A/N: Yay! Last chapter! Thanks to all of you that reviewed!!! Your reviews made me have the motivation to continue and end this story!!!

Chapter nine: The Cruise

Hermione, Harry, Ron and Ginny all stared from the Gryffindor Common Room window as they saw the magnificent ship land. The Qudditch pitch had been cleared and somebody (Hagrid, they assumed) had painted a bright red cross on the grass.

The ship was huge. No, humungous.

It was white, dazzling white with a strip of blue around its body. A large picture was painted on each side, and, to the amazement of Harry, this picture kept changing. First they saw a simple gold crown worn by a face-less maiden, then it blurred into two wands that was encircled by a rainbow, now that picture slowly disappeared and a wizard bowed at them, his hand sweeping his pointed hat off as he did so.

To their surprise, the wizard opened his mouth and started shouting, "Fellow wizards and witches, the Aphrodite is here! Prepare to embark! Fellow wizards and witches..."

"Guess that means we better go downstairs," Harry told the others. They nodded and gathered up their things. Hermione brought along a small purse which she magically enlarged to put all her things in then shrank it. Ginny brought nothing along save her wand, Harry brought his broomstick, which he somehow managed to persuade Hermione to put it in her purse, and Ron brought his new broomstick along too, but he was holding it himself-he was determined to show it off in front of everybody.

Crookshanks trotted off after them. Hermione trusted him not to wander off. She wanted to shut him in his cage, but he yowled so piteously that she relented. She heard that there was an Animal Centre where pets would be looked after. She didn't want Crookshanks to miss out on all the fun.

They headed outside and walked towards the ship. It seemed that the whole school had beat them to it, though, Professor McGonagall had forced them all to line up in a single line, and they were only about a few feet from the entrance doors. The only good thing about being so far behind was that they were able to see what was going on because of the slight slope.

"Show them your passes!" The Transfiguration teacher bellowed at them, her hat askew as she tried to drag two students who had pushed into the line away. "Line up properly!"

Hermione saw people already heading inside the ship. From what she could see, the ramp led them into a bright room that seemed to have a chandelier dangling from the ceiling. The little lights flickered different colours as each person passed under it. Hermione suspected it had something to do with security measures, because each time the lights on the chandelier turned an angry red, that student was pulled aside and searched.

Hermione hung her pass around her neck and clutched her purse closer towards her. This was her first time on any ship, let alone a magic one. Though this trip only lasted for two days, she knew that this was going to be a memorable experience.

They slowly edged closer and closer towards the ship. The sky was brightening by then-the morning sun shone on their faces as they impatiently hopped from one foot to the other, waiting for their turn.

At last they stepped into the ship, all of them passed under the chandelier without it turning red. As they were taken to their rooms by a friendly attendant, they gazed open mouthed at the interior of the ship.

The ship's lobby, or the main storey where all the main restaurants and shops were was situated right in the middle of the ship. As they stood staring up, they could see the railings to up to ten storeys high. It seemed all the storeys above the lobby surrounded the main middle part of the lobby, where a grand piano played songs at request, even though nobody was actually playing it.

Hermione's and Ginny's room was on the fifth storey, on the starboard side. Their room faced outwards, and had a nice, large rectangular window in the lounge that overlooked the Hogwarts castle. It really couldn't be called just a room-it was more like a suite, where there were two bedrooms, a small lounge, two bathrooms and even a small fireplace where a pot of floo powder stood on the mantle.

All this information Hermione found on the pamphlet that the nice attendant-whose name was John Keithstone, had given to them, along with their room's password.

John tactfully allowed them to push open the large, double-door with their names engraved in gold lettering on it. As Ginny led the way in, Hermione noticed two small letterboxes on each side of the door, in both of theirs a white envelope was already sitting inside it. Hermione nudged Ginny and they grabbed their own letters from their letterboxes, but at a small shake of John's head, they decided to open it later.

With Hermione trailing behind, they entered the room. A sweet scent of roses drifted to Hermione's nose, which she inhaled deeply and her body immediately relaxed. Ginny, on the other hand, smelt mint and a hint of lavender, but that suited her just fine.

"The air refresher is spelled so that the fragrance is to the user's preference," John explained, "As the two of you have different preferences, you both smell different scents. The air refresher will change accordingly to suit the weather, atmosphere or your moods-whichever it feels suits best for you."

They were in a short hallway, where two shoe cupboards sat on the two sides, leaning against the warm orange and yellow wallpaper. The left cupboard had Hermione's name written on it, and the other bore Ginny's name. Astounded, they saw their own shoe cupboard's door slowly open, where shoes of every kind were revealed as the light crept in.

