Hermione was a mess. Looking back, I realize that I should've pressed her to tell me what was wrong. Her hair was literally out of control. She hadn't cut it over Christmas break, that much was obvious. Her eyes were huge and dark, like two black voids staring back at me every time I looked at her. Her skin was thin and pale, almost translucent. But she pretended she was fine, and although I hate myself for it now, I went along with the ruse.

The only time she seemed to regain some of her spirit was during that trip, which was ironically when all our problems started. It was probably cursed to begin with, as I had a horrible feeling of dread from the moment Dumbledore announced that we would be going. I started several times to go and talk to him, to tell him what I thought, but I knew everyone would hate me if I convinced the headmaster to cancel our holiday.

It was because of me though, that we took the trip at all. I killed Voldemort right after Christmas break that very year. The trip was supposedly a reward to all the students for enduring such a stressful and frightening time. Many students had been injured for showing courage, and many others had been injured even though they tried to run or hide from danger. So this holiday was Dumbledore's way of helping us to relax and return to caring more about final exams than the impending doom of the Earth. It was a nice gesture, but truly a cursed one.

All of the sixth years were transported to a very exotic island of some sort. Somewhere very close to the equator with a very long, hard to pronounce (much less spell) name. The people had very dark skin and black hair. Their eyes looked brown at first, but I could've sworn they were red when I took a closer look. Their language sounded like an odd mixture of Japanese and Greek, with all the words ending in vowels and most containing a good number of g's. I was certain, however, that it was not a language any Muggle would be familiar with.

Each house was assigned to a different floor of a motel-esque building that looked like nothing more than a huge hut on the outside. Hermione said it was probably charmed that way. Regardless, it was a very beautiful place, only marred by the fact that we would be right below the Slytherins and would have to watch them walking down the stairs right by our rooms everyday.

The first day went well. Everyone headed out to the beach and stayed all day long. I was eager to see what Wizard/Witch swim wear looked like. Surprisingly, the boys all wore shorts that were made similar to my regular Muggle swimming trunks, and most of the girls were wearing Muggle bikinis. Ron informed me that it was a big trend in the wizarding world.

Ron and I looked for Hermione, but she'd somehow disappeared in the shuffle. We hadn't seen her since the night before, and I ignored Ron's jokes that she may have wandered into the sea and drowned. It was somewhat likely though, considering how she'd been acting since Christmas break. It always seemed like she wasn't really there, even if she was sitting right beside us.

We gave up when a game of beach Quidditch was started. We had a miniature tournament, using players that weren't on the regular teams, since only sixth years were available. The Gryffindors were leading until we went up against the Slytherins, who used the lack of a referee as an opportunity to use dirty tricks and cheat their way to victory. It wasn't a serious game though, so no one really got angry.

The strange island natives brought us even stranger drinks that smelled suspiciously alcoholic. Ron was guzzling them like butter beer and getting less inhibited by the second. Within an hour he was chatting it up with bikini-clad witches from the other houses, whom he apparently hadn't talked much to before. Had they not consumed just as much of those drinks, they probably would have ignored him. But they were laughing and flirting and Ron was loving it.

I poured my drink into the sand and went on a search for some water or, at the very least, juice or soda. I didn't feel like humiliating myself on the very first day. Along the way I bumped into someone whom I nearly knocked down. All it took was a disgruntled "Watch it, Potter!" for me to identify the person without looking up. Malfoy.

"Watch yourself, Malfoy," I said back, pushing myself past him and ignoring whatever snide comments he threw at me after that.

After finding some pineapple juice, I made my way back to where I'd last seen Ron. It was getting dark and a huge bonfire had been lit. Ron had his arm around a Hufflepuff girl I didn't recognize. She was pretty though, and didn't look at all affected by the drinks. I walked over to them and nudged Ron. "Seen Hermione?" I asked.

"Nope. She's probably back at the room. Don't worry so much!"

I nodded, thinking he was right. Hermione was probably in her room asleep or trying to find some information on the island and its people. I remember smiling at the thought of her spending her holiday bent over a book, reading page after page about a place she could learn more about by actually going out and exploring it herself. Ridiculous, yet so her.

I wandered away from the fire somehow, with no particular direction in mind. I was just looking around at how beautiful that place was. The moon was almost full, and it seemed to light up the whole island. Before I knew it, I was so far from the others that I couldn't see the light from the fire, and I started to turn back. Then something caught my eye.

The moon was shining on something a few feet away from me, in the water. Hermione was standing knee-deep in the sea, staring up at the moon. She was wearing a one-piece bathing suit, which really suited her. Try as I might, I couldn't imagine her in a revealing bikini. It just wasn't her style. The swimsuit was nice though, midnight blue with a silver glimmer to it. "Hermione, what are you doing so far out here?" I called.

She turned and looked at me. "Oh, Harry. I'm sorry, I was just looking around the island and I ended up here. There's a really nice view of the moon from this spot. Come look."

I walked over and she put a hand on my shoulder. Her skin was cold against mine, but I didn't say anything. She pointed up at the sky with her other hand. She was right, the moon looked oddly large from that spot, not to mention brighter. The two of us standing there, on the beach at night, under the moonlight, reminded me of a movie. I felt like I was expected to kiss her or put my arms around her, or something equally cheesy. It made me nervous, so I suggested that we go back.

She smiled and agreed. It was the most normal she'd seemed to me in months. "I think Ron's drunk," I warned.

