Drinks and Flowers
AN: I've changed the format now, for anyone who read it before, so it's easier to read. Thanks!
Ron bounced his leg nervously, his hands gripping his tankard of Butterbeer. He set it down, then picked it back up again, glancing about the pub as if it would help it, then looked back at his table. "I need to get her something special, something she'll love."
"Angelina loved chocolate body paint." Fred offered helpfully. Ron stared at him for a moment
before realizing he wasn't kidding.
"Er, I don't think we're at that stage yet."
"Hey, you never know." Bill said with a shrug. "It's a gift you'll love, too." The twins, Charlie, Ron and Harry turned to him, mouths open. Bill grinned secretively and shrugged. Ron shook his head slowly.
"I don't think so. We've never really said we're—together." George covered his mouth, choking on the Butterbeer he had just drank. His twin whacked him on the back until he could recover.
"You've been living in the same house for nine months and talking about it never came up." George asked. Harry nudged George teasingly.
"I don't think talking is what they do when they're alone." Ron kicked Harry under the table while his brothers howled with laughter.
"And I thought you were my friend!" Harry grinned.
"Sorry, mate."
"Seriously, I need something to get her that she'll remember forever." Ron insisted.
"Stop the bloody war." Charlie muttered cryptically, leaning back. An uncomfortable silence fell on the table.
George sighed uneasily. "Honestly, you'd think women could forget a Valentine's day when there's a war." Charlie shook his head.
"Women, forget a day where they get gifts and chocolate? Never."
"'Course not, that would give us blokes a break." Harry answered, trying a grin. The others chuckled and the heavy mood lightened considerably. They all finished their Butterbeer and Bill raised his hand to Rosemerta for another round.
"You need something subtle." Charlie said thoughtfully. Ron smiled thankfully.
"Yes, subtle! Finally, someone who understands!"
Fred turned to George with a wounded look. "But the body paint was one of my more subtle ones!"
"I know, I know." George patted Fred's hand sympathetically. Ron scowled at the twins.
"I could use less help from Gred and Forge, there."
"You could get her a new book." Bill suggested. Charlie grinned and winked, whispering loudly to
Ron and Harry.
"Thinking like a prissy Head Boy again. Either that or Percy." Bill swatted at him companionably.
"Go back to your dragons, Charlie. Your manners fit in perfectly there." Charlie laughed and punched Bill's shoulder lightly. Bill retaliated and soon a cheerful fight had started between the two. Fred and George started cheering as Harry laughed. Ron buried his face in his hands.
"I'm about to be bloody murdered tonight and all you prats can do is argue!" Bill and Charlie
looked up and righted themselves.
"I think you need something to cheer you up." Charlie decided. "Butterbeer Extra, don't you think, Bill?" Bill licked his lips and raised his arm to Rosemerta, calling loudly to her. Harry studied Charlie.
"Extra? You really think that getting pissed is going to help Ron's problem?" Bill looked back and grinned.
"Always worked for me."
Rosemerta walked up to their table, wiping her hands on her apron. Bill smiled charmingly at her.
"Hullo, love." Rosemerta raised a slim eyebrow skeptically. Fred and George snorted, glancing away as their oldest brother glared at them and cleared his throat. "Six Butterbeer Extras, if you could."
"If you're thinking of giving that to the young ones, especially this early in the day," she tossed her head at Ron and Harry, "you'd better think of your mum's reaction."
"Hey, we're not that young, Rosemerta!" Harry protested.
"You're young." Rosemerta informed him. Charlie tried his own smile.
"Come on, Rosemerta. You were giving Bill and I that stuff when we were young as them." Rosemerta shifted her weight and crossed her arms. "Please? Ron's stuck here on a gift idea for Hermione's valentine and –"
"You waited until now?" Rosemerta gave him a disbelieving look. "No need to say anymore." Rosemerta held up her hand and grinned widely. "If he's left to decide soberly, he'll be in here in a few days, drinking it up to try and forget whatever it is she does to him." Ron scowled, slouching in his seat.
"Thanks." Rosemerta patted his head.
"Some of the best decisions can be made when pissed." She tilted her head thoughtfully. "Then again, some of the worst are decided then, too." Fred waved off her comment with a shake of his head.
"No worries. They can't get any worse then what he'd decide, anyway."
"Wonderful confidence my family has in me." Ron threw his hands up in the air, clearly fed up. His brothers grinned jokingly at him. Harry shrugged.
"We're just trying to help." He turned to Ron's brothers with another shrug. "If you'd rather we leave you to decide, it's no problem for us to –"
"No, that's all right." Ron sat up straight, reaching out to prevent them from going. "Your suggestions just aren't helping. Hermione's going to kill me." Six tankards floated up to them and they each grabbed one. Charlie slapped Ron on the back.