"I'm afraid we have a policy on this ship," John said, "and that is that you wear slippers inside your rooms. It makes it easier to clean and more comfortable for you."

Hermione watched as John demonstrated on how to use the shoe cupboard, he took his own shoes off and placed them on top of Ginny's cupboard, immediately his shoes disappeared and a pair of comfy slippers appeared in place of his shoes.

The two girls followed suit, and soon all three of them wore matching fluffy slippers. They headed down the narrow hallway and into the lounge, where the curtains slowly pulled themselves away to let the morning sun shine in. The curtains seemed to shimmer and change colour, pattern and even texture.

"It is unsure of what colour to change to right now, because there are three of us," John explained. "Soon it will settle on a colour that fits all of us-there, it's now a peachy-cream colour."

Sure enough, the curtain stopped changing and settled to a light cream peachy colour that matched well with the orange yellow wall paper. Large swirls and curls began forming on the curtain, the same colour as the background, but of a lighter shade. The curtain shortened and pushed itself against the sides of the window, so that the gold tassel could wound itself around the curtain, holding it steadily in place.

The carpet started changing too-But John told them that the carpet, unlike the air refresher and the curtains and the wall paper, would only change just the once for their journey. After three trials, Hermione and Ginny finally agreed on a carpet that was plain and a warm orange-red colour. They decided that they liked the warm-autumn theme and wanted the room to stay that way.

They stepped fully into the lounge and surveyed their surroundings. Two armchairs and one longer sofa surrounded a rectangular wooden coffee table, and they all faced the fireplace. There was a long rug that stretched out under the table, under the sofa and armchairs- a nice oriental rug.

Two bookshelves were lined against the wall behind the armchairs, and at a closer inspection, Hermione saw that it contained both muggle and magic books that repeatedly kept changing accordingly to her mood. It was fascinating. She noticed that the shelves now held countless books about this ship, and the places they were going to see and also the star constellations that, hopefully, they would be able to view. Hermione's hands were itching to start reading, but she knew that the books should wait.

On one side of Hermione's armchair (the nice squashy one where she could prop her feet up and had her name embroidered on it with fancy maroon and gold lettering), there stood a small, circle, wooden table that was just big enough to fit one book and a goblet.

Ginny's armchair had a built in music system where a special shield charm would be activated if she wished to listen to whatever song she requested in peace. Like Hermione's armchair, there was a similar shaped table where she could place a goblet.

"That goblet is spelled to refill when necessary." John demonstrated by picking up Hermione's goblet and muttering, 'pumpkin juice'. To both of their amazement, the orange coloured juice immediately appeared, which John gave to Hermione to drink. "When you want the goblet to be washed, just say, 'wash'" At once, the half-full goblet returned to its place on the table and the pumpkin juice inside it disappeared, a few seconds later, the goblet disappeared too. Hermione swore the goblet appeared shinier when it emerged once again on the table.

"More furniture and things will be added if you wish to, just open the catalogue on the mantle and point your finger to what you want and say, 'I wish to have that'. Then you have fifteen minutes to guide it to where you want it, or else the levitation spell would deactivate and you'll have to try and move it by manually, or by whipping out your wand again."

John led them to the left hand side of the lounge, where a single sofa sat facing a television, which was currently playing 'Friends'- one of Hermione's favourite muggle television programmes. The small area was like another lounge-one that was private. Photos and portraits hung from the walls, and a single, plain lamp stood to one side of the sofa, which was perfect for reading books late at night.

They then returned to the main lounge, where they followed the attendant to the right side of the lounge. This was Ginny's private lounge-it was similar to Hermione's, except it didn't have the television and there was a chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

It was by looking at the map of their 'room', did Hermione realise that their room was shaped like a 'u' sitting upside down on a 'l'. It really seemed more like a 'T'. The hallway led straight into the u-shaped lounge.

"Your bedrooms and bathrooms can be accessed through your private lounges," John said, gesturing to the two doors on each side that somehow Hermione and Ginny failed to notice the first time. "We have spelled it so that although they are on opposite sides of your room, you can still go into each other's bedroom and join the two bedrooms so that they form one big bedroom if you wish. All you have to do is go into your own bedrooms and say, 'combine' with a tap of your wand on the door that connects the two bedrooms."

Hermione tried not to think how many muggle physic laws this spell broke, because as muggles would know, accessing each other's room through one door even though the two rooms were on different sides was virtually and physically impossible, let alone combining the two rooms into one big one, even though they still entered and exited through the same set of doors. But she supposed that magic wasn't considered when muggle scientists wrote those laws.

