Disclaimer: I wish I owned Harry Potter, but I do not.

Hermione woke up slowly, awareness coming gradually. Whatever she was laying on was moving. No, not whatever, whoever. She'd fallen asleep on Ron, in St. Mungo's. His arms were securely around her as he spoke in low tones to Harry next to him.

It was so comforting to hear the two of their voices after everything that had happened. To hear them talking and happy, ready to become uncles. No longer running and fighting for their lives, their voices relaxed.

Hermione cracked one eyelid and made out Ginny asleep in Harry's lap. She chanced a quick look around the room. Harry and Ron were the only other ones awake. Everyone else was passed out, including two of the Delacours who had portkeyed over the second they'd heard. Apolline was in the room with Bill, Fleur, and Molly, but Gabrielle was snoring softly on her father's shoulder. Hermione smiled at the sight of Percy sleeping on George. Someone ought to take a picture of that.

"You ready to become an uncle?" Ron asked Harry.

"Aren't I the one who should be asking you that?" he returned.

"You're just as much of an uncle to this kid as I am," Ron countered.

Harry shrugged. "Not really." Hermione's heart ached for her best friend. He would be the best uncle, and maybe father eventually. And whether he believed it or not, he was a huge part of this family.

"You are aware that you're marrying Ginny in a few months?" Ron returned. Hermione chuckled, unable to help herself, and both of their heads snapped to hers.

"Hey," she said softly. Ron's arms loosened their grip as she sat up. "What time is it?"

"Three am," he answered her, eyes soft as he regarded her.

Harry eyes flashed indiscernibly. "I guess that means it's May second."

Hermione's lips parted. It couldn't be. She looked at Ron, who nodded solemnly. Their niece or nephew was going to be born on the anniversary. That wouldn't be an easy birthday to have, forced to go to the memorials like the one they were heading to later. Hermione wondered how George felt about it. Speaking of…she conjured a camera and snapped a picture of him and Percy.

Harry grinned, though it didn't quite defrost the haunted look in his eyes, and grabbed the camera from her, snapping a picture of Ron and Hermione. Waiting to become Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione, he scrawled across the picture in his loopy writing. Hermione started at the title, especially linked with Ron's. She was marrying him. She was marrying into this huge family and would probably inherit hordes of nieces and nephews alongside him. She smiled softly at Ron and rested her head on his shoulder. She couldn't wait.

Seconds later, the doors pushed open to reveal an exhausted looking Bill. The three of them sat up straighter. His eyes passed over everyone and realized they were the only ones awake. He smiled wearily but brightly.

"It's a girl," he said softly. The words were barely out of his mouth before Ron was across the room and hugging his brother. Hermione's eyes filled with happy tears as Harry shook Ginny awake with a murmured, "Wake up Gin, you're an Aunt."

She blinked blearily at her brother who grinned at her. "It's a girl," he said again. She hugged him fiercely as well.

"Congratulations Bill," she whispered. "OY! You lot. The baby's here!" She announced. Bill chuckled as everyone was startled awake. Hermione took advantage of the commotion to go and hug Bill herself. Harry followed.

"I'm so happy for you," she said sincerely.

"Well?" Arthur asked, standing up and walking over to his eldest son. Bill seemed to stand taller at the sight of his father.

"It's a girl. Victoire Gabrielle Weasley. Victoire, victory, for what day it is. And Gabrielle, after her godmother." Gabrielle was crying at the honour as Arthur hugged Bill tightly. He muttered something too low for Hermione to hear, but her eyes were on George who was smiling despite the tears in his eyes.

"I can't think of a more fitting name," he said quietly, but it cut through the room. Hermione nodded in agreeance, curving her arm around Ron.

"Well. Come on Dad, Albert. I think it's time you meet your granddaughter." Arthur's eyes teared over and he clapped Bill on the shoulder again as Mr. Delacour heaved to his feet, beaming, and bounced after them.

A very long time later all four grandparents emerged, Molly wiping her eyes, along with Bill. "Gabrielle first," Bill said firmly. "And then how about for every Weasley born we start at the beginning and wrap around to everyone else. So we start with Charlie this time, then Percy, then George, then Ron, then Ginny."

