IWSC Summer Camp
Weasley Cabin - DrarryMadhatter (Laura)
Summer Camp Round 3
Theme - Swimming - 100 points We're going to get wet. Write an AU about underwater exploration
Word Count - 2406
Author's Note - We have linked our fictions this round by all including something to do with blue. I have choses Cyan blue for this, the meaning of which is relaxation, balance, calmness, and emotional stability. I have also used as many phrases that use the word blue as I could.
In terms of the AU nature of this fiction, I've opted to keep all the personalities and relationships mostly canon, with the exception of Drarry, of course. The AU is simply that they're not wizards.
Summary - Draco is stressed out with his work, prompting Harry to whisk them both away on an impromptu diving holiday in Malta. Of course, it's Harry and Draco, and so even in an AU without magic they both still bet and argue. This time around, it's who can spot the most barracuda.
Deep In The Blue
The flat was silent, except for the sound of logs burning in the fireplace. Harry was lying on the sofa, legs crossed at the ankle, his head supported on several fluffy duck feather cushions. Now and again, the sound of a glass clunking on the wooden table top could be heard each time Harry took a sip of his whisky. The lamp on the side table cast dancing shadows across Harry's smiling features as he thumbed his way to the next page of the well-worn copy of The Secret Garden he had borrowed from Hermione. Who knew he would enjoy reading so much? An old book at that. Well, Hermione knew, of course, but she knew everything so it hardly counted.
A few enjoyable chapters later, the peace was shattered as the front door slammed shut followed by a loud crash of breaking glass. He carefully marked his place (using a bookmark, of course. Hermione would skin him alive if he dared bend a page back) and put the book onto the table next to his whisky. It would seem that Draco was home, and from the sound of it, he was in a mood to reckon with. Just as he stood up from the sofa, Draco threw open the living room door cursing enough to turn the air blue and carrying a large framed picture with the glass broken.
"Careful," he advised softly, "you don't want to end up cutting yourself."
Draco shot a sneer in his general direction and huffed off towards the kitchen with the broken picture frame. Harry found himself shrugging and following his partner. To be fair, it was a bit of a silly piece of advice to offer when Draco was in such a mood.
He found himself halting in the kitchen doorway, leaning comfortably against the door jamb, as he watched Draco aggressively shove the broken shards into the bin.
"Bad day at work?"
"You have no bloody idea!"
"You'd think being a librarian would be relaxing," mused Harry, unaware that his words were causing Draco to glare at him heatedly. "What with all the silence and reading and whatnot."
"What the bloody hell would you know, Potter? When was the last time you came by the library anyway?" Harry narrowed his eyes in annoyance. It's not like he just sat around on his butt all day, every day, and anyway, being a chef was much more stressful than being a poncy librarian!
"What would you have me do? It's not like I can just say, 'sorry guys, cook your own food cause the other half is feeling needy?' Not ruddy likely, Draco."
Harry's words seemed to cause Draco to deflate, his body sagging as he leaned heavily on the worktop.
"I know, Harry. I know more than anyone how bloody hard you work. I'm just—" Draco seemed unable to say just exactly what he was thinking, and trailed off with a vague gesture at the room in general.
"You do seem to have a case of the blues," informed Harry, as he moved to pull Draco into a soothing hug. "You've been really stressed and out of sorts for days now."
"Well, so would you if you had to deal with the idiots that have been turning up at the library lately." Draco rested his head on Harry's shoulder and took a steadying breath before continuing. "Teenagers should be locked up. They're so bloody disrespectful!"
"How so?"
"They eat noisy, smelly food in the quiet study area! They never put their phones on silent and seem to think it's acceptable to blare rubbish music at full volume. And no one seems to be able to put a book back in the right place, or Merlin forbid, leave it on the trolly for me to put it back for them!" He lifted his head to look beseechingly at Harry. "If I don't do something, anything, then I'm going to end up on the six o'clock news for murdering all the library patrons by bashing them to death with the biggest and heaviest book in the library''.
