The pride structure of a group of females living in close proximity to a small group of dominant males leads to aggression within the group and competition for male dominance. The reign of these males can often be as short lived as a few years-and it ends when they lose to the challenge of a younger stronger male.
Chapter Two: The Good Life
"I could get used to this," Ginny sighed as she relaxed in the sun.
"Mmm," Luna murmured in consent.
"Flip," Hermione said and all three girls turned from their backs to their stomachs.
They were sunning themselves on the deck of the ship on lounge chairs by the pool. Luna's long blond hair was knotted in a bun and she wore a royal blue two piece. Ginny rested next to her, same style bikini but in red. A row had ensued between herself and her brother Ron when she first wore it. She won out of course but it didn't stop her brother from giving the Evil Eye to any fellow who so much as looked in his sister's general direction. Hermione lay next to Ginny, wearing a black two piece, her hair in a lazy ponytail. Fellow students were taking advantage of the warm weather and decided to venture on deck, busying themselves with the various outdoor activities.
"Ron would kill me if he heard this," Ginny began. "But that is one damn fine piece of male specimen."
The girls watched as Draco Malfoy lifted himself out of the pool, brushing his blond hair out of his face, droplets of water glistened of his toned chest and abs, catching the light.
"Probably," Hermione sighed. "Even though we hate him, we have to agree with your statement."
"Good girls love the bad guys," Luna chirped in.
"Amen," Ginny and Hermione agreed.
"Still it's a shame to waste that on Pansy Parkinson," Ginny said.
Harry, Ron and Dean came up on deck, catching Hermione's attention. Her eyes couldn't help but fall on Harry. His black swim trunks matched his unruly hair, her eyes wandered over his maturing face to the toned torso from years of playing Quidditch. Her eyes continued down his abs and she unconsciously bit her lower lip. Harry's head turned in her direction and she quickly busied herself by grabbing a book and feigning interest in it. A shadow loomed over her and she looked up.
"Hey sweetie!" Terry plopped on the lounge chair next to her. "I was wondering what time you'll be done with your rounds tonight?"
"Uh…about nine. Why?"
"Great! I was hoping we could catch some alone time together."
"Really?" Hermione perked up.
"We really need to get cracking on those books. We'll be in Jamaica soon."
"Oh, of course," Hermione tried her best to hide the disappointment in her voice.
"Okay, meet up in my room?" he asked.
"Sure," Hermione smiled. She leaned in to give him a kiss but he quickly backed away.
"We have to set a good example," he wagged a finger in his face, gave her a warm smile then got up and walked away.
"Please tell me you do more than study in your alone time," Ginny pleaded.
Hermione looked scandalized. "Of course!" she said. "We've kissed," she defended. Ginny pursed her lips together as if she was holding back from saying something more.
"Oh, leave Hermione alone," Luna rescued her. "She's our pillar of propriety. A rock of dignity against the raging waters of hormones and impure thoughts."
Hermione went back to the book but not before catching another glimpse of Harry, who was playing a pickup game of water polo.
Yeah, she was a rock alright.
~*~
Thump, thump, thump.
"Oh for crying out loud! I can't hear myself think!" Ron sighed, running a frustrated hand through his hair. "TONE IT DOWN A BIT!" he bellowed as he banged the wall. "Fucking animals," he muttered.
Dean, Harry and Neville all laughed to themselves. Dean was temporarily homeless for the night, staying with Harry and company while Seamus and Lavender studied human sexuality in the room next door. He was currently playing against Harry's Gameboy and doing a fine job of kicking some ass. Ron increased the volume in his headphones from the borrowed CD player of Harry's, as he thumbed through a Quidditch magazine. Neville sat at a desk, carefully sketching out a plant he had picked up in Salem.
"There are so many exotic plants in Jamaica," Neville was saying. "I just don't know which one I'll bring on board with me."
"I have an idea of a plant you can bring," Dean said cryptically sharing a look with Harry who grinned.
"Ah, damn it," Harry said as Dean raised a hand in triumph. "I'm out," he announced.
"I've got next!" Neville jumped from his seat and taking the Gameboy from Harry.
"I'm going to the kitchens," Harry said getting up from the floor. "Anybody want anything?"
"Bring us back a few butterbeers," Ron said.
Hermione sat next to Terry, quill feather in her mouth silently watching him write an essay away. She leaned toward him and blew softly in his ear. He turned to face her, questioningly when she leaned in, kissing him.
"Whoa," he said when she broke the kiss. "What was that for?"
"I think," Hermione said as she pushed the books and parchments away, "that we have earned a study break." She climbed onto his lab straddling him.
"S-study break?" he stammered. She nodded and began to kiss him some more. Her hand bravely reached down to the hem of his shirt, her fingers grazing his skin. Terry immediately broke the kiss off.
