Fools Rush In

Chapter 4

By Ginny :)

::waves:: Hi!!!

I'm sorry this took several million years, but life recently has been... shall we say... destracting. I've spent only so much time in this country [England], and more then enough time over there [France] being interviewed by policemen [let's just say... I was victimised by a weird French bloke-- I think-- My French is debatable. Certain other things that happened were frankly unnearving and could have been understood if he was talking Ukranian.]

Thanks to hermione potter and Beth for beta-ing! Oh, and also thanks to ::+Nicky+:: for helping me 'Americanise' this.

Oh, and no, I'm not letting any more people into this. Really. I have more then enough... sorry! @.@

Enjoy the story!

Ginny :)

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Harry was never sure how the two girls, who were apparently named Eyra Dragonsworth and Dara Florence [or rather, in fanfiction circles, Wierdlet], were convinced to believe the impossible. All right, not impossible... but very, very highly improbable. There's a difference of sorts.
They had decided to rise early the next morning in order to get to Miriam's aunt's house as soon as possible. The whole nightmare thing was not, it seemed to the four girls and two boys, a good omen. If it wasn't just a stupid-- though horrible dream-- then they needed to act, and quickly, despite the fact that none of them had the faintest idea what to do about anything .

Harry supposed... well, he supposed that they would have to fight Voldemort... and then what? It didn't make sense that he could be destroyed. The greatest wizards and witches on Earth had tried to destroy him, (frequently!) and all had failed. Even Harry as a baby hadn't really destroyed Voldemort... he'd just... weakened him. He'd come back. What he'd done once, he could do again...
They all trudged along the pavement, not speaking, all lost in their thoughts, keeping up a steady and pulsing, yet fast, pace along the pavement, with the wind that swept down the almost empty streets tousling their hair and pinching their skin. The streets shone with silver light, peculiar to a late summer morning in the city.
They'd been walking for some twenty minutes before Paloma said, "You know what? I think we're going the wrong way."
~*~
The station had not been hard to find, once they had begun to walk in the right direction. The fast pace at which they had set off with had soon dropped, since there was little point in it. Chingford, where Miriam, Sophie, Malfoy and Hermione were staying, was a good hour away, even on the fastest of trains.
The train was empty by the time they reached the station. They left the train, talking amongst themselves, and wandered into the wide street. It was now late morning, getting on for eleven o' Clock, but even so, there were few human beings around. People passed them like characters from a film; a couple of little old ladies; a boy on a bike, with a Newspaper Bag slung around his neck; several mothers with small children in uniform.
"Hands up all those," said Dara, "... who knows where this Miriam girl lives?"
"Round here somewhere..." Paloma said vaguely, "Ariel, did you get her address?"
"You're all hopeless," Ariel informed them. "You'd be lost without me, like, ummm... like lost sheeps."
"That's nice," Ron butted in, "Fascinating, in fact. Now just tell us, do you know where Hermione and Malfoy are?!"
"Sheesh, give me a minute, God!" Ariel scowled. "I've got to find the piece of paper it's written on first! Jeez!"
"You're all so dense," Eyra said happily, feeling that she should donate a comment to the conversation.
"No?! Really?!"
"Ariel," Harry put in whilst sanity was still in the air, "can you please just look for the paper? Please?"
"I am, I said... What are you looking at?!" Ariel growled at a couple of innocent little old ladies, who were watching the teenagers with interest. The watchers exchanged worried looks and trooped off. Ariel had that effect on people.
She proceeded to empty out her whole knapsack onto the pavement, search through the scattered objects, and pronounc them useless, before proceeding to do the same with each of her pockets. Twenty minutes later, she produced a crumpled piece of paper from a purse from the bottom of her knapsack, grinned, and said that it was there all along, whoops-a-daisy, silly her.
Dara took it from her, frowning, "Now all we have to do is decipher it from these hieroglyphics..."
"Hey! There's nothing wrong with my writing!"
"Except it looked like a seven- legged spider crawled across the page and died," put in Eyra.
Eveyone nodded in agreement. Ariel narrowed her eyes, and snatched the piece of paper back. "Well, I can read it.."
"How?" Paloma asked innocently.
"I wrote it, dumby. I can read my own writing. You're are either mad, blind, or losers."
"I'm going with mad," supplied Dara.
"Uh huh..."
Eyra, losing interest, began to sing Show Tunes to the world in general. A couple of passing Trendies made the V sign at her [a/n; No, not quite like Winston Churchill ^_^].
"Another openin', another show..."
"It says," Ariel raised her voice, "It says, that Miriam Tatley's Aunt lives at 15, Raleigh Avenue, that on the 16th of July 2001, I bought a Toberlarone for 35p from Foxwell's Newsagents, and that I should have a nice day."
