Broom(b)ride

By

Sannikex

Chapter Four

A Piece of Advice

A/N: Another piece of this very angst-less story. This part is for Irishladybugz7 who suggested the advising part. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything owned by someone else.

Ron took a deep breath of the cold evening air and closed the door to the bustling kitchen. He needed a break from all the congratulations and well-meaning ribbing. The door opened and Harry stepped out with two butterbeers. He handed Ron one and leaned against the wall.

"So…are you feeling up to the job, daddy?" He knew that the question was serious though the tone was light.

"I don't know…I'm happy of course, can't help but smile all the time but it's…so…huge…"

Harry nodded and leaned his elbows on the railing while looking out over the garden. Three gnomes were fighting over some leftovers the children had put out for them and somewhere a dog barked.

"How… I mean when you…" Harry took a swig of his beer before answering,

"When Luna told me that we were going to have a baby I was on the verge of packing my bags and running. I loved her endlessly but the aspect of being a father scared me from my senses. I remember the first time she mentioned children, it was the first time we went to Beddgelert and saw the house and we stood in the orchard and suddenly she says that she wanted our children to grow up there. All I felt was fear. She understood, of course, Luna always does and that, if something, made me realize that I would never forgive myself if I left. What kind of father would I be then? I kept being scared the whole time, couldn't believe that I would soon be a father, someone would be totally dependant on me...With reservation for sounding cliché, the first time I held Lily I knew that if someone crooked a hair on her head I would kill that person with no regrets. Then I felt more fear, fear that something would happen to her if I didn't watch over her...And it never stops, I'm still just as scared now as then that one day something will happen to her just as I am afraid that something will happen to Luna. I have no idea what I would do to myself if I lost them."

"You won't" Ron clapped him on the shoulder. He was glad that Harry had shared so much of his feelings, he usually bottled everything up. Or, used to, Luna always managed to get him to talk.

"Congratulations by the way, mate"

"Congratulations to you too. Second, eh? At twenty-four...Not bad"

"Well, Malfoy's twenty-four too and he and Ginny are having their third."

"Don't remind me", Ron moaned and Harry laughed.

She stood beside Arthur and watched as the promised Quidditch game took place. Almost everyone was playing but their respective men had stopped the three expecting women. Ginny and Luna sat closer to the game and chatted and kept an eye on their children who were playing. Lily and Juliet who were to young for own brooms sat in front of their fathers, securely locked with spells between their guarding arms. The sight touched her

Hermione had found herself standing beside the Weasley patriarch. Mrs. Weasley was in the kitchen doing the dishes with Fleur who to everyone's surprise had offered to help.

They stood with their necks craned and Mr. Weasley hummed cheerily. All his sons were up there; even Percy after Pansy had made him. They were a really weird match, no one could have guessed. Ginny, who had the closest contact with Pansy because of her husband (who couldn't stand her but felt he had to accept her - they were after all from the same house in a family where everyone were Gryffindors or Ravenclaws) had told her that Pansy had gotten a job at the Ministry after they had confiscated the Parkinson estate and money, as Percy Weasley's secretary and had almost driven him mad with using her time to "take him down a few notches" as she put it, instead of working. Then somehow they had ended up on Percy's desk and from there it had rolled on. And she had managed to tone Percy down a bit, which the whole family thanked her for. Besides, Draco and Ginny, could it become weirder than that, she asked herself? And still, they seemed so perfectly happy. Of course Ginny could consider herself lucky, Malfoy never missed a beat in his gallantry, he still courted her after almost eight years and you had to admit that he looked damn good. She loved Ron endlessly but you couldn't help your hormones tripping slightly over Draco Malfoy. Dashingly handsome and romantic, and ever-thoughtful towards his wife. Looking at them made you believe in love that lasted a lifetime. And maybe, she thought and looked up at Ron who just caught the quaffle with a grin, she had that too.

"Mr. Weasley, how do you get a relationship to last?" Arthur turned his eyes to her looking very troubled.