"Hermione what are you doing? You know we're not ready for that," he said.
"Well, maybe I am ready," Hermione cooed.
He gave her a patronizing look "Hermione," he said, "let's just finish this up. We have plenty of time for that some other time."
He maneuvered Hermione off his lap and continued to scribble away on his parchment. Hermione just sat there, stunned.
"You know what," she said, gathering her things. "I think I'm done for tonight."
"Are you sure?" Terry asked, concerned.
"Yes," she said as she lifted her book bag.
"Well do you want me to walk you to your room?"
"No, don't bother," she said in a huff and left the room.
She stormed down the hallway, angrily muttering to herself. Humiliated, angry, rejected, she couldn't decide what she was feeling the most. She stormed into the room she shared with Ginny and Luna.
"Study time go okay?" Luna asked bravely.
"Sodding git!" Hermione mumbled angrily as she tossed her book bag on a desk. Ginny and Luna shared a look, Ginny mouthing a silent "Okaay".
"Alright," Ginny said authoritatively standing on her bed. "Conference time."
~*~
Arms full of butterbeer bottles, Harry approached the door to the kitchen when he heard voices on the other side. He paused a moment then as the door knob began to turn he quickly hid himself behind an island. Someone stepped into the room.
"Okay, all clear," the familiar voice of Ginny Weasley whispered and two more people entered the room.
"Okay, Hermione, tell us what happened," he heard Luna say.
"All I wanted the git to do was just cop a feel, react or do something…"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Ginny interrupted her. "Start at the beginning."
"Okay," Hermione took a deep breath. "So we're studying, right? And I say we deserve a little study break, so I climb onto his lap and we start to kiss." The sound of opening the butterbeer bottles interrupts her. She doesn't speak for a moment and Harry assumes she's taking a drink.
"So I decide to take it a bit further," she continues, "and I put my hands under his shirt and…he stops me."
"He what?" Ginny and Luna both say.
"He stops the whole thing, saying we need to continue studying," she pauses for another drink. "I mean what kind of teenaged guy would not seize that opportunity?"
Harry had to agree with Hermione's logic. If he had Hermione in his lap, no studying would get done. He grins with the thought that maybe Terry's gay.
"Maybe he's gay," Ginny voices his thoughts.
"No," Hermione sighs, "he's just so…so…proper." Harry raised his eyebrows.
"I'd never thought I'd hear that from you in a million years," Luna says reverently.
Hermione took another drink. "I mean at the rate we're going, I'll be lucky to lose my virginity on our wedding night, let alone have an orgasm."
Harry nearly dropped the bottles he was carrying and Ginny spits out her drink.
"You've never had an orgasm?" she asks, wiping her mouth.
"Not even a…self induced one?" Luna asks timidly.
"No…of course not," Hermione sulks, "But it's not like I haven't thought about it."
For a moment, Harry doesn't know what to do, he's like a rabbit frozen in the presence of a nearby predator. He can't leave, they would catch him and he wouldn't make it out of the kitchen alive after being witness to this conversation.
"Tell her about the tub," Ginny says.
"You know your tub that you have in your lovely prefect's bath on this ship?" Luna begins. "Take a bath there, one of these days. Turn the water on, get in while it's running, scoot towards where the water is falling, straddle it, relax and enjoy the ride."
Blood rushes south as Harry closes his eyes at the mental image of Hermione doing this.
"As for your little problem with Mr. Manners," Ginny says, "it can be solved. Every guy has his breaking point. You just have to get him to his. So…here's what you do."
"It's about time you got back," Ron says as Harry walks into the room a considerable amount of time later.
"Couldn't help it," Harry answered as he tossed the butterbeers to his friends. "Got delayed by a few girls."
The guys sit upright at this bit of information asking for details.
"Sorry guys," Harry says as he plops onto his bed. "A gentleman never tells."
"Well, I hope it was worth it," Ron sulked.
"Trust me, it was," Harry answered.
~*~
Every man knew his breaking point and Harry knew he was nearing his. Hermione knew it too but couldn't embrace it. For two years, the two of them knew they had feelings for each other that were deeper than friendship but it wasn't love. It was attraction. It was the moment you realized that the blood rushing south was due to the curve of your best friends breasts beneath her shirt. The heat that would go blazing through you when your best friend only had to look at you with his penetrating emerald gaze. It was the crazy addiction to the adrenaline rush and the fear that one wrong move and your world will come crashing down.
So, you played it safe. You stayed loyal friends. Hid your feelings. Channeled them through a relationship with the Head Boy, channeled it through the attractive housemate. Then one night, you can't take it anymore and you yell at your best friend. You scream and say horrible things to the object of your intense desire. You toe the line. But suddenly you both stop and realize that this is passion. This raging argument is just the surface of the intense feelings that you hold for each other.
