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CHAPTER TWO: A Happy Reception

The Ministry ballroom was packed with people but Harry only had eyes for Hermione. The two of them were in the middle of the dance floor, arms wrapped around each other. "Have I mentioned how much I love being married to you?"Harry asked.

"It's only been two hours,"Hermione pointed out.

"And they've been wonderful."

Hermione smiled. "Yes, they have." She kissed him lightly, both of them losing themselves in each other's touch.

The sound of a throat being cleared caught their attention and they turned to find Luna standing right next to them. "There is a very old tradition that says the chief bridesmaid has to ask the bride groom to dance,"she announced.

"I've never heard of that tradition,"Hermione remarked in amusement.

"It's a very old tradition,"Luna insisted.

Hermione surrendered the point and stood aside, letting Harry take Luna in his arms. She considered asking Neville to dance, which would have been a nice bit of symmetry, but he was deep in discussion with Ernie and so she decided not to disturb them. She glanced around the rest of the room, seeing Seamus dancing with Hannah, her old housemates George, Oliver, Katie and Angelina having an animated conversation which she suspected was about Quidditch, Kingsley chatting with Hogwarts two senior staffmember Horace Slughorn and Filius Flitwick, and Arthur and her parents doing their best to confuse each other as much as possible comparing their respective worlds.

Then her gaze fell on Rose. Her daughter was dancing with Scorpius Malfoy, her guest for the wedding, who she seemed to be spending most of her time with these days both in and out of school. As Hermione watched, the pair's eyes locked and then Scorpius lowered his lips to hers. Hermione watched what she strongly suspected was her daughter's first kiss, waiting until they broke apart and smiled at each other with a combination of joy and embarrassment, before approaching them.

"Are you ready to go to your dad's?"she asked Rose.

Rose nodded. "Yep. All set. We'd have been going soon anyway." Ever since the split, Rose and Hugo had generally spent half their holiday with Harry and Hermione and the other half with Ron.

Hermione glanced at her daughter's boyfriend. "And what about you, Scorpius? Are you looking forward to going back to school?"

"Scorpius is going to be a prefect as well,"Rose said with clear pride.

Scorpius blushed slightly. "Congratulations,"Hermione told him. "Do you know who the other Slytherin prefect is?"

Rose laughed. "So long as it's not Zara Mills,"she commented, referring to the Slytherin girl who had been flirting with Scorpius the previous year. She noticed Scorpius avoiding her gaze and sighed. "Really? It's Zara Mills?"

"Well, my mum spoke to her mum during the holidays,"Scorpius explained,"and…yeah."

Hermione smiled more than was necessary to try and disperse the awkward atmosphere. "Good luck!"

Not far away, Martin Longbottom was watching one of the couples on the dance floor with far less satisfaction than Hermione had been. James was meant to be his best friend, yet for the last year he seemed to prefer the company of Martin's younger sister Emily. The fact that he was currently kissing her somewhat underlined why. "Do they have to do that?"Martin complained to Albus and Hugo, his default companions.

Albus glanced in the direction Martin was looking. "I think they enjoy it."

Martin wasn't impressed by the response. "You know she's a prefect next year?"

"So am I,"Albus answered simply.

"So's Rose,"put in Hugo, as if it was news to anyone.

"Yeah but you're going to be a cool prefect,"Martin told Albus, ignoring Hugo's comment because of its inconvenience. Rose was, if anything, even more of a stickler for rules than his sister. "Emily's going to be docking points off me soon as she can. Just you wait."

"You know, there are times when I wish we could do this the way Muggles do,"Harry remarked as he and Hermione walked hand in hand towards the floo network. "It'd be quite nice to have a chauffeur-driven limousine or a horse-drawn cart or something."

Hermione mulled the comment over. "Yes, that would be rather romantic. Still, we're doing it publicly rather than just apparating."

They turned the corner to find a large crowd waiting to say goodbye to them. "Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. and Mrs. Potter!"Neville announced, not for the first time. There was a round of applause probably designed to embarrass them both.

Hermione went over to where Rose and Hugo were stood with Arthur. "I'll keep an eye on them until Ron gets here,"Arthur noted.

"Thanks, Arthur,"Hermione replied gratefully before hugging her two children. "Don't worry, I'll be back to see you off to Hogwarts."

They both smiled at her. "Love you, Mum,"Rose told her. Hermione felt the gladness at the words. Of their children, Rose was the one who had taken the longest to accept her and Harry together. She hoped they were getting close again.

Harry was chatting with his own children. "You'll be okay round Neville and Luna's?"

"We'll be fine, Dad,"James told him.

"You will, you can kiss Emily,"Lily retorted in the way only a little sister could.

Harry noticed James and Emily blushing and Martin looking like he wanted to be sick. "Well, so long as you enjoy yourself,"he observed, getting out of the conversation as quickly as possible. He took Hermione's hand again and they stepped into a fireplace, giving a wave to their friends as they vanished in a spurt of green flame.