A/N: a few minor spelling and grammar errors have been fixed from the original version of this chapter. does anyone actually enjoy reading this story? if so, it'd be extremelynice to find out in the form of a review...

Chapter 4 - How High?

The morning arose quickly for the boys in the Gryffindor dormitory. Both Harry and Ron had packed all of their belongings the night before, so they were able to sleep in until six. Once they were up, there was nothing to do except get dressed, eat, and drag their luggage to the Great Hall.

Harry got dressed quickly and made his way into the common room. He was surprised to see a rather large banner draped across the doorway that flashed "Congratulations Harry, Ron, and Hermione! Have a good trip!" Harry then noticed the rest of the common room. It had been decorated in scarlet and gold streamers. He noticed a few of his fellow Gryffindors sleeping on the couch and in chairs, all wearing party hats. They had apparently come out to wish them off, but had not managed to stay awake.

Behind him, on the stairs, Harry heard footsteps. He turned around and saw Seamus, Dean, and Colin. They, too, were wearing party hats. All seemed very tired and went up to Harry and congratulated him and told him to be safe and have a good trip. Harry expected Colin to whip out his camera and get a few shots before they left, but Colin apparently did not even have his camera with him. He practically fell asleep standing next to Harry. Before he decided to go back to bed, Colin said to Harry, "Have fun in Brazil."

Harry was surprised that all three of them were so tired. "So, why are you all so tired?" he asked.

"Because we had to wait until after you went to bed before we could set up the common room and nobody thought about bewitching the sign ahead of time. It took us almost five hours to get it right," said Dean. Harry was impressed. He didn't know that the guys would do something like that.

Before Seamus and Dean left, Ron came down the stairs. He was also very surprised by them. Dean and Seamus had already begun to head back up the stairs when Harry realized that Hermione wasn't in the common room.

"Hey guys, before you leave, do you know where Hermione is?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, she's down in the Great Hall getting breakfast. She left about an hour ago. She said she wanted to talk to McGonagal and make sure she wasn't going to be behind when she got back."

"Oh," was all Harry could respond with. Hermione worrying about school, what a surprise. Harry and Ron said good-bye to Dean and Seamus, then went down to breakfast.

Harry and Ron made their way down to the Great Hall, dragging their trunks behind them. The trunks that the school had provided them with were slightly smaller than their normal trunks, and didn't have any identifiable marks on them other than the students' names. It obviously wouldn't be a good idea to have the Hogwarts crest on there if they would be traveling with Muggles.

Before they sat down to eat, they dropped their trunks off in the room they would be leaving from. There were only a few students in the Great Hall so early in the morning, most of them were students going on the trip. Harry and Ron went over to the Gryffindor table and sat down next to Hermione, who was already there eating.

"I see you two finally made it down here. I was just about to go looking for you," Hermione said. Harry looked down at his watch; 6:25.

"It's still early, Hermione," Ron said. "Do you really think I would voluntarily get up two hours early?"

"Well I thought, on a day as important as this, just maybe you would," Hermione snapped back.

"Hey guys, let's not argue. Nothing ruins a day like you two going at each other first thing in the morning," Harry said. Ron and Hermione both agreed and went back to eating.

Breakfast was completely uneventful, which was a good thing, and all three Gryffindors were standing in the room off the Great Hall when the clock struck seven. Before the clock had chimed the seventh time, Dumbledore opened the door to the room and walked in. In his right hand he was carrying a large neon pink beach umbrella. Some of the girls in the room began to giggle. Dumbledore walked to the center of the room and began to speak.

"Well, children, it seems that you have all made it. Even Mr. Malfoy is on time today." Dumbledore paused in his speech and winked at said student. Harry had not even noticed that Draco was in the room. Dumbledore then continued, "Today, as you all know, you will be taking a portkey to New York City. You will arrive in a building near the airport that will take you to Chicago. In this building you will meet with your guide, who will then take you to the airport and make sure you all get on the plane safely.

"Please be aware that the building you will arrive at will be very busy. There will be many people there, all going in different directions. Remember to stay together at all times, and try not to get in their way. Being trampled is not much fun.

