AFTER ACTION REPORT 4
Author's Note: I don't own any of the characters, as if I did then Ron/Hermione would have started far earlier.
Hogwarts
True to his worries Harry did indeed have a few nightmares that night, though thankfully to him they had not been that bad. He'd had far worse before anyway. He had been sorely tempted to invite Ginny to stay in the dorm but at the time Mrs. Weasley had been hovering around and he hadn't thought that his idea would go over very well with her. Harry knew that even after he was done telling their whole story to everyone that there would be days and days of smaller conversations about the exact details of certain periods, conversations that he was dreading. Harry could only guess the questions that the others had for Ron and Hermione and he knew that their number would only increase with what was to come. He had barely seen Ron and Hermione since breaking up the circle for the night and had a sneaking suspicion that the two were together, wherever they were. Harry hurriedly at breakfast and just hoped that he would be able to keep it all down at certain points before he stepped back into the Main Hall and sat down beside Ron and Hermione again, with Ginny yawning sleepily beside him.
"After our narrow escape from Xenophilius Lovegood's house we went everywhere…looking at every possible location that Voldemort could have hidden a horcrux," Harry started off with a grim smile before he threw his hands up in a sign of defeat that their search after that had been one miss after another and how they had found nothing of any help during that time.
"And big surprise we found nothing," Ron admitted with a sarcastic smirk before his expression softened at a stern look from Hermione as she tried to smooth out his rough edges a bit even though she agreed with his assessment of their attempts.
"Can't win them all eh," Neville couldn't help but giggle through his words as he caught sight of the look on Ron's face and he just couldn't help himself in attempting a bit of humor.
"Yeah well…winning a few sure would have been nice," Ron grumpily answered as his shoulders slumped a bit and he then couldn't help but smile when Hermione laid a hand on the small of his back and leaned into him before she spoke.
"True…but we didn't have that good of luck back then, while we were searching Ron kept messing with the wireless with his wand, trying to guess the password for Potterwatch," Hermione acknowledged softly and as she went Harry and Ron could see that she was struggling a bit to keep her composure as they knew what was coming soon after.
"I didn't get it until just after my birthday," Ron added with a rather glum frown as he remembered his woebegone attempts at deciphering the correct password and how long it had taken him to finally get it right all those months ago.
"It was great hearing Lupin and the others, that they were behind us…then I…I made a mistake," Harry rushed onwards before Ron could say anything else as a brief and heartbroken smile crossed his lips before what had come next stormed back into his mind and he could only look like he had an upset stomach as he admitted the truth to everyone.
"What was it Harry," Bill asked softly with an idea what it had been though a glance towards his parents told him that if he hadn't said it one of them would have.
"I said Voldemort's name and we got caught by a gang of Snatchers, they took us to Malfoy Manor," Harry explained slowly and deliberately as again as he spoke he cast nervous glances over at Hermione, who seemed to be growing more and more anxious with each word.
"And then…," Hermione forced herself to get out as she tried to put forth what she wanted to say about the subject but her voice failed her and she then went silent with tears already forming in her eyes.
"Bloody bastards separated us, threw us into the dungeon and….and…damn…," Ron tried his very best, Harry could tell, to get the information out before his eyes began to water and seemingly to combat that he balled both of his hands up into fists until the knuckles turned white and he powerfully kicked the leg of the chair that he was sitting in with his foot, which caused a few exclamations of alarm around the room, as his jaw was clenched tightly. Harry took a quick glance around the room before he continued, seeing everyone on the edge of their seats, he steadied himself for the truth.
"They kept Hermione back…to…interrogate," Harry breathed out with a voice that threatened to fail him with every word as he tried his best to not revisit the scene in his mind with every word. He could see the looks of shock and horror on the faces of those around him, with Hagrid appearing to be on the verge of breaking down as his mind seemed to come to the right horrific conclusion just as another spoke up.
"You mean torture," Kingsley interjected with a very grave and eerily serious tone of voice as his gaze seemingly went right through Harry to a spot on the wall behind him, leaving Harry to feel a bit queasy at it all.
"That bitch….Bellatrix…she…she…told her to take me instead but…she slapped me but that was nothing…," Ron barely managed to get out of his mouth as his ears almost literally lit themselves on fire at how angry Harry could tell that he was getting at the memory of what had happened to Hermione as his fingernails were digging into his palms so much that if he pushed much harder there would probably be blood. Harry could see several of those seated around him very nearly erupting out of their seats in anger and so he quickly rushed to speak to try and keep things moving.
