Magic
The world finally stopped spinning around her, but it took another moment for the nausea to pass. She then released the hand of the bouncing four-year old next to her, who set off at a dead sprint towards the familiar, homey house up the road.
"Rosie, don't get any dirt on your new dress!" Hermione called after her rambunctious daughter. "You know how excited Grandma Weasley will be to see you in it."
The little girl just giggled as she continued to run, making an odd gesticulation with her arm to let her mother know that she had heard her. Hermione sighed and then turned to her husband, standing a few feet behind her, fruitlessly attempting to hold in his chuckles.
"How many galleons do you want to bet that by the time we get there she'll already have dirt on her dress?" Her husband said nothing in reply, simply taking her hand as they began the short trek up to the Burrow. "You could have backed me up anyway."
Her husband now let out a loud guffaw. "And what good would that have done? We both know that Rosie's going to do whatever she darn well pleases. Hell, she may even rub some dirt on her dress just to see your and Mum's reactions." A sad gleam twinkled in his eyes. "She's a spitfire just like her dad was."
Hermione noticed the sad tone of his voice and the distant look in his eyes and knew that he was thinking of the Final Battle. She planted her feet into the earth, effectively stopping her husband as well since her hand was still encompassed in his much larger one.
"Hey." she said softly, trying to gain his attention. She could see his eyes glistening, but as he was several inches taller than her, he was quite capable of avoiding her eyes, ashamed that he still got teary-eyed over the events four years past. "Sweetheart, there is nothing to be ashamed of. We both loved…love him and he was taken from us way too soon. I know you feel guilty that you lived and Fred didn't, but how do you think I felt? Falling in love with and marrying his brother not even two years after his death and the birth of his child. I felt like rubbish for some time, but then I realized that Fred would have wanted us to be happy and I think that he would be glad that we were able to find that in each other."
Her husband nodded solemnly. "You're right, of course." He said this with a slight smirk. "Today is supposed to be a happy occasion and here I am acting like a blubbering fool. Fred would have wanted us to be happy and," he pulled her flush against his surprisingly well-sculpted body, leaning down to whisper seductively in her ear, "I am so, so happy that you are mine. How did I ever get so lucky?"
Hermione gulped, trying to calm her quickening pulse. She moved her head slightly so that she could whisper in her husband's ear. "Magic," she said sensually, as a response to his question. She then pulled back and started to run the rest of the way to the Burrow, but not before her husband saw the joyful gleam in her eyes.
He stared after her dumbstruck for a moment, realizing just how lucky he truly was to have found someone like Hermione to be his forever. Thank you Fred, he thought, for bringing us together. He pushed his horn-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose and set off running after the love of his life, the one woman who was able to save him, and the beautiful toddler he would always think of as partially his own.