Chapter Four: Bonded Forever
"We got lucky you know," Hermione sighed, as she looked into the fire and ate her fish. "We have food, shelter, fire, and fresh water. Not many of these little islands have all of that."
"Well, they don't have us either." Draco laughed at his lame joke. "What are our chances of walking away from this alive you think?"
"I'd say probably ninety percent, if they can find us. I expect they'll start flying and searching over the islands within the next two days. I should think we'll be gone from here in six days time or so." She said with confidence. "This isn't too bad."
"No, it's really rather good. I should eat fish more often." Draco smiled at Hermione, sparkles were dancing in his steel blue eyes.
"So if you don't mind me asking, what brought you to Hawaii anyway?"
"Ah, me mum's best friend. Mum sent me here to stay with her, thinking I'd be safe away from Voldemort. But I'm not going to lie, no one's really safe no matter how far away they are once Voldemort starts hunting for them, not until he's dead anyway."
"Well, that was nice of you mum. God I wish we had something more to do around here." Hermione sighed.
Draco raised an eyebrow and smirked slightly. "Do you want to go for a swim?" He asked with a big grin smeared across his face.
"Uh…Sure…" She giggled at the look of pure glee he had. "What kind of swim are we talking about here?" She wondered as they walked to the pond hand in hand.
"You'll see. Oh hey my shirt's still here. Well, I won't be needing it for a bit." He said casually as he began to strip down to nothing.
"Oh, that kind of swimming…" Hermione blushed realizing that he meant skinny dipping. She began to hum her favorite song, as she turned her back to Draco.
"What song is that?" Draco asked wading into the water.
"Oh it's called Hide and Seek, it's from one of my favorite movies."
"Sing it for me?" He asked glancing over his should to see if she was in the water yet.
"What, no that would sound horrid." She said as she entered the water. "Whatever happened to 'it's not like I haven't seen what you've got'" She teased splashing him.
"Hey, turn around. That's new." Draco remarked pointing out the dragon fly Hermione had tattooed on the base of her neck.
She just laughed at him and swam toward the water fall. The sun set was casting just enough light on her to make her look like an angel. Draco admired her perfection for a moment and swam after her, "It's not really new. I've had it for almost a year now." Hermione told him of her tattoo.
"I like it, it suits you well," He complimented grabbing hold of Hermione around the waist.
"I thought we agreed not to do this unless it was real?" Hermione gasped as their eye locked.
"So now I'm not allowed to touch you at all then?" Draco laughed.
"Well…no…I mean I don't mind…" She stammered furiously blushing a dark shade of scarlet.
"Nervous,"
"Slightly,"
"Don't be," He told her kissing her forehead and leaning against the edge of the pond. "I won't do anything you don't want me too."
"You're not in the least bit tempted then?"
"Oh, trust me I am tempted beyond belief." He said moving so close to her that they were nearly touching, "But I don't easily give into temptation."
"Not me. I'm rather spur of the moment." Hermione whispered, "It's getting dark quickly, we should go back."
"Why, I'm enjoying myself, aren't you?"
"Well, yes of course I am, but as I said before, I'm a spur of the moment being. And I don't exactly do well with…denying temptation." She remarked swimming back toward shore.
He watched her leave and scamper back to the camp site naked. He was sure that she planned on using the fire to get warm and dry. He sat there wondering how he would be able to resist Hermione now that he found him self so helplessly attracted to her. 'God, if she had kissed me just then, I would have lost it and had my way with her…Unless she had said no of course,' he sighed, 'Oh please just let us be rescued tomorrow. I don't know how long I can do this!'
When all signs of sunlight had completely disappeared, Draco began the rather short trek back to the camp, the warmth of the fire, and the company of the woman that could hardly resist. When he saw her, he heard her singing softly, "Hmmm what'd you say, hmmm that you only meant well, well of course you did. Hmmm what'd you say, hmmm that it's all for the best, of course it is. Hmmm what'd you say, hmmm that is isn't what we need and you decided this. Hmmm what'd you say, hmmm what did she say…?" He recognized the tune as the one she ha been humming at the pond earlier in the evening.
"That wasn't horrid at all dearry," He complemented startling her, "In fact, I think I'd be mistaken if you didn't have some lessons at some time or another."
"Yes, actually I did take lessons for quite a while. I was supposed to be one of the best in my group, but I gave it up last summer, for things that I felt were more important." She blushed slightly. He had noticed that she had been doing it quite a lot lately.
"What's on your mind love?" He asked nudging her softly with his shoulder.
"You, if you really must know," she smiled brightly, "I can't stop thinking about you, the kiss, your body, and why you tired to save me, when you could have just walked away and been rid of me for good. So, why did you save me?"
"Ah, that one. I've been waiting for you to ask that one actually. I wondered if you'd even get around to doing it." Draco chuckled, Hermione sighed happily, she truly loved hearing him laugh and seeing his gorgeous smile smeared across his face. "I don't know, something just told me that I had too. Like it was supposed to happen… Now I sound like Sybil Trelawney, but do you see what I'm getting at?"
"Yeah, I understand almost as if you couldn't stop yourself from just diving right in?"
"Exactly, bloody mental isn't it?" He commented shaking his head. "This might sound even more unbelievable, but I'm really very glad that I did it. I feel like it freed my soul, lifted a nearly unbearable weight off of my shoulders…"
"Now you sound just a wee bit nutty, in a good way though," she winked at him. "I think that I'll be going off to sleep now, good night."
"Good night love," Draco kissed her cheek and watched as she crawled into the shelter and laid down.
By the time the two of them had been on the island for five days, they had become inseparable. Hermione never went anywhere without Draco, and Draco never went anywhere without Hermione. They spent every moment together, fishing, swimming, collecting fruit and fire wood, eating, and sleeping. They talked constantly, and they were now the best of friends.
They had not fought any more and were very understanding of each other, and Draco knew that he was slowly starting to fall in love with Hermione, and hoped that she felt the same way about him. He knew that from then on he would not be able to look at her as just another Muggle born witch, and that he would not be able to forget this experience with her. He would be bonded to her forever, and he wanted it to be that way.
"Hermione, just what exactly are we going to do once we get off of this island? Things are never going to be the same between us…" He remarked that night as they sat about their camp site eating fish.
"I thought that you would just go back to being the person everyone knows, and the boy everyone loves to hate…" She teased, but stopped herself once she saw how distressing this was to him. "How had you hoped it would go?"
"I don't want to go back to the old us that's for sure. I want us to stay close, happy, care free almost… maybe even in love…" He commented, as she looked into his steel blue eyes she saw them well up with tears. "You are the only true friend that I've ever really had Hermione, and I'm not willing to just let this slip away from me so easily."
"I know what you mean. We've bonded for life being this close to each other with no one else around haven't we?" She asked.
"Yes, we have."
