I'd like to thank Balthazar23, Antar23, werewolfXZ, damadape, TheNarratingMan, WraithNX01, Vahktang, flixus, Lynix, TripsToTheRescue, fredfred, InquisitorCOC for betareading.

Chapter 22: The Morning After

Magical Algiers, Magical Algeria, July 16th, 1996

"This heat is unbearable!" Sirius Black shook his head. "How anyone might wish to live in this country out of their own free will, I will never understand!" The cobblestones under his feet felt as hot as a heating plate. Not that he had ever stood on the latter, and he would forever deny the rumours that he might have jumped on a muggle stove as Padfoot, but he could imagine it.

His two companions didn't respond. He turned to glare at them, but Peter was looking around at all the stalls on the Bazar in Magical Algier as if he expected an ambush to be launched at every moment, and Bill… well, the Curse-Breaker was glaring at something as if he was about to launch an attack.

Now, what would that… Oh. Sirius nodded when he saw Bill's target. The entrance to the slave market. "Filthy business," he muttered.

"The ICW should put a stop to this," Bill replied.

"The ICW couldn't care less," Sirius said. "And all that pressure from other countries has managed is that they don't openly trade their slaves in the Bazar proper any more."

Bill pressed his lips together.

"We're here to meet your contact," Sirius reminded him.

"I know."

"Alright." Starting a fight wouldn't help anyone - three wizards couldn't hope to do anything to an entire town. Unless they were Dumbledore. Or willing to use Fiendfyre. And burning slaves was very much the opposite of saving them.

And even Dumbledore would be challenged here, Sirius thought - the whole Bazar was full of wizards and witches. And magical creatures of all sorts. No wonder Peter looked like he was about to have a heart attack or something, trying to keep an eye on every possible threat.

Well, anyone with a wand was a possible threat. Or, Sirius amended his thoughts as he saw a huge Djinn float by, even those without a wand.

"Enchanted pipes! Enchanted pipes! Buy the pipe of your dreams!"

Sirius ignored the merchant's yells. The man had switched to English as soon as he had spotted them. And they weren't here to shop - they were here to find out which of the pirate gangs had Harry. And who they had to kill to get Harry back. And the girl.

"Flying Carpets! Handwoven by the finest artisans of Persia! Flying Carpets!"

"Banned in Britain," Peter mumbled.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I know. My grandfather voted on the ban." For a bribe, of course - the Blacks hadn't had any interest in broom manufacturers at the time. Not until Sirius had taken over as the head of the family and invested in Nimbus.

"The carpets are quite useful in Egypt," Bill commented.

"Oh? We might need one then, for Harry," Sirius said. He had always wanted a flying carpet as a boy. Mainly because it was illegal, of course.

"I doubt that," Peter said.

"You never know. And it would make a nice conversation piece." Sirius grinned.

"A conversation piece?" Bill asked.

"You know: 'Have you ever made love on a flying carpet?'" Sirius grinned widely at the other two. Peter groaned and pointedly looked at anyone else, but Bill chuckled. "Actually, yes."

Sirius blinked, then grinned.

That meant he most certainly had to buy a flying carpet!

"Sirius…"

He ignored Peter as he walked over to the stall. "Greetings!" he bellowed. "Show me your best carpet!"

"Oh for… Sirius!" Peter hissed. "We've got an appointment!"

"This won't take long!" Sirius whispered back while the merchant summoned a rolled-up carpet. "And it'll help our cover."

"As if you'd care about that."

Sirius grinned and prepared to haggle.

Fifteen minutes later, they were on their way again, some galleons lighter, but with a fine Persian Flying Carpet.

"That wasn't the best Persian Carpet," Peter complained. "I don't think it was actually Persian, you know. Probably Egyptian."

"So? Who in Britain would know that?" Sirius replied.

His friend sighed. "We're going to be late."

"That'll only help our cover as harmless tourists."

"Basem Kateb will know we aren't harmless tourists as soon as we broach the reason we're here," Bill said.

"But everyone else won't," Sirius defended himself and his purchase.

Peter sighed, which Sirius knew from experience meant that he had won this exchange.

"We're here," Bill said, pointing at a sturdy but not too spacious house ahead of them. He stepped forward and grabbed the doorknocker to announce them.

