A/N: I finally made it with another update - a little later than planned, for which I'm sorry.

Thank you to all my reviewers: your comments have been great, and all your input is greatly appreciated (I'm sorry I haven't replied individually to the reviews for the last few chapters, I keep meaning to do it, but my work gets in the way, and once I'm distracted, there is no turning back :( ... *sigh*)

Anyway, enough of the chit chat, time for me to give you what you're really here for ;) so read, enjoy, please review...

xBx

UPDATED 1st June, 2012: Just had to re-write a couple of sentences. A HUGE Thank You to HP.HG. fan forever for pointing out the epic mistake I made regarding Teddy's age - I have adjusted the chapter accordingly :D

DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter and everything related to him does not belong to me...I'm simply borrowing him for my own amusement and pleasure... ;) tehehe ;)

~ Chapter 18: New Year, New Path ~

Two hours later, Hermione was back in her store in Robin Hood's Bay.

After walking from St Mungos with Harry and the Weasleys (Who had also decided to give Ginny and Rob some space for a few hours), she left the boys to their celebratory drinks in The Leaky Cauldron, and apparated back to her place to shower and change, and open up her store for the customary couple of hours.

As predicted, she had very few customers. Only seven came in today, all of whom she knew by name, and who all knew each other – it had become a long standing tradition in the Bay, and Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without this set of ladies spending boxing day at Hermione's café.

As ever, Betsy was the first to arrive, walking in around 12pm.

"Well, my dear," Betsy called as she took a seat in the middle of the room, "How was your Christmas? As magical as one expected?" she asked with a wink, Hermione laughed,

"Let me get the coffee's brewing, then I'll tell you all about it before the others turn up – I assume they won't be far behind?" she added,

"I think we have a good half hour. You opened later than usual." Betsy commented, "I only noticed because I took my walk down to the beach later than I usually do, and I passed your door about half an hour ago – I thought you opened at 11am on Boxing Day?"

"I usually do," Hermione agreed, "but have patience, my dear Betsy, and you will understand all in time," Hermione promised with a smile.

Twenty minutes later, Hermione had sat down with a pot of tea for two, and told Betsy about the past couple days: spending Christmas Eve at Grimmauld Place, and Christmas Day with the Weasleys, and had just finished filling her in with the details of the past twenty-four hours.

"That's wonderful news! And this is Ginny's second I believe?" Betsy asked with excitement,

Hermione nodded, "Yep. All in all, it turned out to be quite a chaotic reunion," she laughed, "Which is why I was a little later than usual with opening up. I didn't return here until about ten this morning. I needed to shower and change, get rid of the hospital smell, and make myself look more presentable. As you can imagine, I didn't have the best nights sleep, last night. Totally worth it though," she added with a smile.

"So, does the new arrival have a name? I must know everything, I'll send and owl to Minerva later on, just might be, I know something before she does for once."

Hermione laughed, then answered the question: "Isabella, Izzy for short. She's such a beautiful baby, she has Ginny's hair."

"And God-Parents? Have Ginny and Rob named them yet?" Betsy asked, to which Hermione smiled even more,

"Yes. They asked Harry and I if we would do it." Hermione answered in excitement, barely containing her giddiness, she rose to clear the used tea things. Betsy gave somewhat of an excited squeal and stood up, likewise, to hug Hermione tightly.

At that moment, the door opened and six more ladies entered the shop; the woman in front – Lisa – was the first to speak,

"Oh my, what's happening here? Good news I hope?" she asked as she began to remove her coat to leave it on the coat stand by the door. The other women followed her lead, as Hermione and Betsy disengaged from one another.

"Very good news," Hermione smiled, "A good friend of mine gave birth to a baby girl this morning. She's asked me to be God-Mother" she explained. As ever, with such news as this, the women 'Awww'-ed and 'oooh'-ed excitedly, as they took their seats, all crowding around the centre table.

