Happy New Year!
All my gratitude goes to my Magzillasaurus, as always.
Day Fifty-Three
Perkins sought a path between the queueing masses, it resembled an effort to swim against the tide, "Excuse me. Pardon me. Can I get through?"
It was in the early morning when the Arcadia anchored at Kiriwina Island, part of Papua New Guinea. As usual, a few older passengers feared losing their spot in the tender boat queue and stayed put instead of stepping aside.
Finally, he got closer, "Miss Hermione, my congratulations on your engagement." He bowed, "Mr Malone, was everything to your taste?"
"Aside from an unprofessional servant and a melting dessert, I'm more than satisfied with the outcome." Draco kissed her ring finger, for the hundredth time, staring intently at his fiancée who rolled her eyes at the visible display.
Perkins nodded, lips pulled into a tight smile, "Excellent, I apologise for the dessert failure, and I'll pass on your comment about the waiter." The man could hardly confess he had beelined for the Sindhu instead of doing his job down at the Meridian, absconding his duty in favour of pure romance.
Hiding behind the counter and praying not to be reported to a superior, Perkins took note of the flirting waiter - on his way for a severe reprimand, as we speak - cursed the dessert mess; and in the end, grinned like a moron when the blond went down on one knee.
"I would like to inform you that our present destination is the largest of the Trobriand Islands archipelago, also known as the Islands of Love." The butler felt his cheeks heat, his behaviour far from professional. "As you know, there are no excursions for this port, but I hope you took my advice to have some Australian Dollars on hand in case one of the locals walks you through the island?"
Hermione confirmed, "Good morning Perkins, I have some banknotes indeed. You told me not to give coins, right?"
"Yes, indeed." Perkins prefered guest never let him down. He bowed slightly, "Please enjoy your visit."
"This bloke still gives me the creeps. He feels like a leech waiting for the perfect moment to suck your blood." Draco murmured aboard the tender boat.
Hermione grinned, "He'll never be your best friend, will he?" Their fingers were laced, and she nudged his hand, "Don't be too judgemental, Draco. In the end, he helped you plan a perfect evening yesterday."
"I still don't like him." He was going to miss a few things from this cruise, but the penguin wasn't one of them.
"I wonder why that woman has such a heavy bag with her," Hermione gestured at a passenger a few steps away from them. "It looks as if it's the end of the day instead of the beginning of her visit."
"I've spotted another over there," Draco gestured to one behind them. "Are they going on a hiking trip we don't know about?" His girl shrugged, clueless.
Between the crystal-clear water and jungle-clad cliffs, a gathering of locals waved at the incoming tender boat. Native people with broad smiles, the children visibly eager to make acquaintance with the newly arrived tourists. Behind them several wooden stands displayed handiwork for sale, wooden bowls, masks and other sculptures. Some not even on top of a table but presented on a cloth.
From all the places they visited during this cruise, this paradisiacal island might be the one where civilisation had been altered the least. On this Papua New Guinea Island, the roads were unpaved, no car in sight, women carried their burden on the top of their heads, a single bicycle in the distance.
Following the majority, Hermione and Draco walked after a young native boy who took one part of the couples with their overfull bags. Houses built out of sago palm trees and other bush materials, with pointy grassy roofs supported on pillars surrounded the sides of the main dirt road, the door often a big piece of fabric hanging on a rail of sorts.
"I don't see electricity poles or street lamps." Hermione was perplexed.
The young guide Rhua answered in broken English, "No miss, no lights here, only fires."
"No lights?" She thought of the Fiji Islands where the population did have this kind of modern facility. "But you do have running water, right?" Instantly, the blond wizard was grateful for his witch forward-thinking by taking a bottle of water from the Arcadia.
"When it rains enough or if men can dig up water from wells or caves." Draco considered the island's way of living to be almost pre-historical, difficult to accept in 2003.
Finally, the mystery of the full bags was unravelled. The woman walked towards the house marked as the doctor's office and was welcomed by a young caucasian man as a friend with hugs and kisses on the cheek.
Rhua noticed the interest and explained, "Missus comes here for the third time. She brings good things to the island. For doctor, good medicines against pain and sunburns, to the teacher, she brings biros, colouring books, and crayons."
"Oh." Her wizarding guide didn't mention this fact; otherwise, she would have brought her share of donations.
"We can buy a few gifts instead." Draco sensed her turmoil, "A few more things for your Potter, my mother, or whatever. If we ever return, we'll make it up. What these people need doesn't cost fortunes."
"My travel guide didn't mention anything…"
"I know. I also read the chapter, it barely speaks of this island as a destination." He grabbed her hand to return towards the shore and the stands with items for sale. "Yet, I have the feeling these people are happy despite the rudimentary conditions."
Hermione promised, "As soon as I'm back, I'll send an owl to the publishing company and demand a rewrite about Kiriwina Island implicitly mentioning the importance of bringing donations for the population." Looking over her shoulder, she saw the second passenger hand over her bag to the doctor who rummaged between the several cases of spectacles.
