A most welcome visit
( Hermione )
The door bell rang at exactly two 'o' clock, that afternoon, and Hermione ran down the stairs quite exhilaratedly. Ron was peering through the lactic glass pane of their front door, waving at her from one or two inches higher, than she was used to. She unlocked the door and pulled it open, quite flushed.
"Hi.", she breathed, grinning.
"Hi, to you, too.", Ron answered, his incredibly red hair tousled from the windy air outside and a big smirk on his freckly face.
"Hello, Mr. Weasley", Hermione added, shaking his father's hand and then stepping aside, to let them enter the corridor.
"Good afternoon, Hermione! It's lovely to see you again!", Ron's Dad said, between gaping at every inch of their hall and stairway, "And it's lovely to visit your house once again, as well! Look at this, Ron, isn't this amazing?"
Hermione eyed the wall Ron's Dad was looking at curiously, not quite getting what was so interesting about the colourful but otherwise ordinary map of Europe hanging there. "Oh, and that has to be one of those fire-reducers, right?", he then added, fascinatedly gazing at the red object right next to him.
"Yes, Mr. Weasley, that's a fire-extinguisher, in case there's a fire somewhere inside the house.", Hermione told him, amusedly watching the man kneel down next to it and examining it from a close up angle, while she exchanged a quizzical look with Ron. It was so immensely wonderful to have him stand there, in the middle of her home, after the several weeks of seperation... For a moment, Hermione felt giddy enough to almost take the few steps towards him and pull him in a tight hug... But it felt a little late for that, now, that they'd already greeted each other, and in such a close proximity to his Dad. And also, there still was the sneaking picture of the morning's dream in the back of Hermione's head, the idea of waking up with his arms curled tightly around her body... Nope, she decided, now was just not the time for a hug with Ron.
"Where are your parents, Hermione? Are they at work?", asked his Dad, in that instant reappearing out of the bubble that were his immensely curious thoughts about Muggles' fire protection, if only to focus on another topic concerning them.
"Oh, no, they usually don't work on Saturday afternoons. They're probably in the garden, if they didn't hear the door bell ring.", Hermione explained. "By the way", she wondered, looking at Ron, "How come you didn't arrive through the chimney, like last time? I would have expected you to use Floopowder, once again?"
He nodded, chasing a glance at his father, who was now staring at one of the unmoving wedding photographs of Hermione's parents in the living room, a look of huge scientific interest once again visible on his face.
"Yes, I also thought we'd travel straight here, but apparently Dad had other plans.. He said he needed to do something concerning the Order somewhere in this area first. We used Floopowder to travel to some little antique shop, two miles from here,- "
"You mean, "Melissa's treasures"? Wait, that store is run by a non-Muggle?!", Hermione asked, surprised, but Ron shook his head, leaning a little closer towards her and slightly lowering his voice, while carefully eyeing his father inspect each inch of the Grangers' living room a few metres away from them. Mr. Weasley seemed pretty abstracted though and didn't pay attention to his son's behaviour...- on the contrary to Hermione, who almost had to keep herself from shivering slightly, feeling Ron's breath so close to her skin and hearing his low-spoken words so close to her ear... Gosh, she really needed to stop having such a kind of thoughts about him! He was just Ron, for heaven's sake! No need to get all buggy...
"Nah, I don't think so. No one was there, I bet Dad just knew about that place having a chimney and currently being deserted, or something... Anyway, in that store, there was this drawer he opened, and I think he pulled something into his pocket, but I didn't really see what it was. No idea what all that was about, he wouldn't tell me, but then afterwards we walked for quite a while to your place, - Dad wanted to try finding the way there by asking a few Muggle-pedestrians for the exact direction and stuff, you know how he is,...- and here we are!", Ron concluded, smiling once again.
Hermione laughed at this, finally moving from where she'd stood in the doorsill with him for the past several minutes, and instead pulled him towards the kitchen. "Well, in that case, I should definitely offer you two something to drink!"
"Oh, do you still have that stuff from last year, the one that looks like pee but doesn't taste like it?", Ron grinned, excitedly. Hermione snickered. "Wait, do you mean apple juice?"
"Yeah, exactly! I wasn't sure whether it was made out of apples or of pears, but it was nice."
Still giggling, Hermione opened the refrigerator, and immediately Ron's father was at her side.
"There it is! Isn't that amazing, Ron?", Arthur wanted to know, his blue eyes glowing, as he watched the light go on and then turn out again with Hermione's movement of the door. "How do they get the closet to know whether it's open or not?", he then pondered out loud, and Hermione and Ron exchanged a funny look, once again.
At that, the quiet slamming of a door was to be heard, and her mother called her name from the living room.
"We're here, Mum!", Hermione answered, looking around the kitchen's corner. "Ron and his Dad came to pick me up."
"Oh, how lovely, dear.", said her Mum, now entering the little room with a warm expression and a lot of sunscreen on her pale face. She was wearing her favourite blue summer dress, the one Hermione had picked together with her in that one amazing boutique in Paris, during the holidays of her second year.
For the first time that day, Hermione's thoughts wandered to her own clothes, and she inconspicuously glanced down at her light blue jeans and the green shirt she was wearing. She inwardly let out a sigh of relief. Okay; nothing too chic and also nothing blurry. Not, that it would really have been a problem for Ron to see her in unflattering clothes, Hermione hastened to tell herself. He was just Ron, and he had proven to be quite insensible and superficial sometimes, so it didn't really matter what he thought about her look, anyway. She just wanted to make a good impression on his parents, since they were generous enough to let her live with them for another few weeks, once again, Hermione decided.
During the two seconds it had cost her to ponder this topic, her Mum had already greeted Ron and his Dad with a handshake and a warm smile, and was now lightly touching Hermione's shoulder in a half-embrace. Her mother always got especially affectionate, whenever Hermione was about to leave for school once again. It really wasn't that easy, sometimes, Hermione supposed, having to send your only child away, year after year, for her to learn more and more about a world never to be understood by you.
"Darling, why don't you go and take all your stuff downstairs with Ron, and Arthur can come and have a fresh lemonade outside with us? I'm sure Derek would love to answer him another few of his many questions about our lifestyle, and everything.", her Mum suggested, chuckling. Ron's Dad beamed, not only about the idea of drinking a lemonade with Muggles in their garden, but also about hearing one of them use his first name once again, probably. He'd insisted on having her parents call him Arthur since the day they met, apparently loving the idea of a close friendship with them. Hermione obviously didn't mind that.
Ron shrugged, one side of his mouth curled up a little in a wonderfully carefree kind of way, and together the two of them made their way upstairs, to Hermione's room. She couldn't help but to feel excited for the weeks to come, - spending the rest of the summer together with him in the Burrow. Or wherever else they would be going, soon.