"Alright, what's everyone having?" Hermione asked, returning to the counter,

"Another pot of tea for me please, milove" Betsy spoke first, retaking her seat. The other six reeled of their orders,

"caramel latte, thanks"

"Same for me, please"

"I'll have a long black"

"Cappuccino, thanks "

"I'll go for a long black too,"

"Same for me, today I think" Lisa was the last to order. Pulling a bottle out or her bag, she added: "And what do you say to kicking of the afternoon early, and we add a little bit of Christmas spirit?" she grinned,

Hermione laughed, "I suppose I could be celebrating," she said slowly, "After all, it's not every day you get asked to be a God Mother."

"My thoughts, exactly." Lisa grinned, "And coffee at Christmas just wouldn't be right without some Baileys"

"Well, if there's Baileys on go, I think we ought to change our caramel lattes" said Karen, who had ordered first,

"And the cappuccino" added Emily, "Baileys just doesn't sit right with it."

Hermione shook her head, and smiled, "How about I fix up a round of long blacks?" She asked, making a start.

Five minutes later she sat down with a tray of eight long blacks, and eight empty tumblers,

"What are the glasses for?" asked Emily,

"Baileys" Hermione stated, "I figured after we were done with the coffees we may as well cut 0out the middle man and just drink the stuff strait up" she grinned.

Lisa returned the grin, "I thought you'd say that," she started, reaching once again for her bag, "Which is why I brought a couple of extra bottles," She placed them on the table as she spoke.

Within an hour the coffees had been drunk, the first bottle emptied, and the second one coming close to empty also,

"So, Jen," Emily asked, "Where have you been recently? I see Katie all the time, but I've never known you take so much time off? What's the deal?"

Hermione – who had gotten so used to being called by her actual name in the past couple of months, had almost forgotten that people here knew her by a different one – didn't answer right away,

"Jen? Are you with us?" Lisa questioned, shaking a freshly refilled glass in front of Hermione's face.

Hermione's mind finally caught up with the situation, "Oh, yeah, you're talking to me. Erm, yeah, I figured after ten years, it was time to start relaxing a little bit more." She explained lamely,

"That, and a certain male presence has helped distract her away" added Betsy, on whose tongue the ample supply of liquor seemed to be having a loosening effect.

"I knew it!" cried Karen, "Is this the handsome stranger who appeared a few months ago? Black hair, and amazing green eyes?"

"The very one" Betsy informed them all, before Hermione could talk, "His name is Harry, madly in love with her, has been for years-"

"Betsy!" Hermione cut her off, amidst the girlish giggles escaping the slightly tipsy group.

"Come on Jen, tell us the gossip, what's hidden underneath the clothes?" Karen continued, ignoring Hermione's protest,

"Yeah," Lisa seconded the question, "Is his body as good as the close fitting clothes imply?"

Hermione sighed in defeat, then drained the rest of her glass, "It's better," she admitted, looking up from her glass with a grin, "Sooo much better."

The girls laughed, opened the final bottle and topped up their glasses for yet another round.

###

Harry hovered their third round of drinks to their table in The Leaky Cauldron; the place was rather empty – only themselves and another four tables were occupied. George picked up the conversation where it had left off, as Harry re-took his seat.

"So, Hermione is actually working? On Boxing Day? I would have thought she would at least take a couple of days off at Christmas?" He asked incredulously.

Harry shrugged, "It's her pride and joy, she's thrown her heart and soul into it."

"Not answering my question,"

"She's protective, and territorial – surely you remember that? And it's her source of income and she loves it. She always opens a few hours on Boxing Day, she has a group of regulars, women who come in for a few hours, and then they all go join the men in one of the pubs around mid-afternoon."

"Did you ever talk to her about potentially working in the Wizarding World, like you were planning to do? Or did you heed our advice and leave the issue be for a while?" Arthur asked.

Harry nodded, and looked a little sheepish, "Yeah, I asked her about it."

