As Ginny stepped down the plane's stairs she started to look around at her surroundings. She gasped at the marvelous sight that she took in. There was a beach only a few hundred yards away, and there was a field full of tents right in front of her. There were palm trees all over, and they swayed in the cool summer breeze. She could just see the remnants of a sunset, and it looked as though the sun had simply fallen off the edge of the earth. She couldn't help gasping at the beauty of it.
Dumbledore led them down to the middle of the circle of tents. The students were quiet, waiting for him to say something when he finally announced,
"Here is the staff's tent," pointing to the largest tent sitting in the middle of the circle.
"And here are all of your tents. You will use the group of four you have used on the trip here to sleep as your tent mates. There are two rooms, one for the females, one for the males. Please take your stuff, go pick a tent, and get comfortable, you're going to be here for another week and a half."
Ginny looked at Blaise, she looked as thrilled as Ginny, though that didn't make much sense since Ginny was now ready to jump in the ocean and kill herself at the announcement that she would have to sleep in the room next door to Malfoy.
"Which tent?" Ginny asked them all, quietly.
"Let's just go grab one, they're all the same." Ernie said.
"Fine..." Draco added in.
They made their way to the tent directly in front of them. It was a blue tent (as all the rest were) and had only one entrance. Draco and Ernie let the girls enter first and told them that they could have the room closest to the entrance. When Ginny crawled into the tent she got a mild shock. It was tiny! When Dumbledore said they were living without magic, he meant that they were living without magic!
"Great..." Blaise said in a completely downtrodden voice.
"Oh yes, completely wonderful!" Ginny said in a sarcastically ecstatic voice.
"What are you two complaining about?" Draco and Ernie both muttered from outside. "Obviously they can't see in here!" Ginny thought unhappily.
"Oh Merlin..." Draco groaned when he decided to 'grace them with his presence'. Ernie followed closely behind Draco and let out a frustrated sigh.
"Joy to the world, we're stuck in a muggle tent!" Ernie growled in a cold manner that was so unlike him.
They walked into their room and Ginny could hear them muttering and whispering quietly. She had just claimed her sleeping bag, it was a deep green and she thought it contrasted well to her bright red hair. Blaise's was a light purple, "It almost matches her eyes!" Ginny thought as she pulled out her pajamas, changed and then slipped her pillow out of her bag and onto her sleeping bag, and laid down. It was pretty comfortable; there was a foam mattress below the sleeping bag.
Blaise was already in her sleeping bag lying with her eyes closed, she hadn't even bothered to change into her pajamas. She turned in the opposite direction from Ginny and Ginny barely heard her when Blaise muttered,
"Good night Weasley."
"'Night Blaise." Ginny said in the same cold, distant manner.
~*~*~
Draco hadn't yet lain down, he was still getting used to the thought that he was in a muggle tent, sleeping with a very flimsy wall in-between him and Ginny, and he didn't have his wand. Not to mention that he was here with Ernie Macmillan, a HUFFLEPUFF! "That just wasn't right, you couldn't place a Malfoy with anyone but a Slytherin, unless he wanted to of course..." Draco thought.
"'Night Macmillan." Draco said. Ernie had already changed, lay down and sounded as though he was falling asleep.
Draco wanted to go say goodnight to Ginny, but it wouldn't work, he was ruining his reputation over that girl! Just then he heard her say, quietly but not too quiet for him to hear,
"'Night Mal-ferret, 'night Ernie."
"See you in the morning Weasel-kins." He replied in an icy tone.
She snorted in reply, and then the tent went silent. By Ernie's lack of reply Draco thought he either didn't hear Ginny or he was asleep.
Draco pulled his pillow out of his bag and set it on his silver sleeping bag. He then pulled out his pajamas (a beater and boxers) (A/N, sexy!) and quietly changed, slipping into his sleeping bag when he finished.
~*~*~
Ginny woke up that morning when the sun had just started to peek over the horizon. She could hear Blaise still snoring and she could see someone in the other room was awake also, and from the tousle-haired and lean-figured shadow, it didn't look like Ernie. She changed as fast as she could, hoping that he wouldn't decide to leave and exit through her room.
