It occurred to me that I haven't put a disclaimer in… silly me
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters, as much as I wish I did, we all wish that they were ours and that is understandable especially when it comes to Remus or Sirius (no bias honest!) I also do not own any of the Australian girls… they are actually real people with last names changed. Yes, this is the same Cheryl and Holly from 'But why is the Rum gone?' by Crystallized Rose and the girls in 'Masquerade' by Ragetti's girl. Both great authors as you can see. These people stake a claim to themselves and can not be owned. Actually the only character I actually can claim to so far is Pat (see below). I also in later chapters do not own the songs I have 'ficced' you'll just have to wait for them…hehehe… enough rambling on with the show!!
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Once everyone was downstairs and dressed, they had to organize the day's trip.
"Let's see there are 14 of us, so we could split into three groups to go to different places" started Hermione
"We can have them so there is at least one Marauder, Australian and a current day Hogwarts person in it" said Bethany
"And one person who knows where they are going, either Alyssa, who has explored more of Australia than even we have, or Lily or Hermione" continued Cheryl
"I'll do groups then. Alyssa, Ginny, Sirius and Remus together, Remus can keep Sirius in check…" Hermione started
"I do not need a babysitter!"
"So says I've had over 800- detentions in school" murmured Remus
"It's a record breaking 851, thank you"
"… and we can't put James and Sirius together. Next group can be Holly, Ron, Peter, Cheryl and Hermione. Lastly we have Schlen, Harry, James, Bethany and I" Lily finished
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-------NOTE: From here there will be POV for some characters of each group and as they split into three groups there will be a little jumping around and repeats of some events -----
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Cheryl POV:
Cheryl paused as she thought over the groups, Lily and Hermione had played on the relationships forming, Sirius seemed to spend most of his time fawning over Alyssa more than any other girl there. Ron and Holly also happened to blush a lot of the time that they were together, and both could get slightly klutzy as well. It was quite amusing actually, and she remembered a discussion she'd had with Peter, Schlen and Bethany about it.
Peter had also been confused in why Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Alyssa were all acting so cold towards him; they seemed to pretend he didn't exist. After all he seemed to be a nice enough guy to them. Apart from that none of the girls knew much and guessed it had to do with his future, all they knew about the marauders, was that something happened between them and Sirius ended up innocently in jail and Lily and James ended up dead by Voldemort… but they couldn't tell Peter that.
Effectively Cheryl was going to find it sufficiently amusing to spend the day with Holly and Ron.
They crowded around and Hermione outlined that they had been given the Western Coast of Australia to explore, which meant basically the whole state of Western Australia.
"I propose a cruise on Lake Argyle, it apparently has a great interactive program with the animals…"
"Does it have crocodiles?" asked Holly
"Yes, Holly" Cheryl smiled, Holly loved reptiles and crocodiles were up there on the cool list of reptiles.
"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go"
A pop and Holly was gone, a few more pops and the room in which they had been sitting was empty and a breeze ruffled through the curtains sneakily.
They appeared at the top of a dusty ramp in a clump of trees, a little away from the ticket booth so that the muggles wouldn't see them.
"Everyone here?"
"Present" said Cheryl
"Accounted for" said Peter
Ron rolled his eyes "Here, Miss Granger" Hermione glared at him
"What about Holly?" asked Cheryl
"Here, and I have our tickets, so lets get moving!"
Holly set off down the ramp to a boat in a brisk walk dust rising softly in waves around her feet. They all followed in a not so joyful way.
Cheryl sighed on how messy they were going to be by the end of this when they arrived at the boat. It was large enough to fit thirty people sitting on its plastic seats. It was made of iron with a shade roof over the top of it and a few powerful looking motors at the back.
Hermione chose seats for then near the middle of the boat.
General P.O.V
"Helloooo, everyone" said the overly happy guide "Welcome to the Lake Argyle cruise, and I'm Pat, your cruise guide today."
