Title: Adrift
Summary: It was supposed to be the perfect holiday, but a tragic accident plunges Harry and Hermione adrift in to a new, uncertain life.
Rating: PG-13 for language and adult themes
Authors Notes: Hello all readers.
I hope you can bear with me for a second, I feel I need to give some background on this story before you start to read in the hope that you will understand it, and me a lot better.
This is the first fan fic I have written in two years. It has taken me around a year to complete. Now this is odd for me- I normally never have a fic fully written before I post it. But I know now that that is the reason why I fail so often.
My last fic, 'The Missing Pieces', I was writing when a lot of things happened to me. In the space of a month, I almost lost my mother in a serious car accident, my grandfather died suddenly and my sister moved thousands of kilometres away. And because of that, I lost interest in what I was writing.
In fact, to be honest, I lost interest in writing anything. I had other fan fic ideas at that time and they all left me. I have so many unfinished fics clogging my hard drive.
And so for about a year, I didn't write. I didn't participate in Harry Potter forums, websites anything. In that time a lot of fantastic things happened and slowly I began to feel like writing again.
I tried to finish some of the fics I had started, but couldn't do it. I really want to finish 'The Missing Pieces' because I was so dedicated to my vision, but I can't do it. Whenever I read that fic, I remember how crummy I felt as I was trying to write it and I can't do it.
So a year ago, roughly, I was sitting at work and this idea just popped into my head. Complete and whole. And I began thanking someone that I work in a job where you really can't watch what I'm doing and as long as I'm doing something involving typing, it can pass as work.
I began writing at work. I would write in emails and email it to myself at home every afternoon. Slowly, piece by piece, 'Adrift' was formed.
A lot of elements in the coming story chopped and changed from the original idea. I added and subtracted things every day that I worked on it. Once I have posted everything, I will go back and tell you those original plot points and why I changed them.
So live not in fear of this fic being left half done. It is fully done and as I write these notes, I am separating the chapters into individual files, ready to upload.
I am going to try and upload a new chapter every week. There is twenty-seven chapters and an epilogue, so it should take us through until the end of the year.
The only other thing I need to mention is that at the start of some chapters, you will find a section called 'Soundtrack' with the authors notes. Because I am inspired so often by music, something listening to these songs will help put you in the right frame of mind. Some of them are quite unknown songs, others are very popular. But if you have a way of listening to these recommended songs whilst reading, it will help your understanding of my crazy mind and help you understand this fic a bit better.
Now enough of my talk- if you've made it to the end, you can now be rewarded with the first chapter of 'Adrift'.
~*~
ONE
'Let's go on holiday.'
Harry looked over the top of his glasses at Ginny, who was sitting opposite him, staring blankly out the window into the garden.
'Was that a statement or a suggestion?' he asked, folding up The Daily Prophet and placing it on the coffee table between them.
'Statement,' she answered with a smile. 'How long has it been since we had a kid-free holiday?'
'Our honeymoon I believe,' Harry said with a reminiscent smile.
'Exactly. And now that they're all at Hogwarts…'
'It would be the perfect opportunity,' Harry finished with a smile. 'I agree.'
'You do?'
'You plan it and book it, and I'll hopefully remember to pack.'
Ginny jumped up off her chair and lent over the coffee table and kissed him firmly.
'Have I told you lately that you're wonderful?'
'Not in the last hour,' Harry said and they both laughed.
'Well you are,' she said, standing upright and looking thoughtful. 'Do you think we should ask Ron and Hermione?'
'Ask them what?'
'You've forgotten already?' she asked with astonishment, rolling her eyes. 'Ask them on our holiday.'
'You want your brother to come with you on a romantic holiday?' Harry asked, laughing.
'They need a break too,' Ginny reasoned. 'And it'd be nice to have some company and some friends there, you know, for the non-romantic moments.'
'Send them an owl,' Harry said shrugging his shoulders. 'See what they think.'
~*~
Hermione sat in her study, slowly reviewing the files she had bought home with her from the office. She didn't like to bring work home, but now that Rose and Hugo were both at Hogwarts she felt less guilty about it. Ron was working the night shift and wouldn't be home until she was leaving for work, and so she had set herself up for a long night in her study.
She was getting up from her desk to close the window, as the breeze was starting to make her feel cold, when she saw the owl about to fly through. She held the window open as the owl flew in and dropped its letter, and then flew out again.
Recognising the handwriting, she smiled and tore the envelope open.
HW:
He likes the idea. You just have to convince Ron now.
GP
Hermione laughed as she folded the letter and slipped it into her desk drawer.
The holiday idea had actually been Hermione's, almost two months ago now. She and Ginny had taken Rose and Lily to London for some girl time and, whilst the younger girls were getting their hair cut, they had gone wandering around the area. Hermione had stopped at the Muggle travel agents window, staring at the advertisements for Mediterranean cruises.
