"I'm sorry, what?!" Hermione nearly chokes on her beer. Her meal and dessert had long been finished and they had polished off Joe's bottle of whiskey. She went back to beer, feeling quite inebriated but she was really enjoying herself. It felt good to have someone to talk to again.

"What didn't you understand about what I just said? The orca. swallowed. my boot." he enunciated the last five words clearly and slowly for her. "I spent the next two weeks walking around with only one boot until we came back to town. I alternated wearing it on both feet just so I could dry out my left foot once in a while."

Hermione gasps for air, slapping the counter as she falls into an alcohol induced fit of hysteria. "You did not!" She manages to say, she clings to his forearm and shakes it. "You're so making that up." She finally catches her breath.

"Hey, we're gonna head out for the night. See you later?" One of Malfoy's friends slaps him on the shoulder and gives her a half grin. They'd ignored them this whole time.

"Wait! Tell me the boot story isn't real." Hermione swings around too quickly and has to grab Malfoy's knee for stability.

The friend grins, "oh it's real alright. He even used a plastic bag over his sock a few times, but it never stayed on long."

Hermione loses herself in another fit of silent giggles, slapping his knee this time. She misses the exchange between the two friends and swings back to the bar and swallows the last dregs of her beer. "Thanks, Joe! It's been a swell evening! You've the finest establishment in all the land!" She sings and slaps a few bills down on the counter as a tip.

"Come back any time, darlin! You're always welcome!" Joe waves to her.

"Had your fill, then?" Malfoy stands with her.

"Oh, yeah, go on with your friends. I didn't mean to steal you away from them all night. I just didn't know you were so funny!" She goes to nudge him with her elbow but stumbles into him. "Fuck, we finished that whole bottle?" Malfoy holds her upper arm steady and nods back to Joe with a wave.

"Let's go, Granger. Where's your hotel?"

She giggles as they step outside. Her van is just around the corner, and she definitely won't be moving it tonight. "I didn't tell you how I got here, did I?"

"You said you drove?" He takes her hand and loops her arm through his. He's remarkably steady on his feet, and she knows he drank more whiskey than she did.

She walks him right up to the van, digs in her bag and clicks the button to unlock it, then slides the door open and turns to him with both arms spread out, displaying it to him. "Ta da!" She sings.

"Holy shit, you're living in a van?"

She nods emphatically and climbs inside, motioning for him to follow. She shuts the door behind him. Crookshanks hisses from his spot on the bed. "Oh shush, you. Out." She opens the door for the cat to leave and shuts it again.

"Hermione Granger, brightest witch of her age, golden girl who vanquished the dark lord at 18 years old, is living in a camper van in America?" Malfoy says incredulously. He turns slowly, taking it all in.

"Hermione Granger, brightest witch of her age, golden girl who vanquished the dark lord at 18 years old, is now divorced at 25 and standing in her camper van with Draco fucking Malfoy in Anchorage fucking Alaska." She shoves him, laughing hysterically at her own joke and the absurdity of the whole situation.

Malfoy slides open the shower door and looks inside, "you shit in this?" He asks, looking at the tiny space.

"Sure do!" She spins the front passenger seat around so it's facing the rest of the space and tosses the curtain behind it. Then she plops down onto it. "Where do you shit on the boat?"

"We have a proper toilet and shower separated from each other. We're not barbarians." He turns and starts opening drawers, snooping through all her stuff. "Do you dump the tanks and stuff all on your own?"

"God, no. I vanish it." She twirls her wand.

He eyes it for a moment, nodding. Then finds her drawer of books. "Of course Hermione Granger has a drawer full of books inside her tiny camper." He picks up some and flips them over, examining the covers.

"I got a bunch of fiction novels in Seattle. I told you I brought nothing with me."

"Granger, these are romance novels." He wiggles his brows at her.

