AN: Well, the reviews keep coming in, so I'll keep updating! Keep it up you guys! Thanks to: mysteriouscharm, PrincessLuckyCML, Shadowed Rains, Orlandoroxmysox (I don't mind long reviews too much as long as they aren't flames :smile: ), hyperactivecookie (I feel very highly complimented!), Parking Lot (They didn't look closer because if they had, it would have ruined the plot. Trust me, and take that statement how you wish… :evil smile: ), SmrtDancrGrl, Tritium, dork1147 (one of the best? I'm flattered!), katepotter13, yongweeperson, CountingSheep123 (apology accepted :smile: ), gidget89 (check the genre of the story, please… :wink: ), Iluv2act, nobody, the scarlet bohemian (I'll have to re-proof my story… I do have an editor who apparently isn't quite up to scrath…), and Ms. Sakura Moon!
And, for all of those who have been asking me… my stories lately are inspired by song titles, and this one DID come from Linkin Park's "Easier To Run."
Also, for the mentions of money in this chapter and all future chapters, I use "dollars" because I don't know how many dollars it is to a pound...
Chapter 8: Discovered!
It had been a week since Harry and Hermione had shown up on the Johnsons' doorstep, and so far they had thoroughly enjoyed themselves. They had become accustomed to the "bed and breakfast way of life," as Harry called it, and the both of them had fun each morning cooking breakfast for new guests. Mrs. Johnson had taken them shopping and gotten them each several new outfits to last them until they were able to get out on their own. And, to top it off, Mr. Johnson had started paying them each ten dollars to "bus" the tables and for their help with cooking. Although it wasn't much, it made them feel pretty good, since they got to have their own money. So far they had saved all of their ten dollars a day, which meant they had a total ofa hundred twentydollars. They were so caught up in their new way of life that they had nearly forgotten about Hogwarts, until Hermione pulled Harry aside one day after dinner to talk to him in their bedroom.
"Harry, I love it here, and I know you do, too, but we have to get home."
"Home? Hermione, my home got blown to pieces a week ago. As of right now, I consider this my home," responded Harry.
"Harry, where do you think we are? On vacation? We are taking advantage of the hospitality of two of the nicest people I've ever met, and they aren't expecting us to stay here forever!" said Hermione harshly.
"Okay Hermione, where do you propose we go?" asked Harry with a slight sarcastic edge.
"I'd say the smartest place would be back to my house," said Hermione matter-of-factly. Harry seemed shocked by this prospect.
"Why didn't we think of that before? We could have just called your parents and asked them to pick us up!" said Harry.
"No, we couldn't. In their last letter to me back at school, they told me they were going on vacation to Ireland for a month. They're still there, and will be until about two weeks from now," said Hermione, as if this wasn't really a problem.
"So how are we going to get back to your house?" asked Harry.
"I've got it all worked out, don't worry." Harry had a brief memory of shoving two burly Slytherins into a broom closet from the last time she had said that, but let her continue anyway. "We'll keep working here for another few days, then we'll have enough money for two one-way plane tickets to London and just enough left over for a couple bus tickets to take us to my house. Then we'll just wait for my parents to come home."
"Sounds simple enough, I suppose..." said Harry. Simpler than a lot of things he'd had to do, anyway...
"Right. I thought you would see it my way. Now, how about we take a walk?" suggested Hermione. "It's a beautiful day."
"Sounds like a good idea. Let's go," said Harry, walking toward the bedroom door. Hermione followed him.
Hermione and Harry stayed outside until it was dark.
"Hermione, do you want to keep walking? I can hardly see in front of me..." said Harry.
"Yes, I want to keep walking."
"But Hermione, we must have walked around and around this property at least twenty times!" said Harry.
"Well, I'll light my wand and then we'll be able to see," said Hermione, reaching for her wand, which she kept tucked in the waist of her jeans.
"How about we just sit down?" suggested Harry. They were just passing the white lawn furniture set.
"All right," said Hermione, but she still pulled out her wand.
"Hermione, don't! What if Mr. Johnson sees it?"
"Oh, he'll just think it's a flashlight or something..." said Hermione, unconcerned. She pointed her wand out in front of her and said, "Lumos." Immediately, a dim but sufficient light surrounded the two teens.
"Well, I have to admit, it's nice to be able to see," said Harry. They sat there for a few minutes, talking, until the chill the night typically brought on settled over them.
"Oh, I'm getting cold, let's go in," said Hermione, standing up.
