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Hermione and Ginny gaped for a moment in sheer stupefaction, before Hermione overcame her paralysis and moved towards them, making very sure to keep her eyes on Ron's face….after one glance downward, of course.
Upon closer inspection, she realized the source of their panic.
Ron was just about to rip off one of the wretched things attached to his body, when Hermione shouted, "No, Ron, those are leeches! Don't rip them off, it will just make the lesions worse!"
The leeches were a dark, brownish black, already rounder and thicker from the blood they'd sucked from the two boys.
Hermione shuddered visibly as she watched them writhe and wriggle against Ron's white skin, attempting to burrow closer into his flesh.
"What's your bloody suggestion, then?" he screamed back.
"Get in the water, both of you! They can only exist in fresh water. The salt in the ocean will kill them!"
Ron and Harry both bounded towards the surf, diving in without hesitation. After several minutes, and a thorough inspection, the boys reported to Hermione that all the leeches had fallen off.
"Well, then, let's see how badly they got you."
Ron sputtered. "We're a bit naked here."
Hermione rolled her eyes as Ginny bit her lip to restrain the laugh that threatened to bubble up.
"Really Ron, we've already seen the show once, it's not like we missed something and need to check again."
"I sure don't! I saw it all the first time." Ginny piped up, grinning mischievously at Harry.
Harry sank back down in the water, utterly embarrassed. They hadn't even kissed yet.
Ron's jawbone clenched visibly. "Please. Get. Our. Clothes."
Ginny threw up her hands. "Fine, you prude!"
She walked over to the forest edge, and gathered up their haphazardly strewn garments.
Holding them by a finger in case any other suck bugs had taken up residence inside, Ginny gingerly placed them on the sand, about ten feet from the boys' position.
"There you are!" Ginny motioned with a flourish.
"Can you please bring them a little closer?" Harry's voice carried a hint of desperation.
"Bring them closer, you say?" Ginny looked down at the pile of clothes, then up at the boys.
Shaking her head in mock regret, she tapped a finger against her chin and mused, "No, no, I don't think I can do that. Sorry."
No one believed the last word of her statement in the least.
"Fine!" Ron burst out. "S'not like I have anything to be ashamed of. "
"Certainly not," Hermione murmured, and Ron caught the tease in her tone and stared straight into her eyes as he took purposeful, even strides back to the shore.
Without hurry, he carefully picked up his pants, checked them for any other crawly things, and hitched them up and on, then met her gaze again as if to say, 'Challenge met.'
Hermione tried her absolute hardest not to look again, but her eyes seemed to have a will of their own.
Totally ignoring the tension brewing between Ginny and Harry, who were locked in a staring contest of their own, Hermione stepped closer to Ron and lowered her voice.
"Looks like that water was a bit chilly, Ronald."
She walked off with a saunter back towards the food she and Ginny had gathered, leaving Ron to sputter incoherently, which was his usual response when she made her standard witty remarks.
In reality, there had been nothing visually to suggest the temperature she had insinuated, but it just wouldn't do to have Ron acting all puffed up and full of himself.
Especially if it was at her expense.
Besides, he wasn't supposed to know he was… impressive. Which he was. Which he really, really really was. She might not have any experience, but she knew enough to, well, anyway. Moving along.
Hermione watched out of the corner of her eye at the standoff between Harry and Ginny. She knew Harry was stubborn enough not to come out, and Ginny was more than stubborn enough to refuse to give him his clothes.
Just as she was about to suggest a truce, Ginny played her trump card. "Are you a Gryffindor or not, Potter? Dean would do it in a flash."
Harry's eyes warned her she might have pushed it a bit too far. "Dean would do it just to flash you! And I think you'd better leave him out of this."
"Oh, really?" Ginny didn't back down.
"Why on earth would it bother you for me to talk about Dean? You certainly haven't said anything to suggest that you care about anything I say about or do with him."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry asked, thoroughly nonplussed.
The conversation had suddenly taken a sharp left turn, and he was becoming aware of the fact that she was irritated at him for some reason.
Ginny narrowed her eyes. "What do you think it means?"
Ron came up next to Hermione, casually wrapping his right arm around her waist.
Hermione turned to inspect the bruises left by the leeches, and, after determining that Ron was no worse for wear, leaned eagerly into his embrace.
"Remember when we were like that, love?" Ron's tone was wistful.
