Chapter 23

Sunday evening found Hermione and Ron having a quiet dinner together in their home. They were enjoying some soup and fresh bread, both desperately trying to not think about the dinner currently happening at The Burrow.

Finally Hermione just put her napkin down and said, "I give up. I can't even pretend I am not totally distracted thinking about how it's going."

"Me either," Ron agreed silently. "Part of me feels so bad for them – they are learning the son they thought was dead isn't, but since they treated him as he was, he isn't ready to welcome them all to his home with open arms. But on the other hand, there's a part that feels like an awkward dinner and a few days of guilt and angst is more than a fair trade off. Is that terrible?"

"I hope not. Because I am having very similar thoughts."

"And then I feel bad because I've made my own horrible decisions in the past, and I have received forgiveness and grace from you and Harry for those bad decisions, so why is there this vengeful part of me that wants them to squirm a little bit?"

"That doesn't make you a bad person, Ron. I mean, I was more than angry with you when you came back with that sword and destroyed horcrux. I certainly wanted to make you feel some angst or pain or whatever. At the time it felt childish. But, as I had time and space to think more about it, I think I was just so hurt that I didn't have any other way to make you understand my pain other than trying to make you feel pain too. I think it's just a normal human reaction to want to make our feelings understood. But it passes. I loved you. I wanted you back in my life. And I love your family. And I want them back in my life. But if a night of feeling horribly guilty helps them understand how hurt I have been by how they treated me, then, well – I guess that's what it takes. I will absolutely forgive them. But I am not feeling the need to make it painless."

"That's a good way to look at it. And I'm glad you are confident you will forgive them. I wasn't sure where you were on that."

"Your family has been so amazing to me over the past decade. I can't imagine my life – our lives, or our future without them in it. They are incredible people, and I want them as an intricate part of my life. But, I also want them to realize their mistake and seek forgiveness."

"I really think they will."

"I think they will too. Or at least I hope so."

At that they both suddenly turned when they heard a knock at the front door.

"You don't think they brought them after all?" asked Hermione, color draining from her face.

But then the familiar stag patronus entered the room announcing, "It's just me. Didn't want to use owls and let the letters fall into the wrong hands, so I brought them myself. Let me in?"

Hermione sagged in relief.

"Well, here we go," said Ron as he slowly stood to let in their best friend.

Harry smiled and stepped through as soon as Ron opened the door.

"So wonderful to see you up and about like that, Ron. Makes me smile every time I see it."

Ron smiled in return and gestured him towards the table where Hermione was sitting.

"How'd it go?" she asked anxiously. "Do you want soup? Wait, no, you already had Sunday dinner, well, tea then? Just, well, just sit and tell us what happened, ok?"

"It went well," he said, helping his friends relax. "I don't need anything, just sit. I'll tell you all about it."

Hermione nodded and reached out for Ron's hand as Harry started to talk about the night.

"Well, it was a bit of a classic scene, really. We'd all agreed I would bring it up, but my darling Ginny - in her true fashion - ended up belting out 'Oi, turns out Hermione's been right all along and Ron is back. And if everyone will sit down and shut it, Harry will tell you all about it.' Ron, I love her, but she is anything but subtle."

Ron started laughing, but Hermione rolled her eyes and gestured him to continue.

"Anyway, as you can imagine, the kitchen erupted into a bit of chaos at that point. Ginny sat and started eating as if nothing had happened, George was laughing at the whole scene, your mum's mouth hung open like a fish as she clutched her chest, Bill and Percy both looked bewildered. Charlie had unfortunately been wolfing down your mum's shepherd's pie with the gusto you'd expect of a dragon tamer and was so startled that he began choking. But, Fleur handled that with some quick flicks of her wand and a solid whack to his back, which in itself was entertaining since the size difference between those two is something to behold. And then she muttered in French something about the bad table manners of the British. But, I thought the best reaction was your dad who simply sat with a small half smile and nodded his head as if he'd expected it all along. I even thought I saw him silently say 'I knew it.'"

"Huh," mused Hermione. "That is interesting."

"Yeah, I thought so too. Anyway, the general chaos persisted for a few minutes with folks yelling back and forth to hush and just making it worse. But then your Dad stood and gestured to stop, and everything did. He said, 'Harry, please, do continue,' and sat back down as if he was in a regular meeting at work. Which only served to make Percy look even more bewildered. Anyway, I explained that Hermione had become increasingly convinced that Ron was there based on the reaction of his eyes to different stimuli – uh, I left out the exact nature of that discovery and may have led them to believe it was things like light, scary stories and other things that would make your eyes dilate."

"Thanks for that," she chuckled.

"Yeah, sure, uh, anyway, then I explained about how you had asked me to come and let you run errands. And then after several weeks of that you announced that you now knew Ron was there and you'd 'picked up' legillimency in a few weeks, which none of them could fathom either, by the way. But then told how you proved it to me by kicking my arse in chess. I talked them through the whole memory thing and bringing in Nev, and then George and Gin to handle the last bit. And then told them how you'd been working so hard at rehab and that you had finally left St. Mungo's, but that you managed to keep it all secret so the story wouldn't hit the papers. As we expected, your mum immediately stood and made a dash for the floo demanding to see her baby boy. The second part of the conversation was tougher, and each of us in that room had to account for how we had behaved through all of this. But, after some challenging moments, everyone understood why there needed to be some amends made before the reunions could happen. So, as we'd discussed, everyone wrote letters to be delivered, which I have here," he said as he raised the picnic basket he'd brought. "And, naturally, as it was your mum, there is also enough food in this basket to feed a small army."

