Disclaimer: You know the drill I hope?

AN: Written for The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition round 1 and my prompts are beginning, change and expeliarmus and if fanfiction doesn't make a mess of things, they should be in italics.

"Harry mate, can I ask you something?" Ron asked out of the blue and Harry frowned.

"Is this really the time and place?" Harry replied grimly as he crouched against the doorway and signalled to the two aurors on the other side of the building. Ron's ears turned slightly red.

"Sorry. Later," he said and the two men raised their wands.

"Reducto!" Ron yelled, smashing the door into millions of pieces and the two men charged in. From the other side, two of their fellow aurors did the same. One of the three men inside grabbed his wand, but before he could raise it, Harry's wand was already pointing at him.

"Drop the wand," he said in a quietly authoritative voice that would brook no argument. The man let his wand fall with a clatter. One of his companions apparently thought otherwise however, suddenly rising and drawing his wand.

"Expeliarmus!"

The man's wand went flying and his face turned pale as he suddenly recognised who he was facing.

"Merlin…you're Harry Potter," he gasped in surprise and Harry nodded.

"Exactly. But you do not appear to be the Death Eater's we're seeking," he said, tapping his wand against a plastic Death Eater mask that was laying on the table in front of them.

"There wasn't any Death Eaters!" the man Harry had disarmed blurted out, his eyes wide. "We thought we'd get less trouble if people thought we were!"

Harry sighed with a hint of annoyance. The two crooks were a pretty pathetic sight if he was honest. Neither of them looked capable of threatening a child, much less a grown auror. And they both looked absolutely terrified. The other one however was an incredibly ordinary looking individual with a look of resignation on his face rather than fear, almost as though he expected to be caught. It was…unsettling.

"Incarcerus," he said with a wave of his wand and the three wizards were tied up in short order. He nodded over to the other two aurors. "Stebbins, Thomas, take these men in to MLE please, Ron and I will examine the building for more information. Maybe we'll get lucky," Harry nodded at the third man, the one who remained calm throughout. "And keep a close eye on him in particular. There's more to him than meets the eye I think."

"Yes sir," Auror Thomas replied primly. The two men grabbed the criminals and apparated away without any further ado. Harry turned to look at Ron.

"Better run a few forensic spells over the place. Doubt we'll find anything, but better be sure," he said and Ron nodded. With a few waves of their wands and a few words, the spells began their work and the two men sat down.

"So what was it that you wanted to ask me?" Harry asked Ron, who sat up sharply.

"Well…you grew up with muggles right?" Ron started and Harry gave him a disbelieving look. "So you would know what to do in my situation."

"Your situation?" Harry asked with a puzzled frown. His friend was acting in a most unusual manner. If Harry hadn't been with him for almost three hours none-stop, he'd have suspected an imposter using Polyjuice potion.

"Yeah, well you see…" Ron licked his lips nervously and the tips of his ears turned red. "Ummm…I was wondering…"

"Ron, is this something to do with you leaving the auror office?" Harry asked and Ron squirmed slightly.

"No! Well sort of…" he paused for a moment and took a deep breathe. It wouldn't be long before MLE wizards turned up to do a more thorough examination of the place after all. "You know Hermione and I have been a couple for a while now right?"

"Six years since that first kiss at Hogwarts where I think you both made it abundantly clear," Harry said with a smirk and Ron blushed.

"Well…I want to propose to her and I was wondering…how should I ask her father permission for her hand in marriage?"

"Well how would you do it for a wizarding family? Harry asked and Ron shrugged.

"I would…ask him privately for his blessing and present him with my wand," he said, licking his lips slightly. "I would show the purity of my bloodline-"

"I wouldn't do that," Harry said, quickly cutting in. "After all the trouble with blood purity we've had growing up, I can't think they'd want a reminder of that. It might worry them after all."

"Yeah, it's a crap tradition anyway," Ron said, nodding in agreement. "It's just…I want to do this right, you know? Mum and dad, they eloped and got married before anyone could stop them, but...I want to do this right, you know?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean. So what else would you do?" Harry said and Ron shrugged his shoulders.

"That's pretty much it," he said and Harry raised his wand as the spells finished their sweep. Ron did the same a moment later and both men stood up.

"Ron, mate," Harry said as popping sounds announced the arrival of MLE officers. "Just ask him for permission in as straightforward a way as possible. No fancy wizarding traditions or anything, just ask, okay?"

"Okay," Ron replied, licking his lips nervously. "Thanks mate."

"No problem. Now let's get back," Harry said and the two men apparated away.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

"Luna, can I ask you a question?" Hermione said as she left the Ministry building with Luna. The other woman nodded almost absent-mindedly.

"Luna, I was wondering…I'm thinking of proposing to Ron…"

"Yes, I know," Luna said in a dreamlike fashion.

