"Ginny dear, wake up," Mrs. Weasley said gently. "It's time to start getting ready."
"Okay Mum," Ginny murmured, and Molly hurried out again.
"Oh, I fell asleep in the boys' room, didn't I?" said Ginny, recalling the events of last night.
"Yup," said Hermione, who was brushing her hair. "Harry had to carry you back here."
Ginny coughed.
"GOOD MORNING, BOYS!"
Mr. Weasley's voice pierced Ron's dream like a foghorn.
"You'll never believe it! This morning to wake us up, some chap called Mickey gave us a phone call! It was the nicest thing!"
Harry looked as if he was debating telling Mr. Weasley something, but he just grinned and said, "Cool."
Both boys were sitting up in bed, having just been stirred.
As Harry searched out his glasses and put them on, Arthur went on, "Hurry up and get ready, Molly and I've got a surprise for you all, and we don't want to waste any time today!"
He bustled out of the room leaving silence in his wake.
"Ron," Harry moaned after a moment, "What time is it?"
Ron rolled over so that he was facing the clock.
"Ugh. Seven in the morning."
"There's a seven in the morning?" Harry asked in sarcastic shock.
Ron took the pillow next to him and threw it at the other bed in the vague direction of Harry.
"It's too early for a pillow fight," Harry said in reply, kicking the pillow off the bed. "C'mon, we'd better start getting ready."
He rolled out of bed and trudged into the bathroom, leaving Ron alone. Ron pulled on jeans, a t-shirt, and trainers. (AN: I used the British term; go me!) Then he went to the sink area and brushed his teeth. Left with nothing else to do, he sat back down on his bed and turned on the (by now infamous) Disney Information Channel.
"What's that?" Harry asked when he emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed.
"Dunno," said Ron vaguely.
Harry combed his hair and while he was brushing his teeth there was a knock on the door. Ron opened it and admitted his sister and his...um...that is, Hermione. As soon as the latter clapped eyes on him, she said, "Ron!"
"What is it?" Ron said, checking that his shirt wasn't on backwards and that his shoes were on the right feet.
"You didn't comb your hair!"
"Oh. Knew I was forgetting something."
"Oh, you always forget! Where's the comb?"
Out of the corner of her eye, Ginny saw Harry slide the comb out of sight.
"I dunno," said Ron innocently.
"Oh bother!" said Hermione, and she began attacking his hair with her fingers. As she tried to straighten his part, she continued her diatribe.
"Harry always combs his hair!"
"Leave me out of this," said Harry, still standing by the sink.
Ron ignored him. "Harry has to comb his hair; it's a disaster!"
"You should talk!"
Ron lapsed into moody silence as Hermione finally became satisfied with the condition of his hair.
"So what's the surprise your mum and dad've got?" Harry asked.
"I wish I knew," Ginny replied. "They didn't tell us either."
Just then there was a knock at the door. Ginny answered it and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came in. Mrs. Weasley appeared to be using all her willpower to not comment on the room's disordered state.
"Well, yesterday on our walk," said Mr. Weasley, "We went into the Muggle store next to the lobby and found some really neat things!"
"Show us," said Hermione encouragingly.
"Well, first we got this." Mr. Weasley procured one of those spray-bottle battery-powered fans. "One of the people working there said it would keep us cool."
"Oh, that's a wonderful Muggle thing!" said Hermione. "Let me show you - "
She took the fan from Arthur and switched it on so that it blew cold air, which delighted him. He promptly christened the fan "Wind-Maker."
"It sprays water, too," said Hermione. "I'll fill it up with ice so it will be cold all day."
As she did this, Mrs. Weasley said, "We got something else, too. They're called...talky-walky."
"Oh!" said Harry. "Walkie-talkies! Dudley had a pair once! Those will be great; if we get separated we can still communicate!"
Harry began to show Mr. Weasley how the walkie-talkies worked while Mrs. Weasley separated Ginny's hair into two pigtails and Hermione filled up the bottle of the fan. This left Ron as the only unoccupied person.
"Which park are we going to today?" he asked.
"I was thinking Animal Kingdom," said Harry. "It closes early so we'll be starting slow, and it should be a pretty leisurely day because it's the newest park so there's not tons of stuff to do there yet."
