6. THE SHORES OF JERSEY

Rain pounded against the window in the boys' room. A loud clap of thunder woke Harry with a start. Ten minutes passed, and Harry was still up, wide-eyed, listening to Fred snore. The clock read 4:27 AM. At least it's morning, Harry thought.

"Humph… No, please not the… I don't want… Don't want sick chicken…" Ron muttered, obviously sleep-talking. He rolled over. Harry chuckled. Ron's frozen dinner had given him slight food poisoning, according to Dr. Hermione, probably from being left out then improperly cooked.

"SICK CHICKEN! NO!" Ron sleep-shouted. Then he rolled onto the ground with a loud thud. He just kept snoring, completely ignoring the fact that he had just fallen onto the floor. Harry laughed until he heard someone bang the wall from the other side, undoubtedly Snape. He must be the lightest sleeper on the planet to wake up for that, Harry thought, or not even asleep at all.

Harry decided he wouldn't get another wink of sleep and crept downstairs to see if he could find a television, something he was never allowed to use at the Dursley's but could have free reign with here. When he came into the large family room, he found Hermione already sitting there with her eyes glued to the screen.

"'Lo," Harry muttered and sat down next to her. "Found it?"

She looked up at him and smiled. "I had it all to myself until you came down… The one thing that Hogwarts needs…"

Harry agreed and turned his attention to the show. Two girls in horrid clothing with rather… orange skin were fighting, throwing around Muggle curse words.

"Bloody hell, what is this, Hermione?" Harry asked. She had a mesmerized-yet-disgusted look on her face.

"It's called Jersey Shore, I believe… An American Muggle show. It's horrible, but I can't stop watching it," she smiled sheepishly. Harry sat there and watched the show until he couldn't take it anymore.

"Is anyone else up?" he asked Hermione.

"Constant vigilance… Constant vigilance," Harry heard muttering.

"There's your answer," Hermione chuckled. It was Mad-Eye Moody, walking into the room with his wand drawn for no apparent reason.

Harry looked up at Moody. "Have you been up all night just walking around? Why don't you go to sleep?" he suggested.

Moody looked taken aback. "Can you imagine what would happen if I went to sleep?" he growled. "The second I lower my wand is the second someone-"

"Okay, okay, sorry… Didn't mean to offend you," Harry said,

"I never sleep anyways, so what good is it to try? And what makes you think I would sit here watching Muggles fight with Granger?" he smiled crookedly.

"It is a bit… horrid," she said.

"Dung is snoring," someone said bitterly, walking into the room. It was Sirius, with Lupin following close behind. Harry chuckled.

"Ron was sleep-talking, then he… he fell on the floor," Harry said.

Sirius laughed.

"Is he all right? Still vomiting?" Lupin asked. Harry shook his head but both wizards' attention was already on something else- the T.V. They both seemed amazed as they inquired Hermione endlessly, sitting down in a daze to watch. Neither of them were phased by the content of the show, but they seemed to be rather upset when it ended.

"Don't worry, it's a marathon," Hermione chuckled.

"A marathon?" Harry asked. "Dammit…"

Slowly the others started to wake up, coming downstairs to the T.V. room, probably allured by the bright light and uproarious comments and laughter by Remus and Sirius. Tonks and Ginny were rather sucked into it, but the Weasley boys- with the exception of Ron and Percy, who were still asleep- were either amazed by the T.V., or the Muggle girls in it.

By sunrise, everyone was up and watching Jersey Shore in the family room, except for Moody, who was still patrolling. Molly commented quite often about the somewhat explicit content, deeming the show "inappropriate for young wizards." Snape ended up sitting awkwardly between Remus and Sirius on the couch to watch the show, a disgusted look on his face, not unlike the one he gave to Harry's potions. His hand twitched whenever Sirius spoke, indubitably wanting to slap him. Even Kingsley and Aberforth Dumbledore were watching the show, somewhat sucked in.

Harry didn't know why… It was probably the ugliest thing he had ever seen next to Voldemort…