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 :)
