Chapter Twenty One
It was quite unusual: for once all for inhabitants of the Cottage were present at the same time in the same room. Due to hectic schedules (Lavender practically living at Hogwarts, Ginny organising the release of Eva's new book, Ron spending every other day in Australia and Seamus doing whatever Seamus does), this was a rare occassion.
Ron had even cook his specialty - a full English breakfast.
As they talked quietly, discussing their plans for the day, the owl post arrived in a storm of feathers. Disgustedly, Seamus plucked a grey feather out of his fried egg, pulling a face.
Unsurprisingly, most of them were bills of some kind or advertisements. Lavender also received a postcard from her parents who were taking a third-honeymoon in the Caribbean (her father was going through his fourth mid-life crisis) and Ginny was presented with various fan mail for Eva which had been directed to her house instead.
Reading one letter, Ron looked as though he was having a heart attack.
Lavender placed a hand on his shoulder, placing her cup of tea on the table. "Ron?" she asked. "What's the matter? Is something wrong?"
A huge grin spread across his freckled face. Shaking slightly he passed the letter to her. Her eyes quickly scanned the parchment and the look of concern which had previously been on her face was replaced by one of happiness. She let out of squeal of joy, causing Seamus to raise an eyebrow in amusement.
"Hermione's gone into labour!" Lavender exclaimed in excitement.
There was a moment of shocked silence between the four of them, Ron still grinning insanely. Although no words were spoken, the four of them stood at one and began grabbing coats and cloaks and wands as fast as they could, their breakfast's laying forgotten.
There were four 'pop's' and they Disapparated to St. Mungo's.
"Padma! How much longer are you going to be?"
Padma Malfoy stuck her head out of the bathroom door and glared at her husband, her wet hair dripping on the carpet. "I'm nearly finished," she told him shortly, and shut the door with a 'bang'.
With a scowl, Draco leant against the wall. Padma had been in the bathroom getting ready for the past half an hour. In there house there was a constant war between the two of them to see who would get to the bathroom first in the morning.
They both spent extraordinarily long times getting ready, but the person who had to go second was forced to only have ten or fifteen minutes to get ready.
There was a strange sound down the hallway. Looking up, Draco saw an owl flapping towards him, its wings scraping the walls as it flew. It landed on Draco's outstretched arm.
"Aphrodite," he scolded. "What have I told you about staying in the kitchen or living room?" Hermione's owl just blinked solemnly at him. Shaking his head, Draco managed to take the letter off of her and read it silently. As soon as he had taken the letter, Aphrodite left.
Draco's eyes widened seeing the contents of the letter, and he Disapparated with a 'pop', dropping the letter as he did so.
Padma emerged a few moments later, her dark hair now perfectly dry and arranged in a high ponytail. "See? I'm finished now," she announced. She looked around in confusion. Where on Earth had Draco gone?
She spotted a piece of parchment lying on the floor. Knowing for a fact that it hadn't been there before, she picked it up cautiously. For all she knew, it could have been cursed. Reading it, she gasped and Disapparated.
Ron was sat in the waiting room of the maternity ward at St Mungo's. Upon their arrival, they had been directed there and now there were eight people attempting to wait patiently. According to the nurse, Hermione had been bought in at three o'clock in the morning. It was now a little after half past nine.
He was looking at a picture in his hands. Ginny looked over his shoulder, and gave him a puzzled smile. "I thought Hermione threw that out the window?" she asked.
FLASH!
Hermione opened her eyes slowly. She was extremely comfortable. Suddenly she realised that someone had their arm around her shoulder, and her head was resting on something.
No, someone.
It was Harry.
He had obviously been woken by the flash of the camera as well. They both realised what was going on at the same time and moved quickly away from each other.
"You know this picture is going in my photo album," said Ron, waving a picture in the air. Around Ginny's neck was an instant camera, and she was wearing a large grin on her face.
"It was so sweet!" she said.
