I apologize for the delay but things have been a little strange after my vacation and the start of the holiday season. I think that everything is back on track, but you know what they say happens when you make such an assumption….

Anyway, enjoy!

Edited by the mighty pazed!

Once again I own nothing! Just playing with someone else's toys!

READ! ENJOY! REVIEW! As it is the only form of payment any writer here expects!

Chapter 62

Alison stepped off her motorcycle as she tugged her helmet loose and drew in a deep breath. She had been somewhat surprised by the amount of activity around the campground at such an early hour, let alone that her own telephone had rung at ten minutes after eight.

The woman on the phone, she assumed it was the older sister of the young girl, had told her the campsite number, then told her that someone would be at the common area they shared with the others and she should follow the path towards the tent. Tucking her gloves into her helmet as she walked, she passed the large motor coach and made her way toward the sound of music.

Given the hour, just a touch after nine, she had expected the area to be busy with people finishing breakfast, and getting ready for the day. However what she found was something quite different.

The pair of blond girls, the French pair, sat together at one of the tables with several old books stacked around them, studying apparently. While nearby the other pair seemed to be doing much the same, while they were watched over by a group of four adult women sitting at a third table.

It looked peaceful….

As she stepped into the tent the older group's heads swiveled towards her and Alison smiled at them. "Good morning," she said, walking toward them. "My name is Alison Volk, I'm here to pick up the dress that needs to be cleaned… I want to apologize again for the accident last night… as well as my behavior… I shouldn't have acted like that," she finished, glancing toward where the girls were sitting.

An older blond woman sitting in the adult group, spoke as she stood. "I was the one that you talked with this morning, my name is Apolline Delacour," she said as he moved toward the two blonds studying. "These are my daughters. My eldest Fleur," She placed a hand on her shoulder, "and this is Gabrielle. From our discussions last night, I do not believe introductions were made."

Alison nodded. "Nice to meet you both…" she said slowly. "No, between the accident and my reaction…" She paused for a moment and took in a deep breath. "No… we were never introduced properly."

The brunet from the elder group had made her way towards the other girls, stopping behind them. "And I'm Lisa Granger, and these are my daughters, Hermione and Luna," she said placing a hand on each in turn.

Alison nodded again toward each of them. "Good morning," she said, then turned toward the remaining pair.

The dark haired one of what she presumed to be a pair of sisters spoke. "My name is Shar, and this is my mother, the Lady Ako," she said, gesturing toward the red headed woman sipping her morning coffee. "My son has already headed for the race track, but I think you meet him last night as well, his name is Harry."

Alison was taken a little aback by the fact that they were mother and daughter and not sisters, but recovered quickly. "Ah… yes. We spoke briefly last night… If you would pass on my apologies to him again, as well?" she asked.

The woman nodded. "I will. It is nice to see that you are handling this personally, rather than sending someone to pick up Gabrielle's dress."

Alison let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. "My father taught us, my brothers and I, to take responsibility for our mistakes, and last night was definitely my fault. I had allowed myself to become distracted and aggravated, and I ended up ruining Gabrielle's, as well as the others', evening."

Apolline chuckled. "I think the only real casualty of the evening was the dress, my dear," she said as a smile shone on her face. "In the end I think my dear little Gabrielle may have much preferred the way things turned out."

"Oui," the elder sister said. "As it was she ended up not only getting to dance with Harry when we returned here, but to have him sing and play his guitar for her as well." She hugged the now blushing girl.

"Well I'm happy to have helped then," Alison said in a joking tone. "Though I'm sure we could have figured out how to get the same results without getting your dress wet…" Still smiling she looked at the girl's mother. "If I could get the dress, I'll take it into town and have it cleaned. I'll bring it back as soon as I can."

Apolline nodded. "I will be right back. Girls back to your studies, you need to be done with today's lessons if you wish to see the participants qualify with Harry," she said, as she made her way toward one of the RVs.

The woman that had been introduced as Lady Ako waved her toward one of the seats. "Please have a seat, would you like to have some tea? Or coffee perhaps? My daughter will get you one… I would offer breakfast but I am afraid that it has all been put away; I apologize," she said.

"No, thank you though," Alison replied, gesturing for Shar to remain seated. "I was planning on getting breakfast while I was in town anyway… I'm surprised to see them studying, I figured they were on break from school."

Shar shook her head. "No this is a… working vacation for all of them, including my son, though his obligations do tend to keep him elsewhere. Thankfully much of what they are studying is review to him at the moment, as he has made sure to study ahead because of it."

Alison smiled at that. "I did something much the same, so I could graduate from high school early… I wanted to take some time off before I start college in the fall, at Duke University."

"Congratulations!" Shar said, with a smile. "That is a fine school. What do you hope to study" she asked.

"I-I'm not sure..." she replied, feeling less comfortable now that she was on the subject of her future. "I want to find something I'm good at… Something that will help my family business, but I'm not sure what that will be yet."

"That sounds like a good goal to work towards," Shar said.

Wanting to guide the discussion away from herself, Alison said, "I heard that your group, Fairgrove, designed an entirely new car for one of your drivers. That's amazing!"

Shar's smile widened. "My son drove one of the prototypes in the last race of the season last year. If you wish you could speak with him about it; he'll be at the qualifying rounds this afternoon."

Alison was about to agree when Apolline returned. She soon had said her goodbyes and headed towards her bike and into town.

Pansy flopped on her bed, and pushed the button on the plastic wand that would turn on the television. She still could hardly believe that the mugg… non-magicals, she reminded herself, had made a wand to do something like that.

She thumbed the button to change the channel as she thought, 'I should have gone with Harry and the others! But nooooo… I had to come with mother and father to see what the magical world looks like!' she groused internally, as she finally settled on MTV and music filled the room.

