Disclaimer

I do not own any of the characters in this chapter, except Sniffy, although I got the idea of a genie from the book. The scenes I wrote later on were mostly from the book itself. So.. no suing and more reviewing!

Paradise In Hell

This was hell, as she bent down to pick up a piece of driftwood on the wet sand. It had just rained and all Hermione could feel was wet sand, wet sand, and more wet sand.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Sniffy, the stupid, useless genie, made it clear that she was not supposed to wish for any huts or food. Everything was supposed to be as Muggle-like as possible. In Hermione's opinion, the genie was just for show. Fortunate for him, he went back to his bottle as soon as he saw the look on Hermione's face.

And right now, she has to resort to make her own hut. She definitely did NOT want to spend the rest of the two weeks sleeping on sand, or rather, wet sand.

Plus, earlier that morning, she and Draco had a serious disagreement over where to set up both their tents, which led to another war between them.

Flashback

Hermione persisted.

Draco refused to compromise.

For the last hour, he had had contrary opinions about whatever Hermione said. He wouldn't listen to her suggestions and he spent a wealth of time tossing off a plethora of rude comments about Mudbloods and nerds having no life and how Hermione belonged to that category.

"Look, Granger, I'm not going to agree with you. Give it up. I say we built the huts here and that's that. A smart person would have figured that out. Of course, you're not a smart person, so I forgive your stupidity and ignorance."

There was not one time that Hermione enjoyed sparring with Draco Malfoy; and this time was one of the worst.

"You. Need. An. Attitude. Change." She retorted, stabbing her finger into his chest as she said every word. But by God, his chest sure was muscular. Hermione could almost feel his muscles behind his thin gray shirt which seemed to bring his eyes out even more.

"Oh, yeah?" Draco challenged.

"Yeah." Hermione confirmed.

They played a waiting game. He raked her with a hot look she saw for exactly what it was. The look that reduced them to the two different sexes. An elemental look that cast her into the weaker role.

"You haven't even given me three good reasons why we should build the huts here."

"You don't need three. Just one."

"And what, may that be?"

"What I say counts."

Hermione let her exasperation show.

"What? Just because whatever it is you say, it counts? It just counts? Like that?" she snapped her fingers.

Draco blinked at her fingers. He never could snap like that, not that he needed to. He was someone who had authority and he didn't need any finger snapping to get him what he wanted.

He stared at her face and saw sweat dribbling down one side of the face. A few strands of her hair stuck to that side of the face and Draco felt like reaching out and tucking it back behind her ears. In fact, he did. Damn, he just couldn't control his hand movements when he was with this girl.

"W-what was that for?" Hermione's face flushed.

"Nothing. It was irritating me and adding to your ugliness, too. Decided to do you a kind act. Good deed for the day, you know." Draco's tone was hard, yet he knew that he was telling a huge, gigantic lie.

For a moment, Hermione looked as if she was going to cry and then, the glassy look in her eyes was quickly taken over by a fiery look.

"You irritating bas-"

"Uh-uh. You ain't poking my chest anymore." Draco said as he grabbed her fingers, which were about to drill into his chest once again.

"So what if I do? You can't do the same to me." Hermione's voice had a challenging ring to it. She tried to wriggle her fingers out of his tight grasp.

"Can't I?" Draco seemingly took up the challenge.

Hermione gasped. "You wouldn't…"

Draco grabbed both her hands and pointed a finger of his at her breasts. Hermione gasped loudly as Draco poked her in one of her breasts.

Draco's knees felt a bit weak. He didn't think he would do that. It was just a rash and impulsive thought. Yet he wouldn't let his shock show in front of Hermione.

He just let both her hands go and said coolly, "Soft." Then he turned away, leaving Hermione's mouth gaping open.

"Draco Malfoy. You stand right there." She said dangerously then quickly walked over to him.

Draco raised his well-defined eyebrows. He didn't believe she would do anything. She did. She slapped him; right across the face.

Draco felt his face sting from the blow. It was one of those rare moments when he felt that life had just dealt him a deuce. He thought it had always dealt him aces.

Just as he was about to speak, Hermione shouted at him, "Don't you dare think that I wouldn't do it again and NEVER do whatever you did just now."

To add oil to the fuel, Draco simply said, "You wouldn't do it again."

Hermione slapped him again for the nerve he had.

"Yes I would." She said, and walked away, feeling a small victory.

End Flashback

By late afternoon, they had reached an agreement not to kill each other. They had built their huts on different spots, though they weren't far away.

Hermione smiled at her hut in self-satisfaction. She thought it looked great, even though there were small pieces of wood sticking out in a few areas. In many areas, actually, just that she had tried to conceal them just so that that arrogant pig would not laugh at what she had built.

He did. "What are you building? A tepee?"

"And what did YOU build? Don't look like some mansion to me," Hermione smirked. She thought Draco's hut looked much more worse than hers.

