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AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'd like to thank everyone who has submitted a review! Keep them coming! And I'd appreciate seeing some more reviews from other readers. I worked really hard on the last episode and I think this one may be even better!
EPISODE 3: Outdoor Survival 101
After learning that Hermione knew almost everything about outdoor survival, Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Ginny, and Neville decided that she should teach them the basics. Then she could eventually teach them some more advanced techniques that could make life on the island much easier. They all sat down, and Hermione stood in front of the group so they could hear her instructions.
"The first thing we need to do," she said, "is find a place to build a shelter. It needs to be slightly above sea level to avoid flooding. Then, we must actually build the shelter."
"How are we going to do that?" Ginny asked, "We don't know how!"
"I do," Hermione answered, "Just leave that to me. I will need some help though."
"I'll help!" Neville eagerly volunteered.
"All right," Hermione replied, "Neville's going to help build the shelter. Now, we need someone to go find a source of water."
"Why?" Neville asked, "We're surrounded by water!"
"You can't drink salt water. You could get very sick from it," Hermione explained, "It has to be fresh water. If we cannot find a source of fresh water, then we must either build a fire to boil the salt water before drinking or build something to collect rainwater with."
"How can we drink the water if it's boiling?" Neville asked.
"You're supposed to let it cool first, moron!" Ron replied.
"Oh," Neville said.
"I remember seeing a spring on top of the mountain," George said, "It created a waterfall deep in the jungle."
"Excellent!" Hermione said, "You and Fred can go collect some water."
"With what?" George asked.
"We each need to make a canteen of some sort," Hermione explained.
"How?" Harry asked.
"I'm not sure yet," she said, "When I come up with something, I'll tell you. Meanwhile, Fred and George can make a fire."
"Why?" Neville asked, "We know where to find fresh water."
"We still need a fire so we can signal ships and cook food," Hermione explained, "There are many things that we need a fire for."
"Oh," Neville said.
"We also need someone to go find food," Hermione said, "This appears to be a tropical island, so we should be able to find some coconuts or bananas."
"We'll go look," Harry said. Ron nodded.
"Ok," Hermione said, "We should all get to work now."
"What will I do?" Ginny asked.
"You can help me and Neville with the shelter," Hermione said. Everyone got up and went off to go do what they had been told. Fred and George approached Hermione.
"How do we make a fire?" Fred asked.
"We don't have any wands to make a magical fire with," George said.
"You rub two sticks together and create friction," Hermione explained, "The friction will cause the sticks to get hot. When you start seeing smoke come from one of the sticks, blow on it and a fire should start." She then showed them the proper way to hold the sticks and made a small pile of dry wood for them to throw the two sticks onto when the fire started. "When you get the fire started," she continued, "you need to add more wood so the fire will get bigger."
"Ok," Fred replied. He and George started working on the fire. Hermione turned to Neville and Ginny and explained how to make a shelter.
"We'll use the inflatable rafts," Hermione explained, "They're a lot easier to use as shelter than a bunch of leaves. Besides, we have no rope to tie anything together with, so we can just prop the rafts up on sticks and weigh down the edges with rocks instead of tying them to stakes in the ground. I have some string, but it's not strong enough to tie down a tent with. Once we're able to find or make some rope, we can improve the shelters."
"So, the shelter would be like a tent?" Ginny asked.
"Yes," Hermione replied, "I know how to make a tent out of just a tarp and some sticks, so I can make tents out of deflated inflatable rafts as well. Since the rafts are the same size, we can't make one tent bigger than the other so the boys' tent is going to be a bit more crowded than the girls' tent because there are more boys here than girls." Hermione walked over to the deflated rafts and dragged them over to where they were going to build the tents. She had Ginny and Neville go find some sticks while she looked for some rocks that were heavy enough to weigh down the tents. Ginny and Neville returned with four sticks that were long enough. Hermione showed Ginny and Neville how to pitch the tent by pitching the girls' tent on her own so they could see how it's done. She then planted the sticks for the boys' tent into the sand and left Ginny and Neville to finish the boys' tent while she went to check on everyone else. She had just turned around to go check on the others when the tent collapsed on Neville. Ginny (who had actually paid attention) helped Neville set the tent up properly.
Deep in the jungle, Harry and Ron were searching for food. Harry had just found several banana trees and had collected a very large bunch from one of the trees. They were returning to camp when suddenly...