A voice asked something in what Sirius assumed was Arabian. Bill replied in kind, and the door swung open, revealing a young man bowing his head to them and gesturing at them to step into the house.

Sirius was certain that the wizard - he could see the wand holster in the wide sleeve - understood English even though he hadn't shown a sign of it so far.

He led them through a lavishly decorated entrance hall - his mother would have sneered and yet been impressed - to a courtyard. Through a courtyard. Exotic and magical plants were everywhere. Sirius almost wished he had paid more attention in Herbology - some of that stuff was probably dangerous. And the scent… Padfoot would love it. Probably - some scents humans liked dogs hated. And vice versa. Open to the sky, though Sirius was certain that the whole building was protected by strong wards - no one sane would leave such a vulnerability in their home. Still, it was a possible means of entry.

They quickly passed through the yard, through another open door, and into a hallway with refreshingly cool air. More Arabian, and the man flicked a wand, opening a door.

Sirius resisted the urge to whistle - the salon they were entering looked like it had been taken straight out of one of those muggle movies. Or from the covers of those novels Lily denied she read. Silk, floating cushions, floating carafes… and who had to be Basem Kateb, sitting on a cushion that was floating a little higher than the others. His robes - if you could call the clothes robes - were studded with gold and unfamiliar runes.

Sirius couldn't see any guards, but that didn't mean there weren't any - the girl kneeling in the corner with a musical instrument he didn't recognise could easily be a bodyguard. Or they could be hiding behind the curtains in the back.

He glanced at Peter, who was squinting at the curtains, but not the girl. The curtains, then. Once more, Sirius would've liked to be Padfoot - he would've smelt everyone nearby, hiding or not. But if he had come as Padfoot, he probably wouldn't have been allowed inside.

Kateb nodded and mumbled a greeting. Bill replied in kind, bowing. Peter did the same, so Sirius bowed - though not quite as deeply. He was a Black, after all. And that still meant something.

Their host gestured towards the floating cushions - three of them - and they sat down. Crosslegged, like Kateb; Sirius didn't want to offend the man by dangling his legs. This was about Harry.

At a snap of Kateb's fingers, another girl entered with trays floating next to her. Refreshments. As she served, Sirius checked his ring. No poison.

Peter glared at him, but he ignored his friend. Only a fool wouldn't check for poison in such circumstances. Or at a Black family dinner. And Sirius had been subtle about it, anyway.

"Welcome to Algiers," Kateb said - in English - after a sip of overly sweet tea. "I hope you had a comfortable trip."

"We did, thank you," Bill replied.

Sirius nodded. "You know what they say: If you have travelled through one fireplace, you've travelled through all of them." He shrugged.

The wizard laughed, which was a good thing. Sirius's charm was working. "So they say. That's why I prefer to travel by carpet."

Which also indicated that he could take the time to travel that way, which was indicative of his status. Or should be - mother had had words for certain wizards and witches who didn't keep busy enough to need Apparition or Floo travel instead of brooms.

"Yes," Sirius said. "I've just bought a nice carpet myself."

"I was under the impression that they were banned in your home country."

"They are." Sirius smiled.

"Ah. But you didn't want to speak with me about carpets, I believe."

He suppressed a frown. Peter and Bill had impressed upon Sirius that Kateb wouldn't come straight to the point; that it was impolite to press the reason for their visit. So why would Kateb do it anyway? He shrugged again. "No. And I think you know why we're here."

"I must confess that the exact reason escapes me, though, given the kind of help I'm often offering to foreigners who have run afoul of peculiar customs in my country, I have certain assumptions."

"My godson, Harry Potter," Sirius said. "And his companion." It wouldn't do to call the girl Harry's friend. Sirius had quickly learned that Miss Granger was many things, but not Harry's friend. "We have good reasons to believe that they are currently the 'guests' of a pirate gang."

Kateb didn't twitch but tilted his head slightly as he ran a hand over his thin beard. "It seems you have me at a disadvantage. I haven't heard about this from a dependable source."

"And from not quite trustworthy sources?" Sirius leaned forward.

"Vague rumours I took to pure speculation or transparent attempts to frame a rival."

"Ah." Sirius took a sip from his still too sweet tea. "Well, rumours can be tracked."

"Not without a substantial effort."

That language Sirius knew well. "Which would deserve compensation."

Kateb smiled.