"What a fruit" murmured Peter, causing Cheryl and Holly to giggle. Ron and Hermione kept their faces stony.
"We'll be starting off now. Today we plan to meet some archer fish, some birds and hopefully even have a visit from our favourite croc Lucky Phil"
Ron gazed at Holly, who looked overly excited by the news she would properly get to meet a crocodile. He didn't get this fascination with reptiles though it did explain why she liked the deadly runespoors which were similar to muggle snakes, except with the addition of two heads. He must get Harry to show her his parsletongue gift, he was sure she would love it.
The boat hummed over the water, jerking every now and then sending sparkling water droplets over the edge. They littered through the hair of those who leaned over the edge like diamonds in rivers of brown, black, red and gold.
Peter POV
They reached a certain part and the boat slowed down.
"Here on the back you can see the rock wallabies coming for a drink, there's Katy, Bruce and Willie. Katy you can see has a joey in her pouch at the moment called Mira, if we are very still and quiet Katy might let her out."
Peter looked curiously at the brown furry creature near the water and was surprised when a head poked out of its chest. Heads do not usually even in the wizarding work come out of chests of animals. Peter watched as a smaller version of the furry brown creature worked its way out. A smaller cuter version, its fur was far more soft and fluffy looking than the creature (which he now knew was a rock wallaby) it had come out of. Peter was enjoying himself immensely, he had always had a thing for animals, he was actually very good a Care for Magical Creatures. In fact it was properly the only subject he was good at.
Peter looked around to see what the others were up to Holly looked at the wallabies chattering animatedly with Cheryl and Hermione about what seemed to be reptiles. Ron on the other hand sat not looking at the wallabies but at Holly, watching her every move looking as if he was analyzing each for deeper meaning.
The moved on the next stop was at another bank where the guide had spotted something on shore and has beckoned for the boat to be brought to the shore. He scrambled out and grabbed a scaled creature from the reeds. It was as long as Peter's arm even though according to the instructor it was only a baby.
Ron looked fascinated by it, "It looks like an alligator"
"It's a crocodile" the instructor kindly corrected "Like Lucky Phil, except this is only a juvenile"
He held it so everyone could have a feel of the mud coloured scales and examine the golden eyes.
"I think I'll return this little guy to the water" the guide smiled charmingly, it was only now that Peter saw that the guide, who at the beginning sounded like a fruit, was actually not that much older than then. He was about 18, with golden curled hair and sky blue eyes. It was only now that Peter realized he had been watching their group since they got on, particularly Holly, Cheryl and Hermione. Peter grabbed Ron who looked disdainfully at him.
"What are you-?"
Ron POV
"If you ever are going to listen to me listen to me now. That guide is crushing on the girls"
Ron looked stunned; he had noticed the guide had been hanging around them, but to be flirting with the girls… He was annoyed, especially as he watched the guide sit between Holly and Cheryl and had a one on one conversation with Holly about what seemed to be reptiles. Ron felt his blood boil… wait a second he thought he didn't like Holly but why else would his blood boil.
He walked up and tried to put on a nice voice "Shouldn't we be continuing on, SIR?"
"Oh... yeah" the guide said vaguely "Oh, Cheryl would you like to join me up front?"
Cheryl smiled "Sure, I'll come"
Ron plopped down next to Holly, looking disgruntled.
"What's up with you?"
"That guide" he huffed "Flirting with you girls, gets on my nerves"
"Ohhh" Hermione crooned "Jealous are we?" There was a sparkle in Hermione's eyes that Ron didn't like.
