Summer

The four of them walked to the front of the park, which seemed to take forever as they were on the opposite side of the park. When they finally did Aubrey pointed to a women that was standing near the entrance.

"That's my mom," she said simply.

The woman that Aubrey was pointing at stood out in the crowd of people and was receiving quite a few stares. She had on a normal pair of sunglasses and looked normal except for the fact that she had a dog with her. The dog was had on a kind of jacket that read "Seeing-Eye Dog, Do Not Pet". As they got closer, they could see that the dog was a greyhound with jagged black and white stripes all over her fur.

"Hey mom," she said, "These are my new friends Harry Potter and Hermione Granger."

"Pleased to meet you," Harry said, holding out his hand to shake.

She seemed to find his hand rather quick for someone who was blind it but seemed to be dazed. "D-did you say Harry Potter? Pleased to meet you too!"

Mrs. Yelastes just kept shaking Harry's hand until Aubrey said, "OK, mom, you can stop now."

"Nikki is that you?"

Tim and Ivy had just walked up to the group and were looking at Mrs. Yelantes.

"Ivy?" she asked, dumfounded.

"It is so strange to meet you here!" Ivy said.

"It's been so long..." Nikki replied.

"I'm guessing this is your daughter," Ivy said, referring to Aubrey. Then she looked around. "Don't you have two?"

Nikki suddenly fell silent and seemed to be just stared beyond Tim and Ivy. Harry noticed that Aubrey was now looking down at her shoes. Harry just couldn't figure out why they were suddenly so uncomfortable.

After a few seconds, Nikki seemed to come to her senses, cleared her throat, and said "And this one is yours right?"

"Yea, this is Hermione," Tim said, though he sounded a bit confused, "Whoa, our two look a lot alike!"

"Well, who says we get something to eat, I'm starving," Hermione said.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Some French fries and a few more rides later, all six of them were in line for a boat-ride called the Old Mill.

"So what do you have to tell us about this ride?" Hermione asked Aubrey.

They had learned that Aubrey had come here once a year every year even before she had turned one. She knew the history, design, and had a family story for every ride.

"Well the Old Mill is the closest to a tunnel of love Kennywood has ever had..." she started.

Harry and Hermione smiled at each other. What would this day be without a good snog?

When they got to the front of the line, they paired off to go into the boats. Ivy and Tim, Aubrey and Nikki, and Harry and Hermione.

Just as Aubrey had said, it was like a childish haunted house in a boat.

"Harry, today was wonderful, did you have a good time?" Hermione asked.

Before he answered, he reached over and kissed Hermione on her lips. It was a more feathery kiss than their others and shorter.

"Now I have," he said simply. Then Hermione kissed him in turn, but more forcefully.

After a few seconds, Hermione pushed Harry away. She had a horrible look of terror on her face.

"What?" he asked completely confused.

"Mum and dad," she said, staring over Harry's shoulder.

Harry turned around. About fifteen feet away there was another path of water that they had probably already went on but at this second there was another boat on it. In the boat were Tim and Ivy, both staring at them with wide-eyed expressions.

"We are so dead," Hermione said.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~**********************************

Harry sat in the back seat of the car, recalling the day.

Aubrey had told everyone that she was going to the hotel tonight instead of her house. She wanted to be able to take Harry and Hermione water-skiing first thing tomorrow morning. So at least Harry had something to look forward to. Then he could ask her about the painting in his hotel room.

Of course that all depended on the fact that Tim and Ivy didn't kill him. They hadn't said anything yet. He couldn't tell whether they were mad, happy, didn't care, or kinda already knew. Hermione was looking up at the stars muttering to herself. She had told Harry about a muggle superstition with making a wish on a shooting star. He hoped that was what she was doing because they were going to need it.

When they did get back they went into the main lobby and Aubrey looked up at the painting on the ceiling.

"At least my paintings are holding up. Evening Julia," she said to the women behind the desk.

"Evening. Are you going to be spending the night, Master Aubrey?" she replied.

"I do wish you wouldn't call me 'Master'. It really doesn't suite me...anyway I am going to be spending the night. I believe room 117 is open," Aubrey said.

Julia handed her the key and said, "Goodnight Miss. Yelantes."

Aubrey shook her head in a defeated way and then followed Tim, Ivy, Harry, and Hermione into the elevator and up the stairs.

"Ok Harry, what is it you wanted to ask me?" she asked when they got to the top floor.

"I have two questions about this room," Harry said and Aubrey nodded. "First, how did you get it so that the theme in each room is the occupant's favorite animal?"

