Dear Wizarding Britain
Disclaimer: I own nothing. If I did, I probably wouldn't be playing around on fanfiction.
A/N: As usual, I'm flying by the seat of my pants while writing this. I honestly don't know much about Argentina or the culture, so if I write anything wrong based on what I read on Google, I apologize in advance. I don't intend to write about Argentina in too much detail, but will try to be as accurate as I can about the things that I do write.
"So what was that about?" Hermione asked Harry as they walked toward one of the doors to exit the house.
Harry sighed and said, "It's not something I'm quite ready to talk about yet," as he forced himself not to run his fingers through his hair.
Hermione hummed in response, but ultimately decided that now was not the time to push, as she tucked a stray hair behind her ear, while the rest of her hair was bound up in a long, thick braid.
Coming to a stop, Harry asked, "All right. Do you have your emergency portkey?"
Hermione held up her wrist to show off her charm bracelet and said, "Yes."
"Okay. And you're sure you've decided on getting a haircut and dying your hair?" Harry asked to make sure.
Hermione rolled her eyes in exasperation, 'Well, it's not like we have a wig laying around here just waiting to be used. Besides, I wouldn't mind a little pampering at a beauty salon, since it's been ages since I've been able to step foot into one."
Harry shrugged and said, "I've never been to one, but I don't really need one now, now that I have my shapeshifting abilities. But I agree, the first thing we'll do is look for a beauty salon."
"I still think you're being too cautious about this," Hermione grumbled, as she followed alongside Harry. "I've spent enough time out on the island that I've tanned sufficiently enough to blend in with the locals, I doubt anyone from Hogwarts would recognize me by now."
Harry didn't bother to dignify her grumbles with a response, and a few seconds later they were exiting the house, and then a few yards from the house, they were side-along-apparating to a deserted alleyway in the middle of a muggle town that Harry had become pretty familiar with during his frequent trips.
Hermione looked around the mouth of the alley and wondered aloud, "Where exactly are we? It doesn't seem to be a familiar place to me at all."
Harry smirked and said with an exaggerated air, waving his arm in a slow let-me-show-you manner, "Then, my dear Hermione, let me be the first to welcome you to Argentina, the country in closest proximity to our hidden home. We are currently located in its capital."
"Buenos Aires?" Hermione asked in excitement.
"Exactly," Harry responded with a grin.
"You didn't think this through, Harry, we're going to stick out like sore thumbs," Hermione said worriedly, as she glanced down at her punk rock themed outfit that, admittedly, her braid did not really go well with, and then looked back over at Harry's whole ensemble.
Harry shrugged and said, "I've come dressed like this plenty of times, I'm sure the locals just shake it off as just another clueless tourist. Besides, I wouldn't know quite where to begin with trying to dress like the locals. I may have been able to pick up a bit about their culture, but I wasn't raised in it, and I do not want to make any faux pas in my ignorance."
Nodding, Hermione said, "Yes, you're probably right." Looking around, Hermione bit her lip and said hesitantly, "You know, I really do think we're far enough away from Britain that dying my hair is likely to be unnecessary. Like I said before, I'm already several shades darker than I was before I left Britain."
Harry sighed and said, "You may be right, but I really don't want to risk your being in danger if you're recognized by someone here on vacation."
Hermione thought about it for a bit and nodded, "Well, I do still want to cut my hair a bit. Even if I don't dye it, no one in Britain would be expecting to see me without bushy hair."
"I'll agree to that point," Harry said, then with a nod towards the alley exit he asked, "Well, are you ready to go find a beauty salon?"
A few hours later, Harry and Hermione were exiting the only beauty salon that was accepting walk-ins. Now sporting an above the shoulders bob that framed her face in layers and bangs, with some highlights to make her hair look sun kissed, Hermione ran her fingers through her hair in amazement. Not only had the ladies in the salon been able to tame her wild curls without the use of potions, they had managed to thin it out significantly, lifting a huge weight, literally, off of her shoulders.
