The Journey Cycle pt 1: Europe *pt 1 now complete*

17

All too soon the New Year was upon them and some of their guests returned from the party previously. Julia and Jon were present but unfortunately Stacey was back in England for the festivities as were Matt and Doug, but Heike was here and the eleven made for quite a pleasant gathering.

They sat by the pool on this mild night and soon there was this rather odd-smelling smoke drifting their way from the other side of the fire where young Jon could be seen smoking a rather lumpy looking cigarette of some sort which he proceeded to pass to his sister. The process of smoking this thing seemed to make them rather giggly very quickly.

Harry rose to tend to the small fire that he had built earlier, making sure it wasn’t getting out of the bounds he had set for it by removing carefully a small square of the lawn’s turf before laying stones and building the thing atop them. Julia offered him the cigarette and Harry shook his head, “Don’t smoke, thank you”. Julia chuckled, “S’not tobacco, you know”. Hermione tutted even while she scented the breeze, “Bloody hell, haven’t smelled that since I was fifteen”, and, strangely enough, the scent was evocative for Harry too though he couldn’t place the sense memory.

Hermione asked, “Is there tobacco in it at all?”, to receive a reply in the negative. She stood and took the bedraggled looking thing from the girl’s fingers and took a long drag before coughing hard, her eyes tearing, “Flippin’ ‘eck, it’s a long time since I did this”, she grinned, her face bright red. She took another couple of drags and handed it back. Julia waved her away, “Does anyone else want some?”, she enquired casually. Neville smiled shyly and took it from his wife’s hand, “This is pot, isn’t it? There was always someone at school getting caught trying to disguise this amongst the tomato plants in greenhouse 3”. Then the memory hit Harry, “I remember now. Do you recall me telling you of the travelling folk that taught me woodcraft, Sev? Well, that lot smoked this like tobacco, despite how skint they always were they always had this. I think that one or two of them had little plants on their buses. I was offered it but no-one hassled me when I refused. May I try now, please?”

Neville handed the blunt to his friend and Harry tried a small toke, barely taking the smoke into his lungs, then a little more on the next try. One more and he handed it off to the blond Australian lad. He sat back, resting against his lover’s side and felt the mild buzz wash through him and found himself staring into space, his mind tumbling slowly, full of ideas and thoughts coming at him out of nowhere.

Severus put his arm around him, “Are you all right, my Harry?”, he murmured. “Yes, fine”, Harry’s smile was dreamy and soft as he turned to his lover, “You should try a little, Sev, I think you might like it”. Severus leaned down and kissed Harry, “Mmm, tastes nice in your mouth, all green and summery”, he whispered as they parted. Jon rolled another couple of blunts, lit them and passed them around the group. Ernie wasn’t keen and passed as did Ron, but the rest all partook. Harry offered the lad money, “This stuff isn’t cheap and I know that Nikolides doesn’t pay you guys much”, to be waved away. “Nah, consider it a thank you for having us over tonight. New Year would be pretty grim at our camp otherwise. We’d have brought potatoes or something if we’d known you were lighting a fire”.

Neville grinned, “We’ve got spuds and tinfoil too. Hang on, I’ll fetch them, I’ve always wanted to do this”, and shot off into the villa, returning with said items, a pat of butter and knives. He pricked the potato skins and salted them before wrapping them tightly in tinfoil and placing them in the embers at the base of the fire. “Give ‘em an hour or so, then, voila, baked spuds, although I believe that cooked like this they are more often burned on the outside and raw in the middle, but we’ll see”, to the general hilarity of the group.

Harry once more organised music while Severus made sure that everyone had drinks and the talk loosened up. Julia shyly enquired if someone would tell her more about magic, then she brightened, “Hold on”, then proceeded to rummage in a small backpack that she had with her. “I got mum to send over Auntie’s photo albums by first class mail and they arrived this morning”, she fished out two large battered looking books and started to leaf through them, “Severus, here’s that picture of you looking all sour and glum”, she handed the book over.

Sure enough, it was the Staff photo on the front steps of Hogwarts. Severus chuckled, “I never did enjoy teaching that much”, he admitted, to guffaws from the gaggle of his ex-pupils around him. They all crowded round the books and started telling stories to their visitors who were all fascinated. Julia giggled, “I remember when Auntie first showed me this picture and I asked her who the ‘sour-faced git’ was and she said, ‘That is Severus Snape, our Potions Master, an irascible old bugger but somewhere in there, he has a heart’. I can’t believe I’ve finally met you. Mum was gobsmacked when I told her that all of Auntie’s mad stories were in fact true”.

