A/N: Sorry, I had some major, MAJOR writer's block. But here's the 7th chapter. Ta ta.
- EJ
~ Chapter 7 ~
Ron's eyes popped open. He stared at the people standing over him. They all had their mouths open and confused looks about their faces.
"What? Why are you all staring at me?" he asked them all.
"You must be joking," Andrea said, "You don't know what you just did?"
"No." Everyone gasped and stared at each other, then back at him.
"Well," Hermione started, "We were all talking and then you blacked out. We tried all the ways we could think of to wake you until you started mumbling something."
"Mumbling? What did I say?"
"Foe…weigh…tar or something. I thought you were dreaming of a spider chasing you when I heard you say 'a web'."
"Really?" Ron asked, and scratched his head for a moment. It seemed all too weird. "All I remember is everything going black for a moment.
"Nothing else?" Harry asked.
"Nope," Ron replied. He then looked out the window to see the slowly setting sun. "I must have nodded off to sleep. It is about to be dark in an hour or so."
"We should go to bed early, anyway," Hermione said, "We do want to get an early start. Want to get to the summer home as early as we can?" Everyone actually nodded to this, even though it was pretty early.
"I guess so," Ron replied with a frown. "So, it's off to bed then." He then started to lead everyone upstairs. It saddened him to know that he couldn't remember a thing. Maybe he really had just nodded off to sleep. Well, that wasn't important right now. Tomorrow was the day. And he couldn't wait.
*****
"Are you sure I nodded off to sleep? You aren't trying to play with my mind, are you?" Jaden asked again. She couldn't believe that she had just woken up. She had felt all right a few minutes before, when the plane had touched down. But they had said that right when they had touched down, she had fallen asleep.
"Yeah, you fell asleep. And we wouldn't wake you up, for some reason," Meg replied.
"But I'm a light sleeper. If you touched me lightly while was asleep, I should have woken right up. And you said that I was mumbling?" Jaden asked. She was very questionable about the whole idea that she had been in a deep sleep.
"Yeah. Fe hi foe fum or something. I don't know. You sounded really weird, so your aunt called a stewardess. That's when you woke up." Jaden nodded and looked around. Half the passengers were gone.
"Well, we'd better get off now. I don't want to fly to some unknown place on this plane by accident."
"Yes, come on, girls," Sierra said from the front of the plane, dodging the exiting passengers. They got up from their seats and walked down the aisle to Jaden's aunt. Once there, they went to a lit walkway, and through a metal detector.
Once they got to the waiting area, they looked for someone that was to take them to the summer home. Meg immediately saw her uncle and waved good-bye to Jaden and her aunt. They did the same and kept looking. Jaden suddenly saw something.
"Look," Jaden said, pointing to what she saw. It was a flailing piece of cardboard with the writing JADEN + AUNT on it in the back of the people. It seemed to be way overhead the other people and she could halfway see the head of the person holding it. Jaden rushed towards it, dragging her aunt with her. She swiftly moved through the people, while her aunt bumped into almost every person in her sight. When she finally saw who was holding the cardboard, her mouth dropped open.
"Oh my God," slipped softly out of Jaden's mouth as she looked at the towering man. He was easily twice her size and could almost literally squash her like a bug. He looked down at her and did a double take. He then let his hand with the cardboard go down and looked straight at her.
"Ya wouldn't happ'n to be Jaden Maxwell, would ya?" the man asked. She gulped hard and nodded. Is this my ride? Jaden thought. He nodded his head back at her. "Hi. M' name's Hagrid. I'm the groundskeeper at Hogwarts. I will be your ride. Follow me." Jaden did as he said, feeling too scared to contradict him. She then stopped after a moment.
"Excuse me, Mr. Hagrid," Jaden said.
"Just call me Hagrid," he interrupted, "Mr. is too formal."
"Well, we need to get our luggage," Hagrid then hit himself in the head.
"Sorry, fergot all about it," Hagrid replied and started back towards the stairs with Jaden and Sierra behind him.
*****
As Jaden sat on her trunk at the street corner, she saw the third city bus pass by them. Hagrid stood there all the same. She was beginning to get mad as they waited and saw people stare at Hagrid as they passed. He still stood there, not flinching. She finally got the courage to stand up to him a few minutes later.
"Hagrid, could you please tell me why we are just sitting here?" Jaden asked him with a scowl. Hagrid then let out a sigh.
