August | Hermione Granger x OFC

Epilogue Part 24: Rotten Rosier

A/N: can you believe this fic is STILL updating. i cant😨 ur a real one if ur still reading it

also. not to overshare on the internet to random strangers or anything but im heavy in my aroace bag rn so i had to dissociate hard to write a certain scene here and its like. nothing. im in the trenches. also the reason why the fluff has been kinda minimal for a bit x apologies x
thanks lola and ema for helping me with various bits and bobs <3

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

Robyn was nervous.

It was nonsensical, really. She'd been romantically involved with Hermione Granger for about four years now. They'd gone to hell and back together, knew each other inside and out - literally and figuratively - and were more or less informally engaged, for Merlin's sake.

And here Robyn was, nervous to give the girl her birthday present. Honestly.

She'd been working on it for a while, had sent a letter to Ziggy and Juniper in Brighton near the start of term whilst having done her homework so she could choose accordingly. They'd subsequently sent the present to Nadir's flat in London (because, to be perfectly honest, Robyn wasn't sure how Muggles were supposed to send letters and such to Hogwarts kids), and Nadir had collected it for her.

("You're a right charmer when you want to be, aren't you?"

"I told you not to look at it!" she'd complained with rosy red cheeks.)

And now Robyn held it in one hand and a bouquet* of flowers in the other (*a few flowers she'd picked and held together with a bobble). She was sitting on a blanket out by the Black Lake, waiting for the birthday girl to come watch the sunset with her after spending some time with her fellow Gryffindors. Robyn was so busy mumbling to herself to make sure she had her flower facts correct that she didn't hear the approaching footsteps.

"Hiya."

"Goodness, Hermione." She could've jumped about a foot in the air. Luckily for her, Hermione had placed her hands on each of Robyn's shoulders, giving them a squeeze in greeting. "You gave me a right fright."

"Sorry, lovely. You were talking to yourself?"

"W-What? No. Here." Robyn leapt to her feet and thrust the flowers into Hermione's hands, at the same time hiding her proper present behind her back, biting back a smile. "For you."

"Oh, they're gorgeous."

"These ones," she twirled a violet-blue one between her thumb and index finger, "are Scottish bluebells, which also get called 'witches' thimbles' and 'fairy bells', and they symbolise gratitude and delicate, everlasting love. Got nicked by a fairy when I took it." She laughed self-consciously as Hermione ignored the flower in favour of running her finger over the plaster on Robyn's hand where she'd been bitten. "Don't worry about it. This one," she twirled a pink one carefully, mindful of its thorns, "is a dog rose, or witches' briar. It's a symbol of purity, love, and, er, marriage. And this one!" she said quickly, touching a pink one, "is wild thyme. Like the song. You know. Wild Mountain Thyme... Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go, and all that..."

Hermione smiled. "I like that song."

"Me, too," Robyn grinned back at her, pleased. "This one's all about strength and courage, which I thought was you to a tee, because you're, like, the embodiment of that, so..."

"Gryffindor, aren't I?"

"You are," Robyn agreed. "And you're also incredibly intelligent, kind, caring, and so many other things. I wasn't sure how to communicate all of it via flower, though, so."