Harry had never been on a vacation before. The Dursleys never took holiday trips, and the day trips they did take, they left Harry with Mrs. Figg. Mr. Granger insisted on driving himself. One of Harry’s guards, Tonks, was riding in the front seat with Mr. Granger. Mrs. Granger, Hermione and Harry were all riding in the back seat.
They were driving in a convoy with a Ministry car in front and behind them. All the cars were outfitted with Muggle cell phones, upon in the insistence of Mrs. Granger. She had said that she would need to stop several times, and they would need some non-magical means of letting the front car know. People Apparating in and out of moving cars on Muggle highways would be both dangerous and suspicious.
Harry had always heard that getting there was half of the fun, but he never really believed it. The car ride had proven him wrong. They had an enjoyable car ride, out of greater London and into the countryside.
After getting out into the country, Harry asked, “Where are we going anyway?”
“We’re going to travel to a town called Builth Wells. It is in the Powys region of Wales,” Tonks replied cheerfully. She had brown curly hair today and somehow had tailored herself to look like Hermione. She look as if she could have been Hermione’s sister. Tonks handed Harry a brochure. “Lupin gave this to me, it looks really beautiful.”
Harry took the brochure and the first picture was stunning. There was an old stone bridge over a river. The caption on the picture said, ‘18th Century Bridge across the River Wye’. “It is really pretty,” Harry commented.
“Let me see,” Hermione demanded.
Harry handed the brochure over to her. She read fervently, “This place looks nice, there is an art center. Hey, there are always all sorts of nature walks, and bicycle trails. There are shops and pubs. This should be really fun.”
Harry chucked, “Do you know how to ride a bicycle?”
“Of course I do, do you?” Hermione retorted.
“Actually, yes,” Harry shot back. “I always got Dudley old bikes, and he had lots of them.”
“So I guess a bicycle race is in order?” Hermione said, grinning.
“I guess so,” Harry said back, returning the grin.
“And the loser has to clean the dishes for the first week,” Mrs. Granger put in.
“Agreed,” Harry and Hermione said together.
“Great, then I don’t have to do any dishes for one week. It is a vacation,” Mrs. Granger said smiling.
“How long until we arrive?” Hermione asked her dad.
“It will be at least a few more hours. We’ll be arriving well after eleven. It’s getting dark, now. Why don’t you both rest a bit so you’ll be up to your bicycle race tomorrow. I know your Mum is looking forward to not doing dishes,” Mr. Granger said without turning around. “Should be a nice day tomorrow, you can go exploring with Tonks.”
“Yeah,” said Tonks, turning around and looking at them both, “I have my orders from the Ministry, look and act like a teenager for the next three weeks. They’ve assigned me to be your personal guard, Harry. What do you think? Do I look enough like a teenager? I’m trying to look like Hermione’s older sister. Maybe pink hair would be better.” She screwed up her face and her hair changed from a shade similar to Hermione’s to a hot pink.
Mrs. Granger, who had never seen anything of the sort before, gave an audible gasp. Mr. Granger looked over at Tonks, did a double take and almost swerved into the other lane of traffic.
Hermione, who had starting putting her knitting away, said offhand, “I think brown is better Tonks. We don’t want to draw too much attention to ourselves. We are going to a small town.”
“Okay,” Tonks said brightly, and quickly changed her hair back to a soft brown. “What do you think Hermione?”
Hermione glanced up and said, “That much better. Now you won’t attract attention.”
“How do you do that?” Mrs. Granger asked amazed.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” Tonks said turning to look at her. “It’s just an ability that I have. Someone has it in every generation of my Mum’s family. No big deal really. It helps with my line of work, and its fun at parties.”
Mrs. Granger shook her head in amazement, “That is truly a unique gift, even for a witch.”
“I have to admit, it is fun. Hermione, Ginny, and I had a game last year where I would change my nose on command. They seemed to really enjoy it,” Tonks commented smiling.
“I remember Hermione’s letters about that. I must admit that I didn’t really understand what she meant until now. I see why she was so fascinated by it,” Mrs. Granger remarked. “When did you realize that you could do this?”
Tonks began to tell Mrs. Granger a little bit about her childhood and when it happened that she realized she could change her appearance at will. Harry attention to the conversation waned, and he began to stare mindlessly out the window. Eventually, he rested his head on window and watched the oncoming headlights of the approaching cars. The effect was hypnotizing.
