So, I didn't know about any of the British movies that released in July of 1995, so I chose an American movie I LOOOOOOVE that released in London in July of 95.

Batman Forever.

Figured that Ron would like this, for the action and comedy. Hermione may have been a little bit into it as well, but unbeknownst to Ron, she likes him just as much as he likes her, so of course she would try to find something that would tickle his fancy.

On with the shenanigans :)

Chapter 115: The Outing

Friday has arrived, and I felt like I was going to die.

I had convinced Mum to allow me to cut two of her best looking sunflowers and shrunk them for Hermione, whom I hadn't spoken to since I had gotten off the phone with her two days prior. Not that I was still mad at her, if anything, she was still mad at me. She would only speak to Ginny, and even with that, she talked through her, wanting to know if Friday was still on. Bill has went and gotten the money exchanged for me, handing me a little more than he has said. 110 British pounds.

When 4 had arrived, Mum had me cover the clothes Bill lent me with a sheet, as not to get soot on them. Bill had given me a light green button down shirt with a collar (telling me that it made my eyes and hair show brighter, something that he told me I should take special care in doing) and khaki muggle slacks. The only thing I hated to wear were my old trainers. I had cleaned them best I could, but they still had rough patches on them, and was even starting to get a hole in the sole. New trainers was a definite buy of mine.

When Mum fussed over me, making sure I looked and smelled my best, she finally (for some reason with tears in her eyes and taking pictures) let me go, and I flooed over to Hermione's.

When I got there, I was happy that I didn't fall like I usually did, and even happier that I had the sheet completely over me, because Hermione's fireplace had a lot of soot in it. The entire sheet was black.

I stepped out of her fireplace and looked around. I assumed I was in her sitting room, which was as big as the Burrow's kitchen and sitting room combined. The walls were a pale gray, not the gray that was dreary however. The floors were made of a shiny wood I had never seen before, I could actually almost see my reflection in it. There were pictures on the fireplace mantle of various stages of Hermione's life. Her as a baby, her in a funny outfit holding a bag, her playing the piano, her reading a book, her on a horse, her on the beach, and then one of her waving bye as she boarded the Hogwarts Express first year.

"Ron, so lovely to see you!" came a voice. I turned and seen Hermione's mum Ava Granger smiling at me.

Hermione's mum was very pretty, and looked just a little bit younger than my mum. Her hair was like Hermione's only it was black as a starless night sky and shorter. Her eyes were lighter than Hermione's (who had gotten her eyes from her dad, but everything else was so close to Hermione, that one would take her for an older sister, rather than a mum.

She came over and gave me,a quick hug. "Let me look at you. Ooh don't you look dashing! Michael, doesn't he look dashing?"

Hermione's dad Michael Granger had just entered the room. He was as tall as I was, perhaps a couple inches taller, with hair and eyes the same color as Hermione. He wasn't as brown as Hermione and her mother however.

I suddenly felt nervous.

"Ron, good to see you, kid." he said, holding out his hand for me to shake, which was a very firm shake. The kind of "you hurt my daughter and I'll kill you" shakes Dad used to say he would give to any boy that wanted to date Ginny.

"How are you, sir? I asked, as I stuck my aching hand in my pocket to hide the throbbing.

"Great." he said. Nothing else.

Man he was intimidating.

"Well, Hermione should be down in a minute, she's just getting- oooh those are beautiful Ron!" gushed Ava when she spied the sunflowers in my other arm. "Your mum grew these? They're positively gorgeous! Wizard magic, I suppose?"

"She uses a little, I suspect. More to keep them a bright yellow than to make them bigger, which they are, she just shrunk these." I said, forcing a smile because Michael's stare was burning a hole into my face.

"I'll go get her." he said, going out of the room, and up some stairs.

I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding. Ava grinned. "Oh don't be nervous about Hermione's father, sweetheart." she said, taking my hand. "Most fathers are like this when their daughters go out on their first date."

I found myself blinking at her as I did Bill when he said the d word. "Is...is this what this is?" I asked. Surely Hermione would have told her mum if it was or not. I needed to know.

Her mum gave a small laugh. "Date, friendly outing, whatever it is, it's the first time she has been anywhere with a boy. At least that we know of. I'm sure Hermione, you, and Harry have had many adventures at Hogwarts."

'You have no idea.' I said in my head.

"Right." I said, smiling.

Soon I heard rushed voices. Hermione was coming down the steps with her dad, looking as if she was trying to explain something to him. When she came into the sitting room, she gave me a small smile.

She looked great. Better than great. She had her curls in a ponytail with a shirt that didn't have any straps holding it up so I was wondering how the heck was it staying on her. It was white with small blue polka dots on it. Apparently the discussion she was having with her dad must have been about the shirt, because he handed her a jacket, which she reluctantly took. She also had on a pretty skirt that was much shorter than her uniform ones at Hogwarts.

Merlin bless those legs of hers.

"Hey." I said, not knowing what else.

"Hey, Ron."

"Oh yeah, these are for you. Mum..Bill..well...well we thought that you would like them." I said, stumbling over my words as I gave her the sunflowers.

