A/N – Thanks for all the great reviews, I'm thrilled so many people are enjoying Love Boat. I know people are itching for Draco and Hermione to admit their true feelings for each other, and I promise it will be happening very soon. But before that Astoria isn't quite finished yet, she still got a few more tricks up her sleeve. Enjoy!
When Hermione woke up it felt as though her entire world was spinning. She briefly wondered if they'd hit a rough patch of sea, but then snippets of the previous evening came back to her. As she remembered just how much champagne she'd knocked back, Hermione realised the spinning was all in her head.
"Morning." Draco's cheerful voice sounded from beside the bed. Hermione groggily looked up to find Draco standing beside her. "Here, this will help." He said, handing her a glass of orange liquid.
"What is it?" Hermione eyed the glass warily, not sure that she wanted to drink an unknown substance.
"It'll help with the hangover." Draco answered.
Trusting Draco not to poison her, Hermione sat up and threw the orange liquid down her throat. Hermione grimaced at the bitter taste, but almost immediately the pounding in her head started to ease up. She also started to feel a bit more stable, it no longer felt as though the boat was in rough sea.
"Is that better?" Draco asked, taking the empty glass from Hermione's hand.
"It is. Thank you." Hermione smiled at Draco, grateful for his help in alleviating what would surely have become a monster hangover.
"What are best friends for?" Draco grinned.
"Now I'm feeling a bit better, I can go and have a shower and we can head for breakfast." Hermione said as she swung her legs out of bed and gingerly stood up. "Not that I'll be eating much." She added as she felt slightly queasy.
"You'll certainly not be eating breakfast. That was a good few hours ago." Draco chuckled.
"What?" Hermione shrieked in surprise as she checked the time. "Bloody hell, it's nearly lunch time. Why didn't you wake me?"
"I tried, but you weren't having any of it." Draco replied. "The one time I did manage to get your eyes open you told me to get my sexy self back to bed, before you promptly rolled over and started snoring."
"I did not." Hermione cried, blushing furiously at the thought of calling Draco sexy to his face. She knew full well that in her drunken state it was very likely she'd let something slip about her feelings for Draco.
"You did." Draco grinned. He'd rather enjoyed Hermione calling him sexy, he just wished she hadn't been drunk at the time.
"Please say I didn't do anything else embarrassing." Hermione groaned.
"Well…" Draco teased, causing Hermione to look at him in panic. "Don't worry, you didn't." He reassured his friend with a smile.
"Thank Merlin for that." Hermione muttered. "I think I'm going to go for a shower now, it might help me feel more alert."
Forty minutes later, Hermione was dressed and felt much better. She still didn't feel much like eating, but she at least felt human again. Despite not fancying food herself, Hermione accompanied Draco to the lunch room. She could at least have a drink and talk to her friends.
"Here they come." Blaise called as Draco and Hermione entered the lunch room. "I was beginning to think you'd slipped away with your winnings. You two practically cleaned out the casino last night."
"We won?" Hermione questioned with a frown. She could vaguely remember Draco teaching her the basics of some of the games, but she couldn't remember winning.
"Yeah." Blaise nodded as the couple sat down at the table. "Quite a bit. A few thousand, I think."
"Nearly five." Draco confirmed.
"We won nearly five thousand galleons." Hermione whispered unbelievingly.
"Yeah, we make a killer team." Draco grinned. "We'll definitely be trying our luck back home."
"As long as you don't try your luck here again. I don't think I can afford it." Blaise replied, grinning so that Draco and Hermione knew he wasn't really mad at them winning.
Draco laughed at his friend, before heading off to grab some food. Hermione still didn't feel like food, but she agreed to have a cup of tea. Once Hermione had drunk her tea she felt a bit more like food and she managed to eat a chicken salad sandwich before the group left the lunch room.
"I don't know about anyone else, but I fancy a lazy afternoon." Pansy said. "I just want to chill out beside the pool."
