Five: Darn We Aren't Alone
Harry and Ron returned over an hour later finding nothing. They had found the stream and filled the endless jug that could hold as much water as they thought would supply them for a week. This included water for showering, for they thought it would be uncomfortable for the girls to shower in the ocean. It seemed as if they did have some common sense somewhere. Though at their age it was necessary, for an imbecile probably couldn't have defeated the Dark Lord. Nor would almost every witch on the entire planet idolize the imbecile. And a second simpleton wouldn't be able to create the strategy, along with the help of Albus Dumbledore, to help the first imbecile defeat Lord Voldemort. Thus, common sense may not have been demonstrated throughout their Hogwarts careers, but it was still somewhere deep inside depths of their minds.
During the time that Harry and Ron were away, Ginny and Hermione had a long discussion on what they were to do about being lost. They were able to transfigure sand into misshapen glass and rocks for eating utensils. It seemed they also had a sixth sense, for they built a shower booth in their own tent, but not in the boys'. They didn't feel like showering in the ocean, especially when there were people of the opposite sex, who were very close friends and somewhat brothers to them. After being bored with so much chat, they talked about things they would have enjoyed to talk about if they were actually on their real vacation.
Right before Harry and Ron had returned on their trip, they started a conversation of the Witch Weekly's Top Ten List of the Most Eligible Bachelors. Even though Hermione never really was interested in such lists, it was something to talk about in her girlish moments. She always was focused on her tasks at work and tasks of her friends work that she never had time to relax. So for one of the rare moments in life she decided to enjoy a discussion on the Witch Weekly's Top Ten List.
"Isn't it great that both Harry and Ron made the list?" Hermione said happily. It was great that her two best friends made the list, although she wasn't happy about the idea of thousands of girls screaming their names. She hated it when she would step out of her home or office with one of them and there would be a crowd of younger teen-witches asking for an autograph or more.
"Why my brother? I don't understand. He is an idiot! Why would any witch fall for him? He is too tall, lanky, and looks like a simpleton."
"Well he does have the red hair, which is a feature that stands out. He is tall and has the body structure of…" Hermione was blushing and stopped immediately after Ginny started giving gagging noises.
"We both have to agree on Harry though. He is charming and after all he did save the wizarding world…who knows how many times," Ginny paused while Hermione nodded in agreement. "Well who else made the list? And how do you know all this? I would expect you to be too attentive to work to even realize that this list was made. How do you even know that this magazine exists?" Ginny said in an increasingly mocking tone. Hermione decided to ignore all but the first question.
"Oliver Wood – he always makes it. He is good looking, but it looks like Lavender Brown is going to announce her engagement to him any time soon." Ginny made a sigh when she heard Hermione say his name.
"There's Blaise Zabini. I don't like him though, his dark hair and uncharacteristic blue eyes kind of scare me. Anthony Goldstein, Roger Davies, Terry Boot, Oliver Wood, Adrian Pucey, Lee Jordan, and last and most least Draco Malfoy." Hermione ended with a taste of disgust.
"Draco Malfoy? You never liked him? After I ended my relationship with Dean Thomas in my fifth year, I had a major crush on him," Ginny said with a deep sigh.
"Malfoy? Our worst enemy? Why him?" Hermione asked shocked. How could Ginny possibly look at Malfoy with any eyes of affection? All Hermione saw was disgust and loathe for the ferret.
"Come on…the gray eyes, the silver-blonde hair, the face that looked like it was carved by angels…"
"Angels? Too bad he is a complete devil!" she said viciously.
"I guess I just was one of those girls that swooned over the bad-boy of the school," Ginny said, sighing.
"Well at least that sentence was used in the past tense. I can't believe you liked Malfoy! Of all people, even Adrian Pucey looked far more handsome in his third year. Remember how terrible he looked?" Hermione said and then covered her mouth in shock. She never really thought about the 'bad features' of someone. She always thought she looked at their personality. The good thing was that Ginny didn't seem to notice this and continued her topic about Malfoy.
"It's not as if anything could have ever happened. We were sworn enemies, he hated my guts, and his father once tried to kill me. I did have a great laugh during my fourth year with the whole bat bogey hex incident. However, it was at the end of my fifth year when he told Dumbledore that he did not want to become a Death Eater, and that might have increased my attraction to him."
"It was also that time of the year where it was well-known that Harry would be able to overcome the Dark Lord by the end of his seventh year. He just wanted to be on the winning side! Why else do you think he was never invited to a meeting of the Order?"
