Disclaimer: I own the plot, a few characters, but sadly, everything else is Jo's.
A.N. Okay, okay. Don't shoot me. I've had a lot going on since I last updated, and almost no time to sit down and write another chapter. Between my grandparents being in and out of the hospital, and my uncle being diagnosed with lung cancer, I think I have a good reason to not have updated. So don't kill me. Hopefully this chapter makes up for the wait. When you're done reading, go leave me something letting me know what you thought.
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Chapter Eleven
A few weeks after the initial disaster that was Hermione's first self-defense lesson, she was improving greatly, at least to Rhianna she was.
Hermione threw a punch, which Rhianna blocked, and sent her to the ground. But instead of sitting there helpless, Hermione whirled around, sending her leg into Rhianna's feet, and throwing her off balance, leaving her to fall to the sand in a heap.
"That," she said, spitting out a mouthful of sand, "was much better."
Hermione grinned. "I think you've created a monster, Rhianna."
She rolled her eyes. "Oh please. If I didn't think you needed this, I wouldn't have helped you, now would I?"
Hermione stood up and extended a hand to help Rhianna up as well. "Before all this, I thought violence was a bad thing. Now, I think it's starting to become my best friend."
Rhianna laughed. "As long as you know when to use it."
"Yeah, as long as I know when to use it. He's gonna wish he never pissed me off the next time he tries to pull something."
Rhianna smiled. Hermione was learning real quick that it was not going to do her well to be timid and afraid the next time Matt showed up. This was more than she had hoped for.
"It's warm. Let's go stick our feet in the water to cool off."
"Okay," Hermione said, following Rhianna to the water's edge, where the waves were crashing higher than normal due to a strong onshore breeze.
The water felt good on their feet after sweating in the sun for an hour or so. The two were practically giddy with amusement. They splashed about childishly, but neither would admit to it.
Meanwhile, Charlotte was in the cottage, staring at Hermione's wand, which was resting on the table next to the bed in the room they were sharing.
She knew that she shouldn't touch it. Mummy had expressly forbidden her from touching it. She said that she could hurt herself very badly if she touched it. But Charlotte didn't think that was very rational. She knew that she had to wave it around and say words to get the wand to do anything. The idea that Charlotte could hurt herself just by picking it up was really quite stupid, in her opinion. The only way she could hurt herself was if she fell on it and impaled herself, or did something really stupid like jab the sharp end into her eye (which in of itself was about the dumbest thing a person could do, really.)
Charlotte bit her lip. It couldn't hurt to just pick it up and look at it. Better yet, she could take it to Mummy and say that she didn't like her to be without it for very long, even if she was with Rhianna, who always was armed no matter what.
Yes, that was what she would do. She cast a sideways look toward the door, making sure no one was there. Grinning sneakily, she snatched the wand off the table and hurried out of the room to find her mum.
Hermione and Rhianna were a little more wet than they had planned on getting, but damn it, the water felt too good, and the day was far to glorious not to take advantage of the near perfect conditions. The waves were crashing higher, as the onshore breeze had started to puff a little stronger.
Charlotte came strolling down the sand toward them, her hands carefully concealing the wand behind her back. She knew that Mummy wouldn't be very happy with her, regardless of the excuse she gave her, but it was worth it just to hold the wand just for once.
"What do yeh say there, Charlie girl?" Rhianna called to her as she came close.
"You're wet," Charlotte said, wrinkling her nose at the two of them.
"Aye, but the water's a bit too fine to not be splashin' about," Rhianna said, giggling as she kicked some water at Hermione.
Hermione shrieked and kicked some back at her. Almost immediately, the two were engaged in a heavy splashing war. They might as well have just gone swimming, as soaked as they now were.
Charlotte smiled, watching her mum acting like a five year old was quite entertaining. She forgot that she was holding the wand, and her arms came from behind her back as she fought to hide her giggles behind her hands.
Hermione stopped splashing when she realized that Charlotte was holding something that didn't look like a normal stick.
"Charlie," she said warningly.
