I enjoy the positive vibrations in the world of Harry Potter that Joanne K. Rowling has created and swallowed all four books in a row. Now I could not wait for the fifth book so I created this one to fill the gap (4 ½ ). I had fun in writing it and would appreciate if anyone could share this fun with me. It shall shorten the time until the fifth book is available. If you like it, distribute it to anyone you want, if you dislike it, then ignore it.

Feedback: Arno.Elfert@freakmail.de

1. Help

"Hurry Up!" Mr. Dursley shouted at Harry. "I have an important appointment in one hour, I don't want to miss it because of you!" Harry Potter was very sad, although he just was having the first day of his holiday. The reason was that Mr. Dursley was only his uncle, and after his parents have died, he and Mrs. Dursley had to take care of him. But they hated him from the very first moment, because he was different - he was a wizard. He spent the whole year in Hogwarts, a school for witchcraft and wizardry. There he had a bunch of friends, especially Ron and Hermione. But now at the summer holiday, he had to go back to the Dursleys.

"Hurry Up!" Mr. Dursley shouted again, this time much more angry than before "Don't dream!" So Harry put his trunk and the cage with his owl Hedwig on the trolley and followed Mr. Dursley. After all Mr. Dursley caught him every year at Kings Cross Station and took him home with his old brown Rover.

When they arrived on this car, Harry put his heavy trunk in the back of the car alone and placed Hedwig in the back seat. Just as he had put back the trolley, he saw three men around Mr. Dursley. Harry had never seen them before, nor could he imagine, what Mr. Dursley had to do with them. The left one was fierce looking, had a scar on his cheek, long filthy brown hair and a golden ring through his ear. The other one was looking even more dangerous, was very tall and had tattoos all over his arms and back. The third one was very small, no hair at all, but a tattoo of a skull on his back head. But the worst of all, he had a black pistol in his hand, aiming at the chest of Mr. Dursley.

"Giv' 's all ya money, an' we'll ke' ya 'live!" Mr. Dursley was pale and shivering all over his body. Sweat was dropping down his double chin, and he had such a frightened look, Harry had never seen on him. His trousers looked wet, as if he hadn’t made it to the next restroom. "I d-don't have any mon-ney, w-with m-me!" he said. This made the first one of the men get out his long bowie knife and put it onto Mr. Dursley's throat. It was so sharp, that a drop of blood came running out of his skin.

Harry was so shocked of this scene, that he stood still and daren't to breath at all. But now he got angry. Even if he hated Mr. Dursley, he was not willing to let them pass. He took out his wand - he was lucky to have it in reach. He pointed it at the man with the knife and said: "Expellearmo!" That made the knife jump high into the air and vanish.

Just as the man with the revolver took an astonished look at Harry, he pointed the wand to him, and said once more: "Expellearmo!" The pistol began to shiver and flew also up to the sky and vanished.

The man with the tattoos growled angry and started to head on to Harry and held his huge hands ready to break every bone of him. Harry just managed to point the wand on him and said: "Transforma mousolo"! With a loud pop the man turned into a cloud, and as the cloud vanished, there was a little brown mouse on the ground, with a lot of tattoos on its back. It was squeaking shrill as it was heading to some garbage cans to hide beneath them. The two other men were screaming like hell and running away as fast as they could.

"Harry, my Harry!" Mr. Dursley said, as he was hugging Harry so hard, that he could hardly breath. "Thank you very much, my dear" And Mr. Dursley even kissed him on his cheek. "Y-You’re welcome." Said Harry "Let's move on, before they come back".

Mr. Dursley was just starting the motor, as a strange sound started to fill in the air. A pale man with black robes was sitting on a white and green carriage with two dragons instead of horses in front of it. The carriage had windows closed with iron lattice and was looking very heavy. An other man with black robes and a rubber wand mounted on his side came out of this carriage and held a role of parchment in front of his eyes. "Mr. Harry Potter is accused for using magic outside school for the third time. His wand will be confiscated, and he will be set to prison, until he comes up for his trial."

Harry lost the entire colour of his face. He knew that he was not allowed to use magic outside his school of Hogwarts, and he once had been blamed for using magic at his aunt. "Would you please give me your wand and proceed into that carriage?" the man with the parchment role asked in a voice, that didn't accept any resistance.

Harry’s heart dropped to his stomach, his throat was too dry to say anything. "That is the end," he thought. Four years in Hogwarts, winning even the triwizard cup this year, and now sent to prison. What would Professor Dumbledore say - and Professor McGonagall - and Ron - and Hermione? After all, he could imagine what Hermione would say: "I have always told you Harry, stick close to the rules!" And Cho ... ?

"Hurry up!" shouted the wizard policeman again, taking the wand out of Harry’s hand with force and pushing him into the carriage. He closed the door with a big lock, and also with a whispered spell. Then he sat besides the coachman and said: "Let's go!" And with a howling noise they vanished in the sky.

Mr. Dursley stood there with his mouth open, and could not believe what he had just seen. Three men had threatened his life, Harry had rescued him, and had been sent to prison. He stood there about half an hour before he recognised again where he was. Although a lot of people were running up and down, nobody seemed to have noticed what had happened.

2. Hedwig

Mr. Dursley drove home like a maniac. He didn't stop at red traffic lights - he didn't see them at all! Nor did he pay attention to speed limits, he had only one thing in mind: Going home and tell his wife about this unbelievable tragedy. It was like a wonder, that he didn't cause any accident, so he luckily arrived at Privet Drive, where his house was located. Even through the closed car windows he could hear loud music: "So much trouble in the world!" He knew at once, this was Bob Marley, one of the favourite musicians of his son, Dudley. He had got a brand new hi-fi equipment for his "good" results at school. He had one 5, lots of 4 and only one 3 and nearly missed proceeding into the next class. But Dudley was used to get presents for his certificates at school, and he'd become very angry, if he wouldn't get some.

Mr. Dursley stroke part of the fence, drove over his well-prepared flowerbeds, hit the garbage can, so it fell down with a loud bang and parted its content over the short cut English lawn. At last, he didn't stop properly so he damaged the door of the garage and the motor went dead. He didn't bother about all this and hurried to the front door. Being exited so much he forgot his keys in the car, so he had to ring and hit against the door.

He had to hit a lot; his wife didn't hear him, because of the noise of Dudley’s music. "Who's out there?" she asked through the closed door. "It's me," shouted Mr. Dursley "let me in, quick!" Mrs. Dursley opened the door and looked at her husband mouth wide opened. Her husband was standing there, sweating all over, his trousers wet too, and looking so outraged she'd never seen before!

Later Mr. Dursley was sitting at his sofa, having a bottle of Scotch in his left and a glass in his right. He had spilled a lot of it on the precious floor, because he was still shivering. Two cigarettes were burning in the ashtray and a third in his mouth (some even lying on the floor, still smoking). His face was red and his eyes were nearly dropping out of his head. His wife was sitting next to him, looking astonished and disgusted. She could not believe, what her husband has told her now for the fifth time. From the room above now the music was even louder, playing some techno music. "Dudley" Mrs. Dursley shouted "Dudley, come down - and put that terrible music out!"

Dudley thought, it was time for lunch (it was ten past twelve) and he already had awaited his mother calling him, but he didn't dare to come down earlier, to avoid helping her in the kitchen. But now he switched off the music, put the CD into his portable CD player, he had also got for his "good" notes, and started downstairs. He nearly fell off, because he paid more attention to the music, than to the stairs. He arrived in the kitchen, but as it was empty he proceeded to the living room. As he saw his mother and his father he new at once, that there was something wrong.

Mr. Dursley was telling the story the second time to Dudley while he was helping himself with some chocolate. The portable CD was lying on the ground and one could hear "Smoke On The Water" out of the earphones. Dudley didn't look shocked at all. Quite the opposite, he was bumping in his chair and singing "Harry's in prison, Harry's in prison" all the time. He hated Harry even more than his parents, because he was sometimes hexed a tail of a pig and Harry threatened to hex him once more, if he didn't stop bothering Harry.

For the first time, Mrs. Dursley did speak: "Could you image, where he's brought to?" "N-No idea. The p'lice took him 'way s' f'st - hoops - I c'lndt as'k - huups." Mr. Dursley had nearly drank out half of the bottle, and started to loose control over his voice. "We 've to d' som'thing - hoops. We've to 'elp 'im". - "Why should we help him? I always warned him to behave like a normal boy and not to go to this weird school. My sister also made trouble to my family all the time." Mrs. Dursley argued in a very cold voice. "Woops - he saved my life, - huups. I was - at the bank bef’re and had all that money w'th me - hoops - to buy the ... " - "When do we get lunch, I'm hungry" Dudley shouted and put on his ear phones again.

"Yes my dear, we ought to have lunch, haven't we, darling?" - "No, I'm not hungry" said Mr. Dursley and stared out of the window. He had hated Harry all the time, but Harry had rescued him in the most threatening situation he has ever faced. He could still feel the pain in his throat, where the knife has cut his skin. What if ... he didn't dare to think further. Also he was carrying the outcome of his life insurance, he was saving the last 25 years. It would be the robbery of the life for the thieves.

"I want to speak to m' neph'w!" Mr. Dursley shouted into the telephone. He had just called the police station. "He's 'ust been arrested a' Kingch Cro's!" - "We have no records about any Mr. Potter arrested today!" Said an inpatient voice on the other side of the phone. "But it must be - I s-saw it w' my 'wn eyes - hoops! You caught him with a dragon carriage!" - "You are drunken! If you disturb us further more, YOU will be arrested!"- Said the voice on the other side, and the connection was interrupted.

"<mph> It was the wizard police!" said Dudley, just helping himself for the portion that was meant for Harry, after his own plate was finished. He was biting just another piece of a grilled chicken from his hand. "You know, Harry isn't allowed to use magic in his holiday. Last year he received the letter from the so-called ministry of magic. They warned him last year, and now he made it - gone too far – bad luck!" Dudley said, and grasped now the chicken that was prepared for his daddy.

Mr. Dursley had emptied the other half of the bottle, and fell asleep in the sofa. His mouth wide opened and snoring like a walrus.

*

<Ping> <Ping> <Ping> Mr. Dursley awoke. He was suffering from an awful headache and had had a terrible dream. But as he saw the empty bottle and the lots of cigarettes all over the floor and the table, he recognized, that it was no dream at all! <Ping> <Ping> <Ping> Hedwig, Harry’s owl was picking against the window. She had rescued herself from her cage, which had been damaged as Mr. Dursley had driven against the garage door. As the door of the car still stood opened, she could fly to the window. She was hungry and thirsty. "Yes, that is it!" Mr. Dursley shouted. He opened the window and let Hedwig come in. Dudley had told him, that Harry used to write letters and to fix it on the foot of Hedwig. No matter to whom he sent it, Hedwig always found the way. Mr. Dursley hadn't believed it before, but now this was his possibility to do something for Harry.

He knew that Professor Dumbledore was the head of the school Harry was attending now, and that he had promised to take care of him. He wrote a long letter to "Dumbledore, head of Hogwarts, school for witchcraft and wizardry." Just as he had closed the envelope, Mrs. Dursley came in: "Are you crazy? - You are writing a letter to this - this wizard, with an owl? What if our neighbours see you?" - "Fuck, I don't care. Harry helped me, and so I have to help him." He fixed the letter on Hedwig’s feet and carried her to the window. He had given her a lot of Cornflakes to eat, and milk to drink, so she was strong enough for her journey. "Carry this letter to Dumbledore, he shall bring Harry back to me." and Mr. Dursley let the owl fly out of his window.

His headache was getting even stronger, especially as also Dudley awoke and turned on his hi-fi equipment again.

Mr. Dursley waited the one day, and the day after it, but didn’t receive any answer. How long does an owl post take? He asked himself. Is Professor Dumbledore still in his office? Can he do something for Harry? Will he help him at all?

3. Prison

"Five" - Harry made a line crossed through four other lines on the wall with his spoon. Now he was five days in prison and didn't know, how things would proceed. He was sitting on his bed in a small cell. There was only a shabby table and two chairs in it. The window was only a tiny hole in the wall, nine feet above the ground, with lattice before it. The door was made of thick oak, and had a flap, through which he received his food. Three times a day, he got the same: A thin soup and a piece of bread. There was also a toilet in one corner; he had to share with his neighbour.

Sugar, he was named. He was accused for turning stones into gold, and paying in Muggle stores with it. The gold turned into stone again after some hours. So the Muggles (non wizards) were both surprised and angry with this. On his arrest he broke the nose of one of the wizard policemen.

"You want some cigarette?" – Sugar asked "N-no, thanks!" – "What, you deny my offer?" – "Oh, no, yes, thanks." And Harry took the cigarette of Sugars hands, because he didn’t want his nose to get broken because of resisting him. Harry coughed. "You never smoked before, haven’t you?" Sugar asked, "No, I have!" and Harry coughed again, he hated smoking.

Sugar was here since 11 months and still waiting for a judge appointment. The ministry of wizards is not the fastest, and the department of justice was the worst of all. After the You-Know-Who had come to strength again, they had a lot to do. Harry had much time to think over the events five days before. Why did they have to rob Mr. Dursley at Kings Cross? There were so many people around, why him? Why was the police at the location so fast? And why did they arrest him? The last time he was accused to use magic in holidays, they sent him a letter and threatened to expel him from school, but not to send him to prison. These questions were circling in Harry’s brain, he was thinking them over and over again, and found no answer.

1. Winky

A loud bang woke Harry up. It sounded like someone hitting something heavy against his bed. And really, it was a house elve hitting his head against his bed once more and shouting "Bad Winky, bad Winky!" Harry knew this elve: "Winky! What are you doing' here? Stop hitting yourself!" - "Yes, Sir - master Sir. But I is feeling so guilty. Me master is died, his son is died and I is no helping them! I is have no master, nobody will ever want me to be his house elve. Nobody will trust me any more." said the house elve. "But Winky, it’s not your fault. Mr. Crouch fired you, and you had nothing to do with it. " Harry replied (See book four).

Mr. Crouch was one of the ministers of magic that was killed in this summer at the school of Hogwarts. "B-but how'd you find me?" asked Harry. "I is cleaning up the office of Mr. Dumbledore, when he received a letter. He read it loud and I is listening to him. The letter is saying Harry is in prison, so Winky is going to visit you. Professor Dumbledore is saying you is staying in prison in the big city, and he is right. Winky is proud to find you!"

"What will Professor Dumbledore do? Will he help me? Say it, Winky, say it!" asked Harry. "Ahm - Uh - Winky is leaving Hogwarts at once I is hearing you are in t-trouble. Winky is not waiting for Professor Dumbledore what is doing! - Bad Winky, bad Winky" <bang> <bang> <bang> And Winky hit his head against the bed once more.

 

2. Released

Harry was scratching the seventh line into the wall near his bed, as he heard something outside the door. He could hear heavy keys bouncing against the door, then one of them was stuck inside the keyhole and the door opened with a loud noise. At once, Harry felt like his whole body was covered with ice. He suddenly knows who was opening the door: It was a dementor. The guides the ministry of magic used to guard the prisoners at Azkaban. Was he in Azkaban?

A pale man passed the dementor standing next the door and came in. He was wearing a black robe. He said to Harry "Come with me!" He was guiding Harry through long dark corridors until they reached a great door; Winky following them unseen. Some other dementors opened the door and Harry went through the door. He was blinded by sunlight at once, and covered his eyes with his hands.

3. Motor home

"Harry, my dear Harry!" he could hear Mr. Dursley shout. Mr. Dursley hugged him so hard, that he could hardly breath and lifted him above the ground. "Harry, I'm so glad to see you again!".

Professor Dumbledore had managed to convince the judge, that Harry had been acting in self-defence. Also he had sent an reply owl to Mr. Dursley to tell him the place, where he could meet Harry and bring him home again.

"Where's your car?" asked Harry. He could not see the brown old Rover anywhere. "Here we go!" answered Mr. Dursley and pointed proudly to a brand new white coloured motor home with a sign of blue birds on it. Mrs. Dursley and Dudley were sitting in the front and waving at him. Harry looked astonished at the huge motor home. It was at least 30 feet long and 8 feet high. "It's a German Knaus" Mr. Dursley explained, "They're making the best! I had all the money for this caravan in my pocket, when you saved me! Wanted to buy it on that very day."

 

Harry had never seen such a big car in his life. He entered through the door on the right side and looked around. He was shaking hands with Mrs. Dursley, as she suddenly screamed: "Uaaaah! A monster!" - "I is no monster Milady, I is Winky, Harry’s friend!" said Winky who had followed Harry into the caravan. "Out of my caravan, at once!" shouted Mrs. Dursley. "One moment, " said Harry "Winky, could you imagine to join us and help Mrs. Dursley in her homework?" - "I, really? Is Winky getting new master, he is can work for? Then Winky is no more alone, no more guilty, no more missing his master. Has new master, Mrs. Dursley. Winky is very happy."

Harry explained Mrs. Dursley that a house elve has no other wish than to serve his master and wants to work all day and night for him. Mrs. Dursley couldn't believe this at first, but that changed after Winky had prepared a wonderful lunch out of few things he found in the refrigerator, and cleaned up everything after that. Not to mention that he cleaned the shoes of Mr. Dursley and refreshed the curls in Mrs. Dursley’s hair.

4. Funeral

 

"So we'll start our holiday journey: Italy, we're coming. Next stop Brighton!" Mr. Dursley said. And he explained Harry that Professor Dumbledore had asked him, whether he could make a one day stop in Brighton on the next day, where there was the funeral of Cedric (a colleague at the school of Harry, who died last year during the triwizard tournament, see book four.). As Mr. Dursley was so thankful about Harry’s bravery, he would go anywhere Harry wanted.

Mr. Dursley gave Harry also a letter from Professor Dumbledore. It was an official letter from the school, and Harry feared that he would be expelled from school, because of using magic outside. But he was relieved, when he read that it was only a letter copied by the copy elves from the school secretary. It states that school will begin one month later this year, on October the 1st, because there are some "changes" done at the school. They didn't tell what these changes were, but included a long list of things they had to buy for the fifth year in Hogwarts. The list was twice as long as last year and contained things, Harry had never heard in his life.

1. Hermione

They arrived at Brighton the next evening and found a place to stay for the night not far from the centre but near the coast. They could hear the waves rolling in from the sea and smell the salty air.

After dinner they went all together towards the pier of Brighton. As they were passing a bookstore, somebody came out with a huge staple of books, higher even than her head. She was saying "I'll then come back tomorrow and take the rest with me." and Harry recognised their voice at once "Hermione!" he shouted. "Oops - Harry!" Hermione dropped all her books and they fell all around the ground. She was very surprised to see him there - "Nice to meet you!"

Harry told her everything about the latest events and his holiday in Italy and asked: "What are you doing after the funeral?" - "Oh, my parents have divorced, and I will travel to Germany. My mother has moved to my grandma, and I'm supposed to stay with her this holidays. Next holidays I will stay with my father. I will travel by train all the way, and I need a little bit of a lecture". "You called this a little bit?" asked Harry, who was helping her to collect all the books, and piling them to a large tower. Harry had never read so many books in his whole life, but he knew that Hermione was keen on books and reading all the time.

"Where do you spend the night?" - "I'm with the Weasleys. Ron's father is staying at the campground nearby, and he invited me. He will also bring me to the train tomorrow. So have a good night then. See you tomorrow on the funeral." And she lifted the pile of books and left.

"Nice girlfriend you have." said Dudley with a provoking undertone. "She's NOT my girlfriend, definitely not!" Harry clarified with an angry undertone.

 

2. Ron

At 10 p.m. they were back at their caravan. It was starting to get dark. Time to go to bed.

Harry was originally supposed to use the bicycle garage at the back of the caravan, as this was far away from the Dursleys and very uncomfortable. But now Winky got this place. As a house elve he was used to sleep anywhere on the ground in the kitchen, and he felt like in paradise with his own room.

Harry received the special place: It was a room above the drivers cabin. He had to climb a ladder to reach it. There were windows to all sides and the best of all: He could open a huge window in the ceiling and so he could see the stars while he went asleep. The sound of the waves was very relaxing, so he fell into a wonderful sleep at once.

But suddenly, he heard a knock on the window and a whistle. And someone blended him with a pocket lamp. "Hi Harry!" - "What – Huh - Hi Ron, p-please switch off this lamp, I cannot see anything." - "Harry, come on. Put your clothes on at once and follow me" Ron said. "Huh, what, what do you reckon how late it is?" - "It's five minutes to 12 p.m., there are strange things going on at the cemetery my father told me. "

Strange things happen at the cemetery. Nobody had to tell this twice to Harry. Immediately he got dressed, and very carefully, so that the Dursleys could not hear him, he climbed out of his ceiling window and followed Ron. Down on the ground again Harry saw Hermione and Ron explained: "Hermione told me that you are also here in a huge caravan, and it was easy to find. I was sure that you would be interested, what's going on."

