Those days with Ron had been fun. She'd loved taking him out into the muggle world and it was clear to her, that although he hadn't quite inherited Mr Weasley's obsession with all things muggle, it was still a world that drew him in. It was the cinema that he'd loved most, popcorn being his new found love and the loud sounds that surrounded them as they sat in the dark theatre watching an enormous screen often made him jump. Hermione's parents hadn't come with them that day and it was nice she thought, to have the opportunity of a 'normal' date. The kind of date she'd grown up seeing in movies and the sort that muggle couples their age would often have.

The beach was the best bit though. Ron had been to beaches before. The sand was nothing new, nor were the waves lapping against the shore and the barnacle coated rocks. The crunch of sand between teeth as they ate their picnic lunch was familiar. Even their sorry, magic free attempt at a sandcastle was a common holiday sight for a boy from a wizarding family. Mostly, it seemed like the kind of beach he had visited as a child, except this was a muggle beach. A touristy muggle beach actually. The kind that had ice cream vans in the summer, and donkey rides beside the deck chair hire, where you could buy a bucket and spade and a stripy stick of rock from a little hut, followed by a large portion of fish and chips complete with a little wooden fork.

There was a pier too. Long and wooden. It stretched right from the road out into the sea, the sand turning to waves beneath it. There was a large pavilion at the very end and the signs all the way along the promenade told the couple that it housed a theatre and a bowling alley and an arcade. It wasn't Hermione's usual sort of place, but it was such an ingrained part of the muggle beach experience they headed along the length of the pier and up to the arcade. She thought Ron might like it anyway.

They entered the arcade and Hermione headed straight over to the 2p change machine. The 2p drop type games were often her favourite, they were easy to understand and you didn't feel like it was costing you too much. She changed her money and turned around with a small plastic pot of the large bronze coins.

Ron had stopped. He was still over by the doors, mouth open an amazed look in his eyes. Hermione went and stood next to him.

'Ron?' she asked waving her hands in front of his stunned expression 'Ron?'

He blinked at her, 'this is mental.' He simply mumbled

She looked around, trying to see it as if through Ron's eyes. Mental seemed a pretty fitting word actually. It was a huge room. Quite dark full of flashing lights and loud noises. The clink of money falling, the whirrs and dings of games, muggles laughing and screaming and the cheesy pop music that was blaring over the speaker system, all combined into a confusing whirlwind of sound. The clash of senses was suddenly quite intimidating and Hermione looked up at Ron and took his hand in hers.

'Come on.' She said 'It'll be fun.' She pulled him over to the games.

Hermione was right, it was fun. Engrossed in a game of pin ball, Ron jumped when a flash went off in the corner of his eye. He looked up confused. To his right was a large sort of box. There was a door shaped hole cut out of one area. It was covered by a pale blue curtain that didn't quite reach the floor.

'Whats that?' He asked turning to Hermione and jabbing his thumb in the direction of the offending box.

She looked over at where he was pointing and grinned. 'It's a photo booth. We should get a picture.'

'It's a what?' Ron questioned as Hermione led him over to the box that a group of young giggling teenage girls had just vacated.

'A photo booth. It takes pictures.' She pulled back the curtain that covered the cut out section and pointed to a plastic bench. 'We sit here and put in the money and it takes a strip of photos. You know, like those ones you pointed out on my mirror at home.'

Ron nodded. He remembered looking at those the other day. It was a long, thin, piece of glossy paper divided into smaller squares. In each square was a little unmoving image of Hermione and her parents. They had clearly been old photos. Pre Hogwarts probably. Hermione, sat in the middle still had a chubby childlike face, a clear overbite evident as she grinned. It was a happy Hermione.

They sat down on the small bench. It was pretty squishy and Hermione found herself having to half sit on Ron's lap to make them both fit. Hermione fed a handful of coins into a small stot in the machine and suddenly the blank screen in front of them came to life. A countdown began and they both smiled towards the screen as the flash went off. They took a lot of photos. Nice ones, mushy sort of romantic ones and funny ones that had them both laughing. It was like a small private bliss and they almost forgot that there were actual people behind that curtain.

Once they'd exhausted the many different poses, Hermione went to collect the photos leaving Ron standing over by the huge claw machines. He'd never seen anything like it before and watched as a man went over to one, inserted money and used the various nobs and buttons on the control panel to direct a vicious looking mettle claw to pick up a stuffed bear. It seemed pretty simple. Ron watched as the man collected his bear and turned to a woman who must have been his girlfriend and handed her the bear. She smiled at him and gave him a sweet looking kiss.

It seemed like a very couplish thing to do Ron thought. He and Hermione were a couple now. Perhaps he should get her one? He dug in his pocket and pulled out the unfamiliar pound coin he had put there and stepped over to one of the machines. This one too contained bears. Bears of lots of different colours; Brown ones, yellow ones, blue ones, green ones, each wearing a small black t-shirt with the words Marina Pleasure Pier written across the front. He surveyed the bears. Which would Hermione like best? In the far right hand corner something caught his eye. It was a bear like all the others, only this one's fur had a slight hint of orange. A Weasley bear.

Now he stood looking at all the buttons it didn't look so easy. In fact he was confused. What did they all mean? He glanced around. No one was looking. He slyly slipped his wand out of his back pocket and whispered 'Acio.'

The little orange bear wiggled, freeing it's self from the huddled mass of bears and flew to a small window. Ron hastily put his wand away and reached through the window and picked up the bear just as Hermione appeared next to him clutching their pictures.

She loved the bear. And even as Hermione sat chatting to Harry, Ron and Ginny back in Ron's room at the burrow a few days later, it sat pride of place on her pillow. She loved that bear and she loved Ron, no matter how much Ginny had pretended to throw up at the sweetness of it all as she unpacked him.