The company all laughed aloud. Severus remarked drily that sour-faced git was the least of the names that he had been called over the years and laughed along with the others. Harry stole glances at his affianced as did the others, waiting for a show of temper perhaps, but none was forthcoming. Severus was relaxed and enjoying relating the shortcomings of the other members of staff, much to the amusement of all.

The pictures broke the ice completely and as the beer and pot kept coming, many memories were awoken and many tales told. There was a moment when Harry, looking through the second album, felt his heart rise into his throat at a picture of the four house Quidditch teams, Draco and Harry sharing secret smirks between them. Julia enquired artlessly, “So, Harry, who was the gorgeous blond then?” Harry was too choked to speak so Hermione briefly filled her in. The girl leaned over and laid a hand on his arm, “Sorry, does this hurt you to see all these people again”. Harry smiled a little, “No, that man was my lover. In fact, when this was taken, we had been together less than six months. We had a total of nineteen years together before he died two years ago”.

He continued to flip slowly through the album until he saw a picture that made him and Severus both start, “Oh, shit, I remember her taking this one”, he said, wiping at his eyes. It was a picture of the four of them as they had stood on the steps of the Ministry of Magic awaiting the ceremony that would award them all their Orders of Merlin. Severus had an arm linked through Remus’ and Harry had Draco’s arms around him as they all grinned for the camera just before Draco had had to return to the bosom of his family and be married off. He remembered them all getting spectacularly drunk that night to get through the interminable speeches and Draco had fallen asleep on his shoulder. Julia gently asked the significance of the sandy haired man to Severus and he told her in choked tones.

This led to tales of the Final Battle and the defeat of Voldemort. Jon said, “Auntie called this picture, ‘The Fearsome Foursome’ and it seems she was right”. They all carried on looking until Ron and Hermione exclaimed at a picture of the three of them, Harry between them, sometime in their final year. Jon said, “She called you three the ‘Golden Trio’”. Severus chuckled, “With good reason. These three have been fast friends since their first year at school and have been best friends ever since, over thirty years”. Heike seemed astonished at this, “You mean you are all in your forties? I thought you were all much younger, except perhaps yourself, Severus. Of you all, you are the only one I thought was over forty”. Severus preened slightly, “Now let me see. Harry here is forty three as is Ron, Hermione, Ernie and Neville. Ginny here is a year younger and Oliver is, what, Ollie, forty eight, forty nine?” Oliver scowled slightly, “Eight”, he said shortly. Severus continued, “In a mere four weeks or so I shall be sixty four”.

The youngsters’ eyes opened wide until Ernie explained the longevity of wizards. He carefully took the album from Severus and went back to the Staff picture, “See this man here? He was the headmaster and he was over a hundred and fifty when he died. Some wizards live even longer than that. The headmaster’s friend lived to well over six hundred, if you can believe that, but he had magical ways to extend his life. Julia, see this big chap here, this is the man that Hermione compared you too in terms of magic when she dowsed you, yes? He was the groundsman but also the Care of Magical Creatures instructor”. Julia laughed happily. “I want so much to hear more about these”.

Hermione smiled at the girl, “Well, we all have to go home in the next few days, but if you are prepared to give me your address then I will send you all sorts of stuff on magical creatures, dragons, harpies, grindylows, merpeople, unicorns, centaurs and basilisks”. Julia was deeply impressed, “Really?”, her face lit up. Hermione nodded, “I’d be delighted to”, then winked at her, “A fellow magical should know all about these marvels”. Julia was in heaven as she gazed at her new friends then scrabbled in her bag finding pen and paper and quickly scribbled her address in Port Elizabeth just outside of Adelaide. “I’ll tell mum to look out for letters. You won’t lose this will you? I really want to find out more, please”, the girl was almost begging. Hermione grinned, “Of course I won’t”, and tucked the paper into her own bag, “I promise. And a witch’s word is her bond”. Julia was incandescent as she rummaged in the albums again. She extracted one of the pictures, the one of the three of them grinning at each other, “I can’t pay you or anything, but please take this”, she handed the picture to Hermione who said, “I’ll have a studio do us all a copy then I will return it to you with the first parcel of books. This picture belongs in this album and it will be returned”.