 

3. Ghost Hour

They arrived at the cemetery 10 minutes past 12 p.m.. It was a very old cemetery, with gigantic high crosses made of stone, and also simple wooden crosses on the graves. They heard whistling sounds all around and suddenly Harry fell on his knees. "What's the matter, Harry?" Hermione cried. "Dunno, my - my scar hearts so bad, auu." Hermione laid her cool hand on his forehead. She stroked the other hand lovingly over his cheek and kissed him softly on his nose. Ron was jealous and kicked him hardly against his side. That helped! Harry came to his feet again, still rubbing his scar. "What the fucking hell ... ?" - "Psst!" Just in front of them the tombstone of a grave started to shiver, and yellow smoke came out of the grave. It smelled like rotten eggs. It exhausted more and more smoke and it formed to a human body. The smoky body lifted quickly into the air with a high whistle and in the height of about 100 feet it was spinning around, as if it was searching for something. Then it headed towards the coast with a low whistle.

Everywhere around there were tombstones shivering and the earth was smoking. Ron asked: "What do you reckon?" he asked. Then he stood still, scared: Somebody hold him in a hard grip at his shoulder and asked: "What are you ... ". "Whaaah!" all three of them were screaming, their mouths wide open "... doing here?".

It was Ron's father. The ministry of magic had given him the order to observe the events on the graveyard, and to take protocol of the events. "E-ex-excuse me, dad! I just wanted to know, what's happening. You made me curious about the events here."

"Ok - then I'll explain. Until now three hundred and fifty two ghosts have left their graves. All of them are heading south. We will have to inform our colleagues on the continent to keep an eye on them. It’s very unusual that a resting human body that died a normal death is leaving his grave as a ghost. And it is much more unusual that there are such a lot of them.

So, but now as you know everything, you have to return into your bed. Mother is waiting for you; she's dying for fear. Tell her I will follow soon.

*

Harry was in bed now, but could not manage to fall asleep. There were too many questions turning around in his brain? Why did his scar hurt again? Where were those ghosts flying? And why? He had to write an owl to Sirius (his godfather) at once. "Oops - shit!" He recognised that Mr. Dursley had given Hedwig to the neighbours, because he didn't want her to travel through Europe.

 

4. Funeral

"Morning everybody! Winky is ready making the breakfast!" Harry awoke very slowly. He didn't know where he was, rubbing his eyes. Then he heard the sound of the waves and could remember. This was Brighton, and today was the day for Cedric’s funeral.

"Good morning Harry! Have you slept well", Mrs. Dursley asked kindly. "Y-yes, and you?" - "Morning Harry! Come and join us for breakfast, we have put the table outside, there's a wonderful weather." said Mr. Dursley kindly. Harry was still not used that both of them were now so friendly to him. All the years before they haven't even recognised him at breakfast.

So he started down the ladder from his bed. He had still his street clothes on, he had forgotten to take them off last night. He tried to go into the bathroom, but it was locked. He knocked at the door and said: "I have to follow the call of nature." - "Wuarg" answered Dudley. "Look for the next bush! Fuck off". At least Dudley was as unfriendly as ever. Harry wished he could find anything to change his opinion also.

He left the caravan and was pleasurable surprised. The sky was deep blue, no cloud to be seen, and a wonderful sea with soft waves rolling in with a very smooth sound. The smooth sound was made, when the waves reached the beach that consists of millions of polished stones. The beach was much greater than yesterday, and the water was much lower. Was this the work of dark arts? No, he could remember what they have learned in Astronomy about the moon and its effect on the tide.

"Do you want to drink your rose hip tea as usual?" asked Mrs. Dursley. "Yes, thank you. But first I have to look for a bush, Dudley's blocking' the restroom."

Some times later they were all happily together at the breakfast table, enjoying their full English breakfast (toast bread with ham, sausages, beans and scrambled eggs) and the view over the sea. Everybody was happy, everybody - except Dudley. He was pale faced, having dark circles under his eyes and was in a terrible mood. Every now and then he had something to criticise on Harry.

"BTW: Dudley", asked Mrs. Dudley "whom did you chose as your partner for the dance lessons next year?" – "Er – I still have to decide. There are so many girls that want me, it’s hard to chose." Dudley lied.

"You have a beautiful girlfriend, because you brew a love potion - and oops - she is bewitched" he accused Harry. "How often do I have to explain that Hermione isn't my girlfriend?" answered Harry. But that brought him the idea: Obviously Dudley had Problems with girls. If he only could brew a love potion for Dudley, that would perhaps stop annoying him. But how to brew a love potion? He was not good at potions. The potion teacher was Professor Snape, and he disgusted Harry. So he couldn't concentrate on the lessons, and was always hoping that the lesson would end soon. He should have paid more attention to it.

"Have you ever been to a funeral, Harry?" asked Mrs. Dursley. "N-no, never!" - "So we will accompany you, that you don't feel so lonely." she suggested. "Ahm- hm- I'm so sorry." said Mr. Dursley "There is a strange sound at the motor. I will have to look at it, before we get problems on our long travel. Also I have to check the pressure in the tires, and ... " - "And I'm feeling ill." said Dudley, and left the breakfast table and headed to the caravan. "Winky is a lot to do in the kitchen, is doing a lot of work, dish washing, preparing lunch, cleaning up, ..." - "Ok, then, so at least I will go with you. I would suggest, if you wear your black robes and your tie, that you're wearing in Hogwarts all the time. BTW: When does it start exactly?" - "Ahm, at 10 a.m. at the graveyard." answered Harry. "So we have to hurry, let's go, no time to loose!".

At 5 minutes to 10 a.m. they came in running to the graveyard. There were already a lot of people present. Harry could see nearly all the teachers from Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, Professor Trelawny, and not to forget - Hagrid, the teacher for Care Of Magical Creatures. But he could not see Professor Dumbledore. Of course there was the family of Cedric, and also Cho, who was with Cedric at the Christmas feast. He could see Ron and the Weasleys, but they were on the other side of the crowd, and the ceremony was soon to start.

First the priest was saying a short prayer, then he held a speech about Cedric and that god made the humans out of dust, and that the bodies will turn to dust again. Harry thought, that this is really true, because they had burnt the body of Cedric and now he will be buried in the family grave here in Brighton. His family had waited so long in order to give all family members the possibility to join the funeral. The Cedric’s were a very old wizard family and had relatives all around the world. And it took a while for the owls to bring the bad news to all of them.

Harry couldn't see much of the ceremony, because they were standing far away. He could hear Professor McGonagall talking about how a good student Cedric had been. Then everyone put a drop of earth with a small shovel into the hole where the urn was buried. Some dropped a couple flowers in it. As it was Harry’s turn, he couldn't help to weep. He could remember as it was yesterday, when he had suggested Cedric to take the Triwizard Cup at the same time as he. If only he didn't have done that. If only Harry had taken it, then he would have been transported to Voldemort, and not also Cedric, and Cedric could still be alive (see book four). He let some earth drop on the urn, tears falling down his cheek, and gave the shovel to Mrs. Dursley. He was looking for a handkerchief, but he had none. Mrs. Dursley saw this, and gave him some of hers.

At last everybody was offering their condolences to the family of Cedric. There was also Cho in the row, and Harry asked: "Can I help you somehow, Cho?" - "No, stay away! It's your fault, that he is dead." Harry was sad, that she said this, but could not reply anything, he stared at the ground and didn’t say anything. He was relieved, that he finally saw Ron and Hermione. "Hermione, can I have a word with you?" he asked her - "Yes, of course.". And they moved away from the others to a huge tree. "I need a love potion." - "SHAME ON YOU HARRY! I can't believe this. Cho's friend has just been buried and you have nothing to worry about than a love potion." - She was very angry, clenched her fists and became a red face while complaining about Harry: "You are so much used to have success in any things, that you just can’T stand when sometimes you cannot succeed!" - "No, no - please wait!" - said Harry calmly "It is not for me, it is for Dudley." And Harry explained her about Dudley, and that he is the only one that still treats him bad.

"B-but use of magic is forbidden during holiday, you should know!" - resisted Hermione. "Yes, I know, but can't you remember what Professor Snape said in his first lesson?" and Harry continued in a deeper voice, trying to imitate Professor Snape: "Potions has nothing to do with that hocus-pocus and wand waving you are doing in the other lessons. Brewing potions is a real science!" - "Do you really mean ... " asked Hermione. "Yes, potions is no magic at all, if Professor Snape says it, then it must be true." - "But I will need some time to find the right recipe in one of my books. I’ve never brewed such a potion before" – she lied (and she thought with a tear in her eyes of Krum, the national Quidditch champion, who had asked her to accompany for the last ball at Hogwarts).

They just wanted to leave and return to the others, as they heard a strange sound from the other side of the tree. "Om mani padme hum, Om mani padme hum, ..." somebody murmured. "Pst!" whispered Harry. "Can you hear this?" And they walked on tiptoes around the tree, held on their breath to avoid any noise. "Om mani padme hum, ..." Harry stumbled over a huge root, and fell just before the legs of - Professor Dumbledore.

He was sitting there with both feet put under each other, his eyes closed, and holding one hand in his other. "Oops, ahm, hello Professor, how are you!". Professor Dumbledore opened his left eye and recognised Harry. Then he opened the right one also and said: "Hello, fine, why are you disturbing me?" - "Ahm, er, ..." - "Have you never seen somebody meditating?" - "No I have not." answered Harry and Hermione at the same time. "Ahh, yes, you are a forth year, and you will learn the art of meditation only in the fifth year. "I've read about that!" Hermione hesitated to explain: "With meditation you can clear you brain of thoughts and get into contact with the infinity of the nirvana." - "But what does these words mean? Om Mani, something, is it a secret spell?" Harry asked - "No. " answered Dumbledore "it's not, it is a so called Mantra. Those are special words that can help you concentrate on one thing and forget about all others. I was practising ZEN meditation before, where I concentrate on my thoughts only, but when you came along and started your extremely loud conversation I was disturbed. So I switched to mantra meditation".

"Uh- oh." Harry and Hermione turned red: "Er, we have to go now, Mrs. Dursley is surely waiting for me" - "And Mrs. Weasley also, good-bye Professor" and they hurried back to the rest of the funeral crowd, hoping, that Professor Dumbledore hadn't heard too much.

5. Over The Ocean

Back at the motor home Ron asked Harry. "What do you do now?" – "We will take a ferry tonight, and cross the channel. Then we will drive through France, Germany, Austria and Italy. We go to Rome." Harry explained. – "Wau. I reckon that will be an interesting journey, I’d like to come with you. We are short of money this year, so we cannot afford to travel." – "Why don’t you come with us? We have plenty of room in our motor home, haven’t we, uncle Vernon?" – "Yes, sure." Mr. Dursley stated. "Really – t-that’d be great, I’ll ask my father at once." Ron gasped and ran away for his family’s tent.

"Mr. Dursley?" Hermione asked kindly "Do You possibly come in the near of Utting at the Ammersee in Germany?" – "Hm – where? - lets see." Mr. Dursley took his map from Germany: "There is the highway No. 9, there’s Munich, there is the Ammersee, but I cannot see Utting." – "Uh, it’s not shown in this map, because it’s only a small but beautiful village, but there it is!" and she pointed at a spot at the banks of the Ammersee. "Ahm, Mr. Dursley?" – Hermione asked again, and winked with her big brown eyes – "Could You perhaps have space for one more passenger, could You? " – "Let’s see: Ron and Harry sleep in above the driving cabin, my wife and me at the large bed, and Dudley ad the small one. There would be space, but it would not be OK to sleep in the same bed as Dudley. I’m sorry, Hermione" – "But Dad!"- Dudley interrupted – "You said you have my tent with you. I’d prefer to sleep in my own tent outside the caravan. I can’t stand Harry’s snoring anyway. So Hermione could sleep in my bed alone." – "Thank You." Said Hermione and gave Dudley a kiss at his cheek. "I’ll only fetch my things from the Weasleys. Will soon be back again!" – "But hurry up, we’ll have to leave soon, because we’ve to catch our ferry at Dover this evening. And it’s still a long way to go there!"

*

"Come on, Hermione! What do you do so long?" – "I can’t decide, which books to take with me, and which to leave at your family." They said goodbye to all of the Weasleys, Mrs. Weasley dropped one tear on her cheek as she kissed Ron on his forehead. "Take care of yourself, son."

So they headed back to the Dursleys. Ron had to carry only one small suitcase, but Hermione was packed with one big suitcase, one rucksack, two plastic bags and a tiny handbag. She was gasping under this weight. "Ron! Haven’t you heard anything about a gentlemen helping a woman a little bit, haven’t you?" – "Ahm, yes, of course, come on!" he said, and released her from her handbag. Hermione got red with rage, but didn’t say anything.

They came past a pharmacy and Hermione dropped all her luggage. "Take care of this, I’ll soon be back." She said and entered the drugstore.

*

"Hermione, come on, we’d have to hurry. You’re now more than half an hour in there, Mr. Dursley is waiting!" – "One moment." Ten minutes later she came out again with another heavy plastic bag. "What the hell …?" – "Winky told me he needs some special ingredients for the meal on Sunday." She lied, and took her luggage. This time Ron carried her heavy suitcase.

*

"Where have you been?" shouted Mr. Dursley. He looked nervously to his watch. "We’ll miss the ferry!" – "Ahm, sorry Mr. Dursley. Ron let me carry all my weight alone. Only when I nearly collapsed, he helped me!" Ron didn’t say anything, and put his things into the motor home.

*

Mr. Dursley tapped hardly on the gas pedal, and with squeaking wheels he started. He drove over one traffic light when it already had already turned red and he drove to fast through the corners that everybody had to get a grip on something not to fall off from the seat. Mrs. Dursley was pale, and all the way insisting to slow down. Mr. Dursley didn’t hear her at all and concentrated on the street. Dudley sat between both of them and seemed to enjoy the rally.

Ron and Harry were sitting at a table behind them. They’d tried to play a chess match, but in every curve the figures had dropped down the table and distributed all over the caravan, so they bewitched them to stay even in the corners. Hermione was trying to read a book about meditation, but was having not much fun with it. Not because of the subject. Professor Dumbledore had mentioned that they would have ZEN meditation next year at Hogwarts. So Hermione wanted to be prepared. Also she was really interested in controlling her thoughts, because often so much things were circling in her brain, she could hardly stand.

Bang! Mr. Dursley had just done a full break and the book flew out of her hands against the back of Ron. "Auh, dammed, what …" – "Fuck!" Mr. Dursley shouted. "Vernon! What do you use for words in the presence of children?" Mr. Dursley said. "We’d just missed the ferry to Calais! I knew it. If I only was driving a little faster?" – "Then we would all be dead, for sure!" Mrs. Dursley shouted angrily.

"But there is still a ship in the harbour!" Harry interrupted. "You’re right, I’ll see where it’s bound to." And Mrs. Dursley left the caravan and ran to the information building.

She came back with a ticket in her hands, gasping: "We’re lucky. There is one ferry left. It’s going directly to Wilhemshaven in Germany."

2. Ferry

The caravan was safely stored below, and the whole company was on deck. There was a heavy wind that started shortly before they left. Heavy waves were hitting the ferry and it was rolling hard. Ron, Harry and Hermione were standing at the reeling and feeding the fishes. Dudley had just bought the third "pomes with mayo" and enjoyed it.

"How long does it take - wurg?" Harry asked. "One minute less than the last time you’d asked!" answered Mrs. Dursley. "You want some pommes?" Dudley showed his pommes to the three on the reeling, grinning. "No, thanks – wurg" all three of them answered and gave another contribution to the fish.

After one hour the storm suddenly stopped, the clouds vanished and the sea turned smooth again. So they could at least enjoy the rest of the journey.

They were just entering their caravan to leave, as they heard lot of people whispering around them. "Have you heard?" – "Yes, terrible." – "Unbelievable!" – "And all dead?" – "They are still searching, but there is few hope.". "What, please – could you tell me you’re talking about?" Mrs. Dursley had turned to one of their neighbours. "Haven’t you heard it? The ferry to Calais is sunken in the storm. Bad luck for them." – "Uh-ah!" even Dudley turned pale now as Mrs. Dursley shared the news with the others. "Thank you very much, Ron, for being late!" Mr. Dursley was looking gracefully on Ron: "Seems you’d saved our lives right now! "

They drove silently – and very slowly – to the next campground.

 

3. Sailing

"Good morning, Hermione." – "Good morning, Mrs. Dursley." – "Good morning Harry and Ron" – "Hmm?" – "What? Where am I?" – "Breakfast is ready!" Winky shouted. "G’ Mornin’, Winky, what’d you made?" – "Winky is made ham and eggs with beans and sausages, English style, as you like it!"

It was a wonderful bright blue morning outside. The sun had just risen above the trees so that the caravan stood in the full beam of the sunlight. They had not managed to find the campground, but Mr. Dursley had remembered, that he had a friend who attended a sailing club. It had already grown dark, so he decided to park his caravan just before the club building.

They had finished their breakfast as an old VW-bus came into the area. "Hey Vernon, what a surprise!" – "Hello, Dieter!" Mr. Dursley and the driver of the VW-bus shook hands. Dieter introduced the other ones from his bus: "This is my girlfriend, Beatrice, her son, Tobias, his father, Arno and my son, Dennis. "

Mr. Dursley introduced also the people in his motor home and narrated the story how they’d crossed the channel and about the sunken ferry. "Have they found any survivors, yet?" he asked. "No, they just reported it in the news. There’s no sign at all, just as the ocean had swallowed the ferry including everything on it. Very bad storm was that, yesterday. But today, it’ll be fine. The weather forecast said ideal sailing conditions." Dieter asked: "Dennis and Tobias are practicing today, how about your kids joining them?" – "Yeah!" Ron, Hermione and Harry shouted as from one mouth. "No, thanks.", Dudley was the only one who didn’t like the idea on being on the water again.

So they brought two boats to the water: There was a so-called laser boat, which Dennis was going to use. Ron was helping him carry the heavy boat into the water when Hermione came with the mast and the sails.

Dennis showed them, how all the things fit together, and they entered it.

Tobias had just started to learn sailing and he used the so-called "optimist" boat. It looked rather strange, not like a usual boat. It was nearly rectangular, even the front was cut flat, as to make it shorter. The sails were a little bit smaller, and there was a keel, that had to be stuck from top through a slit in the boats ground.

Harry helped Tobias carry all the things to the water and mount it.

Dieter supervised all of them and gave hints, when they had problems. "Are you ready?"- he asked finally - "Then here we go!" and he released the slope of Dennis laser. The wind was blowing just from the wrong direction, but Dennis made some quick movements with his rudder, so they managed to escape the small harbour.

So did Tobias in the small optimist together with Harry. "Woher hast du die Narbe an deiner Stirn?" Tobias asked. "What?" Tobias realized that Harry could not understand German so he switched to English: "Where is the scar from in your forehead?" – "Oh, that’s a long story. I got it when somebody killed my parents and also tried to kill me." – "Your parents dead, oh – I’m sorry".

"Klar zur Halse, Tobias" Dieter shouted from the harbour. "Pay attention on your head. " Tobias warned Harry and made a turn with his rudder, and the sail made a quick move from one side to the other. Harry had to duck quickly, because otherwise it would have hit his head. The boat made a smooth turn and continued to proceed against the wind again.

"How do you manage to move against the wind?" Harry asked, "Are you …?" Harry stopped, he wanted to ask, whether Tobias is also a wizard, but then thought better not talk about wizards. "That’s easy!" Tobias explained. "Dieter taught it to me. You have to put the rudder this way and the sail with the rope that way, you see? But the most important is the keel that is stuck through the boats floor."

"Achtung!" Dieter shouted from the land. But too late: Dennis was also so busy explaining Hermione how to sail, so he didn’t notice that he was colliding the Tobias boat.

Wham. The laser hit hard against the optimist so it turned left, the sail turned to the right and slammed Harry into the water. "Oops, sorry!" Said Dennis, and turned red not looking at Hermione.

"Puh, so at least today I don’t have to shower. "Harry laughed. It was no problem that he fell into the water, because it was rather warm, and Dieter had insisted that every one of them had to wear a life jacket. Tobias helped Harry into the boat again.

They had much fun in sailing, everybody was allowed to steer the boat one after the other. Harry was a natural talent on the broomstick, but sailing was very different. The boat never followed the directed he wanted. Ron had also some problems, only Hermione managed it at once: She head read about the effect of the keel, and Dennis had shown her everything about it.

"Zeit zum Mittagessen, Kinder! Time for lunch!" Beatrice called from the harbour. "Ok, mummy, we’re coming!" Tobias answered. "Why do you speak my language so good?" Harry asked Tobias "Oh, do I really, thank you. I learn it at school!"

They arrived at the harbour one by one, and put all the pieces of the boats back to the hangar. "Sailing makes hungry." Said Ron. He was a little bored. Dennis was talking with Hermione all the time, and she did obviously like it. So they didn’t pay any attention on him.

Dieter and Beatrice had prepared a wonderful lunch: Nearby the harbour was a little pavilion with a huge fireplace in the middle. They have made a fire of large beech tree sticks and above the fire there was an iron grill, mounted with a steel rope, so it could be adjusted in height.

They had prepared maize butts, potatoes and roasted chicken. There was also a choice of salads with tomatoes, Greek farmers salad and noodles salad. After the meal they got walnut ice cream with maple syrup on it.

"Does anybody want some more potatoes?" Dieter asked. "No, thanks." Everybody was complete. "Why can’t we sail any more in the afternoon?" Dennis asked impatiently – "We have to bring Tobias and Arno to the airport. They’re flying back to Munich again today." Beatrice explained. They all were talking English now, so that their foreign guests could follow the conversation.

