Chapter 13: Night Owl

Harry let out a big yawn as the shuttle pulled into the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It had been a long day, and he was ready to slump into his bed with no worries. Luckily, all the Gryffindors had room and board at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Many of the American wizards Harry had seen in the convention were there as well.

"Look…it's him! Didja hear 'bout how he faced you-know-who-himself last June?" an eccentric young girl whispered loudly to her friend as Harry had passed them in the lobby. Her accent was different then the other Americans Harry had heard.

"Yes, I did," the other girl said out loud. She spoke like a younger McGonagal from New England. "You should not point and gossip so loudly Mary, it's not only rude, but it tends to draw attention to the one being gossiped."

"I'm gonna talk to him," Mary said. "Ya know, I reckon he hasn't got any friends." Harry was displeased with her observation, so he quickly ran up to Ron and Hermione. Mary was too fast and stood in front of them, holding her hand out.

"Howdy, I'm Mary Sue Greenberg and I bet that your Harry Potter," Mary Sue Greenberg said, shaking Harry's hand. "I know 'cause I heard all about you from school."

"Erm…yes. Nice to meet you," Harry said. He felt odd being called "Hairy", since he was used to "Harry." Mary Sue's friend caught up with her and introduced herself.

"It is a pleasure to make this acquaintance," she said. She too shook Harry's hand. "Abigail Franklin of the New England Franklin's, fine printers of Spellbooks and Wizard theory."

"Ron Weasley," Ron said suddenly. "Of the…the Burrow Wealey's."

"Fine blunderers and mischief makers…" Harry mumbled.

"I'm Hermione Granger," Hermione said abruptly. She was feeling particularly angry with the all too proud Abigail.

"Oh, I read 'bout you in Witch Weekly!" Mary Sue said, happy to meet a 'celebrity'. Her smile disappeared as she remembered the article. She tried not to show it, by grinning like an idiot. "It's, er, nice to meet you."

"If you believe whatever that Skeeter woman has to say, than you're just fooling yourself. It's all dirty old lies and load of rubbish," Hermione said proudly, for the old article from months and months ago did not embarrass her. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to bed." With that, she walked forward and rushed into the elevator after her parents.

"Well!" Abigail said. "I'll see you in the morning, Mary?" Mary nodded and waved good bye as her friend left for bed as well.

"You're not from around here, are you?" Ron asked.

"Oh no, I'm on vacation like y'all! I come from Cordialton, Tennessee," Mary Sue said. "I don't go to school there though. The Oak Forest Academy is in Iowa. Y'know, Iowa is a big farm state, y'know. I think it's great to live there 'cause you live around the corn and the pigs and horses and the forest is great in the summer and winter…and spring in fall! Gee, It's wonderful all year 'round. Y'all should visit sometime! That'd be wonderful! "Hairy" Potter at our school!" Mary Sue said excitedly, going on and on and on…

"I think we ought to get to bed," Harry said, edging towards the elevator.

"Well, it was great meetin' ya! Hopefully I'll see ya tamorraw!" Mary Sue said, waving good-bye. Ron and Harry were glad to be rid of the talkative girl.

"Wow, she was pretty weird…" Ron said. "She goes on and on and on…" The elevator opened at their floor, and Harry and Ron headed towards their rooms. Luckily, Ron was just across the hall from Harry's room.

" 'Y'know, Oak Forest is great in all the bloody seasons!'" Ron mocked in a falsetto. "You think she ver stops to take a breath…Harry? Harry?" Harry wasn't listening to Ron. He heard the strange voice he had heard much earlier that morning.

"Harry Potter! So close Harry Potter is! Go! Go!" the voice ordered. (Yeah…CoS rip-off)

"Did you hear that?" Harry said, worried.

"Harry Potter! And the Weasley!"

"You mean that?" Ron said, who was suddenly able to hear the voice. His voice sounded shaky. "We better go to Mum and Dad." They rapped on the door and Mrs. Weasley opened it.

"Where have you been? We get off the shuttle and get to our room and I find I'm missing one of my chickies!" Mrs. Weasley said. "Come inside, Love. You too Harry. Your aunt and uncle felt it better that you sleep in our room. That Dudley has been acting odd…saying it's your fault."