"Oh, but it will be so interesting!" said Hermione, screwing the fan back on the bottle and sitting down next to Ron.
"This will be excellent!" Mr. Weasley said excitedly.
"Thank you for taking us here, Harry," said Mrs. Weasley for the thousandth time.
"Well I couldn't've very well gone alone," Harry countered.
Everyone finished up what they were doing and they went down to breakfast at about quarter 'til eight. After having some toast they walked to the sidewalk in front of the lobby and waited for the bus. Mr. Weasley looked as if he wanted to be skipping in circles. Finally the Animal Kingdom bus arrived and they all piled in.
RING.
RING.
RING.
Severus beat Albus to answering the phone. He picked up the receiver but didn't say anything. It didn't matter anyway; whatever was on the other end didn't require a response.
"Can you feel the love tonight?" a voice was singing.
"Oh holy hell!" Snape yelled, slamming down the receiver.
"Goodness, Severus," said Albus mildly. "It was just the wake-up call."
"Good morning, L-Train!"
Most people know the Dark Lord is immune to Avada Kedavra. Very few people, however, are aware that he is also immune to hangovers.
"Hello, my Lord," said Lucius stiffly, opening his eyes. Draco was already awake, standing at the foot of the bed and glaring at his father.
"All right, I'm awake." Lucius sat up.
"My master is not jumping on the bed," he said to himself, when the sight met his eyes.
Of course not, Lucius.
"I decided to let you sleep in and delayed the wake-up call," Albus was explaining, "So we'll get there a little late."
"Thank you, Headmaster," said Snape sarcastically, but the sarcasm was ignored.
The four adults were sitting on a bench in front of the hotel waiting for the bus that would take them to Animal Kingdom.
"Oh, and before I forget," said Dumbledore, "everyone needs to wear one of these."
He showed them four hats he had bought, each representative of a Winnie the Pooh character, though none of them knew that.
"Why?" Severus moaned.
"So no one will recognize us. Especially you, Professor Snape."
There was no need for elaboration.
The hats were distributed and everyone got one that was ironically appropriate – Dumbledore, Pooh, the leader of the group, Severus, Eeyore, the depressed one (that fans lurrrve), Minerva, Rabbit, the cranky one, and Tonks, Tigger, the eternally cheerful one. Of course, Tonks immediately changed her hair color to orange with black stripes to match her new headgear. It is unnecessary to say that when the bus arrived and they got on, they were the recipients of an abundance of odd looks.
"We're here! We're here!" Mr. Weasley and Ginny sang as they got off the bus. Harry saw the bus driver smile and say to himself, "First-timers."
Indeed, they were "there," Animal Kingdom in all its splendor. Everything was lush, green, and alive-looking, even when it was synthetic. The only thing that could possibly mar their enjoyment was that their wands were confiscated at the entrance.
"We've had information that objects of this description may be used as weapons," the security personnel man explained. "You can retrieve them tonight on your way out of the park, however."
Mr. Weasley was delighted to have another encounter with turnstiles, as he hadn't seem them since he had escorted Harry to his trial the summer before. They fed their tickets through it and entered the park. Before Mr. Weasley moved on, however, he turned around and snapped a picture of the device with a Muggle camera he had also purchased.
"We should do Kilimanjaro Safaris first," said Ginny, as they stood on the huge brick mosaic of a tree that lay right at the entrance to the park. "It's very popular and least crowded in the mornings."
"I think I'd like to take a walk around and get my bearings before anything else," said Mr. Weasley, and he did indeed look as if he was about to pass out.
"Let's split up then," said Harry. "We do have the walkie-talkies, after all."
So they grabbed guidemaps and parted ways.
Ginny led the other three into the jungle ahead of them, down a congested trail full of fellow tourists.
"Look at that tree," said Ron, after a few seconds. "It almost looks like a person."
He poked it.
It poked him back.
He yelled.
Harry laughed so hard tears came to his eyes.
"Honestly, Ron," said Hermione, grinning. "You ought to know from the guidebooks to watch out for things that look human even though they shouldn't."
"Oh, shut up," said Ron, looking flustered.
