A/N: I don't own anything you recognize.

This is for the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges forum

Are you crazy enough to do it Challenge

411. (scenario) Getting dragged around to several shops by your partners

If you Dare Challenge

411. Evidence of Their Passage

The years had not been kind to Diagon Alley. Since the war, many merchants had refused to return, even after Voldemort had been defeated. The shops showed evidence of the passage of years, of owners. Now several store fronts stood empty. Hermione shivered slightly stepping onto the street.

"Let's get this over with," she muttered. Ron blinked.

"Why? We've got the whole day to shop, just think, we could grab lunch, maybe dinner too. I thought you wanted to go to the bookstore?" She nodded glumly. Nothing was the same, not here, not with her. Since the war and her subsequent marriage to Ron, she felt herself wishing she'd never even heard about magic. If she had just stayed an ignorant muggle, would things have been better for her?

Ron grabbed her hand pulling her along chattering happily.

"And there's this new broom, the Wagner Elf, it's a German model." Had she ever actually cared about brooms, she wondered. Quiddich was more Ron and Harry's thing. The idea of being here without him made her sick to her stomach. No one had heard from Harry in years. He'd retreated somewhere after defeating Voldemort, said it hurt too much to see the death and destruction. Hermione wondered if he felt responsible for all of it in some way.

"And there's this new ice cream place we've got to try. George says they have over a hundred flavors, including cockroach cluster, can you image, 'Mione?" She just nodded as Ron pulled her into another shop. She glanced around, books everywhere. Part of her wanted to run, search through the shelves, find something to make her feel again. Another part of her just smiled at him, pretending to be the person she'd been before.

"Give me a minute to look around," she whispered.

"More like an hour," Ron muttered but nodded strolling over to the Quiddich section and looking at magazines. Hermione watched him for a moment before disappearing into the shelving. She'd read so many of these books already, but she had to find something new, something to fool Ron into thinking she was alright, didn't she? She wondered what would happen if she admitted how she felt, how nothing felt important now. She shook her head. She could never tell him, he wouldn't understand.

"I think this is what you want," a deep voice stated. Hermione looked up.

"Professor Snape, nice to see you," she said. She'd known he'd survived, seen something about it an article somewhere.

"Miss Granger. Here." He handed her a book. She glanced down at the title Healing the Mind.

"Sir?"

"I've seen that haunted expression before, Miss Granger. Take care," he said and then he was gone, as if she'd imagined him. She glanced down at the book and carried it, along with a book filled with pictures of kneazles, to the counter.

"Just these today," she stated. Ron had already grown bored and was pacing around the front of the shop. She sighed knowing they'd be going to at least five more shops today. Placing her books in her bag, she joined Ron.

"Finally! So, where to next? Ice cream?"

"Sure, why not," she answered. Ron smiled and she followed him trying not to let the gloom in her mind take over her actions.

"Don't worry, 'Mione, they'll find some new people to take over the old shops, and everything will be like it was before," Ron promised as they ordered ice cream, Ron getting something that contained raspberries and chocolate and her getting an ordinary vanilla cone. The taste comforted her, something so simple, so familiar, when everything around her had seemed to change.

"Just think, Hermione, someday we'll be bringing our own kids here, helping them pick out school supplies, getting a broom..." Hermione blinked. This wasn't the first time Ron had mentioned them having kids, but she still wasn't really sure what she wanted. She'd been working hard building a career that actually impacted the magical world, not just earned money for them.

"Maybe someday," she said softly. Taking that as her agreeing, Ron started talking about names for their future children. She tuned him out again looking at the dull grey the sky had become.

"It looks like might rain," she stated. Ron looked up.

"It does. Why don't we call it a day?" he suggested. She nodded in agreement, but not before Ron dragged her to one more shop.