“For the 10th time woman, those birds are perfectly happy in that cage you call ‘bird jail’!” Draco said wearily, “If they were free, then there’s more chance of them being killed by bigger birds and anyway, they all seem to be twittering happily.”
Hermione eyed a small bird sitting unhappily in a corner and huffed, “I’ll turn you into a bird and stuff you into a cage someday. Then we’ll see how you feel.”
So their conversation went on this way, neither of them realizing that their discussion hadn’t turned into a heated argument and weren’t trying to kill the other off. It wasn’t a real conversation but they were talking to each other in a civilized manner, and that was definitely saying something.
In the beginning, Hermione desperately tried to look for her friends. In all honesty, she had been very uncomfortable with being alone with Draco, but after a while it wasn’t that bad. He hadn’t insulted her so far and hadn’t acted like a complete idiot.
Draco had also felt uncomfortable with being around her and not teasing her in some kind of way. He had thought that Violet and the others would come back for them in a short while, but they didn’t so he had to just live with the fact that he would have to be stuck with Hermione for three consecutive hours.
“Draco, look!” Hermione said, pointing to a man who had a bird on his shoulder while another man took a picture of him. “Let’s go and take a picture with a bird on our shoulders.” Draco looked at Hermione as if he had something sour in his mouth.
“I’m not taking pictures with some unknown bird on me. Do I look like a tree to you?”
“Don’t tell me your scared of a small bird,” Hermione laughed incredulously.
Draco scowled and snapped, “I am not!”
“Prove it,” she said challengingly with gleam in her eye.
“I don’t want to. You can let the bird sit on your shoulder, but it’s coming nowhere near mine,” he said smoothly. He brushed his left shoulder with his hand, making clear that no living creature was to sit and dirty his shoulder.
“Are you afraid of chickens too?” Hermione smiled innocently. She knew very well how much Draco disliked birds. After the incident with Buckbeak, he had probably never gone near enough for a bird to squawk at him.
“Just shut up, Granger.”
Hermione cocked her head to one side and said, “Back to last names, Malfoy?” He looked at her warningly and was about to retort back when Hermione said, “Look…let’s make a deal. You let that bird sit on your shoulder for a few seconds, and I’ll buy you a nice, cold drink to wear off the heat.” Draco was just about to tell her off for suggesting such a thing, when suddenly he felt how hot and thirsty he was. He really did want a cold drink to cool him down.
He eyed the bird and sighed heavily, “Alright, fine.” He saw the smug grin appear on her face as she walked towards the man and yelled after her, “I’m not doing it to prove I’m not scared to you, because I’m not! I’m doing it for the free refreshment.”
Hermione opened her bag and rummaged around in it until she found her camera. Smiling, she went up to the man and said, “Hi, could we have a picture with that parrot on our shoulder?” The man nodded and asked her to give the camera to him. He then took the bird off his shoulder and placed it on Hermione’s.
Draco watched Hermione chuckle slightly as the bird was placed on her. He saw the bird’s claws cling on to her shoulder and shuddered involuntarily. Did it hurt?
“Smile!” the man said, looking through the camera. Hermione, who was already smiling, waited for him to take the picture.
“There! Now do you want to take a picture with Sonu too, young man? That’s the parrot’s name you know,” he said, taking the bird off Hermione’s shoulder.
Draco gave him a short nod and said, “Yes I do.” He looked over at Hermione and sneered, “I better get that free refreshment.”
“I don’t go back on my word you know,” Hermione snapped, “Just do it without talking so much.”
As the man placed Sonu on his shoulder, Draco whispered anxiously, “This bird doesn’t bite, does it?”
“No, no! Not to worry. It will get over in a flash,” he whispered back. He gave him a wink and backed away with the camera. Draco felt the bird’s claw slightly pinch his shoulder. It wasn’t that bad; Sonu’s claws didn’t hurt at all!
“Alright, smile now!”
Draco tried his best to smile, but couldn’t. How could he smile when he didn’t want to? He wasn’t a great poser and he certainly couldn’t smile when someone told him to.
“Come on, smile now. No need to be shy,” said the man.
“Smile, Draco. Really, there is no need to feel shy about smiling,” Hermione said, resting her hands on her hips and looking at Draco as if he had done something wrong.