"Before I leave, are there any questions?" John looked at them expectantly.

"What do we do after we unpack?" Ginny asked.

"We hope that you'd stay inside your room until you hear the emergency alarm go off. Then you will follow the yellow arrows that will be sent up and you will then go to your designated area. That would be the drill, just in case an emergency occurs-then you'll know where you are supposed to assembly and the quickest way to get there. Your group leader will then tell you the rules of this ship, explain a bit about where we're going and introduce the staff to you. Then you'll be free to explore the ship."

Hermione and Ginny nodded. "We can open those letters now, right?" Hermione asked, holding up the white envelope she'd stuffed into her pocket. John nodded, "those letters inform you of all of today's activities, tonight's shows, a small description of each restaurant, pool, quidditch pitch and shops-but of course you'll know all about that after you've read them. If you need my help just send out red sparks and say my name 'John Keithstone'. I'll be going now, it's nice meeting you, Hermione Granger and Ginev-sorry, Ginny Weasley."

John walked to Ginny's shoe cupboard, placed his slippers on top of it and his shoes appeared once more, which he put on. He shut the door gently behind him.

"Well then," Ginny said, "let's go and check out our bedrooms."

Hermione walked into her private lounge and hesitantly pushed opened the door leading to her bedroom.

Her bedroom was rather small, which was fine because she liked it that way. It held a four poster bed with nice maroon and gold patterned duvet covers (it seemed that she had a fondness for Gryffindor colours), a small round wooden table with two sturdy looking chairs, a bedside table, several picture frames hung from the walls, a bureau, a walk-in closet (already filled with clothes) and the best window.

The window was round-like a porthole. An anchor and life-preserve ring hung from either side of it. Sitting on one of the chairs, Hermione peered outside and noticed that the pinkish-orangey tinge from the sky had been replaced by a glorious blue where several cotton-candy clouds dotted the sky here and there. There were still some people embarking the ship, but most of them were the Hogwart's staff.

It was then she realised that she hadn't seen Draco Malfoy at all. She had seen Goyle, Crabbe, Pansy and the whole of the Slytherin lot, but she did not see him with them.

There was a rumour floating about last night at dinner that Draco's father had stormed into Dumbledore's office. She hadn't believed it. But it appeared that it was true.

Rumours had that Draco had done something to shame the family, and as punishment, Draco was not allowed to join in the fun and embark the ship. He was to spend the next two days at home, as everybody, even the teachers, would be away from school-there was nobody save for the ghosts in the castle. Even Mrs. Norris and Filch was on the ship right now, no doubt preparing to relax because he wasn't the one cleaning up the mess for once.

A small carriage suddenly appeared behind the line of teachers, it was pulled along a rickety path and towards Hogsmeade. Hermione thought she saw a flash of blonde, but she wasn't sure.

"I wish I knew if Draco Malfoy was in there," she said wistfully. She wanted to know if he really was sent home. If he was, she wondered what 'crime' he'd done to make his father so angry at him. To her surprise, the porthole window made a small whirring sound and her view of the carriage was enlarged. It was like she was looking through an enormous magnifying glass that was able to train on a moving object without her even touching the window.

She looked closely and when she saw his face looking sadly and enviously at the magnificent white ship, she felt something was missing in her. As the carriage tore away from her view, she sat back, the window resuming to its normal magnification (i.e-none at all), and chewed on her lip.

She had told herself that Draco was nothing more than a jerk that did not deserve her affections. So why did she feel so empty when she saw him leaving?

Draco said that he didn't like her, that the mirror didn't show her face, but she still couldn't forget the symptoms of lying on his face as he said those words.

Then there was him being herded away by his father. People said that Draco shamed the family. In Lucius Malfoy's eyes, was liking Hermione Granger, a mudblood Gryffindor, shameful? If Draco's leaving was her fault, then Hermione was determined that Draco would not get punished for it.

Neither of them should be punished simply because they liked each other. It just wasn't right.

After the introduction to the ship, the drill, and a small tour of the facilities on the ship, Ginny, Harry, Ron and Hermione wandered around the lobby, each finding a shop that suited them, but neither of them could decide on which restaurant to eat breakfast at.

Ginny and Ron wanted to go to the fanciest restaurant that had 'Royalty' as the theme. Harry wanted to go to a restaurant that was more like a diner, which had a modern muggle theme complete with whirring computers and video games, but Hermione wanted to go to the buffet restaurant that had 'Forest' as its theme.

