a/n: i'm back again. wow i totally forgot about this story, haha. actually i forgot i was even registered here @ ff.net. Ok, well i just read over my story. uh, yeah. anyways, the 5th books all dark and none of this fits with any of that, but screw it i'm writing it happy and fun anyways and none of you can stop me. =P
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After dressing quickly and grabbing a couple pieces of leftover toast from the continental breakfast in the lobby, Harry rejoined Hermione and Ron out on the beach. Both, he noticed, did not seem to have gotten much sleep as they had dark circles under their eyes. Harry raised an eyebrow in amusement, but decided to question Ron later in private.

"Right, well, we've got a lot to do today, so we'd better head off," Hermione stated.

"Where are we going again? Itchy-ana Palace?" Ron questioned with a yawn.

Hermione threw him a disgruntled look, but the moment she made eye contact with him, she hurriedly turned away. "No, Ron, not 'Itchy-ana Palace." It's Iolani Palace. If you'd pay attention once in a whi-"

"How far away is this Palace?" Harry said loudly, in order to prevent Hermione and Ron from starting up a fight. Everyone was tired, and he could already see that emotions could be running high today.

"It's about five and a half miles. I was thinking of taking a cab ride to get there, I suppose." Harry noticed Hermione said this last bit with a very prominent tone of annoyance in her voice.

"Right then, off we go?" said Ron, who seemed excited to explore Hawaii. Indeed, so was Harry. It was unlike any other place he had ever been, and he was very keen on seeing more of it.

After hailing a cab, and having a much nicer cab ride then their previous, Harry, Ron, and Hermione finally arrived at Iolani Palace. There was almost no line outside of the ticket booth, and Hermione decided to get the tickets. Harry read the sign in front of the entrance to the tours: Tours take 1 1/2 hours to complete. Please respect the historic site of Iolani Palace. Mahalo!

"An hour and a half? For this?" Ron had clearly read the sign as well, and was not looking too thrilled at having ninety minutes of his day taken up with educational purposes.

"Oh be quiet, it'll be good for you to learn something," Hermione snapped. She had returned and handed out Harry and Ron's tickets to them. Harry noticed that Hermione was being very edgy today, and wondered why that could possibly be.

The tour turned out to be interesting, even to Ron, who had caused a slight problem in accidently crossing a security line to examine the koa wood furniture. The alarm had gone off, but only for a very brief period of time before Hermione managed to silence it with her wand. After the tour, in which they thanked their hard-to-hear-tour guide (who had not been very good, but nevertheless Hermione thought it would be polite), who wheezed a meek "You're welcome!" at them, they then headed to the Palace Gift Shop. Hermione found some nifty koa wood bookmarks which she purchased for her parents, and Ron bought his mum some dish towels with Hawaiin quilt patterns on them.

After reemerging from the Palace Gates, Harry voiced a question that had been on his mind. "So..Hermione, what do we do next?"

"Well, I figured we'd get you two some swimsuits and then maybe head on over to the beach."

Ron shifted uncomfortably. Harry knew that Ron, too, was nervous about swimming. Even so, both of the boys feeled that Hermione should not be deprived of this oppurtunity. Plus, thought Harry unconvincingly to himself, it might be fun.

They took a cab back to their hotel, where Hermione thought swimsuit stores had to surely be near, since they were on Waikiki. Harry and Ron didn't know what to think when she said this proposal, since neither of them had any idea what Waikiki was. Hermione noticed this and explained that it was a big tourist strip along the beach with restaurants, hotels, and shops. Surely they would find something.

The trio got a quick lunch from a sandwich place called "Subway" (Ron was amazed), and after wandering around for a while, looking in shops and Harry treating everyone to Shave Ice (which proved to be quite good), they found a store that would most likely have what they were looking for. Harry noticed signs in the windows that said 'Quiksilver' and 'Billabong' and vaguely wondered what these could be.

They entered, and Hermione sought out the help of a store's clerk, obviously not keen on helping the boy's find swimsuits. The clerk, who's badge said "Tim", was obviously a surfer. He was tan, had lightened hair from the sun, and was very well built. Ron noticed this, and kept eyeing him suspiciously when Hermione was talking to him. Harry chuckled inwardly.

Tim proved to be quite nice and helpful, and Harry and Ron soon found swimsuits to their liking. Ron chose plain trunks in a dark green color, and Harry chose black ones with a silver stripe down the side. After paying for their purchases, they headed back to the hotel to get changed and to go to the beach.

Harry was quite nervous about the prospect of swimming, and from the look on his face, so was Ron.

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A/N: whew, haven't done that in a while. hope it's satisfactory. ;-) i'll do stuff faster now, i hope. =-o

i LoVe RoN!
=D

(I don't really know where that came from, but tada!)