The gentle sea breeze ruffled Hermione's hair as she walked along the back deck arm in arm with Harry. The front of the boat was awash with wedding preparations and to be honest Hermione felt like a spare part. Draco had gone with Theo to make sure Blaise was coping with his nerves, and Hermione didn't feel she knew Daphne well enough to join Pansy and Ginny who were helping her get ready. Luckily Harry felt the same way as he'd only been with Pansy a few months, so the two friends had used the opportunity to spend some time together.
The pair had already had one good talk, on Tuesday afternoon, but this time they were talking about other stuff. Their talk on Tuesday had mainly consisted of catching up with the last five years of each other's lives. Hermione had told Harry about her life in Australia, while he'd told her about his life as well as filling her in on the lives of other people she missed. This time however they were talking about what would happen once they left the boat the following day.
"So, will you be coming home now you and Draco are officially together?" Harry asked as they stopped and settled down on two chair that looked out at the sea.
"By home do you mean Britain?" Hermione questioned.
"Yeah." Harry nodded. "I just figured now you were together you'd want to settle down."
"I'm not sure we're ready for settling down just yet, but even if we were it wouldn't be in Britain. Sydney is our home, and to be honest I don't see us leaving anytime soon." Hermione answered.
"But I thought you would want to return home." Harry said, the disappointment evident in his tone.
"Moving back to Britain doesn't really make much sense. Both of our careers are in Sydney, not to mention my parents." Hermione explained. "I don't want to leave my parents again, especially not with everything we've been through since I found them again."
Harry nodded understandingly, knowing she was referring to her father's battle with cancer. He'd been really shocked when Hermione had mentioned her father's illness a few days ago. Not to mention he'd felt guilty for not being there for her. Hermione had been there for him so many times and Harry regretted that he'd just let her walk out of his life. He should have fought harder to keep in contact with her, he could have still been her friends while being friends with Ron and it was stupid of him to choose one when he could have had them both.
"What about Draco's family though?" Harry questioned. "And all your friends?"
"Draco visits his parents every few weeks and they visit him. With magic the distance isn't really an issue." Hermione answered. "As for our friends, until this week I didn't think I had any left. I know Draco hasn't been the best in keeping in touch with his friends, but I think this week will change that."
"I hope it will." Harry said. "I don't want this to be the last time I see you for years."
"It won't be." Hermione reassured Harry with a warm smile. "Now we're back in contact we can write, and visit each other. I'm sure you and Pansy would love to come and visit Sydney, and I want to visit you if that's okay."
"That's more than okay, it's brilliant." Harry beamed. "I'd love for you to come and visit. Would you still be interested in seeing the rest of the Weasley's and some of our other friends?"
"If they want to see me, then yes." Hermione answered. "However I don't want you to push anyone into agreeing to see me. I know when I left relations weren't good between me and most of the family, so I don't want to push my luck. I'll understand if they don't want to know."
"I told you on Tuesday, Ron will be okay with seeing you. In fact he'll be thrilled to see you."
"I doubt that." Hermione snorted. "Even if he has moved on, a lot happened between us Harry. Our break-up wasn't the nicest one in the world, and to be honest I'm not sure if any friendship is salvageable. We'd both have to be able to forgive and forget a lot of stuff."
"I'm not saying you'll ever be best friends again." Harry conceded. The idea of going back to being a close-knit trio was nice, but he knew it was an impossible dream. "But I do think you can salvage a friendship, providing of course you want to."
"Feel free to talk to Ron, but if he doesn't want to talk to me, leave it at that." Hermione said.
"I promise I won't push anyone into anything." Harry vowed. "But I reckon that by the time you're ready to pay your first visit back home, there'll be loads of people wanting to see you, and Ron will be one of them."
Slowly the conversation drifted away from Ron and towards the week they'd spent on the boat. After sharing a few laughs over things that had happened they got up and began heading back below deck. It was nearly lunch time and the lunch room would be operating as usual. When Hermione and Harry entered the room they found the entire group, minus the bride and groom, milling about and grabbing their lunch. The pair quickly joined the others and everyone settled down to eat together.
After lunch the three couples each went their separate ways as they prepared for the wedding that would take place later that afternoon. Hermione and Draco took a quick stroll on deck, before heading back to their cabin for a rest before the wedding. Resting of course meant lying on the bed, and lying on the bed led to the removal of clothing, which obviously led to a couple of hours of sex.
An early afternoon romp ended up being the perfect way to fill in time until the wedding. By the time Draco and Hermione had rolled out of bed and showered, it was time to start getting dressed. Hermione's outfit for the wedding was a pale lemon dress with white piping around the edges. She'd also bought a matching pair of shoes and bag and pinned her hair on top of her head in an elegant bun. Her jewellery was shaped like little yellow daises, and she had the matching earrings, necklace and bracelet. Draco meanwhile was wearing one of his best suits, dark grey with a crisp white shirt underneath.
"You look amazing." Draco said to Hermione as they finished dressing. "You're going to upstage the bride."
"Only in your eyes." Hermione chuckled.
Draco smiled in response, and taking hold of Hermione's hand the couple headed off to the wedding. The wedding was being held on the main deck, and it had been transformed into a long aisle with seats on either side, and a rose arch at the front of the boat. Standing beside the rose arch was a minister, who'd arrived by portkey earlier that morning. Plenty of the guests were already present, so Draco and Hermione took their assigned seats. Shortly after they'd sat down, Pansy, Harry and Ginny joined them. Theo was best man so he would be with Blaise, when the groom showed up.
