Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with JK Rowling, Scholastic, Warner Bros., The Walt Disney Company, or any other company and such mentioned of implied in this story. It is purely fictional and any character resembling any other real-life human being is purely coincidental (unless otherwise noted).

Chapter 18: Broom Bartering and Percy's Departure

"So what happened to your friend?" Tomás asked as they entered Morocco, a very exotic looking display. The large stone and tile towers stood tall and proud. The Arabic music reminded one of the settings of shows like El Clon and Casablanca. Aladdin and Jasmine had arrived and started to take pictures with the guests.

"Oh he's still being stubborn. He's probably going back to the hotel," Ron said.

"It looked like girl troubles," Neville added.

"I don't know what happened, but I've never seen Percy this sad…"

Harry decided to change the subject. "So where is the convention? In one of the countries?"

"Oh, wait till you see!" Tomás said very excited. Tomás took a left turn towards the lagoon, where the Friendship boats were docked. Like before, the Muggles came by, stopped, and turned around. Harry, Ron, Neville, and Tomás walked right through the entrance line and boarded the Friendship, lucky enough to find the adults, Ginny, Hermione, Penny, and Oliver.

"Oh there you are!" Mrs. Weasley said. "Did you boys have fun?"

"It was great!" Ron started. "The cars went whoosh and they showed how they made automobiles!"

"Yeah, Gram!" Neville told his grandmother. He pulled out the photo from the EPCOT bag. "And look at our picture! A nice witch made it normal for us!" They continued to chatter about what they've seen. Hermione was talking a mile a minute about the parts of World Showcase they've seen.

"We only got as far as the American Adventure," Hermione said. "It was wonderful! The show had no Muggle performers at all! It was all audio-animatronics! It was fantastic, showing the history of America. I think Father fell asleep though."

"Well, you would've loved Test Track!" Harry said. "They showed how to make everything for cars and all that…"

"Where's Percy?" Penny asked with much concern. "I thought he was with you."

"Oh, I think he went back to the hotel. He sure looked sad," Ron said. He muttered under his breath, "After the way you treated him…" Hermione kicked him for saying that.

"What do you mean?" Penny said, beginning to cry. "Oh no!" She ran out of the Friendship. Oliver got up to go after her. Hermione stopped him.

"You better not. She needs to talk about this, woman to woman," Hermione said, leaving. Ron tried to cover his laughter.

"Don't worry about it," Harry said to Oliver. "It's probably a girl thing…" Finally the Friendship set sail towards the middle of the lagoon. "So, Tomás, how are we supposed to be getting in to the convention?"

"Well, as we sail through the lagoon you'll notice immediately a change in setting…" Tomás said in his best tour-guide voice. He stopped the Friendship from moving. "First we may have to wait a while to get in…"

"Why?" Mrs. Granger asked. Suddenly, one of the many fishes by the ship popped its head out of the lagoon and winked at Tomás. The Friendship began to sail again and the group noticed it was going through some sort of portal and at the same time, another Friendship was coming out of the other side. The Friendship was now inside a building, floating down a small indoor stream.

"Where are we?" Neville asked, looking around.

"The Mexican Pavilion, inside the Mayan temple," Tomás said, carefully docking the Friendship. "This used to be a ride, El Rio de Tiempo (The River of Time). Disney was renovating the attraction anyway, so we rigged a transportal from the lagoon into the old ride." The group (The Grangers (minus Hermione), Weasleys (minus Percy, the twins, and the two older brothers who weren't in this story from the start), Longbottoms, Oliver, and Harry) stepped off the Friendship. Merchants began to pester them immediately.

"Buy some love potions, love?" an ugly hag asked Ginny, who seemed a bit interested.

"Baskets! Free Baskets with purchase of one Dragon egg plus two silver sickles!" a greedy merchant said.

"Hey that's illegal!" Ron said to the Dragon egg seller. "Oh no! I'm turning into Percy!"

