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Okay, so it's time to go on to see what Ginny has to say—

To the Moon and Back—Chapter 5

"Wow," Ginny said, shaking her head in disbelief. "Wow, I can't believe it."

The journey back to the house from Diagon Alley had been a quiet blur to Lily and James. They merely watched in silent astonishment as Hermione nearly carried the still-faint Ginny back to their kitchen and made cups of tea for the two of them after ushering the protesting twins up to their bedrooms for a couple of hours.

"Only until I can straighten this out," Hermione had said, disappearing behind a closed door and casting an Imperturbable charm on it.

"Man!" Lily groaned, "I don't think that that's the way that Mom wanted to meet up with her old friends."

"I can't believe she won't let us listen!"

"Still, though, it is kind of private—"

"She told us, though!" James exclaimed in frustration.

"Then why do we need to hear it again?" James fell silent.

"I guess we don't. But I would like to hear what Miss Weasley has to say after all these years," he threw a hopeful glance at his sister, who shrugged, plopping down on the couch in the next room.

"When she wants to tell us, she will, I guess," she said as her brother sat next to her. They were silent for a moment, straining their ears to hear anything that they could coming from the next room. When no decibel escaped from under the door, they recognized the lost cause.

"Oh, well," Lily said, grabbing one of the two bags that Hermione had dropped by the door. "I'm going to organize these." James smirked.

"You mean read them all," he joked, and Lily punched him in the arm.

"Like you didn't ask me earlier if we could trade off the books we got for our birthday 'cause you already finished yours." She grinned at him. He simply rolled his eyes and picked up the other bag, following his sister up the stairs until they turned into their respective rooms.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Ginny had finished listening to the whole of Hermione's story without uttering a sound. Still mildly in shock from finding her friend after all these years, she shook her head, mouth half-open in disbelief.

"Hermione," she whispered, not touching her tea. "They—we—have been looking for you, we never stopped looking for you, for all these years…" Hermione reached her hand over and placed it on top of Ginny's hand comfortingly.

"Ginny," she said quietly, meeting her eyes. "I needed to go…I don't know if you understand or not, but I had to—"

"But why? None of us ever left, even after you did. We thought that you were dead." Hermione sighed, her eyes brimming with tears.

"I don't know, I just—" she took a breath. "After Harry and Ron—"

"They've never stopped," Ginny said quietly. Hermione looked up in alarm.

"What do you mean?" she asked almost inaudibly, her voice quivering.

"Hermione, they're still alive." Hermione gaped at Ginny as though she'd smacked her in the face. All the blood was draining from her face. She did a mental double-take.

"What?" she said faintly, her voice revealing complete disbelief.

But she never really heard the answer to her own question.

Because she fainted.

The thud of Hermione's limp body hitting the kitchen floor and Ginny's panicked cries of "Hermione, Hermione, wake up!" caused Lily to dash down the stairs as fast as she could and start trying to break down the kitchen door. There was no need for this, as the door was unlocked, and she burst through it. Her green eyes widened behind the lenses of her glasses and she ran over to where her mother was, unconscious and lying in a heap on the floor.

Lily's shrill screams carried farther than Ginny's had, with the result that James came thundering down the stairs and into the kitchen to see what was going on. He burst through the door, causing it to slam against the other side of the wall. His eyes fell on Ginny, kneeling on Hermione's one side, and Lily, trying to get her mother a wet handkerchief.

"What did you do?" James bellowed at Ginny, who was nearly paralyzed with fear.

"Nothing," she told him, voice quavering. "She just fainted."

"You must have done something to make her faint." James said. Ginny looked at Lily, hopeful for an ally. Lily shrugged coldly, dabbing Hermione's forehead with the damp cloth.

"She's never fainted before in her life," she said quietly, now willing Hermione to wake up, staring into her face. As blood flow to her head resumed, Hermione took a deep, shuddering breath.

"Don't sit up yet, mom," James said shakily. Lily threw her arms around her. Hermione sat bolt upright anyway, her eyes darting from Lily (still pale and holding the handkerchief), to James, whose eyes were round as tennis balls, to Ginny, who knelt silently on the floor two feet away, looking both frightened and as if she'd been put into a very awkward situation. Her eyes bore into Ginny's own.

"Really?" she asked in disbelief. Ginny nodded, causing Hermione's insides to fill with an emotion that she could not describe, and she burst into tears.

James and Lily looked at each other, stunned and unsure of what they should do. Both of them knew that their mother was a rather emotional person, and they had seen her cry before on several occasions, but this time was different. Sobs shook her whole body; even her hair seemed to tremble.