"You're lucky Parvati and Lavender didn't see you, that's all I'm saying," said Ron as Harry angrily tore the picture away from Ron.
"Did I hear my name?" asked a voice at the door.
"Lavender!" said Ron. He ran over to her and pulled her into a hug before kissing her.
"Get a room!" said Ginny, pulling a face. Everyone laughed as Ron blushed furiously.
Harry handed Hermione the photo silently, and Hermione stared at it in surprise. Her and Harry were asleep next to each other. Harry had his left arm draped around Hermione's shoulders, and Hermione had her arm around Harry's waist. Her head was resting on his chest and his head was resting gently on hers. Hermione's eyes widened in shock as the two, her and Harry's sleeping forms, snuggled closer together.
She looked up when she realised that Harry (the real one) was looking at her with an apprehensive look on his face. Hermione blushed as she looked down at the photo and quickly shredded it into pieces no bigger than her thumbnail. She threw the pieces of the photo out the window when Ron and Ginny weren't looking.
"She did," Ron confirmed. "But magical instant camera's have a memory. I just created another copy."
Lavender was now looking at the picture over Ron's other shoulder. "Ah, so that's how it all started," she said in realisation.
"How what started?" asked Ron.
Lavender grinned. "Your amazingly brilliant plan to set Harry and Hermione up!" she teased.
"Hey!" protested Ron. "Don't mock the plan - it worked, didn't it?"
"Extremely well," commented Ginny.
"We did nearly ruin it for them a couple of times and undo all our good work," pointed out Lavender with a smirk, reminding them of a certain incident.
"The Christmas Ball," frowned Ron with a sigh.
The music played on, the waltz beating peacefully through the air. The circles they danced in gradually became slower and slower, until they were almost stood still. "It's so peaceful up here," whispered Hermione, looking up at Harry who was a good few inches taller than her. Harry looked down and nodded.
"Yeah," he agreed. "Much better than the Great Hall." Hermione nodded slightly, still looking up at him. Their eyes locked, deep brown looking into emerald green. Slowly, Harry lowered his face towards hers, Hermione tilting hers upwards. Just as their lips were about to meet, there was a crash as the door to the Astronomy Tower was flung open. A red-faced Ron and Lavender stood there hand in hand.
Harry and Hermione jumped apart before Ron and Lavender saw anything. Hermione instantly turned back to the telescope, her face tinged with pink. Harry was pretty sure he was blushing as well.
Ron and Lavender looked just as embarrassed. In fact, they both looked rather disappointed when they realised that Harry and Hermione had been up in the Astronomy Tower alone and they had interrupted.
"Hi," said Harry lamely. "How are you?"
"Just fine," said Ron, looking first at Harry and then at Hermione who was paying rather a lot of attention on a star on the horizon.
"Uh, I was leaving," said Harry. Hermione looked up.
"Me too," said Hermione. "You can only look at stars for so long before they get boring."
"I'll walk you back to the Common Room," Harry offered quickly, and Hermione nodded rapidly. They left the Astronomy Tower as quickly as they possibly could.
"That was very embarrassing," said Lavender, running a hand through her black hair. Once again she had changed it's colour and currently black was supposed to be fashionable. At least it was, according to 'Witch Weekly'.
"I'll say," agreed Ron. He put the photograph back in the pocket of his robes, being careful not to crease it. He intended on putting it into one of the many albums of Harry and Hermione's newspaper cutting and photographs he had collected over the years for their child (or children, as Ron was positive they would have more than one overall).
"We've been here for three hours!" moaned Draco. "How much longer is this going to take?"
Ginny looked up from her copy of the Daily Prophet. "It'll take as long as it takes. Giving birth isn't exactly something you can do in five minutes."
"Yeah," added Seamus. "That's the conception."
"Seamus!" Ron didn't sound very impressed by this, and he shot him a 'you're-going-out-with-my-sister-so-you'd-better-watch-it' look. Seamus just grinned and Ron shook his head in disbelief. Honestly, Seamus hadn't changed a bit from before he and Lavender had set him and Ginny up.
