See chapter 1 for explanations and disclaimers.

Neoma – glad you like it. We realized we should have explained this after we got your review. In a nutshell, Disneyland was actually pay-per-ride until sometime in the early eighties. Before that, you had ticket-books with Tickets lettered from A to E. A ticket rides were usually light, quick, and stuff that the younger patrons would enjoy, while E-ticket rides were much longer, but faster-paced, or scarier, etc. So, the Matterhorn was an E-ticket ride. It's where the term E-Ticket-Ride originated. Just a little history.

7 - A Slow Start

The group decided to stick together for the morning, and then split up in the afternoon, after Sirius's promise to Peter and Remus that he wouldn't push any scary or fast-paced rides that morning. "After all," James told him as he cuffed Sirius on the shoulder, "you know that I'm always up for anything you are later, Padfoot."

Peter reminded them that they'd promised him they'd go to the Country Bear Jamboree, so they set off. They made their way past the Rivers of America again, and through a path leading to the ride. As they were walking through a rocky divide, they heard a growling rumble. Peter squeaked and jumped away from the sound.

"Wh…where did that come from?" he trembled.

Sirius was nearly on the ground he was laughing so hard. James rolled his eyes. "It's okay, Pete. It's just a sound effect. You know, recorded? Like on the rides?"

Peter looked around warily. "You sure, James? It sounded awfully real."

He slung his arm over Peter's shoulders. "Promise, Pete. In fact, if I'm wrong, I promise I'll transform and let it eat me first, so you can get away, okay?"

Peter nodded, but didn't quite stop trembling, and looked around them warily as they continued to make their way to the Country Bear Jamboree, never quite relaxing until they made it to the ride.

They followed a roped-off path into an auditorium, and found themselves seats near the stage at the front of the room. The set-up was interesting. It reminded James a bit of his father's hunting lodge up in the Scottish Highlands. There were bits of animals—skins, horns, and even mounted heads, strewn about the room. It creeped him out. But then, so had his father's hunting lodge, really. Especially since they had all become animagi, and he had discovered what his form was. It was kind of hard to appreciate a hunting lodge when your other form was a stag.

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The four boys sat and watched as the curtain rose. Mechanical bears playing instruments suddenly appeared and began to perform. It was such a silly show they couldn't help but enjoy it. The mounted animal heads on the wall even participated, singing and telling jokes. One bear did something called an "Elvis impression" and another large female bear named Trixie came down on a swing from the ceiling and serenaded the crowd.

Sirius had never, ever experienced anything like this before. It was the funniest thing he'd ever seen, and the music was like nothing they had in Britain. It was totally, and utterly, American in its nature. He had tears running down his face by the end of the show, he was laughing so hard.

When they were done, Sirius suggested they take the raft to Tom Sawyer's Island. The rest of the boys were up for it, even Peter, so he led the way down the path to the rafts. After paying their tickets, they got on the raft and within minutes, were floating across the Rivers of America to the island.

The place was every boy's dream come true. He and James ran off, leaving Peter and Remus to explore by themselves. There was a cave, "Injun Joe's Cave" that people walked through. After walking through it themselves, Sirius and James decided to have some fun with the other people exploring the cave. "Hey, let's go in the exit!" Sirius suggested while wriggling his eyebrows evilly.

"And do what?" James asked.

"Scare the hell out of people of course!" Sirius replied while walking into a corner obscured by shadows and waiting for the first person to come by.

By hiding in the exit doorway, they could jump out and grab people as they were leaving, causing them to scream in terror. This was so much fun that they continued doing it until they saw Peter and Remus making their way towards them. Peter looked nervous from the loud screams coming from further ahead. Sirius could see the two looking closely at them. "You guys are so immature!" Remus called out to them with a smile on his face. Sirius shrugged, but grinned, and the four friends left the cave to explore the island some more.

There were log bridges and even a fort. Sirius scrambled up the stairs to the gun turret and had fun shooting at pretend enemies.

They spent over an hour on the island before meeting in the gift shop in the fort to discuss their next move. "I don't know where we should go, but I think it should be somewhere cooler. This island is so much hotter than the rest of the park," Peter said, fanning himself with a folded map.

"It is not! It's the same as the rest of the park," James replied. This led to a huge discussion which ended in a stalemate, as Remus agreed with James and Sirius agreed with Peter. Since none of them had a thermometer, there was no way of knowing for sure.

After buying refreshments at the shop, they set off for the raft trip back to the main park and their next stop.

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Remus reminded James that he had wanted to show them the Swiss Family Tree House, so they made their way towards it. It was utterly fascinating. A whole house set up in a tree. There was everything from beds to desks, even a kitchen area. Remus was amazed that anyone could create something so fantastic, let alone Muggles.

Sirius apparently loved it as well. "Too bad the Whomping Willow's so treacherous, or we could make ourselves quite the tree house, don't you think?" he was telling Peter, who looked ill at the idea of trying to build a house in the violent tree's branches. Peter seemed to be enjoying himself otherwise, though. They finished their trek through the tree house, and it wasn't even eleven yet, so they agreed to try out the Canal boat ride.

The boats themselves were small, so they got one to themselves, and proceeded to float through what appeared to be a miniature town. Small signs told the riders what house was what. There was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' cottage, Gepetto's toy store, the hole Alice fell down into Wonderland. There was also a small replica of Sleeping Beauty's Castle, as well as Cinderella's Dream Castle. All were built around a small Bavarian-style village with mountains as a backdrop. On the other side was a small tilled field with windmills dotted throughout it. Remus was amazed at the detail they'd managed to get, and wondered if perhaps they had a wizard on staff to miniaturize things for them.

James and Sirius, unfortunately, were less impressed. In fact, they were bored. So they decided to have a water fight, splashing each other, and Peter and Remus in the process, as covertly as possible without letting their tour guide become aware of what they were doing. Finally, Remus had had enough, growled at the two of them, and told them if they didn't cut it out he'd push them both out of the boat, and they could make their way out of the ride on foot, and explain it to the officials when they did, and that they'd be lucky if they weren't thrown from the park.

The two looked chastened, but every so often, when they thought he wasn't looking, they would splash each other again, when the tour guide was looking away. "Berks," Remus muttered under his breath.

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"Did you see the train ride above us?" Peter asked as they disembarked from the canal boat ride, "It looks like fun."

James glanced over at the train, unimpressed. "I guess we could give it a try," he replied.

Peter led them to the entrance of the ride. "Casey Jr.?" he heard Sirius murmur sneeringly, though he chose to ignore it.

The group paid their tickets and then walked over to the train to choose their seats. "Here, guys, this one's for you two!" Remus called out as he pointed to a set of benches inside a small cage.

"Oh, sweet!" Sirius cried while running towards the cage and jumping inside. James quickly followed suit. They were so big they could hardly fit, though somehow they managed.

Peter and Remus rolled their eyes while walking to the caboose and sitting down on a bench, waiting for the ride to begin. When the train was full, the ride started, following a set of tracks along a path that went around the same path the canal boat ride did, but from above.

It was a slow, peaceful ride, though it did have the tendency to whip around the corners pretty quickly, which was a lot of fun. Peter could see James and Sirius's arms waving out from the cage. He could hear their hoots and whistles from all the way at the end of the train.

Peter looked down on the small village below and couldn't help but think that this was his favourite ride so far. He decided he had to ride it at least once more, perhaps in the dark. He'd heard some of the other people on the ride mention that the village lit up and it was even more magical than in the daytime.

He was sad when the ride came to a stop and they all walked away to the next ride.