"Good idea," said Harry, also rising. They used the wand light to guide them to the back doors leading into the dining room, then Hermione quietly said, "Nox." Instantly, the wand light went out, and they were met with a faint light coming from a room at the front of the house. They quietly stepped in, and, as they did, the kitchen light went on. When they appeared in the doorway, they saw Mr. Johnson rummaging around in the freezer. When he emerged, he was holding a container of French vanilla ice cream.
"Ah, there you two are!" he said, shutting the freezer door. "I was just going to come and find you and see if you wanted some--" but he stopped talking as his eyes wandered down Hermione's arm. Hermione looked down when she saw his gaze freeze and realized her wand was still held in her hand. She tried to hide it, but too late, the damage was done. She gulped, as did Harry.
"What was that?" he said harshly, pointing directly at Hermione's arm.
"Oh, it - it was nothing, just a stick we found outside..." said Hermione. She realized too late that this was a very lame excuse.
"And why exactly would you want to bring a simple stick into the house?" he said in a voice that was clearly very close to yelling, but he was still speaking at normal volume.
"Um - we..." but Hermione couldn't come up with an answer.
"Let me see that 'stick'," said Mr. Johnson. Hermione hesitated.
"Let me see it!" he demanded again. Hermione, resolved for the worst, held out her hand slowly, exposing her wand. Mr. Johnson snatched it up and examined it quickly.
"If this is just a stick..." he said coyly, "you wouldn't mind if I broke it then, would you?" The pressure in his hands holding the wand visibly tightened.
"No! Don't break it!" said Hermione desperately.
"Then what is it?" demanded Mr. Johnson. Hermione kept silent, biting her lip.
"Tell me what it is or it gets snapped!" said Mr. Johnson angrily, and the pressure in his hands again tightened.
"It's a wand!" said Hermione breathlessly. "There, I said it, now give it back!"
While Mr. Johnson played around with Hermione's already unstable emotions, Harry was just realizing that his wand was tucked in his waistband. He and Hermione had played another chess game earlier, and he had put it there after trying to charm the pieces to obey his voice rather than his hands. He slowly moved his hand to his waistband and gripped his wand. Mr. Johnson now seemed completely determined to snap the wand, and just before Hermione was about to burst into tears at the thought of losing her wand, Harry intervened.
"Expelliarmus!" he yelled, at the same moment that Mrs. Johnson came into the room, curious as to what all the loud voices were about. Hermione's wand flew out of Mr. Johnson's hand and Harry caught it and gave it to Hermione.
"Harry, Hermione! What happened?" asked Mrs. Johnson, shocked to see them using magic in front of her unknowing husband.
"Grace, these two... children... have wands in their possession!" said Mr. Johnson.
"I knew that already," said Mrs. Johnson coolly, but Harry detected a flicker of fear in her eyes.
"YOU WHAT!" yelled Mr. Johnson, rounding on his wife. She did look a little frightened...
"Silencio!" said Hermione, pointing her wand at Mr. Johnson. That didn't stop him from moving, however, and before either of the teens could do anything more, Mr. Johnson had slapped Mrs. Johnson hard across the face, and his mouth was moving rapidly, although none of them knew what he was saying.
"Stupefy!" said Harry, also pointing his wand at Mr. Johnson. He immediately fell to the floor where he stood. Mrs. Johnson was breathing heavily.
"Mrs. Johnson, we are so sorry... we should never have come here, we've ruined you and your husband," said Hermione.
"Oh no, it's okay... what did you do to him?" she asked faintly, looking at her husband lying on the kitchen floor.
"I put a silencing charm on him and them Harry stunned him," responded Hermione. "He'sknocked outat the moment."
"If you want us to, we can erase his memory so he won't remember anything about us," said Harry. "That way you won't have to deal with him when he wakes up and we're not here."
"You mean you two are leaving?" asked Mrs. Johnson desperately.
"Yes, we're so sorry, but we have to, now that he knows about us... he clearly doesn't like our kind," said Hermione sadly.
"Should I use a memory charm"? asked Harry again.
"Well, I suppose that would be all for the best..." said Mrs. Johnson. "Go ahead, Harry." Harry looked down at Mr. Johnson and pointed his wand at him.
"Obliviate!" he said loudly. Mr. Johnson's head glowed white for a minute before his appearancereturned to normal.
"He should wake up sometime tomorrow morning," said Hermione. "Harry, I'll get our things together, and you can bring Mr. Johnson up to his bed."
