Chapter Seven: The Sea of Red
You're gonna need a bigger boat-Chief Brody, Jaws (1975)
Harry and Draco grabbed the oars off the side and began to row. But the boat was large and they moved at a snail's pace. The other boat moved faster. As they neared, Harry could see that the other boat was actually two boats that were tied together.
Closer and closer they rowed until they could hear the excited chatter and shouts from the two boats. Draco and Harry stopped rowing and jumped to their feet, waving their arms above their heads.
"It's Harry! It's Harry! He's alive!!" A familiar red head shouted. "Give me the rope! Give me the rope."
Ron grabbed the rope from another student and dove into the water. Harry and Draco lifted him out.
"You're alive!" Ron hugged his friend.
"The rope Ron!! The rope!" Neville appeared out of the crowd.
"Oh yeah," Ron said, unwrapping the rope from his hand. "Help me with this."
They tied the rope to a hook on the bow as the occupants of the other two boats pulled the boats together, tying them. Harry and Draco were ambushed, reunited with their surviving classmates. Neville was alive, so were Ginny, Luna, Seamus and Dean. Pansy hugged Draco, so did Crabbe and Goyle.
"Is there no one else?" Parvati asked Harry timidly. Harry scanned the other boats, Padma was nowhere to be seen.
"I'm sorry," Harry said and Parvati burst into tears.
"Come on, sweetie," Lavender led her away.
Draco nudged him in the side and nodded to the boat on the far side. She was standing there, staring at him, not really believing he was there. A lump formed in his throat when he saw Hermione.
She was alive!
She walked toward him on shaky legs, getting only to the second boat before she turned around and crawled back into the shelter of the first boat.
"I'll go talk to her," Ginny sighed.
Harry watched as Ginny reached the first boat the same time Terry (great…he's alive) did. He watched as the two of them exchange heated words before they both went under the tarp.
"She's really had it rough, Harry," Ron sighed. "She blamed herself for your death. She keeps saying that she never should have left you. She used to have dreams every night that you were alive somewhere but she said the past few days she hadn't had them. I think she was giving up hope and now here you are. Give her some time. She's just had a bit of a shock."
"It's really good to see you, Ron," Harry said earnestly.
"You too, mate," Ron smiled and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Listen, about you and Ginny," Harry opened his mouth to protest but Ron held a hand up. "I'm sorry I was such a git. Ginny talked to me that morning of the accident and…well, I believe you, Harry."
"Thank you, Ron," Harry said quietly, happy to have his friend back alive and well.
"Now," Ron said cheerfully, lightening up the mood. "Is that fish I see?"
"Yeah, didn't you guys open the survival kits?" Harry asked.
"Our boats were a little beaten up. One didn't have any kits on it, the other, well…we only had two," Ron shrugged.
Harry was surprised at how long they had survived with only two kits. But then again, they had Hermione on board.
"Did you guys use your wands?" he asked.
Ron shifted uncomfortably. "Well, you see…none of us exactly…have our wands."
"What?!" Draco exclaimed after hearing this bit of the conversation. "Are you telling me that no one here has any of their bleeding wands?"
"You don't have yours, either?" Ron asked. Harry shook his head.
"Un-fucking-believable!" Draco shouted then stomped back under the tarp followed by the other Slytherins.
Harry waved him off. "He'll be fine."
~*~
Harry and Ron sat down with Neville, Seamus and Dean, sharing the dried fish and showing them how to cast the fishing lines. Chit chat mostly consisted on stories about how they got on the lifeboat.
"So when I woke up, Draco and I found that he had broken his neck. He probably did it during the night, pulling one of us into the boats. The bottom was slippery and he probably lost his balance," Harry trailed off. "Anyway, we had to dump him in the ocean."
"I can't believe you can't remember much," Dean said to Ron.
"Yeah, it's weird. I remember I was in the library, the next thing I knew I woke up in the lifeboat. Hermione said that she found me in the library fighting with Terry just before the explosion happened. The two of them managed to get me on a lifeboat, along with some other students." Ron let out a heavy sigh. "I wish I knew what we were fighting about."
"Probably about what a git he is," Seamus muttered and they all laughed. It was good to be with his friends again.
That night, Harry rested underneath the stars, thanking them for his friends' lives. He heard the sound of others stirring in the other boats. The moon was out, shining light down on them. He could hear the snores of Crabbe and Goyle under the tarp, and the familiar snores of Ron and Neville who slept on the benches next to him.
A familiar silhouette made its way to his boat and Harry sat up, making room on his bench for her. Hermione sat down next to him, not saying anything for a moment before lunging at him and embracing him.
"You're alive," she whispered hoarsely. "You really are alive! This isn't a dream is it?" she asked.
