Down Memory Lane

//...\ means that it´s a memory...

The quote is a new addition. If you want to see which ones I have up for the rest of the chapters, visit me at fanfiction.net.

No one correctly guessed what the passage "Donkey donkey have nice teeth..." came from! Well, except for Deity, but she got it wrong...New contest: Who is Nik based on? This will be going on for a while, since we don´t really know his character very well yet. More info on him next chapter.

Oh, yeah...I´d like to hold a moment of silence for the death of Richard Harris, who played Albus Dumbledore in the first two HP movies.

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Thank you...now, onto the chapter.

Chapter Four-Oh, Shit!

"Yes, annoying people is one of my many talents." ~Lianne Christine Florence

Kaori Hirashi sighed as she regarded her newest masterpiece that lay on her lap. Fiddling with the pencil that protruded in between her index and middle fingers on her right hand, she wondered what she could add next to the drawing that would finish it.

"A few more leaves on the tree? Or a branch on the hood of the car?" she wondered aloud. Instead she drew a leaf fluttering down, slow in its course, but steady on the position of a young teenage girl. Kaori imagined her to be pretty, though she seemed to be a bit too tall and thin, with shoulder length hair and pale skin dotted with freckles. And brown eyes...light brown eyes...

Kaori frowned and examined the girl slightly. She seemed out of place, not really belonging in the picture. The other two people--a girl who was perhaps a year or two older than the first, and an extremely cute boy, whose hair she imagined rivaled the redness of the girl´s--fit much better. On top of that, she had a smile on her face, while the other two looked as though they had just lost their best friend.

Beside her, the phone leapt in its cradle as it rang. Kaori sighed heavily and put down her pencil and proceeded to pick up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Kaori?"

Kaori grinned. "Hey Baskin! How´ve you been? You having a good summer?"

"Yeah!" Baskin replied. "I went up to Seattle to visit Jamaica in July. Gol, that was fun!"

"Did you go boating? Lia told me that the last time she visited her that they went boating."

Baskin snickered. "She got tossed!"

Kaori laughed. "Oh, poor Jama...speaking of Seattle and Lia, isn´t she up there right now? With Jack, I believe." She sighed. "I wish they´d brought me along."

She could hear Baskin´s sharp intake of breath as though she were right beside her.

"What is it?"

"About Lia and Jack..."

~&~

I don´t see why Mother said that this book would be difficult to read, Samantha thought to herself as she turned the page of Moby Dick. Some of the language is confusing, but the storyline makes itself clear. She looked up at the neighboring house as a loud scream of terror came from it.

"Oh shit! She did what?!"

Stupid teenagers, the ten-year-old thought to herself. All they care about is their hair and who´s going out with whom.

~&~

~You ask him.~

~No, you ask him!~

~You thought of it first.~

~So? You thought it was a good idea!~

~That doesn´t mean that I have to ask him.~

~Inad--~

~Don´t you `Inad´ me!~

~But Inad--~

~Kirsten, you should ask!~

~But he´s scary looking!~

~You wanted to stop. Look--we´re just about to pass it!~

~Tell Zack to.~

~You tell Zack to!~

~Fine. Be that way. But I´m not giving you any if he says yes.~ Kirsten tapped Zack on the shoulder, who jumped slightly and then turned to look at her.

"Yes?"

Kirsten leaned close to him until her lips were a few inches away from the amnesiac´s ear. "Would you please ask him to pull over at the gas station over there?"

"Why don´t you?"

"Because he´s scary...he´ll snarl and bite me if I do it, but you´re a fellow guy--he won´t be mean to you."

"Why do you want to stop anyway? Aren´t we nearly there?"

"No, actually--and besides, they stopped at the Burger King back there." Zack sighed loudly and turned back around to face the cabbie.

"Kirsten and Inad want to know if we can stop at the gas station."

"Didn´t we just stop ten minutes ago?"

Zack turned to look at the girls. Kirsten waved her hands, a sign to keep going.

"No. The other group did, though."

The cabbie appeared to be thinking. After peering at the dashboard to see his gas gauge, he said, "I don´t think it´ll hurt. ´Sides, we need a bit of gas, ´neways."

