Blood & Ink
"Ron. Why are you doing this?" Hermione sighed.
"I figured I should get like a memory for all this. Y'know, like a piece of history," Ron smiled.
She sighed heavily. "What? Our faces plastered everywhere and interviews every five seconds aren't enough for you?"
Ron shook his head slightly and laughed. She didn't understand. He wasn't doing it for the memory of it. He was doing it in honor of her. Ron sat down in the chair and held out his left arm. The artist prepped his forearm and asked, "Where do you want it mate?"
"Right here," Ron said, indicating a line alongside his bright blue vein. The artist laid down the piece of paper, rubbed it firmly on his arm, and peeled it back slowly and evenly.
"But seriously? The Muggle way? I can easily do it with magic if you want it so badly! AND we wouldn't need to pay £30!" Hermione added, "Your mum is gonna kill me for allowing you to do this…"
The tattooist loaded his clean needle, held down Ron's arm onto the armrest, and asked, "You ready, mate?"
Ron took a deep, slow breath and nodded. "Yeah I'm ready."
The artist started applying pressure on his forearm with the tattoo gun causing Ron to flinch slightly.
"Blimey that hurts," he winced. He gripped the right armrest with his free hand and shut his eyes. Hermione rested her hands on top of his and squeezed slightly, reassuring him that she is still here. Blood and ink mixed as the artist worked. Wiping every couple of seconds with a clean paper towel, the words slowly started to appear.
"Bloody hell this is painful… How do you deal with this kind of pain, mate?" Ron gasped.
The artist chuckled as he finished the 'r', "You don't. You grin and bear through it. This shit is addicting as you can clearly see." The tattoo artist was covered virtually head to toe in tattoos, save for his face. "You do it for the love of the art. Welp, you're finished. Go check it in the mirror." He wiped Ron's arm one final time and pointed towards the floor-length mirror.
Ron stood up with his left arm out a bit from his body. Hermione interlaced her left hand fingers with his right and walked over to the mirror.
"This is bloody brilliant. Thanks so much," Ron smiled gleefully at his reflection. Hermione gave him a kiss and rolled up her left sleeve. She was happy that her boyfriend was excited about his first tattoo.
"Heh, now we match," Hermione grinned as she showed her left forearm to the mirror. Clearly written, though healed as thick scar tissue, was the word 'MUDBLOOD'.
"I know that. That's why I got it, 'Mione," Ron smiled as he kissed her gently on her forehead. His tattoo said in bold black letters 'BLOODTRAITOR', similar to the block lettering as Hermione's scar.
"'Mere. I need to wrap it now so it doesn't get infected," said the tattoo artist, ready with the gauze wrap. Ron walked over and had the artist wrap it carefully with the gauze. The artists wrapped it in cellophane and taped it shut with black medical tape. He handed Ron a piece of paper with instructions written on it. "This tells you how to properly care for your tattoo while it heals. Follow it carefully and your tattoo will last."
Ron smiled and thanked the man as he stood up. The two gave each other a firm hand shake and said their farewells. Hermione and Ron walked up to the receptionist to pay for the work. Once paid, Hermione and Ron walked out the tattoo shop to the busy streets of London.
"I haven't had very many first dates, but I think that takes the cake," Ron said stretching.
"Yeah," Hermione agreed and kissed her boyfriend. It was definitely a good sign of things to come, especially with their first date being written on Ron's arm.
~Fin~