Chapter 53: Smuggling Hippos 101

March 8th, 1994

Sailing

"What are you doing here?" Harry spat.

"What are you doing here?" Draco returned.

"We were here first!" Ron argued hotly.

"But we're here now!" Crabbe snapped.

"Guys, stop fighting," interrupted Liana, swimming over to where they were. The six stopped their argument and turned to her.

"What are you doing here?" Harry and Draco asked at the same time.

"It's a cruise. Anyone can be where they want," Liana replied coolly, Kylie and Candice right behind her.

"Oh, great, they're here too?"

"Why can't we be?" asked Kylie.

Harry glared at them, wading to the opposite side of the pool. "This is my side," he announced.

"Yeah, whatever." Draco rolled his eyes, plunging underwater. Liana turned to Harry exasperatedly, like, You are useless, before following Draco.

"Hi, Kylie!"

Harry whirled around to see Neville.

Since when did Neville know Kylie?

"Who are you?" Kylie asked him.

Oh. Neville didn't know Kylie. At least, Kylie didn't know Neville. Maybe Neville knew Kylie.

"Neville! Remember me? I offered to tutor you…!"

Harry coughed, inhaling water, which made him cough even more. He spluttered, "What?! Neville teaching Kylie?"

"Exactly," agreed Kylie. "I told you I didn't need your help."

Neville's face fell. "Oh."

Ron grinned, swimming over to Neville.

"Hey, my mate," he started, "you like Kylie?"

"Er…"

Harry turned to Neville, his eyes glinting. Did Neville like Kylie? Dean said everyone had liked someone. Neville had agreed, but he refused to tell his.

But…

Kylie?

"Leave him alone," Hermione ordered.

"Fine, fine." Ron chortled. "Neville, into the pool."

Neville gulped before diving into the pool.

Everyone else in the pool burst out laughing.

Dumbledore gazed out at the fast-moving sea.

Wait, no. The sea wasn't fast-moving. The cruise ship was.

He watched the sea. He couldn't see any animals or sharks… just floating leaves and ships off in the distance.

The cruise had been going really fun. He'd seen that kids were enjoying it and having fun, and he was sure that teachers were too. He also was pretty sure Severus was enjoying it… secretly, of course.

The food on this cruise was very good. Especially the falafel. In fact, they had some very good tomato soup with oyster crackers and cream-

Dumbledore stopped.

Was that a…

A hippo?

Without thinking about it, he dove over the railing and into the sea, grabbing the hippo and tackling it. He took deep breaths and lifted the hippo. Merlin, it was heavy. And what the heck was it doing in an ocean? Hippos didn't live in seas! Only rivers and land!

Dumbledore groaned. The hippo was way too heavy. He managed to climb on the hippo. He turned back to the cruise, which was now far away.

"Fast!" he cried, pushing the hippo forward. The hippo started swimming… no, wait. It wasn't swimming. It plunged underwater, running along the bank. They weren't in too deep, nor were they too close to shore. Dumbledore held his breath, but the hippo didn't seem to be having trouble. After around a minute, Dumbledore had inhaled a lot of water, and the hippo had reached the cruise ship.

"Go to the back," whispered Dumbledore, throwing the hippo onto a small boat that was held by a rope behind the ship. He clambered aboard, using the rope to swing himself up, taking the hippo with him. He managed to grab the hippo above with him, and then he sputtered out water, wiping his hands across his face to get rid of the water. He wrung his beard, sighing as he slumped against the backroom.

He wasn't even supposed to be here. This was only for emergencies. In fact, he didn't even know where he was.

"Okay, hippo, let's look at you," he sighed, turning the hippo towards him. "You are cute. I will keep you," he decided. "Now, I'll take you to my room, but you'll be too big. You'll ruin it."

The hippo made a wheezing sound.

"Yeah, that's right! You need a name. I don't know if you are a boy or a girl," Dumbledore explained. "I'll find out later. We just have to leave this place first." Dumbledore looked around the room. He couldn't leave the door without activating an emergency alarm. Yes, maybe he could squeeze through the pipes, but the hippo certainly couldn't.

"How about… Reducio!" he whispered. The hippo shrunk to a small hippo, which just might have been able to squeeze through the pipes. "Okay. Let's go."

Dumbledore led the hippo through the pipes until they landed in a hallway where nobody was. They managed to make it to his room on landing seven, where Dumbledore made the hippo larger, 'Engorgio!', and put the hippo in his bathtub.

He sighed, wiping his hands and slumping against his door.

What a journey.

What a hippo.

"I think it's on the top floor," Lily said, glancing at her map. "Wait, no. The twelfth."

"That's the one that's half-outdoors, half-indoors, right?"

