Chapter 10- Change of Plans
"Hermione are you ready?" Harry called through the bathroom door.
"Just a moment," Hermione hollered back through the door.
"Come on, we are going to be late."
"Be patient. Beauty does not happen instantly"
"We are just going to walk around the town. Please hurry up. I want to go,\." Harry bounced in place like a little child ready to leave the instant he is given permission.
There were a few moments of silence and then the door was opened to reveal Hermione in a pair of blue jeans and a t-shirt. "There, ready." She walked over to a chair to pick up her jacket, gloves and scarf.
Harry stared at her in amazement. "You took 25 minutes to get ready to look like that." He expressed by waving a hand at Hermione's body.
"What are you saying that I look ugly?" Hermione questioned.
"Not at all. It's just seems like it shouldn't take you 25 minutes to look like that. It's what you look like normally. Nothing is different."
Hermione rolled her eyes at him. "Well, just because you can take a 10 minute shower and just throw some clothes on and walk out does not mean the rest of the world can do that. My word."
"Sorry, if I was just a little shocked it takes you that long to get ready."
"You better be. You have a lot to get used to being married. Think of this `marriage' as a test drive and let me tell you now. Prepare for a girl to take longer in there than me," Hermione stated matter of factly, putting on her gloves.
"Longer? What do you girls do in there?"
"Nothing that concerns you. I am just giving you a friendly warning about such things."
Harry shook his head in disbelief as he went to open the door to go outside.
They walked down to the lobby, handed them their key and then walked outside where they air was dry and cool. Winter was creeping up onto them ever so slowly. The telltale signs of bare trees and birds flying away told them that winter was upon them.
Hermione and Harry walked down the street hand in hand in the direction of a little café that they were going to have a late lunch. Both sat down inside where they ordered a light lunch of sandwiches and hot chocolate. They sat in a small little table next to a window showing outside. The window looked out onto a small strip of land on that now held a small winter carnival. Many people were walking through the small piece of land that was crammed with game booths, rides, and food stands.
Hermione instantly noticed all of this and wasted no time with Harry. "Harry, look at the cute little carnival. We should go."
Harry looked incredulously at Hermione. "You can not be serious."
Hermione returned his stare. "And why not?"
"Because I made plans for us."
"Yes, I know this great cruise. That sounds great and I appreciate it, but come on, a carnival is so much more fun."
"I wouldn't know. I have never been to one and I just thought that a cruise would be relaxing."
Hermione's mouth dropped. "You have never been to a carnival before as a kid?"
Harry just stared at Hermione as if asking, did you really say that.
"Ok, so stupid question, but, that's just even more reason for us to go. If you have never been on a Ferris Wheel then you need to. Please, I really want to. I promise you that it will be fun." Hermione opened her eyes wide and pouted her lips.
Harry laughed, "You won't believe how pathetic you look. How can I refuse? I'll go. I'll even go up on the Ferris Wheel."
Hermione smiled brightly at his approval. "Thank you. We are going to have so much fun."
At this moment the waitress walked up to the table with the two orders. She set their orders down in front of them and looked back and forth between the two of them. "You two are newlyweds aren't you?"
Hermione and Harry both turned to her, intrigued and amused. Harry was the one that answered, "Yes, you could say that. Wedding was just yesterday."
The waitress giggled. "Newlyweds indeed, only married for 24 hours."
This time Hermione nodded her assent. "How did you know?"
"I can just tell. You guys are so cute together and I can just see the way you two look at each other. It's real love."
This was quite amusing to hear, since the marriage wasn't real. However, neither Harry or Hermione laughed. They looked significantly at each other. Hermione smiled sweetly at Harry and he stopped breathing. He could only wish it was real love on her part, because it was real love on his part. Something similar was going through Hermione's head.
The waitress nodded as if this was more evidence to her theory. "I need not say anymore. So, what are your guys' name anyhow."
Harry broke the eye contact and replied to the waitress. "I'm Harry, and this is my new wife Hermione."
The women dropped the tray she had been holding, luckily nothing had been on it. She quickly picked it up, not looking at the other people looking at her. She didn't care. She leaned forward onto the table. "It's you, isn't it? Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, I mean Hermione Potter."
Hermione smiled at the waitress, not wanting to correct her by telling her that she was not going to change her name. "Yes, that would be us."
"I knew it. How many Hermione and Harry's are there in Britain? Not many. I read all about your wedding in the Daily Prophet of course. So, excited to hear about it. Once I started to read about the famous trio's exploits I knew you two would be together. My husband thought I was crazy but I just told him that he didn't know what he was talking about and that I had an intuition about these kinds of things and that would just make him laugh more. See, I don't have a drop of magic in my blood, however my husband is a wizard and ever since he introduced me to your world I have been fascinated by the tales of the trio and their adventures."