“I am not shy!” Draco said angrily. Suddenly, he felt something tickling his ear and realized that the bird was nibbling it! “Oh, no, no…I think you better get this thing off me,” Draco said nervously. He tried to shake off the bird, but the more he tried, the more Sonu clung on.
“Just relax. Sonu is just playing. He won’t hurt you,” the man said, desperately trying to take the picture at the right time.
“What’s taking you!? Just take the bloody picture!” Draco yelled angrily. This seemed to agitate Sonu more, and he started to climb up Draco’s bare neck. Draco shrieked as he felt Sonu trying to climb onto his head, pecking him gently here and there. “Get this bird off me! It wants to peck me to death!”
The man waited for a second longer and took a picture. He then hurried over to Draco and took Sonu away from him. “There. No need to be afraid,” the man chuckled. He handed the camera to him and walked away, humming to himself quietly. Hermione walked up to Draco and smiled.
“How do you feel after mastering your fears?” Hermione asked.
“My fears? I don’t have any fears,” Draco scoffed. “And why do you think I fear birds?”
“Because of what happened in our third year. Does a Hippogriff ring a bell?”
“I… what… that’s nonsense! Malfoy’s do not fear a single living creature,” he emphasized.
“Then some Malfoy you are,” Hermione laughed, “Oh and did you know you shriek like a girl?” She turned around and started to look for a refreshment stand.
“I do not!” he snarled. “I’d like to see how you would react if that bird tried to claw its way up your neck.”
“Cool down your temper and follow me. I owe you a drink, remember?”
Draco walked beside her and said, “Yes I do. Who would want to forget something like that?”
Hermione handed a soft drink to Draco and sat down on a chair opposite to him. “There you go,” Hermione said, “As I promised.”
Draco took the drink from her and said, “And it’s good you kept it.” He fiddled with opener and tried to tweak it open. Unfortunately, the opener broke half-way. Draco looked at the piece of broken metal and shrugged. He handed his soft drink to Hermione and said, “Go get another one. This one’s broken.”
“I am not getting another one! What do I look like? A vending machine?” Hermione asked scandalized. She snatched the drink from him and tried to open the rest of the top, mumbling, “It’s full to the brim and you want me to get another one. I mean all you have to do is -” And the rest of top came off.
“Woah, you’re pretty strong,” Draco said, surprised.
“Yeah, well…” Hermione said, embarrassed. She gave the drink back to Draco and sipped her own. She frowned and pursed her lips before saying, “Are you that spoilt, Draco? I mean do you have that much money?”
“I don’t know what’s so spoilt of getting another drink. And yes Hermione, I have a lot of money,” Draco said casually. Hermione nodded slowly, sipping her drink and thinking of a way for Draco to realize the value of money. She couldn’t believe how casual he was when it came to that topic. It seemed that he believed that money grew on trees.
“Hand me your wallet,” she said suddenly, holding out her hand.
“My wallet? Why? Do you want to steal some money from me?” Draco said jokingly, “If you were that broke, why did you buy the drinks?”
“Haha, so funny,” Hermione laughed sarcastically, “Now just hand me your wallet.” Draco sighed heavily and reached for his back-pocket where he always kept his wallet.
He gave it to her and asked, “What are you going to do? A magic trick?” He laughed. Hermione rolled her eyes and took out some money. She then closed his wallet and put it in her bag.
“What do you think -?”
“This,” she said, holding up the money she took out in front of him, “is all what we’re going to use today.” She waved it in front of him as if to tease him.
Draco gulped down his drink and laughed, “You’re mental. You can’t be serious.” Hermione’s eyebrows shot up and she looked at him sternly.
“Do I look like I’m joking to you?” Hermione demanded. She sighed and grabbed his hand. She put the money on his palm and said, “This is enough money to survive for another two and half hours.”
“What?!” asked Draco, flabbergasted. “I’m not playing one of your stupid games, so just hand me my wallet.”
“Just play this stupid game,” she said. Draco grumbled and looked at the money in his hand as if it were all he had left, while Hermione took out the map of the park she had got from the entrance. Her eyes scanned through when something interesting caught her eye.
“There’s going to be a penguin parade! It says here. See,” she said, flattening out the map on the table and pointing to where it said, ‘Don’t miss the Penguin Parade! Shows every 12 pm and 5 pm.’
She looked up at Draco, who looked back at her in horror. “What?” she asked.
