Chapter 34

Hermione dropped her towel down on a sun bed by the pool. It was still early so it was relatively pleasant. Still warm, but she could sit in the sun without baking. There was a covered pagoda that looked like the ticket for later when the sun rose higher. It was right on the edge of the beach.

It was a bit early and most of their party hadn't risen yet. It felt like a bit of a blessing being on their own. Draco sat down at the seat next to her. He had a tray with fruit and pastries for them to nibble on.

"Its ridiculously early," he said.

"I know, I just wanted to get out and about for a bit," she responded. "Then we can have a nice long siesta."

"We could just have a late morning that just encroaches on a siesta."

"I'm not spending a week in Egypt to experience only a hotel room," she said and nibbled on some juicy water melon. "In that case, we could have just stayed home."

He tsked her and ate some fruit, then watched as Hermione took her shirt and skirt off to reveal the tangerine and gold bikini underneath. She had bought it especially for the trip.

"This view does have some highlights," he said and lay back on the sun bed, while Hermione went for a dip. The water was cool when she got in, she had to hitch her breath when it came up to her sensitive belly. She could feel goose bumps all over her arms, but it was still absolutely lovely.

She was actually really glad she came. She would spend five whole days with Draco, something she hadn't done before. She was absolutely determined not to let the Slytherins get to her. She could handle this, she knew what they were like and she could choose not to take the bait. She'd done a pretty good job of it last night.

A splash in the water told her that she had company. Draco appeared from the water not far away. He looked spectacular, with his pale broad shoulders covered in water. His hair took on a gold colour when it was wet and it was slicked back off his face. She walked towards him and couldn't stop herself from touching him. His abdomen was smooth and warm, and she ran her fingers over the bumps along it where his muscles were. He did some form of exercise to keep in such shape, but she never saw it. Although, there were doing enough exercise together.

She slid her arms around his back and pulled herself close. This was absolutely heaven. The coolness of the water and the warm, welcoming arms around her. There was no doubt that she was in love with him. She had fought so hard against it, against him, but he just prevailed and she had no fight left now.

He lifted her wet hair off her shoulders and bent down and gave it a kiss. Hermione felt shivers going down her spine.

"Aww, the love birds," said the extremely unwanted voice of Pansy-bitch. She was standing next to the pool in a shiny purple dress mini-dress and silver heels. "How nauseating." Her legs were long and tanned, her kind of extravagant outfit actually looked good on her.

"Morning Pans," Draco said and refused to let Hermione pull away. "Don't mind our… snuggling."

Pansy made a disgusted sound and walked off to sit down at a table not far away. She waved over a waiter.

"Not a great fan of snuggling, our Pans," he said and kissed her again.

"She is definitely missing out."

"We should probably stop. She is a vindictive bitch and you can't quite trust her not to hex you. Particularly if you annoy her before she's had her coffee," he said and pushed back into the water.

Hermione swam a few laps in the cool water. The Slytherins really did know each other well. She supposed the Gryffindors did as well, they were just more overtly supportive of each other, as opposed to using their knowledge against each other. Once she got out, she settled into a trashy muggle novel. She wasn't normally a fan of trashy muggle crime novels, but there was that little part of her that just wanted to stick it to the Slytherins and their disdain for everything muggle.

The others appeared over the next hour or so, until the full complement were there. They had set up camp around the covered table they were at the previous night. It got brighter as the morning progressed and Hermione had to fish out her sun glasses. It was not an accessory that was common in the wizard world, they just suffered the brightness. Then again, being British, there was normally little need for such accessories. She liked the cover it gave her as well, she could study some of them without them knowing it.

Blaise was there, he wore these small white bathing shorts with bare legs and chest. He looked stunning, there was no other word for it. He looked gorgeous. Hermione couldn't help some of the memories creeping into her mind. They'd had some lovely days on a warm Italian coast at one time. She wondered what would have happened if he'd reacted differently, if they would have gotten anywhere. She dismissed it as a possibility, his personality and insecurities would have shown themselves in one way or another. It had only been a matter of time.

Her relationship had a certain lightness that wasn't there in her relationship with Draco. This relationship was more serious because she knew it had not just true potential, but that Draco was seemingly more invested in it. Draco had introduced her to his parents, not that the day had been a stellar success, but it showed his intentions.

