Author's Note: I originally had this in the last chapter but along with Harry and Hermione's epiphanies of love, I felt Chapter VIII was well-structured and didn't need an epilogue of smut. Therefore, Chapter IX is all smut with some plot movement (but not a lot) - really it's just the start of wrapping up A Great Deal of Bravery now so I can move onto other projects.

DAENERYSTARGARY3N

Around 10:30pm after the twins' naming ceremony...

"Merlin's hairy ball sack," Harry groaned, sinking into the welcome softness of Hermione's mattress, "if I never see another human for the rest of time, I'll be fine."

Hermione chuckled as much as her fatigue would let her, "Present company and our children aside, of course?"

"Sure."

Both parents had been run ragged by the day's events. They had only reached their cottage late in the evening and had three exhausted little ones to send to their sleep, which had not been easy. Teddy had found the entire occasion wholly over-stimulating and though he had but ⅕ of the wizarding world's attention on him, that had been quite enough to stir him up into a frenzy. As for James and Lily, they were the centre of attention and had both wailed through their naming ceremony. Lily had been seconded to her godmother, Minerva's arms, while James had found the embrace of his godfather, Neville.

"They are wonderful, and Nimue knows I couldn't love them more," Hermione began, before turning to face her companion, "but, your children wear me out, Potter."

"Oh, my children, is it? So when they're angels, they are entirely of your making but the second they act out, they belong to me?"

Hermione closed her eyes, succumbing to the fatigue that gnawed at her, sighing, "Exactly. Couldn't have said it better myself. Now, either get under the covers or go back to your own bed. I'm too tired to care which, unless you try to keep me up."

Harry looked across at the near-slumbering witch. Now he was certain that she was 'it' for him. There would be no other woman who could compete with her for his affection and his devotion. He could physically remove himself to his own bedroom across the landing but he didn't want to sleep away from her. If he had his own way, he wouldn't sleep anywhere other than right beside her ever again. Tomorrow, they would talk about that because things had to change before he lost his sanity. He would be brave with her and lay it all on the line. With that decided, he slipped under the comforter and closed his weary eyes, excited for what the morrow would bring.

When the couple awoke to the din of James crying up a storm a few hours later, Hermione was roused aware she wasn't lying against her soft bedding. She had her arms enveloped round something solid and unyielding and her cheek rested against something warm and undulating. Once her eyes adjusted, she understood the mystery object was Harry.

Harry moaned, "Which one is it?"

Hermione smiled down at him as she extracted herself from his arms, "James is hungry, I think. You stay here and sleep. I'll go."

Harry harrumphed before turning over and snuggling back under the covers. He would have offered to do this soothing shift with the kids, but doubtless Lily would be up in an hour or so for her turn at the Wake Mum and Dad game, so he would take that bullet.

While still half asleep, Hermione kissed Harry's brow before she headed into the nursery. James, the culprit, was rouging in the face from crying and his tiny arms flailed as he yearned to be picked up and held. His mother swiftly swung him into her arms and bounced him around before sitting down in the armchair with him, pulling down her nightdress sleeve to proffer her breast to the infant who was inconsolable with hunger.

Once he latched on, stopped his crying and satisfied his hunger, Hermione relaxed into quietly crooning her favourite song for her son.

"Carry on, my wayward son

There'll be peace when you are done

Lay your weary head to rest

Don't you cry no more

Once I rose above the noise and confusion

Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion

I was soaring ever higher

But I flew too high

Though my eyes could see, I still was a blind man

Though my mind could think, I still was a mad man

I hear the voices when I'm dreaming

I can hear them say

Carry on, my wayward son

There'll be peace when you are done

Lay your weary head to rest

Don't you cry no more…"

By the end of the second chorus, James had finished nursing and was ready to be put back to bed. Once he was settled, Hermione withdrew, only to find the father of her noisome baby standing in the landing.

"I thought you were asleep! What are you trying to do?! Scare a woman half to death!" Hermione admonished quietly.

"I heard you start singing and I couldn't help but listen. I didn't want to upset James again though so I listened from here. It made me realise I have something to say to you and I can't wait til morning, 'Mione."

Hermione took his hand and brought him with her back into her room. "What's the matter?"

