoons."
"Not that. I'm sure we can think of something."
"Like what??"
"What do you think Lils will suggest if she's here??"
"Movie marathon."
"That's right, we can go for a movie marathon."
"DVD player or cinema??"
"I don't have DVD player. Cinema of course."
"Alright, let's hit the cinemas tomorrow."
"Yeah. Time for our beauty rest." With that, they drew the curtains of the room and climbed up Stefanie's king-sized spring mattress.
"I'm getting bored being the chaser." James said as he flew down around with the Quaffle.
"You got to practice your Quidditch!! We're in the house team!!" Remus shouted to James in the air as he hit a Bludger towards James.
"When do you see a game with one chaser and two beaters?!" James yelled back.
"We're just playing our positions!!" Sirius shouted.
"We had been doing this for the last five days consecutively!!" James shouted.
"We can ask the girls but they always have plans. Just yesterday they had their movie marathon!!" Remus replied James.
"Wait till Lily get back and we can play a decent three-versus-three match again." James replied.
"Yeah, one more week." Sirius shouted.
"What a great idea. I might just try for the position of seeker or keeper next year." James shouted back.
"You can't!! What will Andrew and Kenneth say??" Remus pointed out.
"I'm good at all the positions. Don't forget we've all been trained for Quidditch even before we could walk!!" James said.
"But who's going to fill up your Chaser position?? As everyone can see, you were the best Chaser during the tryout last year!! The rest were just too lousy!!" Sirius commented.
"I don't know. I'm telling Kenneth and Andrew when the school term start. If there's really no better Chaser than me, then I shall keep to my position. So right now, let's switch. Both of you be the Chasers and I shall be Keeper."
"No problem dude!!" Sirius said as they forced the Bludgers back into the trunk and kept the beaters.
"Ok, there we go. Take positions!!" James shouted as Sirius and Remus started throwing the Quaffle around and trying to throw into the loops.
"Wow Yvette, that's a great show although I don't understand what they were talking about." Lily exclaimed. The two girls were watching VCDs in the projection room.
"I like that show too. Sometimes that's what I do with my girlfriends too." Yvette said as she kept her Meteor Garden VCDs back to the original position in the large glass cupboard, which consists of many different VCDs and DVDs.
"I miss my girlfriends back home."
"Well, me too. One of them had take up a part-time job. One went Japan and the other went New York with their parents for some business trip."
"That's why I'm here too."
"Well, I'm really glad we can click so well."
"We just have chemistry between us."
"How I wish I've a sister."
"You won't want a sister like mine."
"I know that. I don't like her either. But I like you."
"I like you too. But after I return to London, how are we going to keep in touch??"
"Letters??"
"I think that's the only way."
"There're other ways actually."
"Like what??"
"Come to my room."
"Okay." The two girls rushed out of the projection room and ran along the brightly lit corridors. Yvette took Lily's hand and led her to her bedroom.
"Come in." Yvette said as she checked the corridor for any sign of movement. Lily wondered in and sat on one of the armchairs. Suddenly something caught her eyes.
"Let me tell you something. I'm actually a w-"
"Witch." Lily completed her sentence, grinning.
"How did you know??"
"Because I'm a witch too!!"
"Wow!! No wonder we've so much magic between us."
"Because we're both unique girls. We're witches!!" Both girls were smiling. The brightest and happiest smile ever since they met each other.
"What school do you attend??" Lily asked.
"Yingde College of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Taiwan. How about you??"
"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in London."
"I've heard of Hogwarts. I read from some history books before and my grandparents told me before. It was the first Magical School in the world, located in London. It sounded prestigious."
"It is, I supposed. My family was all muggles. So I have no idea except from the books."
"My parents are non-magical, they're not squibs though. My father has the magical blood in him but my grandpa was a muggle. Long family history."
"Better than mine, I supposed."
"So your friends are all from Yingde??"
"Yup."
"I'm sure we can all click if you meet my friends."
"I'm sure you would love my three best friends too!!"
"Well, we might not meet until like ten years later. But we can have owl mail. Much faster than letters."
"E-mail is okay with me if you want." Yvette said as she switched on the computer next to her.
"But in school we can't use electrical appliances, so I can only check my mail in the summer holidays."
"In my school, we've much more freedom, I guess."
"What did your parents tell the others about you being away??"
"They said they send me to a boarding school somewhere far away. During summer holidays, I've to catch up muggle stuffs because I'm expected to work in my dad's and grandpa's company in the future. Thankfully for you all, I can escape from those boring accounts and finance studies for two weeks."
"Well, not too bad. I meant to meet up with my friends this break. But now I can only meet them after I return in three days time."
"That's so fast!!"
"Time always flies when we're having fun."
"How I wish you can come to my school for a visit!!"
"That's not impossible, you know."
"What do you mean??"
"You'll know if I ever make my way to Hogwarts."
"Alright then, can I see the picture of your friends??" Lily asked as she walked over to the nightstand to take a look at the photo in a sweet looking frame. In the picture were four girls and four guys and the house in the background looked like Yvette's poolside.
"This three girls are my best friends, the four guys are my friends. You think they look good and cool from the picture. They're actually like monsters, creating havoc in school nearly daily."
"Sounds like friends that I've back then."
"Imagine if the two group of guys meet."
"I can't imagine."
"I'm going to miss you so much!!"
"Me too!!" Lily and Yvette were hugging onto each other. Petunia was waiting in the departure hall while their parents were saying goodbyes to one another.
"Lily, it's getting late."
"Coming soon!!" Lily shouted. "I had a great time here. Must send me a message soon." Lily winked.
"I will. I'm back to my horrible holiday life again!!" Yvette said miserably.
"It won't be that bad. I'm just half the globe away from you." Lily said optimistically.
"Lily!!"
"It would be nice if we all live in the same part of the globe together."
"We did. For ten whole days!!"
"LILY!!"
"Ok, I really need to go now. Bye. I'm going to tell my friends about you!!" Lily said and waved goodbye to Yvette, thanked Mr. and Mrs. Ho with a handshake and run to join her parents in the departure hall. She turned and gave a last look and wave to Yvette before disappearing from view.