Summary: Hermione and Ron find themselves stuck in a Labyrinth. If they're going to get out, they'll have to learn to work together. But once they do, what will happen when they discover much more than meets the eye?
Rating: PG
Pairing: Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger
Disclaimer: I do not, did not and never will own Harry Potter.
The Labyrinth of Love
Chapter 11: Buena Burger
Hermione wouldn't accept going on a plane wearing only half-decent clothes. Ron's shirt was stained, damp and dirty, and Hermione's was pretty much the same. Hermione hailed a taxi and told him to stop at a fast food place near the airport, which was about 3 hours away from where they started off.
The fast food place was called "Buena Burger", and an African American teenager was behind the counter. Hermione and Ron approached him and he looked straight up to them and said, "Welcome to Buena Burger, home of the Buena Burger, may I take your order?"
"Yes please", Ron said, glancing at Hermione, who pretended to be interested in the blue tiles that lined the floor of the fast food store.
"Oh its okay, Ron. Go on, have a bit to eat," Hermione said, biting her lip.
"I'll have a burger, and strawberry shake please", Ron said, and he turned to Hermione.
"I'll have the same, except I'll have a vanilla shake instead of a strawberry one"
When they finally got their orders, they sat quietly in a booth. Ron eyed the burger and took a sip of his shake. The sweetness of the shake hit his tongue and he smiled, refreshed. He set down the shake and then he started to unwrap the burger.
Hermione looked at Ron as he unwrapped the burger, and then she took her own burger and unwrapped it too. She took a big bite, and she felt relieved that it tasted like a normal, not-too-shabby burger, although she couldn't be quite sure.
Ron finished his burger quickly and then he stood up to order some fries. Hermione ate the last of her burger in silence, and when Ron returned, Hermione started sipping her shake.
"You want some?" Ron offered the fries, taking a bottle of ketchup as well.
"Sure", Hermione said reaching for some fries.
A few minutes later, they were enjoying the fries. It became quite silent as Hermione took about five fries and bent over to dip it in the ketchup. As she bent over, Ron said, "Just so you know, I'd cry for you too"
Hermione was so surprised that she dropped the fries into the small bowl of ketchup, making some splatter onto Ron's shirt.
"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry, Ron…" Hermione grabbed a table napkin and started wiping Ron's shirt, "I'm really, really sorry…I didn't mean to—"
"It's okay", Ron stuttered. He was surprised at what Hermione was doing, "Hermione…"
"What?" Hermione stopped trying to clean Ron's shirt and looked at Ron, her hair blocking Ron's view of her honey colored eyes.
"Sit down"
It wasn't like Hermione to be so confused, but she was. She wouldn't have taken that order from Ron if she wasn't so startled and embarrassed. So she sat down.
Ron then reached over and cleared away the hair from her eyes.
"What did you do that for?" Hermione said, eyeing Ron curiously.
"I couldn't see your pretty eyes", Ron said, without thinking.
Hermione grabbed the backpack and stood up.
"I have to go change", she said quickly, and she headed for the bathroom. Ron stood up after she entered the bathroom. He grabbed his own backpack and headed for the men's room.
While Hermione was in the comfort room, she was thinking about what Ron said. The vision of Ron clearing away her hair to tuck behind her ear repeated itself in her head. She dressed up quickly into khaki pants and a blue blouse. She combed her hair furiously and made sure that it didn't fall on her face.
She then stared into the mirror, into her eyes. Her face seemed so plain, compared to other girls. Especially her eyes; honey colored eyes were so common, and it made her think about why Ron would care so much about seeing her eyes.
She remembered the things that she was thinking about when Ron was unconscious. An annoying voice at the back of her head screamed, "How could you be so stupid as to not realize that you're falling for him all this time?"
She silently screamed back, "Because I'm not falling for him! And even if I were, Ron wouldn't see me as more than some friend with honey colored eyes"
The voice argued back convincingly, "How would you know for sure, miss smarty-pants?"
In the men's room, Ron said aloud, "I couldn't see your honey colored eyes", then he repeated the line in his head for some time as he was changing into black denim pants and a red t-shirt.
