Chapter Three: Motorcycles
"RON!" Hermione jumped on top of her sleeping friend in order to wake him up.
Right before she was fully on top of him, he grabbed her arms, and flipped over, causing her to end up beneath him, and vulnerable for a tickle attack from Harry.
"AAAHH! STOP!" Hermione shrieked, trying to fight back.
Ron and Harry finally, but reluctantly, got off of her after she said the magic words: "We have to get to the airport soon and I still haven't gotten out my secret stash of candy."
The three friends took turns taking showers, doing their bathroom stuff, and eating breakfast. At the end of a very quick hour, Hermione grabbed her bag and ran out the door, followed by Ron and Harry.
Hermione was wearing black Capri's with a pink T-shirt and a pair of comfortable sandals. Her hair was in a messy ponytail, which was about all she could do with it with so little time. (Her mother insisted on having it straightened for the summer so that she would look nice when she saw her cousin) Harry had on loose, blue jeans with a yellow and brown T-shirt. Ron was wearing tan Khaki's and a blue T-shirt.
When they arrived at the airport, Hermione's mother realized that they didn't have any trunks with them.
"Where's your stuff Hermione? If this is a way to get out of going-"
"Don't worry mum," Hermione whispered, "we shrunk our trunks so we wouldn't have to worry about them. They're in our bags."
Mrs. Granger sighed with relief as she hugged her baby girl and her friends good-bye. Because she didn't have a ticket, she wasn't allowed to go any further. Hermione hugged her dad and the three went to wait at their gate.
"Okay, so I have, some money that we can use for more food, magazines, and junk in my pocket, the rest is for our fun-filled month coming up. Woo hoo." Hermione said dully. "Who wants food?"
They bought six magazines, eight slices of pizza, two bottles of soda and one of water and were just finishing paying for two disposable cameras (Hermione had several others that were packed away in her trunk, but she wanted one for the plane ride) when they had to begin boarding the plane.
They took their seats in the middle-front of the plane and looked out the window.
"Hermione, how many times have you flown on a plane again?" Harry asked.
"Um, I've been out of the country three times, so six, I think." Hermione replied as she opened up her bag and too out one of her books. "Why do you ask."
"Ron's nervous," Harry replied quickly.
Hermione giggled. She looked over Harry, who was in the middle, to Ron, wo was beside the window and asked him "Ron, how are you keeper if you are afraid of flying? I mean, yes, you don't fly as high as the seeker, and I mean, I know you've never been on a Hippogriff…" Hermione and Ron let out a small laugh.
"Oh shut up you guys." Harry crossed his arms and slouched in his seat, pouting. Before he could move, Hermione had taken a picture of the funny sight.
The three spent the next nine and a half hours eating the food they had brought, watching 'Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle' and 'The Whole Ten Yards' (A/N on my plane they show two movies and both must be sequels), and just goofing off. Hermione even forgot about the books she had brought.
"Hey guys, do you want some gum?" Hermione asked a few minutes before the plane began to land.
"Sure, thanks," Harry said, taking a piece.
"How about you Ron?"
"No thanks, Hermione." Ron took a sip of his soda.
"You sure, Ron? You might want it when the plane begins to land," Hermione insisted.
"Why?" Suddenly, Ron felt as though he was 20,000 leagues under the sea. He felt pressure on the insides of his ears and felt that his brain was about to implode, or explode, he really didn't care about the difference.
"Now do you want a piece?" Hermione giggled.
"HERMIONE!" The trio looked in the direction that the voice came from. Out of the crown came a petite brunette with wispy, chocolate brown hair that reminded Ron of the girl from 'The Whole Ten Yards'. Harry told him that her name was Amanda Peet. She finally reached the trio and wrapped her arms around Hermione.
Harry and Ron noticed that the two girls both had petite bodies, but that was about the only similarity between them. Hermione's cousin had a slightly smaller chest than Hermione, but it was hard to tell because neither girl was wearing shirts that fit the same. Her eyes were a chocolate brown, while Hermione's were hazel. Her skin was tanned, but she wasn't completely burned like most girls they saw. She was wearing a denim mini-skirt with a large red shirt tied at the bottom with a rubber band. She had a bunch of bracelets of all colors and materials along her wrists, two different earrings, one a gold wolf and the other a large silver hoop, and red high-top converses. Her hair was in a side pony-tail with a few strands falling over her face.
