Chapter One:
"What do you think, Hermione?" Ron asked, sauntering into the hotel room sporting a pair of brown leather cowboy boots. A wide rimmed hat sat atop his fiery red hair. Harry walked in behind him, his face contorted grotesquely in an attempt not to burst out laughing.
Hermione looked up from the large leather bound volume in her lap. Her eyes roved up and down Ron's get up and a smile crept surreptitiously across her newly tanned face. "Who's the hot cowboy you picked up, Harry?"
Harry gave Ron and sideways glance, snickering uncontrollably. Hermione joined in, folding the corner of the page she was on and setting the book next to her on the bed. Their giggles quickly became full-blown laughter, ringing loudly in the bare hotel room.
Ron stared down at his outfit and looked back up giving Hermione a questioningly look.
She wiped away the tears from her brown eyes and tried to keep her face straight. "You look great, Ron. Honestly."
The tips of Ron's ears burned bright red. "Oh shove it, Hermione. I had to listen to Harry snigger the whole way back." He tossed a paper bag onto the floor next to Hermione's bed.
"What's in here?" she asked, picking the bag off the floor. Her face turned the colour of porridge. She reached in and pulled out a cowboy hat exactly the same as Ron's. "How… leathery."
Ron looked slightly abashed while Harry laughed his way to the bathroom. "I thought we could both wear them to the wizards' rodeo tomorrow. You know… be like a normal couple for once?"
Hermione turned the hat around in her hands staring at Ron, there was a deep sadness there. "Thanks." She pulled it over her bushy, brown hair. They stared into each other's eyes remembering the last three years. Hermione could still feel Fleur's cold hands in hers, her still chest.
Harry strolled into the main room wearing extremely tight jeans. He looked over at Hermione and Ron and he understood what was going on. "We all swore before we left England that we wouldn't let the past hold us down. It's only a bright future before us." Every night when he slept his nightmares were pierced by the cold, heartless laughter of Voldermort.
Ron was the first to recover looking over at Harry. "How can you breath in those things, mate?" The tension in the room instantly evaporated.
Harry looked down at his jeans, flexing his leg slowly. "The guy at the store said they looked good on me. And who are you to talk? I'm not the one who got the stupid hat." He fell into his bed, staring up at the ceiling.
Ron chuckled evilly. "The only reason you didn't get a hat was because the guy told you that you shouldn't cover up your gorgeous eyes. I was expecting him to propose to you at any moment."
"You think?" Harry asked hopefully, rolling onto his side and looking over at Hermione. "You should've seen him Hermione. He had the most gorgeous face in the world."
Hermione stared at Harry, smiling slightly. The war had really messed him up. The only other person that knew what had happened the night Harry defeated Voldermort was Dumbledore. Hermione could tell Harry wanted to talk about it, but she knew he was scared. She understood. Some of the things she had seen were enough to keep her shut up forever. That was the point of this trip. To have a chance to have fun, let loose. Harry seemed to have taken that to heart. He was dating left and right, without a care in the world. What Hermione couldn't understand was how Harry was able to drive away the memories, how was he able to escape them?
"Yeah, he even gave us tickets to the rodeo," Ron said excitedly pulling them out of his pockets. "I've always wanted to go to one of them but never got the chance."
Hermione looked away from Harry and stared at the tickets. "A rodeo? Do you have any idea how cruel they are to the animals for the sake of entertainment?"
Ron rolled his eyes in annoyance. "For Merlin's sake 'Mione why can't you let one thing pass? You can't save the whole world." He quickly stuffed the tickets back into his pockets in case Hermione got any funny ideas.
"Oh come on, Ron," Harry said, sitting up. "It would be fun to start a new activist group. We could call it germ." He was smiling maniacally. "Besides I've already saved the world enough times for all three of us."
Every laughed nervously at this.
"Germ? What kind of name is germ?" Ron asked looking away from a rather indignant and flustered Hermione.
"Graphorn Equal Rights Movement. Germ for short." Harry beamed at his own cleverness while Ron laughed into his hand. Hermione squeaked in anger.
"Just because you two don't care about what happens in this world doesn't mean you have to make fun of me at every opportune moment." She looked like she wanted hang them with their own guts.
