Ron awoke to a pounding headache, and a whole host of regrets. Groaning at the appalling show he'd made of himself the previous evening the redhead dragged himself out of bed and stumbled groggily to the bathroom, where he drowned a whole bottle of hangover potion. After leaving the reunion the previous evening, Ron had come home and got well and truly drunk, and now he was seriously regretting both his actions at the reunion and the binge drinking he'd indulged in after that.

"Stupid git," Ron muttered to his reflection, frowning when he spotted his right eye was sporting a bruise, more than likely from the punch Draco had thrown his way.

Fixing the bruise so it couldn't be seen, Ron hopped into the shower. By the time he'd showered and dressed, his headache had departed, but his regrets remained. He couldn't believe he'd made such a fool of himself. Nor could he believe he'd been so horrid to both Hermione and Lisa, not to mention the embarrassing way he'd left the reunion, shouting at innocent bystanders. Ron was well and truly humiliated, and he doubted anything he could say or do would wipe out his actions and words of the previous evening.

Ron may have been filled with regrets, but at the same time, his delusions about Hermione had been shattered. In the cold light of day, Ron could see how stupid he'd been for the last fourteen years. Instead of moving on with his life, as Hermione had rightly done, he'd sat around clinging to the past, convincing himself that he could get back the wife he'd loved so dearly. Of course, Ron could now see that if he'd ever truly thought he stood a chance with Hermione, he would have gone after her long ago, not waited until fate brought her back to his door. Maybe the reason he'd avoided chasing after Hermione was that deep down he'd always known that he'd blown it and there was no way she would ever forgive him and take him back, but he just hadn't wanted to admit such a thing and instead he'd wasted the last decade of his life mooning over someone he was never going to have.

Ron was still baffled with Hermione's choice of husband, and he really didn't want to dwell on his ex-wife's new marriage, but at the same time a part of him was happy that she'd moved on. He loved her enough to want her to be happy, he just wished it wasn't Draco Malfoy that was the one making her happy. But there was nothing he could do about it, and he knew enough to know the best thing he could do was stay away and let Hermione get on with her life in peace.

With Hermione's ghost finally laid to rest, Ron turned his thoughts to his own life. Like Hermione, he felt he deserved to be happy, and he was just realising that he could have been happy these last fourteen years. He could have been a proper family with Lisa and the children, but he'd just been far too stupid to realise it. He was just hoping it wasn't too late to fix things with Lisa. He knew he still didn't love Lisa the way he loved Hermione, in fact he doubted he would ever love anyone the way he loved Hermione, but he did care for her and she was the mother of his children.

Making the decision to try and salvage the mess that was his life, Ron headed to The Burrow, hoping Hugo and Rose were still there. Unfortunately, when he entered his childhood home there was no sign of his children, or any other children. The house was empty aside from his mother, Molly, sitting in the kitchen talking to Harry.

"Hey," Ron ventured quietly as he entered the room.

"Hello," Harry replied stiffly.

"I'm sorry about last night," Ron began.

"I don't know why you're apologising to me, I'm not the one you hurt," Harry interrupted. "I was merely your embarrassed best friend. Honestly, Ron, I've never been more ashamed of you."

"I know, I was appalling," Ron said with a sigh as he slumped down in one of the kitchen chairs. "Are the kids still here?" He asked his mother, eagerly.

"No," Molly answered, shooting his youngest son an unimpressed glare. Even though she'd called Hermione all sorts after she'd divorced Ron, and she strongly disapproved of her new marriage, she was totally humiliated by the scene her youngest son had caused the previous evening. "Lisa picked the children up last night. She was in floods of tears when she arrived here, I hope you know. You really hurt her, Ron, and all she's ever done is be there for you."

"I know," Ron whispered moodily.

Across the table, Harry bit his lip to stop himself from expressing a very different opinion to Molly. He actually felt bad for Lisa the way Ron had laid into her at the reunion, but in his opinion she wasn't exactly an innocent party in things. Firstly, she'd knowingly slept with a married man, and then when she'd discovered she was pregnant, she hadn't gone and spoken to Ron in private, she'd deliberately turned up at the couple's house and told Hermione. Harry couldn't help but think that it had been unnecessarily cruel to turn up and tell Hermione that she was expecting her husband's child, and Harry often wondered if Lisa had set out to split Ron and Hermione up. Although if her plan had been to nab Ron for herself, things hadn't been at all successful. Even having a second child together hadn't prompted Ron to make things official between them.

