18

Hermione turned and rushed through the boat, throwing things over her shoulder until she found what she was looking for. She struggled to open the small life raft and toss it overboard. Looking around, she wondered how in the hell she was going to get in the damn thing. Taking a paddle, she perched on the edge of the sailboat, closed her eyes and jumped.

She landed unbalanced and almost fell over the side and into the clear, blue water where the Tiger shark was still circling Draco. She paddled over as close as she could get and then called to him. "Draco? Are you all right?" There was no answer. The shark bumped the life raft, and a small scream escaped her trembling lips. "God damn it, Draco! Answer me!" She stuck the paddle out and used it to lift his head. It flopped backwards, his smooth, lifeless face turned up towards the setting sun.

The huge Tiger shark rammed into the raft again, and Hermione lifted the paddle over her head and brought it down as hard as she could on its head. "Go away, you fucking bastard!" she yelled. To her relief, the shark slid gracefully under the water, its dorsal fin disappearing. Now was her chance to get Draco into the raft. She paddled closer to him and reached out, grasping his life jacket. Pulling with all her might, she only managed to move him slightly.

"Come on, damn it!" She pulled harder, his unconscious body lifting out of the water. "Wake up and help me!" Her arms were shaking from weakness, and much to her horror, he suddenly slipped out of the life jacket. "NO!" She tossed the thing into the water, on the verge of hysteria.

Leaning as far over the raft as she could without falling overboard, she tried to grab his hair, anything to keep him from floating away. "Oh my god!" The fin suddenly broke the surface and headed straight for him. Remembering her wand, she whipped it out and pointed it... a second too late. She saw Draco's body jerk violently, and then he disappeared under the water.

Everything went grey, and she struggled not to pass out. "Draco!" she screamed as tears streamed down her face. "Draco..." She plopped down in the raft, slid her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around herself. "No..." There was this strange feeling, a tingling sensation throughout her body. Her heart felt like it was going to burst, and her lungs gasped for air. "He can't be dead. He just can't!"

Something hit the raft again, and she froze, listening. All she heard were the gulls and the slapping of the water against the sailboat in the distance. Another bump, and this time she panicked, thinking the shark had come back for dessert. "Go away!" she said, her hands twisted in her hair, her eyes shut tightly. The raft tilted to the side, making her lean sideways.

She felt something grab her neck, cold and wet, and she screamed bloody murder. Slapping whatever it was away, she turned and beheld Draco, smiling at her in amusement. "Are you sure you want me to go away?" Blood was streaming down his face, and yet he had the audacity to grin at her. It was too much to bear, and something inside of her snapped.

"You bastard!" Hermione hauled off and punched him dead in the face. His head snapped back, and he grabbed his nose painfully. She pulled back her fist to strike him again, but he caught it and pulled her close to the edge, so that they were face to face.

He kissed her hard on the lips, tasting of salt water and a hint of coppery blood. "I thought you'd be happy I was alive, jump into my arms and squeal in delight... not call me a bastard and break my nose!"

"You scared the shit out of me, Draco Malfoy! I thought you were eaten by that shark! I thought you were dead!" She squirmed out of his grasp and watched him climb into the raft, not offering to help him. "How dare you scare me like that? You could have given me a heart attack, or worse, you could have hurt the baby!"

Draco rolled his eyes. "Jeez, I'm sorry!" He swung his legs over and groaned in pain as he took off his shoe.

"Oh my god! That shark did bite you!" The wound was deep, and blood was seeping from what were clearly teeth marks. "What happened?" she asked, taking off her shirt and wrapping it around the bite. It immediately turned red. "We need to stop the bleeding." She took out her wand and started to whisper a healing spell. "What happened?" She looked at his ankle. The bleeding had slowed, and she turned it, examining the deep punctures. "How did you get away?"

"I woke up when it bit my foot and dragged me under the water. I had no fucking idea what was going on! The last thing I remember was putting the ring on your finger, and then the box fell..."

Hermione conjured a first aid kit out of thin air. "This might sting a little." She poured some peroxide on the bite and cleaned off all the dried blood. "I think I can fix this," she said, waving her wand close to his ankle and concentrating. He was watching her every move, and it was making her quite nervous. After a few minutes, she forgot about him as she concentrated even harder on healing him. After she was satisfied that it would be fine, she wrapped it up and then took a look at his head. "That thing on the sailboat swung around and hit you in the head, and you fell overboard."

"Ow!" He winced as she pressed a wad of gauze to the gash on the back of his head. "That bloody hurts!"

"Sorry." She cleaned it up and went to work trying to heal it. "How did you manage to get away from the shark? Where did it go?" She couldn't help but glance at the water, expecting to see it throw itself onto the raft, mouth full of razor-sharp teeth snapping at them.

Draco screwed up his face in pain as the healing spell burned the wound shut. "When I realized that a giant shark was trying to gnaw my foot off, I pulled out my wand and jabbed it in the damn eye as hard as I could!" He made a stabbing motion in the air. "It let go and swam off... I don't know where to."

