I don't own anything from the world of Harry Potter except the Sleeping Beauty Curse and the Krum twins, Konstantin and Hristofor.

The Bulgarian was helpfully translated at translation2. paralink translations. asp (without the spaces)

Chapter 8

Harry landed just outside the apparation barrier of the Burrow. He loved this house and the people in it. Though at the moment, he really wanted to be back at the ministry beating the information they needed out of Draco Malfoy.

Seconds after he stepped into the Burrow's garden, he was tackled by persons with bushy, brown and flaming red hair. "Well, hello ladies! What do I own the pleasure of being forced to the ground by two lovely ladies?"

Hermione and Ginny started laughing hysterically at him, especially when he started tickling them.

"Okay! We give."

"Harry, we give! Oh, stop!" Hermione shrieked.

"Harry, love, stop being wicked!" Ginny squeaked, slapping him in the arm.

Fred, George, Katie, Fleur, Konstantin, Tonks, Ron, Viktor, and Charlie slowly ambled over to the trio on the ground.

"You know, 'Mione, as a young lad I visions of multiple person fun, but they never included Harry and my baby sister." With that the laughing group, stopped and quickly separated.

"Fred, sometimes you can be a real genius." George said to the udder surprise of the entire group.

Charlie rested his forearm on George's shoulder, "What pray tell little brother are you going on about?"

"Well, before everything went bat crap crazy, we had thought about an adult line of Day Dream Charms. We had been thinking just general, run of the mill fantasy charms. But Fred just made me think, what if you could choose specific people for your fantasy?" George explained.

"Brilliant! I am a genius." Fred said pulling Hermione up off the ground.

"I might have one small problem with that." Ginny said as Harry helped her up from the ground.

"And just what would that be, little sister?" George asked finally brushing Charlie off his shoulder and staring at her.

"Well, I might not lots of gals out there day dreaming about Harry. Fred might have the same problem with blokes dreaming about Hermione." Ginny stated matter of factually. Then, she added dreamily, "But, Ron, Viktor, and Charlie might actually enjoy being many guys or gals' fantasy."

Viktor stuttered, "Not likely. Just ask Hermione, I am a one voman man."

Charlie smirked, "I'm game, but my boyfriend might have a problem with it."

"Since when have you had a boyfriend? Last you told you were sleeping your way through the men of Romania." Ginny inquired, eyeing her brother.

"Just wouldn't you like to know? Well, you'll have to wait and see. I sent him a message while Fred was pacing earlier. I told him to stop Neville, Luna, Romilda, and Colin from going to the shop at 1, but to show up here 'round 5 for dinner. And yes I told mum there would be five more for dinner."

Ginny grabbed Harry's arm and looked at the watch that used to be her uncle's, "Well, it is already 3 o'clock. Ladies, lets head to the kitchen. Boys, tend to the tables."

Harry stayed put when everyone else started toward the house to prepare for dinner. "Hermione," he whispered. "I need my best friend for a few moments."

With a quick peck to Fred's cheek and a wink, Hermione walked arm in arm with Harry to the vegetable patch in the garden. "So, do you want to talk first and then de-gnome the vegetables or vice versa?"

"Multi-task," he replied as he grabbed a gnome that had popped its head out of its hole at the sound of their footsteps. "Mione, did you really know you and Fred were going to end up married?"

"I knew it was a possibility, but I thought I had only harbored a school girl crush on him and that wouldn't be enough. I did not it was deeper than that or that Fred had any feelings besides friendship."

"I know Fred is a prankster and seems to really love you. But," he paused as his sent his second gnome flying, "but are you happy? Are you truly happy with him?"

"I am. I truly am. At first, before he woke up, I was scared he would be the same care-free, nothing serious, ugh" she sent a gnome off and it landed right next to Harry's third, "hopping from girl to girl bloke and I would be miserable. He's not though." She turned to look at him with a scrunched up, thoughtful expression on her face. "Did I ever tell you that he sent me day dream charms all during all during sixth year? I thought he would stop over the summer, but the boxes kept appearing at my parents' house and on my pillow once I came to the Burrow. He even had Ginny sneak about one hundred day dream charms into my beaded bag for when we were on the run."

