La Paz del Mundo

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August 2, 2005

8:00pm GMT

It was sweltering when they arrived at the Margarita International Resort, and it was already eight pm. Harry looked over to where Dani was arguing with the night desk staff. Apparently, something had gone wrong and they had only ended up with one room. They seemed to be really into it; the girls had gone through the apartment (which looked like it had been converted from an old hotel room), turned around, and marched right back to the front desk to ask for another room. Harry had thought they were over reaction; he knew Hermione could get... picky... when it was too hot and humid for her taste.

The place seemed nice enough. It had a small balcony, one master bedroom, one bedroom with two single beds, but they could just jack up the AC and fit two people per bed if they really needed to, one couch that pulled out to a double bed, and one little love seat that one person could squeeze onto, and of course, the ever useful tile floor.

But Harry knew better than to throw his two cents in at the moment. He wanted to wake up with both of his testes in the morning.

He looked over to the pool. Kids and adults alike were out for a night swim; some of the adults even had coolers of beer or other alcoholic beverages. And no one seemed to care about what they were wearing. As Harry looked around the pool, he saw people that would have been ridiculed for wearing what they were wearing in the States; he thought it was nice that the same social stereotypes didn't exist down here.

Then again, it might have just been too damn hot to care.

But one couple caught Harry's eye. She was of moderate height, somewhere around 5'6. Harry couldn't see much else do to the lack of light, but he did notice she seemed extremely aware; as though she was watching everyone closely, listening to everyone's conversation as best she could. She caught Harry's eye and winked as she dove back into the dark blue water and resurfaced to kiss the man she was with. He could hear them mumbling to each other, and decided to turn away, so as not to embarrass himself or them. Just then, Hermione came up to him, still looking rather pissed.

"They won't give us another room. It looks like we're stuck. Dani and Benny are going to go next door for some snackage and water; apparently it's not safe to drink it here. Let's head up, unpack, and get some sleep."

"Sounds good. What floor are we on?"

"Lucky number thirteen."

Harry looked up and saw that the couple he had been watching had left the pool. He looked up to the main building, and saw them slowing making their way up the stairs.

"'Mione, which building are we in? Main or the second one?"

"Main, why?"

"Nothing." He looked back at his girlfriend hurriedly. "Just wondering."

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When they got back up to their room, Harry and Hermione did indeed run into the couple Harry had been watching. He could see now that the woman had caramel skin, and light, light brown ringlets framing almost girlish cheeks; he caught the faintest whiff of chlorine before their door was firmly shut. The walls were thin enough to hear the giggles coming from the room next door; there was little left to imagine what would go on in there tonight. Harry sighed and followed Hermione into their own room, room 13-1.

He did not want to deal with this. They were twelve of them in a room that could fit six at the most. Since Benny and Dani had already laid claim to the master bedroom, that left ten people, two single beds, one pull out couch, a love seat, and the floor. Harry and Hermione would take one of the single beds, Ron and Shannon the other. Lauren, Jarrod, and Chris squeezed onto the pull out couch, Aeneas took the love seat (his feet hung a good foot or so over the edge), and Adonis went back down to the pool to steal a few reclining deck chairs. This left Nikola to take the pads off two of the chairs and sleep on them; Aeneas, being the wonderful man he was, gave up his love seat and chilled on the floor.

The only food Benny and Dani could scrounge up at the hour was a box of crackers, some cheese, and twelve mini bottles of water.

It was definitely not the stuff dreams were made of, but was far better than starving. With the end of their "meal", it was decided that sleep for now would be best. They could regroup in the morning, go shopping, and look around the island before coming up with a definite plan. Harry and Hermione retired to their single bed, and fell asleep tangled together.

