Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the story of The Lost Boys.
A/N: Thanks to those who placed me on their alerts and favs lists. I thank you greatly. Now that we have been given the background, things will start picking up from here. I hope that you like. Review!
Grandpa motioned for the boys to follow him back into the living room. Almost spinning on a dime, Grandpa turned to look at the two boys. "Now, Wednesday is the day that the mailman brings the TV Guide, and sometimes the address label is curled up. Now, you'll be tempted to tear it off. Don't. You'll only manage to rip the cover and I don't like that." Grandpa went into his taxidermy and grabbed the pocket doors. "And stay outta here!"
Just as Grandpa was about to close the doors, Ron seemed agitated.
"Wait, you mean you have a telly?" Ron asked excitedly.
Grandpa seemed to want to slap Ron upside the head. "No, I don't have a telly. I just like to read the TV Guide. You read the TV Guide, you don't need a TV." With that, Grandpa shut the doors to the taxidermy in their faces.
Later that evening, Harry and Ron wandered around the beach that surrounded the boardwalk of Santa Carla. Harry had certainly never been to a beach like this before, and for once, Ron seemed just as befuddled as Harry. The beach was combing with people, and Harry and Ron had to sidestep quite a few to manage to make to up to the boardwalk.
Ron seemed out of sorts to Harry. It was almost as if in coming to America, Ron had managed to disassociate himself from everything that had happened in England. Now, Ron seemed to be solely concerned with muggle items, including clothing. Even now, as they walked up onto the boardwalk, Ron was mussing with his clothes. Harry could only shake his head and hope that his friend would eventually snap out of it.
Once they reached the boardwalk, Harry had to smile. A rock band was playing loudly, and it had been some time since he had heard muggle rock music. Harry deftly lead Ron through the crowd until he felt himself freeze with a single glance. There standing near the top of the bleachers surrounding the bandstand was the most beautiful girl Harry had ever seen. She was different; completely unlike anyone else in the crowd. There was sadness in her eyes that seemed to match his own.
Her only companion was a younger boy who possibly could have been her little brother, but Harry wasn't sure. She suddenly seemed to feel his eyes upon her and turned her head to meet his gaze. Harry smiled at her, trying to seem friendly. For a split second, she tried to return the smile, but when she felt that she couldn't manage it, she grabbed the young boy's hand and disappeared into the crowd.
Harry snatched Ron by the hand and began to run through the crowd; hoping to catch her before she completely disappeared.
Molly wandered around the busy pier, not sure of what she was looking for, but trying desperately to hide the pain she felt. "If only Arthur was here." She thought to herself. But quietly, she brushed that thought away. It was time to move on.
It was nice to be back in America with her father. Things were so different here. She wandered past various restaurants and souvenir shops until she came to a kiosk that seemed to be filled with ads of a variety of types. Hopefully there were some stores that were looking for some extra help.
Molly paused as she saw a sad faced woman placing a missing sign to the board amongst signs for various missing children. This sign is different; it bears the picture of a portly security guard. Only the ones who caused his disappearance would recognize him as the security guard who had banished the Lost Boys gang from the boardwalk.
As Molly passed the sad-eyed woman, there eyes meet for a split second, both wordlessly understanding a similar feeling of being lost. Molly serenely bowed her head and continued walking on the pier.
Suddenly, she spots a "Help Wanted" sign in the window of a nearby store. She began to walk over to inspect the sign when her eyes fell upon the sight of a small, crying little boy. Molly runs to the boy and tries to comfort him.
"Honey, are you lost?" She asked.
The little boy merely nodded. She looked up into the store and found herself looking at a crowded video store. "Let's try in here, maybe your Mama stepped inside for a bit."
The child shyly smiled and stifled the tears a bit. Just before they are able to enter the store, a buzzer sounds and the Lost Boys gang aggressively enters the store in front of them. Molly sees the apparent manager stiffen at the arrival of the gang. Molly steadied herself and led the little boy into the store.
"Excuse me?" Molly asked the manager. "I wonder if you could possibly help us. This boy is lost and we were wondering if his mother might be here."
The manager slowly turned to face Molly. She froze. There standing in front of her with a shorter hairstyle was the spitting image of Severus Snape. The man who could be Snape smiled at her with a friendly glint in his eye.
"I really don't know." The Snapeish man said and seemed to be about to help Molly when the young mother of the boy rushed into the store.
"Oh Terry! Thank God! I was so worried. Don't ever wander off like that again!" The mother gasped as she drew her son close to her for a big hug. Over her son's shoulder she silently thanked Molly and the Snapeish Manager.
TheSnape mansmiled at the boy and handed the boy a lollipop. "There you are."
The boy shyly smiled. "Thank you."
"Bye Terry." Molly called as the boy and his mother left the store.
The Lost Boys wandered around the back of the store which contained a wall of TV's tuned to the same station. Draco seemed decidedly bored, but went along with the gag nonetheless.
