Thanks people. 300 reviews. Special thanks to Taryn for going all out. A thousand points to both Arielthwen and Ambervoice for calling the story beautiful. That made my day.
There seem to be a lot of people complaining about my use of vulgar language. I tend to agree with them. Seeing these characters that we have seen growing up using this language is hard for me too. I just can't imagine sixteen-year-old kids not swearing it up a bit.
I don't own Harry Potter. No really, I don't.
Harry brought Draco back to his room expecting a fight from the others. Surprisingly, there was little argument. Hermione didn't argue because she felt that any help that they could get to rescue Ron was welcome. Not that she was very forthcoming to Draco. She didn't speak to him and tried to avoid eye contact with him whenever possible. Evidently, old hatreds die hard.
Quentin and Susan didn't argue because they didn't know Draco and hadn't been exposed to his nastier side.
Fred and George didn't argue, because they had mysteriously disappeared.
"What do you mean they're gone?" Harry asked Hermione.
Hermione shrugged. "They were discussing the best ways for us to travel to New Mexico and suddenly they ran out of the room, saying that they'd be right back."
"They just ran out?" Harry asked, rubbing his forehead. He should have known keeping track of the twins would be a full-time job.
"Yep. They seemed pretty excited about something."
"What did they say, exactly?"
Hermione thought back. "Well...they were saying that driving was out of the question. That would take too long. They said flying would be better, but that we couldn't all afford tickets. Suddenly they looked at each other and started laughing. Then they ran out of the room."
"Great. Just great."
Harry turned back to the rest of the group and saw that Draco was paying an unusual amount of attention to Susan. She was making an effort not to look at him.
Meeting new people makes her nervous, Harry thought.
Draco stared at her for a few moments. He was inspecting her from head-to-toe and Harry felt his blood begin to boil. Draco was even trying to hide his appraisal of this new girl.
Finally, Draco said in his usual drawling voice, "Have we met before?"
Quentin burst out laughing and Ginny sniggered behind her hand. "Nice pick-up line, Malfoy. I don't think that one's been used before."
Susan backed away from Malfoy until Harry was in between the two. "I doubt it. I've never been out of the country. Unless you've come to America before, there's no chance we've met." Susan said softly from behind Harry.
Draco continued to stare.
"Back off, Malfoy." Harry said threateningly.
Malfoy looked from Susan to Harry and then back to Susan. He shrugged and then walked over to Harry's bed. He laid out on it and stared at the ceiling with a confused look on his face. He apparently wasn't used to rejection.
Susan's small hand slipped into Harry's. "Thanks." she said quietly.
Harry gave her hand a gentle squeeze and smiled down at her. She smiled her usual shy smile and laid her head on Harry's arm.
Harry's heart began to pound, but he kept his face calm.
Ginny began staring out the window. She made an effort not to look at Harry and Susan.
The twins finally showed up about an hour later. They ran into the room, panting and wheezing, but there were huge smiles on both of their faces. "We did it!" Fred said in between breaths.
"What?" Harry asked.
"We figured out how to get there!"
"How?"
"Follow us!" George screamed.
The twins bolted from the room, and the group had to run to keep up with them. They seemed too excited to wait for the elevator, so they sprinted down the stairs. George made repeated whooping noises as he took the stairs three at a time.
When they reached the lobby, several Muggles looked confused at seeing eight running teenagers.
"Where are we going?" Harry called up to the twins as they ran.
"To the parking lot!" George called back.
The group ran through the revolving doors and out to the hotel's parking lot. They continued to run until they came to a stop in front of old school bus.
"Ta da!" Fred said grandiosely.
"What? This thing?" Draco asked incredulously. "It probably doesn't even start, let alone move!"
Harry had to agree. The bus was old. It was covered with rust from bumper to bumper. All of the side windows were broken and there was a huge crack in the windshield. There was graffiti covering the entire side and the back and side doors were missing completely.
"Where'd you guys get this?" Ginny asked. "The local dump."
"Exactly!" Fred said.
"Sorry to burst your bubble," Harry said. "but that thing isn't going to get us to New Mexico. It probably couldn't get us out of the county."
The twins looked hurt by their lack of faith. "You haven't even given it a chance!" George said. "We were thinking of ways that we could get there, right? Driving was out of the question."
