Author's note: I'm sorry this last chapter took so long to get out! Chock it up to a vacation, school starting up again, as well as regret for having to draw this story to an end.

Thanks again to everyone for your encouraging reviews. I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'm thinking of renaming the story Just Friends so don't mistake it for a new story! And if you have any interest in reading anything else I've written I have a couple of older stories, one is an X-Files/ Roswell crossover and the other a Buffy/ Roswell crossover. They're quite dated but probably still worth reading.

Thanks again everyone!

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Ron would wonder, much later, when he wasn't in such a death grip of panic, how he ever became an Auror. In the face of his greatest enemy he had folded like a deck of cards. Sure he was distracted by Hermione's condition but really, how had he not gotten killed up to this point, he had to wonder.

He got the definite impression Malfoy was thinking the same thing as he pointed his wand at Ron with that same smug smile on his face.

"Well Weasley, you have yet to disappoint me. You are truly the saddest sack I've ever met. And I will take great pleasure in killing you."

"You forgot one thing," a voice said.

Ron was staring at the instrument that would cause his death so he hadn't seen her coming either, until he looked up and saw Amanda standing behind Malfoy.

Malfoy turned at the sound of her voice and she swung one of the table legs at his head with all the force she had in her body. There was a satisfying crack when the wood met skull and Malfoy's head ricocheted and looked like it was going to rip off his shoulders for a moment. It didn't, much to Ron's disappointment, and he fell to the ground in a heap.

"Me." Amanda whispered and then slumped back on to the couch, completely spent.

"Are you all right?" Ron asked. "How long have you been awake?"

"Long enough to realize that I've either woken up in some twisted wonderland or I've gone completely insane."

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"Ron," Hermione sighed, "I'm fine."

"I know," Ron said, helping her into her apartment, rather unnecessarily. They'd gone to a wizard hospital and a few potions later and Hermione was cured of her fractured skull but Ron still insisted on doing everything for her. "But the doctors said you should take it easy."

"Ron," she said, and she grabbed either side of his face. "I'm fine." And she kissed him fiercely to prove it to him.

"Uh, huh," he mumbled when she pulled away from him.

She smiled.

"I'm going to take a shower and try and get Malfoy off of me," she said.

Ron nodded, although the visual was rather unsettling.

She walked tenderly into the bathroom and he knew she was still in some pain. He wasn't in such great shape either but his concern for her outweighed his own discomfort. He heard the water start and the pleasant image that filled his head was interrupted by someone knocking on the door. He walked over to it and pulled the door open.

It was Harry.

"Oh, hey," he said.

"Hi, can I come in?"

Ron shrugged and let Harry enter.

"Hermione's in the shower," Ron said.

"Well I came to talk to you," Harry said carefully and Ron instantly felt his defenses go up.

"All right," he said guardedly.

Harry paused a minute and then just pushed through it.

"Ron, I'm sorry that what happened between me and Hermione hurt you. I know how betrayed you must have felt. But—but I'm not sorry that it happened."

Ron felt his fists clench but Harry continued.

"I have a son as a result of it Ron. A son. And I will never regret anything about him."

Ron felt himself relax a little. He nodded.

"And Hermione and I are---"

"Just friends." Ron said, repeating the phrase he'd heard so often lately.

"Ron, it's true. We've never been more then friends—even that time. You realize it was only the one time right? She's only ever loved you. Merlin knows why, but it's always been only you."

Ron grinned a little at that.

"Are we going to be ok?" Harry asked carefully.

Ron paused to think about it. He had had a life without Hermione and he couldn't imagine that life any more. But he also couldn't imagine a life without Harry.

"Eventually," Ron said.

Harry nodded, accepting that.

"Ron?" Hermione called from the bathroom, over the sound of the shower.

"Yeah?"

"Wash my back?"

Harry cleared his throat and Ron started turning red.

"I should go," Harry said, pointing lamely at the door.

"Please do." Ron said.

Ron's hands were trembling as he struggled desperately to get out of his clothes. In frustration he finally just ripped his shirt open, sending buttons pinging across the floor. By the time he pulled back the shower curtain his heart was thundering in his chest.

And then it almost stopped.

Hermione was standing beneath the water, eyes closed, letting the water cascade down her body. Ron had had enough fantasies about her but none of them compared to the real thing. None even came close.

He walked up to her and cupped her face in his hands.

"Do you have any idea how much I love you?" He asked.