After about fifteen minutes or so everyone was present and Blaise and Theo made their entrance. Blaise looked more nervous than anyone had ever seen him and as he stood at the front of the aisle he looked very jittery. Blaise's jitters subsided when a harp started to play, signalling the arrival of the bridal party. Astoria came down the aisle first as Daphne's one and only bridesmaid. In her long, elegant lilac gown she looked totally different from the tarty witch everyone had witnessed that week. Hermione couldn't help but think that she looked absolutely gorgeous when she was dressed decently, it was just a shame her personality didn't match.
After Astoria's entrance it was Daphne's turn to walk down the aisle on the arm of her father. She was wearing a long, sweeping white dress and looked every inch the blushing bride. At the front of the aisle, Blaise was captivated by his bride and everyone could see how much the couple loved each other when Daphne's father handed her over to Blaise.
The ceremony was short and sweet, with the couple having written their own very moving vows. Hermione had watched the ceremony with a tear in her eye, the wedding was quite possibly the most romantic one she'd ever witnessed. Even their first kiss as a married couple was romantic, with Blaise sweeping Daphne off her feet as he embraced her.
Once the ceremony was over, there was one more thing to do before everyone headed for the reception. Daphne's mother gathered all the women together for Daphne to throw the bouquet. Hermione was surprised by the muggle tradition, but Ginny explained that it had actually originated in the magical world. Originally the bouquets had charms on them and they would magically find the next person in the crowd that was to be married, whereas these days it was just pure chance who caught the bouquet.
Of course when Daphne threw the bouquet, it landed straight in Hermione's arms, even though she hadn't attempted to catch it. Astoria on the other had had been jumping up and down to catch the bouquet, but it had sailed over her grasping hands and landed in Hermione's arms.
"Looks like we've got another wedding coming up." Pansy laughed at Hermione's shocked expression as she looked at the bouquet in her hands.
"This means nothing." Hermione insisted.
"It means you're going to be next to get married." Pansy crowed. "Daphne's mother cast the old charm on it this morning so it would seek out the next person to be married."
Hermione couldn't decide to Pansy was joking or not, but she didn't worry about it as they headed to the reception. The reception was being held on yet another deck and the first few hours were the formal speeches and dinner, followed by the bride and groom's first dance. Once Blaise and Daphne had finished their first dance, almost everyone else got up and joined them on the dance floor.
Unfortunately another wizarding tradition dictated the best man danced with every woman at the reception, while the bridesmaid danced with every man. Hermione didn't mind dancing with Theo, and Ginny didn't mind her boyfriend dancing with other witches, as long as she got her fair share of him she was happy. What Hermione didn't like was that Astoria got to dance with Draco. Draco himself wasn't keen and the only reason he agreed to the dance was so he didn't ruin Blaise and Daphne's big day.
"Will you stop trying to push yourself against me." Draco hissed to Astoria as they danced. He was holding her a respectable distance from his body, but still she kept trying to creep closer to him.
"Why? Worried you might respond to my body pressed up against yours." Astoria smirked.
"I wouldn't respond if you were dancing naked." Draco snorted. "I'm not interested in you, Astoria. I never was."
"That's not true." Astoria stated. "We dated once, you were interested then."
"No, I wasn't." Draco sighed. "I agreed to go out with you as a favour to Daphne. She asked me if I would take you out, and I agreed. I was hoping you would be like her, but you're not."
"You wanted me to be like Daphne?" Astoria grimaced in disgust. "But she's so dull."
"Your sister isn't dull, she's lovely." Draco said. "Unlike you, she's a lady. She has real class, whereas you have none."
"I still have more class than your mudblood bitch." Astoria hissed.
Draco abruptly stopped dancing and his grey eyes flashed menacingly as he glared at Astoria. "If ever call my girlfriend that again, you'll regret it. And for the record Hermione has more class in her little finger than you have in your entire body. You're just a tart Astoria, a cheap little tart."
Without waiting for a response, Draco turned around and walked away from Astoria. Finding Hermione, he attached himself to her side and remained there for the remainder of the reception. Astoria meanwhile flitted about for a while, shooting Draco dirty looks every time the blond came into her line of vision.
"What exactly happened with Astoria?" Hermione asked, as she caught the blonde witch glaring at Draco yet again. "It looks as though she hates you."
"I just told her a few home truths." Draco replied. "It turns out she doesn't like hearing the truth about herself."
"No, I don't suppose she would." Hermione said. Judging by the looks Draco was getting, she was guessing that he had been pretty harsh with Astoria.
Shortly after that conversation Astoria disappeared below deck and night started to set in. As it got darker most other people began to move below deck, where one of the bars was equipped to carry on with the party. As everyone left Hermione and Draco were some of the few people left, but every time Hermione suggested they head below deck Draco convinced her to stay on deck for a bit longer.
"Okay, we are definitely going below deck now." Hermione insisted as she spotted Theo and Ginny leaving the deck. "All out friends are down there."
"We'll head down to the party in a while. Come with me." Draco replied. Taking hold of Hermione's hand he led her further down the deck and down some stairs, onto a lower deck.
"What are we doing here?" Hermione asked. The moonlight revealed that there was nothing on the deck, except for a couple of sun loungers.
"I made a promise to you yesterday." Draco smirked. "I promised you we would have sex on the deck, and here we are."
"You're wicked." Hermione giggled as she realised her boyfriend's intention.
"And don't you just love it." Draco responded, pulling Hermione down onto a lounger.
Hermione response turned into a loud moan as Draco began kissing her as his hands delved under her dress. Fifteen minutes later the couple were in the midst of a passionate lovemaking session on the small sun deck of Daphne's Delight.