In the end, they decided that seeing as they only have two breakfasts altogether on this voyage, they would go to Ginny's and Ron's choice first, then Harry's second. Tomorrow they would go to Hermione's choice of restaurant for breakfast. Hermione very much doubted that her appetite could withstand two breakfasts one after the other, but Ginny insisted that Hermione should at least sample some food from the two restaurants.

'The Royals' interior was very regal-it was furnished with round tables (Hermione and Harry was reminded of King Arthur and his Round Table) and golden thrones which they sat on. Although it was supposed to be the fanciest restaurant, Hermione couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculous clothes the waiters and waitresses wore-they were all dressed up as jesters.

Breakfast at this restaurant was rather...different. They were served about three different types of pottage, which Hermione found was absolutely delicious, while Ron pulled a face.

"I thought only the poor were fed with pottage," Harry muttered, but Hermione shrugged. The theme of this restaurant really should have been 'Medieval times'.

The rest of the breakfast at 'The Royals' was pretty much similar to breakfast at Hogwarts: eggs (choice of scrambled, sunnyside up etc.), toast (butter, jam...), pancakes (honey, maple syrup) and coffee or tea. All of them ordered water because after much persuasion from Harry, they decided to order milkshakes for the next restaurant.

The Diner was comparatively brighter, with loud music pumping from muggle stereo systems. The waiter kindly showed them how to play Wii, which they abandoned their breakfast (same things: eggs, pancakes, toast, waffles, etc.) to play. Unsurprisingly, Harry and Ron beat Ginny and Hermione at tennis, though their lost was mainly due to Hermione losing interest and forgetting to swing her wii control.

They spent the next couple of hours or so split up into two groups. Harry and Ron brought along their broomsticks and played quidditch with some cruise staff on one of the many quidditch pitches on the ship. Hermione and Ginny decided to take a swim on the biggest pool, which was outside on the top of the ship.

Changing into swimsuits (taken from their walk-in closet that provided everything) the two dived into the pool, where the water was forming small waves as the ship slowly took off into the air.

This pool was the best, because it did not have a visible wall or something that blocked their view on either side of the ship. The two could swim right up to the sides of the ship, where there was an invisible barrier preventing them from falling out into the sea and watch as the ship was encircled by colourful sparks as it rose into the sky.

The pool water would change constantly: when they were tired of swimming, the pool water would be calm, when they had a race, the water would lap up some waves for a bit of a challenge, but best of all, the water did not have that chlorine smell and taste to it that they had to wash off.

Hermione, as she saw some Gryffindow and Ravenclaw boys get into the pool, suddenly wanted to know what Malfoy would look like in a pair of swimming trunks. She quickly shook her head and plunged her head into the water. That thought just made her want to laugh and sigh at the same time.

She wondered what Draco was doing at home right now.

"Hi mother, how's your day?" Draco asked as he saw his mother waiting for him in the dining room.

Narcissa immediately frowned. "I'm...fine, Draco." She replied, but not without a tone of suspicion. Draco was unusually obedient this morning, and strangely polite and nice. She wondered what happened to that proud son of hers.

"I'm really sorry that you couldn't go onto the cruise," she sighed, cutting up her bacon, watching as Draco pulled out his seat and started eating his breakfast.

"Yeah, well, I guess I deserved it." Draco answered, his eyes not meeting his mothers.

Narcissa placed her fork down. "Okay, something obviously happened. Tell me now."

Draco shook his head, "Get father to tell you," he said, stabbing his eggs with his fork with a sudden viciousness. "I've shamed the family, apparently, even though I insisted it was just a phase and nothing more."

Narcissa narrowed her eyes. "Don't tell me you failed at school and got suspended," she hissed, her pale cheeks flushing in anger at that possibility.

"Don't be stupid," Draco said, "Of course I'm not suspended. But if you want details, ask father."

As if on cue, Lucius came into the dining room and sat down beside his wife, pointedly avoiding Draco's glare.

"Good morning Narcissa, Draco" Lucius said, trying to appear cheerful, but failing. Narcissa kissed him on the cheek, but Draco blatantly ignored his father's greeting.

Narcissa felt the atmosphere in the dining room thicken. She couldn't stand it. Though Draco wasn't the politest or nicest boy, she admitted, he always looked up to his father and obeyed every order Lucius gave him. Now Draco was positively mad at his father, to the point of indifference and disrespect.

"What happened, Lucius?" Narcissa asked, "why is Draco here instead of on that ship?"

"He shamed the family," Lucius replied. "He shamed us all." He looked coolly at Draco, who had frozen, his face red with anger.

Suddenly Draco threw down his fork and stood up, his tall figure shadowing his parents. "I told you, it was just a stupid PHASE!" he shouted, red sparks erupting from his wand, which was sticking out of the pocket of his robes.