"I was just kidding, Hermione," Harry whispered, looking thoroughly ashamed of himself. He slipped off his own bed and into hers' His arm wrapped comfortingly around her shoulders. "I didn't mean to hurt you. But we did come over here to have fun and what's more fun then looking at hot cowboys all day?" He grinned playfully at her, nudging her with his shoulder. She tried not to smile but couldn't keep the big grin off her face.
Ron clapped his hands together happily. "It's settled then. Tomorrow we go to the rodeo." "YEE-HAW!" he shouted, grinning.
&
"So where is this rodeo?" Hermione asked, tipping her hat over her eyes to block the bright rays of the sun. She was wearing a tank top and shorts. "I hope it's shaded. The weather in America is absolutely horrid. Haven't they ever heard of cloud cover."
Ron strolled casually down the sidewalk, his boots tapping against the cement. He reached into his pocket and pulled at a bright green piece of paper. On one side was an advertisement for Dax's Cowboy Emporium. "Where wizards of style shop." On the other side was hand written instructions on the whereabouts of the rodeo.
"Well one good thing about the States is they have enough room to hide events like this. Nothing but land for miles in some places," Ron said, peering closely at the directions. "It says here that we… oh bloody hell! This guy has the worse handwriting on the planet! There's no way we'll be able to get to the rodeo now!"
They walked passed a dumpy diner that boasted to have "the giant snake! A marvel that will astound and shock you!" Harry rolled his eyes. There was no way anyone could have a larger snake than Nagini. He peered into one of the grimy windows. Several fat, sweaty truck drivers sat at the counter slopping greasy eggs into their mouths. In the corner hanging off a fake tree was a large python. It looked on the verge of death, its skin half moulted, flapping in the breeze from an erratic fan.
Harry felt sorry for the snake, sitting there breathing in the toxic fumes of grease and decay. Looking around he began to hiss under his breath, calling to the snake. The serpent looked up and stared around the dirty room.
"Over here," Harry hissed in parseltongue. The python spotted him and checked to make sure no one was watching before sliding down the trunk of the tree and slithering across the dirty linoleum. Harry held the door open for it. He picked it up off the sidewalk and let it wrap around his shoulders.
"Thankssss…" it hissed, enjoying the clean fresh air.
"No problem." He ran to catch up to Hermione and Ron. Hermione looked back and saw the snake wrapped around Harry's neck. She gave Harry a questioning look, he just shrugged slightly and muttered something to the snake. It nodded its head at Hermione. She nodded back not at all taken aback. She was used to Harry making friends with snakes at random.
"How did that bloke expect me to read this bloody mess?!" Ron continued to rant. "Here 'Mione you take a shot at it." He handed the venom green paper to Hermione then adjusted his hat to block the sunshine.
"It says that we need to go to Dan's Diner and wait for him behind it. According to the directions it should be just around the corner." She led them up the street, the sun bathing her tanned body in its golden light.
"How the bloody hell could you read that mess?" Ron asked in awe.
"Yours is ten times worse so I'm used to it," she smiled at him tucking the paper into her pocket.
"What's with the snake?" Ron asked as they neared the diner. Sweat soaked his shirt.
"Just a new friend," Harry stated, ticking the serpent under the chin. It hissed happily.
"Here it is," Hermione said stopping in front of Dan's Diner. It looked just like the one Harry had saved the snake from. Two large trucks sat in the parking lot while their drivers clogged their arteries in the grease pit. Behind the building Dax stood tapping his boots impatiently in the dust. He was wearing pants that pulled tightly against his body like a second piece of skin, leaving nothing to Harry's wandering imagination. His shirt was open in a v at the top and bottom so Harry could just make out the triangle of hair going down into his pants.
"There y'all are," he greeted in a lazy drawl, smiling at Harry. His eyes stopped at the snake on Harry's shoulder. Harry looked at the serpent and smiled, hissing Dax's name to the creature. It nodded hello to Dax.
Dax laughed and looked over at Hermione. "And who is this lovely lady?" he asked.
Ron grabbed Hermione's hand. "This is my girlfriend, Hermione."