So you push each other away, build a dam between you two. Anything to hold back the flood of desire and passion that threatens to overwhelm the two of you. But the dam is weak and day by day it's cracking. You have opened a Pandora's Box.
You buy the bathing suit with him in mind. You go up to the deck to watch her lie in the sun. You instigate actions with your boyfriend the things you wish he would do with you. You can close your eyes and imagine her instead of your hand. The tiny jewel pierced through your navel is an emerald, the exact shade of his eyes. Those CD's you bought? Every one of those damned songs reminds you in some way of her.
You hate each other for being each other's weakness, each other's Achilles heel. And yet you wish for that one moment, the one moment when you can give in to the madness. Just let the dam break and be lost in its strong current.
~*~
Everyone crowded on the deck as they sailed into Negril, Jamaica. The clear blue sky mirrored the ocean below. The white sand beaches were dotted with tourists and travelers enjoying their vacations. Couples cooed and sighed at the dramatic cliffs filled with palms and lush forests. Harry, Ron and Neville combed the beaches, checking out the scantily cad beauties. Dean and Seamus immediately spotted the guy selling ganja. The group buzzed with excitement waiting for the plank to lower and they could be free to ravage the island.
Ron swatted at his neck in annoyance hoping to chase away anything that might dine on him. The group was hot, sweaty and tired.
"And so you see, many of de ingreedients we use for de potions are heer," their guest professor told them. "Heer are de lists of de plants and feesh you are to find. Tonight at midnight, we will perform de ritual."
"You will split up into groups of two. Take plenty of notes on the ritual tonight, I want a roll of parchment on it," the chaperone professor instructed.
"Have you seen this list?" Ron whispered to Harry. "I wasn't paying attention to when he pointed this stuff out."
Harry's attention was yanked away from a hot and sweaty Hermione standing in the crowd wearing shorts and her bikini top. "I hope I pair up with Neville," he said.
"Ron Weasley you're with Granger," the professor said, calling down the list. "Malfoy you're with Potter…"
Harry's jaw clenched and he looked over at Malfoy who looked equally thrilled to have him as a partner.
Hermione didn't say anything for the first half hour that they were in the jungle. Conversation between her and Ron stuck mainly to business until she finally worked up the nerve to say something.
"So…did you do anything interesting during our two weeks off?" she asked bravely.
Ron looked up from the list. "It was fine," he said curtly.
Hermione sighed. "Ron, this is stupid. We used to be best friends, we should at least be capable of a conversation."
"I think we've said all we've needed to say," he answered.
"Well I don't. I miss us, I miss our friendship, I miss you both so much. I can't stand that you won't talk to me."
"It really hurt Hermione," Ron rounded on her. "It really hurt that you chose him."
"I didn't choose him over you! No one can replace you guys!" she cried.
"That's not what I meant, Hermione."
"You don't feel for me the way you think you do," she said quietly. "But believe me, for awhile I thought you did."
"Don't tell me how I feel about someone," Ron said angrily.
"Maybe you did feel something at one point too but somewhere along the way it changed," she argued. "You treat me exactly the way you treat your sister."
"I do not!"
"Yes you do. And…I can prove it," she lifted her head in defiance.
"Oh yeah?" Ron challenged, "Prove it."
Hermione hesitated a moment then stomped over to Ron. Wrapping her arms around him she planted her lips firmly on his. Ron was so stunned that he dropped the bag that held all the plants they were collecting. She finally broke away from him, smiled triumphantly then picked up the bag and headed toward the beach. Ron just stood there, stunned. She just kissed him. He kept replaying it over and over in his head. She just kissed him. And she was right. It wasn't quite as disgusting as kissing his sister but it felt like…like…kissing a friend. It was platonic.
"Damn it," he swore and trotted after Hermione. "Fucking Know-It-All."
After more than a few cheap shots at each other and a couple of fights, Draco and Harry managed to make it out of the jungle and to the sea. Harry stared out the ocean and its clear water. The sound of the larger waves breaking in the distance was rhythmic and soothing. He wanted nothing more than to relax on the beach. But first things first, gathering the ingredients quickly yielded two big benefits. Having the rest of the afternoon off and quickly leaving the presence of Draco Malfoy.
"Do you think you can manage this or should I ask the professor for some floaties for you?" Harry quipped as he put on his mask and snorkel.
"Fuck off, Potter," Draco shot back as he got ready.
Picking up their spears they dived into the ocean seriously entertaining the thought of drowning one another. Swimming and searching for the fish that would put an end to this miserable task began to wear on them both.
"You know where we need to go," Draco said as they both treaded water. He nodded over to the breaking waves.
"Are you fucking nuts?" Harry scolded. "Let's just go further down the shore."
"Why do we need to go searching meters and meters of reefs when there's a big one just a few meters that way?"
"The Professor said that we are to stick to these reefs!" Harry said, sounding a bit like Hermione.