“I don’t want to see penguins!” he moaned. “Nope,” he said in a more serious voice, “We’re not going to see penguins parade around the place.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest and said, “You can’t make me.”
Hermione had to laugh. He was acting like a small boy whose mother had told him that he was not allowed to go out and play. “Come on. We have to see these little creatures that look like they’ve worn tuxedoes!”
He gave her an I-don’t- care-look and said, “So? I still don’t want to see them. You go alone and see your precious penguins.”
Hermione stood up and narrowed her eyes at him. “Fine. I will go alone. I don’t know why you came on this tour if you don’t want to see anything!” she said viciously. She slung her bag around her and angrily stormed away.
Draco groaned to himself. Women, he thought to himself, why do they all have to be so touchy?! He stood up and gloomily walked towards Hermione. “Hold on,” he voiced out. Hermione didn’t look back but walked more slowly so that he could catch up with her.
“Alright, alright. I’ll come!” he said rather unhappily. “But then we get to do what I want afterwards.”
“Deal,” Hermione agreed. “I knew you actually wanted to see the penguins,” Hermione said confidently. “You just have too much pride to admit it. You probably think it’s not manly enough or something.”
“You wish,” Draco said. He then said in a tone so that she couldn’t hear, “You had my wallet. I wasn’t going to let you run away with it.”
“What was that?” Hermione asked curiously.
“Oh, nothing,” Draco replied. “Nothing at all.”
Draco and Hermione walked away from the ‘Penguin Parade’, both pondering over what they had seen.
“It wasn’t that great, you know,” Draco said, breaking the silence between them.
“Yes, I agree,” Hermione responded immediately. “It wasn’t what I expected.” She thought that the penguins would march around outside, but unfortunately the whole event was inside an aquarium. All they saw was many of them gliding through the water and performing small tricks with a man who had got inside.
“Finally, we agree on something,” Draco grinned. “I told you it would be a waste of time.”
“Okay, okay. I think I get the point,” Hermione grumbled with an irritated tone. She spared a sideways glance at him and saw him happily smiling to himself. She quickly looked away. How she wanted to wipe that silly grin off his face. Draco turned and stopped to watch some birds fly around in their space. His back was towards Hermione, so she took the chance to make faces at him. She stuck out her tongue and made angry faces; all of these gestures towards Draco’s back.
“You know, I wonder why a crow is called a ‘crow’.” Draco asked suddenly, turning around to face her. In the middle of sticking her tongue out at him, Hermione quickly tried to regain her self, but because it was so sudden, she bit her tongue by mistake.
“Ow…” Hermione whimpered. She clamped her hand over her mouth and mentally kicked herself for being so immature. There was no other way but to wait for the pain to wear off, so she put her free hand up to indicate Draco not to ask her anything for a moment.
Draco did not get the hint however, and asked, “Are you going to throw up? Because if you are, go the bathroom or something. It’ll stink here.”
Hermione closed her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh. “I bit my tongue by accident, you little ferret,” she said in a muffled tone; she was trying her best not to talk by using her tongue.
“Right,” Draco said, not really understanding a word that had come out of her mouth. “So do you know why?” he asked again. Hermione gave him a look that clearly said, ‘You are hopeless’ and walked on quietly, shaking her head. Draco looked at her in confusion and shrugged; women!
Violet and the boys happily looked around, enjoying the feeling of being together and finally getting a break from the cruise. Jessie however, followed them gloomily. It infuriated her to think that her beloved Draco was alone with Hermione. She was the one who was supposed to be with him right now, not that good for nothing Muggle! Jessie gritted her teeth at this thought; she had to go find him. She breathed in and calmed herself before going up to Violet and saying, “I’ve got to the bathroom. You guys go ahead, I’ll catch up.” Violet looked at her curiously but nodded her head slowly in the end, and went on with the boys.
Jessie pretended to go the bathroom, but once she saw her friends look the other way, she ran out of sight. It would be easy to find them. Since this park was not a maze-like place, all she had to do was go back the way she came until she bumped into them.
It was not long before she saw Draco and Hermione walking together, looking at the birds and taking pictures. To her, it looked like they were having a good time. They were both laughing and talking as if what had happened the other night had only been a dream. She didn’t think that Hermione would forgive him so easily.
Jessie clenched her fists in anger as she saw Draco gently take off a leaf that had got stuck in Hermione’s hair, and watched as Hermione smiled in embarrassment. She couldn’t take any of this anymore, so she furiously opened her bag and rummaged around until she took out a small crystal, perfume bottle with liquid like wine inside.
