Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with JK Rowling.
Author Note: Well, I had a whole new chapter all written up and ready for upload when
my computer decided to delete my ENTIRE hard drive. Boooo
L So I ended up losing it all. So anyway here is what I came up with trying
to remember the direction of the lost chapter, hope you like J.
Also, thanks to all my reviewers so
far… Crystal Tears,
Hermione18, Ashbrookgirl, Astraea,
swimade333, Slytherin Wolf, Ginger Granger, Eve,
Croft, and Flight O'Fancy.
Summer
Holiday
Chapter 4. The
Beach
Attempting to stifle a
gigantic yawn Hermione rolled out of bed. Rubbing her eyes drowsily she headed for the shower and released a jet
of refreshing water. After a long, energizing
shower she towelled dry and pulled on a bikini covered with frayed denim shorts
and a white tee-shirt, leaving her hair to dry naturally she tiptoed down the
hall towards the kitchen. Peering
silently into the room Hermione sighed with relief seeing it was empty, she
opened the fridge and poured herself a glass of juice, spinning round she
bumped into someone, tipping the orange liquid down their front.
"OH, Shit!" She gasped,
staring up into Harry's bewildered and slightly sleepy gaze. "I thought you
were someone else- I mean you made me jump… uhhh let
me get that for you!" She blurted the flurry of words, her cheeks colouring
nervously.
"Don't worry bout it, 'Mione." He mumbled with a grin, fumbling on the counter and
grabbing his wand. Directing it at
himself Harry muttered a charm and his shirt instantly dried, the stain
vanishing simultaneously. He chuckled,
and pushed gently past the still twitchy looking Hermione. Pouring two glasses of juice he turned back
to face her.
"So what's up with you?" He
asked an eyebrow raised in amusement. Hermione swallowed,
"Nothing," She retorted
defensively, then her cheeks colouring more she shrugged, "I'm just anxious to
see the beach! You up for heading down
there and meeting the others there later when they decide to get up?" She asked
a trace of a plead in her voice. Harry
nodded,
"Sure, sounds good. I'll just grab some stuff." Hermione smiled and her eyes flickered to the
door leading to Bill and the twins' room, the handle suddenly started to turn. Hermione flinched,
"I'll meet you out front,
Harry!" She said before grabbing her bag and bolting for the door.
A few moments later, away from
the villa Hermione had relaxed and was walking chatting contentedly with
Harry. The dusty path which they were
wandering down was hedged by two walls of green leafy foliage, suddenly,
turning a corner the path widened up and a small stretch of bright emerald
grass before dazzling white sand and the sparkling turquoise sea.
"Wow!" Hermione breathed,
hearing Harry echo it beside her.
"This is amazing." He said his
eye scanning the horizon where the glittering ocean met the matt blue of the
cloudless sky. He noticed the small
waves directly in front of them, grew to the left and the far side of beach was
speckled with surfers. Hermione grinned
elbowing him in the ribs,
"HEY! This had better not mean
we don't see you for the rest of the holiday." She joked, grabbing his hand she
charged off across the grass and onto the scorching sand. Dropping their bags and towels in a heap and
shedding their clothes Harry and Hermione dashed into the water splashing
hysterically.
After about an hour of
frenzied water fights and races the pair collapsed onto their towels
breathlessly. Hermione pulled her
sunglasses out of her bag and slipped them on, then digging again in her bag
she found a bottle of sun cream and began to smooth the lotion onto her legs
and arms. Swivelling onto her stomach
she propped herself up by her elbows,
"Harry?"
"Hmm?" He grunted he had been squinting up the beach
scrutinizing the surfers in the waves.
"Can you just do my back for
me? You know how easily I burn." She
said with a giggle remembering their trip to
"Oh, so sorry to interrupt
Harry. You look like you were having
great fun." Fred said smirking and
wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Harry
laughed and got up wiping off his still creamy hands; glancing at Bill he was
taken a back by the thunderous scowl on his face.
"Good morning." Harry said
cheerily.
"Morning." Ron muttered back rubbing his eyes sleepily. Hermione looked up at Ron's tousled hair and
dozy expression,
"You should go in Ron it'll
wake you up." She chuckled. At this Fred and George pulled off their
shirts yelling in excitement and raced over the beach into the waves. Ron yawned and threw his tee-shirt down into
the pile of clothes,
"You coming
in Harry?" He asked, Harry nodded jumping up,
"Yeah I will its so hot in the sun." Ron turned to Hermione.
"Coming, 'Mione?"
He asked, she shook her head.
"No, I'm going to sunbathe a
bit." She replied, rolling onto her back and stretching out and closing her
eyes.
