Disclaimer: I own nothing if I did I wasn't here, I hadn't time, I was writing the sixth book… Ah yes, this time even the title doesn't belong to me. It's a song from Buffy the Vampire Slayer 'Once More With Feeling'.

A/N: Sorry if I update only now, but my beta's computer was down. Anyway, I hope you'll like this chapter; I like it pretty much. Well, this chapter is not as long as the lat one, but it's not short.

To Erin: Thank you very much for beta-reading this chapter.

Where Do We Go from Here?

Hermione closed her eyes. She had spoken for what seemed like ages, her mouth was dry and her eyes wet.

She finally had the strength to talk to them. To talk to Harry, to talk to Ron, to talk to Lilian. She couldn't believe that. She felt lighter, but now she was afraid.

How would Ron react?

She fought back the tears. It was hard but she couldn't cry. She wanted to cry, but she couldn't.

"Are you going to die?" asked Ron.

Hermione opened her eyes and focused on Ron's figure through the tears. His voice had arrived at her ears in a strange high tone.

She nodded, a bitter smile spreading on her face.

"Ron, please keep Lilian with you," said Hermione with an imploring kind of voice. "Please, when I'm dead she will need a home near the magic world. Of course she can live with my parents, but I think that they would have gone to you, so I preferred to do it by myself."

Ron looked at Hermione and then at Lilian, who was staring out of the window. Finally he tried to meet Harry's eyes for some support, but he was drinking his butterbeer and was concentrated on something, or maybe he was just avoiding his friends' eyes.

Too many thoughts were running in Ron's mind. Too many emotions were shaking his body, from feet to head.

He had just found again his love, he discovered he had a daughter and, above all, the most important person in his life was going to die.

"Please," breathed Hermione. "Please, Ron, don't be mad at me for all the things I've done. I'm sorry I hid your daughter from you and I'm sorry I left you eleven years ago and I'm sorry to come here only because I need your help."

Ron was very confused.

He wasn't mad at her, and of course he would have kept Lilian with him, but he wanted to live with her too. He couldn't believe that she was going to disappear again; he wouldn't let that happen,not now that he had found her.

Harry touched Hermione's hand and smiled at her. She smiled back.

"Hermione-" he began, but was cut off by Lilian who got on her feet.

"I hate you," they heard her said before she burst into tears and ran out towards Diagon Alley.

"Lilian!" screamed Hermione, and loads of heads in the pub turned in her direction.

Hermione was going to run after her, but Harry stood up first and said in a reassuring voice, "Let me talk to her."

Hermione nodded, but didn't stop staring at the door from where Lilian had run out till Harry exited too.

He found the little girl sitting in a garden seat right in front of 'Flourish and Blotts'. Exactly where he would have found Hermione.

"Can I sit here?" he asked sweetly, nodding towards the garden seat.

She nodded, wiping away the tears.

"Lilian, you must be happy, you have just found your family."

She shook her head "Professor Potter, I-"

Harry smiled "Call me Harry, won't you? I'm your parents' best friend."

Lilian sniffed. "But you are still my professor. So don't get angry if I'll call you Professor Potter."

"And you'll call your dad Professor Weasley forever?" he asked sweetly.

But instead of cheering her up a little with this joke she started to sob even louder.

'Damn it,' thought Harry.

When the sobs died a little she spoke. "You are right, Professor Potter. I've just found my family, but I'm going to lose it again. And I can't stand it."

"Oh, come on, you shouldn't say that," he said, caressing her hair.

"Why?" she asked, looking suddenly at him. "It's exactly what's happening to you! You have found your best friend and she is going to leave so early. Does this mean anything to you? Well, I don't think so! You are heartless."

Harry was upset. He wasn't heartless, but he hadn't thought about losing Hermione. He was simply much too happy that she was back to be worried about the fact that she didn't mean to stay. And if she was staying,she was always going to die.

"I'm not heartless," he said with a voice that he didn't recognize. "How can you say that I'm heartless? How can you think that I don't care about your mum? When she left Hogwarts she broke my heart."

Lilian looked at him in disbelief. "You – you were in love with my mom?"

"No, but she was – I mean, she is one of my best friends, and the other one is your father."

"So you can understand how I feel," she said.

He smiled. "Of course I can."

They sat there in silence for a bit, watching all the witches with children who were doing some Christmas shopping.

"Life stinks," Lilian muttered after a while.

Harry looked at her. "No, it doesn't. It's just hard sometimes."

