Shades of Grey
By Destiny's Darkness

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Disclaimer: I have, like, a dollar and fifty cents to my name in addition to the fact that I'm soon to be heading off to college to put myself heavily in debt. So suing me would not only be laughable (cuz I own nothing), but pretty pointless.

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Chapter Three

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Harry managed three steps into the club before he couldn't hold back his grin any longer. They'd gotten in. And not only had they gotten in, they'd done so before the stunning twenty-something with jet black hair, bright green eyes, and a heart-stopping body poured into a ridiculous excuse for a dress that halted just south of the border. Harry felt a weight lift from his shoulders just stepping away from her.

Looking around he knew this night would be worth every long second of the longer forty-five minutes they'd spent in line outside the club, jealous of the people who got right in and sorry for those told just to go home. The music was fast and loud, the ladies were good-looking and friendly, and there was no one to remind them to behave. The grin widened. Not that he or Ron was planning on misbehaving, mind you, but he wouldn't deny the thrill of knowing he could.

"I'm thirsty," Ron hollered over the insanity surrounding them. "You want to get a drink?"

Harry answered with a shrug. They fought their way through the crowd to the bar, where Ron picked a stool in front of the only female bartender. As Harry dropped next to the red-head, she greeted them with a warm, if slightly impersonal, smile.

"What can I get you?"

"Anything nonalcoholic." Ron shot a horrified look at Harry. "You don't want to come home drunk to Hermione on the first night," the green-eyed boy reminded him.

The blonde behind the bar gave them a look Harry couldn't quite decipher, as she asked, "You just moved in with your girlfriend and you're out clubbing?" Ah, that was it.

Ron nearly knocked himself off of his seat with the force of his denial. "She's just a friend," he insisted. "We're all staying together over break , and she wasn't up to coming with us. She can be a real prude, you know?" He paused, surprised at the frost in her hazel eyes.

Harry looked her over quickly, double-checking that this bartender wasn't someone they should know. He tried to imagine her with longer hair, maybe a different color, in case the carefree, blonde pixie cut was a new change. She filled out the tight black tank top and jeans of her uniform too well for him not to have noticed her at school. And as she reached to hand a clean towel to the man behind her, he realized the black band around her arm was actually a tattoo, a definite no-no on campus. Harry hesitated a moment longer, then gave up. If she knew them, he didn't know from where.

"What he means," Harry slipped in smoothly, "is that while we love Hermione like the closest of sisters, she's a nun."

The change that came over her shocked the both of them. From ice-queen disdain, her laugh morphed her into a mischievous prankster. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "That wasn't the description I was expecting." She waved off their confusion, then leaned forward on the bar. "I'm Kylie."

"Ron. And this is Harry."

"So, what would you like?"

"I'll take a water," Harry answered, giving up on trying to figure this stranger out.

"Coke, please."

She passed them their drinks, quickly and efficiently. "Do you mind if I ask you about that scar? It's really unusual."

Harry smiled in resignation. "I'm doomed to a lifetime of being a freak."

"If it bothers you," she interrupted quickly, "you don't have to tell me."

"No, don't worry about it. It's just a really boring story." She motioned for him to continue. "My parents died in an accident when I was a baby. Mom gave her life to save mine though, so I got this scar instead of an early death."

Those red, red lips frowned. "That's so sad."

Harry shrugged. "Not the story people expect."

"I know I didn't"

"And what did you expect?"

"To hear that you're really the famous Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, who brought down Lord Voldermort when he was just a baby and had a hand in doing it again last spring." She had a self-satisfied smirk on her face as she saw their identical shocked expressions. "Oh, that's priceless."

"Are you a witch?" Ron asked.

She shook her head. "My roommate is. She keeps me updated."

Ron opened and closed his mouth several times. "I—I don't know what to say."

She winked at him. "I'll be back in a minute, but Dave's really getting swamped. I've got to help him out."

Harry waited for her to get out of hearing range before turning to Ron. "Isn't that illegal?"

Ron stared at him for a moment. "What are you talking about?"

"Telling a Muggle about the Wizarding World. Isn't that illegal?"

"Not actually. They frown upon it, definitely. But if they outlawed it, they'd be outlawing wizard-muggle relationships. And what about first-generation witches like Hermione? She wouldn't be allowed to tell her parents where they're sending her each year." He shrugged, turned back to his Coke. "What's illegal is using magic in such a was that would reveal us to the Muggle world. Like flying on an enchanted car over London."