Rhianna looked inquiringly between the two.
"Yes, Mummy?" Charlotte tried to use her sweet innocent look, plastering her normally winning smile on her face.
"What have I told you about touching my wand?" she asked sternly.
"I just thought that you should have it. Oliver says you really shouldn't go anywhere without it on you."
Hermione cast a suspicious look at her little girl.
"The wee one's right, yeh know," Rhianna said, giving Hermione her beady stare.
Hermione sighed. "I suppose you're right. Give it here, Charlie."
Charlotte looked at it in her hand. She couldn't wait to get her own. As she handed it over to her mum, she gave it a twirl without really meaning to.
The next second, Hermione went as still as stone, and without so much as a warning or word, she crashed backward into the waves.
Rhianna doubled up laughing, thinking Hermione was playing a trick. But when she didn't get up, the laughter ceased instantly.
"Hermione?"
Charlotte looked horrified. "Mum?"
Oliver came walking out from the trees just in time to see Hermione fall backward into the water. Thinking that she was joking with Rhianna and Charlotte, he chuckled to himself as he walked closer to the water's edge.
Hermione couldn't get up. Somehow, Charlotte had managed to hit her with the Full Body Bind. How the little imp had managed to do that, she wasn't sure. All she knew was that the water was just a little too wet for her liking, and she couldn't even get up. She wasn't exactly amused at the moment. She could see Rhianna and Charlotte looking down at her, but they weren't doing a thing to help her out.
Charlotte burst into tears. "I killed Mummy!" she wailed.
Rhianna wasn't sure what had happened. She tried to reach into the water to grab her, but the water kept making her fingers slip, and Hermione wasn't exactly as light as a feather soaking wet.
Oliver grew concerned when he didn't see Hermione get up. He jogged over, absolutely perplexed as to why Charlotte was crying hysterically and why Rhianna wasn't trying to get Hermione out of the water.
"Don' just stand there, yeh useless Quidditch idiot! Save her!" Rhianna shrieked at him as soon as he was near enough.
Hermione definitely was not liking this right now. Another few seconds, and she was going to become fish food. She couldn't breathe, and Rhianna wasn't being of much use at the moment. Of course, being underwater and locked in the Full Body Bind wasn't the best of situations to be getting yourself into either.
Oliver sloshed into the water and plucked Hermione from the waves, which, for some reason, to Rhianna, looked like they were trying valiantly to eat her away into fish food.
Oliver carefully set her down on the sand, sopping wet and still locked in the Full Body Bind. Oliver knew instantly what the problem was, and whipped out his wand to cast the countercharm.
Charlotte stood sobbing hysterically near Rhianna. When Hermione didn't spring up from the sand as soon as the charm was lifted, Charlotte began to sob harder.
"I killed Mummy!"
Oliver frowned. He stuck his ear down near her nose, listening for any air.
"Oh damn," he said weakly, before beginning mouth to mouth resuscitation.
Hermione, in quite a lovely dreamlike state now, was very much aware of Oliver attaching himself firmly to her lips to try and force air into her lungs. And she was quite elated. No, not just elated, damn near ready to do back flips through the air, that is, if she was conscious to do it.
"Damn it, Hermione, breathe!" Oliver swore.
And breathe she did. Coughing up seawater and what felt like half a salt block, Hermione rolled over and gasped for air.
Charlotte ceased crying immediately and dropped down on her knees next to her mum.
"Oh Mummy! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do that! I swear I didn't! Don't be mad at me! Mummy! Mummy! Are you okay?!"
"Let her breathe, lass, let her breathe," Rhianna said gently, pulling her away.
Hermione wheezed as she sat up shakily. "What. . .in the name of all Merlin. . .just happened?"
"The waves were trying to eat you," Rhianna supplied helpfully.
Charlotte held out the wand feebly. "I accidentally twirled it when I was handing it to you. I didn't mean to, Mummy, I swear."