"Ihr kommt aus München?" Hermione asked. "Ja.", Arno answered. "Und wir verbringen den Rest des Urlaubs am Ammersee." – "Was für ein Zufall, wir fahren auch dahin, meine Mutter wohnt in Utting." – "Das ist echt ein Zufall, ich hab einen Wohnwagen dort auf dem Campingplatz. Kommt uns doch besuchen!" – Hermione talked with Mr. Dursley and explained him that Arno had invited them to his caravan at the Ammersee. "How do you manage to speak German so well?" – Dennis asked. "My father is English and my mother is German. So I learned both languages as a child. I even know a little bit of Bavarian: "Oachkatzlschwoaf, Loabidoag, Mauraloabin!" – "Good, do you also know Oachariad, Neiching, Obadeang und Minga?" Tobias asked. That sounded funny, so he had to teach the others these words also and to explain their meanings. Minga for example is the Bavarian word for their capital Munich.

4. Larry

"We have to say good-bye to my grandma, Katharina." Tobias asked: "D’you want to join us and visit her also?" – "Yes, but only for a short visit. We have to leave and make some kilometres today.

They packed all their things, and followed Dieter towards the flat of Katharina. They arrived, when she was just leaving with her dog, named Larry.

Dieter introduced each other, Mr. Dursley was very pleased: "Hello Mrs. Dirsch, nice to meet you." – "Nice to meet you also" she replied. "How about having some coffee? I only have to release the dog for a while, he has to follow the call of nature." She released Larry and he headed towards some bushes. "Tobias, kannst du Larry gleich wieder hochbringen?" – "Yes, grandma!" Tobias answered. And all of them went upstairs to have some coffee.

Larry had reached the bushes and just started to lift his leg, as he became unsure. There was a big black dog hiding in the bushes. "Wau!" Larry showed that these were his bushes. But then there happened something strange. The big dog shrank and after a while he looked the same as Larry. He murmured something and Larry stood still, frozen.

"Larry, where are you? Come on!" Tobias had fun to speak English. And Larry came running to him. Both moved upstairs where the air was full of the smell of coffee and tea. Katharina had prepared broken orange pekoe tea for their English guests. Also she offered some home made cake.

Hermione took a glance on Larry. She liked small animals, and was very sad that her cat did stay at home with her father. The long journey would not be too good for it. "Hi Larry, how are you?" – And as if Larry could understand her, he proceeded to her. He sniffed her hands, and as she started crawling his neck, he jumped on her lap. "That’s why he’s called a lap-dog." Katharina explained smiling.

It was a very nice feeling for Hermione to have this warm body next to her. She crawled him again on his neck, under his chin and behind his ears. Larry made the impression that he enjoyed this very much.

When they were bound to leave Larry didn’t want to part from Hermione’s side. "Seems he likes you?" Katharina asked. "Yes, and I like him. It would be too nice, if he could join us." – "Why not? You can bring him back, when you are on your way home, can’t you?"

Hermione glanced kindly at Mr. Dursley and winked with her eyes on him. "Can we?" – "Yes, of course. We have now such a nice bunch of guests, one more doesn’t matter." And so Larry joined Hermione on her way south.

Katharina was waving them good-bye until they were out of sight, then she started upstairs again. Just after she closed the door behind her, she heard something scratch on her door. "Larry?" she opened the door – and there stood – Larry. He had obviously changed his mind and they had released him at the next corner.

The Dursley’s motor home was back on the road again. Mr. Dursley had to get used to drive on the right side of the road. Last night he had occasionally used the left side, as he was used from England.

Mrs. Dursley was very satisfied with her husband, because he now drove very carefully. Dudley sat again between them, and enjoyed the sight of the beautiful surroundings. Ron and Harry had succeeded in finding all their chess figures and were in the middle of an exiting match. Winky rested in his room; he was still tired from cleaning up all the dishes. And Hermione sat on her place with a happy smile in her face, no book on her lap this time, but – Larry.

 

6. Over The Autobahn

They were all very tired. Last night they had been driving very long. Mr. Dursley wanted go to "Hahnenklee im Harz", he knew there is a beautiful lake surrounded by woods and a very nice camp ground. But he could not drive so fast with his motor home, as he was used when he was travelling this route by car (he went this way some times before).

He drove as long as possible, but finally he was so tired that he stated it would be safer to stop at the next parking place and rest for the night. Mrs. Dursley agreed at once and was again proud and delighted at the same time, that now safety has become so important to her husband.

They halted at a small parking place. Dudley was too tired to build up his tent, but Harry and Ron invited him to their high level sleeping room. Hermione was pleased as Larry slept on her bed over her feet. So they stayed warm the whole night through. She hardly ever slept so well as this night, only when she woke up in the morning, she hardly could breath. Larry was lying across her throat. She put him safely aside and stood up to go into the toilet.

But the red light flashing bright told her bad news. The caravan toilet was full! "Oh, no!" she thought. She moved silently back, and wondered either to woke up Mr. Dursley or go outside into the woods.

At that moment somebody came down the ladder from the upper sleeping room. It was Dudley, who wanted also go to the toilet. "It is full!" Hermione whispered. "What – uh - ah." Dudley stumbled. He had joined his father one time to empty the toilet. From then on he had enough. Not only the smell, but to see the content flowing into the sunk. He could hardly avoid puking and putting the content of his stomach also into the sunk. That was too much for him.

But now seeing Hermione in such an emergency, he changed his mind rapidly: "I saw a sunk outside yesterday. I’ll empty the toilet soon. I’ll hurry!" And he did so, emptying it, and put also two litres of water and some of this green fluid in it, that prevented the worst smell.

"Here you go!" he beamed on Hermione when he presented her that the red toilet light had gone off.

*

"I’m hungry!" Ron said shortly before twelve o’clock. "Wau!" said Larry. "Yeah, we’ll leave the highway at the next station, Mr. Dursley answered.

*

"Where are we?" asked Harry, when he had nearly finished eating his Leberkäse. That was some Bavarian speciality, made of meat and tasting very well. "Hmm", Mr. Dursley said "We are at this station. He pointed on the spot on the map in front of him. "We’re are not too fast. I don’t think we’ll make it to Munich this day. Maybe, we’ll rest in the Holladau this night.

Hermione was delighted: "Oh, Holladau, that’ll be interesting, there are a lot of … "

She just wanted to point out, that this was an old Celtic region. She read recently in The Celtic Millennium about it. There were a lot of Druids buried there. And a lot of them were still wandering around at night as ghosts. She was very keen on meeting a real living – or dead – Druid. She wanted to ask them a lot. Because the druids didn’t write down their knowledge, there was hardly known anything about them.

" … hops gardens there." She finished her sentence, because she knew that the Dursleys didn’t like this wizard stuff.

She thought of another book she had read: The Developing Of Brewing Beer In The Last 5000 Years. The author thought that there might be a special jinx on the hops planted in the Holladau.

Perhaps she could find out more about this rumour? She knew they had to write a special work in their last year in Hogwarts. This had then a large influence on the decision, whether they were supposed to receive a stipend to study after finishing school. And she urgently wanted to study. ‘There’s so much to learn’ she thought.

Perhaps she could even be famous some day. HERMIONE GRANGER AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE SECRET OF HOPS. She could read the news headings in big letters in her mind. Rita Skeeter would write this article about her discovery and flush away the bad things she’d written about her.

"All right, Hermione?" Mr. Dudley asked. Everybody except her had already left the restaurant as she was hanging in her dreams. ‘Some day, …’ she thought and followed Mr. Dursley outside.

 

1. Rohrbach

Mr. Dursley had bought a wonderful CD in the last station. It was from a woman that called herself "Enya." She sang beautiful tunes that reminded of the ancient Celtic times.

"Here we are!" said Mr. Dursley as they arrived at the station Holladau. "Not again sleeping at a rest station." Dudley complained. "There is noise the whole night through. I cannot sleep." "You’re right." Said Mrs. Dursley. "Please Vernon, could we proceed for a more quieter place, couldn’t we?" – "Ok, I’ll try it, there’s a hidden exit, let’s see, where we come to."

And he followed the road that brought him through a small village until a main road. "Where to go?" Mr. Dursley asked. "Left or right?" – "Right!" answered Hermione. She didn’t know, but her intuition told her to go right. Mr. Dursley glanced at his wife, and she confirmed: "Right!" – "Ok then, the women say turn right, so right we go.

They passed three bridges then they saw a sign Rohrbach but too late. They missed the exit. But not far after this another sign showed Rohrbach. So they left. They found even a gas station, which had still opened. "Very fine, Winky is needing some food for tomorrow."

The caravan was also in need of some fuel, and this gas station was less expensive than those on the highway.

"Do you know a place to stay for the night here?" he asked the gas station manager when he paid his bill. "Kloa, do woas I scho wos. Fost einfach de nexte links, na kummst zum Bosal. Do is nix los, de hom zua gmocht." – "Please … ?" asked Mr. Dursley, but Hermione interrupted him. "I’d understand, thank you mister." And she explained what the man had mentioned. They had to turn on the next road to the left hand side then they would come to bosal. It seemed to be a company that had closed down recently. These were ideal parking conditions.

Mr. Dursley followed the advice of Hermione another time and soon they found a perfect place for the night. It was calm and there was a river flowing nearby.

"Whaa? – Ough! Dammed!" Harry screamed suddenly in the middle of the night. He had dreamt that Voldemort had managed to catch him and bound him on the tracks of a railway with thin ropes that looked like a spider’s web. And just now the railway had driven across him.

But he realized that this was only a dream and there was only a railway driving outside nearby. He was released and tried to fall asleep again, when he heard the voice of Hermione whispering: "Harry, Ron, do you want to join me? I heard strange voices in the hall nearby and I’m trying to discover the secrets of hops. "Hmm?" Ron said, "No, not today." And was instantly sleeping again.

But Harry still rubbing his head, where he had crashed against the caravan roof, could not resist when there was the speech about a secret. He put on his clothes over his sleeping dress and followed Hermione.

It was a wonderful bright sky. Harry tried to find the stars of the Big Wagon and located the North Star. Professor Trelawney would be proud that he at least had learned this at her lessons.

Hermione was holding a lamp in her hand and proceeding to the main entrance door of the great building of Bosal. "I can feel, there’s something in." She whispered. The front door was locked. "There must be another entrance." She stated. They moved around the building, and really, there was a back door entrance, and it was – open.

Hermione switched off her lamp and entered the hall. Harry followed her. They could hear some voices, so they kept very still and tried to find out what they said:

"I assure you!" they could hear one of the voices. "I have found the secret of managing a company: Let all the decisions be made by your workers, if they fail, then fire them. If they succeed, then tell your boss, that was your work then you’ll be promoted."

"Nonsense", another voice claimed. "I’d never think that the mortal would believe your nonsense. When you run a hops farm, the most important thing to do is to find employees that are glad to find any job at all. When they want more money, tell them that the price of hops has fallen, and you will either lower their wages or fire them. "

"That’s all bullshit you’re talking about, be aware, how people can react, when they get fired." The third voice was explaining: "When my chief fired me, I bewitched the hops to make the people drink more and more from the beer brewed from it. They should not stop drinking until they’d do the craziest things. They will cause damage to their own health or even risk their lives."

"Pst, there is someone around" said the first voice. Harry and Hermione stood still, frozen.

"You’re dreaming! All the other ghosts left last week, and we’re the only stupid ones forced to stay here." The second voice answered. And addressed to the third voice "When your chief discovered your deed he bewitched you and now you cannot move away from this place." – "Quiet, he’s right!" The third voice shouted. "I can feel that there is some mortal in this building. Find them!" he ordered.

And at once the three ghosts speeded in all directions to find the intruders. It didn’t last long to find Hermione and Harry. Even though they stood still, nothing could be hidden for these three ghosts. They were a hops farmer, a manager and a druid.

Harry and Hermione were so surprised that they could not think of any resistance. Also their wands were not with them. Harry’s was still in prison, he forgot to ask for it after his release. And Hermione’s was like Ron’s at the Weasleys home.

The three ghosts bound the two on a concrete pillar with very thin ropes. They looked like made from a spider’s web, but they were very strong and could not been destroyed.

"What were you intending to do?" asked one of the ghosts who had a long white beard and long white hair. He remembered Harry of Professor Dumbledore. "N-nothing." Harry claimed. "Stop lying! You’d tried to discover the secret of the hops, didn’t you?" said the ghost with the white beard again. "You were listening our conversation! Everybody who knows that secret has to die and live here as a ghost forever. So in very view moments I’ll bring you from life to death and you will join my two comrades who also discovered the secret." – "B-but, no, please! We won’t tell anybody!" Hermione cried fearfully.

"Enough, I’ll kill you now on three!" he shouted and put out a wand out of his white robes. "Time for your last wish, and then – die: One – Two - …" he raised his wand and then – the lights flashed on!

Ron had felt guilty not to join his friends, so he had followed them at last. He had heard the threat of the ghosts, and had urgently thought what to do. He didn’t carry his wand with him, because it was stored at his families home. As he was forbidden magic in holidays there was no sense to carry it with him anyway.

The only idea had been that perhaps light could help something. So he switched on the lights of the storage hall. The effect was impressing. The three ghosts moaned and vanished as quickly as lightning. Obviously the light caused them much harm.

"Ron, please release us!" Hermione shouted. And Ron came and tried to release both from their spider ropes. He hated spider. But even with his pocketknife he couldn’t cut through. the ropes. "What the hell is this?" he shouted.

Bang! Something had destroyed one of the lamps. Bang! The second one had been destroyed. Bang – bang – bang. One lamp after the other exploded. The room went darker with every lamp vanishing. "Ron, quick! Release us!" Harry shouted.

Shortly before the last lamp exhausted Hermione shouted: "Ron, take my lamp out of my pocket and switch it on!" – Ron did so and could just manage to chase the three ghosts away. They’d already come close again. Ron chased them with the beam of the lamp through the whole hall. He made them so confused, that they collided with each other.

Ron nearly had fun in chasing them around, and it was the one with the white beard, who crashed against the pillar, where Hermione and Harry were bound. There was a loud exploding noise and at once the pillar turned into sand and buried Hermione and Harry beneath it.

But this way they could rescue from their bondage. Coughing because of the dust in their lungs, they came creeping out of the dust pile.

"Quick, come out of here! The batteries going low!" Ron shouted. And all three of them were running to the back door and out of the building. They didn’t stop running until they reached the caravan. They closed the door behind them and switched on their reading lamps. They hoped that the three ghosts were really forced to stay in this hall only.

2. Rubber

Hermione awoke very early. She stared out of the window in the ceiling. ‘That’s the secret of hops." She thought, ‘Now I discovered it! I’ll be famous! I’ll give my mother one third of the money I’ll earn, so she doesn’t have to live in poverty. Also my father will get one third from me. And from my own third I’ll give the half to some international charity organisation, for example World Vision.’ She’d read about it in the Daily Prophet. They take care about poor children in the so-called third world. "For the rest, I’ll buy a laptop computer with a mobile connection to the internet! So I can continue to learn more about the world, no matter where I am. I’ll be travelling a lot. First I’ll go to Egypt, then to Kathmandu, then to ..."

There was the sound like a shot – three times. The bed started to lower to the left and Hermione was tumbling around to the left. "Hey!" shouted Harry surprised and angrily as Hermione toppled on him. "Ah, what the hell...?" murmured Ron as he crashed against Hermione. "Wuff" barked Harry. He had also spent the night with Harry and now they were all lying on him. With a lot of other Wau’s he jumped down to the floor and scratched on the door.

"Dammed, what the hell is going on!" shouted Mr. Dursley and jumped outside his bed, barefoot and full of anger. He opened the caravan door and jumped outside. Larry followed close to his side.

Mrs. Dursley had also awoken, and started to follow him. But then she realised that the bed of Hermione was empty, and heard the noise in the sleeping room upstairs.

"SHAME ON YOU, HERMIONE!" she shouted – "COME DOWN OF THE BOYS ROOM AT ONCE!" her voice was nearly collapsing. "Y-you’re TOO YOUNG for THAT! COME D-own!" her voice broke down, she was red headed and full of disgust.

"M-Mrs. Dursley, D-don’t think what you see. I-I w-want t-to say, t-that’s not as y-you, ..." Hermione stumbled – "COME DOWN AT ONCE!" Mrs. Dursleys voice required sharply, accepting no resistance.

"Mrs. Dursley, please! There was nothing! Nothing to worry about, we were just ...!" – Hermione was trying to explain. "HOW ARE YOU LOOKING, COVERED FULL OF DIRT? GO UNDER THE SHOWER, AT ONCE!" Mrs. Dursley was shouting.

Hermione was going down the ladder, feeling the dust all over her: In the eyes, in the nose and even in the ears! ‘Why is Mrs Dursley so upset?’ she thought. ‘I see, why have I slept in the boys room this night? Why didn’t I sleep where I’m supposed to be?’ she asked herself. ‘I was so frightened, I felt only save together with my friends – nothing more. Why doesn’t Mrs. Dursley understand? I’ve to tell her! But what should I tell her? Should I tell her that three ghost wanted to kill us last night? She’d never believe.’ She passed Mrs. Dursley, looking guilty, and was going to the washroom.

"Ahm, Hermione." Mrs. Dursley whispered. "I can understand you. Wash yourself, and then we can speak from woman to woman. I’ll help you."

Now Hermione didn’t understand anything. The Muggles and especially the so-called adult ones were really very strange. She could not remember any book that could explain their behaviour. ‘What did she mean with – woman to woman?’

She entered the bathroom and tried to recall the last night. She’d never been so close to death than that night. And that happened only because she’d wanted to be famous. ‘This is not the price to pay!" she thought. She’d never risk the live of her friends or herself for gaining fame again.

"Dammed" – Hermione shouted, as she tried to get rid of her dusty clothes. The bottom of the caravan was at a very strange angle. It was hanging to one side, and it was difficult to get unclothed with that. She started to shower.

*

"Ahm – Harry?" asked Ron: "What do you reckon that was last night?" – "Dunno!" Harry answered. "I’m only glad, that we’ve survived."

"Harry?" – Ron asked. "Do you think that bang were the ghosts of yesterday?" – "Dunno." Harry answered.

"Ahm – Harry?" asked Ron: "What do you reckon Mrs. Dursley is so upset?" – "Dunno, really dunno!" Harry was rather confused.

*

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Mr. Dursley came in shouting all the time. "Dammed fucking shit!" – "Vernon, darling! Please take care what you’re saying! There are children with us!" Mrs. Dursley complained very angrily.

"Yeah, some bloody motherfucker has slit all our tires on the left hand side! If I’ll catch him, I’ll kill him!" Mr. Dursley was red headed; he was looking full of disgust. He opened the door of the bar and put out one bottle of Scottish Whiskey.

"THAT’S THE ONLY THING YOU CAN DO!?" Mrs. Dursley shouted, full of disgust. "How will we continue when you’ll be drunken?"- she asked. "I’M NOT DRUNKEN!" Mr. Dursley shouted! "I try only to concentrate." He put a glass before him on the table and took a deep gulp directly out of the bottle. He burped loud and long, stood up and headed towards the toilet.

‘How to prove’ Hermione thought ‘ How can I prove that I’ve discovered the secret of hops? I’ve no pictures, no videos, nothing. No one would believe me!’ she thought as she finished her shower. The water has been rather cold, so she was relieved when all the soap was washed over.

Suddenly the door shivered: "Oh!" Mr. Dursley tried to go to the toilett, but it was locked.

"Vernon, let the girl finish her shower before you enter the washing room!" Mrs. Dursley told her husband. "Could you please be so kind to go outside four your – nature calling!" she ordered him.

"Mrs. Dursley?" Hermione whispered, loud enough to be heard. "Could you please bring me clean clothes?" – "Yes, sure! Please wait! I’ll be here shortly!" – Mrs. Dursley said.

Mrs. Dursley brought Hermione everything she’d need. "Do you have everything?" She asked kindly. "Yes, of course, thank you very much." Hermione answered.

"Do you really have everything?" Mrs. Dursley repeated to ask with a strange undertone in her voice. Hermione didn’t know what this meant. "Yes, I think so!

*

They were all sitting on the breakfast table. Winky had managed to prepare their usual breakfast no matter to the problems of the caravan. Mrs. Dursley had given Hermione clean clothes and many of advises about contraception, condoms and more of these strange stuff.

Also Ron and Harry had to shower, but the water had become scarce, so they had still some dust in their hair.

Ron thought: ‘That was the second time, I’d rescued Harry’s life. And also Hermione’s! My father will be proud of me, and possibly the ministry of magic. Perhaps I’ll get some job in there with a lot of payment? Some day, I’ll show my mother that it was worth to put me on the school of Hogwarts, some day, ... ‘

"Can I have some butter, Darling?" said Mr. Dursley. "Yes, here it is. What had happened to the caravan?" - Mrs. Dursley asked. "Somebody has split all the tires on the left hand side! There are three of them and I have only one spare tire. I don’t know where to get substitutes." Mr. Dursley answered in despair.

"I know it!" Hermione interrupted and raised her finger like in school, when the teacher asked a question. "I’ve seen some at the gas station last night!" – "Yes, sure, you’re right. I’ll go there and buy some. Who wants to help me?" Mr. Dursley asked. "I!" Harry and Ron said at the same time. "And I’ll will come with you also" Hermione said. "I’m injured." Said Dudley holding his left knee "I’ve hurt my knee when the caravan fell."

