Dear Wizarding Britain
Disclaimer: I own nothing. If I did, I probably wouldn't be playing around on fanfiction.
A/N: Just a little reminder for everyone that I'm an American, who tries to use British terminology, seeing as how all these characters are British, so please forgive me if you've found I've royally messed it up, considering I am not, in fact, British, so I'll probably use American terminology for things I can't find via Google or don't even think to Google.
September 1, 1998
Harry was sitting at one of the tables in the library with Hermione, working on the muggle subjects that he had all but put aside after Luna and Neville had arrived, when Hermione slammed her book closed with a huff, causing Harry to look up at her with a questioning look on his face. "Did the book on," Harry craned his neck to see what book she had been reading, "Runes and Surprising Ways to Use Them somehow offend you, Hermione?"
Hermione rolled her eyes at Harry and said, "I never thought I'd be the one to say this, but I'm sick of studying."
Grinning, Harry replied, "Well, I never thought I'd see the day when Hermione Granger was sick of studying."
Hermione blushed and complained, "Well, it's not as if we'll ever be able to return to Britain to take our NEWTs, Harry!"
"You do realize that there are several other countries that we can schedule with to take our NEWTs, correct? Speaking of, we should have taken them a few months ago, we're a bit late on that; however, we don't have to wait until Britain takes care of Tom before we take our NEWTs. Besides," Harry raised his book with a smile and said, "I'm studying my muggle subjects, that way when I decide to finagle forged documents from the Goblins, showing my completion of secondary school, then I'll at least actually be competent enough to remain in university on my own merits."
"Yes, we should have taken them months ago, but there is only so much I can learn in a book, Harry. You know that I'm better at theory than I am practicals. And, of course, I realize there are other countries we could sit them with, Harry, but they'll have different NEWT requirements than Britain would have, and I've been studying for the British NEWT standards." Hermione complained. "Not to mention, I only speak English and a bit of passable French, so I'd need to learn another language in order to take my NEWTs and pass them in another country. I've already caught up on all of the muggle subjects I'll need to go to university. "
"Merlin, Hermione, you're the smartest witch I know, why have you not thought about asking for copies of NEWT requirements from all of the English-speaking Ministries, that way you won't have to learn a new language unless you wanted to and you would know what to self-study for? And if you needed help with practicals, why didn't you ask me?" Harry queried in amusement. "Also, if you've already completed all of your muggle subjects, why are you spending all day here studying when you could be enrolled in university somewhere?"
"…"
"Please don't tell me that you were waiting for my permission to leave, Hermione, I'm not your guardian or jailer, you're free to do whatever you wish," Harry questioned in concern.
"…"
Harry sighed, "Well, your silence is quite telling, I guess."
"Well, it's not so much that I thought I needed your permission, Harry, but it is your island and you are letting me stay here for free, and I didn't want you to feel as if I were abandoning you," Hermione replied cautiously. "And it's not really like I can easily disguise myself, my hair is quite recognizable."
"So we use muggle hair dye to change your hair," Harry suggested. And Herimone's doubtful look, he continued, "Look, Riddle and his Death Munchers can't be everywhere at once, and they've got absolutely no reason to be out terrorizing anywhere outside of Britain. For one, the other ministries wouldn't stand for it and Riddle's not likely to try to take them on; and two, there are billions of people in the world, as long as you stay in muggle places outside of Britain, they're likely to never find you, if they're even still looking for you." Harry explained patiently.
"I don't know what to say, Harry," Hermione replied in a quiet voice.
"Well, how about we put this work away for now, and I'll call everyone in for a meeting to discuss taking a vacation, it sounds as if you need one, and we'll see where everyone might want to go." Harry said, as he pushed his chair back from the table and stood up to go. "I feel like the role of common sense has reversed, it's rather eerie," Harry mumbled with the shake of his head.
"You could just use a sonorous charm and make the announcement for everyone to meet us in the conference room," Hermione said with an amused smirk.
"Yes, I could. I could also instruct Dobby or Winky to notify everyone, but as it's not an emergency, I decided to visit with Hedwig and have her deliver an invitation to everyone. I know that she misses delivering mail, since I have no one to write outside of the island, so this should appease her a little bit," Harry told Hermione.
"I have never seen anyone care for their owl's feelings as much as you care for Hedwig's," Hermione said fondly, thinking of how much she missed Crookshanks, who she had left with her parents when she left for school her sixth year. Then after everything that had happened, her parents had relocated to Australia, taking Crooks with them to be sort of a magical detector for them. Maybe she should write them a letter — then Hermione realized that Harry was responding to her and tuned back in.