~Yay!~

~Should we use your money or mine?~

~How much you got?~

~Uhh...~ Inad opened up her wallet and peeked in. ~Looks like about ten bucks or so.~

~I´ve got a five--wait, and two ones. How did those get there?~

~You put them there.~

~Nuh-uh. I would´ve remembered putting them in my back pocket!~

~Whatever. They don´t cost that much. We´ll use your two bucks.~

~´Kay. What should we get for Zack?~

~Dunno. We can bring him in too. He can get what he wants.~

~I don´t think he has any money, though!~

~Then he can wait out here.~

~Okay!~

~What do you think Jack, Pyro, Lia, and Chris are doing?~

~No idea...but I think they wouldn´t like what we´re about to do right now...~ Both girls grinned evilly, and then laughed in each other´s heads when Zack gave them a very confused and slightly scared look.

~&~

"AAAAAAAAAAAAARUUG!" Pyro winced and covered her ears at the enormous noise from the two teens in the back seat of the truck. Lia and Chris had jumped when the horn went off, taken a look at the position they were in, and yelled. Lia´s face was rapidly turning red as she attempted to yank her sweatshirt out from underneath Chris´ foot to hide in. She also used an extensive vocabulary of curse words that Pyro didn´t even know existed, finally ending with one that she did: "Jack, you bitch!" She looked around, probably trying to find one of Chris´ crutches, and was dismayed to see that Pyro had them both in her hands.

"Lia, we don´t use that word around here," Pyro said mock-sternly.

"What word?!"

"The--" she looked around to make sure no one was listening, "--B-I-T-C-H word."

"Bitca?" Chris murmured sleepily, confused.

They gave him a strange look.

Lia turned again to glare at Jack. She chuckled in a very self-satisfied manner. "Burger King, anyone?"

"Killing spree, anyone?" Lia mocked, clenching her good hand into a fist. Oh, shit, Pyro thought as Chris grabbed Lia´s arm to prevent her from hurting Jack (which they all knew she was perfectly capable of--it wouldn´t have been the first time, after all).

"I´m hungry," he said, as though this were the most natural thing to say while someone was being homicidal.

"You´re always hungry," Pyro told him. "Let´s save the killing of Jack and Pyro until after we´ve eaten, `kay?"

Lia grumbled something that involved a few choice curse words. Chris let out a long whistle and opened the door.

Within fifteen minutes, the four had ordered their meals and were quietly munching on their sandwiches (or, in Jack´s case, chicken fingers).

[AVM: Not even in an alternate universe does she order something different. How sad is that?! ~*dodges Jessica´s fist*~]

[Nova: but doesn´t notice her other fist til it hits her square on the nose.]

Lia was still cursing under her breath. A few of the people sitting by them had thrown her very startled looks. One couple with three very young children looked quite offended and picked up their meals to eat elsewhere.

"You´re scaring people," Chris told her lightly.

Lia told him to do something that made Pyro stuff her sandwich in her mouth to stifle what would have been a roar of laughter.

"Nice, Lia," Jack told her, throwing a French fry at her. Lia caught it and flicked it back.

Pyro leaned over and stole one of Chris´ French fries ("Hey!") and aimed for Jack´s forehead.

"Hey, that was my nose!"

Lia giggled and picked up a handful of Chris´ French fries and lobbed them at Jack. She managed to dump over her Root Beer at the same time, spilling the soda all over the table. Most of it went over the side, though some of it hit Jack.

"Abandon shit!" Lia hissed, getting up in a hurry to avoid getting her cast wet. She dragged Chris away, who was still whining about having his French fries stolen. [A/N: yes, that´s supposed to be `abandon shit´. Not `abandon ship´.] Pyro sniggered at Jack, who was livid with anger, and glanced at the other patrons in the restaurant. They were all staring. Pyro chose to ignore them and looked at one of the workers who was quickly approaching them.

Oh, shit, she thought. We´re in for it now...

~&~

[AVM: just to let y´all know, Nova the terrific beta-er wrote this section. Kudos to her.]

"Teri, calm down. I´m sure Lia just forgot to call."

"Yes, maybe... but I always thought that Kirsten would be responsible enough to remind her..."

"Well, worrying won´t help. Why don´t you call her cell?"

"I already tried! It just says, `We´re sorry, you call did not go through. Will you please try your call again.´ "

"Maybe the battery is dead."

"Maybe... hold on; someone´s on the other line... hello?