She looked over at Draco who was throwing a Quaffle back and forth between Adrian, Marcus, Nott and Terence Higgs. It was a sight that distracted her completely from her book and she couldn't help smiling. She would have appreciated Quidditch so much more at school if they'd been playing in small bathing shorts.

She sun was getting too hot now and she had to retreat to the shade of the pagoda. The warm breeze off the ocean was lovely. She settled down on the sun bed and cracked open her book again, but it wasn't long before her the cushion on her chair was depressed and she felt the familiar warmth of Draco's hand on her legs.

"There is a reef off the beach, we are going to check it out. Do you want to come?" he said.

"No, I'm ok, I'll stay here. Lunch is being served soon." If it had been just him, she would have gone, but the other waiting boys showed it was going to be a group activity. There was also the issue of Marcus' wandering extremities to worry about, and the ocean would provide wonderful coverage from a sneak attack from that quarter. He'd had no worry about hitting on Blaise's girlfriend, she suspected he had equal calms about hitting on Draco's girlfriend.

"We won't be long," he said and got up. Hermione watched as he, Adrian and Marcus walked towards the water and continued in. When they got deeper, they pulled out their wands and put a bubble of air around their heads before the dived under the small waves.

"The reef out there is pretty cool," Blaise said as he lay down on the chair next to her, his long tanned legs crossing at the ankle. The position showed off his body very well. Hermione suspected he knew this well.

"I might check it out later. A bit hungry at the moment."

"Lunch won't be long," he said. "How have you been?"

"Good. Work is good," she said. Blaise was at least interested in the things she did at work. It was the one drawback in Draco, he wasn't really interested in the things that went on at work, or the problems she had to tackle.

"Its busy at the moment," he said.

"Not busy enough that you couldn't take some time off," she said with a little hint of accusation.

"One must live," he said with a shrug. "Are you two living together now?"

"For all intents and purposes," she said. Blaise gave a little pushed chuckle.

"I didn't think you would last this long," he said and swung his legs around towards her. He leaned forwards with his elbows on his knees. Hermione didn't know how to take the comment. "I'm not sure how I feel about it." At least it was honest, Hemione thought.

"You would have preferred that I just went away?" she asked.

Blaise shrugged. "Its not easy to see your stolen girlfriend all the time with the guy who stole her."

"He didn't exactly steal me," Hermione said.

"He did. I gave him the chance and I know that, but he took it. Its not the first time."

"What do you mean?" she asked, knowing that she probably should just ignore that comment. Blaise was trying to say something to her, and she knew a set up when she saw one.

"All I'm saying is you're not the first girlfriend he's taken from me."

Hermione didn't say anything. She was both curious and reluctant to hear any more of this.

"There was a girl I was completely in love with, a halfblood. I was complete besotted with her." he said. She did note that he pointed out her blood status before anything else. At least she had a gender before her blood status, she guessed that was something. "And he took her away, played with her for a bit and then dumped her. I thought he was going to do the same to you. As I said, you've lasted a lot longer than I thought."

"Maybe we actually work quite well together," Hermione pointed out.

"Draco doesn't really work in general," Blaise said. She had the feeling that Blaise was referring to more than just his lack of seeming occupation. "He is what he is. Oh good, lunch is here." He jumped up from the sun bed and towards the trolleys that were being rolled towards the table.

Hermione returned to her book, but she couldn't really take any of the words in. She wasn't quite sure how to take what Blaise had said. He was stirring, she knew it, it was how they operated, sowing little seeds of doubt that would hopefully detonate later on. She knew Blaise wanted to sabotage her relationship with Draco, he'd been consistent in that regards since day dot.

"What did Blaise want?" Draco said. She hadn't even seen him get out of the ocean and she kind of regretted not having the sight in her memory.

"Nothing, just asking how I was," she said. "You're back early."

"Bit of a current so its murky," he said and towelled himself off. "I don't want you talking to him."

"Its just Blaise," she said. "You have nothing to worry about, that ship sailed a long time ago." It was true, but then her pain from the injustice he'd served her had subsided a bit. She felt that was a good thing, but then she didn't bristle whenever he came near her, and she could again see some of the good things about him even if she had no plans of ever going there again. "Why?" she smiled. "Don't you trust me?"

"Of course I do, but I don't trust him." He said and wrapped the towel around his slim hips.