The trail split and the four of them chose a more abandoned route that Ginny said might be quicker. On the way they encountered a small house of reptiles that was abandoned except for surveillance cameras. They were going to walk through it, but Harry stopped in front of a case set into the wall that contained a snake, remembering his trip to the zoo when he was eleven.
"Hold up!" he called to the others, and then turned to the snake. "Hello."
The snake did not appear surprised that it was being spoken to, for some reason.
"Hello," it hissed.
"I suppose you don't get much conversation here."
"No, but there are more wizards here than meet the eye. Sssome work here, too, and sssubtly make thingsss easier for the ressst of you."
"Really?" said Harry, his interest aroused. "How?"
"They sssell ssspecial pins that befuddle Muggles ssso you can ssskip to the head of a line. They only work on property, though."
"Brilliant! What do they look like?"
"They have Sssimba on them and say 'king.' I think the shop at the end of thisss trail sssells them."
"Hurry up, Harry!" Ginny said, ignoring the fact that he was conversing with a snake. "We have to beat the crowds!"
"Well, I have to go," said Harry. "Thanks again for the info, anyway."
"Goodbye," said the snake.
Harry led the way out of the little building.
"You know that's wicked bizarre, don't you, Harry?" Ron asked.
"Yeah," Harry grinned. "But it gave me useful information. C'mon, we have a purchase to make."
He bought the four of them the Simba pins (AN: which I made up the design for, by the way) at the shop the snake had described, after explaining to the others what they did. He didn't bother to pick up some for Ron's parents; he knew Mr. Weasley would want to do things the Muggle way. After that they could take their time. They came to Kilimanjaro Safaris and easily walked past everybody else in line without protest.
"How many?" the smiling cast member (Disney World employee) asked, and directed them to a row of seats in one of the battered-looking trucks. Harry, Ginny, Hermione, and Ron piled into it, effectively filling it. Their driver, a rambunctious brunette named Nadia, began narrating as she pulled away from the loading station.
The first part of the ride was interesting, and they saw all sorts of animals. Then there were poachers and squeaky bridges and anarchy, which Ginny especially enjoyed very much.
"I did not like the squeaky bridge," said Hermione squeamishly after they had gotten off. "Anyway, where to now?"
"I thought we'd just circle around the Tree of Life," Ginny mused.
"Sounds like a plan," said Harry.
"That ride was bloody incredible," said Ron, who wasn't really listening.
They bypassed the Wildlife Express Train to Rafiki's Planet Watch, because Ginny pointed out it would probably be better later in the day when they were tired and everything else was crowded. That said, they moved on to Asia and tried the Maharajah Jungle Trek. The boys liked the bats; Hermione and Ginny preferred the tigers. At the end they found themselves in front of Kali River Rapids.
"This'll be good, after that hot walk," said Harry. No one protested as they all got in line. For a minute they pretended to be Muggles so they could see the interesting things in the waiting area, but then Ron got impatient and they skipped ahead to the rotating loading dock. Hermione had butterflies from all of the "dire warnings" posted in the loading area, though of course she had the sense to realize it wasn't going to be that bad. Still...the creaky bridge...
"Next!" said the cast member who was walking opposite to the dock's rotations to keep up with it. Hermione suppressed her nervousness and got into the circular raft with the others, stowing the spray fan in the center compartment reserved for things that had to stay dry. (AN: My stomach is in knots right now...it makes me anxious just writing this ride!)
The raft was circular with eight seats all facing toward the middle and grouped in pairs. Hermione and Ginny sat together, as did Harry and Ron. The raft flowed along at a slow, leisurely pace, past ruins of ancient Asian temples and things like that. They went down a small drop, but Hermione was facing downwards and it was the boys, on the side of the drop, who got a little wet. This became quickly inconsequential; next they all passed under a waterfall, and Hermione, now thoroughly soaked, relaxed somewhat. (AN: Just want to say this isn't exactly how the ride goes, it's just bits of what I remember and I've only ridden twice and not since last October.) They floated by a pile of burning logs that had something to do with loggers. Hermione grinned and flashed a thumbs-up at Ron, whose eyes widened. Hermione made to ask what it was, but next second she was falling backwards down the ride's "big drop," and the crash at the bottom ensured that she and Ginny were drenched. The boys, miraculously, were relatively unscathed.