"Harry! My hair has never felt this good!" Hermione gushed in excitement. "How is it that they couldn't do this for me in the muggle world in Britain?" She asked with a little frown. "I would have cut my hair this way sooner, if they had."
"That is well beyond my area of expertise, no matter how many of those beauty magazines I studied for my shapeshifting," Harry responded. "I'm just happy that you're happy now. While you were busy admiring yourself, I've booked you six additional appointments and paid for them in advance. You just need to hand them this voucher at every visit," Harry said, handing the equivalent of a gift certificate to her.
"Harry! You did not have to do that!" Hermione exclaimed in surprise, as she jumped up to pull him into a hug.
Harry patted her on the back in a comforting way and said, "It's not that big of a deal. Honestly, I've got enough money to last me and my many times great grandchildren at least three lifetimes and still have a bit left over. I'll barely put a dent in it while I'm alive, so why shouldn't I spend it on my family?"
"You're going to make me cry, Harry," Hermione tightened the hug briefly, before pulling away to try to wipe the tears away.
Harry cleared his throat in an effort to stave off the tightness he was starting to feel in his chest, then said a little awkwardly, "Come on, we're starting to draw a crowd. It's time to find somewhere to eat lunch, then find a travel agency."
Hermione nodded her head and took a deep breath. "Okay. Let's go."
Then they resumed walking around the city, doing some window shopping and making mental notes of shops and attractions to visit in the future when they weren't looking for something specific. Small talk came easily after so many years as best friends, and it was surprisingly easy to stay off of magical topics. It was exactly what Hermione felt like she had needed.
Soon enough, they came upon a street vendor selling delicious smelling food, so they decided to choose something off the cart and eat it as they searched for the travel agency.
About 15 minutes later, Harry and Hermione found themselves a few steps away from the travel agency they had been trying to find when they noticed a poorly disguised Zabini and Greengrass having a quiet but animated discussion. They slowly moved closer in order to hear.
"We don't know anything about muggles, Blaise, how did you expect us to come in here and get information about it, when we don't even know what to ask?" Daphne asked in frustration. Sure, she realized that she was the one that wanted this, but now she was having second thoughts on how they were going to do it.
Blaise threw his hands up in the air in frustration and said in a whispered tone, "Merlin, woman! We haven't even gone in there yet, why are you suddenly freaking out? I thought you wanted to find a place where we could live more freely."
"I did, I do. I'm just scared," Daphne replied. "We don't have the funds to be frivolous, Blaise, no matter how much of a change of scenery I wanted. Maybe instead of looking for someplace fun to take a muggle vacation, that we don't have a hope of blending in with, we should be looking for an agency that sells properties."
Harry and Hermione found themselves intrigued and did their best to stay still, so as to not draw attention. They needn't have worried, the two Slytherins were completely oblivious to their surroundings.
The more he heard, the more Harry believed it was likely that Zabini and Greengrass were definitely together together.
Hermione was just as intrigued, when she remembered what Luna said as they had left. And now being suddenly faced with Greengrass, she wanted to slap herself for not seeing the obvious. Glancing at Harry and seeing how absolutely interested he seemed to be in eavesdropping, she wondered if Harry perhaps had a crush on the Slytherin girl. She found herself equally intrigued by the Slytherin boy, Blaise Zabini. He was one of the few Slytherins that never taunted her and never called her names.
Blaise sighed and said, "Daphne, I don't want you to settle for a marriage of convenience, and you know I don't truly want that either."
Harry's ears perked up and his heart started to beat faster.
"I'm not talking about marriage, Blaise," Daphne responded calmly.
"But you're talking about buying property together," Blaise stated as if it should have been obvious that he had come to that conclusion.
Daphne raised her chin defiantly and said, "I don't see why your mind would automatically jump to marriage, just because I've mentioned looking at property. For all you know, we could find a large enough property to have two homes, so I can live next door to my best friend. Besides, it's getting awfully tiring living in a tent, even if it is a luxury one."