Those seemed to cheer Hermione right up. "These are beautiful, Ron, thank you!" she said as she gently touched a few petals. "Let me put them in some water."

Looking at the flowers and then at her, I got an idea.

"Wait." I said, taking one of the sunflowers from the wrapping Mum had put them in. I took the stem and wrapped it around the rubber band in her hair, making the sunflower show on the side. I looked brilliant. I was actually proud of myself.

Hermione blushed as she touched her hair. "Does it look okay?"

"Sure does if I do say so myself." I said, as I continued to fix it.

FLASH!

Hermione groaned. Her mother had snapped a picture and was giggling, about to snap another.

"Mum did the same thing to me before I left, don't worry." I laughed.

"Parents." groaned Hermione.

"Well, come on, you two, better get a move on." said Hermione's mum, taking Hermione's other sunflower.

"We're walking to the mall." said Hermione. "It and the cinema isn't but a few blocks from here."

I nodded and we said bye to her parents and headed out the door.

The outside of Hermione's house was really nice. It was brick with roses all in the front. And it was big. Not as tall at the Burrow, but much wider than it.

"I like your house." I said as we turned down the sidewalk.

"Thanks. It was my grandmum's and she left into my dad, who is saying he's planning on leaving it to me, if I decide to live in the muggle world after graduation." said Hermione, as she looked at her feet as we walked.

"Look, I wanted to apologize for the other day." I said, taking a deep breath. "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that, especially over Krum."

"Yeah, why do you insist on doing that?" she asked.

"I don't know." I said, half lying/half telling the truth. "I just do, okay? But I'm working on trying not to."

"Viktor is just a friend, Ron." said Hermione, reassuringly. "A good friend, actually. But he isn't my best friend, you are. And Harry, of course."

As Harry was my best mate as well, I was inclined to agree, however, I didn't want to bring up Harry at this time either.

"I know. And I don't want to talk about Krum. You're supposed to be showing me Muggle things, remember?"

Hermione smiled and looped arms with me as we walked down the sidewalk. She pointed out various muggle yard things that I had never seen, and also seemed really mental to me that they would have. Why did Muggles put fake pink birds in their yards? Did they guard the house?

We got to the mall, where Hermione took me into a store geared towards muggle teens called Banana Republic. I didn't like any of the clothes there. Most seemed like clothing that Percy would wear, all pompous and stuffy and uncomfortable looking.

Then, we went to a store was a lot better called H&M, where they had muggle jeans and clothes that were very stylish, but didn't cost a lot, so I ended up buying two pairs of jeans, and let Hermione pick out two shirts for me to go along with them. We also went to a shoe store, where I got some wicked new black trainers.

After we left, we headed to the cinema, which was a big square building with a lot of posters advertising the different shows. Hermione said we were going to see the show about a man bat who lived forever.

The lady that gave us tickets said she would hold our purchases until the end of the show. We went in the building and I was immediately shocked.

It was about as big as the Great Hall, with colorful electric lights formed into pictures and words. There was a section dedicated to all kinds of muggle snacks. Hermione insisted buying, but I forced her not to. I wanted to be able to buy my first muggle snacks.

I paid for a big tub of popcorn, candies called Milk Duds and Skittles, and a fizzy drink called soda pop. Hermione got these rope candies called Red Vines, along with a pop (which she said she rarely drank as they were bad for your teeth) and we decided to share my popcorn.

When we got into the room that had the show in it, it was dimly lit. There were seats in rows, facing a huge projector screen, much larger than the ones we would sometimes use in class .

We sat in the middle row (Hermione said it was the best place), in two seats that are very close to each other. Her leg was right next to mine, barely touching.

I opened up the Skittles bag and shake them out in my hand. They look like tiny pebbles, and kind of remind me of Every Flavor Beans. I pop them in my mouth, and it's like I had never had candy before.

They were sweet and chewy and just sure sugar. "Hermione, you have got to try one of these!" I said excitedly.

Hermione grinned. "I've had Skittles before, Ron."

"Just try one!" I said, holding one up to her mouth. She rolled her eyes and opened her mouth, allowing me to feed her one.

"Wicked, right?!" I said.

"Very " Hermione said, humoring me as she chewed.

"Savor the flavor, Hermione. Savor it!" I said.

She laughed and points at the screen, showing me that the show.

The show starts and already I figured out I had gotten the movie wrong. It was called Batman Forever. It was about a man who's parents died when he was very young, and he made a lot of money and used it to be a hero and save people.

Sounded like a good life. Minus the dead parents, of course.

There was this villain who had two faces and another one who made riddles and jokes and killed people. Batman gets this sidekick that does flips and shit that the two faces guy killed his family. He becomes Robin.

I laughed loudly at all the riddle guys jokes and antics, and said wow at every kick and punch that I saw. People were looking at us weirdly, but I didn't care.

Hermione on the other hand looked annoyed. Not at me, but at the people.

"They are acting as if they never been to the cinema before." she huffed.