"No fair!" Hermione called to Ron, now confident the worst was over. "You could've told me we were about to go over backwards!"
Ron laughed, and Hermione took savage pleasure in it when, at the end of the ride, he was squirted by one of the elephants controlled by other tourists.
"Serves you right!" She cackled as he madly tried to repel the droplets away from his head with his arms.
There was a pause as they all climbed off the raft. Then –
"I feel...soggy," Ginny said.
"I feel hungry," Ron countered.
Harry bought a huge bag of popcorn as they made their way to the show in the Asia section. It was called Flights of Wonder and was all about birds. Hermione thought the Muggle perception of owls, especially in regard to their intelligence, was fascinating. Ron, for his part, thought how naïve the Muggles were was very funny. They had no difficulty polishing off their snack over the course of the show.
Since they had done everything in Asia, the group hiked over to DinoLand, USA. On their way, Mr. Weasley came on the walkie-talkie.
"Your mother wants to know that you four are safe and that you ate something and that you're staying hydrated."
"We're safe and hydrated, and we had a lot of popcorn," Harry answered.
"Where are you?" Ron asked.
"We just left the turnstiles," said Mr. Weasley. "Now we're taking pictures of trees."
"Good for you," said Hermione, the only one capable of responding to such a shocking announcement.
"Talk to you later, then," Arthur said.
There was a beep to indicate the end of the conversation and Ron asked, "How on earth could they spend an hour and a half at the turnstiles?"
"Well, maybe they were people watching," Ginny put in.
"Your mum is probably bored sick," said Harry with a smile.
As he said this they came into DinoLand.
"Let's ride Primeval Whirl!" Ron suggested, referring to the spinning roller coaster.
"Okay," Harry agreed.
"I'm going to sit this one out," said Hermione, looking up apprehensively at the tall structure.
"Me too," said Ginny. "We did just eat, after all."
So the boys rode Primeval Whirl while the girls tried TriceraTop Spin, curious to see what the park looked like from above. It was undeniably a kiddie ride, sitting in a car shaped like a triceratops and flying in circles, but Hermione and Ginny loved it.
"How was it?" Hermione asked the boys when they met up with them back on the ground.
"Bloody brilliant," said Ron fervently, though he looked a little pale.
"Yeah, it was," Harry put in.
"What did you two do while we were on it?" Ron asked.
"That," Ginny pointed to TriceraTop Spin.
"Don't tell me you had fun on that!"
"Oh Ron," said Hermione patronizingly, "you just don't get it."
Ron shrugged.
"Is everyone up for DINOSAUR now?" Harry suggested.
"Sure," they agreed.
Now, in the line for DINOSAUR, Hermione began to look nervous again as they were "briefed" on their "mission" to rescue a harmless dinosaur in a time machine (a jeep-like "rover") just before a meteor wipes all of the dinosaurs out. Ron noticed and asked, "Are you okay?"
They were just about to get on, so she nodded and slid into the "rover" (with extra wide seats) first, then Ron, then Harry, then Ginny.
It had a fun beginning, cruising past robotic dinosaurs, but then an Apatosaurus began to plague them. As it let out an earsplitting roar, Hermione screwed her eyes shut, but there was no blocking out the cries of the ride's narrator and the increasingly loud roars of the Apatosaurus. (FACT CHECK) She felt the rover jolt and speed up and shake wildly. Finally everything slowed down. The ride's voice-over said, "Phew, we got away! That was a close one!" and Hermione pried her eyes open.
She was face to face with the biggest, baddest, toothiest dinosaur, which let out the loudest roar yet.
Hermione screamed and ducked down in her seat, knocking her head on Ron's right leg. He placed both hands over her ears so she didn't hear the rest of the ride, and after a great deal more turbulence it was over.
Or so Hermione thought, until she emerged into the gift shop. When she did, she clapped eyes on a screen displaying pictures of the ride.
"Hey look, it's us!" Ginny said, smiling broadly as she pointed to a screen.
Hermione knew why Ginny was smiling; in the picture, all that could be seen of Hermione was her bushy brown head, partially obscured by Ron's hands that were on their way to her ears. Ron was looking down at her sort of nervously. Harry saw it and burst into laughter. Hermione, however, did not miss Ginny's hand clamped on Harry's arm in the picture. She decided not to mention it at the time; it would make better ammunition later.