"Bill?" Bill nodded,
"I'll be in, in a minute." He
answered. Ron and Harry headed off
towards the edge of the sea and swam out to where Fred and George were.
The awkward silence was
finally broke by Bill.
"So?" Hermione swallowed, not
having a clue how to reply she stayed quiet. Bill shifted,
"Well Hermione. Don't you have anything to say about last
night?" He demanded. Hermione sat up,
"I don't know I'm confused, so
I don't really know what to say about it,"
"I thought you would be able
to work out what was happening. Obviously I was mistaken." Bill
shot angrily.
"That's not what I meant."
Hermione retorted hotly, "I don't know what I feel about it yet."
"I thought you were mature
enough to figure that out." He replied snidely.
"You're right. I'm the fucking immature one, Bill." Hermione retorted furiously. Standing up she threw her sunglasses down
onto her towel and stormed across the sand to the sea. She swam out to join Harry and Ron in the
deep cool waters of out shore.
"What were you and Bill
arguing about?" Ron asked her, Hermione shrugged,
"Just a
misunderstanding." She answered and
before him or Harry could ask her anything else she dived under the water. Surfacing a little way off Hermione flicked
her wet hair behind her and trod water, suddenly something gripped her
leg. Yelping Hermione lashed out with
both feet, one coming into contact with soft fleshy anatomy. Hearing a squeal of pain and feeling the hold
on her leg released Hermione swivelled in the water and looked at Fred who was
floating on his back his face twisted in a grimace of pain his hands clutching
his crotch. George was spitting out
mouthfuls of water in hysterics. Hermione glared at him,
"What did you do? She
demanded, George laughed,
"ME? Nothing, Fred just
grabbed you leg for a joke and you flipped… and kicked him… in the…" Hermione
rolled her eyes in exasperation and stifled a laugh,
"I thought you were a shark or
something." She said swimming over to Fred and linking his arm to tow him into
shallower water.
"Sorry
Fred, c'mon lets go and get you a drink to, uh, numb the pain." She said
glancing at George and collapsing into laughter. Fred scowled and hobbled with them up the
beach.
"There you go." She said
putting two tall glasses of cold coke in front of the twins.
"Thanks." They replied
slurping their drinks. Hermione grinned
and bending down gave Fred an apologetic kiss on the forehead,
"No problem, I'm going to go
for a walk for a while. I'll see you
guys later." She said. Glancing back to
their pile of towels Hermione saw that Bill had left and swam out to join Harry
and Ron. So she headed over and pulled a
white sarong out of her bag, knotting it around her waist and slipping on her
flip flops she started off along the beach.
After wandering along the edge of the surf, Hermione
spotted another small kiosk at the top of the sand. Ordering lemonade she took the tall glass and
sat down under one of the brightly coloured parasols overlooking the twinkling
sea.
"Hermione?" Turning
Hermione saw Matt and Ben grinning down on her.
"Hello!" Hermione smiled, "You
want to sit down?" She asked, gesturing to the empty chairs around her
table. Matt and Ben nodded and joined
her.
"So did you have a good time
last night?" Ben asked her, his eyes screwed up against the sun. Hermione nodded,
"Yeah it was good. So, what have you been up to today?" Ben looked over at Matt and started laughing,
"Well, me
and the rest of the team have been attempting to teach Ben to surf." Matt said
grinning, Ben shrugged,
"I suck." He said
bluntly. Hermione grinned remembering
Harry's efforts last summer to teach her.
"I'm no good either. Prone to
crashes" She admitted chuckling. Matt
shook his head,
"Come on maybe we can help you
improve, you can't be worse than Ben trust me!" He sniggered. Hermione nodded, and draining her glass she
followed them across the sand back to the edge of the sea.
Hermione and Ben flopped down
onto the sand breathlessly laughing hysterically.
"I did warn you I crashed a
lot." Hermione gasped, "Do you think Matt will forgive me?" She said
grinning. Ben nodded trying to stop
laughing,
"I should think so. I think me and you should stick to the sea
without boards though." He suggested.
"Deal." Hermione said falling back onto her sarong. She and Ben lay there for a few minutes
catching their breath, when he spoke.
"So, those guys you're here
with…" He asked her propping himself up with an elbow and looking at her,
Hermione faced him,
"Well, Harry and Ron, the two
guys my ages are my best friends. Fred
and George the twins are Ron's brothers, and Bill, he's Ron's brother too." She
finished, Ben smiled,
"So none of them are your
boyfriend?" He asked quietly his cheeks colouring slightly, Hermione gulped a
fleeting image of Bill's face the moment before Matt had interrupted them last
night flashed through her mind, followed by his angry, red face earlier that
day. She swallowed,
"No, none of them." She
replied with a grin. Ben sat up and
cleared his throat.