During the movie, we start to share snacks. I didn't like to eat the Red Vines, but they were fun to swing around. Every now and then, our hands would touch when we would reach into the tub of delicious and greasy popcorn, sending tiny sparks through my fingers.

There were two people who were clearly a couple sitting in front of us. The guy looked as if he were stretching and ended up putting his arm around the girl.

At first I chuckled at it. What a dope. Why didn't he just go for it? But then, the more I thought about it, the more I felt like maybe I should give it a try.

So I faked a yawn and stretched my arm out. Unfortunately I aimed too low, and ended up hitting Hermione in the head.

"Ow!" she hissed, glaring at me as she rubbed the side of her head. "What did I do?"

I longed for Harry's invisibility cloak.

"I didn't...I was stretching and...sorry." I said, popping a Milk Dud into my mouth, mortified.

Hermione scowled at me, and then turned her attention back to Robin climbing some rocks and making a very bad joke about holey twisted metal.

I didn't know how the fuck I was gonna recover from it, but I knew I had to fix it. So I just summoned all my Gryffindor courage and confessed.

"I was trying to put my arm around your shoulders." I whispered in her ear.

Hermione gave me a surprised look. "Really?" she whispered back.

"Yeah. But I aimed too low I guess, I didn't mean to-"

"You could have asked you know." interrupted Hermione.

I smirked at her. "And would you have let me?"

Hermione smiled and sat up in her seat a bit, actually giving me permission. I nervously put my arm around her shoulders. She then scooted closer to me, laid her head on my shoulder, and started eating more popcorn.

On the outside, I looked like in totally had it together.

On the inside I was dancing around wildly like a drunk hippogriff.

We sat like that laughing and reacting to the show. I absentmindedly twisted a stray curl that has fell out of her ponytail around my finger. She didn't seem to mind. Soon, the show was over. All in all, I very much enjoyed it, so i clapped very loudly when it went off, causing a woman on the other side of Hermione to scoff at me.

Hermione didn't take that very well.

"So what, he enjoyed the show." she snapped, venom dripping from her words. "You should mind your bloody business!"

The woman stuck her nose in the air and walked off. I looked at Hermione, flabbergasted.

"Mione...you said bloody!" I laughed.

Hermione blushed. "Well, she had been irritating us the whole show, hadn't she? Acting as if you couldn't enjoy it. She made me mad, but I shouldn't have said that.

"Say bloody again." I egged her on, loving that she was saying what she deemed a dirty word.

"I'll never say it again." she said, grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the room.

As we got our packages at the ticket booth and walked into the night, we started talking about our favorite parts of the show. Hermione told me that there were muggle comics about Batman and Robin, and I was too excited to get some and read them.

Hermione looped her arm into mine again as we walked slowly towards her home. The streetlights were on, the weather was warm, fireflies were out, and there was violin music coming from a nearby park.

The whole scene was nauseatingly romantic, but also pretty nice.

I checked my watch and shook my head. "Damn, I missed the window for the Floo." I said, as we reached the mailbox in front of her house.

"Oh no, will you be in trouble?" asked Hermione. "I'm afraid it's too late for Mum and Dad to drive you home."

"No, I have my wand on me." I said, pulling it out of my pocket. "I'll catch the Knight Bus. I've always wanted to ride it, you know."

"Alright, yeah that seems best." said Hermione.

Suddenly, the air turned as awkward as it did the day we left the platform. We both looked at the ground, then Hermione looked up at me, meeting my eyes as I lifted my head.

"This was fun." she said.

"Oh yeah." I agreed. "Tons. Thanks for inviting me. Maybe we could do it again sometime?"

"Sure, okay." said Hermione, putting the stray piece of hair behind her ear.

Once again, we gave each other the same kind of hug we did at King's Cross. Only there wasn't anyone watching, so it lasted a few seconds longer than it did the last time.

There was something pulling at me, begging me to kiss her. More like screaming at me, clawing at my pants leg, almost dying in agony for me to kiss her. We had loosened our grips on one another and she was staring up into my eyes, while I was looking into hers.

And as soon as I had gathered up the courage to do it, her father opened the front door.

Bloody fucking hell.

"Honey, time to come in." he called to Hermione, who looked as if she felt just as frustrated as I did.

"Coming, Dad." said Hermione. "I was just seeing Ron off."

Hermione's dad leaned against the door sill, waiting.

I sighed. "Guess I'll see you next week. Are they bringing you? Or you can just Floo over."

"I'll see if I can Floo." said Hermione, as I stuck my wand up in the air.

Out of nowhere, a big triple decker purple bus appeared. "See you then." I said, getting onto it, giving the conductor two British pounds as I didn't have any wizard money.

"Where cho off to?" said the conductor.

"Devon, a little outside Ottery St Catchpole." I said.

"Choo a Weasley?" he asked, pointing to my red hair."

"Uhhhhh..."

"The Burrow he's headed, Ern." said the conductor. I sat down, wondering how the hell he knew in lived there. Then, I thought about it. More than likely one of my family members had taken the bus before.

As we sped off, I sat back and closed my eyes, marveling over the kiss that could have happened. Parents are the worst.

Oh well. Another time maybe.