"Well yes, I was wondering…wait, you knew!?" Hermione gasped, slightly surprised.

"Well either you were going to ask him or he was going to ask you. I'm sure it's going to happen one way or another," Luna said in a sing-song voice. She looked Hermione in the eye. "You two have that look about you that I've seen before."

"You've seen before? Luna, you're not even in a relationship, how could you know the look?" Hermione pointed out, a little more brusquely than she intended and Luna smiled.

"It's a look I've seen a lot since the war. So many of our old friends making the leap from being a couple to being married. It's a change in the air, the move to something more."

"Yes, well," Hermione said, somewhat perturbed by Luna's insight. "I know that it's not traditional for the bride to ask the groom, but I was wondering…"

"How to ask Molly Weasley for her son's hand in marriage?" Luna finished and Hermione was once more caught off guard.

"Well yes," Hermione said after a moment's silence.

"Well I think in cases where the bride asks the groom, it's traditional to cook a meal as a gift," Luna said and Hermione turned pale.

"Cook…a meal…?" she said, swaying slightly.

"Oh yes. Apparently it started as a tradition to show that the would-be wife can feed her husband as well as his mother," Luna continued and Hermione sat down sharply.

"I can't cook!" she said with a hint of despair. "And I definitely can't cook as well as Molly Weasley!"

"I'm pretty sure that's how my mum did when she was going to propose to my dad," Luna continued blithely. "She baked a cake-"

"CAKE!?"

"And presented it to my grandmother," Luna continued. "Apparently it was a really good cake too."

"And…did that work?" Hermione asked tentatively and Luna gently shook her head.

"Oh no. I think my grandmother said that if mum came near my dad again, she'd disown him," she said and Hermione began hyperventilating. "I would keep breathing normally though. If you put yourself in St Mungo's, you'll delay the wedding."

Hermione barely heard her and instead kept muttering "I'm doomed. Doomed. Doomed. Doomed. Doo-"

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

If Ron Weasley kept a record of terror, he was pretty sure that what he was feeling right now would probably be in his list of top ten most terrifying situations he had ever been in.

There were a few exceptions, such as when he was in the dungeons at Malfoy Manor or when Ginny had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets, but he was pretty sure that this was pretty close.

He could walk away of course. Just step off the doorstep and apparate away and come back another time. There was nothing stopping him really, it was a muggle house after all. And it wasn't like he hadn't faced more powerful foes either.

Still he waited. And sweated. Like a damn pig in fact, despite the cool Autumn breeze drifting through the sky.

"Ron? What are you doing here?" a familiar voice asked and Ron was suddenly jerked out of his reverie. Looking at him with some concern was Hermione's father. "Is something wrong? Has something happened to Hermione? Is she in tr-"

"CanImarryyourdaughterplease?" Ron garbled out and Mr Granger looked at him with a puzzled expression. Ron swore and took a deep breath. He really hadn't intended it to come out like that, he really didn't. He took out his wand and flipped it so the handle was facing Mr Granger.

"Mr Granger," he began calmly, even as he felt his ears burning. "I present to you my wand and ask for your permission to ask for your daughter's hand in marriage?"

There was a moment of silence and Ron felt his ears begin buzzing. Then a new sound emerged from Mr Granger, one he did not expect.

Laughter.

Mr Granger was laughing! For a moment Ron considered turning away. Then Mr Granger spoke.

"Mr Weasley, of course you have my permission!" he said with amusement. "I'm just surprised that you actually asked. I was half expecting the two of you to elope without warning!"

"You expected us to elope?" he said numbly and Mr Granger pulled him into an awkward one-handed hug.

"Welcome to the family," he said and Ron smiled, glad that SOMETHING had gone right at least.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Hermione stared at the remains of what was meant to be a cake.

It was supposed to be a simple thing really, something her grandmother had suggested. Minimal ingredients, very little work and a nice, predictable cooking time. Nothing to it really, as easy as possible. Impossible in fact, to get wrong.

Somewhere along the lines it had obviously gone very badly wrong. As in, decorating the walls of the kitchen wrong. It was enough to make Hermione want to weep.

"Oh dear," a familiar voice said and Hermione felt her heart plummet even further. Just when she thought the day couldn't get any worse…

"That was unfortunate," Molly Weasley said as she waved her wand and started to clean the walls. "What were you trying to make?"

"A cake," Hermione said a little forlornly and Molly Weasley brightened.

"A cake! Are you planning to ask my permission to ask Ron for his hand in marriage?" she asked happily and Hermione nodded a little uncertainly. "That's wonderful! I was worried you two were going to do what Arthur and I did and simply elope! Of course you have my permission!"

Hermione let out a sigh of relief and smiled at Molly.

"I think I'll have to teach you how to cook though," Molly added with a mischievous smile and Hermione chuckled.

AN: Yes, the ending was probably a bit rushed, but the clock is against me here.