A/N: Hello everyone! Welcome back to another fic :) While day one of Round Three saw me taking so many notes for this, I was nearly at half word count, I actually didn't have time to fully write this until the last minute. Apologies to my House for all the stress!

Aside from the prompts from the prompt list, I also made sure to incorporate multiple instances of each of the five senses. Let's see if you guys can spot all of them! ;)

Also, can I just say I love how the Merriam-Webster says "nonstop" is a word, Google states it's "non stop", and the British English lexicon says "non-stop". I can't even with English anymore...

This is a one-shot, and tbh, I love writing weather into a scene. Weather is one of my specialties, and I always find it to be easy to write (that and cats. I RP'd my Pitch Muse having turned into a cat, once, and it was the best piece of writing for animals I had done, I still can't believe I wrote it XD Anywho...

This one is for Round 3 of The Houses Competition, where I'm in Slytherin House and writing for Transfiguration. This competition, we have to write a drabble (500-1000 words) as well as a standard (1000-3000 words). This fic is the standard of the two. I've chosen the prompts (Weather) Rainy and (Word) Bookshop.

Thank you kindly to Aya, Hope, Dhrish, and Ash for betaing this.

Word Count: 1470

Disclaimers/Warnings: none

Summary: Hermione closes up shop after a slow, rainy day, before heading home to her doting husband. Vikmione

"Rain"

Thunder rumbled low outside her humble little shop in Slaveykov Square as Hermione closed up. It was a slow day, but then again the non-magical quarter tended to only come by her shop on good weather days, while the magical population tended to frequent the shops a square over, which offered a larger variety of magical businesses. Here, Hermione's little bookshop Idle Thoughts was one of the few book vendors in the market to have a physical building, and that was only due to her generous application of space expansion charms and a mild Confundus enchantment etched into the doorframe to ensure patrons didn't question the space constraints (or lack thereof).

Slaveykov Square was aptly named after Petko R Slaveykov, who was a Revival-era poet and writer, and was the largest outdoor book market in Sofia. When Hermione had finally decided on what she wanted to do with her life, she'd realized this place was where she wanted her home away from home to be.

Her worn candles flickered slightly, shining off the rain-soaked glass panes around her as she closed a ventilation window, and the sound of the rain outside dampened. The rain rhythmically splashed against the window panes like a melody as she moved through the shop, extinguishing the candles one by one, letting the sulfur of the wicks fill the air. Stopping at the last table with the largest of her three wick candles, Hermione took a moment to stare out of the fogged-up window. Blurred forms of people moved outside, hunched over as they hurried home in the rain.

She realized it was dinnertime as she checked her watch, and as her rumbling stomach so kindly reminded her, Hermione was starving.

She extinguished the last candle on the table, casting that particular corner into darkness, with the faint glow of her emergency lights filling the air. It was something she had learned from the Muggles, so the shop would never truly be dark. It also let her navigate the close-quarter shelves without bumping into anything with her expectant belly. Her husband had insisted on increasing the safety measures in her shop when they had learned she was expecting again. While the thought was sweet, after two children with their third on the way, Hermione felt like she knew what she was doing.

The rain suddenly increased in intensity, and Hermione paused for a moment to just listen to the rain on the rooftop. The sound resembled a waterfall roaring over the roof with an occasional louder 'plunk' from fatter raindrops on the lid of the chimney and the metal rain gutters. Sighing almost happily at the sound, she continued in her cleaning process in order to get home faster.

As she rounded a corner, Hermione felt a roiling in her gut that she had tried suppressing all day. Rushing to the counter, she snatched the last mint out of the candy bowl she had been plundering all day. She tossed it into her mouth and sucked on the piece of hard candy, sighing contentedly as the mint oil in the candy helped fight her unexpected bout of nausea. Morning sickness was grossly mislabeled. She finished with the last bit of tidying before grabbing her thermos of half-drunken tea and her bag, ready to finally head for home.