Unknown Island, July 16th, 1996

Lying on his back, Harry Potter stared at the ceiling. Not that he could make out much of it, not without his glasses. Which must have ended up somewhere on the floor during the night. Together with his trousers. And pants. And shoes. And watch.

How exactly he had been stripped naked was a little fuzzy. He was pretty sure it hadn't been a spell, though. And that it had been Hermione.

Hermione, who was currently using his chest as a pillow and the rest of his body as a mattress - he didn't need glasses to recognise the mane of bushy brown hair in front of him. And the way she had clamped her legs around his own also felt quite familiar. As did her skin on his. And she was naked, this time - he remembered that part clearly.

He closed his eyes. They had done it. Hermione and he. On her robes, stuffed with grass, in a makeshift underground shelter. If someone had told him a month ago that this would happen, Harry would have thought them a fool. Crazier than Luna's dad.

But it had happened. He'd had sex. With Hermione.

Bloody hell!

Ron would never let him forget this. And if Skeeter ever heard of this… He shuddered. And Mum… Ugh. Mum wouldn't be happy. At least, they had remembered to cast a Contraception Charm in time. Well, Hermione had. Harry would've been a little too late.

"Ngh."

Oh, no - Hermione was stirring. Waking up. She was making that cute and very un-Hermione noise. And she was shifting around on top of him.

Harry clenched his teeth. He didn't know how she would react. Hell, he didn't know what she had been thinking last night.

She lifted her head in an also familiar way, then stared at him, blinking. "Oh, hi Harry. Good morning." Then she blushed before he could reply. "Oh."

'Oh' indeed. Harry nodded. He could see how she went from happy and confused to embarrassed and… shy? He smiled. "Good morning."

"Good morning," she repeated herself. Then she swallowed dryly - he saw her throat move - but didn't say anything else.

Nor did he. They stared at each other instead. She wet her lips and cleared her throat, but she still didn't say anything. But she also hadn't moved away from him. That was a good sign - or so he hoped.

He cleared his throat as well, drawing a deep breath right afterwards when he felt her shift a little more when he coughed. "So…" He wet his dry lips. "We, ah…"

"We had sex!" she blurted out.

"Yes." He nodded.

"And we've been chased by pirates with dogs. At least one dog."

"Yes." He nodded again, tensing up. Would she claim this was just stress again? She better not.

"So..." She sighed before biting her lower lip. "What do we do now?"

"About the pirates? Or… us?" Was there an 'us'? Damn, he sounded like one of Rose's stupid romance novels.

"The pirates are an urgent, very urgent threat," she said. "We can… sort out us afterwards."

'Sort out'? That wasn't a good sign. But Harry nodded anyway. "That sounds… logical."

"Very logical." She licked her lips again. And took a deep breath.

"Yes." He swallowed - he could feel her breathing. And… Damn. He drew a breath through clenched teeth. This was… He couldn't stand it. He couldn't just… ignore this. This whole thing. "You're beautiful," he whispered.

She gasped, her eyes widening.

He shook his head. "Sorry, I had to say it." He forced himself to smile.

"Ah…" She swallowed. "You're attractive yourself."

Really? His smile widened. "Thanks."

She nodded, a little jerkily. "And… well…" She bit her lower lip again.

Harry felt the urge to nibble on it himself. "Yes?"

Moments passed. He held his breath.

"I think I l-like you."

Ah. He felt both happy and disappointed. "Me too. You, that is." He clenched his teeth again. That was about as smooth as Neville trying to ask out Parvati. Though Neville hadn't been in bed with the witch. And they had both been clothed. Something Harry and Hermione weren't, as he was very much aware.

She smiled. Hesitantly. And wet her lips. Again.

He looked at her wide eyes. Then at her lips.

Damn it.

He slowly moved his free hand up to cup her cheek.

She tilted her head a little, leaning into his palm.

He raised his head, but with her position on him, he couldn't kiss her.

For a moment, he looked at her, looking awkward and stupid.

Then she shifted, moving forward, and they kissed.

My hormones will be the death of me, Hermione Granger thought. Harry and she were being hunted by Barbary Coast pirates, on a secret island, facing slavery or death, and instead of working on a plan to get out of this, she'd had sex with Harry. Again.