The lights would zoom past in a flash of brilliance and then the inside of the car would return to complete blackness. The further they drove the fewer cars they saw, until they drove for fully ten minutes before passing another vehicle.
Harry hadn’t intended on falling asleep, he hadn’t even realized that he drifted off before Voldemort attacked his mind. Harry could feel Voldemort’s presence in his head. His scar was on fire, it burned and ripped like it had been cut open again. Voldemort was desperately searching Harry’s memories. Harry watched helplessly as visions of his life flew through his mind out of his control.
It was similar to the experience in Snape’s office, but in one way it was completely different. Snape had been searching Harry’s mind for negative experiences, times when he was scared, angry, or hurt. Voldemort was bringing up mundane memories. He was seven and walking to school on a rainy morning, he was walking through Hogwarts in his third year, he was in the car with his aunt and uncle driving to Aunt Marge’s house, and then he was in the car with the Grangers traveling to Wales.
Somewhere in the back of his brain, Harry realized in panic that Voldemort was trying to figure out where he was and where they were going. Harry remembered throwing off the Imperious Curse and tried to recreate it. He thought ‘that’s enough’ and pushed at Voldemort presence. The image stream slowed somewhat, but Harry couldn’t throw him off entirely.
The effort of pushing at Voldemort had made his scar burn even more and the pain was becoming unbearable. It was hard for Harry to think at all. He tried again, ‘that’s enough’ he thought. The scar pain kicked up another notch, but the images kept coming. He was on the Hogwarts Express going home after his second year, he was on carriages going to Hogwarts, he was flying on his broomstick.
Harry tried again, but between the pain in his head, and the effort of trying to push out Voldemort, Harry was getting tired, ‘that’s enough’ he thought feebly, but this time nothing happened. Harry watched as more images flew by, walking to Herbology, walking to Hogsmead, riding Buckbeak. The rate of the memories flashed through increased and Harry knew it was only a matter of time until Voldemort found what he wanted.
Something popped into the back of Harry’s mind, Snape’s voice, ‘clear your mind of emotion, Potter.’ Harry tried to relax, he remembered the drugged out feeling he’d had over the last three week. The images of traveling still flew past. Harry realized that he couldn’t force Voldemort out of his head, anymore than Voldemort could force Harry out of his own. Harry needed to redirect. He needed to make it more difficult to read his mind. Harry brought to mind the lake at Hogwarts, and the peace and tranquility it afforded. Harry felt more at peace, he began to relax. He kept focusing his mind on the lake and even time Voldemort grabbed at a new memory, Harry pushed the lake memory into the front of his mind. Instead of fighting the memories flowing out, he tried to push out the lake memory.
It was working, it was slow, but it was working. Voldemort was still managing to bring up memories, but there were less and less new memories coming. The more Harry focused on the lake, the more he relaxed. The more he relaxed, the slower the memories came, until at last the image of the lake was the only one Voldemort could bring up.
All of a sudden, Harry’s scar felt like it split open. Voldemort was furious and dumped his anger into Harry with gut wrenching pain. Harry fought to keep the lake memory to the front, but Voldemort forced back in and started getting new memories again, angry memories. Harry thought about the lake, the cool water of the lake, and once again the memories slowed and then stopped until the lake was all Voldemort could get.
It was then that Harry finally thought, ‘that’s enough,’ and he pushed on the Voldemort presence to get out his brain. And he was gone. As soon as the attack was over, Harry realized that he was in pain, a lot of pain. He was still asleep, but he felt the pain.
Harry woke up with a scream of agony. He clutched his head in his hands and then vomited. He heard the voices of people around him, but he was in so much pain, he couldn’t tell what they were saying. Harry felt someone’s hands on him allowed himself to be steered out of the car and on the side of the road, down into the cool grass.
Harry vomited again into the grass. There were lots of bright light which were making his head hurt even more. He clutched at his head and vomited again and again. Finally the pain began to ease somewhat and he looked up to see Hermione, Mrs. Granger, Tonks, and Mr. Granger all standing over him.
Mrs. Granger bent down next to him, “My God, Harry are you all right? You’re bleeding, he’s bleeding, Tonks quick grab a towel out of the car.”
Harry began to shiver and then shake. Mr. Granger slipped off his jacket and then put it around him.
Hermione asked, “Harry, can you talk? What happened?”
“He attacked my mind,” Harry asked gasping between every word. “He wanted to know where we were going.” The pain was subsiding somewhat.
Hermione looked even more concerned, “Did he find out? Does he know where you are? Where we are going?”