"I get it. He likes you. Plus, he has cared about your sanity for at least two years. Do you think you are going to be happy in the future?"

"I think I will be. Fred seems to be a person like me. He is more in tune with the daily, little things that make me feel special than going for the occasional, huge, grand romantic gestures." Hermione said plucking up another gnome. After tossing it through the air, she continued her musings. "Now that I am thinking back on things, he used to pull my chair out all the time for dinner. I don't know how many times I caught him looking at me during meals here, at Grimmuald Place, and Hogwarts. How did I never notice this before?"

"I don't know, Mione." He said throwing another gnome and watching her eyes shift quickly back and forth while she thought. "How did I not notice Ginny for far too many years? I guess we should just be happy and enjoy that we found them."

The two best friends continued to do their de-gnoming work for a while in silence.

"Err, Mione. I know something that you will not like that I know." Harry said starting the conversation again. She turned to look at him curiously. "Why did you never tell me you almost died the night you lot came to get me from the Dursley's last summer?"

"Holy cricket! How did you find out? You were never supposed to find out." Hermione gushed.

"Mr. Weasley was ranting at Kingsley and let it slip. Kingsley did not want to cooperate, but throwing in how much you trust him seemed to help him become compliant." Harry explained. "What happened? How did I almost lose you?"

"Voldemort was close to us, but he didn't send a curse. He seemed to be evaluation Kingsley and me to see if I was the real Harry Potter. MacNair was sending curse after curse recklessly in every direction. He pointed his wand at me and yelled Incendio. Kingsley manavured the thestral out of the line of fire while whipping me around so I was sitting in front of him at the last second. I could have been burned a little, but I would not have died. It was really no big deal, but I knew you would read more into it than was. Just don't tell Fred, please. He might not be able to handle it."

"You should have told me, Hermione. I don't like you not telling me things. Hermione Jean Granger, I mean Weasley, you're not allowed to leave me. I mean it. You can go off, be married to Fred, and have all the fun you want, without telling me any ick stuff, but you can't leave me. I couldn't handle it if you weren't here." He admitted as he pulled her into a tight, standing embrace. He whispered into her hair, "Promise you'll do or not do anything in your power to stay here for Fred and Ginny and especially me."

Hermione fought him in order to pull back to see his face. "I promise, okay. I promise to stay here. But I have two things to ask. One, will you walk me down the aisle at my wedding? You're my only family that will be able to be there and I wouldn't have it any other way." After he nodded yes with tears streaming down his face, she continued, "Two, tell me right now what in the bloody hell has got you so freaked out?" His face went blank and Hermione stepped out of his arms. "Harry James Potter, you've never been able to keep anything from me before, even your little crush on Cho. Spill it now."


"Why, thank you, Winky. I love having you here. I'm really going to miss you when Hermione and Fred get officially married and find a house." Ginny said passing the house-elf a stack of plates to take to the tables outside.

"Well, you'll have a house-elf yourself soon." Penelope said smiling at the younger witch.

"Whatever do you mean, Penelope?"

"If Harry keeps looking at you the way he does and as often as he does, you'll be married not to long from now. Then, you will live at Number 12 Grimmuald Place with Harry and Kreacher. Don't worry, we will all help you clean, de-Black, and decorate that old manor."

"I will definitely take you up on that if Harry ever proposes to me." Ginny said laughing.

"Now for Wizarding Wireless Network Report: From the Ministry of Magic, we have received today's list of happily wedded couples. As most of the wizarding world knows there has been a massive rush to be married since the fall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Today's List is short in comparison to the past few weeks. Pea Impro wed Lee Jordan. Roxmy Stewart wed Eddie Carmichael. Apri Chan married Zacharias Smith. Jav Alon wed Cormac McLaggen. And Harry Potter's former girlfriend, Cho Chang married Harry Potter's Muggle cousin, Dudley Dursley. Justin..."