Ginny was first to rush in to hold Hermione in an embrace, laughing. James felt like he wanted to kick her in the shins, but seeing as how she and Hermione were holding tightly to each other he refrained, not wanting to kick the wrong person by mistake.

They broke apart at last, and Hermione wiped the tears off of her streaked face, though more quickly took their place. She gave a feeble laugh through the tear and sniffed. Lily ran to get her a tissue, which Hermione gratefully took before pulling her daughter into a hug. Before James could move, he too had been enveloped in the embrace.

When he pulled away, he saw that Lily had tears in her eyes. He looked at her wildly, asking silently why in the world she could possibly be crying. Lily shrugged, looking surprised with herself and wiping her eyes with another tissue. Hermione beamed through the tears that were still streaming down her cheeks and turned back to Ginny at last.

"Where are they?" she asked. "Where have they been?" Ginny smiled, sitting down at the table. Hermione followed suit, and after glancing at each other, so did Lily and James. Hermione gave them a look, but they stayed fast, rooted to their chairs.

"They're both away at the moment, they're Aurors now," she added, grinning at the two children. By the way her eyes lingered for a moment on James' untidy hair and Lily's emerald eyes, Lily knew that her mother had told Ginny about who their father was. James, on the other hand, wanted desperately to ask who they were talking about, what her mother was crying over, and he probably would have if Lily hadn't kicked him under the table to stop him interrupting.

"Oh my goodness," Hermione said, as though she couldn't believe her ears. "I can't believe it—well, I can, of course, I knew that they could—but wow."

"After the Final Battle, they were awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class by Scrimgeour. He's not the Minister of Magic anymore; the wizarding community didn't seem to like how he handled everything with You-know-who. Sorry, I never really did get used to saying his name," she added to Hermione. "Anyways, the new Minister—he's not really new, but he is to you—is a man called Midas Paraben. He's a fantastic guy, awarded every member of the Order some form of the Order of Merlin. Even you, actually," she added.

"Me? How was that one managed?" Hermione asked, shocked. She ran away, and that certainly didn't merit any medals or awards.

"Ron and Harry insisted on it. They told everyone that even though you were—missing," she seemed to hesitate for a moment on the word choice. Lily knew that she would have said dead. "Anyway, they said that you had as much of a part in V-Voldemort's defeat as they did."

"After his downfall, they tried to fetch you like they'd promised. They searched as much of the country as they could on foot, sent out owls, and even put up posters to see if anyone had seen you or knew anything. When nothing happened for months, we all assumed that you were—that you weren't coming back," now it was Ginny's turn to dry her own eyes.

"I don't think that they ever got over your leaving," she said, though with some difficulty. "They were the only ones who refused to accept it, and they never stopped looking for you. Harry and Ron told me that you were way too talented to ever go down so easily, and they were right."

"Wait," James started, this time getting the words out before Lily (who was now giving him a warning glare) could kick him. "My mother's friends…didn't they die like over eleven years ago?" Ginny shook her head.

"No," she smiled at them. "No, they didn't." Lily and James gaped at her with identical expressions of astonishment on their faces.

"Our father's alive?" Lily asked quietly.

"Our godfather too?" Ginny looked up at Hermione, who smiled sheepishly.

"I know I never talked to him about it," Hermione told Ginny, "but I named Ron their godfather…I mean, I know it was completely stupid, since I thought he was dead at the time, but since you're the godmother—"

"What?"

"Er, yeah, Ginny…I named you their godmother, in case something ever happened to me. I figured that you were the person who I knew the best from here, and I knew that you were the best choice," she said very fast, her cheeks growing a nervous pink. "So, I'm sorry if I put you on the spot like that, but if you don't want to, I can—"

"Are you mad?" Ginny exclaimed in response to this. "I'm thrilled! This is so exciting!" Lily and James glanced at each other and grinned.

"I'm really glad, Ginny," Hermione said honestly, then turned to her kids. "Sorry I forgot to tell you, guys."

"That's okay, Mom."

"Yeah, this is really cool! We have a godmother!" Before they knew what was happening, Ginny had swept them up in a huge hug. They were all laughing when they pulled away.

"Sorry about being rude to you earlier," James said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it," she said. She looked from James to Lily to Hermione and back again, and clapped her hands together merrily.

"This calls for a celebration," she announced merrily. Hermione frowned slightly.

"What kind of celebration?"

