Chapter 2 An Island of Hope

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The next morning Ginny and Hermione woke up at 6 o'clock so that they would have enough time to get ready for their trip. They were surprised when they were ready and it was only 6:45.

"Hermione, what are you doing?" Ginny asked as Hermione started to pack some sunscreen, "the bulletin said that the island would have sunscreen for us."

"Oh, yea, sorry, I forgot" said Hermione with an anxious look on her face.

Just then her bag fell to the floor and all of the contents fell out. She bent down to pick her stuff up and ended up sitting on the floor crying into her hands.

"Hermione, what's wrong? When you woke up this morning you were fine, then you started to seem like you are anxious about something, and you knew that the bulletin said that there would be sunscreen and you are acting really weird, not like yourself at all. Did something happen?" asked Ginny with a worried look on her face.

"No, nothing happened," said Hermione as she stopped crying, "well I mean something kind of happened, but not really, but never mind, you will just laugh at me and think that I am an immature little girl."

"Hermione, I have known you for years. You are upset about something and you should know that I would never laugh at you. Please tell me what's wrong. And if you are worried about me telling Ron or Harry, I promise that I won't tell anyone."

"Alright," said Hermione, "but I don't want you to be grossed out by it either"

"I promise you, it'll be ok, just tell me what happened."

"Ok, well Gin, I had another dream last night and well I think that I really like the person in my dreams. I mean I know that it sounds childish to like someone so much only because of what happened in your dreams, but I think that I really like him. And don't worry before we go to breakfast I will tell you who it is." She added when Ginny made a face that she knew meant that she wanted to know who the mystery man was.

"But, Hermione, is it someone that you know and are close to, or someone that you know but aren't close to, or just someone that you don't even know?" asked Ginny with a concerned look on her face.

"Well, see it's this guy that I have known for years, and I am really close to him, like he is one of my best friends, but I don't know if I really like him, or if it's just because of the dreams," said Hermione as her eyes started to fill with tears again. "And I don't know, I guess I am just crying because I am confused."

Ginny hugged Hermione to try and cheer her up as she said, "It'll be ok, but I have a question, but like I don't want you to get mad at me for it."

"It's ok, I won't get mad," Hermione started as she tried to stop crying, "what's your question?"

"Well umm, I don't really know how to say this," Ginny paused as she tried to think of the right way to ask, "but, umm, is it Ron?"

"What? I tried to keep it a secret, and don't think that I didn't want to tell you, cause I did, I just thought that it would be wrong because he is your brother and all, but yes, it is Ron, how did you know?" Hermione asked, relieved that Ginny had the right idea and she wouldn't have to tell her and worry about her getting mad at her for having dreams about her brother.

"Hermione, I'm not stupid! I've known that you liked him ever since that summer that you stayed with us at the Burrow. It's so obvious!" She said as she giggled a little bit. "And also, you just said that it was one of your best friends, and you told me yesterday that it's not Harry, therefore it has to be Ron."

"Oh, I didn't know that it was that obvious, wait, do you think he knows that I like him?" She asked with a worried look on her face.

"No, I don't think that he knows, I mean me n' mum saw that there were sparks between you two, but Ron is a boy, I don't think that he is smart enough to realize it. But just so you know, we think, me n' mum I mean, that the sparks went both ways." Ginny finished.

"What do you mean they went both ways?"

"Well we think that Ron likes you too, whether he knows it or not, there is definitely something there. I mean when we are home for the holidays you are all that he ever talks about." added Ginny with a smile on her face.

"Oh, well, I hope that he likes me too, but we'll talk about that later, we better get down to breakfast so that we have enough time to eat before the boats arrive." said Hermione as she repacked her bag (this time without the sunscreen).

When they got to the great hall Ron and Harry were already there with big plates of food in front of them. Ginny sat next to Harry and kissed him on the cheek before filling her own plate. Hermione sat down next to Ron and started to fill her plate.

"Umm, Hermione?" Ron asked a few minutes later.

"Yes?" She asked, a little bit worried that he might not want her to sit there. But then she thought about it and realized that that was stupid and they were best friends so there was no reason to worry about that.

"Well, umm, I was wondering," he started to say as his ears got a little bit pinker than they already were, "would you like to spend the day with me at the beach?" He was worried that she would say no because she wanted to hang out with Ginny and Harry, also the fact that he had had another nightmare the night before wasn't helping.

"Yes! Of course I would!" exclaimed Hermione a little bit too cheerfully, and before she realized what she was doing she hugged him and kissed him on the cheek.

Her cheeks turned so red that they were almost as red as Ron's hair, but not quite as red as Ron's own face and ears had become.

Harry just kind of stared at Hermione with his mouth open while Ginny was giggling wildly, "Harry, would you shut your mouth?" she asked him as she winked at Hermione.

"Oh, umm yea right, sorry." He said a little bit embarrassed by the way that he had stared at them.

They finished their breakfast in silence and then headed off to the common room at quarter of eight so that they could get their things and change for the beach.

At five of eight they all met in the common room and walked to the boats together. The boats were about the size of the ones that they had all taken to the castle in their first year, except these ones could fit up to six people so they were accompanied by Neville who was very upset by the fact that Luna couldn't go with them as she was only in her sixth year.

They got to the island at about 8:30 just like Dumbledore had said they would. When they got off the boats they all went to the stands that were handing out towels and sunscreen. Once they had what they needed they went to find a spot where they could lay their towels out.