And it had been better than last night. She frowned at the stray thought crossing her mind. Of course the second time would've been better - practice made perfect, after all. And she had some ideas to improve the third time…

She clenched her teeth. No, she couldn't let herself get distracted. The island wasn't small, but it wasn't particularly large, either. As soon as the pirates found out that the wyvern was gone, they would be able to search the jungle at their leisure.

And Hermione had no illusions that this shelter would escape notice. Well, it might escape a cursory glance from the sky, but on the ground? Once the pirates buckled down and started to systematically comb the island, Harry and her days would be numbered.

"We need to make a plan," she said, raising her head to look at Harry. On whose body she was still lying, she noted. "And we better get dressed for that."

"Uh, yes," he agreed. "You're a little distracting like this."

She raised her eyebrows. "A little?"

"A lot." He grinned.

She returned the grin with more confidence than she actually had. Certainly, Harry had said he liked her, and that she was beautiful, but it wasn't as if he had a plethora of witches to whom he could compare her. Not on this island.

On the other hand, Hermione wasn't exactly at her best, either. If she made the same effort to style herself as, say, Lavender, she shouldn't look too shabby next to the others of her year. At least she hoped so. Lavender certainly told her so often enough.

She snorted. Her best friend's reaction, should she actually ask for more help with her makeup charms, should be a sight to behold.

"Oh?"

She realised that Harry was staring at her. "Sorry, I got lost in thought. I was thinking of Lavender."

He nodded. "Right. Ron and she would be worried to death about us."

Hermione felt rather guilty for her frivolous thoughts. Of course Lavender would care more about her being back safe and sound than makeup! "Yes. Which brings us back to planning."

"And dressing."

"Yes." She lingered on him for a moment longer, then slid off him and started summoning her clothes. Not without stealing a glance at Harry when he did the same. With the sun now high in the sky, the light shining through the openings in the entrance was easily bright enough to let her see his body perfectly well.

And Harry's body looked as good as it had felt.

She pursed her lips. That was her hormones speaking, again. Well, her hormones and her appreciation of aesthetics.

And her emotions, she admitted, clenching her teeth. She had to focus. She couldn't afford more distractions or flights of fancy. And neither could Harry. They had to find a way to escape the pirates and the island.

Sighing - there was no time for a real bath or shower - she cast a few cleaning charms on herself, followed by a few hairstyling charms. It wasn't as if a minute more spent on personal grooming would doom them, anyway.

Then she cleaned and mended her clothes - they hadn't weathered their hasty flight through the jungle any better than her skin had - and started to dress.

"Breakfast will be coconuts," Harry announced when she had finished dressing - of course, he'd have finished dressing faster. "I doubt we should risk grilling fish again."

"I concur." At least coconuts wouldn't attract bloodhounds. "We probably should stick to coconuts exclusively."

He grimaced at that. She sighed - she wasn't fond of the fare either - but eating coconuts was better than being captured. Or suffering an even worse fate.

With a flick of her wand, she summoned one coconut, then split it with him. And noticed with no small amount of satisfaction that he kept staring at her face and hair as they ate.

"So… what do we do?" he finally asked. "They'll search the island as soon as they realise we've killed the wyvern. Both will take them some time, so we need to find a way to escape them. And free their prisoner."

"Yes." She nodded. "So, first, we need to find out how they found us. I don't think a single hungry dog would start such a manhunt. Not so quickly, at the very least."

"That was a little… suspicious," Harry Potter agreed. "The response was very quick, and I didn't think even a dog could smell food from that far away."

"Unless the dog wasn't in the village, but already in the jungle when it smelt the food," Hermione pointed out.

"That would mean they were already looking for us," Harry said. "And were close."

"Yes." Hermione slowly nodded. "And if they were already looking for us, they must have had reasons to suspect our presence."

"But we were careful to erase our tracks," Harry protested.

"We might have overlooked something," Hermione said. "Or we might have triggered a spell without noticing."

"We would have heard the alert," Harry pointed out. "Or seen a reaction."

"Unless they didn't react immediately." Hermione snorted. "Just because you're supposed to react at once to an alert doesn't mean everyone will do it."

"Right." Harry nodded. "But we shouldn't assume that they made a mistake."

"No. But we have to assume that we weren't as thorough in avoiding traces and being noticed as we thought," she retorted. She grimaced. "That means we did all the scouting for nothing."

"Not for nothing," he reminded her. "We found out about their prisoner that way."

She hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Yes. And the prison might have been where we made a mistake - that was the closest we came to the village. Into the village," she corrected herself.

It was a thin silver lining, but Harry would take what he could get. "So, we have to assume that in the future, they'll be aware once we enter the village."

"Or even the cove," Hermione added. "They might have set up spells to detect human-sized intruders and dismissed alerts as animals without further clues or alerts."

"Wouldn't that be triggered by every dolphin? Or tuna?" Harry asked.

"Yes, though I don't know if either species is native in these waters," Hermione replied. "Although if the wyvern, as I suspected, primarily hunted aquatic animals, such a spell would have been triggered often, rendering it useless for defence."

"I don't think anyone would use such a spell - the drawback should be obvious," Harry said. "Unless they wanted to use it as a shark warning system as well."

"That could be a reason for such a spell," Hermione agreed. "But in any case, we'll have to take a quick reaction into account."

"That means we have to lure the pirates - at least most of them - away from the village before we enter it," Harry said.

"There are so many pirates and their families, I doubt that we can lure most of them away," Hermione pointed out.

"Not all of them will be willing or able to hunt dangerous intruders," Harry told her with a grin. "If we get most of their better duellists out of the village, that should help a lot."

"Unless they're stupid, they'll keep some of their best in the village," she retorted.

"Still, it's better to fight half the village than the whole village." Harry frowned at her. He was trying to be optimistic here!

"But half the village would still overwhelm us easily," Hermione told him. "We need a distraction for the entire village. Or two distractions."

She wasn't wrong. "If they almost certainly didn't have it warded, I'd say setting the ship on fire would be a good distraction," Harry said. "Or the village." People tended to ignore a lot when they were trying to save their home. Or their lives.

"The houses will be protected against fire as well." Hermione shook her head. "And magic would easily deal with fire. Unless it was Fiendfyre."

Harry shuddered at the thought. Fiendfyre. The cursed flames that would even burn stone. Eventually. Then his eyes widened. Hermione couldn't be thinking of using that, could she?

She scowled at him. "I don't know how to cast Fiendfyre. Who do you think I am?"

'A witch who learned a Sandpaper Hex to scare off people' would've been the wrong thing to say, Harry was certain. "You didn't even read up on it?" he asked.

"Only enough to learn that it was easy to cast but very, very difficult to control," she replied.

"Ah." That put her up one on Harry - he hadn't read up on Fiendfyre. Past recognising it so he could flee. But it meant that she could theoretically cast it. Fiendfyre in the village would be the perfect distraction - if you didn't mind killing dozens of people. He nodded.

Hermione nodded as well. "It's illegal in every civilised magical country. Which excludes a few wizarding enclaves in the New World."

He snorted. The New World - at least the "East Coast", as Mum called it - was rarely at peace. One or another enclave were always trying to attack or destroy a rival enclave. But that wasn't here or there. And neither was Fiendfyre.

Though Harry couldn't help thinking that Hermione hadn't said that she wouldn't try to cast it at all. If all was lost…

He shuddered again.

A diversion that would lure out most of the pirates - or most of the dangerous pirates - followed by a diversion for the pirates remaining in the village. Both lasting long enough for Harry and her to break into the prison, free the girl and escape with the fishing boat.

It was a tall order, Hermione Granger knew. "We could probably lure out the pirates if we faked an escape attempt with a raft - or multiple rafts. But it wouldn't take them long to check or sink all rafts. Not with the brooms they have."

"Yes. By the time we could reach the village, they would already have returned," Harry agreed. "Setting fire to the jungle might work - if we manage to rig up a sort of timer so we can sneak to the village before the diversion starts."

"But a fire can be dealt with easily," Hermione pointed out. "We would need either a lot of accelerants or multiple fires breaking out."

"Multiple fires breaking out in one place, one after the other, might make them think we're there, so they would try to hunt us down there." Harry nodded. "That might work."

"Until they find the timer. Which we haven't invented yet." Hermione might have a few ideas, but nothing concrete.

"Bowl, filled with water, and a small hole in the bottom, use a swimmer as a trigger?" Harry suggested.

"If we find a match that burns long enough for this to work, we could just use the match." Really, that was merely logical.

He frowned. "Right. But do we know how to make a match?"