'Wouldn't that be nice,' she said to Ginny, pointing the display out.
Later that day, having coffee in Hermione's kitchen before Ginny went home, they hatched the plan to convince Ron and Harry that it would be a good idea, and fun. And now that Ginny had talked to Harry, it was up to Hermione to talk to Ron.
Heading downstairs, she stopped at the hallway cupboard and opened it. Sighing at the amount of junk that had been crammed inside, she pulled her wand out and pointed into the middle of the pile.
'Accio Picnic Basket!' she cried and the pile shifted and a small picnic basket soared out gracefully towards her.
She carried it to the kitchen and opened the fridge. She randomly pulled out some cheese and salami, and then using her wand she summoned the loaf of bread that Molly had sent over that morning. From the pantry, she grabbed Ron's favourite snacks and then packed it all up in the picnic basket, gently placing a bottle of Elf wine on top with two glasses.
The security spells on the Ministry of Magic prevented people from apparating in or out between 6pm and 6am, so Hermione reluctantly made her way to the fireplace and picked up a handful of Floo powder and threw it into the fireplace. The green flames sprung up at once and she stepped in, calling 'Ministry of Magic' as she did so.
She hated the spinning sensation of travelling through the Floo network, as it reminded her of a fair ride she had gone on as a little girl- a ride which had made her horribly sick. She threw her hands out in front of her as she recognised the fireplace before the Ministry and by doing so ensured that she slid out of the fireplace with a slight amount of grace, shaking ash on to the wooden floor.
The hallways were deserted and it was almost spooky, as only half the lamps were lit. There was noise ahead, coming from the Auror office. As she walked in several of them nodded at her, and several of them jumped, startled. Ron was in his office and she knocked on the door softly before letting herself in and smiling at him.
'Merlin, you scared me,' he said when he noticed her standing there.
'My name's Hermione, not Merlin. You should know that after all these years,' she teased, and then held up the picnic basket. 'Thought you might like to have a picnic, with me, for dinner?'
'You don't even have to ask.'
They were quiet as he made space on his desk and she opened the basket and laid out the food and wine.
'This was a nice surprise,' Ron said as he laid a thick slice of cheese onto the bread and took a bite. 'Very unexpected.'
'Well I like to do nice things for you, occasionally,' she said with a big smile and Ron looked down, shaking his head.
'What is it and how much will it cost?' he asked, remembering the last time she had gone over and above to do something nice for him, they'd ended up buying their house in the country.
'A holiday,' Hermione replied and Ron rolled his eyes.
'Remember our last holiday? Hugo and Rose nearly killed each other.'
'Well they'll be at Hogwarts.'
'A nuisance, sorry, child free holiday?' Ron asked and looked slightly more interested.
'With Harry and Ginny,' Hermione added quickly. 'Ginny wrote me, asked if we'd like to join them. I thought it would be nice.'
'It would be,' Ron said. 'Where would we be going?'
'Don't know, Ginny just said if I talk to you and then we'll organise it.'
'Well, tell her I'm in.'
~*~
The owls swooped into the Great Hall at Hogwarts drawing the eyes of the students searching for family owls. James Potter was one of the few students not looking; instead he was focused on his bacon and eggs, and the Charms textbook in front of him.
'I thought you were supposed to do your reading of a night,' his sister Lily said, sitting down next to him, and closing the book with a flick of her wand.
'And I thought you were supposed to leave me alone,' James said, half playfully, half crossly, as he reopened the book with his own wand and began searching for his page.
'You've got a letter,' Lily said, handing over an envelope. 'It's addressed to you, but the stupid owl delivered it to me. Probably knew that if it delivered it to you, you'd just ignore it.'
James took the envelope from her, tore it opened and pulled out the letter.
'It's from mum,' he said, unfolding it and recognising the handwriting. Lily peered over his shoulder and they both read.
Dear James, Albus and Lily;
How is everything going at school? I hope you are all behaving yourself- remember that Neville and Hagrid will tell us if you aren't. I can't believe that I haven't had an owl about any of you yet; especially you James- please keep it up!
Your father and I, along with Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione, are going to be going on a holiday and we expect to be away for the entire month of November. We will endeavour to write, however we will be staying in areas with a large muggle population, which will make normal communication hard.
If you need to contact us in an emergency, please write to your grandmother and she will contact us through Aunt Hermione's parents.
James, please make sure you show your brother and sister this letter.
All my love,
Mum
'Pfft,' James scoffed, passing the letter back to Lily. 'It's like they couldn't wait for us to bugger off to school so they could go gallivant around without kids in tow.'
'I think it's a good thing,' Lily said airily, standing up. 'I'd better go show Albus- wonder if Aunt Hermione wrote to Rose and Hugo.'