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There is something to be said about England in the winter. The snow, the smells, the way your breath materialises in front of you, it just lights up something magical inside me. It's an indescribable feeling of pure bliss that seems to warm me up from the inside out. It's one of my favourite feelings in the world.
Of course, not everyone feels the same way.
"Bloody snow!" A ginger haired man with freckles adorning his face stood impatiently next to me, clutching a small paper cup as if his life depended on it.
"Ronald!" I scorned. He looked down at me with apologetic eyes and took a deep drink of coffee from his cup.
"I can't help it, Hermione. It's leaking into my socks! It's not even snowing anymore and it's still everywhere. This is insane." I listened to him complain for a few more minutes before I rolled my eyes and blocked him out. He brought my attention back to himself only moments later with a quick tap on the shoulder.
"Where did you say this was from again? Star- Starnuts-"
"Starbucks." I corrected, smirking, "It's a muggle coffee house. Good, right?"
Ron huffed slowly before nodding once and bringing the brim of the cup back up to his lips.
The two of us currently stood under a small bus shelter just outside the city limits, and as it had just began to rain again, we were awkwardly squished together to try to keep as dry as possible under the small metal shelter.
"Remind me again why I chose to come here with you…" Ron sighed, scratching the back of his neck with his free hand.
I took a small sip of my coffee before replying softly, "Georgina and Emily wanted to see me again and considering they know I don't have a car, and I also couldn't very well Apparate right into their apartment, I told them I'd catch the bus and come visit them. You're with me because you're a good friend, and because I think it would be good for you to develop an understanding of the way the muggle world works."
"Muggles are idiots if this is how they get around. It's cold and my feet are wet and I'm hungry! I want to go home, Hermione." Ron pouted and I briefly considered tugging his bottom lip off with my hand.
"You're always hungry! Come on, you like Georgina, you said she was funny." I encouraged, while gripping a little tighter to my paper coffee cup in an attempt to draw its warmth to my hands.
"Yeah, but I never understand half the things she says. What's feetball?"
"Football, Ron. It's a muggle sport. I've explained all this to you before! Look, just laugh when I do, eat whatever food she cooks you, and stick to what you know. Don't mention anything to do with our world and you'll be fine. You always are." I promised.
"Fine." Ron grumbled for a couple of moments before turning his attention to finishing off his coffee. With a loud burp and a satisfactory grin, he threw both of our rubbish into the trash can a couple of feet away from us.
Georgina was a childhood friend I had before I left for Hogwarts. We would often catch up during Christmas break and what-not. She met her girlfriend, Emily, in university and they've been together ever since. I hadn't seen her in a couple of months, so with some persuasion I'd convinced Ron to take a day trip to London with me to visit her. Of course, I'd somehow manage to choose to go on what seemed to be the coldest day of the year and Ron had not shut up about it since I picked him up from his house.
"Oh, it's coming. Hermione, the bus is coming!" Ron's sullen disposition changed into happiness and he pointed to the large metal vehicle coming towards us, "We can finally get out of this cold!"
I laughed at his enthusiasm and watched as the bus rolled to a stop before us. I paid the fair and we moved towards an available seat near the back. Luckily, it wasn't really full today so it wasn't too difficult to manoeuvre around.
Five minutes into our bus ride, the novelty wore off on Ron and he was back to complaining.
"Hermione, this is so boring!" He whisper-yelled, causing an elderly woman to turn towards him and glare. He flinched slightly under her gaze and I stifled a laugh.
"Ron, shut up. We're only about ten minutes away, anyway. Just be patient." I scolded.
Ron seemed to take my tone seriously so he turned and faced the window, soon becoming distracted by the rain droplets forming on the window.
We sat in a comfortable silence for the next ten minutes, only paying attention to our surroundings when the bus driver pulled up to a stop. I read a book tucked away in my bag for the duration of the trip but when I saw the street name of our destination, I folded the page down and placed it back in my bag quickly.
"Hey, come on. We're here." I nudged Ron and he grinned. We stood from our seats as the bus stopped and quickly hopped off.
The street we stood on was lined with flats running down its sides, with a couple of old houses squished in between the tall buildings. A couple walked together on the opposite side of the street from us, and I could hear a crying child in the distance. For a moment, the whole thing seemed surreal. I suppose being around magic so much had caused the lives of regular people to become abnormal.
"Come on, Hermione. It's cold." Ron huffed, gripping my shoulder to help steer me in the direction of the small apartment building at the end of the street.
"Right." I brushed my hair out of my eyes and fastened up the top button of my coat, moving swiftly to escape the bite of the harsh wind. The apartment at the end of the street had two 'for sale' signs sitting out the front, with a big red 'sold' slapped across one. I briefly wondered if Georgina and Emily were going to get new neighbours.
Once we reached the building, we took the stairs to the third floor. This caused Ron to groan a couple of times but with a stern look from me, he got the picture and closed his mouth. We stopped outside Georgina's flat and I didn't even manage to knock once before the door went flying open and I was shoved backwards several inches. Short blonde hair clouded my vision and I heard Ron stifle a laugh as I wound my arms around the girl who was hugging me.
"Hermione! Oh, how are you?" Georgina asked. She hugged me for a moment longer before stepping back with a large grin stretched across her face.
"Hey, Georgie. I'm great! How about you?" I had to crane my neck to look up at the five-foot-eleven woman standing in front of me.
"So great! I'm so excited to see you again. It feels like it's been ages." She huffed out the last sentence with a stern look in my direction and I laughed awkwardly. I knew I didn't come into muggle London enough and it pained me that I didn't get to spend much time with one of my best friends.