"Yeah. That's the one with the WindJammer. It also has the pool."

James nodded. "We need to go to the pool."

"Yeah," she repeated. "I think Harry went today."

"Harry and his friends did go," replied James, "but I want you and me to go."

"Oh." Lily laughed. "Yeah, we can go. But right now, let's just go grab some ice cream."

"I hear they have lots of flavors," put in James.

"I think they only have chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. I don't know. Whichever one you want."

"You obviously want strawberry."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yeah. I don't like chocolate. Much."

"Don't let Remus hear you saying that."

"Yeah, yeah, I won't. I know the chocolate connoisseur shall never hear me criticizing chocolate."

He laughed as they reached the twelfth floor. "We have to go to the right side."

"Yep. The restaurants and everything are on the left side. I even think they have lounges and stuff."

"Lounges?"

"Yeah. I think they've got some on this floor."

"Wow. We need to go."

"We will," Lily assured him as they reached the ice cream vendor. "Okay, here we are. I take strawberry."

"Of course you do."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "What are you going to take?"

"I don't really know. I'll take a scoop of chocolate and strawberry."

"For your best friend and for your best wife."

"Best wife?"

"I'd better be."

He grinned at her. "I mean, of the week…"

"Shut up, James Fleamont Potter," she growled.

He laughed as they joined the ice cream line, which was extremely long. Two kids were standing in front of them, laughing and exclaiming about how exciting the cruise had been. It took minutes, more minutes, and even more minutes, but they finally reached the vendor. James took his two scoops, and Lily took one giant scoop of strawberry.

"They should offer more flavors," mused Lily.

"I guess so. They have those at the restaurants, though. This is just a small little ice cream vendor."

"It's super hyped, though, so the ice cream had better be…" Lily took a lick of her strawberry and moaned, "… good."

"Is it good?"

"I swear, it's the best."

James grinned as he licked his own cone. "You're right. It's amazing. So good."

"Delicious," she agreed. "Delectable."

James laughed.

"So… sailing day," Remus said. "What do you want to do?"

"It doesn't really matter," replied Tonks. "The pool?"

"Please, no."

Tonks grinned.

"Unless you really want…" He sounded unsure.

"It's fine," she assured him, still grinning. "One day we're going to go, though."

Remus laughed. "Sure." Then he frowned. "I don't know… I mean, if you want to go to the pool… I don't want to stop you, you know?"

"It's okay, Remus. I don't really care."

"You want to go to the hot tub?" he offered.

"Sure," agreed Tonks. "Just let me get my… you know, swimsuit on."

His eyes sparkled. "Okay."

Tonks went into the bathroom and yanked on her dark magenta swimsuit, covering it with a loose t-shirt, and went outside to see Remus emerging from the closet.

"Ready?" she asked him.

"Yep."

The two of them walked up to the top floor, passing the ice cream vendor and walking to where the pool, the children's water park, and the hot tub was. Tonks wriggled out of her shirt, and Remus nervously tossed his shirt onto the beach chair. Then they slowly stepped into the hot tub, leaning their backs against the rim.

"Ah," sighed Tonks. "This is great."

"Yeah. It's great."

Tonks grinned, stretching her feet out in the warm, rather strong current. "I could stay here all day."

Remus wrapped his arm around her. "Yeah."

She smiled, snuggling into his touch as an old woman came and sat in the pool, smiling at them.

"It's warm," the woman said.

Tonks blinked. "Er, yeah. It is."

"Are you from England?"

Tonks turned to Remus, slightly amused. Remus laughed and answered, "Yeah. We're from the United Kingdom."

"Ah! I could tell from your accent." She rubbed her shoulders.

"Uh, nice," Tonks replied. "Nice talking to you."

"You too, dear." The woman nodded three and a half times before leaving.

Tonks exchanged a look with Remus.

"Well, that was… weird," she muttered quietly.

"I know, right?"

She relaxed against the rim of the pool, sighing in content at the warmth. "This is honestly better than going to the pool. It's so warm and you don't have to do anything. Just sit back and relax and be lazy."

Remus laughed.

"I have a feeling we're not going to leave from here for a very long time."

Tonks couldn't help but agree.

Ron tried to remember where to go.

He had to go straight and then turn left.

But this didn't look… right.

Was this an arcade? A game machine?

"Excuse me," came a stern voice. Ron turned and saw an official in a suit standing there. "You are not allowed to be in here."

"Yeah, I know-"

"Why are you in the casino, then?"

"Because…"

"Because why?" He didn't sound angry, just firm.

"I don't know," mumbled Ron. "I got lost."

The official raised an eyebrow. "You got lost in a casino… five feet away from the exit?"