Draco thought her hut was the worst looking

hut he had ever seen, even worse than his. And he told her so, even though she didn't care. She was too busy frowning.

"What now?" Draco asked, exasperated.

"Shut up. I'm thinking." It took every ounce of strength in Draco not to roll his eyes heavenward. That stupid woman was always thinking about one thing or another.

"Big surprise," Draco muttered to himself as he returned to his hut to get a nap. He was getting damn tired just building a stupid hut and looking at Hermione.

After awhile, Draco did get a big surprise. There was food, by the lot. Right in front of a cozy campfire. And around the campfire were long pieces of fresh driftwood. They seemed to be benches. What's best was that there was a leather bag of daily necessities like tooth brushes, tooth powder, shampoo, soap and many other heavenly stuff.

Just then, before Draco could keep his shocked look to himself, Hermione arrived.

Damn her, why does she have to show up now? Of all times… Draco thought.

Hermione took one good look at Draco and bit her lips from laughing out loud. He looked so shocked and for a moment she thought she saw delight somewhere deep in his eyes. Instead, she smiled.

"I wished for necessities and surprisingly, it wasn't against the laws!" she said amazingly.

Draco gave a curt nod and said nothing more. He just didn't understand why she wished for necessities, out of all things. He wasn't sure if he would do the same. He knows that he should at least say "thank you" or something to that extent, yet he couldn't bring himself to say so. So he just smiled at Hermione, hoping against hope that the smile would seem cold to her.

It definitely didn't. Hermione thought his smile was beautiful. She didn't tell him so, for she was afraid of his reaction.

"You should do that more often." She muttered to herself.

Draco caught it. "What?" he asked, even though he caught every word of what she said.

"Nothing." Hermione shook her head. "I caught a fish. You hungry?"

Draco shrugged and Hermione took his shrug for a 'yes'. Guys just had the funniest way of saying 'yes' or 'no'.

She pulled her wet hair back and tied it back with a tight band. She was glad that she took a bath, using the soap and shampoo. She lathered herself and thought she had died and gone to heaven. The water came from a waterfall and was cooling and heavenly. She dived under it for many times and saw an amazing plunge pool beneath the waterfall.

"There's a waterfall if you go further back into the woods. You can bathe there if you want." Hermione said, keeping her head down, so Draco wouldn't see her flushed and silly-looking face. Too late. Draco already saw it, but he decided to ignore it. He noticed that the girl blushed for the slightest reason.

"Bathe? With water?"

"Oh." Hermione quickly shoved in his outreached hand a shaving kit. Draco looked at her in amusement.

"I don't have a stubble, Granger. Why do I need a shaving kit for?"

Hermione looked at his face and squinted to make sure that he had nothing beneath his chin. Draco restrained himself from laughing when he saw Hermione frown and take the shaving kit back from him.

"It came together along with the other stuff…" she started to explain.

"Don't have to explain anything to me. I just need the soap and the rest of the washing stuff."

In a matter of seconds, in his hands was a bag of the necessities, including the shaving kit.

Draco quickly turned around and walked away before Hermione caught his smile.

While Draco took his bath, Hermione quickly got to work by sticking a wooden stick into the fish she caught previously. She had went into the waster, knee-deep, and rolled her skirt up and tucked it between her legs. There, she had caught her very first fish.

She was still beaming with pride when she was cooking the prize she caught. Draco saw the look of pride on her face and recognized it immediately for what it was. It was the same look that Hermione wore every time she did something right or aced a test in school.

Draco fingered his teeth and was amazed at how well the tooth powder had done the job. It was perfectly clean and the reflection he saw in the water was satisfying. He walked over and settled down on one of the driftwood around the campfire and tossed her the bag of necessities.

"Here," came a low growl.

Hermione frowned and was about to give him a good ticking for being ungrateful when she looked up and saw Draco drying his wet hair with a towel. HER towel.

Hermione screamed. Draco looked at her coolly.

"What?" he drawled.

"T-that's my towel!" Draco looked at the towel in his hands. He suddenly noticed that it was pink in color.

"So it is…" he mused.

"Yes, it is," Hermione hissed back.

"Is mine the green one, then?" Draco asked in an unconcerned tone.

Hermione rolled her eyes. There were only two towels, if his towel wasn't pink, then… what else is there to say? Besides… pink is a girl's color, isn't it?

Draco tossed the pink towel to her and walked over to take the green towel from her. He kept walking over without looking down at his feet.

He tripped over a larger piece of rotten wood and fell face first in the sand.

His face was wet from the bath he just had and the sand was on every inch of his face. He looked up and spat out sand from his mouth.

He was about to get up when Hermione said, "Stop. Don't move."

Draco's hands were on his side, about to prompt himself up. He spat another mouthful of sand. "Why?" he spat.