She nodded. "My grandmother and Hagrid said that magic can cure her, but my mom swore she wouldn't use magic any more after leaving Hogwarts, so she won't use magic to help herself," she said 'forgetting' the part where Hermione said that you had to use Dark Magic.

Unfortunately Harry was her Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher.

"Yes, Lilian. Magic can cure her, but you have to use Dark Magic."

"Why? What is magic for? I don't want to be a witch. I hate being a witch. I feel so powerless."

"You shouldn't say that."

She agreed, "No, I shouldn't. But it's just so hard."

He smiled.

"What would you like them to do?" he asked.

"Who? My parents?" she said.

Harry nodded.

"They should live together, I mean same house, same bedroom, same bed – like every wife and husband. And I should have my own room, full of things, like every daughter. And I would like to have a little brother too. And I would live with them forever."

"Forever? Are you sure?" he smiled. "I don't think somebody could live with them forever, not even their daughter."

She smiled weakly. "Are they so bad?"

"Of course. I can remember only one thing about Ron and Hermione's relationship at Hogwarts: their fights. Well, if you look at them nowthey are almost funny, but after the millionth time I heard 'Harry, tell Ron that I don't want to talk to him for the next 200 years' or 'Fine, I won't talk to her either, anyway where is she?' I really got annoyed!"

Lilian laughed and Harry smiled.

"I didn't know that," she said.

"Your mum didn't talk to you about your dad, did she?"

"Nope."

"Well, would you like to know about him?" he asked, grinning.

"Yep."

"For example?"

"How is he, what does he like, did he love my mom – stuff like that," she said quickly.

"Well, he is funny-"

"Funny?" asked Lilian.

"Yeah, he can go on telling jokes for hours, even if nobody listens to him. He can play Wizard Chess very well, he always beats me and he can play Quidditch. He was the Gryffindor Keeper in our fifth year."

"Really? I'm not that good at flying, I mean I tried and I wasn't that bad, but I don't think I will be ever accepted on the house team," she said thoughtfully.

"That's because your mother is scared of flying. I can remember the morning before our very first lesson with Madam Hooch. I've never seen her so scared."

"I didn't know that," she said.

"Well, maybe I should tell you something about your mum, too."

"Please," said Lilian.

Harry smiled "Anyway, back to your dad – he really likes Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. His favourite Quidditch team is theChudley Cannons, and if you want a hint for what to buy to him on Christmas I think he doesn't have the new version of the Chudley Cannons' cup, but I have to check if he really doesn't have it," he smiled.

Lilian smiled, too.

"And no, he didn't love your mother; he never stopped loving her."

"That's cute," she said gloomily. "But I think that my mom stopped loving him."

"I don't think so."

"Yeah, me too. It's just that she doesn't want to live with him. She didn't want to meet him, either."

"I think I know why she didn't want to spend time with him," he said, looking away, "She still loves him too much and she thinks that everything could be too perfect and then her death too painful."

"Yeah, that's exactly what I thought. And I think that she doesn't understand that her death will always be painful."

Harry looked at her surprised.

"What?" she asked with a smile.

"You speak like a grown up person. Like Hermione would have done at your age."

She smiled again.

"You said you would tellme about my mom, too."

"Oh, yes. Hey, do you want something to eat while we talk? I'm starving! Your dad didn't let me finish my lunch because he was afraid to be late for the appointment with your mum."

"Hmmm, ok!"

"What would you like to eat?"

"Chocolate Frogs!"

Harry eyed her suspiciously.

She smiled "I tried them with Hagrid."

"Ok, then. And, Lilian-?"

"Yes?"

"Don't worry about your mum. I bet that when we get back to the Leaky Cauldron, your dad will convince her to stay and maybe they also could get married," he said thoughtfully.

When Harry had disappeared from Hermione and Ron's view, they had been left alone.

Ron felt that he had so many things to say to her, but he couldn't speak.

They spent about fifteen minutes avoiding each other's eyes and drinking from their glasses.

Then Hermione spoke.

"Please tell me you are going to keep Lilian with you," she asked again.

"Please tell me you were kidding me," he answered without looking into her eyes.

"W-when?" she stammered.

"When you said that your place was no longer here. When you said that you were going to die. When you said that you thoughtI would be mad at you."

She slowly, very slowly, moved her eyes from her pumpkin juice to Ron, and to her surprise she found him staring at her.

She blushed and looked quickly away.

"No," she said, looking ather fingernails. "I wasn't kidding you. I'm really going to die, my place is really no longer here and I really thought that you were mad at me."

"Hermione," Ron breathed, "I have always thought that it was my fault that you left."

She looked at him in surprise.

"It wasn't," she whispered.