"Now, all of you gather 'round and grab a part of the umbrella. Keep a firm grip on it and your trunk. You wouldn't want to end up in a different country without any clean clothes, would you?"

All of the students grabbed a part of the umbrella. Harry made sure he had a tight hold on everything. Dumbledore walked away from the group and stopped next to the door. "Once the clock strikes 7:05, you will leave here. I hope you all have a good trip. See you next semester." Dumbledore then stood and waited for his students to disappear.

Harry soon felt the familiar tug behind his navel. Everything around him became blurry and he could not move. Then, as suddenly as the sensations had started, they stopped, and Harry looked around at the new building they were standing in.

Well, maybe new was not the best word to describe it. The building appeared to be an old warehouse. It was very long and made of metal, with a high, flat ceiling. Just as Dumbledore had said, the area was full of wizards bustling about, looking for where they needed to be. Some were dressed as Muggles, and others were wearing brightly colored cloaks. Many of the people were also carrying objects that had obviously brought them to, or were taking them from, this destination. They were carrying everything from books, to toasters, to what could even have been the door of a car. It was interesting to watch the people move around. A group of people would be standing in one spot one moment, gone the next.

Harry had gotten so wrapped up in looking at everything, that he forgot his own group was supposed to be meeting someone. Hermione, though, had taken charge. She nudged Harry and pointed to a man across the room. He was holding a sign the read 'Hogwarts.' All eight students started moving in his direction.

When Harry had first seen the man, he had thought him to be very old, but as he got closer he realized that he was quite the contrary. The man looked very young, probably not a day older than 25. His hair was short and blonde, with a slight part down the middle. He wore a yellow T-shirt and jeans. Any Muggle that saw him would never think he was anything but their own kind.

The man gave a little smile as the group of young people approached. They were probably exactly who he had been waiting for, but just to be on the safe side the man asked, "Are you the students from Hogwarts?"

"Yes, we are," Hermione said. His smile grew when she answered.

"Wonderful, and I see you've all made it OK. Let me be the first to welcome you to America. My name is Chris Jacobs, but please, don't call me Mr. Jacobs or Sir, or anything like that; it makes me feel old. I'd rather you just call me Chris."

Chris paused for a second as if to gather his thoughts, then continued. "As you may know by now, it is currently 2:30 a.m. New York time. Your flight will leave at 7:00, so I will have plenty of time to show you around town. If there are no questions, I have a van waiting outside for you all."

Nobody had any questions for Chris, so they began the process of getting out of the building. They made their way to the van, which had been parked rather far away. It was a bit surprising how busy it was for it being two in the morning. Ron was just about to get into the front seat so he could talk to Chris about everything they were going to see and tell his father all about it, when a voice behind him stopped him.

"Excuse me, Weasley, but if you think I am going to sit in the back of this confounded Muggle contraption with the rest of you plebeians, then you are sadly mistaken. Move."

Ron was about to open his mouth to retort, but a look from Hermione told him stop before he did something he would regret, like kill Malfoy in an open New York street with more witnesses than he would care to acknowledge. So, instead, he sighed and moved to a seat in the back as close to Chris as he could get. As Draco got into the front seat everyone heard him mutter, "I can't believe my father actually agreed to this. Stupid Muggle transportation."

After receiving a giggle at his last comment, Draco refrained from speaking for the rest of the tour.

The rest of the tour that happened to take them all over Manhattan. They drove by the Empire State Building, Madison Square Garden, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, all along Broadway, Central Park, and many other tourist destinations.

When the tour was over a few hours later, Chris directed the van to the airport so they could get through security without being rushed (it was still only 5:00 a.m. and their plane didn't leave until seven that morning).

Ron was fascinated by everything in the airport. As soon as they got there, he wanted Harry to explain how the vending machines worked, then wanted a demonstration. Since none of his classmates had any American Muggle money (surprise, surprise), Chris showed how to put the dollar in the machine, then choose what you wanted. All of the young witches and wizards who had never done anything Muggle before wanted to try this, except Malfoy of course. He stood at the back of the group and glared at their antics.

