Day Twenty-Six
Despite getting to bed relatively early last night, most of the tribe is late to rise this morning. We're all pretty tired at this point, almost four weeks into this battle of hunger and exertion. I do feel bad for the rest of the players, who were unable to boost their systems before the game started with magical spells. However, I don't feel bad enough to let any of them win the game.
It's another hot morning. Fortunately we don't have any challenges today, and the few morning chores go by fairly quickly. I'm on firewood duty this morning, so I take that opportunity for a little alone time. My path takes me along the beach, collecting driftwood. Alone with my thoughts and my driftwood, I still don't know what to make of Malfoy. He hasn't done anything overtly evil toward me in the time we've been on the island, but Malfoys can be devious. Maybe he's trying to earn my trust so that he can crush me later in the game.
Then again, there is the slight possibility that he is being friendly to me just for the sake of being friendly. Unlikely as it may seem, I guess he could have changed from the spoiled, self-centered, arrogant jerk that he used to be. And a few days ago, he almost implied that he was only on the dark side, and possibly only in Slytherin, because he had to be on the inside in order to bring it down. But he seemed to fit so well in the role of a Slytherin -- is anyone that good of an actor?
My arms are full of wood, and I've come quite far down the beach. Before heading back, I sit down on a jutting rock, kick off my sneakers and run my toes through the warm sand. If only I weren't playing this game, and eating nothing but rice and coconut and the occasional fish, and had an air-conditioned luxury suite nearby, this island wouldn't be half bad. My toes wiggling in the sand, I start to ponder the Pete situation. Even though all the contestants had to go through mental evaluations before the show to make sure they're not psychotic killers, I'm not quite sure he's what I would call normal. Now that the old members of Miti Matai outnumber the Fetia Rais 5 to 3, we'd still keep our lead if we voted Pete out tomorrow. I can't wait until he and Sheryl leave for their reward night, so I can get together with Kiki and make some sort of plan.
I shake the sand out of my shoes and put them back on. Gathering up my pile of firewood, I slowly make my way back to camp. No sense in hurrying; there's no rush to have the wood, and it's just too hot to even consider expending any extra effort. As I get closer, I see Pete and Kiki talking off to the side from everyone else. Actually, it looks more like Pete doing all the talking, and Kiki listening and nodding while staring at the ground. Pete spots me nearing the camp and with a quick word, they go their separate ways.
Interesting.
The lazy morning progesses into the lazy afternoon. I'm keeping an eye on the sun's track across the sky. Finally in the late afternoon, what I'd guess to be about 4 or 5 o'clock by the sun, we hear a buzzing sound out across the lagoon. Slowly growing louder, the buzzing thing goes from being a speck on the horizon to a small speedboat. As it nears us, we can see Marcus standing in the front of the boat, waving at us. The boat slides up on the sand, and Marcus hops out.
"Pete, Sheryl, it's time to get your reward. If you're ready, we can get going." Marcus beckons to them with his hand. Sheryl immediately hops up and walks down the beach toward Marcus. I'm sure she sees this as a great opportunity to get to know someone on the dominant team, and possibly get in with the group that seems to be on the track to winning. Pete takes a little longer to head down to the boat, making sure first to look at me, then Malfoy, then at Kiki. I'm sure his nod to Kiki has something to do with their little conversation earlier, but right now, Kiki won't make eye contact with me. Pete makes his way down the beach and gets in the boat, and then they're off.
Once the boat has rounded a corner and is again out of sight, Kiki is practically on top of me. She grabs my hand and tugs me toward the jungle. "Let's go down to the waterfall for a while, I could really use a cool dip in the pool." Excellent, she desperately wants to talk to me. I follow her down to the pool. We get in the cool water, swim across, climb out and perch on the rocks on the far side, so we can see anyone coming.
"You are not going to believe this," she begins. "I am now some sort of spy or babysitter or something. Pete took me aside this morning and demanded that I watch you and Draco, and let him know if you two seemed to be planning anything."
"Yeah, I wondered what all that was about. What did you tell him?"
"I told him I'd watch you." I glance at her in surprise. "Of course, I'm not going to report anything to him, but he told me that if I didn't do what he said, he'd make sure I was the next one voted out."
"He's made the same sort of threats to me." I shake my head. "I wonder who else he's threatened. He told me he'd make up horrible lies, tell everyone else that I was saying nasty things about them. I don't think he's quite..." I search for an appropriate word, "stable."
Kiki nods. "I'm not really afraid of him, but he's certainly being really weird."
