viii: Of candyfloss and carousels

"Where's that music coming from?" Ron asked, his head tilting towards it. Hermione had booked them into a Muggle restaurant to celebrate their anniversary and obviously they couldn't just Apparate straight in there, so they were walking down the high street to get there. The shops had shut about an hour ago, so not many people were around, but the thing that had piqued Ron's curiosity was pop music blaring from speakers, sounding as though it was coming from a couple of streets away.

"Oh, there's a funfair in town - it'll be music from the fast rides," Hermione told him, checking her watch impatiently. "Come on, walk faster - they'll give our table away to somebody else if we don't hurry."

"Ooh, a Muggle funfair!" Ron exclaimed, ignoring her second comment, and his eyes lit up. "Dad took me and the twins to one of them when we were little. It was so cool! Can we go, Hermione?" he almost begged.

"What, now?" Hermione asked in surprise. "Of course not, Ron - we've booked this table, haven't we? I paid for it."

"Oh, yeah," Ron said, sounding disappointed.

"And we're hardly dressed appropriately," she laughed, gesturing at her dress and heels. "We're much too old for funfairs, anyway."

The restaurant was lovely - expensive, but worth it. The food and wine were of good quality, and the service was excellent; the staff were polite and the food came quickly. Hermione was almost reluctant to leave. She told Ron this as they exited, and he agreed almost half-heartedly. He'd been subdued all meal, now that Hermione thought of it.

She gave him an odd look.

"What?" he demanded.

"You really wanted to go to the funfair, didn't you?" Hermione asked, suppressing a smile.

"Don't laugh at me. Yes," he admitted, and Hermione ignored his request and burst out laughing. Ron joined in sheepishly.

"You're like a little kid, Ron Weasley," she told him, unable to resist kissing him. Suddenly, she had a thought. She checked her watch. "You know, we could still go. It's not quite dark yet. It'll still be open for another hour or so."

"Really?" Ron exclaimed, beaming. "But you said-"

"I know, but you know what? You're only young once, and we don't have grey hairs yet, so let's do it," Hermione declared.

Ron blinked. "Wow. How much wine did you have?"

"No more than you did, you git," she said, shoving him playfully. "Do you want to do this or not?"

"Of course I do!" Ron said excitedly, and his face lit up as they neared the source of the music.

Hermione smiled too as the fair came into sight - it was like Ron's heaven. In front of the backdrop of flashing lights and bright colours, food vans of all shapes and sizes lined the entrance to the square, some selling hot and greasy chips, some selling freshly baked doughnuts and others selling sweets of every variety. Ron made straight for the nearest burger van.

"Ron!" Hermione scolded him before he reached it. "We've only just had dinner. And a very expensive one at that," she added. "How on Earth can you be hungry again?"

"It's a talent," he said, grinning.

Hermione snorted, but waited in the line with him while he ordered and only failed to refrain from rolling her eyes when he was fumbling with the Muggle money to pay for it.

"Sorry," he said through a mouthful of burger after he'd been served. "It's just so confusing! Why can't everyone have the same money?"

"Once you're used to it, it'll make a whole lot more sense than wizard money," Hermione told him, laughing.

"Well I know I'll never get used to it," Ron declared. Hermione knew this was probably true; if Ron didn't deem something worth learning, he didn't take the trouble to learn it. "And it looks so weird. Why the jagged edges?" he demanded, holding up a fifty pence piece.

"I don't know, do I?" Hermione said, laughing. "I don't design it."

"But Hermione, I thought you were supposed to know everything," Ron teased, and Hermione made a face at him. "Sure you don't want any food?" he asked.

She nodded. "I can't stomach anything else. Although... maybe I'll get some of that," she said, as they passed a candyfloss vendor. "Dad always used to buy it for me at the fair - it was the only time I was ever allowed sugary food."

"What is it?" Ron asked.

"Candyfloss."

"Isn't that what Muggles use to clean their teeth?" he asked, confused.

Hermione snorted. "That's tooth floss, you idiot. Your teeth would rot pretty quickly if you used this to clean them - it's basically pure sugar."

"Oh," Ron said stupidly as Hermione paid the vendor.

"Try some if you want," she offered, holding the stick out to Ron.

He eyed the pink fluff uncertainly. "It looks like a Pygmy Puff," he commented. Hermione supposed that, growing up with Fred and George, Ron had learnt to distrust novelty ideas.

"It doesn't taste like one," she assured him. "Not that I've eaten one," she said hurriedly. "But the taste is perfectly innocent, I promise. Go on."

Ron tore off a clump and tried it. Hermione almost burst out laughing at the look of utter surprise on his face when it had clearly dissolved in his mouth.

"Like it?" she asked.

"Well it doesn't taste bad, but I just don't get the appeal," Ron said, screwing his face up. "It's kind of disappointing, isn't it? I mean, why would you want something to look bigger than it actually is? I'd rather have just as much food as I expected."

Hermione laughed. "All right, Ron. It's just a bit of childish fun." As they were eating, they moved up to where the rides were, and the music was blaring out so loudly that they had to shout to be heard over it. "So, rides?" Hermione asked.

"This certainly isn't how I remember the funfair being," Ron shouted, gesturing not only at the music, but at the fast and flashy rides.

"You probably went to one of the kiddie ones," she told him. "So what do you want to go on?" she asked as they kept walking and browsed.

"Well... I don't suppose you want to go on that one?" Ron asked teasingly, pointing towards a ride three times the size of a neighbouring tree, which flung the passengers up in the air far too fast. He knew that Hermione had never been a fan of flying.

"Hardly. People have broken their necks on those, Ron," she told him disapprovingly.

"Wizards haven't," Ron argued, "but never mind. I was only joking anyway."

"Well in that case, I don't suppose you want to go on that one," Hermione retorted, pointing at the ghost train, which had a gigantic hairy spider over the entrance, which was clearly made of plastic, but it made Ron shudder all the same.

"Not, really, no," he admitted, grinning sheepishly. They caught each other's eyes and laughed.

"We're both complete wimps, aren't we," Hermione giggled. "How about the carousel? You can't go wrong with the carousel."

"Definitely not," Ron agreed, and as they whizzed round and round on their magnificent golden horses, listening to the music tinkling, Hermione decided that there was no way she would rather have spent her anniversary.

A/N: Hehe I really needed to write some fluff after that last chapter :P Written for the prompt "merry-go-round" on the Pairing Diversity Boot Camp (I changed it to carousel because alliteration :P) and "young" on the OTP Boot Camp.

Also I would just like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY RUPERT GRINT, YOU WONDERFUL MAN. :)