This Dance We Do

Chapter 9: London

Ron turned to Harry and felt his blush spread to his face. Harry was looking at him with an odd expression: he looked like he felt slightly betrayed, but also like he had just had a suspicion confirmed.

Ron groaned inwardly. He might as well have "I fancy Hermione Granger" tattooed on his forehead; everyone seemed to know anyway. Well, everyone except Hermione herself.

You've really done it this time, Weasley, he told himself. Of all the girls in the world to fancy, you had to choose the one who would never fancy you back. Not that it would work if she did. Ron watched as Hermione excitedly went on about the Library and Museum. She deserves someone who can understand and appreciate everything she talks about, not some dolt who has to think about other things to stay awake when she gets going.

Ron sighed and tried to pay attention.

"And the Library has every text printed in English! There's even a wizarding section, but it's cloaked against Muggles. If they get too close they remember that the text that they're looking for is in another part of the building."

Ron raised his eyebrows. He had to admit, this Library was starting to sound slightly more interesting.

"And the Museum, it has the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamun!"

That name sounded familiar.

"Wasn't that the guy who had all those really bad curses around his tomb? One of them killed somebody, right?"

Hermione looked like Christmas had come early.

"Exactly! And that's not all, the curses that were put around him were quite extensive, really. But I'll finish telling you when we get there, we shouldn't really be talking about it on the Muggle streets."

Ron looked around. They were leaving the Leaky Cauldron for the Muggle streets beyond. Ron momentarily noted his ability to travel without realizing it before Harry opened the door. Although he had seen Muggle London before, Ron never got over the initial shock: so many people--adults too, not just kids--walking around in Muggle clothing, cars whizzing through the streets, and all the Muggle contraptions. Tall sticks with lights at the end that lined the streets, smaller sticks that Muggles were sticking coins in, more sticks at the corners that flashed different pictures. While Hermione's house was filled with boxes, the rest of the world seemed to be filled with sticks. Ron shook his head and followed Hermione.

"There's a wonderful shop that's up just around this corner, you should be able to find your trunks there, Harry. After that, we can start for the Library."

In the shop Harry spent several minutes in the fitting room while Ron and Hermione looked around. Ron really did not know what he was doing, so he simply followed Hermione.

"Wow." Hermione had stopped in front of a rack with several feminine looking things draped over it. She was fingering a thin piece of fabric that sort of shimmered.

Ron peered at it over her shoulder. "What is it?"

"It's a shawl." She picked the fabric up delicately. "Women wear them," she draped the fabric around her shoulders, "like this. Actually, Trelawney wears several of them, she just doesn't really wear nice ones."

Hermione put the shawl back on the rack and fingered the fabric lovingly before moving on. Ron quickly picked it up and moved to one of the checkouts before Hermione could spot him.

He reached a woman of about his mother's age whose blonde hair was tied in a knot atop her head.

"I'd like to buy this please."

"All righty," she ran the shawl over a little box in front of her that beeped. "Is that all, dear?" Ron nodded. "Okay, that'll be fourteen quid."

Ron panicked. Quid? What in the name of Merlin was a quid?

"Er," Ron pulled out the stack of papers that the goblin had given him earlier, "all I have are pounds."

The woman looked at him strangely and chuckled. "Are you foreign, love?"

Remembering the Quidditch World Cup and his father's problems with Muggle money, Ron nodded. The woman chuckled again.

"Well then, quid is just another word for pound. Do you know how to use those?" she pointed to the stack of papers Ron was clutching. He shook his head. "Well, they all have little numbers on them, you see? The numbers stand for how many pounds it's worth. So, if this," she touched the shawl, "costs fourteen quid, it costs fourteen pounds. Okay?" Ron nodded. "Right. So, you have to give me the equivalent of at least fourteen pounds. So why don't you give me this one," she tapped a piece of paper labelled with a ten, "and this one," she tapped one labelled with a five, "and I'll give you your change."

Ron handed over the two pieces of paper she indicated. She put them in the register, took out his change, and handed him his change and the shawl in a bag.

"Thank you," Ron said before he hurried to find Hermione and Harry.

"Any time, honey. Have a good stay in London!"

Ron eventually found his friends waiting for him at the exit. Harry was clutching a bag very similar to the one that Ron was holding behind his back. Hermione looked worried.

"Where were you?"

"Sorry, thought you were right behind me," Ron lied. Hermione scoffed and lead the way out of the store.

"Psst! Harry," Ron whispered. Harry turned towards him but kept an eye on the back of Hermione's head. "Could you put this in your bag and not mention it until we get back to Hermione's house and she's not around?" Harry nodded, so Ron passed the bag to him.

Ron soon found that Hermione was difficult to keep up with. Although her legs were a good deal shorter than his were, she seemed to know where she was going and travelled with grace and ease. When they finally reached the Library, Harry and Ron were several paces behind her and she had to wait for them to catch up.

