Author's Notes: I'm feeling rather inspired these days so I thought it was time for me to create a little "dump" into which I could throw some little drabbles, deleted scenes from other fics of mine, and stuff like that. Judging by what I tend to write about, this will probably have a heavy emphasis on R/Hr, but it might contain some other stuff as well, depending on what my brain might sneeze out in the future. Also, these drabbles aren't posted in chronological or otherwise specified order unless explicitly stated.

The below drabble is something I had wanted to write for a while now, but I couldn't fit it into any of the bigger things I had in mind, so in here it goes. Enjoy!

Rating: K

Disclaimer: If this was mine, I wouldn't need my job. Make out of that what you will.


Fascination

It was their first Hogsmeade weekend and while Hermione knew that it was probably for his best (there was a crazed murderer out for his blood, after all) she felt sad that Harry could not be with Ron and her. He would have liked the bustle in the quirky little shops: The Three Broomsticks, Honeyduke's, Zonko's... It seemed to her as though they had gotten everywhere. Eventually, the two of them had even walked up to the Shrieking Shack.

"It's 'the most haunted building in Britain'," Hermione quoted a passage from 'Hogwarts: A History' as she walked over to the fence that separated the shack from the rest of the hill.

"Yeah, I know," she heard Ron's voice from somewhere behind her. "Mad stuff is said to live in there. Ghosts, werewolves, vampires, big hairy spiders and all that."

Hermione turned around and was amused to see Ron standing good ten meters away from her, looking rather uneasy.

"Aren't you going to come nearer?" she asked, raising a brow.

"Nah, I'm fine here," he replied. "It's not that I'm scared," he added defiantly when she raised her second brow and she knew it was a blatant lie. "But if you'd spent half your life hearing all sorts of things about this place from your older brothers, it'd surely leave an impression, right? You probably hadn't even known about things like werewolves and vampires before you got your Hogwarts letter."

"Actually, I had," Hermione said.

"How come? You grew up among Muggles."

"Muggles know about them," Hermione explained. "I mean, they don't exactly believe in them as living, breathing creatures, but they have a general idea and think of them as fantasy characters. They often play roles in books and such. In fiction."

"Wicked," Ron said, amazed. "What else do Muggles know about our world?"

"Just a few details," Hermione said. "That wizards - and witches, I should add - wear robes. And that they use wands to perform magic. And that they brew potions. And travel by brooms. Things like that. But there's a lot of things they don't know. I'd never have thought there was a wizarding school, for instance."

She studied Ron's face which clearly conveyed the keen interest with which he was listening, but there was also something else in his gaze, something that she could not quite place... But then he bashfully lowered his head and she could not see it anymore.

"I've never thought about what your life was like before you came to Hogwarts," he said quietly.

"It wasn't very exciting. Boring, even," Hermione admitted, thinking back about a time when she had no friends and her parents were busy with their dental practice most of the time.

Ron's head immediately whipped up.

"Not exciting?" he blurted out. "Blimey, you come from a different world! How can that not be exciting? Actually..." he lowered his gaze again. "Actually that's what I've always found fascinating about you," he added and every part of his face that Hermione could see took on a fiery shade of red.

"You find me... fascinating?" Hermione asked in wonder, feeling herself redden as well.

"Uh-huh," came the answer and Hermione knew that Ron found that he had said way too much.

Hermione contemplated this new piece of information. She had already witnessed a number of different reactions to her blood status. In the Muggle world, her uncontrolled pre-Hogwarts outbursts of magic had made her a sort of freak. At Hogwarts, most of the teachers and students did not seem to care, others were patronizing and then there were those who openly loathed her. But this scrawny, sometimes obnoxious boy by her side found it fascinating.

And it warmed her from the inside.