Edited by the mighty pazed!

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

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Chapter 66

Harry stepped out of his motor home carrying a pair of guitar cases with a third strapped across his back and headed toward the common area, where he had placed his tuning amp, to find Fleur looking at him curiously.

"I understand the one guitar, but why do you need so many?" she asked.

He smiled, continued toward the small amplifier on the table, and sat next to it. "Each one is tuned different, for different styles." He unslung the one from his back and placed it on his knee. "These are the ones I play most often on stage, they may look the same," He patted the case on the left, "other than the paint job, but the way it is tuned and played is completely different."

He plugged in the one on his lap. "This one is strung tighter and tuned for a quicker response and harsher tone and has a distortion bar, common to most modern Rock 'n Roll." He connected his electronic tuner and strummed through several chords and made a few adjustments on the neck.

"Something like this," he said, disconnecting the tuner and laying into the sunburst painted guitar, playing the Guitar Solo from Van Halen, Hot For Teacher, not that Fleur recognized it.

Satisfied he placed the guitar to the side and opened the second case. "This one is tuned a little different, a little looser, giving it a more gravely sound more suitable for music from Southern Rock, most Country, or Blues," he said pulling the deep red colored guitar from the case.

He started plugging it in and attached the tuner as he continued. "While I could use the other one for those songs, the way this one is tuned is more authentic and it doesn't take much time to change guitars on stage."

Harry strummed a few chords, unhooked the tuner, and began to play the Guitar Solo from Lynyrd Skynyard, Sweet Home Alabama, again she could only listen.

He placed the guitar back in the case, to open the last case. "This one," he said, as he picked up a cream colored guitar to get it ready to tune, "this one is tuned someplace in between, and has the bar, just in case something goes wrong with one or the other, as a backup… Or if I get to play something a little closer to my heart."

He shifted and got a bit more comfortable, but it didn't take him long to finish tuning it and begin to play from Stevie Ray Vaughan's Guitar Solo , Rude Mood… well the entire thing actually…

He shrugged. "I have a few more at home, one even tuned to be played with a slide, but for tonight this is all I'll need," he said placing the guitar back in the case and zipping it shut.

She nodded. "Harry, could I ask you a personal question?"

He shrugged, as he replaced the other guitars and began rolling up the cords for the amplifier. "Sure. What do you want to know?"

"You seem much more relaxed here… More personable. Why were you not like this when you were at Hogwarts?" she asked.

He sighed, and sat on the table, his feet next to her. "The short answer is I don't like it there," he said, with a small shrug. "The long answer… Everyone wants something from me there. Things I have no intention of giving or being."

He took a deep breath. "Dumbledore wants the next 'Leader of the Light', whatever that is, the Ministry wants the Potter heir and a poster boy, the people want their 'Boy-Who-Lived' and hero… hell the remaining Death Eaters even want something, my death!"

He shook his head in disgust. "All I want is for my life to be mine! To go to school, race, play music… Not live up to their stupid wishes!" he said getting agitated.

She placed her hand on his. "I understand now. You don't want to let them believe you will be what they want."

He smiled softly. "Some… I need to keep on guard all of the time. Here I'm just Harry Potter, racer, student, part time musician and Mage…"

He paused, then chuckled for a moment. "That reminds me… I need to remember to apologize to Headmaster McGonagall before the school year is over…"

Fleur looked at him oddly, till he spoke again. "One of the things my family does is to deal with ghosts that are locked into a repetitive loop after their deaths."

She looked even more confused so he began again. "Sometimes when a person passes away their spirit will get locked into a repetitive loop, we don't know exactly how it happens but it does seem to happen more often when violence or the unexpected is involved…"

He shook his head. "Anyway, when they are in that loop they have no sense of time and have no idea that they are even dead. This usually doesn't amount to much, just some form of apparition someplace that lasts between a few seconds to an hour or two, and only visible to those that are sensitive to such things, and can be ended by simply talking to the spirit and them realizing they have passed and can move on in peace."

"Though those are only guidelines," he said patting her hand, "There are exceptions, such as guardian spirits, but in this case it was one particular ghost."

He took a breath. "Professor Binns taught there in the late 1800s and passed away quietly one night in his bedroom there in the castle… When the next morning came his spirit just stood up and kept doing what he had done in life for almost thirty-five years, teaching history… His loop was by far the largest I have ever heard of outside of Underhill, it must have something to do with the castle itself… I don't know. He was a nice man, I enjoyed talking with him for the couple of hours I had with him… He was sad to be leaving, but was ready to go. All he needed was someone to tell him he had passed and it was okay to pass on." Harry shrugged, a small tear in his eye.

Fleur was amazed. This was one of the things his family did? They helped ghosts and spirits pass over? For no other reason than it was the right thing to do?

"H-how long has your family been doing this?" she asked.

"Dad's done it for years, Zeek got him started on it. There are a lot of deaths on the Highways and whenever they saw one that resulted in a ghost, or heard about a ghost sighting, they would try and take care of it. Its kind grown from that."

"And you helped this Professor Binns pass over?" she asked.