"I don't know why we are standin' here," Hagrid said. This surprised Jaden. Did this mean that they had been sitting there for no reason. "He should have gott'n here ten minutes ago." Now, were they waiting for someone? They couldn't be. No one could be this off time. Suddenly, Hagrid began to laugh. Both Sierra and Jaden looked at him as if he were crazy. "There he is." And Hagrid pointed up the street.
He was pointing at a violently purple, triple-decker bus. Over the windshield was gold-lettering that spelt out the words "The Knight Bus". What interested Jaden was what had been printed under the windshield. There had been color changing lettering that said RESERVED FOR JADEN MAXWELL. Jaden smiled when she could see them clearly. She looked up to see Hagrid smiling down at her. As the bus came to a stop in front of them, it emitted a loud, startling "BANG" that made her jump back.
As the door to the bus opened, a man appeared. Jaden tried to muffle her laughter as she saw that he had pimples covering his face and his ears were bigger than usual. He seemed to not notice it or ignore it all the same.
"Hello, Ms. Maxwell. The name's Stan, Stan Shunpike. I'm the conductor of the Knight Bus, this humble abode," he said and bowed his head to her. He then turned to Hagrid to say, "Sorry, ol' buddy. I lost the track of time. That sherry really gets to you, you know." He pulled out a small bottle from his back pocket and swirled it around as he said it. He replaced the bottle a moment later after taking a quick swig from it. He beckoned them onto the bus, which they did.
Jaden immediately saw another difference from regular buses. The Knight Bus had beds instead of seats. Also, the bus seemed to be just the right fit for Hagrid, which was really big. Stan towed Jaden's trunk into the bus. After that, he introduced her to the driver, Ernie Prang, who could hardly tell Jaden was a girl until he put on his thick-rimmed glasses.
"Well, let's be off, Ern. We want to get these people to their summer home before nightfall gets darker," Stan said, and Ernie started the bus with another "BANG". Jaden layed on the bed to the right of her for a few minutes. She had felt a bit sleepy for that time waiting on the street. When she woke up, she turned to Stan.
"Excuse me, Stan, but you look a little young to be the conductor of a bus," Jaden asked with a raise of her eyebrows. Stan looked back at her with uncertain eyes and let out a sigh.
"Well, that may be true," Stan replied, "But I can tell ya one thing. I'm probably the best damn person they could find for the job." With that, he gave a quick nod and turned back to looking out the front window. After a moment, Stan turned back around. "We're here."
Jaden rushed over to the left side of the bus and looked out the window. Out of it she saw a large brick sign with gold colored lettering in big letters. On it was the words "Sunset Gardens Beach Houses". She marveled at it as they neared the front gate to the beach houses. As the Knight Bus gave another "BANG", it came to a stop. Jaden and Sierra came out of the bus to see everything. The sign had been right. Each house had been a few feet from the beach. Jaden started to smile just as Hagrid began to tow Jaden's trunk out of the bus.
When Hagrid said he was ready, the three of them went to the main office of the houses. Once at the front door, Hagrid obviously decided to let the trunk down and stay outside. With there being no arguments, she and her aunt entered the office. The inside of the office seemed a lot brighter than outside. It had a long desk with a man behind it and a few chairs against the wall in the office. Jaden came up to the desk and the man looked up at her.
"Hello, madam. May I help you?" the man said in a slightly English voice.
"Yeah," Jaden replied, "Me and my aunt have a summer home reserved for us." She pulled out her envelope from her pocket. Out of it she pulled a receipt and gave it to the man. He took it and looked at it for a moment. After he scanned it, he started typing on his computer. He nodded when he saw what came up and turned back to Jaden.
"Yes, we do have a reservation under the name of Jaden Maxwell," the man said.
"That's me. I'm Jaden Maxwell."
"Very well, then." And the man looked down and opened a drawer that had keys in them. He brought out a key and gave it to her. "Your house number is 244." And with that, he turned back to his work. Jaden turned around, nodded to her aunt, and led her out of the door of the office. When outside, she saw Hagrid sitting on her trunk in front of the rest of her luggage. She smiled at him and nodded her head.
