A/N: Tear, tear, sob, sob! One review! Not that I don't totally love ya jesska I just wish others would read my story. I'm utterly devastated, but, being the determined person that I am, I'll continue on with this story. Please, someone review!

Disclaimer: Ummm… This belongs to Ms. Rowling. Seriously…

Chapter 3: Surprise, Surprise!

Harry, Ron, and Hermione entered the main dining area looking, curiously, around the room. There were already two people sitting at their table. The two girls, as they appeared to be because of their long hair, had their backs turned to the trio.

"Hi," Harry walked up to the girls.

The girl with bright red hair quickly snapped her head around to face Harry. Hermione felt her jaw go limp in shock.

"Ginny!" Ron was the first to recover, "What are you doing here?"

"Same thing you are." Ginny said crossly, slowly regaining her composure.

Ron looked about ready to explode his face was so red. Hermione decided it was time to intervene. "Ginny, it's good to see you. Nice to know I'm not the only girl here any more."

"Do Mum and Dad know you're here?" Ron asked.

"Yeah Ron, our parents know perfectly well that I'm here," Ginny stated calmly, "They said it would be fine."

"What! B-b-but that's not fair! They almost didn't let me go! I'm a whole year older than you!" Ron cried outraged.

"We all know you're older than me Ron, I'm just more mature." With that Ginny turned to the raven-haired girl sitting next to her. "This is Cassie. Cassie these are my friends Harry and Hermione, and my lovely brother Ron."

"I've never seen you at school before," Hermione said to Cassie, "If you don't mind me asking, how do you two know each other?"

"We're pen-pals," surprisingly, it was not Ginny who answered, but Cassie. "I live in the U.S."

"Oh so you must go to school at-" but Hermione was cut off, by Ginny, no less.

"Hermione could I talk to you for a second? Sorry Cassie, would you excuse us? We'll be quick"

"Sure," Cassie complied.

"Ron, Harry, you too." Ginny called out to them firmly.

Once they were at a distance from Cassie, (out of earshot, Hermione noted) Ginny turned to them and whispered fiercely, "She's a muggle."

"Err…Ginny how do you know a muggle?" Hermione asked, puzzled.

"Well, when Ron left for school and I was the only one left at home, Dad thought it might be a great 'learning experience' for me to have a muggle pen pal. Once I started going to Hogwarts I continued to write to her. We get together every summer."

"Well we should probably get back to-" but before Hermione could finish her sentence Ginny's eyes, locked on Hermione, widened. "Mione you wrote to me about Paris but I wasn't expecting…you look brilliant! I guess I was too surprised to see you guys to notice you earlier, but you really do look great!"

"Thanks, Ginny." Hermione felt her face going red and quickly turned around, walking back towards their table. The other three Gryffindors followed behind her.

"Cassie where in the United States do you live?" Harry inquired.

"Oh I live in Pittsburgh, which is in Pennsylvania." Cassie fidgeted with the ruffles on her white skirt.

"Huh?" Ron was dumbfounded.

"It's in the north-east U.S." Cassie smiled at him.

Hermione could have sworn she saw Ron turn a light shade of pink. Before Hermione could be sure it wasn't just the lighting, he covered his face with a menu. "So, anything look good? I'm starving!"

Everyone decided to pick up his or her menu and take a look and a waiter came and took their drink orders. Seconds after the waiter departed a couple sat down at their table. The woman was dressed in what appeared to be very expensive clothing. She had light blonde hair and physically looked perfect enough to be a model. The man who was with her was speaking, rather noisily, on his cell phone. "No! I do not want it in by next week I want it on time tomorrow. I had better have it on time dammit!" and with that the man hung up.

The five teenagers exchanged glances and Hermione turned to the newcomers. "Hello, I'm Hermione Granger. These are my friends Ginny, Ron, Harry, and Cassie."

The man grunted, "Max Friedler of Friedler Industries." He motioned toward the blonde next to him. "This is my girlfriend Alexis Adler."

"Pleased to meet you," said Harry courteously.

Hermione decided the pair couldn't be much older than twenty; despite the man owning a company-or perhaps it was his father's company? Stop it Hermione, the girl thought to herself, you really do think too much.

The waiter came to them once again, taking drink orders from Max and Alexis, as well as dinner orders for the entire table. Hermione and Alexis got on very well. Alexis was, in fact, a supermodel and she and the not-so bushy-haired-brunette had a nice chat about Paris. Hermione had been correct about Max; he was the son of John Friedler, owner of Friedler Industries. Apparently it was the pair's six-month anniversary and they had decided to celebrate with a cruise.

"You know," Alexis was saying in her Russian accent, "I could get you passes to one of my shows."

