Chapter Ten: Important Muggle Culture

When Ron awoke the next morning, the first thing he saw was Hermione watching over him as he slept. She had a smile on her face and all he could do was marvel at how beautiful she was.

'Morning, Ron,' she said.

'Good morning, my love,' he said smiling at her.

'Did you sleep all right?' she asked.

'I did, but it was not as good as waking up to your beautiful face. I think I could do that forever, you know …' he replied.

Hermione took his hand and said, 'That almost sounded like a proposal, Ronald Weasley.'

Ron pulled her closer and said, 'Maybe it was, but I think I will ask you properly at some point …'

Before she could retort, he pulled her in for a long kiss full of passion, desire and love.

'Mm, keep kissing me like that and you won't need to ask me properly, as you put it …' she whispered.

'I love you, Hermione,' said Ron.

'I love you too, Ron,' said Hermione.

Hermione lay down on the bed with Ron so he could hold her and neither of them spoke for a little while.

Eventually Hermione broke the comfortable silence.

'Mum's working this afternoon, and my dad has appointments all day …'

'How … interesting …'

'We'll have the house to ourselves for the afternoon,' said Hermione, suggestively.

'Are you suggesting we spend a little of the afternoon engaged in certain activities that will not get me invited to Christmas dinner?'

Hermione giggled and said, 'I might be …'

'Well, as much as I want to, I don't want to do anything to jeopardise getting to know your parents a little better, and they are letting me stay here with you for the summer, and I think debauching their only daughter in their house while they are at work would be a bit disrespectful,' said Ron.

Hermione sighed and said, 'Fair enough, though I have to wonder when you got so logical.'

'You must be rubbing off on me, sweet Hermione,' he replied.

Hermione groaned as she sat up again before saying, 'It's time to get up, you know, for breakfast?'

Ron then sat up too and pulled her into another kiss before she left him to get dressed.

When he was dressed he went downstairs to the kitchen and found Hermione and Helen drinking tea.

'Morning, Ron, help yourself to tea, won't you?' said Helen, kindly.

'Thank you, Helen,' said Ron. He then poured out a cup of tea for himself. 'Do you have any sugar?' he asked.

'Hmm, we shouldn't but I know Richard has some in the cupboard,' said Helen, getting to feet and going over to the cupboard before bringing a small container full of sugar.

'Thank you,' said Ron, kindly, before dumping three heaped teaspoons full into his tea.

'You must have a sweet tooth a mile long, Ron,' said Helen, smiling.

'Yeah, I do; what about you?' Ron replied.

'No, I don't have any sugar with anything, it damages your teeth, you see,' said Helen.

'Really, you don't put in any sugar at all for your tea or coffee?' Ron asked astounded.

'No, and neither does Hermione,' said Helen.

Ron was sure this was not true because he had seen Hermione add sugar to her morning coffee, and to her cups of tea at lunchtime, but said, 'Of course, you're both sweet enough, aren't you?'

Helen and Hermione both laughed at Ron's words and Helen said, 'I think this one's a keeper, Hermione, with compliments like that, you hold on to him!'

'Oh, I intend to, Mum, don't you worry about that,' Hermione said smiling at Ron.

When breakfast was over, where Ron had eaten a bowl of Cornflakes with lots of sugar, he and Hermione went into the living room and she explained to him how the television worked, as well as the CD player and Hi-Fi system, and the telephone. Ron understood them very easily as Hermione explained them to him very well. When her mother went to work for her afternoon appointments, they were left to their own devices as they spent the afternoon watching whatever crap happened to be on the TV, in fact, the pair fell asleep in front of the television in each other's arms until they were awoken by Hermione's parents returning home.

During dinner, Ron got to know Hermione's father a little. He told Ron that he liked sports and liked to watch them to relax. He also told Ron to call him Richard and so Ron did. Ron told him that he liked Quidditch and supported the Chudley Cannons, despite the team's century long bad patch. Richard applauded Ron for sticking by his team and told Ron about his favourite Football team, Tottenham Hotspur.