"It was not, and you know it," Lucius said calmly. "Sit down and eat. I'll not tolerate such behaviour-"

"If you care so damn much about 'family time' during meals, then why don't you ever listen to me?" Draco asked, refusing to sit. "Have you listened to my side of the story yet, instead of just believing the lying words of that pug?"

"If you refer to Pansy, then call her by her name."

"She looks like a pug, and she is a pug," Draco emphasised, "no, wait she isn't-pugs can be cute, but she's definitely not. She's a backstabbing bit-"

"-No swear words," Lucius warned, his fork pointed at Draco in mid air. "You know the rules and the punishments for breaking them. I'll not ask you a third time-sit down."

Reluctantly, Draco did, but he was still angry. "I only pretended to fancy her so that I could win the bet, you know that, father."

"Fancy who?" Now Narcissa was beginning to get the picture.

"Hermione Granger, that filthy mudblood," Lucius said cruelly. "I've heard it all-the expensive gifts, the compliments, the business about the mirror-"

"-what mirror?" Draco asked, horrified. He thought he'd covered that up pretty well.

"The mirror, Draco, that apparently shows you the person your heart desires. One of your friends saw her image from behind you, but they thought it was just a prank. I, however, know that mirror's like that cannot tell lies. You forgot that every wish that the Wish Box grants will be written down and will be sent to whomever that paid for it. As I give you your allowance, and the money was from my vault, the letter comes to me."

"The mirror showed Hermione Granger's face?" Narcissa asked.

"Yes," Draco answered, and his mother gave a sharp gasp. "But like I said, I used to fancy her, but that's all over now. I don't like her anymore. The dare's finished-I only liked her because I thought it was fun. That's it." But even to him the words weren't convincing.

Lucius was frowning. "It doesn't seem that way to me, Draco. But I can arrange so that the Granger girl won't be so...attractive to you-"

"You lay a single finger on her," Draco snarled, "and I'm walking out on this family."

"Oh Draco!" Narcissa said worriedly, "Of course your father won't hurt Hermione Granger with such...stupid reasons." She glared at her husband.

"I've already sent a letter warning her to stay away from you. Dumbledore has got her shielded away from me so nicely." Lucius muttered, biting into his toast.

Draco glanced up at the sky, wondering if the ship was going to land at Malfoy Manor so he could escape from his prejudiced father. It was a childish wish, a cowardly one, he knew.

"Draco," Narcissa said, "I'd like you to join me this afternoon in my room-I've got something to show you."

"No presents," Lucius warned, "remember he's only here as a punishment."

"I know that," Narcissa said crossly.

Draco sighed. He'd give anything to be on that ship, it had everything, fancy restaurants, the best pools and quidditch pitches, the best shows, clubs, activities.

But there was also one thing that the ship had which Draco did not.

The ship had Hermione on it.

Hermione and Ginny triumphantly wrapped up their hand-made presents, and gave it to each other, though they already knew what their package contained.

They were sitting in a small glass house with Neville and several others. Exotic plants were growing all over the place in there, and there was a particular plant whose petals were like play-dough and could be shaped to anything they wanted. The one magical property of this plant was that whatever the person shaped their petals to, it would make the person in contact with the petal feel whatever the person who made it wanted the other to feel.

Hermione opened her present and saw a small pendant shaped like a rain drop. When she felt it, she immediately felt all the energy rushing back into her, and she felt more confident.

Ginny opened hers to a small heart shaped pin. When she held it in her hand, she felt herself become clearer minded and focused.

The magic of these petals would wear off eventually; the staff who were supervising them told that the maximum period of time the magic would work was about five hours, so they best use it as much as they can.

The two had been doing many fun activities since lunch (a quick bite at a pizza parlour)-which included dress robe designing (and making-though their ones turned out horribly), making wand accessories (something that both of them would never use-who needed a chicken head to put onto their wand?), creating some parchment broomsticks, players, balls and a spelled shoe box that looked exactly like a quidditch pitch and charmed it so they had a mini-game of quidditch (to Hermione, who wasn't keen on flying, this was actually rather enjoyable and better than the real game), plus they did a few dance classes (line-dancing, salsa, and a wizard country dance that neither of them really got), joined a singing contest (Ginny got second place, Hermione...didn't quite make it onto the top fifty).

Hermione had dropped Crookshanks off at the Familiars centre, where he prowled around proudly with the rest of the animals.