Ron snickered, remembering exactly how much Ginny had hated Seamus before they had worked their magic. Or rather, Fred and George's magic.
"What's so funny?" asked Lavender, raising an eyebrow.
"Operation Ginger Snap."
Lavender giggled at this. The plan itself had been successful (eventually), but actually planning the plan had been slightly more difficult.
"So how's Operation Ginger Snap going?"
"Abysmally," reported Ron. "Seamus has his eye on some Hufflepuff girl. He's not interested in my sister any more than I am."
Lavender raised her eyebrows at this, but ignored this. She was used to Ron saying things before he thought. He did this a lot. "Ginny's not very interested either. She thinks Seamus is kind of weird. That fact that he is doesn't help much."
Ron shrugged. "So what now?"
"Well, we could..."
"We're not locking them in an empty classroom."
"Oh. Well, we could..."
"No, Lavender; we're not handcuffing them together."
Lavender pouted. "So do you have any brilliant ideas, Mr Genius?"
Ron tilted his head to one side as he thought. "Not at the moment, but inspiration is sure to strike me at any moment."
Lavender snorted with laughter. "Lightning is more likely to strike you before an idea!"
"I wish you'd seen your face when you found out that it had worked and they were actually going out." Ron scowled.
"It wasn't funny," he protested.
Lavender nodded. "Yes it was!" Ron's scowl darkened, and he sank further into his seat. "Awww..." teased Lavender. "My poor lil' Ronnikins." Seeing that Lavender clearly wasn't going to stop teasing him, Ron did the only thing he could think of that would stop her from talking: he kissed her.
"Get your hands off my sister!" Ron ordered loudly.
Ginny and Seamus broke off mid-kiss to look at him. Their hands were intertwined, and while Seamus looked half-scared of Ron, Ginny looked angry.
"What if I don't want him to take his hands off me?" she questioned.
Ron gaped at her, pale faced. "What did you say?" he asked quietly. Ginny could tell that he was incredibly angry.
"You heard me," she replied.
Ron blinked in astonishment, then he turned angrily to Seamus. "What about you? What were you doing kissing my sister?"
"Enjoying myself," Seamus replied.
"What are they all doing over there?" asked Draco, nodding over in the direction of Ron, Lavender, Seamus and Ginny.
Padma looked up from where she was reading a Quidditch magazine. "Ron's kissing Lavender." Draco gave her a look that told her that wasn't what he had meant and she grinned. "Reminiscing about Harry and Hermione's relationship, I think."
Draco's face clouded over. There was one incident in Harry and Hermione's relationship, in their seventh year, which would haunt him for a very long time. Harry had accidentally said something to Hermione that had upset her more than anyone could have imagined and their relationship had very nearly been ruined.
The fact that they had been working on the Polyjuice Potion with Professor Snape and Draco had been turned into Harry hadn't helped things an awful lot either...
"Are you okay?" a feminine voice asked him. Draco snapped out of his daze and looked up.
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine, uh, Parvati," he managed to say.
"Hmm, let's see, broomstick in one hand, Quaffle in the other. Ravenclaw Quidditch robes. Nope, definitely not Parvati." Padma looked amused.
"Oh, sorry, Padma," Draco apologised. Padma took a seat next to him. He avoided looking at her; instead his focused his sight on a portrait that was hanging on the other side of the room: the current Head Boy and Girl. More specifically, his focused on Hermione.
Padma followed his gaze and sighed. She looked straight at him through her tinted sunglasses. "You're never going to have to her, you know."
"What do you mean?"
"Hermione. She's never going to be yours." Padma leaned back on her chair and pushed up her sunglasses so they were resting on the top of her head. "I don't mean to sound bitter or pessimistic or anything, Malfoy, but I'm telling the truth. She's never going to love you the way you love her."
