A/N: This drabble piece is dedicated to ImNotSpeakingToYou for our one year anniversary of harassing knowing each other. *raises glass*
43. Butterflies
It wasn't until a few days after, -after Marietta Edgecombe sold them to Umbridge,- that it hits her.
She performed a Patronus charm.
Ron, Harry and her are studying in the library. Easter holidays are coming soon and after that they'll have to take their O.W.L.s. Hermione is fully aware that the boys won't study enough during the break, so she's trying to squeeze in as much studying as possible before they part. For their sakes as much as hers.
She is reviewing the names of Jupiter's moon, already imprinted in her memory since they first studied them three years ago, when her mind drifts back to the memory of the silvery flow of her Patronus.
An otter.
She wonders why.
Hermione remembers seeing them when she was little. Her parents had taken her to the zoo. She recalls few things from that visit: the popcorn she'd given to the giraffes, the snakes unfazed by the children tapping the glass between them, and the two sea otters holding hand as they were drifting sleepily on the water. They had seemed so serene.
She raises her eyes from her book to look at Ron, frowning over his -hers really- Transfiguration notes. He looks adorable and she smiles to herself.
And then it clicks.
Ottery St Catchpole.
It's like a giant red flag just raised itself in her head.
Ron's hometown.
This can't be why her Patronus is an otter. Because he lives in Ottery St Catchpole.
Hermione breath hitches as she inaudibly gasps. She can barely control her racing heart as she loses complete control of the butterflies invading her stomach. This is so obvious, why hasn't she realised earlier. After all, the memory she used to conjure her Patronus was her first visit at the Burrow, and how Ron's home had given her a renewed sense of belonging. She never told her parents. Before casting the spell, she'd taken a deep breath and recalled Molly engulfing her in warm hug as soon as she had arrived, and how everything had just been so marveling. From the dishes washing themselves above the sink to the delicious smell of the freshly mowed grass in the garden.
She can't explain why the Burrow had had such a strong effect on her. Hermione hadn't thought possible that anywhere outside of Hogwarts would have made her feel that way.
It had felt home, achingly so.
Hermione doesn't realise she's still looking at Ron, and smiling like an idiot!, when he catches her off guards.
He always does.
"Have I got something on my face?" he asks her grumpily, and she thinks it's cute.
I'm in trouble.
The butterflies haven't stopped since her epiphany, and she doesn't trust her voice to reply. So Hermione just shakes her head and quickly puts her nose back into her book.
"Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto are Jupiter's Galilean moons..."
And you most definitely have more than just a crush on Ron Weasley.