“No,” Harry gasped. “I stopped him…Before he found out.” Harry touched his scar. The pain in his head was decreasing steadily now, but the scar felt funny. Harry pulled his hand away and looked at his fingers. His hand was covered in blood. His scar had started bleeding.
Tonks arrived with a bunch of napkins, and handed them to Mrs. Granger, “Sorry,” she said apologetically, “it’s the best I could do.”
The cool grass felt refreshing and Harry was slowly feeling better. Mrs. Granger put the napkins to Harry’s head to help stop the bleeding. The pain in his head was becoming manageable now. Harry just wished that the Ministry car behind them would shut off its headlights.
All of a sudden flashing light appeared behind them with the bright headlights. A police officer was pulling in behind them. A young man got out of the car and walked over to where Harry was. The officer looked to Mr. and Mrs. Granger and asked, “Is everything all right?”
Mr. Granger smiled grimly at the officer, “Yes, my boy here has migraines headaches. It causes him to be sick. We, all of us,” Mr. Granger gestured to all the cars, “are going on a holiday trip to Wales.”
The officer smiled back. “Does he need a doctor?” he asked. “I could escort you or call ahead for a doctor to be waiting.”
Mrs. Granger stood up from beside Harry and replied, “That’s very kind of you, but I think he’s going to be okay, are you all right Harry? Or do we need to get a doctor?”
Harry pushed himself up and Tonks leaned over to give him a hand. Once on his feet, he looked at the officer, “Thanks, but I’m going to be fine. I get these quite a bit. I’ll be better in a few minutes. And then we can get back on our way. The cool air does help.”
The officer smiled at Harry and then looked back to Mr. Granger, “I’ll leave you people be then. I’m going to sit behind you until you’re on your way. I don’t want anyone to hit you from behind. Have a good evening governor.”
“Good evening, constable. Thank you for stopping,” Mr. Granger replied back. “We’ll be on our way soon.”
The officer walked slowly back to his car, savoring the cool night. Everyone watched him go. Mr. and Mrs. Granger went along to Harry’s seat in the car and began to clean. Harry walked over and leaned against the car, taking long slow deep breathes. He was still shaking as if he was feverish, but the pain in his head was now a dull ache, rather than blinding pain.
“Snape will be happy,” Harry commented quietly to Hermione.
“Why?” Hermione asked leaning in so she could hear.
“Voldemort attacked my brain and I forced him out. I guess I did learn something in Occumency after all.”
Hermione shuddered a bit and then asked, “What happened exactly?”
“I must have fallen asleep, because I was looking out the window and then Voldemort was just there. He was running through my memories one by one. They were all traveling memories, times when I was in transit, either walking, driving, floo powder, any form of transportation. I’m sure he was trying to figure out where we were going. I tried to push him out at first, but I couldn’t. So instead I kept thinking about the lake at Hogwarts. I kept forcing him to view that memory only. Then he did some sort of mental attack, and he got back in again. I brought the lake back and eventually was able to push him out.”
“Your scar is bleeding again,” Hermione commented. “Do you know how that happened?”
“It must have been in the mental attack. I don’t understand how it could have split open again, but it must have been then.”
“I don’t understand either, but no one has ever lived through the Avada Kedavra curse before, so it probably has something to do with that,” Hermione commented thoughtfully.
Mr. Granger called from the other side of the car, “Harry, are you feeling up to going? We’ve pulled out your medicine to help you feel better.”
“Yes, I’m all right to go,” Harry replied back. He smiled at Hermione, “You’re parents are really great, Hermione.”
Hermione smiled back, “I think so. I miss them when I’m away; it makes me sad to think in my future life I’m going to live a separate life from them.”
“You won’t be separate from them. You will figure out a way to make it work,” Harry assured her. He walked over and climbed in the car. Hermione climbed in behind him.
“Yes, I suppose I will,” Hermione said thoughtfully.
Once in the car, Mrs. Granger handed Harry a couple of pills and a small potion bottle. “These are your pain killers Harry and a dreamless sleep potion. I was supposed to make sure you kept taking the potion. I didn’t realize how important it was. I was going to give it to you tonight once we got to the place. I didn’t understand. I’m sorry.”
Harry smiled at her, the shivering now subsided, the pain in his head almost gone, “There is nothing to apologize for, I didn’t remember either. Well, good night for now, I guess. Try and wake me when we get there.”
Harry took his pills with the Dreamless Sleep Potion and fell instantly asleep against the car window.