Fifteen minutes and 20 packages of M&Ms later, Ron was having Chris explain how all the monitors worked that showed all of the departure times for all of the flights while they walked to the security point to check their things. Although Chris had told him it would happen, Ron was still a little bit shocked when some of the departure times changed.

The nine of them spent the next portion of their lives going through Muggle security in a Muggle airport (what a sight, I'm sure). Draco was quite offended when the metal detector went off because of the zipper on his pants (as he was the first one to go through and hadn't seen the way the little arch had reacted to anyone else walking through), and was about to have a fit until Chris told him that this was completely normal and that it would probably happen to all of them. He was pleased when it did, in fact, happen to the rest of the congregation.

The group finally got through security and made their way over to the departure area. They waited around for a while, until finally their plane was called over the loudspeaker. Chris lead the group over to the gate and handed each person a ticket and gave them instructions on what to do when boarding the plane. The young wizards had no problems boarding the plane, and all quickly found their seats. Harry sat down in his seat and without even thinking gave Ron the seat next to him, which was also next to the window. As soon as Ron had sat down, Harry saw the error in his ways. Ron sat quietly staring out the window, watching the other airplanes leave. He wasn't saying anything, but the look on his face showed that he was a little bit worried. The rest of the passengers filed onto the plane and paid little attention to the 8 young wizards who were busily trying to amuse themselves in Muggle ways. Finally the plane door was closed and they got ready for take off.

The stewardess came to the front of the plane and began to talk about safety procedures. She began with how the seatbelt could be latched and then made her way onto what the passengers needed to do in case of a problem on the aircraft. "In case of an emergency, there are oxygen masks located above your head. If the cabin pressure drops, the masks will become suspended from the ceiling and you should put them over your mouth and nose. If you begin to feel sick, there are airsickness bags located in the back of every seat. Also, in case of a water landing, the seat cushions that you are sitting on can be used as a flotation device…" Harry was unable to hear the last part of the stewardess's speech because Ron was elbowing him.

"Yes Ron?" Harry asked.

"Harry, why would we need a flotation device, and what's a water landing?" Ron asked. Harry didn't want to tell him the truth, but he felt that he had no choice.

"Ron what their trying to say is that if we crash into water we can use our seats to float." Harry explained.

"Oh. Wait a minute, did you say crash? Is that common? I hate crashing. Harry, I want to get off. Why can't we just walk to Chicago!" Ron yelled in a very high-pitched, panicked voice. He was thoroughly panicking now, and had turned the color of vanilla pudding. Ron being completely panicked was also beginning to worry the other passengers. Harry tried to calm Ron down by assuring him that planes rarely crashed, but that only made Ron more tense. Finally Hermione had to step in. When they had all taken their seats, Hermione had chosen the one right behind Ron, which now was apparent to have been a very good choice.

"Ron listen, you're a wizard." Hermione began. "If we were going to crash we could apparate or do something else to save ourselves. Have you ever read anything in the Daily Prophet that said 'Wizards die in tragic plane crash'?"

"Well no…"

"Then you have nothing to worry about," Hermione said. Ron seemed to calm down a bit at Hermione's words. He had never heard of a wizard dying in that sort of way. Maybe he didn't really have anything to worry about.

Hermione, on the other hand, was now quire annoyed with Harry. He really should not have told Ron what he did.

"You know, telling Ron the statistics of plane crashes really isn't going to help calm him down." Hermione said.

"Sorry. I wasn't sure what to do. It was the first thing that came to mind." Harry said and smiled weakly. Hermione just rolled her eyes and went back to the book she was reading about the History of Allteline.

Hermione didn't get to read much of her book, though, as Chris suddenly jumped up from one of the seats behind her and asked loudly, "Where's the blonde boy?"

All the students looked around at each other and realized that Draco was indeed missing. One of the flight attendants had heard Chris and walked over to him and told him that there was a blonde boy sitting in first class. Chris asked her if he could go check to see if it was the person he was looking for and she agreed. He was only gone for a few minutes before he came back, dragging Draco by the arm. Draco was not pleased about this.