"The Professor said that we are to stick to these reefs!" mimicked Draco. "You sound pathetic, Scarhead." He put on his mask. "Where's that fucking Gryffindor bravery?" he called over his shoulder as he swam toward the larger reefs.
"Fucking asshole," Harry muttered and put his snorkel back on as he continued to search the smaller reefs.
Draco could see the colorful coral ahead of him, the reef teeming with sea life. He chuckled to himself at Potter's cowardice and stopped to tread water as he readied his bag and spear.
Immediately he sensed something was wrong. Although he stopped to tread water, he was being pulled forward to the large waves. He swore silently to himself and began to swim back away from them. But for some reason it wasn't working, he still felt like he was being pulled. It was no big deal he told himself, he was a strong swimmer and could swim his way out of this. Potter's snorkel was getting smaller and smaller, the waves were getting larger and more choppy. Panic began to set in as his arms and legs began to burn with exhaustion. He suddenly couldn't get enough air. As soon as he would raise his head above water to gasp for breath, a large wave would put him back under.
Harry speared the bright blue fish then held it above his head as he broke to the surface ready to yell at Draco. His triumph was cut short though when he saw Draco way too far out to sea, floundering amongst the larger waves and getting closer to the big ones that were breaking.
He swore and dropped his spear and bag and swam after him. The tide and the current swiftly brought him to him and he grabbed on to his arm just as he went under. Harry heaved him back to the surface and Draco gasped for air.
"Hold on!" Harry yelled. "We've got to swim!"
The waves were powerful and wouldn't let them go easily. Harry shouted encouragement as they kicked and swam to break free. Harry looked up as a large wave crested. Draco looked at him and they shared a wide eyed look of panic before taking a deep breath and going under.
The wave broke violently above them, the force of it pushing them down and dragging them. The wave dragged Harry over the reef, scraping his left side. Draco was thrown mercilessly against the reefs and a blinding pain shot through his right arm. The wave released them and Harry grabbed Draco and swam to the surface.
"My arm!" Draco gasped and painfully lifted it out of the water. It was bent at an awkward angle. He had broken it.
"Just kick then," Harry gasped then wrapped an arm around Draco and swam for the shore.
"Harry! Harry!" Dean and Seamus were on the shore. They dropped their spears and jumped in the water.
Hermione and Ron stopped in their tracks when they heard the yells. Giving each other a look of concern they took off at a run for the beach. What she saw when she came to the clearing made her inside turn to ice with fear.
"Oh my God!" Ron yelled as they ran. "What happened?"
The clear water was tainted with a faint red line that she could trace to the shore. Dean and Seamus dragged the limp bodies of Harry and Draco to the beach. Their blood staining the white sands. Ron, who had a weak stomach at the sight of blood, stopped and collapsed a few feet away from Harry. He was white with shock and he sat there staring at his friend. Terry and Ginny ran out onto the beach, also attracted by the boys' yells.
"Was it a shark?" Hermione asked, thinking the worst.
"No, they're just scraped up quite a bit," Dean said.
Hermione knelt next to Harry and reached out to examine the cuts on his side. There was a bad one on his shoulder. She was about to touch it when Harry flinched and moved away from her. She immediately brought her hand back, pursing her lips in anger, her eyes shining with reproach. Harry's gaze gave nothing away.
"Draco's arm is broken," Ginny said aloud. She was kneeling next to Draco. Draco opened his eyes.
"That's a brilliant observation, weaslette," he spat.
"Just shut up and lie down, ferret," she shot back.
"Somebody explain to me what the hell happened!" Terry shouted.
"Terry, I think we need to get a mediwitch first," Hermione said.
"No one goes anywhere until I get some answers!" he boomed.
Hermione stood up angrily. "Well, I'm not going to stand here and watch them bleed to death!"
Terry shut his eyes, controlling his temper. "Hermione," he said calmly, "I'm Head Boy here, and-"
"Oh sod off!" Hermione shouted and headed off in search of the Professor. Seamus followed her but not before knocking Terry out of his way.
"Now, like I said before," Terry said defiantly, "explain to me what happened."
Harry and Draco didn't say a word. They were not about to get themselves into a much deserved detention.
"Were you guys fighting again?" Terry circled them. "Can't even do one assignment together without resulting in someone going to the hospital bay?" He kneeled next to Draco. "Tell me, Draco. Did Harry break your arm?" Draco only smirked at him. Terry stood up. "Since I can't take any house points away, your land privileges are revoked. You are to stay on the boat until we leave Jamaica. I will talk to the professor about giving you both a zero for this assignment." He turned to walk away and Harry lifted his arm and flipped him the bird.
"What's the matter, Boot?" Draco called out to him. "Knickers in a twist because your girlfriend would rather be fucking someone else?"
Terry ignored him and kept walking.
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