That evening, Hermione returned to her apartment, feeling mentally exhausted. She had spent the rest of her day in her genetics lab at the Wizarding University of Sorcery and Science, running experiments with M.B. to regenerate some more Organink and create a new Organink Wand, since all their Organink was also missing with the wand itself.
When she stepped into her apartment, she paused with surprise. The place was dimly lit and filled with candles. Rose petals trailed from the front of her feet to the kitchen in the distance, where Ron was walking toward her.
"Ron, did you do this?" Hermione gasped.
Ron chuckled. "No, I had Harry do it for me," he said in a joking, sarcastic tone.
Hermione chuckled, still looking around with amazement. "This looks amazing! I would have never expected you to be this romantic and creative."
"Hey, you may doubt my creativity, but never doubt my romantic endeavors," he said, wrapping his arm around her and giving her a kiss on the lips.
Hermione suddenly felt an unexpected rush of disgust as her lips met his. She involuntarily pulled away from him.
Ron looked at her, confused. "Is everything alright?"
Hermione blinked a couple times. Did I just pull away from Ron? "Yes! Sorry, I'm just a little on edge today. Long day in lab." She took off her lab coat and hung it on a rack.
Ron snorted. "Come on, 'Mione, I know you well by now. Did someone offend you today? Perhaps a pratty Malfoy git?"
Hermione met his gaze with a frown. "Please don't mention his name. I don't want to be reminded of anything that happened between us within the last two months."
Ron followed her as she made her way into the kitchen to get herself a glass of water. "Well, I thought that since this you can finally terminate your ketogenic diet, we can celebrate by eating out at a nice, fancy Italian restaurant. I've already made reservations at your favorite muggle place, Vazianno's. What do you say?"
Hermione filled up her glass with water from their pitcher. "Oh…um, yeah, sure. That sounds good."
Ron winced. "Okay…I was expecting some more excitement here, but I guess it's great that you aren't trying to avoid me anymore like you've been doing this past month."
Hermione sighed, setting her glass down and staring at the water. "Ron, I've already apologized about spending so much time with Malfoy in the past few weeks. We were both on our ketogenic diet, so that we could prevent our life-shortening seizures. And I already explained to you that the diet was also going to eliminate the Bedazzlebuds in our blood, rendering Malfoy unable to spread his Bedazzlebuds with others, and rendering myself unable to feel any romantic feelings for Malfoy. I only spent a lot of time going out with Malfoy while we were on the diet, because I wanted to see if my romantic feelings for him could stay naturally, or at least unfold naturally, but since I experienced clear declines in my feelings for him as the Bedazzlebuds slowly disappeared from my blood, I realized that I don't genuinely love him the way I had loved you."
Ron huffed. He mumbled something under his breath.
Hermione turned to face him. "Ron, I'm sorry this had to happen while we were engaged. But look on the bright side: at least now I know for sure that I don't have any genuine feelings for Malfoy. So now I can reaffirm our relationship and know for sure that you are the right one for me." She walked up to him, intending to wrap her arm around him and kiss him, but she stopped herself, suddenly feeling repulsed. She ended up standing in front of him with an arm extended in midair.
Ron looked at her, wincing again.
Hermione blinked, confused with herself as well. Am I feeling disgusted? What's going on with me? She dropped her arm, blushing. "Um…sorry, I…uh…" she extended her arm again and forced herself to smile. "I was just waiting for you to take my hand so we can Apparate to Vazziano's together for our dinner."
Ron blinked. Then he smiled. "Okay, babe."
Again, Hermione felt a rush of fear and disgust at the sound of his words. She frowned at herself, feeling even more confused. What's going on? Why am I feeling this way?
For the rest of that night, Hermione experienced even more waves of disgust at any romantic gestures Ron tried to make toward her. When he tried to hold her hand as they walked to their table, she squeezed it tightly and then pulled her hand out of his grip, feeling both scared and grossed out. When they took a walk in the gardens outside the restaurant, she was aloof and distant, pulling away whenever he tried to touch her. And when he tried to bring up any topics about their wedding plans, she would change the subject and start talking about the science behind the Organink Wand's magic, a topic that was too complicated for Ron to understand.
