Sailing the Forbidden Waters – Ch3

The next morning, Hermione woke up feeling thoroughly miserable. Spending the whole holiday out on a boat with no one except Malfoy for company was not on Hermione's list of favourite things. It was already late by the time she woke up so she quickly had a shower, got dressed and went downstairs to have 'breakfast'. By the time she was done it was already 2:15pm.

"Hermione, didn't you say that you need to be at the train station by 3:00pm?" asked her dad.

"Yes, Tom. You and Hermione really should be going," said Emma; Hermione's mum.

Hermione quickly ran upstairs to get her trunk, came down again, kissed her mum goodbye and followed her dad outside to the car. By the time they arrived it was 2:50pm.

"Bye Dad," said Hermione sadly.

"Bye honey. Don't forget to come home for Christmas." Said her dad.

"I won't. Bye"

"Bye."

Hermione turned around slowly and ran through the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10. When she reached the other side she saw that the Hogwarts Express wasn't there. She was instead greeted by Dumbledore and an annoyed looking Malfoy beside him.

"Hello Professor."

"Ah, Miss Granger! It's very nice to see you. Anyway, let's get to business. I said you'd be taking a boat to study the magical creatures of the sea. Am I right?

"Yes Professor," chirped Hermione.

"Mhmmm," said Malfoy looking quite bored.

"Well," continued Dumbledore, "This is all for house unity. You two are Head Boy and Girl this year which means that you have the most responsibility. It's your job to set an example for the younger kids so you both have to behave and get along regardless of what house you're in.

Malfoy had a look on his face as if to say, 'Yeah right, like I'm gonna get along with that bloody mudblood.'

Hermione had a look on his face as if to say, 'HA! Get along with ferret boy? Yeah right!'

"I must give you something," said Dumbledore, completely ignoring said looks. Grabbing his wand and conjuring a small black bag, he opened it to reveal 5 vials, each a different colour and with labels on them. "There are 5 creatures that you have to study; each vial represents one creature. The vial has a picture of the creature on it. What you have to do is go into the water and find the creature, then tip the vial onto it. The creature will then freeze and after a few seconds the liquid will come back into the vial and the creature will go away. You then go back into the boat and tip the liquid onto a piece of parchment and all the information about the creature will appear. Do this to all 5 creatures and then study the information; you will have a test on them when you come back to school. That is all I have to say, Goodbye."

With a wave of his hands Hermione and Malfoy were gone with the small black bag that contained the 5 vials and their luggage right behind them.

B/N: Hello all! This is Stef here. Kris didn't leave a message this time but on behalf of both of us, sorry for the delay in updating. We've both been really busy recently. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter and any reviews are much appreciated. Hopefully we'll get out another chapter before Harry Potter 6 comes out (JULY 16th!) but if not then don't expect another review for a while… hehehe…

Bye!