"I don't know…what time is it?" she asked, glancing around the room for a clock.

"It's nearly seven," Lily told her after looking at down at her wristwatch.

"Goodness! It's getting late…Lily, James, what would you like for supper? Ginny, you're welcome to stay if you'd like," Hermione said, zooming around to pull pots and pans onto the stove.

"Stop," Ginny said, "I forbid you to cook. I want to take you all out to eat somewhere…I know a charming little Muggle restaurant we could go to, I just need to check in at home first, to let Michael know that I'll be late…"

"Wait, not Michael Corner…" Ginny laughed.

"Of course not, I'd never hitch with that old dolt. No, his name is Michael Watson, lovely person, he was in Ravenclaw a year ahead of you lot," she was, of course, referring to Hermione, Harry, and Ron when she said this. "Anyway, we sort of eloped during the Second War, about a month before the Final Battle."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Ginny shrugged.

"We figured that everyone had enough on their plates already without having to deal with a long-term relationship. Everyone was pretty good about it, though. Of course, they had to be after my daughter Genevive was born not so much later than we announced our marriage…" Ginny's voice trailed off and she blushed slightly.

"You have a child?" Hermione asked, smiling amusedly. "I thought you told me that you never wanted children because they could be—"

"Such devilish little blighting imps," Ginny finished thoughtfully, "yes, I know, but I don't really like any children but the ones in the family, and you two," she said, turning to Lily and James.

"I actually have two children, Adrian and Genevive, which, by the way, was Michael's idea. For about a year there we had a Ginny and a Genny, which got pretty bloody confusing after a while, so now we just call her Eve. She's eleven, so she'll be starting at Hogwarts in the fall, and Adrian's up next year. Which reminds me," she said, turning to Hermione inquisitively. "You don't happen to have any Floo powder, do you?"

"No, we got to Diagon Alley today through London," she said shaking her head.

"Oh, well, no matter, I'm sure that I can find some in here," she turned to her purse and began rummaging through it. A moment later, she pulled out a small sack. "You don't mind if I use your fireplace, do you?"

"Of course not," Hermione smiled and Ginny as she disappeared through the kitchen door, her hair rippling after her. She returned a few moments later, looking very pleased.

"It's alright with him," she said, smiling excitedly like she and Hermione were schoolgirls again. "So, Hermione, what's the verdict? Are you going to let me treat you to dinner?" Hermione opened her mouth to protest, but Lily and James cut her off.

"Please, mom, can't we go?"

"Come on, you know that you haven't seen each other in ages, this will give you time to catch up."

"Yeah, we should definitely go," Lily said pleadingly. Somehow she had taken a great liking to Ginny in the few short minutes she had been talking to her. Hermione smiled; she couldn't say no to something that she also wanted very much to do.

"Alright, then," she said, "but I'm buying."

"No way," Ginny told her stubbornly, giving Hermione one of those looks that clearly said I'm-not-going-to-let-you-so-don't-even-try-it. Hermione sighed, throwing her hands up into the air.

"Okay, okay, if you want to," she said. She looked over at her children, who were both teetering eagerly on the edges of their seats. "Guys, go change your clothes—Lily, I'd like you to wear a skirt, please."

"But—"

"No buts," Hermione told her with raised eyebrows. "Go on, the sooner you're ready, the sooner we can go." Without another word, James and Lily hurried from the room, the door swinging shut behind them, and hurried across the hall and up the stairs. Just as James reached his bedroom door, he turned and smirked at Lily.

"Make sure it's a nice skirt, little Lilsie," he taunted playfully. A moment later he found a rather large pillow smacking him in the face, and it was Lily's turn to laugh as she closed her door and quickly pulled a long denim skirt and red sweater out of her closet, dressed hurriedly, and ran a brush through her hair. She met James (now wearing tan slacks and a navy blue sweater) in the hall, where Hermione and Ginny were already waiting for them.

"Alright," Ginny said cheerfully, "I don't know how to get there the Muggle way, but there's a convenient alley we can Apparate into—" a rather complicated Apparition later (Hermione hadn't known where they were, so Ginny had taken her to show her before both returned to the living room with a pop and taking Lily by the arm—Hermione had taken James) the four of them were walking the block over to a restaurant called The Bistro on State.

Over large plates of divinely prepared food, they talked and joked as if no time had passed at all, as if James and Lily had known Ginny for their entire lives.