"Which would mean that next time we go me, George, Ron, Ginny, you, and then Charlie?" Percy asked to clarify. Bill nodded. No one disagreed; it seemed fair enough. One Gabrielle reappeared, Charlie disappeared to meet his niece and was followed by Percy and then George and finally it was Ron's turn. He shook Hermione awake, for she'd fallen asleep again, and she got to her feet.

Ron took her hand as they walked through the doors but dropped it once he beheld Fleur. She looked absolute stunning, despite being tired and sore, Hermione was sure. She was laying against the pillows, as if even sitting was an effort. She wore no makeup, but she was resplendent, seemingly glowing with happiness. Bill was holding a small pink bundle in his arms.

He beamed at his youngest brother and transferred her very carefully to his arms. The baby looked up at Ron, blinking, with wide blue eyes. He held out his finger which she squeezed. Ron chuckled; eyes misty.

"Hey Vic," he said softly. Fleur started to cry but waved away Hermione's look of alarm.

"Hormones," she explained. "It's been happening with everyone. That eez a wonderful nickname, Ron. I love eet." Bill nodded and perched on the edge of the bed, putting his arm around his wife. She leaned her head into him. Hermione's attention was drawn from the new parents to Ron as he handed the baby to her.

Victoire was so precious and fragile and new. Hermione was utterly amazed by her; so tiny and beautiful. Wrinkly and red like all newborns, but still beautiful. This was what they had fought for. For a future generation, and for them to grow up without any of the horrors they'd had to endure. A tear fell down her face and she kissed the baby's forehead. She handed her back to Bill.

"Say bye-bye to Aunt Hermione," he cooed. Hermione cried harder and gripped Ron's hand hard enough to cut off his circulation. He squeezed back just as tightly, and they left the room. Ginny and Harry were the last ones to meet the new arrival. Ginny beamed at Ron and Hermione as she tugged an eager Harry after her.

Ron and Hermione waited for the rest of the family in the foyer. Bill emerged again with Harry and Ginny, the latter of whom was wiping tears from her face. Hermione met her best friend's eyes and smiled at her.

"I'm coming to the memorial," Bill said softly to his assembled family. "Fleur's going to stay here with her parents and Gabrielle, and Vic." He inclined his head to Ron as he said his daughter's nickname. Ron beamed at the recognition and Hermione couldn't help smiling along with him. Only…the memorial. At Hogwarts. For everyone they had lost. Her heart faltered at the thought of it.

"You don't have to come," Mrs. Weasley protested. But Bill's face was set in determination.

"Yes, I do," he said firmly. "Fleur would too if she was cleared to be walking around. But she isn't, so I'll go for both of us. To honour my brother and everyone else we lost that night."

"Hear hear," George said, and that was that.

"It starts at eleven am, right?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah," Bill answered. "So everyone had best get home and get some sleep." They all congratulated him again and looked around at each other once he left.

"Everyone can stay with us tonight and we can head over together," Arthur suggested. Hermione sent Ron a questioning look. Was that what he wanted?

He nodded slightly. "If you want to," he murmured.

"Of course I do," she said softly back.

"We're in," Ron announced.

Ginny nodded. "Us too."

In the end, everyone was heading back to the Burrow. Hermione looked around at the pairs of them and wondered if this was who everyone would end up with. Bill and Fleur were in it for the long haul, obviously. And Percy and Audrey were married, Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermione engaged, and Charlie seemed to be the type to never settle down. She guessed George and Angelina were the only couple that was undecided, but Hermione had little doubt they would end up together. Especially as George steered Angelina upstairs to his and Fred's old room and not to a different one.

Ron guided Hermione up to his old room. It was so weird to be back here. She couldn't even imagine how Ron felt being in his old room with it empty of all of his belongings. They got dressed in silence and Hermione curled into him as he spelled the blinds shut with a sealing spell to shut out the early morning light.

They were very close together; Hermione could barely tell where she ended and he began. She buried her face in his neck and inhaled his soothing scent, wishing more than anything that they didn't have to go to the memorial.

"I love you," he told her. She smiled slightly and kissed his cheek.