She opened her eyes and touched a scorch mark that was healing on his chest. Then she looked up into his eyes.

"Yes," she whispered, and she circled her arms around his neck, pressed her body up to his and she kissed him.

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Harry hadn't been so nervous even when he was facing Malfoy. Or Voldemort, he realized.

"Are you OK, Harry?" Hermione asked, her hand pausing to knock on the door.

He swallowed hard and nodded but he still couldn't form any words. Ginny put a reassuring hand on his arm.

"He's three mate, how scary can he be?" Ron asked.

Hermione elbowed him in the ribs and then proceeded to knock on the door. Harry noticed that Ron was much more courteous to him since his "shower". (He was unaware that Ron had showered twice that evening as well as once more in the morning)

The front door immediately popped open. A medium built Asian man smiled at them.

"Hermione!" He said and he threw his arms around her and gave her a big hug. When she pulled away from him she turned to her friends.

"Brian, this is---"

He stuck out his hand to Harry before she could finish the sentence.

"Harry, yeah, Jamie's the spitting image."

Harry flushed and shook his hand and managed to croak out a: "Hi."

"And this is Ginny Weasley," Hermione continued.

Brian shook her hand and then turned to Ron.

"Ron, right?" He said and pumped Ron's hand. "Come on in. They're in the backyard."

Ron was a little puzzled by that but he followed everyone in. He glanced at Harry who had gone three shades of white.

The backyard, as Harry saw, was more like a back field. There was a yard and then a sloping hill that went on for as long as he could see. Scattered around the yard were toys, bikes, and a wading pool. It was as opposite of the Dursely's home as Harry could imagine.

"We're really going to miss him," Brian sighed and Harry realized for the first time that instead of taking Jamie home he was really ripping him from the only home he'd ever known. Unlike Harry, who had dreamed of escaping the Dursley's, Jamie was going to be removed from a place he had loved with people who loved him. How was his son going to view him? "Hi, I'm your dad, I'm taking you from everything you know, hope you don't mind."

Harry felt his stomach clench. He turned to Hermione but she was looking across the yard and suddenly grew a brilliant smile. He followed her gaze and saw what she was looking at. Four people were coming up the hill. One was a woman who looked so similar to Hermione that they could have been sisters rather then cousins. And with her were two girls who were obviously her daughters and then a young boy.

Harry felt his throat go dry.

Hermione's cousin leaned down to Jamie and said something to him and pointed up at Harry. The little boy snapped his head around and started running up the hill, pumping his arms like he was running a marathon. When he was halfway to him he tripped over his own feet and fell flat. Harry went ridged and was about to race out to him when Hermione laughed.

"He's a sturdy thing, Harry." She assured him. And when Harry looked back, Jamie was picking himself up, his knees now covered in dirt, seemingly to not have noticed that he fell and kept running toward them.

"Daddy!" He cried.

Harry caught his breath.

"He knows who I am," he whispered. He turned toward Hermione. "He's knows who I am."

Hermione looked puzzled.

"Of course," she said. "Harry, I didn't want anyone to know who he was. But I never intended for him to grow up not knowing who we were."

"Daddy!"

Harry turned back toward his son and he bent down to the boy's level. His tentative speech of introducing himself flew out the window as Jamie, arms wide, launched off the ground and into Harry's arms.

Harry thought he was going to pass out. He'd never felt so light headed, exhilarated and terrified all at the same time as he did as he clutched his son to his chest. Jamie pulled back.

"Are we going to go to Hosworth now?"

"Hos--? Oh, Hogwarts, would you like to go there?"

Jamie nodded and threw back his head and shouted "Ha, ha, ha!"

Harry laughed right along with him.

"Uncle Ron," Jamie said a few minutes later, reaching for Ron who awkwardly took hold of the small boy who was reaching out to him. "What color are your eyes?"

Ron looked at Jamie, fascinated for a minute. "Um, blue."

Jamie nodded, satisfied then reached over to Ginny.

"What color are your eyes?" He asked her.

Ron passed Jamie off to his sister and then glanced at Hermione who was smiling big with tears in her eyes.

"Why does he know who I am?" He asked.

"Let me show you Jamie's room."