"Only a few are. And so what? I like romance." She yawns and sinks further down in the chair. "I'm not in the mood to be educated on this trip. I just want to relax. To BE. Ya know?"

Malfoy kicks off his shoes and climbs on top of her bed with one of the romance novels. He scoots to the back and pats the bed next to him. "Come on, Granger. I'll read you a bedtime story."

She giggles and climbs into bed next to him, snuggling into his shoulder. She's too drunk to care that the last person she laid like this with is now her ex-husband.

He begins reading the book but she stops him after the first paragraph, looking sleepily up at him. "Hang on, why aren't you drunk? I'm way drunker than you. But you definitely drank more whiskey than me."

"Granger," he chides, "what do you think there is to do on a fishing boat? I drink whiskey and play cards every night. Plus I'm bigger than you. You're practically a midget." He pokes her side playfully.

She laughs and yawns. "Did you really think I was there to arrest you or something?"

"You do work for the auror department. What else was I supposed to think?"

She yawned and closed her eyes. She could feel sleep overtaking her quickly now. He was so warm, and comfortable. And he smelled so nice. "How do you even know that? You were gone way before I started there." She mumbled quietly into his shirt.

"I just know, ok?" He whispered, and he hoped she was drunk enough to not remember how he kissed her forehead as she fell asleep.


"Granger, wake up." Someone was shaking her gently. She rolled over and ignored them.

"Granger! I've got to piss and your... uh... cat or whatever is outside. I'm afraid it'll scratch my face off if I open the door again."

"Use the toilet then." She grumbled. Her head was pounding and she hadn't even opened her eyes yet.

A scoff, "I'm not going to piss inside your van right next to you."

"Where are you going to piss then? We're in the middle of the city." She could see light through her eyelids and it was already stabbing her brain.

"Cast a muffling charm then, I can't do it while you listen to me."

She snorted into the pillow while holding out her hand for her wand. He set the wand in her hand and she cast muffliato. The white noise charm filled the van for a moment. She fell back asleep.


Hermione woke to her wand buzzing by her head. She grabbed it and turned the alarm off quickly. She rolled over with a groan. Her face smushed into a piece of paper on her pillow. She blinked and looked around. The events of the previous evening finally catching up to her. Crookshanks was on the bed next to her, fast asleep. There was no sign of Draco Malfoy.

She rubbed her eyes and sat up, trying to focus on the piece of paper now.

Granger,

I had some errands to run and you wouldn't wake up again. Meet me here at noon. Wear a swim suit. Eat lunch first. And maybe take some aspirin. Good lord, witch, you cannot hold your liquor.

DM

On the bottom of the note was an address and a crude map drawn for her.

She climbed out of bed and used the toilet. Then peeked behind the curtain to see the clock on the dashboard. She had to squint in the bright sunlight and quickly shut the curtain. 11:07. Malfoy must have set the alarm on her wand for her. And somehow let the cat in without getting attacked.

She drank a glass of water and found some pain meds in her tiny first aid kit. She could only stomach eating a cracker with the pills. She didn't even want coffee right now. Ugh. She would give anything for a hangover potion. But she never expected to get so drunk ever.

She laid back down on the bed, covering her eyes and waiting for the pills to start working. She tried to recall the events of the previous night.

Malfoy had told her that he spent a year in Azkaban awaiting his trial, and because he took the mark but was still a student during the war, they gave him the option of serving five more years and then having a probationary period of five years before he could use magic again. Or he could relinquish his wand and his assets and leave the country forever, but he would be free. They didn't say he could never do magic again. He just couldn't do magic in Britain ever again.

He had obviously taken the latter option and asked for a portkey to anywhere in America. Both of his parents were in Azkaban for life. He signed away all the Malfoy holdings to the ministry and they promised him they wouldn't come looking for him and he would never be able to be arrested or tried for any of the past stuff again.

He arrived in Los Angeles where he surprisingly quickly found a job from a kind old surfer, waxing boards at his rental hut. He made friends and found the fishing boat job opportunities up here in the summers through them and loved it so much he decided to stay.