Ron's eyes grew large and he grinned.

Harry laughed and continued, "So, that's it, really. There are a stack of letters for each of you. And, the ball is in your court now. You can take as much time as you need. And if and when you are ready to see people, we will make it happen."

Hermione smiled and seemed to relax more than she had in months.

"Do you want me to take off so you can read them?" Harry asked nervously.

Ron shook his head no and reached for his notepad.

"We need to talk about the other issue. We can't have word about me being better get out to the press before we figure out how to find Hermione's parents and bring them back safely."

Hermione read it and smiled, a tear visible in her eyes as she nodded her thanks.

"Actually," Harry said akwardly. "There have been some developments on that end as well. I was hoping to wait until all of the loose ends were tied up before telling you, but this seems as good as time as any, I suppose."

"Harry?" Hermione said in her threatening tone. "What's happened?"

"No, no – it's good – I promise," he said, his hands held up in surrender. "As you know, after what we heard in the memory about Draco, we wondered if he knew where they actually were. So, long story short – we were able to connect with him to learn more. Turns out, the couple you saw in Australia was not your parents. Draco had been assigned to find them, which he did. He told the Death Eaters that their memories were so jumbled that they wouldn't be able to act normally to fool the two of you. He claims he thought that would protect you, but apparently others in the group made polyjuice from hair they'd collected from your parents' home during the way and had stand in's for the day they captured you. They'd imperiused several Australian aurors to pass along the false information, and that's how they had you set up. But, behind the scenes, Draco had actually taken care of them. Through a network of contacts, he was able to have them connected to individuals in Western Australia who recruited them to work with a group focused on Remote Area Dental Services. Basically, your parents are with teams of other dentists and dental hygienists and they fly into different aboriginal communities and set up dental clinics for communities that are so rural that they don't have regular access to oral health care."

"Wow," Hermione said, clearly stunned.

Ron moved to put his arm around her and pulled her to his chest.

"Once we knew where they were, well, Neville and I went to see them ourselves."

"WHAT? You've seen them? When? How are they?"

"Hang on, slow down, I'm getting there. Yes, we went while George was working on the potion and you two were engulfed in the rehab marathon. And, they were great. They looked healthy and happy. And, well, don't get mad, but I reversed the spell."

"WHAT?!" Hermione screamed.

Ron's eyes were wide with shock as well, and he had to hold Hermione tight to keep her from practically attacking Harry.

"I did. They are ok. I explained everything. They were initially not at all happy with what you did, but Neville and I both helped them see the larger picture. And, having taken photographs of the damage that was done to their home during the war, they saw that they would not have been safe. And, learning about what was done to you two, and how they had leveraged your love for them to get at you both, well - they understand now that you really did what you did to keep them safe because you love them."

"Where are they? Are they ok?" Hermione started as she then dissolved into tears.

Ron held her against is chest and gave Harry a pleading look to continue explaining.

"Hey, Hermione, it's ok. They are really ok. They are still in Australia. Neville and I offered to bring them back and put them in a safe house, but they said they love what they are doing. And, since they were safe out there, they wanted to stay where they could do good instead of going into hiding. So, the "Wilkins" are still working in Western Australia. When we saw them, we didn't know how Ron would do with the potion and spell reversal, and they said they didn't want to be a distraction in such a stressful time. They wrote letters as well, and I now that you know about them, I'll add those to your other pile of letters to go through. But, if you want to go see them we can go anytime you want. They also have cell phone numbers which I jotted down on the letters, so you can call anytime. I know they are worried about you, but they understand why you need to be with Ron until he is strong enough to travel as well."

Hermione was sobbing at this point – relief, anger at Harry for not telling her, exhaustion and being emotionally overwhelmed had finally caught up with her. Ron tried to comfort her, but her tears weren't subsiding. Eventually, Ron scribbled on the pad for Harry to help him get her up. Harry took Hermione briefly while Ron moved to the recliner, and then Harry settled Hermione back on his chest. They both tried to comfort her, but deep inside they knew it was more the emotional final straw than anything else. Even after the Battle of Hogwarts, the war had never really ended for her since her parents weren't home. And then when they'd tried to get to them the unthinkable happened and she had been in an even more difficult situation. And now, finally, it was over. Her family – Ron, Harry and her parents – were all safe. And, her parents not only remembered her, but they forgave her. It was finally over.

After a while, Hermione had cried herself to sleep on Ron's lap.

Harry looked at his friend and smiled. "Do you want me to head out? Or stay and keep you company."

Harry went to hand Ron his notepad, but Ron managed to say, "stay" in a croaking voice.

"Brilliant. Chess than?"

And so, with Hermione asleep on his lap, Ron proceeded to trounce Harry in chess several times before Harry finally gave up and called it a night. He offered to take Hermione back to the bedroom for Ron, but Ron shook his head no.

"We're good," he said, voice cracking painfully, but the peaceful expression on his face let Harry know he meant it. So, with that, Harry placed the basket of letters and food within Ron's reach on the side table, and then he left, locking the door behind him as he went.

Ron sat quietly for some time, just stroking Hermione's hair. He was so grateful to be there. So grateful to have her. So grateful for being able to comfort her, to help her in any way. And he was so grateful for the gift of such an amazing witch in his life. He loved her so much, and he knew she loved him. And in that moment he could finally allow himself to truly hope for a future life together.

With that thought he sighed a happy smile, and reached for the stack of letters, choosing to start with the one written in his father's messy scrawl.