"So why'd you get a bus?" Draco asked.
"Let me finish. Driving was out of the question. We really wanted to fly, but it would be too expensive. And then it hit us!"
Fred picked up where George left off. "So we went to the manager of the hotel. You know, the wizard. He exchanged some of our galleons into American money. We went to the dump and talked to this guy about buying something that could transport a lot of people. He showed us this baby!"
George cut in. "For some reason, he seemed only too happy about letting us buy it. So we started it up and drove out of the dump. We were about halfway back when it broke down."
"Big surprise." Ginny said
The twins fixed her with a hard stare.
"Anyway," Fred said. "We did a few modifications on the side of the road. Watch this!"
George climbed up into the driver's seat and pulled the lever that would normally open the door. Instead, there was a slight humming noise, and the bus lifted a full foot off of the ground!
The groups stared in amazement. Even Draco looked impressed.
Fred laughed in glee. "We drove it home like this. We got a few stares, but I don't think anyone reported a floating bus."
"This is great!" Ginny said.
Harry wasn't so sure. "How high can it get?"
"Not much higher than this, but we figure that if you give us a few hours, we can have this baby souped up! We'll be able to get above the clouds. Invisibility booster, maybe some sort of silencing spell...who knows?"
Harry nodded. "Do it. We'll help clean it up and tape some of the windows. It's probably pretty cold up there."
Within fifteen minutes, the entire group was working to repair the decrepit bus. The inside was even worse than the outside. Where there had once been over twenty couch seats in the bus, now there were only three. There was a large hole in the floor about halfway back and all the remaining seats looked like they had been chewed on by a group of small rodents.
Using a huge amount of duct tape, Harry taped up the windows. They wouldn't be able to see through the windows but at least the cold air would be kept out when they were cruising at a thousand feet.
By scrounging around in the hotel's garbage, Quentin was able to find some sheets of wood and he used them to patch up the gaping hole in the floor and the back door.
Not having anything else to do, everyone but the twins went back into the hotel.
The twins worked diligently for four hours straight. While one would be casting spells on the bus, the other would be working with the supplies they had brought from their shed at the Burrow. Harry had no idea what they were making, but he knew better than to ask.
It was around eight at night when the twins finished. They came into the room, looking slightly exhausted. Fred laid out on Ron's bed and George curled up on the floor by the door.
"Do you need us for anything, Harry?" George asked, losing the battle with his eyelids.
Harry smiled fondly at the two of them. "No, boys. Get a few hours of sleep. I'll wake you in a few hours. It'll be easier to get Quentin and Susan out of the hotel if we do it at night."
Quentin and Susan went back to their room to check in with their headmasters. Hermione went back to the room she shared with Parvati and Lavender to grab some shut eye. Harry didn't know where Draco was, but he didn't really care.
That left only Harry and Ginny awake in Harry's room.
There were several minutes of uncomfortable silence until Ginny finally said; "Maybe I should go talk with McGonagall. Or go talk to Parvati and Lavender." She stood up quickly, but Harry grabbed her arm.
Harry snorted and said, "I wouldn't do that. If McGonagall knew you were here, she'd never let you come with us. For some reason, she has no problem letting me hurtle into danger. I don't think she'd even care about the twins. But if we told her we were bringing you along, she's call it off."
Harry pulled her down on the floor next to him. She was stiff when he let go of her arm.
They sat in silence for a few minutes when Ginny said, "That was nice. What you did for Susan."
Harry shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable. "It wasn't much. Draco can be pretty sleazy."
"He was just looking at her, Harry. You wouldn't have done anything if he were looking at anyone else...if he was looking at me."
"You're right. I wouldn't have done anything."
Ginny's face fell.
Harry continued. "I wouldn't have had to do anything. Hermione's as tough as nails when she needs to be."
"What about me?" Ginny asked softly.
"To tell you the truth, Ginny, I have no idea how I feel about you. Sometimes I look at you and I see Ginny Weasley, Ron's little sister."
Ginny grimaced and stared coldly at the wall opposite her.
"But sometimes I look at you and...I don't know. I've never really been comfortable around girls. Well, except Hermione. She's practically my sister. Anyway, I get around girls, and my insides twist up. But nothing like that happens when I'm around you."
