College trips are the best until they aren't anymore! A summer journey to Australia was wonderful. The trip home, not so much. Put seven shipwrecked males, an unconscious teacher/chaperone and one female on a deserted island and see what happens!
The premise of the story is loosely based on both 'Blue Lagoon' and 'The Black Stallion.' Except there isn't an adult and two kids, nor is there a horse. There is however a shipwreck!
A/N #1: Ryu, Ken Masters, M. Bison, Sagat, Guile and Vega are ALL property of the video game Street Fighter! So they do NOT belong to me!br /
A/N #2: Guitar Hero does NOT belong to me!br /
A/N #3: Thunderstruck and Back in Black are actual songs of the awesome AC/DC! Therefore they also do NOT belong to me!
The day started out so great. It was bright and sunny. Hermione, Ginny, Daphne, and Padma took up the spaces on the lounge chairs on the upper deck. They were looking for some quality sunbathing time, if Harry and the others would LEAVE THEM ALONE! They were on the verge of siccing their history teacher, Mr. Greyback, on the aggravating boys! He, along with fellow teacher, Mrs. McGonagall, was their chaperone on the trip they were returning from. They also wanted to giggle over the three older, exchange students who had made the trip with them.
Almost as if they'd conjured them, the three young men came running down the stairs. It was exactly why Hermione and the girls had seated themselves here. The three students were on a sports scholarship exchange program. They always started their morning run from the sundeck. They always ended it on the sundeck. They halted just briefly at the sight of the girls, then continued their warm up stretches. It had disconcerted them at first, having an audience of young women. Now they were used to seeing them there. They had even begun to lightly flirt with them.
"Ladies." Cory Yaxley greeted them with a charming smile. The girls giggled as they returned the greeting.
"Looking good, darlings." Tony Dolohov added on as he took in their string bikinis. They made sure to stretch and give him a full view of them.
"See you when we get back, eh?" Thorfinn Rowle asked. The girls smiled and nodded eagerly.
They took off and were soon far down the deck of the cruise ship. The girls were excitedly squealing. They had finally spoken to them. Before now they had simply smiled and winked at them! Then they were squealing for a different reason as Harry and the others threw water all over them.
"Harry Potter! You stinker! I'll kill you!" Hermione screamed at her stepbrother. He laughed at her and ran away. He knew Hermione wouldn't move from that spot until those three older guys came back. She wouldn't take the chance of missing them. He, Ron, Blaise and Theo took off down to the arcade. This ship was awesome!
"Ok, who's up for a game of Street Fighter?" Ron yelled, running for his favorite game. Blaise took off after him, leaving Harry and Theo standing at the Guitar Hero machine.
"Well, here goes nothing!" Harry shrugged as he picked up the attached guitar. He scrolled through the songs and made his choice. Theo smiled as he watched him rock and roll through AC/DC's 'Thunderstruck'. To Harry's surprise, he killed it good enough to get his initials in the top ten on the high score list. He and Theo cheered as they changed places. Theo chose another AC/DC song, 'Back in Black', to try his luck on. He managed to get his initials up right behind Harry's. After they finished playing, they went over to watch Ron and Blaise.
Ron and Blaise had chosen 'Ryu' and 'Ken Masters' as their first choices. Harry cheered Ron on as Theo cheered Blaise on. Then they all four chose a character and began a two on two battle Royale. 'Sagat' and 'Guile' went up against 'M. Bison' and 'Vega'. They smashed and thrashed their way through the battles until it was lunchtime.
Hermione and the girls were just sitting up, ready to gather their belongings and go in for lunch as the three exchange students came back. She looked up and smiled shyly at Cory. He was in some of the classes she hoped to take in a year or two. He was finishing his last year as a medical student. Next year, he'd be getting called into a hospital as an intern. She hoped that she would be assigned to the same hospital as a nursing assistant. He smiled back at her as he began his cool down exercises.
"Careful. The wind is starting to pick up. There's some pretty bad clouds over on the far side of the horizon there. We might be in for a storm tonight." He told her softly as the ship suddenly began swaying under them. Her face had whitened and she'd instinctively latched onto his arm. She nodded, swaying unsteadily as she turned to follow the other girls. "Hey," he called quietly. She turned to look at him. "See you at lunch."
Hermione went slightly pink as she smiled at him. "Yeah. I'll, uh, I'll see you at lunch." She squealed as she ran to the other girls.
Anthony shook his head as he and Thorfinn watched. "Oi, mate! You got a little fan girl there." Cory smiled at them. He'd been waiting this whole trip for the girl to show her interest. Now he could make the next move.
"She's cute! And a nursing student. I've seen her in the medical wing at school. I'm looking forward to getting to know her." He said.
"Just remember, mate. We'll not be in the states for too much longer. Soon as our student visas run out, we'll need work visas or they'll kick us back to jolly old Britain." Thorfinn reminded him.
"I'll be getting mine as soon as we're back in the states." Anthony said. "I'm not taking any chance on getting kicked back to Britain." Thorfinn nodded in agreement. They went to shower for lunch as they eyed the sky uneasily.