"Teri?"

"Yes, may I ask who this is?"

"It´s Kat. Has Lia called you recently?"

"No, I was just wondering about that. She hasn´t called yet at all."

"I know why..."

~&~

The gurgling of four milkshakes being drained from their respective cups caused various patrons of a Burger King somewhere between Seattle and Vancouver to turn their heads and glare.

[Nova and AVM: Washington, stupid people! Not Canadia!!!]

[AVM: DARN THOSE CANADIANS!!! No offense...]

[Nova: And you get offended when people diss them. *sigh*]

[AVM: Noooo...I get offended when people say I´m Canadian. There´s a difference.]

[Nova: Maybe later you can tell me what it is.]

Lia glared at Jack. Jack glared at Lia. Chris watched them. Pyro threw a French fry at Jack, aiming for her shoulder.

"Ouch! That was my eye! Your aim is terrible..." Jack had had much experience with her best friend´s abilities to hit her target, sometimes at the expense of the eyesight in her left eye.

[Jack: True, true...]

Lia flicked her hair with a slight toss of her head and turned to Pyro. "You interrupted our staring contest."

"So sorry."

Jack scoffed. "Liar. You´re never sorry!"

"I am too! I´m sorry about a lot of things!"

"Name one," Chris said, shaking a French fry in her direction.

"I´m sorry that your mother taped over that episode of Angel last--" Pyro never finished her sentence, for the other three teens had yelled and started throwing French fries at her again.

~&~

[A/N: just to let you know, I know that a pawn can´t really checkmate a king. That´s why there´s that king (or whatever...use your imagination) behind the pawn that could easily take out the king, were it to move into place. But, it´s not really checkmate, as you´ll soon find out...]

"Checkmate," Ron said, moving his pawn into place in front of Ginny´s king. Ginny´s eyes roamed over the board, trying to see if his accusation was true.

"No, it´s not," she said, and simply moved her queen four places to the right, taking out the offending piece. Ron frowned angrily and hit the board, causing chess pieces to go flying. Ginny sat defiantly in front of her older brother, practically daring him to do something. Then, as her eyes filled with tears, she picked up the pieces one by one and placed them in their positions.

"If you had paid attention, you would have noticed that if you´d moved your castle to where my queen was, you would have won." Instead of finishing what she started, she rose from her chair and fled the room, her shoulders shaking with grief. Ron sighed and covered his face with his hands.

I can´t even concentrate on something as simple as chess, he thought, moving the board to a safe place and getting up from the kitchen table. We might as well go home. This vacation is ruined. Ruined by something like the disappearance of a friend.

Just then, Mrs. Granger came back inside the little apartment.

"They found Harry," she said morosely.

"What?!" Ron yelled, tripping over his feet and landing on the floor. Ginny and Hermione stuck their heads into the room so fast that Ron thought they would get whiplash.

"They found Harry, and then lost him. He was at St. Christopher Memorial Hospital up until this morning."

"What happened to him?" Hermione asked tentatively. "Did they send him home?"

"After they matched the description of him, they realized that he had already left with a group of Muggle teenagers. All we have is the name of the girl who was driving the car."

"And?"

"There´s no record of her living anywhere in the United States or Canada. She doesn´t exist."

[AVM: ~*evil cackle*~]

~&~

"Jack, d´you think I should call Kirsten and Inad to ask where they are?" Lia asked nearly two hours later as they passed the onramp for Longview.

"Dunno. They could be back to Vancouver by now."

"I think she should anyways," Chris said, pulling the earphone to his portable CD player out of his left ear. Lia glared at him for the improper pronunciation of the word anyway, but otherwise ignored it.

[Nova: Why does Chris get special treatment? Anyone else would get hurt, or reprimanded!]

[AVM: Because Lia is feeling nice at the moment? I dunno! Ask her!]

"I think so too. God only knows what damage they´ve done to poor Zack."

"Why did we even bring him anyway?" Lia asked. "I mean, we nearly killed the poor guy!"

"You nearly killed the poor guy," Chris pointed out. Lia glared at him again.

"Because he would have to go to an orphanage, or something. And that would suck."

"Actually, that´s a very good point."

"But where will he stay?"

"Not my place--no room. Well, unless Louis and Justin room up. And they wouldn´t want to do that--not for me, in any case."

