"We've got to get some food for dinner tonight. Anyone want to come with me to the grocery store?" Hermione jangled her car keys impatiently. Harry, Ron, and Ginny were just about to sit down on the sofa when Hermione made this interruption.

Harry and Ginny shook their heads. "I'll come with you," Ron said, getting off of the couch. Hermione smiled.

"We'll see you two later." Hermione grabbed Ron's arm and pulled him to the door.

"I'm perfectly capable of walking by myself," he said, pushing Hermione's hand off of his arm.

"Don't be like that, Ron! I was just –" but the door slammed shut behind them and Harry and Ginny could only faintly hear their bickering as they proceeded down the hall.

"Those two," Ginny said, smiling and shaking her head. "What is it with them?"

"They've always kind of had a 'thing' for each other. You should have seen them when Hermione invited Ron to Slughorn's Christmas party last year. I think the only reason they didn't start kissing right then was because I was standing right in between them." Harry chuckled, then sighed. "Then Ron had to ruin everything by chasing after Lavender… I knew it was a mistake the second I saw Hermione's face."

"That's just like Ron, to mess everything up like that. He is so retarded sometimes." Ginny leaned onto Harry. "Want to watch T.V.?"

"Sure," Harry said, as he began to play with Ginny's hair.

Meanwhile, at the grocery store…

"Hermione, that guy looks exactly like Roger Davies!"

"Don't be silly, Ron," Hermione said vaguely, examining a bruised apple without even looking up. They were currently in the fruit section and Hermione had to endure Ron's remarks constantly as she looked for the items on her list. She picked up a few good apples, put them into a bad and tied it with a twisty-tie, and checked 'apples' off of her list. She then put the bagged apples into her cart.

"Hermione, what's that?" Ron asked, pointing to a green machine near the entrance to the store.

This time, Hermione did look up. "It's a change machine."

"What do you mean?"

"You put in a dollar and it gives you about ninety cents." She then started looking for potatoes.

"I don't understand."

"Just say you put a Galleon into it and it gives you seventeen sickles in return," Hermione explained, pushing her cart to the end of the isle and examining the potatoes.

"Really? I want to try." He then pulled a Galleon out of his pocket and marched over to the machine.

"No, Ron, I was just kidding," Hermione said hastily, grabbing his arm. "It doesn't work with Wizarding money. It only works it you have American money. Plus, it takes ten percent of your change, so it's a total rip off. It's just some evil scheme like a slot machine at a casino."

Ron's face fell. He's just like a little kid sometimes, Hermione thought, biting her lip. She sighed. "All right, here, take this dollar and put it in the machine and get some change." She handed Ron a dollar, fully expecting him to do it wrong and return with nothing. Just a dollar, she thought. And now he'll be out of my hair.

She continued her shopping as Ron charged off with the dollar and proceeded to the dairy part of the store. Several minutes later, Ron appeared at the end of the isle. "Hermione!" He rushed toward her, nearly knocking over an elderly lady's cart in the process. "I got the change," he said happily, depositing several coins into her hand.

"Oh, you did it! Thank you." Hermione rolled her eyes as soon as Ron turned away, and began counting the coins in her hand. Satisfied, she put them into her pocket.

"Okay, Ron, we're nearly done. I just need bread and milk." She picked up a gallon of milk on the refrigerated shelf next to her and turned down another isle, Ron following behind her. After grabbing a loaf of bread, she wheeled her cart towards a checkout lane. Ron began to fiddle with a switch below the glowing, plastic sign and the light began to turn on and off. Hermione snickered. "Ron, don't touch that." She flipped the light back on again and removed his hand from the switch. She couldn't blame him for being curious, however. It must have been strange seeing all this Muggle stuff for the first time, and in a foreign country. She placed both of his hands into his pockets. "There. Now don't touch anything else, people are starting to stare."

Harry and Ginny were watching a reality T.V. show when Ron and Hermione entered the hotel room, each clutching several bags of groceries.

"I'm going to start making dinner," Hermione announced. "Harry, you can help me. Ron, Ginny, please set the table."

"What are we having?" Ron asked, whose stomach began to make noise.

"Spaghetti and garlic bread! It's one of my favorites."

Harry chuckled. "I've had to make garlic bread hundreds of times for the Dursleys." He then pulled out an oven sheet and began preparing the food as Ginny opened a drawer and removed four sets of silverware.

"Who wants to play Exploding Snap?" Ginny exclaimed, pulling out a deck of cards once the table had been set and Harry had put the bread in the oven.

Hermione gave a disapproving look. "No, guys, don't. You'll disturb the people in the room below us."
Ginny ignored Hermione as she sat on the floor next to Harry and her brother and began stacking up the cards.

Hermione turned back to the spaghetti, knowing that nothing that she could say would stop her three friends from making a bunch of noise. Well, why not? We're on vacation, may as well let them disturb the people in the room below us, as long as they're having fun.

A few minutes later, what Hermione had been dreading happened. The stack of cards toppled with an explosive bang and Harry, Ron, and Ginny shrieked loudly, and then started laughing.

"Why is it always me?" Ron shouted, feeling his burnt eyebrows. Ginny and Harry laughed even harder. Even Hermione couldn't suppress a smile. They began to play again, Ron grumbling darkly. Hermione continued to stir the spaghetti sauce.

"Watch out, Ginny!" Harry said, as the stack of cards teetered dangerously.

"Phew, that was close." Ginny wiped her sweating forehead.

"Your turn, Ron," Harry said, grinning evilly.

With a look of intense concentration, Ron leaned forward and gingerly placed a card on top of the stack. Unnoticed by Ron or Ginny, Harry blew lightly onto the stack as Ron put down a card. The stack fell again and blew up in Ron's face, smoldering the tip of his red hair. Hermione, who had seen Harry's cheat, giggled uncontrollably while Harry and Ginny rolled around on the floor, laughing so hard that there was no noise coming from them at all except for gasping breaths. Hermione wiped tears of mirth from her eyes as she giggled harder.

"Should have seen…your…face…" Ginny gasped, sitting up. But she quickly fell back down on the floor again, overcome with silent fits of laughter as she remembered Ron's expression as the cards blew up in his face.

"My…lungs…" Harry said, holding onto his chest.

Ron looked angry. "Every single stinking time…" He felt his blackened hair and moaned at the dead feeling.

Ginny let out a loud shriek of laughter and quickly covered her mouth. She giggled as they all stared at her. "Oops…" she said. Her face was red from laughter and embarrassment at her outburst.

"Dinner's ready," Hermione said once they had all calmed down. They began to eat, Harry and Ginny still breathing heavily, clutching their aching stomachs.

Ginny snorted into her napkin and almost fell off her chair, making the other three laugh. "I'm sorry! I was just remembering Ron's face when the cards blew up…"

Ron groaned as he touched his burnt hair again after they had cleaned the dishes. "How am I going to fix this? Hermione, do you know a spell?"

"No," Hermione said, wringing her hands. She did in fact know just the charm to renew dead hair. However, she wanted to see him suffer with it, and, just maybe, she'd perform it on him tomorrow morning before they left for Disneyland.