Miz Lorelai

MIZ LORELAI

Chapter one-Arrival.

Present Day

"Hermione, did you read this article in the newspaper?" asked my husband, Harry Potter as he held the paper up, the article facing me. I looked up from washing the dishes. It was a picture of a cruise ship and underneath the picture, were the words;

TAKE A CRUISE!

WITCHES AND WIZARDS ONLY!

SAILING FROM SOUTHHAMPTON, TO NEW ENGLAND IN THE U.S AND BACK.

A SEVEN-DAY CRUISE

COME ABOARD THE RMS LORELAI!

I dropped the rag into the sink and dried my hands on a nearby towel. I went over to the table and sat down, taking the paper from him. I continued to read the article.

"What do you think? Would you want to go on a cruise?" Harry asked, grinning.

I raised my eyes to meet his. "Doesn't this seem odd that only witches and wizards are allowed?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Just then our daughter Lauren, entered the kitchen. She was now fourteen years old and in her fourth year at Hogwarts. Thank God she had inherited my ability to stick to the rules, she's now a prefect in Gryffindor. "Hi mum...dad," Lauren said as she plopped down at the kitchen table.

"Hey Laur...how would you feel about taking a cruise?" Harry asked, leaning forward. His emerald green eyes were alight behind his glasses.

"Um, hello... I have school next term, we only have a weeks break!" Lauren retorted, scandalized.

I hid a smile, and Harry winked. "I think I can swing you an extra few days," he muttered conspiratorially.

Lauren looked at me begging me to say something. "Harry..." I warned. But naturally, he ignored me.

"Dad, I love you, but in all honesty...you scare me," Lauren replied rolling her eyes.

"Seriously, how would you feel?" Harry repeated.

I sighed. "I would like it, Dad but..." Harry interrupted her.

"Fine. There you have it!" He concluded, brightly. Lauren rolled her eyes again. "We can invited Ron, Fleur and Luke," he suggested, his lip twitching. Luke was Ron and Fleur's son. Lauren seemed to have a crush on him.

Immediately, Lauren's expression brightened. "Okay then, let's go!" Lauren cried eagerly. She got up from the table and began heading toward the staircase, paused and turned around. "I'm going to decide what to pack... This is going to be so great!" she gushed excitedly and happily headed up stairs.

I angrily poked Harry in the ribs. "You know she needs to go to school more than on a cruise," I hissed.

Harry sighed. "I know, but after my accident I've realized that family is the most important thing. I know it was a long time ago, but still... Lauren could do with a break. She works as hard as you did when you were a prefect," he reasoned, smiling coyly.

I shook my head with a defeated look on my face. I loved him and Lauren more than life, but he sometimes was right. "Okay...okay we'll go. Find out more about it and when it sails," I muttered.

"Thanks, 'Mione," he grinned, as he gave me a kiss on the cheek and walked into the living room. He grabbed a bit of Floo powder and I heard him talking to Mr. Weasley in the fireplace.

Things had been wonderful for the past twelve years. We've all grown closer since the accident; that we almost feared would take Harry's life. He had somehow grown stronger, because of that and our family has as well.

Ron and Fleur had a boy a year after Lauren turned three, so he's about a year younger than she is. The Weasley's had gone off on their own. Bill, Charlie, Percy, the twins and Ginny had all gotten married and are off on their own. Bill lives in Manchester, Charlie in London, Percy, Fred and George tended to stay around Little Whinging in Surrey.

We lived in a small village north of Manchester, Harry and I, are both now 35 years old. My bushy hair is now sleeker and still curly, but it's not bushy. Harry still has his untidy black hair that sticks out in all directions, and now he's older a few flecks of grey are starting to emerge at his temples. Lauren takes after Harry in some things, she may take after me with the no rule breaking and studying a lot, but she's got Harry's dedication to her family, his bluntness and his tendency to get into mischief. Like last week for instance. Lauren had wanted to go see this R rated movie called 'Bator', about this man that went around a hospital killing the patients. Lauren told us she was going over her best friends' house. We ended up having to call her to tell her to bring in some soda and her friends' parents said that neither of them was home, and that they went off to see a movie. Lauren had snuck to the movies with her friend and when she came home, she was grounded for that week and into this week. But Harry's firmness had lifted and that's when he asked her if she'd love to go on the cruise. For some reason, he could never stay mad at her for long. Me on the other hand, I was still angry with her for lying. It wasn't the movie that bothered me. It was the fact that she'd lied.