"Well he wasn't the only person not invited to the Order. Many people from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and even Gryffindor didn't even know about the Order! I liked him and that's all I can…"
"Liked who, Ginny?" Ron came in and asked suspiciously. This was the exact moment that Ron and Harry had arrived to interrupt and terminate their so-called 'girlish conversation.'
"Nobody," Ginny said quickly. With six older brothers she always had the quick tongue to state a good lie.
"I have to know who you liked so I can get the rest of the Weasleys and we can have a discussion with him. Unless of course it's Harry. I approve of him," Ron said with a hopeful twinkle in his eye.
"Right, how are you going to do that when we are the only people on this island? Well the only people that probably can speak English," Ginny said completely ignoring the last part of his statement.
"That's not the point! Tell me, who do you like?"
"Ron just bugger off. Well, we checked the stream and brought the jug, but found no one," Harry said and then told them how much water they had.
Everybody was glad that Ginny and Hermione had spent so much time working on the shower. Harry was a little upset that they didn't build him one; he didn't want any embarrassing scenes to happen. The rest assured him that that wouldn't happen, and that problem was resolved. However, when he turned around, an evil grin came upon the three. If he hadn't mentioned it, he was sure that nothing would happen, but now with two Weasleys stuck on the same island, something was bound to happen.
They all decided that since they were lost, they could at least enjoy the weather outside and go out exploring. Even though they wanted to get off the island, they also wanted to enjoy it as much as possible too. They believed after they are found, they won't be able to enjoy another vacation for a long time, as the Ministry might decide that Portkey travel would be too dangerous for them. Hermione and Ron went out to explore the rest of the island, while Harry and Ginny decided to go get some fruit. They were really addicted to the Palatable Pink Pesky Produce, and wanted to see if there were any other kinds of interesting fruits on the island.
Ginny was able to find some strange purple fruit with black spots circumventing it. It looked like an oversized discolored apple. Harry had read the Survival Guide book, and had found a simple spell that would check if a certain fruit or vegetable was edible or not. The spell worked using Harry's wand, if pointed in the right direction. The fruit Ginny found was edible and Harry was the first to be brave enough to take a bite out of it.
"Ugh!" Harry made a face. "It's bitter!" he said, giving the fruit to Ginny.
Ginny took a bite, but found the taste to be interesting, "Oh, you know what? This tastes really familiar. I think it's an ingredient to a popular drink. Maybe we could experiment with this fruit and find out what drink I am talking about. I don't mind it, but then again, I am a Weasley and love to eat almost anything."
"Maybe later. How are we going to collect all this fruit?"
"That's easy! I brought my bag and some extra clothes," she said and then with a little whisper and a large grin she added, "Make sure you don't tell Ron I was snooping through his trunk. We could just tie our clothes and make a bag out of that. My bag obviously won't fit any of the fruit. Plus, I don't want to get it dirty."
Harry agreed and went to work making a bag out of extra clothes. It was easy enough, and with a few bad spells, they were able to make a strange looking bag out of clothes. They carried the bag outside of the tents and set it down.
"Well look at all the fruit we got, this could last us a whole…a whole meal for Ron! Harry, I'm sorry to say this, but you eat a lot, too."
Harry mocked glared at her, and continued unpacking the fruit. The day before, Ron had time to make a basket for who knows what. It might have been created for laundry purposes, but knowing Ron and his terrible transfiguration skills it could have just been some misshapen bed. They used this for the fruit, for it was just the right size for the quantity of fruit that they had brought from the island. The two of them idly chatted about life in general and about ways to contact the outside world, for they had forgotten to discuss this before. However, both of them froze when they heard a rustling in the trees right behind them. They immediately took out both their wands and directed it towards the trees. If it were Ron and Hermione they would at least announce that they were coming. Unless it was some kind of prank they were playing, but it didn't seem likely.
Pointing their wands steadily and with the greatest amount of attention, they stared straight at the direction of the sound. If it were some island creature, they would be prepared to use their best hexes, and if it is just some island native, they already memorized their lines of apologies (as being in a war does bring some friendly fire).
"Lower your wand, Potter," drawled a faint voice.
The voice that had just spoken to them was very familiar and for a moment, they felt that their hearts had suddenly stopped. Draco Malfoy brushed past the trees and stepped out from the bushes. Both Ginny and Harry dropped their jaws in astonishment. It was either because Draco Malfoy was actually on the island they were lost on, or because Draco Malfoy wasn't as immaculately clean as he usually was. It was just amazing.