"Do you think we should consider getting him out of the game?" I'm pretty sure she'll say yes.
"If we do, we'll still be ahead, and you and I and Ellen and Chet can still make the final four. And we can probably get the Fetia Rais to vote for him too. Do you want to talk to Draco about it?"
"What?" I look up at her sharply. "What makes you think I should be the one to talk to him?"
"Well, there is something going on between you, isn't there? At least he sure seems to like you." I shake my head in denial. "Come on, Hermione. I've seen the way he looks at you. I don't know if it's because you remind him of his high school crush, or what. But he's totally into you."
"Oh, honestly. There is absolutely nothing between us."
Kiki grins up at the sky. "Never say never, duckie. You know he's attractive, I know he's attracted, and it's such a romantic location."
"Oh yes. Blazing hot sun. Sweaty, unwashed, hungry people. Very romantic. I don't know why this isn't a top honeymoon destination." Kiki just flashes me an infuriatingly smug smile. I decide a subject change is in order. "So, we should approach Ellen and Chet. Let Ellen know the plan about Pete, and one of us should feel out Chet to find out if he's aligned with Pete at all."
"You talk to Ellen, I'll speak to Chet. Turn on the ol' Kiki charm." She stands up. "And then you can embark on a... liaison with Draco. Find out if his buttery bread is buttered on the same side as ours." With a broad wink, she jumps back into the pool and starts leisurely back to the shore.
"Charming." I hop down into the pool and follow her out of the pool and back to camp. As we separate to find Chet and Ellen, she grabs my arm.
"Butter, my dear." With a grin and a giggle, she wanders away.
Great. Everyone on this island is a complete nutter. And that probably includes me.
I track down Ellen fairly quickly and explain the plan to her. She's very agreeable; even though she hasn't been subjected to Pete's attentions like Kiki and I have, she tells me that he has always made her uneasy. "There's just something about him that makes me not want him to win." I agree. With our plans in place, we start preparing dinner as the sun begins to dip below the horizon.
After eating, Kiki takes me aside and reports that Chet seems to have no loyalty to Pete. She then insists I talk to Draco, but he and Carla seem to have gone off somewhere. As part of the dwindling Fetia Rai team, I'm sure they need to discuss strategy. I wait around the campfire as the sky grows increasingly dark, then takes on an eerie blue glow as a nearly full moon rises over the trees. Patience under pressure is not one of my strong suits, and pretty soon I'm antsy from sitting and waiting. Since the night is so stiflingly hot, I decide to wade out into the lagoon while I wait.
The water is refreshingly cool on my hot skin. I quietly murmur a spell to keep away any enemies, should an inquisitive shark feel the need to bite off my leg. Out I wade, the water moving slowly up my legs, my hips, my stomach. I finally stop when only my shoulders, neck and head are above the water. I'm considerably far out, but I can still clearly see the fires of camp. Doing a slow circle, I can see the flashing red light of a cameraman in a boat, a short distance away from me. Enough to give me some semblance of privacy, but close enough to film anything interesting with a zoom lens and infrared film.
The lapping sounds of the water are very lulling. I turn onto my back and let myself float, my ears underwater, hearing nothing but the vague echoing sounds of the sea. The moon looks huge above me. After a while, I stop floating and find my footing again. I should go back to camp and see if Malfoy has returned.
Then an arm wraps around my waist.
I manage to draw in a breath to scream, but then a hand is clapped over my mouth. Whoever is behind me pulls me toward them. I struggle to get away, then hear a spell whispered in my ear.
Petrificus Totalus. Great. Well, at least I know the identity of my attacker.
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to scare you." His whisper is barely audible, not much more than warm breath in my ear. "I'm going to release you. Please don't hit me or anything." He whispers the countercurse and I'm free to move again. Within limits, because Malfoy's arms are both wrapped around me from behind.
"What the hell are you doing?" My hiss is quiet enough not to carry, but venomous enough to let him know he's walking on thin ice.
I can feel his head touching my shoulder. Again, his whisper is barely more than a breath on my ear. "We need to talk about this game."
"Oh, do we now?" I tilt my head toward his.
"Wait," he whispers. Then I feel his breath on my neck, but I can't quite make out the words. A quietly uttered swear word makes its way across the water, and I glance over to where the cameraman sits in his boat. The red recording light is off, and I can hear paddles striking the water. Malfoy's mouth is against my ear again. "Aww, looks like the camera ran out of film."
"You want to talk about the game? Fine. What's your game, Malfoy? Why are you here?"