"Loads of people have asked me that question and I have always told them it was a secret," Aubrey said and Harry got a disappointed look on his face, "But you two are an exception. I asked my mom to do a spell on the keys to the rooms and the bedrooms. When a person touches the key, it analyses their brain for their favorite animal. Then their corresponding bedroom changes to one of my designs that fits them most."

"I never would have thought o that," Hermione admitted.

"Cool," Harry said. "Now the other thing is how did you get the idea for this particular painting?"

"This is actually the only one that I got the idea from someone else. About a year ago there was a contest in Great Britain where you live. The winner would get to come here to America and watch me paint whatever animal they wanted exactly like they wanted. I expected the winner to be a kid around my age, but it turned out to be a man who was around 30 years old. His idea was different than anything I had ever heard. It is exactly what is on this wall at this second. To this day I just can't figure out why he wanted it to be like this."

"Wormtail..." Harry whispered. "Was his name Peter Pettigrew?"

"How did you know? Well anyway, I better get going. Could you two meet me tomorrow morning at the breakfast buffet tomorrow at 8:00? I want to take you two and Hermione's parents around the city!"

"OK, Goodnight." Hermione said.

Aubrey left, still wondering what the connection between the three of them was.

"Harry, do you know what this means? Someone else has seen Peter!" Hermione exclaimed.

"We have proof that Peter was alive a year ago! We can finally free Sirius!"

Harry was amazingly happy. But that mostly left him when he heard Tim calling the two of them from the living room.

"My one happy moment of freeing Sirius and it is interrupted by something I'm nearly sure won't be good..." Harry said.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"So where are we off to today?" Harry asked.

It was the next morning and Tim, Ivy, Harry, Hermione, and Aubrey were eating breakfast at a local restaurant, Eat 'n' Park.

Ivy, Hermione, and Aubrey smiled. "Shopping!" they all practically shouted.

Tim and Harry looked at each other and let out a groan. Harry really didn't mind shopping too much, but with the girls, it was going to take forever.

"Well first we are stopping at my house to pick up my mom," Aubrey said. "Then we are heading to the mall, and if we have time I'll take you to Mahogany Lane."

"What is that?"

"Only the best place for witches and wizards to shop I've ever been to."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

About 45 minutes later, Ivy drove the car up a long driveway. As they rounded a corner, Harry saw Aubrey's house. It looked almost exactly like Hermione's house only a lot bigger. As they got out of the car, a mass of black, white, brown, and wagging tales came running towards them.

Aubrey sighed. "Yet another one of my hobbies..." she said.

She squatted down on the ground as they came towards them.

"These are all of my greyhounds," she said. "Yes I missed all of you too."

"Are these normal greyhounds or have you tampered with them and made them magical?" Hermione asked.

"The second one. These aren't normal dogs at all. They understand the entire English language, so be careful what you say around them. One other thing is that they can't be affected by any spell unless put on them by their owner. There are quite a few other things, but it would take forever to explain."

"Are they all yours?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Zephyr! Emerald! These two are mine plus the one that is my mum's seeing-eye-dog, Kaze The rest of them I picked up in animal shelters and couldn't stand to see them locked up in cages. All of them are up for adoption."

"I can't figure out how you time to do so many things," Harry said.

"Careful planning," she said simply. "Zephyr, go get Nikki," she said to one of the dogs that was close to her. "So what did you girls end up buying?" Tim asked the girls.

After the group had gone souvenir shopping, the girls had gone clothes shopping while Tim and Harry got something to eat.

Harry sat back in his chair at the outdoor restaurant and closed his eyes. He was so tired of people starring at the group of them. Everyone either knew Harry or Aubrey, or was starring at Nikki and Kaze.

"Well we only have three hours until I need to catch my flight to England," Aubrey said. She took off her sunglasses and set them on the table.

"Could we go to the quidditch store?" Harry asked. They had been to nearly every shop on Mahogany Alley besides the quidditch store.

"Sure, do you play?"

"I'm the seeker on my house team, what about you?"

"Nope, I am really bad at sports of any kind. Of course I like to be a spectator just like every other witch and wizard in the world. What house are you in?"

"Hermione, me, and our other friend Ron are all in Gryffindor," Harry told her.

"Well what are the rest of them?" Aubrey asked.

"There are four. Hufflepuffs are hard workers, Ravenclaws are the clever people, Gryffindors are brave, and Slytherins...let's just say you don't want to get mixed up with that bunch," Hermione explained.