"How are you hun? It has been way too long!" The girl asked.
"Great," Hermione forced out. She turned to Harry and Ron. "These are my friends, Harry and Ron. Guys, this is my cous-"
"Oh come on, Mye, you guys are in a different country in the land of different accents!" She threw her arms in the air with a large smile on her face.
"What?" Ron asked.
"I mean, Harry, Ron, I know I just met you and all, but I can tell that I have a lot to teach you." She linked her arms with theirs. "My name is Emlyn and I will be your instrtuctor for how to live during vacation."
"Don't kill them Em." Hermione said, following the three, who had begun to walk off towards the baggage claim. "Em, Why don't we go to the bathroom and let the guys get the bags? I'm positive you want to tell me that I need to fix my hair." Hermione knew that if they went to baggage claim they would be there forever because their trunks were in their knapsacks.
"Sure Mye, meet you at the claim guys," Emelyn said, trying to drag Hermione in the direction of the bathroom.
"One sec," Hermione leaned in to give Ron her miniaturized trunk. "Go to the bathroom and try to be careful," she whispered.
The two girls then went to the bathroom to help Hermione fix her hair.
"Wait, I thought we were going to go back to your house." Hermione was confused. After she left the bathroom with Emelyn and met Ron and Harry at baggage claim, Emelyn didn't take them to the cabs, instead she took them to another gate inside the airport.
"We are, but first we have to pick up my friend, Drae. His flight left a bit after your's." Emelyn looked up at the list of Departures and Arrivals. "Damn, his flight was delayed. Looks like we have about two and a half hours to catch up."
"Cool, so let's go drop off our stuff," Harry said.
The four went, instead of towards the taxis, to the parking lot, stopping at a black Honda Hybrid.
"Woah!" was the only word that Ron could think of.
"Sweet car Emelyn," Harry said. "What kind is it?"
"Honda Hybrid is all I paid attention to," Emelyn laughed as she opened the trunk. "It's a bitch in the summer 'cause of the color, but it's my baby. Been saving up since I was a freshman."
"Wait, I thought you only had a Junior License!" Hermione exclaimed.
"I get my real license in August. Besides, don't you have your license? (A/N SERIOUSLY! I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH HERMIONE'S AGE! It says in the third book that her birthday is in September, but she took her apparating test with Ron in the sixth book! Please review to tell me what to do about that! For now her birthday is in February)" Emelyn replied, closing the trunk, now filled, somehow, with the three trunks. "You guys coming?" Emelyn slid into the driver's seat.
Hermione reluctantly slid into the shotgun seat, followed by Harry and Ron who got into the back.
"I just hope you don't get into trouble, Em." Hermione looked out the window, watching the trees and towns they passed on their way to Emelyn's house, which didn't take too long considering that she lived only about thirty minutes from JFK airport.
"Here we are, home sweet home," Emelyn said as she pulled into a semi-circle driveway. "Come on!" She grabbed Hermione's trunk and headed to the front door.
Hermione dragged her feet to follow her cousin. Behind her, Harry and Ron were pulling their trunks while admiring the front lawn of the house. Harry judged it to be about the size of Ron's backyard back at the Burrow.
"Well are you guys coming in or are you gonna pitch a tent so you can keep looking into space." The two hurried to catch up to Hermione, who was halfway in the house.
Without stopping, the four teenagers walked up three flights of stairs until they reached an obviously unused floor filled with doorways.
"Harry, you can stay in here," Emelyn opened the first door to reveal a beautiful blue-indigo room. There was one large window, taking up the majority of the wall opposite to the door. It had thick, blue curtains, with white, sheer curtains behind them. Beside the window and against the wall to the right was a claw foot, oak writing desk with a small pile of parchment, a bottle of black ink, and a quill.
"Uncle Damian told my mom that your teachers only let you hand in your homework on parchment, so I thought that the whole quill and ink thing would look cool." Emelyn explained.
