****Sorry, this one's a bit short, but it's the best stopping for the setup of the next chapter. Enjoy!

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Hermione wiped her eyes, and managed a bright, if slightly trembling, smile for Ron.

"Thank you," she murmured, and he simply shrugged his shoulders in that bashful way of his, and kept his arm wrapped around her.

After a time, he glanced over at her, unsure if he would be able to steal another kiss.


Deciding to wait for her to give him a signal, he instead asked, "What should we do now?"

"How much of the island have you had a chance to explore?"

"Not much," Ron replied. "I was a bit preoccupied trying to find you."

 Hermione smiled despite herself. It was lovely to think that all of Ron's purpose and intensity had been directed towards her.

"Well, obviously, we should try to figure out where we are, attempt to contact someone. Food, shelter, and general safety are all paramount concerns."

"Shouldn't be too hard." Ron gestured behind him. "I'm sure we can transfigure those trees into something decent."

Hermione nodded in agreement. "Ron, I tried to apparate, and there seems to be some sort of ward blocking my way."

Ron simply gaped at her for a moment. "You- what? Hermione, you're only 16!"

"So? The age requirement is merely for safety purposes. There's nothing stopping someone with the proper, learned technique from the physical portion of apparition; it's just the Misuse of Magic owl you'd have to contend with."

Ron could do nothing but shake his head in amazement. "You're bloody brilliant, you know that?"

Hermione flushed. "Language, Ron," she muttered, an uncharacteristic smile playing about her lips as she spoke.

Ron's chuckle turned into a moan as his stomach grumbled loudly.

"What do you say we put our wands to use and conjure up some lunch?"

Hermione for once, agreed with Ron wholeheartedly. It had been ages since breakfast, and she was still feeling the aftereffects of her portkey-induced headache.

Deciding a bowl of fruit would be just the thing for the moment, Hermione brandished her wand and said, "Fructus!"

A short spark, then nothing.

Dread beginning to form as a tight ball in her stomach, she gulped and motioned for Ron to try.

"Fructus!" Ron's voice rang out clearly. The same result. Spark, then nothing.

"Ron, what if whatever it was that bounced my attempt to apparate wasn't an anti-apparition ward, but an anti-magic ward?"

That startled Ron out of his fear for a moment. How could he have forgotten?

Grabbing her by the shoulders, he rushed out, "Hermione, when I first woke up, I thought maybe you'd ended up in the water somehow. I swam out to see, and about a half mile out, I hit some sort of invisible shield that I couldn't get past. Maybe it's some sort of magical dampener, which would explain why you couldn't apparate and why our wands spark, but don't fully complete a spell!"

Hermione had never imagined that they would have no magic to rely upon.

Though she hadn't had the magical rearing of Ron, she had nonetheless grown accustomed to the ease magic had brought to her life. She found it hard to imagine not having it at all, much less on a deserted island God knows where, with God knows what for inhabitants.

Breathe, she thought to herself. Everything will be fine. Stay calm and think!

Once she was sure that she was under control, she met Ron's eyes and said, "Looks like we'll just have to do it the Muggle way, then."

Ron's facial expression revealed exactly what he thought of that idea.

"How's that?" he responded cautiously.

"We'll have to physically gather wood for a fire and shelter, and forage for food and water ourselves."

"Ourselves?" Ron couldn't help the high octave his normally deep voice jumped to.

Hermione grabbed hold of his hand to reassure him, as well as herself.

"Don't worry, I've read lots about survival techniques, not to mention the fair amount of literature devoted to the subject. You never know when general knowledge comes in handy."

"You've read textbooks about people stranded on desert islands?" Ron questioned skeptically.

"Well, sort of…." Hermione's averted eyes told him that she would probably prefer him to stop the line of questioning he was on.

Which of course, meant that he was bound and determined to continue until she caved.

"What does that mean, sort of?"

When it became clear she wasn't planning on answering his question, Ron squeezed her hand softly and then pulled Hermione closer to him.

"C'mon, love." He was surprised at the ease of which the endearment came to him. "You can tell me."

Hermione buried his face into his chest. "You'll make fun of me," was her muffled response.

"So? That's never stopped you before."

He heard a small snort escape.

"That's true." Sighing, she lifted her head and muttered, "Ginny gave me this book."

"Okay….so?"

Hermione's embarrassed expression finally clued him in. Ginny. Books. A book that Ginny owns.

"Wait, one of those books? The ones she keeps locked in her school chest, under her Potions cauldron in a pathetic attempt to hide them from her all-knowing brothers?"

Hermione glared at him. "How do you know where they are? Did you snoop through Ginny's things?"

"No, I leave that to Fred and George, and stop changing the subject."

"Yes, Ron," Hermione blurted with a huff. "One of those books, as you so maturely put it."

"Hey, don't get mad at me because you're embarrassed I found out about your naughty reading habits!"

"Oh, please, like I don't know what you have at home under your Quidditch magazines!"

Silence. Then-

"I'm going to kill Ginny!"

"Why? For doing to you what had already been done to her? Even if you didn't actually do the snooping, you knew about it and didn't tell her!"

"What for, so she could get all huffy and whine?"

"She has a perfectly good reason to-" Hermione had to stop herself. "We're getting way off track. This is not the time to be arguing over trivialities."

Ron nodded grudgingly. "Agreed. But I still want to know what was in this book you read."

Hermione couldn't talk about it and look him in the face at the same time, so she began walking. Ron easily kept pace with his long limbs.

"It was a story about two people on a cruise- that's a Muggle vacation on a boat- who absolutely hate each other on sight, and they become shipwrecked, leaving them as the sole survivors on a remote island. They bicker a lot, but eventually their…passions consume them and they become involved. Though they're eventually rescued, they have to come up with lots of clever ideas to survive in the meantime."

Ron smirked. "And I'm sure you were riveted by their survival skills?"

Hermione was relaxed enough to giggle lightly. "Among other things."

Ron took a step closer to her. "You know, that plot sounds a bit ..familiar. I think I recognize some of the characteristics of their… relationship."

Hermione bit her lip, struggling from her effort not to smile. "Oh, do you now?"

Ron placed his hands lightly on Hermione's waist, and pulled her tight against him.

"Definitely. Hating each other on sight, bickering constantly. Oh, yeah, and certainly the 'consuming passion' part.  I wonder who I could be thinking of." Ron's voice dripped with amusement, but there was an underlying huskiness that Hermione was beginning to equate with his ardor for her.

"I'll give you three guesses," she murmured, before lifting her head to receive his mouth.

Ron felt a rush of heat pass through him that had nothing to do with the sun's hot rays.

At his mouth's insistent urging, Hermione opened hers more widely, and Ron accepted the invitation, slanting his mouth over hers gently.  He swallowed her little gasp of

surprise and took advantage of her open mouth.  His tongue swept inside, slow and lazy, tasting her, savoring the jolts of sensation passing between them.  Her lips were so full and soft.  She shivered and tentatively rolled her tongue around his and he groaned heavily into her mouth and deepened the kiss even further.

Ron was just about to ease Hermione down onto the warm, soft sand when an amused voice rang out from nearby, "Can't we leave you two alone for even a second?"

Ron's head shot up. "Harry? Ginny?"

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