Sunshine, Daisies...Butterfly Puppies?! (A Dramione Comedy)

9- An Unromantic Evening

That evening, Hermione returned to her apartment, feeling mentally exhausted. She had spent the rest of her day in her genetics lab at the Wizarding University of Sorcery and Science, running experiments with M.B. to regenerate some more Organink and create a new Organink Wand, since all their Organink was also missing with the wand itself.

When she stepped into her apartment, she paused with surprise. The place was dimly lit and filled with candles. Rose petals trailed from the front of her feet to the kitchen in the distance, where Ron was walking toward her.

"Ron, did you do this?" Hermione gasped.

Ron chuckled. "No, I had Harry do it for me," he said in a joking, sarcastic tone.

Hermione chuckled, still looking around with amazement. "This looks amazing! I would have never expected you to be this romantic and creative."

"Hey, you may doubt my creativity, but never doubt my romantic endeavors," he said, wrapping his arm around her and giving her a kiss on the lips.

Hermione suddenly felt an unexpected rush of disgust as her lips met his. She involuntarily pulled away from him.

Ron looked at her, confused. "Is everything alright?"

Hermione blinked a couple times. Did I just pull away from Ron? "Yes! Sorry, I'm just a little on edge today. Long day in lab." She took off her lab coat and hung it on a rack.

Ron snorted. "Come on, 'Mione, I know you well by now. Did someone offend you today? Perhaps a pratty Malfoy git?"

Hermione met his gaze with a frown. "Please don't mention his name. I don't want to be reminded of anything that happened between us within the last two months."

Ron followed her as she made her way into the kitchen to get herself a glass of water. "Well, I thought that since this you can finally terminate your ketogenic diet, we can celebrate by eating out at a nice, fancy Italian restaurant. I've already made reservations at your favorite muggle place, Vazianno's. What do you say?"

Hermione filled up her glass with water from their pitcher. "Oh...um, yeah, sure. That sounds good."

Ron winced. "Okay...I was expecting some more excitement here, but I guess it's great that you aren't trying to avoid me anymore like you've been doing this past month."

Hermione sighed, setting her glass down and staring at the water. "Ron, I've already apologized about spending so much time with Malfoy in the past few weeks. We were both on our ketogenic diet, so that we could prevent our life-shortening seizures. And I already explained to you that the diet was also going to eliminate the Bedazzlebuds in our blood, rendering Malfoy unable to spread his Bedazzlebuds with others, and rendering myself unable to feel any romantic feelings for Malfoy. I only spent a lot of time going out with Malfoy while we were on the diet, because I wanted to see if my romantic feelings for him could stay naturally, or at least unfold naturally, but since I experienced clear declines in my feelings for him as the Bedazzlebuds slowly disappeared from my blood, I realized that I don't genuinely love him the way I had loved you."

Ron huffed. He mumbled something under his breath.

Hermione turned to face him. "Ron, I'm sorry this had to happen while we were engaged. But look on the bright side: at least now I know for sure that I don't have any genuine feelings for Malfoy. So now I can reaffirm our relationship and know for sure that you are the right one for me." She walked up to him, intending to wrap her arm around him and kiss him, but she stopped herself, suddenly feeling repulsed. She ended up standing in front of him with an arm extended in midair.