After a few moments, Harry came back into the kitchen. "Arthur just told me that the Lorelai is a brand new ship. She will be sailing around September 13 from Southampton and sailing to the US. She's at sea most of the time, but there's a lot to do! He read all about it in Witch Weekly. Amazingly, they printed an article not rubbish," said Harry, snorting sarcastically.

I folded my arms over my chest. "That's fine. But when was this ship built?" I asked.

"I think he said last year?" Harry replied, as he went over to the sink, opened the cabinet above the sink and took a glass. He closed the cabinet door and then turned on the faucet and he filled the glass up with cold water and then shut the faucet off. He took a sip.

I frowned. I remember seeing a ship by a similar name once before in a book I read called Modern Disasters of the Magical Age. The ship had hit another one and sank with all the passengers on board. "Why? What's wrong?" Harry asked, immediately interrupting my thoughts.

"I don't know...but there was a ship that had hit another ship a few years ago and sunk. The name was similar," I replied.

"Similar," Harry emphasized. "But not the same one, come on Hermione... What do you say?"

For the life of me, I couldn't shake this nagging feeling in my stomach. Something was telling me that this whole idea wasn't right. But then again, it could just be my paranoid self getting carried away. "I say..." I paused. Harry was watching me intently and expectantly. "Okay. We'll go," I said finally.

Harry grinned. "Great! I'm going to call Ron and see if they'd like to come along,"

"Do me a favor? Call the muggle way for a change, if the neighbors keep seeing a fireplace lit in the middle of the summer there's bound to be questions," I said, shaking my head.

"Sure," Harry replied as he went over to the telephone and picked up the receiver. Ron had told us he wanted a telephone in his house and he learned to use it correctly.

I took the wand out of my pocket and tapped the small address book where Harry kept the phone numbers to Mr and Mrs. Weasley, and Ron's family. "Wingardium Leviosa!" I whispered. The address book zoomed over to Harry, who was scratching his head trying to remember Ron's number. Harry caught it and grinned sheepishly.

"Thanks. I don't know what I'd do without you,"

"Probably malfunction." I grinned back. He laughed and dialed Ron's number.

"He said sure they'd love to!" Harry called.

"Great!" I called back.

I decided to go upstairs and see what Lauren was up to. The house was two-story light tan house with dark brown window shutters. The garage was in the front where our 2004 silver Toyota Camry was parked. We adopted some muggle attributes, but still mainly kept to the magical half. The stairs went up to a landing, and then connected with the hallway. I walked down the hallway and reached her door. I knocked on it. "Laur? It's me. Can I come in for a sec?" I called.

"Sure!" came Lauren's, muffled reply.

I grabbed the doorknob and turned it, pushing the door open. I entered her room. She was sitting on her four-poster bed listening to music. Lauren had adopted a bit more of the muggle attributes, but was still locked with her magical half. She looked up. Her room was painted white with a light cream border, and her mahogany four-poster bed was against the wall with the headboard flush to the wall. She had a nightstand where her wand and several of her new textbooks lay. Her Grey owl, RJ, was sitting on the footboard of her bed hooting softly. Her trunk was in front of the footboard, opened, where her school robes, and a dress robe was. RJ's cage was on the small dresser near the window. "Hey, mum. What's up?" Lauren asked, pulling the headphones off her ears and shutting off her CD player.

"Nothing," I said, sitting on the bed beside her. "You do know that you're still in hot water for lying,"

Lauren sighed. "Yes. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sneak off but I really wanted to see that movie,"

I raised an eyebrow. "You could've just asked one of us to go with you! The reason why we said no was because you wanted to go by yourself. There was no way they were going to let a fourteen year old girl into an R rated movie like that," I chided.

Lauren smiled. "I know. I didn't think Dad would want to go with me though."

I looked at her startled. "What? Of course he would've!"