"So here we go!" Said Mr. Dudley and started to leave, Ron and Harry joining him. "Pst, Vernon!" Mrs. Dursley took Mr. Dursley aside and whispered something in his ear.

"Wos woiz ia? Drei Roafa mit Feigna? Worumma grod drei?" asked the gas station manager as Hermione expressed the wish to buy three tires for their motor home. She told him in German about the incident.

"See how famous you are even in the muggle world!" Ron shouted at Harry. There were four staples of books on the floor called Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. "Dammed, who writes this!" Harry muttered astonished: "Joanne K. Rowling is the author. How does she know so much about you?" Hermione stated, as she had a quick look in one of the books. "Dunno." Harry answered and thought, that strange things did happen in his life.

He had the bad feeling, he had not discovered all about the circumstances of his life, yet.

Mr. Dursley bought also four bananas and a small box and paid the bill at the cash desk.

"How can we bring the tires to the caravan?" asked Harry "They’re rather heavy!" – "No problem!" Mr. Dursley stated. "Look at me!" And he raised one side of the tire and so he could roll it away. Ron and Harry did it like him, and Hermione carried the plastic basket with the other things.

All four in a row arrived at the caravan. Harry and Ron had the idea to make a race out of this, and each of them tried to be faster than the other. But they had lost control over the tires. Ron’s tire rolled through a flowerbed of a neighbour and Harry’s splashed into the river. Mr. Dursley had to jump into the cold water to get the tire out of it. Now water was dropping from his wet clothes.

"Now who’s helping me to change the tires?" Mr. Dursley asked. He’d changed his clothes and after a hot pot of tea he was feeling better.

"I!" Ron and Harry answered at the same time. Dudley as usually refused: "My knee still hurts." And he held his right knee while he hobbled to the caravan.

"Hermione, please come with me." Mrs. Dursley asked kindly. "I want to show you something." Hermione followed Mrs. Dursley into the caravan, where she watched Mrs. Dursley unfolding the box Mr. Dursley had bought in the gas station. She took one of the bananas – the other three she’d given to her husband, whispering to him once more.

"Now look!" Mrs. Dursley told Hermione to hold the banana. She herself put one of the rubber things out of the box. "You have to take the closed end between your fingers, to remove the air out of it. Then put it on here - and roll with the other hand the rest over it. You understand?" – "Y-yes, sure." Hermione lied, because she had no idea why to put rubber around a banana.

Mrs. Dursley had told her husband also to show the three boys how to use a condom. But he refused. He preferred to show them how to change a tire and gave them the bananas to eat.

"Anybody changed a tire before?" he asked. "Yes!" Ron proudly explained. "I’ve changed the tire of my bicycle, several times." – "That’s good, but changing a car tire is rather different. Look: First you have to raise the car with the so-called jack. Put it into this slit – see? Then turn it. You want to try?" – "Yes!" and Ron turned the handle of the jack and managed to lift the heavy caravan. "Stop – that’s enough. " Mr. Dursley continued to explain. "If it just leaves the ground, that’s enough."

"Now you have to remove the four screws with this special tool." It was a wrench with a very long handle. "They are fixed rather strong, but with this long handle, it should be no problem." Harry was surprised, that Mr. Dursley had so much special tools with him. "Can I try?" he asked. "Yes, sure." And Mr. Dursley showed him how to put the wrench to the head of the screw. "You have to turn it into the left direction to release it. Put the handle on the left side, so you can use you own weight so release the screw." But Harry was not so heavy, so the screw didn’t move. "Wait, I’ll help you!" And Mr. Dursley used also his weight so support Harry. Then the screw moved. "The rest is easy. You can do it with your hand. They removed all four screws; Harry removed two of them, Ron removed the other ones.

Then they removed the tire from its axes and rolled it aside. "We’ll have to bring that back to the gas station, because we have paid only the tire and not the rim." Mr. Dursley said. "What is a rim?" Harry asked. "It’s this iron circle in the middle, the rubber is pressed on this rim and filled with air. So its more flexible and the bumps on the street are softened." – "That makes sense." Harry stated.

"Now we’ve to fasten the new tire. Help me to put it into the right place – so – yes, ok. Now we have to fix the screws again. But pay attention, there are two possibilities to fix it. You have to put the side that is cut at an angle forward, not the flat side. This is to centre it and fix it in the right position. "

Mr. Dursley was very happy to have two boys to help him and to listen to his explanations.

Now they had fixed all four screws, but this was not enough. "Now we have to assure, that they are fixed with the correct torque. We need this tool for it." Explained Mr. Dursley as he put another special tool out of his wondrous toolbox. "You have to try to screw it harder, until you hear the clicking sound from the tool. Then you know that it is fixed correctly. Not too loose, and not too hard, because then you could damage the screw.

Harry thought that sounds like something he’d heard from Professor Dumbledore about Buddhism: "Buddha was enlightened when he listened to a musician teacher in a boat. The teacher explained to his scholar: "When you span the string too hard, it will break, if you span it too loose, it will not sound properly."

They fixed this tire and repeated the same procedure with the other three. There were three tires on the left side of the car, because the rear axe had double tires to carry the enormous weight of the caravan.

They rolled the damaged tires back to the gas station, and came back to the caravan. All of them full of dirt, especially their hands were black of rubber. But the were happy and proud of their work.

"That was interesting, Mr. Dursley taught us how to change a tire without a wand or a spell, only with muggle tools!" Harry explained excited to Hermione as they gathered again.

"I’ve had a rather silly job: Mrs. Dursley showed me how to cover bananas with rubber things called condoms. First she showed it to me, and then I had to do it. She didn’t let me pass, before I had covered the banana ten times in a row!" – "What was this for?" Harry asked "Dunno!" Hermione answered.

"That’s for You-Know-What!" Ron explained. "For You-Know-Who, for Voldemort?" Harry asked shocked. "No, of course not! You have no idea, haven’t you? "Ron grinned and started to explain: "I’ve heard it from my brothers, Frank and Williams. When a boy and a girl want to make You-Know-What, I-I mean they g-go to bed, make love, sex, you know, don’t you? They’ve to protect their selves." – "Protect? Against what?" Harry asked. "Er, on the one hand, the girl don’t want to get pregnant, you know?"

Hermione turned red. She thought: ‘I could not imagine that I’d ever do this. But on the other hand, every time I think of Krum, I get a very strange feeling in my stomach, that I’d never felt in my live. Perhaps, I would do anything with him, would I? But what if I’d really got pregnant? I’d to stop learning at Hogwarts. And could I study afterwards? I could forget it, no chance. The only time to get a child is when I’ve finished my education – I swear, I’ll protect myself!’ she clenched her fists.

 

 

 

 

"On the other hand, there is this lethal disease called AIDS. It is transferred by You-Know-What!" Ron continued his explanation. "Lethal? Does this mean you die from it? Isn’t there any cure?" Harry asked, "No, there is nothing against it, neither in the muggle medicine, nor Madame Pomfrey could cure it." – "Do you think that’s a jinx from Voldemort?" Harry asked. "Dunno". Ron answered.

Harry thought, he should also know, how to use this thing, this condom: "Can you show me, how to do it, er – I mean how this works with this condom, Ron?" – Harry asked. "Yes, of course. If I’d only have some examples." Ron answered - "I’ve got a lot of them!" Hermione said. "Mrs. Dursley gave me hundreds of them." Now Harry got red, Hermione giving him a condom! But, why not, he thought.

*

After Mr. Dursley had taken a lot of water from the river, to refill the water tanks, they could wash themselves. They had a last meal at Rohrbach and Mr. Dursley said. "I’ll have a short sleep after lunch, and then we’ll continue our journey. I’m sure, we’ll make it until Utting this evening." Mr. Dursley took a plastic mat and laid it near the river. He liked the sound of flowing water, he said.

Ron and Harry were lying in their upper room, the ceiling window wide opened. They watched the clouds going by and Harry said to Ron: "I don’t believe, that this was the deed of the ghosts from last night. They wanted to kill us, not only to slit our tires." – "Yes, that’s true." Ron answered. "But who was it then? And why?" – "Dunno."

 

3. On the Road again.

They were now on the Autobahn again. Mr. Dursley had bought another CD at the gas station. It was called Gregorian, Masters Of Chant, Chapter II. Harry’d asked Mr. Dursley for the cover of the CD, because he liked the songs of it. The ones he’d liked most were called Hymn, Child In Time, Wish You Were Here, Lady D’Arbanville and best of all Stairway To Heaven. When he listened to this music while driving through this wonderful landscape he was feeling like being in a dream. This area of the Holladau was so beautiful, the hops gardens and the smooth hills combined with this music in the dawn was really a pleasure. Mr. Dursley’s sleep after lunch had taken a lot of time, so now the sun was already going to set, when they left this area. But nobody did complain, because it was so beautiful.

Mrs. Dursley was steering the caravan this time; Mr. Dursley was sitting on the left side and Dudley in the middle as usual. Ron and Harry were playing chess again, and Hermione was reading a book with a black cover, having a red face (she’d discovered a book about female sexuality at the gas station). Larry was sitting calmly at the side of Harry’s feet. Finally Winky was in his own room enjoying his new freedom.

There was a sign: "Franz Josef Strauß Airport". Mrs. Dursley said: "Tell me, when I’ve to leave this highway! We’ve to go to the direction of Stuttgart, and then turn left to Furstenfeldbruck. Hermione, could you assist me, please?" Mrs. Dursley asked. "Er – I’m just very busy studying." Hermione said turning red. So Mrs. Dursley asked: "Dudley, could you tell me the right way?" – "Er – why I? OK, give me the map, so I’ll tell you the right way!"

The sun was setting, when they arrived at Utting. It was a beautiful sunset. It had all colours, from yellow, red to blue. Some clouds were coloured with the light of the setting sun, until the first stars twinkled in the. "Now you’ve to turn left to the campground of Utting, see the sign!" Dudley had managed to guide his mother all the way to Utting.

7. Ammersee

Mrs. Dursley was relieved, when she arrived at the barrier of the campground. Now the travelling was over. But there was nobody in the reception house. She looked at her watch: 11 p.m.. That was obviously too late to enter the campground. But that was no problem: They owned a mobile caravan so they could stay anywhere for the night. Hermione said: "I saw a small street going uphill on the left hand side where we came from!"

Mr. Dursley turned the motor home – his wife being too tired from the long journey - and found the small street Hermione had mentioned. It was very steep at first, but then it was flat. Everybody headed out of the caravan. They were tired of sitting in it all the time.

Mrs. Dursley was the first to say "Oh!" – then the others joined her. They had an extremely wonderful sight over the Ammersee. The moon was shining bright at nearly its full size and it was mirroring in the sea. There were also lights of the other side of the sea, that where mirroring bright over the smooth sea.

*

They all had a very pleasant night. It was so calm; no noise disturbed their sleep. The next morning, there was a beautiful concert outside. All the birds in the neighbourhood were singing lovely tunes.

Mr. Dursley was the first to get up. He put his jacket on, his cap on his head and left the caravan. The sun hadn’t risen, but it was already dawn. The sky was dark blue; there were only the dark orange spurs of some airplanes in it.

Mr. Dursley went to the shoreline of the Ammersee to have a look on it. He had to cross a muddy field and a fence, but finally he arrived at the beach. He took a deep breath and put his arms in the air. This was too beautiful to believe: The birds were singing, the sun made the east turn purple while on top of him the sky was light blue, and in the west it was dark blue. There were two swans searching food, followed by six small children! They were light grey, except one, that was quite white. Here and there something that looked like a duck but was totally black and had a white mark between it's eyes disappeared under the water and came back at another place some times later.

After a while the red sky in the east turned white and then the moment came: The sun showed her fist beam. She rose quite fast. Soon the half of her was to be seen, then three quarters, then Mr. Dursley watched the moment, when the sun left the ground the very first time. It remembered him on a film he’d seen some weeks ago about a turtle that was laying eggs into the sand. The sun just looked like one of these eggs.

Very happy and satisfied he was entering his motor home when his wife shouted: "Stay out with your dirty shoes!" He had a lot of dirt under his feet, and Mrs. Dursley obviously didn’t like that in the caravan.

*

They were having a wonderful English breakfast in the early sunlight. One after the other had awoken; after the silence during the night the singing of the birds was the signal that a new day had begun.

After the breakfast Hermione took her trunk, her two plastic baskets and her handbag and left the caravan. Ron and Harry were still sitting at the breakfast table, and seemed to be rather sad.

"Can’t you stay with us?" Ron asked with sorrow in his voice. "Yes, please stay!" Harry confirmed, and a teardrop was running down his cheek. Hermione was rather surprised: "N-no! You know I came here to visit my mum. I’ve not seen her since a whole year when I was in Hogwarts. And now she’s divorced, she must be very lonely."

Ron jumped off his chair and said: "We’ll miss you! You know, we all belong together. It’ll be not the same, when you’re not with us." – "Yes, that’s true!" Harry also jumped off his chair. Very strange feelings came to his mind. The last years it has been quite normal when they parted in Kings Cross at the end of the school year. But now it was different. "Please, stay!" he gasped, and didn’t know what to say any more.

"Bye." whispered Hermione and turned away. She was running rather fast with the entire luggage with her. When she was out of sight, she dropped her bags and broke into tears.

But that were tears of joy! Nobody ever liked her in school in the first years before Hogwarts. She was too intelligent for the others, so they disliked her. Also the first years of Hogwarts weren’t easy. Even Ron and Harry seemed not to like her very much. Only since the time, she’d lied and protected them, after the fight with the troll she felt that she’d been accepted a little bit. But now, Ron wanted her to stay, and Harry having even tears in his eyes, and saying "Please" that was too much for her.

Now she knew where she belonged. Ron and Harry were really her friends, they liked her and she liked them. She sighed and put on her luggage up again. Now it felt half as heavy than before.

*

"Shall we continue the journey or stay here?" asked Mr. Dursley. "It’s so beautiful here, let’s stay a while." Mrs. Dursley answered. "Yes, stay here!" said Ron and Harry at the same time. Dudley had nothing against it; Winky went everywhere his master was; Larry said "Wuff", so they decided to stay. Mr. Dursley steered the motor home backwards down the small path back to the main road.

He turned and drove towards the campground. Mrs. Bielmeier, a friendly woman gave them a warm welcome and showed them their place: C19. So they passed the entrance and tried to find C19. Mr. Dursley stopped before a white caravan. A man with an Australian cowboy hat was having breakfast in front of it. Mr. Dursley asked him. "Could you please tell me where I can find place number C19?" – "Yes, of course – oh! Hi, nice to meet you again!" It was the same man they’d met in Wilhemshafen at the sailing club. "It’s just in front of me. Welcome at the Ammersee!"

The man with the Australian hat was – Arno. He brought two bottles of beer, and explained Mr. Dursley everything about this campground, where to get water, buy rolls in the morning and so on.

"Prost" he said "Cheers" Mr. Dursley answered. "I really admire the way when somebody with a motor home arrives at his place. Just stop, put out your chairs and table, that’s it! With a normal caravan you’ve to get water, energy, and a lot of things." – "Yeah!" Mr. Dursley gulped; he’d drunken half of the bottle at once. "I like that car." – "How was your journey?" Arno asked; and Vernon told him about his journey and the flat tire in Rohrbach.

"Where is your wife?" Mr. Dursley asked. I’m divorced. But my son is with me this summer; he’s still sleeping. I love this place so much; I don’t want to be anywhere else. There is some kind of magic around it, I enjoy it to be here, every time."

Mr. Dursley was somewhat concerned, because he didn’t like to hear something about magic. But as Arno gave him the second bottle of Andechser Doppelbock he drank it and thought: "Shit, what does it matter."

They had just emptied the third bottle, as Tobias appeared. "Gu’ Moing, voda!" he said. "Greasdi, bua." Arno answered (this is the Bavarian way of saying good morning). " Tobi, can you remember the bunch of people we’d met in Wilhemshafen, here they are!" – "Hi, nice to meet you!" Tobias said. "Nice to meet you too." Harry replied. "How are you doing?"

*

Mrs. Dursley was reading a book, Vernon and Arno were drinking the forth bottle of beer, but Ron and Harry were sitting inside the caravan of Tobias. "Dammed!" Harry shouted, "Fuck! Why’d you miss the wand?" Ron added. "You have to put it into here!" Tobias explained. He’d just taught Ron and Harry to play his brand new Gameboy Advance game named Zelda. The goal of the game was to fight against fierce General Onox and to find a wand that could control the four seasons.

Twee-didledee-didlleeduudledee. The mobile phone of Arno rang. "Griasdi Paul. Wo bisdn jez?" – "Bin scho do." – Paul was his brother, and was calling to tell Arno that he’d just arrived at the parking place outside. Shortly after that he arrived at their caravan. "Hi Paul, can I introduce you to my friends from England?" and Arno introduced them all together. Ron, Harry and Tobias were in the caravan, and taking no attention of them, because of their game.

"Mogst a a hoibe?" Arno asked his brother Paul, whether he’d also liked a bottle of beer. "Of course!" Paul answered. And he started to talk about his various trips to England. It turned out, that Paul was a fan of England and English people and knew a lot of them. He even knew about the different dialects within England. He could distinguish whether somebody comes from Oxford, or from Liverpool, or wherever.

*

After lunch, Mr. Dudley, Arno and Paul were sleeping in the shadow; one was snoring louder than the other. Mrs. Dursley accompanied by Dudley was also lying in the sun, but at the banks of the Ammersee where she could hear the waves rolling in from the sea and not the snoring of her husband.

But the boys were enjoying their freedom in Tobias’ caravan: Harry said: "Fuck!" Tobias answered "Scheiße!" "Dammed fucking motherfuckers!" Ron tried to overtrump them all. The game was so exiting, that Harry felt like playing Quidditch.

Tobias had taught Harry and Ron a lot about his computer game, and both of them were enthusiastic. None of them were allowed to play Quidditch in their holidays, but now this computer game was a good substitute for it.

*

"Do you like to attend the jazz festival?" Arno asked at the evening. The sun was now rather in the west, when Arno made this offer. "There’s a wonderful beer garden nearby. They’ve good food, Steckerlfish (grilled sea fish), Liver cheese (Bavarian speciality, contains neither liver nor cheese), and lot of more Bavarian specialities, and of course good beer! And also apple juice and lot of non-alcoholic stuff" he said, as he caught the angry look of Mrs. Dursley. She didn’t like it when her husband drank so much.

They followed Arno to a wonderful place. There were wooden tables and banks within a forrest of old beech and fir trees surrounding a small lake. There was no roof beyond them! Harry thought: At the Hogwarts feasts the roof of the hall seemed to look like the heaven, but everybody knows that’s only a curse. But here it’s different. This is reality, this is in the free nature.

Vernon and Arno brought two beers, one Radler (Bavarian mixture of beer and citron lemonade) for Mrs. Dursley and Apfelschorle (apple juice with sparkling water) for the kids. Tobias had his game with him, so they didn’t pay much attention to the adults.

"Sounds good!" – Mrs. Dursley shouted, as the Jazz band began to play. It was the big band from the university of Stuttgart. They were playing wonderful Jazz tunes. Vernon brought the next couple of beers and Paul the next one.

The band was playing more and more wonderful Jazz tunes. Even after the sunset and the moon rose, they continued. But as the moon was above their heads they finished at last.

Mr. Dursley shouted: "One more beer!" but Mrs. Dursley said: "No, you’ve enough! Let’s go home now!"

So they all were walking back to their caravans. "Can I stay with Ron and Harry?" Tobias asked. "Ah – ja, yes of course". Arno said. "Can I stay with Paul and Arno to watch the sports news?" Vernon asked. "Yes, of course", Mrs. Dursley answered.

"Good night!" – "Good night." Everybody was wishing a good night to each other. But Paul, Arno and Vernon closed the caravan door and opened three bottles of beer. Harry, Ron and Tobias said good night, closed the door and started the next game with the Gameboy Advance. This night was a very long night.

*

"Good morning, Mr. Dursley." Hermione said. "Oh, good morning, Hermione! Nice to see you. How are you?" – "Fine, thanks. Nice morning, this morning, isn’t it?" – "Yes of course. I like the time of sun raising most of all. Will you join me going to the beach?" – "Yes, of course." Hermione threw her luggage in front of the mobile home and followed Mr. Dursley.


They reached the banks of the Ammersee and could watch another beautiful sunrise. "Wasn’t this wonderful?" Mr. Dursley asked. "Yes, of course." Hermione answered: "That was really impressing. This remembers me on what my father used to say: God created mankind to admire his creation."

Harry was having a wonderful dream. He was dreaming that Hermione had returned again, and that they had an exiting adventure at the bottom of the lake. They had eaten Gillyweed and dived to the bottom of the sea; they found seven dead bodies guided by grindylows. He was interrupted by the bark of Larry: "Wuff!" - Harry awoke, "Hmm?" – "How?" Ron asked. "Wau, wau!" Larry was very upset and hurried out of the caravan. "Hi Larry, how are you?" Hermione asked. She crawled Larry everywhere he liked it, and Larry was wagging his tail.

"Hm – that sounds like the voice of Hermione, but it can’t be." Ron said. "Let’s see!" Harry said and jumped down his room and left the caravan.

