**A big thanks to eagle219406 and leprechaun for pointing out my mistakes in the first draft of this chapter. I'm happy to say they are now fixed! I hope you enjoy it!!!**
At six o'clock the next morning, the group of ten travelers were assembled in Dumbledore's office, awaiting directions on how their portkeys worked.
"The first group to go will be the Weasleys" explained Dumbledore "then two minutes after they have left, Harry, Hermione and Conlan will be going. Two minutes after that Remus, Tonks and the Grangers will leave. Your first stop will be Athens and you will be there for one week. When you arrive at the portkey destination, there will be two Greek Ministry employees waiting for you. They will be your 'tour guides' for the week. Please be safe, and Hermione, I wish you luck in finding the scepter."
"Thank you sir" she said, and then adjusted Conlan who was sleeping in what her Mum said was a Snugli. It was like a backpack with arm and leg holes cut out, but it held him to her chest and left both of her hands free to hold on to him and Harry during their trip. Her Mum had brought it so it would be easier to transport Conlan around town.
"Ok, first group, grab on to your portkey now" said Dumbledore. Arthur, Molly, Ron and Ginny all took hold of the hat they were given and ten seconds later disappeared. Harry held out the shoe Dumbledore had given him so that Hermione could grab it and he wrapped his free arm around her waist to help steady her on their landing. "Ok Harry, Hermione you have ten seconds." Nodding at Dumbledore, they prepared themselves and soon felt that familiar tug in their stomachs. It felt like it took about a minute to get to their destination and when they landed, Harry had to catch Hermione as she lurched forward and almost fell. Conlan was crying loudly, obviously frightened by the trip. Hermione started bouncing him, trying to calm him down and Harry looked around for the Weasleys, spotting them a few steps away. Harry guided Hermione over to them and noticed the two unfamiliar people standing there talking to Arthur and Molly.
Hermione looked up after finally settling Conlan down and noticed the two strangers also. The one that had caught her eye was a very tall, athletically built man with bright blue eyes and curly, short black hair. She looked over at Ginny and noticed her staring at the man as well. He was very handsome, and Hermione turned to Harry to see if he had spotted him yet. He seemed to be staring at something else, and when she looked in the same direction he was, she immediately got angry with him. Harry sat staring at the woman standing next to the man. She was talking to Molly, and she was very beautiful. She had the build of a model, with the same bright blue eyes as the man next to her; her hair was the same color as his, and just as curly, but it was almost to her waist. Hermione elbowed Harry in the side, breaking him from his trance.
"Ow, what'd you do that for?" he asked, rubbing the spot and looking at her confused.
"I saw where you were looking" she said "enjoying the scenery already?"
"Oh, you're one to talk. I saw you staring at the guy next to her" said Harry, and felt satisfied when Hermione looked guilty. "Look, I told you yesterday, you are the only woman for me. You are my wife; it's not like I'm going to go running off with someone else on a whim."
"I know" she said quietly "it just kind of set me off when I saw how you were staring at her" Hermione said. Just then, they heard a loud noise behind them and turned, seeing her parents on the ground with Tonks and Remus helping them up.
"I don't ever want to do that again!" said Mr. Granger, looking a little green.
"You're going to have to Mr. Granger" said Remus "that is how we will be traveling during the whole trip."
Mr. Granger scowled at him and made his way over to his daughter. "Did you get here unharmed?" he asked.
"Yes, I almost fell when we landed, but Harry caught me" she said, smiling at him.
"Wow, who is that gorgeous man talking to Mr. Weasley?" asked Jane, earning a glare from her husband. "I don't know" said Robert "I was too busy looking at the woman next to him." Harry laughed quietly to himself as he saw the equally nasty glare Hermione's mother shot at her husband.
"Why don't we go introduce ourselves?" asked Harry, grabbing Hermione's hand and walking over to Ron.
As Harry and Hermione walked over, Arthur noticed his arrival and said "Ah Harry, come meet our guides." Arthur motioned towards the man first and said "I'd like you to meet Phoenix Theodopoulos". Phoenix stuck his hand out and Harry took it, shaking if formally. Turning to the woman standing next to Phoenix, Arthur said "and this is Pyrena Theodopoulos." Harry turned toward her and took her outstretched hand also, shaking it awkwardly. "It is such an honor to meet you Mr. Potter" she said, hanging on to his hand a little longer than Hermione liked.
Taking in their similar features, Hermione asked "are you brother and sister then?"
"Yes" answered Phoenix, giving her his best smile. "We are twins, actually. The Ministry of Magic here in Greece has assigned us to be your guides while you are here. We will be going everywhere you go, including the other cities you will be visiting."
"Right, well I guess I should introduce you to everyone else here" said Arthur. "You've already met my wife Molly; this is Robert Granger, Jane Granger, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, my son Ron, my daughter Ginny and Hermione Gr..."