"Is there…Are there any problems between you and Ron?"

"Oh no! No, I just meant…" She blushed promptly but continued, "How do you get it to last for a long time? The attraction, I mean?"

Arthur looked uneasy but seemed determined to answer correctly.

"Well, it takes a lot of patience and you have to realize that your partner change and grow and so do you. You have to work for it, everyday. You never get out of the danger zone. Molly and I still work to stay together even if we happen to be lucky enough to never have any serious difficulties." Hermione nodded and thought about how she had changed. She wasn't the same little girl who had fallen for her tall and gangly friend so long ago. He wasn't the tall and gangly boy any longer but she had come to love the man he had become. "I believe that you and Ron have good chances at making it. After all he's been in love with you since he was eleven, even if he didn't realize it at the time. He came home that summer full of, 'Hermione said', 'Hermione would know', 'Hermione told me'. I knew from the beginning that someone who could make my son listen like that must be special. And so you were." Hermione blushed and Arthur smiled. "I know Ron and I won't say that living with him is going to be easy but I do know that no one is better fit for him than you, Hermione."

"Thank you, Mr. Weasley" He just nodded and strode inside.

"Don't you think that the winner deserve a kiss?" Malfoy leaned on his broom with a smug smirk and Ginny rose, only a bit heavier than usual and he was about to help her when she sent him a glare so he just kept leaning on his broom.

"Of course I do, it's not every day you beat the great Harry Potter!" He looked a bit sour before he remembered that he had nothing to fear from his wife's childhood crush any longer. So he grinned, Hermione still hadn't gotten used to it, and Ginny tiptoed to reach him. She pulled at his collar and obediently he bent down. She didn't stare, of course not, but it looked like he was properly rewarded.

"Don't you think that the losers deserve a kiss?" Harry stood in front of his girlfriend, grinning. Losing didn't affect him, he'd had Lily on his broom and hadn't dared to do anything drastical even if he had seen the snitch some moments before Malfoy. Luna rose gracefully and kissed his cheek before turning around start walking up to the house.

"Hey!"

Hermione saw her smile before Harry spun her around and covered it with his mouth. Now everyone seemed to be lip locked around her except for the children, they were making faces and pulling at their parents' clothes, urging them to not be so embarrassing. But where was her man?

"Ron went to get something to drink." Bill said from behind her.

"Oh, I'll go and help him then…"

"I think I will too…" They smirked at each other as they stood in the middle of all snogging couples.

He was slightly annoyed that Malfoy's team had won. What annoyed him more was that Harry hadn't been fazed. He got on far too well with the pointy-faced prig. He opened the back door and stepped into the kitchen just as he heard the front door close. His mother stood by the stove. When he entered she turned.

"Oh, Ronald!"

He stiffened; she only called him Ronald when she was upset with him.

"My baby...Going to be a dad!" He groaned inwardly, they had been through this three times since he and Hermione had announced that they were going to have a baby.

"Yes, mum."

"It feels like yesterday you were crawling around here in nappies with the twins tormenting you. You used to..."

"Mum, I promised to bring out some drinks", he could hear himself how pained his voice sounded.

"Of course", she sniffed. She started to hand him bottles of Lizard's Lemonade with her eyes filled with tears.

"Mum don't cry, you've gotten loads of grandchildren already..."

"Yes, I know, it's silly but I can't help it..." Desperatly he wondered if she was going to act like this until the baby was born. "Off you go, I need to cry for a bit..." He hurried out before she'd change her mind. He almost ran into Hermione and Bill on their way to the house.

"Don't go in, mum's mental." They stopped. "I think Fleur went out." Bill nodded and left them.

"Ron, if she didn't go mental raising you lot nothing's going to make her go around the bend."

"That's true. Is our child going to make you go around the bend?" Hermione looked up and smiled.

"I don't expect otherwise, since it's a Weasley."

A/N2: So what did you think, tell me!