Dedications: Dedicated to my dad, who always used to tell me that this song was written for me. :)
Disclaimer: I still don't own HP or any characters… If I did, Neville/Luna would be canon! ;)
My brown eyed girl
You, my brown eyed girl
--Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morrison
"Three fours."
"Cheat!"
"Are you sure, pumpkin?" Mr Granger grinned at his daughter.
"Yes, daddy," 7-year-old Hermione giggled.
"You caught me," Mr Granger sighed playfully, picking up his cards. "How did you know I was cheating?"
"I can't tell you, daddy," Hermione said, tapping her nose thoughtfully.
Mr Granger smiled. "Okay, then. It's your turn."
"Three fives."
"Cheat!" Mr Granger exclaimed.
"Nope!" Hermione giggled, turning over the cards, revealing three fives.
"Oh, honey, you're too good for me."
Hermione smiled. "You just shouldn't cheat so often, daddy. You have a pattern!"
"Oh, no! You've found me out!" Mr Granger cried, swinging his daughter up into his arms.
"Daddy, listen!" Hermione laughed.
"To what, honey?"
"To the song, daddy! It's out song!"
Mr Granger set his daughter down and walked to the radio, turning it louder. Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl was playing.
"May I have this dance?" Mr Granger formally inquired, holding out his hand.
Hermione laughed, stepping lightly onto her father's feet. Mr Granger spun them around the living room as they sung the chorus together.
"You, my brown eyed girl!"
As the song ended, Hermione sat with her father on the couch, his arm around her shoulders.
"You know you'll always be my brown eyed girl, right, button?"
"I know, daddy."
Mrs Granger smiled, wiping a tear from her eye as she walked back into the kitchen after watching the exchange.
---
Ron and Hermione sat in a corner in Hermione's favourite ice cream shop. She had been feeling nostalgic, having been out of Hogwarts for three years, and this ice cream parlour was her childhood favourite. She used to visit all the time, only being a block away from her house.
"This is really good," Ron commented, licking his ice cream cone fervently.
"I still can't believe you've never had a moose tracks before," Hermione said, licking her own.
"Nah, I only grew up with vanilla and chocolate, really."
Hermione shook her head in disbelief. "I don't know how you lot survive without moose tracks. It's only the best flavour of ice cream," she grinned.
"I dunno, I think I'm more partial to that mint stuff we had last week."
"You liked that?" Hermione made a face.
"You didn't?" Ron laughed.
"It tasted like feet!"
"It did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
Hermione's grin slid slowly off her face and her eyes filled with tears.
"Oh, no," Ron said, horrified. "Hermione, I—I didn't mean it, honest! Moose tracks is better and mint really does taste like feet!"
Hermione shook her head, laughing; a tear slid down her cheek.
"It's not that—even though mint does taste like feet, I don't know how you eat it… No, listen!"
Ron listened, straining his eyes, but he didn't know what he was supposed to be listening to: there was no one else in the shop, and the girl behind the counter was flipping through a magazine.
"What?" asked Ron, confused.
"The radio! The song playing… My dad used to sing it to me all the time. He called me his 'brown eyes girl'."
Ron could faintly make out the 'brown eyed girl's of the chorus. He made a mental note to get a copy of the song.
They finished their ice creams in a comfortable silence, Hermione reminiscent. They left a tip on the table and walked out the door, which tinkled happily behind them, holding hands.
---
Rose, Ron and Hermione's daughter, was usually a good baby—at six months old, she usually only work up once or twice through the night, but tonight Hermione heard her cry for the fifth time. Groaning, she sat up, reaching for her nightgown.
"You go back to sleep," Ron said, lifting the nightgown from his wife's hand and putting it back on its bedside hook. "I'll check on Rose." He gently eased Hermione back down onto the bed, kissing her forehead.
"Thanks, "Ron," she mumbled, still half-asleep.
Ron lingered by the bed for a moment, watching Hermione drift back to sleep with a smile on his face, before going to the next room to check on his daughter.
"What wrong, Rosie?" he asked. She stopped crying and peered up at her father with large, brown eyes, and reached up to him.
Ron laughed. "You just want attention tonight," he accused, but picked up his daughter anyway, gently rocking her in his arms.
"Now how to get you back to sleep?" Ron wondered out loud. "I know," he grinned.
"Hey where did we go? The days when the rains came? Down in the hollow, playing a new game…."
Hermione rolled over, expecting to feel Ron's warmth, but nothing was there. "How long could it take to put Rose back to sleep?"
She sat up when she first heard Ron softly singing in the next room. Her eyes already brimming with tears, she got up and tiptoed into Rose's room.
Ron was standing, his back to her, and singing Brown Eyed Girl to Rose, not missing a word. Hermione stood there, watching him sway, listening to him sing, so overwhelmed. She knew he knew the chorus… But the whole song? Hermione smiled, mouthing the words as he sang, unaware that she was watching.
As Ron started the last verse, Hermione quietly went back to bed, not wanting him to know she had been watching. A few minutes later, Hermione felt Ron come back into bed. She turned to face him, holding his hand. "I love you," she sighed, already almost asleep.
"I love you, too," he mumbled, soft squeezing hers.
---
A/N: This idea came to me in the car today just listening to this song in the car! My dad always used to tell me the song was written for me, and Hermione and her father just popped into my head! And how cute is Ron, paying attention and learning the song? Awwww. .:huggles Ron:. He's so adorbale. I love him!
Review?
--Niamara, xoxo