"Potter, Hermione Potter" Hermione said, interrupting him. She noticed with satisfaction that Pyrena's face fell a little as she said this. "And this is our son, Conlan." Pyrena glared at her as her brother Phoenix walked up to her and asked "you are a wife and mother at such a young age? You must be a very strong woman."
"Yes she is" said Harry, answering for her and wrapping his arm possessively around her waist. Hermione turned to him with an angry look on her face as Phoenix turned and walked away. "What?" he asked, trying to play innocent.
"Don't 'what' me; look, you have nothing to be jealous of, ok? You've already marked your territory so let it go." Hermione turned from him and walked over to where Ginny was just as Ron walked over to Harry. Noticing the look on his face, Ron asked "what's wrong Harry?"
"I really don't like that guy" said Harry quietly, then said "let's see if we can get them to quit kissing everyone's asses and finally take us to where we're staying." Ron watched as Harry stalked over to where his Dad was and thought to himself 'this is definitely going to be an interesting trip.'
Phoenix and Pyrena had driven one of their Ministry's cars to pick them up . After magically expanding the inside,
everyone piled in and they were finally on their way to the place they were staying. After about ten minutes, the car
came to a halt and everyone got out. Harry looked at a sign hanging over the doorway and was surprised. "Hotel
Rio" he read aloud, catching Hermione's attention.
"What a beautiful building" she said, then looked up and down the street they were on. "Oh, this is Karaiskaki Square; I read about it in one of the books about Greece in the library."
Following Arthur and Remus into the hotel lobby they waited as Arthur checked in, with Mr. Granger's help, and walked over to hand them room keys. "Ok, Harry, Hermione here is your room key; Ron and Ginny, you'll be sharing a room of your own." Ron didn't look thrilled at this prospect as he took the key from his father, nor did Ginny. Turning to Tonks and Lupin, he said "there was a mix-up in our reservations and you two will have to share a room." They both looked at him, surprised.
"We have to share a room for a week?" asked Remus and Tonks at the same time, looking a little uncomfortable.
"Yes, they apologized and said your stay would be free" explained Arthur, not making either of them feel better.
"Who is paying for this trip anyway?" Harry asked.
"Well, Dumbledore has made this an 'official' school trip" explained Arthur "that way it won't raise too much suspicion at the Ministry. So Hogwarts is paying for you students and since we're here as official Ministry employees to help keep you safe, the Ministry is paying for us."
"What about my Mum and Dad?" asked Hermione.
"Hogwarts is paying for them too; they're your chaperones" said Arthur smiling. "Well, let's get up to our rooms." Harry spotted the lifts and walked over to press the up button to summon the lift to the first floor. Soon their was a quiet 'ding' and the doors opened on one of them.
"We should be able to all go up at once" said Robert, noticing as the rest of them were hesitant to follow him in. After some uneasy glances were exchanged, they all piled in and rode up to the sixth floor.
They all found their rooms and waited as Remus magically expanded their luggage back to normal size. Taking their
things into their room, Hermione looked around and saw that a fold-away crib had been brought in for Conlan. Taking the
sleeping baby out of the Snugli, Hermione gently lay him down and sank down on the bed behind her. Looking around, she
saw that there was just the queen size bed with a dresser, nightstand and table in the corner for furniture. She
spotted a ceiling fan above their bed and a TV mounted on the wall opposite the bed. Looking at the clock on the
nightstand, she noticed that it was 8:45 Greek time. 'That's only a two hour time difference' she thought.
Harry, who had been standing at the door talking to Remus, walked over to her and said "We're all going to
meet down in the restaurant in an hour to discuss our plans for the day."
Nodding her head, she said "good, then we can rest for a little while." Laying her head on the pillow behind her, she watched as Harry walked around to the other side and lay down next to her. She smiled as he wrapped his arm around her waist and snuggled into his chest, immediately drifting off to sleep.
Both of them woke with a start as someone pounded on the door and Conlan started crying. Immediately angry with whoever was at their door, Harry got up and grabbed the doorknob, jerking it open and growling "What?!" at the person on the other side.
Phoenix stood there, a little surprised at Harry's greeting and said "We are all going down to the restaurant now."
"Yeah, fine we'll be down in a minute" he said, barely disguising the dislike he felt for the man in front of him. Closing the door in Phoenix's face, he turned to see Hermione holding Conlan and feeding him a bottle, watching him. "You didn't have to be so nasty to him Harry" she said with a surprised look on her face at Harry's behavior.
"He didn't have to pound on the door either" Harry said, hoping Hermione would drop the subject. "Look, I know I'm not playing the part of the gracious guest, but there is something about Phoenix and Pyrena that sets off my defenses."
"Well, could you at least try to be civil to them; they are the ones who will be taking us to all of the possible sites of the scepter." Looking at the pleading look in her eyes, Harry gave in and sat down next to her, saying "yes, I'll try to be civil, for you."
