Don't get excited now, this isn't an actual update.

I was reading over this story and found that I was very unhappy with how rushed the ending was. Plus, from some of the reviews I received I don't think people really understood what I was trying to do with the dynamics of R/Hr in this story. So I basically just extended the last chapter into 2, and most of the editing takes place in the previous chapter. So same stuff, same ending, just with a few extra words thrown in the mix.

And so it's time to bid adieu…

I have enjoyed you guys enjoying this little figment of my imagination immensely, probably a little too much for me to have my priorities in line. Which, of course, they aren't. But no one is judging here, are they? You are all lovely and the reviews and kind words have made me smile. A lot. So thanks, and hope you enjoy the final installment of this there story!

I own nothing, but...yeah, that's all I got.

"I'm hanging in there, don't you see
In this process of elimination"

Trying.

It was what she had been doing for so long, trying to get by, trying to make this work...and yet now it seemed like everything she had been trying to accomplish since Ginny had said those fateful words was for nothing. Her attempts at secrecy, at another life had failed her, and here she was, back at the beginning. Because there, in the beginning, it had always been (would always be) Ron.

She closed her eyes tightly, trying to push the still-raw memory of that night in the hospital away. If she had had any idea what Ginny's request would have meant for her in the long run, she sometimes doubted whether or not she would have complied.

But then she looked at him, at her child, and she knew without any doubt her answer would have been the same, again and again one hundred times over, no matter what the consequences were.

She drew a shaky breath. "Sometimes trying isn't enough. We aren't at Hogwarts any longer, you know. This is real life, with real consequences."

"I think we are both very, very, aware of that, Hermione." He said quietly, eyes wide and imploring.

"What I mean is, if you…if we were to…Ron, this isn't a decision to take lightly. Hugo deserves more than to have you jump into his life today and out of it next year. He's...he's my life now, you aren't the one I'm worried about protecting any longer."

"I wouldn't do that Hermione. Not to him and not to you. I know you deserve more than that, you deserve more than me…but...but- I love you, both of you. I don't know why, I never have, but I still do, and nothing you've done or ever could do would change that a bit. It probably should have, if I wasn't such a-"

She took the smallest of steps and the gap between them disappeared. Hopefully, for forever.

Because his lips, on hers, felt like forever.

She had almost started to feel normal again. As normal as a witch who had been through what she had could ever be, that is. She had a routine, and it was comfortable. She had acquaintances, never friends, no, but people she could smile at when their paths crossed at work or daycare. And most importantly, she had a son. A beautiful, happy healthy boy whose green eyes were melting into a shade of hazel which almost looked blue and could make her heart constrict in agony and swell with pride all at the same time. She had a life, and she was doing her best at living it.

But then, in an instant, that was shattered.

"Ginny, stop it. You are making a scene!" She glanced into the street, nervously eying the bystanders who were throwing suspicious looks at the two young women engaged in a heated argument on the shabby door front. Roughly, she grabbed Ginny's arm and pulled her inside, out of prying eyes.

The younger girl snatched her arm back. "I don't care, I'll scream and I'll yell and I'll make a scene, Hermione. I'll make one hell of a scene until you give me my son back!"

"Do you have any idea of what you are saying? You didn't want him! You begged me to take him, knowing very well how much I was struggling to just take care of myself, let alone a child! But I did it, and I went through hell and back for you, because you are my friend and I love you and Harry both very much."

"Yes, and I appreciate it," she said in a voice that implied this wasn't the truth, "but Harry is out of training now, and I'm ready to bring our baby home."

Her outrage echoed against the cement floor of the stairwell. "He isn't a puppy, Ginny! You can't just kennel him while you are busy and pick him back up when you good and feel like it! Just because it's finally convenient for you to fit a child into your life does not mean you can come waltzing back here like nothing ever happened! You have no idea what I've been through with him, what these last two years raising him and becoming a mother has been like!"

"You aren't his mother. I am." She hissed.

"Like hell I'm not his mother! You forfeited that right a long time ago! Giving birth to someone doesn't give you that title, you have to earn it, and I've bloody well earned it! You don't know a single thing about him; what scares his at night, how warm he likes his bath, or what songs to sing to him to make him stop crying when he gets hurt! You don't know anything, so how do you expect to raise him? How do you think you are going to be able to explain to him what is happening to him, why you took him away from the only thing he knows?"

Her lips curled back over her teeth in a way that made her look like a total stranger, and it was then that Hermione realized that was what she had become. The words that came out of that twisted mouth only confirmed it. "That's why we have you, isn't it? You've got quite a way with obliviating, don't you?"