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August 3, 2005

6:00am GMT

Harry's eyes snapped open to the sound of a truck out in the street. He reached across Hermione for his glasses, put them on, and glanced at the bedside clock. It was only six in the morning, five, if you wanted to consider the fact that Venezuela was one time zone ahead of Chicago. Not that it made much difference. He gently moved Hermione over him, slipped out of bed, and crossed the room to the one window and peaked out. There was a blue truck out there, which had what appeared to be a lawnmower engine going, pumping water into the building. The truck read agua potable. Harry then realized that the building must need to have its water brought in from the mainland, and that with all of them in one little condo, it would quickly run out. He decided that just jumping into the pool before the others woke up would be a better idea.

Quietly, so as not to disturb them, Harry slid past the bed where Ron and Shannon were fast asleep to the closet, pulled out his swim suit, a t-shirt, flip flops, and sun screen before heading down. He left a note for Hermione on the kitchen counter, explaining where he was and why. It wouldn't do any good to have her upset at him after all.

When he finally got to the pool deck and found a cabana to put his stuff down, he noticed that the couple he had been watching last night had also come down for an early morning swim. Fascinated, Harry watched the two interact, and really observed them in the early morning light.

She was indeed 5'6, about twenty he guessed, with caramel skin, but in the bright sunlight, her light brown locks almost looked blonde. He saw that her eyes were a pale green. The only way Harry could really think of to describe them, would to say they looked like his own, natural bottle green colored eyes would have had they been covered by a thick frost. He also noticed that she had three tattoos. Two were Chinese characters, one over her belly button (which was also pierced), the other on her upper right arm. The third was an Orobourus, the mythical snake eating its tail, symbolizing eternity. Harry was wondering why someone so young would worry about their eternity when he got the distinct impression that she was observing him as well.

He averted his eyes and looked at her companion instead.

He was a well built young man, also somewhere near his twenties. His skin was a just a tad darker than hers, his hair dark brown, but his eyes were almost hypnotic. They seemed to be ordinary brown, a rather common color, but they held an intensity Harry had never seen before, and sorrow that Harry felt would never, could never be matched. He had no tattoos that Harry could see. Just then, he sat up in his deck chair and called out to the girl.

"¿Usted recordó pagar nuestro alquiler este mes?"

Almost instantly, Harry could hear the translation in his head. Did you remember to pay our rent this month?

She shook her head in the negative. And this time, Harry could barely hear the Spanish.

"No, I forgot. And don't talk to me like that. I'm your girlfriend, not some chick you picked up off the street; you don't have to be so damn formal. Its not like they don't know we're sleeping together."

Harry looked behind him, towards the front desk area. Sure enough, a man in the uniform of the hotel staff was coming out. And boy did he look pissed. The girl practically flew out of the pool and over to her towel. She started to dry off when the owner fell on them.

"Natalia Calina Díaz! Where do you think you're going?! And where is my rent check? I'm not supposed to allow people in here for extended periods of time, you know that! They only reason I'm allowing you to stay is because you paid your first month in advance! Now where is my money?"

"Um... it's coming?"

"Not good enough, Natalia!"

"We'll have your money by tonight..."

Her companion spoke up. "Hey, leave me outta this, Natalia. I'm not the one who forgot to pay the rent."

Just then, the manager turned to him, and seemed to be seeing him for the first time. "And you, Jorge Javier Torres! This woman has paid for everything so far! What kind of a man are you, letting your girlfriend pay for everything? Have my money by tomorrow morning, or you're out."

Both of them suddenly looked about ten. The manager left, and she spoke up.

"Jorge, how in the world are we going to get the money?"

"I could always whore you out to the guys in Porlamar..."

"JORGE!"

Harry had to concentrate on not laughing at the expression on Natalia's face. It looked surprisingly familiar... He missed the next part of their conversation. It took him a minute before he could understand them again. You'd think this wouldn't take so damn long...

"Tan que no es una opción. Podríamos tener el dinero enviado a nosotros de Buenos Aires."

Shit. He had just missed the first half of whatever they were talking about. Centrate, Potter.