Hermione blushed a little and Harry smiled kindly at the woman. "That's really flattering, but I'll tell you something, we are just as normal as the rest of you."
The woman laughed, "of course you are, but for me it gave some excitement to read about your exploits. I think it is just great what you guys have done for all of us, wizard and Muggle alike."
"I just did what I could and nothing more or less."
"Well, thank you again. Would you mind doing a small favor for me?" The waitress asked.
Harry kept smiling. "Just name it."
This is the point where the waitress started blushing and stammering. "I know you must get this a lot and if you say no, I understand. But, would you mind someone taking a photo of us? I need proof of this to my husband. He won't believe me."
"Of course I will. Do you have a camera?"
The waitress darted to a backroom and came bustling out, stopping to ask one of her fellow waitresses the favor. The other women looked at her as if she was crazy, but complied with her request. The waitress returned to take a photo. Harry stood up to stand next to her and Hermione backed out of the way of the picture, understanding she wasn't wanted in the picture, or so she thought.
Before the picture could be clicked the waitress addressed Hermione, "come over here. I want you in the picture as well.
Hermione smiling, joined the picture that made the waitress' day.
After the picture was taken the waitress left the two in peace and resumed her waitressing duties, but now she had a huge smile on her face.
The couple ate lunch quietly, still amused and thoughtful at the incident.
After eating, they collected their coats and headed out the door, Harry being slower than Hermione not knowing what to expect from the carnival.
Hermione led the way across the street and to the entrance of the carnival. She purchased tickets for the rides and they started to slowly walking around.
"So what first?" Harry asked, looking around him at all the different kinds of rides crammed into this tiny lot of land. He had no idea what some of these rides were, and from the looks of some of them he got a little queasy. He mentally told himself that he could handle this. After all he played quidditch all of these years and that didn't scare him one bit. However, when a ride next to him started up and he heard the creaking and groaning of the metal as a pirate ship started swinging back and forth he became scared. That sound was not at all reassuring. It sounded like any moment the ride would just collapse on itself.
Hermione looked around her, appraising the rides and then glanced at Harry's worried face. "Well, I think we should start with something small. Here, we can go on the Gravitron," Hermione told him, pointing at a flying saucer shaped ride. It was a bright purple, with little lights that were flashing on it. Right now, the ride was spinning around quite fast.
"So, what do you do? Do you just go in and sit down as it spins around so fast?" Harry asked, honestly confused as to what this ride did.
Hermione laughed at his naiveté. Maybe she could have a little fun with this. "No, you just stand against a wall as it spins really fast. It's really fun. Trust me. Nothing weird."
Harry still looked at the ride, untrustingly. "Aren't there any type of safety harness?"
"Oh yeah, don't worry about that. There are."
Harry seemed a little reassured and allowed Hermione to lead him onto the ride. It was considerably warmer and it felt a little sweaty in the ride. Harry couldn't describe it. He walked into a circular room that was painted in the same bright purple. In the middle was a chair and controls where a scraggly middle aged man sat. Along the walls were deep purple pads that were a little taller than him. Each one was separated from the others.
"So what do I do?"
"Just lean against one of these panels."
Harry felt kind of weird leaning like this. Then a thought came to him, "Where are the restraints?"
The controller in the middle turned to Harry and smiled. "Don't worry they will come down when the ride starts."
Harry nodded, relieved. He looked over to see Hermione smiling. Something in his gut told him that he did not like that smile. She found something really amusing he could tell, and he didn't know what it was. This worried him. But, his thoughts were put on hold at the ride started up by spinning slowly around. Harry looked around waiting for the restraints, but they didn't come and then it dawned on him. They weren't going to come, that was what was so funny to Hermione. Oh, he would not let this slide.
Then all thoughts cleared his mind as the ride picked up speed and he felt forced against the panel. He couldn't get up even if he wanted to. It felt like he had tons of weights pressed against his body. Then suddenly like a jolt, Hermione's panel slid up to the ceiling. She was no longer touching the ground. She was just pushed up against the panel not holding onto anything. She giggled when this happened and he could tell she was enjoying herself. She looked so childish and he liked that. But, then out of nowhere he felt a jolt and his own panel rose up and hit the ceiling.
It was the weirdest sensation he has ever felt. I mean he has hovered above ground all the time when flying but that was magic and he knew it. There was nothing magic about it, but here he was not touching the ground, not holding onto anything at all. Then all of this force against his body that had him pressed safely against the wall. Surprisingly, Harry started to enjoy it, but slowly he felt the ride slow down and soon he felt the ground below his feet and the weight against his body was lifting more and more as the ride slowed more and more.
Finally, it came to a full stop and everybody lined up to get off the ride. Sunshine hit them brightly as Harry uneasily stepped onto solid ground again.
"So what did you think?" Hermione asked curiously.