"Thanks, Hagrid," Jaden said. "Now we have to get the luggage to the house." And they picked up their things and walked down to their house. It took a few minutes before they got there. Jaden was so exited to see the house with the number 224 on the door. She took the key from her pocket and opened the door with it. As she turned on the light switch, she gasped. The room was pretty small, but had a sofa and a table in the room. Two doors off to the left were obviously the doors to the bedrooms, and in the far back was the kitchen and dining room. Hagrid, seeing that they were settling in nicely, put the trunk down and tipped his hat to the two.
"I guess I'll be goin' then," Hagrid said. Jaden turned around from the sight of their new home for the rest of the summer to see Hagrid. She ran back and hugged him tightly. He turned a rosy red in the face as she did it and thanked her. When she let go, he walked out of the house and back down the street. She closed the door and heard a final "BANG from the Knight Bus as it went on its way.
Jaden sighed and sat down on the mini-couch. Her aunt sat beside her and put an arm around Jaden's shoulders. Jaden couldn't believe that she felt she could deal with her aunt while she was out here in another country.
"I would think that we need to get to the unloading of the bags by now. Isn't that part of the process? You pack, you go, you unpack. Hmm," Sierra said. Then again, Jaden thought and got up from the couch with her aunt.
*****
Harry crankily yawned, his wide mouth having a good stretch. He looked at the form of the person in front of him, thinking sleepy thoughts.
"Who woke me up?" Harry asked, to the person in front of him.
"It's me, Harry. Mr. Weasley," the person said. Harry reached to the side of his bed, looking for his glasses. As he found them and put them on, the dimly lit room came into focus. He saw Mr. Weasley standing at the end of his bed and Ron just waking up.
"Why do we have to get up this early?" Ron asked his father. Mr. Weasley just smiled.
"Well, we do know that portkeys wait for no one, don't we?" Mr. Weasley said smugly. Harry then remembered about the summer home. He looked over to Ron, who had obviously also gotten his drift. "Come now, boys. Dress and get downstairs. Mrs. Weasley has just woken up the other two." They got out of bed and looked for clothes hurriedly.
When they were fully dressed, they hurried downstairs to see the two sleepy girls. Hermione had her head propped up by a book, while Andrea had no support and was about to have her head fall flat onto the table. Mr. Weasley was standing right next to his wife and holding the portkey.
Harry had had an experience with a portkey twice before. It was no surprise that the object in Mr. Weasley's hand was a molding piece of wood. Why it was that way was that if it was lost, a muggle wouldn't pick it up or play with it. That only time he had used a portkey was two years ago, to get to and from the Quidditch World Cup.
"3 minutes till the portkey kicks in," Mr. Weasley said. He checked his watch and nodded. Ron turned to Harry, yawned and spoke.
"Did you know that Fred and George's apparation exams are in a few days?" he asked.
"No. That's cool," Harry replied.
"I can't wait to have my apparation exam. It would be great to be able to fly to a certain place in the blink of eye," Andrea said.
"Now, really. Wouldn't you try to use your apparation skills wisely," Hermione said. Ron rolled his eyes and looked at his parents.
"Didn't I tell you we didn't have to worry because Hermione would be there?" Ron said. Hermione looked stern at him.
"What does that mean?" Harry couldn't help but laugh. Andrea took a second before laughing. "Oh, whatever." Hermione turned back to the book in her hand and returned to reading it. Mr. Weasley looked at his watch and choked a moment.
"50 seconds!" he said, "Gather here and touch the portkey. Your trunks are already at the summer home, now." They all came over and touched the portkey with Ron holding the bottom of it. Harry could feel a little warmth in the piece of wood. It seemed like the other could too. "30 seconds." The time was coming faster than Harry had imagined. He couldn't believe the summer home was coming ever closer. "15 seconds." Here it came. "10…9…8…7…6…" The seconds passed and Harry closed his eyes. "5…4…3…2…1…NOW!"
Harry could feel the familiar hook behind his navel pulling him forward. He could feel the wind blowing passed his face. The leaving the ground came immediately and he felt like he was flying in mid-air for a few seconds. Suddenly, the wind started to slow and the hook started to let up on the pulling. They came to a stop and were standing in a circle in the middle of what looked like a living room.
"Wow!" Andrea yelled out. Everyone looked at her.
"You have never taken portkey before?" Harry asked her. She shook her head and took a deep breath. A silence started until Hermione broke it.
"Well, let's break in this house," Hermione said and sat on the sofa in relief.