Chapter 6: High Tide
"Well." Hermionie began rather ponderously.
"Oh, just give up on the genius-in-thinking mode, Herm, and get on with it!"
"Well, I figure that we can just follow either one of these two tunnels." She gestured to the two tunnels that branched off, one to the right, the other to the left.
"So, which one?" Asked Draco nonchalantly, he had taken to leaning up against one of the walls, and had been looking up through the gaping hole that he'd fallen through (made bigger by Hermionie sliding in).
"I vote left." Suggested Ron.
"Well I'd vote right, but with my luck I'd probably be wrong." Suggested Ali.
"Of course, that's because you're a muggle." Presumed Draco.
They all glared at him. "What may I ask does your little 'nickname' for me, have to do with any of my opinions?" When she said 'nickname' it pulled giggles from Ron and Hermionie, and a rather noticeable shudder from Draco, the thought of giving a muggle a 'nickname' sounded so unbelievably wrong.
"Don't think that I'd ever give
"Don't think that I'd ever give you a nickname, you filthy little, moronic, ugly, muggle."
Tears welled up to Ali's eyes, "Shut it Malfoy." Said Ron,clenching his fists like he cared, when in reality, he was just looking for a reason to fight Draco.
"Yeah Draco." Said Hermionie, her eyes were sort-of glazed over, and she was remembering all of the times that Draco had called her mudblood.
Ali stood up, silently walked up to Draco, and pushed him, roughly, into the wall he was standing by. Dirt-clods fell down on him. He clenched his fists and advanced on her, but before he could do anything she hit him, openhanded across the back of his head. Hemionie and Ron thought that they heard her mumble "Thank you, signature smack." She was kind of known for doing that to people who rudely insulted her, but until now she had been trying to stop. Draco groped wildly for his wand. He felt his fingertips touch it, but before he could pick the wand up, a firm hand gripped his wrist. He looked up "I don't think so, use of that would make this fight unfair now wouldn't it?" Ali said rather reprimanding. Draco pulled back his arm (the one that she wasn't holding) and felt his fist connect with the side of her face. This caused her to take a few steps back, and clutch her face; she couldn't believe that he'd hit her back, most of the other guys that she'd hit were too gentlemanly to hit her back. Her stepping back gave him a chance to grab his wand, though he didn't exactly rush, he was too surprised by his actions, when Crabbe and Goyle were around, he hadn't ever hit anybody (except for the house elves but they didn't count), let alone any girls. He picked up his wand, heard a gasp, and looked over at Hermionie who had gasped. He wanted to hear her gasp again, it made him feel so powerful, but what spell to use? Then he saw Ron, he knew exactly what spell to cast. He pointed his wand at her, and just as she sprang to hit him again he cast the spell. "Slugerium!*" The green jet familiar with that spell shot into her stomach with the trademark bang. She flew back, and slid down the wall to to the floor, looking queasy and dizzy.
Hermionie and Ron recognized that spell, "Oh no." started Ron, he remembered how unpleasant that had been.
"Draco, why did you do that?" Asked Hermionie, running over.
"Hermionie, I'd back up if I were you." Ron looked slightly nervous, what would happen when the slugs came?
"Yeah who'd want to touch that?" (a/n: Guess who. Some things are going to be so obviously Draco, that I've decided to stop putting "Said Draco." After them all.)
Both Hermionie and Ron turned on him, "SHUT IT MALFOY!" Ali wanted to add her input, but at the moment she couldn't. She just gave a moan, and rolled onto her stomach; that was when the slugs came. She pushed herself up with her hands so that her face wasn't in the dirt, then she rose to lean on her knees. She could feel stuff coming up her throat, but it didn't feel like the normal feeling you get when you're going to be sick, it was slimy, and she could feel small things moving.
"What'd you." What she had meant to say was "What'd you do to me?" But "What'd you." was the farthest she got, her mouth was flooded with the worst tasting and feeling stuff in the world. (a/n: I've never eaten slugs before, so I have no idea how they taste, I'm just making this up.) She quickly spit it out, and couldn't believe her eyes! She could feel more coming up. "Ewwwww." She began as more slugs poured out of her open mouth. It felt, tasted, smelled, looked, and was completely flat-out horrible, so Ali did the only thing that she felt was sensible: she cried.