"The Cruciatus curse…and it wasn't just once…to many to count," Harry nodded back slowly as he couldn't look over at Hermione the whole time that he was speaking but he could hear a sniffle or two coming from her direction and guessed that she was now crying silently.
Harry had fully expected an uproar to that bit of the truth and he didn't have to wait long for it to happen. All around the room there were vehement exclamations of fury and outrage at how Hermione had been treated. For the first time Harry was glad that Sirius was dead, for if he had heard how his "dear" cousin had hurt Hermione he probably would have made it a personal mission to hunt down every single remaining Death Eater and deal with them all by himself at the very least. Across the room Hagrid had crush the bucket of tea that he had been drinking from and if possible George looked more sorrowful than ever. Mr. Weasley looked like he was about to rip the buttons off of his shirt in fury while Mrs. Weasley was already turning red, never a good sign for a member of the Weasley family, as Harry well knew. McGonagall looked like she was caught halfway between absolute fury and total heartbreak over what had happened at Malfoy Manor, and she couldn't quite make up her mind as to which emotion to follow to its natural end.
"No…really, I'm fine…I don't get the nightmares much anymore and," Hermione started to say as she looked more like she was pleading for everyone to calm down as she stood up and took a couple of steps forward and tried to show everyone how well she was now.
Harry could tell that her display of fitness had not won anyone over when Mrs. Weasley stood up and interrupted Hermione with a tearful hug. Seconds later Ginny flew past Harry's shoulder to join her mother in hugging Hermione as the trio were in a world unto themselves even though they weren't the only ones in the room that were crying or had tears in their eyes. It didn't take long for the trio to be enlarged by two as Fleur and Neville soon joined them in hugging Hermione and then Mrs. Weasley and Ginny in turn. Across the room Dean gave Harry an odd look of confusion at all of the hugging as he had been there at Shell Cottage back then and had long since decided that Hermione was fit as a fiddle after her ordeal. Harry could only meekly smile and shrug his shoulders back before Ron turned to him and gave him his own look of uncertainty as to how to continue on telling their story without being told off by all of his female relatives or Hermione.
"But what were the two of you doing…," Bill finally asked after nervously clearing his throat, an act that seemed to snap most of those out of the habit of watching Hermione in the middle of a big group hug that didn't seem to having any sign of ending until Harry rushed to move things along.
"Ron was going ballistic…trying to get out and back to her…, every time Hermione would scream Ron would shout her name…it was terrible….terrible…," Harry forced himself to say as it was yet another dark memory that he would really rather be able to totally forget about but he guessed that somehow it would be something that he would remember for the rest of his life.
"No…to far…Dumbledore went too far…demanded too much…out of those to young…," McGonagall suddenly exclaimed, after having stayed silent for the past several minutes even though Harry could have sworn that he had seen her wipe away a tear at the revelation of what Hermione had endured, as she balled her hands up into fists and in a flash was standing, angrily scowling at no one in particular as she could not believe that Dumbledore would have set Harry and the Ron and Hermione on a trail that would have lead them to Malfoy Manor and to be treated so cruelly.
"He couldn't have known…I…," Harry rushed to answer even though he had no real idea as to what he was going to say as he could tell that some of the others in the room were having the same problem with Hagrid looking angry at what had happened to the trio though his love and respect for Dumbledore kept him totally lost in thought while Percy looked more than a bit green and Fleur pretended to have a bit of dust in her eye as she reluctantly allowed Bill to lead her back to her seat as the group hug began to break up.
"Ron was trying to figure a way out near as I could tell…when he wasn't screaming for Hermione, it was pretty dark down there," Dean interrupted with a slight shudder as he remembered the time in Malfoy Manor and then half rose to help a sniffling Neville back to his seat.
"How did you get out," Neville gasped as he bit his bottom lip in fear and tightly gripped the edge of his seat and hung on every word that Harry and Dean were saying.
"Well…I used a special mirror that Sirius had given me…I had it in the moleskin pouch that Hagrid gave me for my birthday, you can communicate between the two mirrors no matter what, I begged whoever was on the other end for help and Dobby appeared in front of us, he took Dean and Luna and Ollivander and Griphook away, which left just me and Ron left," Harry explained with at first an almost excited tone of voice before even the mention of the house elf's name nearly caused him to tear up before he pushed himself forward and continued on.