'Merlin that was stupid!' she thought. 'I should have known Father would be more interested in the way the government, and investments would be handled… and Mother isn't much better as all she wants to do is learn about history!'

She punched her pillow. 'I wanted to go shopping! And explore! Not end up sitting in the hotel room, bored out of my mind!'

As she lay there looking at the desk on the other side of the room a smile bloomed across her face, as she saw a leather bound book laying in the middle of it next to one of the telephones. "Mr. Silverhair did say I could feel free to order anything from room service… Fairgrove's treat…" she said to herself as she got up and headed toward the menu.

Alison sighed as she steered the Taurus she borrowed from Ray toward the camp site she had visited earlier. Pulling in next to the RV she stepped out and opened the back door, unclipping the dress from the hook inside.

"Can I help you with something," a voice asked from nearby.

She answered without looking up from her task. "No, I've got it… I just need to return something to one of the people staying here with Fairgrove…" she said, slamming the door closed and looking at the person that had addressed her for the first time.

It was him, the guy from the night before. His deep forest green eyes glittered in the afternoon sun. She blushed in spite of herself. "Oh, it's you… I didn't recognize your voice," she said as she brushed a stray strand of hair back behind her ear. "I brought your friend's dress back, after having it cleaned."

"Hmmm… That's good," he replied, as he walked closer. "Nice car."

She huffed a little internally. It wasn't like the ugly thing was hers! Just like a boy to make… That's when she noticed he had never even looked at her, all of his attention had been focused on the car the entire time!

Her eyes narrowed. "You think this is a nice car?" she asked, amazed.

He looked up at her for the first time. "You don't?" He looked at her shocked.

"God no!" she exclaimed. "I like something... a little… more…"

The look on his face grew more confused. "It's a 1995 Taurus SHO. How much more do you want than one of the fabled SHOguns?" he asked.

She glanced between him and the car. "SHOgun…?"

"Oh for God's sake!" He snatched the keys from her hand and pointed toward the passenger door. "Get in."

Before she could as much as utter a word, he had slid behind the wheel of the car and had the engine running, waiting for her to make up her mind with a wide challenging grin plastered on his face.

"You coming?" he asked.

He straightened the wheel, as he made the turn onto the road just outside the RV park. "SHO stands for Super High Output," Harry said, smile genuine as he offered her a lesson about the car she had been driving. "The engine in this car was designed by Yamaha, and the same team designed the car that did the work on the Mustang SVT Cobra. It's got a hell of a pedigree."

He took a quick right, one she didn't think he would make and had her reaching for her seatbelt and clicking it in place.

He didn't even looked phased by her apparent distress, as he continued to speak. "It may not be the most flashy thing on the road, but it is definitely a wolf in sheep's clothing." He grabbed the shift knob and slammed it down, the engine growled as the car leapt forward, slewing gravel up behind them, and he began shifting through the gears as he gained speed.

Her eyes widened as the corner appeared when they crested the small hill, 'it's so close!' she thought, 'he's got to slow down!'

She felt the engine stop pulling briefly, as he reached for the gearshift in a blur of motion. She stifled a scream as he downshifted and rammed the gas to the floor. She watched, horrified, as he turned hard to the left, and the car's tires slid over the gravel trying to gain purchase.

Suddenly the back end broke loose, and began to swing around, that stifled scream she had been holding, tore its way from her throat, as Harry's hands became a blur of motion dragging the wheel the opposite direction, putting the car into a slide.

As the car straightened out and accelerated down the road, the scream became a giggle then a laugh.

Harry stepped out of the car and flipped the keys towards her. "Like I said she may not look like much to the untrained eye, but she's a hell of a car. Top speed in fifth gear is over a 140!" He said patting the hood.

She plucked the keys out of the air, then looked from the car to him. "Maybe you're just a great driver."

He chuckled. "Equipment's still got to be good… You said you were bringing something back?" he asked.

It took her a moment to remember why she had come here in the first place. "Yeah… I've got Gabrielle's dress." She opened the rear passenger door only to find the dress laying in a small pile in the floorboard. "Oh crap!" she said picking up the wrinkled garment.

Harry winced. "Ahhh… well, let me have it," he said holding out his hand. "This one's my fault… I shouldn't have talked you into taking a drive. The least I can do is take the blame for Gaby's wrinkled dress…"

"Oh, you'll be doing much more than just taking the blame for that!" said a male voice from behind him.

Harry hung his head. "Will?… how much of that…" His voice trailed off, grimacing as his base player/rear tire man spoke again.

"Enough to guarantee that I get no arguments from you about how we do things for the band!" said the man with no small amount of glee in his voice. "I may even get to choose some songs for the set list this year!" His grin widened. "Unless you want me to tell Shar of course."

Harry groaned. "If I even see one Disco song on that list I'll let you tell her, damn the consequences!" He smiled then. "Otherwise…. deal. Will Franklin, meet Alison Volk, my partner in silence."

Alison shook the older man's hand. "Set list?" she asked.

"Yeah," Will responded. "The kid's lead guitar in our band, Gas Can Alley. He's good too, just has no respect for real..."

"Disco is not real music!" Harry said cutting him off, "No matter what you may think! Get your head out of the seventy's man!"

"I'll remind you of that in a few years, when some kid is talking crap about the music you listen to, and mine is back on the radio as 'classic disco'," he said with a dramatic flourish that had both of the teens laughing.

"You just keep thinking that Mr. Travolta," Harry said between laughs. "In the meantime, as long as it isn't disco you've got a deal."

"Good," said the man turning toward the RVs. "I'm thinking… Maybe some Bread… or maybe… Velvet Underground?" he mumbled walking away.

Harry's eyes widened. "Dear God… What have I done?" he said hanging his head.

The girl standing next to him laughed harder.