Thanks for the reviews, this chapter is slightly shorter and only Ron and Hermione's pov, no Harry in this chapter sorry Harry lovers!
in retrospective of D.H this chapter is bitter sweet but this chapter had been planed for a while and i wasn't going to change things for D.H so fnurp!
enjoy.
Hermione rolled her eyes as Tonks headed in to the market, people seamed to step out of the way to avoid her as she barged past people on bikes, buggies and a little old dear with a budgie in a broken cage. Tonks had changed her hair back to it's normal bright pink and spiked as they arrived in London, the look accompanied with a stomach so large she looked like she was smuggling a small family of Knezels up her T-shirt.
Beside me Ginny fidgeted with the waist band of her jeans, Hermione knew that was where she had stored away her wand, Hermione didn't feel to at home in the busy market either, her nerves felt slightly on edge and her senses were running in over time.
Ginny glanced over her shoulder at a group of teenagers who had wolf whistled at the two of them. She almost walked in to Tonks who had come to an abrupt halt in front of them.
"Who the hell did that?" She snarled. Hermione grabbed Tonks by the arm as she went to pull out her wand to curse the group of boys. " They would shit themselves if a real wolf turned up…" she sneered.
"Tonks they don't mean anything by it, they didn't know about Remus, their just Muggles." Said Ginny placing herself between Tonks and the gang, "They don't mean anything by it, they don't know…"
Hermione felt Tonks sag, her entire body gave up. Ginny rushed forward and grabbed her other arm as the gang behind them laughed. Hermione saw the flash in Ginny's eye as they rounded the corner. If Hermione hadn't known Ginny so well she wouldn't have noticed the slight movement to the younger girls waist or the scream's of humiliation that were swallowed by the sound of the market.
"You ok?" Hermione said as they lowered Tonks in to a chair outside a café.
Ginny ordered three drinks from a passing waiter and sank down the other side of Tonks.
Tonks shook her head, this was the first time that they had seen her break down, there where tears causing tracks in her light makeup. Tonks shook her head; sobs broke her normal happy visage.
"What if it's a wolf?" she asked quietly.
"Then it will be like it's dad, and I never met a nicer person." Said Ginny placing an arm around the woman that both Hermione and Ginny looked to as a role model.
"How will I cope though, I can't burden your family forever." Said Tonks looking up at Ginny.
Ginny looked like she could spit.
"Did you miss the reason that Remus went to war for? Did you miss the reason that Hermione nearly died? Did you not get the whole damn point in us standing behind Harry?" Ginny was going red.
"I think what she's trying to say is that it's their choice, that they want to help you." Said Hermione sweetly, shooting Ginny a 'calm down' look. "And in any case, I think what you should be worried about is if the pore little thing gets your clumsiness or not, compared to that…"Hermione dropped her voice. "Turning in to a wolf isn't as big a problem is it."
Tonks looked out on to the market, the Muggle world was going on as if nothing had happened, if anything was a testament to the fact that life goes on that was it.
"You have to look at it this way, Remus died so that any child of his would grow up in a world where as long as he's a decent person, it wont mater." Ginny pointed at the bump. "But if it goes in to Slytherin I may change my mind about that."
Tonks hiccuped, but the normal colour seemed to return to her face.
"I guess you're right, it's just so hard…"
Hermione watched as the gang of boys passed by, the one that had whistled trying to hide under his hood.
"What did you so to him?"
"Gave him some whiskers." Said Ginny calmly.
"If the ministry..."
" I'll deny all knowledge." Said Ginny taking a drink from the waiter. "Anyway back to the serious business in hand…dresses!"
"So let me get this straight, Hermione has gone dress shopping?" said Fred as the last of the Pigmy puffs were put in to position. "Where are the books in this?"
Ron lowered the cage trapdoor and laughed.
"No books involved apparently." He said shaking his head, "I know what you're thinking but I have checked and it's not a Death eater."
"Well we know that…because me and George already checked when we found out that the two of you were together, I mean that was a little hard to digest."
Ron hit Fred in the arm, he rubbed the patch gingerly, and it felt so long ago since Fred had been able to look down on him, and Ron now seamed to tower over his older brother.
"I want a word with you anyway." Said Fred as they retreated to the back room and Fred boiled the tea.
"What about?"
"You and Hermione actually." Said Fred looking at Ron in a kind of scared reverence.
"What about me and Hermione…and if it's the whole not wanting to be an uncle yet speech Charlie beat you to it months ago."
"No actually, it wasn't, although if you do knock her up… can you do it soon cause it'll take the heat of me and Angie'-"
"What!" said Ron looking at his brother.
