Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Unconditional

By: ChoCedric

"Hermione, are you sure you're ready for this?" asked Ron gently as he surveyed the address on the small piece of parchment in his hand.

"Yes, I'm sure," said Hermione shakily, taking a few deep breaths. This was going to be one of the most difficult and harrowing things she'd ever done. Yes, she was looking forward enormously to having her parents back in her life, but she had to admit guiltily that a tiny part of her had been relieved that she didn't have to worry about them, she didn't have to think about them. But now, the war was over, and she was desperate to see them. All she needed, after so many battles and casualties, was the comfort of a mother's arms.

"It's going to be all right, Hermione," soothed Ron. Ever since the final battle, they'd been officially dating. They had both admitted their feelings to each other right after Hermione was tortured in Malfoy manor, but they had agreed not to make it public until the war was over. Hermione was so happy that she finally had Ron as her boyfriend, that they were no longer playing games with each other.

"I hope so," said Hermione as she and Ron Apparated to the address of Wendell and Monica Wilkins in Australia. They'd taken an airplane, and Ron had been so fascinated with the Muggle technology that Hermione had to stifle laughter and give him stern looks when he started babbling about it in the company of Muggles themselves.

When they arrived, Ron gave Hermione a hug and a soft, tender kiss. "I'll be right here with you the whole time," he promised.

"Thank you, Ron, you don't know how much that means," whispered Hermione as they walked towards the door. Hermione rang the doorbell, and she and Ron waited in anticipation for the answer.

The door was opened by a pretty middle-aged woman who looked about in her fifties. Her hair was just as fluffy and bushy as Hermione's, and she was wearing glasses. "Why hello there," she said to the young couple standing outside. "What is it that I can do for you?"

At that precise moment, Hermione took out her wand from her pocket, pointed it at her mother, and recited a long incantation. Her heart was beating a mile a minute as she waited to see whether she had done it right.

At once, she saw something flicker in her mother's eyes. Her face went through a whole range of emotions before it settled on profound shock. "Hermione?" she whispered hoarsely.

"Hello Mum," Hermione choked out, tears beginning to fill her eyes. She threw her arms around the woman, but Jean Granger roughly pushed her away. "Wendell! Wendell, come out here!" she boomed. Her husband's name really was Randy, but as the charm hadn't been performed on him yet, he would still only answer to Wendell.

A man with a beard came running out of the house, looking alarmed. He had straight hair and blue eyes, and was rather tall. "What is it, Monica?" he asked worriedly. "What's the matter?"

"Daddy," Hermione sobbed, pointing the wand at her father and incanting the same spell. The same range of emotions played across his face as the spell did its magic.

"H-Hermione?" he stuttered. "Jean, what's going ..." He went silent as the implications settled in. "HERMIONE!" he suddenly boomed, looking furious.

"Please, Daddy," Hermione implored, reaching out to hug her father. But both her parents were looking livid.

"Don't you dare call me that!" Randy roared. "You have no right to, after you so callously disobeyed our wishes!"

"We told you not to perform that spell on us," Mrs. Granger said, tears of fury in her eyes. "But you didn't respect us enough to think that we could make decisions ourselves. You took away a year of our lives, Hermione!"

Hermione was crying in earnest now. Ron put an arm around her and faced down her irate parents. "She did it to keep you safe!" he cried.

"Sonny, this isn't any of your business," Mr. Granger said angrily.

"I think it is," Ron snapped right back. "See, Hermione's my girlfriend." He blushed to the roots of his hair as he said this. "And she was only trying to protect you."

"Girlfriend?" Mr. Granger snarled. "She's too young for that!"

"you and Mum started dating when you were only sixteen, and that's younger than I am now!" Hermione shouted through her sobs. "And you can't tell me what to do!"

"That's exactly it, little missy," Jean Granger said. "We haven't disciplined you enough. You think we, as Muggles, are idiots. You don't trust us to protect ourselves during your war! And what exactly were you doing this whole time?"

"For your information, she was being tortured for some of it!" exclaimed Ron furiously.

At this, Mr. and Mrs. Granger's faces grew shocked. "Tortured?" Mrs. Granger whispered, horrified.

"I think you two had better come inside. We need an explanation, and you owe us one," Mr. Granger said authoritatively.

The young couple followed Hermione's parents inside the house. It was a comfy-looking place, and the living room was filled with couches and chairs. Hermione took a seat in a chair next to Ron, while her parents took one of the couches.

"Okay," said Hermione, bracing herself for a long talk. "I'll start at the beginning."

And she did just that. With the help of Ron, they told the whole story of the war, the Death Eaters, Voldemort, the Horcruxes, and everything else that had happened. Mr. and Mrs. Granger just sat in stunned silence, trying to take all the information in.

When their explanation was finished, Ron took something shrunken out of his pocket. "Professor McGonagall said we could borrow this," he declared as he showed it to the Grangers. "It's called a Pensieve." He then began to explain the functions of a Penseive, and told the Grangers exactly what he wanted them to do with it.

"You mean ..." said Mrs. Granger, looking dumbfounded, "You can let us see what you've been through? You can show us?"

Ron and Hermione exchanged a glance, and then nodded. "It's the right thing to do, and I know I owe you a huge apology, but I need to let you see exactly how dangerous things could have been for you if I hadn't done the spell."