"Hermione! It’s you!" he shouted and ran towards her, and hugged her tight. "Hermione!" now also Ron had seen her and came to hug her. She was now embraced by both of them and could hardly breath. She hugged them also and tears were flowing down her cheeks.

After a while Hermione explained: "My mother is in prison!" and another tear was running down her cheek. "What? Why? Where?" Ron shouted. "I dunno. Her boyfriend is now living in her flat alone, and he has told me not more details. She is in Neudeck No. 10 in Munich.

*

1. Fire and Water

"How long has she been in prison now?" Ron asked. "Her boyfriend had counted 192 days." – "What?" Harry thought of his own time being in prison. And Hermione’s mother was now in prison for much longer. "But you had phoned her, when we were in Brighton, to ask whether you can join us?" Harry asked astonished. "I had only her new boyfriend on the phone, and he didn’t want to tell that to me on telephone." Hermione answered.

"We’ll rescue her," Harry promised. "But how will you manage this?" Ron asked. "Dunno!" They could not use magic, which was sure. The next time they’d catch him, he would be definitely expelled from Hogwarts.

Hermione said: "If we can’t find a solution now, we put the problem on the afterburner." – "The, what, afterburner? What’s that?" Ron asked. "I read this in a book Slowing Down to the Speed of Life." She explained. "If you have a big problem, that you can’t solve, you have to use the power of your sub conscious. That means, you don’t think of the problem primarily, but trust, that there will come a solution in your mind, some time. This comes often, when you are very relaxed, for example in the morning, when you wake up. So be sure, that you always have something to write with you, wherever you are. Because this idea is in your brain only for a short time, then it vanishes again. BTW: Also meditation, which we learn next year in Hogwarts, can help you to relax and make use of your sub conscious."

That was a long explanation from Hermione. Everybody had been listening to her, but she was not sure, whether they’d understood her. So she asked: "Was that clear?" – "Oh, sure, of course, wasn’t it Harry?" Ron asked. "Yes, no problem. I’ll have always parchment and a quill with me when I sleep. And next year in Hogwarts I’ll learn meditation. But can we wait one year to rescue you mother?"

"Parchment and quill; what’s that?" Tobias asked. Harry explained it and Tobias was quite surprised: "You are really writing with this?" and he showed Harry his modern pencil.

*

"What about a canoeing tour?" Arno asked. "We could cross the lake and make a fire at the other side. I’ll take my guitar with me, then we can sing." – "Yeah!" Tobias shouted. Paul, Ron, Harry and Hermione were also in favour. Dudley – as usual – didn’t want to do something that required any effort. Mrs. Dursley wanted only to lie in the sun, and Mr. Dursley had still a bad headache, because he’d drunken too much last night. Larry said only "Wuff" which meant he was afraid of water.

Arno had rented a big canoe. It took a while until everybody had the life jacket on and everybody was in position. Arno had four big white tons, where all the food and dry clothes were stored. They had also sleeping bags and some blankets with them, because they intended to stay for the night. The weather report had forecasted a clear and warm summer night.

Then the time had come: Mr. Dursley gave the canoe a push, and it left the beach and started towards free water. Arno was sitting in the back, because he had the most experience with a canoe. Paul was sitting in the front, to achieve the right trim. Tobias and Hermione were sitting on the bank behind him, and on the other bank Ron and Harry were trying to paddle.

"All should paddle at the same time. Look at Paul and do it synchronously with him!" Arno shouted. "What?" Paul had only heard his name and turned around. That made the boat swaying and they nearly lost control. "Pay attention! Everybody has to move very carefully in the boat. No rapid movements!" Arno shouted again; sweat was on his forehead.

But after a while they were getting better and better; and soon, they reached the other side of the lake. There was a beautiful beach, surrounded with large beech trees. "Beech, that’s the best wood for a fire." Tobias explained. "Gives a wonderful taste."

"Could the kids be so kind to collect some wood?" Arno asked. "But only totally dry branches. And Tobias, please bring me the fuel of the red man." – "Yes, of course daddy!" Tobias replied. "Fuel of the red man, what’s that?" Hermione asked Tobias. "Dry and thin branches from the fir tree! It burns like fuel, and the red men, the Indians in America, used it to start a fire.

Paul and Arno gathered large stones and made a large circle out of it. The kids came back after a while and piled a huge staple of branches near the fireplace. "That’ll be enough to roast a whole pig!" Paul smiled.

"Tobias, do you want to show our guests, how to start a fire?" – "Yes, of course." The three wizard kids were very interested, because they had always used their wand, when they wanted to start a fire.

Tobias explained: "First, you need a sheet of paper or dry grass. I’ll take this grass from the trees. It was left back here from the last high water. And since then, it was hanging in the air and became very dry. Then you pile small pieces of the fuel of the red man over it. Then you can add more and thicker branches of the other wood. You have only to break it to the right length. Will you help me?" – "Yes, of course." And Harry tried to break a big beech branch into two pieces. He put all his energy in it, but it was not possible.

"Give it to me!" Arno said. "Look." Arno held the branch on one and put the other end on the ground. Then he raised his right foot and stamped it down hardly. "Dammed!" Arno shouted. It was too thick for him also. "We’ll put this in the fire as a whole." He said.

They managed to break the branches, more or less and light a large fire. "We forgot the spears!" Tobias shouted. "Give me the knife, I’ll cut some." He took the large bowie knife from his father, and vanished in the bushes. After a while, he came back with six spears in his hand.

"Now let’s start, I’m already very hungry." Arno invited them to sit with him in a circle around the fire. He had maize, sausages and bread with him. Everybody enjoyed roasting it in the fire; and they ate as much as they could.

After the lunch, Paul and Arno were tired and needed a short nip in the shadow. The kids weren’t tired, so they decided to bath. "Keep quiet!" Arno complained, because they made a lot of noise in the water. They were splashing the water against each other.

*

Some hours later, Arno woke up. It was totally quiet (besides the snoring of Paul). He jumped up, with fear. Where were Tobias and the other kids? "T O B I A S!" he shouted. No answer. He went into the water and shouted again: "T OO B IIIII AAAA S!"

Suddenly they came out of some bushes and started to splash a lot of water against him. "Dammed – not - stop!" Arno nearly drowned. "I’ll help you!" and he started to splash back, but he had no chance against the power of four 14-year-old kids.

*

An hour later also Paul awoke; he burped and said: "I’m hungry, when is time for dinner?" Then they lighted the fire again, and collected additional wood, so that it would be sufficient also for the night.

After they could not eat any more maize or sausages, Arno unwrapped his guitar. He’d protected it with plastic against the water. Like a condom – Hermione thought, and turned red.

"Do you know the Beatles?" Arno asked. "Which bugs? Never heard of it!" Ron replied. "It was the best band of the sixties!" Paul explained. "The sixties?" Harry muttered. "That was in the last century, I’ve no clue about that ancient times."

"So listen first, and then we can sing all together. We start with an easy tune: Yellow Submarine." And Arno started to sing. It didn’t take long until everybody knew the refrain: "We all live in a Yellow Submarine, Yellow Submarine, Yellow Submarine, …".

They played one song after the other, All Together Now, Ob-la-di Ob-la-da, Get Back, Lady Madonna, Let It Be, Help, A Hard Day’s Night, Golden Slumbers, Because, Come Together, Back in The USSR, All You Need Is Love ... ; and didn’t recognize that it was getting darker and darker. Ron took care about the fire, and put a branch in it every now and then. The fire crackled and sent sparkling jots into the dark sky. Hermione put her lamp on, and enlightened the notes of Arno’s songbook.

It was shortly before midnight, when Hermione wanted to hear Golden Slumbers again; finally they decided to go to bed. They put their plastic mats near the fire and covered with their blankets. Paul, Arno and Tobias had sleeping bags with them. "Hermione?" Tobias asked "You can take my sleeping bag, if you like. I’ll use the blanket." – "Yes, thank you very much. That is too kind of you." Hermione was pleased that Tobias turned out to be a real gentleman. She gave him a kiss at his cheek and whispered goodnight. Ron put some extra thick branches on the fire in order to keep it burning the night through.

Hermione felt very comfortable, but could not sleep. Her mother was still circling around in her brain. What could we do? She asked herself. Arno and Paul were already sleeping, she could hear them snoring. She could hear also a church bell ring twelve times. She was practicing mediation and nearly fell asleep, as there was a strange sound in the air.

She heard Harry mown and opened her eyes and could not trust them: Out of the fire came a yellow cloud. It rose higher and higher and formed a human body. It looked just as the ones they’d seen at the graveyard before the funeral.

"Thank you very much!" the ghost roared in a deep voice. "Thank you that you’ve rescued me. I was hanged and buried at this place over thousand years ago. A druid had also put a charm over my grave, so I couldn’t escape; even if I heard the call. But now your fire has released me. Thanks again. But now, I’ll have to follow the call. Good-bye!" And with a swirling whistle he vanished in the air heading south.

"Have you seen this also?" Hermione asked, because she saw that also Ron and Harry were awake. "Y-yes. What did he mean?" Ron asked. "Dunno, he talked about a call, but from whom?" Harry was rubbing his forehead, because his scar hurt again.

"I’ll better put out the fire." Ron said. He stood up, and opened the slit of his trousers. "Yeah, that’s a good idea." Also Harry started to join him. "DON’T YOU DARE!" Hermione shouted. "GO INTO THE BUSHES! SHAME ON YOU; PEEING INTO THE FIRE IN FRONT OF A LADY." – "In front of a lady? Hu, hu!" Ron laughed. But at least he changed his mind and left to hide in the bushes. Harry followed him.

*

The next morning they woke up very early. The birds were singing here even louder than on the west side; it was a wonderful morning. After having breakfast (the rest of the sausages they couldn’t eat the day before) they had to pack all their things and leave. Arno wrapped his guitar again carefully in plastic and gave it to Hermione: "Could you please bring this to the canoe?" he asked. "Yes, sure", and she was proud, that Arno trusted her to carry his precious guitar. But when she arrived at the boat, she heard a whistling sound: All the boys were standing round the fire and peeing in it. Afterwards Arno turned to her, grinning: "Sorry, that’s only the call of nature."

 

2. Dumbledore

They crossed the lake with no major problems. As they were approaching the other coast Arno shouted: "Stop!" but too late. With a loud crunching sound they glided out of the water over the stones of the beach. "Yeah!" Paul and the four kids jumped out of the canoe. Arno was not so happy. He looked underneath the canoe. The hard landing on the stones had created deep scratches into the bottom of the boat. The people from the boat rental would not be glad to see this. He mounted the two wheels under the boat, and Tobias helped him dragging the canoe back to their caravan.

As they passed the mobile caravan of Mr. Dursley they heard a known voice. "Dumbledore?" Hermione muttered. She, Ron and Harry ran around the caravan and entered it. Inside Mr. Dursley was proudly explaining all about his caravan to Professor Dumbledore: "Here is the kitchen with 3 gas flames, a refrigerator and a place for do the dish washing. Here are the beds for my wife and me, and here is the toilet." – "Professor Dumbledore!" Hermione shouted. "Oh! Hermione, Ron Harry! Nice to see you. How are you doing?" Professor Dumbledore was really pleased to see them. "Fine, thanks. What are you doing here in Germany?" Hermione asked. "I’m collecting pupils for the next year. We start an exchange program with German wizard schools. I’m here to bring them to Hogwarts."

"With this rusty old VW bus you want to drive all the way to England?" Mr. Dursley could not believe it. "Come on and I’ll show you my bus." Professor Dumbledore grinned.

They left the huge mobile caravan from Mr. Dursley and crossed the road. There stood a shabby, yellow VW bus. Professor Dumbledore opened the door and invited Mr. Dursley and the kids to enter. "Follow me downstairs!" he said. He started to go down a spiral stair and the others followed him.

"Here is the kitchen." Professor Dumbledore said. He opened a thick oak door and they could see a dozen elves working with two herds a microwave oven and a pig on a grill. Mr. Dursley stood still, mouth wide open.

"Here is the boy’s sleeping room." Professor Dumbledore had opened another door and showed them a room with nearly twenty comfortable beds. "The girls sleeping room is on the floor beyond – one never knows..." Professor Dumbledore continued to explain. He guided the lot through a long corridor and opened another door: "And here is the washing room and the swimming pool." – "Swimming Pool?" Mr. Dursley was nearly loosing control.

"I’m sorry, I can’t show you the golf course. The lawn has been damaged by a herd of dragons and the gardeners are still trying to grow grass again. It takes some time for a good lawn to grow." Professor Dumbledore pointed out.

Mr. Dursley was glad that he not showed him the golf course, because then he would have collapsed. Harry muttered to Ron: "Nice, isn’t it?" – "Yes, not too bad." Ron yawned. He was used that the wizards camping vehicles are much bigger inside, than it seems from outside.

"Time for lunch!" Arno said to the kids. "Who wants to help me?" Ron, Hermione and Harry had decided to eat with Arno, Paul and Tobias. They worked all together to prepare Greek farmers salad. Tobias was showing Harry how to cut the cucumber, Ron was cutting the tomatoes, Paul was cutting the paprika and Arno was showing Hermione how to prepare the sauce. He mixed nine spoons of Olive oil with six spoons of Balsamic vinegar. Hermione added salt, pepper and curry and added some herbs of the Provence. Arno tasted it: "Mmmmh, well done!" They mixed everything in a big bowl and added sheep’s cheese and olives.

"Enjoy your meal." Arno said. "An guadn!" Replied Harry. Tobias had taught him the Bavarian expression for wishing somebody good appetite. They really enjoyed the salad, and afterwards Paul and Arno laid down for what they called a power nap.

But the kids weren’t tired: "What about going to swim?" Harry asked. "Yeah!" they changed their clothes in their caravans and fast as lighting they were running down to the beach. "Here we can jump in." Tobias pointed to a landing stage – "Haven’t you read this sign?" Hermione asked Tobias pointing to a sign No bathing stage, for coast guards only! "That doesn’t matter. Who dares to jump head forwards?" He asked provoking. "Me!" Harry shouted, ran along the stage and jumped into the water. Ron followed him and so did Tobias. Hermione didn’t want to be alone, so she sighed and ignored the sign (although it wasn’t easy for her); she ran and jumped also into the water. She had never jumped this way before, but tried to do it like the others before. She was flying through the air like a dolphin and finally dived into the water. She didn’t close her mouth properly so she swallowed some water.

She dived up coughing. The three boys were staring at her. "What are you …" Hermione asked, but then she realized: She had lost her bikini! At the first moment she was ashamed and turned red; but then she got angry and shouted: "How dare you staring at my bosom like this? Haven’t you seen a naked woman before?" – "No!" all of the three boys answered at the same time. Then she dived away trying to find her bikini. She would have lost it, when she jumped into the water. It has to be somewhere, but she couldn’t find it. "We’ll help you!" Harry nodded to Ron and Tobias and they dived also to the place where Hermione had jumped into the water. They were diving a lot and whirled up all the mud and sand so they could hardly see anything. But finally Tobias found the bikini and handed it over to Hermione: "Thank you." She whispered and fixed it again; this time with a very strength knot.

They had much fun at the afternoon and returned to the caravan, as the sun was rather deep. Professor Dumbledore was playing chess with Arno. "Do you also play chess?" Ron asked Tobias. "Yes, I do!" So Ron showed Tobias his wizard chess. Tobias was fascinated about the figures really moving, as if they were alive.

*

"Good night! – Good night." The sunset was long ago, it was dark and even some stars were to bee seen. Everybody was going to bed. Even the kids were tired now. Harry was nearly asleep as he heard the door of Professor Dumbledore’s bus screeching. He peered out of the window. Indeed, Professor Dumbledore had left his bus and was going down to the beach. Ten minutes before he’d said he was tired, and now he’s walking around. "Ron!" he whispered, and gave Ron a kick on his feet. "Ron, we’ve to see what Dumbledore is doing." – "What? Who? I’m tired." Ron was not pleased to be interrupted. "Then I’ll go alone!" Harry had already put on his clothes again. He climbed down the ladder, and Ron followed him, still yawning. "Pst, Hermione." Harry tried to wake up Hermione precautious, not as rude as Ron.

Of course Hermione also joined them and they hurried down the beach. They came no second too late, because they saw Professor Dumbledore climbing on to the climbing tree. There was a big old tree located near the beach where all kids like to climb, so everyone called it climbing tree. They saw Professor Dumbledore standing between the two main branches of the tree, spitting straight up into the air and clapping in the hands behind his back. They could hear a strange sound, like a door opening, and Professor Dumbledore vanished in the tree.

"Have you seen this?" Harry asked curiously. "How’d he manage this? Where’s he gone?"

"We’ve to find out!" Harry said and climbed also on the tree. "Harry, not!" But too late, Harry had spit in the air and clapped into his hands like Professor Dumbledore before. And also he vanished in the tree. "We can’t let him alone!" Ron said and tried to follow him. But it didn’t work with him. He spit straight up in the air, clapped in his hands, but the spit came down again and landed in his eyes. "Perhaps you have clapped to early. Clap your hands when the spit is at the highest point." Hermione had watched Professor Dumbledore carefully. Ron tried again, and it worked. Hermione followed him and then all three were together again.

They had passed a short tunnel and landed about ten meters below the surface. It was like an underground tunnel system, the walls covered with smoke. Torches were burning at the walls and conjured a flickering light. "I have fear!" Hermione whispered. "Where is he gone?" Ron asked. "Dunno. We try this way." Answered Harry and pointed to the middle one of the three tunnels. The most torches were lit at this one. On tiptoes they followed the tunnel until they came to a door. It was locked. "Dammed!" Hurry was upset. They came so far and now this. "But we can peer through the keyhole." Hermione suggested.

She could not believe what she saw there: Hundreds of old men with long white hair and beards, similar to Professor Dumbledore. They were sitting on old wooden chairs and were listening to another man holding a speech. "I repeat: we have no clue yet, why and where these ghosts are bound to. We’ve sent a dozen owls to our colleagues in Italy, but we’ve received no answer until now. We will …" Hermione shuddered. One of the old men hat got up his seat, and was going towards the door she was peering through. "Quick!" She whispered and they all ran down back the corridor where they’d come from; they nearly fell over a black cat with white markings around its eyes.

They could hear the door open and somebody shouted, "Is there anybody? Professor McGonagall, is it you? Oh, nice to meet you, Madam!" Harry, Ron and Hermione were hiding behind a large stone, holding on their breath. They could hear the door close again. "What have you seen?" Harry asked Hermione. "I’ll tell you later, we’d better go out here, before they discover us.

As they were back at the foot of the tree Hermione explained them what she’d seen and heard. "There is a huge hall just beneath this campground!" she said. "And the Muggles have no clue about that." Ron added. "But what does that mean, that they receive no answer to their owls for Italy." Harry asked: "Do you think that somebody …" – "Sure!" Ron said. "There must be somebody that prevents them from reaching Italy. But who’d do this? And why?" They found no answer, so they decided to go back to bed again.

Hermione could not fell asleep. She was thinking of her mother all the time. How could she help her?

3. Rescue

The next morning was as bright and sunny as the last days. No cloud in the sky. Arno and Paul were out on a canoe tour. The boys were sitting in Tobias’ caravan, gathering round Arno’s laptop. Hermione wanted to go to the beach, bathing and asked the boys, shouting from outside Arno’s caravan: "Do you want to join me to go swimming?" – "No, we’re busy." Ron answered. "How could you sit inside the caravan when there is such a beautiful weather?" she yelled at them. "Be quiet!" Harry said. That made her really angry, "How are you talking to me?" she turned red, clenched her fists and entered the caravan. "Yeah, I’ve got it!" Tobias shouted. "There’s the cheat! Hermione, I know how to rescue your mother!" Hermione forgot that she was angry and turned questioning to Tobias. "What? How? …"

"I’ve found the cheat for Zelda to connect from Holodrum to the real world. We can enter the prison through the temple of the four seasons and release your mum." Tobias explained. "I didn’t understand anything." Hermione had never played Zelda before, so she had no clue about what Tobias was telling her.

"You know nothing about Zelda, don’t you? Should have played more Gameboy. " Ron grinned at Hermione. "So I explain you in detail." Tobias didn’t want trouble. "In Zelda the fierce General Onox has hijacked Din, the oracle of the four seasons. Without it the weather in Holodrum (the world of Zelda) gets out of control. Also General Onox has sunken the temple of the four seasons into a parallel world, the world of the Ulras. The temple is so important, because it contains the wand of the four seasons. With this wand you can control the four seasons and fight Onox. You understand?" – "Er, so far." Hermione said. Tobias continued: "See, I was using my fathers laptop and his S45 mobile phone with GPRS to connect to the Internet. There is a page for cheats, it’s http://www.cheating.de/ . " – "What is a cheat?" Hermione asked. "With cheats you can do things with a game, that are normally not possible. So here is my plan: I – that means Link, the player in this game - have already played through the first 5 levels. Also I have got the wand of the four seasons. You see?" Tobias showed Hermione the Gameboy. She could see a small figure with a small stick in its hand. "I’ll use the cheat the first time to connect to the real world where we are now. We all enter into the game and then we’ll proceed to the temple of the four seasons. Then I’ll use the cheat the second time so we’ll connect to the prison of your mother. Then we’ll free her and come back. That’s it."

