Chapter 12
The Journey Home

Ginny walked out of Kneazle’s Cave into the blinding sunlight outside.

“Mamma Mia,” breathed Juliana behind her. “It’s so hot!”

Ginny noticed that David and Sage were already outside, standing by their trunks and wearing sweatshirts.

“Are the two of you bloody insane?” asked a very cranky Draco, obviously noticing the same thing. Sage and David cast him a matching pair of dark looks. The effect was slightly ruined by Sage yawning hugely. Draco snickered.

The Warriors were all slowly creeping outside, waiting for the bus that would take them to the airport and from there to their various homes. Ginny and Draco were the only two headed for the same destination; London. She wheeled her trunk over to Sage and David, grinning at them broadly.

“Sleepy?” she asked as Sage yawned again.

“I went to bed at six in the morning,” she muttered, smoothing down her bangs. Ginny glanced up at the clock on the outside of the hotel. It read 8:12 a.m. The bus was coming in eight minutes. Looking around, she saw that all ten of them had assembled, standing around their assorted luggage. Everyone looked like they would much rather be in bed. Ginny smirked.

No wonder, she thought. Last night, the Warriors had partied until three in the morning. Well, at first the party had just been the lot of them watching an old movie called, ironically enough, “The Wizard of Oz.” As they watched the movie, they had chowed down on pizza, Chinese food, chips, and ice cream. Around ten, after the movie had ended, Roby had turned on the radio and a party had been born. Ginny had spent nearly five hours dancing and singing like a lunatic. She’d even danced with Draco, who, unsurprisingly, was a great dancer.

The girls had all gotten extremely hyper from the amount of caffeine and sugar that had been consumed. They had sang, loudly and badly, and danced, crazily and uncoordinated. Actually, not the whole party had been crazy. She had found out some interesting things about her fellow Warriors.

Roby, it turned out, was an extremely good musician; he played the guitar and sang. Very well. She’d learned Juli loved to dip sour cream and onion chips into chocolate ice cream, which was, in her opinion, a little disgusting. Apparently, Nick’s parents were good friends with Viktor Krum’s parents, and the two had known each other since childhood even though one was Bulgarian and the other Russian. When Ginny had asked him if he had ever heard of Hermione Granger he had laughed and said, mimicking Viktor’s speech, “Of course I’ve heard of Herm-own-ninny.”

They had had a good time. Almost as though they’d known each other for years and not only a few weeks.

“It’s okay though,” Sage said brightly, jarring Ginny out of her thoughts. “I’m gonna sleep on the plane so the jet lag’s not too bad.”

“Sage?” David asked, hesitantly.

“Yes?”

“You live in the same time zone.”

They all stared at Sage in silence until Ryan burst out laughing. The others soon followed.

Sage hung her head looking hilariously sad.

“Shut up,” she muttered darkly, only adding to Ginny’s laughter.

Everyone had just calmed down enough to have coherent conversations, when Alexis began singing. It seemed an encore of the previous night was in order.

“We’re off to see the Wizard!” she sang loudly. She skipped up to Ginny and Sage, linked arms with them and forced them to skip with her. She didn’t actually do anything to force them, but it was either skip, or get dragged along behind her. As Ali struck up the chorus for the second time, Ginny and Sage joined in.

“We’re off to see the Wizard!
The wonderful Wizard of Oz!
Because, because, because, because, because!
Of all the wonderful things he does!
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz!”

The three completed the chorus, tripped over a bag and went sprawling on the ground. Ginny laughed as she landed on her butt. While Alexis had landed flat on her stomach, Sage had tripped, done a sort of roll and landed a few feet away from them, sitting up.

The other seven started laughing again.

“Are you alright?” Maria asked through her laughter.

“Nah, we’re fine,” Ali shrugged, brushing the dust off of her denim shorts.

Ginny couldn’t help laughing. “Sage? Are you getting up?”

Sage looked at her, seeming a little confused. “Perhaps…”

Ginny looked over at Draco, who was shaking his head and laughing.

“You find my clumsiness amusing?” she asked him, hands on her hips and grinning.

“Very,” he retorted, picking up his bag and walking right past her onto the bus that had just arrived.

The ten clambered onto the bus laughing and chatting. The poor bus driver looked a little frightened of them. Ginny couldn’t imagine why.

She sat with Sage in the back. After a decisive game of rock-paper-scissors, Ginny happily plopped down in the window seat. Ah, how she loved the window seat. Draco and David sat in front of them, laughing about something. Probably the earlier fall, the redhead mused.