Ron shook his head, "It was. You are right, I can act very childish sometimes. I can say that if you did tell me I would have understood, but I'm not sure I would. But now I feel ready. Please trust me."

"Ron, I know you are ready. I think you have always been ready – no really," she added when he looked at her "It's just that I was afraid. Snape was right: you don't know if you don't try. I should have talked to you."

She covered her face with her hands and started to sob uncontrollably. Ron got up from his chair and hugged her. He was on his knees.

Her cheeks were covered with tears. She hugged him back.

"Oh Ron, I'm so sorry," she said.

"Ssssh," was all he could whisper in her ear.

They stayed there for what seemed ages, till Hermione's sobs faded away.

Some of the guests of the pub were looking at them and an old lady was smiling a toothless smile.

When she finally sniffed for the last time, he let her go. They looked at each other; Ron put a hand on her cheek and she smiled weakly. Their faces were only some inches away.

Ron came closer to her, now he could hear her breath.

Hermione closed her eyes, but when she felt Ron's lips almost on hers she jerked her head and spilled the glass of pumpkin juice on the table.

"S-sorry," she muttered, trying to clean itwith a napkin.

Ron looked at her and stood on his feet, and then sat on a chair next to her.

He stared at her hands. They were shaking, so he leaned towards her, but she moved away.

"Hermione, -" he began, slightly worried, but shecut him off.

"No," she said resolutely. "It's all my fault. I shouldn't have come."

She stood up and took her handbag. She wanted to go away, she didn't care where, just far away from Ron.

Ron stood up too.

"No, please, Hermione wait. We have to talk, we have so many things to talk about."

She stopped.

"Talk about what?" she asked sharply.

"About us, about our future," he said.

"Our future?" she asked bitterly. "Ron, if you haven't noticed yet I'm going to die; so there is no future for me."

She was walking slowly towards the door that looked onto Diagon Alley; she had to get Lilian before leaving.

"Ok, then tell me about Lilian," he said in an imploring kind of voice.

Hermione stopped in the middle of the Leaky Cauldron and turned her head in his direction.

"What do you want to know?" she asked, smiling a little.

"Everything," he answered. "But please, sit down-" he patted gently on the chair.

She wasn't keen to stay there with Ron any longer, but if Lilian had to go and live with him he should have known something about her; still it was her fault if he didn't know anything about her, so she reluctantly took a step in his direction and then another one and another till she reached the chair and sat down again.

"You want to know everything about your daughter?" she asked again.

He shuddered slightly at the words 'your daughter', but nodded.

"Well, she loves reading-"

Ron snorted.

"What?" asked sharply Hermione.

"Nothing, she just reminds me of someone I know."

Hermione smiled.

"She can play chess very well-"

"Wizard chess?" asked Ron

"There isn't any Wizard chess in the Muggle world, Ron," she said, sighing.

"Well, yeah, it was just nice if she had some quality that linked her to me-"

"Oh, but she has," said Hermione smiling.

Ron's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Of course. And if you want to know what kind of qualities they are, don't interrupt me every word I say!" she said, joking.

Ron nodded.

"Well, she said that she really likes Chocolate Frogs, and she can eat at every time and everything. She wrote in a letter that she can fly quite well, well, I don't think she can be as good as you, but definitely she won't be bad as her mother."

Ron blushed when she said that he flied well.

"And she likes cats, she has one, and-"

But she couldn't finish the sentence. She heard Lilian calling her and running towards her. Hermione embraced her daughter.

Harry put his hand on Ron's shoulder.

"All right, mate?" he asked.

Ron shook his head slightly.

"So what have you decided?" Lilian asked her mother "Where are we gonna live?"

Hermione looked at her face and then eyed Harry who didn't dare to look back at her. There was chocolate all around her mouth.

"You are going to live at the Burrow when school will be over this summer," she said, stressing 'you' and trying to clean Lilian's face with a napkin.

"And you? What will you do?" she asked, trying to escape her mum's hands.

"I'll live at grandparents' house. We will see each other during Easter holiday. Let's go now."

She stood up, pretending not to hear Lilian's remonstrances and walked towards the door that overlooked the Muggle World.

When she reached the door with Lilian right behind her she stopped, turned towards Ron and Harry, who were looking at her, and said, smiling, "Ron I think you'll see Lilian at school, you too Harry. And maybe we will see each other again. Bye."

"Goodbye Professor Potter, Professor Weasley," said Lilian in an angry tone, following her mother.

Harry and Ron stood there watching them leave, then Harry looked at Ron.

"So, what did she say, mate?"