You've Just Defeated Lord Voldemort...

~chapter three~

The alarm woke Harry again, but this time he decided to turn it off and go back to sleep. About quarter of an hour later, he was woken again, this time by Mrs. Weasley. "Wake up, dear," she whispered. Harry rolled over and put on his glasses. He could see Ron sitting up, staring straight ahead. Mrs. Weasley woke Mr. Weasley and left the room, telling them, "Hurry up and get ready. We'll be leaving in about half an hour."

Ron swung his legs over the bed and slowly made his way to the bathroom. Harry heard the water running, and figured he could sleep a little longer. Unfortunately for him, Mr. Weasley decided to turn on the TV, and didn't he quite yet have a grasp on the volume button. Harry couldn't sleep through the noise, so he sat up.

"Here, Harry." Mr. Weasley handed him the remote. "I don't know any television programs."

"The programs here are different than those in England," Harry said, accepting the remote anyway. He surfed the channels for a few minutes before finally deciding on a program called X-Men. He watched the show about mutants saving the world, and realized he could relate to the character named Wolverine, at least a little bit. (He had, after all, been an outcast for ten years, only made friends after he had learned about his strange, new powers and had anger problems for awhile.)

Ron came out of the bathroom, his hair wet, a towel wrapped around his waist. "What are you watching, Harry?" he asked.

"An American program called X-Men," Harry answered. "It's about mutants who save the world."

"That's an excellent program," came Hermione's voice from next to the now-open door.
"Hermione!" Ron said, turning red and clutching his towel. "Have you ever heard of knocking?"

"Oh, sorry," she said hastily, hiding behind the door. "I was...er...just checking to see if you were ready. But...er, you're apparently not, so, sorry, bye." She closed the door.

"Geez," Ron said. "That girl..."

"That girl what?" Harry asked, smiling.

"I don't know." Ron sat down on the bed and started watching the TV. Harry decided to take a shower, so he left the remote with Ron and went into the bathroom.

When he emerged a few minutes later, both Ron and Mr. Weasley were dressed and sitting in front of the TV. "This is a really good program," Ron said as Harry dug through his suitcase for clothes. "I wish I could shoot lasers out of my eyes."

"You can shoot lasers out of your wand," Harry said, pulling a tee-shirt on over his head.

"Yeah, but it's not quite the same thing," Ron said, staring at the TV still. "Look, that girl can walk through walls. There is no way any witch or wizard could do that."

"They could if they were a ghost," Harry said, finishing getting dressed. As he tied his sneakers, a knock came at the door.

"Are you decent?" asked Hermione.

"Yes," Harry called as Hermione opened the door.

"Good," she said. "Are you ready this time? Only because we're about to leave."

"Yeah," Mr. Weasley said. "We're ready. Let's go, boys."

Harry, Ron and Mr. Weasley scooped up their wallets and cameras and followed Hermione out into the hall. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were waiting for them in front of the elevator. "What are we doing for breakfast?" Ron asked.

"We're going to eat at the park," his mother answered. "But I have some food to tide you off until then."

Ron and Harry held out their hands, and Mrs. Weasley gave them each an apple. They ate their apples slowly as they rode the elevator, and walked outside to catch a bus to the Animal Kingdom. The ride was long, as they had to go across the entire complex. Hermione read aloud from one of her travel guides as they rode.

"Ooh, Ron," she said, smiling. "I'm sure you'll like this ride."

"Yeah? What is it?" he asked.

"It's called Tough to be a Bug." Harry and Ginny laughed. Hermione chimed in when she understood why they were laughing. "No, you guys," she said, hitting Ginny with the book. "I said he would like it because of the spiders that are featured in the ride."

"What? Okay, no, I am not riding that," Ron said. Ginny laughed and Ron glared at her.

They soon reached the parking lot of the Animal Kingdom and unloaded from the bus. They grabbed their tickets (the same credit cards from the day before; they could use the tickets for every park for seven days) ran them through scanner machines again and walked inside the park. Within seconds, they were surrounded by wildlife of all kind. There were trees overgrown into the paths, and Ginny pointed out at least three types of birds. Hermione had again grabbed maps, and she handed them out.

"I suggest we go to Africa first," she said. "That's where we can find the best breakfast."