Harry shook his head. "If it is, than we're sharing the same dream. I'm so happy you're okay, Hermione." He hugged her close to him, burying his face in her hair. She was alive! He silently thanked whatever great being of fate that enabled this reunion.
She eventually left his side and made her way back to the boat on the far side, looking back at him one more time before she ducked under the tarp to sleep with the other girls. Harry settled himself back on his bench.
"Psst!" he heard Draco whisper at him.
"What?" he asked. Draco made the motion of putting tape over his mouth. "Sod off, Draco," Harry muttered turning his back on him.
~*~
They had been at sea for nearly forty days. Neville had been keeping track. Thoughts of rescue had left everyone's mind by now. Thoughts of survival and somehow making it to land now filled their minds.
Harry and Ron sat on the tarp, inspecting the nets to check for any damage or weak lines. Ron looked up at Harry as he carefully reknotted one of the strings.
"Where are your glasses?" he asked.
"Lost them," Harry muttered. He had been wondering about that. Ever since the accident, he hadn't needed them. His vision was perfect. Ron could tell by his body language that he didn't want to talk about it, so he dropped it. But he was still curious as to how he could tie such precise little knots.
Draco was teaching Pansy, Crabbe, Goyle, Ginny and Terry how to fish. He grudgingly volunteered to do this task but everyone had to eat. There were suddenly a lot more mouths to feed. Terry was only partly paying attention, he kept glancing up at Hermione on the far boat.
"So you carefully take this morsel and you put it on the hook. Be careful not to damage them, we only have so many," Draco said roughly. "No, Crabbe, take that out of your mouth. That's the bait, it goes on the hook. Put it on the hook, yes…just like that."
Ginny carefully lowered her line into the water and sat back patiently. They would check the lines when the sun was halfway in the sky.
"This is so gross," Pansy muttered as she picked up a piece of fish morsel to put on the hook. "I don't see why we have to do this."
"You want to eat, don't you?" he snapped.
"We're rich, Draco," Pansy balked. "This is house elf work."
"Well, precious," Draco sneered. "We seem to be fresh out of elves."
"Look at you!" Pansy said accusingly. "Fishing around for meals, spending your days mulling over dried fish. If everyone could see what you've become."
Ginny spoke up. "He's doing what he can to survive. Not everyone can send their two goons out to steal all the food bars." Pansy's mouth dropped in shock. "Yes, we all know what you've been doing."
"Stay out of this, Weaselette!" Draco snapped at her.
"Don't talk that way to her!" Ron made his way over to her.
"Now, now. Let's all settle down," Terry said.
"Ron stay out of this," Ginny pleaded.
"You've been stealing the food bars?" Draco asked Pansy.
"Why are you defending him, Gin?" Ron shouted.
"Yes, mind your own business, Weaselette!" Pansy shouted to Ginny.
"Hey, don't talk that way to her! At least she's trying to earn her keep!" Draco shouted back.
"Earn her keep?" Pansy looked at him as if he'd slapped her.
"Don't defend my sister!" Ron shouted. "I don't know how you survived or why but nobody likes you or want you on their boat."
"HEY!" Harry had been checking on their nets and couldn't concentrate with the all the ruckus. "CUT IT OUT!! ALL OF YOU!" The group fell silent. "For one thing, all this noise is going to scare the fish away. Every single person on these boats is going to learn to fish. You earn your keep for your right to eat. If you don't want to put in the work for it then the rest of us would be happy to toss you overboard. And don't think we won't do it, that'll be one less mouth to feed." He went back to checking the nets.
Pansy dropped back down on the bench, tears fell down her face.
"Yes… I think that we should set up a schedule. Days when everyone should fish and…" Terry stopped his speech. No one was listening, they were going back to what they had been doing before.
~*~
Hermione woke up at dawn. She carefully stepped around Ginny, Lavender, Luna and Parvati to make her way out of the tarp. She stretched and watched the sun rise slowly in the East. She climbed on top of the tarp and sat cross legged ready to lose herself in thought.
She felt his eyes on her but she didn't dare turn around to look at Harry. She was so happy when he was found alive on another lifeboat. For days, guilt ate at her. She had left him on the boat, if only she had stayed with him in the room they could've gotten on a lifeboat together. She died when the sun rose to reveal that Harry was not in her lifeboat, nor in the other one that they found the day after.
She felt so hollow inside. She would get up every morning just like this to be alone and stare out at the ocean cursing it for taking the boy she loved. She did love him. And she was tortured every night by dreams that Harry was somewhere out there alive and lost just like she was. And every morning she would wake up to the reality that he wasn't there.
This had been the cause of many an argument with Terry. Something was up with him. The night of the explosion she had walked in on him and Ron fighting with each other. Ron had no recollection of what the fight was about and Terry brushed it off as guys being guys. Terry had tried to reach out to Hermione intimately but she shied away from him. Harry was gone and a part of her went with him.