Hermione poked him in the side. "Yes, I do. It was only this morning, after all."
Ron laughed. He couldn't disagree.
"Think he'll figure it out?" Hermione mused.
Ron nodded decisively. "Our Harry's a bit quicker on the uptake on things like this."
Hermione stared at Ron. "Do you even remember the whole Cho incident?"
Ron grimaced. "Good point. He might take longer than I did."
Hermione pretended to ponder that. "I don't know…Harry's slow, but he's not hopeless."
To Ron's credit, it only took him a few moments to detect the veiled insult. With a growl, he wrapped her up in his arms before she could dash away.
Pulling her towards him, he murmured, "Hopeless, eh?" and took her mouth. Hermione's bare toes curled into the soft sand in response. With a small whimper, she opened her mouth for him to take more.
Is it possible for every kiss with her to be better than the last?
If so, I'll be dead from pleasure within the year, Ron thought hazily.
Hermione's tongue snuck through and caressed his lower lip lovingly, before she nipped it softly with her teeth.
But what a way to go.
"E-hem."
Ignore them and they'll go away. Ignore them and they'll go away.
Ron repeated the mantra inside his head, willing the words to be true with every fiber of his being.
"Ah-HEM!"
They weren't going away.
With a heavy sigh, Hermione tore her mouth from Ron's and looked into Ginny's amused eyes.
Moving over to Harry, Hermione was relieved to discover that he was once again fully clothed. At first, she thought Ginny must have given him his clothes back, but after taking note of the red flush on Harry's cheeks, Hermione surmised that Harry had been the one who capitulated first.
Apparently seeing the question in her gaze, Harry shrugged sheepishly. "I was cold," he muttered.
Ginny, for once, kept her mouth firmly shut. It was best not to gloat when you won.
"Wait a second!" Hermione shook her head at her own forgetfulness.
"How in the world did you two manage to get yourselves covered in leeches?"
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A Half Hour Before,
(or How Ron and Harry managed to get themselves covered in leeches).
"Let's go this way, Ron." Harry pointed to a large thicket of trees ahead and to their left. "Looks like a lot of trees with good sized branches on them."
Ron nodded in agreement.
"We might get lucky and find all that we need on the ground, without having to climb up and break them off by hand."
They began walking, taking care to avoid the muddy section of the slight incline they were on.
Below them on their left was a shallow creek bank filled with muddy water. "Can't wait to see the look on Hermione's face when we come back with a month's worth of wood.
That'd show her."
Harry laughed in response.
Ron looked at Harry with a 'what?' expression on his face.
"Ron, you do know that you don't have to fight and compete with Hermione anymore, right? I mean, you've got her. She's yours, as long as you don't stuff it up.
Trying to beat her at everything is a great way of ensuring that you'll be constantly disappointed, because she always wins, that you'll piss her off, because she's Hermione, and that you'll get her to sack you within the week. Not what you want, is it?"
Ron shrugged. "The competing, well I guess it's just a habit. We've been doing it so long, it'll take a while to get used to not having to."
Ron tossed Harry a smug grin. "The fighting on the other hand, is what us big boys call foreplay. I'll tell you all about it when you're older."
"Whatever," Harry shot back. "I knew it was foreplay before you knew she was a girl."
"Pretending to be unaware was all part of my genius plan. And you see where that got me."
Harry made a show of looking around. "On a deserted island, stranded from the whole of civilization?"
Ron shook his head slowly at Harry, with a 'God you're thick' expression on his face.
"On a deserted island, stranded from the whole of civilization, with Hermione."
"Ah." Harry nodded smartly. "Pure genius."
Ron puffed up his chest in a brilliant imitation of Percy. "Of course. Would you expect any less?"
Harry smiled. "Not going to touch that one, mate."
Ron let out a sigh of relief. "Thank god, my dignity remains intact."
"Gahhhh!"
Harry's arms flailed wildly as he tripped on a tree root sticking out of the ground. Ron tried to right him, grabbing hold of his shirt awkwardly,
but all that served was to pull him right along with Harry into the shallow, muddy bank below them.
Harry spat out some water from his mouth, grimacing. That had not tasted good.
He managed to grin over at Ron, who was trying to wipe his eyes free, only to have more water cascade down his face from his hair.
"Not funny, I was trying to help you out and now look at me!"
"Price you pay for friendship, I guess," was Harry's smart aleck reply.