Ron turned around and saw that the doorway was standing right behind him. "I didn't see that."

He gave him a suspicious look. "Okay, then. Just don't come in here alone again. Kids can't come here."

"Okay," squeaked Ron, and he bolted for the exit.

"We've got floor damage on landing seven."

What. The. Heck. Was. A. HIPPO DOING IN THEIR CRUISE SHIP?

"What do you want me to do about it, Jorge?" asked the voice from the walkie-talkie.

"What do you think we need to do?" snapped the cruise man, Jorge. "Fix it!"

"How?"

"With an axe! With tiles! I don't care, you're the guy with the tools!"

"The guy with the tools?"

"Yes!"

"There's a hippo on our cruise ship, dear cruise man, dear cruise man, there's a hippo on our cruise ship, dear cruise man, a hippo," sang a new female voice from outside the door.

Jorge the cruise worker jerked up. What was happening to his life? Was he hallucinating? What the heck was happening? He walked over to the door and unlatched it to see a young girl who looked around ten or eleven standing there with brown hair pulled up into a floppy bun. She was wearing a name badge that read I'm Not Kylie.

"Who are you?" he demanded. "Do you know anything about the hippo?"

"Yeah."

"What?!"

"It's a hippo."

Jorge's eyes flamed. "Thanks. Anything else?"

"No. Thank you." The girl turned around and ran off.

Jorge moaned, slumping against his door. What had he gotten himself into?

Severus was sitting on the very top floor, the thirteenth floor, by the jogging track. He was sitting on a beach chair, watching the people who were jogging.

One person in particular.

Charity's blonde hair was tied up into a loose ponytail. She was wearing a sweatband, a black tank top, and black tights. She had stopped to take water once, but other than that, she'd been jogging quite proficiently.

Severus watched her, not quite sure why he was watching her, but he hadn't really noticed how… how different she was. She was bubbly. Enthusiastic. Yet nice. And she was pretty.

Ergh, not that thought again.

Severus was going to have to monitor his thoughts. Nobody could take Lily's place. Lily was his one and only. His one love. The only love he had, the only love he would ever have.

End of discussion.

So why was he feeling… so weird? Something inside him was just not adding up. It wasn't love, no, definitely not yet… not at all… but it was something. Something he didn't have, yet something he wanted. Something he didn't have.

He didn't just want to love.

He wanted love.

McGonagall sighed as students started knocking on her door.

"Come in."

Her fourth-year batch of students came in with quills and notebooks.

"What are we learning today?"

"What we were learning before the cruise. Did everyone forget?" snapped McGonagall.

The students didn't say anything.

"Fine. We're learning about the Laws of Transfiguration… in detail. More detail than last year. So, who can tell me-"

Another student knocked on the door.

"You may not be late!" barked McGonagall. "We already have a lack of time due to the cruise. Please come in and do not disrupt the class… Wait. You are not in my class."

"Yeah," replied the student, "I'm in Professor Trelawney's Divination class."

"Me too!"

"Me too!"

McGonagall's eyes widened in horror as a new batch of kids lined up outside the door.

"Are we both going to be teaching here?" she asked Trelawney.

"Yes. You will take that side. I will take the bed. Come in, my prodigies."

McGonagall growled.

One of these days, she was going to murder someone.

"Come on, Ron, we need to get the front row seats!" whispered Hermione. "Where's Harry?"

"He went to talk to Ginny."

"Why?"

"Because Ginny is mad at him. And me. But we're always mad at each other, so it's nothing big."

"Oh. Okay, then. What did Harry do?"

"I don't know… oh, well, I do. It's a long story. Forget it."

"Tell me later, then," suggested Hermione. "Oh, great. People have already taken front row seats… and it's thirty minutes until the show starts!"

"I guess it's really popular," said Ron, sinking down into a chair on the third row. "Ergh, I can't see. This woman is tall."

"Too bad."

"Come on! I can't even see-"

Their bicker led them throughout the entire half an hour before the curtains drew open, the room hushed, and the lights dimmed.

"Welcome to the magic show! We have brought a magician with us today. Give it up for Jamie!"

The audience burst into cheers as a lean, tall man walked onto the stage, grinning.

"Where's his wand?" whispered Ron.

"Shut up," whispered Hermione.

Jamie started doing "magic", which the audience seemed to love, but Ron and Hermione both thought it was stupid.

Particularly Ron.

"But… But that's so easy! Why is everyone going crazy? He just used Wingardium Leviosa!"

Hermione smirked. "He doesn't know that spell. I think he's just using sleight-of-hand."

Ron frowned.

"What a waste of time."

A/N: Dumbledore dived off of a cruise ship and into the sea. DO NOT DO THIS. YOU WILL DIE.

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