"Bloody Fucking Hell!"

"Ginerva! Watch your language." Molly scolded shaking her head.

"Did you hear that?" Ginny asked looking around at the other ladies in the kitchen. "Merlin, what is Harry going to say?" Then, she ran out of the house followed by Katie, Penelope Clearwater, and Fleur.

Fred saw his sister and his brother's gals running from the house. He immediately dropped the table he had been levitating into place and ran after her. Alert for danger, Tonks, the Krum men, and his all of his brother except for Bill, followed in hot pursuit.

Harry was saved from answering Hermione's question at the moment by Ginny screaming his name. She lost her footing and crashed into the two best friends.

"What is going on, Ginny? And why do you keep insisting on rolling around on the ground with Harry and Hermione?" George asked breathlessly as the rest caught up to her.

Fred attempted to pull Hermione up, but she pulled him down with her. As he landed and got comfortable, he continued with, "Yeah, the only one allowed to roll around on the ground with my wife is me."

"Well, let's all sit and shirk our work. Sounds like Ginny has some earth shattering news to impart." Percy said sitting next to his fiancée, Penelope. "Ginny, the fl… I mean, ground is yours."

"Thanks, Percy? In the kitchen, we were listening to the wireless and the wedding report came on. An..."

Hermione jerked and interjected, "They haven't caught wind of Ernie and Hannah or Fred and myself, have they?"

"No, now let me finish." Ginny said rolling her eyes. "Well, Lee's wedding was announced, I'm glad we heard about that before it happened. But there was one that is a whopper. Penelope, how did they say it again?"

In her snobbiest fake voice, Penelope recited, "Harry Potter's former girlfriend, Cho Chang married Harry Potter's Muggle cousin, Dudley Dursley."

Harry sat in shock for a full three minutes while everyone waited for him to react. Then, to everyone's great surprise, Harry started laughing. He kept laughing until him and anyone who had heard stories about his muggle cousin were clutching their sides. When he was finally able to speak, he gasped, "I would have loved to see the look on my aunt and uncle's faces when he told them he was marrying a witch."

"As much as, I enjoy hearing you all laughing so hardily again, if we don't finish getting everything ready, dinner won't be until midnight." Molly said smiling at her now even more extended family.

With small grumbles, the lounging group got back to work. Harry carefully avoided Hermione's gaze and encouraged Fred to help her finish de-gnoming the garden.

A little over an hour later, the tables were repaired from being dropped. They were laden with many plates and platters of food. The smell was making everyone's mouth water. The twins were barely restraining themselves from eating the entire table before the rest of the family and guests arrived.

Harry was trying his best to avoid Hermione. Bill and Arthur had forbidden him from telling her not to have kids. She already was half sister, half mom to him. He knew in his bones that she would be amazing with her own kids. He did not want to her to die. He had to make someone tell Fred. Kingsley left it up to the family to tell Fred, but it was obvious Molly and Arthur weren't going to tell. As he finally made up his mind to force Bill into talking to Fred right after dinner, there came five small pops from the gate.

Ginny and Hermione rushed to the gate. Giving Neville, Luna, Romilda, and Colin, Ginny looked around like a kid hunting for an Easter egg. "There were five of you when arrived. Where is he? I want to meet the guy that got Charlie to say 'my boyfriend' in a non-sarcastic way and without a flinch."

"Turned around Ginny." Hermione and Katie said in between laughs.

Ginny turned around to see most of her brothers and Harry turning back to the table, but Charlie was busy snogging his new boyfriend, Oliver Wood.

Molly didn't want to let the food cool before eating, so everyone at the Burrow sat down to eat. The assembled group was chatting animatedly down through the table. The bulk of the conversation was about quidditch, but Hermione was happy to have others around to discuss anything besides quidditch. Tonks was back in true form entertaining the crowd by changing her hair and nose.