Hermione, although not interested to a point of obsession, did want to go. "I'd love to! That's so thoughtful of you Alexis!"

The blond smiled, "You should call me Lexi, everyone who knows me does so."

Hermione returned the gesture, "You might as well call me Mione then. The rest of my friends do for the most part."

It didn't take long for the food to arrive. After finishing their entrées they decided to order tiramisu for the table. The seven of them never ran out of things to talk about despite the fact they had just met.

Max was the only one who seemed distant. His phone rang and he was often talking, well, yelling really, to people in New York and Beijing. Hermione simply shrugged it off, I suppose it comes with the job, she deliberated. Hermione couldn't help but notice, however, that Max was fairly possessive of his girlfriend. When Harry or Ron would so much as talk one on one with Lexi he would send the offending boy a glare. If looks could kill, Hermione didn't doubt that Harry and Ron would have been vaporized. Harry and Ron, although sometimes ignorant when it came to their surroundings, couldn't help but notice this and backed off. Hermione couldn't help it; she had always been a very judgmental person. One of her few flaws, her mother liked to tell her. And she just didn't like Max Friedler. Hermione couldn't help but wonder what Lexi saw in Max.

As soon as they had consumed their dessert, as if on cue, a short, bald man strode onto the stage. "Hello everyone. I am Dave McCallin, the cruise director. Thank you all very much for coming. If you have any questions about the trip that your pamphlet doesn't make clear you are to ask me. I won't bore you any longer with a long, dull, speech. The dining hall is closing in approximately thirty minutes. At that time you may go back to your quarters or engage in any of the activities available to you at this hour. I hope you will enjoy the voyage on which we shall depart tomorrow morning. Until that time I bid you a good night!"

Everyone in the hall politely applauded for Dave and the hall slowly began to empty.

Hermione looked at her watch. It was already close to eleven. "We'd better get going." She directed her statement to Alexis. Not Max."

The others agreed with her and they departed. Once out in the hall Ginny was the first to speak, "So what room are you guys in?"

"Well we actually have two…I'm in room 412 and Harry and Ron are in 413." Hermione fell in next to Cassie and Ginny behind the two boys.

"We're in 400," Ginny smiled, "It's two to at room no matter what, isn't it? What's you roommate like Mione?"

Hermione was impressed; Ginny was quite sharp. "I'm not sure yet; I have yet to meet them." The brunette's eyes suddenly brightened, "Hey! Why don't we all go to the boys' room for some drinks." At the hopeful looks on Ron and Harry's faces she added, "That's nonalcoholic beverages, for those of us who thought otherwise."

Their faces fell noticeably at this comment and the three girls giggled. "Sounds good to me," Cassie got in between bouts of laughter.

Harry opened the door to their room upon reaching it and their little group entered. It wasn't until then Hermione realized this was the first time she had been in the boys' room. It was just like her room except the main colors in this case were black and blue.

"How about some virgin pina coladas?" Cassie asked them. "I know how to make them. Sound good?"

Harry, Ginny, and Ron looked to Hermione, silently asking her if it did indeed sound good, none of them having hear of a pina colada before. Hermione had gone to Puerto Rico last summer with her parents, however, and knew exactly what Cassie meant. "Sounds wonderful! I'll help."

The two of them rummaged around in the fridge for the necessary ingredients which, where there, probably due to the fact most of them were used to make cocktails. Cassie found a blender and they were serving glasses of the icy cold drink in minutes.

Everyone loved Cassie. The Gryffindors asked her numerous questions about her life in the United States and received many, many answers. Cassie was on the basketball and softball teams at her high school in Pittsburgh. Her parents were orthodontists and she and Hermione got into a lengthy conversation about their tooth-obsessed parents.

It wasn't until around one in the morning that Harry realized what time it was and everyone decided to leave. Ginny and Cassie were the first to depart and Hermione stayed with her two best friends to help them clean up the dishes and such.

"Night Harry, night Ron," Hermione called opening the door.

"Sleep well Hermione," Harry told her.

"Good night Mione," Ron yawned.

Closing their door behind her she smiled, content. Her contentedness was short lived, however, for as she opened the door to her room Hermione was greeted with the surprise of her life. There on the couch, looking just as dumbfounded as she herself felt, was a certain pale haired Slytherin.

A/N: Dun, dun, dun. Okay, so it was a little bit predictable-cough, cough-but oh well. Sorry it took me this long to write this chapter. I've been kinda swamped with schoolwork. I know eighth grade doesn't get too much, but teachers really pile it on at the end of a marking period. Ta ta for now and please, please, please, (yes, I am in fact that desparate) REWIEW!

Brie