"Where's Raleigh Avenue?"
"I'm sure that's not how you spell 'Raleigh', Ariel... not 'R- A- H- L- E-E'... I could have sworn it was R-A-L-E--"
"Shut up and go away."
"No wonder I couldn't read it, it was upside down."
"... In Phili', Boston, and Baltimoe'..."
"It looks the same either way up, so I don't know why you're worried."
"There's nothing wrong with my writing!"
"Even so, there's plenty wrong with your spelling!"
"... three weeks, you rehearse an' rehearse..."
"Erya, shut up!"
"Look, can we just get on with this?"
"Is that a trick question?"
"... The overture is about to start..."
"Eyra! Shut up! You can't sing!"
"I can so, Miss Patche!"
"No, you can't, and don't call me Miss Patche! Is 'Ariel' too hard to prounce?!"
"Eyra can sing."
"There! You see? Thank you, Dara."
"Yeah, well, my sister can sing. It's brutal, but she can sing," Ron added.
Eyra suddenly changed her tune, "... The daaay, that Weeeeasley died....and we were singing 'Bye, bye, Mister Ronniekins, bye; Eyra killed you, you were beef stew and you can't even cry...we'd say we miss you but it would be a lie, do you want an apple pie...?'" Ron scowled, but forbore to comment.
"Can we just find this Raleigh Avenue place?" Harry was getting more and more irritated. "We've been standing here, just getting odd looks, for ages..."
"okay okay okay okay okay okay!!!" Ariel rolled her eyes. "God! Some people!"
"Right... come on, everyone..." Paloma shepherded her friends along, looking stressed, "We're going to find this place whether you like it or not!"
~*~
"How come you lot got here so early?" Hermione frowned at her companions.
"And who are these two?" added in Sophie.
"Dara Florence, aka Wierdlet."
"Eyra Dragonsworth. C'est moi!"
She, Hermione, Malfoy, and Miriam been hijacked in the privacy of Miriam's aunt's house by the characters and authors, rather too early for their liking. They had been pulled to their feet, told to get out of their PJs, and hurried from the house, leaving the telly still blaring there C.H.U.M.S theme tune and Miriam's aunt open mouthed at the promise that they'd be back as soon as possable.
Now, they wanted an explanation.
"We had to come as soon as we could," Ron explained, "because Harry... well, he had one of his dreams about Voldemort last night, and-- Ariel, stop grinning like that, you just have a sick mind-- and... well, you know what that means!"
Miriam and Sophie exchanged worried looks.
"But... everything will be all right?" Sophie wondered out loud.
Dara shrugged, "We don't know. It's hard to tell... I mean, this isn't the same as in books."
"I know," Paloma nodded, "and that's what confuses me..."
"But anyway," Hermione put in, "what are we going to do about it?"
"What can we do?" Ron frowned, "it's all so... urgh... weird..."
"Oh, come off," said Malfoy, loudly, "I don't know what you people have about believing everything Potter says, but personally, I don't see why we should believe him."
"Oh?"
Everyone looked at Malfoy, curious.
"I mean," he continued, apparently unabashed, "What's so speacial about him? None of what you think you know about him is really Real. It's all made up. He never beat any Dark Lords when he was a baby, because that never really happened !"
There was a moment of silence. Everyone seemed to be thinking about this. Ron was the first to speak.
"That is the biggest load of rubbish I ever--"
"Oh, whatever, Weasley," Malfoy sneered at him, "you go on believing that."
"Please, don't argue..." Sophie put in.
"Yes, let's be reasonable!" Paloma nodded in agreement.
"Why? This is totally more interesting!"
"Oh, shut up, Eyra!"
"Can't we all think about this logically?" Hermione tried to get herself herd, but was drowned out by the babble.
Ariel's loud voice rose above the others. "You can all believe what you like. I'm with Malfoy on this one."
"You are?" Miriam blinked at her uncertainly.
"You actually agree with him on something?" Dara wondered. "Wow!"
"No, I was just saying that," Ariel's voice was heavey with sarcasm, "of course I agree with him, knucklehead!"
"But look, I'm going to try and sound reasonable here," Dara continued. "Whatever happens, it doesn't do any harm to check it out, does it?"
"It's a bloody stupid waste of time. I'm here on holiday! We all are!"
"I'm not."
"Except for Miriam, we all are. And we could be having fun, seeing the sights, going to themeparks, meeting cute guys, but no," Ariel paused for dramatic effect. "Instead, we're wandering round after some idiotic Fictional kids! True, there's a certain novelty to hanging out with Harry Potter and Friends, but believe me, it wears off after a little while. Five minutes, in fact."
"Yeah!" Eyra nodded emphatically, "I'd sooner Remus Lupin, he is so cute--"
"Eyra, seriously, no-one cares."
"Well, if not Lupin, that dude who's going to play Quirrel in the movie..." There was a pause. "What?!... Well, I like him. He's hot."
"He's about twenty years older then you," Hermione pointed out dryly.
"Your point being?"
"Well, moving swiftly on..." said Dara, giving Eyra a bemused look.
"You all do what you like," Ariel announced, getting back into the swing of things, "but personally, I can't be bothered. I'm not going to hang round here, just wasting time."
"You mean you're--?"

