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Chapter 59

Fleur made her way toward the area that had been set up between the Fairgrove motor homes to serve as a gathering and meal area. Her legs felt wobbly and muscles she never knew she had ached. She had been told by the Fairgrove doctor, Margo, that she could expect some discomfort after joining in with the team's exercises, and that it would be worse if she didn't take her time and over worked herself, but did she stop when she reached the goal the trainer had set? No, she tried to keep going! She only had herself to blame.

After filling her plate (she had been pleasantly surprised by the fare provided as it was substantially lighter than what was normally served at Hogwarts, though the sheer amount seemed close to the same), she headed toward where her sister was sitting with Hermione and Luna. She sat down and greeted each of them again, letting a soft groan escape from her throat as she did.

Luna's lips curled slightly at the ends as she asked, "Overdid a bit, did you?"

Fleur nodded, willing to admit her mistake. "I did… Where is Harry? Did he finish breakfast already?" she asked. She had taken the time to shower but had been delayed briefly by the fact her mother was still using the shower in the motor home after getting Gabrielle ready for the day. Apparently, Hermione and Luna had also stopped to shower, as their hair was still damp, maybe it had been longer than she had thought.

Hermione shrugged. "He was gone when we got to breakfast. Shar was here, with our mothers," indicating all four of them. "She said he left for the race track with the group that was going to run their sales truck… Something about walking the track before the drivers start their practice... and that he wanted to leave before Victor found him again. She said he will be there all day, and that they brought an extra golf cart, and left it here for us, if we wanted to go over later… Or we can go with them down to Myrtle Beach for the day."

The older girl seemed to ponder it for a moment. "So Harry will be busy working all day?" she asked, receiving nods from both girls. "Do either of you know what will be going on at the race track? Or what this Myrtle Beach is?"

A voice from behind them answered as Lady Ako joined them. "All of the teams that will be involved in the races this weekend will have arrived during the night, today will be practice for them. Two of the classes will hold races here this weekend, the Winston Cup, the premier league, and the Bush Cup, their second tier."

Lady Ako sipped her tea, then continued. "Each class will have two blocks of time, of about four hours, to test and prepare their cars. Harry will try to watch as much as he can, and listen to the teams if he has the chance, but the majority of his time will be spent at the Fairgrove display. He is one of the most knowledgeable about some of the products as he has used or is using them at the moment."

Luna sighed. "It sounds like he will be working hard."

Lady Ako smiled. "Today, tomorrow, and Friday. Yes he will be quite busy, as many of the teams will have their people out looking at new products during the day, and he will be attending the receptions hosted in the evenings by groups of vendors. You may attend those as well if you wish."

Fleur smiled at that, they might be interesting. "And what about Myrtle Beach?" she asked.

"It is an ocean front community, one that many US tourists visit. It has a beautiful white sand beach, some nice restaurants, some fun shopping, and a few attractions. It is a pleasant way to spend the day."

She watched the group of girls with a gentle smile on her lips, as they tried to decide how to spend the day.

Harry swung himself into the back of the sales hauler, and took mental stock of the day. It had started off really good when he met a couple of other drivers doing the same thing he was, walking the track. He paid special attention to them, especially Jeff Gordon one of the up and comers of the sport. In only his second year of the Winston, and only four from when he started the Bush series, he had come in eighth place overall last year.

After watching as long as he could he had returned to the display area and set to work.

They had set up two of his new cars, on either end of the area, and he was put in charge of showing off the new lines of race equipment they had installed, as well as holding on to one of the lists of racing associations that had already signed off on their use in their races.

While not his favorite part of these trips, in fact it ranked just above cleaning the team RV bathroom after one of their race weekends, he had come to grips with and understood his responsibility. Even once he was a Winston cup driver he would need to make appearances and do meet and greets, it came with the territory.

"Al?" Harry asked stepping toward the man working on his laptop. "How did we do today?"

Al glanced up at the door then back to the screen. "Just finishing the final order entry now." He flipped the page of the small order book. "We've had a lot of sales of the new seat design, as well as some of the new suspension pieces, but our big seller is still the performance engine parts."

Harry nodded. "That figures, most of the people I talked to today that is what they were interested in… though they were checking out the suspension parts. Do you need me for anything else?"

Al looked at his watch. "Harry, you should have already headed back. You need to rest a little before the reception tonight…" He looked at the young man standing silhouetted in the doorway, looking downcast. "Harry why don't you want to go back?"