"You think that really works?" Hermione doubted. "Why not?" Harry asked. "Can you remember when I entered the box of thoughts of Professor Dumbledore? That was similar to this. " - "OK, then we’ll give it a try." Hermione was convinced. Tobias started the game, steered Link into position and started the cheat: He changed the season to Winter, went left, changed it to Autumn, went down, changed the season to Spring, went right and finally changed the season to Summer and got up.

The Gameboy started to gleam; green sparks and purple haze came out of it. "Now the connection is established!" Tobias screamed enthusiastic. "We’ve got to enter! Who wants to go first?" As usual Harry was the bravest of them and entered first. He put his nose towards the screen of the Gameboy and was sucked inside it with a loud plop. Ron followed him. Then Tobias nodded to Hermione: "Ladies first!" – "No, no. You go first." Then also Tobias put his nose towards the screen – but nothing happened. He tried again, but in vain. "It seems that this cheat works only with wizards?" Tobias was disappointed. "Anyway, I’ll feel safer when you stay here and pay attention to us." Hermione said. "Maybe we’re in danger in this Holodrum world. You’re an experienced Zelda-player, keep an eye on us and wish us luck!" She hugged Tobias and gave him a kiss in the middle of his mouth. Then she put her nose also onto the Gameboy screen and vanished.

"Dammed, dammed. Three times fucking dammed!" Ron was outraged. Also Harry was angry. They were circling around Link who stood there like frozen. "What’s the matter?" Hermione asked. "General Onox had come and as he had sawn that Link was like paralysed he took the wand out of his hand and vanished. How could this happened, why had Tobias not paid attention?" – "Er – dunno. But he’ll help us, I’m sure." She felt a little bit guilty, because her kiss might have disturbed Tobias. She told them that Tobias was not able to enter the game also, but that he would help them from outside.

Ron punched Link, who came to live again and spoke in a very artificial voice: "w-e n-e-e-d t-h-e w-a-n-d R-I-c-k-y w-I-l-l h-e-l-p u-s." He explained Harry, Ron and Hermione about his plan, obviously controlled by Tobias. Good Tobias, Hermione thought. Suddenly a kangaroo jumped from nowhere into the scene, that was Ricky. Ron jumped into its bag and hid there. Harry hid in the bushes, while Link and Hermione were wandering around.

They didn’t have to wait long until a witch on a broomstick landed near Link. "Hello Maple, how are you!" Link asked her, now in a normal voice. That was the moment they have waited for. Ricky, controlled by Ron, knocked the witch off her broomstick. Harry grasped it and sat on it. "Yeah!" he shouted delighted. It was a good feeling to sit on a broomstick again. He kicked himself with his feet into the air, and vanished in the clouds.

This broomstick was nearly as fast as his Firebolt, but difficult to control. Just to practice, Harry made a looping and tested its acceleration and its braking capabilities. After a while he got used to it and then he lurked around whether he could find General Onox. Harry was used to look for the snitch while playing Quidditch. It was difficult to find, but at last, he knew what he was looking for. But now he didn’t know how General Onox was looking at all.

But then he glanced at somebody in a uniform helding a wand in his hand. He was running fast, and always looking behind his shoulder, as he was expecting someone to follow him. He couldn’t see Harry, because he was flying high above him. "That must be Onox." He thought and accelerated the broomstick to maximum speed and started to go down. He was even getting faster, and the cold air made tears come out of his eyes. As he was on the height of Onox, he made a sharp turn and grasped the wand out of General Onox’ hand. "What the hell?" Onox was so surprised, that he couldn’t react. Before he knew what had happened, Harry had vanished in the clouds again.

*

"Yeah!" Ron, Hermione, Link, Ricky and even Maple were celebrating as they saw Harry approaching with the wand in his hand. Hermione had explained Maple why they had done this and she had understood them.

"F-o-l-l-o-w m-e." Said Link, again with his artificial voice. That meant, Tobias controlled him and he would lead them to the temple of the four seasons.

They had to walk a very difficult way, but for heavens sake (or because of Tobias good work) they weren’t attacked at all. They reached the temple finally and waited. Now Tobias should use the cheat another time. Why did nothing happen? Harry realised. Tobias could only control Link and not him, so he had to use it. But how did the cheat go? "Change the season to winter, then left, change to Spring then right …" – "No, change to Autumn, then up." Ron interrupted "No, down!" Hermione insisted. "Right, up, down, what should we do?" – "Give the wand to Link, then Tobias can help us!" Hermione suggested, even though she was sure, that she was right.

"Ok, then!" Harry gave the wand to Link and shouted loud: "TOBIAS, DON’T DISAPPOINT US! WE COUNT ON YOU!" Suddenly the ground began to shiver, purple haze came out of the temple, and green sparks also. "That’s the moment!" Harry yelled. He fetched the wand out of Link’s hand and ran inside the temple. "Follow me!" and he vanished. Ron and Hermione hesitated to follow him and they are arrived in a town.

There was a big church, but also a house that looked like a prison. They looked at the street sign. It showed Neudeck No. 10. "We’ve got it! We’ve really got it!" Ron was dancing around. "I can see my mum, here look!" Hermione pointed to a window, where a pale woman waved at them from a window at the second floor. "But how can we rescue her!" – "Wait and see!" Harry said. He waved with his wand (he hoped that he would not be sent to prison, but it was only the wand of a computer game, so it should not be a problem) and muttered: "Wintero, snoweo!" White snow flocks came out of the wand. And indeed: Although it was summer, it suddenly turned cold, and it started to snow. After a while there was a rather high hill of snow just under the window of Hermione’s mother. Harry waved the wand a second time "Freezeo!" and small icicles came out of it. They flew to the lattice before the window of Hermione’s mother. "You have to kick against it!" Harry shouted. Hermione’s mother did so, and the lattice broke as it was made of ice and not of steel.

Now the window was open. "You’ve to jump!" Harry shouted again. It was a long distance from the second floor to the snow hill, but Hermione’s mother did it. She jumped out of the window, and landed safely in the hill of snow. "Mum, Mum!" Hermione was crying and ran in the arms of her mother. They hugged very long, both very glad.

Harry cleared his throat: "I’m sorry to disturb, but we should go now." They entered the world of Zelda again, and as soon as they had left, the weather turned to summer again, and the sun was melting the snow away.

They were back on the way to where they started their journey, and had no greater problems (except that a lot of Ulras was hunting them, because they wanted to cook them in a huge cauldron, but Tobias also protected them this time).

When it was time to part, they said good-bye to Ricky, Maple and Link and one after the other vanished, leaving purple haze behind. Harry was the last this time, still holding the wand in his hand and glancing at the broomstick. He’d like to take this with him, but he sighed and gave the wand back to Link. "Good Bye!" he said, and vanished also.

Back in the caravan of Tobias they were all very happy. Most of them was Hermione who didn’t let of her mother and hugging her all the time. But also Tobias was very proud of having managed this adventure. Arno and Paul had already returned from their trip, and looking rather surprised that Hermione’s mother was here. Tobias started to explain proudly, but at that moment, Hermione’s mother vanished with a pop and leaving purple haze behind. "No, no!" Hermione cried. "Mum, where are you!"

"It seems, that this was only fiction." Arno said in a stern voice. "You can cheat computer games, but you cannot cheat reality!" Hermione cried, full of tears. "Mum, Mum. I want my Mum back. I’d give anything to hold her only once again in my arm." She cried.

"Maybe, I can help you." Paul said suddenly. "You know, in Bavaria the clocks go different, don’t you!" – "Er, yes, I’ve heard about that." Hermione replied. "Look at this!" Paul took out an old pocket watch with a long silver chain. It showed the picture of king Ludwig II, the most famous king of Bavaria. He swung the clock in front of the eyes of Hermione. She could see that the hands of the clock really moved counter clockwise! And she got very tired.

She got a strange feeling in her stomach, but she knew that. In her third year in Hogwarts she’d used magic to turn back the time, so that she could visit two lessons, even though they were at the same time. Everything moved backwards, she could see the purple haze, then her mother again. "Mum!" She hugged her mum again, and gave her a long kiss, until she vanished again. The time moved forward again, but at a higher speed until she reached the present. "Thank you very much, Paul. Are you a wizard too?" – "Who knows?"

"Paul?" Tobias whispered into Paul’s ears. "Could you also turn back the time for me, until the moment when Hermione kissed me?" Paul grinned, but Arno interrupted: "Enough of hocus-pocus. Lets turn to reality again!" At that time there was a knocking at the caravan’s door. "Who’s there?" Arno asked. "Its me, …" – "Mum!" Hermione shouted, opened the door and flew into the arms of her mother. "You’re back again!" – "Back again? I was released from prison today in the morning, and my boyfriend told me that you are at this campground. So I’m here! We’ve not seen us a long time, I missed you."

They started preparing a welcome feast for Hermione’s mother; but when Arno left to buy something to drink (this time strictly non alcoholic), Paul turned to Tobias, whispered something in his ear and they entered the caravan. After a while Tobias came out smiling all around his face and looking very glad. (Seems that Paul had made the time go backwards for him.)

This evening should also become a long evening. They were grilling chicken wings, maize and potatoes. And after dinner they were playing guitar and singing. Even Professor Dumbledore joined the party and everybody was surprised that he also could play guitar. But he played different tunes than Arno; he played old medieval tunes, like Greensleeves, Scarborough Fair, Menuett in A-Moll and many more. They sounded very good.

Arno lent Hermione’s mother his big green tent, so she was also able to join them on the campground. She said that she was long enough hidden behind thick walls, and she would enjoy the freedom of camping. Larry was sleeping outside the mobile home now, having an eye on Arno’s caravan.

"Arno, could you perhaps help us a little?" Hermione asked. "Sure, what’s the matter?" – "We have problems to – to stand up this tent! We’ve never seen anything like this before." – "Lets see – you’ve to lay it first down flat on the ground, then put the long sticks like an X into this holes, and then the shorter ones into that holes – OK – then let me show: You’ve to put the long one more into the tent and lift the whole thing, please help me! Yes, that’s it!" With united powers they manage to build up the big green tent. Arno told them also to fix all the storm wires so that it stands really save.

Finally they inflated their air mats and enrolled their sleeping bags (Hermione got again Tobias’ one, and her mother had one of her own). But as Hermione’s mother saw the bright sky full of stars she suggested: "Hermione, how about sleeping under the free sky, outside of the tent?" – "Yes, that’s a good idea, I like it. You know, yesterday we slept on the other side of the sea beneath the open sky also." And she told her mother about the last night. She told her nearly everything, except the yellow ghost, and what the boys had done with the fire.

*

Next day was the day of saying good-bye. Mr. Dursley and his lot had finally decided to continue their journey, because they wanted to visit Rome. Harry and Ron were very lucky, because Hermione’s mother also joined them. She had convinced her boyfriend without problems, so Harry, Ron and Hermione could stay together for the rest of the holidays. All of them were very happy about this.

Also Tobias was Happy; Harry had asked him: "Would you like to attend the exchange program with Hogwarts? I have spoken to Professor Dumbledore and he said he would make an exception for you. You could learn some simple spells, brew potions and fly on a broomstick. What do you think?" – "Really? I could … That would be great, yeah, of course I will!" Tobias was enthusiastic. "So then be on the 1^st of October at Kings Cross in London at platform nine and three quarters! You know how to get there, don’t you?" – "Yes, of course, I have read it in the book." – "The book? Ah, the book." Harry remembered, that they have seen books about him in the gas station.

Everybody was seated: Mrs. Dursley was steering again, Mr. Dursley sitting on the left side and Duddley in the middle. Harry, Ron and Hermione sitting on the same table this time, having a cards game in front of them (Tobias had taught them playing "Neunerln", a German cards game, and Hermione preferred playing with her friends this time instead of reading), Larry was sitting at Harry’s side and Winky was again relaxing in his own camber. All of them were waving out of the window, Paul and Arno waving outside, looking rather sad.

Then Mr. Dursley started the motor, or better he tried. He turned the key but there was no reaction. The battery lights were on, but the motor didn’t start.

"What the hell … ?" Mr. Dursley was surprised and full of anger. "A brand new mobile home and it doesn’t work!" He jumped out of the mobile home and opened the engine cowling to look after the motor. But there was no motor at all! "Where’s my motor?" – "It was eaten by snakes!" Paul grinned, and remembered a song of Frank Zappa called Flakes. There were a lot of fat, green snakes in the place where normally the motor was supposed to be.

Mr. Dursley got suspicious and ran inside the caravan again: "Who did this? Which son-of-a-bitch did this?" – "Please, Vernon, behave yourself!" Shouted Mrs. Dursley. All of the kids looked rather surprised. Harry said: "This weren’t us, we want to go to Rome, we enjoyed the journey very much until now and we want to continue; why should we do this?"

"We should ask Professor Dumbledore!" Hermione suggested. Mr. Dursley was so out of track about his motor being eaten by snakes, so he really did this. One year before it would have been the last person to ask, but now things had changed. He went to Professor Dumbledore and showed him the mess. "Hmm." Said Professor Dumbledore and crawled his long white beard. "Very strange, very strange." He took out his wand and murmured a very long spell (a motor is a very complicated machine, and it’s much more complicated to transfigure some snakes into a motor than to change a needle into a match). But finally (after half an hour) a lot of coloured sparks came out of his wand and he was surrounded in black smoke. He coughed and tried to wave the smoke away. "Give it a try!" he told Mr. Dursley. He turned the key again, and – was happy again. The motor snored better than ever before. "I recommend you to drive carefully," Professor Dumbledore said to Mr. Dursley, "because I don’t know how stable the motor will be. But it should be good enough to bring you to Rome and back to England. But then you should exchange it with a real motor." – "Thanks, thank you very much, Professor Dumbledore!" Mr. Dursley was really happy now.

*

Finally they left the Utting campground, all waving until they lost sight of each other. Mr. Dursley in front steering the motor home, Mrs. Granger and her boyfriend following in their car, a pink VW beetle.

Paul and Arno were rather sad that they had left; but especially was Tobias. He couldn’t forget Hermione kissing him onto his mouth. He swore to himself: "Some day, when I’m older, having a good job and earning my own money, I’ll ask Hermione – I’ll ask her – to – to – if she’d - marry me! Some day, …" He imagined his future like a movie, every detail being very clear; now his life got sense: He’d to learn a lot, get good results at his tests and finally visit the high school. After finishing high school with best results, he would get a good job at an Internet company and he would earn a lot of money; enough to feed a family, a family with two or three children. In the meantime he thought only of Hermione kissing him again, and again, and again …

8. Over The Alps

1. Juval

Mr. Dursley had driven for nearly two hours, then he said to his wife: "Darling, how about steering into Italy, won’t you?" – "Yes, of course! I’d always wish to cross the border by myself. I’ve always travelled only in Britain."

So they stopped at the parking place before Kiefersfelden. Hermione noticed a lake: "Let’s go swimming!" She shouted and ran towards the sea and dived into the water. The other kids joined her.

Mr. Dursley had a lot of trouble to put them into the van again; he wanted to reach Italy this day. Mr. Dursley said: "There was a border some years before, we’d to stop and wait for the control. But now it’s all united Europe, and there’s no border any more! Free ways through Europe!" Everybody was cheering: "Free Europe!" They drove to Innsbruck, and then turned left to Brenner. The road turned very steep. Mr. Dursley said: "There will be no stop until we are in Italy!" They noticed a sign: Europabrücke. Hermione had bought a book about Austria in the last gas station, and so she explained them all about the Europabrücke (European Bridge) "... it was the largest bridge at that time, and enabled for the first time an easy transit over the Alps, so we only have to say ..." – "Fuck!" Mr. Dursley shouted and slammed the breaks. There was a traffic jam just before him. "There is a part of a Roman road to be seen at the lower side of the bridge ..." Hermione continued to explain. "Fuck, damned shit!" Mr. Dursley continued – "Vernon, PLEASE! Control your words!" Mrs. Dursley shouted.

They stood at the same place for ten minutes, and then they could move forward – for two meters. Then they stood again.

After standing 2 hours in the traffic jam at the same place, they saw a guy of the ADAC (the German club for car drivers). "What’s the matter? How long does it take?" Mr. Dursley asked. "Dunno! They’ve found a bomb from world war two down at the piles of the bridge. They’ve got an anonymous hint about that. Imagine, the note was fixed at the foot of on owl that flew into the police office!"

Ron, Harry and Hermione looked at each other. A letter brought by an owl? That could only mean, that there was a wizard involved; but who? And why?

"Damned, fuck!" Mr. Dursley shouted one hour later – "Vernon! I’m tired of your ordinary words. If you can behave yourself, ... " Mrs. Dursley got really angry now on her husband. "Let me drive!" he shouted at her. "Do you think, that you can proceed in the traffic jam faster than me?" Mrs. Dursley asked. But she made the seat free and started to go to the table of Harry, Ron and Hermione. But then she fell. Mr. Dursley had set back and hit the car behind them. Then he made a sharp turn right into the grass, then back again. Wham – he hit another car. The drivers of both damaged cars were shouting loudly at Mr. Dursley, but he ignored them. He made a sharp turn to the right again, and nearly killed one of the shouting car drivers. He’d to jump aside. Mr. Dursley drove on the emergency lane back to Innsbruck. "Vernon, are you crazy?" Mrs. Dursley shouted. "You cannot damage two cars and then drive away as if nothing had happened." Mr. Dursley slammed into the breaks again. "If you are so clever, then go out and talk with them." He shouted at her. Mrs. Dursley left the mobile home with her passport and other papers of the car. She negotiated with the two car drivers. She gave them her address and the number of her car assurance. Additionally she gave them hundred Euros each, that they didn’t call the police. Mrs. Dursley felt, that her husband being in such a bad mood would talk to the policemen also so rude, and they’d get even more trouble.

As she returned to the mobile home, Mr. Dursley had calmed down and looked rather embarrassed. "Excuse me, Petunia, I had been so nervous and frustrated because of the traffic jam, so I lost my nerves. Thank you very much, that you made me stop and you managed this with the damaged cars." – "You’re welcome, Vernon." And he gave her a kiss at her cheek and hugged her.

Meanwhile Hermione was hugging her mother. Mrs. Granger had decided to stay in Austria, because they didn’t want to stay in traffic jams all the time (also they were so in love with each other, so they preferred being alone). It was no question for Hermione to stay with Harry and Ron, but it was not easy to depart from her mother. Finally she gave her mother a kiss and whispered with a grin: "Good-bye, and have fun!" Mrs. Granger turned slightly red.

Mr. Dursley had the idea to cross the Alps via the Reschenpass. So they returned back to Innsbruck, turned left to Landeck and then up to the Reschenpass. They wanted to continue to Meran and on Bozen where they could enter the highway again.

But again they got stuck in a traffic jam. As the Europabrücke was closed, many people had had the idea to go over the Reschenpass.

"We could visit the Juval castle!" Hermione suggested. She had read about the castle in a Baedeker travel guide about South Tyrol. "It’s the castle of Reinhold Messner, the famous mountain climber! It has a Tibetika collection, a mountain picture gallery, and a mask collection from five continents, religious symbols from three millenniums, and much more! It is opened from Palm Sunday until November. Guidance daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed on Wednesday. " – "Good idea," said Mr. Dursley. And as all others also were interested to see it, they decided to visit castle Juval and to stay there for the night.

One hour later they were able to leave the main road and followed the signs to the Juval castle. "They write, you should use the shuttle bus, because there will be not enough parking place at the castle." Hermione stated. "I’ll give it a try, can you see anybody in this street except us?"

And really, there was a lot of parking place at the castle. They parked their mobile home at the best place, with a wonderful mountain view. All of them jumped out of the car. "Wau!" They enjoyed a marvelous spot on mountains so high, they were covered with snow even now in August. Hermione explained them, that these mountains are called the Ötztaler Alpen.

There was a big sign in front of the entrance of the castle that showed the reason for the lots of parking place: Closed in July and August. "Oh, sorry," Hermione looked guilty, "on the next page they write that Reinhold Messner lives there in July and August, and therefore it is closed for visitors." They were very disappointed. But Dudley spotted an inn next to the castle and suggested to have a lunch there. Winky was a wonderful cook, but they were interested to try some specialties from South Tyrol, so they entered the inn.

Hermione had still her travel guide with her and listed the local specialties. They ordered a typical Tyrol style dinner: It consists of Speck am Brettl, that is smoked ham that you have to cut with a sharp knife into thin slices. There were also Kaminwurzn (smoked sausage from pork and beef), a variety of different kinds of cheese, tomatoes, cucumber and Vinschgerl. This is roll with the form of bread, but smaller, made from rye. "Very good!" Dudley was enthusiastic, but also the others enjoyed the meal.

After dinner the inn’s owner gave them the advice to visit the biological farmhouse Oberortl nearby. This was really interesting, especially for the kids. All of them living in big cities they didn’t see much animals at home. And in Hogwarts they dealt only with magical creatures like blast ended screwts. Here they could see ducks, gooses and a pig with a lot of baby pigs sucking milk from her. As they entered the stable of the cows, Ron giggled and put Harry aside. He started to giggle too. "What are you … ?" asked Hermione, but then she saw it. A cow was peeing with a thick ray. After that they could watch it shit. "Kid’s, come on!" Mrs. Dursley ordered in a stern voice, "There’s nothing interesting in that!" The three followed her, still giggling, and they imitated the sound of the cow’s shit, when it dropped down at the ground.

