The day that Ron and Ginny received the owl from Hermione was a pretty dull one. But that was pretty much how the whole summer had been for the two of them, what with living in an empty house and having an overall feeling of gloom hanging over everything.
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were always away working for the order, and so were Bill and Charlie. Percy was still living in London. He hadn't apologized to the family, even though Mrs. Weasley had called and given him plenty of invitations to come home. Fred and George were living at home, but they were gone all day, too, working at their joke shop.
So it was just Ron and Ginny all day long at the Burrow. But it was pretty good, considering. At least they weren't living at Sirius's old house. That place has always felt like a house of death. And now that the owner was dead, Dumbledore thought that it would be best to keep the children away from such an unhappy place.
"So, do you want to play Quidditch again today?" Ron asked Ginny as they ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast. They had them for lunch and dinner too on the really lazy days.
"Sure. I could always use the shooting practice. And you sure need the goalie practice." Ginny replied.
But as they stood up, leaving their dirty dishes on the table, of course, an owl swooped down and landed right on Ron's dirty plate. It dropped off two identical notes and flew away, sprinkling crumbs on the floor.
"Well, I'm not cleaning up after some owl." Ron said, "Hey, what do the notes say."
"Well, one is for you, and one is for me, and they are both from Hermione." Ginny said, handing Ron his copy.
They both read.
Ginny finished first, but waited until Ron looked up before she shrieked in delight!
"CALIFORNIA! Oh how wicked! Dad told me about that place. He said muggles are obsessed with it! Oh I can't wait! How nice of Hermione to think of me!"
"Yeah, I can't wait to go to the beaches!" Ron exclaimed. "I want to surf. I'd bet I'd be a natural."
"Shopping! Disneyland! Oh I need to go tell Dean!" Screamed Ginny, as she raced off to tell her boyfriend.
Ron rolled his eyes. They had been owling each other twice a day all summer. It was really getting annoying.
Meanwhile, Harry had just received his note.
He had been lying on the lawn in the Dursley's backyard when the owl came swooping down.
"Whoa! Way to go Hermione!" Harry shouted out loud when he read the news.
Aunt Petunia came rushing outside. "Keep it down, Harry. We don't want to draw any attention to you!" she hissed.
"Don't worry, Aunt Petunia, I won't be around much more to disrupt your lives. I'm going to California."
"What?"
"I was invited. Now, if you'll sign here and here." Harry said as he handed her the permission form.
Aunt Petunia was too scared of Harry and the gang of wizards she had met at the train station after Harry returned from school to voice any of her objections. She signed the form with an angry, jealous look on her face, thus allowing Harry have a dream vacation.
So, three days later, on the corner of 5th street and Hunkler Road at 11 pm…
"Harry!" Hermione called as she rushed to hug him. "You made it!"
As they were pulling away from the hug, Ron and Ginny rounded the street corner.
"Oh Ron! Ginny! Everyone is here now!" Hermione ran and first gave Ron a hug. She lingered in his arms for a moment, and then turned to give Ginny a welcoming hug as well.
"So, Hermione, was your school year really that bad?" Ron asked, smiling.
"Yeah, and you should know. Fifth year was bad for all of us." Hermione responded.
"uh huh! and it was only my fourth!" Ginny said.
Harry laughed at Ginny's little outburst. She smiled appreciatively.
Just then a witch wearing a green and pink hat, just like the letter said, Apparated next to the group.
"One you must be Hermione," the green and pink hatted witch said immediately in very business like tone.
"Yes, I'm Hermione. I had the worst school year ever."
"I know you did! Have you all got permission slips and passports?"
"Yes" the four of them in unison as they handed it to the witch, who verified their authenticity and then returned only the passports.
"For budget reasons, your dream vacation will be in what we like to call the mug-magic style, a combination of muggle and magical activities." She said as she handed out travel brochures. "You will be staying in a rented muggle beach house, but your tour guide and chaperone will be a wizard."
"Can underage wizards use magic in America?" Harry asked.
"Well, the legal age is 18, and none of you are 18, But American muggles can drive at age 16. Maybe your chaperone can whip up some drivers licenses and get you four on the road!" the witch said, "You will be traveling by portkey to the shores of England, and then by rowboat to New York City. You have a 6 hour layover in New York, and then you can take an invisible hippogriff directly to the beach house in San Diego."
"Are you sure that's going to work?" Asked Hermione; She was starting to regret not having done more research on the company before entering this contest.
"Of course it will. I planned the whole thing." The witch said.
She reached into her purse and pulled out a broken ballpoint pen. "This pen is your portkey. It is set to leave tomorrow at noon. When you arrive at the seashore, your rowboat guide will be a big fat man named Biff. Have fun, and be sure to hold onto all your luggage when you use the portkey. You don't want to arrive in California and realize that you forgot your fake tanning potion!" And without even waiting to answer Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny's questions about this flimsy travel plan, the green and pink hatted witch Disapparated.
"Hermione, what was that?" Harry asked. He was feeling a little nervous about this trip.
"I don't know. I was really excited to go; I didn't really look into any details about the company." Hermione said, as she flipped through the brochure on mug-magic travel to hide her embarrassment.
"Oh, don't worry. I'm sure people cross the Atlantic in rowboats all the time." Joked Ron.
"Yeah, and an invisible hippogriff, how are we going to find it?" Ginny questioned, as she read the paragraph in the brochure about much fun it is to play 'muggle' while on vacation.
"Well, guys, this the trip. We can either go ahead with it and hope we end up on the beaches, or we can sit around for two months, grieving and worrying about Voldemort. I personally want to try this out, whether we end up in California or not, the adventure is sure to be the more fun than hanging around the Dursley's." Harry said. He had had the toughest year, and any distraction from the real world was welcomed.
"Harry's right. Let's give it a try." Ron said.
"Alright. So, let's meet at the Burrow tomorrow to catch the portkey, if that's ok, Ron," Hermione asked.
"It's fine. We won't be disrupting anyone. Nobody's ever there."
"California, here we come!" Yelled Ginny, putting into words the excitement and anticipation everyone felt on that dark street corner.