He moves his hands from my waist up to my shoulders and begins to give me a massage. "Oh, I'm sure my reasons are very similar to yours. Quick and easy money, or so I thought." He rubs his thumbs along the knots at the base of my neck. Say what you will about Malfoy, and I've said a lot of negative things about him, he has a great knack for a neck massage.
"What about all the Malfoy riches?"
"Gone. The manor was destroyed in the war, and my father gave most of his money to support Voldemort. And my work during the war didn't pay very much."
"And what kind of work might that be?"
"Mmm." He runs his warm hands down my back under the water. "We should talk about the game."
"And you should't try to distract me with your Malfoy charms." It's taking all of my willpower to concentrate on getting answers out of him. The bastard has very talented hands, and I'm sure he knows it.
"You give me a little, I'll give you a little. What's the deal with Pete?" One hand is still kneading my shoulder, and the other has moved up my neck and is now into my hair, his long fingers caressing my scalp. Evil, evil, evil. I'm lucky it's all information I was going to be giving him anyway, because his torturing technique is very persuasive.
"He thinks there's something going on between us." Malfoy laughs quietly behind me. "He doesn't know what, but he seems certain that I'm conspiring with you. He's been watching me like a hawk to make sure you and I don't enter into some sort of secret pact."
"Ah, so is that why you distracted me during the challenge? To get him away?" One hand on the shoulders, the other now moving along my back, side, and around to my stomach. He pulls me close to him, and I barely manage to contain my gasp. "Or maybe you just wanted to enter into some sort of secret pact."
My body is coccooned in cool water, except for my back, which is pressed against Malfoy's warm chest, and his deliciously warm hands on my skin. I am so incredibly turned on right now.
"Malfoy," I murmur. One hot hand is on my stomach, the other is moving across my collarbone.
"You should always call me Draco. Don't want you messing up during the game."
His hand has moved across my collarbone and is now stroking the front of my neck. "Draco," I whisper. I hope he doesn't notice how the "o" at the end of his name turned into a sigh. I take a breath. "I gave a little, now it's your turn to give a little. What did you do in the war?"
A chuckle in my ear. "I never said I'd give information, just that I'd give... something." He's still holding me around the middle, but not as tightly. He drifts his hand gently along my stomach, leaving a trail of warmth in the cool water. His other hand pulls my hair away from my neck. As I stand there, water lapping against me, with his warm skin pressing against my back, I feel his breath on the back of my neck. My eyes are shut, my mouth is open, taking short gasping breaths. He's a damned dirty bastard, evil incarnate, my nearly lifelong enemy, and I've never felt this aroused.
Warm lips touch my neck, and I feel like melting into him. He lays a trail of soft, gentle kisses up the side of my neck. He reaches my ear, and the combination of lips and warm breath are almost more than I can take. But if he's going to play dirty this way, I can too.
I move my hands from my sides, under the water, and reach behind me. I gently grab him by the hips, which makes him release a gasp of his own in my ear. I run my hands along his hips and around to his ass. He retaliates by lightly grabbing my earlobe with his teeth. I turn my head toward his; his lips move from my ear, across my cheek, and toward my mouth.
He pauses. For a moment we hold where we are; back to front, his arms wrapped around me from behind, one on my stomach, the other on my chest above my breasts, his lips on my cheek, my arms back behind me and my hands on his rear. Then suddenly, his hands and chest and lips are no longer holding me, and the coldness of the water rushes to fill those places he had kept so warm.
"Thanks for the information, Hermione," he laughinly whispers, then with a splash he's swimming back to shore. I shake my head to clear my brain, then notice a new cameraman just arriving in his boat. Relucatantly I trudge through the water back to shore, inwardly cursing Malfoy. Not only did he get all the information, he's also left me with the female equivalent of blue balls. The warm air hits me as I get out of the water. I duck into the shelter and grab one of my shirts to use as a towel.
I find Kiki stoking the fire. "Did you talk to Draco?" Her eyes are glittering at me in the firelight. And for some reason, I don't want to make eye contact with her. I might let her see that she's right in assuming there's "something" between me and Malfoy.
"Yeah. It's all cool. Um... I'm going to bed." I walk toward the shelter.
"Hey, you should be careful swimming alone. I'm glad he went out there to find you; you never know what creatures might want to nibble on your toes."
I wave her off. "I'm not worried." After all, I think as I settle in with my pillow, I cast a spell to keep enemies away. Nothing with bad intentions could have come near me.