It was almost three, so they headed back towards the Tree of Life and Discovery Island and staked out a square of sidewalk for the parade. Harry left to purchase ice cream before it arrived. As they all happily licked their spoons, still anticipating the parade, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley joined them.
"You won't believe it!" Arthur exclaimed, beaming around at them all. "One of the trees here talks!"
"We know," said Ron sourly.
"It let Arthur have a picture with it," Mrs. Weasley continued. "He was very pleased."
"I'm sure," Harry smiled.
Just then they heard the opening notes of music that heralded the arrival of the parade. Ginny and Hermione cheered loudly at the Lion King parts. Mr. Weasley cheered loudly at all the parts, until Mrs. Weasley borrowed the fan from Hermione and squirted him every time he got too enthusiastic. By the conclusion of the parade, he was dripping wet.
"Where are the four of you off to now?" he asked.
"I was thinking the show inside the tree," Harry said. "It's about what it's like to be a bug."
"Do you have anything you would recommend to us, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"Try Asia," Ron suggested. "You and Dad should like the show and trail, and maybe the raft ride, too."
"Yes," Hermione said, "and after that, I think you'll both love Kilimanjaro Safaris in Africa."
"Excellent!" said Mr. Weasley.
"How about we meet you for dinner at five-thirty in Africa?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"Okay," said Ginny. "and then we can go see the Lion King show in Camp Minnie-Mickey before the park closes at seven."
Lucius, Draco, and Voldemort were very, very wet. The Dark Lord had taken a liking to Kali River Rapids.
"My hair is all mussed up and knotty," whined Draco. "I wish they hadn't taken our wands."
"Quiet!" Voldemort hissed. He was scrutinizing his guidemap, his handsmaking it very soggy in the process. There was several seconds' silence, until he abruptly whispered in an excited voice, "Oh. My. Gosh."
"What is it?"
"There's a petting zoo."
"Where's Severus?" Minerva asked.
"I don't know; I think he got lost on purpose," Dumbledore mused.
Tonks said, "Thank Merlin. He brought new meaning to the term 'wet blanket.'"
"Yes, well this place certainly puts the 'wet' in 'wet blanket,' doesn't it?" Minerva pointed out. They had recently had their own encounter with Kali River Rapids.
"Keeps you cool, though," said Albus.
"Well," said Tonks, "let's do something before Severus comes back, how about DINOSAUR?"
"Good," said Dumbledore.
"Fine," Minerva assented.
"So much for this place being a dull cage for Muggle children, huh, Minerva?" Tonks grinned after they got off again.
There was no getting around the fact that Minerva had screamed for the duration of the ride. By now it was the part of the day where most everyone is tired, miserable, and hungry, and Professor McGonagall was no exception. She was actually considering cotton candy.
"The only way it could get worse is if Severus turns up again," she thought to herself irritably. As soon as she thought it, she expected him to appear, but mercifully, he did not.
Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione decided to wait in line for "It's Tough to Be a Bug!" because the line wound around the roots of the Tree of Life and it was fun to look for animal carvings. They found the four animals that represented the four Houses of Hogwarts and then they began to name animals to search for. After a while they got bored and skipped to the head of the line, where they were given their "bug eyes" (3-D glasses).
"What is 3-D, anyway?" Ron asked, eyeing his pair suspiciously.
"It's like a regular movie," said Hermione, "except..."
"Things pop out at you," Ginny finished.
The doors to the theatre opened to admit the waiting crowd and they filed in.
The show began. Harry, Hermione, and Ginny, thought it was hilarious, but the first time something in the show was lobbed at the crowd and flew into the audience's faces thanks to the "bug eyes," Ron yelled and would not wear them for the rest of it.
"That was so funny!" said Ginny emphatically as they walked back out into the open air, dropping their 3-D glasses in a bin on the way.
"It was scary," insisted Ron. "All those bees..."
"Ron," laughed Ginny, "Hermione's rubbing off on you."
Hermione squirted Ginny in the face with the spray fan. Ginny ignored her, consulting her guidemap yet again.
"Well," she said, "we've done everything except for Festival of the Lion King, which we're going to later, the trails in Africa, and the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch."