The three nodded as they continued to observe the room. A few feet to the right of the door was a queen sized bed with white and dark blue comforters, sheets and pillows that matched the curtains. The bed had an oak frame and headboard that matched the desk and the wooden trunk at the foot of the bed. Also matching the wood was a tall Armoire on the final wall, to the left of the door. To finish off the room, there was a silver birdcage hanging from the ceiling between the window and Armoire.
"Why don't you just drop your trunk anywhere and we can show Ron his room," Emelyn said cheerfully. She led Hermione and Ron down the hall, two doors over from where Harry's was. She opened the door to reveal a room quite different from the previous one.
The room was painted a soft yellow with two square windows on the opposite wall from the door. They each had copper colored curtains that were swaying from the slight breeze outside (the windows were open). The desk was between the two large windows, and made of a wood that was painted white and looked slightly distressed. It looked similar to the desk in Harry's room, except there were draws under the top piece of wood. Instead of parchment, an inkwell and quill on the table, there was a simple, copper birdcage on the left side. On the wall to the left of the door, there was a large canvas with a Jackson Pollock resembling painting.
"I made that in class, we're studying Jackson Pollock. It's not as good as the real thing, though." Emelyn blushed.
On the other side of the room was a large bed, queen sized, with a dark yellow comforter, yellow and white sheets, and five dark yellow, yellow and copper colored pillows. Beneath the painting was a long, low dresser with distressed white paint.
"Just dump your trunk anywhere." Emelyn turned to Hermione. "So Mye, are we sharing a room or would you rather be by your lonesome self on a floor with three teenage boys?"
"Well where would I be if my friends weren't here?" Hermione asked. She didn't want to be too stubborn.
"Oh come on cuz! I know you don't want to be here, but can you at least lighten up a bit?" Emelyn exclaimed wit ha large smile on her face. Harry was beginning to wonder if it ever left. She decided then and there that this was the summer she was going to contaminate her cousin and bring her out of her shell. Her thick shell. "Why don't you just spend your first night in this room and get settled. We can have a girl's day tomorrow. Drae knows the area as well as I do, plus he knows how to drive and is seventeen, so he has his license."
"Um, sure," Hermione smiled weakly. She and Emelyn walked into the next room. The wall across from the door was painted white. There were three long windows, each nearly the height of the room and with think, slightly sheer, black curtains, and very sheer red ones between the black ones and the windows. Between each of the windows were three black and white pictures in black and red picture frames (each on top of the other one row black, read, black and in the other row red, black, red). In front of the middle window was a small, square black table made of a thick wire with a cylinder shaped, glass vase with a single red rose in it. The other three walls were painted a bright red that matched the curtains, picture frames and rose. The queen-sized bed was against the wall to the right of the door with red and black pillows, white sheets, and a black comforter. There was a large bookshelf on the wall to the left of the door beside a mahogany Armoire with another bookshelf on the other side. Between the foot of the bed and the wall with the windows (in the corner) was a large black armchair.
"Wow, this is beautiful," Hermione said. She put her trunk gently beside the bed and turned around to see Harry and Ron checking out the view from the windows.
"Thanks. Drae and I got bored last year and were under house arrest so we decided to fix up the rooms. Welcome them to the twenty-first century." Emelyn paused, "Well, some of the rooms."
"House arrest?" Ron asked.
"Yeah. Mom caught us throwing a party without asking them so we weren't allowed to leave the house for a week." Emelyn sighed. "She told us that all we had to do was ask. We're gonna throw one this weekend and all three of you are coming!"
"Sure!" Ron exclaimed before Hermione could turn her down.
"Em, what exactly were you talking about before at the airport? The thing about vacations in another country." Hermione sat on the bed.
"I mean that this is your vacation from who you are! Nobody knows you here! If you wanted your name to be Thera it could be! (A/N lol, all who are reading this check out my story Love Means Never Having To Say You're Sorry. All of you who have already done so please laugh with me)" Emelyn looked at the boys excitedly, knowing that they would get her better than her cousin. "Harry, have you ever wanted to escape from being you?"
"Well," Harry thought about his scar, reputation, past. Emelyn caught this automatically.