"Because I want to remember you just as you are."

She tried hard not to laugh. She really tried. And failed.

Draco grumbled to himself as he ate the half-cooked fish he held. Some bits of it were raw and the other parts tasted bad, too.

"Don't you know how to cook, huh, Granger?"

"Not really," Hermione admitted. "Never did much cooking at home."

"Yeah, figures," Draco answered with a snort.

"Well, what about you, huh, pretty boy? I bet you never have to lift a finger at home. Just a bell ringing will send hundreds of servants to you, maybe just to kiss your feet." Hermione retorted, her voice indignant.

Draco smirked. "Yeah, but my feet sure taste better than your lips." He knew that he had just told a lie again.

Hermione kept silent, head bent down. She didn't want to believe it was true, but at the back of her head, she was wondering if what he said was true. After all, maybe that's the reason why he walked away from her so suddenly.

"Are you done eating?" Hermione asked quietly.

No answer. Draco just tossed the half-eaten fish into the fire and watched it burn in the fiery red flames.

"Fine," said Hermione, as she threw her own half-eaten fish into the fire too and walked over to the sea and washed her delicate hands in the sea water.

Draco knew that he had hurt her, but he didn't want to care about what he had said. He seldom did. In fact, he only cared about what he said to his mother, and no one else. Not even his damn father. He didn't deserve any respect from anyone, least of all from his own son, for the despicable acts he has done and will always do in future.

Yet, Draco found out that he did care a bit for Hermione, for the strangest reason. He didn't want to feel care and concern for someone like her. He tried to think about how illogical and unreasonable person she is and how he should hate her instead. But these thoughts harboring hate quickly changed to their kiss together.

Right now, she was just sitting down on these big piece of rock, her knees propped up and arms rested on them. Her chin was also resting on her arms and she looked so peaceful just sitting there. The only thing Draco hoped was that she wasn't doing her favorite sport again: thinking. She seemed to be doing that constantly.

Draco decided not to let the flames extinguish by pouring sand on it, so he just walked over to the sea and washed his hands. After that, he suddenly felt lost, as if he didn't know what to do. He just stood there with his hands in the pocket, and only realized that he was standing close to the sea when the high tides came in and tickled his toes.

He turned in the direction of Hermione and saw her head buried in her arms. Her hair, now dry, was on her back, spread out like a halo above the head of an angel.

He didn't know what drove him to do it, but he suddenly went over quietly to Hermione and sat down beside her.

"Hey," he said gently.

Hermione looked up and Draco thought he saw that her cheeks were tear-streaked. Damn, he thought, she had been thinking again.

"Look." He suddenly said, pointing to the sky. Hermione, glad that Draco hadn't seen her tears, looked at the direction where he was pointing.

It took a little time for her eyes to adjust to the light. She could hear the waves hitting against the shore, the caw of sea gulls. She also caught the sweet tropical scent of something wet and green she suspected was the sea.

She knelt down on the flat rock and froze. Everything froze – her ability to speak, her breath and for an instant, her heartbeat.

Spread out before her was a broad cove of a tropical inlet, entirely arched in a thick rainbow of pink, purple, blue and yellow. Beneath the rainbow were lush green hills. In the distance was the high, dark cone of a volcano. A small cloud of mist ringed the tall peak and made the island look as if it touched the heavens above.

The water in the cove bled from deep aqua blue to pale green to a brilliant silvery color just before it foamed like spun sugar into the wet sand. Spiky pandanus palms and bushes thick with flowers the color of the tropical sunset spread from the green hills all the way down to the edge of the beach, where the white sand took on pink tints from the cast of the slowly setting sun.

Even the sky was different here. The late afternoon sun was a yellowish-pink ball in the west, where clouds strolled by wearing colors of gray and lavender. It was the same sky, yet it seemed too brilliant for it to be earthly. Perhaps it was because this island's beauty was something she had never before experienced.

Like yesterday's dream, the rainbow had faded. A cloud blocked the sun, but there was still enough tropical warmth to cause steam to rise up from the sand and from the lush green ferns and bushes behind the beach. Tall coconut palms waved in the trade wind like welcoming hands. Their color turned from green to violet to purple while the gleam of the sea blended from silver to pink.

Surprised that something like that could touch her so deeply, Hermione stared at the changing colors so real, yet so unreal. She had seen islands, had seen the setting sun and pink skies after a storm. She had seen many beaches during her holidays with her family.

But it was so different it was hard to believe it was the same South Seas that she had known all her life. There was more than just a sense of peace about this island. More than a place saturated in beauty. It was untouched, isolated, as if the world had passed it by. Not forsaken, but hidden. A treasure so precious, the nature had protected it.

Draco had tapped her shoulder to get her attention, but Hermione still couldn't tear her eyes away from the beauty that lies before her. All she could say was, "This is paradise."