"Buy some quills! All different styles and colors! We have common quills, office quills, quills for home, quills for school, eagle quills, owl quills, peacock quills, rooster quills for the farmer, quills beyond your wildest dreams!" a quill seller said.

"Too bad Percy's missing this," Harry said. The group finally got through the first wave of merchants, sadly leaving some of the weaker shoppers behind. Mrs. Weasley and Grammy Longbottom fell into the merchants' traps. Tomás led the others to the Quidditch exhibition. They passed by Professor McGonagal and Professor Sprout and greeted each other.

"They've even got Devlin Whitehorn himself to present his latest models of Nimbus brooms," Tomás said.

"Nothing can beat Harry's Firebolt," Ron said. They finally made it to the Quidditch section of the convention. It took up the whole area of the room! Tables and glass cases of broomsticks, Quidditch Ball sets, golden snitches of many different sizes, Major Quidditch League merchandise, and even Quidditch trading cards, some autographed. Oliver was reveling with excitement at all the Quidditch gear. He had forgotten all about Penny and Percy and began to browse the various vendors.

"Wow! Hogwart's could use a new set of beater clubs! Ooooh! Only 1,000 gold galleons for a school set of Nimbus 2000's!" Oliver said. "What a bargain! The school could use that! I better talk to McGonagal!"

"Calm down, Oliver," Harry said, laughing. "You haven't even started work yet."

"Oh look Harry!" Ron said, pointing at a glass case. "A whole autographed set of the Holyhead Harpies! Those are hard to get since they rarely sign autographs!"

"Who are they?" Harry asked.

"The only all-female Quidditch team," Ginny said from behind them. "Oh look! It's Gwenog Jones! The captain herself!" She pointed to a pretty, tall black woman, who was chatting with Devlin Whitehorn, a funny short man with a long pointy nose and a long chin. "Oh Ron, we should get a picture! You still got Percy's camera?"

"Yeah," Ron said.

"Wait for me!" Oliver said rushing towards them. They went over to them, but froze, too shocked to speak. Harry, having no idea who they were anyway, spoke up.

"Excuse me," Harry said. "If it won't be too much of a bother…my friends and I would like a picture with you two."

"Why Harry Potter! The boy who lived himself!" Devlin Whitehorn said. "Of course dear boy! Gwenog, if you please. Ah, Tomás, if you would be so kind as to take our picture." After arranging themselves, Tomás took the picture.

"Fabulous!" Devlin said. "Well, now that I've got your attention, Mr. Potter, allow me to show you our newest set of Nimbus 2002's! I'm afraid the Firebolt had topped our Nimbus 2000 model…" He steered Harry towards the large glass cases. Oliver followed, so he can bargain with him for a new school set of brooms. He beckoned for McGonagal to come over.

"Do you play Quidditch, little girl?" Gwenog asked Ginny once Devlin had totally forgotten about their conversation.

"Oh no," Ginny said. "But Harry does. He's quite good. He's a seeker and he's never missed catching the Snitch, well only once, but that was because of the Dementor's. Oooh, it was awful! He saw them all gathering below and fell all the way from way up high on his Nimbus 2000. I almost had a heart attack when I watched him fall! Now whenever I get close to a Dementor, that's what I see…"

"Wow, you're quite the talker," Gwenog said.

"Only when you get her talking about Harry," Ron teased. He felt Ginny kick him on the shin.

"Now what's this about brooms, Wood?" Professor McGonagal asked Oliver as she and Sprout walked with him to the Broomstick sets.

"It would be a great benefit for the school," Oliver began. "If we get them a new set of brooms!"

"Honestly Wood, the broomsticks we already own are in fine working order," McGonagal said.

"But they steer left when you go straight and they make it harder for first years to learn to fly."

"He's right you know," Sprout said. "Madame Hooch told me that if the school doesn't get better brooms to practice on, she'd retire, and look, she retired!"

"Yes, but now we have Mr. Wood to teach them," McGonagal said. Oliver got an idea.