"Thank you" she said smiling, and then leaned over to give him a kiss. They sat there for a few more minutes until Conlan finished his bottle and then they made their way down to the restaurant. Exiting the elevator, they walked around the corner and through the doors of the eatery. They spotted their group sitting in the back corner and made their way towards them. Harry held out a chair for Hermione and then sat in the chair next to her once she was seated.
"What took you guys so long?" Ron asked.
"We were sleeping" said Harry "until we were so rudely woke up." Ron gave him a strange look, wondering what he was talking about, when Hermione said "it's nothing Ron. Harry woke up on the wrong side of the bed."
"Why didn't you let him sleep on the side he wanted then?" Ron asked, confused by her use of the muggle expression. He was even more confused as Harry and Hermione broke out laughing at his question. "What?" he asked, looking from one to the other.
"It's a muggle expression Ron" explained Hermione, still laughing. Calming herself, she said "it means that Harry woke up in a bad mood."
"Why didn't you just say that then?" Ron asked, looking a little miffed that they had laughed at him.
"Sorry Ron; we'll try to just say what we mean and not use expressions anymore" said Harry, trying to pacify his friend.
After giving their orders to their server, Remus got their attention and said "I guess we should go over our plans. First, we will be here for a week as Dumbledore said. We will be exploring the Parthenon, the Acropolis and the National Archeological Museum while we are here. Mr. and Mrs. Granger, along with Molly will be staying at the hotel to watch Conlan. That leaves me, Tonks, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Phoenix and Pyrena to do all of the exploring. There are tunnels and caves known to be buried under the Parthenon and Acropolis that will take a while to get through. So each of those places will take two days. Then when we go to the Museum, we will just sort through the artifacts to see if we can find any clues as to where the scepter of Zeus could be." When he finished, he looked around the table and said "I'm going to get a map of the Parthenon after we are done eating so I can map out our trip for tomorrow. We can meet for dinner and discuss the plans tonight."
"If there are known tunnels and caves under them, how come the muggles haven't already excavated them?" asked Hermione.
"Because they are a well kept secret in the Ministry" answered Remus. "The muggles don't know they exist."
"You do realize that dinner for the Greek people starts no earlier than nine p.m.?" asked Pyrena, interrupting their conversation.
"Really? That's pretty late" said Arthur. "Greek people really don't follow a set schedule" said Phoenix "we are what you would call 'pretty laid back' people."
"But we do believe in our siesta time" said Pyrena. "Every afternoon between the hours of three and five everyone returns to their homes to take a rest."
"They take naps every day?" asked Harry. When Phoenix and Pyrena nodded in agreement, Harry said "I could get used to that."
"Me too" said Ron "mandatory daily naps. Do you think we could convince Dumbledore to give us 'siesta time' every day?"
"I doubt it" Hermione deadpanned, shaking her head at the two boys. "I think you two slept enough in our History of Magic class."
As the three of them were talking, Mr. Weasley had struck up a conversation with the Grangers about everything muggle which Molly, Remus and Tonks were listening to with interest. "So what year are you in at Hogwarts?" Phoenix asked, looking at Hermione.
"We will be starting our seventh and last year in September" she said, a friendly smile on her face. "Where did you two go to school?"
"We went to Durmstrang" answered Phoenix, noticing the looks that passed between Harry and Ron. "Yes, it's a Dark Arts school, but that doesn't mean that everyone that goes there is a dark wizard or witch."
"Then you would know Mr. Karkaroff?" asked Harry. "Any word on where he might be?"
"No, no one has seen him since the rise of Voldemort two years ago" said Phoenix and noticed some of the adults flinch at the name. "Voldemort is dead; don't tell me you still fear his name?" he asked.
"We were alive during his first reign of terror" said Arthur defensively "you were just a child and I doubt you would remember the horrors he inflicted on our kind and muggles alike."
"Doesn't matter now, does it?" asked Pyrena. "He's gone, there is nothing to fear anymore"
"That's not true" said Harry, then noticed the looks that Tonks, Arthur and Remus were giving him. Obviously the twins didn't know about Voldemort's possible resurrection. "I mean, he came back in my first year at Hogwarts after thought dead all those years."
"We read the Ministry report from the day you killed him. I don't see how he could possibly come back to life from a pile of ashes" said Phoenix, starting to look suspiciously at Harry. "How did you burn his body like that? It's like you cremated him by yourself."
"It was just a curse that Hermione found for me to use" explained Harry, then trying to change the topic asked "so when does siesta time start again?"
**A/N: I'm going to leave it there for now. I know it's kinda short, but I needed to leave it there in order to start the next chapter the way I wanted to. I should be posting another chapter tomorrow night. Thanks to everyone who read "Leaving Her Behind". I needed a break from this story and it was fun to write! And don't worry, Harry and Hermione will be having fun during their trip! :)