"I love you too." It was crazy, really. All those nights when they were younger, she had imagined herself saying those words to him, but she'd never believed she would. And she hadn't, not until everything was over and she knew the heat of battle wasn't the reason why. She was so lucky they'd both made it through. She forced her mind to quiet, and soon after, fell asleep to his even breathing.

The alarm sounded way too quickly after that and she sighed at the sound of it, jabbing her wand in its direction. Ron's arms tightened around her waist and for a moment they lay there, unwilling to address the fact that they were both awake.

They both donned black dress robes and Hermione put in some earrings. "You look lovely," he said roughly.

She gave him a private smile. "And you look very handsome."

"What? No dashing today?"

Hermione let out a soft laugh, all she could manage. "Alright, you look very dashing."

"That's better," he said, and they both pretended his voice didn't break slightly. He kissed her deeply and she felt some of the ache in her chest ease as she breathed him in.

"Breakfast," she said decidedly, spinning as she grabbed his hand and tugged him towards the stairs. They passed Ginny's closed door and found Angelina brushing her teeth, half-dressed, with the bathroom door open on the next landing. She smiled sadly at them as they passed.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were eating downstairs with Charlie and George, all four of them silent.

"Good morning," Molly said, finding it in herself to smile at her youngest son. He smiled wearily back at her.

"Morning. Hey dad," he said as he reached across Arthur for a pancake. He held one out in his bare hand to Hermione who snorted and sat down primly, politely snagging a pancake with her fork.

"We aren't all wild animals," she shot at him. Mr. Weasley and Charlie chuckled.

"Maybe Hermione will be able to instill some manners in you yet," Charlie commented. Ron frowned at him.

"We can only hope," Mr. Weasley joked. Hermione giggled and Ron looked affronted.

"Hey!"

"It's true, Ronnie," George added. Hermione nearly sagged with relief at the sound of his voice but wisely kept her mouth shut, opting instead for a small smile.

"Whatever," Ron muttered, flopping into the chair next to her.

Angelina came down next, fully clothed this time and reached over George for some juice. He shot her a weary smile which she returned. Harry and Ginny were the last to come down. They both looked tired and distraught, but no one commented on that as they sat down for breakfast.

"I like your earrings, Mione," Ginny said from across the table.

"Thanks. Ron got them for me."

"He did?" Harry asked, astonished.

Ron scowled. "What is this, the harass Ron hour?" Hermione patted his arm consolingly and Ginny snorted.

Afterwards Mrs. Weasley set the dishes to cleaning themselves and they all bustled through the floo to Hogwarts. Minerva met them in her office with a sad smile. Hermione hugged her wan-looking favourite Professor, as did the rest of them, and followed as she led them down to the Great Hall. Hermione found herself holding hands with Ron, walking next to Ginny and Harry. Bill had joined them just before they left and was near the front with his parents and McGonagall; George, Angelina, and Charlie bringing up the rear.

The Great Hall was overflowing with black, from the tapestries to the podium to the guests' attire. Hermione spotted a familiar head of unruly curls near the back and gasped aloud.

"Dad? Mum?" They turned and smiled at her. They both got up to hug her.

"We knew today was the anniversary, so we came to support you," her mother smiled.

"I'm so sorry, Hermione," her father said, and she knew it wasn't just for who she had lost but for how he had acted. He'd apologized a million times, no matter how many times she told him he was forgiven.

Ron's eyes glazed over slightly as her mother enveloped him in a warm hug and she smiled, tears coating her eyelids as well. How many times had she been comforted by his mother? Her dad clapped him on the back before Ron and Hermione extracted themselves, walking up the aisle to their seats at the front.

Hermione nodded at Draco, Andromeda, and Teddy and smiled at Lavender and Blaise Zabini. She waved at Neville and Luna sitting in the second row with their families and other DA members. She sat next to a grim, sad-looking Harry and squeezed his arm. He gave her a slight smile and resumed staring straight ahead.

Funerals were for the living, but not for people like Harry, for people like her and Ron. They came not for themselves but for the dead they had lost and the living who expected them to be there.

Kingsley and other high-ranking ministry officials made pretty speeches. Well, that wasn't entirely fair. Kingsley's had been wonderful and a tribute to all they had lost. But the others had grated on her. They hadn't been here, hadn't fought, didn't know the people who had been lost.