Clearly, these passengers were returning tourists with the foresight of packing necessities which at first glance appeared to seem meaningless, yet were as essential as they were appreciated. Hermione held up Draco to point out, "Even that makes sense, it's most probable that the locals have no easy access to prescribed lenses."
"I admit it's very thoughtful of these tourists." Many Purebloods would shrug their shoulders and move on, ignoring the needs, he thought, myself included.
On their stroll back to the shore, the pair passed a school and halted, surprised. The sound of young voices singing drew the attention of Draco, who joined a group of listening tourists at the entrance of a school. The simplicity of this act caught Draco most off-guard, he couldn't stop making comparisons between these muggle tourists and how he knew the magical folk to behave. As the song came to an end, the entire audience cheered with loud applause, Hermione taking a picture of a broad smiling blond.
One of the native children approached the wizard, holding his hand open, "Mista, you biro?" Draco looked at his girl, pleading for help. What the hell is a biro?
"I might have one, wait a second, sweetheart." Hermione rummaged between her packed bag, digging deep until her fingers connected with the familiar shape, "It's not a fancy one, but is this okay?"
It was a simple BIC, but it was like a lump of gold by the way the boy's features glowed in happiness. He ran off to show his friends how the point hid and appeared while pushing the top.
"If you gave a pen to me when I was his age, I would have judged you by the visibly low cost of your gift," Draco described the likely scenario in a low tone of voice. "How much does one of those biros cost?"
"Peanuts, I have a dozen back at home. I love to write with them, no need to dip in an inkpot to finish a sentence." She grinned. "They are far from the fanciest in appearance, but they are damn useful."
"I'm a wizard, I prefer to use my quill, witch." Before she gifts me a ton of these biros.
Nearly at the tender boat, they stopped at the few stalls displaying hand-made wooden bowls. Their finishings were less refined than the ones they found at San Francisco, more rudimental, not that it mattered in the end. Draco quickly chose two of them and moved on to the next booth to admire a woven bag made out of colourful string, "Do you like this one? It has the Slytherin colours."
The speed and determination that Draco employed to his purchases baffled Hermione. He wasn't buying any out of wanting to own something but to spend some money on a good cause.
To her great surprise, she heard him debate heatedly with a seller. She intervened on the local's behalf, "Draco, what are you doing?"
"Why are you looking at me like that? This bowl costs 8 Australian Dollars if I convert it gives me five pounds, and you taught me that five pounds are one galleon. Look at this bowl, isn't it worth more than a galleon?" Hermione blinked. The last thing she expected was to hear Draco arguing about prices being too low. "They can use the money." He shoved twenty-dollar bill in the man's hand and refused the change.
"You never stop amazing me." She kissed him on the spot, under the loud cheering of some local women. His face reddened, and she grinned, pecking him again for good measure.
-oOo-
After dinner, Hermione set their purchases on a row on the top of their bed. "I know you did this for a good reason, but what are we going to do with three baskets, four string bags and one... two… three... four, five and six carved bowls?"
"We'll divide them between your Potter and Weasley, my mother, Blaise and Pansy. Keep some for ourselves in our home." Standing all neat in a row, it was a little bit of an overkill, but he felt far from remorseful. If there was a population that could use some financial help, the Papua New Guineans were it. "The one with the Slytherin colours is yours, the one that looks like a Gryffindor purse is perfect to rile up Pansy. She hates to admit she looks good in red toned colours." He laughed giddily.
"Tomorrow Rabaul is on the menu." She glanced quickly at their excursion book, "Are you certain you want to see a volcano closely?"
"What's the worse that could happen?" He survived Voldemort, a little lava-spitting mountain didn't scare him.
"Let us hope Merlin doesn't decide to give you a taste of crispy Draco." It was in moments like this that she spotted the good Malfoy manners. Yet, she did make a cross, you never know...
A.N.:
This was one of my most difficult chapters to write, mostly due to the lack of information about this island. It's one of the reasons why it took so long to finish, the other reason is that I've been a mess since Star Wars came out and my other OTP Reylo became canon for barely 1 minute. I've been a fan of SW even longer than I am of HP and to watch a 42yr old saga be managed by incompetent people who have no knowledge of the SW universe kinda riled me up in a bad way.
Anyway, what have I learned from Kiriwina?
1) it's called the island of love because the Trobriand Islanders (in general) have a relaxed approach to sex before and even after marriage and where the ladies can have as many lovers as they please.
2) they have barely access to running water, no electricity and are indeed tremendously grateful with the gifts tourists bring. What I mention in this chapter was something I came across multiple times: returning tourists bring school material, fishing material, old glasses, you name it. Honestly, I felt slightly impressed by the generosity and the fact that many of these items are taken for granted by me, the modern girl. Consider me educated.
So if you ever do set foot in Kiriwina, take with you some banknotes (preferably their own currency or Australian dollars they can trade, coins are useless), or some of these useful items. It might seem just a drop in the big ocean, but to them it means the ocean.