Title: Beach You Didn't See That Coming
Description: And this is why Hermione never breaks the rules, never does anything outside her comfort zone because it leads to more than trouble its worth….Okay, maybe it was worth it after they got to the medical kit. She was glad she at least had training in that.
Words: 2,274
A/N: I've latched onto more prompts than I can handle and I want to write them all. Not enough time in the day though! :( (this is in a non-wizarding AU btw!) Also I now refuse to feel bad about putting puns in my titles. (I have unpublished stories/oneshots with puns in their names as well) Anywho, I really hope anyone who reads this enjoys it greatly and has a wonderful day!
Well maybe we did…eventually.
Hermione cannot help but take in the glorious view surrounding her. A crystalline-like blue ocean in front of her, its waves crashing against the sandy shore lazily, and a shady paradise of palm trees that seemed to guard the area as well as the nearby tiki-shop.
She has ventured on vacation with her two best friends, Harry and Ron, off to an island named who knows what. Hermione ponders this for a moment realizing it's the first she has ever felt relaxed, and ever not felt the need to know everything that's going on.
Both the boys have ventured for drinks and maybe more, though Hermione did more than enough threatening against Harry if he did anything more than look. She knew he would not stray, he would never have been that kind of person.
Hermione sat up from her longue chair, crisscrossing her legs Indian style, her back feeling sticky from the sweat of the sun as she did so. She glanced around in hopes of surveying the area inconspicuously.
The older couple from earlier seemed to have left hours ago but the group of five guys where still lingering around and goofing off. At first she had thought they were locals but their lack of tans spoke otherwise. No one was that pale and living on a sun-filled paradise.
Many times they were loud enough for her to wonder what language they were speaking. There seemed to be a mix with English and the unknown tongue.
They were closer by the crashing waves, taking turns to see how deep they could go before the view of their toes disappeared. She loved the way the water was crystal clear even with the sand being stirred up if they walked through.
Hermione stood up casually, wriggling her toes in the warm sand. The shade from the palms had covered a good area around her allowing the ground not to overheat.
Looking upwards, she squinted due to the sun and immediately threw her hand above her eyes as if she were saluting some invisible object. Remembering she had forgotten her sunglasses in her hotel room she mentally cursed. Not letting it get the best her, she kept her vision closer to the ground.
The wind was picking up a bit more now but not enough to have sand swat against her legs which would have been quite the annoyance. Her solid black tank top, which read Life's A Beach in yellow lettering, was bought to fit loose whipped against her skin casually. It covered her two-piece plum colored swim suit, nothing to decorative about which she preferred.
She continued to walk noticing one of the guys from the opposing group was near but he had seemingly fell asleep. He had dark hair that was combed back, the makings of a beard, and a tiny mole next to his eye.
Hermione felt an idea forming once she caught site of a few circular shells with ridges on the edge, an idea that ran against her better judgement under normal circumstances. These were not normal circumstances though, she was on an island foreign to her in what felt like a different land. She could stand to have a little fun.
In a nonchalant manner she bent over and picked them up. She could see all three were peach-colored with white, wispy stripes once she had brushed a better amount of sand off them. If she could just put two of them over the guy's chest, it would certainly make for an interesting tan line when he woke up.
She continued to walk closer to the unsuspecting person, stealing a glance at the boisterous group of men. She only saw three which meant one had disappeared but he did not appear to be around either so she mentally shrugged and continued with her plan.
Right when she was about to place the second shell on the person's chest there had been a deep cough from behind her. She froze instantly, going wide eyed. This was why she never broke the rules and now the first time she did it was going to bite her in the ass.
Slowly turning around she was met with one of the guy's friends; he had dark hair as well and what appeared be to jet black eyes as well. He appeared to look much more intimidating than the other, something she wondered if happened naturally or he practiced to be that way.
"Er…hi." Hermione gulped nervously, unsure of how he was going to act upon seeing her mess with his friend. An echoing thought in her mind made its way into her mind, really should've thought this through.
"Er…hello." The person half-mimicked back slightly quiet, though his 'hello' sounded more like 'heelow.' The strange accent he had made her want to laugh but she thought better and held back from doing so. She could not think of anything else to say, the words refused to fall into place for her.
""You need shells wit more shape, like d'is" He had motioned to the one in her hand but she could not see a single thing wrong with it. She watched as he pulled his own shell from a pocket, the ridges more prominent.
"Oh..." She was at a loss for words. He did not appear to be upset, in fact he had caught on to her idea and even tried to improve it. She watched as he effortlessly placed the shell on his friend's chest and chuckled.
"Make for better laugh later. My name is Viktor." He had nodded to her, seemingly satisfied, motioning for her to walk with him. There was a strange feeling, something akin to regal possibly, despite his slouch and the awkward gait he had.
"Well it's, uh, nice to meet you Viktor. I'm Hermione."
"H-Her-mayo-nay?"
"Hermione," She laughed softly, his struggle amusing her greatly, "Her…my…oh…knee! Hermione!"
"Her-miyo-knee."
"Close enough I suppose, at least for now. We'll work on that later." A giggle that had been building in the back of Hermione's throat escaped and she immediately clamped her hand over mouth. It was another moment before she realized they were getting further from where her stuff was.
"Promise not bad guy." Hermione wondered if he could see her hidden hesitation, well perhaps it was not as hidden as she thought. Truthfully, she should not have been wandering around with someone she just met but there did not seem to be anything remotely worrying about the situation.
"Right, right because wandering off with strangers is perfectly safe." She joked, not really meaning anything by it and luckily it seemed Viktor did not take offense.