Yes, she did. And Ginny's eyes rolled back in her head as soon as the repulsive words had passed her lips.

Hugo returned from the bathroom, hands still slightly soapy and shirt splashed with water, to find them still locked in embrace. Having never had to share his mother's arms with anyone else, he quickly ran to her, tugging on her sleeve and gazing in curiosity at the grown-ups before him. Hermione let out a breathless kind of laugh as Ron untangled himself from her enough to reach down and scoop the little boy up with one arm. Once in the air Hugo found himself wrapped tightly between the two of them, and pleasantly discovered that he rather like it. And so he squirmed quite comfortably in their snug embrace, his round cheeks being covered with kisses made salty with tears (of relief, of remorse, of joy, of coming home).

Of course she was scared. How could she not be, when she had spent the last three years convincing herself of how dangerous it would be if she let herself give in to the arms which now held her so tightly? She was terrified, of what Ron would do when (if?) she told him the truth, of what the future could hold for them (all of them), of that pang in her gut that told her how vast a mistake she was making. And maybe the morning would break on Ron alone and unknowing again, with her and Hugo someplace far away where no one would find them this time. But those were feelings for another time and place, and she hardened her heart against the terror they fought to instill. In their place she held onto a blissful naivety that this, the three of them, right now, together, was all she would ever need. It filled her with a pulsing kind of warmth that tingled from the fever at her temples to the toes that Ron kept stepping on in an attempt to get closer. She let him, because she didn't think he could ever be close enough.

If this could last, if this could really be the forever that it felt like, then she could find the strength to face whatever came their way. Tomorrow could bring what it may, but as for now, this was enough.

And they were happy. And they were together. And that was all that really mattered.

"We're happy Ma, we're having fun

it's beyond my wildest expectation"

So that story totally ran away from me, and I can't say I minded…

Okay, I hope I've cleared up any lingering questions with this last chapter (I know I've kept a few things open-ended, even now) but let me clear up some of the reviews I've received.

If she really believed Ron only loved her like a sister, why would she "trap" him in a relationship/family now? She never truly believed Ron loved her like a sister, she only wanted Ron to believe that, so that it would be easier for him to move on with his life after she left. And she isn't trapping him with anything. She is tired of running, and Ron made it quite clear that he is where he wants to be.

And the thing about obliviate him... a little extreme!. or not?... and once he was an auror, why continue with all the things, why not come back? I don't think it is extreme, in the context that, like I said before, she didn't want him to miss her, because she thought she wasn't good for him. And she couldn't just come back after he was an Auror for the same reasons that she told Ginny. She made a decision and she stood by it, she wouldn't want to wreck his life by showing up three years later and expecting him to drop everything for her. I think Hermione has issues with feeling deserving of Ron's love.

Doesn't she realize that Ron thinks the baby is his? Yes, she does, and I know this is probably going to offend some people that she doesn't tell him the truth. I almost had her do so, but that just opened up a whole can of worms. Would they tell Ginny? Harry? All the Weasleys? Or raise him on their own? That would be another story entirely, and seeing as she is the only one who knows that Hugo is Ron's nephew, I am okay with her keeping another secret. Would Ron leave if he knew Hugo wasn't his son...I don't think so, and I think Hermione knows that, but she is too scared to take such a chance. And honestly, I think genetics are the smallest part of what makes up a family.

I never really understood why Ginny wanted to give her baby for adoption and later she gave it to Hermione, or why she didn't tell the truth to her family and ask them to hide it from Harry. Was being pregnant by the love of her life and boyfriend, such an awful thing? Of course it wasn't. But it having a baby when you are a teenager and not married is ALWAYS scary, even when you know the boy will stand by you like Harry would. And that is what scared Ginny the most, that he would give up his dream to be with her and the child and in the end possibly wind up resenting them both. And we all know Molly wouldn't be able to keep her mouth shut!

Is Paige an OC? Or someone (like Luna?) from Hogwarts too? Yay, a question I can easily answer! Paige is just a muggle who lives in Hermione (or Hannah, as she calls herself now)'s apartment building.

It's not a good relationship if one person can walk all over the other one with no consequences. Of COURSE it isn't. I am not trying to say that this is a healthy relationship, but, in my opinion, R/Hr never has been. I just took that to the umpteenth level. This is a rather dark story for me, and it doesn't necessarily have a happy ending, but that isn't what I was going for. The characters and the situations are extremely flawed, and Ron's anger (and then lack of) and Hermione's deception are in no way excusable, but they are there nonetheless, because it is a story about imaginary characters after all.

Whew!