She had told him the very basics of her story, that she had focused too much on her career and rebuilding the Hogwarts and the wizarding world after the war. She and Ron had married quickly, caught up in the aftermath of everything. But never realized how not-compatible they truly were. It lead to resentment and loss of respect on both their parts and it didn't end amicably. But she hoped they could eventually move past it all and be friendly again. She groaned as she remembered that she told Malfoy she was out here to find herself. How cliche. And embarrassing.

When the nausea finally subsided, she hauled herself back up and made a coffee and toast. She was pretty excited that Malfoy had made a plan for them today. She wasn't sure what she expected after seeing him last night, but she's glad it wasn't just a one-off for him. She was certain they didn't have sex or anything. She wasn't that drunk. But she did sleep with him all night. And she had a surprisingly fun time just catching up. Perhaps the amount of time apart and being in a totally different environment with zero pressures from anyone who knew them allowed the two to just be authentically themselves. For the first time ever together.

She did a quick scourgify instead of a shower since bathing suits were involved, and dug around in the back of her clothes drawer for the bikini. She felt a bit self conscious for a moment. She bought the thing on a whim in Seattle because she had always wanted to be able to feel comfortable wearing one, but never really had an opportunity back home. She was always working. And her brief honeymoon had been to Ireland. She can't even recall the last time she went swimming. But she assumed she'd find many lakes and beaches and opportunities for swimming or tanning. And she'd be alone. So she wanted to wear the bikini, finally. She didn't think the first time she would wear one would be in front of Draco Malfoy.

She pulled the red string bikini on, using her wand to vanish all the unwanted and frankly quite overgrown hair all over her body. She braided her hair back again and pulled another jumpsuit on, blue this time. And made sure everything in the van was stowed and ready for travel. Then she got out her map and found the address Malfoy left for her.


Crookshanks meowed from the seat next to her as she pulled into a parking spot and shifted the gear into park. She looked out in apprehension, double checking the address and the map. A helicopter was grounded with the blades rotating a few hundred yards in front of her. She jumped as someone tapped on her window. She rolled the thing down.

"I guess punctuality was left behind with the old Hermione?" Malfoy stood below her window, wearing a wetsuit and holding one thrown over his shoulder. "Come on then, put this on and let's go." He handed the suit through the window to her.

She stared at it for a moment and then at him. "What?"

"Put it on, bring what you want to in your magic bag. Make sure it's water proofed. Wear sandals or whatever. You'll take your shoes off when we get there. We'll be gone a couple of hours. Hurry up. The chopper is ready."

She rolled the window back up and climbed behind the curtain. She pulled off her jumpsuit and flipped the wetsuit around a few times, trying to figure it out. A knock on the side door startled her again. Malfoys muffled voice sounded through the door "the zipper goes in the back!"

She located the zipper and nodded to herself in comprehension. She pulled it on with a bit of effort and zipped it up as far as she could reach, a few inches from the top left open. Then she strapped her sandals back on and tapped her bag with her wand to seal it up. She cast a charm to keep Crookshanks cool and comfortable inside the van while she was gone and then slipped the wand inside the bag. She stepped out of the van, sliding the door shut behind her and locked it. Malfoy was there, lifting her braid and zipping the suit up the rest of the way for her.

"Where are we going? What is this?" She shouted over the hum of the helicopter.

"This is Danny, he's going to take us to the glacier." Hermione shook Danny's hand, introducing herself. He gave her the helicopter safety spiel and helped her strap in and put the headset on. Malfoy strapped in next to her and then they were airborne.

She watched everything shrink beneath them as Danny took them behind the mountains surrounding Anchorage. She grabbed Malfoy's hand for just a moment and gave him an excited smile, turning back to look out the window. He pointed different things out to her as they flew. Danny brought them low over a glacier with bright blue pools and streams running throughout. There were two other helicopters set down on the ice and she could make out the dark figures of people in kayaks and large paddle boards in the streams. The scene was unlike anything she had ever seen or imagined before. It was otherworldly.