"Vamos entrar Porlamar y encontrar un banco. Entonces podemos ir al supermercado. Necesitamos más agua y deseo a dulce de leche para el postre esta noche." Let's head into Porlamar and find a bank. Then we can go to the supermarket. We need more water and I want some candy milk for super tonight.

With that, Jorge led Natalia to the main building, presumably to get dressed and then head into Porlamar, one of the larger cities on the island. Harry stripped off his t-shirt and jumped into the pool. It was still early in the morning, but it was already beastly hot. As he swam his laps to clean off, one thought kept racing through his mind.

What the HELL is candy milk???

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Hermione found Harry, still swimming, an hour later. She walked to the edge of the pool and waited for him to reach her. When he did, she looked down at him, keeping her face straight. She saw a question pass through his eyes, then worry. He thought he was in trouble.

"Um... Hello, Hermione. What's wrong?" The sun was behind her, forcing Harry to squint. He couldn't see her expression, and couldn't tell if she was pissed or indifferent. Hermione knew she could have some fun with this.

"Wrong? What's wrong? I woke up this morning, and found my boyfriend missing from my bed, that's what's wrong. And I was kind of in the mood for..."

Harry gulped. She NEVER wanted it in the morning. He found himself praying, please, dear Lord, don't let her say she wanted morning sex. If she said she had woken up horny, he might have t drown himself here in the pool at the Margarita International Resort.

"'Mione, did you want what I'm thinking you wanted?"

"Well, what were you thinking?"

Harry gulped again and averted his gaze. "Sex. Morning sex." He looked back up at her... and... she was LAUGHING! His girlfriend was laughing at him! The little tart.

"Well, Harry, I had actually wanted breakfast. Tea maybe... but," she looked at her watch," it is still morning..."

Harry watched in amazement as Hermione removed her long t-shirt to revel a bikini Harry hadn't known she had. She calmly walked into the pool and came over to him. Harry couldn't believe how ridiculously hard his heart was pumping.

You've known her for years, Potter. Relax.

Hermione wrapped her arms around the man she had spent the better part of three years falling in love with and kissed him.

"Harry, love, has anyone ever told you that your brain positively lives in the gutter?"

"Only when it comes to you, my dear."

"Liar. I saw you watching the couple in the room next to us last night, here at the pool. They are a handsome pair, aren't they?"

Harry took the chance and nodded. Hermione noticed and laughed.

"Harry, just tell me the truth. I mean, I'm not some insanely jealous girlfriend who'll castrate you if you even look at another woman." She kissed him again. "I'll only castrate you if I find you in bed with another woman."

"That's reassuring. Do you think that couple is worth checking into?"

"They may be. Worse comes to worse, we should check them out since they're in the room right next to us."

"Good enough for me. Let's go see if we can talk Benny and the rest into it."

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"Yes, Hermione, it does seem like a valid point, but still, we know nothing about them..."

"But it sounds like they've been here longer than we have. Maybe they've seen Kate, or people who act like foreigners."

"Okay, okay. Well, while you went to find Harry, Jarrod and Chris took the car to get some groceries. They found a strip mall about a block and a half away that had a supermarket, so they went. And God only knows how long those two'll take with the food. With our luck, they'll come back with cereal, water, a box of cookies, and if we're lucky, they'll remember the milk."

"And you sent them why...?"

"Because they act like two year olds when they're pent up together, and I wanted them out. Look, we'll all just hit the pool and chill there. This couple... Natalia and Jorge, right? Well, they sound like all they do is hang out at the pool, so we'll do the same. Tail 'em, and see what goes down. And good news- they have a snack bar down at the pool. If Jarrod and Chris do fuck up at the grocery store, we got food until later."

Benny turned, went to the master bedroom, and changed into his suit. When they were all ready, they hit the pool tour de force style. They grabbed the first open cabana they could, dropped their stuff, and pulled out the suntan lotion. The Venezuelan sun could be brutal. Benny looked around, spotted Dani, and shouted.

"Dani, babe, do me a favor?"

"What?"

"First, get my back with the lotion, will? And go chat up the peeps at the front desk. I mean, you are the only native speaker we have..."