The blonde girl fished about in the album some more and handed Severus the picture of the four of them, “I’d like you two to have this one. Call it a memory of the time that we all met up”. Severus smiled, then on impulse leaned over and kissed the girl on the cheek, “Likewise, when Harry and I eventually return to England, I will have this copied and return the original to you. An album should be complete after all, and I thank you, very very much. We shall treasure this”. He stood and made his way to Bessie tacking the picture to the wardrobe door along with their other mementoes then on second thoughts kissed his Remus and placed it carefully between the leaves of the traveller’s journal that he had been given for Christmas before heading back to the fire.

He approached deep in thought and Harry rose to meet him sensing the mood his lover was in to receive a reassuring smile and a hug and deep kiss out beyond the light from the fire. They rejoined the others arms twined about each other with eyes only for each other. Julia leaned towards Ginny and asked, “So what’s their story?” Ginny grinned and told her of the tragedies that they had faced, losing their loved ones and now getting together and travelling to explore new places and get over those that they had lost, their relationship deeper than those they had had with their previous lovers and the rumours of them all ‘sharing’ which made Julia’s mouth drop open, “Wow, they are so cool”, she replied breathily, and Ginny laughed, “They certainly are. Until Harry realised he was gay, I was to be his future intended, you know?”, she tossed out casually. Julia’s eyes were round as plates, “No!! Weren’t you heartbroken when you found out?” Ginny looked fondly at the lovers, “Yeah, a little bit, for a short while, but you can’t change nature, however magical you are, and he was never mine. We both moved on, made our own lives, got on with it, you know, and now we’re the best of friends”

The party picked up a bit as Harry turned the music up and started to dance on his own getting lost in the sounds. Ginny stood to dance with him and was joined by Ernie and Ron, then Heike stood and started to zone out to the sounds, letting the beats wrap around her as she moved away to a wide space beside the pool then really began to dance. Jon nudged Severus , “Watch this girl dance. Whoa”, was his considered opinion and Severus and the others had to agree as she spun and twisted to the beats, she could sure dance. She sensed her audience and began to execute a series of complicated moves including hands free somersaults and walk-overs that had a gymnastic quality to them. The assembled company was cheering her on as she spun and launched herself with ever-increasing fervour loving the open space and the freedom to dance.

The alcohol and the blunts kept on coming until Heike asked if Julia had brought more skins with her and the girl’s brow clouded as she rummaged in her pack, “Bollocks, left ‘em in the tent. I’ll just walk back, shouldn’t take long”, until Hermione stilled her with a hand. “How long will it take, only you’ll miss the New Year if it takes longer than half an hour”. Julia shrugged, “My fault for leavin’ ‘em. Won’t take too long”, and turned to set off but Hermione hung on. “Can you see the space in front of your tents in your mind’s eye? Clearly, I mean?”. Julia nodded, “We’ve been here a while. If I close my eyes, I can see it plain as day”. Hermione giggled as she drew out her wand, “Okay, trust me and I’ll show you how wizards and witches travel over short distances. Picture the place clearly in your head and hang on to me tightly. I ‘drive’ and you navigate”.

The other magicals divined her intent and all grinned. Hermione shrugged, “It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve taken a muggle side-along”, she wrapped an arm around the confused girl and pointed her wand at their chests and the two disappeared to the astonishment of Jon and Heike.

They apparated to the small clearing where they were camped and Julia fell over in shock, “Fuck, we’re here, how did that happen?” Hermione laughed, “That’s called ‘Apparation’ and all of us have used it since we got our licences at eighteen or so. It’s a bit like driving only a lot faster”. In shock, Julia dived into her tent and retrieved the cigarette papers, then in a flash they were once again back at the villa.