"Do you think she'll forgive me?" Ron asked his mother.

"I don't know," Molly answered. "She was awfully upset last night."

"And what about Hermione?" Ron questioned, turning to Harry.

"No, I don't think she'll forgive you Ron," Harry answered bluntly. "And quite honestly, I don't think she should forgive you. First you cheated on her and broke her heart, then the next time you see her, you humiliate her in public. I don't think any amount of apologies will make things right."

"But I should still try," Ron said.

"No," Harry said sharply. "I'm going to tell you the same thing I told Ginny, stay away from Hermione. She didn't deserve what either of you said to her last night, and honestly, I'm ashamed of the pair of you."

"I'm sorry Harry, but I need to apologize," Ron insisted.

"What you need to do is leave Hermione alone and let her get on with her life," Harry argued. "If you love her, you'll stay away. She's moved on Ron, and she's got a whole new life. She doesn't need you causing trouble for her. Just leave her in peace, Ron."

Reluctantly Ron nodded his head and agreed to stay away from Hermione. "But if you see her, apologise for me," he told Harry. "But now, I've got some apologises of my own to make."

"Good luck," Molly said with a smile as her son got to his feet.

"Thanks, I'm going to need it," Ron muttered.

Leaving The Burrow, Ron headed to the house he'd bought for Lisa and the children to live in. When he knocked on the door he half expected not to get an answer, but a subdued Lisa answered immediately and let him into the house.

"Where are Hugo and Rose?" Ron asked, noticing how still and quiet the house was.

"My mother's taken them out for the day," Lisa answered. "So you can say whatever you want to say and then leave."

"I'm sorry Lisa, I never should have said any of those things."

"No, you shouldn't," Lisa agreed sadly. "But you have, and you can't take them back."

"But I want to try," Ron pleaded. "Give me a chance, Lisa. Let us become the family we always should have been."

Lisa looked at Ron for a moment before shaking her head and laughing bitterly. "I'm not a consolation prize. You only want me because you've finally realised you can't have Hermione. I've been telling you it was over for years, but you never listened. But now you know she's with someone else, you think you can come crawling back to me and I'll welcome you with open arms."

"It's not like that," Ron protested weakly, knowing that things were exactly as Lisa had said, and chances were if he'd never been cured of his Hermione fixation, he wouldn't be standing here, begging her to give him a chance.

"It's exactly like that," Lisa said flatly. "And I'm sorry Ron, but our chance has gone. This won't affect anything in regards to the children. You're still their father, and we'll still share custody. But you and I are over. This is the end."

"I've really messed up, haven't I?" Ron asked sadly.

"Yes, you have," Lisa answered with a nod. "I'm sorry Ron, and I wish things were different, but I've spent fourteen years waiting for you and last night made me see that I've just been wasting my time. It's time for us both to move on. I really hope you find someone who makes you happy, but it won't be me."

Feeling defeated, Ron left Lisa's house and headed home. Settling down in his flat, he couldn't help but think about where things went wrong. How had he ended up all alone, with a broken marriage and two children with a witch he wasn't even in a relationship with? Where had he gone wrong with his life? Although deep down he knew where he'd gone wrong, Draco had pointed it out to everyone last night. Once upon a time he'd been lucky enough to have Hermione's love, and he'd stupidly thrown it away. Now, he had to live with the consequences of messing up the best thing that had ever happened to him. And worst of all, he had to do it knowing that Draco Malfoy was taking advantage of his mistake. His former enemy was living the life he should be living with the witch he loved, and there wasn't anything Ron could do about it. He'd had his chance and blown it, and something told him that Draco wouldn't blow his chance. He would hold onto Hermione, and the pair would grow old together, while he was stuck all alone with only his children to brighten his life.


...