"You can invite friends now? We play game with ball soon." Viktor pointed towards the other three friends setting up a volleyball net in the distance. Hermione had not often played sports, she was not really good at them. Nonetheless she had played a small bit of volleyball, lucky break for her in this case, towards the end of her schooling days and it came to be quite fun for her.
"Oh volleyball! I've played before, sure. It should be fun…" Hermione trailed off and faced the opposite way to where he was previously. Harry and Ron seemed to just have gotten back from their trip and seemed to be looking around for her.
"HARRY, RON come over here!" She called out loudly at first but her voice, melodic as it was, calmed down towards the end.
The teams had been chosen three versus three, one of Viktor's friends had decided to sit out and play referee. It had been Hermione, Harry, and Ron against Viktor and his two friends, Alek and Nayden. They seemed to be as tall as Harry but Viktor was still the tallest out of everyone. She secretly envied the boys around her, something about being short always had left her unsatisfied.
She had to admit her skills were quite rusty but she felt into the routine of playing quite quickly and her two friends stuck her on the front lines. In reality, she knew it was because she was horrible at serving the ball and held no qualms against her friends.
It seemed Viktor failed in this area of the game too as he tried to serve the ball multiple times to no avail. They had shoved him near the net as well after picking up on his weakness. It was very easy to fall into a competitive mode with Viktor's ability for playing, leaving her constantly diving to keep the ball in the air.
It was right before they were calling it quit and the last serve for the volleyball had been done by Alek. It bounced over to her side where Ron quickly responded but it went straight up in the air. Harry had been quick enough to react, somehow managing to set her up for a spike. Something she had no issue taking advantage off as she allowed her hand to slam into the ball with surprising force.
There was zero chance at Viktor or any of his friends coming back from that hit and she allowed herself to relish in the win that she and her friends had no doubt deserved. Her thought process was interrupted when she heard a deep groan.
"Sheet d'er-mayo-knee." Viktor's way of cursing sounded even stranger as he clutched his nose than when his accent played through his normal English talking. She gaped as she saw bits of blood falling down his face. Now Hermione really regretted playing that stupid prank, she had ruined his nose for sure!
"Oh my…I am so sorry." She barely found her voice to squeak out the apology, rushing over to him. He was able to sit up despite the sudden hit. She had really done it this time. Harry and Ron were creeping closer as well to make sure Viktor was alright.
"No, no. Don' be sorry. Was good hit, I gib you d'at." Viktor had avoided her apology like it was nothing, and eagerly grabbed the towel from Jensen, the fellow that had opted sit out from the game. He dabbed his nose carefully after having applied pressure with a wince.
"Uh, was definitely bad hit! I probably broke your nose. Harry did you notice if the tiki-shack had a first aid kit?" Hermione was in one of her authoritative modes at this point, Viktor looked at her oddly as she spoke with her dark-haired friend with the strange scar.
"Yeah Hermione, hanging on the wall." Harry seemed perplexed as he answered his friend. This day was turning out to be quite eventful.
"Come on Viktor, I'll help sort you out." Hermione coaxed Viktor to stand and he shyly pushed away the helps to stand from his friend.
"I'm fine, I can walk d'ere wit'out help."
The two left the group, Viktor still holding the towel to his nose continuing to apply pressure just as Hermione had instructed him. Before they could get to the shack the final friend of Viktor's appeared to be stomping over towards them.
"Vaska." Viktor muttered and Hermione barely caught the end of the name. She was sure he would have preferred to deal with his friend any other time but now. They both knew why he looked upset, hell they were the damn culprits.
"What is dis?! Viktor I know you did dis!" Vaska's voice was clearly irritated and despite their predicament it was evident that both Hermione and Viktor wanted to laugh. There were two clearly defined shell shapes over his nipples, reminding Hermione of a certain Disney princess. She wondered if it was because he was easily susceptible to the sun or he just forgot to put on sunscreen that the marks were so evident.
"Wasn't my idea dis time, was Her-mayo-knee's." Viktor simply laughed at his friend, his nose looking a smidge better now that the bleeding had appear to stop. He still had a lingering stain on his face though.
"Who is dis 'Her-mayo-knee' and why doe-" Vaska was interrupted by none other than 'Her-mayo-knee' and Vaska quickly realized this was the culprit in question.
"I told you it's Her-my-oh-knee," Hermione interjected, her correction mostly directed at Viktor, with a know-it-all voice before turning to face Vaska, "Nice tan by the way."
She simply smiled before dragging Viktor off, his nose needed more attention than Vaska's minor sunburn.
"Oi! Where are you two going?!" Vaska waved with a frown noting Viktor had pointed to his nose.
"We catch up later Vaska, go back to group." Viktor called out before continuing to converse with Hermione.
"Do you think he's really mad?" Hermione questioned, her anxiety rising from the thought she had really pissed someone off. She was tending to Viktor's nose. It did not seem broken and Viktor had reassured her that it was not. He had even told her 'I would know. I broke it t'ree times already.'
"Nah. He will be fine. He…what is the word when you do funny things to others?" He looked lost in thought for a moment.
"Prank someone?" She offered up the suggestion and he nodded.
"Yes, he always pranks us. So we always prank him! Only fair," Viktor's rubbed his face, though careful of his nose region, "I'm sure he'll be more upset when he finds he missed out on meeting beautiful girl first."
Hermione could not help but blush at his insinuation. That she was pretty? It had been a long time since someone had said such things, especially someone she had not already known for a long time.
A/N #2: I thought this was a fun little thing to write, a good warm up for my longer pieces too. Be sure to review and tell me what you thought of it if you can! Thanks!