Marco, the one with long curly blond hair turned to Draco. "It's like we only come here to watch one thing."
The Snapeish man suddenly turned to Molly, almost as if trying to ignore the boys and offered Mollyanother lollipop. "Well done."
Molly looked at the candy for a moment. "No, thanks." But then she saw a glimmer of hurt pass in front of the man's dark eyes. "Well, on second thought." She gently took the candy from his hand.
The Lost Boys shuffled past and theman turned to them; glaring. "I told you not to come in here anymore." Draco smiled at the older man with his classic Malfoy sneer and ushered the rest of his gang out of the store.
"Wild kids." TheSnape mansighed.
Molly got up her nerve. If she was wrong, she would only be a little embarassed, but if she was right... "I never thought that Severus Snape would be working in a muggle video store."
Severus smiled. "I'm Max now."
The boys climbed onto their motorcycles outside of the store and left with a screech of tires on blacktop.
"They are so young! We were that age, too, once…But they dress better." She turned to leave and smiled. "Bye-Bye."
"You have a generous nature, Molly. I like that in a person."
Suddenly a large white dog whined in agreement.
"That's my dog, Thorn." Max told Molly.
"Hi, Thorn." Molly smiled. "I never thought that you liked anything that I stood for."
Snape smiled again. "Some of us had to hide for the greater good. Here, I can finally be myself…So, what can I help you find tonight, Molly? We've got it all. The finest selection of movies in Santa Carla."
"No, I'm not really looking for a movie. What I need is…"
"A job?"
Molly seemed taken aback. "I look that needy, huh?"
Harry walked briskly past the rides through the crowds. Ron had a bit of difficultly keeping in step with Harry.
"Where are we going?" Ron gasped.
"Nowhere." Harry answered a bit annoyed.
Harry kept up the fast pace as they quickly turned down an alley.
"So, what's the rush?" Suddenly it dawned on Ron. "You're chasing that girl, aren't you? Come on. Admit it. You're chasing her."
Harry ignored him.
"I'm at the mercy of your sex glands, bud."
Harry had had enough. Ron was acting entirely too childish. "Don't you have anything better to do?"
Ron looked around and his eyes suddenly caught sight of a large muggle comic book store.
"Yeah, actually I do." Ron walked away from Harry and into the store.
Harry shook his head and continued moving with the crowd.
Ron wandered inside the store, but the store seemed a bit odd, and a bit strange. He stopped to examine several comics and suddenly felt the presence of two people staring at him. Ron turned to see his brothers, Fred and George, decked out in clothes that looked like the rejects from Muggle action films.
"I thought you were supposed to be looking for kangaroos?"
Fred walked over and mussed his brother's hair. "You didn't really think that we would let you traipse off to America without us did you? We just thought to start a store here in America, that way we wouldn't have to listen to Mum, and she can't send up howlers here. Right, George?"
"Right, Fred."
"Why comics?" Ron asked puzzledly.
"Blimely, Ron, so are completely dense. What do you see when you look around? Muggles. Yoohoo! No, Wizards."
Fred glared at his younger brother and nodded with George. "How are we supposed to operate a Wizarding joke shop in muggle America, Ron?"
George glanced up and down at Ron and pointed. Fred and George seemed to snicker in unison.
Ron was beginning to get miffed. "Got a problem guys?"
They began to laugh uproariously. "Just scoping out your civilian wardrobe."
Ron glared at them. "Pretty cool, huh?"
Fred grasped Ron's shoulder and shook his younger brother a bit. "Yeah, for a fashion victim."
George looked at his younger brother and couldn't resist. "Mister Preppy, if you're looking for the frozen yogurt bar, I think it went out of business last summer. But I can offer you a fine toilet seat!"
Fred and George began to laugh again. Ron's eyes steeled at the needling he was currently taking.
"Actually, I'm looking for a Batman no. 14."
Fred and George looked at their brother like he had just swallowed a toad.
"That's a serious book, little brother. Since when are you interested in comics?" Asked George.
"Only five in existence." said Fred.
Ron knew he had them. "Four, actually. I'm always looking out for the other three." Suddenly, Ron knew he could get his revenge. He wandered over to the display of comics. "You can't put the Superman no. 77 with the 200s. They haven't discovered red kryptonite yet. And you can't put the no. 98 with the 300s. Lori Lemaris hasn't even been introduced."
"Where in the hell are you from, Krypton? And what have you done with our little brother?" Fred asked his brother in a combination of both shock and awe.
Suddenly, George runs to and different part of the store and comes back with a different comic. "Take this." He hands it to Ron.
Ron looked at it for a moment and noticed that the title was "Vampires Everywhere." "I don't like horror comics."
Fred and George looked at each other for a moment. Something knowing passing between them. "You'll like this one, Mr. Krypton. It could save your life."