A letter had arrived bearing the Malfoy family stamp on it. She did not recognise the neat, swirly handwriting on the envelope so burned it immediately, knowing that the letter was not from Draco, but possibly his father. Merlin knew what kind of curses or harmful words Lucius Malfoy dared to send her; she wasn't going to take the risk and open it- she wasn't stupid.

All in all, by the time dinner rolled about, they were exhausted but content.

It wasn't until Dumbledore announced that there was to be a dance (strictly compulsory) did Hermione felt a bit unhappy. As Christmas was nearing in a couple of weeks, the headmaster wanted everyone in Hogwarts to 'feel like one, big, happy family'. So they would have to attend the formal dance and go with partners.

Hermione had no trouble thinking of who she would like to go to the dance with. Problem was, he wasn't even on the ship.

"Have a cup of tea," Narcissa said, giving Draco a small dainty tea cup with hardly any tea in it. He drained the cup with one gulp, his grey eyes were now no longer steel hard with anger, but had that faraway 'I simply can't be bothered anymore' look to it.

Suddenly Draco felt himself feel extremely drowsy. His eyelids fluttered and shut. His mind blanked out.

Narcissa straightened and strode to her chair, which was facing Draco's. "Tell me, Draco. Do you like Hermione Granger?"

"...Yes." Draco slurred.

"It's not a phase?"

"Probably...not."

"Even though you know she's a mudblood?"

"Yes. I used to think she was nothing, but getting to know her...has made me think differently."

"Differently how?"

"That she isn't so bad as father makes of her. That although she is a bossy know-it-all, she's not hard to talk to. She's nice...in a way, she's not a person who I want as an enemy though."

Narcissa nearly laughed at that.

"If your father and I were to move you to another school, away from her-"

"-That would be horrible," Draco choked, "though I'd live without her." His tone implied that though he'd survive, he won't be happy.

The effects of Veritaserum were wearing off, and Draco was coming out of his daze.

"I'll talk to your father." Narcissa left the room, leaving a very confused Draco behind, wondering why there was a trail of drool on his chin.

Hermione sat in her bedroom, the walk-in closet bringing out various dress robes for her to see. But none of them seem to match Hermione, and so when the closet was running out of ideas, Hermione's thoughts turned to the Wish Box.

She had one wish left, but she didn't really want to waste it on such a material and useless thing-a dress. But she reached for her purse anyway and rummaged through it for the box.

Instead of touching the hard, square object, her hand brushed against something soft. Surprised, she pulled it out. It was the present Draco had given her, the one he said was supposed to be her 'Christmas present'. She remembered that Parviti had tried to open it, but in vain.

She slowly undid the ribbon, wondering what kind of extravagant gift it was this time. Once the gift was free of its ribbon, the box enlarged slowly, all the time the wrappings melted away. Hermione waited patiently until the box stopped growing and curiously peered inside.

It was a dress robe.

Just by looking at it, all folded up in the box, she could tell that it was made of the highest quality of fabric. It was blue, with sapphire and a creamy baby blue on different layers. It reminded her of the dress robes she wore at the Yule Ball back in fourth year.

Astounded, she tried it on, careful not to ruin it by stepping on the hem. It was a perfect fit, though she could feel the dress robes slowly adjusting so it seemed like it was tailored for her.

Dashing back to her purse, she dug around for the diamond necklace. She lifted the velvet case from her small purse and opened it. The spell on the diamond necklace was slowly fading away, but its beauty still remained. She tried it on-it seemed to really bring out her dress robes.

Next she got out the hair-grooming kit and applied it on her hair, this time she decided to let her hair down instead of tying it up into a knot. As she combed her hair, the shiny curls bounced onto her back-no longer fizzy and bushy.

She realised, as she stood up and looked at herself in the mirror, everything that she used and wore all came from Draco. Everything about her reminded her of him. To be going to the dance, wearing all of his gifts, but going with a total stranger (Ron and Harry both had partners already-Lavender and Ginny respectively) was just wrong.

She glanced at her Wish Box, Ron said that this was the middle one. In that case... this box could grant her the wish she wanted. But she feared the results.

"...plus you can wish for somebody to appear (has to be living) beside you..." The ad had read, she remembered.

She recalled his face as the distance between him and the ship lengthened. He wanted to be here. She could make that happen.

Gathering up her courage, she whispered her wish-the final wish she could use.

"I wish that Draco Malfoy was beside me."

Dinner was abysmal to Draco. Though the food, as usual, was cooked by a wonderful chief, and the silver ware was goblin made with the goblets carved from diamond, the atmosphere was like thick custard, dripping down each of their backs.

"I've talked to your father," Narcissa broke the dreadful silence.

Draco looked up hopefully, "and-?"