Jessie knew that this was no ordinary perfume; in fact, it was a love perfume called ‘Amorodor’. This special perfume allowed the wielder to attract anyone from the opposite sex. As long as he or she is close enough to their desired individual, that someone immediately gives in to the seductive scent and falls in love. But the minute the scent is gone, the person goes back to their normal state. Jessie could only use this when the other guys weren’t around her for fear of getting too near them by mistake and allowing them to fall in love with her in that moment.
She slowly unscrewed the top of the bottle and sprayed the love perfume on her. Then, she tossed back her hair, straightened her clothes and walked towards the both of them. She couldn’t wait to have it her way with Draco and see the look on Hermione’s face as once again, would see Draco fall head over heels over her.
“Woah, hold on,” Draco exclaimed, interrupting Hermione mid-way through one of her explanations.
“What?” she asked, a little bit annoyed. Draco reached out his hand towards Hermione’s head, making her exclaim in surprise, “What are you doing!” He ignored her and gently took off a leaf that entangled itself within her frizzy hair.
“A leaf,” he whispered gently, letting it fall to the ground.
“Oh,” she said. She smiled in embarrassment and chuckled, “Thanks.” Her smile turned into a dark scowl as she saw Jessie walking towards them. Hermione looked at Draco to see what his reactions were and saw that he was looking over her shoulder as if he had spotted some interesting bird.
Draco tried his best not to look at Jessie. He was afraid of his actions if she came too close, or looked into her eyes.
Hermione looked at Jessie’s attire in disgust. She was wearing a short, jean skirt with a yellow tube top that was much too tight for her and blue sandals. Hermione, on the other hand, was a wearing a pair of baggy shorts, a loose sleeveless top and tennis shoes. Hermione knew it was always good to dress comfortably during tours, and what Jessie was wearing looked nowhere near comfortable.
“Hi, you guys!” Jessie said cheerily. Neither Draco nor Hermione said anything. They both looked someplace else, avoiding Jessie’s stare as much as possible. Jessie didn’t seem to care; all she wanted to do was to get Draco’s attention.
“Hello, Draco,” she whispered seductively, “Are you having fun?” She slowly walked towards him, but stopped in surprise as Draco’s hand shot forward to stop her from coming closer. He didn’t look at her, but continued to look over Hermione’s shoulder.
“Don’t come any closer, Jessie,” he said. Hermione’s eyes grew round and she watched in happiness as Jessie’s face turned to complete shock.
“What?” she asked, in alarm. She regained her composure and shot back, “Why not?”
“Because I seem to act differently differently when you come near me.” He turned his head and looked straight into her eyes, “I don’t know why I acted like that before but -”
“Oh shush, Draco,” Jessie said. She pushed Draco’s hand aside and quickly went as close to him as possible, her arms hugging his waist.
“Jessie. Go away! He said he doesn’t want you here,” Hermione exclaimed furiously.
“Is that so?” Jessie whispered. She snaked her hand towards Draco’s cheek and gently caressed it. “Draco, are you sure you don’t want me here?”
Hermione waited confidently for Draco’s answer, but her confidence disappeared as she saw the look in Draco’s eyes. It was full of love and desire, and Hermione’s mouth fell open in horror and revelation.
Draco leaned in and kissed Jessie gently on the lips. “Of course I want you here.” Jessie turned to look at Hermione and smiled wickedly. “I think he does,” Jessie said.
Hermione looked at Draco in confusion. His expression was dazed, and once again, he had only eyes for Jessie. What was wrong with him? Why was he acting like he was under a love spell?
Hermione’s heart leaped as she quickly put the pieces together. A love spell! Jessie must be using some kind of love spell, Hermione’s head screamed. It had to be it. It would explain Draco’s confusion and his sudden behaviour towards Jessie. Hermione looked at the both of them in disgust, as they both had started a furious make-out session. So it isn’t Draco fault at all, she thought angrily.
It was her turn to help Draco. It was not right for him to kiss Jessie if he didn’t really love her, and it was her turn to save Draco from doing something he didn’t want to do intentionally. Jessie was only taking advantage of him without his consent after all.
A/N: Many thanks to nikster who gave me the idea of getting off the crusie and going on some tour! And also to my awesome beta simplyme!!!