"I'm too tired to walk," said Harry waspishly.
"Yeah, let's take the train," Hermione agreed. "I love Rafiki, anyway."
Ron checked his watch. "We have an hour and a half till we meet Mum and Dad for dinner, so we'll probably have time to do everything."
After a breezy train ride, they wandered around the Conservation Station until Ron whined it was too "educational." They ventured near the petting yard, but when they did, Harry's scar began to throb painfully, so they did a little of the walking trail and took the train back to Africa.
"We still have half an hour to kill," Harry pointed out.
"More trailwalking then, I suppose," said Hermione.
"'Pangani Forest Exploration Trail,'" Ginny read from the guidemap. "'Enjoy surprises around every turn, from gorillas to underwater hippos!'"
"Aren't hippos always underwater?" Ron wanted to know.
"You know, I'm not sure," said Hermione, tilting her head. "It doesn't sound logical, and I know they can't be completely submerged because they have to breathe, but then I don't think I've ever seen one completely on dry ground."
"Let's find out, then," said Harry.
After twenty minutes of walking they came to an area of the path where there were crocodiles on one side, elephants on the other, and a sign that read, "Hippos Ahead." The prospect of solving their hippo mystery made Ron so excited that he barely glanced at the other creatures.
"Go ahead," said Harry, "We'll catch you up."
"Okay," said Ron, and Ginny heard him leave. A second later she realized Hermione was gone too, leaving her and Harry alone. She had her back to him, as she was watching the elephants and he was looking at the crocodiles. This part of the trail was empty and abnormally quiet. She could hear the soft crunch of gravel as Harry turned around and walked up behind her.
"Are you having a good time?" he asked, and it was unclear whether or not he was making small talk. Ginny was not sure which interpretation she preferred.
"Yeah," said Ginny. Her voice broke as she said it and she coughed and spun around. She came almost nose to nose with Harry, having not realized he was so close behind her, and took a small step backwards towards the elephants, the guard rail digging into her back.
There was a split second of eye contact and then Harry looked off in the direction Ron and Hermione had gone.
"C'mon," he said, "let's go find Ron and Hermione."
Ginny nodded mutely and followed Harry further down the trail, wondering whether she was going to catch the two of them holding hands or something. As it happened, she was completely wrong; when Hermione and Ron came into sight, they were in the midst of a heated debate over whether one of the hippos was technically underwater.
"Knock it off, you two," she said.
"Look at that hippo!" Ron cried, rounding on his sister and gesturing wildly at one of the innocent-looking creatures. "It doesn't even qualify as wading; it's not even in up to its knees!"
"Yeah," Hermione countered, "But part of it is under water so technically it's underwater!"
Ron glared at her.
"Um...let's keep moving," said Harry.
By the time they arrived at the next animal – giraffes – everybody had forgotten about the hippos.
"Hold it!" said Ginny, looking over to the gazelle viewing area several yards off to their right. "Is that Professor Snape?"
"Oh my goodness," said Hermione, squinting at the figure. "I think you're right."
No one could think of anything to add to the alarming discovery. (AN: Severus had, by the way, taken off his hat, figuring it was worth being recognized by the Dark Lord.)
Mr. Weasley came in over the walkie-talkie.
"We just got off of Kilimanjaro Safaris," he said. "It was brilliant, though I thought the Muggles would have the sense to build more sturdy bridges."
Harry covered the walkie-talkie's mouthpiece with his hand and asked the others, "Should we tell him it was farce?"
"Nah," Ron shook his head. "He'll have more fun if he thinks it's real."
Harry said to Mr. Weasley, "Yeah, I know. Anyway, we're on the Pangani Trail right now, but I think we're nearing the end."
"Okay, we'll meet you at the place where it rejoins Africa."
When they emerged from the lush "jungle," they found Mr. and Mrs. Weasley waiting for them as promised. When she saw her children, Harry, and Hermione, she pulled them all into a hug as if she had been expecting to never see them again.
"Are you all staying cool?" she demanded. "And drinking lots of fluid?"
"'Course, Mum," said Ginny, grinning. "Did you have a good day?"
"Oh, it was lovely," Mrs. Weasley smiled. "This place is very interesting."