"I want a refund," Ron muttered, shaking his head wildly to get rid of the water.
"Uh, Ron?"
"What?"
"What's that….thing, on you?"
"What thin- AHHHHHHHHHHH! It's on you too!"
"AHHHHHHH!!!!"
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"
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"And then we kept screaming, ran like blazes, then tossed off our clothes like madmen, which is how you found us," Ron summarized neatly, as he and Harry helped the girls bring over the last of the food they'd found.
"And now you know better, right?"
Ron rolled his eyes. "C'mon Hermione, it's not like we fell into muddy, infested water on purpose!"
"Well, I know that, but I meant about being careful. We don't know this environment. There could be this type of stuff all around. We have to be aware and watchful at all times."
Ginny giggled. "Constant vigilance!"
Harry groaned. "Story of my life."
Hermione wiped off the last of the fruit juice that had stained her hands.
"Let's go back, collect the firewood together so we make less trips, and try to get a fire started. It will be dark soon, I'd wager."
Everyone agreed, and they trooped back into the forest, avoiding water that looked more than an inch deep.
Able to find a sizeable supply of dry firewood, they slowly carted it back to their shelter site. By the time they finished, the sun had almost set.
"I wanted to try to make a sort of canopy to protect the wood so it wouldn't get wet, as well as some kind of overhang for us, but I don't think we'll have time. The light's almost gone as it is. I say we just concentrate on getting a fire and hope it doesn't rain. That sound good?"
Harry frowned. "But if it rains, we won't have a fire, good firewood, or protection from getting wet."
"That's true," Hermione responded. "I just think the odds are in our favor that it won't. It's a clear night out."
"I dunno," Ron said. "I remember something about how being close to water means storms come more frequently and with less warning. Maybe we should just try to split the tasks up? You and Harry tackle the fire, and Ginny and I will try to make covers for us and the wood. If you two can get the fire going soon enough, we'll have enough light for us to all work on the covers after it gets dark."
"That's a great idea, Ron!" Hermione beamed up at him. "All that chess strategy might actually have some real world value."
"And you thought I was just procrastinating from homework." He grinned over at her.
They set to work quickly. Ron and Ginny ran around try to find leaves to tie together, while Harry and Hermione attempted to start a fire using the "rubbing sticks together" method.
Unable to achieve success, she sent Harry off to search for flint, then helped gather leaves until he returned, victorious.
The fire was soon burning brightly, and the four of them tied leaves together until their fingers ached. Finally, they had enough to cover the firewood as well as another piece that covered the four of them. They stuck four long branches deep into the sand, binding them in one place with heavy rocks, then made an X-shaped cross on top with two more long branches.
They then draped the leaves so the material covered the top and the sides of their construction.
Exhausted, they sat back and surveyed their work.
"Not bad," Ginny proclaimed. "So long as we don't have any strong winds."
"I'm knackered." Ron's voice was slurred slightly from exertion. "Can we sleep now?"
"Definitely," Hermione said with a nod.
They crawled inside their shelter, and Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Harry were asleep within minutes.
In both their dreams that night, Hermione and Ginny were able to fill in the blanks to the visions their subconscious minds had only been able to guess at previously.
Ron discovered that Hermione was a snuggler. She liked to burrow into his chest for extra warmth. She also had a habit of slinging her leg over his torso. He certainly didn't mind.
Harry got to spoon with Ginny, and managed to refrain from attacking her in her sleep.
Though it had been touch and go for a moment around 3:17am when her hand had brushed something she would not have brushed had she been conscious.
At least, Harry thought she wouldn't……
Their first night on Somewhere Island had gone well. It would get better.
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A/N
The leech portion of this chapter was inspired by a scene from a 1980's movie entitled "Stand By Me," featuring an adorably chubby young Jerry O'Connell, a sexy, hot bad boy Keifer Sutherland, a pre-Star Trek Wil Wheaton, a pre –drugged out Corey Feldman, and a young talented boy by the name of River Phoenix, whose anniversary of death by drug overdose just passed. Rest in peace, River. I highly recommend the movie.
Because I didn't want anything happening to Ron's ….errr….bits, I left out one of the places the leeches had actually attached to on one of the characters in the film. Even though this is fiction, I refuse to contemplate typing anything that puts such a precious part of Ron in danger. I'm sure you agree.
PLOT STARTS NEXT CHAPTER- WHOOOOHOOO!
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