"This is the British Library." She flourished her arms in a grand fashion that was quite unlike her. Ron struggled to stifle a laugh and focused his attention on the building. It really was quite large; Ron had the feeling that the whole of the Hogwarts library would fit inside of it, maybe even Gryffindor Tower as well.

Ron vaguely paid attention as Hermione went on about the number of volumes the Library held, when it was built, and other useless facts. A few passing Muggles stopped and listened, probably thinking she was a tour guide.

Ron was not really concerned with the Library, however. He was watching the way the sun glinted off Hermione's hair, and how her nose wrinkled when she got excited. She had three little freckles at the tip of her nose, in the shape of a triangle. Ron was just thinking about what he would like to do to those freckles when Harry stepped on his foot.

"Ow! What?" Ron hissed at him.

"You're staring," Harry said through a half-hidden smile.

Ron tried to mumble something about being tired before following Hermione into the Library.

Hermione smiled and waved at the guard they passed on their way to the upper levels, giving Ron the impression that she spent a good deal of her time home among the stacks of the British Library. His suspicions were soon confirmed. Hermione spent the better part of an hour showing Ron and Harry some of her favorite sections, her favorite collections, and her favorite places to read. Ron was finally beginning to understand where Hermione had accumulated her vast wealth of knowledge about everything.

Eventually, Hermione lead them down an isle that seemed quite under used. The books in this section were large and dusty, and there was no one anywhere to be seen.

"Hermione, is this the--"

"Yes," she whispered. She walked right up to the wall at the end of the isle and turned to Ron and Harry. "It's just like King's Cross, okay?" With that, she turned around and walked right through the wall.

Ron felt Harry start beside him, but Ron was too used to friends and family members disappearing at random intervals to find this terribly surprising. He turned to Harry.

"Shall we go then?"

Harry seemed to have regained himself, because he nodded and began to walk forward. Ron was on his heels, and soon after Harry went through the wall, Ron felt the coolness of the charm surround him. He emerged in a world that was very familiar to him.

The library that he was now in greatly reminded him of the one at Hogwarts, right down to the old librarian, who could have been Madam Pince's sister. Witches and wizards of all ages were walking around caring towering piles of books, sitting at the tables taking notes from texts, or scanning the shelves for the volume that they wanted.

Hermione was facing them, in tour guide mode once more.

"This is the largest collection of wizard texts in the world. If it was written and published by a wizard, it is in this library. All the books are charmed with Translation Spells, so that the reader will see their native language. If you want to know what the original language of the book is, it is on the front cover. So, do you two want to stay here for a few minutes, or would you like to go to the Museum?"

"The Museum," Ron and Harry said in unison.

Hermione shook her head, but lead the way back out of the Library.

Several minutes later, they were standing outside the British Museum with Hermione giving another history of the building. Ron was careful to look around as he failed to pay attention, so as not to earn another jeer from Harry. When she was finished, she led them into the Museum.

Ron had to admit, the things Hermione decided to show them were fairly interesting. Although she was rather long winded about the histories of the various cultures, Ron was able to pick out some interesting topics.

Ron looked over and noticed that Harry's eyes had glazed over during Hermione's speech on a head of some God named Mercury. Ron took the opportunity to watch the way she talked. When she got excited about a subject her voice would increase in speed and pitch, and she would begin using her hands much more.

Ron noticed absentmindedly that she was biting her lip and her brow was furrowed. He wondered if he ever bit her lip like that would she furrow her brow or melt into his arms. Probably slap him senseless and refuse to ever speak to him again. Ron bit his own lip, though, imagining it was Hermione's, and imagining what he wanted her to do in return.

His fantasies were interrupted by someone clearing their throat loudly. He looked up and noticed that Hermione was standing before him and Harry, her hands on her hips, foot tapping in annoyance. She sighed heavily.

"Okay, I get the point. Let's at least walk through the Egyptian section before we go home, all right?"

Ron and Harry nodded, and followed as she lead them into another part of the museum. This time Hermione just let them wander, looking at what they wanted to, avoiding what looked boring.

On the trip back to the Leaky Cauldron, Ron felt guilt bubble up inside of him once more. He was not sure why, really. He and Harry and let Hermione show them all the places that she wanted to, and their reaction was nothing outside the ordinary of how they normally acted around things that Hermione found interesting; but still the guilt was there, seeping into what should have been his good mood.

Harry was the first to step into the fireplace at the Leaky Cauldron. He stepped in, his bag in toe, and called out, "The Grangers," then disappeared in a swirl of green light.

"All right, Ron, you're next." Hermione held the bag of Floo powder out to him.

Ron took a deep breath and let his instincts take over. He placed his hand over hers, marveling at how much smaller than him she was.

"Hermione, I really had fun today."

Hermione smiled, but it seemed frozen on her lips, not spreading to the rest of her face. He tried again.

"I really did, and I'm sorry if I was a git today. Thanks for taking us around."

Hermione's face thawed and she smiled genuinely. Ron squeezed her hand, took some Floo powder, and threw it into the fireplace. Stepping into the green flames, he called, "The Grangers," and Hermione twirled out of sight.