“Wow. Fuck. That was real magic”, Julia’s tone was awed. “How long did we take?”, she asked her brother, who shrugged in amazement, “’Bout thirty seconds all told”. Julia shook her head to clear it, “Fuck. Incredible” was her only comment as she sank to the grass and began to make use of the papers that she had fetched. Her joints were a bit lumpy and didn’t smoke awfully well due to her shock but she couldn’t stop grinning. Jon said, “Aw, come on, one of you, I wanna go”, so Ernie stepped up and volunteered, taking Jon back to their camp for the bottle of ouzo that he had stashed in his own tent, then, after they arrived back Heike insisted on a go, Oliver obliged her and she fetched back some food that she had cooked earlier. He showed her how to shrink the cooking pot and popped it in her pocket until they had apparated back then unshrunk the pan for her and it was placed on the fire. Heike had tears in her eyes, “You guys are truly amazing”, her voice was tremulous as she covered her wonder by stirring the pot over the fire wiping at her eyes and Harry grinned knowing it wasn’t the smoke from the fire that made her eyes water.

Harry, now extremely intoxicated, had an idea. The TV was on a wheeled stand, so with Ron’s help, they brought it onto the step of the villa and switched it on and Harry quickly found the Beeb to see the massed crowds near Big Ben and turned the volume up. His friends all grinned loopily at him as the countdown began to the New Year, all shouting, “Ten, Nine, Eight....”, then the chorus of, “Happy New Year” before the hugs and kisses started. Severus took Harry into his arms and kissed him soundly before they drew slightly apart and wished each other a happy New Year gazing into each other’s eyes before beginning the round of kisses and good wishes for their friends. Jon grinned, “I love how you Brits do this New Year thing”, as he was embraced by the magicals, his sister and his friend before running and diving into the pool fully clothed, “This is how us Aussies do it, the weather is usually warmer on our side of the planet at this time of year”.

He was surprisingly, joined by many of the others, peeling off clothes and diving in alongside him. Neville laughed and said, “Well, it wouldn’t do just to observe the British customs and if this is an Australian custom, then, cool, I’m all for it. British winters are shite anyway”, this got a laugh from the Australians and his wife who wasn’t that big of a fan of British winters either and shucked clothing to dive into the pool in her bra and pants shortly followed by Ginny who went all the way, the full Monty, stripping naked before she dived in with abandon and who were Severus and Harry to tread on other people’s customs. They stripped to skin and ran and jumped, hand in hand, laughing like hyenas, curling up before they hit the water and splashed everybody with much hilarity.

Heike lit another spliff as everyone was now in the pool and passed it around. The ball that Harry had rescued was now being tossed around and they formed into two rough teams and played an impromptu game of water polo that made everyone laugh and made the mundanes forget that they were playing with folk mainly twice their ages, the ages of their parents, not to mention one who was as old as Heike’s great aunt and only three years younger than her own grandma. Jon swam to the side and got as naked as the rest of them before rejoining the fast and furious game and the laughter rang out on the still night air. Although all were now naked as the day they were born, there was an innocence to it all that they revelled in. No-one was checking anyone out, they played as innocently as baby seals, tossing the ball about. Harry and Ron’s team were wining but no-one gave a damn really as folk were ducked and all types of subterfuge were used to extract the ball from the winning side, Severus muttering strategy to his side that involved the gripping of ankles and the ignominious ducking of their opponents to gain the advantage but still the Gryffindors prevailed winning whatever goals to whatever as no-one could actually agree how many each team had scored and no-one really cared.

Sometime later, Neville climbed out and checked on the potatoes and declared them perfectly cremated. This drew various folk from the water, now hungry and then some as the effect of the ‘munchies’ was felt by all. Hermione slipped into the kitchen, emerging with bowls of salad and slaw to compliment the burnt spuds which all tucked into with alacrity, sitting around naked, the tension between them all gone, giggling and ‘ouch’ing as hot butter dripped over legs which they wiped up with unsteady fingers, the various bottles passed around as they ate.

As the dawn started to show her face the party slowed down and the ‘oldies’ as Jon had dubbed them, showed signs of tiredness. The ‘youngsters’ as the magicals had called their guests said their goodbyes and, having declared this the best New Year that they had ever had, they wandered back amidst promises to write and communicate. Julia begged Hermione once again to write to her and Hermione laid her hand over her heart, “Promise. I cannot leave a young witch such as yourself without info and knowledge. I’m honoured to know you, Julia, and I have your address safe. You will hear from me”, and with that, their guests melted away through the trees back to their camp.

In bed later, Harry exclaimed, “As New Years go, this was one of the more memorable ones, wasn’t it?” Severus couldn’t help but agree. “I learn more each day with you, my Harry”, Harry sighed in contentment, “I love it when you call me yours and you are mine now, you know that, don’t you?” Severus leaned up then took the lush mouth below him in a deep kiss, “Oh, yes, my Harry. You are mine and I am well and truly yours”.