Ginny laughed bitterly. "You don't have to rub it in, Harry."
Harry smiled. Just sitting next to her, looking at her ginger hair, made him feel good. He nudged her hard enough that she had to use her hand to not fall on her side. "I didn't mean it like that and you know it."
She got her balance again and nudged him back. "I know it."
Harry laughed. "You see! If I had said something stupid around any other girl, I would've froze. I'm completely at ease when I'm around you."
Ginny looked over at him. Harry saw that the freckles that used to cover her face were fading as she got older. She wasn't clumsy anymore. As she aged, she had gained a confidence akin to the twins. Not that she was as reckless as the twins were, she just wasn't afraid to be herself anymore.
"You're not that bad with the girls." Ginny said. "It looks like Susan is absolutely enamored with you and I know Parvati likes you. Hell, half the girls at Hogwarts memorizing your schedule so they can say 'Hi!' to you."
"Yeah, right." Harry said doubtfully.
"You don't notice them?!" Ginny exclaimed. "They're everywhere! Sometimes they really piss me off."
"Why?"
"They're so stupid! They always talk about you in the common room. The worst part is when they ask me questions about you, like I'd know just because I'm your friend."
"I had no idea." Harry said, truly shocked.
"They're always asking if you have a girlfriend."
Harry snorted. "I've never had a girlfriend."
"I know." Ginny's face suddenly became puzzled. "Harry?"
"What's up?"
She smiled mischievously and asked, "Have you ever kissed a girl?"
Harry felt his cheeks heat, but he kept his eyes on Ginny. "Yes."
Ginny looked surprised. "Yes? Who'd you kiss. If it was Heather Kimler, I'll kill you, myself. She's the biggest idiot in my grade. You should have been able to see through her crap! I can't believe you kissed Heather Kimler! I'm gonna rip off her-"
Harry cut her off. "Who's Heather Kimler?"
Ginny blushed satisfactorily. "You don't know who Heather Kimler is?"
"I have no idea who she is."
"She's one of those girls. She was always saying that she was going to make her move. I just assumed..."
"Nope. I've never even met Heather Kimler."
"That's good" Ginny said. Suddenly, she whipped her head around to face him again. "Then who was it?"
Harry wished he could change the subject. "I don't know."
"Come on, Harry. You can tell me."
"No, I really don't remember."
Ginny looked doubtful.
"I'm serious, Ginny. I never caught their names. It was our first night, here. Ron, Hermione and I all went out to a club. I had a drink-"
"You got drunk?!"
"No, I didn't get drunk. Just...more forthcoming. I danced with a whole group of girls. I ended up kissing all of them at least once."
"There was more than one? And you didn't even know their names?!"
"Hey, I'm not proud of it. But I don't regret it, either. I learned a lot that night."
"About kissing? How much did you learn?"
Harry shrugged. "They seemed pretty impressed. And they didn't look like girls that have never kissed someone before."
Ginny sat in silence for a moment or two. "Fucking Casanova." she said sarcastically.
"I wouldn't go that far."
"Harry Potter kissed a girl." she said expansively.
"Four."
"I'd have to see it to believe it." she said. Then she realized what she had just said and blushed horribly. Harry couldn't help but smile.
"I didn't mean it like that."
"I know." Harry said and threw an arm around Ginny's shoulders. It was comfortable.
"So you really like this Susan girl, huh?" Ginny asked.
Harry thought about it. His emotions were so twisted right now, that he had no idea what he really felt. "Yeah, I really do. But then you come into the room and-"
The door opened and Harry and Ginny hastily separated. Quentin walked in with a smile on his face.
"Did you get in trouble?" Harry asked him.
Quentin snorted. "My Headmaster barely knew I was gone."
Harry glanced over at the clock. It was only six o'clock. He had planned on leaving around eight. Over the next two hours, everyone showed back up. Susan hadn't gotten into much trouble either. Draco came back in, saying that he had been scoping out the women of Southern Florida. Harry let the twins sleep until 7:45. He went over to his trunk and pulled out the Sword of Gryffindor. He didn't know how to use it, but it was better than nothing.
The group went down to the parking lot in silence. No one really felt like talking. There was too much to think about. They were finally doing it. It was time to rescue Ron.
