Archive of Our Own

Hermione did not think of herself as a particularly girly woman. She liked herself for her intelligence, and her tenacity, and her sharpness and wit, and she liked to think that made her not the sort to be fond of heels, or make-up, or dresses, or dates, though she admitted she did indeed like those things, and wished she was better at them. But lately the weather had been so nice, and it had set all her friends and co-workers in a lovely romantic mood, and they would whisper and giggle to each other about the wonderful time they had spent out yesterday with their husbands and boyfriends out in coffee shops and shopping streets. And lately Hermione would hear all these things and look out the window, at the beautiful spring atmosphere (or a close approximation of it, since the Ministry was underground) and think that perhaps heels and make-up and dresses and dates were not such a bad idea.

Ron, standing at the counter, turned around in surprise. 'What's brought this on?'

'Oh,' said Hermione, who had not prepared for this perhaps reasonable line of questioning, 'well, it's just been so nice out, and since we're both free I thought we could enjoy it.'

'I guess it has been,' Ron agreed. 'And I guess we could.'

'So should we?'

'What, today?' said Ron, surprised again.

'Well, not today,' Hermione said hastily. 'We could go out tomorrow. Or next week.'

'Let's go today if you want to,' Ron said. 'Before the weather goes out. I don't have anything to do today anyway. Do you?'

'No,' said Hermione. 'Alright, let's go today.'

'Where should we go?' asked Ron.

Hermione had not thought about this. To be quite frank with herself, as much as she could be, Hermione was not entirely sure if this was even a good idea, and was a little surprised that Ron had taken it on so easily.

'I don't know,' Hermione admitted. 'Maybe we could go to Madam Puddifoot's.'

'With all the teenagers?'

'Alright, maybe not Madam Puddifoot's,' Hermione relented. 'But I don't know any other places.'

'There's a place in Diagon Alley we could go to,' said Ron. 'It's all blue and white. Something-coffee, I forgot the name.'

'It's always very loud, isn't it?' said Hermione. 'Would it really be fun?'

'I guess not,' said Ron. 'Where should we go, then?'

They both considered it.

'There's a place nearby,' Hermione said slowly. 'Near the square...'

'A Muggle shop?' asked Ron.

'We could find a wizarding shop,' said Hermione

'No, I want to go,' said Ron. 'It's been a while since I went to a Muggle shop. And it'd be nice, to walk somewhere close.'

'Alright,' Hermione said. 'But I don't know if we have any money for it.'

'I can go to Gringotts and get some today,' said Ron. 'Let's go to a Muggle place. It'll be fun.'

'Alright,' said Hermione again, and smiled. 'Let's go to a Muggle place.'

So it was that morning passed, and afternoon came, and Ron left and returned with paper notes, and Hermione stood in front of her mirror, wearing heels and make-up and a dress.

'You look lovely, dear,' said the mirror.

'Thank you, I suppose,' said Hermione. She ran her fingers over her hair, dismayed a little by how frizzy it was.

Ron opened the door just then. He looked her up and down, impressed.

'You look fantastic,' he said.

'Thank you,' Hermione repeated. Ron was in an old orange shirt, one with a cannon on it, and he had on a jacket over that, and he was wearing faded jeans and worn boots alongside that. He looked quite nice, and quite Ron, and Hermione thought she liked it very much.

'Should we go?' said Ron. He held out his hand, but Hermione didn't take it.

'My hair,' she said, a little upset. She ran her fingers over it again. She did not often think about her hair, but in her nice dress she could not help but feel a little self-conscious.

'It's such a mess,' she explained. 'I don't know what to do with it.'

'I like it when it's messy,' said Ron. 'And you look good. And it's only a coffee shop anyway, isn't it?'

'That's true,' admitted Hermione. 'I won't bother, then.'

So she took Ron's hand and he led them out the door, down their garden, and into the Muggle street beyond, which was sunny and alive with people in their Muggle clothes and funny modern gadgets, and cars that cruised along the street with ease. Hermione wobbled a little on the uneven pavement, so Ron wrapped her arm around his and they went down to the square together, to the fountain that was broken more than it was fixed and the people walking their dogs under the shop signs and street lights.

'It's over here,' said Hermione. 'This place.'

She led them to a little red shop sitting on the corner of the road, with wooden seats set out front and a plastic sign on top with a heart and a mug that said Warm at Heart. When they went inside they saw it was only the littlest bit busy, with a young couple next to the window giggling at each other, and another in the corner waiting for their order, and an old man in line waiting at the register, and a lone patron at the back who was typing on what must have been a computer, but it was a strange looking computer that Hermione had never seen and so supposed it was modern.

They went in line behind the old man. Ron took out the money he brought and thumbed through it.

'You'll have to help me with the money,' he murmured. 'I don't know what any of these mean.'

'Look at the numbers in the corner,' said Hermione, leaning over to point at them. 'Just add those up to whatever we need.'

'Alright,' said Ron. He put the money back in his pocket and frowned at the menu instead. 'You might have to help me with my order, too,' he said. 'I've never seen these names.'

'Sure,' said Hermione, and looked up at the menu as well. If she was being honest with herself, which she always tried to be, she was really just as out of place as Ron. She did not frequent Muggle shops, if she frequented shops at all, and it seemed that in the meantime the selection of drinks that were offered had expanded into a number of items she did not know, so she decided simply to ignore them and look at the things she did know.

'I'll have a latte,' she said eventually. 'You could have a mocha.'

'Alright, I'll have a mocha,' said Ron. 'A latte and a mocha,' he told the cashier, since the old man had stepped out of line.

'Size?' said the cashier, without looking up.

'Oh, er...' said Ron, looking at Hermione uncertainly.

'Small latte, please,' said Hermione. 'And the mocha...?'

