Chapter 4: Familial Love For All Time

It quickly became apparent to Harry and Hermione that Hogwarts just wasn't Hogwarts anymore. The Carrows taught perverted versions of Defense Against the Dark Arts and Muggle Studies, freely torturing students with Snape, the new Headmaster, doing nothing to stop them.

Harry knew that his argument for allowing Hermione - a Muggle-born who by all rights were now banned from the school - and the baby to live would not last very long against the Carrows, so he ordered her and Rose to stay in the Room of Requirement while the others went to class. During this time, with the help of Luna Lovegood, Harry tracked down another Horcrux, the lost diadem of Ravenclaw, and took it down into the Chamber of Secrets to destroy it with basilisk fangs.

Four down. Two to go.

Keeping a low profile and his ear to the ground, Harry heard rumblings from the Carrows that something special was hidden inside Bellatrix Lestrange's vault at Gringotts. When Harry had been captured, the sword of Gryffindor had been confiscated, with the Carrows confused and panicked as to why it was there... and not in Bellatrix's vault. Something else was inside that vault, Harry suspected. But he would need to leave Hogwarts - with the sword - to find out.

So, together with Neville and Luna and Ginny, Harry hatched a plan.

The quartet broke into the Headmaster's office, and stole the sword of Gryffindor back. Ginny was captured in the process, sacrificing herself so the others could get away. Neville then showed Harry a passageway out of the castle, connecting the Room of Requirement to the Hogs' Head pub in Hogsmeade. His rucksack over his shoulder, Harry said goodbye to Hermione and baby Rose.

"Stay here in the Room of Requirement, and do whatever Neville tells you. I won't be long." Harry kissed Hermione once chastely, like a brother would a sister, before hauling his rucksack over his shoulder and departing.

Disguising himself as Bellatrix Lestrange via a transfigured hair from the evil witch, Harry broke into Gringotts and retrieved the likely Horcrux - the cup of Hufflepuff, promptly stabbed it with the sword, and escaped on a dragon. He barely got back into Hogwarts with Aberforth Dumbledore's help, where he reunited with Hermione and the baby. Hermione seemed emotionally relieved at Harry's return, flinging herself and Rose into his arms ("Harry! Thank Merlin you're safe!"). It was here Harry learned that Voldemort was marching on Hogwarts and that tragically, Ginny had died at the hands of the Carrows.

Leaving Rose nestled safely with Molly Weasley, Harry and Hermione fought bravely. Discovering from Snape's memories that he was a seventh, accidental Horcrux, Harry confronted Voldemort and allowed his own death to destroy the part of Voldemort's soul inside of him.

Just when all seemed lost, Harry came back from the dead, cut off the head of Nagini - the final Horcrux - with the sword of Gryffindor, and defeated Voldemort in a climatic duel.

Following the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry accompanied Hermione to Australia to recover her parents' memories. Mr. and Mrs. Granger were overjoyed to meet their grandchild.

On the sun-tickled grass of the Hogwarts grounds, Hermione watched as a seven-month-old Rose played with Uncle Harry. Harry was taking on his role as godfather with gusto, and Hermione felt so grateful that her friend was with her, that Rose would have a father figure, to love Rose and teach her. And in the months they had spent together on the Hunt, the three had become extremely close. To the point where Hermione could not see her and Rose's lives without Harry in it.

So, as Harry approached her with a giggling Rose on his shoulders...

"Will you marry me?" The question came out impulsively, but simply. And as Hermione gazed at Harry's taken aback face, she suddenly had never felt surer about anything else in her life.

In answer, Harry kissed Hermione gently, his expression solemn but accepting.

"Yes."

The wedding was held on the banks of the Black Lake. Rose toddled along the aisle as a flower girl; Mr. Granger gave his daughter away in a strapless white gown. As the sun set along the Hogwarts grounds, as Kingsley Shacklebolt pronounced the Boy Who Lived and the Greatest Witch of Her Age husband and wife, Harry and Hermione shared a gentle kiss. Perhaps someday they could learn to love each other in a more romantic way. But right now, their union under the blanket of a familial love was enough. Being together for Rose's sake. For they would always be family, and remain together.

After all, that is what Ron would have wanted.