The man on Ron's left eyed him suspiciously.

"Internet community," Harry told him quickly. "It called 'The Wizarding World'. You should definitely check it out. The man's nod hinted he thought Harry and Ron might have escaped from the nearest sanitarium. As he took his glass and disappeared into the crowd, Ron turned to Harry. "What was that nonsense?"

"It's a real site. Brilliant actually. They've set it up like a role-playing community, but it's all real wizards and witches from all over. They keep news posted, so people can stay caught up. And they've got chat rooms and stuff…" His voice trailed off at Ron's glazed expression. "You do know what the internet is, right?"

No answer.

"All right, I'll explain it to you later. It's too complicated to talk about without showing you. May be tomorrow we can run over to the public library and see if we can use one of their computers." Even the thought of explaining the internet to Ron was terrifying. "Actually, Hermione probably understands it better than I do. She'll do a better job of explained it."

"Still here?"

Kylie's voice scared them both. She grinned as she began restocking her station. "Typically folks have taken off by now."

"We haven't paid for out drinks yet."

"All the more reason." She popped a cherry in her mouth. "Tell you what. Since you waited for me, drinks are on the house."

Harry shook his head. "We should pay you," he insisted.

"We make our money off alcohol sales anyway. Just forget it."

"Thanks."

She tilted her head to one side to look Harry up and down. "Do they not teach you the meaning of "forget it" at wizard school?"

Both boys chuckled.

"Well, they're hardly sex gods, but they're not bad-looking."

Dark brown eyes met violently green ones. "Oh, please. You're just desperate."

"Me? Desperate?"

"You. Desperate."

Green-Eyes laughed, a silky, sensual sound. "Belle, honey, you know me better than that. When have I ever not had a man the very instant I wanted one?" Belle's lips grimaced, and Green-Eyes twisted a finger around long, pale blonde hair coyly. "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. What was your answer?"

"Kiss my ass, Dani."

"No, that wasn't it. Come on, say it. 'Danielle always has a man.' Come on, you know it's true."

Belle couldn't stop the laugh. "Danielle always has a man and therefore cannot be desperate." The smile settled on her face as she leaned back, flipping waist-length brown curls over her shoulder. "So stick to the men and leave the freaks alone."

"Ah, Belle, that's not nice."

"Since when have I every been nice? Besides, I'd come looking sluttier if I wanted to get hit on by pre-pubescent boys."

Dani cocked an eyebrow at her best friend, one of the few who could pull off that statement convincingly when dressed as Belle was dressed. "Belle, darling?"

"Don't say it, Dani. Just don't."

"Say what? I was just going to point out that you're dressed in a black wife-beater, a green miniskirt, your black hooker heels, and lots of make-up. When you add in the fact that you have enough jewelry to tempt a monk to steal and you're letting your tattoo show…"

"What are you trying to tell me?"

"That's why we love you, that's all."

Belle felt the need for a change in the conversation. "Let's dance."

"Uh, let's not. We just sat down from that whole dancing thing. How about a drink instead?" Dani pouted at the brunette's disinterest. "Please? I'm really thirsty."

"Fine, but you're buying."

Dani grinned. "We'll see. Alcoholic or non?"

"Non, please. Just a Coke."

The girl acknowledged the order with a nod before slipping out of the booth. She sashayed her way through the crowds, dodging the would-be admirers and occasional ex's.

"Kylie, darling, two Cokes, if you please," Danielle called out as she slipped onto the stool next to the redhead she'd been joking about earlier, doing her very best to ignore his love-struck expression.

Kylie grinned, turning to grab clean glasses. "Not a problem. On your tab?"

"I have a tab?"

She knew the drill. "So. What's up?"

"Nothing much. Belle's pretty pissed off about something, but I haven't gotten her to spill yet." The blonde took a sip of her Coke before continuing. "I heard Mya's back in town for break. How is she?"

The redhead behind the bar tried to suppress her grimace. "Not good. She's staying somewhere else right now, sounds pretty upset about it. She can't move back until summer now. She called me a couple of hours ago, wanting to hang out, but I don't get off until three tonight."

All concern for their mutual friend, Danielle reached for one of Kylie's hands. "Oh, no. Did that jerk break her heart again?"