"What did I miss?" Cheryl had returned
"Ron is jealous of the tour guide who has been chatting us up"
"Pat isn't like that, he's actually a real gentleman" Cheryl consoled him "But an awfully cute gentleman never the less"
The boat stopped with a jerk,
"Ladies and gentleman if you would gather around people, take some bread each of you"
"Are we supposed to eat it?" asked Peter
"Is your stomach all you think of?" asked Cheryl
"Now in Lake Argyle there are a type of fish called Archer fish, they spit water from their mouths to hunt for their prey which are insects. Here we can play a game with them, if you dangle little pieces of bread over the water they will spit at your hands. If they hit your hands you have to drop the bread. It's a game, see. He put the bread over and a little fish squirted water up. It missed at first and eventually it hit his palm and he dropped the bread. The little archer fish gobbled it up greedily as it did so other fish came to see what was happening. Soon all the people on the boat were holding bread out and feeding the fish. It was actually pretty fun one you got into it thought Ron.
Pat was now helping Cheryl hold out her bread. As she did her black hair fell delicately in her face, it seemed to Ron that Pat couldn't help but brush it behind her ear.
'What a player' Ron thought 'If he touches Holly, I swear I'll…'
"Earth to Ron?" Hermione's hand waves in front of his face "Easy to see you can't get your eyes of a certain someone"
He followed Hermione's gaze to where Holly sat, done with her bread chatting to Peter.
"Even I can see that and I hardly know you" whispered Cheryl on is other side
"Could you help me then?"
He looked at the smiling girl pleadingly "You are Holly's friend after all" He put on his best pair of puppy dog eyes.
"Fine, but no puppy dog eyes, you look like Sirius and that isn't supposed to be a compliment"
"What do I have to do?"
"Rule 1 with any girl is to get to know her first"
"But not in a stalker-ish way" added Hermione
"And don't be too forward especially with Holly. Rule 2 later" she finished hurriedly as Pat started up his speech again
Cheryl POV
Cheryl smiled thinking of Ron and Holly; they would make such a cute couple. But she would need more help so she could play it safe this time. 'This is all for Holly's benefit' She consoled herself. Cheryl cleverly placed herself next to Holly as the guide was talking about some sort of water management issue.
"What do you think of Ron?"
Holly stared at her suspiciously, obviously getting the hint right away to where Cheryl was heading.
"He's nice but don't even think that. I won't"
"What's the poor boy done to deserve your cold shoulder?"
Silence.
"I though so" continued Cheryl
Before she could continue however Holly had leaped up to go have a look at 'Lucky Phil' the poster crocodile of the cruise who was drifting lazily just off the shore with a few of his buddies.
While Holly watched enraptured by the crocodile Cheryl whispered in Hermione's ear
"I'll need all hands on deck for this one… this will be harder than it seems"
She was yet again interrupted this time by the gorgeous California blond tour guide named Pat, who the girls had picked up had been giving them a load of attention.
"Our tour is nearly over" he said in his broad American accent "I'll be sorry to see you go"
"We will be too" said Pat sadly, he stood to say good bye to Holly, when she though he was out of earshot Hermione sighed
"It's really quite sad he's a muggle, he's so cute"
"Did you say muggle?" Pat wasn't as out of earshot as they thought, Cheryl felt herself going red. Pat on the other hand looked thrilled "I'm no where near a muggle. I just graduated from the Salem institute in America"
"You're a wizard?"
"Yeah"
"I'm from Hogwarts but we are here on holiday with an exchange student and her friends. We are actually one of three groups who are out today." Said Hermione
"Cheryl and I are the friends of the exchange student, we actually are finishing 7th year at Angelus Specialis Academy in Sydney"
"I'll have to owl you then"
Cheryl smiled; this holiday was certainly turning out to be special in more ways than one.
They reached the end of the cruise and they bid Pat goodbye, boys doing so grudgingly and started up the hill.
"How's lunch in Perth sound?"
"Fine by me!" said Peter exhaustedly
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REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW
You do know I love you all... but one question, do you think I should continue with a romance involving Pat, it could be
a) no romance… we hate him
b) no romance, just a friend
c) Romance with Cheryl
d) Romance with Hermione
e) Romance with Schlen
f) Romance with Bethany
g) Any other suggestions?
PICK and say so in your review