"I think Astoria was going for a swim, why don't we just head out onto the cocktail deck. I can whip up some cocktails and we can just enjoy the sun." Blaise suggested. The 'without Astoria bothering us' wasn't said, but everyone knew that's exactly what he meant.
Everyone happily agreed with Blaise's idea and they headed up onto the cocktail deck. For a few hours the group lounged around, talking and drinking cocktails. However their peace was shattered when Astoria suddenly put in an appearance. As usual she was wearing a skimpy bikini and was fluttering her eyelashes at Draco. Clearly the warning from Hermione the previous day had been forgotten.
"I didn't know you lot were out here." She cried, settling herself down on a spare sun lounger. "You should have given me a shout, I was just in the pool over the other side of the ship."
"We didn't realise." Blaise lied.
"Well I'm here now." Astoria grinned. "Blaise, be a good boy and get me a cocktail."
Blaise looked as though he was about to tell Astoria where to go, but a pleading look from Daphne stopped him in his tracks. Sighing, Blaise shot his fiancée a look telling her he was only running after Astoria for her, before getting up and heading to the bar. Returning with Astoria's cocktail, he practically shoved it in her hand, before settling back down on his own sun lounger.
"Hmm, it's a bit bitter." Astoria complained, sipping on the cocktail.
"That's a shame, I made it especially for you." Blaise replied. "I thought bitter matched you perfectly." He added under his breath so his future sister-in-law couldn't hear.
Despite complaining about her cocktail, Astoria quickly knocked it back and settled down to work on her tan. After a few minutes she grabbed her suntan lotion and turned over so she was lying on her front. Undoing her bikini top, she turned to Draco and held the tube out to the blond wizard.
"Will you do my back?" She asked pleadingly.
Before Draco could respond, Hermione had jumped up from her lounger and grabbed the bottle from Astoria's hand. "Allow me."
Astoria didn't get a chance to react before Hermione was standing over her. When Hermione suddenly squirted a large dollop of the cold lotion onto her skin, Astoria let out a loud squeal. Hermione continued to pour lotion onto Astoria's back, until it started to drip down her sides. All the time Astoria continued to squeal, while everyone else was in hysterics watching the show.
"I think we're going for a walk now." Hermione announced as she placed Astoria's lotion beside her and pulled Draco up off his lounger.
Draco happily jumped up and wrapping his arm around Hermione's waist the couple headed off for a walk. As they left the deck, they could hear their friends still laughing at Astoria. They could also hear Astoria squealing and yelling about what Hermione had done to her.
"Did I go too far?" Hermione asked Draco as they headed back below deck.
"No, it was perfect." Draco smiled. "You were brilliant. And to be honest Astoria was asking for it. You never know, that might make her back off a bit."
After leaving everyone up on deck, Draco and Hermione spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the boat and having fun on their own. When they headed for dinner, they hoped that Astoria had gotten the message and would be backing off but unfortunately for Draco it looked as though she had no intention of backing off.
"I don't believe it. Come and look at this." Draco hissed to Hermione. Draco was just having a look to see who he was seated with that evening for dinner and he'd spotted his name card sitting next to Astoria's. "Blaise promised me, I wouldn't have to sit next to the bloody woman."
"We can easily fix that." Hermione grinned. Checking no-one was paying attention, Hermione took hold of Draco's name card and swapped it with hers, which was on the other side of Draco's. Now she was sitting next to Astoria and Draco was sitting next to Harry.
"Now you have to put up with her over dinner." Draco pointed out.
"I'll just talk to you." Hermione replied. "And considering Blaise is on the other side of Astoria, I don't think she's going to be getting much conversation tonight."
"No, I don't think she will." Draco chuckled. "For some reason Blaise isn't her biggest fan."
"I can't say I blame him. She's really rather annoying." Hermione replied. "Now why don't we go and grab some drinks and settle down at the table. We also need to grab Harry and sit him down."
"Why?" Draco questioned as they headed for the bar to get their drinks.
"So Astoria can't mess with the seating plans again." Hermione replied. "Daphne wouldn't have put her next to you, so I'm guessing it was her that changed the names around. However if you're already at the table with Harry and I on either side of you, you'll be safe. There'll be no way she can get next to you."