And then I realize what that means.
Despite getting to bed relatively early last night, most of the tribe is late to rise this morning. We're all pretty tired at this point, almost four weeks into this battle of hunger and exertion. I do feel bad for the rest of the players, who were unable to boost their systems before the game started with magical spells. However, I don't feel bad enough to let any of them win the game.
It's another hot morning. Fortunately we don't have any challenges today, and the few morning chores go by fairly quickly. I'm on firewood duty this morning, so I take that opportunity for a little alone time. My path takes me along the beach, collecting driftwood. Alone with my thoughts and my driftwood, I still don't know what to make of Malfoy. He hasn't done anything overtly evil toward me in the time we've been on the island, but Malfoys can be devious. Maybe he's trying to earn my trust so that he can crush me later in the game.
Then again, there is the slight possibility that he is being friendly to me just for the sake of being friendly. Unlikely as it may seem, I guess he could have changed from the spoiled, self-centered, arrogant jerk that he used to be. And a few days ago, he almost implied that he was only on the dark side, and possibly only in Slytherin, because he had to be on the inside in order to bring it down. But he seemed to fit so well in the role of a Slytherin -- is anyone that good of an actor?
My arms are full of wood, and I've come quite far down the beach. Before heading back, I sit down on a jutting rock, kick off my sneakers and run my toes through the warm sand. If only I weren't playing this game, and eating nothing but rice and coconut and the occasional fish, and had an air-conditioned luxury suite nearby, this island wouldn't be half bad. My toes wiggling in the sand, I start to ponder the Pete situation. Even though all the contestants had to go through mental evaluations before the show to make sure they're not psychotic killers, I'm not quite sure he's what I would call normal. Now that the old members of Miti Matai outnumber the Fetia Rais 5 to 3, we'd still keep our lead if we voted Pete out tomorrow. I can't wait until he and Sheryl leave for their reward night, so I can get together with Kiki and make some sort of plan.
I shake the sand out of my shoes and put them back on. Gathering up my pile of firewood, I slowly make my way back to camp. No sense in hurrying; there's no rush to have the wood, and it's just too hot to even consider expending any extra effort. As I get closer, I see Pete and Kiki talking off to the side from everyone else. Actually, it looks more like Pete doing all the talking, and Kiki listening and nodding while staring at the ground. Pete spots me nearing the camp and with a quick word, they go their separate ways.
Interesting.
The lazy morning progesses into the lazy afternoon. I'm keeping an eye on the sun's track across the sky. Finally in the late afternoon, what I'd guess to be about 4 or 5 o'clock by the sun, we hear a buzzing sound out across the lagoon. Slowly growing louder, the buzzing thing goes from being a speck on the horizon to a small speedboat. As it nears us, we can see Marcus standing in the front of the boat, waving at us. The boat slides up on the sand, and Marcus hops out.
"Pete, Sheryl, it's time to get your reward. If you're ready, we can get going." Marcus beckons to them with his hand. Sheryl immediately hops up and walks down the beach toward Marcus. I'm sure she sees this as a great opportunity to get to know someone on the dominant team, and possibly get in with the group that seems to be on the track to winning. Pete takes a little longer to head down to the boat, making sure first to look at me, then Malfoy, then at Kiki. I'm sure his nod to Kiki has something to do with their little conversation earlier, but right now, Kiki won't make eye contact with me. Pete makes his way down the beach and gets in the boat, and then they're off.
Once the boat has rounded a corner and is again out of sight, Kiki is practically on top of me. She grabs my hand and tugs me toward the jungle. "Let's go down to the waterfall for a while, I could really use a cool dip in the pool." Excellent, she desperately wants to talk to me. I follow her down to the pool. We get in the cool water, swim across, climb out and perch on the rocks on the far side, so we can see anyone coming.
"You are not going to believe this," she begins. "I am now some sort of spy or babysitter or something. Pete took me aside this morning and demanded that I watch you and Draco, and let him know if you two seemed to be planning anything."
"Yeah, I wondered what all that was about. What did you tell him?"
"I told him I'd watch you." I glance at her in surprise. "Of course, I'm not going to report anything to him, but he told me that if I didn't do what he said, he'd make sure I was the next one voted out."
"He's made the same sort of threats to me." I shake my head. "I wonder who else he's threatened. He told me he'd make up horrible lies, tell everyone else that I was saying nasty things about them. I don't think he's quite..." I search for an appropriate word, "stable."
Kiki nods. "I'm not really afraid of him, but he's certainly being really weird."