The bus looked as bad as it did when the twins had brought it in. The group filled in the remaining couch seat. Harry sat with Hermione, Quentin sat with Susan, and much to her discomfort, Ginny sat with Draco.
The twins were the only ones that knew how to drive the bus, so they alternated. One would drive and the other one would sleep in a sleeping bag that they had brought from the Burrow.
George drove first. He pulled the lever that activated the levitation spell and the bus lifted off the ground with a hum. He flipped another switch and the humming stopped. Harry knew that was the silence spell that the twins had cast on the bus.
George pulled the switch that would normally turn on the windshield wipers. But instead of the windshield wipers turning on, the entire bus disappeared. Harry tried to look down at his body, but that was gone too.
Here we go again, he thought.
Harry heard the door-lever being pulled again and the bus shot straight up into the air.
Harry heard gasps from all around him, but he couldn't see who produced them.
George must have turned the massive wheel because they slowly turned west.
"Here we go!" George screamed.
He must have stomped down on the accelerator because the bus jumped into motion.
Harry looked down where his legs should have been, and saw the lights of Southern Florida moving under him. They were moving much quicker that Harry would have imagined.
Harry laid back his head on the seat and tried to sleep. It was going to be a long ride.
***
From the room that they always sat in, Jared Langford and Joseph Dent looked down into the water bowl. They saw Ronald Weasley sitting in the only shadowed corner of his cell. He had been screaming pretty consistently for about a day and half now, but he had suddenly stopped.
Jared turned to Dent and asked, "Why'd he stop screaming? Do you think he's finally cracked?"
Dent waved that possibility away. "He's fine." But Jared could see the lines of worry around the older man's eyes. Maybe they had pushed the boy too far.
They would have known the real answer to their questions of they went down to Ron's cell.
Ron sat in the corner rocking back and forth slowly. It did look like he had finally gone crazy, but his mind was absolutely clear. More clear than it had been in days.
Under his breath, barely audible, Ron was repeating two words over and over. To hear him, Someone would have to put his or her ear right next Ron's mouth, but in Ron's mind, it was loud enough.
"She's coming. She's coming. She's coming. She's coming..."
There seem to be a lot of people complaining about my use of vulgar language. I tend to agree with them. Seeing these characters that we have seen growing up using this language is hard for me too. I just can't imagine sixteen-year-old kids not swearing it up a bit.
I don't own Harry Potter. No really, I don't.
Harry brought Draco back to his room expecting a fight from the others. Surprisingly, there was little argument. Hermione didn't argue because she felt that any help that they could get to rescue Ron was welcome. Not that she was very forthcoming to Draco. She didn't speak to him and tried to avoid eye contact with him whenever possible. Evidently, old hatreds die hard.
Quentin and Susan didn't argue because they didn't know Draco and hadn't been exposed to his nastier side.
Fred and George didn't argue, because they had mysteriously disappeared.
"What do you mean they're gone?" Harry asked Hermione.
Hermione shrugged. "They were discussing the best ways for us to travel to New Mexico and suddenly they ran out of the room, saying that they'd be right back."
"They just ran out?" Harry asked, rubbing his forehead. He should have known keeping track of the twins would be a full-time job.
"Yep. They seemed pretty excited about something."
"What did they say, exactly?"
Hermione thought back. "Well...they were saying that driving was out of the question. That would take too long. They said flying would be better, but that we couldn't all afford tickets. Suddenly they looked at each other and started laughing. Then they ran out of the room."
"Great. Just great."
Harry turned back to the rest of the group and saw that Draco was paying an unusual amount of attention to Susan. She was making an effort not to look at him.
Meeting new people makes her nervous, Harry thought.
Draco stared at her for a few moments. He was inspecting her from head-to-toe and Harry felt his blood begin to boil. Draco was even trying to hide his appraisal of this new girl.
Finally, Draco said in his usual drawling voice, "Have we met before?"
Quentin burst out laughing and Ginny sniggered behind her hand. "Nice pick-up line, Malfoy. I don't think that one's been used before."
Susan backed away from Malfoy until Harry was in between the two. "I doubt it. I've never been out of the country. Unless you've come to America before, there's no chance we've met." Susan said softly from behind Harry.