Harry nodded. "He wasn't a guardian spirit like the others, ones that wanted to stay and help protect the school and the students, he was just locked in a year long loop unable to even notice the changing years."

Fleur nodded. "Such a sad fate. I am glad you were able to help him," she said, standing and hugging him.

"I am too, Fleur, I am too," Harry said.

Harry stepped off the stage, still wiping the sweat from his brow. It had been a great night, the crowd had been responsive and seemed to have had nothing other than fun the entire night.

He had seen all of the girls out on the dance floor a number of times, sometimes alone, often together, and once or twice with one of the other guests. He was happy they had had a good time.

"Harry!" a voice called as he started putting his guitar back in the case.

He smiled as he turned seeing his father approach. "Hey Dad."

"You played great tonight," Tannim said clapping his hand on his son's shoulder.

"Thanks! How long did Mom make it tonight?" he asked.

"She left just after the first set, your grandmother took her back to the RV so the girls could keep dancing and Ginger could stay and give her a complete report," he said.

Harry chuckled. "Good. She shouldn't over do it…" He finished zipping the cases closed around the guitars, and looked at his father. "Why would Ginger need to give her a report about anything? Was something wrong with the catering or something?"

Tannim laughed. "You're kidding right? She doesn't want to know about the party, she wants to know about them!" he said pointing out toward the dance floor.

A confused Harry looked toward where his father was pointing, to a group of nicely dressed young women standing around a small table talking.

Harry groaned. "Not her too? It there some kind of betting pool or something?" he asked.

Tannim smiled. "Not that I know of but it might not be a bad idea." Tannim picked up the guitar cases. "I'll take these back to the RV, and leave your acoustic near the door. You go get something to eat and drink, and have some fun. I'll get the guys to take care of breaking things down, you go have fun with our guests."

Harry nodded as his dad continued, "Just remember to get some sleep tonight, the race starts at noon, so we need to head over no later than 9:30. Okay?"

Harry nodded again. "No problem."

It didn't take Harry long to find the plate his mother had arranged to be placed aside for him to eat after the party, knowing that he rarely ate much beforehand. He then grabbed two of the remaining sodas out of the ice chest and headed toward the table the girls had staked out, where they were chatting.

"Hey!" Harry said sitting down and receiving greetings from around the table as he took the first bite of his sandwich.

"Hungry?" Alison asked.

"Yeah," Harry said wiping his mouth. "I'm always hungry after a night like this. It's fun though."

"It looks like you enjoy it," she said, the others agreeing. "You play well."

"Thanks!" he said taking another bite. "Gas Can plays three or four of these a year… but most of the other times it is less formal, out in the RV area on Saturday night after SERRA events… More like a pot luck thing attended mostly by drivers, their teams and families. No hobnobbing, no deals, just blowing off steam after the race."

"Sounds like fun!" she said. "Are you all going to be at the race next weekend?" Allison then asked.

Harry shook his head. "I'd like to be, but no. They're headed back to Europe, and I've got school and some other things to take care of so I can get ready for the SERRA season when it starts in six weeks," he said omitting the fact that he would be doing most of it in England.

She nodded. "I've only promised my brother that I would do this for another couple of weeks, then I'm going back on my vacation till the fall term starts… Where can I get a SERRA schedule? Maybe I'll try to catch one of your races… and possibly another concert."

Harry smiled. "If you stop by the RV park when we head back, I can get you one, or if you could stop by the Fairgrove sales truck or the SERRA booth at the race tomorrow, they'll have them as well."

Her smile widened. "I wouldn't want to impose, and keep you up tonight, I'll just pick one up tomorrow."

"No imposition. I won't be able to sleep for at least a couple of more hours after this," Harry said waving off her statement. "I usually need some time to unwind after we play… and who knows I may just play something else." He smiled as Gabrielle's eyes lit up when her sister translated.

Jason Ambrose had worked with potions for nearly fifty years, and had been the head of the potions department of Saint Gresman's in Brussels for the last ten of those years. Yet he had learned more about potions in the last month than he had in all of that time.

The woman he had been introduced to, Dr. Margo Bright, had shown him exactly the heights to which others around the world had taken his art form… Using mug… non-magical equipment to do so.

In the colonies, it was a closely monitored business, one that had given great dividends to their way of life, to their over all wellness as a whole! It was truly amazing!

They didn't need to limit themselves with locally grown things when they need fresh, they could have it in their hands from anywhere in the world within a few hours!

Their new potions and drugs were even being made available to the non-magical community!

He sat a moment longer pondering how he was going to explain his findings to his contemporaries… Would they even believe it when he did?

After much thought he decided he had little chance of convincing them on his word alone.

Standing he made his way to Margo's office. Knocking he stuck his head in. "May I speak with you a moment Doctor?"

She motioned him in. "Of course. What can I help you with?"

He sat across from her. "How hard would it be to arrange a tour for several people to one of the drug production facilities?"

She smiled, Keighvin had already arranged that very thing but they didn't need to know that. "Not too hard. How many people would you like to bring?"