"Do you think we should consider getting him out of the game?" I'm pretty sure she'll say yes.
"If we do, we'll still be ahead, and you and I and Ellen and Chet can still make the final four. And we can probably get the Fetia Rais to vote for him too. Do you want to talk to Draco about it?"
"What?" I look up at her sharply. "What makes you think I should be the one to talk to him?"
"Well, there is something going on between you, isn't there? At least he sure seems to like you." I shake my head in denial. "Come on, Hermione. I've seen the way he looks at you. I don't know if it's because you remind him of his high school crush, or what. But he's totally into you."
"Oh, honestly. There is absolutely nothing between us."
Kiki grins up at the sky. "Never say never, duckie. You know he's attractive, I know he's attracted, and it's such a romantic location."
"Oh yes. Blazing hot sun. Sweaty, unwashed, hungry people. Very romantic. I don't know why this isn't a top honeymoon destination." Kiki just flashes me an infuriatingly smug smile. I decide a subject change is in order. "So, we should approach Ellen and Chet. Let Ellen know the plan about Pete, and one of us should feel out Chet to find out if he's aligned with Pete at all."
"You talk to Ellen, I'll speak to Chet. Turn on the ol' Kiki charm." She stands up. "And then you can embark on a... liaison with Draco. Find out if his buttery bread is buttered on the same side as ours." With a broad wink, she jumps back into the pool and starts leisurely back to the shore.
"Charming." I hop down into the pool and follow her out of the pool and back to camp. As we separate to find Chet and Ellen, she grabs my arm.
"Butter, my dear." With a grin and a giggle, she wanders away.
Great. Everyone on this island is a complete nutter. And that probably includes me.
I track down Ellen fairly quickly and explain the plan to her. She's very agreeable; even though she hasn't been subjected to Pete's attentions like Kiki and I have, she tells me that he has always made her uneasy. "There's just something about him that makes me not want him to win." I agree. With our plans in place, we start preparing dinner as the sun begins to dip below the horizon.
After eating, Kiki takes me aside and reports that Chet seems to have no loyalty to Pete. She then insists I talk to Draco, but he and Carla seem to have gone off somewhere. As part of the dwindling Fetia Rai team, I'm sure they need to discuss strategy. I wait around the campfire as the sky grows increasingly dark, then takes on an eerie blue glow as a nearly full moon rises over the trees. Patience under pressure is not one of my strong suits, and pretty soon I'm antsy from sitting and waiting. Since the night is so stiflingly hot, I decide to wade out into the lagoon while I wait.
The water is refreshingly cool on my hot skin. I quietly murmur a spell to keep away any enemies, should an inquisitive shark feel the need to bite off my leg. Out I wade, the water moving slowly up my legs, my hips, my stomach. I finally stop when only my shoulders, neck and head are above the water. I'm considerably far out, but I can still clearly see the fires of camp. Doing a slow circle, I can see the flashing red light of a cameraman in a boat, a short distance away from me. Enough to give me some semblance of privacy, but close enough to film anything interesting with a zoom lens and infrared film.
The lapping sounds of the water are very lulling. I turn onto my back and let myself float, my ears underwater, hearing nothing but the vague echoing sounds of the sea. The moon looks huge above me. After a while, I stop floating and find my footing again. I should go back to camp and see if Malfoy has returned.
Then an arm wraps around my waist.
I manage to draw in a breath to scream, but then a hand is clapped over my mouth. Whoever is behind me pulls me toward them. I struggle to get away, then hear a spell whispered in my ear.
Petrificus Totalus. Great. Well, at least I know the identity of my attacker.
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to scare you." His whisper is barely audible, not much more than warm breath in my ear. "I'm going to release you. Please don't hit me or anything." He whispers the countercurse and I'm free to move again. Within limits, because Malfoy's arms are both wrapped around me from behind.
"What the hell are you doing?" My hiss is quiet enough not to carry, but venomous enough to let him know he's walking on thin ice.
I can feel his head touching my shoulder. Again, his whisper is barely more than a breath on my ear. "We need to talk about this game."
"Oh, do we now?" I tilt my head toward his.
"Wait," he whispers. Then I feel his breath on my neck, but I can't quite make out the words. A quietly uttered swear word makes its way across the water, and I glance over to where the cameraman sits in his boat. The red recording light is off, and I can hear paddles striking the water. Malfoy's mouth is against my ear again. "Aww, looks like the camera ran out of film."
"You want to talk about the game? Fine. What's your game, Malfoy? Why are you here?"