"Yes. I'm going. Come on, Paloma. You're with me, aren't you?"
"Not as such..."
"You're here on holiday with me! Mom said so! We've got to stick together, remember?"
"Fine. Fine... that's that then." Paloma turned to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, "Sorry, guys. I'd help, but... you know how it is," she rolled her eyes, "Nice knowing ya. This will be something to remember, if nothing else."
"Right. Anyone else with us?"
Everyone looked at each other. Sophie bit her lip, but shook her head when she saw Miriam doing the same. Dara looked disdainful, with her arms folded. Eyra stared into outerspace, deaf to the world for the moment. Harry, Ron and Hermione glanced at each other uneasily. Whatever was going through his two best friends' minds, Harry thought, at least they wouldn't desert him. He could trust them. Hermione was fiddling nervously with the sleeve of her robe.
"I'll come," Malfoy spoke into the silence. They turned to look at him.
"You will?" Paloma looked little short of amazed, "You really think that's a good idea?"
"I didn't say that I was going to spend any more time with you then needs be," Malfoy informed her dryly. "I merely stated that I'd come with you for now. As in, until this is all sorted out."
"Change of tune!" Miriam raised her eyebrows.
"Just a little," Sophie agreed with her friend. "Look, do you have to go? Can't we all just try and, and stay together?"
"Let them leave!" Eyra looked scornful, "If they like. What's stopping them? Nothing! Let's get this over with, I'm hungry. I want elevenses."
"Well, come if you're coming, dork," Ariel shrugged to Malfoy. "Only don't get in the way, all right?" and she and Paloma swept away unapplogetically.
Malfoy, who had obviously never heard the word 'dork' before, oblivious to its meaning, stalked after them, head high.
There was a heavy silence.
"Well," said Dara, breaking it, "that settles that, then. Looks like just the..." she did a quick body count, "just the seven of us."
"Three less might not be a bad thing," pointed out Hermione. "I think it's just as well that they've gone. They were getting in the way."
"Especially Malfoy," Ron agreed, "And I'm not saying that Ariel was a help, either."
Miriam grinned, "Notice you don't say anything 'bout Paloma!"
"Well... she was... all right I suppose," Ron shrugged sheepishly. "It's probably just as well that she's gone and all."
"Yeah, right. Whatever you say."
"Well... what do we do now, anyway?" Harry wondered out loud.
"We find out if all this Voldemort stuff is true? Maybe? Possibly? Perhaps?" Eyra suggested.
"Good idea!"
"Yes. One thing, though-- how?"
"Trust you to put a damper on things, Hermione."
~*~
Somewhere else-- somewhere!-- something important is happening...
It is between that where the moon walks and the place where the starts hide. It is a place where the sun dances.
And quite a fuss is being caused.

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Ginny :)