Hermione took the wand and stuck it in her sodden pocket. Then she looked at Oliver, who was trying to look nonchalant about the fact that he just saved her life by giving her mouth to mouth.
He was very hung up on the mouth to mouth bit of it all.
Then again, so was Hermione, but she pretended that she was not aware of the fact that Oliver's (very soft, and very, very kissable) lips were just attached to hers.
"Did you get me out of the water?"
He nodded sheepishly, running a hand through his hair in a distracted way. She noticed her did that a lot around her when he was nervous, or embarrassed, or whatever.
She smiled. "Thank you for saving my life," she said, and leaned over to kiss him gently on the cheek.
She noticed his eyes had glazed over slightly as she pulled away. His hand went to the spot where her lips had touched his skin, and he had the silliest half grin imaginable on his face.
Rhianna sighed and rolled her eyes. She leaned forward and snapped her fingers right in front of his face. He blinked and jerked back away from her hand.
"What?" he asked indignantly.
"Never mind. Come on, Hermione. Yer soaked. I'm soaked. We need dry clothes. And Ginny said she was comin' round sometime today. And I dinna think yeh want company comin' when yeh got bits of seaweed all tangled in yer brown locks."
Hermione's hand went up to her hair. Feeling the numerous pieces of seaweed attached firmly to her head made her frown. This definitely ranked up there with one of Matt's beatings. It was bad enough to get stuck in the Full Body Bind by your little daughter who isn't even supposed to know how to do magic, but to be in the Full Body Bind, end up in water, nearly drown, and then come out of it with what feels like a mountain of salt in your lungs and seaweed in your hair? No, no, the seaweed was pushing it just a step too far, in her opinion.
"Here, let me," Oliver said, leaning forward and picking out long strands of the slimy green seaweed.
"Urgh," Hermione groaned softly as he came away with two particularly large strands.
"I'm thinkin' yer gonna be needin' a shower, lass," Oliver said decisively a few minutes later as he took away the last huge strand he could find.
"I think you're right. When's Ginny supposed to get here?" she asked Rhianna.
She shrugged. "I dinna know. But I'm thinkin' yeh have enough time to get a shower in. It's not like Ginny would care so much if yeh were in the shower when she got here."
"Good."
She stood up, nearly lost her balance (the lack of oxygen for those few minutes was evidently making sure she knew about it), and recovered her balance to march off toward the cottage with as much dignity as she could manage, for a woman who had nearly been, as Rhianna had stated so brilliantly, eaten by the waves.
Hidden away far enough in the trees, but with a good view of what was going on down on the sand, a man watched the whole dramatic episode unfold. Armed with his wand and a pair of Omnioculars for a better view, he sat patiently, carefully making sure he was remembering all the details clearly, for when he reported back to his client later on.
His lip curled when he saw how well Hermione was getting on with her self defense. He was pretty sure that this bit of news would not be welcomed. He sneered with cold pleasure when Hermione was stuck in the Full Body Bind and went backward into the waves. The little girl's sobs and cries were literally music to his ears. He cackled aloud when he saw the Quidditch show-off try to "valiantly" rescue his damsel in distress.
But when he saw her awaken and give him a kiss on the cheek for his services, he frowned for the first time. If there was going to be one bit of information that would send him into a rage, this would be it.
He shivered with the thought of the rage that was soon to come. This was not going to be a very pleasant evening.
He just hoped that he had some firewhiskey on hand. He was pretty sure he was going to need it.
After a blasting hot shower and some much needed scrubbing, Hermione emerged from the shower a half hour later, wrapped in a towel and hacking up another small mountain of salt.
"Ack!" she spat as her lungs rumbled with what sounded like another avalanche of salt just waiting to be hacked up. "That is the last time I ever go near salt water and nearly drown!"
As she came around the corner to the room she shared with Charlotte, Oliver emerged from his office right next to it.
And Hermione was only clad in a fluffy towel.
Oliver stopped dead when he saw her. His eyes went wide, and, much like a typical male, he didn't seem to have the decency to turn away when he saw how very little she was wearing.