"Do you even know what the biggest and heaviest book in the library is?" enquired Harry, barely concealing a snort.
"The Compact Oxford English Dictionary, of course. It's huge. One blow and the unsuspecting rule flouter would be toast."
"Right. Well, before you embark on your great mass murder plans, why don't you sit down and I'll get you a glass of wine and rub your feet."
"You, Mr Potter, are a Godsend." Harry gently placed a soft kiss on Draco's lips and sent him off to sit on the sofa, before busying himself with getting Draco's favourite wine out of the cupboard. Draco was obviously struggling right now. What he needed, Harry decided, was a break. Merlin, they both could use one, he thought as he poured a generous amount of wine into a glass. As he strode back into the living room and handed Draco his drink, he began to formulate a plan.
Draco creaked open his eyes wearily and made a grab for the bedside clock. He suppressed a yawn and held the clock in front of his face, trying his best to make out the time through bleary eyes. As soon as he was able to focus, he gasped, threw the clock onto the bottom on the bed, and leapt from the bed in a mad dash, cursing all the while. He had no time for his usual routine — not even time for coffee! He forced his legs into the first pair of trousers he came across and padded into the living room as he fought his way into a t-shirt and jumper.
"Harry? Why the bloody fuck did you let me sleep so damned late!"
"What's up?" asked Harry, appearing in the kitchen doorway.
"It's ten! Ten, Potter!"
"As much as it may be difficult for you to grasp, but I can tell the time you know!"
"I start work at 9!" hissed Draco, clearly upset that Harry wasn't taking the situation seriously.
"Relax. I turned your alarm off. You're far too stressed out so I called both our bosses and got us a couple of weeks of emergency time off work."
At Draco's soundless gasping and gaping, Harry grinned and continued to explain. "We both need a holiday. It's been two years since we had a proper break. And so," he declared, pulling some printed pages out of his pocket, "I booked us a last-minute holiday to Malta — diving at Qawra Reef, to be exact!"
Harry watched as Draco processed the information he had just been hit with, his face changing from shock to surprise and, finally resting in amazed delight.
"You're telling me," began Draco, smiling wider and wider with each word, "that you've gone and booked us an awesome holiday behind my back and completely out of the blue because I was stressed out?"
"Well, it was either that or listen to you singing the blues for the next while, so really it was a completely selfish move!"
Draco began to chuckle as he moved towards Harry and planted an open-mouthed kiss on his smiling lips.
"You, Harry Potter, are an absolute Godsend."
"So you keep telling me!" chuckled Harry, feeling very pleased with himself. In just a couple of short days, they would be on their way to paradise.
"Draco! Are you about ready?" Harry perched on the arm of the sofa as he waited for Draco to finally emerge from the bathroom. He'd been in there for nearly an hour! "If you don't get a move on, we'll lose our spot!"
They had spent the first few days of the holiday taking lesson after lesson in the basics of diving so that they would be allowed to explore the caves in the reef below. The thought made Harry tingle with anticipation, the thought of gliding through the azure water, stroking the row of coral and swimming with the fish. Draco may have been desperate for a break, but he hadn't realised how stressed he himself had been. How disconnected he and Draco had become, merely passing ships in the night. He wanted more time to relax with Draco by his side, and be darned if he wasn't going to make sure he had it.
"Yeah, yeah!" droned Draco, finally leaving the bathroom and strolling towards the suite door, grabbing his keys and wallet along the way. "Well, are you coming or not? I'm not waiting on you any longer!"
Harry looked at Draco's playful grin and shook his head in mock despair. God, how he loved the idiotic man!
"You're lucky you're hot, otherwise I have no idea how I'd put up with you!" quipped Harry, giving Draco a light shove as they left the room.
"Me? I'm true blue, I am!"
Harry watched as Draco pulled the suite door closed behind them and made sure it was locked, before heading off alongside Harry to the elevator. "I bet twenty quid that I see more barracuda than you do."
"You, my sweet deluded one, are on!"