So she, Ron, and her parents all plunged their hands into the Pensieve once it had been enlarged. Ron and Hermione had discussed what memories to show her parents, and even though Ron knew some of them would make them cringe, it was all part of the journey they had been on together.

The first memory was of Ron comforting a distraught Hermione after she'd modified their memories. They had thought this memory was appropriate, so that they could know just how guilty Hermione had felt about doing it. She watched the different expressions flit across their faces: anger, disappointment, worry, love, compassion, and concern.

On and on the memories went. They were of the wedding, the Death Eaters showing up, Grimmauld Place, their escapade at the Ministry of Magic, and their journey through many forests sleeping in tents. Ron cringed horribly when they got to the point when he, in frustration and anger, had walked out on his best friend and the love of his life. Then came memories of Hermione and Harry at Godric's Hollow, and then there was more camping out. Ron had decided to include the memory of destroying the locket Horcrux, even though it was a very personal and embarrassing one. He knew he should show it so that Hermione, plus her parents, would know just what had motivated him to walk out during the hunt.

The hardest memory of all, though, was the recollection of Hermione's horrendous torture at Malfoy Manor. Ron decided that the memory would be shown from his head, not Hermione's, because the couple both doubted that her parents wanted to actually see what Bellatrix had done to her. Hearing her screams from upstairs would be bad enough. And they were right, too, for when the Grangers heard the high-piched wails of their daughter, they held onto each other and shook uncontrollably. "Oh, God," Mrs. Granger wept, tears streaming down her face. "Oh, God, Randy, why did we let her enter the wizarding world?" When Bellatrix threatened Hermione with the knife, both parents closed their eyes, not able to stand seeing this.

Ron and Hermione had not included the memory of their rather intimate moment at Shell Cottage immediately following their rescue. It was a private moment, and plus, they'd already told Mr. and Mrs. Granger that it had been then that they'd told each other of their feelings, both with huge blushes on their faces. Instead, the memories took them right to Gringotts, and then onto the dragon, and then to Hogwarts.

Mr. and Mrs. Granger were stricken with horror as they watched Ron and Hermione fight in the final battle. Mrs. Granger burst into a fresh round of tears as they saw Hagrid carrying a presumably dead Harry in his arms. They were both amazed when Harry seemed to come back to life in the Great Hall, standing up and fighting again.

And then it was over. With an Expelliarmus and an Avada Kedavra, the war ended, and Harry was the one left standing. As the last memory faded away and the group found themselves back in the living room in Australia, Mrs. Granger lifted her tearstained face from her hands and looked at her daughter, truly studied her, for what felt like the first time in years.

"My Hermione," she whispered, and held out her arms. "My God, Hermione. Why didn't you ever tell us that magic was like this? Why did you feel you had to hide it from us? We're your parents, we would have taken you out of that school, left the country, anything! We would have done anything to spare you from this. And those screams, God, you were hurt so badly!"

"And that's exactly what would have happened to you," Hermione choked out through her own sobs. "Someone like Bellatrix would have tortured you, she would have killed you. I couldn't let that happen."

"But you almost died yourself, Hermione!" Mr. Granger exclaimed, rubbing at his forehead to wipe away the sweat there. "Darling, you can't take our fates upon yourself like this. As your mother said, we're your parents! We're supposed to protect you, not the other way around!"

"I'm so sorry, God, I'm so sorry," Hermione wept. "I just couldn't live with myself if something happened to you and it was my fault."

"We would never have blamed you, Hermione," Jean whispered. "We don't like the fact that you planned our lives for us, that you made decisions we could have made ourselves. Darling, we feel like failures as parents. From the moment you were placed in my arms we swore we'd do anything to protect you. You forbade us from doing that. But after all you've been through ... how could we stay angry at you?"

"And Ron," Mr. Granger said, turning his attention to the redhead. "I'm sorry we were so harsh with you. Thank you so much for taking care of our precious daughter, for saving her precious life. We owe you everything. I still don't like the fact that Hermione's got a boyfriend now, but ..." He gave Ron a wink, "if it had to be anyone, we're glad it's you."

"We love you, Hermione, and we always will, no matter what you do," Mrs. Granger said emotionally. "You're our daughter. We could never stop loving you, no matter how angry we are. And don't worry, we know if we told you you couldn't go back to the magical world, you'd just cast another spell on us," she said with a rye smile. Hermione opened her mouth to protest, but Mrs. Granger just gave her a look. "I know you, my girl," she said with fondness in her voice. "Honestly, we don't like magic much, after all the horrible things we saw today, but you keep insisting that your war is over, and honestly, your fighting was amazing. I've never seen anything like it in my life. We couldn't get you away from the wizarding world even if we tied you down."

Hermione sighed and burrowed even deeper into her mother's arms. "I love you, Mummy," she whispered. Feeling vulnerable, she beckoned her father over too, and he joined in the hug. "Love you too, Daddy," she added softly. Seeing Ron standing to the side, she said, "Oh, come here, you."

And so the three of them hugged, knowing that now, everything was going to be alright. It would take time for wounds to heal and things to go back to normal, but Hermione, surrounded and being embraced by the three people she loved the most in the world, felt safe, comforted, and loved. And the love was truly unconditional. The war was truly over, once and for all.