"Oh my god. This is incredible!" She spoke into the headset as Danny landed the chopper.

"As you can imagine, these streams only appear in the summer. The water is of course, ice cold. The wetsuits will keep you from going hypothermic. But it's best not to stay submerged in the water for long periods of time." Danny turned off the helicopter and opened the doors.

"Thanks man." Malfoy clapped the pilot on the shoulder with a hand as he hopped out after her. Danny pulled out a large bag and other things from under the seats.

"Here." Malfoy knelt down in front of her and pulled some black socks from his pocket. She held his shoulder and let him take her shoes off and slip the socks on her feet. "They're made of the same stuff as the suits. They'll keep your feet from freezing." He was explaining to her but she was barely paying attention. She just looked around the area, the ice was various shades of white, gray, and blue. Melted pools in the most vibrant shade of bright blue spread out across the landscape as well as various streams of the same hue.

Malfoy stood and handed her her sandals and stepped back to help Danny. "I'm just going to blow this up, go have a look around. Be careful though, the ice is slippery and uneven."

She stuffed her sandals into her bag and strapped it tightly across her back. She walked close to the nearest stream, observing the people kayaking down it. It was pretty fast moving and seemed to circle around a bit before emptying into a larger pool a ways down. More kayakers were leisurely paddling in the pool. It was the size of a small lake, really. The sun was warm enough that some of the people had their wetsuits pulled down halfway to their waists.

She turned back and walked to Malfoy. He had a giant paddle board big enough for two inflated and was twisting the handle of a paddle together.

"I have a confession." She put her hands on her hips and squinted in the bright light reflected off all the ice around them.

"What is it?" He stood and handed her the paddle before getting up, hefting the board up and under his arm.

"I didn't eat lunch."

He snorted and rolled his eyes, dropping the board and turning back to the helicopter.

"I barely got a piece of toast and some coffee down before I had to hurry and meet you." She tried to defend herself. "I have no recollection of ever getting that bad of a hangover ever."

He dug around in a bag and pulled out a power bar and a water bottle. "Eat." He said, handing them to her.

She obeyed quickly and then followed him down to the stream with the paddle. Danny was there to help hold the board steady as they both climbed onto it. She sat cross legged in front and Malfoy stood behind her. "See you in 90 minutes!" Danny shouted before he let go and the current took them away quickly.

The board floated evenly over the water, suspiciously evenly. She looked up over her shoulder at him questioningly. He shrugged, "wandless stabilizer." He said simply with a grin.

She laughed and relaxed more, leaning over and trailing her fingers in the frigid blue water. "This is amazing, Malfoy. I never even knew people could do this. It was never on my list. But it's easily going to be one of the coolest things I'll do on this trip. How much did this cost? I want to pay half."

He waved her off, "nah, don't worry about it. Danny's brother is one of my mates. He gave me a deal." She raised her brow suspiciously. He laughed. It was her favorite look on him. Before last night, she'd never seen his eyes crinkle up in genuine laughter before. She caught herself staring at it in wonder, much like she had when she first saw this place from the helicopter. Gorgeous, rare, breathtaking. "I'll let you buy me dinner tonight then, and you can call it even." He said.

"Deal." She looked away quickly and trailed her fingers in the water again. "So when did you decide to grow a beard?" She grinned at him teasingly for a moment.

He chuckled, "it actually helps out on the ocean. Keeps my face warm. I haven't shaved in about two years now." He ran a hand over his chin briefly. "Why? Do you like it?" He winked.

"Mm, it suits you." She said airily.

"oh yeah?" His eyebrows raised sky high and his eyes lit up.

"yeah, you don't look like such a pompous prick anymore." She flicked her fingers and splashed a bit of water up at him.