There were a couple more days exploration to be had before the others were due to leave, lazy runs along the coast with a spot of fishing for good measure and then it was time for Hermione to take back the vehicle that she had hired. She rode along the twisting road behind Harry to Ierapetra and they returned it full of petrol again. Reluctant to set off back for the moment, Hermione spotted a small taverna and dragged Harry off for a spot of lunch.

They sat outside by themselves and indulged in a lazy lunch and Hermione had a bottle of wine while Harry had a couple of small beers as he still had to drive back. Emboldened by the wine and the intimacy of their conversation, Hermione asked, “Harry, on Boxing Day, I could have sworn I saw traces of make-up on the pair of you”. Harry leaned in close and murmured, “Yes, indeed you did. Sev and I are a lot more, erm, adventurous, than Drae and I ever were. Did Ron or Ollie not say anything to you?”.

Hermione’s eyes widened, “No, Ollie has made a couple of off-colour comments since then but neither has told me anything”. So he told her of the two of them coming over to Bessie and offering to ‘play’, then Ron freaking when he caught sight of them both. “I think it was Sev that nearly sent our Ron running for the hills. I must admit Sev looks very different in stockings and high heels as well as make-up, he really has the most beautiful eyes not to mention the legs of a showgirl”, he mused then looked at his friend to see her blush for England.

“Bloody hell, Harry. It’s not just countries that you are exploring, is it?”, she giggled. Harry grinned back and shook his head, “Nope, we’re unleashing our inner pervert on each other and it’s bloody brilliant. Anyway, enough about that, what about you and Nev? You two seem much more relaxed these days. Did you take my advice on spicing up the marriage bed-death situation?” Hermione coloured deeply, “Yes, in a word, only it’s not Nev that gets into the spanking”. Harry beamed, “Whoa, girlie. So you like him to take a firm hand with you, eh?” Hermione nearly fell off her chair laughing, “Oh, no, We are revealing Nev’s inner butch and we both love it. We’ve invested in toys and things as well. I love using the cock ring on him, drives him mental when he can’t come unless I want him to and he lasts loads longer, it’s fantastic, and he bought me loads of sexy undies, too, and he loves me to dress up. After all this time, we are finally exploring fantasies and suchlike, particularly when the kids are away at school”. They shared conspiratorial giggles that reminded them of the many chats that they had enjoyed at school away from Ron’s ears.

They leaned close as they talked in low voices with the occasional peal of laughter from one or the other of them, a proper girlie chat and thus whiled away a goodly portion of the afternoon before climbing aboard Bessie and heading back to the villa. Once they were under way, Hermione enquired, “Where to now, Harry? What are your plans for the next part of your trip?” Harry was quiet for a moment then he glanced at her, “Dunno. I was all for continuing into Turkey but now I’m not so sure. I really want to marry him and for that we’ll have to go home to England for a while but whatever we do, I know we both want to continue with this travelling thing, we both love it and Sev is a wonderful traveller, you know. We have had a few ‘moments’ but we haven’t argued once all the time we’ve been away. Sev was always so impatient back home, but he’s really chilled out while we’ve been away and we’ve met some great people. Could you do us a favour when you get home?” Hermione nodded. “Could you find out for me what the minimum living requirement is for residence in a ‘parish’ is before we can wed?” She nodded her assent, “I’ll ring the local Registry office and e-mail you”. He clasped her hand briefly and thanked her as they pulled into the villa’s driveway.

The two hosts took them all for a meal at the only restaurant in the village as a farewell treat and there were many toasts over the table, to the hosts, another to their guests, another to the best Christmas that many of them had had for many a year, to the new friends that they had made, to life and love and more silly things as the night wore on. They all wandered back to the house coupled-up and had a few party games out on the terrace as more alcohol was consumed, before all stripping again and diving into the pool for another session of water-polo that was drunken and energetic but made everyone laugh.

The next morning was sad as the packing was finished and the stuff shrunk as it was loaded onto Bessie for the ride back to the airport. They all parted with heartfelt hugs and kisses as Harry and Severus waved everyone through the passport checks and watched from the upper deck of the small airport as the plane took off waving madly. They were quiet as they drove back to the villa which seemed awfully large with just the two of them rattling about inside.