With something like a squeak and a strangled cry of shock, Hermione threw herself into her room and slammed the door behind her. She clutched her towel tightly around her, her breathing quite heavy and ragged (from the mountain of salt still waiting to be coughed up).
Once she was sure she had recovered from the nasty shock of Oliver seeing her in nothing but a towel, she turned to the dresser and began pulling out some clothes.
"Men," she muttered, a blush creeping across her cheeks.
Oliver stood horribly shell-shocked for a minute or two after Hermione had dashed into her room and slammed the door.
She had been in nothing more than a towel.
"Oh Merlin," he groaned, feeling his heart thudding a violent tattoo against his Adam's apple.
He turned around and marched right back into his office, and shut the door. He definitely did not want another repeat of that.
Okay. . .maybe he did. Oh, hell, who was he kidding? He'd be the happiest man alive if that happened again any time soon. He'd probably die of bliss if she happened to be wearing nothing but one of his shorter, older towels.
He beat his head against the doorframe. Nope, this was not going to bid well for a comfortable evening.
He definitely needed to get laid. . .
Or possibly go for a calming mid-afternoon ride.
Yes. That was a good idea. Something to calm his frayed nerves.
Ginny was sitting at the kitchen table with Rhianna when Hermione finally came out, fully dressed, her hair and makeup back to perfection once more.
"I hear you nearly were made into fish food," Ginny greeted her, with a twitch of a smile.
Hermione gave Rhianna a dirty look as she sat down and pulled the teapot toward her to fix herself a cup.
"Yeah, it was a real blast, let me tell you. I feel like I've got a heap of salt the size of Mount Everest in my lungs, and I'm pretty sure the seaweed was dying to take up permanent residence in my mane. Yes, it was just a lovely afternoon."
Ginny and Rhianna laughed.
"But you're still here," Ginny said, patting her hand sympathetically.
"Well, yes, I wasn't going to let the sea get the best of me. Really, it's all thanks to Oliver. This one here," she jerked her thumb at Rhianna, "was of no use at all. She couldn't seem to drag me out of the water."
Rhianna looked quite indignant. "Let me see yeh try to haul me ass out of the water when I'm weighed down with wet clothes and I'm in the Full Body Bind! It's not all daisies and roses like yeh think it was!"
Hermione's mouth twitched for an instant. She was just giving her a rough time. She knew that she tried. That was all that mattered.
"Speaking of that puffed up Quidditch maniac brother of yours, where is he?" Ginny asked. "I haven't seen him."
Rhianna shrugged. "No idea. Hermione? Any ideas?"
She choked on her tea.
Ginny patted her on the back to help her dislodge it from her windpipe. "Did we miss something?"
Hermione took a deep, wheezing breath. "He, erm, sorta. . .'
"What?" Rhianna and Ginny both chimed.
"Well, I came out of the shower and was walking to my room with nothing but a towel on. . ."
"Ah. Say no more, lass. My brother got a bit of eye candy and is now too bloody embarrassed to show his overly male and perverted face around here for awhile," Rhianna said with a smirk.
"Eye candy?" Hermione puffed up indignantly.
"Hey, don't complain. If he's too embarrassed to show his face around here for awhile, it means he saw something he liked, but is too embarrassed to admit it. I'd say someone's got a little crush," Ginny said teasingly.
Then they both started in on Hermione. Soon, they had her blushing so furiously, she just about matched Ginny's hair.
"So when's the wedding?"
"We're gonna be maids of honor, right?"
"Where's the honeymoon gonna be?"
"Hermione and Oliver! Mrs. Oliver Wood! Oh, doesn't it have a nice ring to it?"
"OKAY!" Hermione shrieked after five minutes of the endless banter.
They all exchanged looks before bursting into giggles.
"Speaking of weddings and such," Ginny said after they calmed down, giving Rhianna a stern look.
Rhianna gave a slight squeak over the rim of her cup as she took a drink of tea.
"Yes, I'm talking about you," Ginny said pointedly, taking the cup from her and setting it down.