The farmer told them a lot about the reason for biological agriculture: "The poison conventional farmers put on their fields is not notly in the food itself, but also gets in to the water of the rivers and into the sea. There is harms fishes, and you eat the poison with the fish and drink it with the water."

Finally he said: "With eating biological food, you don’t do a good thing to your health, but you protect also our environment!" This was convincing, so Mrs. Dursley bought all they would need for a Tyrol style dinner and also two liters of fresh milk. Then they walked back to their mobile home, where Winky was very delighted that he got also a Tyrol dinner. Ron told him about what they have seen in the stable and giggled again.

Later, when Ron, Harry and Hermione were alone for one moment, Hermione complained: "I’m really disappointed, that we cannot visit the castle. I’d really like to see the religious symbols from three thousand years, and also the things from Tibet." – "Really?" Harry asked with an undertone. "I have my invisibility cloak with me, we could … " – "Yes!" that was just what Hermione wanted Harry to say. Also Ron was in favor. Playing cards all day through was not as interesting as to visit a forbidden castle at night in an invisibility cloak. So they decided to leave at 12 p.m., when the Dursleys were deep asleep.

Hermione could not sleep at all, because she was so exited. She could hear every breath of the Dursleys and especially the snoring of Mr. Dursley. At 12 p.m. she stood up (already full dressed) and went on tiptoes to the boys’ sleeping room. She knocked three times at the ladder. That was the sign for them to come down. But nothing happened. She climbed the ladder carefully, and then she saw the two deep asleep. She whispered: "Ron, Harry!" But they showed no reaction. So she tickled carefully Harry’s foot; that helped at once. Harry gave Ron a kick so he also awoke. They were also dressed, so Harry packed his invisibility cloak and they left the mobile home.

They stood in front of the door of the castle: "How can we open the door?" Harry asked. The castle was surrounded by a high stonewall with one big oak door in it. "Hermione, you managed to open the door in Hogwarts, when we were on the run to escape Flint. Could you do this again?" – "Harry, you should know, that we are not allowed to do magic outside of Hogwarts. And I also don’t have my wand with me." – "We climb!" said Ron. "We want to visit a climber, so we can also climb. Look, there are a lot of cracks in the wall." Indeed, the wall was made of natural stone, and it seemed possible. Hermione and Harry nodded, and so Ron started to climb up the wall. "It’s easy," he said. And after some minutes he reached the top of the wall and proceeded on the other side. But then Ron gasped and they could hear him fall hard to the ground. "Ron! Are you ok?" – "Auuh, no! Damned, my foot hurts so much. Help me!" As fast as they could Harry and Hermione climbed up the wall and carefully down at the other side. This was difficult. When you climb up, you can see where you go, but when you climb down, you’d wish to have eyes at your feet.

They could see at first sight, what was wrong. Ron’s right foot stood out in a very strange angle, it must have been broken. Ron had to suffer hard pain. In the first moment the shock covered the pain, but now he felt it increase every second. "Please do something, I cannot stand it any more." – "We can’t use magic to heal you, you know." Said Harry. "We can!" interrupted Hermione. "Give me your knife!" she said to Harry. "What do you want to do with a knife? No, no!" Ron feared she’d probably cut off his foot. But she took Harry’s knife and ran to a big willow tree nearby. She remembered, that willow is a tree with magical power, and she knew that a wand is only a tool to concentrate the magical energy. But the real power has to come from inside of the wizard. She cut a thin branch, about nine inches long, just the size of her usual wand. Then she returned back to Ron. "Hermione, you risk to be expelled from Hogwarts!" Harry said in surprise. "I’ll risk it, we’ve to help Ron. And by the way, I’ve heard that in Italy the wizard police is not so narrow minded like in England. She tried to remember the right spell, and concentrated. Then she waved the wand and said: "Footlosius Fixus!" – "Ah, thank you very much!" Said Ron, the pain had disappeared at once, but as he looked at his foot he shouted, "No! What have you done?" His foot looked like the foot of a duck, only bigger. "Oh, I’m sorry, Ron. Must have used the wrong spell. I’ll try another one. She waved the wand again and said: "Footlosius Reparius!" Now the foot looked like the horse’s foot. She tried again and again. It changed to look like the foot of a pig, elephant and penguin. "Hermione, what are you doing? Don’t you know how a human foot looks like?" He pulled off the shoe and socks of his left foot. "Here, look, I want it to look this way!" – "Ok, I’ll try." Hermione concentrated, waved her wand and said. "Transforma Footlosius." Really, she managed it. Now the foot looked like the other one, but it exactly looked like the other one: The right foot was identical to the left one, now Ron had two left feet. "We can fix this later." Harry interrupted, because he became already inpatient. Ron grumbled, but finally he put on his socks again. It was not easy to put a right-sided shoe on a foot that was left sided, but after all he managed it.

They hid under the invisibility cloak and tiptoed towards the main door of the castle. They were lucky, that this one was unlocked. They opened it carefully and entered the castle. They didn’t dare to switch on the light, but the full moon was shining bright through the windows, so they had enough light. The room was very frightening. It was full of fierce looking masks and weapons. Also they saw the fur with a sign that showed Yeti. "This is Yeti! Mr. Messner writes that he had succeeded in meeting one, and took even photos of it, but in the book, you cannot see anything. I don’t believe him. Yetis doesn’t exist." Hermione stated.

They wanted to have a look on every thing, always staying close together to be covered completely by the invisibility cloak, in case Reinhold Messner would show up. They were just proceeding to the next room as they were shocked by a voice: "What are you doing here?" How could anybody see them through their invisibility cloak? They turned and saw – Yeti! Or better the ghost of him. "Hi, nice to see you," said Harry. "We’re only on sightseeing tour through the castle." – "The castle is closed. You!" he pointed towards Hermione "Why do you say, that I don’t exist?" – "I – oh, er." Hermione didn’t know what to say. "You’re wizards, aren’t you?" Yeti asked. "Yes, how do you know?" – "First because of the invisibility cloak, second because I watched you when you repaired your friend’s foot. Bad work!" He said, raised his hairy hand and pointed his middle finger to Ron’s right foot. A beam of yellow light shot out of his finger and touched the foot. Ron had a warm feeling and rapidly put off his shoe. "Wau, that’s great! Thank you, Yeti." – "You’re welcome, but my name is: Tsaparang!" And he told them his story: "Reinhold (Messner) is really a tough guy. You have to know, we have a hidden wizard civilisation in the Himalayan Mountains. We look so much different than the other humans, so we have decided to hide completely. Only very seldom we get into contact with humans. Then we put a memory charm around them to forget about what they’ve seen. Only this guy was difficult. He has such a strength mental energy, that the memory charm didn’t work. So I was ordered to follow him, and destroy the pictures, he’d made from – me. I was too curious, and so he caught me. Now I’m here. I met a lot of interesting ghosts in this castle, so I decided to stay for a while. But now, I think I have to leave." – "Why?" – "Because all the ghosts suddenly have left." – "Do you know where they have gone?" asked Harry curiously. "Yes." Answered Tsaparang. "And where are they? Please tell us!" – "No. I have told you enough, and you should not deal with things your not supposed to." – "Please, dear Mr. Tsaparang." Hermione smiled softly at the Yeti. "Please give us at least a hint." – "No, I’ll tell you nothing, I’m not like Ötzi, who cannot stop talking the whole day. Ask him, perhaps he tells you!" The Yeti raised his hand again, and vanished.

"Who the hell is Oetzi?" asked Harry, "and where is he?" – "Dunno, answered Hermione. She’d read a lot of books, but this name was complete unknown to her. They decided, that they had seen enough and went back to the mobile home. This time Hermione opened the oak door with a spell, so they could leave easily and don’t risk another broken leg.

"It’s a pity that here is no library, like in Hogwarts, to find out about this Oetzi." Complained Harry. "There’s something better than a library!" Hermione suggested: "Internet Café!" – "Why should a cup of coffee help us to find out about Oetzi?" Harry didn’t get the point. "No coffee, haven’t you heard about the Internet? In an Internet Café you can surf in the Internet and query all the information of the whole world.

Harry realized that living at the Dursleys he’d missed a lot of things that normal human boys would know. On Dudley’s computer there were only games. Ron didn’t know about the Internet either, because he lived in a poor family, and they couldn’t afford Internet access. But he didn’t mention this.

Finally they supposed that they would find an Internet Café in Meran, so they would go there the next day.

 

2. Oetzi

They were all on the road again, heading towards Meran. "Mr. Dursley?" Hermione asked kindly. "Could we perhaps make a short stop in Meran? I’d like to check my Email account in an Internet Cafe." – "I’m sorry, Hermione, but we lost already so much time, we’ve to hurry up. Can’t you check your account when we’re in Rome?" She tried to argue with him, but in vain, so she surrendered.

Later in Meran they really spotted an Internet Cafe, while they were standing in a traffic jam again. But then, when they were able to go ahead for another two metres, they could hear a big bang. Mr. Dursley knew the sound already – this was another broken tire. "Fffffu... – er – flat tire, we have another flat tire, darling." He avoided the f-word, because he had promised his wife to stop using rude words. But he was rather angry. They were already very late, and now a flat tire in the middle of that crowded town. He managed to steer the mobile home away from the main road and stopped. "Who will help me to change the tire?" – he asked. But this time no one wanted to join him. Hermione said: "We check this Internet Café." And as fast as lightning she, Ron and Harry were out of the van and running towards the Internet Café they’d seen before. At least Dudley helped his father, after he had promised to buy him an extra gift, when they were in Rome.

"This is my favorite search engine." Hermione explained. They’d entered the Internet Café, bought themselves a cup of hot chocolate each, and the permission to surf in the Internet for one hour. "It’s URL is http://www.altavista.com ." – "What is an Url?" Ron asked. "That’s like an address, you’ve to enter it here in this line. Then here you can enter your search phrase. I’ll try Oetzi first. Uh, here we go, a lot of hits, see!" Ron and Harry watched her using the Internet, as it was the most normal thing in the world. Maybe it was, in the Muggle world. "D.J. Ötzi, we’ll try this one." She clicked this URL, because she thought that D.J. was a magical name prefix. "Oh, he’s an artist, that’s why he talks so much." They landed on a page that shows the cover of a maxi CD called Hey Baby. "There are sound samples included! Perhaps he has hidden his secret message in there. We’ll try one." Hermione was in her element, but then she was rather surprised. Out of the Computer’s speakers they could hear no secret messages, but a rhythmic song: Hey, baby – Uh – Ah! I wonna know if you be my girl. "That sounds great!" Ron liked this song, "Repeat it!" Hermione clicked on the play button again, and then the other guests of the Internet Café started to sing the song also. They seemed to know it very well, because they continued the whole song even after the short music sequence was over. It was a easy song too, always: Hey, baby – Uh – Ah! I wonna know if you be my girl. Now also Harry and Ron sang it and snapped with the fingers the rhythm. Even Hermione bobbed her legs up and down. But when they all finished the song, she whispered: "I don’t think, that this guy will tell us the secret, where the ghosts are going to." – "Try this one!" Harry had spotted another Url. They could read the line: Ancient mummy found in the glacier of Similaun in the Ötztaler mountains. Here they read the story of a man from the Bronze Age that was discovered under the ice. Also Reinhold Messner was involved in it. "That’ll be the one!" Hermione was enthusiastic. "Read on!" Harry was impatient. They read the whole story of the mummy that was called Ötzi because of the mountains he was found. So they got to know, that he was now stored in a museum in Bozen. They swallowed their hot chocolate at once and ran out of the Café at once.

"Mr. Dursley! We’ve to go to Bozen!" Hermione shouted. "Yeah, I know. That’s were we reach the highway again." – "No, there’s a mummy from the Bronze Age! We’ve to visit!" And she told him all about the man from the ice. Mr. Dursley was wondering whether Hermione had caused the flat tire, because he’d refused her last wish to go to the Internet Café. Still he was a bit frightened about wizard power. But Mrs. Dursley was also interested to visit the mummy from the Bronze Age, and so did Dudley. Sitting in a mobile home in a traffic jam was not the way they wanted to spend their holidays. So finally Mr. Dursley agreed to visit Ötzi.

Hermione didn’t cause that flat tire, nor did it Ron or Harry.

Hermione had printed a description how to go to Oetzi’s museum, so they had no problem to find it. But it took three hours to go there, because there was a continuing traffic jam from Meran until Bozen.

Mrs. Dursley paid the tickets and only Larry had to stay in the mobile home, because animals were not allowed. The exhibition was really interesting. They showed a lot of information about the world of Oetzi, how people worked and lived. Because of the special conditions where he died (first dry winds that humidified his body, then the glacier that conserved it) everything was extremely good preserved. They could even analyse grass seed that was in his clothes. It was strange, that he had an axe of bronze, but his bow with arrows was unfinished. This was very dangerous at that time. Hermione was very interesting about their potion brewing. It reminded her on Professor Snape. Harry didn’t want to be reminded on him.

But the best of all was the body itself. His skin had the colour of bronze, he had still hair on his head, and his arm stood in a strange angle, as if he wanted to point to somewhere. Harry waited until the Dursleys moved to the next room, where they wanted to watch a special movie about the life of Oetzi. It took a long time, because Dudley was knocking at the glass window like he had done in the zoo when Harry spoke to the snake. Oetzi behaved like the snake, he didn’t move at all.

Now the time had come: "Hi, Oetzi, I’m Harry, this is Hermione and this is Ron!" The two bowed a little in the direction of the dead body. "We have a problem, where we think you can help us." Harry had to shut up, because a group of Japanese came in, and the guide had already thrown a strange sight on Harry because he’d seen him speak to the mummy. After the Japanese had finished their photos (everybody wanted to make a photo with his partner standing next to Oetzi) Hermione tried it: "Dear Mr. Oetzi, could you please tell us, where all the ghosts are going?" They looked tense on the dead body, but it didn’t move, nor did any ghost reply to them - nothing.

They continued trying it, and attracted much attention of the other guests. But especially Harry didn’t pay attention to them. He remembered that every time he saw the ghosts his scar hurt. And that could only mean that one person stood behind this: "Voldemort" This word slipped Harry out of his mouth as he thought about him. Ron and Hermione were completely shocked and were shivering. "Harry, please don’t say this name in public!" Hermione told him with a stern voice.

They thought, that during the day was not the best time to speak to a ghost, so they decided to join the Dursleys and watch the film. But at the moment Harry wanted to open the door, he could hear a voice: "Who are you, that you dare to say the name of whom-that-has-not-to-be-named?" – "Er, I’m Potter, Sir, Harry Potter." Harry was looking around, but he could see nobody, but he’d known at once, that this was the ghost of Oetzi. "I’m at the school of witchcraft and wizardry in Hogwarts, and You-Know-Who killed my parents and wanted to kill also me, when I was a baby. Please, can you tell me, where all those ghosts are going to?" – "Not all the ghosts, only the bad ones, and its good that they’re gone." Oetzi’s voice told them. Still they couldn’t see him. "Please, dear Mr. Oetzi, help us, it’s very important for us." Hermione cried. "Yes," Harry added, my scar hurts every time I watch the ghosts move away." – "Your scar hurts!" laughed Oetzi, "Do you have an idea how much my scars hurt? Not enough that I was killed by an arrow; for some thousand years I could at last rest in peace. But you, you so called modern civilisation spoil your environment so badly, that the climate changes and the glaciers start to melt. It’s your fault that they found me and put me behind glass and every child is watching my naked body. Not to mention all the investigations they did with me. THAT hurts, boy!" Oetzi started to get angry. "I’m sorry, I didn’t know that." Harry said embarrassed. "Ok, then I’ll give you a riddle that leads you the way to your desire. Pay attention, I’ll tell it only once and give no explanation. Is this clear for you?" – "Yes, sure!" – "Then listen:

You see the stone in the shine, from the mirror making wine.

Harry, Ron and Hermione stood still their mouths wide open. What was that? Was that all a ghosts lying for several thousand years in the ice was going to tell them? It didn’t make sense at all. A mirror cannot make wine, that’s nonsense. Was he kidding?

"Er, Mr. Oetzi? I think I cannot understand, how can a mirror make wine?" asked Hermione kindly. "I told you, that you have to listen carefully, and I will not give any further information to you – you destroyers! Ask Laurin, perhaps he’s glad to talk to you, he’s also a destroyer." This was the last thing Oetzi did say.

Disappointed they entered the room where the film was shown. But they didn’t pay attention to the film, they only thought about the riddle. You see the stone in the shine. Which stone in what shine? From the mirror making wine. That didn’t make sense to any of them. And who was Laurin?

Back in the car, Hermione asked Mr. Dursley again: "Please Mr. Dursley, could we go to the Internet Café again? We’ve to find out about Laurin." – "Laurin? King Laurin?" Mr. Dursley asked, "You don’t have to search the Internet for that, everybody who loves South Tyrol knows about King Laurin and the Rose Garden. Don’t you?" – "No, please Mr. Dursley, tell me!" – "Ok, then I’ll tell you the tale of the rose garden while we drive to the highway.

King Laurin wanted to marry Similda, the daughter from a king in the neighbourhood. But he was not allowed to marry her, so he robbed her, and took her into his small kingdom where beautiful roses were growing. But after seven happy years, the relatives of Similda freed her, and imprisoned also King Laurin.

But he managed to flee, and returned back to his kingdom, where he was crying a long time for his unlucky love. Finally he thought, that the red roses might have betrayed him. So he put a charm on them and transfigured them into stone, so that nobody could see them any more neither by day nor by night.

But he forgot about dusk, which was neither day nor night. And so at the time of dusk the stones of the mountains in his kingdom show the red colour of the roses."

"Wau, that’s a very interesting story," said Hermione, "but where can we find this king?" – "Laurin? My girl, this is only a tale, but the rose garden really exists, they are the mountains near the Karer Pass. "We’ve to go there, it’s important." Hermione insisted. "Please, don’t be silly. Do you want to speak to a king of a tale? Go into bead and dream. We want to go to Rome, and that is in the south. The Karer Pass is in the east, and a very difficult way to go, lot of serpentines. No, we go south!"

Hermione was angry; he spoke to her like to a silly child. She looked questioning at Harry and he nodded. Then she took out her self-made willow wand from the Juval castle. She waved it and pointed towards Mr. Dursley "Sleeperus Deepus!" And Mr. Dursley fell asleep at once. But she’d forgotten, that they were driving at the highway. Thanks to Ron, that he’d noticed this at once and took the steering wheel. Hermione bewitched also Mrs. Dursley and Dudley and Harry fetched Mr. Dursley out of his seat, so that Ron could take the driving seat. "Can you drive that car?" Hermione asked anxiously. "Yes, sure! You know my father loves Muggle artefacts, and so he taught me to drive, it’s easy!" Ron was very proud, to help Harry again.

Hermione was studying the road map. "Ron, we’ve to turn. We’ve to go to Bolzano Nord and then along road number 241 until Karer Pass. Ron slammed into the breaks – behind him two cars crashed together, to avoid to crash into him. Then he drove through the bushes that separated the two driving tracks. There also several cars crashed together, because they wanted to escape him. One slammed into their mobile home. "Oops!" Ron didn’t bother about that, and pressed the gas pedal again, now steering north. He tried to test how fast this car could go; 150 kilometres per hour, not bad. "Ron, we’ve to leave: Bolzano Nord!" Hermione shouted. Ron slammed into the breaks again, and left the highway. He drove up the serpentines at a speed Hermione and Harry got worried. "P-please, Ron, could you perhaps go a little slower, please!" Wham! At that moment Ron lost control over the car, he scratched to the stonewall on the right side, and nearly fell into the river on the left side. "Everything under control!" he said, but he got pale, and slowed down at once.

After nearly an hour they came to a beautiful lake. "This must be the Karer Lake, that means we have to turn left the next opportunity." Hermione said. They followed the sign to Rosengarten until finally they reached a cable railway with the sign "Zum Rosengarten - To Rose Garden" on it. Ron slammed into the breaks again, and they came to a halt. But the cable railway had already closed down, because it was already 9 p.m. and was going to get dark.

They were a little disappointed, but then they got hungry. Harry wanted Winky to prepare the dinner, but he refused. "You is bewitching me master, that is no is good. I is only cooking for me master, and you is not me master." He said. But they remembered the things they’d bought at Juval and had a wonderful Tyrol style dinner. Harry found even a bottle of red wine and opened it. "To King Laurin!" he shouted and took a deep gulp out of the bottle, Ron also gulped directly out of the bottle, and then he gave it to Hermione. She thought about taking a glass or drinking at all, but then she thought "Who care’s? To King Laurin!" and took a very deep gulp out of the bottle. She spotted a lot of it over her clothes, because she wasn’t used to drink this way.

They put even some wine in the drinking nap of Larry, but he refused to drink or eat at all. It seams that he really was concerned about something. "Do you think, we should put a memory charm around him also?" Harry asked. "No, nonsense, what could a stupid dog tell the Dursleys? That we drove with the mobile home along a serpentine and nearly died in the cold river? No, give me the bottle. To King Laurin!" Hermione shouted again.

Suddenly they heard a knock on the door. "Shit, the police! Quick, hide the bottle!" Harry shouted. And they covered also the Dursleys with some blankets. Then Harry opened the door. But there was no police at all, there was only one person with a golden crown on his head and a read cloak full of roses. "Who is calling my name?" he asked.