"Ron, you really are stupid", he said to himself in the mirror, "now Hermione might think you secretly like her"
Then came the small voice from nowhere: "But you do like her, you do"
"No I don't" Ron thought, "No I—"
But the small voice cut him off, "Yes you do. You can't get enough of her hair, her eyes, her smile… the way she's so smart, she's so kind and she's so clever. You like every bit of Hermione Granger"
"No I don't.", he said out loud, and he ran his hand through his flaming red hair and left the bathroom and added, "at least I don't think I do"
Ron and Hermione met at the entrance of the store, Ron still munching on his left over fries. Hermione hailed a taxicab and Ron hesitantly threw the fries into the nearest trash bin. Hermione rolled her eyes and got into the cab.
The ride to the airport was long and uncomfortable. They were stuck in a traffic jam when Hermione dozed off, her head resting on Ron's shoulder. Ron gently eased closer to Hermione so she'd be more comfortable. Hermione's breathing became synchronized to Ron's and he smiled, clutching Hermione's hand.
Hermione woke up about twenty minutes later, her head still on Ron's shoulder. She didn't move, but her eyes were open, trying to remember what happened. She had fallen asleep on Ron's shoulder. She looked down at her hand. Ron's hand was resting on it. Had she snored? Had she moved around a lot? She had this need to hug something when she slept; had she subconsciously hugged Ron during that twenty or thirty minutes that she had been sleeping.
Hermione let out a yawn, startling Ron a bit. Ron looked down at her and then out to the window.
"Hey Ron," she said sleepily, "I'm sorry. I fell asleep"
"Nah, it's okay," Ron said, "You were quite heavy though"
"Oh shut up"
Ron laughed and then he started to say, "You looked very—"
He had meant to say "beautiful" but then he said, "peaceful"
Hermione moved away from Ron a bit and looked at him. His eyes seemed to be focused on the driver's route.
Ron wasn't focused on the driver's route at all; in fact, he had been contemplating on his feelings for Hermione.
"Maybe I do like her," Ron thought, "I mean, I can hardly look at her without blushing and becoming conscious of what I say and—"
Ron's thoughts were suddenly interrupted when the taxi came to a halt.
Hermione paid the cabdriver and then she exited the cab watching Ron remove the backpacks from the trunk of the car. He shot a smile to Hermione, who went over to take her backpack.
"No, it's okay," Ron said, "I'll carry them"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes I am"
Hermione blushed
In putting on the backpack, Ron turned to the cabdriver and smiled. The cabdriver whispered, "Do you like her?"
Ron shrugged, but this question rang inside his head till they got to immigration.
Hermione suddenly realized that they had no passports. They had tickets and no passports. Suddenly, the backpack Ron was carrying seemed to heavier. When Ron knelt down to see what it was, he saw an entire clear folder full of documents and papers, plus their passports.
Hermione took them in relief and gave them to the immigration officer. Their hands brushed against each other and Ron suddenly became interested in his shoes and Hermione was taking handfuls of free candy at the immigration counter.
When they boarded the plane, Hermione was furious at herself for blushing at the immigration counter. She took out a candy and unwrapped it, chewing at it.
"Can I have one?"
"Huh?"
"A sweet"
"Oh", Hermione said, and she gave him a sweet (candy).
She blushed again. Ron's ears actually turned red as he sat down at their assigned seat. Hermione focused on not blushing as she helped Ron buckle his seatbelt and figure out the controls on the TV set in front of his chair.
"Hey Hermione, us wizards should have this kind of entertainment on our brooms!" he whispered, after watching a F.R.I.E.N.D.S. rerun. Hermione suppressed a giggle and then tried to keep Ron quiet, "Shh Ron! There are Muggles here"
"Oh, I'm sorry"
Ron nearly fainted when the food cart came and the stewardess told him that there was no need to pay for his food. He took a sip of his soda and then announced that he had to go to the bathroom.
Hermione pointed to the nearest lavatory and he was off.