There wasn't too many people who showed up for lunch so the students were pretty much the only ones there. They were all on edge as the ship swayed ever more sharply. They didn't talk as much as they normally would. They exchanged short greetings, ate quickly and retired to their staterooms. The storm clouds were now spread all the way across the skyline. Lightening was flashing in the distance and rumbles of thunder could be heard every few minutes.
Due to the rising winds, the on deck show was canceled that night. They were all herded to the main dining room where they were also handed life jackets. Strictly as a precaution, they were told. Hermione was seriously worried. 'Why would they hand out life jackets if there was nothing to worry about?' She quickly put her jacket on and tried to find the rest of her group. Somehow they'd all gotten separated.
They had the ship quartet playing as the guests danced and tried to keep good thoughts in their heads. Just as Hermione caught sight of Harry, the ship suddenly jerked to the left very sharply, throwing the guests to their knees. The captain came striding in and announced that they were going to board the lifeboats at this time.
As everyone filed out of the dining room, Hermione was pushed with them, further away from where she'd seen Harry. The women and children were loaded up first. There was one more boat on Hermione's side and seven girls including her waited to board it. Then the ship was hit by the sharpest wave yet and swayed much further than before. Hermione, not expecting it, was tossed against the rail and went overboard, into the water! Behind her, she could hear the girls screaming and panicking. All she could think of, as she hit the dark water, was that she was grateful for the jacket because she couldn't swim!
Over on the other side of the ship, Ginny, Daphne, Padma and Mrs. McGonagall were screaming for Hermione. Mr. Greyback heard the screams from where he stood with Harry, Ron, Theo and Blaise. "Damnit, where is she?!" he snapped worriedly. As soon as the boys were herded into a lifeboat, he went looking for her.
McGonagall saw him and screamed up at him "Fenrir! We saw her in the dining room! She may have gotten pushed over to the other side of the ship."
"I'll go check and see!" he shouted down at her. McGonagall waved to show she'd heard him. Fenrir pushed through the crowd as quickly but politely as he could. There was also the matter of the three exchange students. He had yet to see any of them up on deck yet. They had stayed behind while the rest had gone to the dining room. As he was cutting through the dining hall, they were coming through the doors at him. "Boys! You have your jackets? Get out to the lifeboats! They're boarding everyone up! Now! You haven't seen the little Granger girl, have you? She seems to have slipped her leash!" the boys shook their heads.
A crowd of men came through in time to overhear his words. "Poor little mite! Little darling in a blue dress? They were boarding over here. The ship jerked too hard. The little sweetie got thrown over. We watched her go under. She didn't come back up." Fenrir closed his eyes in despair. 'God, how was he going to tell Minerva? Hermione was her favorite student!'
At that moment, the ship rolled over on its side and they all went down, sliding across the room. A table crashed into Fenrir catching him dead center in the middle of his stomach. He yelled out as he shoved the table away! They had to get back to the boats! Clutching his stomach, he shoved the boys ahead of him. As they were almost out of the dining room, another table crashed into his leg, breaking it. The boys grabbed him and boarded the boat already containing Harry and the younger boys.
"Did you see Hermione? Where is she?" Harry yelped as they climbed onboard. Cory, Tony and Thorfinn exchanged glances.
"We didn't see her. We were still below deck until just now. Some men came from the other side." He looked Harry in the eye. "They said they saw a girl in a blue dress fall overboard. They said she went down and never came up. I'm sorry."
"God, no! Hermione! No!" Harry tried to jump out of the boat. Ron held him back as he wiped tears from his own eyes. Hermione had been the one who got him and Harry to quit acting like knuckleheads and ask each other out already!
Cory hated to be the one who'd had to break the bad news to the boy. He'd realized as soon as Harry spoke which one was Hermione. The little nursing student. The one he had so been looking forward to getting acquainted with. That was a lost dream now.
They were on the water and rowing away as fast as they could when the ship rolled over again. This time it stayed over and slowly sank under the water. They could hear other passengers yelling from other boats but they couldn't see anyone. The full rage of the storm was upon them and it was all they could do to hang onto the boat for dear life.
They had a flashlight they used to flicker on and off in the direction of the yells. After a while, there was nothing, no yells, no return flashes, nothing. The storm blew itself out as they tiredly waited for morning. It was pure chance that Blaise had turned on the light when he did.
"Harry? Harry! Look! Over there! Look! Is that-?" he pointed toward a piece of debris, drifting towards them. There was a bundle of blue, huddled on top of it. They hurriedly rowed toward it. The closer they got, the more they realized it looked like a person! When they were right beside it, Harry cried out with excitement.
"Hermione! That's Hermione! I'd know her brown hair anywhere! Help me! That's Hermione!" he yelled. Ron, Theo and Blaise pulled her over to the boat. Harry grabbed her and sat in the floor of the boat, cradling her as he clutched her tightly. Hermione was deeply unconscious, having fought wave after choking wave before she finally caught hold off the piece of driftwood. Thorfinn and Tony were grinning and poking each other as Cory's head jerked up at those words. Cory had been examining their teacher. He had a broken leg and possible internal bleeding. He was unconscious and already burning up with a fever. If they weren't found soon, it might be too late for Mr. Greyback.