"Then I agree!" Ron said. So Hermione and Ron led the way to Discovery Island, which housed the landmark of the park, The Tree of Life. "Wow," Ron said, looking at the tree. "That's pretty impressive." The tree stood over 14 stories tall and had over 325 images engraved in the wood, which was really concrete.

"I'd say," Harry agreed. He turned to Hermione. "How many people do you think it took to make that?"

"Twenty," Hermione said without even thinking.

"What?" Ron said. "Only twenty? Why'd you think that?"

"Because I read it somewhere," she said. "There are also 103,000 leaves on it."

"You read too much, you know that, right?" Ron said, shaking his head.

They passed the tree, crossed over a whitewashed stone bridge, and entered the village of Harambe. The buildings all matched the bridge, and looked about 100-years-old (even though they were only about ten-years-old, as Hermione told Ginny.) Ron found the restaurant that served breakfast, so they ordered their cinnamon rolls and fruit yogurts.

After breakfast, Ginny was dying to see some animals. "Ooh," she said, looking at her map. "Can we do the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail? It has a lot of animals."

"Of course," Mr. Weasley said. "Let's go." He and Ginny led the way over to the Forest Trails and they walked in.

"Are there any actual rides here?" Ron asked Harry as they walked into a bird enclosure. A yellow bird flew right over Ron's head, and he covered it as Harry got out his map.

He looked at it for a bit before answering. "There's a water ride in Asia, a few rides in DinoLand USA, and that bug one Hermione was telling us about."

"That's it?" Ron asked. He and Harry left the bird enclosure and hurried to catch up with Hermione and Ginny, who were watching a troop of gorillas relaxing in the sun.

"Yep," Harry said. "This place is focused on the animals, not the rides."
"That stinks," Ron said. "Hey, look at that gorilla!" He forgot about the lack of rides while they watched the gorillas, hippos, fish and even more animals.

They finished walking the trails and noticed a train station.

"Where does that lead?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Rafiki's Planet Watch," Hermione answered, consulting her map.

"Huh?" Ron asked. "Ra-who?"

"Rafiki. He's a monkey from The Lion King," Harry answered.

"You know, I've been hearing a lot about this 'Lion King'," Ron said. "But I have no idea what it is."

"It's a movie," Hermione answered as they entered the line for Wildlife Express Train. "It's actually the highest grossing animated feature of all time. You really should watch it."

"Yeah," Harry agreed. They stepped onto the train. "It's a really good film. About a lion named Simba..."
"He's king, right?" Ron asked. The train started moving.

"His father is the king," Hermione said.

"But his uncle is jealous," Harry continued.

"So Scar, the uncle, kills Mufasa and exiles Simba," Hermione said.

"Scar?" Ron asked. "What kind of name is Scar?"

"Well, he has a giant scar on his face," Hermione said.

"So, can we call Harry that from now on?" Ron asked.

"No," Harry said. "I like Harry just fine."

"So what happens after Simba gets exiled?" Ginny asked, leaning over her seat backwards to look at Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"He meets a meerkat named Timon and a warthog named Pumbaa, who let him live with them," Harry said.

"Then about ten years later, his girlfriend, Nala, comes and finds him," Hermione added.

"Nala wasn't his girlfriend," Harry argued. "They were just friends who happened to be betrothed."

"Whatever," Hermione said. "Anyway, she tries to convince him to go back, because Scar has ruined everything."

"But Simba doesn't want to go back, so he yells at his father."

"I thought he was dead," Ginny said.

"He is," Harry said. "But Simba yelled at him, and Rafiki came and told Simba that Mufasa was still alive."

"Really?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, he lived on through Simba," Hermione answered. "Like Dumbledore said, those we love never really leave us."

"So did Simba go back and fix everything?" Ginny asked.

"Yep," Harry answered. "He and Nala got married and had a baby, and lived happily ever after."

"Sounds like a good movie," Ron said. The train stopped and they got off. Mrs. Weasley turned to the kids.

"Where do you want to go?"

"There's a petting zoo here," Hermione said. "That looks pretty good to me. What do you guys think?" she asked Harry, Ron and Ginny.

They nodded, and the six headed down the trail towards the Affection Section. They passed hands-on exhibits geared toward younger children, teaching the importance of ecology.