'Small as well, then,' said Ron. The cashier typed their order into the register and said, 'four pounds sixty.'

Ron gave him a five pound note, and they went to take a seat by the window where they could see the square outside, next to the giggling couple.

'It's been a while since we've been out like this, hasn't it?' said Ron, looking out the window.

'Yeah,' said Hermione. 'Not since Hugo was born, have we?'

'Long time,' Ron smiled. 'We picked a nice day for it, though, I reckon. I wish we'd picked a seat outside.'

'We could go there, you know,' offered Hermione.

'No,' said Ron, turning around to her. 'Here I can see you better.'

Hermione was so startled she couldn't help but laugh and blush. The cashier called out their order and Ron went to go get it, while Hermione looked around at him and then at the surrounding shop. The old man who was waiting in line had returned to a table where he was nursing his drink and talking to someone on what Hermione thought was a phone, but it didn't have any wires and so she assumed it was also modern. The couple sitting next to them was now kissing passionately, and Hermione quickly looked away.

Ron returned with a tray that held two cups and a packet of sugar. 'Make you remember, eh?' he said, nodding at the kissing couple, and laughed when Hermione flushed again. He sat down and took a sip of his mocha.

'Bit sweet, isn't it?' he said.

'It's supposed to be,' said Hermione, as she took her own drink. 'I thought you'd like it.'

Ron took the sugar packet and put some into his coffee. 'Never said I didn't.'

They subsided into a comfortable silence for a few moments while they both drank.

'I didn't really plan this out,' Hermione admitted eventually. 'I just wanted to get out for a bit, I suppose.'

'We don't really have to plan anything,' said Ron. 'We could just sit here.'

'I know,' said Hermione, 'but I thought we could have - oh, I don't know. A heart-to-heart, maybe?' She was thinking of the stories she heard where girls went out with their boyfriends to coffee shops and spent hours and hours talking to each other about all sorts of things, only now she realised she didn't actually know what exactly they'd talk about.

'A heart-to-heart?' Ron laughed. 'About what?'

'I don't know,' Hermione said, now half-laughing too. 'I just - oh, forget it.'

'No, let's do it,' said Ron, still smiling, and he set his coffee aside to lean forward. 'Let's have a heart-to-heart. Like why you wanted to go out today. I know it wasn't the weather, the sun's been out for two weeks now.'

'Alright,' Hermione admitted. 'It wasn't the weather. But - oh, it's just so silly.'

'I love silly,' said Ron. 'Silly's my job. You can tell me, I won't laugh.' He made a mock frown that made Hermione smile a little before she subsided.

'Well,' she said, considering her coffee, 'I guess I've been, I don't know... a bit lonely.'

'Lonely?' said Ron. He looked affronted and a little hurt, and Hermione thought about what she said.

'No, not like that,' she said quickly. 'Not with you. I'm not lonely with you. I like this, I mean. It's nice. You look nice,' she added, because she realised that she had been so nervous about herself that she forgot to say it earlier.

'But,' she continued, 'it's - well, at work,' she said awkwardly, 'you know, there's always people coming in and out, and they're always talking, and you know me, I've never been very good at making friends-'

'But you're-'

'Oh, don't say that, you've known me since I was eleven,' Hermione said impatiently. 'But I always hear everyone talk about their weekends and what they've been doing, going out on dates and nights with their husbands and their friends. And they have fun. But when they come to me,' she sighed, 'and they ask me what I've been doing - I mean, what am I supposed to tell them, the time we had to eat mushrooms for dinner in a tent? I don't do this. Dates, I mean, or going out. And nobody wants to hear about how I filed papers over the weekend, I'd just sound like I work too much. So I don't have anything to say,' she said lamely. 'And, well, I'm not saying it really bothers me, you know I'm not really bothered by any of this, but... you know.'

Ron did not say anything for a long moment, but just when Hermione was starting to get nervous, he said, very slowly, 'well... you do work too much.'

'Ron,' she said, with exasperation.

'What?' he said. 'You said it first.' He was already half-smiling. 'So that's it, then? Blimey, you had me worried for a bit.'

'Ron,' she said again, this time with more amusement than exasperation.

'You know,' Ron grinned, 'if you just want to tell your co-workers how you went on dates with your doting husband, I wouldn't mind.' And he leaned forward to peck her on the cheek.

'Oh, Ron,' Hermione laughed. 'No, it's not that, you know I don't care what anyone thinks of me, but - oh, fine,' she conceded at last, 'maybe I do work too much.'

Ron made a triumphant little fist pump and kissed her again, which set her giggling.

'You blush so much,' said Ron.

'Well, you've just kissed me, haven't you?' laughed Hermione.

'I ought to do it more then,' said Ron, and Hermione gently pushed him away from a third kiss.

'Oh, come on,' she said, composing herself. 'Enough of that. Your coffee's getting cold.'

'So it is,' said Ron, looking down at it in surprise as if he totally forgot about it, which he might have. He made a great show of looking around the shop, then quick as anything he took out his wand and tapped it against his cup until steam rose out of it.

'Ron!' Hermione whisper-screamed, not sure if she should laugh or be angry.

'It's alright,' offered Ron, grinning. 'If anyone sees me they'll just think I'm a barmy idiot who taps his coffee with drumsticks.'

'Ooh, you shouldn't,' said Hermione, who was laughing again. 'You really shouldn't - I'm Head of Department, I can't be doing this!'

'Good thing I did it, then,' said Ron. He leaned forward to kiss her again and when he leaned back Hermione realised her cup was suddenly hot as well.

'Forget about work for now,' said Ron. 'Let’s have a date. And tomorrow you can go in and tell all your co-workers about how your very lovely husband saved your coffee.'

Hermione laughed in spite of herself.