Lucius sighed. "I'm afraid that you're still not allowed on that cruise, Draco. Shaming the family by liking a m-"

"For Merlin's sake! Liking a girl isn't shameful!"

To Lucius's surprise, it was not Draco who blew up at him but his own wife. Narcissa had thrown down her fork and knife, which clattered loudly onto her plate.

Draco watched open-mouthed as his mother turned angrily to Lucius, who was so stunned that he didn't finish his sentence.

"Narcissa..." Lucius murmured, "You know that the pure Malfoy blood must not be tainted-"

"We're talking about two teenagers liking each other, NOT two people thinking about marriage!" Narcissa snapped.

Draco was nodding along with his mother. "It's not like I plan on marrying Granger," he cut in, smirking slightly as his father cowered against Narcissa's angry figure.

"Look, I'm not impressed nor satisfied that Draco decided to like Hermione Granger," Narcissa said, calming down and resuming to cutting up her steak. "But if you think carefully, aside from the fact that she's a mudblood, she has a lot of qualities that will ensure that Draco and our family benefits from their dating."

Draco blushed at the word 'dating' which is mother had thrown in so casually. "Er, I'm not that sure that she likes me that way, really. It may have been a potion or somethi-"

"Oh, she likes you," Lucius said scornfully. "That mirror showed it all-Pansy saw your face when Hermione was looking into it, waiting for you outside the Great Hall."

Draco felt strangely pleased-and flattered.

"Well that solves matters," Narcissa said impatiently.

"I'm not sure exactly what benefits Hermione Granger has to offer us," Lucius muttered. "She has neither money nor power-the only thing she has is a bright head."

"That's it! She can help Draco get his grades up!" Narcissa said triumphantly.

"My grades are already good enough, even without her help," Draco butted in, insulted at his mother's lack of faith in him.

"But your grades are not the best of the best. We want you to graduate as one of the top students in Hogwarts," Lucius said, "the Malfoy family has been looked down upon ever since Dumbledore founded the Order of the Phoenix."

"That's another thing Hermione can give us," Narcissa said, looking from her husband to her son. "Our family has had countless searches and the majority of the community hides away from us. The Order has been monitoring our every move-if he dates Hermione Granger, a person whom they trust, they just might relax their grip on us slightly."

"Oh that won't work, dating that filthy mudblood would just make them more suspicious of us," Lucius said. "They'll be cornering us soon and demanding for us to spit out the antidote to the potion we supposedly fed her. They'll never believe that the two are dating because they liked each other. I'm not idiotic enough to take that risk."

"Dumbledore knows," Draco said softly, "He knew this from the very start. That's why he didn't mind me forming the Hermione Sucks Club, and that he placed a bet down so that teachers wouldn't tell them to knock it off, and the reason why he slipped Snape some ideas for possible potions to make, that he told Fred and George about the Lust Potion idea-"

"-Don't forget he fed Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter the idea of 'their' plan," Lucius said grimly. "Apparently although Ronald Weasley 'came up' with the idea, it was actually Dumbledore who conducted the whole thing."

"How?" Draco asked, amazed.

"When you and that Granger girl were in the hospital wing, he told Minerva to follow whatever Hermione wanted her to do. He guessed that you would be in the library, and that she would go there, with the help of Minerva, and 'commit' Sloth. He also knew that Pansy was looking for you all over the place, and so Dumbledore told them that you were in the library. He was sure that Pansy would misunderstand your conversation and say so. He got Madam Pince to kick Harry out, so that either Weasley or Potter would hear Pansy's accusations. The next step was to plant the idea in their minds, so Dumbledore sent them a letter of a prank he supposedly pulled in his school days beforehand so that Weasley would-"

"-recall the letter and quickly think up of that plan, which wasn't actually their plan to start off with, they just used the idea from Dumbledore!" Draco gaped. "He-what the-?"

"That simplifies matters, Dumbledore obviously set the two up. He would know that the two of them like each other, and that Draco didn't plant something in Hermione's drink. Therefore the Order would have their doubts about us!" Narcissa said excitedly. "He obviously wants the two together! Lucius, you can't deny that..."

"Oh alright," he snapped. "But Draco's not allowed on the cruise anyway, his pass was taken away from him and the ship already deleted his name from the list. But I'll let you date this Hermione Granger, if she'll agree to loosen up the security that's around us-and get your grades up."

"And," Narcissa said mysteriously, "take me to those movie theatres-I quite like the idea of watching talking, photos tell a story."

The other two stared at her.