"And I got lots of pictures," Mr. Weasley put in. "Good thing I got extra film."
"Good thing I charmed the camera to be waterproof last night," Mrs. Weasley added. "He was photographing everything on Kali River Rapids."
The others laughed, and Ginny said, "Come on, let's get some food."
They found a nice outdoor table at a restaurant in the African marketplace and watched some acrobatic performers as they ate.
"How was your day, dears?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"Awesome," said Ron fervently.
"Completely," Ginny and Hermione added.
"I'm having a great time," said Harry.
"Oh, good," Molly replied. "I'm glad we had this opportunity..."
And she thanked Harry yet again.
After the meal, they walked a long way, out of Africa, across a bridge, across Discovery Island, across another bridge, and down the long trail to Camp Minnie-Mickey.
The Festival of the Lion King show was staged in a huge outdoor, covered pavilion. They were still quite early, so they found good seats close to the center of the pavilion, which was the stage. Mr. Weasley enthusiastically told them about his and his wife's day, describing the funny habits of Muggles. They had, apparently, done a lot of people-watching. Then the other four talked about what their day had been like, and they compared their thoughts on rides. Finally the show started. The Weasley parents, of course, had never seen The Lion King, but this did not mar in the least Arthur's enjoyment of the show. Everyone else had a fun time, too, and they recapped their favorite parts on the way out of the park, retrieving their wands in the process.
"Why does it close so early?" Mrs. Weasley asked as they waited for a bus back to their resort.
"I think so the animals can rest," said Ginny.
"This was an incredible day," said Ron, leaning on a steel pole and closing his eyes in contentment.
"I don't know how we'll top it," Harry said.
"We'll find a way," said Ginny confidently.
The bus arrived and they climbed on and found seats.
"I love the aura of this place," Hermione commented.
"Really good...vibes," Ginny agreed.
"It's crazy," said Ron, "the detail."
"Since when are you a stickler for detail?" said Hermione skeptically.
Ron shrugged.
They went back to their hotel rooms. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley went to pick up more film while the others got together to watch a movie. After watching Aladdin ("She shouldn't have taken him back!" said Hermione) and Beauty and the Beast ("She's just like you, Hermione, all bookish and brunette," Ron observed), Harry and Ron went back to their room. Harry wanted to think about the day, but to his own surprise, he fell asleep almost instantly.
Harry saw Ginny sitting on a rock in the middle of a stream like the portrait of the mermaid in the prefects' bathroom, being advanced upon by a hippo that was gnashing its jaws more like the Apatosaurus on DINOSAUR than a normal hippo. Harry wanted to save her but didn't know how; he jumped into the stream and saw Godric Gryffindor's sword floating down towards him. He seized it, brandishing it wildly, and cried out, "Hold on, Ginny! I'll try to kill it!"
"No!" Ginny yelled back. "I don't need you, I can fight it on my own!"
And as Harry watched she started repeatedly kicking the hippo's head until it retreated downstream, and Harry, left with nothing to do, climbed back onto land. Sopping wet even though he had only been in up to his waist, he turned around to look at Ginny. She was still sitting on the rock, also curiously drenched, and as he watched she began laughing at him. She laughed harder and harder, droplets of water falling from her fiery locks, until tears streamed from her eyes, and then she turned into Cho Chang, still crying, and Cho demanded to know why Harry hadn't rescued Ginny...Harry tried to explain Ginny was fine on her own, but Cho cried harder and harder and then she came up and he thought she was going to try to kiss him again, and he said he didn't like her anymore. Cho stopped crying and glared at him, then, saying, "I should have known," skulked away.
And that, kids, is chapter two! ENORMOUS thanks to all THREE of my reviewers, as well as Katie the Beta, Katie the BFF, and Lauren the other BFF! I have started chapter three, but nobody gets it until I get another four reviews, to beat last chapter! So THERE! Hehe! I know this chapter had very little of the baddies and the grownups, but I couldn't think what to do with them and I didn't want to stretch...hopefully we can have a little more in future episodes. Thanks again to everybody - bye!
P.S. Last chapter's title - Katie (the Beta, not the BFF) suggested it, as she will for all upcoming chapters. I loved it because it has NOTHING to do with the story! Sorry if I got your hopes up!
Nepenthe