They told him the whole story, from the ghosts in Brighton until the riddle of Oetzi. Then King Laurin laughed. "That is the typical way of him, he always liked to play with riddles, but by the way, his name is not Oetzi, his name is Varena Cavalese Tesero Panchia. He was the father of Similda. He had nothing against her marrying me; it was only his family. After I fled – he’d helped me - they chased him out of the castle and finally they killed him."

"So please Mr. Laurin, King Laurin, could you tell us what he means with the mirror that makes wine?" Hermione asked. "Go to Gretl at the Lake then you’ll see!" Then King Laurin vanished.

"Damned! Is that all the ghosts here can do? They’re only talking in riddles, and sending us from one to the other! I think that they don’t know anything and they are just kidding us!" Harry was really angry now and Hermione was disappointed. They’d risked so much, and for what?

They decided to go to bed and to go back to Bozen tomorrow and then to wake up the Dursleys and do as nothing had happened. They had only to find some explanation about the scratches in the side of the mobile home. But they were too tired to bother about that.

*

The next day, back in Bozen and Mr. Dursley was steering again. He was in a very good mood, and so were his wife and Dudley. Hermione had used a memory charm that was very delighting to them. "Gretl at the Lake." Hermione muttered, because she’d not given up to solve the riddle. "Do you know it?" Mr. Dursley asked. "What?" – "Gretl at the Lake, the camp ground at the Kalterer Lake?" – "Gretl is a camp ground?" Now Hermione was really confused. How could a campground tell them anything? Perhaps it was full of ghosts? They would give them another riddle and sent them anywhere; it was useless. But they should give a last try. She asked Mr. Dursley "Please, could we go there?" – "No!" answered Mr. Dursley. Hermione looked at Harry, he nodded again, and three wand waves later Mr. Dursley was happy to go to the campground Gretl at the Kalterer Lake. Hermione didn’t dare to let Ron drive again.

9. Lago Caldaro

They were heading to the Lake of Kaltern at the afternoon. Ron thought it was funny that all towns here have two names: Kalterer See (Lake of Kaltern) was also named Lago Caldaro, Menegal Pass named also Passo Mendolo. He asked Mr. Dursley about that. "That’s because this area was many years under Austrian control, but after the first World War Italy won, and this area had to be handed over to Italy. They made a special law for the inhabitants to learn to speak Italian. Also they settled a lot of Italian citizens to this area. Finally they decided to change all names of towns, villages and landmarks to the Italian language. Now South Tyrol has a special status inside Italy, it is a so-called autonomy province. So at least they are allowed to use their native German language besides the Italian language."

"Very interesting," Ron muttered, we should also translate our names; from now on I’m Ronno Weasolo." Hermione giggled: "And my name is Hermiono Grangolo!" – "And I’m the famous Harro Pottero!" They were all laughing and joking and translating all the names from their friends and relatives into Italian.

They just wanted to follow the sign that showed down to the lake when a guard stopped them. "This way is closed, because of the summer feast." – "B-but we’ve reserved a place at the campground Gretl!" Mr. Dursley lied. "Ok, this is an exception, you can pass." And the guard gave the way free. Harry smiled at Mr. Dursley "Thank you!" In fact, the campground was totally booked out; even the special area for motor homes was full. But the friendly keeper of the campground allowed them to stay for one night at the normal parking place. They could also visit the beach of the campground and the toilettes for a small fee.

Everywhere there were big posters that showed: Special summer feast at Lake of Kaltern. Special guest: D.J. Ötzi. Magical fireworks at night.

"Mr. Dursley, can we go to the summer feast at night?" Hermione asked. "Yes of course, we’ll all go there, aren’t we, darling?" – "Sure, Vernolo, and our Dudolo will also join, won’t you?" – "Only when my mother, Petunolo buys me an extra large sausagolo with pommolo and majo."

They had a relaxing afternoon, the kids bathing and splashing at the sea (Hermione’s bikini fixed with a tight knot). The sea was so warm, that they could stay in the water as long as they wanted without getting cold.

"Ahm, Harry," Dudley whispered into Harry’s ear when they were moving back to the mobile home, "you told me, that you could give me a special drink, you know the love potion. You know, the feast, there will be a lot of girls, and … you understand?" – "Ah, yes, of course, null problemo!" He grinned, and whispered in the ear of Hermione.

Hermione vanished into the kitchen and came back after some time. She gave Harry a small bottle with a cork. It had been a bottle of Grappa (Italian brandy), which Mr. Dursley had thrown away, because it was empty. "Tell him, that he shall drink one single drop only per day." Hermione whispered to Harry’s ear.

Mr. Dursley invited them to a Pizzeria at the lake that was called Geier (Griffon). They enjoyed a wonderful mixed salad as a starter, and then Pizza Four Seasons or for the kids Spaghetti ala Bolognese. They finished with a big mixed ice cream for each and Mr. And Mrs. Dursley drank a strong Espresso. They ordered an extra pizza in a doggy bag, because they knew that Winky had never eaten pizza before.

But the highlight of this day was the feast. They had heard only a five-seconds-sampler of D.J. Ötzi before, and now they were really impressed to hear him playing life. Harry, Ron and Hermione were dancing and singing with the other kids: "Heeeeeey, Baby – Uh – Ah – I wonna knooooow, if you be my girl." Dudley enjoyed the evening also, because he was surrounded by a crowd of girls. Even Mr. Dursley, dancing close with his wife, felt the sights of a lot of women around him. He had found a bottle of Grappa in the mobile home and had taken a gulp out of it. Usually his wife didn’t like it when he drank Grappa, but this time it was different. Mrs. Dursley whispered something into the ear of her husband, and then they left the feast. Also Dudley left very early.

At about 11 p.m., when it was nearly dark, the firework started. They had never seen such a fantastic fireworks. There were rockets in all colours, red, green, yellow, purple and even golden and silver; one bigger than the other. One firecracker exploded, then you could see a green light going down slowly, and then it started up again and exploded for a second time. When the fireworks had finished, they left also towards the mobile home. They were helding themselves by the hands, shaking the feet with every step and singing loudly: "Heeeeeey, Baby – Uh – Ah – I wonna knooooow, if you be my girl."

But as they arrived at the mobile home, they stood still, frozen: A crowd of women was standing around the mobile and knocking against it. But worse was with Dudley: The tent was torn into pieces and a bulk of young girls was fighting to get him. Harry saw the stern look of Hermione and said: "I told him that one drop is enough, I swear!" Hermione put out her self-made-wand and muttered: "Finito Viagra!" That changed the scene at once. The girls and woman looked as they had awoken from a dream, wondered what they had wanted here, and left at once.

*

The next day was calm and relaxing. Still they were trying to solve the riddle and try to find out about Gretl. They had even investigated the whole campground after midnight, but found no ghost or nothing unusual at all. Harry had even called the name Voldemort three times, because that had helped in Bozen before, but in vain. So after dinner they were sitting at the beach and enjoying at least the sunset. Hermione had her Baedeker travel guide with her, as if she could find the solution of a magical riddle in a Muggle travel guide.

There was no wind at all, and it was a very warm evening. Ron and Harry had only a T-shirt and short trousers on, Hermione was wearing a bikini with red roses, that she’d bought in the shop near the campground. It reminded her of King Laurin and the Rose Garden.

The sun had set already, then suddenly the scene changed. The ruin of the castle Leuchtenburg on the hill at the other side of the sea started to glow with a bright orange colour. They could also see the picture of the glowing castle mirrored in the flat lake. "That’s it!" Hermione shouted, "Harry, can you repeat the riddle?" And she started to browse through the travel guide. Harry repeated the riddle:

"You see the stone in the shine, from the mirror making wine."

"Here, I’ve found it: The name Kaltern comes from the old method of squeezing the juice out of the grapes to make wine from it. Do you understand!" – "No!" answered Harry and Ron at the same time. The mirror making wine is the lake of Kaltern, when it is flat like now. Then it works as a mirror. And the stone in the shine we can see in the mirror is – the Leuchtenburg!" – "Is there anything about this Leuchtenburg in the travel guide?" Harry asked. "Yeah, let’s see: It is supposed to be founded about the year 1200. At 1340 it was conquered by the bishop Niklas from Trient. From 1411 on it was lent to several families of the aristocracy. After 1610 the castle was not used any more, and was ruined." – "I’m sure the ghosts met in this shabby ruin of a castle. I’ve to go there! Who will join me?" This was a super fluid question, because Ron and Hermione would join him to the hell itself, if it were necessary.

 

1. Show Down

But they wanted to be well prepared. First of all, everybody needed a wand. Ron and Harry ran to the willow that stood at the banks of the lake. Hermione was looking for a broom. Some time later they met at the mobile home. Ron and Harry had managed to cut rather good wands out of the wood of the willow, and Hermione had found a shabby old broom, but at least it was a old-style broom with twigs at its end. Harry took his invisibility cloak out of his chamber and told Mr. Dursley that they’d be out for a walk.

Then they walked back to the campground and looked as unspectacular as they could. The wands were hidden in the back of their trousers; the invisibility cloak was hidden under Harry’s T-shirt, so it looked, as he was rather fat. Hermione held the broom over her shoulder so it seemed that she wanted to go to work. They were whistling the song Hey Baby, …

They stopped at the sandbox where the children used to build castles and bake cake. They sat on the broomstick, Harry in front, Hermione in the middle and finally Ron. Harry said: "We’ll kick into the air at three! One, two, three!" They kicked in the air with all their might and prepared to fly over the lake, but they lifted only about 2 feet, then they fell back in the sand. Two kids playing still at the playground saw them and giggled.

"I knew it", said Hermione "we’ve to bewitch it first. It’s only a normal broom! But I can’t remember any spell for that." Harry thought of the book about broom care, Hermione had given him as a birthday present some years ago. Maybe there was something. There was a chapter what to do, when a broom was out of order. "I’ll give it a try!" He put out the wand waved it and touched the broomstick three times and muttered: "Broomstick Repario!" The broomstick started to glow, and some smoke came out of it, suddenly some coloured crackles shot out the front end, and then it looked like fresh polished. "Yeah, you’ve made it!" shouted Ron in favour.

They tried it again, and on three they lifted over the height of the trees. "Yahoo!" Harry shouted. He enjoyed nothing more than to fly on a broomstick. He tried the acceleration; it was rather slow, but they intended only to fly to the ruin of the Leuchtenburg and have a look, what was going on there. But the broom didn’t fly stable, in fact it behaved more than a wild bull than a normal flying broomstick. The invisibility cloak fell out of Harry’s T-shirt and into the water. "Harry, what are you doing?" shouted Hermione. "N-nothing, it’s the broomstick. I cannot control it." – "We’re loosing twigs!" shouted Ron from the rear. "You’ve forgotten to bewitch also the twigs at the back. You should have – aaaaah!" They all shouted full of fear. The broom had lost all its twigs, and so it could not be steered any more. It shook them around wildly; Harry could only do one thing, he ordered: "Stop!" That was like switching off the engines of a flying aeroplane. The broom stopped to shake them around, but it lost more and more height. Finally they dived into the water, nearly in free fall.

Harry spat a ray of water out of his mouth, and then they started to swim to the banks on the other side. They were lucky, that the water was rather warm and they were not too far away from the other side. But it was not as easy, because their clothes made swimming much more exhausting. Finally they made it. Ron helped Hermione out of the water, and then they laid flat in the grass. "That was near, " Ron muttered, "imagine we were on solid rock when we went down!" Nobody wanted to imagine this.

*

At the mobile home Larry had heard their noise and knew at once, that there was something unusual going on. He ran to the campground, narrowed his eyes, and though it was nearly dark he could see them at the other side of the lake. He started to run. While running, his feet grew larger and larger, and his whole body grew also. Then he stumbled, "Damned!" he said, "I shouldn’t transfigure while running." But he stood up again, and continued his run. Now he was a rather big black dog.

*

Meanwhile the three wizard kids had gained breath again. "Now we’ve to climb up the hill, has everybody his wand!" Harry ordered like a general. "Yes, Sir!" Ron and Hermione presented their wand like a riffle.

Climbing up this hill was harder than expected. From the other side it looked so smooth, but it was very steep. Soon they were out of breath again. But they didn’t give up, until they reached the first wall of the ruins. "Pst!" Harry said. And all stood still. They could hear a voice in the main castle, and a flickering light from inside. Carefully they tiptoed nearer and glanced through a window hole.

Harry knew at once what was going on. He could remember this scene too good. Wormtail stood in front of a huge cauldron that was hanging over a hot wooden fire. He had just cut his ear off and thrown it into the boiling water in the cauldron. This belongs to the procedure to create bodies for ghosts, like for Voldemort before. Harry saw that Wormtail had cut off already all his fingers that meant, he’d already created ten bodies and was now going to create the eleventh. In the room on their left hand side Harry could see hundreds of yellow creatures. These were the ghosts, that had flown over the Alps. One waved at them. It was the one they had released by accident at the Ammersee. They obviously waited to receive a body again. Wormtail was creating these bodies as he’d done with Voldemort. In the room on the right hand side there were ten bodies practising to fight. This corresponded to the ten fingers Wormtail was missing so it looked like Wormtail had created ten creatures and would create many more of them in the future.

They ducked again, and Harry whispered to his friends what this scene was meaning.

"You know what we’ve to do?" Harry asked. "You mean, we … " - "Yes, we’ve no choice. We have to use the forbidden Death Curse!" - "Harry!" Hermione had regained her stern voice, "Using a spell to heal a friends foot or bewitching a broom to fly is one thing. But killing a man will be a crime even in Italy. We’ll get into real trouble if we do this!" – "We’ll get into trouble if we do NOT kill him. What do you suppose he will use these bodies for? Playing Quidditch? Voldemort had tried to kill me once, and he’d sworn to make it better the next time. Also when he really regains power and supporters again, he’ll kill much more people!"

This convinced Hermione, so they prepared. Harry gave the signal again: "On three: One, two, three!" They rose again, waved their self-made wands and pointed it towards Wormtail, muttering "Avada Kedavra!". But only some sparkling crackers came out of their wands. They could hurt Wormtail as much as three honey bees could.

"Here you are?" he shouted in surprise. "Catch them!" he ordered, and three of his creatures flew through the window and caught them. They bonded the three kids with iron chains at the thick stonewall of the castle room.

Harry asked "What do you do?" Wormtail answered: "I wouldn’t tell you, but now as you’re my prisoner, I can tell you everything. Voldemort gave me the order to collect all bad ghosts in Europe and give them a body again. I used a very strong spell, the Call of Nature to attract them. Then I promised them to give them back a body if they follow Voldemort for one order. "What was this order!" – "To kill a boy – called Harry Potter! I tried to keep you away until we’d gained enough suporters, but you fought all withdraws. You were released from prison, survived the storm in the North Sea, and neither the flat tires nor the snake eaten motor could stop you. My last try was to block the European bridge, but you managed your way through the Alps anyway.

And now, we’re ready to kill you. And your blood will even help us to regain more power over the whole wizard world it I put it into the potion!

"I didn’t believe that you’d made it to find me. I sent my creatures out to stop you, but they have failed. Now as you’re here – with this ridicule wands (he cracked them into pieces and threw them into the fire) – I’ll make use of you. You know that the blood of an enemy makes my potion much more powerful! Now I can add the blood of three nice young enemies." He put out his big Bowie knife. He could hardly hold it because of his missing fingers. "Where do you prefer to be slit?" – "Fuck you!" Harry shouted and spit him directly in his eyes. "Harry!" shouted Hermione, "Behave yourself!" – "I have to behave myself?" Harry was outraged. "This fucking guy wants to slit me up and put my blood into this bloody fucking potion, and I’ve to behave myself?" – "Yes, she’s right." Wormtail said in a strange soft voice. "I should also behave myself. Ladies first! You shall have the opportunity to enjoy watching me sucking the last drop of blood of your friends, before I’ll return to you." He turned to Hermione aiming with his knife at her throat. "Where do you want me to start?" – "Fuck you!" she shouted and spit him into the other eye. Ron couldn’t help himself from laughing. Hermione told Harry to be cute even when facing death, and now she herself was using dirty words. "You find this funny, little red haired boy? In some minutes you’ll all beg for your life!" Wormtail rose his knife again, and started to cut Hermione’s throat.

"Wau!" suddenly a dog barked and jumped through the window hole. He stood still, raised and transfigured to … "Sirius!" Wormtail and Harry shouted in surprise! "Yes, It’s me. Your game is over, Wormtail!" Sirius waved his wnad and said: "Transforma Tigera!" That made Wormtail transform to a tiger. Then Sirius freed the kids with three waves of his wand. Harry was so happy to see him again, especially under these circumstances. "Why did you transform him to a tiger?" Harry asked. "That will lock him, you know he is a Animagus like me. But he cannot turn to a rat (his animal form), because rats are afraid of tigers. And he cannot transform himself back to a human, because he also is afraid of tigers as a human. I know this from our childhood." But he runs away!" shouted Ron. "Doesn’t matter. Either they’ll shoot him, or put him into a zoo, where he’ll die of boredom. Also he’s harmless, because he’s no claws, because he’d cut all his fingers"

Sirius explained them how he’d transfigured to Larry and accompanied them all the time. His only problem was, that he had always been so tired. He didn’t know why.

They were all happy climbing down the hill, holding themselves on the hands and singing "Heeeey, Baby – Uh – Ah. I wonna knooooow, if you be my girl." But suddenly ten strange looking bodies blocked their way. At the same time something hit Sirius from behind. It was Wormtail who scratched the shoulders of Sirius with his sharp claws of his back feet (he was only missing his front claws). He made Sirius stumble and fall to the ground. The tiger Wormtail sat on him and put his back claws ready at his throat to kill him. "Fuck you!" shouted Hermione. Wormtail was surprised and looked at her. At that moment Ron jumped towards Sirius and pulled his wand out of his jacket. "Wingardia Leviosa!" he muttered and waved the wand towards the tiger. It lifted five feet into the air. The ten bodies had vanished in fear. Without their master, they didn’t dare to fight. "I’m sorry." Ron said, "By the time I didn’t remember any other spell than those which I used in our fight with the Troll. Sirius, can you help me, I cannot keep him up for much longer." Sirius took the wand. "Salto mortale!" he muttered, and the tiger started to spin faster and faster. "Down!" Then it smashed hardly to the ground. According to the sound some bones must have broken. The tiger didn’t move at all. "Is he dead?" Ron asked. "No, he’s only unconscious." With another wave of his wand Sirius created a solid steel cage around him. "That’ll be enough." We’ll give the Safari Park at the Garda Lake a hint, and then they will get him. Will be interesting whether the other tigers like him."

They went back around the lake to the mobile home carefully, but there was no further attack. But when they arrived at the place where the mobile home was supposed to stay, they saw a shocked looking Mr. Dursley. "They ate my caravan!" he muttered, again and again. "Ten strange looking strangers ate my mobile home!" – "Can you recreate our mobile home again?" Harry asked Sirius "Professor Dumbledore had recreated our motor, when it has been eaten by snakes.". "No, I’m sorry. First of all Professor Dumbledore is the best wizard on earth, second a whole mobile home is so complicated, it would take weeks to recreate it, even if I could."

11. Muggle Train

They were all sitting in the train now: Mr. And Mrs. Dursley were sitting close together holding hands, and their son Dudley was staring out of the window. On the other side Ron, Hermione and Harry were telling Sirius their adventures in reverse order. When they drove through Bozen they told him about Oetzi and King Laurin, also about Yeti and the cow following the call of nature in the biological farmhouse.

When they crossed the border at the Brenner pass, Hermione said: "Now we have left Italy, remember that we should not use magic any more!" – "Have you seen anybody using magic?" Harry asked Ron with a wink of his eyes. "No, never, nobody!"

When they entered Germany they told Sirius about the events at the Ammersee, grilling and singing under open sky and also about the ghosts in Rohrbach and learning to sail in Wilhelmshaven, where they had met Larry and Tobias. This was the keyword to remember Hermione that she wanted to write postcards to some people. The card for Tobias was already finished, only the signature of Ron and Harry was missing. But she wanted to write a card to Krum, but she didn’t know what to write. There was so much she wanted to tell him. Also she was in fear, that he would have met another girl in Bulgaria, and would be no more interested in her at all. So she wrote only I love you. Of course she hid this card from the others carefully.

In Munich they had to change the train. They wanted to go to Paris, then through the Channel Tunnel direct to London. Hermione had decided to visit also her father, who still was living in England. They taught Sirius to play Neunerln, a cards game they had learnt from Tobias.

Sirius left them in Paris, because it was to dangerous for him to travel through England by train. He was still a excaped prisoner of Azkaban. Finally they arrived in London, Victoria Station and the time for saying good-bye had come. Ron and Harry were hugging Hermione tight, tears were rolling down the cheeks of all three; as they heard somebody to clear his throat behind them. It was Hermione’s father.

Soon also Ron’s mother arrived and was very pleased to have her youngest son back.

So as usual, Harry was left to spend the rest of the holidays with the Dursleys. But this time he had a much better feeling than the other times, because they had turned to be very nice to him. After organising the love potion , even Dudley (he had still the bottle with him) didn’t bother him any more.

However Harry was eagerly looking forward to the changes in Hogwarts in the next term.

- The End -

 

Ÿ no every flavour beans, ...