Summer Writing Series Challenge (July 15)
Challenge: Single Story Week: Harry/Hermione travel somewhere together.
Challenge Conditions: Each day we'll post a challenge topic as usual, but each consecutive day you
will continue your story from the day before...and on Friday you'll have a 6000+ word story that flows from
beginning to end and includes each of the daily challenges as given.
Title: A Date Under the Sea
Word Count: 1,000
To say that Harry was stunned as his gaze fell upon Hermione when she made her way down the stairs from the Head Girl's dorm must be the understatement of the century.
Her bushy hair had been straightened and was hanging just below her shoulders. The make-up she wore so light and delicately applied that Harry could hardly tell, and only because he knew how she looked without it. But they highlighted her chocolate brown eyes quite nicely. She wore a soft pink robe that looked like something between a muggle evening gown and a wizarding dress robe. It had a pale pink fitted bodice top with spaghetti straps and a gown skirt, slightly darker than the top, that flowed down to the ground gracefully. Though the dress was quite modest, the flowing material still clung snugly to Hermione's body bringing out her curves and emphasizing her slender shoulders. She looked more beautiful than Harry had ever seen her.
But it wasn't the make-up or the gown that made Hermione beautiful to Harry. Anybody could've thrown on an extravagant dress or make-up and have looked pretty. But it was that glow of warmth and happiness that radiated from Hermione that made her stand out from the rest.
"Hermione, you look gorgeous," Harry said softly when she reached the bottom.
"Thank you," Hermione blushed while Parvati grinned with pride at the top of the stairs. "You don't look too shabby yourself."
"So, um- are you ready to go?" Harry offered her his arm, quite aware of the eyes of everyone in the Common Room on them and the mad giggles coming from a group of younger girls.
"Sure." Taking Harry's arm, she waved goodbye to Ron, Ginny, and Parvati as they exited the Common Room. "So, where are you taking me?"
"Well, I heard there was this very nice underwater restaurant in Atlantis and-"
"ATLANTIS? As in the Lost City of Atlantis?"
"Well, technically, it's not really lost, not to wizards anyw-"
"Yes, yes, I know. I told you that stuff, remember? When we had to write that essay for Binns."
Harry grinned sheepishly, "Yes, that's where the restaurant is at, so, is that okay with you?" Hermione gave a high-pitched and very Parvati-like squeal before throwing herself on Harry. "I'll take that as a 'yes' then."
"Oh, Harry, this is going to be so fabulous. I always wanted to go there. To look at the marine life in their natural habitat and to eat and walk around underwater. Atlantis," Hermione whispered dreamily. "But how are getting there. I mean, not everyone can just get up and go there, you know? The protections there are heavier than that of Hogwarts, Azkaban, and Gringotts added together. You have to have visas, and documents stating why you want to go there and…" Harry just waited patiently while Hermione continued her speech on the protection of the mysterious island in a Hermione-like manner, about how visas were magically checked when the visitors passed the shields that surrounded the city, whether they were apparating in or with arriving via Portkey, and those without visas were redirected to random places. Apparently, there was a poor bloke in 1864 who didn't have his wand on him when he got redirected to the South Pole. It was two days before the family realized he was missing and four more before they figured out where he was. They found him frozen in an icicle when they finally when to fetch him after a week. When Hermione was done, he reached into his pocket and pulled out two scrolls of parchments, and handed one to Hermione, smiling with mischievous glint in his emerald eyes.
When Hermione unrolled hers, her jaw dropped. "A visa? Harry, how on earth did you get these?"
"Well, being the Boy-Who-Lived and Defeater-of-He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named does have its advantages," Harry said with a wink, and then pulled out what could only be described as a very deformed rubber chicken out of his pocket. "As for transportation, Dumbledore made a Portkey for us, since, technically, I'm not supposed to know how."
"Thank you so much, Harry," Hermione said, giving Harry a light kiss on the lips.
Harry held out the rubber chicken, and Hermione looked at it suspiciously. "What is that supposed to be?"
Harry blushed. "Oh, it's what I got for Christmas from the Dursleys, I'm guessing it used to better than this."
After another long look, Hermione cautiously placed her hand on it making sure only two fingers were touching the hideous item. Harry chuckled at Hermione's odd behavior before taking out his wand to activate it. Then, Hermione felt the unmistakable tug at her navel of a Portkey before the scene before her disappeared and felt her feet leave the ground.
When she felt her feet touch the ground again, she was standing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
"Wow."
There was no other description of the scenery that surrounded the pair. The golden Greek-like architectures that stood in front of them were just Hermione always imagined how Atlantis's buildings looked liked. And as she gazed to the edge of the island, she could see the water -repellant shield that kept the water from flooding the city as well provided air for the Atlantians. Outside the almost transparent shield, she could see what she'd been wanting to see ever since Harry mentioned Atlantis. The marine life in their natural habitat. As she studied the school of fish that swam in a zigzagged fashion, she could just imagine Ron rolling his eyes, "You went all the way to Atlantis to look at fish?!" and she had to admit, that sounded awfully silly. She was here on a date, not an educational field trip.
"So, what do you think?" Harry asked from her right side.
"Magnificent. Thank you so much for taking me here," Hermione said hugging, him from the side.
"Want to head toward the restaurant, love?"
"Yes, darling." Hermione smiled at Harry's surprised and slightly indignant expression.