At the door, Hermione paused once more to take a long, deep breath. Her bookshop smelled of musty books, parchment, and the specialty ink she used for her ledger. It was a comforting smell, and she was proud of every little bit of her shop. She took a quick swig of her tea, still hot from the numerous warming charms she had applied over the day. She savored the herbal tea that her husband had packed for her that morning. It had chamomile in it, in the hopes of soothing her throughout the work day. She was supposed to be on bed rest, but she and her Healer had come to an agreement. Her work hours were cut in half (she only opened her shop now between lunch and dinner), and she could still have caffeine in small doses. While she hadn't been happy about the arrangement, she had been threatened with bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy, and Hermione had been properly cowed. Even when she was younger, she had been incapable of properly resting, and always needed to be doing something. Reducing her work hours was a start, and the longer she spent time on herself, the more she realized she could afford to rest.

Stepping outside, the slight chill in the autumn air reddened her nose and cheeks as she took another deep breath. The damp air filled her lungs as her hand automatically turned the key in the lock to close up her bookshop for the night with a solid click. In that moment, she was thoroughly thankful that the awning for her shop was deeper than the others she had looked at. It gave her about a foot of dry space before the door, which gave her the time to gather herself before stepping out into whatever weather there was.

With her wand in hand, the vinewood warm against her skin, she casted an umbrella charm to help keep the worst of the weather away. Stepping out into the rain, she was thankful for the foresight for her spellwork before heading home. Her shoes and socks were instantly drenched with the chilling water, but everything above her knees stayed dry.

Looking around, Hermione saw the empty spaces where the usual book vendors were. It was slightly disconcerting to see the area barren, but it was understandable. It had been raining non-stop the past few days, and no one wanted to risk their products if there was no end in sight. She idly wondered if the outdoor vendors ever went somewhere else to hawk their wares.

A cloaked figure rushed past, trying to get out of the rain. A door slammed loudly behind her, and the sign above the door of the inn swayed slightly. Turning forward once more, Hermione continued along her path home, looking forward to the warmth and dryness of their cottage at the edge of town. The rain thankfully seemed to let up just as she reached home.

Quickening her step as she spotted the warm light spilling from the windows and dropping her umbrella charm the last few feet, Hermione threw open the door and was hit with the overwhelming scent of stew and freshly baked bread. She couldn't help herself and took in a deep breath to savor the smells of home.

"Mama, Mama!" came identical voices moments before two small bodies collided with her legs. She swayed on her feet, grabbing onto the doorway to keep her balance.

"Why hello my sweet darlings!" she exclaimed happily, taking a step forward to shut the door behind her before leaning down and placing loud happy kisses on top of her childrens' heads. "Did you have a good day?"

The twins immediately started jabbering gayly about what they had learned in school, and Hermione couldn't help but smile to herself at their enthusiasm for learning. They headed further into their home, and Hermione saw the abandoned cardboard boxes and markers where her children had been making a fort before dinner.

Strong arms surrounded her waist from behind, and she leaned into her husband's embrace gratefully, letting him support her extra weight. Lips pressed against her hair, and she sighed happily.

"Welcome home, love," he said, his voice rumbling through her.

"How was your day, Viktor?" she asked softly as their children disappeared back into the sitting room to finish their project. She turned to him to meet his eyes, immediately noticing the grin on his face. "What?"

"My day is a lot better now that you're home," he replied before swooping in for a kiss. Hermione idly noticed the rain growing in intensity again, beating like a drum against the roof, but she found herself easily distracted. All too soon, in her opinion, her husband pulled away before releasing her. "Come, dinner is almost ready."

Hours later, she and Viktor shared the couch, her back to his front, a thick afghan covering their laps. Their four-year-old twins were asleep in their beds for the night, so it was just the two of them enjoying the crackling fire in the fireplace, the rain still steadily falling outside. The book in his hands, Hogwarts: A History, was worn and well loved. Not only was it her favorite book from her childhood, but also the first book she ever sold in her bookshop here in Bulgaria. As Viktor began to read to her, his deep voice washing over her, she let herself doze in his arms. It was good to be home.