"Professor McGonagal," Oliver began, "I refuse to continue to teach at Hogwarts with the terrible excuses for broomsticks we already own. They only thing they're good for is for sweeping!"

"Well…Mr. Filch had been asking for new cleaning supplies…"

"And this set is practically a steal!" Oliver said, showing her the out-dated Nimbus 2000 set.

"Well…"

"Dumbledore did give you money school supplies," Professor Sprout said. "You didn't complain when we splurged on the bird cages, weed pluckers, and Mandrake pots!"

"Well…" Devlin Whitehorn had seen that he had customers and abandoned Harry, who was watching Oliver beg with great delight.

"Buying broom-sets mum?" Devlin said with a large toothy grin.

"Yes, we've been thinking if we should get new ones for Hogwarts…" Oliver said immediately.

"Well what do you use now?"

"Cleansweeps," McGonagal said. "And they're in wonderful condition!"

"Cleansweeps?" Devlin said in surprise. "Remind me what year it is again…Professor, Cleansweeps are so out-dated that they're only good for sweeping!"

"That's what I said!" Oliver said, satisfied that someone agreed with him.

"As the creator of the Nimbus 2000 and it's enhanced models, I believe it would be great benefit for Hogwarts if you'd buy the school a new set of brooms! Now this particular set of 25 is of the original Nimbus 2000!"

"Why is it so inexpensive?" McGonagal asked suspiciously.

"Well, with the premiere of the Firebolt, the Nimbus can not even compete with it."

"Well…"

"They'd be like collector's items!"

"Well…"

"I'll throw in another set and charge you only half the price for the second set!"

"Well…"

"If you buy the two sets you get a complementary set of referee robes!" Oliver's face brightened.

"Well…"

"Guaranteed to give top performance!"

"Oh just buy the bloody broomsticks!" Sprout said suddenly.

"Well?" Devlin asked.

"Wood, you better get your robe measurements," McGonagal said, pulling out a jingling bag of coins.

Meanwhile…

"Penelope! Wait for me!" Hermione called as Penelope Clearwater continued to sprint down to the entrance. Tears were streaming on her cheeks. "Penny please wait!" Penny stopped to catch her breath. "Penny, what happened?"

"I have to find Percy," Penny panted, catching her breath. "I need to see him."

"But I thought you were mad at him! He was being such a stupid jerk, saying those horrible things!"

"I know he was horrible, but it's just that…he's never acted this way. We've never been this way. I have to find him!" Hermione and Penelope began to walk down to the Entrance.

"Well, what are you going to say to him?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know yet, but I just know something's wrong," Penny said. "Percy would've went out to look for me and not run away from his problem. He won't leave until he fixes it!"

"But, suppose he thought you went back to the hotel?"

"You're right! He's probably waiting for me! Oh Hermione, we better hurry! Don't worry Percy! I'm coming!"

"You're jumping to conclusions! Remember, Ron said he looked sad. Percy's never sad."

"Oh you're right! Oh no!" Penny said, starting to cry again. They finally reached the Entrance gates, got their hands stamped for re-entry into EPCOT, and reached the bus heading for the Animal Kingdom Lodge, just as it was about to leave. They sat down and started talking again.

"We have to stop and think logically," Hermione said. "Let's review the facts…"

"My head is spinning to fast to think," Penelope said, leaning back in her seat.

"Then just listen…First, you and Percy got into a small conflict about where you were going. The conflict evolved into an argument and you began to yell at each other. Well it wasn't too bad; but then again it was for you and Percy. He showed he was an egotistical, commanding, pig-headed, good for nothing, big head who ordered you around like you were his puppy dog!"

"That pretty much summed it all up."

"Then after you left, I followed and so did Oliver. But you got away from and like a fool, I didn't follow…where did you go?"

"…I went to France…"

"France," Hermione sighed. "I've been there before, and these Disney Imagineers did a wonderful job of recreating Paris. Although the real Eiffel Tower is much larger, it looked like a genuine copy. I've read all about it. Birds used to sit on it, but it ruined the effect, for they looked like giant birds on the-"

"Hermione!"