"Harry, would you like me to get you contacts? In fact, I'll show you how to hide your scar if you want. This is your time. You shouldn't have to dwell on what was obviously a big loss, by the look on you face when I mentioned your scar." Emelyn knew just how to talk to people. She turned to Ron. "Ron, I can tell that you are best known, well, recognized for your hair. I can show you how to style it, dye it, make it how you want. I don't mean to be out of line, guys, and just tell me if I am. I don't mean to tell you to change who you ar-"
"Can we go now?" Harry asked.
Emelyn smiled. This was going to be a very fun summer.
"Okay, so for the next eight weeks, you, Harry, are Neo, right?" Emelyn asked. Harry and Ron had decided to go with Emelyn's advise and for once in their lives not be The Boy Who Lived and Weasley kid, part VI, and had convinced Hermione to let her hair down, throw caution to the wind, and give it a try. They were on their way to the airport to pick up Drae and Emelyn wanted to make sure that they were sure of what they were doing.
"Yeah," Harry said as he looked in Emelyn's pocket mirror. He was admiring her work and how well she was able to hide his scar with a bit of make-up. He also looked at his bright green eyes that were no longer hidden by glasses. Emelyn suggested color contacts, but he wasn't just ready to let go of his mother's eyes. "It means new."
"Very cool," Emelyn looked at Ron in the rear view mirror. She had to admit that she did a pretty good job at obeying his one request, which was to help his hair not let him be him. Before going with Harry to get contacts (A/N In my world you can get them within an hour), she dropped him and Hermione off at the hair salon and told her favorite hari stylist what to do. An hour and a half later he was walking out with his eyebrows waxed, his skin exfoliated, which did wonders, and his hair looking a paler red-orange. It killed Emelyn to have him change that. "What about you Ron? You still Chase?"
Ron looked away from the window and nodded. "Yeah, always wanted it."
"Hot," Emelyn turned to Hermione. She had to admit that Hermione didn't seem to need her help in the looks department. Her hair was long, and a hazel-almond brown. She had a few, very soft freckles around her nose and long eyelashes. She had changed into a pair of jeans and, after about fifteen minutes of objecting, one of Emelyn's halter tops that flowed around her stomach, but hugged her chest. Her hair was in a high pony-tail, but that didn't stop it from flowing in very soft curls to the upper-mid section of her back. "Now, Mye, I want to make sure that you are okay with this? I know that this isn't exactly something you do very often."
Hermione looked straight ahead, "I'm sure Em." She turned to her cousin. "I want to give this a try." Completely out of character, Hermione flipped her hair over her shoulder and turned to her cousin (in a girlie way). "So what name do you think I should do?"
"Haha! I knew I'd get to you!" Emelynn looked at her cousin and scrunched up her face. "I think you should go with Amara. I've always wanted that name."
"But your middle name is Amaranta," Hermione said, causing the two girls to laugh.
"Oh my god, that son of a bitch," Emelyn said as she watched a boy on a motorcycle ride past them. "Sorry guys, but we won't be going back to the oh, so fun airport," she said as she turned the corner twice and began to head back to her house.
"You son of a bitch!" Emelyn said, laughing, as she grabbed the boy on her porch and pulled him into a hug. "We were on our way to get you!"
Hermione looked at the boy. He was wearing a pair of jeans that hugged his butt very nicely with a slack shirt that showed off his chiseled chest. He had on a motorcycle helmet, and seemed to have been in the middle of taking off his gloves and jacket when they had come.
"I know," he pulled his helmet off his head to reveal possibly the most captivating face Hermione had ever seen. His eyes were like a pool of melted metal with flicks of blue. His blonde hair fell over his eyes in a way Harry's never could. His skin was sun touched, but he didn't look like those typical surfers from California. He had an earring in his left ear. It was a small, silver hoop with a green bead on it. The boy was tall, somewhere between Harry and Ron's heights. He looked over at the trio and smiled a smile that could put even Lockhart to shame. "I saw you guys on the highway."
"Why didn't you call? Oh whatever, I'll yell at you later!" Emelyn turned to face Hermione, Harry, and Ron. "This is my beautiful cousin Amara Forester and her friends, Neo Larouso (A/N That's the dude's last name from the Karate Kid!) and Chase Docherty."
"Pleasure," the boy held out his hand that didn't have his helmet under his arm and shook each of their hands.
"Guys, this is Drae Meyer,"