"I told you you shouldn´t have hit them so hard and often with books." Lia gave Pyro a flat, unfriendly stare.

[Nova: Or phones, or calculators...]

[AVM: I´ll have you know that it was a remote control for the TV, not a calculator. His cement head would break my calculator.]

"Matt moved out two days ago--that´s why Mom wanted me out of the house. I don´t know why..." Chris looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Well, let´s see: could it be that the last time he tried to move out you attached yourself to his legs wailing pitifully?" Jack gave him an evil grin.

[Nova: Hah! You are 178% mistaken: `Chris´ would love him to be gone!]

[AVM: Shh! It´s funnier this way...~*smiles sweetly to Chris*~]

"You weren´t supposed to talk about that!" Chris roared as Lia and Pyro burst out laughing.

"You did what?!" Pyro gasped out finally. "That´s too rich!"

Amazingly, Chris´ face pinkened. "He´s my chauffer," he said simply with a shrug.

"If you were to get your permit--"

"I still wouldn´t be able to drive for another six months!"

"Without a licensed adult in the car," Jack added, glancing in the mirror.

"Lia, call them," Chris said moodily. Then he muttered, "First Matt, now the driving thing...what´ll it be next? The fact that I have no girlfriend?"

"Kirsten, Lia, and Baskin are single," Pyro said lightly.

"EWWWW!" Lia and Chris said in unison, scooting as far away as possible from each other.

That´s obviously not what they were thinking when they fell asleep, Jack thought, remembering the picture on Lia´s camera. She grinned as she watched Lia dial Kirsten´s number. What the teen didn´t know was that her face was turning bright red, which was almost as funny as when she flipped out when she got embarrassed. Hehe...this is gonna be fun...

"I don´t believe it," Pyro said nearly fifteen minutes later as they pulled into a rest stop barely five miles from the offramp to Vancouver. "I just don´t believe it." Sitting on a picnic bench near the bathrooms was Inad, Kirsten, and Zack; the latter of the three looked weary and forlorn while the two former had huge grins on their faces. Jack stopped the truck in front of them and rolled down her window. Lia did the same and stuck her head out.

"Exactly why are you sitting here without the cabbie?" Jack asked.

Kirsten and Inad giggled.

"Oh, jeez; what did you do?!" Lia demanded. She attempted to keep a grin off of her face.

Giggle. "We bought Skittles!"

Lia turned to Zack, her eyebrows raised in humor. "You let them buy Skittles?! Are you insane?!"

"I didn´t know!" Zack protested, throwing his arms out in defense.

Lia looked as though she was trying hard not to laugh. Chris let out a small snort. Pyro sighed.

"Get in the back of the truck," Jack said wearily.

"Why not in the front?"

"Not enough room."

"It´s my truck! I say you four sit in the back!"

"You haven´t passed your six month time limit yet, stupid. You can´t drive other people around!"

"Lia did!"

"Lia´s irresponsible."

Lia glared at Jack. "Thank you."

"You´re welcome. Now in the back, you three."

"I still say--"

"I´m still driving."

"Isn´t that illegal?" Lia asked suddenly. "Riding in the back of a truck?"

"We´ll rope `em down."

"Jack!" Lia, Kirsten, Inad, and Chris yelled. Zack stared. Pyro nodded in agreement and giggled.

"What?!"

Lia sighed and shook her head. "We´ll squish in and double buckle; Zack´s small enough that if he, Inad, Kirsten, and I sit back here, we´ll all fit."

"What about me?" Chris asked.

"You can sit up front with Pyro."

"Says who?" Pyro interjected.

"Me."

"There won´t be enough room for his damn leg!"

"Damn your leg!" Chris shot at her.

"No, thank you," Pyro said, and turned back to Lia.

"I don´t know about you," Zack interrupted, "but I´m starting to get a little hungry."

"We already ate," Lia said simply.

"We ate Skittles," Inad said impishly.

"Yes, you did," Pyro noted absently.

"And they didn´t share," Zack announced. They all turned to stare at him.

"This is the most you´ve said the entire time we´ve known you!" Lia said. "Thank God," she noted. "I was afraid that I was going to have to corrupt you in order to get you talking!"

"You three: get in the car before I make you! Chris: front seat! Pyro: scoot over!"