"I can't live with you as friends any more." Harry announced, aware that the statement would shock her. "I think we've lived this way long enough and it's just not working. Not for me at any rate."

"You...you want to leave?" Hermione sputtered, already imagining Harry leaving the cottage that had been his but to her mind, had very quickly become theirs, and taking their family (not to mention her heart) with him. "Or you want me to go?"

"Heavens, Hermione! No! Never. That's the point," Harry blurted out, pulling her towards him, "really. I don't ever want you to go."

Hermione went willingly into his bear hug, but had never been so confused in all her life. "Harry, I don't understand. What are you saying?"

"I'm saying. I'm saying I don't want to be just friends anymore. I'm saying that I am - without a shadow of doubt - in love with you and I can't hide it anymore. I need to know if there's the tiniest chance you feel the same way or might in the future and we could be happy as a couple together."

The confused, overwhelmed, drained witch marked the determination and desperation in Harry's grassy eyes. He had had a change of heart it seemed and truly felt for her as she had but he had been courageous enough to throw caution to the wind.

"Well, do you?" Harry prompted, her steady but silent examination of him making him infinitely more nervous.

The silent woman heaved a loud breath and gasped, "Of course I do, Harry! Of course I love you with everything that I am and everything that I want to be. I was so sure you were about to tell me you'd found another witch to love and we'd have to separate. The feeling's been worrying me all day. It's been all I could do not to threaten you with death should you try and leave me, because if you ever did, you'd take my heart with you and I know I'd never recover. So, if any part of you is unsure of how you feel and you might change your mind, for Merlin's sake, say it now, because if you're all in from this moment, so am I and there's no turning back."

"I'm in. I'm all in and I love you and I could never find another woman who holds a candle to you, 'Mione."

Having made his troth, Harry made sure not a sliver of air could pass between their bodies, now heaving with the fraught emotions of their exchange, and captured her lips in his impatiently. He felt her lips swell and react to his ministrations until they parted and permitted his tongue to plunder her mouth, once again, after so long revelling in the taste of her, the satisfaction of giving her pleasure. As her arms snaked about the muscular column of his neck, Harry became acutely aware of her buxom breasts being pressed against his chest.

"Gods, but you're perfect. Can we - I mean, we've done it before - but if you think it's too soon or too much, we can slow down?" Harry gabbled, fumbling for his words.

"We're not waiting, Harry. We've waited long enough. And you're right, it's not as though it's our first time. Besides, Lily will be crying for us in about an hour so we are not slowing down and it definitely is not too soon! Now, get on the bed!"

"Yes, ma'am." Harry replied with a mock salute, before pulling her with him so as he plummeted backwards onto the bed, she gracefully toppled with him, her legs landing flush either side of his hips.

He recaptured her pert lips before fingering the hem of her nightgown, desirous of seeing it callously deposited on the carpet. Obediently, the witch atop him raised her arms and happily bared herself to him in body and soul.

"Now, Mr. Potter, you are wearing too many clothes." Hermione said coquettishly, her delicate fingers pulling the grey t-shirt then unbuttoning the loose pyjama bottoms he had on.

Once both were fully nude, they took a moment to peruse the other's bodies. Hermione had always found Harry physically attractive - it was all the Quidditch and tests of stamina he endured staving off Voldemort's constant attacks. He was pale but against the jet black hair sparsely littering his chest and trailing down from his belly to his cock and legs, she didn't mind as it only served to emphasise the peaks and valleys of his muscles. For Harry, Hermione had changed since he last bedded her. She had borne him two children and her physique had unsurprisingly altered, or he self-corrected, been enhanced. Her breasts were fuller and were soft and more inviting. Her waist had filled out some but her curves still tended towards the slender. Harry had found on his prior exploration of her virginal form that she had the most stunning and powerful legs. Her thighs were a thing of beauty and he could barely contain his anticipation of having them wrapped around him and holding him fast as he surged into her.

With that image in mind, Harry reversed their positions as he lay Hermione down on the bed while he slid down her body until her womanhood was inches from his face.

"Are you ok? Shall I continue?"

"Yes!" Hermione bit back, her libido making her needy and impatient for the treat she knew awaited her.