The bus took off down the road. Ginny looked out the window, watching Kneazle’s Cave until it disappeared. Literally. Ginny gasped. Just as they’d predicted, the moment they’d left the premises, the hotel had disappeared as though it had never even existed.

“Did you see that?” she asked no one in particular.

“Yeah,” Sage sighed beside her. “It’s kind of sad, isn’t it?”

Ginny nodded, still looking out the window. “Yeah, it is.”

Amidst all that morning’s joy, she still felt a little melancholy. It was like the end of some grand adventure, one that she didn’t want to end. She didn’t particularly like the idea of going back to normal life. For the past two months it seemed like she’d been in a sort of limbo. Ginny pouted. She liked limbo.

Beside her Sage had started singing a song that was remotely familiar.

“What is that?” Ginny asked.

There was loud groan from the seat in front of her and David hoisted himself up above the seat.

“It’s her psychotic version of ‘Why Can’t We Be Friends,’” he explained. “Please don’t get her started. I’ve had to listen to it all morning. If I hear one more thing about infection, I’m gonna hurl.”

“Infection?” Draco asked, copying David.

David shook his head. “You don’t wanna know. Just don’t get her started.”

Sage laughed maniacally. “Too late!”

“Why can’t we be friends?
Why can’t we be friends?
Male pandas till the end, why can’t we be friends?
Why can’t your mama die and kosher bacon be fried?”

As she sang, with much feeling, she narrated the lyrics with her hands, her brown, black and blond ponytail swaying in time with the rhythm.

“Does kosher bacon even exist?” Draco interrupted.

Sage stopped and looked down sadly.

“No,” she said in a little girl’s soft, high pitched voice.

Ginny grinned. “Somebody’s hungry.”

The other girl gasped over-dramatically and grabbed Ginny’s shoulders. “Oh my god! How did you know?”

“Too close!” the red haired witch squeaked.

Sage looked at her wide eyed for a few more moments before sitting back and starting a new chorus as though the past couple of minutes hadn’t even happened.

Ginny looked back at the guys, eyebrows raised and grinning. David chuckled, running a hand through his spiky green and black hair.

“And I have to spend the rest of the year with her…”

Draco snorted. “I can sympathize.”

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Take a wild guess,” he smirked.

She stuck her tongue out at him.

“Oh mature,” David snorted.

“I never said I was,” she shot back. Satisfied, she settled back in her seat and stared out the window. Draco and David sat down again, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like ‘women.’ Next to her, Sage was still singing.

“Gonna smother you in butter,
Croissants are like no other!
Why can’t we be friends?
Why can’t we be friends?
Why can’t we be friends?”

~

The ten Warriors had stuck together all through baggage drop-off and security checks, but now it was time to go their separate ways. It seemed that nobody wanted to be the first to leave, so they all just stood around in a large huddle in the terminal, getting some odd stares from the Muggles.

“Well,” Maria said softly. “This is it.”

Maria seemed to always be the one who brought them back to reality.

There were some low murmurs of agreement, but nobody made a move to say goodbye.

Suddenly, Ali flung her arms around Sage’s neck.

“I’m gonna miss you!” she cried.

Sage had jumped at first, but then hugged the blond girl back.

“Aw, I’m gonna miss you, too.”

That had seemed to spur them all to start their goodbye’s. The girls hugged everyone fiercely, the guys not resisting their public displays of affection. Nick even kissed Ginny on the cheek. Juli hugged her tightly, and when she pulled away, Ginny saw that the slightly older witch had tears in her eyes.

“I should go,” Juliana said to them all. “My plane’s leaving soon.”

“Yeah, mine too,” Roby sighed, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, his guitar case in the other.

Indeed at that moment the intercom blared announcing that flight 762 to Rome and flight 356-B to Montreal were now boarding.

“Stay in touch, dude,” David said shaking Draco’s hand.

“You too, mate.”

Ginny hugged Sage, tears filling her eyes. The two had become such close friends, Ginny couldn’t imagine that they wouldn’t see each other for Merlin only knew how long.

“See you, Says.”

“I’m gonna miss you, Gin,” the gray eyed witch said, then pulled away, tears in her eyes but grinning wickedly.

“Be sure to owl me when you screw Draco,” she whispered with a wink.

Ginny’s jaw dropped and she seemed to choke on the air itself. “Excuse me?”

Sage laughed and hugged her stunned friend one last time. “You like him, don’t deny it.”

Slowly, they all started to walk away, nobody wanting to. After one last hug from Ryan, Ginny and Draco were the only two left, their flight leaving in about an hour.

“Let’s go?” she asked him.

