Title: Sailing Ships: Cursed Genius

Author: 2NiteItBeginz

Pairing: Bill/Hermione, Ron/Susan Bones, Harry/Daphne Greengrass

Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize as being from Harry Potter. It all belongs to JK Rowling, the bitch...

Warnings: post Hogwarts, no HBP

Summary: This is for an idea I got when I was reading Fiction Alley's list of ship titles in the SCUSA thread. I went through them alphabetically, and picked ten to start with. I'm doing at least five out of the ten I picked, and then I'm moving on to another ten. I guess it's like I'm answering my own challenge, but if anyone else wants to do this, I don't mind.

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"That rune's in the wrong place."

Bill Weasley jumped slightly and looked up a bit from the plans for stronger wards at the Burrow as he heard the voice from behind him. He'd been trying to figure out why his runic equation kept coming out wrong for what felt like hours upon hours.

"Which one?" he burst out hurriedly. He'd take any help he could get at this point. Bill didn't even turn around, though he vaguely recognized the voice as being both decidedly female and slightly familiar. He quickly decided it didn't matter; if they could help, he'd let them.

"Servo should be behind Patrocinor.Oh, and unless you want really flimsy wards, instead of a strong shield, you should add both Incolumis and Custos to the beginning of the second line," the voice added absently

Bill quickly went back and fixed the equation. He then swiftly but meticulously went through the equation again.

"It works! Thanks!" Bill looked up at the person who had identified the quandary for him and was only slightly surprised to see Hermione Granger, one of his youngest brother Ron's best friends, who, despite what many people had thought, was only his friend.

Everyone had been certain that at the end of it all, Ron would end up with Hermione and Harry Potter would end up with Ginny. You can imagine their surprise when Ron announced after the war ended that he had been dating Susan Bones since his sixth year. It had caused quite an uproar; not quite as much of an uproar as when Harry publicized that he was formally engaged to Daphne Greengrass, a Slytherin in his year, but quite a nice uproar all the same.

Bill suddenly came back to himself and realized that he had been staring at Hermione as he daydreamed. He noticed the slight pink flush on her cheeks and cursed his redheaded heritage as he felt his own face heat up.

"Anyway," Bill cleared his throat, "Thanks again for your help; I really appreciate it. Damn thing took me nearly four days to get that far. I was about ready to give up and go have myself a good cry," he finished in a lightly joking tone before letting out what was very obviously a fake sob, startling a laugh out of Hermione.

"So it's true then? Every girl needs a good cry once in a while?" Hermione shot back before realizing what she had just said and slapping a hand to her mouth as her eyes widened.

The eldest Weasley son eased her fears with his snort of laughter and low murmur of "Touché," before they fell into a companionable silence.

It was broken by Bill, who asked Hermione a question. Hermione jumped, caught unawares before she flushed again and asked him to repeat it.

"Did you originally come up here for something other than correcting my heinous mistakes?"

"Oh!" Hermione finally remembered and Bill could practically see the light go off in her head, "We were playing 'Truth or Dare' downstairs and Fred... or George... I don't know which, Harry and Ginny are the only ones who can tell them apart... anyways, he dared me to come up here and ask you why you never bring a girlfriend home." Hermione slowly started reddening again as she kept chanting in her mind about how personal of a question it was.

"Truthfully?"

"Well, no, I suppose he didn't actually specify."

"I'll answer honestly anyway. I'm waiting for the right person to come along, I guess. She's got to be smart, definitely, so we can actually talk and have intelligent conversation. She's got to be someone with a good sense of humor, not afraid to do a bit of verbal sparring once in a while," He suddenly winked, "It doesn't exactly hurt if she's got a nice bum."

"Bill!" Hermione said, stuck between amusement and indignation, "Well, good luck with that. I'm willing to bet there aren't that many of those in the world, " she quickly regained her composure, "Thanks a lot for being so nice about it; I know it must have been an awfully personal question." She turned and made her way to the door.

"No problem. Oh, and Hermione?" Bill asked as her hand was on the doorknob.

"Yes?"

"Would you like to go to dinner with me on Friday?"

A slight smile played on Hermione's lips as turned around to face Bill.

"I look forward to it."

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Good? Bad? Let me know in a review! And would someone read Artist's Flame? I'm beginning to get an Inferiority Complex...