And he let it be known.

"I don't belong back here. These people are below me. And it's bad for my complexion."

"Draco, your ticket is for coach, not first class. Now sit down and shut up," said Chris.

"Malfoys don't fly coach, Malfoys fly first class!" Draco said as he shook his fist in anger.

Chris let go of Draco's arm in front of the seat next to Hermione. Draco stood there for a second before he realized that Chris meant for him to sit there. Draco stared at Chris before finally announcing, "Well, I'm surely not going to sit here."

Chris was fed up with Draco's behavior and thought for a moment about just shoving him in the overhead compartment, but decided that that might not be the best idea. Instead he stared back at Draco and calmly responded, "Listen, this is the only seat left. You had your choice earlier to choose where you wanted to sit. You chose first class, which was the wrong choice. Now sit down before I have to make a scene."

Draco was now not just annoyed with Chris, he was furious. He begrudgingly sat down, but not before giving Chris the infamous Malfoy death glare. Chris just gave a little smile back and returned to his own seat.

While Draco was furious about having to sit next to Hermione, Hermione was not exactly thrilled to be seated next to Draco either. She had a feeling that since Draco had not gotten his way, he was going to complain the entire flight, which was really going to cut into her reading time.

Of course, Hermione was right. She hadn't gotten through one page before Draco started in on how this was the worst thing he had ever had to go through in his entire life. Hermione just sat there and willed herself not to slam her book in his face.

When Chris had left to go find Draco, Ron's fears had come back. Although Hermione's talk had helped some, he still didn't seem to think he was going to live through this ordeal. It was not all that bad until the plane took off. That's when Ron decided that planes were definitely not safe and that he would probably be spending his last minutes on earth aboard one. Harry once again tried his best to calm down his best friend, this time using Hermione's techniques, but it was to no avail. Ron just kept repeating over and over, "We're all going to die. Why do I have to die like this?"

Harry had really hoped to just relax the during the entire flight, but was forced into dealing with Ron instead. Well, Ron and the passengers who he was frightening again with his ramblings. Harry gave up telling them that it was Ron's first flight, and just decided to tell them a completely false story about how Ron's whole family had died in a plane crash the summer before. The others looked at Ron with sympathy before turning back to whatever they had been previously occupying themselves with and did not pay anymore attention to him for the rest of the trip.

The plane eventually did land in Chicago. Much to Ron's delight, they did not end up having to use their seats as flotation devices in the middle of Lake Michigan.

"Well, that wasn't really all that bad," Ron said as they got off the plane. Harry stopped and looked at his friend in disbelief. He could have sworn that Ron had just spent the last two plus hours freaking out about how they were all going to die in a fiery crash. Maybe he had imagined it.

Hermione's trip hadn't faired much better. "I never knew anyone could complain for that long without repeating a single thing. He found something wrong with every little thing on that plane, even down to the color of the shoes on the lady across the aisle."

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked.

"What do you mean, what am I talking about? Didn't you hear Malfoy complaining the whole time we were on the plane?"

"No, sorry."

"How could you not have heard him! He was sitting right behind you!"

"Well, Ron was sitting right next to me going on about how the plane was going to burst into flames and we would all die horrible, fiery deaths."

Hermione stayed quiet for a moment before, "Oh. I guess I'm glad I didn't have to hear that, too, then."

After everyone made their way out of the terminal, they gathered their luggage and were ushered outside to two vehicles waiting to take them the rest of the way to the school.

Instead of going straight to the school, it had been decided that the students should be taken through the city of Chicago, just so they knew what to expect before they ventured there alone on their first weekend off. They were shown some of the places that most of the kids at school were known to frequent, plus some of the landmarks the city was known for.

After they were done in the city, they spent the next half hour driving through the less populated parts of town. They continued into the country and, after a while, noticed a looming shape in the distance. As they came upon it, the students began recognizing it one by one. This was the place they would be spending the next few months of their lives.