7 years later…

Hermione turned the key in her lock, and headed into her apartment, her arms full of packages. It was the same apartment that the taxi driver had dropped her off at, many years ago. She walked into her magically enlarged flat, and dropped the packages on the kitchen table. She started unloading her groceries, purely healthy, with no sugar whatsoever. After all, who would expect junk in the kitchen of a doctor/child of dentists?

She headed into the living room, and took off her doctor's robes, and changed into muggle clothes. Hermione was a doctor, now working at St. Mungo's, close to her home.

Hermione hadn't moved for three reasons. One, it was close to her work, two, she was very close to Diagon Alley, and three, she was close to Ginny.

After Hogwarts, she didn't find it as hard as she thought it would be. She hadn't become an Auror, or a teacher at Hogwarts like everyone had expected her too, but she was doing fine, and having a good time. Life was good for Hermione Granger, doctor and smartest witch in Britain.

She flopped down on the couch, and with a wave of her wand, all the candles lighted, and gave off a magical amount of light. Turning her attention to on of the bookshelves, she summoned her favorite movie, Sense and Sensibility.

There were three bookshelves in the living room; almost all filled with books. Her favorite Muggle books, muggle books from when she was a kid, Magical fiction, lots of books on health etc, all her old Hogwarts books, and her very own, Arithmancy Made Easy, which was now on the Hogwarts book list.

A few months after graduation, she had sat down to write books, but had come up with just the one. She decided, after many book interviews, signings, and being in the Daily Prophet one too many times, that she didn't want to be a writer. So she became a doctor instead. And she loved her job a lot. Maybe she would be a teacher later on in life…

With those thoughts out of her head, she put in the movie, pressed play, and settled in to watch. Unfortunately, however, one of the first lines of the movie has the word wife in it, and Hermione had to stop the movie to think again.

Wife. Ginny. Harry. Ginny Weasley. Harry Potter. Ginny Potter. Oh my God! It's only two days away!

Ginny and Harry were getting married in two days, and Hermione was going to be the maid of honor, her dress was in fact in one of the packages on the table. Ginny and Harry had become serious two years after graduation, when Ginny's crush turned into love, and Harry's "feelings" turned into actual ones. Now they were getting married, and Ginny was so happy.

It was going to be a great wedding. All their old friends would be there, Remus, and Sirius too. Hagrid would be there, and all the Weasleys too. Ones that Hermione had never met, and all the brothers. Fred and George, Percy, and Charlie, and Bill, and their families, and probably Ron.

Uh-oh. Ron?

Seven years, she thought. Seven years ago he left the station without so much as a goodbye. Hermione hadn't seen or heard from him since. He had gone off, became an Auror and was sent all over the world, barely coming home to Britain to see his family.

He hadn't owled her, telephoned her, written a letter to her, or come to see her since. And, oh! How well Hermione knew; seven years waiting for someone to show up at your door was a long time to wait.

She had owled him a few times, had even written an actual Muggle letter to him, after she had gotten his address from Harry. He had never replied though, and she had finally given up.

Hermione was dreading the fact that he might be there, but also hoping he would be. Hermione had grown up and had realized how much she used to have. Three years after she last saw him, Hermione realized that telling herself she didn't love Ron, wasn't going to make her from wanting him back.

Yes, she was dreading tomorrow, but she wanted to see him, to talk to him, to touch him so much.

"Oh Ron, please forgive me," she whispered.

With that, she pressed the play button and settled back into the couch with a sigh.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"I can't go through with this, Hermione. You know I can't," Ginny cried.

"Ginny, listen to me. You love Harry, right?" …Ginny nodded… "And I know that he loves you. Anyone who looks at him can tell that he's in love with you. Look at how he watches you, he's completely amazed that someone as gorgeous as you loves him. Don't you realize that!?"

"I suppose so," mumbled Ginny. * Uh-oh* Ginny's pale skin had turned almost white.

" I think I'm going to faint," she said, holding onto Hermione's arm for support.

" Augh! No, no you're not!" Hermione cried, leading Ginny to a chair. Suddenly she had an idea… " Come on. We'll just take a look and you'll see how proud he looks." Hermione dragged Ginny over to the window and looked out into the backyard of The Burrow.

The sun had started to set and the fairies sitting in the trees started to glow. At the back corner, under some maples, was an arch; where Harry and Ginny would say their vows.

"Look. Look, Ginny. See how proud he looks that you're going to be his wife?" she glanced at Ginny and saw that her eyes were closed shut, " Ginny! Open your eyes! See him, see him right there? Under those trees? Standing beside Ro- Ron?" she glared at Ginny, "Is that Ron, or just some other brother with red hair?"

"Um, it's Ron," said Ginny softly.

Hermione went numb with shock. Then SHE fainted.