While he was there, Hermione thought of why she kept on blushing. "If I'm lucky," she thought, "Maybe it's just a disorder; maybe I don't have feelings for Ron after all"
A few seconds passed and then she said to herself, "Okay, maybe I like Ron, maybe I don't. But I'm sure that he doesn't feel the same anyway…"
Ron arrived back at his seat with a grin. "Muggles are crazy. Why would they put paper cups in the toilet?"
Hermione muttered something that sounded like, "No they're not", but Ron didn't hear.
About an hour later, Ron fell asleep. It was Hermione's turn to stare at him. Half an hour later, a teenaged girl passed and said to Hermione, "You are so lucky. He is so hot!" she pointed at Ron and then she went on to the lavatory. When the girl passed again, Hermione said to her, "You really think he's cute?"
The girl gave double thumbs up.
The plane landed hours later and Ron was awake, eating breakfast.
"I should ride these planey-things more often", he said.
"Planes"
"Right", then he took a big bite of his toast.
Hermione and Ron were greeted by Katarina. She was wearing Khaki shorts and s Khaki shirt and she smiled her wonderful, toothy smile. The rubber bands of her braces now matched her clothing. She looked beautiful.
Hermione groaned.
Ron reciprocated Katarina's smile and then waited for her to speak.
"Follow me," Katarina said. They followed her to a patch of land not far from the airport. Nobody was within 50 feet of the place.
"You are to swim in the Great Barrier Reef and collect the boomerangs", Katarina said, her accent seemed to sound prettier and more enticing than the last time they met.
They appeared suddenly about 20 feet of the grandeur of the Great Barrier Reef and they were wearing diving suits and oxygen tanks. Ron looked around. Katarina was gone.
Hermione looked down on the sand. Outlined on the ocean floor was the number five. She swam around to start to look for the boomerangs.
Ron was stunned of the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef. "I can't think of anything prettier than this", he said to himself. His words lingered for a bit before he finally said aloud (although no one heard), "except Hermione"
Hermione found the first boomerang near a group of Angel Fish. She smiled at how pretty they were and then she clutched the boomerang tightly.
Ron found two boomerangs in close succession a little far away from a group of multicolored fish. He held them tightly and swam over to give them to Hermione, who had found the fourth one under some seaweed.
It took a while to find the last one. While searching for it, Ron found a beautiful shell near some coral. He held it tightly but with a gentle touch, and then he saw Hermione waving for him to see that she had found the last boomerang.
At least that was what he thought.
Hermione was pointing frantically behind him, and then he turned around to see a huge shark swimming toward him. All the fish had disappeared inside their homes and he panicked swimming as fast as he could towards Hermione.
He swam quickly towards Hermione but they had nowhere to go. The shark was only a few inches away from them when there was a cracking noise and then they found themselves on the shore.
Katarina giggled. "Gave you a scare didn't I?"
Ron laughed along, but he was really scared.
Hermione handed over all the boomerangs and looked over at Ron.
The rest of the afternoon, they rested at the beach and ate ice cream. They watched the sun go down.
"It's so pretty…" Hermione said, as the last rays of the sun disappeared.
Katarina appeared and led them to a secluded spot to have some dinner. They had really good seafood and they chattered about anything and everything.
Ron suddenly remembered the seashell he had gotten. He took it out of his pocket and then handed it to Hermione.
"Hey, I want you t-to have this", he said and then looked down.
Hermione smiled and examined it. "It's really, really beautiful, Ron", she said, blood rushing to her cheeks, "Thanks"
Then she leaned over and kissed him quickly on the cheek.
They suddenly realized that Katarina had gone, but that didn't really matter, because in her place at the dinner table was a pink envelope containing tickets to Paris.
A/N: Thank you all for reading the tenth chapter and for waiting patiently for the eleventh one. I'm sorry this one took so long, but I am sort of busy. The next one will be up in two weeks, depending on how many reviews I get. wink wink
Thanks to:
Blue Rose of the Forgotten, Celi, sapphirenight, Syd, deepbluequill, xoGossipGirlox,
Little Black poko-chan yes it was part of a room
Ratica, jesus? No maybe moses, Lavender Brown 17,
hpchick glad you think so
Grint'sBestGal magic
coco-pop thanks! this room is very similar to amazing race, isn't it?
Sorry this chappy was so short.
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