"They must have heard something from up above somehow…they sent Pettigrew down to check on us, he tried to strangle Harry but then…," Ron started to answer the open and unspoken question with a hesitant glance towards Harry and then Hermione before he forced himself to look anywhere but at his parents as he had to swallow hard before he was interrupted.
"He didn't…," Hagrid exclaimed with wide eyes and his mouth forming a giant letter o before he started to shake his head in what Harry could only guess was an attempt to wrench the dark thoughts from his mind if at all possible.
"He did, but then I reminded him that I'd saved his miserable life once…he hesitated…and that was all it took," Harry replied with a forced and sarcastic smile before he grew more serious and felt himself getting worked up and almost feeling sorry for the man that had betrayed his parents.
"For what," Mrs. Weasley wondered softly with a fearful look in her eyes as she sat back down but kept her gaze locked onto Harry before he could take a deep breath and answer.
"Voldemort must have jinxed the silver hand somehow, as soon as Pettigrew showed the slightest bit of mercy…of hesitation…it turned on him," Harry replied looking lost in dark thoughts as his shoulders slumped a bit and he stared at the ground for most of his words before he forced himself to look up and hoped that everyone would see that he hadn't been happy about the events that he was describing.
"We tried to stop it…really…we tried everything…would have thrown the bloody kitchen sink at it if I could have, but…," Ron pleaded as heartily as he could as Harry could tell that the memory of what happened to Pettigrew still bothered Ron every bit as much as it bothered him regardless of his betrayal.
"No," McGonagall gasped out loudly with a hand over her mouth before she lowered the front brim of her hat far enough to cover her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose to keep her glasses there and try to collect herself.
"The hand…it killed him, right in front of us, there was nothing that we could do…had that been it I would have been able to see the thestrals here at Hogwarts," Ron chimed in with as he couldn't have looked less than thrilled to be having to remember that moment in time though he knew that he had to and so tried to get through it as quickly as he could, smiling a bit at the end at Hermione's hand on the back of his neck giving it an affectionate squeeze.
"Needless to say we didn't stick around long after that, Ron managed to throw off suspicion by impersonating Peter's voice…we raced up the stairs and got to where Hermione was just as Bellatrix was about to hand her over to Greyback…," Harry said with what he hoped was a serious but not overly sad or angry look in his eyes as he slowly looked at each and every one of those sitting around him to hear their story, hoping that he could get his point across with as few words as possible.
Harry let his words sink in and wasn't surprised to see Bill with a look that could peel paint while Mr. Weasley looked very uncomfortable. Mrs. Weasley looked like she might become sick and it was an expression that was mirrored on George and especially Percy's faces. Dean looked to be struggling to keep it together while Neville was doing all that he could to keep from bursting into tears and McGonagall sat looking like she's thinking that she had seen too much death and bloodshed that such news should not get to her but it did. Hagrid appeared caught somewhere between joining Neville in a fit of tears and snapping a steel beam across his knee with his bare hands.
"But then Ron, he…he…," Hermione exclaimed out as loudly as she could, though it only ended up being barely audible above a whisper, as her left hand started to shake out of she wasn't sure whether it was fear or panic or anger before Ron took her hand in his and gave it a squeeze of support and she turned to him with an appreciative smile and tears in her eyes.
"Lost my head and charged into the room…I'd rather have died then let anything happen to Hermione because I was too weak to…," Ron started to say as soon as he had squeezed Hermione's hand and given her a look as he balled up his other hand into a fist and scowled heavily at Bill, as the eldest Weasley son had looked like was on the verge of asking a question but that idea was quenched by Ron's intense look.
"Ron stop, you weren't too weak, you saved me…," Hermione whispered softly to him as she leaned in as close as she dared with a very honest and earnest smile on her face before she slid herself up onto his lap so that she could get him to lean down far enough to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. She started to slide back off his lap but he caught her and when she started to turn her head back to ask him what he was doing he quickly leaned his head down and their lips met in a short but sweet kiss. She again started to slide off his lap but stopped when he reached an arm around behind her back and held her close, and to Harry's great joy she seemed to be entirely happy to stay, though perhaps more than a bit nervous at what some of the others would think.
"Though Bellatrix made us drop our wands or else she was going to cut Hermione's throat with a knife…if Dobby…if Dobby hadn't shown up and saved us…I don't know what would have happened," Harry quickly added through a deep but almost giddy blush on his cheeks as he gave Ron and Hermione one last glance and then cast his gaze back out over Hagrid and the others.