"Well, she was always my only friendly company when I was stuck with the Dursleys in the summers," Harry responded with a wry smile. Then he frowned, "She was my first gift from my first friend. Hagrid was my first friend."
Harry got a sort of faraway look on his face as he continued, "He saved me from the Dursleys when they dragged me to the shack in the middle of the ocean in an attempt to outrun my Hogwarts letters. Granted, he was only there on Dumbledore's orders and had a hand in placing me with the Dursleys and taking me from Sirius to begin with, but," sighing he said looking out into the distance, "I hope he's doing okay. I haven't tried to remain in contact with him, because he can't keep a secret when he's been drinking, and he has such unshakable faith in Dumbledore that I believed he would have betrayed me to Dumbledore, because he believed Dumbledore knew best. Now that the old man is gone, maybe I should try to reach out to him, make sure he's doing okay."
"Well, He wasn't in the Great Hall when everyone read your letter in The Prophet, so I don't know what his reaction was when he read it," replied Hermione. "When Ron and I had our falling out, I stayed completely to myself and kept my head down and only interacted with the professors."
"Well, I hope he's at least escaped to France to be with Madame Maxime. He may have been too trusting of Dumbledore, but that doesn't mean that I wanted him killed by the Death Eaters." Harry said as he walked out of the library to see Hedwig.
George was stirring a potion when Hedwig flew in and landed on Fred's shoulder.
"Hey, girl," said Fred as he removed a letter addressed to himself and George from her leg. "Harry thought he'd give you something to do, so you don't grow bored?" Hedwig gave a little hoot of agreement and gave his fingers a friendly nip. When he had the letter free, Hedwig gave another hoot and took off to deliver her other letters.
"What's it say, Gred?" George asked.
"Looks like we're being summoned to a family meeting," replied Fred.
"What time?" George wondered.
"Hmm. It doesn't say, just that once we're to a stopping point in our experiments to please meet them in the conference room to discuss something." Fred responded.
"Well, I'm just about done with this potion, if you want to go ahead. I'll be along shortly." George said.
"Right-o, Forge," said Fred.
"Hello, Hedwig," greeted Luna, who had been sitting on a small sofa with Neville in one of the sitting rooms.
Hedwig hooted and held out her leg to Luna, who removed the letters addressed to herself and Neville, passing Neville's to him.
Luna reached into her pocket and pulled out a treat for Hedwig, while Neville opened his letter. Hedwig hooted in thanks and flew out the window a moment later.
"Well, looks like Harry's called a meeting, I wonder what's happened?" Neville said curiously.
"Hmm. Only one way to find out," Luna responded, as she stood up from the sofa and stepped back to give Neville room to stand up.
Neville nodded and grabbed the walker from beside him and used it to leverage himself up, then he and Luna slowly made their way to the conference room.
Once everyone had gathered around the table in the conference room, they chatted for a few minutes, as if they didn't see each other every day.
After about five minutes of small talk, Harry cleared his throat to get the room's attention. Once the room was quiet, Harry spoke, "So, it's come to my attention that you all might be a bit tired of never or rarely leaving the island."
Fred and George mock-gasped and said together, "Harrikins, we didn't realize you noticed!"
Harry chuckled and said, "I just wanted to make sure that no one was feeling trapped here, but I also wanted to invite you all out on a vacation of sorts. And since living on this island has been like one continuous beach vacation, I figured I would get your input for an alternate location. Thoughts, anyone?"
Luna bounced on her seat in excitement and raised her hand, "Oh, let's go to Switzerland or Sweden and see if we can find the elusive crumple-horned snorkack!"
"Luna, I don't think Neville's mobility is quite ready for that type of adventure," Hermione chided gently.
"Oh, phooey," Luna pouted.
"Let's go muggle gambling!" The twins suggested.
"Excellent suggestion. And if we choose a vacation spot that has a casino nearby, feel free to gamble as much as you like, but don't get caught cheating with magic," Harry responded.
Hermione piped in and said, "I'm sure you're expecting me to choose someplace educational," as she looked around the room at her friends, "but as it was my outburst at being sick of studying," Hermione stopped at the sudden sound of the collective gasp from around the table, then continued, "yes, shocking I know. As I was saying, since I'm the one sick of studying and showing signs of cabin fever—"
"What's cabin fever? Is it deadly? Why haven't we called a healer?" Neville questioned worriedly.
Hermione huffed in exasperation, "It's a muggle expression that means I'm tired of being cooped up on this island!"