"Break's a relative term. Sounds like he shattered it this time."

Long blonde hair flipped over her shoulders as she shook her head in disgust. "That boy's gonna get what's coming to him. She's gonna get over him finally, and then he's meat."

"I hear you, honey, but he's got her hooked pretty good. No," Kylie added quickly, recognizing the glint in the blonde's green eyes, "that is not a challenge. I don't think finding her a new man is going to help this time."

"When you're right, you're right…" Dani sighed. "Does she have her phone on? Belle and I'll invite ourselves over for a sob-fest. Maybe it'll get Belle to open up, too."

"Sounds like a plan. Do you want me to call when I leave here? See if there'd be a point to me coming over?"

"She's your roommate—I'm sure she wants to see you no matter what." Kylie grabbed the drinks and began to walk off, turning to add, "I mean it, she's gonna be disappointed if you don't show."

The two silent teenagers watched as Danielle disappeared, hair swaying with the movement of her body. Once she vanished into the masses of people surrounding the entrance to the VIP room, Ron pivoted toward the waiting bartender. "So?"

"So," she replied, in a conversational tone.

"So tell us about her?"

"About Danielle? Why would I tell you about Danielle?"

"Because, one, we're hormonal teenage males; two, I'll have to ask her if you won't tell me; and three, you're going to have to clean us up off the floor after she single-handedly removes our kidneys for approaching her most sexiness," Harry offered smoothly.

The corners of Kylie's mouth quivered for a moment before she burst into hysteria. "Man, that's sad. Most guys have to at least catch a whiff of her perfume before falling completely head over heals for her. What do you want to know about the lovely Danielle?"

"How about…everything?"

"Well, everything's a pretty big request…and kind of stalker-like. Ah, try this. The first time she snuck into this club, she was thirteen." Giggling at their surprise, the bartender leaned closer. "She and a couple of friends roped some older, twenty-something guys into standing with them in line, and since the minimum age limit was only fifteen, they only had to act two years older. Actually the bouncers never even checked for ID. The girls started going about how, like, 'Mom wouldn't let me have the car'—cars they didn't have, by the way—and how they'd been completely freaking out about college admissions and all. The bouncers honestly thought they were a bunch of really short eighteen-years-old."

"Really?"

"Really, and that's not the best part. See, Belle, Dani's best of best friend, her brother worked here then. Got me this job actually. Anyway, so he sees them dancing and gets his manager, Peter, to storm over with him, every intention of totally kicking them out." She paused to pour a few shots for another customer, and while she waited for the meticulously counted out money, she waved goodbye to Danielle and her friend as they made their way through the dancers and party-ers to the exit. "Thanks. So Jackson and Peter stomp over and in ten minutes, the girls have Peter declaring they're his favorite woman in the history of the gender. The bouncers were told to let us in immediately, without waiting in line or a cover charge. Gave us free reign as well. We have full access to the VIP room and only pay for drinks when we want to. All because Danielle and Belle charmed the pants off of Peter. Not in that sense," she added quickly, misinterpreting Ron's glance at Harry, "I just meant that he was massively enchanted by them."

"So those two go you all in," Harry mused.

"Uh-huh. 'You and the best of your friends', he told us. Well, them."

"Are we to believe that you didn't join your friends and try and sneak in?"

"Like hell. I was grounded, and my mother knew better than to trust me just to stay in my room. So I got dragged to my aunt's house. Too far away from everyone else to bother trying to sneak out, you see. But Mya and I came up with the idea." Her face fell at the mention of her roommate. Kylie glance quickly up at the clock by the DJ and couldn't disguise the guilt at seeing two hours still remained on her shift.

"Do you want us to help?"

Her eyes darkened. "No, no thank you. I'm not feeling well."

Ron missed the conversation shift. "What?"

"I'm going home. Have a nice night. Ron. Harry." She nodded to each before composing her face to look convincingly sick. They watched as she walked out of behind the bar and up to a suited, older man on the phone. Sympathy crossed his face and he patted her shoulder, obviously telling her to take the rest of the night off. She smiled again at them as she walked by, and then she was gone.

"I feel bad."

"You too?"

"Ron, I meant I felt bad about that girl. Mya. What kind of guy does that to a girl?"

"An asshole?"

Harry checked his best friend's face to be sure he wasn't joking. Luckily, the redhead seemed serious. "Let's go home. It's late, almost one in the morning."