"Do…do you want to go for a
drink tonight? I mean just me and you."
He asked her holding her gaze, Hermione smiled.
"Yeah, I'd like that." Ben
smiled broadly with a sigh of relief.
"Well, shall I come by your
villa later?" He asked, Hermione agreed
and described the route back from the beach.
"Okay. I'll be there about eight." Ben said,
Hermione grinned.
"I better be heading back,
they'll be wondering where I got to." She said straightening up and smoothing
her sarong. Ben got up too.
"I'll see you later then." He
said grinning widely.
"Bye!" Hermione called over
her shoulder to him and waving to the rest of the team who were trooping out of
the waves dragging boards and looking exhausted. She headed back down the beach. Coming into sight of the towels Hermione saw
Ron stretched out on his own. Tiptoeing
over she leapt on his back tickling madly. Ron yelled and threw her off, pinning her to the ground. Hermione guffawed and wriggled out of his
grip.
"Where have you been?" Ron
queried trying to brush the sand off his back.
"Just checking out the beach,
I ran into those footballers again." She answered staring around, "Where are
the others?"
"Oh, they headed back to the
villa, the suns going." Ron said
gesturing to the dimming sky. Hermione
rolled up her towel and shoved it into her wicker bag along with her cream and
sunglasses.
"You ready to go back?" She
asked Ron. He nodded and collected his
stuff and they began the short walk home.
Hermione tilted her head to
the side, in an attempt to see more of herself in the small mirror on her
vanity stand. Sighing in exasperation
she gave up and grabbing her wand from a drawer she muttered,
"Reflectiliousa"
Pointing it at the back of her door, it transformed into a full length
mirror. Hermione examined her outfit, her
cream suede skirt and a white top which showed up her already developing
tan. Grinning at the tanned skin against
the pale fabric, she fiddled with her hair, pulling it up away from her face
and then giving up she let it fall down around her face and down her back in
the natural glossy brunette curls. Her
eyes were outlined in smoky eye shadow which highlighted her sun kissed face,
and her lips had a translucent gloss smeared over them. Checking her watch and grabbing her small
bag, Hermione picked up a pair of suede strappy shoes and exited her room. Wandering into the lounge she sat on the
couch and began fastening the tiny buckles on the shoes. Harry and Ron came in from their room and
flopped down opposite her,
"So when's he picking you up?"
Ron questioned her directly. Both he and
Harry were protective of her. Hermione
rolled her eyes then looked up,
"Uh, he should be here any
minute." She replied with a smile.
"Where's he taking you?" Harry
queried.
"For a drink, I'm not sure
where." Hermione answered vaguely,
"Look, the islands small, if you guys are going out too I'm bound to run into
you." Harry and Ron nodded.
"BILL!" Yelled a voice from
the twins' room and the door flew open and Bill dashed out, he was trying not
to laugh a broad grin across his face. Catching sight of Hermione his face fell instantly, he caught her eye
and feeling a twinge of bother anger and hurt Hermione looked away. Ron frowned confusedly looking from one to
the other and trying to decipher the tension. He glanced at Harry who shrugged looking puzzled. After a split second
of edgy silence, the twins' door opened again and Fred stormed out.
"Bill! How could you do
that?" He roared furiously his back to
the sofas. Bill started slightly and
drew his eyes away from Hermione to look at Fred, he snorted.
"Oh come on Fred, you didn't
really think I'd let you get away with that little trick you did to my
toothbrush did you?"
"That was a test! You know a
prototype for the business Bill! This is just plain evil!" Fred screamed. Ron jumped up from the sofa followed closely
by Harry.
"What-?" Ron began and Fred
turned, Ron and Harry doubled up in hysterics. Hermione stood up,
"What?" She asked, running
round to see Fred's face. His eyebrows
had totally disappeared, Hermione snorted with laughter.
"Don't laugh!" Fred bellowed,
"I was going to meet those girls tonight!". Bill grinned,
"Oh calm down Fred. Come here I'll fix them." He said calmly trying to look serious, but a
smile playing around the corners of his mouth. Fred looked terrified,
"No way, look what happened
last time you came near me with a wand!" He yelped gesturing to his bald eyes
frantically. Bill shrugged,
"Fine if you want to look like
a freak for those girls…." Fred stamped furiously,
"Okay! Okay!" He cried, Bill
pulled out his wand and was just muttering a spell when there was a knock at
the door. Still chuckling Hermione
pulled open the door and grinned happily at Ben.
Please review if you got this far J I really
appreciate the comments.