"He's dead, Hermione! Just face it!" He would yell at her. She would scream back denials until she was nearly hysterical with grief and Ron and Ginny had to comfort her. She made amends with Ginny. Apologize profusely for being an idiot for believing that the two of them had slept together.
She had never spoken of that night with Harry. Not even to Ron. It was a secret she would take to the grave. Part of it was because every time she thought about it, she would put mental blocks on it. She was ashamed of how she behaved, throwing herself at her best friend, pushing him past his boundaries because she seduced him. That's what she did. She seduced and tempted her best friend into sleeping with her. Played on his teenage hormones and uncontrolled lust. She felt mortified and ashamed.
Harry approached Hermione early one morning as she sat by herself on the tarp.
"You know…we never talked about…it," he whispered to her.
Hermione's face had flushed with embarrassment. "I feel so ashamed of myself. I never should have done that." Harry was surprised and hurt. She was ashamed for sleeping with him?
"Yeah well we all make mistakes," he tried to sound casual and light. Hurt flashed through Hermione. Harry thought it was a mistake to sleep with her? She felt a little awkward about it but never thought it was a mistake.
"Are we still friends?" she asked, controlling the shake in her voice. Harry turned and smiled at her. She died a little inside.
"The best of," he replied. He didn't want to go back to square one with her but if being her friend was what it took to be by her side….
The accident brought the trio back together, moving past their petty fights to remember what was important that brought them together in the first place. They fell easily into their routines with regards to Ron, but the relationship between Harry and Hermione was altered.
They could both feel it. There was a void between them, a sort of space. Ron hadn't picked up on it yet but he could tell that there was a shift between the two of them. The comfortable silences between the two of them were now strained. Some days they were a bit snippy with each other. He would catch Harry staring at Hermione when she wasn't looking and vice versa. Something had happened between the two of them and both of them were tight lipped about it.
By mid-morning everyone was up. Hermione and Ginny sat by a group of sixth years who were checking the lines for the morning catch. Harry, Ron and Neville were casting their lines out from Harry and Draco's boat.
"I can't believe he can stand her," Ginny tutted, glaring at Pansy.
"I should tell Ron that his baby sister is crushing on the Ferret," Hermione teased.
"I'm not crushing on him!" Ginny protested.
There was a loud thump and the boat jerked. Hermione steadied herself.
"What was that?" she asked.
Luna came out from under the tarp. "Did you guys feel--?"
"YOU IDIOTS!!" Draco bellowed.
Harry looked up at Draco to see what he was on about. Draco made his way over to Hermione's boat. Slowly, he stood up.
"YOU FUCKING MORONS!!" Draco shouted at the group of sixth years.
"What did we do?" one of them asked.
"You don't gut the fish and toss it overboard!! You dump it in the bucket…."
Draco continued to rant and rave but Harry tuned him out. When something horrible is about to happen, you see it unfold in front of your eyes in slow motion. His mouth went dry and he found himself unable to shout or move. He was paralyzed with fear. Even if he did give warning, it would've made no difference. He didn't see the giant dorsal fin until it was nearly on the boat.
Screams of terror filled the air as the shark's head lifted out of the water, jaws wide open displaying its deadly bite and rammed into the side of the boat. Nearly everyone that was on that boat spilled into the water. The ruined lifeboat rammed into the one next to it when the shark rammed it then it rammed into Harry and Draco's boat with a sickening Crack! Terrified screams and shouts filled the air as everyone that was in the water scrambled into the other lifeboats.
"Cut the rope!" Harry shouted, snapping into action. "Cut the rope!"
The shark attacked again this time getting its head stuck in the boat. It thrashed violently, ramming the lifeboats into each other. Harry and Ron pulled Draco onto the boat, he was holding Ginny in his arms.
"Is she hurt?" Ron shouted above the panic.
Ginny was white as a ghost. "No she's in shock, I think," Harry said.
Hermione.
Hermione was on that boat. "Hermione!" he shouted but it was too confusing. People were splashing in the water trying to get into the other lifeboats.
Hermione saw the dorsal fin at the last second, enough time to let out a terrifying scream before the impact. It knocked her to the floor of the boat and she could hear the splashes of those that fell in the water. She scrambled to stand but found that her foot was caught in some netting. The shark struck again and she was knocked into the water.
"AAAHHH!!" A bloodcurdling scream filled the air. Almost everyone saw it coming, its mouth wide open as it approached a swimming sixth year. The boy let out a scream and the sea turned red. "SOMEBODY HELP ME!!" He was yanked under. The students on the boat wailed in terror.
"Hermione!!" Harry shouted.
"She's still in the water, Harry!" Luna screamed, tears running down her face.