Eventually they reached the petting zoo. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley opted out of going into the zoo and instead went into the shop next door. Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny washed their hands and opened the llama-shaped gate into the zoo. There were goats, pigs, chickens and llamas wandering around. Children, teenagers and even a few adults were also wandering around, petting the animals. Ginny and Hermione grabbed brushes and began brushing some of the goats. Harry and Ron hesitantly pet a few animals and quickly left. They washed their hands and exited the zoo. They found Mr. and Mrs. Weasley in the shop.

"How was it?" Mr. Weasley asked.

"Where are the girls?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"It was stinky and the girls are still in there," Ron said. "I don't understand how they can stand those smelly creatures."

"It's better than most of the creatures we've had to see in Hagrid's class," Harry said, smiling.

"That's true," Ron said, also smiling. The girls walked in then.

"Why'd you leave so early?" Hermione asked.

"It was stinky," Ron said again.

Hermione laughed. "Hey, Ginny," she said. "Want to go over to the Animal Health and Care building? They have baby animals in there."
"Okay!" Ginny said. The girls walked around the petting zoo and over to the Animal Health and Care building. They passed a large tortoise, a bald eagle and a few other animals. "Ahh, how cute," Ginny cooed as they looked in the window at a baby meerkat. In the next window was a veterinarian caring for a sick donkey. They saw injured turtles and birds, more baby animals and even a pregnant lamb.

"That was very interesting," Hermione said half-an-hour later, as they headed back to the shop. "And very educational."

"I preferred the interesting part," Ginny said. "After all, I am on holiday, I'm not supposed to learn."

"You should always be learning," Hermione said, looking shocked.

Ginny started laughing. "I was just kidding, Hermione."

"I knew that..." They had reached the shop.
"Are you ready to go?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"If you are." The girls went inside the Conversation Station building, and found Harry, Ron and Mr. Weasley inside a sound booth, listening to animal and rainforest noises. The six walked back to the Wildlife Express Train station. A train came a few minutes later and they boarded.

As they rode back to Africa, Hermione and Harry told Ginny and Ron more about Disney movies. Ginny was very interested in Beauty and the Beast, while Ron really liked the sound of Aladdin.

"I want to watch some of these films," Ginny said.

"Why can't we have these kind of things in the wizarding world?" Ron asked. They got off the train and walked out of Africa and towards Asia. They passed an ice cream cart and Ron started complaining about being hungry. "Can I have something to eat?"

"I guess," Mr. Weasley said. "What about you three?" Harry, Ginny and Hermione said they were hungry, also, so Mr. Weasley handed the four children money. Harry and Ron ordered vanilla ice cream cones, Ginny got a cherry Popsicle, while Hermione had a Mickey Mouse shaped ice cream sandwich.

"We'll do two more rides, and then have lunch," Mrs. Weasley said. "Is that good?" The others nodded. "Right. So," she looked at her map. "Would you like to do another hike, or the water ride?"

"Water ride!" was the unanimous vote. Mr and Mrs Weasley led the way into the queue. Three quarters of an hour later, they were getting into their rafts. The rafts fit twelve, and Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys were joined by five other people.

The seats were set up in pairs around the raft. Harry and Ron were together, Hermione and Ginny were to their right, and Mr. and Mrs Weasley were to the girls' right. Hermione stored her valuables in the watertight container in the middle of the raft and put her feet up on a bar below the container.

"You might want to do this, too," she said, talking to everybody else in the boat. Everybody put their stuff in the middle, but Ginny and Mrs. Weasley were the only two to put their feet up.

The raft started moving and they were soon flowing down a river. They went under waterfalls (Harry and Ron got completely soaked), over rapids (Ginny and Hermione were doused with water) and over a large drop (Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were the unfortunate recipients of a giant wave.) The raft came to a stop and they unbuckled. Everyone grabbed their valuables from the watertight container, and they exited.

Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys were soaked through, but at least the girls had dry (drier) shoes and socks. As they got back to the main part of Asia, the boys sat down on a bench. Harry took off his sneakers and emptied them of water. Mrs. Weasley bought Hermione a new tee-shirt, and she went into the nearest bathroom to get changed. Harry, Ron and Ginny wrung out their tee-shirts.

"Look at that," Ginny said, pointing to the puddle at their feet. "I'd say we really got wet."

"Hopefully walking around in the sun will help," Ron said hopefully, looking at the entrance of Maharajah Jungle Trek.

