Hermione and Marcus's relationship, once established, was a rather solid thing. Sure, girls still showed up every now and again to try and sway his affections, but it quickly became known that he only had eyes for Hermione. Even the gossip magazines - who initially ran loads of stories about the new couple - stopped printing stories when they found that the pair was rather boring and had barely any drama.
Sure, they had their ups and downs, but it seemed that the pair was meant for one another. Marcus and Harry eventually came around and became tentative friends and Marcus even took quite the shine to Teddy, helping Harry to teach him how to fly. Hermione, also, slowly found herself integrating with Marcus's friend group, including a very flirty Adrian Pucey and even some of the nicer Slytherin girls, like Addy Murton and Viola Richmond.
Marcus's mother would never accept Hermione, even going so far as to threaten to disinherit him. Hermione was concerned, not wanting to come in between Marcus and his family, but he told her he didn't care what his mother did. He had enough money of his own, living frugally and pulling in huge paychecks thanks to Quidditch. His mother was obsessed with getting a pureblood heir, not concerned at all with Marcus's happiness. Luckily, his father, Oskar, eventually put an end to it and gave Marcus his blessing.
Happy with the way things were progressing, Marcus asked Hermione to marry him a year and a half after they started dating when they were in Spain, after an international Quidditch game. He flew right up to the box after their win, got down on one knee in front of everyone and presented her with a beautiful diamond ring. Hermione had said emphatically yes.
They got married on New Years, knowing that it was the five year anniversary from the first time that they were together. It was a small party - very exclusive - but they were happy to be surrounded by good friends and family. Everything was done up in gold and white, and the champagne flowed freely. Harry had walked Hermione down the aisle, knowing that the closest person he would ever have to a sister was happy.
Harry found his own luck at their wedding and was introduced to one Daphne Greengrass, a gorgeous witch with golden blonde hair and bright green eyes. She was rather sweet, once you got to know her better, and it hadn't taken Harry much convincing to ask her out on a date.
The tabloids had a field day with their short engagement, speculating that Hermione had purposefully gotten herself pregnant so as to trap Marcus and get all of his money, but that Harry was the real father. She just rolled her eyes, thinking about the time that they had thought that Teddy Lupin was her love child. It seemed like they could print just about anything these days.
Hermione continued with her work, bringing a lot of new advances to the health community and, as her trial success rates began to come in, many in the wizarding world were forced to accept that some of the muggle genetics methods did in fact work. There was a surge in fertility and a decrease in the rate of squib births.
The only time that Hermione took off of work was for the birth of her own children. They had their first - a boy - about a year after their wedding. He was called Graeme, after Hermione's grandfather, although Graham Montague liked to joke that it was because he'd been the first person to suggest that Hermione was pregnant - before Hermione even considered it herself!
Graeme was a sweet child, but already showing signs of being a large child. Hermione could just imagine him being the same size as his father, someday. Except, of course, for his brown curly hair that was given to him by Hermione.
Their daughter was born a little over two years after Graeme and called Isla, after Marcus's grandmother. She was a tiny little thing when she was born, but boy, did she have a set of lungs on her. She had Marcus's coloring, but with light brown eyes. Hermione could just imagine all the trouble that she was going to cause Marcus someday.
He'd already blown a gasket when Scorpius Malfoy had pushed her over when she was two years old. Isla was a flower girl and Scorpius was the ring bearer in Daphne and Harry's wedding. Hermione had liked to tease Harry about being related to Draco Malfoy, but after seeing the way the little blond boy teased Isla, Harry liked to tell her that she should be considering the possibility that she and Malfoy might share grandchildren someday.
Marcus had not been too happy to hear that, so he walked over to Malfoy and insisted that he keep his son's grubby little paws off of his daughter. Hermione thought it was rather sweet, and tried to remind Marcus that Scorpius was only four years old, and that he certainly wasn't thinking any untoward thoughts towards their girl.
Whatever happened, Hermione was just so glad that she and Marcus had worked so hard to come together. What they had was truly special, even though they weren't the most obvious pair. It would have been easy to give up on one another in the beginning when it seemed like everything was going to shit. She was so glad that Marcus didn't give up on her.
He was definitely worth all of the trouble.