"Wow, mothe-what the hell?" Draco looked down and realised that his lower half of his body had disappeared-soon his entire body had vanished from Malfoy Manor. He wasn't apparating; the feeling was quite nice, but he certainly wasn't travelling by a port key either.

He saw himself flung up into the sky, nearing the gigantic white ship that was now sailing over Buckingham Palace.

Somebody wanted him to join in the fun.

Hermione stared hopefully inside her empty Wish Box. The runes around it had blurred away, so she knew that the magic of it had worn off. But she did not see Draco anywhere.

Suddenly a huge crash came from the window. Hermione leapt up and saw Draco plastered to the window, groaning as the wind tore at him and trying to breathe properly from the altitude. She loosened the latch and watched as he tumbled in, clutching his head painfully.

"Where the hell am I?" He muttered, getting up.

The first thing he saw was the blue dress robe's hem. He recognised it immediately. He slowly looked up and saw Hermione's amused face peering down at him.

"Hermione Granger!" He gasped. "That means-I'm on the ship?"

"Yeah, I think you are." Hermione said, grinning. She helped him up. "Guess the Wish Box did work properly."

Draco brushed himself down-his black robes were covered with dust. "You...wished for me?"

Hermione nodded, "I needed a partner for the dance."

Draco was rather hoping she said something along the lines of, 'I missed you' or 'I wanted you to join in the fun with me'. But such corny lines couldn't be expected of Hermione Granger, right?

"It's in five minutes," she added, "Ginny's been knocking on my door ages ago."

"I'm not going to some dance looking like this," Draco retorted, gesturing to his wild, travel worn appearance. "I'm going to need some proper dress robes, at least."

At once, the walk-in closet door flung open and a dress robe that matched Hermione's came out. Draco strode into the bathroom and tried it on. It was a perfect fit.

"C'mon," Hermione dragged him out into the lounge.

Ginny stared as Draco came out of her room. "He's been hiding in your room all this time?" She was horrified.

"NO!" Draco yelled. "I just got here-I'm not a pervert!"

"Oh." Ginny said, "I thought you were-you always looked a bit dodgy to me." Then she placed her slippers onto her shoe cupboard and tried on the dainty snow white flat-heels that appeared. "Perfect!" She said.

Hermione and Draco copied her, and soon the three of them wore shoes that fitted them comfortably. They headed to the moving staircase that brought them up to the top deck of the ship.

The pool that Ginny and Hermione had swum in earlier had been frozen to ice to serve as a dance floor. The staff had set up a small shield around the ship so that only a small gentle breeze could be felt-and that nobody would drop down the sides. The glass house that was there earlier had vanished, replaced by a small silver tent where heaps of food (buffet style) sat steaming hot, tables and chairs magically appeared when people were tired from dancing or wanted to eat.

With the clear night skies dotted and jewelled by the stars, the music pumping from invisible systems, it was better than the Yule Ball-way better.

People were trying to dance on the pool, Hermione and Draco included. But the ice was so slippery that none of them danced properly, they kept slipping and laughing as they fell on their butts.

Dumbledore surveyed the entire scene with an amused air. A flick of his wand and everybody's shoes and heels were replaced by ice-skates.

"This is great!" Draco whooped as he and Hermione glided on the ice, having a small contest. They tried dancing in ice skates next, and it proved to be better and more fun than dancing in regular shoes on the ice. Even Hermione was having fun, though she was no professional ice skater. The ice skates guided them along the ice, teaching them new moves.

By the end of that night, Hermione and Draco were so tired from dancing and laughing and eating and the occasional fall that when they went to bed (Draco was allocated his own room elsewhere on the ship) they went to sleep immediately, a smile on their faces.

"There, see," Narcissa and Lucius were on the ice, "this dancing on ice skates isn't so bad."

"Whatever," Lucius grumbled, but he was smiling.

During Christmas break

Hermione and Draco lined up for tickets at the movie theatre, arguing which movie to see. In the end they compromised and decided to watch both of the movies one after the other.

With hands full of popcorn and drinks, the two entered the movie theatre, where they watched a rather large boy (who reminded Hermione of Dudley) struggle with his many bags of candies and popcorn.

As the lights dimmed, Draco reached for Hermione hand, and they sat there, blushing in the dark, holding hands.

Suddenly their hands were wrenched away from each other. They looked up and saw Lucius glaring down at them, chewing popcorn angrily while Narcissa jabbered away about her expectations for the movie.

With a small laugh, they turned back, their hands on their own laps.

Oh well, they'll wait until Lucius was not there.

A/N: I like the last bit, (anybody who read my At the Movies story recognised the big person?-No? Oh well :] ) PLEASE REVIEW!