She led him down a hall and opened a door. Ron gasped when they walked into it. Instead of the muggle room he expected, the room was painted dark blue with a castle mural that resembled Hogwarts. There were stars on the ceiling that twinkled merrily. Ron walked over to the mural and looked closely. There were people moving within the windows. He could see Hagrid walk out of his hut. He stood up and saw a familiar picture on the dresser. It was the picture of he, Harry and Hermione; the same one that had been at Hermione's apartment. Only this one moved. Harry waved out of the picture and Hermione snuggled into the side of Ron's neck.

Hermione came up behind him.

"Your son knows who I am," he said.

"Of course, Ron," she replied, "I never dreamed of a future that you weren't in."

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Three years later.....

Hermione crossed the lawn of the Burrow as she read the letter she'd received from Amanda. Hermione smiled, even as she tipped her head left to avoid a low flying snitch. She didn't look up from the letter as she tipped her head the other way to avoid the low flying broom that soon followed it. She was well practiced in maneuvering the Weasley's over-occupied lawn.

She finished the letter and was folding it when Ron flew up next to her.

"What did Amanda have to say?" He asked.

"She got married," Hermione reported. "In Las Vegas."

"Ah, ever the romantic." Ron said, and leaned in to kiss her.

He hadn't quite reached her when a ball bounced off the top of his head.

"Come on Ronnie-poo, break it up. No snogging on the field!" George called from across the yard.

Harry whizzed up next to Ron.

"That was uncalled for!" He shouted, only to receive a ball to the head as well, this one from Fred. The only reason it wasn't a real bludger was because Mrs. Weasley wouldn't allow it. Not that she was fond of them playing Quidditch in her yard at all.

"This is not a pitch!" She bellowed, which sent the George, Harry, Ron and Fred all scattering. "Honestly, it makes you wonder which ones are the adults and which ones are the children," she muttered as she bustled back into the house.

Hermione smiled and picked her way across the lawn to one of the picnic tables Ginny was sitting at.

"How are you doing," Hermione asked.

"I feel like a walrus," she muttered, sending a resentful look up at Harry. "A walrus who swallowed a soccer player."

Hermione grinned as Ginny tried to get comfortable in her very pregnant body.

"I am miserable!" She declared. "Was it like this with Jamie?"

Hermione sat down and looked across the lawn to where Jamie was sitting on a blanket, reading a book that was far too advanced for him but which he tackled with determination anyway.

"No," Hermione replied. "Jamie was a dream to carry. Now the other one...." He gaze drifted down to the small red headed, freckled child sitting next to Jamie who was tugging at his brother's sleeve with one hand and pointing up at the flyers with the other. "Jacob was an entirely different story. I was sick every morning for three months and he liked to do handsprings every chance he got."

"Well isn't that typical?" Ginny muttered, still trying to shift to get into a comfortable position.

"It won't be long now," Hermione reassured her. "Are you still hoping for a girl?"

"I think this family could use some more of them don't you think?"

Hermione turned and looked at her two sons and sighed.

"I'd just be happy with one that looked like me. It seems entirely unfair that I carried them for nine months and neither of them look anything like me."

Ginny got to her feet and said something about going to the bathroom for the twelfth time that day. Hermione leaned back against the picnic table and looked up into the sky. She watched as her husband and her best friend played Quidditch dangerously close by.

Despite all the chaos that generally existed in the Weasley household she felt a wonderful sense of peace. She reflected on the letter from Amanda once again and chuckled to herself about how Amanda had done a thorough background check on her new boyfriend before marrying him. After the Draco fiasco who could blame her?

And even the thought of Draco Malfoy made her smile. She found it beyond funny that as a result of his capture the Death Eaters operation began to fall apart. It seemed reasonable considering Malfoy was the only one among them with a brain. But how poetic that by going after Jamie, the one they thought would lead to their destruction, they fulfilled their own prophecy.

"Dinner is ready!" Mrs. Weasley called which was the one thing that would actually get the adult boys to land. Harry landed near Jamie and Jacob and threw himself on the blanket. Jamie tossed his book aside and tackled his father while Jacob did his best imitation of doing the same, as best a two-year-old could.

Ron descended next to Hermione and she walked over to him and put her arms around his neck.

"Have I told you how much I love you, lately," she asked.

"Only when you wanted something," he replied with a grin. She smiled and began to sway in his arms. She'd learned soon enough that he loved it when she danced. And even as they swayed in the front yard of his parent's house, within full view of most of his family, he still felt a pang of desire ripple through him.

"You definitely want something," he said and she nodded, staring at his mouth.

"A little girl," she whispered before she leaned in and kissed him.

The end.