'If we're playing at home on Boxing Day, I'll try to get tickets for the game,' said Richard.

'That would be great,' said Ron, as Helen and Hermione groaned quietly.

'Hermione tells me that most wizards don't know anything about muggle culture, is that true?' Richard asked.

'Yeah, pretty much, you see we don't have tellies and things like that as we don't use or have eckletricity,' Ron answered.

'Electricity,' Hermione corrected.

'Yeah, that,' said Ron.

'Excellent, well as it's a Friday night, I'm going to teach you about a very important piece of muggle culture … a man by the name of Bond, James Bond,' said Richard, beaming at him.

'Er, okay,' said Ron.

Richard then launched into what could have been a seminar on James Bond before finally Ron said, 'Let me get this straight, this Bond kills loads of people, drinks fancy cocktails, smokes, gambles, saves the world from some nutter bent on world domination, and gets the girl, without using any magic?'

'Yes, just his wits and the odd clever gadget given to him by Q,' said Richard.

'Right; and it's a different girl every time?' Ron asked.

'Yep, although there are a couple of actresses who have appeared in more than one film as different characters, you see …'

'Dad, why don't you let Ron watch a film or two, so he can understand it better?' Hermione suggested.

'What an excellent suggestion!' said Richard, and so the four of them made their way into the living room.

Once they had all made themselves comfortable, Richard put in the first video. Ron noticed it was called Dr No, and so he sat back and watched the film with Hermione sitting next to him with her head resting on his shoulder. As the film played out, Ron could not take his eyes away from the screen as he sat there transfixed. During the iconic moment where Ursula Andress makes her entrance, Ron's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He had never seen anything like it before, and made a mental note to ask Hermione if she had a bikini like Honey Ryder's.

When the film ended, Ron could not wait to watch the next one and so after the tape was rewound and put away, the next one, From Russia With Love, was put into the VCR. Again, Ron sat and watched unable to take his eyes away from the screen. He enjoyed the scene with Kronsteen as he played chess and won. He took more mental notes as he watched the action unfold and wondered if he could use his own wits in the same manner.

When the film ended it was late and so they all hit the sack.

The next morning Hermione awoke and went downstairs to find Ron and her father watching another Bond film. Hermione recognised it as Goldfinger before going into the kitchen and finding her mother reading the newspaper.

'Morning, Mum,' she said.

'Good morning, Hermione,' she replied.

'How long have they been up?' Hermione replied.

'About an hour, I think, and I suspect your father will want to spend the day watching as many as possible …' Helen answered.

'And I'm sure Ron will love to watch them too, he wants dad to like him,' said Hermione.

'Your father does like him,' said Helen, kindly.

'Good, because I love him, and he's not going anywhere,' said Hermione.

'Well, it doesn't look like either of them will be going anywhere today if they're going to be watching videos all day,' said Helen with a sigh.

Hermione smiled at her mother before going back into the living room with a bowl of Cornflakes.

It was late Sunday evening when Ron and Richard had reached the end of their Bond Marathon.

'So, what did you think, Ron? As a whole, I mean,' said Richard.

'It was pretty cool. I'll have to watch them again at some point, though, I just wish I could be as smart as Bond,' said Ron.

'Or as smooth?' asked Hermione, smiling at him.

'Well, a bit of smoothness wouldn't go amiss,' said Ron.

'Well, it's time for bed,' said Helen.

Ron got his feet and helped Hermione to hers before scooping her up into his arms and carrying her to her bedroom as her parents watched.

Richard and Helen went into the kitchen to wash up and put away popcorn bowls before going upstairs. As they passed Hermione's room they peered inside to see that Ron was sitting on her bed and watching her sleep. He then gave her forehead a gentle kiss before leaving her to her sleep.

'Goodnight, Ron,' said Richard and Helen, in turn.

'Goodnight,' said Ron, before going into his room too.