Title: We Belong Together… NOT

Author: Arista Ramabra

Genre: Drama/ Humor

Rating: T- maybe even PG-14…

Disclaimer: First half of plot belongs to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayange- a Hindi movie. The rest of the plot is mine. Any characters and settings you recognize belong to the one and only Joanne Kathleen Rowling.

Dedication: To all my friends and family- and to Mrs. Das' fifth period class- who gave me most of the funny ideas for this story.

A/N: I know I'm supposed to be working on EMM but this idea is something I've been playing with for a while and I wanted to post it…. I have chapter 6 of EMM written out and most of it typed… I'll be sending it to my beta soon and within a couple of weeks-tops- it should be up. Oy. Come on people! This is longer than the first chapter of EMM ya?

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Chapter 1: Of Wakings and Sudden Trips

For normal people winter vacation begins as such: a nice warm bed with nice warm covers in a nice warm room- rising perhaps with a steaming mug of hot chocolate or coffee, sipping it in front of the fire along with the morning paper, feet encompassed in soft, warm slippers. That isn't to say that people that don't rise as such aren't normal- they just suck a planning. Honestly who wants to wake up early, rush to the train station or airport, catch a train or plane and sit in uncomfortable seats for a long time- an then with the rest of your family- 'Super Mom' and 'Daring Dad' and nuisances, also known as siblings- 10 year old nerdy brother and 'too-cool-for-you' popular older sister- you visit places where they embarrass you- the only normal one of the family- or you visit relatives that BORE you to death. Why go through all of this? If only you'd planned in advance- you could have faked the travel agent and said that there were no more tickets or perhaps said that your pet couldn't stay alone and convinced them to let you stay alone. If only I'd thought of one of those things but unfortunately for me, I didn't. So I had to lie to avoid this 'trip' that my parents were planning.

I woke up at 4:30 AM, on the cold floor of my room- that is to say the room that my brother and I share- because of the stupid alarm. I absolutely detest alarms- they wake me up! I know that you are thinking 'Whoa! This is one stupid girl. Alarms are meant to wake people up,' but really, I bet even you don't like alarms waking you up at 4:30 in the morning. It's all thanks to my nerdy brother who sets alarms at odd hours to observe things like the mating of birds or something as weird as that (A ten year old boy observing birds having sex- talk about weird!) and he'd set the alarm on my alarm clock- without telling me- because his had broken down. And when the alarm rang, straight in my ear, it scared the shit out of me landing me on the floor. And after all that, I woke up, I turned off the alarm, my brother slept, and I couldn't. It was no use. I was awake and that was that. So since I had nothing better to do on the floor (where are guys when you need them?) I decided to wash up. What a nice way to start my winter vacation. The only nice thing was that I'd started to snow. After a cold shower (wait… not cold but FREEZING)- we have to use a water heater and that apparently doesn't work at 4:30 in the morning, I grabbed my slippers and went to the kitchens(still shivering from the arctic water) , hoping for a hot breakfast. Unfortunately, I learned that none of our appliances work at 4:30 in the morning. After that the only consolation I had were my so-called friends.

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"Hello? Can I please speak to Monika?" I called cheerfully into the handset as soon as someone picked up. I was answered by a snore. Leave it to friends to fall asleep on you. I tried again a couple of more times- but apparently she'd not put the handset back on yet. Time to call the next person! Just as I was about to pick up the phone, however, my mother walked in on the scene, dressed in robes and slippers, hair in a mess. She yawned.

"Lily?" she squinted, blinking fast at the sudden brightness of the living room. "Why are you on the phone? It's 5AM! Are you disturbing the neighbors?"

Does it look like I'm disturbing the neighbors? "Of course not… My darling brother just decided to wake me up at 4:30 by setting my alarm to that time!"

"Well then, since you're up, you could have started to pack," she said, walking towards the kitchen.

"Pack?" I wondered aloud, starting to follow her. "Why? Where are we going?"

She stuck her head out of the fridge to look at me. "To France, of course!"

I was surprised. Really, REALLY surprised. "France? How come I didn't know about this before?" I wondered aloud.

"I don't know."

"So… When are we going there?"

"The day after."

"But- but- I want to- I don't want to go! I can't go!"

"This is a family thing. You must go. And anyway even if you didn't go, where are you going to stay?"

"Uh… well… my… uh… friends and I… are um… planning…. a… trip!" I stuttered coming up with something out of the top of my head, knowing that I was going to pay for it later.

"Trip?" my mother asked. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Oh… um… I forgot?"

"Well then… so where are you going?" she asked, plugging in the toaster.

"We are…. going to Italy?" How was it that the toaster worked for her but not me?

"You don't sound too sure…" she said, putting in two slices of bread.

"Well… I didn't remember if it was Italy or Spain," I replied, hoping that I'd been convincing enough. But then came the hard questions.

"Who's going?"

Darn. "Well… Monika…. Jazmin…. Clare… and uh… me…"

"Do you know where you are staying?" my mother asked, putting coffee powder and water into the coffee maker.

"Yeah! We are staying at the… Eiffel Hotel."

"Oh… You have everything planned out then," she stated… sounding almost a bit… disappointed? Hmm…

"Yup," I grinned.

"So when are you leaving?"

"Uh… Well… today."

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"Today. TODAY! Are you bloody INSANE!"

"Well…I don't have a choice. Otherwise I'm going to be embarrassed big-time," I replied.

"Better than dragging us along on this suicide mission," said Jazmin,

"You know there is something known as warning," retorted Monika.

"Come on you guys. Please? If I'd known about this before I'd have told you."

I was followed by a moment of silence.

"Fine then. I'll get the tickets," said Clare, always the practical one.

"Thanks a TON you guys! I owe you BIG TIME!" I squealed happily, hugging them all.

"Yes you do," was the sole reply I received.

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"The train leaves at 4:45 P.M.? So we meet at Kings Cross at 4 P.M.?" I asked Clare.

"Yeah. You ok with that?" she replied, checking the tickets.

I grinned. "Perfect."

"So to Italy then?" sighed Monika.

"Italy? Wait… we are going to Italy? But the tickets say…" Jazmin started to say, looking over Clare's shoulder.

"Italy? Heavens no! I bought tickets for France." stated Clare.

"Oh! Wonderful! I speak French and I think Lily does too," Monika was saying, a bit glad not to be going to Italy.

But I was nowhere near glad. In fact I was just the opposite of glad. I mean there are a million places in the world to go to. Why do both of us have to go to the same place? Oh goodness no! What if we ran into each other? What if they embarrassed me?What if there was trouble? What if, what if… there were a MILLION 'what if's

And at the moment I was ready to melt.