"Harry, Ginny, Neville! Where are you guys going?" Ron asked as they started to walk away.

"Well, you asked Hermione to spend the day with you at the beach, you knew that we were all going to be together so I figured that you asked her so that the two of you could be alone," replied Ginny.

"Oh, right," said Ron, "well then I guess we'll see you guys later."

"Have fun," the three of them said as they all walked away.

Ron was a little bit worried about how the day was going to go. He did want to spend the day alone with Hermione at first, but now that they were actually there he wasn't too sure about it because he was really nervous and knew that he would embarrass himself.

Hermione was a little upset because she thought that Ron wanted to be alone with her, but after what just happened she wasn't too sure and thought that maybe Ginny was wrong and Ron didn't really like her at all and it was just a nice gesture to ask her to spend the day with him.

She decided not to worry about it and to try to make the best out of the situation. After all, she would be alone with Ron all day and they would be wearing practically nothing. Little did Hermione know Ron was thinking the same thing.

"Well I think this is a good spot," said Hermione as she lay her towel out on the warm sand.

"Yea, this is good," he added as he lay his towel down next to hers, "soo, what do you want to do?"

"Well it's a little bit cold to go in the water yet," she started while trying to think of something to do, "so I guess we could just take our clothes off and talk until it gets warm enough to swim, and this way we will get tan too."

Ron's mouth dropped, "t–t- take our clothes off?" he asked slightly confused as he imagined Hermione with no clothes on. 'Wow I better stop thinking things like this before she realizes that there is a huge bulge in my bathing suit.' he thought to himself.

"Yea, you know so we have our bathing suits on. Ron you didn't expect us to stay in clothes the whole day, did you? How will I ever get a good tan line like that?" She said to him as she started to take her shirt off.

"Right, umm, yea lets get naked." 'Ohh shit I did not just say that to Hermione' he thought, "I mean umm lets get into our bathing suits." He quickly corrected himself.

Hermione giggled as she finished taking her shirt off to reveal her slightly tanned chest. She was wearing a plain black, but very sexy string bikini top. Ron couldn't help but notice that she was not the little girl that she used to be and he did all that he could to contain the bulge in his pants and to not stare at her.

Ron then took off his shirt to reveal a very muscular chest and arms. Hermione looked at his chest for a minute and tried very hard not to squeal. She knew that it was ridiculous, but she was very excited to see him without a shirt on. Now he was only wearing his bathing suit and sandals and she her black bathing suit top, khaki shorts that were unbuttoned and rolled down, and black flip flops that made her slightly taller.

She started to take her shorts off and Ron couldn't believe that she was exposing herself this much in public. He tried to stop himself, but before he could he blurted out, "You're taking your shorts off too?"

"Um yes, I don't want a tan line from my shorts, but I mean if you want me to leave them on I guess I can do that too," she replied, slightly taken aback by his sudden outburst.

"Uhh, no that's ok, I just, uhh, I don't know, I didn't mean to say it," he said turning slightly red.

'Great, just great, we are here for 5 minutes and I already embarrassed myself.' He thought to himself.

"It's ok, so um do you want to get an ice cream, it's getting kind of hot?" She asked trying to change the subject.

"Yea, sure that sounds good." And with that they got up and got their ice cream.

They ate their ice cream in silence, mainly because Ron was still embarrassed about saying, "let's get naked," and asking Hermione if she was going take her shorts off too. But it was also because he was turned on by the way that she licked her ice cream, and she couldn't think of anything to talk about, but kept getting urges to throw herself on top of him and snog him.

"I'm hot," said Hermione when she finished her ice cream.

'Yes you are' thought Ron, but this time stopped himself before he said it out loud.

"Let's go in the water now," she added as she got up and walked towards the water.

"Hey Ron!" Hermione yelled over the sound of the waves and she splashed him as he turned around.

"I'm gonna get you for that!" He jokingly yelled back as her picked her up and spun her around before dropping her in the water.

She stuck her head out of the water and Ron went to help her up.

"No! Don't!" she yelled as he pulled her out of the water, but it was too late.

When he had thrown her into the water her bathing suit had come untied and when he pulled her out of the water she was holding the bathing suit top in her hands while her chest was exposed to him.

"Oh my god Hermione! I'm so sorry!" he exclaimed.

He tried to turn around, but his feet were stuck in place as he stared at her chest. He suddenly felt a bulge in his bathing suit and then turned around so that Hermione wouldn't see it.

"It's ok Ron," she exclaimed for the 3rd time, "it wasn't your fault, I just didn't tie my bathing suit tight enough."

He knew that it wasn't his fault, but he was still embarrassed.

The rest of the day at the beach was a blur. They met up with Ginny, Harry and Neville and hung out with them for the rest of the day. That night they all sat together to watch the fireworks.

Ron slowly put his arm around Hermione, not sure of how she would react. He was relieved when she didn't push him away, but just snuggled into him.

When the fireworks were over Ron got up so that he could help Hermione up and his watch got caught in her hair. He struggled for a few minutes and finally got it unstuck. Hermione and Ginny were giggling again and Ron was relieved that it was dark so that no one could see his red face.

'I can't believe I screwed up so many times in one day,' he thought to himself as they all walked back to the boats.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

A/N: this chapter was longer than the last one, but I needed to put a lot into it for later chapters. Tell me what you think.