"That…that…that…," Mrs. Weasley sputtered back as she struggled to process what Harry had told her while staring past him and directly at Ron and Hermione, though she didn't seem upset by their combined show of affection she did seem hope that she wasn't just seeing things.
"It's just a scar…you can barely see it, I'm….I'm…," Hermione fumbled through with her cheeks as red as Ron's hair as she turned away from his glowing ears and tried to look back at Mrs. Weasley without tears in her eyes but her attempts at it and her voice failed her as one of her hands then reached up to her neck to cover the scar while she tried to wipe away her tears with the other.
"Still beautiful to me," Ron huffed softly under his breath with the tips of his ears glowing a bright red as Hermione tried her best to not allow her face to rival his ears though her heart pleasantly skipped a beat at his words and she fought back the urge to cry, though she felt her eyes getting wet.
Harry gave them a few moments as he was sure that after everything that the three had been through together his two best friends deserved a bit of happiness. Mrs. Weasley was locked into a deep conversation with her husband about what Harry could only guess though he couldn't help but grin as he kept seeing her cast a curious eye at Ron and Hermione and he hoped that she would be happy for them. Harry still remembered how Mrs. Weasley had treated Hermione a bit unfairly back during the TriWizard Tournament when she had believed that Hermione had been leading both he and Viktor Krum on romantically. Harry had quickly set her straight back then and everything had been smoothed out thankfully without any further problems, and he had been very glad for it.
"We were sunk until Dobby showed up and dropped a chandelier down on our heads, I had hit Greyback with a stunning spell from three wands earlier so he was thankfully out of action, but the after giving Hermione that scar Bellatrix threw her under the chandelier to save herself…in the confusion afterwards Ron freed Hermione and then disapparated with one of the wands that I tossed to him, Dobby and I followed seconds later but…that…Bellatrix had thrown her knife and….," Harry continued on with a small smirk as he at first kept his gaze locked onto Ron and Hermione, who seemed to for the moment be off in their own little world, before he turned his head and took only a brief look in McGonagall's general and then moved on to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's, finally allowing his eyes to land on Hagrid, who was now shedding silent tears over what he expected Harry's next words to be about Dobby.
"Dobby didn't make it," Ron finally said as Harry's heart nearly broke at the sound of Ron's voice cracking under the strain of that particular tragedy and showed how much he had come to like the house elf despite his treatment of Kreacher for the most part. At his side Hermione could only glumly nod her head in silent solidarity about the event even though she had been unconscious at the time.
"Harry, Ron, and I dug the grave and buried him while Fleur took care of Hermione and the others," Dean admitted softly with a slightly sick feeling in his stomach for the loss of the house elf that had saved his life and how his death had affected Harry as he absentmindedly began to try to dig out some dirt from underneath his fingernails rather than look up at anyone.
"I could tell that something bad had happened to Hermione…I thought that she had been tortured but…Ron wouldn't say anything when he showed up with her in his arms, he was so worried about her…scared to death that she wouldn't be okay, I've never seen him so scared," Bill chimed in with his version of the events as he nervously clasped his hands together in front of him and only briefly glanced over at his parents lest he catch his mother's eye, see tears in them, and then possibly tear up himself. Beside him Fleur sniffled back tears of her own before she laid her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around him as best she could.
"Bill…they were…you didn't…why…," Mrs. Weasley demanded as she suddenly had great difficulty getting her words out in a complete sentence without looking like she was about to either be bowled over from the shock of Bill's revelation or feel like she wanted to knock some sense into him for having not told her.
"You know why Mum, if I had told you that those three were at Shell Cottage then there would have been nothing and no one that would have kept you away from them, and then they never would have been able to go on and do what they needed to, it had to happen…," Bill pleaded with a very anxious and uncertain smile as he gestured in defense with his hands, almost as if he half expected his mother to blow up at him, while he leaned back in his seat and hoped that she would understand his reasons and not be too angry at him over it.
"Yes…well…still…you should have said something," Mrs. Weasley slowly as she was thinking much faster than she could speak and doing her very best to keep her infamous temper in check before she collected herself and then turned her gaze to Ron and Hermione and her expression visibly softened to everyone around and she could only then smile happily at the sight of the pair.
"Next time Mum…next time," Bill mumbled under his breath with a shaky and very nervous smile before he caught Dean eyeing him intently before he gave the younger Gryffindor a nod of his head to say that it was okay to move on.
