30. Dawn
The sky is pale blue, stripes of soft pink rising from the horizon as Hermione watches the sunrise sitting on the steps that lead to their garden.
She has never felt more serene than at this moment. She can feel it bubble inside her, that overwhelming feeling of being exactly where she's meant to be.
She hears him before she sees him. Ron comes sit next to her and she tears her eyes away from the sky to look at him. She catches him gazing at the sleeping infant in her arms, wonder sprawled all over his face. Her heart soars.
She isn't sure how she finds the ability to speak when he looks at their daughter like that, and her voice trembles as she does.
"I didn't want to wake you up."
He looks up then, and his eyes, his beautiful sparkling blue eyes, wash her with so much love she's almost certain she'll implode.
He shrugs, and she's almost certain he's fighting back tears. They've been parents for 10 days now, and emotions have been flying high for both of them. Ever growing love, blind optimism and an ounce of dreadful despair have been the leading three.
This is real and this is a new stage in their lives, and they are taking together. She threads her fingers through his as he lays a kiss on her shoulder.
The sun rises higher and the sky now turns fiery orange, Hermione bends her head to stare at their daughter. She is glad, for all the good and bad things that happened to them, for they led them right to this instant.