"Drink up and soon everything looks perfect again." At the same time, all six young men tossed back a chug from their tankard, shuddered after they swallowed, then grinned at one another.
***
After about seven rounds of Butterbeer Extra, Ron wasn't any closer to finding a gift then he had been when they first started. His brothers and Harry were still trying to help, but, with that much alcohol in their bodies, they weren't very useful.
"Print a big message in the Prophet with hearts and get her little candies." Fred held his hand up to try and demonstrate how small and ended up poking himself in the eye.
"Gets a hole bunches of owls to drag a sign of clouds saying you love her over the house, likes those muggle areplanes." Charlie swung back another drink and slammed his tankard on the table to punctuate his suggestion, his words slightly slurred.
"Hire a singing dwarf to give her a message at work." George teased, poking Harry, who blushed and punched George. Ron shook his head, giggling childishly.
"She's at Gringotts this week, I think. I don't think the goblins would appreciate that muck, er—mush. No," Ron giggled again, speaking slowly, "much."
"You could sing to her yourself, Ron." Harry grinned sloppily. "I've heard you in the shower professing your love after she leaves in the morning." He tried to get down on one knee, his hands over his heart. "Oh Mione, my darling, luscious beauty! I—"
"Sod off, Harry!" Ron scowled and yanked his friend up while the others burst out laughing. Fred
shook his head.
"I'm telling you, the body paint is amazing." He shook his finger at Ron with a giggle. "You'd be
surprised at the places you can put it that – Ow!" George had elbowed Fred's side to shut him up and the twins were now busy making faces at each other.
"Fill the whole house with roses!" Bill proclaimed dramatically, swinging his arms open wide and smacking Charlie in the nose. Charlie rubbed his face then laughed and finished Bill's drink for him, causing Harry to giggle and spit his mouthful all over the table, and making the oldest two and the twins laugh with him. Ron, though, had frozen to his seat.
"It's perfect, with a few changes." He muttered heavily to himself. He grinned unsteadily at Bill, jumping to his feet and wavering slightly. "You're brilliant!" Bill nodded wisely.
"I know." He turned to Harry questioningly. "What'd I do?"
***
Hermione walked into the Noisy Haven, glancing around her. She always Apparated to the outside of the house and entered through the door, just in case Harry and Ginny were in the den. After that first incident, she wasn't in any hurry. Hermione walked into the kitchen and set her purse on the table.
"Ron?" She pulled off her coat and hung it up. "Harry?" A note on the counter told her that Harry had gone out to see Ginny and wouldn't be back until late and she studied the fancy bottle of Butterbeer Extra beside it suspiciously. She walked past the steps, about to call out loud again, and stopped dead. A red rose was lying on the first step. Hermione glanced around her, then slowly bent to pick it up.
She sniffed it gently and smiled when her eyes landed on another rose a few steps higher. Cautiously she walked up to that one too, her eyes flicking about until they landed on a third. She followed the path until they reached her door. Hermione grinned, imaging Ron sitting on the bed, a final rose in his hands, and pushed open the door. Her mouth fell open.
Ron was, in fact, sitting on the bed and he was holding a rose. But that was not the only rose in the room. Every inch of the floor was covered in the beautiful flowers. They were also on her dressers, and between every book on her bookshelf. Ron, placed in the center of the bed, was also surrounded. He smiled shyly at her and held out the rose.
"Happy Valentine's day?" He sounded so unsure that Hermione had to smile. She bounded across the room and flung herself at Ron happily.
"Oh, Ron!" She squealed. "How did you think of this?"
"It's amazing at what pops into your head after a few drinks." Ron answered honestly. Hermione pursed her lips disapprovingly but, before she could say anything, Ron tucked a tiny rose behind her ear and she almost knocking him backward onto the bed with a heartfelt kiss. "Hey!" Ron pushed her upright suddenly after a few heated minutes.
"What?" Hermione was already breathing heavy but she struggled to her knees.
"Do you know how long in took me to get these arranged like this?" Ron asked, gesturing at the intricately weaved bed of flowers that Hermione had almost knocked him onto. "I did not do all this work just to have them crushed or pushed aside!"
Hermione glanced at the bed, then her eyes traveled to Ron's face. The blouse that she had worn to work was unbuttoned halfway, her red brassiere exposed. She crossed her arms defiantly and cocked her head at him.
Ron's eyes flickered from Hermione's face, to the beautifully done roses behind him, then moved slowly from Hermione's knees, her skirt ruffled higher than was strictly decent, up her body to her face again, framed by the hair that had strayed from it's bun. His eyes lingered on her face for a moment.
"To bloody hell with it all."