"Oh don't look so shocked, it must be something in the water Angie' Flure, …your sure that-"
"No she bloody isn't." Ron once upon a time would have been mortified at being asked something like that especially by someone like Fred. However the thought of him and Hermione having a family no longer seamed as ridiculous as it would have done if you had asked him twelve months ago. In fact he quiet looked forward to the day that he could take his own children to Diagon ally for their first wands.
"Just checking," Fred looked nervous. Ron couldn't ever remember seeing Fred look like this he was normally so composed. "You know Hermione?" he asked.
"Quite well, yes." Said Ron trying not to laugh.
Fred seemed to be trying to weigh up his words. " How did you know…" he trailed off.
Ron looked at him. " How did I know what?"
"How did you know that she was the one?"
Ron was knocked a little, was Fred seriously having a proper adult conversation with him?
"I just knew, I can't picture my life without her." He said honestly.
"Is that why you asked her to marry you?" Fred asked him, the look of guilt upon his face.
"Yeah it is… I take it you've been talking to Bill?"
"Something like that." Fred looked at the watch on his wrist. "Listen Ron, are you one hundred percent positive that you want to marry Hermione?"
Ron couldn't believe that Fred was asking him that.
He was momentarily dumbstruck.
"You sound like Mum, 'are the two of you sure?' Yes I'm bloody well sure, that woman means everything to me, she's funny, she's clever, she drives me nuts. She's my first and last waking thought every day. She is the only person in this world I would still willingly die for, and she would, and almost has done the same. I love her Fred. Have done for so long that its scary, I'm marrying her tomorrow no mater what anyone says." He realised what he had splurged out a second to late. But Fred was just grinning at him.
"What the hell are you grinning at?" said Ron almost ready to hit him.
"I'm just really glad you said that. You see theirs something you should know about Harry's birthday party…"
"You look like a clown." Said Hermione casting a look at Tonks as she emerged from the changing rooms.
"Let's face it, I might as well wear a sack and get it over and done with." She said waddling back in to the cubical. "Not only am I a widow, I'm a fat widow."
"You have to be married to be a widow." Said Ginny holding the small bag that held the small dress she had bought for herself, or as Hermione had put it 'bought for Harry'.
"That's just a technicality." Said Tonks from behind the red curtain. "Little help?" Ginny shook her head and got to her feet as Hermione slipped in to the cubical next to Tonks three dresses in her hand, she discarded the first straight away, it made her look pregnant. All in all there was enough for Mrs Weasley to kill them for she didn't want to add to it. The second dress was nice but she wasn't to sure, the third she loved but it looked so…
"That one!" said Tonks sticking her head in the cubical.
"I could have been naked!"
"It's nothing I haven't seen before," said Ginny sticking her head around the other side of the curtain.
"But a little bit of privacy?"
"If you're a Weasley there is no such thing." Said Ginny knowingly.
"I'm not a Weasley."
"Yet." Pointed out Tonks. She looked at the two of them.
"Oh come on Hermione! She's an Auror and I've known you since I was twelve, do you really think we weren't going to notice the ring?"
Hermione automatically put the hand behind her back.
"Cute but it doesn't wash." Ginny said with her dead set face on. " I can't believe that you couldn't tell us!"
"We wanted to, but it seriously never felt like the right time." She tried not to look at Tonks.
"You sound like Remus." She sighed. "That's the perfect dress Hermione, Ron will love it."
Hermione didn't know what to say. It really did feel stupid; maybe she just wanted to keep it to herself, something for just the two of them. Something private for her and Ron, after all everyone knew everything about the two of them.
"I can't believe you didn't tell us." Said Ginny again.
"I can't say anything but sorry." Said Hermione accepting Ginny's help with the zip on the dress.
"What time is it anyway?"
"It's almost four, we should buy this and get back we need to get ready." Said Ginny closing the curtain so that Hermione could get changed back in to her normal clothes.
"What time does the party start?" asked Hermione as she pulled her vest top over her head.
"About six-ish." Said Ginny's voice.
Hermione looked at her reflection in the full-length mirror. It was the first time that she had seen herself completely since the war, the scars were still visible but she wouldn't hide them. They showed the world what they had faced, what she had been willing to do for the man she loved, what she had been willing to do for the family that she had built around herself.
"Hurry up Hermione, I don't think you realise just how long it's going to take me to make Tonks look like a human."
"Do you want me to sit on you?" Tonks said as Hermione made her way to the cashier and paid for the dress.
"No but Charlie wouldn't mind." Said Hermione leading them out in to the bright sunlight.