"Oh, sorry," Neville responded sheepishly.
"As I was saying, I was thinking of a muggle theme park, or a carnival or something meant purely for entertainment and having fun," Hermione finally finished saying. "I'm not saying we spend the whole vacation at a theme park, but we could take up one day doing that, and then something else the next day, and so forth.
"That sounds like a great idea," Harry said, but before he could continue speaking, all the purebloods spoke over each other, trying to figure out what a theme park was.
Harry whistled to get everyone's attention, "How about tomorrow, I'll go out and find a travel agent, so that I can bring home some brochures for us to all look through, then we can decide on a location that has all the elements of what we're looking for. I've never been to a theme park or carnival, so it will be a new experience to me as well."
Meanwhile, with Daphne and Blaise:
"I'm starting to feel trapped and stifled, Blaise," Daphne said one morning during brunch, causing Blaise to stop mid bite and stare.
Placing his eating utensil down and wiping his face, because his mother raised him better than Weasel's, and said slowly, "Just to clarify, I'm not making you feel trapped and stifled, am I, my dear Daphne?"
Daphne gave a small smile and said, "Of course not. You've been absolutely great throughout all of this. I owe you so much for sending Lopsy to me when you did, it's something that I can never repay you for."
"Why do I hear a 'but' coming?" Blaise asked curiously.
Sighing, Daphne said, "I don't want to spend the rest of my life hiding from the Dark Lord and his minions. It's not even been a year since we escaped, and it's suffocating to think that I'll remain here in hiding and never get to live my life on my own terms." Daphne paused and took a breath.
"Are you saying you want to strike out on your own?" Blaise asked cautiously, trying not to let the hurt fill his tone.
"No!" Daphne replied quickly. "I'm, very poorly, trying to express how much I would like to live somewhere where we can be a bit more free and less cautious. Living in this tent and being near the beach is nice, but I feel as if I can't come and go as I please, because I don't want anyone to potentially take notice of my disappearing into the wards."
"So you're saying you'd like us to try to find a more permanent residence," Blaise clarified.
"Eventually, yes," Daphne said, "I want to live in a more conventional place, somewhere where it will be easier to meet others, maybe fall in love…"
Blaise shook his head ruefully, "What would Slytherin House say to the Ice Queen looking for love?"
Glaring playfully at Blaise's use of her Slytherin title, Daphne sniffed, "You know my reasons for becoming the Ice Queen and that it was a mask I wore, not the real me at all."
"Yes, I know," Blaise replied with a smile. "But getting back to the matter you brought up. I know that you managed to save up quite a bit of funds by hiding them into the hems of your clothing and such, but it's not an unlimited amount and it can only be used in the magical world."
"Yes, I know," Daphne said with a sigh.
"And you're also aware that while I have quite a bit of wealth, thanks to my inheritance from my father and all, I do not have complete access to it until I've settled down and married a woman intelligent enough to meet the criteria set," Blaise clarified.
Daphne sighed and nodded, "I told you to pursue Granger."
"And I intended to, but she disappeared before I could," Blaise replied solemnly.
"We sure are a pair, aren't we?" Daphne said ruefully. "Both of us are regretful for actions we never took. If I had reached out to Granger in either Runes or Arithmancy, then I could have helped introduce the two of you. Your relationship with Granger could have opened the door to Potter seeing me as more than just a Slytherin."
Blaise nodded solemnly, "So many things we should have done differently, but we were afraid of what our peers in Slytherin would say." He sighed and added, "Sometimes I wonder what I would have done differently, if given the chance to do it all over again, but the Weasel did a thorough job at preventing anyone outside of Gryffindor from trying to become friends with Potter or Granger. The fact that the two of us were Slytherins just made it that much more difficult to have try to get close without it being suspicious."
"Third year," Daphne said decisively, "that probably would have been the best year to try to make friends. It was when we started our elective courses, which would have at least given me a better opportunity to initiate more than just an acquaintanceship with Granger and would have been the least suspicious time to try."
"Well, it's too bad we don't have a time turner that actually worked for changing the timeline," Blaise replied with a wry grin.
"True," Daphne sighed. "I still want to go somewhere else, where we can be a bit more free."
"Do you want to come with me to help me find a travel agent?" Blaise asked. "I've heard they have brochures we can look through, perhaps a change of scenery is just what we need."
"Do they have muggle travel agents?" Daphne asked, then added, "I don't want to risk a magical travel agent yet."
A/N: I'm not sure if I particularly like this chapter, but it came to me as a way to move the story along and not continuously have something happening at the island.