The pair walked home in near-silence, dwelling on their first night of freedom. "It can't got worse, right? This vacation?"

Harry laughed as he answered. "It was a pretty good day, Ron. Hermione cleaned the entire house for us. She let us go clubbing. We made friends with an attractive blonde, who happens to be a bartender. We met some of the sexiest people in London." He stared at Lupin's house, at the light pouring out of Hermione's window. "She waited up for us. I wish she would have gone with us."

"I don't think she would have enjoyed it, Harry."

"But you never know."

Ron's pointed look almost amused the Boy-Who-Lived. "With Hermione, you know."

They opened the door quietly in case Hermione had fallen asleep waiting for them. Instead they heard loud music, and muffled voices, streaming out from behind her bedroom door.

"Hermione?" Harry asked, rapping gently on the door. When there was no answer, he turned the knob and entered.

"Harry, move," Ron whined from behind him. "Harry. Harry?"

The violent shove moved him stumbling into the center of the room and the center of attention. Green eyes stared into green eyes.

"Bloody Hell!" Harry winced at Ron's coarse words. "You were at the club!"

Danielle's friend smirked. "And they say the penis doesn't have long-term memory."

"What?"

Long brown curls flipped over a bare, perfect shoulder. "Men don't think with the upper brain when they're around Danielle. No offense intended, Dani."

The girl laughed. "Take offense at a compliment? Belle darling, that's your level of bitch. Besides, how can you breathe with all that room you have to talk?"

"Oh, that's right." She paused momentarily. "My apologies." Together, they returned to pulling clothes out of Hermione's trunk. Danielle held up a lacy little underthing that made Ron's ears turn a vivid red as she raised an eyebrow. Bell sighed. "You think you know someone," she deadpanned, while the blonde tossed it into a half-filled duffel bag.

Harry found he was suddenly capable of coherent thought. "Why…what are you…are you robbing us?" Apparently coherent speech was still a reach.

Dark brown eyes rolled. "Yes, we're robbing you. And we decided to bypass the expensive stuff and go straight for the racy underwear."

"Have you been to Victoria's Secret lately?" Danielle asked. "You could buy cars for what they're charging in there these days."

"Good point. I guess we're smarter burglars than I originally thought."

"What are you doing here?" Ron demanded.

"Chill." Belle delivered the command in less than civil tones. "We're just grabbing some clothes for Mya. She's staying with us tonight."

"I think we've got everything we need," Dani interrupted. "Ready to go?"

"Yep. Thanks for everything," she told the boys. "Have a nice night."

They watched, dumb-founded, as the two goddesses waltzed out the front door.

"Maybe I'm just tired," Harry decided slowly, "but that explanation made absolutely no sense to me."

"Mya…it's a nickname." When Harry looked just as confused, Ron continued in a shaken voice. "Hermione. Harry! Her-MYA-nee. Mya is Hermione."

The noise that escaped Harry's gaping mouth wasn't human. "Oh, God. Damn it. Oh, God, do you know what that makes me?"

Ron nodded. "The insensitive bastard."

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Author's Note: I know, I know. I'm so sorry. You know that comment I made in my last update about how I'd fixed my problem with my (lack of) plot and how I should have it out quickly? Well, apparently said plot overheard me. And ran away. Sending a plot friend of his that got itself stuck in my head. Running laps.

All that to say that I couldn't get this chapter to work with me and that I found myself (instead of FIXING my problems with this story) working on a completely different story. Actually, I'm fairly proud of "Isle Academy"—I think that's what I'm going to call it. But I have part of a later chapter for this story already written that I really, really, really like and therefore must use.

So, thanks for reading my story. If there is anyone reading it. And thank you to you beautiful people who reviewed. Hint: if you review, I know that this isn't disappearing into the abyss known as the internet and that there are (hopefully!) people who want to read it, thus providing incentive for me to continue. I don't mind flames—they can only make me better. But I've discovered that I like reviews much better. They make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Tell me what you think. Till later!

PS. Apparently this is later. Sorry. But just really quickly, does anyone know anything about this story called "Il Ballo di Serpentio" (possibly misspelled—Dance of the Serpent)? I really loved it but can't find it know. If you know the author, or better yet are the author (how cool would that be!), please get it back at Fanfiction. Or send it to me.

Thanks again and much love!

Destiny's Darkness
4/7/2005