Harry was also forced to speak, and it was lovely if a bit short. He warned against prejudice and hatred and said a tribute not just to his personal dead, but every single person lost. Ron and Hermione, luckily, had been told to speak together. They held hands on their way up to the stage and Hermione squeezed Ron's hand before dropping it and letting him speak.

"I became an uncle earlier today," Ron began. He had checked first with Bill and Fleur if he could add this before they'd left St. Mungo's. "And when I looked down at my niece, I felt as if all of this horror and loss had been worth it, at least a little bit. This is what we fought for, what they fought for. A world in which that beautiful little girl can live in without the pain we live with every day, without always looking over her shoulder and counting the exits in every new place she enters. My brother Fred would have been an amazing uncle. He should have been allowed to be one. But he gave his life so that this could happen, he gave his life for the cause. I will never stop appreciating his sacrifice, nor the sacrifices of every loved one we've lost."

He stepped down to raucous applause. Hermione smiled through her tears. "Well said, Ron. They are the true heroes, not us. We are just the ones who managed to survive, by the random luck of the draw. It's not fair. But all we can do is work to make this world a better one than the one they left. To continue fighting for the rights of those who are oppressed and ensure their family lives in a brighter world. It is hard work, and it takes its toll, but that is the price of survival. I hope that they realize how much we miss them. I hope Professor Lupin, Remus," she amended, "sees the random moments I think of him and wish he were still here. That he sees my werewolf legislation. I hope Fred sees me engaged to Ron and that Tonks sees me following her advice to live a little. That Professor Dumbledore sees me fighting for the rights of all beings. It is incredibly hard to live without them. But in the wise words of Sirius Black, 'the ones who love us never really leave us.'"

More applause as she led Ron down the stairs and back to their seats. And then it was time to reveal the memorial statue. A massive ivory obelisk was unveiled in the courtyard where Neville had slain Nagini, covered in names. Harry stepped towards it, and everyone fell back to allow him to view it alone before anyone else.

He conjured a wreath of roses and placed it on the bottom of the statue, kneeling before it with tears in his eyes. He couldn't seem to rise. Ginny pulled away from the rest of the crowd and rested her hand on his shoulder, scanning for her brother's name, and Colin's, and Tonks', and Remus', and everyone else's that had died that day. They made the most striking portrait and Hermione felt hot tears gliding over her cheeks.

She couldn't look away from their silent agony. The boy who lived, kneeling in front of the tribute to and reminder of everyone they had lost, head bowed while he cried, the wind ruffling his hair, making it messier than normal. Ginny standing beside him, straight and solemn, though she was also crying. Red hair whipping in the wind, hand on his shoulder. The courtyard filled with absolute silence, the only sound the wind. If Hermione had been a painter, that would have been the scene she painted.

Slowly, Harry rose to his feet and took his fiancée's hand, not bothering to wipe away his tears, and led her back to the rest of the crowd. There was a moment of indecision as people wondered at who should go next, and then Hermione felt herself moving forwards, pulled by an invisible force. She stood there and stared, feeling a familiar presence accompany her, made clear by the scent of mint toothpaste.

Ron put his arm around her, tall and stoic while she sniffed through her tears. She leaned her head against him and found all of their loved one's names there. And not just the ones they'd lost in the battle, but everyone they had lost in the war. She cried harder when she spied Dobby's name next to Mad-Eye's, Sirius' next to Remus' and James'. She took a shaky breath and conjured some white lilies to lay beside Harry's roses.

They stepped back as the rest of the Weasleys took turns at the statue and the McGonagall, then Andromeda, and everyone else soon followed suit. Ron's arm was still around Hermione, and she hooked one around Harry while they stood in the crowd, his other arm around Ginny, and watched everyone else pay their respects. The four of them stood like that for a very long time, saying nothing but not needing to.

They gathered with the rest of the Weasley's after it was over. Molly and Arthur were going back to the hospital with Bill, but the rest of them were welcome to stay at the Burrow again. Ron shook his head at her questioning stare.

He held out his hand to her, exhausted, drained, but smiling. "Let's go home," he pleaded softly.

She nodded, smiling, and took his hand.