"I don't know how to create a rope," she admitted. Another piece of knowledge missing from her repertoire. Crucial knowledge. "I made a candle once, but not from scratch."

"Ah. Well, we have a piece of rope," Harry pointed out. "If we experiment a little, we might get a match."

"There's not too much to experiment on," Hermione said. "And the rope might not burn evenly."

"Well, some differences would only add to the chaos." Harry grinned.

"Let's assume we manage to get fires going - we still would need some sort of accelerant, but we can probably do that dry wood, enlarged and cut to pieces - then we still would need a distraction at the village."

"Set it on fire?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "The buildings will be warded against fire."

He frowned again. "We don't know that."

"And we don't know how many children are in the village." They would be endangered by such arson.

"Their parents will save them," Harry said. "And a few fires would draw attention."

"It's still too dangerous," she objected.

"We could attack the ship with tree trunks, enlarged, dropped from a great height at night," Harry suggested. "Transfigure them into metal spikes, and they would make nice holes."

That had potential. And it wouldn't endanger innocents. However… "But it would mean everyone's attention was on the water. While we're trying to steal a fishing boat."

He muttered a curse under his breath. She frowned at him but shared the sentiment. "We need a fake danger, then, which will fool them," she said.

"Easier said than done. Without my supplies, whipping up something is hard." She saw him rub his chin. "Smoke would be ideal - hides us and makes them think there's a fire."

"And it can suffocate people. Which is a drawback," she replied. Suddenly, she frowned. "Fire might not be enough to attract them - they didn't react when we used smoke to conceal our escape from the wyvern."

"The smoke didn't rise too much in the air, I think," Harry said.

"But it should've been visible anyway," she countered. Her eyes widened. "Do you think that was what made them aware of our presence? Smoke, a hunting wyvern, and then nothing?"

He slowly nodded. "That might've been it. Then they would probably suspect that we killed the wyvern."

"Not necessarily," she told him. "They might think we escape the wyvern by fleeing to the village."

"That's possible - they certainly didn't start looking for us until last night."

"Perhaps they suspected, and when the dog started barking…"

"...they knew." He nodded. "But now that they know, smoke should attract them."

"Which makes this even more dangerous. If they know we sneaked into their village, they'll prepare for that. Traps, guards, dogs…"

"That's why we need a good distraction," he said.

"Easier said than done," she repeated his words at him.

"I know. But there has to be a way to keep them busy." He frowned.

She shook her head. "We can't have one part of an army feint…" She trailed off. "Oh."

"We can have an army. Conjured animals," he said. "Enlarged ones."

"Oh." That might work. A veritable swarm of enlarged birds. She smiled. "What kind of animals can you conjure?"

"Well, I know the Snufflifor's Spell," Harry said.

She blinked. "That's not conjuring animals, though, that's…" Her eyes widened. "Oh, that was the spell you used to transfigure my book into a mouse!" She glared at him.

"Sorry. But it works on rocks as well as on books." He flashed a smile at her,

She scowled at him. That spell was an abomination. Who could even think of turning books into vermin? And he had used it on her favourite book!

Harry Potter winced. That was a very familiar expression. A very unwelcome one as well. And one he hoped not to see aimed at him any more. "Sorry," he repeated himself.

She huffed. "To destroy books…" She shook her head with a deeper scowl.

"It's not too hard to restore them, though," he pointed out.

"Unless they ran away before you could target them."

"Well, that's a hazard, yes," he admitted.

Another huff. "Well, if you can transfigure rocks, you can create a plague of giant mice. But you can't control them. Unless you have another spell for that?"

Of course she would've read up on the spell. He shook his head. "I don't have any such spell. But a horde of giant mice will be a good distraction."

"Probably. Though we'll have to hope that they won't attack humans."

"Mice aren't predators," he said, frowning.

"You would be surprised how many herbivores eat meat if the prey is small enough," she replied. "But we'll have to count on the pirates being able to deal with them."

"We only need them occupied until we are underway," Harry said.

"That's a long time with the speed of that fishing boat. And if they catch up - which they'll be able to with brooms - we'll be at their mercy."

"We'll have to do it at night," he said. "That will make it easier to slip away in the confusion."

"We need to be prepared for alarm charms and traps at the prison."

He nodded in agreement. "Yes." After a moment, he added, with a slight grin: "So, what spells did you learn for next year that would inconvenience some pirates?"