"Daph, you know I'd love to live next door to you, I want our kids to grow up as family, but we're not going to find Potter and Granger in order to start that family, if we just go hide ourselves away on some property while we're hiding from the war," before Blaise was finished and Daphne could respond, they were distracted by the dual sounds of two sharp intakes of breath.
Blaise and Daphne turned as one towards the direction of the sound and froze. Blaise's eyes stuck on Hermione, who was admittedly nearly unrecognizable, if not for the fact that Blaise had spent quite a lot of time watching her from afar, he wouldn't have been able to see past the darker tan and recognize her face. He found himself quite admiring the way her hair was cut as well.
Daphne was quite shocked at the young man standing beside the young woman, but she would know those green eyes anywhere. Harry was finally standing right there in front of her after all this time. Then she realized what she and Blaise had just been discussing before realizing they had company, not even her occlumency skills could stop the blush that began to flood her face.
After several awkward moments, where the two couples could do nothing but stare at the other and open and close their mouths like a couple of fish. Hermione cleared her throat and suggested, "Perhaps we should go inside to get a few brochures, and then perhaps go somewhere for drinks?"
"I'd be honored to go anywhere with you, Amore Bello," Blaise said with a goofy grin on his face. Daphne looked up in exasperation and said quietly enough that only he could hear, "I think it's a little too soon to be talking like that, Blaise."
Hermione blushed and dropped her eyes downward while biting her lip. Harry found himself amused, now that he was absolutely positive that there was nothing between the two Slytherins except friendship. Then he thought about what Hermione had gone through at the hands of Malfoy and thought perhaps he should have a little talk with Blaise, just to make sure his intentions towards his sister in all but blood were honorable and that he knew to take it slow with her.
Hermione, though, her thoughts were the furthest away from taking it slow as she could get. The moment Blaise's voice was directed towards her, her body started reacting in ways she never thought she'd feel, not after the whole attack from Malfoy, and she wasn't sorted into Gryffindor for nothing, she wasn't about to let that one bad experience color her love life for the rest of her life. No, she intended to jump in with both feet, not step into it gradually.
Deciding to break the ice, Harry said, "I think we're going to need to teach the both of you how to blend in with muggles better," gesturing to their very much magical minded version of muggle clothing. At least it was better than the wizards at the World Cup walking around in nightgowns and such, but it wasn't much better.
Daphne snorted in amusement as she very obviously looked Harry up and down and replied, "I don't think you have any room to talk with the way you're dressed, Potter."
Harry grinned and said, "You can call me Harry."
Daphne wasn't quite able to fight down her blush when she responded with, "Then you can call me Daphne."
"Well, Daphne," Harry said, feeling quite pleased with himself, "I would be more than happy to discuss with you the reasons behind my muggle fashion choices, but standing here in front of the storefront where we seem close to drawing an audience is not the best place for that conversation."
That was when the others realized that they were being watched by not only the locals, including the ones inside the surrounding shops that were watching their group through the windows, but others who appeared to be of the tourist variety. One of which was holding a camera, as if they were trying to decide if they wanted to take a picture or not.
Upon noticing the camera, Harry used his wandless magic to jinx the film in order to prevent pictures of the four of them from being developed. The one thing he learned about wandless magic was that it wasn't about saying or even thinking of a spell, it was about what your intent was, so if he intended for any pictures of the four of them that were taken with that came to be distorted, then that's what his magic would do.
Next, Harry wove a wandless notice-me-not charm around the four of them, causing the muggles to return to minding their own business.
Hermione sighed, "Harry, I thought you didn't want us to use magic, just in case it was noticed by other magicals?"
"What magic?" Blaise asked.
Looking sideways at Harry, Hermione said, "Harry just cast a wandless notice-me-not on our group."
Before Harry could respond, Daphne said in amazement, "Wandless magic? That's supposed to be impossible on that kind of scale. I've only ever heard that even the most powerful wizard can barely use lumos or accio wandlessly, and even those are not very strong."
Now it was Harry's turn to blush, while Hermione snorted in amusement, "Since when has impossible ever applied to Harry? He defies all limits of what is deemed impossible."