Lauren's smile vanished. "Dad's been so busy with the Ministry now. I feel that sometimes he forgets I'm here," she sulked.

I had to admit, Lauren was right. Harry had been so involved in the Ministry that it seemed that he was spending more time there, than at home with Lauren. I had noticed it too, but it didn't matter if he didn't spend time with me, as much Lauren was the one who needed him. Although, he and I did have a romantic evening the week before last when Lauren had spent the night at her friends. But then, he rushed off to the Ministry when there had been someone selling Muggles cursed bed sheets. The Muggle would put them on their bed and when they climbed in underneath, the sheet would end up smothering them to death. "I mean I know Dad doesn't mean it, but I just wish that he would spend time with me and you a little bit more," said Lauren, dejectedly.

I put an arm around her. "I know. But maybe this cruise will do him and us some good, huh? Ok, the grounding is lifted," I said, giving her a hug.

Lauren hugged me back. "Thanks Mum,"

"You're welcome, September 13^th is a week away. So I think this weekend we should start getting ready and make plans to register to get on board," I enthused.

"Maybe Dad can do it from the Ministry," Lauren said hopefully, but there was a tinge of sarcasm underneath.

"We'll see," I replied.

Lauren picked up her Standard Book of Spells Grade 4 from off her nightstand and began reading it. Smiling, I left the room and headed downstairs to where Harry was. Harry had changed into Muggle his clothes; he was wearing a pair of jeans and a white tee shirt. "Where are you going?" I demanded, as I came downstairs.

"To the store for some ice cream, everyone's favorite...chocolate chip!" he grinned.

Just then, I heard Lauren shouting for me from upstairs. I did an about face and flew up the stairs, Harry was right behind me, we opened the door to her bedroom, but she wasn't there. "Lauren! Where are you?" I called.

"Bathroom!" she replied. The bathroom was at the end of the hall, and I practically flew down to the hall to reach her. I opened the door... Lauren was sitting on the bathroom floor; with her legs drawn up to her chest and her arms were wrapped around them.

"Lauren, what's the matter?" I asked, sitting beside her on the cold, tiled floor. Lauren looked up, there were tears streaming down her cheeks.

She looked at Harry. "Make him leave first," she said her eyes were filled with hate.

"Why? What's going on?" I asked, alarmed.

"Make him leave first," Lauren repeated coldly as the tears still streamed down her cheeks.

"Go on. I'll fill you in later," I said, gently ushering him out. He looked crushed, alarmed and upset as he backed out of the bathroom. I closed the door behind him. "Okay...what's going on?" I asked.

"Something just came... Now," she said, meaningfully.

I tilted my head, and then realized what she meant. "Oh. Honey, that's okay. A lot of girls can start late. It's nothing to worry about," I said, softly.

"But two years late?" she asked.

"Sure. Why not? Each person is different," I said, gently. "Do you need 'supplies'?" Lauren nodded. "Well, your father's going out to get ice cream. Maybe he can pick up some for you?" Lauren made a noise between a gag and snort. "It'll be okay. Trust me," I said. I got up and left the bathroom.

HARRY.

Hermione came out of the bathroom. I stopped pacing with my hands clasped behind my back. I looked up. "Is she okay?" I asked immediately.

Hermione broke out into a smile. "She's fine. She just became a woman,"

It took a second for it to register with me, but then I broke out into a grin. "That's wonderful! Okay, I've got to go to the store. I gather she needs supplies?" By the look on Hermione's face, I figured she was shocked and that I would go for stuff.

"Yes, she does," Hermione said, still awed.

I grinned again and headed off down the stairs to the store.

I found what I was looking for, for Lauren and the ice cream and then headed back home.

HERMIONE

I couldn't believe that he'd actually go for the things for Lauren. But I was a little angry with him still for not paying much attention to her. Harry promised to find out how to go about registering for the cruise from the ministry. The minute he mentioned the Ministry, Lauren let out a low growl that he couldn't hear, but I could, and I totally understood why she did it. He came home about 10 minutes later, and Lauren took care of what she needed to. Lauren went to bed early, I knew why she had so I didn't disturb her....

I had no idea that that cruise would be the worst nightmare ever.