"Benny!"

"What?! It's true, isn't it?"

Harry looked up. "You're a native speaker, Dani?"

"Yep." She smiled. "I was born in Mexico City. I lived there with my family for about two years. Then we came to the States when we found out that my mom was pregnant with my brother."

Harry looked thoughtful. "Do you think you could clear something up for me then?"

"Fire away."

"What's candy milk? I heard Jorge and Natalia talking about going the grocery store and it came up."

"Candy milk... candy milk... you mean dulce de leche?"

"Yeah, that was it!"

"Well, it isn't exactly uncommon in South America; funny, Mrs. Morgan used to make it for us all the time. It was good too, and nice of her. That stuff can be a bitch to make."

Hermione cleared her throat and jumped into the conversation. "Um, Dani, what do you mean 'Mrs. Morgan used to make it for us all the time?' I thought Kate and her family were all Irish."

"Kate's dad is 100% Irish. Her momma's another story."

"What do you mean?"

"Mrs. Morgan's parents are Slovenian. They fled to Rome when the Axis powers threatened the country in World War II. They went back to Slovenia for a brief time, got married there, and then escaped to Argentina when it looked like they might be threatened again. Kate's grandpa was Catholic, and had a brother that wanted to be a priest. He came from a high profile family, making them prime targets for Communists that were against organized religion. They had two baby girls in Argentina, Mrs. Morgan and Kate's aunt. Since they were born in Argentina, the US government considers them Argentine in heritage, making Kate ¼ Hispanic, ¼ Slovenian, and ½ Irish. But, since Kate has the red hair, the fair coloring, and such a stereotypical name, it's easiest to say she just 100% Irish. Plus, it keeps reporters away from her family. Kate likes it that way; who are we to argue?"

Hermione saw the logic in it; but she still had a problem with it. "It just doesn't seem like Kate to deny anything about herself. She always seemed so open to me, as though she really didn't care what others thought."

Benny's eyes met Hermione's. "Oh, she doesn't care what others think of her. But she does care what others think of her family and friends. She works hard to keep us out of the spotlight if we don't wanna be in it. But on the other hand, she works just as hard looking for recording contracts for Dani and Chris. Dani's set to record a CD when we get back, and Chris has been meeting with record execs since March of last year, after Kate got him a role in a movie and tracks on the soundtrack."

Just then, Harry shushed theThey turned to see what he saw, and watched as Natalia and Jorge walked across the pool deck to a cabana that everyone seemed to know was especially reserved for them. Benny searched for a word, the exact right word; all he could come up with was "poised". They walked as if they were King and Queen of the place, smiling to their subjects, even playing with the children that were running around.

Benny watched Jorge with his intense gaze, letting his eyes flicker between the man and Shannon. They had the same nose, eyes, chin; all of the attributes Shannon and Matt had shared. He had turned to say something to Adonis, but stopped when he realized that he was staring at Natalia.

"Jesus, Adonis, I know she's pretty but close your mouth. At least ACT like you have class, even if it isn't one of your main features..."

"Benny, shut up, man. Just look at her. What do you see?"

"I see a 5'6 brunette in a light blue bikini, a pierced belly button, two- no, three tattoos, and a scar just below her belly button... oh, shit."

"I know. Does that scar look familiar to you?"

"Yeah, it does. Just below the navel, in the exact place her's was..."

Harry was puzzled. It was just a scar. What was the big deal? "Um, you guys wanna clue the rest of us in?"

Adonis smirked. "That girl, Natalia, has a scar in the exact place Kate does... or, rather, did. And from where I'm sitting, it looks just about the same in size and shape."

"Okay, fine, I can buy that, but please, Adonis, explain to me, your brother, how on earth you would know what scars Kate Morgan would have?" Adonis had been fixed by his brother's identical laser eyes.

"Because, I gave her that scar while we were training. Ladies and gentlemen, I do believe we've found our favorite AWOL couple."

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