Harry then lay his face against her sex, pulling her apart to reveal the soft, pink flesh that he yearned to taste and caress. He could hold himself back no longer and sucked insistently at her. When her hand came up to hold his face to her in sheer need, he released his tongue into the centre of her fold to hasten her climax. She was grinding against him in response to his ministrations and her undulating chest and belly were a welcome sight as they gyrated above him.

"Holy hell, Harry, don't stop," Hermione whined, "I'm going to come."

With a gentle nod against her that applied pressure in just the right zone, with a scream muffled by the comforter to her side, she came...beautifully. Harry did not remember her being so vocal, so responsive and so beguiling the last time but he was blown away by her. She was his true match.

As he pulled himself atop her, enjoying the radiant heat sparkling off her as she rested in the wake of her orgasm, he gave her a long, sensual kiss so she could taste her own sweetness. He moaned into her lips, "You are stunning, Hermione."

"You're no less yourself." Hermione replied shyly before pecking him quickly on the lips and beginning her own journey down his lithe form.

"You don't have to, you know."

Hermione smiled, expecting him to say just that, but knowing he did not need to offer her a way out. She too was all in as he professed he was. "I don't have to. I want to, Harry."

Without hesitation, she licked her pert, kiss-bruised lips and enveloped his length in one, gently rolling her tongue round it. Once Harry was sufficiently wet and she was ready, she bobbed her head tentatively, wanting to give Harry the same pleasure he had just bestowed upon her, but not quite knowing how.

Pulling off entirely, after a few choicely timed blows, she looked up at Harry as he reposed, eyes shut tight and asked, "Is that alright?"

"More than. Keep going."

Hermione resumed her place and took his shaft back into the warmth of her mouth and sucked it hard. Within minutes, Harry was thrusting to meet her motions and she knew she could have pulled away before he found his summit and spilled into her, but she wanted to taste him as he had her. As Harry's thrusts became jerky and uneven, he began to chant her name and soon enough she felt the salty liquid hit the back of her throat before she swallowed it down.

"That...was...perfect." Harry wheezed, still trying to catch his breath after his exertion.

"I'm glad you think so," Hermione replied, collapsing into his waiting arms, "but don't sleep yet. I want to be with you again...properly."

"A few moments, love, and I'll be more than happy to oblige."

As they lay on top of Hermione's bed together, fully nude but not caring a jot, the witch and wizard realised they needed no words in the fallow air between them. They were content just to be together and to wait until they were ready for each other once again. Harry, for one, had no doubt that he would be fully capable of rising to the occasion within minutes. Just thinking about what they had both done, the gift that both had given the other just now, was enough to stir his loins to their core.

Feeling himself stirring after their time of rest, Harry rolled onto Hermione unceremoniously and nuzzled her collarbone, taking a breast in hand, enjoying the weight of it and massaging it roughly. He had months' worth of pent-up passion and they had time for soft and tender later. As he littered her neck with open-mouthed kisses, he felt her slender hands meet at his back and pull him to her. There was no space between them so that where one seemingly ended, the other began. Pulling his other down to his own member, he guided it hard into her and felt her stretch to accommodate his girth.

"My God!" Hermione gasped as she felt him stir inside her and push his way in. Once he began to move and bear down on her with such ardour and such strength, she was amazed at how different this time was to the last. Last time was passionate but juvenile. They had not loved each other then as partners but as lonely, war-fatigued friends. This time, they truly knew each other and were well-suited to sex. She met his strength and his outpouring of love and the tremendous desire to prove it to her and deserve it that he had always shown, even as a child. She also gave back what he dealt with equal voracity. She wanted him never to doubt the firmness of her love and him to know her as his safe place in the world. She had given him his family, the family he yearned for, and now they would revel in it.

"I don't think we're going to last long…" Harry guessed, using his hand to usher her along.

"I don't want to last long, Harry," Hermione breathed, "I just want to be with you. We can have it long and drawn out later."

Harry took her words to heart and sped up, taking encouragement from the sensation of her walls clamping and releasing around his cock.

"I love you!" Harry yelled as he could thrust no longer and emptied every drop he had into her warmth.

"I love you!" Hermione bellowed back as she too crested and felt the coil in her belly release all the tension that had been building up.