Draco continued to stare.
"Back off, Malfoy." Harry said threateningly.
Malfoy looked from Susan to Harry and then back to Susan. He shrugged and then walked over to Harry's bed. He laid out on it and stared at the ceiling with a confused look on his face. He apparently wasn't used to rejection.
Susan's small hand slipped into Harry's. "Thanks." she said quietly.
Harry gave her hand a gentle squeeze and smiled down at her. She smiled her usual shy smile and laid her head on Harry's arm.
Harry's heart began to pound, but he kept his face calm.
Ginny began staring out the window. She made an effort not to look at Harry and Susan.
The twins finally showed up about an hour later. They ran into the room, panting and wheezing, but there were huge smiles on both of their faces. "We did it!" Fred said in between breaths.
"What?" Harry asked.
"We figured out how to get there!"
"How?"
"Follow us!" George screamed.
The twins bolted from the room, and the group had to run to keep up with them. They seemed too excited to wait for the elevator, so they sprinted down the stairs. George made repeated whooping noises as he took the stairs three at a time.
When they reached the lobby, several Muggles looked confused at seeing eight running teenagers.
"Where are we going?" Harry called up to the twins as they ran.
"To the parking lot!" George called back.
The group ran through the revolving doors and out to the hotel's parking lot. They continued to run until they came to a stop in front of old school bus.
"Ta da!" Fred said grandiosely.
"What? This thing?" Draco asked incredulously. "It probably doesn't even start, let alone move!"
Harry had to agree. The bus was old. It was covered with rust from bumper to bumper. All of the side windows were broken and there was a huge crack in the windshield. There was graffiti covering the entire side and the back and side doors were missing completely.
"Where'd you guys get this?" Ginny asked. "The local dump."
"Exactly!" Fred said.
"Sorry to burst your bubble," Harry said. "but that thing isn't going to get us to New Mexico. It probably couldn't get us out of the county."
The twins looked hurt by their lack of faith. "You haven't even given it a chance!" George said. "We were thinking of ways that we could get there, right? Driving was out of the question."
"So why'd you get a bus?" Draco asked.
"Let me finish. Driving was out of the question. We really wanted to fly, but it would be too expensive. And then it hit us!"
Fred picked up where George left off. "So we went to the manager of the hotel. You know, the wizard. He exchanged some of our galleons into American money. We went to the dump and talked to this guy about buying something that could transport a lot of people. He showed us this baby!"
George cut in. "For some reason, he seemed only too happy about letting us buy it. So we started it up and drove out of the dump. We were about halfway back when it broke down."
"Big surprise." Ginny said
The twins fixed her with a hard stare.
"Anyway," Fred said. "We did a few modifications on the side of the road. Watch this!"
George climbed up into the driver's seat and pulled the lever that would normally open the door. Instead, there was a slight humming noise, and the bus lifted a full foot off of the ground!
The groups stared in amazement. Even Draco looked impressed.
Fred laughed in glee. "We drove it home like this. We got a few stares, but I don't think anyone reported a floating bus."
"This is great!" Ginny said.
Harry wasn't so sure. "How high can it get?"
"Not much higher than this, but we figure that if you give us a few hours, we can have this baby souped up! We'll be able to get above the clouds. Invisibility booster, maybe some sort of silencing spell...who knows?"
Harry nodded. "Do it. We'll help clean it up and tape some of the windows. It's probably pretty cold up there."
Within fifteen minutes, the entire group was working to repair the decrepit bus. The inside was even worse than the outside. Where there had once been over twenty couch seats in the bus, now there were only three. There was a large hole in the floor about halfway back and all the remaining seats looked like they had been chewed on by a group of small rodents.
Using a huge amount of duct tape, Harry taped up the windows. They wouldn't be able to see through the windows but at least the cold air would be kept out when they were cruising at a thousand feet.
By scrounging around in the hotel's garbage, Quentin was able to find some sheets of wood and he used them to patch up the gaping hole in the floor and the back door.
Not having anything else to do, everyone but the twins went back into the hotel.
The twins worked diligently for four hours straight. While one would be casting spells on the bus, the other would be working with the supplies they had brought from their shed at the Burrow. Harry had no idea what they were making, but he knew better than to ask.