"I hope so," Harry said as Hermione met up with them again. The four Weasleys, Harry and Hermione walked over to the Maharajah Jungle Trek entrance, and went inside. They walked along a dirt path for awhile, seeing only plant life and the occasional Asian bird. Then they saw tigers (they were enclosed, of course), and even a few tamirs and komodo dragons. There was a pond full of exotic fish and ducks. About half-way through the hike, they entered a bat house.

"Whoa," Ron said, looking through the window. "That bat is huge."

"Hey, Ron," Ginny said, smiling. "Touch the glass."

"Okay," Ron said, looking confused. He reached his hand out to touch the glass, but it went straight through the window. "There's no glass here!"

"There's not?" Harry asked, sticking his hand through the window, also. "Whoa...why not? What if the bats fly over here?"

"They won't," Hermione said. "Don't worry. Bats are much less interested in humans than we are of them."

Mrs. Weasley (who was a little wary of the bats) hurried the children out of the bat room and onto the rest of the hike. They saw tapirs, more birds and even more tigers. When they finished the hike, Ron was ready for lunch.

"What's the best place to eat?" he asked Hermione.

"Probably the Rainforest Café," she answered. "It's one of the few sit-down places here, and it has the most variety."

"Then I say we go there," Ron said. 'Where is it?" He looked at his map and found the restaurant. He led the way to Rainforest Café. They had to walk back to Discovery Island, past the Tree of Life again and towards the park exit. They saw a sign directing them to the café and Ron led them in that direction.

There was a large pond, with an elephant fountain in the middle. Ron opened the door to the café, and Ginny, Hermione, Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley and Harry walked in.

"Whoa..." Ron said as the door shut behind him. They were in a large building with plastic leaves and trees littering the walls and ceiling. There were giant insects and birds on the walls (also plastic, and Audio-Animatronic, so that every so often, they moved and made noises.)

Hermione walked up to a podium. "Weasley, party of six," she told the employee who was standing behind the podium. He wrote down their name.

"We'll have a table ready for you in about twenty minutes." He handed Hermione a receipt and she walked back to her group.

"We've got about twenty minutes," she told them.

"Twenty minutes?" Ron said in a whiny voice. "But...what are we supposed to do until then?"

"Look around the gift shop," Harry said, indicating the store in front of them. There were racks of tee-shirts, barrels of toys and displays of jewelry.

"All right, cool," Ron said. The Weasleys, Harry and Hermione walked down a few steps into the gift shop. Ginny and Hermione walked over to the tee-shirts and Mrs. Weasley led her husband to a display of jungle-themed cookware. Ron and Harry wandered the store, looking at the displays.

"Hey, Ron, look out behind you!" Harry said. Ron turned around and saw Harry holding up a giant, stuffed snake, it's fabric tongue only inches from Ron's face.

"Harry, put that thing away!" Ron said loudly, causing several heads to turn. Ron and Harry started laughing as Harry put the snake back. They walked around for a few more minutes before Harry decided that he wanted to buy something. He finally picked out a shark's tooth necklace. While Harry was waiting in line, Ron spotted a case of Muggle candy and picked out a few varieties. After he and Harry had paid, and Ron was sampling his candy (he started with something called Nerds), a voice came over a loudspeaker.

"Weasley, party of six, your table is ready." Harry and Ron headed over to the restaurant, which was separated from the gift shop by a large aquarium. They met Ginny, Hermione, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, who were standing with a Rainforest Café employee. He introduced himself as their waiter, Nate, and led them to a table.

The restaurant looked very much like the gift shop, except that tables replaced the merchandise. It was loud and crowded, but in a pleasant way. It smelled delicious, and Ron's stomach grumbled as they made their way to their table. Their table was large enough for all six, with a red plastic bench against the wall and two brown plastic chairs on the opposite side. There was an Audio-Animatronic gorilla on the wall next to their table, and it erupted with gorilla noises as Harry sat down.

Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione sat on the bench, while Mr and Mrs Weasley sat on the chairs. After they settled, Nate handed them menus. "Would you like a drink to start off with?"

Mrs. Weasley ordered a water, Mr. Weasley had a café au lait, while the kids all ordered sodas. Nate took their orders and left. Hermione started leafing through her menu and everybody else followed suit.

"Should we order an appetizer?" Hermione asked.