Notes: Nothing remains hidden from the critical eyes of Wolf's scream. Thanks for pointing out some more grammatical errors. You'd think I would have learned some grammatical skills by now ;)
4. Getting re-acquainted
A shriek cut through the lush air of the evening. Actually, there were two of them. One was uttered by a terrified Dudley, containing all of his misery and fear while the other belonged to one Harry Potter and spoke of complete and utter joy.
"Yes!" Harry screamed and pushed his fist in the air triumphantly.
"No!" bellowed Vernon and covered his eyes. "I will not be spending a month with these… these…people," he finished somewhat lamely at the twins' threatening grins. Vernon let out a deep and unhappy sigh. "There are more of you here, right?"
As if they had been waiting for a clue a sudden crunching on soft sand announced that indeed, there were more Weasleys present. Dudley whimpered quietly in defeat.
o0o-
Mostly it had been the smell of coconut cream that had attracted Ron Weasley's attention. It had drifted alluringly over to him just as Percy stubbed his toe on a small rock and let out a cry of dismay.
"There's just too little light here," the bespectacled Weasley brother moaned, "we can't see where we're going! It's a security fault! We should…"
"Ron!" an enthusiastic voice suddenly interrupted Percy. "Ginny! Charlie!" There was a rush of dark hair and quite unexpectedly a familiar hand clapped Ron on his shoulder. "Ron, we'll spend the holidays together!" Harry was grinning like a maniac. "We've won the crossword-puzzle, too!"
"Harry?" Ron's eyes went wide in surprise then his mouth split into an enormous grin. "Harry! Mate! How did you get here?"
Any answer Harry could have formulated was drowned out as he was almost thrown off his feet by a red-haired and freckled blur. "Harry! Harry! Harry!" Ginny giggled and enveloped a surprised Harry in a bone-cracking hug. Harry felt his ribs creak and was just about to plead for some air as another blur – dark and bushy-haired this time - crashed into him. "Hermione!" he panted happily as his ribs gave another ominous creak.
o0o-
It was this picture that greeted the Dursleys as they reluctantly made their way towards the Weasleys: a loud boisterous mass of red-haired wizarding people and in the middle of it all – Harry Potter sandwiched between two – rather pretty – girls.
Petunia gave a sniff of distain. "Just like I always feared," she hissed at Vernon, "he's rotten to the core. Barely a teenager but already he's showing a tendency towards polygamy." Vernon grunted in approval while Dudley, perhaps for the first time in his life, felt a sudden pang of jealousy towards his cousin as he gaped at Harry open-mouthed. Harry winked and grinned back.
However, Dudley didn't have much of an opportunity to react for Arthur chose that moment to take charge. Determined to use this chance and patch things up with Harry's relatives he spread his arms in a welcoming gesture. "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley," he beamed jovially at them, "and Dudley of course. It looks like we're going to live together for the coming month. Why don't we get re-acquainted over that delicious dinner Sunshine Holidays has prepared for us?"
And as it was the case on so many other countless occasions Dudley's stomach decided the course of action by giving a clearly audible grumble. Petunia's motherly resolve crumbled overtaken by the fear that her 'Diddikins' might faint on the spot. "Yes, yes," she quickly agreed, "Whatever we do, we should eat a bit first."
o0o-
The meal was a relatively quiet affair. Each family kept to themselves and Arthur's tentative tries at conversation were answered evasively by the Dursleys. Every now and then Fred and George would try to sneak a bit closer to Dudley whom they observed with something close to predatory hunger in their eyes. It was a look that made Dudley very nervous and very grateful when the two troublemakers finally vanished into the dark.
"So," Arthur carefully adjusted his glasses as he addressed the Dursleys once more. "So, I believe that there must be way to spend this time here together and be civil to each other. We're all civilised people after all."
Vernon gave a dubious snort as if he thought that 'civilised' wasn't the best word to describe any wizard and the Weasleys in particular. He directed the gaze of his small eyes at Arthur and puffed out his chest. "Mr. Weasley," he said in a voice he normally reserved for troublesome yet dangerous colleagues, "It is my opinion that we should simply ignore each other until we've contacted Sunshine Holidays and demand that one of us will be taken to a different island. We simply cannot spend this time together." Vernon nodded decisively, pleased at sounding formal and professional.
Arthur pinched his nose in annoyance. Reasoning with this man was obviously out of the question. "Fine," he finally agreed tiredly, "we'll call them right after dinner. As far as I understand they left us some kind of Muggle-device to contact them. A fellytone?"