It was around eight at night when the twins finished. They came into the room, looking slightly exhausted. Fred laid out on Ron's bed and George curled up on the floor by the door.
"Do you need us for anything, Harry?" George asked, losing the battle with his eyelids.
Harry smiled fondly at the two of them. "No, boys. Get a few hours of sleep. I'll wake you in a few hours. It'll be easier to get Quentin and Susan out of the hotel if we do it at night."
Quentin and Susan went back to their room to check in with their headmasters. Hermione went back to the room she shared with Parvati and Lavender to grab some shut eye. Harry didn't know where Draco was, but he didn't really care.
That left only Harry and Ginny awake in Harry's room.
There were several minutes of uncomfortable silence until Ginny finally said; "Maybe I should go talk with McGonagall. Or go talk to Parvati and Lavender." She stood up quickly, but Harry grabbed her arm.
Harry snorted and said, "I wouldn't do that. If McGonagall knew you were here, she'd never let you come with us. For some reason, she has no problem letting me hurtle into danger. I don't think she'd even care about the twins. But if we told her we were bringing you along, she's call it off."
Harry pulled her down on the floor next to him. She was stiff when he let go of her arm.
They sat in silence for a few minutes when Ginny said, "That was nice. What you did for Susan."
Harry shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable. "It wasn't much. Draco can be pretty sleazy."
"He was just looking at her, Harry. You wouldn't have done anything if he were looking at anyone else...if he was looking at me."
"You're right. I wouldn't have done anything."
Ginny's face fell.
Harry continued. "I wouldn't have had to do anything. Hermione's as tough as nails when she needs to be."
"What about me?" Ginny asked softly.
"To tell you the truth, Ginny, I have no idea how I feel about you. Sometimes I look at you and I see Ginny Weasley, Ron's little sister."
Ginny grimaced and stared coldly at the wall opposite her.
"But sometimes I look at you and...I don't know. I've never really been comfortable around girls. Well, except Hermione. She's practically my sister. Anyway, I get around girls, and my insides twist up. But nothing like that happens when I'm around you."
Ginny laughed bitterly. "You don't have to rub it in, Harry."
Harry smiled. Just sitting next to her, looking at her ginger hair, made him feel good. He nudged her hard enough that she had to use her hand to not fall on her side. "I didn't mean it like that and you know it."
She got her balance again and nudged him back. "I know it."
Harry laughed. "You see! If I had said something stupid around any other girl, I would've froze. I'm completely at ease when I'm around you."
Ginny looked over at him. Harry saw that the freckles that used to cover her face were fading as she got older. She wasn't clumsy anymore. As she aged, she had gained a confidence akin to the twins. Not that she was as reckless as the twins were, she just wasn't afraid to be herself anymore.
"You're not that bad with the girls." Ginny said. "It looks like Susan is absolutely enamored with you and I know Parvati likes you. Hell, half the girls at Hogwarts memorizing your schedule so they can say 'Hi!' to you."
"Yeah, right." Harry said doubtfully.
"You don't notice them?!" Ginny exclaimed. "They're everywhere! Sometimes they really piss me off."
"Why?"
"They're so stupid! They always talk about you in the common room. The worst part is when they ask me questions about you, like I'd know just because I'm your friend."
"I had no idea." Harry said, truly shocked.
"They're always asking if you have a girlfriend."
Harry snorted. "I've never had a girlfriend."
"I know." Ginny's face suddenly became puzzled. "Harry?"
"What's up?"
She smiled mischievously and asked, "Have you ever kissed a girl?"
Harry felt his cheeks heat, but he kept his eyes on Ginny. "Yes."
Ginny looked surprised. "Yes? Who'd you kiss. If it was Heather Kimler, I'll kill you, myself. She's the biggest idiot in my grade. You should have been able to see through her crap! I can't believe you kissed Heather Kimler! I'm gonna rip off her-"
Harry cut her off. "Who's Heather Kimler?"
Ginny blushed satisfactorily. "You don't know who Heather Kimler is?"
"I have no idea who she is."
"She's one of those girls. She was always saying that she was going to make her move. I just assumed..."
"Nope. I've never even met Heather Kimler."
