Disclaimer: The Characters and situations of Harry Potter depicted in this fic are the legal property of J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury, and AOL Time Warner, and have been used without permission. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: Okay, I always thought of myself as fairly speedy on the updates, but I just realized that it's almost been a month (a MONTH!) since I've updated. Strangely enough, this was very easy to write, but then I looked at it and went snore. So I rewrote it, and still wasn't satisfied. So I decided to skip ahead a bit and fill you in later on the blank spots, k? Right now, they made it to Costa Rica.

Harry Potter tossed and turned restlessly in his bed, but for once it wasn't because of nightmares. No, the reason he wasn't sleeping was the heat, a rooster who felt that morning was 4:30 A.M., the occasional Plunk! Of a coconut as it fell off the tree over their cabin roof, and Ron, who was in the bunk above him and kept snoring and muttering things like "Air conditioning" and "I surrender," whenever a particularly large piece of fruit fell. The last straw was when Ron rolled out of the bunk bed and onto the strategically placed pillows below, managing to pull the feat off perfectly without ever stopping his monotonous snoring.

Sighing, Harry climbed out of bed, pulled on some clothes, and nearly tripped over Ginny, who must have also fallen out of the bottom bunk and was now sleeping with her face pressed against the wood floor. 'Must be a Weasley thing,'' he thought to himself, starting to walk out the door.

That's it? You're just going to leave her there?

'What am I supposed to do?'' Harry answered back angrily.

Well, perhaps a pillow or a blanket would be nice, you know, try acting like a gentleman. It answered in the tone that implied Harry was mentally retarded.

Harry thought it was somewhat rich for the person (or whatever it was) who had been convincing him to take a swing at one of the Weasleys to tell him to act like a gentleman. 'Well sooooorry, I didn't mean to act inconsiderate or anything, we wouldn't want to offend anyone, especially by not giving someone a blanket when it's only ninety degrees outside,' he replied, frowning as he lifted up Ginny's head to put a pillow under it. As soon as he had finished, he rushed out of the cabin, feeling like he'd convicted some sort of crime.

Stepping outside, his grumpiness subsided for the most part. Although it was missing Air Conditioners (which were somewhat vital, in Harry's opinion) Paradisio Resort still was about a million notches up from staying with the Dursleys. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were all staying in one cabin, with Mrs. Weasley sleeping in an attached room. Outside, there was a volleyball net next to the beach and dining area next to a whole shelf full of used paperback books in about six different languages. Without anything better to do Harry headed towards the books, although the bench was already occupied.

"Hello, Harry," Hermione said absentmindedly, trimly rolling up a scroll that was on the table. "Fancy a glass of juice? The owner just brought it to me, and I can't drink the whole thing myself." she motioned towards a pitcher.

"Sure," he answered, sitting next to her. "Who're you writing?

Hermione glanced around, as though checking to see that nobody was listening in. "Victor, but I didn't want Ron to see--he's so moody about him, and I didn't want to get in a row the first day here.

Harry nodded, filling his glass. "Yeah, it's still a bit of a touchy subject. Did I ever tell you that I found Ron's Krum figurine torn apart underneath his bed?"

Hermione gave him a shocked look. "I can't believe Ron would do that!" then she thought about what she was saying. "Actually, maybe I can. That's Ron."

"What's Ron?" Ron stumbled towards them, pulling on a sneaker. "What can't you believe I'd do?"

"Fall out of your bunkbed," Harry said smoothly. It was too early for arguing.

"Mmm. I see. What's for breakfast?"

"Hopefully rooster," Harry said, and he almost laughed. Almost.

"Mmm... Stuffed with coconuts."

"Yuck. But yeah, it would be satisfying," Harry said.

Hermione started to make disapproving noises at them, probably something to do with the rooster comment, and then stopped mid-sniff as she remembered something more important. She pulled a crisply folded piece of paper out of her short pockets.

"Jorge--"

Jorge? Ron asked, stifling laughter. "Planning on starting a club for donkey rights anytime soon? H.O.R.H.A.Y--. Helping to

Hermione cut him off cleanly mid-sentence. "Haha, very funny. As I was saying, Horhay, the owner, gets most of the staff together and has some competitions and races and things whenever there's enough guests at the resort. I signed us up for a few things, have a look," she handed the yellow sheet to Harry, who skimmed over it.

"Three legged race, volleyball tournament, obstacle course, and the sack race? What are we, five-year-olds?

"I thought it sounded like a nice idea." Hermione took a deep breath. "Anyway, have you ever thought that maybe what we need is to act like five-year-olds once in awhile? It just seems like we get so caught up in everything that's happening that we forget to have fun, you know?"

"Yeah, look who's talking, Miss "We-have-to-do-our-homework-and-spew-duties-before-we-play-exploding-snap," Ron said.

"I don't think she means homework, Ron."

"Yeah. I know," Ron's grin left his face for an instant, and Harry caught a glimpse of someone he rarely saw in him; a boy who was tired, who had been running to keep up with the world for a long time, but could never catch it. And he had to keep going, because if he stopped then everything he'd been working for for years would be gone, and he would never catch up again.

Harry stopped analyzing Ron as he realized that it wasn't only his feelings he'd been analyzing; he'd been thinking of his own. Only, in his case, if he stopped running it could be the downfall of the wizarding world.

"You're right. It's not like we've anything better do, anyway," he said finally.

"Besides," Ron grabbed the paper from Hermione. "We can save a whale," he waved his hand at the endnote, which indicated that half of the proceedings would go to a wildlife fund. Hermione gave them a teary smile and pulled them both into a hug. For once, Harry hugged her back, although he had to stifle a sneeze as he was engulfed in Hermione's ever-bushy hair.

He finished his juice, feeling determined. He would have fun. He would.

A/N: Argh, I know I'm horrible to make this short after making you wait so long, but the creative juices are starting to flow a little better nowÉ

Also, I just wanted to tell you that quite a bit of the stuff that's happened (and will keep happening) in these chapters happened to me (We were woken up every morning by coconuts and a rooster we all wanted to murder, it was HORRIBLY hot, I came dangerously close to falling off my (very high) bunk bed, and the part-time owner was named Horhay.) I'll do all of the review thank-yous next chapter, which will come VERY VERY SOON in order to make up for this one. I'll also be rewriting the previous chapters, I always end up looking at my stories later and think WHAT was I THINKING? This includes taking out the extendable ears scene, which doesn't help out with the plot a whole lot.

Another note, would you please tell me if you prefer html with some symbols and letters missing, or would you rather using ---s instead of italics?

P.S. I have a story that I need a beta for read about it in my bio and email me if you're interested (sorry for the long author's notes)