Now to Hermionie and Draco this was possibly the most disgusting thing that they could ever hope to see: a muggle, hunched over, hair dangling in her face; the dirt surrounding her and her covered in slime; her body shaking due to the loud sobs issuing from her; her face and hair were covered in slug slime, sand, and salt-water from her tears; there were slugs crawling through the sand onto which they had come out. Up until this point Draco had been laughing like a maniac. This was even funnier than when it happened to Weasley, but now Draco felt like he was going to be sick. Hermionie felt like she was going to cry from pity for the poor muggle, and now she also felt as if she would be joining her in throwing up. They both turned away.
Ron was the only one who could handle this. Of course this was mainly because it'd happened to him. Though, it was also largely due to the things that he'd been forced to face in all of the years of having to deal with the down-side to attending Hogwarts and befriending Harry, three headed dogs, trolls, vicious plants, giant killer chess pieces, bogarts, convicts, werewolves, and the worst: spiders, among other things. He felt a great deal of pity for this poor girl, she was after all a muggle, and therefore she had not been given any chance in this battle, she had no magic, nor a wand. He slowly walked over and put a reassuring hand on her back. She slightly raised her head, and although he couldn't see her eyes, he knew that she was looking at him through her hair. "Thank." was all that she could get out before more slugs came out, but he understood what she meant. He patted her back as she turned away from him, crying even harder. By this time she had cried harder than she ever had in her life, and a small pool. The slugs that had come out with "Thank." were probably the unluckiest slugs ever. They had come out of darkness into light, only to land in a pool of, you guessed it, saltwater. You know what happens to slugs when they come into contact with salt. They began fizzing, the sight was disgusting. Ali felt horrid; she didn't like to kill anything, and when it rained, she prided herself on saving as many snails and worms as she could. She had to turn away, as to not face the revolting scene, but also to save the next slugs coming up. She now felt the worst possible hatred that she'd ever felt, it was to Draco, and this was his entire fault. She gave one more heave, and, that was it, those were the last ones. She was etenally grateful, but this was the beginning of an awful feud between Ali and Draco, she'd make him pay.
She wiped her mouth off with the back of her arm; it felt awful, but it was currently the best that she could do. She looked up at Ron, her eyes telling him truthful thank yous. "You guys can turn around now, I'm done." She glared, mostly at Draco but also at Hermionie; who had turned away at her time of need.
Just then, it felt like someone had dropped two pounds of bricks on Ali's head. "Oh! My! Gosh! You weren't lying!" She turned to Hermionie, "You're.", then turned to Draco, "And you're really.", and finally whirled on Ron, "You mean you're." She felt her words fail her, the world started and going dark. 'Oh no! Don't.' Were her last thoughts before she crumpled to the ground in a dead faint. Ron looked at her and rolled his eyes, "Now she gets it!" Hermionie pulled out her wand and levitated Ali.
"Wingardium Leviosa! So, did we decide on the left tunnel?"
"Yes, I think we did." Said Ron, stepping forward to lead; but it was too late for him to be the leader, Hermionie had already stepped down into the tunnel. So, since Ali was technically in front of Hermionie, the order was Ali, Hermionie, Ron, and Draco.
The tunnel went on for a long while, and never had any slope. Just when Draco thought that he might collapse from the effort of walking so far, there was a shout from upahead. "Guys!" called Hermionie.
When Draco and Ron caught up to her, there was a small, cave-like hollow, and it was a dead end. "Don't worry! I'll simply blast our way out!" Said Ron, sounding suprisingly like Professor Lockheart, from their second year. He pointed his wand valiantly at the opposing wall, "Dyanamo!**" A yellow bolt flew from his wand, and hit the wall dead on, but the wall was too thick for that spell. The bolt ricoched off, hit the celing, and finally struck the part of the wall, right next to the entrance where the walls were the thinnest. There was a large cave-in, and when the dust cleared, the entrance was too blocked off for them to get through without magic, and after that they weren't sure what would do help, and what would do harm.
"Oh great." Draco rolled his eyes. "What d'ya propose that we do now?" He asked Hermionie.
"Well I have an idea, but I need more power than we have to do it. So, I've got nothing." She sat down, roughly lowering her wand, causing Ali to fall on Draco. Draco splashed into a puddle.
"Hey." He told Ali, rubbing his lower back. Ali moaned, and looked around.
"Hermionie?" asked Ron, "Was that puddle that Draco just fell into there before?"