"We all spent like the next month or so recuperating with Bill and Fleur, not sure what they were doing otherwise as they kept to themselves for the most part, Professor Lupin came one night to tell us that Tonks had the baby and that Harry was his godfather," Dean quickly explained after taking a deep breath and sitting up straight, giving both Bill and Fleur thankful smiles, as he then found himself unable to keep from smiling as he talked about Lupin's visit. He would have said more but then the fact that both Lupin and Tonks had died in the battle struck him suddenly and he went instantly silent and hung his head, trying to will himself to keep from getting emotional.
"We were planning out a way to get into Gringott's, Bellatrix Lestrange's vault actually," Harry cautiously stated as he added onto what Dean had said and visibly cringed at the tumult of concern and shock that he expected to come from where they had been planning to break into and whose vault it was. Ginny seemed to sense this and calmed him down immensely when she took his right hand in hers and gave it a supportive squeeze.
"But…but…that is impossible, any vault let alone Bellatrix Lestrange's vault," McGonagall blurted out with a look of total disbelief as she couldn't fathom any way into or out of any of the vaults in Gringott's let alone one as heavily defended as Bellatrix's.
"It's why it took so long to plan, plus we needed to give Hermione enough time to recover after…," Ron countered with his voice full of confidence at first before it grew shaky again at even the hint of what had happened to Hermione as he then looked to her, his expression full of love and concern.
"I was completely fine a few days later Ron…good to go," Hermione pointed out with a distinguished expression as she turned her face away from Ron, though Harry noticed not because she was angry at him but rather because her cheeks were almost glowing as red as Ron's ears often did.
"Right…and that's why you kept milking it for two weeks…every time that Ron wasn't around she would be fine, then he'd show up and she'd…," Bill grinned widely back at her, causing her to blush even redder, as he sat up in his seat and let his gaze bore a hole right through her as he struggled to keep from laughing openly at her expression before she cut in.
"Er…yes, well…moving on we had finally devised a plan and then were able to put it into motion, of course that meant that I…," Hermione stuttered out with a quivering jaw as even her ears were starting to turn red as she looked like she wanted nothing more than to hurry the discussion along and make everyone forget about what she may or may not have done.
"Had to take Polyjuice Potion and turn into…Bellatrix Lestrange…," Ron stated very plainly as if he were reciting information from a textbook about dirt as he struggled mightily to keep himself from showing just how angry he was at Bellatrix.
"We had her wand so besides the obvious…difficulties…Hermione just had to modify Ron's looks so that no one would notice that it was us, then we went to Gringott's and got all of the way to the vault before everything went sideways…well more sideways than when the Thief's Downfall undid all of our charms and everything," Harry said softly as he did his best to explain their line of thought at the time at first before he acknowledged what had almost been their undoing and had sent them improvising for the rest of the time.
"Sideways…how so," Kingsley intoned with a very grim and serious scowl as he slid his hands into his pockets in an attempt to hide the fact that he was nervously rubbing his fingertips together in anticipation and felt that as one of the few remaining trustworthy aurors left he needed to set a good example and always remain as calm as possible.
"Well, there was a fake sword of Gryffindor in the vault and they had placed Gemino and Flagrante Curses on everything in the vault so that every time we touched anything it duplicated itself several times over and burned at the touch, we were…all of us…very nearly drowned under all of the copies…we were covered in burns by the time that we got out, but Harry managed to retrieve the horcrux…getting out of Gringotts was a different story," Hermione explained softly with an arm around the back of Ron's neck as she shifted in her seat on his lap so that she could look back out at everyone while she absentmindedly began to pick a few stray hairs off of the knee of her jeans.
"We took the dragon of course…Harry's idea," Ron proudly remarked with a slightly cocky grin as he puffed his chest out a bit until Hermione gave him a lighthearted elbow to the side and he deflated noticeably but kept a slightly pained smirk as beside them Harry tried his best to keep from laughing.
"The…dragon," Mr. Weasley gasped out softly with wide eyes as he looked shocked and aghast that there was a dragon hidden beneath Gringotts, and beside him Mrs. Weasley was looking very uncomfortable at the thought of it as well.
"It was horrible, they had it chained up so much that it could barely move more than a small amount…it was nearly blind as well," Hermione replied in dismay as she shook her head in sadness and looked more than a bit worried at the fate of the dragon and tried to remember to give whoever had chained it up in the first place a piece of her mind.
"How horrible," Hagrid grouched angrily as he looked fit to be tied at how the dragon had been treated for so many years, with his large hands balling up into enormous fists and beginning to shake with rage, and only a rather stern look from Professor McGonagall seemed to be able to calm him down for the moment.