"What'd he do?" Ron asked.

"You know them, anything odd happening is 'my fault'," Harry said. He went inside and found that the suite, although large, was filled up enough already. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, the twins, Lee Jordan, Percy, Ginny, and Oliver, who thought it ridiculous to have a room all to himself, were all sitting in the main room. They were all talking at once of the amazing day at Magic Kingdom.

"…I wasn't scared at all," Ginny went on. "The alien was so fake and-"

"Oh come now, Ginny," Mr. Weasley said. "Even I was frightened by that thing."

"…It was so cool, I can't believe you missed it," George said to Oliver. "They looked so real!"

"I don't think I would've enjoyed it much," Oliver said. "Listening to robots of old dead American presidents doesn't sound too cool."

"Hullo Harry," Percy said. "You don't look to good." Amid all the excitement and chitchat, Harry was still a bit pale by the voice he heard in the hall. He had heard voices once before at Hogwarts, and that didn't turn out too good.

"Me and Ron…we were in the hall…" Harry began. Then he remembered what Hermione had said before…That's not a good sign…even in the Wizarding world…This wasn't parseltongue like before. Ron could hear it too. "…we met some American witches."

"Yes, they can be a bit eccentric and officious," Percy said. "Followed you around they did?"

"Yeah…I'm really sleepy," Harry said, retreating to one of the bedrooms with Ron. They changed into their pajamas and got into the bunk beds. Ron got the top.

"'Night Harry," Ron said, letting out a yawn.

"Good Night…" Harry said. He then shut out the light and fell asleep.

* * *

"Ahh, Fawkes…this is too much work. I seemed to have run low on my lemon drops stock," Dumbledore said, getting up. "I'll just be down in the kitchen. Don't wait up." Fawkes cooed as Dumbledore got up. He left his office and went down the spiral staircase. The gargoyle leapt to the side and Dumbledore headed for the kitchens. Although he could've just magiced a sandwich out of thin air, Albus felt it would be nice to visit the house-elves. On the way to the portrait hall, Dumbledore noticed the great oak front doors had been left ajar. The warm summer night breeze squeezed through with the soft moonlight of the coming full moon.

"Now who opened that?" Dumbledore muttered to himself as he shut the door.

"I did," a gruff voice said from behind a suit of armor…

Harry woke up in a cold sweat. It was 2:37 a.m. and a white bird was tapping on the bedroom window. Behind it, Harry thought he saw a flash of red flying away, towards the moon. The bird continued to tap on the window with its beak. It was Hedwig!

"Hedwig!" Harry said happily. He found that the window could not be opened. "Wait one minute." Harry silently opened the door and tip toed into the main room, where the sliding door led to the balcony that looked over the Savannah plain. He carefully stepped over the twins, who were sleeping on the floor. Harry eyed some Mickey Mouse cookies next to Fred and picked up the box for Hedwig. Hedwig had flew over to the railing of the balcony and patiently waited for Harry.

"Hullo ol' girl," Harry said, stroking Hedwig's backside. She had a letter tied to her foot. Harry took it off and fed Hedwig the box of cookies. She graciously gobbled up some of the broken ones, leaving Harry with the whole ones. Harry unrolled the parchment and read the letter.

Harry,

That's wonderful that you're on holiday. I'm coming to visit, but there are a few problems here. Don't be too worried about it. See you soon.

The writer had not signed it. Who could it be? Harry looked out onto the plain. All the animals were gone and probably asleep at Animal Kingdom. Harry was tired and wanted to go back to sleep (heh, like the author…*yawns*). He didn't feel like thinking about it and wished to go back to sleep. The dream although puzzled him. He harldy ever dreamed of Dumbledore. There had to be some sort of meaning…Hedwig flew onto his arm and he both went back inside and fell into an oddly dreamless sleep.

Sorry for such a late update. I just finished my rough draft research paper the other day. It's a holiday weekend, so there may be another chapter. I hope you all are enjoying this so far. Obviously you are enjoying my story…praising too much. Hello to all you new readers!