He nodded, and together they set off towards their gate in a comfortable silence. Ginny was glad for it, because she was feeling slightly choked up. She’d gotten so close to the other Warriors, it was hard to imagine life without them. Without Sage’s random comments and David’s chameleon-like hair. Seriously, she was beginning to wonder if he was a Metamorphmagus. She’d miss Ali’s hyperactivity, Nick’s subtle sweetness, Juli’s purely female arrogance, which was actually quite funny once you got to know her. Ryan’s severely southern accent, Maria’s down to earth attitude and Roby’s calming presence would all be very missed.

She heard Draco chuckle lightly beside her.

“What’s so funny?”

He looked over at her, his eyes silver with mirth. “You, Ali and Sage tripping.”

Ginny grinned. “Were we really that horrible?”

“The dancing; yes. The singing; no.”

The redhead raised her eyebrows. “We weren’t dancing, we were skipping. And you thought our singing was good?”

“Not good, per say, but not bad. You actually have a nice voice.”

Ginny stopped, surprised. Was he…complimenting her?

“Really?” she asked. This was so unlike Draco, it was almost frightening.

He stopped a couple paces in front of her and looked back, smirking. “Oddly enough.”

“Hey!” she squealed, caught up to him and hit him hard on the arm.

“What is it with you and my arm?” he asked, wincing and rubbing the offended limb.

Ginny looked at him, with a smirk to match his own infamous one. “You deserved it.”

Draco actually laughed, and to her utter surprise, put his arm around her waist.

“Let’s go Weaslette, or our plane is going to leave without us.”

~

An hour later, Ginny and Draco were making their way through the aisles of seats on the airplane, looking for their seats.

“Here’s my seat,” the redhead announced, looking at the little sign above the seat. 47 A/B. She glanced down at her ticket. Yep, here it was, Seat 47 B.

Draco groaned behind her. “I can’t bloody believe this.”

“What?” Ginny asked, depositing her bag in her seat. Draco showed her his ticket. Seat 47 A it read. Ginny grinned wickedly at him.

Draco sighed. “Move out of the way.”

Ginny bit her lip, not moving an inch.

“Draco?” she asked quietly.

“Hmm?” he said looking up. Upon seeing her face his eyes widened.

“No!” he exclaimed.

“Please?”

“No!”

“Please?”

“No!”

“Please?”

“For Merlin’s sake, no!”

“Pretty please with a cherry on top?”

“No!” Draco protested. “I am not giving you the window seat!”

Ginny stuck out her bottom lip just a little, putting the most innocent expression on her face and making the puppy eyes that always got her exactly what she wanted from her brothers. She watched Draco’s face go from determined, to uncertain, to resigned, all within a matter of seconds.

“Fine,” he grumbled.

A broad grin spread over Ginny’s face.

“Thank you!” she exclaimed, and hugged Draco. As he tensed at her touch, Ginny realized what she was doing and sprung away.

“Sorry,” she muttered and moved into her seat.

Draco put his bag up into the overhead compartment, not saying anything. Ginny got up again to put up her own bag, but he took it from her and put it up.

“Thanks,” she muttered, still a little embarrassed.

“No problem,” he said and sat down beside her.

~ 4 Hours Later ~

Ginny sat back in her seat, sighing. The flight so far had been nothing but boredom and trying (and failing) to get to sleep. There were still five hours to go. She sighed, and turned towards the window. They were currently flying over a sea of clouds, all fluffy and white with the sun shinning on them, casting golden shadows. It was quite breathtaking.

About an hour ago, she’d woken up from a fitful, restless sleep. She looked out the window and thought for a moment that the clouds were in fact icebergs and that they were flying over a frozen bit of the Atlantic. She’d been quite convinced of it for about thirty seconds, before noticing that the ‘icebergs’ actually looked like cotton candy.

At that moment, the plane turned and Ginny got an eyeful of bright, piercing sunlight. Making a face, she looked over at the seat next to her, which was thankfully not bright. Actually, the seat beside her was currently empty. They had just eaten ‘dinner,’ as the air service called it, and Draco had decided to go to the bathroom, leaving her alone. Before he’d gone though, he’d ranted for a full ten minutes about disgusting lavatories and filthy Muggles, which then turned into a rant about not being flown first class, or at least business class before Ginny had shooed him away.

Ginny grinned. She guessed some things would never change.

The airplane stewardess rolled up her cart, pots of tea and coffee perched precariously on it.

“Miss, would you like some coffee or tea?”

“Coffee’d be nice,” Ginny smiled.

The stewardess poured Ginny a cup of steaming hot coffee.

“Milk or sugar?”

“Both, please.”

The stewardess passed her the steaming cup.