Draco was astonished. "How did you..."
Padma shrugged. "I didn't. You just confirmed it for me." She gave him a sad smile.
Draco looked back at the portrait. The painted versions of Harry and Hermione were gazing adoringly at each other. "She kissed me," he said simply. Padma raised her eyebrows. "We tested our Polyjuice potions and through some sick, twisted fate, I became Harry Potter." He sighed, closing his eyes. He rested his head on the back of his chair and continued. "We were walking to Care of Magical Creatures. We looked into each others eyes and she kissed me. And I kissed her." He opened his eyes, a look of worry and emotional pain plastered across his fair features. "I couldn't help it. There it was - the one thing I wanted more than anything. But all the time there was this little voice in the back of my head."
"What was it saying?" Padma asked softly.
Draco shrugged. "That it was wrong. I was taking advantage of her. And, of course, the truth."
"Which was?"
"That she was kissing Harry, not me." Draco let out a small laugh. "Look at me! Pouring out my heart to someone I barely know."
Padma smiled. "I know. Not exactly the best introduction. Hey - why don't we start again." Draco looked quizzically at her. She held out her hand and said; "Hi, I'm Padma Patil. Seventh year Prefect and Captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team."
Draco smiled and shook her hand. "It's a pleasure it meet you. I'm Draco Malfoy, also a Seventh year Prefect. I'm Captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team."
Padma waved a hand in front of Draco's face, concern written across her face. "Draco? Draco! Are you all right? You've been staring into space for the last ten minutes."
The blonde-haired man blinked. "Oh, sorry, Padma. I was miles away."
His wife screwed up her nose. "What were you thinking about?"
He smiled warmly at her. "I was thinking about the day that someone told me to stop being a prat and stop pining over Hermione." Padma blushed at this and he kissed her on the cheek. "Thank you," he told her softly.
"For what exactly?"
"For telling me that I was a prat."
Padma grinned. "Anytime."
Lavender shut the curtains of the waiting room with a sigh. It was now nearly six o'clock in the evening. They hadn't heard any news about Hermione or the baby except that 'everything was going smoothly'. Harry had spent the entire day with his wife, so they hadn't seen him either.
Somehow the news that Hermione had gone into labour had been leaked to the press, and reporters and photographers were now starting to congregate outside the hospital desperate for a glimpse of Harry or any of his friends.
Ginny had actually fallen asleep against Seamus's shoulder, and it looked as though Seamus was also having a hard time trying to stay awake.
"I might go and try to find the midwife again," said Ron, "to see if there's any more news."
Lavender nodded.
Ron had just opened the door of the waiting room when a babies cry rang out from down the corridor. Lavender and Ron looked at each other in astonishment, and Ginny opened her eyes sleepily.
There was a question in everyone's eyes: had it happened?
Their minds were put at ease when Harry ran into the waiting room and skidded to a halt, nearly knocking Ron over. His eyes were bright and a huge grin was plastered across his face.
As though he couldn't quite believe it was true, Harry managed to say "I'm a father."
Albus, is it really necessary for me to be here?" Severus Snape asked in distaste.
Professor Albus Dumbledore raised a hand to silence his Potions Professor and Head of Slytherin house. Fawkes, his pet phoenix, let out a note which make the tea cups rattle. It even caused the lid to come off the teapot.
There was a scratching sound on the other side of the room and Professor Minerva McGonagall's head turned around to look at a large book which was sat on a stand. Professor Filius Flitwick made a strange chuckling noise and muttered something under his breath in excitement. Professor Sprout's head snapped up - she had dozed off a few minutes before. Rubeus Hagrid looked at the book excitedly, while he fumbled in his pockets for an extra large handkerchief.
The golden quill which had been writing in the book was suddenly still. Albus Dumbledore stood from his chair behind his desk and crossed his office surprisingly quickly. He picked up the large tome and carried it over to his desk.