"Yeah…but it was a fair bit better than dealing with the wizard guards and goblins that were shooting spells at us after we got the cup and tried to leave," Ron readily agreed with a slow nodding of his head before he cocked it to one side and grinned sarcastically while he explained the rest of it as he cringed slightly and then turned to Hermione before she spoke up.
"Still…Harry somehow had the ever so bright idea to leap onto the back of the dragon and ride it to freedom, we made it out…barely," Hermione stated in a drawn out tone of voice as she copied Ron and leaned her head to one side before she tried to smile through explaining how the trio had made it out of Gringott's alive, keeping the exact details to a minimum.
"Just lucky that dragon didn't think to eat us, though speaking of lunch…anyone else hungry," Ron remarked with a hearty laugh before he seemed to become very preoccupied just as his stomach gave a very loud growl and he looked around like he wasn't the one that had made the noise.
"When are you not hungry," Hermione laughed through happily as she fought back the urge to kiss him senseless as to her right then he looked very cute and she couldn't help but love him. Before Ron could say anything more Hermione slid off of his lap and stood up. Taking one of his hands in hers she gave a small smile to the assembly before dragging Ron off out of the room.
"When he's asleep…but really, we should eat," Harry added with a sly grin, as he watched the pair leave the room, before he went silent when his own stomach gave a roar of hunger.
END OF CHAPTER 4
Author's Note: Thanks again to everyone for reading and reviewing this and the other chapters. As always reviews, comments, and questions are greatly appreciated. Moved Ron and Hermione forward in this chapter and tried to have some fun with the other characters. Always wondered what Ginny meant in the sixth movie when as she and Harry were leaving Ron and Hermione in the hospital wing after he was poisoned she said that it was about time to Harry and he nodded. I couldn't decide if she had meant that it was about time that the two were talking or interacting again or if she thought that Ron being poisoned and what Hermione had said to Lavender would mean that the two would become a couple soon after. Also always wished that Ron would have said or done something in the sixth movie after Hermione's line about what Ron thought that Ginny would think if she had looked over and saw Ron and Hermione snogging and then gave Ron a pleading look. Again still can't read Harry and Hermione or Draco and Hermione.
I view the series as Ron and Hermione to some degree putting their lives on hold to help Harry and then doing it again after Voldemort's defeat. Still think that Ron and Hermione should have gotten together as early as the fifth book and still mad at Harry and Ginny in the sixth book after Ginny told Ron that Hermione had kissed Krum. Hermione then asked Harry point blank what she was supposed to have done and Harry didn't answer her even though he knew that she was hurting and he knew the answer. I'm still not sure as to exactly when Harry figured out that Ron and Hermione liked each other, as even in the sixth book he didn't seem to know as he felt that they seemed to be drifting apart and that it was just what happened to some people as they got older. Then after Ron came back in the sixth book Harry told Ron that he'd always seen Hermione as a sister and thought that she felt the same about him, so then did he just then learn that Ron liked Hermione.
And I find it a bit odd that Harry and Ron would never talk about girls that they thought were good looking or anything of the sort, or that one of the other guys like Dean or Seamus would ask them if they were dating Hermione or what they thought of her. Harry often seems to not care about anybody else until it directly affects him. Then I had a thought that by the end of the books Ron and Hermione were eighteen and Harry was seventeen with Ginny's seventeenth birthday probably not that far off. Which then meant that Ron's eighteenth birthday passed without being mentioned, shortly before the trio was captured and taken to Malfoy Manor. It's often easy to forget that the trio spent a full month or so with Bill and Fleur at Shell Cottage. I still think that Ron and Hermione should have had about five total kids, and it would not have been hard to fit them all into the epilogue at all.
And I think that Ron should have gone with Hermione to Australia and maybe back to Hogwarts as well as being an auror seems a lot like what the trio were doing on their horcrux hunt and not sure that Ron would be so eager to do that again. McGonagall says in one of the books that it takes like four years to fully be an auror, so if Ron left after only two years with Harry to run the shop with George then he wasn't even fully through the program when he left. And odd to think that when Harry's parents died Mr. and Mrs. Weasley already had six children and she was pregnant with their seventh, and that Bill would have started Hogwarts a year or two after Harry was born. The next chapter will finish up the story with what happened to Hermione's parents and the like and then probably an epilogue with a few changes from the one in the book. Thank You.