Hermione was filled in on the activities of the rest of the Weasley clan. Mr. Weasley, as she found out, had been promoted and now managed the Muggle Relations Office, a rather important job, as they dealt with not only the misuse of muggle objects, but also with muggles who'd accidentally encountered bewitched artifacts or had nasty encounters with wizards. The Weasley family had seemed to grow exponentially while she'd been away; by the sound of it, the only Weasley who had not had at least two kids was Ron.

He had, as Hermione predicted, gotten together with Luna Lovegood (a/n I know that this is kind of weird, but he couldn't be with Lavender and I felt like Ron's significant other had to be someone that the gang was familiar with…anyway) and together had a son. To Hermione's horror, she learned that Luna had been killed about a year after the child was born by some escaped Death Eater who'd wanted to get revenge on Ron for sending him to Azkaban in the first place.

Even Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks had settled down in a house, surprisingly, in Godric's Hollow (where Harry also lived, coincidentally). Despite Lupin's protests that he was an old man, Tonks had still convinced him that children were a good idea, and according to Ginny he loved fatherhood. His oldest boy, christened Sirius James (a/n, yes, I know that it is cliché, but I simply couldn't think of anything else suitable), was due to start at Hogwarts the next month as well as Hermione's children.

Bill and Fleur, who'd had a child and was expecting another before Hermione had left, now had five children of their own, two of whom were already at Hogwarts. Fred had married Angelina Johnson, and George, a pretty Muggle woman who worked in a paper shop in the village they lived in and they had three children each. Charlie had married a woman he'd met in Romania, and Percy had (once his swollen head had calmed a bit) proposed to Penelope Clearwater.

Though the children all came together to go to Hogwarts, each of the seven Weasley children had chosen to settle in different places across the United Kingdom and Ireland. According to Ginny, Molly and Arthur Weasley held a family dinner every Friday in the summertime to gather the whole extended family at the Burrow.

"You should come," she said, trying to act casually. "Mum and Dad always said that you were like a daughter to them anyway, they'd love to see you and meet James and Lily." Hermione frowned, looking upset.

"Yeah, that would go over really well, 'Hello, it's me, Hermione, I was never dead and here I am showing up suddenly back into your lives.'" She stabbed a bit of chicken with her fork rather harder than she normally would have.

"Oh, come on, Hermione!" Ginny exclaimed, smiling. "They'd love to see you again, I know they would, and your reason for leaving is perfectly understandable."

"If I waltzed into the Burrow, everyone would have a heart attack or faint."

"No they wouldn't."

"You did," she reminded her. "And you don't faint easily."

"That's just because I was so shocked." Hermione gave Ginny a hard look. Ginny shrunk back a little bit under her gaze.

"Well, I could tell them all that you were coming, that way they could prepare themselves before you ever got there." Hermione considered this for a moment. She wanted more than anything to see the Weasleys again; they'd been like a family to her ever since she had spent that first summer with them, and she missed them more than anything.

She looked over at her two children, who were sitting quietly in their seats and giving her hopeful looks. Lily looked at James, knowing that he would be just as uneasy as she about being thrown in to a difficult social situation, but she could tell that this was something that they'd have to do for their mother. Hermione smiled.

"Okay, then," she said, sounding relieved and happy. Ginny beamed.

"This is going to be so much fun! Lily, James, you're going to meet a lot of really cool people, but—"

"What?" Hermione asked, sensing a problem.

"Harry and Ron are away, they won't be there…" Hermione looked disappointed.

"That's okay, but they're going to be upset if I meet your family before they even know that I'm back."

"I'll send them an owl and tell them about it, it'll be no big deal," she said, waving her hand as though this were insignificant. Hermione looked skeptical, but she smiled at Ginny nevertheless. It was amazing to be reunited with the girl who had been one of her best friends at school and beyond.

"Alright, so this Friday at the Burrow?"

"Yes! This is brilliant!" Ginny said, nearly shouting in glee. She grinned, her eyes sparkling, at Lily and James. "Who wants cheesecake?"

End of the fifth chapter!

Review and tell me what you think. Ten points for suggestions on what I should call Ron's son…I've been thinking about it since I started writing this, and I still can't think of anything fitting—but you need to tell me a house if you want to claim the points!

Okay, to my reviewers:

All of you regular reviewers, I love you all! Thanks for your support—you rock my socks! Lol…I hope you keep reading, and Lilah lee, Harry will find out soon, probably in either the next chapter or the one after that.

Genelle: Thanks for reading! I'm glad that you really like it, and I'll definitely keep writing!

Thanks, all!

Callista Rose