As Ginny took a sip, the stewardess spoke again.

“And your husband?”

Ginny choked and sputtered, the hot coffee burning her mouth and throat. She set the cup down, eyes wide.

“No, no, no. You see, he’s not- we’re not- I…” Ginny trailed off not even being able to finish the sentence.

“Oh, I’m sorry, you just looked- nevermind,” the stewardess shook her head. “Your boyfriend, then?”

Ginny shook her head, still looked at the stewardess, shocked.

“Oh. I’m so sorry. Do you know if he would like something?”

The poor air hostess looked at a loss of what to do.

“Um…”

“Coffee. Yeah, coffee. Definitely. He’s coffee, yeah. Definitely coffee,” she rambled.

The stewardess quickly poured the cup, set it down and took off as fast as the cart would let her.

Ginny stared at her coffee. Why in Merlin’s name did she think Draco was her… her… She shook her head. No way in hell. For Merlin’s sake! She was only sixteen! How old did she look?

“How’d I get coffee?” Draco asked, interrupting her thoughts.

“Stewardess,” Ginny said as offhandedly as she could.

“Oh,” he said, sitting down and taking a sip. He grimaced. “This is disgusting.”

Ginny smirked at him, and looked back out the window, staring at the clouds and trying to forget the earlier incident. This was nice. You couldn’t fly this high up on a broomstick. She’d never seen the clouds like that before. They were so beautiful.

“You know what just struck me?”

“Lightning?” Draco answered cheekily.

She scowled at him. “No, not lightning. I rather like flying in aeroplanes.”

Draco shook his head. “You are insane, Weaslette.”

“Occasionally,” she shrugged, making Draco laugh.

~

The two newly christened Warriors passed into baggage claim at London Heathrow Airport, Ginny laughing hysterically and Draco looking quite horrified.

As they had been standing in line at passport control, a woman who looked to be around sixty years old had started flirting shamelessly with Draco. From her accent, Ginny could tell she was from New York. He’d nodded and tried to ignore the woman as much as possible, Ginny sniggering by his side. As a window opened up, the old woman had winked at Draco.

“See ya, sweetheart,” she said edging closer. Draco had suddenly gone rigid, and watched the woman go up to the window, looking horrified.

Ginny snickered.

“I can’t believe she pinched my butt,” Draco muttered darkly.

That only set Ginny off into hysterics once more.

“Think it’s funny, do you?” he asked.

The redhead looked at him helplessly, trying to contain her gales of laughter. “You had your laugh at me today- or yesterday- or whenever it was! Now it’s my turn.”

Draco had cast a dark look at her, but didn’t say anything more.

Ginny finally got herself under control by the time they got to the luggage carousel. Soon their trunks had arrived. Too soon for her liking. Draco hoisted first his trunk, then hers off the carousel.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she said.

“Consider it a last grace,” he smirked, setting her trunk on a trolley.

“Thanks,” she said, looking up at him.

Draco stood only a couple feet in front of her, a small smirk on his lips.

“So this is it, Weaslette,” he said.

“Draco?”

“Hmm?”

“Call me Ginny,” she told him, with a small smile.

Draco got the point, and nodded.

“It’s been an interesting summer,” he mused, running a hand through his hair.

Ginny snorted. Talk about an understatement. “Yeah, it has.”

They just stood and looked at each other for a few moments, neither knowing quite what to say. What did you say to someone who three months ago was your arch enemy and now was- did she dare say- a friend?

Ginny felt a pair of eyes on her, and looked to the side, Draco following her gaze. The stewardess from earlier was standing a few meters away, scrutinizing them. Seeing them seeing her, she quickly looked the other way and walked off.

Ginny tried and failed to repress a giggle.

“What was all that about?” Draco asked, puzzled.

The redhead shook her head. “Nothing.”

Draco looked at her suspiciously for a moment.

“I really ought to go,” he said, running a hand through his hair again, making a few strands stand on end. Ginny giggled. Draco looked at her, a little confused. She pointed to his hair and he smoothed it down, looking annoyed.

“I do not like aeroplanes,” he muttered.

Ginny smiled at him, feeling a little melancholy. “I should go.”

He nodded. Suddenly, Ginny stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder. She stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the cheek.

“Take care of yourself, Draco,” she said, stepping back.

“You too,” he answered.

With a last smile at Draco, Ginny wheeled her trolley around and walked purposefully towards the double doors through which she would finally leave this fantastic adventure she’d been on.

She didn’t see Draco watching her intently. Nor did she him sigh and mumble. “What in Merlin’s name are you doing to me, Weaslette?”
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