"I didn't exactly plan to take on large numbers of enemies," she replied. "I had to prioritise."

"Ah." Of course she'd planned to take on Harry - even though that wouldn't work out. It never did. Well, it only worked out rarely. "So, what did you learn to take on me?"

"I had a plan, but I didn't get far before someone tackled me into a Portkey." She flashed her teeth at him. "Although I think the Glacier Hex might be useful."

He frowned - he wasn't familiar with that spell. "What does it do?"

"Covers the ground in ice. It'll melt quickly in this climate, but that will only make it more slippery for a while."

"Neat." He nodded, but it didn't sound like a very effective spell. Especially when facing wizards with brooms.

"What about you?" She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Well…" Bragging about not missing would be gauche. "Most of the spells I learned were meant to, ah, target single targets, so to speak."

"Duellists use indirect attacks as well."

"Yes. But my godfather didn't want to teach me the better ones." Well, Sirius initially had wanted to teach him the Blasting Curse, but Mum had put her foot down - on Sirius's toes - and the whole thing had been cancelled. He sighed. "I guess we'll have to improvise."

"Yes. Perhaps if we combine the Water-Making Spell with the Glacier Hex?" Hermione speculated. "It's meant to cover the ground, but if we aim correctly, that should spread to water. If we have a puddle that's ankle-deep or deeper, it might catch attackers in it."

"Or we try casting it on a stream of water," Harry suggested. "The Water-Making Spell can produce quite the pressure, and if that were ice instead of water…"

"It's not a constant spell, unfortunately," Hermione said. "It wouldn't let you hose down an area with ice shards."

"But if we freeze the water and then cast a Reductor Curse on it, that should have a similar effect." Harry grinned.

Hermione frowned, then nodded. "It should. And we should go through our entire spell repertoire to see if we can find more such synergies."

Harry smiled. "Oh, yes."

The water froze, trapping the wooden logs in ice. One of them toppled over, cracking the ice at once.

Hermione Granger lowered her wand, then cocked her head and listened. She couldn't hear anything.

"Seems clear," Harry reported from the door.

She sighed. At the fact that after killing wyvern, they were back to regularly checking the sky - and the ground - for enemies. And at the fact that their idea about trapping enemies in ice wasn't working. Not yet, she corrected herself - she had to stay optimistic. They still had time to prepare for this.

But there was so much to do. She glanced at Harry, who was leaning against the rock blocking the door, which made his trousers draw tightly…

She shook her head. She couldn't afford the distractions. Or the memories of last night. And this morning. She had to focus. Focus on getting this plan to work so they could start on the next.

She filled the corner of the shelter with water again, spraying it liberally over the logs that served as stand-ins for people, then cast the Glacier Hex. Once more, the water froze, strands of ice reaching up - but they broke easily. At least none of the logs toppled this time. And when she pushed and pulled on the closest, they didn't break free as easily as before.

"You should come and work with me on this," she said.

"Someone has to keep an eye out."

"They would need to search the ground to spot us," she said. "And we don't have much time to get ready."

He hesitated a moment, then pulled back from the rock and turned to face her. "Alright." He twirled his wand as he joined her.

"Show-off," she whispered.

Harry grinned in return. "So… I create the water, you freeze, I blow it up?"

"Better don't cast a Reductor Curse," she replied. "The sound carries."

"Right." He nodded sharply. "Let's see what happens if I keep casting the Water-Making Spell while you freeze the area."

"Yes."

He started hosing the corner down with water. Hermione waited a moment, then started casting herself. A few seconds later, much stronger, thicker strands of ice crisscrossed the entire area.

Hermione nodded. "That can be worked with."

"But it won't stop anyone for long," Harry pointed out. "We need more water, and faster. Oh!" He grinned again. "What about we create water in advance?"

But that would require… Hermione blinked. "That would be effective, I believe." She smiled. "And we shouldn't limit ourselves to water in this case." There were so many things they could prepare with the spells they knew.

"No, we shouldn't." Harry matched her smile.

He was also standing very close to her, she noticed. For an underground shelter partially filled with melting ice, this was starting to feel hot. Very hot.

She licked her lips and swallowed. "So…"

"So?" He turned to look at her, and she saw him twitch a little. And wet his lips.

Then they were kissing, again.