When she was finished she exited and looked around. There were a few people awake. Lavender was at the edge of the field looking at the ocean and Padma was peeking out of their tent glaring at her. "Looks like their trip is going well!" Ginny thought. With that Ginny walked behind her tent, they had a really good view of the ocean. The water was sparkling blue and it lapped at the glowing sand.
Ginny sat down behind her tent and watched the sun continue to rise. It looked like it was going to last for a few more minutes. "How romantic!" Ginny thought as she heard someone approaching her from behind. When they stopped right behind her she looked back with a reproachful glance. It was Malfoy, of course it was Malfoy, here he was to ruin the moment.
"Mind if I sit down?" Draco said quietly.
"Only if you have to." Ginny spat.
Draco sat down far too close and she felt like she wanted to run back in the tent and pretend as though she hadn't yet awoken.
"Wish I wasn't stuck with you people in that stupid, muggle tent." Draco said, obviously changing his mood.
"Then go home, it would make our trip better, and you wouldn't have to be 'stuck with us.'"
"I'm beginning to wish I could go home. Even if it would mean being stuck with my father, at least I wouldn't have to put up with trash like you." Draco said meanly.
"If that's the way you feel then how come you were trying to snog me on the plane yesterday, Malfoy?" Without giving him time to reply she got up and walked briskly to the opposite side of the field.
~*~*~
Draco had seen her get up, change, and leave the tent and decided to follow her. His intent was to apologize for his behavior the night before. Then she'd been all cold and stupid and his temper had taken control of him. "Well that went well!" He thought.
He continued sitting there watching the sun rise. Noticing, against what he thought the night before, that he could only see the ocean on three sides of them, not on all four like he'd imagined. The fourth side had a long peninsula that reached very far in the distance with what looked like a very large hill centered on it.
He wasn't sure about his feelings for Ginny, he'd never fallen for someone like he had for her; maybe it was because she didn't seem to be falling for him like most of the other girls had. Why did he have to like a Weasley? It just didn't make sense; they were supposed to be enemies, now this? Who would've thought?
He got up and was intending to return to his bed when a loud bell rang from the direction of the staff's tent. He could see people in all the tents rising and beginning to get dressed. He wondered where they were going to eat. He looked over and saw Ginny looking in the water, her fire-red hair flowing around her mid-back. She looked so pretty, why had he exploded on her?
Just then Dumbledore and McGonagall appeared from opposite sides of the staff's tent. A few minutes later everyone began piling out of their tents, looking around. And when everyone had finally awoken and gathered outside their tents, Dumbledore said,
"Good morning students. We will be making breakfast and serving it to one tent at a time. We will be calling out tent names, which you will find above your tent entrance, and those four people will come and get their food. You can go down to the beach or whatever you'd like to do, just please do not wander too far. Thank you."
"Surely they don't mean that THEY will be making breakfast?" He thought incredulously. He shared a confused look with Blaise who obviously was wondering the same thing.
He looked up at their entrance and saw that they're tent name was Knoxgrass, their neighboring tent was Wolfbane, and the one next to that was Monkshood. "Weird, those are all potions ingredients" Draco thought to himself. When he turned back around he saw that Dumbledore and McGonagall had set up a large gas stove along with many pots and pans and a bunch of food. "Oh Merlin, they are going to be cooking" He thought as he let out a groan.
"Fluxweed, come get it!" Dumbledore announced a few minutes later.
"Bicorn, your turn!" McGonagall called after that.
Draco sat in his tent unpacking his stuff; he figured he'd get himself all situated while waiting for his breakfast.
"Boomslang, we're still waiting for you to get yours, the longer you take the colder it gets! Shrivelfig, yours is ready!" McGonagall yelled again.
Finally, almost an hour after they had started cooking they called,
"Knoxgrass, come and get it!" Draco got up quickly and went to get his bacon, eggs, toast and juice. He joined his tent-members on the grass behind their tent, overlooking the ocean. They ate in silence except for the chewing noises. "This is going to be one long trip," Draco thought.
A/N I hope you enjoyed it, it didn't take that long to write, notice how "cold" Blaise has gotten Kina? Heh, thanks for reading, I love you guys!