"I don't remember it being there."
"I feel like I've been hit by a speeding bus." Ali moaned loudly.
"Shh! Listen!" Said Hermionie bossily. It sounded like they were inside a conch shell being held up to someone's ear. Hermionie, noticed the place where Ron's bolt had hit, water was leaking out of a series of cracks that had spread. "Oh no!" She saw the cracks begin to open. "Guys get ready for a serious high tide!"
"What?"
"Look, and hold your breath!" she pointed. They watched as the wall began to open, and water roughly swept them up against the hard rocky wall. Ali screamed and grabbed onto Ron, who was holding onto Hermionie's hand, Hermionie was clutching at Draco desperately. The water swept in quickly, and just as their air supply was almost cut off, Draco looked into Hermionie's eyes.
"Hermionie, thank you."
"What?"
"You're amazing." He whispered as he leaned in, lightly touching his lips to hers. Quickly pulling away for a breath, and roughly going back for more. Hermionie pulled back, surprised, but then warmed up to this idea. That was her last conscious feeling, that utter bliss that your stomach gives you when you're kissing somebody who you like, and who likes you back. (a/n: okay, now, no teasing, but I have no idea what on earth I'm talking about, as I've never even been kissed by someone whom I don't like.)
Ron looked at them disgusted, and just kept a nice strong hold onto Hermionie's hand; he didn't even have to try to hold onto Ali. She was clutching him so hard he thought that his ribs would break. "Ali, let go!" he said as water began to fill his mouth, and breathed in deeply through his nose. She loosened her grip, took a deep breath, and lightly clung onto his chest. Their final thoughts were, 'Hey this isn't so bad.' And 'Boy, could I get used to this!'
*Okay, I made this up because in this book, Ron doesn't even have to do anything to make the spell work. It came from the word "Slug".
**Made this up as well, because I didn't know what to use. It came from the word "Dynamite".
All right I liked that, I didn't get as far as I would've liked. Right now I'd like to give a shout out to Julie, Nolan, Janet, and Becca, since you four are the ones that I expect to read this. Thanks for your ideas, and if you write any, please send them to me, you know that I'll LOVE them! Chao for now, or at least until France fries Turkey in Greece.
"Well." Hermionie began rather ponderously.
"Oh, just give up on the genius-in-thinking mode, Herm, and get on with it!"
"Well, I figure that we can just follow either one of these two tunnels." She gestured to the two tunnels that branched off, one to the right, the other to the left.
"So, which one?" Asked Draco nonchalantly, he had taken to leaning up against one of the walls, and had been looking up through the gaping hole that he'd fallen through (made bigger by Hermionie sliding in).
"I vote left." Suggested Ron.
"Well I'd vote right, but with my luck I'd probably be wrong." Suggested Ali.
"Of course, that's because you're a muggle." Presumed Draco.
They all glared at him. "What may I ask does your little 'nickname' for me, have to do with any of my opinions?" When she said 'nickname' it pulled giggles from Ron and Hermionie, and a rather noticeable shudder from Draco, the thought of giving a muggle a 'nickname' sounded so unbelievably wrong.
"Don't think that I'd ever give
"Don't think that I'd ever give you a nickname, you filthy little, moronic, ugly, muggle."
Tears welled up to Ali's eyes, "Shut it Malfoy." Said Ron,clenching his fists like he cared, when in reality, he was just looking for a reason to fight Draco.
"Yeah Draco." Said Hermionie, her eyes were sort-of glazed over, and she was remembering all of the times that Draco had called her mudblood.
Ali stood up, silently walked up to Draco, and pushed him, roughly, into the wall he was standing by. Dirt-clods fell down on him. He clenched his fists and advanced on her, but before he could do anything she hit him, openhanded across the back of his head. Hemionie and Ron thought that they heard her mumble "Thank you, signature smack." She was kind of known for doing that to people who rudely insulted her, but until now she had been trying to stop. Draco groped wildly for his wand. He felt his fingertips touch it, but before he could pick the wand up, a firm hand gripped his wrist. He looked up "I don't think so, use of that would make this fight unfair now wouldn't it?" Ali said rather reprimanding. Draco pulled back his arm (the one that she wasn't holding) and felt his fist connect with the side of her face. This caused her to take a few steps back, and clutch her face; she couldn't believe that he'd hit her back, most of the other guys that she'd hit were too gentlemanly to hit her back. Her stepping back gave him a chance to grab his wand, though he didn't exactly rush, he was too surprised by his actions, when Crabbe and Goyle were around, he hadn't ever hit anybody (except for the house elves but they didn't count), let alone any girls. He picked up his wand, heard a gasp, and looked over at Hermionie who had gasped. He wanted to hear her gasp again, it made him feel so powerful, but what spell to use? Then he saw Ron, he knew exactly what spell to cast. He pointed his wand at her, and just as she sprang to hit him again he cast the spell. "Slugerium!*" The green jet familiar with that spell shot into her stomach with the trademark bang. She flew back, and slid down the wall to to the floor, looking queasy and dizzy.