"Oi! Watch it." He playfully wiggled the board and she screamed, grabbing the sides and laughing.

They floated down the stream and into the big pool with the others. Everyone sort of kept to themselves though. She took a turn paddling and he laid out on his back with his hands behind his head, eyes closed against the bright sunlight. She stood above him, straddling his knees.

"So how many days off do you get? What's your schedule usually like?" She asked.

"We get five days off. Two weeks on. It's usually enough to take a break, get business done in town and resupply. We're a crew of six which is a decent size. Less people to split the money with, but enough that we're not overwhelmed. And the boat isn't that big so we don't go too far out. But it's usually 12 days without seeing land at all."

"Where do you stay when you're in town?"

"One of the guys bought a house in the city. We all pay him 10 bucks a night to sleep there when we're docked. Most of the fishermen leave once September hits, I did the first few years. Went back to California, Arizona. Mexico once. But the last year I decided to stay. Got an apartment. Hung out at Joe's a lot. It was very boring."

She laughed. "Have you dated? Since you left home?"

He looked up at her but squinted in the sun at her silhouette. He sat up, pulling his legs back and dangled them over the sides of the board into the water. She sat down and crossed her legs, facing him and handed him the paddle.

"I did, yeah. Few different girls. One stuck around for two years before she dumped me. That's when I decided to stay here for the winter." He gently steered them toward the lower edge that the others used to exit the pool.

"Did she tell you why she left?" Hermione felt like she might be prying. But she couldn't help but wonder about how he was around other women.

He huffed an ironic laugh. "She said she could tell I was holding back from her. That there was some part of my past I was keeping from her."

Hermione grimaced a little.

"Yeah." He said in response to her reaction. "How am I supposed to tell some muggle girl about my muggle hating parents who are in prison for life? Or the war I played a part in? That I definitely do have repressed trauma that I probably won't ever get over because I just ran away instead of dealing with it or paying penance."

"I think you payed plenty. You gave up everything." Hermione tried to offer him some type of consolation.

He scoffed and shook his head. "Did you see my court transcripts? I'm sure you wouldn't be here with me now if you did."

"I did, actually. I followed it closely." He looked up in surprise. "And I was really happy that you took the deal. I hoped you would move past it and make a better life for yourself. But I honestly expected you to end up in some hidden manor in France or something with some off-shore accounts that the ministry didn't know about, with Parkinson and Zabini to hang out with and house elves to cater to your every whim."

He laughed sharply, and then kept laughing. After a moment he caught his breath and looked at her. "And I expected you to run off into the sunset with Weasley and pop out his ginger offspring and be made the first female minister by the time you turned 30."

She tried to hide her smile, sucked in her lips and shook her head. He was not far off at all.

"That was the plan, wasn't it!" He nodded knowingly at her.

"I mean... 30 is too ambitious, even for me. I was going for 40 at least." She laughed with him then.

They made it to shore and he handed her the paddle and hopped off, holding the board steady for her to climb off too. They hiked back to the helicopter together, he held his hand out for her to hold occasionally when the path got really treacherous and uneven.

"So how many times have you done this?" She asked.

"Twice." Was all he said. There was a pause in the conversation. She got the feeling that he was thinking about those other times and whoever it was with.

"Well it's fucking incredible. Thank you. You didn't have to..." she trailed off, feeling a little awkward.

"I wanted to. It's not widely known about. And if fate brought the golden girl to my doorstep, I had better show her a good time." He winked at her and helped her over the last big cluster of ice shards. The other helicopters were already taking off. Danny was the last one, waiting for them. He saw them approach and started it up.

"It must have been fate, right?" She said quietly. Mostly she was just thinking out loud. "This is way too weird to just be coincidence."

He stopped walking and gave her a look that she couldn't decipher. "I think so, Granger. I think so." He threw an arm around her shoulders and they walked the rest of the way back together.