Back in Time

Chapter nine

'Good morning,' said Ismay as he sat down at their table. Hermione and Draco both greeted him back, with tense expressions on their faces. Ismay didn't seem to notice, as his smug smile didn't fade.

'I'm pleased to tell you that I did speak with the captain yesterday, and he agrees with my suggestion,' he said, smirking at the pair. Hermione felt like she had been punched in the face and to her left, all the color drained from Malfoy's face.

'ah, don't worry now!' He continued, while buttering his toast. 'our captain thinks it's manageable and if he thinks so, we should have faith in him.'

Hermione swallowed, while Ismay went on about his conversation with the captain. The captain was going to increase speed and they wouldn't be able to go around the iceberg anymore. Dread filled her stomach and when Ismay finally left them, telling them he had some 'business to attend to', whatever that might've been, Hermione turned to Malfoy, who looked exactly as she was feeling. He was a lot paler than usual.

'We should go,' Hermione said shakily. Malfoy nodded and they both stood. They made their way to Malfoy's cabin in silence. When they were inside, Malfoy sat down on the sofa and rubbed his face.

'What do we do now?' He asked, sounding a little desperate.

'We could try to talk to the captain,' Hermione said, biting her lower lip.

'He won't listen to us. Not when Ismay has so much influence on him.'

'I don't think we have any other options. We should at least try,' Hermione said. Draco shook his head.

'this is all so messed up,' he groaned. Hermione couldn't help but agree with him. Even if they managed to get out of this, how were they supposed to get back to the future? She had no idea where her wand was, or how she went back in time, so going back would probably be even harder than surviving this. Hermione plopped down on the sofa too and let her head rest against the back of the sofa. After sitting in silence for a while, Hermione spoke up again.

'Do you think we should ask a staff member to get an appointment with the captain?'

Malfoy shrugged. 'We could just ask how Ismay got to speak with the captain, like we're interested in entire story or something.' Hermione nodded.

When luncheon was announced, they made their way to the dining area again, both of them silent. They saw Ismay sitting at a table wit some other people, a couple of seats were still unoccupied.

'Here we go again,' Malfoy grumbled. Hermione gasped softly in surprise when Malfoy put a hand on the small of her back and led her to Ismay's table. He had a charming smile on his face and a younger girl, about their own age, who was sitting at the table as well, blushed. Hermione fought the urge to roll her eyes.

'Ah, hello Ismay,' he said. 'is it alright if my wife and I join you for lunch?' Ismay seemed to be more than happy to have more people at his table he could tell his story to. Apparently, he had been in the middle of telling it again when they had interrupted.

'Of course! And call me Bruce, please,' he said, gesturing towards the unoccupied seats. Unfortunately, they couldn't sit next to each other. Draco sat down next to the girl and an elderly woman and Hermione sat down between Ismay and another man. As their lunch was served, Malfoy spoke up again.

'Bruce, please tell us the story again, of how you got the captain to agree with your genius plan. You must be aware of the amount of headlines you will make,' Malfoy said with a smirk towards Ismay. Hermione was amazed at his acting skills. Just a half hour ago, he was sitting at the sofa groaning every two minutes about how unfair their situation was and now, he was sitting at a table of rich people, praising Ismay and acting like he was one of them.

Well, that's actually not such a big surprise, since he had always been a spoiled ferret back at school, Hermione thought with an amused snort. Fortunately no one noticed, because everyone was paying attention to Ismay again, who was telling his story again.

'So, I went up to one of the staff members and requested an appointment with the captain. Of course he immediately agreed, because he knew who I was,' he said with a smug look on his face. Again, Hermione had to fight the urge to roll her eyes and smiled politely at him. Malfoy, on the other side of the table grinned and raised his glass towards Ismay. Ismay seemed to be delighted with all the attention he was getting. Hermione had already heard enough, they would have to ask a staff member to get a meeting with the captain, but she wasn't sure if he would agree to leave his post to talk to people he didn't know. Well, maybe if he heard they were first class passengers, but she still wasn't sure. When Ismay had told the entire story again, everyone immersed into their own conversation again. Hermione turned to Ismay and smiled at him.

'My husband and I would like to speak to the captain as well, ask him some questions and such, because we're very interested in the ship. Do you think he would speak with us?'

Ismay grinned at her.

'Oh, I don't think that would be a problem at all dear, I could try to get an appointment for you,' he said and took a bite of his lunch.

'That would be great!' Hermione said and looked over to Malfoy, to see if he had heard as well, but as soon as her her eyes fell on him, her smile turned into a frown. The girl next to Malfoy was all over him. Her hand was on his arm and she was smiling at him, looking up at him and batting her eyelashes. What infuriated her even more, was that she could see the hint of a smirk on his face as he listened to the girl while she was talking.

How could he embarrass her like that? Everyone believed them to be married, and he was full on flirting with that... that girl! Of course, that was why she was getting angry. Because he was embarrassing her like this. Then why does it sting like this? Hermione thought, but she quickly pushed that thought aside. She didn't like this because it was embarrassing and disrespectful and people would be looking at her with pity in their eyes and she did not want that. That was the only reason she was angry. Right? Her heart seemed to skip a beat when Malfoy suddenly looked at her. She got even more infuriated when he saw her frowning and his smirk became wider.

Ugh! He is such an insufferable git- her train of thought was interrupted when Ismay announced that he had finished his lunch and stood, a lot of people following his lead. Hermione glared when she saw that Malfoy was still stalking to the girl and didn't move to his feet and she had no desire to stay with them, so she tapped Ismay on his shoulder.

'Do you think we can make an appointment with the captain now? I don't think we still have a lot of time left, since we're increasing speed,' she said with a forced smile. Ismay grinned.

'you're right of course, we'll be arriving in no time, you'll see!' He said. 'follow me, I'll lead the way.' Yeah, right, Hermione thought. We'll arrive at the bottom of the ocean in no time.

She followed Ismay out of the dining area, leaving Malfoy with the girl.