Harry's anger rose up in him again. "Well, I would have enjoyed it more if you had not lied to me about how the ride worked."
"Oh come on, don't be a baby. I couldn't help myself and you can't say that you wouldn't have done the same thing."
Harry thought about this for a second. Ok, so maybe she was right about that. "That doesn't mean you had to do that to me."
"Oh give it up. You had fun. You just don't want to admit it."
Harry kept looking at Hermione, and then it was like a force he couldn't stop. A smile appeared on his face and he nodded. "Ok, so that was fun. What next?"
Hermione looked around her. And then her face lit up. "Ok, let's go a step up. Let's try The Pirate's Ship"
Harry inwardly felt a little worried again as he remembered the sounds that the ride had made. But, he knew that these rides had to be safe or they wouldn't allow people ride them. Or would they?
It was too late. Harry was now sitting on a metal bench in the back of the ship. Hermione had told him this was the best place to be on this ride. So the two sat there and waited as the rest of the people filed onto the ride until the ship was full of people. It took a few moments, but then the ride started up and Harry heard the creaking start up again as the ship slowly started to swing back and forth. This ride seemed simple enough to Harry. How scary can riding back and forth be? There was a bar across his lap that would keep him in the ride and he saw that it couldn't go that far.
Harry was surprised as the ship got more and more momentum and went higher and higher. It was a weird feeling to see the people facing him on the ship were way above him and he was so far back. Then the ride would move so that he was facing down towards the ground with this feeling that he was about to fall out. As they got higher people started screaming and raising their hands. Harry didn't understand that. But then to Harry's embarrassment Hermione raised her hands and screamed along with the rest of the people. Harry looked skeptically at Hermione, but she wouldn't have this. She pulled one of his arms and she looked at him expectantly and Harry gave in. He raised both of his arms and started to yell with the crowd.
After the ride, Harry asked if they could take a short breather from the rides. Hermione agreed to this so, they went and bought a cotton candy to share and walked around playing random games, where Harry won a bear, which he dutifully gave to Hermione.
"It's such a cliché," Hermione told him when she was presented with the cute little brown bear.
"Well, if you want I can just keep the bear to later burn in a fire that I will dance around in my dark magic ceremonies."
"When you put it like that, I will just keep it, Hermione told him as she hugged the little bear.
In this way they had fun, going through many rides and playing many games. They spent the day like this as it neared sunset, they became more and more tired.
"I think that you have one more ride to go onto."
Harry rolled his eyes and groaned,"I am so tired. No more."
"Come on, you have to. It's the Ferris Wheel. You just have to sit there as you go round and round."
Harry thought about this. "Fine, I will do it."
So they stood in line for a little while, waiting their turn to get in one of the bowl shaped things that had the umbrella over them. There turn came up and they sat opposite each other. The Ferris Wheel rotated slowly and they got a beautiful view of the ocean and sunset.
"I like this," Harry whispered to Hermione. Something about this felt magical and he didn't want to ruin it with abrupt loud talking.
"Me too," Hermione replied. She surprised Harry by pulling out her wand and spoke a small charm. Then she pocketed her wand when she was done.
"What was that?"
"That was a charm that will have the controller forget about us being on the ride. We can stay on here for hours if we want."
Harry smiled. "I like your thinking."
Hermione smiled back. "Thanks."
The two fell back into a comfortable silence. Neither felt the need to talk as it would be pointless. They just kept staring out at the beautiful sunset.
Then Hermione spoke softly, breaking the silence, "Harry, this charm doesn't hide us from wizards."
Harry stared at her, not knowing what the point of this was. But, then all thoughts were pushed out of his mind as Hermione leaned in for a kiss.
Hermione didn't know what it was about Harry that made his kisses so special. She had dated her fair share of guys, but always their kisses had been plain and simple, nothing memorable. Harry was different. Something about his kisses rooted her to the spot and didn't allow her mind much room for thinking.
Harry was having similar thoughts when they pulled apart slowly. It took Harry a moment to clear his mind and to question Hermione as to what was with the kiss.
She answered her question by pointing down to the ground. Then it all clicked in Harry's head. On the ground were a couple of wizard reporters taking a picture of them.
Both were disappointed by the logical reasoning behind their kiss and fell back into silence. Harry couldn't stand it. But, if there were reporters, he might as well use this to his advantage. So he patted the seat next to him and Hermione scooted over next to Harry where he put his arm around her and she leaned into him. Might as well enjoy the sunset and pretend that there were no reporters down on the ground. They could just pretend this whole thing was real.
A/N. I want to say that whole thing with Harry asking the guy where the restraints were on the ride and the controller's response, really happened. Some lady got on the ride and asked where the restraints were and that was the controller's response. Her daughter was laughing or something…she was a grandmother. So funny. She was mad after the ride but you could tell she had enjoyed herself.
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