After a romantic night at the hotel, Draco and Hermione had almost forgotten about the drama at the reunion. However, the previous night's dramas came back to them when they returned to the manor and found Draco's parents eager to hear how their night went.

"It was very nice," Draco informed them. "The hotel was lovely and the room was great. There was a gorgeous four poster bed which we made full use of."

"Draco," Hermione hissed at her husband, blushing at the thought of Lucius and Narcissa knowing what she and Draco had been up to the previous evening.

"We don't need to hear the details," Lucius said with a chuckle. "We're sure you both had a very satisfying night. You are both Malfoys, and we Malfoys have good sex lives."

"Lucius," Narcissa scolded with a frown, glancing over to where Scorpius was playing with his dragons and thanking the heavens that the four year old hadn't heard his grandfather and was now questioning them about sex.

"Just stating facts, Cissa," Lucius replied with an unconcerned shrug.

"But how was the reunion itself?" Narcissa asked, focusing on Hermione as she knew it had been her daughter-in-law who had wanted to attend the reunion.

"Dramatic," Hermione confessed. "As we expected, Ron was there."

"And let's guess, he caused a scene," Lucius said with a disapproving tut. "Although, I'm not sure why we're surprised. Those Weasleys all have short tempers. I remember the time old Arthur Weasley attacked me in the book shop in Diagon Alley."

"You're weren't totally innocent yourself, Lucius," Hermione pointed out. "Arthur may have thrown the first punch, but you were making your mouth go. If I remember correctly, I was even on the end of your insults."

"It was a long time ago, and I have apologised," Lucius murmured, having the good grace to look embarrassed as his daughter-in-law called him out on his past behaviour.

"So what exactly happened?" Narcissa asked, eager for the gossip.

"He punched me," Draco answered, brushing Narcissa's concerns off as she checked he was alright. "He was ranting and raving about Hermione being his wife, until I pointed out, she was actually my wife. That was when he insulted Hermione and I was the one doing the punching."

"I hope you landed a good one on him," Lucius said gleefully.

"I did," Draco replied, sharing a smirk with his father.

"I do hope things didn't descend into a brawl," Narcissa remarked with obvious distaste.

"No, Weasley slunk off home and left his little sister to continue the mudslinging," Draco answered.

"And just what did the little Potter tart have to say for herself?" Lucius demanded.

"She was spouting about family honour, and how I'd disgraced the Weasleys by divorcing Ron and then marrying Draco," Hermione answered with a shrug.

"If anyone's family honour is tainted it's ours, having a former Weasley in the family," Lucius sniffed.

"Not that we think you're a blight to the family, Hermione," Narcissa said, shooting her husband an unimpressed glare. She loved Lucius, but he did have a tendency to speak before he thought and that could end up making him sound cold and callous, when really he was a very sensitive and caring man.

"Of course not," Lucius corrected, smiling at Hermione. "You know how much we care about you, Hermione. You're the daughter we never had."

"I know you didn't mean anything by it, Lucius," Hermione said with a smile. Draco's parents had been wary of him getting involved with her at first, but over the years they'd all overcome their pasts and now the Malfoys were a very close knit family and Hermione loved Lucius and Narcissa and she knew they loved her.

"I hope you gave her a mouthful, Hermione," Lucius said, relieved that he hadn't inadvertently upset his daughter-in-law.

"I let her know what I thought of her," Hermione said, smiling slightly as she remembered how satisfying it had been to slap Ginny. It wasn't until she'd actually done it that she'd realised it was something she'd been longing to do since she'd met Ron's sister back in Hogwarts.

"But aside from that unpleasantness, I take it your evening was a success," Narcissa said.

"It was," Hermione replied with a large smile. She'd really enjoyed catching up with her old friends, and she'd even made plans for her and Draco to have dinner one evening with Neville and Luna.

After Draco and Hermione filled his parents in on the other aspects of their evening, they turned their focus to their children and how they were going to spend the day. After all, they were only in the country for a week and they intended to make the most of it. They wanted to take the children to as many fun places as they could think of as they gave Scorpius and Lyra a glimpse of Wizarding Britain before they returned to their normal lives in France.