"OW!!!" Ron yelled, "Something just hit me in the head!"
Harry looked around to see what it might have been, but then something hit him in the head too. It had come from above. He and Ron looked up and saw something brown and round falling from a tree. It was a coconut. They looked around and saw the two other coconuts that had hit them in the head.
"Awesome!" Ron exclaimed, "We've found coconuts!" He picked up the three coconuts that had fallen to the ground. They started heading back to camp when Hermione appeared. She had come to check on them.
"Have you found anything?" she asked.
"We sure have!" Harry exclaimed. He and Ron showed her the bananas and coconuts that they had just found.
"There are loads more where these came from!" Ron exclaimed.
"Excellent! Well done!" Hermione exclaimed, "We can use the coconut shells as canteens when we're done with them!"
"If we're going to do that, we'll need four more," Harry said.
"I'll get them," Ron said. He climbed up into the nearest coconut tree and started throwing some down. Hermione caught them as Ron threw them (Harry's hands were full because of the large bunch of bananas he had found). Fred and George appeared.
"Hey Hermione!" they called out.
"What?" she asked, turning to see who had called her. She was no longer paying attention to the coconuts that Ron was throwing so one hit her in the head. "OW!" she yelled.
"Sorry!" Ron shouted back.
Fred and George approached Hermione. "We've made fire!" they exclaimed, "Now what?"
"That's excellent!" Hermione replied, "Not too many people can get a fire going right away! You need to start adding more wood to the fire so it can keep burning. It wouldn't be good if it burned out. Who's watching the fire now?" she asked.
"Oh," Fred replied, "I didn't know we needed to have someone keep watching the fire..."
"But I suppose Ginny and Neville are probably looking after it," George added.
"We should go check to make sure nothing's burned down," Hermione suggested. She picked up the coconuts that Ron had thrown (including the one that hit her), Ron picked up the three they found earlier, and everyone followed Fred and George back to camp.
When they got back, they had a small party to celebrate their first successful day on the island. They ate bananas and drank coconut milk (Hermione had found a way to poke a hole in the coconuts using a rock and a stick). They then dug a pit for the fire and moved it there by putting more sticks in the pit, setting fire to another stick by putting it in the first fire, then putting that stick in with the other sticks in the pit. They put rocks around the pit. Soon, it was time for everyone to go to bed.
"We need to have someone watch the fire overnight," Hermione said, "You should NEVER leave a campfire burning unattended."
"How will we get any sleep if we're watching a fire all night?" Ginny asked.
"We'll do it in shifts," Hermione explained, "I'll watch it first, and then I'll wake one of you up to watch it the rest of the night. My watch is waterproof, so it didn't die when we abandoned ship. We can use it to determine when our shift is over." She removed her watch and set it on a rock by the fire so other people could look at it during their shift. "Ok, now who is all right with waking up early in the morning?" she asked.
"I am," Harry said.
"Ok," Hermione replied, "So I'll come wake you up when my shift is over. Is 4:00 ok?"
"Sure!" Harry said, "Are you sure you'll be able to stay up until then?"
"Yes," Hermione said, "I'll be ok."
"Well, I don't think it's fair that you have to stay up all night and then wake up with the rest of us," Harry said, "Are you really serious about doing this? You don't have to. You've done so much for us already."
"I'm serious!" she said, "I'm just fine with this!"
"Well I have an idea," Fred announced, "Since you've already done so much to help us and are willing to do even more..."
"We need to thank you somehow," George finished.
"So we think," Fred said, "That since you are willing to stay up all night to watch the fire, we should allow you sleep in later than the rest of us."
"It's only fair," George added.
"I agree!" Harry said.
"Me too!" Ron said.
"So do I!" Ginny said.
"I do too!" Neville said.
"I'll wake everyone up at 8:00," Harry said, "that means everyone needs to be in bed by midnight, and you can wake up at noon. That'll give you eight hours if you're going to bed at 4:00."
"Really?" Hermione asked.
"YES!" Everyone said at once.
"Wow, thanks guys!" Hermione exclaimed, "That's so nice of you!" She gave everyone a hug and they all went to bed, leaving her to watch the campfire overnight.
Well, that's all for today's episode! I hope y'all liked it! Epidode 4 is coming soon!