He moves his hands from my waist up to my shoulders and begins to give me a massage. "Oh, I'm sure my reasons are very similar to yours. Quick and easy money, or so I thought." He rubs his thumbs along the knots at the base of my neck. Say what you will about Malfoy, and I've said a lot of negative things about him, he has a great knack for a neck massage.
"What about all the Malfoy riches?"
"Gone. The manor was destroyed in the war, and my father gave most of his money to support Voldemort. And my work during the war didn't pay very much."
"And what kind of work might that be?"
"Mmm." He runs his warm hands down my back under the water. "We should talk about the game."
"And you should't try to distract me with your Malfoy charms." It's taking all of my willpower to concentrate on getting answers out of him. The bastard has very talented hands, and I'm sure he knows it.
"You give me a little, I'll give you a little. What's the deal with Pete?" One hand is still kneading my shoulder, and the other has moved up my neck and is now into my hair, his long fingers caressing my scalp. Evil, evil, evil. I'm lucky it's all information I was going to be giving him anyway, because his torturing technique is very persuasive.
"He thinks there's something going on between us." Malfoy laughs quietly behind me. "He doesn't know what, but he seems certain that I'm conspiring with you. He's been watching me like a hawk to make sure you and I don't enter into some sort of secret pact."
"Ah, so is that why you distracted me during the challenge? To get him away?" One hand on the shoulders, the other now moving along my back, side, and around to my stomach. He pulls me close to him, and I barely manage to contain my gasp. "Or maybe you just wanted to enter into some sort of secret pact."
My body is coccooned in cool water, except for my back, which is pressed against Malfoy's warm chest, and his deliciously warm hands on my skin. I am so incredibly turned on right now.
"Malfoy," I murmur. One hot hand is on my stomach, the other is moving across my collarbone.
"You should always call me Draco. Don't want you messing up during the game."
His hand has moved across my collarbone and is now stroking the front of my neck. "Draco," I whisper. I hope he doesn't notice how the "o" at the end of his name turned into a sigh. I take a breath. "I gave a little, now it's your turn to give a little. What did you do in the war?"
A chuckle in my ear. "I never said I'd give information, just that I'd give... something." He's still holding me around the middle, but not as tightly. He drifts his hand gently along my stomach, leaving a trail of warmth in the cool water. His other hand pulls my hair away from my neck. As I stand there, water lapping against me, with his warm skin pressing against my back, I feel his breath on the back of my neck. My eyes are shut, my mouth is open, taking short gasping breaths. He's a damned dirty bastard, evil incarnate, my nearly lifelong enemy, and I've never felt this aroused.
Warm lips touch my neck, and I feel like melting into him. He lays a trail of soft, gentle kisses up the side of my neck. He reaches my ear, and the combination of lips and warm breath are almost more than I can take. But if he's going to play dirty this way, I can too.
I move my hands from my sides, under the water, and reach behind me. I gently grab him by the hips, which makes him release a gasp of his own in my ear. I run my hands along his hips and around to his ass. He retaliates by lightly grabbing my earlobe with his teeth. I turn my head toward his; his lips move from my ear, across my cheek, and toward my mouth.
He pauses. For a moment we hold where we are; back to front, his arms wrapped around me from behind, one on my stomach, the other on my chest above my breasts, his lips on my cheek, my arms back behind me and my hands on his rear. Then suddenly, his hands and chest and lips are no longer holding me, and the coldness of the water rushes to fill those places he had kept so warm.
"Thanks for the information, Hermione," he laughinly whispers, then with a splash he's swimming back to shore. I shake my head to clear my brain, then notice a new cameraman just arriving in his boat. Relucatantly I trudge through the water back to shore, inwardly cursing Malfoy. Not only did he get all the information, he's also left me with the female equivalent of blue balls. The warm air hits me as I get out of the water. I duck into the shelter and grab one of my shirts to use as a towel.
I find Kiki stoking the fire. "Did you talk to Draco?" Her eyes are glittering at me in the firelight. And for some reason, I don't want to make eye contact with her. I might let her see that she's right in assuming there's "something" between me and Malfoy.
"Yeah. It's all cool. Um... I'm going to bed." I walk toward the shelter.
"Hey, you should be careful swimming alone. I'm glad he went out there to find you; you never know what creatures might want to nibble on your toes."
I wave her off. "I'm not worried." After all, I think as I settle in with my pillow, I cast a spell to keep enemies away. Nothing with bad intentions could have come near me.
And then I realize what that means.