AN- Thanks for all your reviews.

Chapter 25

A family?

"Everything's ready?" An anxious Harry asked his best mate Ron.

"Yeah mate, but aren't you forgetting something?" The redhead questioned, using his common sense.

"What's that?"

"To go and get Hermione… you do know someone has to go and pick her up from St. Mungo's once she's released, right?"

Harry smacked himself over the head, punishment for his own stupidity; He walked out the door, planning on making the long trip in his car, since that was St. Mungo's policy.

Today, today was the long awaited for day; finally Hermione was being released from the magical hospital. Harry was happy that she was coming home, and Emily, she was thrilled.

"Uncle Ron," The toddler called out. "Can you hang this up for me?"

Ron took the picture out of her hand and examined it. The picture was a great work of art, indeed it was. The masterpiece was finger painted, mostly with colors of green and pink. Four people like objects were painted on the piece of paper; three giant sized ones.

"Of course I will," He told Emily. He placed his hand on her head and messed up her hair. "But who are all these people?"

"Well," she began. "That's my mommy, right there." She pointed to the largest person in the picture. "She's standing next to me, 'cause I lover her 'lots. And that there is me. You can tell it's me 'cause I'm smaller than the rest of you, and younger too." She moved her finger to the next object in the portrait. "That's daddy, 'cause he has green eyes, like me." She slid her finger over to the last figure. "And that's you, you've got pink hair here 'cause I ran out of red last time I paints."

"I do have red hair?"

"Yeah"

"Never noticed that before…" Ron said jokingly. "Where do you want me to hang it up?"

"Um…" Emily's eyes scanned the whole room, and still she wasn't content. "Not here."

"Where then"

Emily grabbed Ron's hand and started dragging him along. "Come with me"

Following behind her, Ron walked with the little girl into the hallway and towards the outside door. She turned the knob, opening the door, and stared at the front of it.

"Can we put it there? I want it to be the firsts thing my mommy sees."

"Okay"

Holding the picture out at arms length, and directly in front of the door, Ron took out his wand and did a quick spell, one that would make the picture hang exactly where the young girl wanted it to.

"How's that?"

Emily looked at Ron's doings and gave him the two thumbs up signal, a way to tell him he did a good job.

"Thank you Uncle Ron."

"You're welcome." Ron smiled back at her. "But now, I think I need your help."

"Okay"

They retraced their steps back into the living room, where all the decorations were hung up.

"Do you remember the poster we made earlier this morning?" Ron quizzed the little girl Emily thought for a moment, and then nodded her head in agreement. "I was wondering if you wanted to sign your name, like your dad and I already did."

The red head pointed to the banner, which was hanging straight across the back living room wall, the one with the door that led into the kitchen. Reaching over to the small coffee table, Ron picked up the box of crayons and handed them to the toddler. She took a quick peak inside, and the pulled out the light green crayon. Ron smiled when his brain made the recognition; Emily had picked out the same exact color as her father. Extending her arms high up above her head, the toddler struggled to try and reach the handmade present.

"I can't reach it," she said disappointedly.

Ron squatted down and Emily took a step closer to him. He picked her up and placed her on his shoulders. For safety, Emily wrapped her legs around his neck, securing herself encase she was to lose balance.

"Hold on," he warned

Standing straight up, Ron raised himself and Emily up to his normal height. After scratching her name on the white paper, she hit Ron on the head, and he lowered her back down to the ground. Together, they admired the crayon draw, kid created sign, which read "Welcome back Home Hermione, Love Harry, Emily and Ron."

"Ready to go home?" Harry asked Hermione upon entering the room.

"Yes, finally." Hermione answered truthfully. It had been three long days in St. Mungo's, three long days without her family, and she missed Emily, a lot. She stood up off the bed, anxious to leave this place.

"Before we go, I think we need to talk." Harry requested, his voice cracking due to the nervousness that flowed throughout his veins.

"Talk?" Hermione was confused. Yes, she knew they were going to have to talk, eventually, but she wished it later rather than this instant.

"Yes, you may want to sit down..."

Hermione did as she was told, but decided to sit in the chair rather than the bed, where she had lay for the past three hellish days.

"Does this have something to do with the wedding?" Hermione fished, hoping she had guessed correctly, because she was beginning to worry.

Harry paced in front of her, trying to find words to express his own thoughts and feelings.

"Yes…no… sort of." Harry debated. "It's about you and I, and Emily."

"Okay," Hermione agreed, this statement not making her feel any better about this conversation. Harry continued to pace the floor, attempting to verbalize his thoughts. He ran a hand through his black, unruly hair, a nervous habit he had.

"Why didn't you want me to know bout Emily, all those years ago?"

Hermione was taken aback by the question. Here was Harry, cutting back into their past, hurting her again.

"Because…" she inhaled deeply. "I knew you weren't ready to have a child; you had so much ahead of you in your life, and I figured that a child would hold you back from everything you had planned in your life." She was now on the verge of tears, and was forcing them to stay inside her tear ducts. "And Voldemort."

Harry looked down at Hermione, shocked to her that sound, that name. He hadn't heard it in months, years even. "What did Voldemort do to you?" He asked, with a threatening voice. Even though Voldemort was gone, long gone, he hated hearing that he had hurt anyone he had cared about.

She continued, not letting Harry's harshness get to her. "Nothing, he didn't do anything to me. It was about what he was going to do to you, and Emily. If you knew Emily was yours, you may not have gone after Voldemort, like you did. You might have stayed away from him, in hopes of protecting her. And if Voldemort knew you had a daughter, he would have gone after her in hopes of hurting you. I wasn't going to take any chance of him hurting another innocent child, like he did to you those many years ago. So in a way, I was protecting both of you. But, that still doesn't make up for it, I shouldn't have lied, I shouldn't have left you."

Harry was stunned at Hermione's explanation; it was so thorough, so true. Never once did Harry think of her lying because of this, and it was true, she did protect them. It all made since, he just wished he would have known this sooner.

"Yeah, I guess so..." There were other thoughts he needed to get off his chest. "Will you ever lie to me again?"

Without the slightest bit of hesitation, Hermione answered. "No, I learned from my mistakes, and lying to you would mean losing you all over again, and I just can't do that."

"Look, Hermione, I love you, I do…" Harry told her. He continued to pace around the floor, he hadn't stopped for any second during the passing minutes. "But it's that... We can't pick up from where we left off; too much has happened between us. To be together again, I think we need to start over, from the beginning."

"I completely agree."

"And we need to be together as a family, slowly, but eventually we will become a family, not just you and me, or me and Emily, but the three of us."

Hermione smiled; the three of them as an actual family would be perfection. "Yes, it may take time, but I think we can do it, I think we can become a family, like we're suppose to be."

"Me too."

Harry took Hermione's hand in his, and pulled her out of the chair. It felt natural, so natural that he forgot to let go.

"Hope you don't mind, but we need to make a quick stop before we make it home."

"Oh yeah, where?"

"It's a surprise for Emily, and for our new soon-to-be family."

AN- Two more chapters left. I wanted to get this story done before Deathly Hallows came out, but that means that I'm going to have to really step up. Would you guys rather me put the next to chapters up this coming week, or separate them into two weeks?

Please Review!
Kelly