Rather than responding to the discussion about what was supposed to be impossible, Harry just shook his head and told his magic to change the notice-me-not, so that they were still being ignored by any onlookers, but could actually interact with the muggles in the travel agency, where he started to walk in, expecting that the others would follow along when they were ready.
Shortly thereafter, Harry came back outside, where the others had chosen to remain to talk, but at least they seemed to have moved away from any talk of magic and impossible feats.
"Well, I've got a pile of brochures we can look through, while we find a café to have something to eat and/or drink." Harry said, as he rejoined the group, taking notice of the way Hermione and Blaise seemed to be shifting towards each other. Seeing the way that Hermione was responding to Blaise, he wondered if maybe he just needed to mind his own business and let Hermione handle it, the attention the Slytherin was giving her didn't seem to be that unwelcome.
As if to prove that point, when Blaise held out his elbow to Hermione, she seemed rather eager to loop her arm through his. And when Hermione caught Harry's dumbfounded look, she gestured with her eyes from him to Daphne, making him realize he should be offering her his arm as well, which Daphne rather eagerly accepted.
Harry shook his head mentally. This outing had to be the most surreal experience he had ever had.
After a very lengthy time spent in one of the nearby cafés, the two Gryffindors and two Slytherins showed their reluctance to separate with their respective opposite. As the hour grew later, Harry finally came to a decision.
"Look, I own the island where Hermione and I have been staying, along with a few other friends. You're both welcome to come, too, I'll even give you a portkey that you can use, after you take time to pack up your things," Harry told the two Slytherins seriously.
"Is my house elf welcome?" Blaise asked in concern.
Harry smiled, "Of course. Dobby and Winky would surely enjoy the company of another elf."
Blaise's shoulders seemed to sag in relief and then exchanged looks with Daphne before saying, "Thanks, Potter, I know I speak for the both of us when I saw that we will gratefully take you up on your invitation." Daphne nodded in agreement.
"I thought I said you could call me Harry." Harry replied.
Blaise chuckled and said with a smirk, "No, actually, you invited Daphne to call you Harry."
"Regardless of what names we use for each other, we really should head out, I believe the wait staff is getting ready to close for the night," Hermione interrupted.
That announcement caused the group of four to stand, after a bit of fussing over the bill, of which Harry just plucked the bill out of Blaise's hand and walked over to the cashier to pay, leaving a sputtering Slytherin in his wake.
Once the four were back out on the sidewalk, they began walking, until they were able to find an abandoned alleyway, ducking in after they made sure they were being watched.
"All right. Here's a portkey," Harry said and he handed a piece of rope to Blaise. "It'll deposit the two of you and your house elf at a secure location where Dobby will check you and your belongings over for any sort of tracking spells and such. It's not that I don't trust you, but it's just the way our security measures at the island have been set up, until the residents have been keyed into the wards. I very much doubt you've been tagged with tracking spells, or you'd have been found by the idiots in Britain a long time ago."
After receiving an understanding nod from them both, Harry continued, "I'll be sure to let Dobby know to expect the three of you, and request that Winky set up bedrooms for you while we're waiting for you to arrive."
Uncharacteristically, Daphne grabbed Harry in a hug, causing him to stiffen in surprise, almost making her jump back in embarrassment, before he relaxed and returned the hug. "Thank you, Harry," Daphne said, before depositing a quick kiss on Harry's cheek, and after which she stepped back and grabbed Blaise's hand and suddenly apparated away so they could pack up their belongings.
Harry raised a hand to his face, where Daphne had kissed his cheek, before he turned to look at Hermione with a shocked look on his face.
Hermione giggled and said, "Come on, lover boy. We need to get home to inform the others of the expected company and sort through those brochures again."
A/N: Once again, I've no idea where I'm taking the rest of the story, although I'm sure there will be a confrontation with Voldemort and his DEs at some point, here's to hoping everyone enjoys where it's going so far. I'm not sure when the next time will be that I'll be bitten by the writing bug, but thank you to everyone for your continued patience with my sporadic updates.