"Sorry…so you were in France. Did Oliver find you?"

"Oh yes. He was ever so nice. We talked and walked down the street, it was very peaceful and his condolences helped me a lot. I don't know what I would've done without him."

"So you walked…and talked…in the most romantic part of the World Showcase- Penny, don't you see! Chances are Percy did follow you and he saw you walking with Oliver!"

"Oh my goodness, you're right! He probably saw us hugging and, oh no!" Penelope burst into tears again. She took out her handkerchief again, which only made her cry more.

"It all adds up! He saw you in France and thought you had left him for Oliver, and poor already miserable Percy fled the scene, to cry on his pillow. Oh it's like a soap opera!"

"But I didn't leave him! I love Percy, and I would never just drop him over a silly thing like our fight!"

"Poor Percy…" Hermione said. Now she began to cry. "Misunderstood everything…Penny, you must talk to him!"

"What do you think I've been trying to tell you!"

"I think we're almost there," Hermione said, looking out the window. They had just passed by the Swan and Dolphin hotel and turned the corner into Buena Vista Drive. Finally, the shuttle pulled into the entrance of the Animal Kingdom Lodge, and the two girls flew out of the shuttle. They boarded the elevator and waited nervously for it to come. The doors slid open and Penelope rushed on. She had bumped right into Percy. They looked at each other for a long time. Hermione waited nervously, wondering if she should join them. She didn't have enough time to ponder, for the doors slid shut right away.

Percy's look of deep sadness had changed to anger as he looked at Penny. His eyes looked mean and his heart beat fast with fury.

"Percy, I'm so glad I found you," Penny said, breaking the silence of the elevator. Percy didn't say anything. "What's that for?" She pointed to a suitcase, standing by Percy's leg.

"I'm-I'm leaving," Percy said. "Much work to catch up with back at the office." He pushed the Lobby button again. The elevator kept moving up to Penny's floor. Finally, it stopped and the doors opened. Penny didn't move.

"Well, you're getting off," Percy said.

"No Percy. We have to talk. You don't understand-"

"What's there to understand! I saw you and Oliver! I know that you were right and I was wrong to treat you that way! I totally understand if you'd rather be with that pretty-boy!"

"No, Percy. Listen to me!"

"No, you listen to me! I don't care anymore! I was a fool to think you'd love someone like me! All along, it was just to get closer to Oliver!" Percy began saying things he knew wasn't true, but his anger made him go crazy.

"It's not like that at all! Percy please listen!"

"No! All my life, I've felt like no one loved me. I had too many siblings to compete with. Two older brothers, twins, the youngest son and the only daughter…I was stuck in the middle. My mother could only love so much…Then I met you," Percy's voice began to crack and his eyes filled with tears. "We were so much alike…we were young and stupid…all along it was just to get to Oliver, the big man on campus, the quintessential All-star student!"

"Percy, you know better than that! I love you, I really do!" Penny began.

"Well you have a fine way of showing it!" Percy said. He trudged off the elevator, for it already reached the Lobby again. Hermione stood up from a nearby chair. She ran to Penny, who had collapsed on the floor, sobbing.

"Penny! Oh no! What happened?" Hermione said, crouching by her friend.

"He wouldn't listen! He wouldn't understand! He hates me, Hermione! He hates me!" With that said, both the girls began to cry.

"Don't say that," Hermione said, wiping her tears. "We'll make him understand! We have to!" Hermione helped Penelope up and together they went to fetch Percy. Hermione didn't care if there were Muggles around. If she got in trouble she would just have to deal with it. The only way they could make Percy listen was to get to him first. She pulled out her wand and stunned Percy.

"Stupefy!" Hermione shouted, and Percy froze and fell backward. Penelope, very shocked at Hermione's sudden outburst ran to her beloved boyfriends.

"Miss Granger!" someone said from behind. Hermione whipped around and saw Remus Lupin standing behind her with a very shocked look. Next to him was a large black shaggy dog.