Chapter 7

Harry

Alex was a pretty interesting bloke who, if he were not gay, would have certainly made Harry think he fancied Hermione. The two of them were in deep conversation about the laboratory where Alex worked. He listened to them talk, but quickly lost the thread of the conversation and turned his attention to the three people that had joined the table and were talking to Ron.

"There's a really cool band playing here at 9 in the back," Rosa told Ron. "You should come listen. My friend Wyatt is the lead singer."

"Should we?" Ron asked Harry, who nodded. At nine, the five of them made their way to the outdoor section of the bar. Harry wondered if in another life where he wasn't magical, if this would have been his life-pubs and drinks and music in his twenties instead of a job that consumed his life. He saw Rosa wave at the lead singer, a thin man with brown hair and a mustache. Zephyr handed him a shot, which he downed quickly. When Maria's bartender handed him a second shot, he downed that too. Feeling the alcohol now, he swayed pleasantly to the music as Maria grabbed Ron's hand and began dancing with him. When Lilianna took his hand, he let her lead him to the dance floor where he swayed with the group for a few songs, before lifting his eyes to meet Hermione's disapproving ones.

"What about Ginny?" Hermione yelled over the music to be heard when Harry joined her at the standing table with two drinks.

"I'm not doing anything I wouldn't be doing with you," he yelled back, handing Hermione a drink before finishing his own. When he saw Sean walk into the bar, he pulled Hermione to the dance floor with him. "See?"

Harry tried not to enjoy this any more than he had with Lilianna or Rosa. His eyed Sean suspiciously as he twirled her on the floor, feeling her soften beneath his touch. This trip was turning out to be even better than he had hoped.

Hermione

When Hermione woke up the following morning, she found herself smiling. She was enjoying this trip quite a lot. She readied herself for the day in dark jeans and a loose tan blouse, her hair in a ponytail, before leaving her room and knocking on Harry's door.

Hermione felt her heart drop when Ginny, in a silk robe, opened the door.

"Oh, hi," Ginny said, smiling. "He's still asleep."

She pointed to the sleeping form of Harry, sprawled on the bed shirtless. Hermione felt herself blush as she averted her gaze from his muscular frame.

"Oh, it's fine," she heard herself squeak, backing away. Deciding not to have the same awkward encounter with Ron, she apparated to the address Alex had given her the night before alone. She saw him standing outside the gates of the massive building in a gray shirt rolled to just below the elbows and dark jeans. His black hair was styled back and neat (unlike another's, she thought) and he held two cups of coffee.

"One, that's so cool. Two, this is for you. I wasn't sure how you take it." Hermione gratefully accepted the coffee as she walked through the gates with him.

"Good thing it's Sunday," he said. "Otherwise I'd have a lot of explaining to do."

He led her to his desk in a large white room filled with desks. On his, she noted a variety of odd items.

"Any of these mean anything to you?" he asked, gesturing to the array. She surveyed the objects closely, picking up a top-shaped object.

"That's a sneakoscope," she said pointing to it and explaining what it was. "And this is aphodel," she said picking up ashes of a burnt root. "It's used for potions. Usually powerful ones."

"Any that use this string?" Alex asked, showing a shimmering string that was melted on one side.

"None that I know of," Hermione said with unease, given that she was a savant with memory. "But whoever was making this potion, wasn't doing it for good."

Maria

Maria woke up smiling. Although her head pounded from the amount of alcohol she had consumed, the previous night's events still left a warm feeling in her heart. She wished Ron had given her a way to contact him, but as he hadn't, Maria decided to visit his hotel room with breakfast. After stopping at the Crashdown for coffee and to-go eggs, Maria made her way to the hotel and knocked on Ron's door. When he didn't immediately answer, she decided to try out one of the spells Hermione had taught her. Maybe Ron could be her new teacher, she thought to herself before saying Alohomora at the door. Nothing happened. She tried again. On the the third try, the door swung open to reveal Ron, who stood in the middle of the room saying, "accio pants" over and over again. He held his wand in one hand, his face red enough to match his hair. He turned to her when she walked in.

"I don't know what's happened," he said.

Her first thought was Bonnie and she wondered if Bonnie had kissed him, an idea that made her envious. Then, remembering that Bonnie had taken a serum to keep her powers bound, she wondered who else might possess that ability.

"What do you mean gone?" she asked cautiously. Rage turned Ron's face a deep purple as he picked up a pen from the table and threw it across the room, making her flinch.

"I mean I can't do magic," he ground out before storming out of the room and banging on the door next to his. When nobody answered, he repeated the process with the next door.

"Where's the fire?" a pretty ginger-haired woman asked, opening the door.

"What are you doing here?" Ron spat out. Before the woman could answer, however, Harry came to the door, in jeans and a t-shirt, his hair ruffled with sleep.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked looking at Ron before noticing Maria, who stood a distance away from Ron, scared of him.

"My magic's gone," Ron bellowed.

"What?" Harry and the woman asked at the same time. Ron whipped out his wand and said a spell Maria didn't catch. When nothing happened, he glared at Harry again.

"Wingardium leviosa," Harry said and the pillow Ron had been pointing at rose into the air. "Just you then."

Ron looked murderous.

Maria debated whether or not she should say anything to them about Bonnie, a little worried about Bonnie's safety with Ron's erratic behavior. After a moment of hesitation, she decided to start with offering to look into Ron's mindscape.

"Ron?" she said hesitantly. Ron rounded on her. "I think maybe I can help. I'm descended from aliens and my power is to enter mindscapes."

"Enter what?" Ron asked, bewildered.

"Um, it's hard to explain. It's kind of like entering your mind. Sometimes it helps me see what's going on," Maria said.

Ron stared at her, but then slowly nodded his head. And so she went into his mindscape.