"You know, you have managed to get hurt at every place we've been to. I'm beginning to think you're doing it on purpose to get attention." She finished bandaging his head and sat down in front of him. "You look like hell," she said with a smirk to rival one of his own.

"I can imagine. All burned to a crisp, bloody and bruised. People are going to think you are an abusive wife, Granger!"

"Well, maybe I will be. How do you know?" she said, a sly look on her face. "Maybe I'll strap you down and beat you with a whip until you collapse, sweaty and confused, not able to tell the difference between pain and pleasure any more." She raised her eyebrow seductively.

Draco gulped. "You promise?"

"My, my, Draco! I had no idea you liked it kinky!"

"Me? I never expected you to even know about whips and such!"

"I love to read and research, you don't think I've come across a few articles about s-and-m?"

Draco laughed and pulled her in for a long lingering kiss.

***

Once back aboard the sailboat, they realized that the sun was going down, and that meant that the clock would soon appear because their twelve hours were almost up.

"What if the beach is crowded? How are we going to get inside?" Hermione asked, seeing the shore in the distance.

"I don't know, but the sight of a bunch of Muggles standing around with slack jaw, staring at a massive grandfather clock that just appeared out of nowhere will be quite amusing!"

"True!" Hermione laughed. After a bit they both fell silent, watching the sun go down. It was a very beautiful sight, one they would never forget.

After docking the sailboat, they made their way down towards the beach, which to their horror, was filled with romantic lovers also watching the sunset and making out in the sand.

"Just fucking great!" Draco said. "What are we going to do?"

Hermione thought for a second. "Why not Apparate inside the clock? You Apparated into our room in the cottage."

Draco looked pleased with her idea. "You are brilliant, Granger!" he said and picked her up and swung her around.

"Stop! I'll get dizzy!" She was laughing like a child. He stopped, and she slid down his body, locking her arms around his neck. "I love you," she whispered and laid her head on his bare chest.

Draco had never felt happier in his life. Here he was in a beautiful tropical paradise, and this wonderful, beautiful woman was holding him and telling him the one thing he thought he would never hear from another living soul. It was bliss. Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that he could ever be this happy.

"And I love you." He held her tightly and closed his eyes, not wanting the moment to ever go away.

"Look!" someone said, a hint of fear in his voice. "What do you suppose that is?"

Draco let go of Hermione, and they watched the air crackle with tiny, pink and violet bolts of lightning. A humming noise got louder and louder, and Muggles started to run away in terror as the clock materialized out of thin air. Right away, it gave a loud chime that vibrated their eardrums.

Hermione stood looking at the clock, and something suddenly hit her. The clock always chimed twelve. It always chimed twelve because the hands never moved. The hands never moved because the...

"Ready?" Draco asked, taking her hand.

Hermione looked up at him, dazed. "Huh?"

"I said, are you ready? Is something wrong?" he asked, concerned. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

She could hear him, but his voice sounded very far away. Surely it couldn't be that simple, could it? But how could they... when the clock never stayed after they got out... There must be a way! Muggles were screaming and holding their ears, but she heard nothing.

Draco by now was about to shake the living daylights out of her. "Hermione! We have to go now!" The clock chimed eleven, and Draco grabbed her and he Apparated them both to the interior of the grandfather clock. He let her go, and she fell up against the wall. There was a dazed look about her, and he started to panic. "God damn it, Granger! What the fuck is wrong with you?" He took her by the shoulders and shook her. "Answer me!"

Hermione blinked twice. She could barely make out his features in the dark. "Draco?"

"Who else would it be?" He let out his breath slowly. "Now, are you going to tell me what is wrong, or am I going to have to read your mind? I can do that you know!"

"You cannot!"

"How would you know? Maybe I can! You don't know everything about me, Granger!"

"Why are you shouting at me?" she asked, annoyed.

"I don't know!" he yelled. "Maybe because you scared me back there! I thought you'd had gone daft or something! You wouldn't answer me; it was like you weren't even there!"

Hermione laughed, laughed loud and hard. "I wasn't there."

Draco paused and gave her a funny look. "What do you mean?"

"I was off in my own head. Something struck me back there when I saw the clock. I think I figured out the letters, and I think I know how to get back home."

Draco was about to say something when the clock thudded to a stop.

Hermione smiled at him and opened the door, stepping out.

"Hold on! We have no idea where we are!" Draco tried to pull her back inside.

"I don't care anymore. I know what we need to do. Nothing is going to stop me from fixing that pendulum! Not Dinosaurs, not Minotaurs, not anything!" She flung him off and stepped out of the clock and into the path of a run-away carriage.

Draco rushed out and managed to tackle her, rolling off to the side of the dirt road just as the huge horses trampled on the exact spot where she was just a second before. He coughed as dust filled his lungs. "Did you say 'pendulum'?" he choked out.

to be continued . . .