Hermionie and Ron recognized that spell, "Oh no." started Ron, he remembered how unpleasant that had been.
"Draco, why did you do that?" Asked Hermionie, running over.
"Hermionie, I'd back up if I were you." Ron looked slightly nervous, what would happen when the slugs came?
"Yeah who'd want to touch that?" (a/n: Guess who. Some things are going to be so obviously Draco, that I've decided to stop putting "Said Draco." After them all.)
Both Hermionie and Ron turned on him, "SHUT IT MALFOY!" Ali wanted to add her input, but at the moment she couldn't. She just gave a moan, and rolled onto her stomach; that was when the slugs came. She pushed herself up with her hands so that her face wasn't in the dirt, then she rose to lean on her knees. She could feel stuff coming up her throat, but it didn't feel like the normal feeling you get when you're going to be sick, it was slimy, and she could feel small things moving.
"What'd you." What she had meant to say was "What'd you do to me?" But "What'd you." was the farthest she got, her mouth was flooded with the worst tasting and feeling stuff in the world. (a/n: I've never eaten slugs before, so I have no idea how they taste, I'm just making this up.) She quickly spit it out, and couldn't believe her eyes! She could feel more coming up. "Ewwwww." She began as more slugs poured out of her open mouth. It felt, tasted, smelled, looked, and was completely flat-out horrible, so Ali did the only thing that she felt was sensible: she cried.
Now to Hermionie and Draco this was possibly the most disgusting thing that they could ever hope to see: a muggle, hunched over, hair dangling in her face; the dirt surrounding her and her covered in slime; her body shaking due to the loud sobs issuing from her; her face and hair were covered in slug slime, sand, and salt-water from her tears; there were slugs crawling through the sand onto which they had come out. Up until this point Draco had been laughing like a maniac. This was even funnier than when it happened to Weasley, but now Draco felt like he was going to be sick. Hermionie felt like she was going to cry from pity for the poor muggle, and now she also felt as if she would be joining her in throwing up. They both turned away.
Ron was the only one who could handle this. Of course this was mainly because it'd happened to him. Though, it was also largely due to the things that he'd been forced to face in all of the years of having to deal with the down-side to attending Hogwarts and befriending Harry, three headed dogs, trolls, vicious plants, giant killer chess pieces, bogarts, convicts, werewolves, and the worst: spiders, among other things. He felt a great deal of pity for this poor girl, she was after all a muggle, and therefore she had not been given any chance in this battle, she had no magic, nor a wand. He slowly walked over and put a reassuring hand on her back. She slightly raised her head, and although he couldn't see her eyes, he knew that she was looking at him through her hair. "Thank." was all that she could get out before more slugs came out, but he understood what she meant. He patted her back as she turned away from him, crying even harder. By this time she had cried harder than she ever had in her life, and a small pool. The slugs that had come out with "Thank." were probably the unluckiest slugs ever. They had come out of darkness into light, only to land in a pool of, you guessed it, saltwater. You know what happens to slugs when they come into contact with salt. They began fizzing, the sight was disgusting. Ali felt horrid; she didn't like to kill anything, and when it rained, she prided herself on saving as many snails and worms as she could. She had to turn away, as to not face the revolting scene, but also to save the next slugs coming up. She now felt the worst possible hatred that she'd ever felt, it was to Draco, and this was his entire fault. She gave one more heave, and, that was it, those were the last ones. She was etenally grateful, but this was the beginning of an awful feud between Ali and Draco, she'd make him pay.
She wiped her mouth off with the back of her arm; it felt awful, but it was currently the best that she could do. She looked up at Ron, her eyes telling him truthful thank yous. "You guys can turn around now, I'm done." She glared, mostly at Draco but also at Hermionie; who had turned away at her time of need.
