There was an art to road trips. While half the point of going on a road trip was the fun of doing things on the spur of the moment just because you were there and why not, you still needed to do some planning or you would find yourself not knowing where you were going and you ran the risk of having to sleep in your car because all the hotels were full up or having to make an emergency stop at the local Asda because you were totally out of clean underwear. Admittedly, exactly how much planning you needed to do varied from person to person. Some people were good with just knowing what direction they were going to be heading in and how long they planned to be gone while others needed an actual itinerary to avoid triggering an anxiety attack brought on by a total lack of structure and routine or getting stuck in an indecision loop. Flexibility was also vital since unexpected roadblocks would inevitably crop up forcing you to recalculate your plan of action on the fly. After all, you never know when a major accident on the motorway would stop traffic to slower than a crawl or you’d come back to your car after a lovely afternoon of browsing a local farmers market only to find out that your car wouldn’t start. Other things such as way to many snacks, music played perhaps a touch too loudly while you sang along (badly) to it, getting at least a bit lost at some point, and having at least one friend with you to share the adventure (and the quite late night philosophical conversation lit only by the moon, stars, and the occasional headlights of passing cars) were not obligated (you could, after all go on a road trip all by yourself) but certainly added to the overall experience.
The road trip started out well enough. They started out bright and early enough on the morning of the sixteenth with Percy driving and Neville manning the map (Harry promptly fell asleep in the back much to the annoyance of Draco - who’d drawn the proverbial short straw for this leg of the journey and was stuck in the middle seat - when he’d slumped over on him), and headed straight to Bath where they took full advantage of one of the many spas the town was known for. Everyone enjoyed a nice long soak, even if an exhausted Harry had to be saved from drowning more than once (not that the others could blame him.At one point during the past three weeks he’d simply stopped coming home, choosing instead to bunk down at the hospital in one of the rooms set aside for such purposes because he wouldn’t have had enough time to properly rest if he came home).
From Bath, they’d headed over to Bristol, where they were planning to spend one full day before heading out the next. The first night was fairly quiet with Harry practically passing out as soon as he hit a bed. The long sleep had apparently been exactly what he needed and he’d been right as rain once he’d finally gotten up and eaten a huge breakfast. There were a lot of things that they wanted to do in Bristol (part of why they’d booked two nights there instead of just one), but their first port of call had been the Bristol Zoo Gardens followed by a nice lunch and a leisurely afternoon in the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. They did do some shopping (mostly at Draco’s insistence) before lucking into finding a pub offering some live folk music to go with their late dinner.
They hadn’t actually been able to come to an agreement when it came to visiting either Devon or Dartmoor, so they’d decided to split the difference as it were and grab a hotel over in Exeter, which was their next port of call. Not only did this let them visit both Devon and Dartmoor but they were also able to check out the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, something that they could all easily agree on. While in Dartmoor they made a point to stop at Canonteign Falls (at Neville’s insistence; one of the few requests the shy guy had made regarding the trip). The falls were just as beautiful as promised. Even Draco, who had been grumbling about having to go on a nature hike practically the whole time, could agree that the hike had been worth it. As it turned out Devon, while certainly beautiful and worth its designation as an area of outstanding natural beauty, was a bit of a wash. Aside from a couple of shops that Draco was interested in (until he actually went into them; there hadn’t been anything that he hadn’t seen a hundred times before in other places) and a donkey sanctuary (not that they’d been super excited to see a bunch of donkeys, but it had looked like something mildly interesting to check out in lieu of anything else to see) that had been closed to the public when they’d gotten there. Exeter with its cinema museum had more than made up for the disappointment that Devon had turned out to be.
Things only started going not wrong precisely, but... odd... when they headed up to Salisbury from Exter for Stonehenge (because, how could they not. It was like doing a sightseeing trip to London and not visiting London Tower or Buckingham Palace). To be fair, the drive to Stonehenge hadn’t been all that bad. Sure the traffic was a bit slow and there had been a bit of a light drizzle, but that kind of thing was to be expected really. Hell, they’d actually been rather lucky as far as traffic had been concerned with as little as they’d encountered previously.
Stonehenge had been stunning with the mist curling around the stones, lending more of a mystic feel to the site than usual. Add to that the fact that there hadn’t been all too many other tourists around at the time (mostly because of the weather and the fact that mid May was considered off peak for the holiday business - unless it happened to coincide with Easter. And even then, people were primarily traveling to see family instead of going sightseeing), and it was easy for them to forget where - or perhaps when - they were (being there felt so achingly right and familiar. Like they’d stepped into a memory but one belonging to someone else. Which was ridiculous since this was kind of their first visit to Stonehenge. Well, their first one outside the obligatory field trip back when they were in school at any rate). At one point Harry thought he saw someone he recognized after catching a flash of blonde hair out of the corner of his eye, but when he’d turned around for a better look there hadn’t been anyone like that there.
One quick but largely disappointing fast food lunch later that shook the spookiness back out of their bones saw them back on the road. Visiting the Hawk Conservatory Trust had been a bit of an impulse stop, but it had been oh so very worth it. Sure it had been a bit more expensive than they (or rather Percy) would have liked, but they sure as hell weren’t about to pass up an opportunity to get up close and personal with a bird of prey (other than someone who either didn’t like birds or was afraid of them, who would in their position). Again they’d felt that not quite familiar someone else’s memory feeling, this time with how natural it felt to have an owl perched on their arm (especially Draco who had to fight off a wave of deja vu when a gorgeous eagle owl had been handed off to him). All too soon their three hours were up and off they went towards Oxford and dinner.
They hadn’t made it Oxford. They’d managed to make it maybe a third of the way there when they had to pull off the motorway and into the petrol station where Draco was miserably hunched over a toilet, puking up what felt like (for him) every bit of food he’d eaten for the past year. Harry was patiently waiting just outside of Draco’s stall, ready to check him over to see if it was something serious they should be worried about (and thus need to bring him into A&E for) or if it was something that just needed keeping an eye on but could otherwise be treated at home like food poisoning (which is what Harry heavily suspected was the case. It wouldn’t be the first time one of them had ended up eating the wrong thing and paid the price for it after all. In fact, Harry couldn’t remember a single holiday trip that all five had taken together where one of them hadn’t ended up sick as a dog so this should only have been expected).
Once Draco started getting sick, Harry jumped into gear and took charge of the situation. After a brief conversation, they agreed that since they were so close to home anyway they were just going to cut the trip short and skip the stops at Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon, and Coventry they’d had planned. Percy volunteered to cancel their hotel rooms since he’d been the one to place them and top off their petrol since they were down to just under half a tank left and since they were stopped at a petrol station anyway what could it hurt. Neville and Ron had been asked to pick up some specific supplies to make the last leg of their trip a bit easier on Draco (on all of them really since Draco having a better time of it helped them).
“Are you in need of medical assistance?” a low and silky voice that Harry (and Draco although he was still too nauseous to fully register it) knew he knew despite having never heard it before (at least not in this life) asked. Harry slowly turned as if trapped in treacle to face the man behind the voice as and felt his jaw drop as who the man who had spoken was finally registered.