"Pleased to meet you ma'am." He tipped his hat.
"Like wise." She looked over at Harry and wiggled her eyebrows. Harry blushed, looking down at the ground.
Dax laughed, his brown eyes twinkling pleasantly. His hand grazed Harry's. Harry looked into his eyes and smiled, grabbing the cowboy's hand. Their fingers intertwined.
"Right. Well we'd better get a move on. We have a full day ahead of us. The portkey is right over there." He pointed to a rusty, beat up truck door leaning against the back of the diner. Dax checked his watch. "It should be leaving in a couple of minutes."
"Why don't we just apparate there?" Hermione asked. She brushed some sweat off her brow.
"Cuz the rodeo has anti-apparation shields all over the place. They've had problems with people sneaking in without paying so they only allow people to arrive through portkeys."
The sun was moving through the sky, covering the earth in its brilliant warmth and light. Holding Harry's hand Dax dragged him over to the portkey, Ron and Hermione followed closely. They all grabbed onto the rusty door and stood there feeling rather foolish with themselves.
Dax looked at his watch and began to count down. "Five… four… three… two… one…"
An invisible hook slipped through Harry's naval and tugged him harshly forward. His body plunged into a cold nothingness, a major contrast to the warm dry heat he had left behind. The python hissed in shock, thinking maybe it would've been a good idea to stay in its fake tree. Harry whispered that it would be okay as they ripped through the fabric of space tumbling across a patch of cool grass. A tent was erected over them, flapping lightly in the dry wind.
"The ten o'clock from Dan's Diner," called a dry voice, checking them off his list. He lifted up the door and threw it into a box of other discarded items. "Tickets," the voice drawled holding his hands out in front of Harry. Harry pushed himself up off the ground and looked over at Ron.
Ron dug into his pockets and pulled out three tickets. He handed them over to the middle-aged wizard. He scanned them quickly and dropped them into a sack hanging around his shoulder. The bag burped loudly and spat out three pins, each with a picture of a bucking graphorn. He handed one to Harry, Ron, and Hermione in turn. "Enjoy yourselves."
The trio pinned them onto their shirts. In the distance they could here the magnified voice of the commentator yelling something about how that looked like it hurt.
"Mornin' Dax," the wizard tipped his bright orange cowboy hat. "You gonna try to ride the graphorn again?"
"I reckon so," Dax answered, handing the man his ticket. "Maybe this time I'll actually stay on for thirty seconds."
The wizard gave Dax a pin, laughing. "Well good luck then. Now if you'll excuse me I'm expectin' a large crowd from Texas." He rushed off to the landing grass as a large ripping noise filled the air.
"What do you three want to see first?" Dax asked leading them out of the tent and into the bright sunshine. It shone directly onto them but the temperature seemed fairly comfortable, not at all the sweat inducing hell they had come from.
Large tents swayed in the breeze as crowds of people moved in and out of them, talking quickly and excitedly about what they had just seen. The smell of barbecuing food and animals hung in the air.
Harry, Ron, and even Hermione looked around with excitement on their faces. Dax grinned, snaking his arm around Harry's waist. The python watched him suspiciously having taken it upon itself to be Harry's guard.
Harry looked into Dax's brown eyes and felt all the memories and pain leave his head. It was replaced with an overwhelming sense of calm and happiness that Harry had not experienced in quite a while.
The group from Texas sauntered out of the entrance tent behind them. Several of their eyes darted to Dax and Harry.
"Damn pansies think they can ride like real men," one of them shouted loudly so that Harry and Dax could hear. He was wearing a large hat and an ugly black and white striped shirt. The group had a good laugh about that as they disappeared into the surging crowds.
"Assholes," Hermione shouted after them before looking over at Harry. He just grinned sadly and pulled Dax closer.
"How about we go and see the animals first?" Dax suggested. "Their usually better tempered in the morning." His voice was forced and angry. Apparently he didn't share they same devil-may-care attitude Harry had.
"Sounds great," Hermione said grabbing Ron's hand. The couples wandered towards a large yellow tent. The excited shouts of children could be heard amidst the neighs and other bored noises of the animals.