"Hermione, you're a genius." Draco grinned. "You go and grab Potter and I'll bring our drinks."
"On one condition. You call Harry by his first name."
"Do I have to?" Draco complained. "It's just weird. He'll always be Potter to me."
"You had no problems calling me by my first name when we first became friends." Hermione argued.
"You know that's not true." Draco laughed. "I used to slip up all the time and call you Granger."
"But you did eventually get used to using my given name. And that never would have happened if you hadn't tried to use my first name. All I'm asking is that you do the same with Harry." Hermione said. "Please Draco, for me."
"Okay, I'll try." Draco sighed. "But I can't promise anything. I want you to know that I'm doing this because you asked, not because Potter might be an okay bloke when you get to know him."
"Why ever you're doing it, I'm grateful. Thank you, Draco." Hermione smiled. She'd already spotted Draco and Harry talking a few times and she suspected the pair actually got along really well.
"I'm sure you can think of a fun way of thanking me." Draco suggested flirtatiously.
"We'll see." Hermione smiled. "Now get the drinks, and I'll go and get Harry."
While Draco grabbed a couple of drinks, Hermione headed across the room to where Harry and Pansy were sitting in the corner. After Hermione quickly explained what had happened, Harry and Pansy were more than happy to move and settle at the table.
"That girl is just so stubborn." Pansy remarked as she settled into her seat next to Harry. "Why doesn't she just give up?"
"I've been asking myself that very same question." Draco sighed. "I knew she was going to be after me on this trip, but I didn't know she was going to be this bad."
"You should be grateful you've got Hermione with you. Without a girlfriend she would be even worse." Pansy said. "If she thought you were single she'd be sneaking into your cabin in the middle of the night. You'd wake up and find her in bed with you."
"Thanks for that Pans, you'll give me nightmares." Draco chuckled.
"I'm just pointing out how much worse it could be." Pansy replied, causing the other three to laugh at her.
The two couples were still laughing and talking happily when Daphne and Blaise entered the room. Daphne immediately spotted the seating arrangements were slightly wrong, and she was unimpressed when it transpired that Astoria had switched the name cards around. She was going to change them back, but when Hermione reassured her that there was no need, Daphne left them as they were. Still muttering about her sister, Daphne headed off to the other end of the table where she was sitting with her mother. Normally she would sit with Blaise, but with the wedding creeping nearer her mother had a few last minute details she wanted to run past the bride.
"Are you sure you don't want me to move Astoria?" Blaise checked with Hermione as he settled down in his seat with his drink. "I can shove her over the other side of the table."
"I think she'll be fine where she is." Hermione smirked. "I've got Draco to talk to, and isn't Theo sitting next to you? I'm sure you two have plenty to talk about."
Blaise chuckled when he realised Hermione's plan. Instead of moving Astoria, she was just going to freeze her out. His future sister-in-law would be stuck in between the two people who disliked her the most and neither of them would strike up conversation with her.
"You've definitely got a sneaky Slytherin streak in you." Blaise smirked. "I can see why Draco likes you so much."
Less than ten minutes later Hermione's plan was put into action with the arrival of Astoria. By this time Theo and Ginny had shown up and Blaise was quite happily chatting with the couple. Hermione was also busy talking with Draco and Harry, leaving a puzzled Astoria staring at the table as she wondered why she wasn't sitting next to Draco.
"Is there something wrong Astoria?" Daphne called across the room.
Astoria opened her mouth to complain that someone had been messing with the name cards, but the unimpressed glare coming from her sister made her rethink her decision. Instead she said everything was fine and slid into her seat in between Hermione and Blaise.
"Nice try." Hermione whispered to Astoria as the starters were served.
Shooting Astoria a satisfied smile, Hermione once again turned her back on the blonde witch and resumed her conversation with Draco and Harry. Blaise also ignored Astoria for the rest of dinner and once dessert was over, she jumped up and flounced out of the dining room in a huff.