This was the book that recorded the births of all magical children in the United Kingdom. Every time a magical child was born, the golden quill would write their name down and when they were due to sent out Hogwarts acceptance letters, it would be Professor McGonagall's job to check the book to see who to sent a letter to.
He placed it on his desk, turning it so his staff could see the newest name to be inscribed in the book:
A/N: That's the end. And I do mean it. That it the end of what I've come to know as the 'Matchmakers Trilogy'. I hate it for this fic to come to an end, but it has.
A very big thank you to anyone who has ever reviewed this story or the two which preceeded it - it you hadn't reviewed I wouldn't have written it. Also a big thank you to those who review this chapter. In a couple of weeks I may post an additional 'thank you' section for you, though that isn't a definite thing.
I have enjoyed writing this trilogy immensely and when I look back at it, it's rather odd to see how I've changed my writing style and how the characters have developed. I'm afraid there will not be a sequel (at least, not for the foreseeable future), but there is a chance I will be posting random ficlets from the lives of the Potters in the future.
I'm not really sure how I should end this final authors note, so I'll just say "This isn't the last you'll see of silverphoenix." And it isn't, trust me on that. I have plans to finish 'Harry Potter & the Age of Apocalypse' and there is also a novel-length Harry Potter/Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossover (which will be H/Hr, naturally) in the pipeline, as well as the possibility of another George/Hermione fic. I'm also currenly writing a collaboration with another author called 'The Spaces Between Shadows & Night' which a fifth year H/D fic (yes, that's right: Harry/Draco).
Thank you.
Review, Flame, Whatever.
Here's a thanks section for Chapter Twenty:
Dark Moon - That baby is here. I hope you're not too disappointed that it was a boy.
missy - I'm afraid there won't be a sequel, but I'm glad you like the fic.
The Farting Menace - There won't be a sequel, sorry. I may do some mini-stories about various events in their lives, but I am not do a sequel.
Lily H.Potter - Thanx!
mystical - I hope you liked it!
The All Red Chameleon - I know. It was horrible typng 'THE END', but I had to do it. Thank you for reviewing.
Gryffindor Quidditch Angel - Please don't hurt me! *cowers from reviewer* I'm sorry to upset you, but there is no way I could continue this story forever - I'd get bored and then I wouldn't put any effort into it, so it was be a load of rubbish. That's why I feel that I have to stop now.
rainbow - Thanx, I hope you liked this chapter.
SilverTears13 - Thank you for such a lovely review! :D I have to say that was one of the more interesting reviews I've ever recieved.
Rozebunny - Thanx for adding me to your favourites list.
Oliverwoodschic - I like the girls name you suggested - it could possibly be the name of a future sibling...
HrryPttrFreak87 - Sadly, I'm not doing another sequel.
Viwiel - There probably was something that sounded familiar - that's why I'm finishing this fic - I'll just end up repeating myself over and over if I don't. As you requested, this is a long chapter - the longest so far, actually, though it's not super long.
Sonata - It's really sad that this fic is over - I know how you feel.
The Charmed One - Glad you like my little jokes! es, there was a happy ending and I hope you liked it.
bookworm4ever - Yeah, I liked drunk!Parvati too.
Gwen Potter - When Parati's drunk she does some very strange things. There's just one more chapter of 'Chocolate & Pumpkin Ice Cream' left to go now as well.
Mushroom - I know - I've never seen another Draco/Padma fic. I really like that pairing personally. We don't have a clue what Padma's like so I can be as creative as I want when it comes to her personality.
bubsy - Sorry, but there won't be a sequel.
Gem Stone - Yes, there'll be more stories. Thanks for reviewing.
Death-Demon Xero - When I read your review, I had the idea for the very last scene of this fic - I hope you liked it (although there's not much action!).
duckies - Or else? Crumbs... I really hope you liked this chapter, then.
Emster - Hope you lied this chapter.
Adhara - no, I'm really sorry, but there won't be a sequel. I need a break from this particular universe for a while.