Just then, it felt like someone had dropped two pounds of bricks on Ali's head. "Oh! My! Gosh! You weren't lying!" She turned to Hermionie, "You're.", then turned to Draco, "And you're really.", and finally whirled on Ron, "You mean you're." She felt her words fail her, the world started and going dark. 'Oh no! Don't.' Were her last thoughts before she crumpled to the ground in a dead faint. Ron looked at her and rolled his eyes, "Now she gets it!" Hermionie pulled out her wand and levitated Ali.
"Wingardium Leviosa! So, did we decide on the left tunnel?"
"Yes, I think we did." Said Ron, stepping forward to lead; but it was too late for him to be the leader, Hermionie had already stepped down into the tunnel. So, since Ali was technically in front of Hermionie, the order was Ali, Hermionie, Ron, and Draco.
The tunnel went on for a long while, and never had any slope. Just when Draco thought that he might collapse from the effort of walking so far, there was a shout from upahead. "Guys!" called Hermionie.
When Draco and Ron caught up to her, there was a small, cave-like hollow, and it was a dead end. "Don't worry! I'll simply blast our way out!" Said Ron, sounding suprisingly like Professor Lockheart, from their second year. He pointed his wand valiantly at the opposing wall, "Dyanamo!**" A yellow bolt flew from his wand, and hit the wall dead on, but the wall was too thick for that spell. The bolt ricoched off, hit the celing, and finally struck the part of the wall, right next to the entrance where the walls were the thinnest. There was a large cave-in, and when the dust cleared, the entrance was too blocked off for them to get through without magic, and after that they weren't sure what would do help, and what would do harm.
"Oh great." Draco rolled his eyes. "What d'ya propose that we do now?" He asked Hermionie.
"Well I have an idea, but I need more power than we have to do it. So, I've got nothing." She sat down, roughly lowering her wand, causing Ali to fall on Draco. Draco splashed into a puddle.
"Hey." He told Ali, rubbing his lower back. Ali moaned, and looked around.
"Hermionie?" asked Ron, "Was that puddle that Draco just fell into there before?"
"I don't remember it being there."
"I feel like I've been hit by a speeding bus." Ali moaned loudly.
"Shh! Listen!" Said Hermionie bossily. It sounded like they were inside a conch shell being held up to someone's ear. Hermionie, noticed the place where Ron's bolt had hit, water was leaking out of a series of cracks that had spread. "Oh no!" She saw the cracks begin to open. "Guys get ready for a serious high tide!"
"What?"
"Look, and hold your breath!" she pointed. They watched as the wall began to open, and water roughly swept them up against the hard rocky wall. Ali screamed and grabbed onto Ron, who was holding onto Hermionie's hand, Hermionie was clutching at Draco desperately. The water swept in quickly, and just as their air supply was almost cut off, Draco looked into Hermionie's eyes.
"Hermionie, thank you."
"What?"
"You're amazing." He whispered as he leaned in, lightly touching his lips to hers. Quickly pulling away for a breath, and roughly going back for more. Hermionie pulled back, surprised, but then warmed up to this idea. That was her last conscious feeling, that utter bliss that your stomach gives you when you're kissing somebody who you like, and who likes you back. (a/n: okay, now, no teasing, but I have no idea what on earth I'm talking about, as I've never even been kissed by someone whom I don't like.)
Ron looked at them disgusted, and just kept a nice strong hold onto Hermionie's hand; he didn't even have to try to hold onto Ali. She was clutching him so hard he thought that his ribs would break. "Ali, let go!" he said as water began to fill his mouth, and breathed in deeply through his nose. She loosened her grip, took a deep breath, and lightly clung onto his chest. Their final thoughts were, 'Hey this isn't so bad.' And 'Boy, could I get used to this!'
*Okay, I made this up because in this book, Ron doesn't even have to do anything to make the spell work. It came from the word "Slug".
**Made this up as well, because I didn't know what to use. It came from the word "Dynamite".
All right I liked that, I didn't get as far as I would've liked. Right now I'd like to give a shout out to Julie, Nolan, Janet, and Becca, since you four are the ones that I expect to read this. Thanks for your ideas, and if you write any, please send them to me, you know that I'll LOVE them! Chao for now, or at least until France fries Turkey in Greece.