Harry walked to the stool next to his crew chief and sat down heavily, his shoulders slumped. "I… I won't be able to get any peace there…" he said, eyes downcast. "Too many people are waiting for me…" His voice trailed off.

Al quirked an eyebrow in confusion, and waited for his driver to continue. Harry sat for a moment thinking, then took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Hermione… Luna… Fleur… Gabrielle…" He grimaced, then spit out, "Victor!"

Al sighed, placed the order forms back in the folder and started shutting down the computer, then turned toward Harry. "Ok, why does that bother you?"

Harry stood and paced for a moment before turning toward Al. "Why did they even come?" he asked. "I would have thought they would have loved to go see the sights! Not come here!" he said, louder than he meant to. "I mean what are they going to do? Just hang out in the RV park? They can't use magic, and we're miles from anything!"

Al shrugged. "They're your friends, Harry," he said. "They want to know more about you, and you've got to admit this is the best place to do that. Not when you are at that school. Besides I imagine your parents have something planned, they knew that at the very least the Grangers would probably choose to come."

Harry turned to him, an exasperated look on his face. "But why? They don't even know anything about racing! And why did Victor come! That guy is just creepy! He's everywhere!"

Al laughed. "Harry… those girls like you!

Harry looked at his crew chief in confusion, slowly his face changed as that news sunk in. "What?" he asked in surprise. "Why would they? How do you know?"

Al shook his head. "Harry, it's written all over the older two's faces every time they look at you! As for Gabrielle, she thinks you hung the moon! You saved both her and her sister! Hell you saved all four of them, in one way or another!"

Harry stood quickly. "I-I was just trying to help!" He began to pace. "I-I don't… You've got to be wrong, they don't think of me like that! They're just my friends!"

Al chuckled at the denial and shook his head as Harry continued. "They would just want to do something when I get back, go swimming or something…" He plopped back down on the stool. "The real problem is Victor… Dad said he was going to talk to him about what he was doing… but…"

Al nodded. "It's keeping you on edge, and you can't relax?" he asked.

"Yeah," Harry sighed. "I'll need to go back and change… but could I…" His eyes flickered to the right.

Al shrugged. "If you want to sleep in one of your cars for an hour or so that's fine… But you need to remember to be back to your RV early enough to shower and change. We're planning on eating a little something before we head over to the reception, too."

Harry nodded, looked at his watch and fiddled with it for a minute then thanked the man and headed to one of his cars and crawled in through the window. He was asleep within seconds.

The steady stutter of the Harley Davidson Shovelhead rattled to a stop, as the person atop it pushed the kickstand down and sat back overlooking the grounds of a small group of cabins. Reaching up the leather clad rider tugged at her helmet and dragged it off, shaking her head after she did.

Long auburn hair cascaded around the woman's shoulders, as she pulled the rubber band out of her low hung ponytail, that till moments earlier, had been tucked into her jacket.

"Damn it!" she muttered under her breath. "Why in the hell did I let my brother talk me into coming out here?" she asked herself quietly, as she removed her gloves and shoved them into her helmet.

"Ms. Volk!" said a man stepping out of a cabin near where she parked. "You're late! Philip assured me that you would arrive first thing this morning!"

She turned toward the man, her steel grey eyes glaring at him. "He says a lot of things! This was supposed to be my time off! I was almost to New Mexico last night!" she growled as she swung her leg over the seat and stepped away from her pride and joy, a 1968 Harley Shovelhead she had personally built in the 'bobber' style.

She smiled widely as she looked back at it. It was low, black as night, and fast! It had taken her most of her high school years to finish it, and now four months after her early graduation, she was finally taking her much deserved 'walkabout'. It had been a family tradition for generations, and while the name had changed, the tradition was still the same. Get out and see what the world had to offer.

Or at least that had been the plan.

However, once again, something had happened that delayed her start. She reached up and scrubbed her fingers through her hair, breaking up her tight head of helmet hair. "My brother asked me to come in his place, and I have!" She turned and glared at him. "And I know that I could have flown, but I was not about to leave my bike out there!" She headed toward the cabin the man had come from. "I didn't miss anything that important! Volk Oil doesn't even sponsor any events until tomorrow night!"

"That may be true Alison, but you are expected to make an appearance tonight," he said following her inside. "Your brother is trusting you to be the face of the company at these events! Our racing contracts are an important part of our company image and advertising."

