Chapter 64: In Which We Return To Normal Life

"And so on Sunday, we're going to visit my parents." Hermione was doing what she usually did during the week over summer hols, helping her sisters-in-law with their kids.

"Good luck on that," Ginny said to Hermione.

"I remember those days," Deirdre said. The three women were sitting on a long bench in the back garden of George, Angelina, and Deirdre's house. Small children were running about, mostly playing happily, but Ginny kept a wary eye on Ron and Victoire, who would probably be fighting over the swing soon. It was Friday, which meant that Fleur and Angelina had the day off. It is a well known, if somewhat paradoxical, fact that nine children and three women is an easier combo than one woman with two children.

Hermione scanned the back yard, looking for potential problems, while Deirdre said, "My parents had a bit of a hard time, but that was mostly with the fact that I married into a family of wizards. If you lot had been the druids the next grove over, they would have been fine. But once they got to know George and Angelina, they came around. You saw them at the wedding; by the time they actually saw our ceremony, they were pretty happy."

"So, speaking of wedding ceremonies, do you and Snape have a date yet?" Ginny asked, a twinkle eerily reminiscent of Dumbledore in her eye.

"I keep trying to get him to commit to Halloween, but he's pretty resistant."

Ginny just stared at her for a moment. Hermione felt like she was missing something. Something big. Finally Ginny said, "Resistant, huh?"

"Yes. I'm missing something aren't I?"

"Lily was killed on Halloween."

"Oh God! I had forgotten. No wonder he doesn't want a Halloween wedding. Bugger, I wish he had said something."

"Like what, 'Sorry Hermione, too many bad memories of my first love being killed on Halloween, how about we do a different night?'"

"Bugger! Bugger! Bugger!" Hermione said. JS, who had wandered over to his mum while Hermione wasn't paying attention began to mimic her. Ginny gave Hermione a look, and Deirdre began to laugh.

"That's a grown-up word JS. You don't need to be saying it," Deirdre said. He gave his mum a hug, grabbed a drink of his juice, and went back to playing.

Ginny gave Hermione a pointed look. "You get to explain to Fleur why her kids have a new favourite word tonight."

"Yes Ma'am. God, how could I forget something like that?"

"Well, it's not like it's a big deal for Harry. He doesn't remember it. I mean he knows what happened on that date, but he doesn't feel it any more than any other day. It's probably a bigger deal for Severus than it is for Harry," Ginny said.

"Well, scratch a Halloween wedding. Early October some time then. With any luck we'll be able to bind ourselves like you did."

"Best thing we ever did," Deirdre said. "Can you imagine the three of us trying to find a binder that would have kept all three families happy?" Deirdre shook her head. "The magic isn't too tricky. It's an Unbreakable Vow, just modified."

"How unbreakable is it?" Hermione had been wondering about that for some time.

"Not very. George is still alive isn't he? The magic knows that it's about intent and trying. You won't keel over if you promise patience and then lose it one day because your man, who has promised on at least five separate occasions to put his socks in the hamper, has once more left them in the middle of the bedroom floor like some sort of prize." Deirdre paused, shook her head, muttered something Hermione couldn't make out, and then continued speaking. "I'm not even sure what would happen if you really broke one of the vows. I mean went out and purposely broke one. It would probably jump up and bite you then, but I'm not really sure. Of course, that could explain the reason why Dragon Pox has a tendency to strike men in the prime of their life and kill them off swiftly. Or not. I don't think too many of us are really interested in actually going out and testing the magic of the vows."

"How did you come up with your vows?" Hermione asked both women.

"We were so young; we just went with what the Reverend said. I don't think the idea of vows actually meant anything to us at the time. It was more about being alive, and having some joy after that last year of the war, and living together, and not having to sneak about to have sex," Ginny answered. "Vows were kind of moot. You were at our wedding, you remember, it was almost like two kids playing at getting married."

"Your wedding was very sweet. And after that year, and the funerals, and Black June, we all needed something happy. Most of all, your mum," Hermione said.

"I think that's why George suggested it. He knew we were going to do it eventually, but he suggested we do it before seventh year of Hogwarts rather than after."

"I didn't know George was the one who suggested you get married so soon." Deirdre looked amused.

"Fred had just died, and he was going through a rough patch. We all were, but it hit him harder than the rest of us. It would wouldn't it? And one night we, well, the four of us, Harry, Hermione, George and I, were over at the Burrow, rather pissed, having something like an informal wake for Fred and Ron, and then George said, 'We need a party. A real burn the house down, let it all out, everyone has blackmail material for years, party! Harry, get off your arse and marry my sister! Give us all an excuse to laugh again.'" Ginny told her sister-in-law.

"Ron, stop hitting Victoire!" she called out a second later.

"And that was it?" Deirdre asked.

"That was it. I turned seventeen in August, and we got married the Saturday before leaving for seventh year of Hogwarts. I don't think they usually allow married students, but being the Boy-Who-Lived and his bride had some perks."

"How about you three? How did you come up with your vows?" Hermione asked Deirdre.

"A bottle or three of wine, a great big bed, and a fairly serious conversation about how badly we were willing to shock our families. Just because the Ministry legalized polygamy didn't mean that our six parents were going to be thrilled by the idea. Especially my family, since, as druids, they've never believed the Ministry had any legal rights over us in the first place. But that's a war we've been losing for the last thousand years. Anyway, we knew we'd need something that would keep all three sets of families happy, something that would make them understand exactly how serious all three of us were about being married to each other. Something to show them that this was the start of a new family, not just one big, randy sex romp.

"George and Angelina had already done the traditional 'for better or worse' vows, and we knew that those ideas are important. I mean, you can work on the words, but love, honour, cherish, kindness, patience, and fidelity really does cover all the hoops. And in the tradition I grew up in a marriage is forever. This life and the next and the one after that, so we knew we needed to incorporate that. If anything was going to let my family know we meant business, that was it. Mostly though, it was about the symbols. That's really the point of the ceremony. We married by wand and by knot to make sure everyone was happy, and everyone had their idea of a 'wedding' fulfilled."

"How are you doing on your vows?" Ginny asked Hermione.

"We haven't talked about it yet. Haven't talked much about the wedding at all. We know it's going to happen, soon, and we want to bind ourselves, but beyond that..." Hermione gestured with her hands to show nothing had happened.

"Well, it's not going to happen on its own," Deirdre said. "Tonight you need to grab your Snape, get some paper, and talk about what it means to be married. Otherwise you'll end up with something neither of you really wants."

"Perish the thought!" At which point Aiden Weasley awoke from his nap and began fussing. Deirdre picked him up and began to coo at him. The little red haired boy began to coo back at his mum.

"God, they're cute at this age," Hermione said.

Deirdre snuggled her son, "Yes, they are. As long as you forget the whole not sleeping through the night thing."

"Or the fifty nappies a day," Ginny added.

"And they eat every four hours during the day." Deirdre was sharing the battle-tested look of the veteran mum with Ginny. Aiden smiled up at her, his lone bottom tooth making an appearance. His brother Fred came running over, demanding that he got just as much attention as his little brother.

"Any thought about kids?" Ginny asked her.

"Besides swinging between loving the idea and wanting to run away in horror? We talked a little about it, he's willing to skip town with me if we want to put it off, or toss the contraceptive potions aside if I'm not."

"You can't ask for much more than that," Deirdre said.

"No, I suppose not. I could ask to make my own mind up. But that's not exactly something he can do for me."

Ginny looked down at her watch. "Come on, it's time to round most of these kids up and put them down for their afternoon nap."