By the time they were getting ready for bed, Hermione found herself fearing the idea of sleeping next to Ron. She felt like throwing up every time she pictured her body being so close to his. She made the excuse that she had to spend the night in her lab for an overnight experiment that could not be rescheduled for another time in the day.
Hermione Apparated to the Wizardry University of Sorcery and Science and found herself standing in front of the Department of Genomic Witchcraft building, the building where her genetics lab was. She stared at the building and gave a huff. She was angry with herself and felt awful about her behavior around Ron tonight. Perhaps the ketogenic diet did something to me, or maybe these feelings are just side effects from the medications I've been taking. In addition to the ketogenic diet last month, she and Draco had also been on some medications that the Barksons had prescribed to them in order to alleviate any other potential health problems that the weakened Avada Kedavra curse could have done to their bodies. Hermione took out her phone and called Lexa.
"Lexa? Hello?" She spoke quietly, even though there was no one to be seen on the campus around her.
"Hello?!" Lexa's frantic voice sounded from the phone. "Ah! Hermione! Hi! I'm just about to get ready for bed, so I really don't wanna talk too long. I'm extremely OCD about getting exactly eight hours of sleep—no more, no less each night. So please make it quick!"
"Yes, I will, sorry to disturb you, I didn't want to visit the hospital again since I really wanted to stay away from those Yapillons."
"Ah yes, Penny's been on edge all day, fighting the urge to just fly outta the hospital, find you, and drag to you Draco so that she can breathe Amorabloom Pollen on your guys again," said Lexa. "It's freaking me out! I won't go into the details of what I did to her to try and make her focus. But anyway, what do you want to talk to me about?!"
"Well, I just wanted to inquire about the way I've been feeling today since I stopped my ketogenic diet, as well as the medications you prescribed to me."
"OH NO!" Lexa screamed, causing Hermione to jerk the phone from her ear. "Don't tell me you've gotten any of the side effects!"
Hermione sighed. "Well, I'm not sure, but that's what I wanted to discuss with you. I've been feeling rather…aromantic around my fiancé, Ron. Even in the most romantic atmospheres, I've felt this intense rush of fear and disgust. Sure, I felt surprised an amazed that he lit candles in our apartment and had a trail of rose petals, but I felt no romantic passion whatsoever. And anytime he tried to touch me or say anything romantic, I would feel so grossed out. The thought of sleeping with him tonight, or having any sex, nearly made me puke." She closed her eyes with frustration. "I'm just so frustrated with myself for feeling this way, especially after I've officially gotten over Draco!"
"Hmm," said Lexa. "Well, none of the medications I gave you have any psychiatric side effects. Might I remind you—in M.B.'s book, all the treatments are free of side effects, so any medications synthesized from my Yapillons' resources should not be affecting you. If you experience any side effects, they must have been from that ketogenic diet."
Hermione gasped. "Oh shoot. The ketone bodies generated in that diet also eliminated Bedazzlebuds, so that I would feel no romantic feelings for Draco anymore. But…you don't suppose that was because eliminating Bedazzlebuds also meant eliminating my ability to feel any romantic feelings for anyone?!"
"That sounds right!" Said Lexa. "I remember Galvin telling me that having Pokey eliminate Bedazzlebuds himself wouldn't be very ideal if the Bedazzlebuds remained in your blood for a long time, because it would also eliminate any feelings of romance you can ever have. That's because when you have Bedazzlebuds running in your blood, your body becomes dependent on them. Estrogen, testosterone, any hormones responsible for the development of romantic and sexual feelings cease to work the same way as they did when the Bedazzlebuds are removed from your bloodstream."
"Oh my gosh!" Hermione yelled. "Why didn't you tell me about that?"
"I mean, I didn't really need to, did I? Loss of romantic feelings is a wonderful side effect, because now you won't be distracted by any stupid guys out there! I'm actually super relieved that you didn't call me to discuss any bad side effects!" She giggled. "Man, I should have Penny give me Bedazzlebuds and then eliminate them from my blood after my body has become dependent on them. I'd love to be aromantic and asexual like you, Hermione!"
Hermione was speechless. She remained silent, her heart pounding rapidly with shock.
Lexa broke the moment of silence. "Hey, I'm almost five minutes past my intended bedtime. I must leave before I get paranoid about breaking my bedtime routine! Bye!"
Lexa hung up.