Twenty minutes later, Harry huffed impatiently as the instructor helped him into his diving gear. This was the worst part, being trussed up in the heavy equipment, but it was necessary if he didn't want to drown. To be fair, drowning would put a bit of a damper on the holiday. As he fixed the last clips of the air tank together, he became aware of Draco's clipped tones and turned to see his partner cursing the air blue at the poor assistant who drew the short straw in helping him into his wetsuit. God, he was such a baby sometimes, mused Harry as he patiently waited for the instructor to check his gear one last time. Once he had the go-ahead, he waddled his way over to where Draco was managing to reduce the assistant to a stuttering mess.
"Hurry it up, will you? And leave off harassing the staff."
Harry's words seemed to jerk Draco out of the petulant tantrum he had been indulging in and he grumpily ran his eyes over Harry critically. "Have you had your tank and things checked out? If you run out of air, I'm not giving you mine."
"Charming. Yeah, I'm all set." Harry watched as the last of Draco's gear was fixed and checked and grinned, the excitement of the activity finally starting to settle upon him. Once he was given the all clear, Draco took his hand and they both wadded into the shallow end of the reef until they were at last waist deep in the warm waters.
"Remember, twenty quid on who can spot the most barracuda!" demanded Harry, before lunging below the surface and propelling himself towards the rocks and coral.
The heavy tank suddenly felt much lighter as Draco swam deeper down in the reef, much to his immense relief. Harry was just slightly ahead of him, the swish of his flippers and the bubbles from his mouth piece leaving a clear trail for him to follow. Why the hell was Harry in such a rush? Well, there was the barracuda bet, but Draco wasn't rushing for anything. Not when there were schools of tiny fish darting around the coral and rocks. He fumbled with his gear for a second and pulled free the underwater camera he had brought. He focused on a particularly bright group of Parrot fish, their gleaming scales vibrant shades of pink and orange and blue, and snapped a few shots of them.
As if summoned by the flash, Harry appeared at his side, gesturing for him to hurry up. He shook his head and pointed to the camera and the fish, clearly indicating that he wanted more pictures first. Harry, seeing that Draco wouldn't move on until he was ready, shrugged and then swam over to another school of beautifully striped Cardinalfish, their pointed and spiked tails swishing around as if without a care in the word. Draco managed to suppress a delighted grin as he watched Harry assume a thumbs-up pose amidst the fish, and snapped away.
Harry swam back towards him and gripped his hand before swimming off towards the deeper area. Gripping his camera tightly, he quickly propelled himself off in hot pursuit through the darker and cooler water until they were swimming leisurely side by side. As they skirted large boulders, they were able to see the larger fish. As Harry began to hunt for a sighting of the barracudas, Draco snapped away picture after picture, determined to document the underwater world they were intruding upon. The flash of the camera caused several Amberjacks to dart away, as if furious he had dared to interrupt their hunting. Maybe, he thought, I should take less pictures for now, lest I really piss off one of the larger fish.
Draco kept his eyes peeled as he launched himself into the deep blue, determined to not miss a thing. The deeper he got, the colder it was, and he found himself shivering slightly as he pushed forwards, mesmerised by the sheer number of fish and crabs and coral all around him. At one point, he came across the biggest starfish he had ever seen, which wasn't difficult since he had never seen one before, but still! It was huge! And bright orange! He caught Harry's attention and got him to take a picture of him posing with the starfish. Christ, this one's going on the wall!
After about an hour, he checked his tank and saw he was more than a quarter way through his supply. A quick check of Harry's tank revealed a similar volume, and they both stepped up their pace. Draco was shivery with cold and euphoria. He could only imagine how many pictures he had actually taken, many with him or Harry posing goofily in front of crabs and coral and boulders and fish and every other thing you could possibly find in a reef. He hadn't, however, seen any barracuda yet, and that simply would not do. He could picture just how smug Harry would be if he won and something deep within him couldn't allow that. Keeping that thought in mind, he began to comb the rocks and caverns for a sighting. There was no way he was going to lose their bet!