Vernon threw him a look of deepest disgust and grunted "Telephone. Right after dinner, then."
And those were the last words spoken between the members of the two families during dinner.
o0o-
"Fred?" a voice whispered into the darkness. "What's this?"
"I don't know, George. You know I never paid any attention to Muggle studies. At least not to the subject that was taught," a second voice whispered back.
With a shrug Fred slid the 'thing' into his pocket for further investigation and hurried after his brother. After a while watching Dudley cringe in fear whenever one of them grinned at him had finally lost its appeal so they had decided to do the next best thing: go investigate and prepare some small and insignificant surprises. With everyone being engrossed in their conversations and arguments slipping away had not posed a great challenge to the two pranksters who had finally found their way into the dark and empty bungalow. Over dinner the moon had risen and now only a pale silvery light illuminated the dark room drawing odd shapes and shadows on the furniture. It created and eerie and mysterious atmosphere…if you were receptive for those things which Fred and George were definitely not.
"A-ha!" a devilish grin found its way on George's face. "Did you bring our newest invention, brother dearest?"
"You mean the one that turns everyone purple who touches it?"
"Exactly" George sniggered maliciously. "I think I've found a use for it."
Two pair of eyes found each other in the darkness and glinted with barely concealed excitement.
o0o-
Back at the beach dinner was nearing its end, yet instead of being pacified after eating a delicious meal, tempers were beginning to rise anew.
"Harry will stay with you," Vernon informed the Weasleys coldly, small eyes glinting in satisfaction. Perhaps having to share a dinner with these madmen had not been a waste of time if it meant getting rid of that boy for the rest of the summer. Especially since Harry seemed to embrace the idea of staying with those people.
"I'm afraid that's not possible, Harry" Arthur shook his head sadly. "You know you're not protected when you're not in Hogwarts or with your family."
Harry's temper flared. "I don't need to be protected!" he protested loudly. "Didn't I prove time and time again that I can take care of myself?"
"Yes, he can take care of himself," Vernon nodded quickly making his chins wobble, "and he's not wanted here either!"
Arthur fixed the other man with a cold stare. "I cannot believe that you truly mean this. He's your nephew!"
"He's a freak!" Vernon hollered as a vein in his temple started throbbing. "All he's ever done is cause trouble. We never wanted him!" Mr. Dursley repeated.
"That's nice, 'cause I never wanted to be with you people either," Harry screamed back. "You're a –"
"I will not be spoken to like that!" Vernon's face had turned an ugly purple colour as he stood up and glowered at Harry. "You will –"
BOOM!
o0o-
A violent explosion in the distance shocked everyone into silence. Vernon still stood looming over the table, walrus moustache aquiver with excitement. Harry was still being restrained by Hermione who tried to restrain Ron at the same time while Arthur's ears and neck glowed dangerously red and Ginny slowly unclenched her fists and stopped struggling against Charlie, who was keeping his little sister from physically attacking Vernon.
"What was that?" Petunia's small voice finally broke the shocked silence.
"Sounded like an explosion."
"You don't say, Ron," Ginny snapped sarcastically as she still struggled with the sudden rush of adrenaline in her body. Ron rolled his eyes.
"It came from the bungalow, didn't it?" Percy interrupted before another argument could break out. "And just where are Fred and George?"
o-
"Oops."
The sound of coughing filled the bungalow as the dust began to settle and the clouds of greyish smoke began to recede.
"George? Is this a bad time to tell you that I gave you the wrong powder? The colour-changer-powder was in my right pocket."
"It was?" came the dry answer, "And what did we just use?"
His brother shrugged apologetically. "I really don't have a clue. At least we had a nice explosion."
"Yes," George agreed, "That and a ruined telephone."
Wincing, the brothers turned their attention to the charred and smoking remains of the only telephone on the entire island.
"There's got to be another one here, somewhere. We can't have just blown up our only ticket to get rid of the Muggles, can we?" Fred was only answered by silence. He sighed deeply. "Well, like I said before: oops."
"Yes, 'oops'", his brother agreed.
o00o -
A/N: Let me guess, you didn't think I'd ever update this again, right? No such luck!
I promise that future updates will be quicker (I'm trying for at least one update every two weeks). If you want me to notify you when there's a new update, please leave your e-mail address and I'll do so. :)
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it :)