Hermione turned to look at Rhianna with an interested look on her face. "Wedding? What's going on Rhianna? Are you seeing someone?"
Rhianna gave a noncommittal shrug, but a slight blush had creeped up into her face, and she had a silly grin as well.
"Oh yes, she is," Ginny said, smiling. "I've only been bothering her for the past three months as to when we're gonna see wedding invitations or hear wedding bells."
"And how long have you been seeing this mystery man?" Hermione pried.
Again, Rhianna shrugged, trying not to go any further with this than she had to. "A year or more, I haven't been keeping track."
"The hell you haven't!" Ginny cried. "My ass if you haven't got the months, weeks, days, hours, and minutes memorized!"
Rhianna sighed, then looked at her watch. "One year, eight months, three weeks, twelve days, fifteen hours, thirty-seven minutes, and one, two, three seconds."
"Aha!" Both Ginny and Hermione exclaimed triumphantly.
"So Rhianna, when's the wedding again?"
"What wedding?" Oliver had just walked in, with Charlotte trailing behind him, clutching a broom.
Rhianna really did choke on her tea this time. "No wedding at all, dear brother."
Oliver narrowed his eyes suspiciously at his little sister. Whenever she used the words "dearest brother," he knew that something was up.
"Were they talking about you, Rhianna?" he asked shrewdly.
She shook her head a little too quickly. "Nope, not me."
Ginny and Hermione exchanged a look. This was going to get interesting real fast.
Oliver didn't believe her for an instant. "Sure they weren't. And I'm the MVP of the year, Rhianna. Has anyone ever told you that you're horrible at lying about your personal life?"
"You were MVP of the year last year," she pointed out, hoping to distract him.
"Don't try to change the subject, lass," he said sternly.
She visibly deflated under his direct gaze. She looked around wildly at the other two for help. Both just sat there and tried hard not to burst out laughing.
"Well, as great as it was to see yeh again, Gin, I really do need to be gettin' on, so I'll just see you all later!"
And with that, she hopped up and Disapparated just out of Oliver's reach, so he couldn't grab her to stop her.
"Damn her! Why does she always do that?" he cursed.
Hermione and Ginny giggled. He rounded on them.
"Someone wanna explain to me what yeh all were goin' on about?"
They both shook their heads.
"Whatever it was we were talking about stays between us. It's her business," Ginny told him.
"But she's my little sister!"
"It's her life. Let her live it."
"But. . .but. . .but, but, but. . ." he sputtered indignantly.
"Save it, Oliver," Ginny said, getting up. "I need to get going. It was lovely seeing you again, Hermione. You, Charlie, and Oliver should come by sometime," she said, placing careful emphasis on Charlotte's nickname.
It flew right over the top of Oliver's head. But Hermione caught on quickly. She nodded vigorously.
"We will. Won't we, Oliver?" she nudged him in the ribs as she stood up to give Ginny a hug.
"Ouch. Yes, we will. Tell everyone we said hello."
Ginny Disapparated a few minutes later, leaving a slightly awkward silence in her wake. Oliver was looking uncomfortable, and Hermione was blushing slightly again, remembering earlier.
"Look, lass, I dinna mean-"
"I know. You didn't mean to see what you did. But I must say, you might have had the decency to keep your eyes in your head," she teased.
He laughed nervously. "Whoops?"
"Yes, I would say that was a big 'whoops,'" she grinned.
"Really though, what was this wedding talk about?"
"Oliver!"
"Whaaaaaat?"
She shook her head. This was going to be an interesting night.
So there you go. There was, if you couldn't tell, a lot of comedy going on in the chapter, due to the fact that the next one or two will probably rather subdued.
Oh, and to my reader pretzel.in.an.egg. There was a big hint as to who Rhianna's "friend" was that she was spending so much time with in the past few chapters. You said you had a sneaking suspicion as to who it was. Did you guess correctly? Or did I throw you completely off base? Let me know, I'm interested in what you were thinking.
Thanks guys, and go review, please!