"And you think I don't know that?" she said back angrily. "I have been part of this business ever since I could walk! What I need right now, is to know where my dear brother has sent whatever I am supposed to be wearing!"

As she stepped inside she tossed her helmet into a chair next to the door, shucked off her jacket and hung it on one of the pegs next to the door, and headed toward the room he pointed to. Moments later a loud scream of, "Oh! HELL NO!" echoed outside.

Tannim stepped from the golf cart and headed toward the common area between the RVs. During the day he had taken over for Harry several times, allowing him a chance to watch about an hour of each of the Bush practice rounds and two of both of the Winston. Other than that he had spent the remainder of the time watching over the merchandise hauler, as well as keeping an eye on Victor Krum when he came around.

Though that had not proved that difficult, he did show up at the track about a half an hour after Harry, and spent about three hours watching him, both as he worked and as he watched the first practice. However, after they had taken a break for lunch Victor had disappeared, not to be seen for the length of the afternoon.

He had kept an eye out for the boy, just in case.

When he stepped into the shared area his eyes found him in seconds. He was sitting at one of the corner tables, watching the direction Tannim had come from expectantly. Tannim sighed deeply and made his way to the line of coolers that lined the edge of the tent, and grabbed a Pepsi on the way to joining him.

He sat at the table with the young Bulgarian, popping the top of his drink open as he did. "Victor," he said with a nod. "I hope you are enjoying yourself."

The young man slowly closed the book he had been reading. "It is… Interesting… But quite loud."

Tannim chuckled. "Yes, it is that. It's important that you use the hearing protection we provided,"

Victor nodded. "So I understand now…"

They sat in an awkward silence for a few moments, till Tannim asked, "Victor? May I ask why you seem to have developed such an interest in my son?"

Victor didn't look like the question surprised him in the least, he just set the book he had been reading to the side, and clasped his hands loosely in front of him. "Ah… this is where you try and intimidate me, and tell me I am no longer welcome here."

Tannim tilted his head to the side slightly and studied the young man. "And if it is?"

"I will ignore you," the man said simply. "At least until you tell your friends to send me back. Then I will bide my time, and wait for your return and continue as I am at Hogwarts where you hold little such power."

Tannim chuckled. "Then it is a good thing I have no such plans."

Victor turned so he could look the man in the eye. "You… don't?" he asked, surprised.

"No of course not! I'm just wondering why you are going about it like this?" he asked. "You've been invited to join Harry for his morning exercises. His classes at Hogwarts, as well as here, are open for anyone that wishes to observe… You are welcome to join them! In fact that is what we hope for! We want the other contestants to join in. We hope you learn something, and become friends!"

Victor's brow crinkled and Tannim could see the young man was struggling with the idea. "But… this is a competition. Why would you wish to help his competition?"

A wide grin appeared on Tannim's face. "That's simple, this is a friendly competition. And competition like that is an amazing catalyst to improvement." If anything Victor looked more confused. "Think about it, because Harry seems to have some form of edge, you are trying figure out how to improve yourself to match or exceed him and he will keep working harder as you do to keep that edge. Now in a professional sport you hide your training, plays, or new equipment until game day, but this is supposed to be a friendly competition, one meant to promote cooperation and understanding. If you never interact with each other and spend all of your time alone, or with only those from your own school then the meaning of the tournament is lost."

Victor's eyes grew wide, was this the way they really felt? Surely not?... but then again he had seen the Veela girl join them this morning, and he heard the same offer being made to the Hogwarts champion. "You truly have no issue with me training with your people?"

"No, not at all," he said. "The physical training Harry and the others are doing can be learned easily, and they are in use all over the world. As is what they are being taught in the classroom."

Victor looked shocked, it took a moment before he gathered himself enough to ask a question. "And if I wanted to learn more about how he uses magic?"

Tannim took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Unfortunately, I cannot help you with that."

Victor looked at him with a smirk. "I thought you said I could join his training."

Tannim nodded, "Physical, and class work, yes. But when it comes to his magic… Victor, are you familiar with how an apprenticeship works?"

The corner of his mouth fell, of course he was familiar with it. It was one of the most sought after, and guarded, forms of teaching. If Potter was already an apprentice… "Y-yes. I apologize, I did not know that he had been accepted as an apprentice, and understand that what he is taught is not to be shared without his Master's consent. You must be very proud… May I ask who his Master is?"

Tannim smiled. "The same as mine was, Headmaster Chinthinliss."