"On what?" she asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"Some fruity drink the natives were passing around. I didn't like the smell so I tracked down some juice. I can show you where to find some nice non-alcoholic stuff if you're interested."

"I can't believe Professor Snape didn't put a stop to it."

Snape was the 'sponsor' of the sixth year students, but he spent ninety percent of his time in his room at the top of the building. We joked that he was afraid of ruining his lovely complexion, but I suspected he was watching us all from his window, where he had a clear view of a good portion of the beach.

When we made it back to the bonfire, Ron was laying across the Hufflepuff girl's lap in the sand. Hermione shook her head and sighed. "Some people should never be allowed to consume alcohol," she said dryly, going over the fire and holding her hands out to take in some heat. I wondered how she could be so cold in such a hot place.

"I saw something," she said to me in nearly a whisper.

I blinked. "Saw what?"

"I don't know."

"When?"

"A while before you found me. I wasn't admiring the moon. I was so terrified that I couldn't move."

I stared at her with wide eyes. Her hands were trembling, presumably at the mere thought of whatever she saw. If I'd known then what I know now, I'd have been trembling too. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because I knew it was still there. I didn't know how it would react to me telling you about it. I took the chance that it'd back down if someone else was there and let me just walk away."

"It? What was it?" I asked.

She looked me straight in the eyes. "I told you, I don't know."

"Well, describe it."

"I will, but not now. Someone might overhear, and I don't want everyone to panic. They've all been through so much anyway. And I want Ron to hear this too, when he's sober. I don't think I could stand to describe it twice."

"All right. Tomorrow afternoon then. Are you going to tell Snape?"

"I haven't decided yet. I know I probably should, but I doubt that he'd believe me. We'll discuss that tomorrow too."

I took her trembling hands and held them still. "Was it that scary?"

"Scarier. I'm controlling myself. Look, Harry, don't wander off away from the others from now on, okay? I learned my lesson, and I'm staying with the rest of them until we leave."

"Okay. We'll stay with other people, even if we have to hang out with Slytherins."

Hermione shuddered. "Desperate times call for desperate measures, I suppose. Speaking of which, where's Malfoy?"

"Why?"

"Something fell out of his bag as he was walking up the stairs yesterday. I was behind him and I picked it up. I want to return it."

I gave her a look. "You want to return something of Malfoy's? Why not just throw it into the ocean, or even burn it?"

"Because I want to see the look on his face when I hand it back to him in front of his friends," she said with a faint smile.

"What was it?"

She held up a finger, signaling for me to wait a moment. I watched her walk over to a pile of beach bags and straw satchels. She dug around until she pulled hers out. She reached in and retrieved something that I couldn't see from my position. She returned it handed it to me. It was a tiny pile of black cloth. I unfolded it and nearly choked. "Bikini briefs?!"

"Who would've thought?"

"I can't imagine Malfoy wearing something like this."

"I hope not," she said in an odd tone.

I gave the item back to her and we made our way over to the Slytherins, who were occupying their own little corner of the area surrounding the fire. We spotted Malfoy right away, with his white-blonde hair glimmering in the moonlight. He looked at us as if we were two-week old garbage. "Forget what house you're in, Potter? Or are you so desperate to be near the Slytherins?" he asked with a smug grin.

"Actually, I'm here to do a good deed," Hermione replied, "You dropped something on your way to your room yesterday. I'm just returning it." She unfolded the underwear and held it up high so everyone had a clear view of it. She handed it to him with a smile.

He snatched it from her hand and rolled it into a wad. He shoved it into a pocket and frowned. "I can't believe you've resorted to carrying around my underwear all day to satisfy your unattended sexual desires, Granger."

"And how is it that you know they're unattended? Or do you monitor my sex-life now?"

"Isn't it obvious? You've practically got 'virgin' stamped across your forehead! Who in their right mind would reduce themselves to using you for such things?"

Hermione's eyes narrowed. "I'm not so sure I want anyone to 'use' me for 'such things' in the first place, Malfoy, or is that what you were raised to call it?"

Before Malfoy could respond, I took hold of Hermione's arm. "Let's go. Let Malfoy collect his own feminine undergarments from the stairwell from now on."

I'm sure Malfoy was saying something really nasty to us as we walked away, but my memory is more focused on how Hermione was shaking again. "What's wrong?" I asked her on the way back.

"Malfoy is such a pig, isn't he? Like my sex-life is any of his business!"

"It's not, and he's a moron. Just ignore him like I do. I've found that he's much less annoying when I'm not paying attention to him."

She smiled again. "You're absolutely right. He doesn't deserve my time. I should concentrate on the trip. I should just forget about everything that happened tonight."

"Whoa, wait. You're going to tell us what you saw, right?"

"Of course I am, but I'm not telling Snape. I'll tell you and Ron, but then we're going to forget about it. We'll stay close to the others and pretend I never saw a thing."

"All right, if that'll make you happy."

"It will," she said quickly, her smile brightening.

I enjoyed the rest of the night by the fire, then dragged Ron up to our room and saw Hermione to hers. I thought it had been a good night, at least from my perspective. I had no idea that it was the night that would turn our lives, our world, upside down. At that time, I didn't know what Hermione had seen, and even suspected that it could've been a figment of her imagination. If only I had been right, we'd all be alive and happy today. But I was deadly wrong.