THC, Round Three, Slytherin, Charms Stand-in. Drabble.

Prompt: [Object] Baseball Bat

Word Count: 662

Beta's: IRiS EaGLes, CupCakeyyy.

Ron Weasley took a few breaths in an attempt to cool himself down as he picked up another one of Hermione's boxes of stuff to move it to the right room. They were moving in with each other. After a lot of long and in-depth discussions, they opted to move into a Muggle location, which housed a lot of wizards and was very accessible to many wizarding locations, including the Ministry.

Therefore, they had to do the unpacking the Muggle way. It was a lot of effort. And that meant that Ron was sweating. Next time they moved, it wouldn't be during summer. "This is absurd!"

"What is?" Harry inquired, bringing in a different box.

"We can never do anything magical here!"

Hermione walked in and instantly responded; "They'll be a glimmering charm to stop Muggles from seeing anything they shouldn't, so we can use magic."

Ron almost dropped his current box on the floor in the haste to put it down. "Then why are we carrying the boxes?"

"The charm only works while we're in the house, Ron."

Ron backed down at her glare set on him.

"There's only one more box."

Harry quickly exited the room to retrieve it.

Ron looked at Hermione who had turned her attention to the contents of her box. He really wanted to whip his wand out and put everything into the right place automatically, however, he didn't want to upset - or worse, anger - Hermione. He opened one of the boxes and saw an assortment of bathroom supplies, so he picked it up and carried it into the bathroom.

He was tempted to put all of her things away for her but decided against it and walked out back into what would be their living room. His eyebrows furrowed together at Hermione holding a beater's bat. "I didn't know you had one of them!"

Hermione looked up with a smile. "Yeah, my Dad loved this sport. He taught me it, but I wasn't very good. Lacked hand-eye coordination."

"What?" Ron looked at Harry for guidance. "Your Dad couldn't have played Quidditch."

A laugh left the other two occupants of the room. Ron felt his ears heat up in embarrassment - he was out of the loop, and he didn't know what. "This is a baseball bat. It's for a Muggle game called baseball," Hermione explained patiently.

"Oh," was all he managed to say.

Harry stepped forward and took the bat of Hermione, and then handed it to Ron.

Holding it, Ron just stared at his best friend as if he were an idiot. "What am I supposed to do with it?"

"Swing," Harry said right as he threw a ball towards him.

Ron, without hesitation, swung and hit the ball straight into the wall.

"Not in the house!"

Both boys looked at Hermione. Ron lowered the bat. "So that's the game? Just hitting the ball?"

"Part of it," Harry replied.

"Go teach him it outside, there's a park nearby."

Even though Ron wasn't sure if he wanted to learn more about baseball or how to use the bat, he followed his fiancée's order and walked out of the house to the park.

"So… baseball?"

"Yes. I don't really know much about it, but from what I remember, you throw the ball, hit it with the bat, and then run a big circle to where you started before somebody catches the ball and throws it back to his teammate."

Ron furrowed his eyebrows again. "Oh… okay."

The two friends started to play their version of baseball for about fifteen minutes before a couple of young teenagers ended up joining in, all sharing the same bat, and taught the two of them the correct way to play it.

By the end of it, Ron decided that he wouldn't mind living here in the Muggle world, because then he could enjoy two cultures. Also, he couldn't wait to show his dad the bat and explain what it's used for.