"Eww...sophomore germs..."

"You were a sophomore last year, stupid. He´s not going to kill you."

"And he´s a boy."

"One who `switched teams´."

"I did not `switch teams´!"

"Explain why you hang out with all girls, then."

"Because...you´re all my friends!"

"What about Nik, Roman, Daniel, Michael, Louis, Mike--"

"Okay, okay! I get your point. But you´re all my friends too!"

"In the car!" Jack yelled.

"Truck," Inad corrected, opening the door and helping Chris to hobble over to the front door.

"Whatever!"

"Hey Chris: just say no to crack."

[AVM: Don´t ask...just don´t ask...]

The rest of the ride home was relatively quiet. Zack had separated Kirsten and Inad, since he and Kirsten were the smallest of the seven. They all agreed that Inad should sit on the far side of the truck from Kirsten as well. It would stop them, at least, from speaking out loud.

When they finally pulled up to Jack´s house, a small crowd had assembled outside of it.

"My parents, Chris´ parents, Pyro´s parents...oh shit..." Everyone turned to look at Lia, who tried to squirm her way into the seat. "You did call from the hospital, didn´t you?" Jack asked.

"Umm...I thought you did?"

"LIA!!"

"What´s that big shiny thing that...is that Therese?!"

"Crap...Nik and Daniel are here..."

"Nik´s here?" Pyro asked, straining her neck to see. Indeed, the boy was leaning up against the tree in Jack´s yard, his longish hair hiding his face from view.

[AVM: okay, okay...he´s not really much of a boy...too hot, in fact...first person who names the guy Nik is based on gets a surprise...]

"Is it just me, or does it look like Nik´s holding a baseball bat?"

"Nah, I think it´s just a really big club."

"Or a really big and heavy stick..."

"Oh shit!" Lia squeaked, and tried to hide behind the front seat.

"LIANNE CHRISTINE FLORANCE!" a voice roared from the yard. "HOW DAR YOU KEEP US WORRIED LIKE THAT ABOUT YOUR SAFETY? AND WHERE IS YOUR BROTHER´S CAR?!"

Lia made some noises that sounded like a frightened mouse running from a large cat.

"YOU´RE PAYING FOR THE NEXT CENTURY, LIA!" Louis´ voice roared.

"Dammit," Lia murmured. And then, "It was an accident!" She got out of the car, causing Inad to fall over and start gibbering. Roman walked over to the truck, pushing past Lia so that they bumped shoulders, and helped her up. "Zack ran in front of the car, and I couldn´t stop!"

"You hit someone?!"

"And you hurt my girlfriend?!"

"Daniel, I´m the one with the cast on my arm! She´s got a scratch on her forehead!"

"Inad," Therese said, hefting a large and very sharp looking axe in her hands. "I have a little gift for you..."

Inad looked up from her embrace with Roman. "Axe?" she said confusedly.

[Nova: Oh my gosh...AN AXE?! SCARY...NO axes. Bats, maybe butter knives. We don´t want any deaths.]

[AVM: Who said there were going to be deaths? Well, not this early in the story. And not on Lia´s part--she´s one of my favorite characters. ~*grins*~ The axe is staying. Plus, Inad opted for it anyway.]

Then, seeing Daniel, Louis, and Kaori lifting weapons of their own, she got the clue. She ran to Therese, grabbed the axe from her arms, and began to sprint towards Lia. Lia took off running away from her.

"SHIIIIIT!" she screamed. Nik grinned at Kaori and Daniel, and then the three of them raced after Inad and Lia, yelling war cries and looking as though they were having the times of their lives.

~&~

Wormtail finished the note with a flourish, and then began to reread the letter to check for mistakes. Grinning to himself with delight at his accomplishment, he tied it to the leg of the midnight-black owl that had been waiting patiently for him to finish.

"Master, the first step of your plan is complete," he announced as it flew off into the lightening sky. "Dumbledore will know within the hour of the untimely death of Potter!"

Voldemort smiled to himself and crumpled the letter that was written in Ron´s writing. He threw it on the floor, next to the eerily still shape of Hedwig.

"The wizarding world will know of his defeat," he said. "And then they will know the pain that he has caused me over the last fifteen years." His lips curled into a cold, cruel smile. "They will not live to see a day of happiness again."