"Hey Ron." Georgina chirped, turning her attention to Ron before giving him a quick hug. He patted her back a couple of times and mumbled a greeting in reply before the pair of us were ushered inside the apartment quickly.
The warmth of the place hit me immediately, and I know Ron felt it too because he let out a satisfactory groan and began tugging off his jacket as I did the same. We hung our coats and scarfs up on the rack next to the door before we followed Georgina down the short hallway towards her living room.
The living room was large and it joined up with the kitchen. The whole place was cosy and bright and I remembered fondly the multiple times I'd fallen asleep on the comfortable couch sitting in the corner after I'd come for dinner here. Apparently, Ron thought it looked comfortable too, because he made a beeline straight for it as soon as he saw it.
"Hey guys!" A light American voice piped up from behind the kitchen and I turned to face a smiling brunette.
"Hi Em," I walked over to her and hugged her quickly before letting her go as she twisted her torso to continue with her cooking.
"How are you, 'Mione?" She asked. Since I was young, Georgina had called me by that nickname and when she met Emily, she picked up on it right away.
"I'm great, actually," I smiled, "you?"
"Can't complain."
I gave her one last grin and turned towards Georgina and Ron who were sitting on the couch as Georgina flipped through channels on the TV and Ron sat mesmerised by it. I stifled a laugh and watched his cheeks go red when he saw me.
"Where's Peter?" He wondered suddenly, snapping his head to look between Emily and Georgina.
"Oh," Georgina placed the remote down and smiled, "He's in my room, I'll go grab him. Hang on."
Peter was a Scottish Terrier that Georgina and Emily adopted a couple of years ago. He was short and brown and was the sweetest animal I'd ever met. Ron adored him, probably due to the very likely fact that he was a dog in a previous life.
After a couple of seconds, I heard the tell-tale sound of clipped nails scratching along the ground before the small dog ran into the room. He let out one small bark and raced over to me. He lifted himself up so that he was standing on his back legs as I gave him an affectionate scratch behind the ear and he licked my hand fondly.
"Hello there, mister." I cooed, watching his tail wag.
"Peter!" Ron called. The dog saw the man and ran straight over to him. Soon enough all I managed to see was a brown fluff ball and a tuff of red hair as they rolled along the ground together, with Ron teasing Peter by grabbing his tail.
"Oh, god. Would you look at those two?" Georgina laughed and I turned to her with an amused grin.
After a couple of glasses of wine and some lunch, the four of us sat down on the couches in the living room and I caught up on everything that's been happening in the two girls' lives. Luckily the topic of what I was doing these days never came up, it never really seemed to anymore. They spoke about Georgina's teaching job, and how things were doing at Emily's law firm. They seemed happy and it made my insides glow with warmth.
"'Mione, we have some news." Emily took Georgina's hand in hers and they both looked at me with excitement in their eyes.
"Okay?" I pushed, placing my wine glass on the coffee table in front of me.
"Em and I are going to go visit her family in Dallas next week!" Georgina squealed.
With the way the two girls were acting, it was as if they'd just told me they were getting married. Of course, they had every right to be excited. Emily's family has never been as understanding of her relationship as Georgina's, so the she hasn't been in contact with her parents in years. Going to see them meant they were one step closer to becoming a proper family again.
"Oh, that's amazing!" I beamed, congratulating them wholeheartedly, "How long are you going for?"
Emily's face became strained and Georgina shifted in her seat slightly, "Seven weeks. We're going to visit her family and then kind of turn the whole trip into a vacation. Actually, there's a reason why we asked you to come over today. We were wondering if you could house sit for us."
"Absolutely." I nodded, not even taking a second thought.
"'Mione, you'd actually have to live here. We can't take Peter with us because Em's mum is allergic to dogs, and we don't want to put him in a kennel. So, you'd need to stay here and look after him." Georgina said.
"That's no problem, honestly. I love Peter and I'd be more than happy to help you guys out." I really had no issues with staying here. I've been living with Ginny and Harry for about a year now, so giving them some alone time would be nice. Plus, I missed muggle London a lot. Maybe getting away from the drama of the Wizarding World for a while would do my head some good.
Georgina beamed and stood up to give me a warm hug. She pulled apart and immediately launched in to her plans for their vacation.
"We're leaving next Wednesday at noon, so can you get here at about eleven? Peter needs to be walked daily and his food bowl gets replenished every morning. I'll shop on Monday so the house is fully stocked for you, are you sure you're happy to do this? I was going to ask Patricia but she just moved in with her boyfriend. Gosh, you have no idea how excited I am to be meeting Emily's family at last." She went around in circles for another half an hour and I listened to her speak while Ron tried to figure out how to use the TV and Emily began cleaning up.
At about three in the afternoon I realized I had to get back home, so Ron and I said our goodbyes to the girls and I promised to see them on Wednesday while he wished them luck with his trip.
"Is there anything else we need to tell her?" Emily pondered, looking around the hallway as if she was trying to remember something. Ron and I were tugging on our scarfs and coats quickly, eager to hide from the chilly weather.
"No, I don't think so babe." Georgina said, wrapping an arm around Emily. Her face lit up briefly and she turned towards me. "Oh, the apartment across from us just got sold so the new tenant will be moving in soon, aside from that there's really nothing you don't already know about the place."
"Okay, well I'll see you guys soon!" I hugged them each one last time before I left the building with Ron, doing up my coat on the way out.
I was looking forward to the next few weeks.