"HARRY!" Hermione screamed. She was clinging to the side of the demolished lifeboat next to some netting. The boat was slowly sinking and taking Hermione down with it. "I'm stuck!"
Harry didn't even think twice, he grabbed a knife from a survival kit and just jumped into the water.
"Harry! Harry, what are you doing?"
"Get out of the water!"
Hermione was treading water, her head going under once in awhile. "Harry…I'm stuck…"
"It's okay, Hermione," he said. "I've got you." He dove under the water, following Hermione's leg to the netting. It was a tangled mess. He cut through some of the netting, careful not to nick Hermione. His lungs screamed for air and he came back up.
"Oh God…" Hermione breathed, fighting to stay above the surface of the water. Tears fell down her face. "I don't want to die…I don't want to die."
"Hermione," Harry gasped for breath. "You are not going to die." He took another big lungful and went under cutting some more netting away. Hermione tapped him violently on the shoulder and he looked up. Her head was under, she could no longer reach the surface. Together they scrambled to free her, Harry swearing violently to himself. She will not drown. She will not drown. He came back up for air then went back down. He had to free her. He had to.
Hermione grabbed Harry's hands and pulled them away from the netting. Harry looked at her. She pointed for him to go to the surface. Harry shook his head and went back to work on the netting. Again Hermione grabbed his hands and pushed him away from her. Harry shrugged her off and continued to cut away. He felt Hermione's hands slacken on his shoulders and he looked up.
Her eyes were closed. A trail of tiny bubbles floated between her lips. NO!! Harry dropped the knife and shook Hermione but her eyes did not open. He burst to the surface and screamed.
"NO!!! GIVE ME A FUCKING CHANCE!!"
"HARRY!" he heard his classmates scream but he wanted to ignore them.
"Shark! Harry! It's back! It's back!"
Harry turned and saw the dorsal fin approaching. Anger and rage filled him. He went under again. He reached for Hermione, cradling her in his arms. He could see the shark approaching. It had taken Hermione's life but he'd be damned if that shark was going to lay one single tooth on her body.
The shark approached, his jaws opening for the kill. Harry put all his anger and hate for the shark inside him and closed his eyes.
There was a loud boom.
"Did you hear that?"
"What was that?"
The students on the lifeboats heard a muffled sonic boom then the boats rocked as if hit by a large wave.
Underwater Harry slowly opened his eyes. The shark floated in a spiral down, down, down. Not dead, only stunned. He couldn't believe it. What in the hell just happened? Did he do that?
He didn't want to think anymore. Whatever happened bought him some time and he used it to free Hermione. He swam to the surface, one arm around Hermione's lifeless body.
"Hermione," Ron moaned as he and Draco pulled her out of the water.
Dean and Neville pulled Harry out. Terry immediately began to do mouth to mouth.
"What are you doing?" Draco asked.
"CPR," Terry said between breaths. "It's a technique muggles use to resuscitate someone."
"Resusi-what?" Draco asked.
Terry didn't answer. He placed his palms over her chest and began to press down quick and hard. "One, two, three, four…" He bent down to breathe into her mouth. "One, two, three, four…" He repeated this several times.
It was so quiet. Students huddled together in fear. Some covered their ears not wanting to listen to another classmate's life being taken away.
"Breathe, Hermione, breathe," Ron whispered. Ginny buried her face in Draco's chest, not wanting to watch.
Please, Hermione. Please breathe. Harry whispered this over and over. Dark thoughts began to fill his head. He pictured himself having to release Hermione's body back into the ocean, watching her slip under the waves.
Suddenly her eyes flew open and she began to gag.
"Hermione!" Harry shouted.
"Roll her over! Roll her over!" Terry ordered and they rolled her onto her side.
She gagged and vomited water. Coughing and sputtering she gasped for breath. It was the sweetest sound Harry had ever heard. Hermione was dazed, trying to get her bearings.
"Thank you! Oh, thank you," Terry whispered, gathering Hermione in his arms.
~*~
That night, Hermione carefully got up so she wouldn't wake Terry who slept by her side. She was told that he had saved her life by performing CPR on her after Harry had taken her out of the water. He had stayed by her side the rest of the day and slept by her, terrified that in the middle of the night she would stop breathing.
She wrapped herself around a blanket and climbed atop the tarp. Harry was there looking up at the stars. His gaze fell on her. She sat next to him and he wrapped his arms around her. Hermione breathed him in deeply, resting her head against his chest. Tears began to fall from her eyes. Harry cradled her head and looked down at her as she gazed back up at him. He so desperately wanted to kiss her lips, to let her know how much he loved her. But instead he brought her closer to him, kissing her on the top of her head.
They stayed there the rest of the night under the stars, not speaking. Thinking about how precarious their situation was, how fragile life is, how to close the void that developed between them and when this whole nightmare was going to end.
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