Molly was completely distracted and laughed at all the wrong times. She hadn't been this nervous since before the Battle at Hogwarts. Her husband, her Arthur and Bill were still not back from the Ministry. She was beside herself.

"So, what's going on here? How in the bloody hell did this happen?" Harry asked still shocked to see his former captain.

"We hadn't seen each other in years, but we had always gotten along great on and off the pitch even with our age difference. We saw each other at the battle and teamed up to take people down and protect the students who were in duels that were way over their heads." Oliver explained while Charlie had his arm laid lazily over the back on his chair.

"Then, what happened?" Ginny begged.

"We ate some food, healed some kids both having experience healing from our jobs, and talked as we worked." Charlie said curtly.

"Since then, we've gone out a couple of times. We tried to keep it quiet going to muggle places and theaters, so you lot didn't catch us before we were ready to tell you. We actually almost got caught by Harry and Ginny the other night."

Ginny sighed, then "Wait, we haven't been anywhere."

Noticing his mum was paying attention to the gate for the moment; Charlie leaned forward and whispered, "You two aren't the only ones that hide from mum and dad behind the shed."

Ginny and Harry turned the color of tomatoes, while the rest of the couples looked in every other direction.

When everyone was cleaning up the meal, Molly heard a series of three pops behind her. She turned around and rushed into Arthur's arms, while Fleur ran to Bill. Hristofor preferred to walk calmly straight to the food.

After hurried hellos and Molly pushing food on the new arrivals, Harry pulled Bill aside to talk. Upstairs in Ron's room, Harry silenced the door.

"So, what happened? Did Draco go to Bulgaria? Did he know why his mother used take curse? Did he give you any information?"

"Give a man a moment to breathe, Harry. He is still here in England. He didn't know much information, but he did know that his mother learned several Bulgarian and Armenian curses from his Aunt Bellatrix, who learned them from Sirius' lovely mum. So, we need to get back into Grimmuald place to look at some of the books."

"Let me try something first. Kreacher!"

"Yes, Master Potter." The house-elf said a second after he popped into the room.

"Hello, Kreacher. Did any Death Eaters get into Number 12 Grimmuald place after Hermione, Ron, and I left? Did any of them get in and hurt you?"

"Only ones came. Hes try find yous. But Is listen Misses Granger."

"What do you mean you listened to Miss Granger?"

"Shes came back and tolds me yous ordered me seal doors. No one getses in rooms, only hall."

"Good job, Kreacher. Master Regulus would be pleased with the job you did fighting at the castle as well. Kreacher, I need you to bring me some books from the library. I need books the mention the Спяща красавица."

"Ohs, Master Potter." Kreacher said grabbing an empty butterbeer bottle and hitting himself in the head.

"Kreacher, who is your master now." With the reminder, Kreacher bowed and disapparated away.

Bill and Harry just stared at each other until Harry broke the silence. "Bill, how did you get Draco to talk? Are you going to tell Fred and Hermione about this since I don't think your parents will?"

Kreacher was back, so Bill just smirked and said, "I'll explain later when we are in private and when we don't have something more important to do."

"Bill, I don't know what to look for. Hermione is the researcher. I wish she could help."

"Just look for the words the Спяща красавица, marriage, and death after children."

"Does this help The Life for a Life Aspect of Спяща красавица?"

Fred and George burst into the room with extendable ears attached to their ears.

"What the bloody hell are you to going on about The Life for a Life Aspect of Спяща красавица? Can someone else die because Hermione saved me?" Fred demanded.

"I guess we were not as sneaky as we thought." Harry chuckled.

Bill tried to answer as calmly as possible, "We do not have all the information right now. Yes and no to your question. Not just someone could die, just Ernie, Romilda, and Hermione. In one type of the Sleeping Beauty curse, if a child comes of your union, the curse breaker dies."


Author's Note~

Now that I have remembered to say that this is a Hermione and Fred story, hopefully more people will get to enjoy it.

Duckibelle