"That's good" Ginny said. Suddenly, she whipped her head around to face him again. "Then who was it?"
Harry wished he could change the subject. "I don't know."
"Come on, Harry. You can tell me."
"No, I really don't remember."
Ginny looked doubtful.
"I'm serious, Ginny. I never caught their names. It was our first night, here. Ron, Hermione and I all went out to a club. I had a drink-"
"You got drunk?!"
"No, I didn't get drunk. Just...more forthcoming. I danced with a whole group of girls. I ended up kissing all of them at least once."
"There was more than one? And you didn't even know their names?!"
"Hey, I'm not proud of it. But I don't regret it, either. I learned a lot that night."
"About kissing? How much did you learn?"
Harry shrugged. "They seemed pretty impressed. And they didn't look like girls that have never kissed someone before."
Ginny sat in silence for a moment or two. "Fucking Casanova." she said sarcastically.
"I wouldn't go that far."
"Harry Potter kissed a girl." she said expansively.
"Four."
"I'd have to see it to believe it." she said. Then she realized what she had just said and blushed horribly. Harry couldn't help but smile.
"I didn't mean it like that."
"I know." Harry said and threw an arm around Ginny's shoulders. It was comfortable.
"So you really like this Susan girl, huh?" Ginny asked.
Harry thought about it. His emotions were so twisted right now, that he had no idea what he really felt. "Yeah, I really do. But then you come into the room and-"
The door opened and Harry and Ginny hastily separated. Quentin walked in with a smile on his face.
"Did you get in trouble?" Harry asked him.
Quentin snorted. "My Headmaster barely knew I was gone."
Harry glanced over at the clock. It was only six o'clock. He had planned on leaving around eight. Over the next two hours, everyone showed back up. Susan hadn't gotten into much trouble either. Draco came back in, saying that he had been scoping out the women of Southern Florida. Harry let the twins sleep until 7:45. He went over to his trunk and pulled out the Sword of Gryffindor. He didn't know how to use it, but it was better than nothing.
The group went down to the parking lot in silence. No one really felt like talking. There was too much to think about. They were finally doing it. It was time to rescue Ron.
The bus looked as bad as it did when the twins had brought it in. The group filled in the remaining couch seat. Harry sat with Hermione, Quentin sat with Susan, and much to her discomfort, Ginny sat with Draco.
The twins were the only ones that knew how to drive the bus, so they alternated. One would drive and the other one would sleep in a sleeping bag that they had brought from the Burrow.
George drove first. He pulled the lever that activated the levitation spell and the bus lifted off the ground with a hum. He flipped another switch and the humming stopped. Harry knew that was the silence spell that the twins had cast on the bus.
George pulled the switch that would normally turn on the windshield wipers. But instead of the windshield wipers turning on, the entire bus disappeared. Harry tried to look down at his body, but that was gone too.
Here we go again, he thought.
Harry heard the door-lever being pulled again and the bus shot straight up into the air.
Harry heard gasps from all around him, but he couldn't see who produced them.
George must have turned the massive wheel because they slowly turned west.
"Here we go!" George screamed.
He must have stomped down on the accelerator because the bus jumped into motion.
Harry looked down where his legs should have been, and saw the lights of Southern Florida moving under him. They were moving much quicker that Harry would have imagined.
Harry laid back his head on the seat and tried to sleep. It was going to be a long ride.
***
From the room that they always sat in, Jared Langford and Joseph Dent looked down into the water bowl. They saw Ronald Weasley sitting in the only shadowed corner of his cell. He had been screaming pretty consistently for about a day and half now, but he had suddenly stopped.
Jared turned to Dent and asked, "Why'd he stop screaming? Do you think he's finally cracked?"
Dent waved that possibility away. "He's fine." But Jared could see the lines of worry around the older man's eyes. Maybe they had pushed the boy too far.
They would have known the real answer to their questions of they went down to Ron's cell.
Ron sat in the corner rocking back and forth slowly. It did look like he had finally gone crazy, but his mind was absolutely clear. More clear than it had been in days.
Under his breath, barely audible, Ron was repeating two words over and over. To hear him, Someone would have to put his or her ear right next Ron's mouth, but in Ron's mind, it was loud enough.
"She's coming. She's coming. She's coming. She's coming..."