Chapter 3

Hermione

As Hermione was following behind Ginny, Harry and Ron, she couldn't help but feel bittersweet about the adventure she was about to embark on. Here she was about to get on this magnificent ship, for an adventure of a lifetime, but she couldn't help but feel some regret. Regret of not going back to Hogwarts, of not going to find her parents immediately, of not taking an immediate job at the Ministry, and sometimes, somehow, of her relationship with Ron. She also always felt immensely guilty of not enjoying the fame that was following her. Pull it together she told herself. Why am I feeling so selfish? Because maybe I deserve to after all of this, she secretly thought to herself.

It was that moment, that she finally stopped thinking and took in all of the beauty of the ship. They had walked into the main foyer, matching only in beauty to the marble hall of Gringotts Bank. There was an enormous chandelier four floors above, sending gleams of pink, gold, and orange onto the walls. There were moving pictures in all of the frames, dressed elegantly as if from sometime long ago. From the Victorian era, she thought perhaps. They must be on the magical floor, or were muggles still that blind?She looked over and saw Harry and Ginny holding each other close, dancing happily to the nonexistent music. A sense of jealousy swept through her as she let her eyes linger on them.

She quickly moved her attention to Ron, or more so the lack of Ron. Where was he? Had he already found the food and butterbeer somewhere? "Ron!", she squeaked as she didn't want to draw too much attention to herself just yet. She then found him, standing in front of a group of girls, holding a butter beer in each hand.

"-on the dragon, if it weren't for me, they never would've thought of that! Not to mention it was my idea to find the Basilisk fang! I can speak Parseltongue as well, would any of you like to he-", Ron was in the middle of, as Hermione grabbed his elbow. "Ooo, Hermione, this is Alice, and Evonne, and umm, yes of course, Cynthia!". Hermione smiled as she dragged him away from the smiling groupies.

"Whats your deal Hermione? Don't you know we have to please our fans?", he sent out a wink in their direction as he said it. Hermione squeezed her fists together in annoyance, "Ron, not all of us feel the need to put our "fans" first, and our "girlfriends" last!".

"O, come on Hermione, not this again? If you could only learn to put your charm on for your fans like I do and embrace the fact that we are celebrities now, then you could have some fun too!".

Hermione had had it. This was one of those moments she felt a little bit more regret in this situation with Ron. Maybe she should have let him get this weird phase out of his system before jumping into a relationship with him, but who knew he was going to be such a prat? I'll give him until we get to America she thought. Hopefully this trip should get the rest of this out of him. If not, she wasn't sure of what she would do next.

Draco

Draco had to pull Blaise out of the pub by his jacket because Blaise didn't seem to know how to react. He continued staring at Draco in disbelief and shock.

"Like taking candy from a baby! Can you believe those muggles? Now lets go find some other idiots to sell these tickets to", drawled Draco.

"Wait, What? You want to sell these tickets?", asked a skeptical Blaise.

"What do you suppose we do with them? Have a nice little honey moon to America? No thanks Blaise, your not really my type", continued Draco.

"Just saying, your the one always talking about living it up, getting away, going on adventures. Haven't you had enough of going to the same dingy pubs and motels every night? But hey, if you want to sell them so we can give more of our money back to these muggles, thats fine by me", said Blaise shrugging nonchantley.

Draco had stopped in his tracks, thinking about Blaise's words. "Your right Blaise. We've got a ship to catch".

Hermione

Hermione found herself standing on the top deck of the ship gazing out at all of the people still boarding the ship. She glanced to her left to see nothing but sea ahead of her. Maybe this would be exactly what she needed. They would be at sea for it least a week. They weren't expected to make any appearances while on board so this could be the perfect vacation in the middle of all of the interviews and questions. Besides, most of the guests on board were in fact muggles. The very few witches and wizards on board had their own floor and were sworn to secrecy by the Ministry. She decided then and there that she would try to relax for the first time in her life and not think about all of her regrets and all of the guilt that followed.

Harry, Ron, and Ginny found her all too soon. "Hermione, once the ship docks, lets go see our suite! Can you believe the ministry gave all of us four adjoining suites? It's going to be fantastic!", exclaimed Ginny.

Ron tried his luck again by folding his arms around Hermione from behind and squeezing her hips. "Do you want to go ahead and start finding new places to snog Hermione? Remember what I said earlier about all of the secret places we can find?", he said suggestively wriggling his eyebrows at her. She giggled at him before slipping out of his grasp and grabbing Ginny, "We are going to go get dressed for dinner, see you soon!", and she winked at him before turning on her heel, leading Ginny down the stairs.

"What is it with these girls Harry?", Ron asked, a look of bewilderment on his face. Harry was watching the two beautiful girls bounce away from them as he said, "I have no idea".

Draco

The wizards found themselves running as fast as they could down the street towards the ship, realizing they had but minutes to catch it. They darted around muggles, horses, and fancy muggle automobiles finally coming to a halt at a plank that lead to the entrance to the ship. They already were aware that the tickets they held in their hands were third class, while a few months ago this would take a lot of adjusting, but seeing as how their residencies the past few months included everything from motels to beaches to bridges, third class on a luxury ship was nothing to worry about. They gave each other one last look of smugness and excitement, before running onto the ship.

They only had a moment to take in the beauty of the ship, when two other objects grabbed their attention. There they were, the Weaslette and Granger, hurrying down the stairs, looking down in giggly chat, completely unaware of the two Slytherins that were completely enchanted with their presence.