"Right," said Harry.
"Mrs. Johnson, do you have a suitcase or two Harry and I could borrow?" asked Hermione.
"Oh yes, just upstairs," said Mrs. Johnson. She and Hermione went upstairs and they were soon followed by Harry, who was levitating Mr. Johnson up the stairs and into the master bedroom. By the time Harry had placed Mr. Johnson on the bed and joined Hermione and Mrs. Johnson in their bedroom, most of their few belongings were packed into two small suitcases.
"There is a nice little motel just down the street from here," Mrs. Johnson was saying. "It's very cheap, but still quite nice. It's called the Lake Shore Motel, I'd advise staying there. Can I give you any money to help you out?"
"Oh no, Mrs. Johnson, you've helped us with so much, we couldn't possibly accept any more," said Hermione, and she was so firm that Mrs. Johnson didn't ask again. She just walked them down the stairs and out to the front porch.
"You two take care," said Mrs. Johnson with tears in her eyes. Harry and Hermione had become like a son and daughter to her.
"We will, and you as well," said Hermione. They each gave Mrs. Johnson one last hug before she wished them luck and closed the door. Hermione then began walking, Harry close behind her.
"I see the motel, it's just down that way," said Hermione, pointing to a long two-story building a few blocks away.
"Oh yeah, I see it, too," said Harry. The rest of their walk was spent in silence until they opened the door to the lobby of the motel. They then stepped up to the counter, where a very bored looking man was standing.
"Can I help you?" he asked in a monotone voice.
"Yes, we'd like a room for the night, how much will that be?" asked Hermione.
"Are you minors?" asked the man in the same bored voice.
"Yes, we're both sixteen," said Hermione.
"That'll be sixty dollars total for the two of you," said the man. Harry fished his sixty dollars out of his suitcase and handed it to the man. The man the placed the money into a cash register, then gave them a blue card key.
"You're in room 115. Just go down that hallway there and keep going until the end."
"Thank you," said Hermione. She and Harry then walked down the hallway they had been directed to and eventually came to room 115. Hermione unlocked the door with the card key and they stepped into a room with two double beds, a bathroom, a small two-person table, a dresser with a TV on top of it, and a sliding door on the opposite wall.
"Yes! Finally, we get our own beds!" said Harry, flopping down on one of them.
"Yes, it's wonderful, isn't it?" said Hermione, placing her suitcase on the one closer to the sliding door. She opened the curtains covering the door and beckoned Harry over.
"Harry, look! It's no wonder it's called Lake Shore Motel! It's right on the edge of a gorgeous lake! It's even got a little pier and everything!" Harry walked over next to Hermione and looked out at the lake, lit up with artificial lights on the back of the motel. It did look nice.
"I guess we should consider ourselves privileged to get a water-front room," said Harry with a smile.
"But Harry, if this issixty dollars a night, we only have enough money for just one more night, and then we won't have any left for our plane tickets," said Hermione, suddenly looking thoughtful. "Oh, what do we do?"
"Well, we could find jobs... there's a restaurant right across the street, we could offer to work there, since we already have some experience with that sort of thing," suggested Harry.
"Not a bad idea, actually. We'll go there first thing in the morning," said Hermione. Then she yawned. "Wow, I am so tired..." she said. "Let's just go to bed."
"Okay, sounds good," said Harry, also yawning. They both took respective trips to the bathroom to change their clothes, and then got into their temporary beds. The last thought Hermione had before she drifted off to sleep was that they had better find a way to get some money tomorrow, or they would be considered legally homeless.
AN: Now, there have been LOTS of people asking me questions that are vital to the plot, such as "Is everyone REALLY dead?" and "How could you just BLOW UP everyone like that?" and so forth… so I'll let you all in on a little secret that I put up in my profile a couple days ago or something: I tell plot secrets to those I'm good friends with. In other words, if I get to know you a little outside of fanfiction dot net in instant messages, I might tell you a thing or two that you think you'll just DIE without… this not only applies to this story but others as well. I've already revealed a huge secret to a certain someone, whom I will not disclose the name of should you kidnap and torture her into revealing that piece of information… however, YOU TOO could become one of the people that knows the secrets of the plot! My screen names are as follows: AIM – Prettykitty368; and MSN – TinkerbellPrincess165. I hope to talk to some of you soon… and if you should IM me, please tell me you're a reviewer so I know who you are… I believe this AN is long enough…
-xXx SpicySugar xXx-