"And?" encouraged Arthur,

"She didn't get as defensive as you anticipated. But she wasn't eager about it either. In fact, she pretty much refused." Harry admitted,

"I told you so, mate" George said, a little smugly, "You should have listened to me, I knew she wouldn't go for it, for all the reasons you yourself have just given me for her working on Boxing Day."

Harry frowned, "You know Hermione that well do you?"

"No," George returned calmly, "If I did, I wouldn't have been surprised at her working today. But I do know what it's like to raise a successful business from the ground: it's your livelihood, but it's also like a child as well. And nothing, nothing will ever induce you to leave it, or let it go." George explained, "When we expanded, when I closed the deal on the property in Hogsmeade, It was really hard to find the staff to manage the store, when we first discussed expanding, Fred was going to run one store and me the other. Obviously that never happened. SO I had to find another solution - so who could I possibly pick to look after my business, my child? Hermione is never going to leave her place unless she really has to."

Harry nodded, "I guess I should have listened to her more on that point, would have saved a lot of arguments. I never thought of it in that way before."

"Why would you?" George tried to make him feel a little better, "You saw it just as a distraction she had built up in the last ten years."

"Okay, you've managed to make me sound like even more of a jerk when you put it like that,"

George laughed, "Sorry, it came out wrong."

Harry looked at his watch, "I should go, I said I would call in on Hermione, it's been a few hours now, I'm thinking she'll be about to clean up and go." He stood as he spoke, "We'll be calling back in on Ginny in little bit."

Arthur nodded, "We'll head back there now, so we'll see you in there later on."

Harry nodded, then disapparated, appearing a moment later at the bottom of the stairs leading up to Hermione's apartment. He heard sounds of laughter coming through the door that lead to the store – clearly Hermione hadn't finished as early as she had hoped. Harry slipped through the door, intending to give her a hand behind the bar, only to stop in his tracks, and raise his eyebrows at the unexpected scene in front of him:

Eight women crowded around a table littered with three open bottles – the contents of which had obviously been enjoyed – all laughing hysterically, and loudly.

One of the women then noticed Harry's arrival, and shouted out: "well, speak of the devil and he shall appear. Hi Harry."

Hermione turned sharply, surprise filtered into her expression, slowly replacing the mirth, "Harry!" she stood, "when did you get here? What are you doing here so soon?"

Harry smiled and moved into the room, "Believe it or not you've been here many hours – decided to start the partying early I see?"

"We were celebrating," Hermione explained lamely, grinning. Harry cocked his head to the side, and with a grin said, "Are you drunk?" to which Hermione giggled, "No, a little bit merry, I'll admit. but not drunk. yet." She grinned, then continued, "Do you want to join us for a drink?"

Karen seconded the invitation immediately, "Yeah, come take of your shirt and join us" she called, to a renewal of giggles - apparently the others were more intoxicated than Hermione.

Harry did a double take, "I'm sorry?" he said toward the table, then turned to Hermione, "Did she just tell me to take of my shirt and join them?"

Hermione, it transpired, was unable to respond, she was covering her mouth with her hand trying to stop herself from laughing out loud, Harry continued,

"Maybe I should call in on Ginny by myself, let you continue with your party," he suggested with a laugh,

"Nah," Hermione protested, turning back to the table, "We should be finishing up here soon, the guys will be waiting for us in the Victoria, I'm assuming?"

Lisa nodded, "Yeah, and the bottles are empty, if we're going to continue to party we're going to need more provisions."

"In that case," Betsy spoke up, "Let's make a move. Girls, we'll go strait up to the Victoria?" she asked, to a general assent, she then spoke to Hermione directly, "Hermione, we'll see you in about an hour? Give you chance to clean up here?" Hermione nodded, as Betsy continued, "Harry, will you be joining us?"

"Erm," Harry looked at Hermione, who jumped in with a smile, "Yes. Yes, he will. We'll see you in an hour."

Once the ladies had departed, Hermione cleared away the cups, glasses and bottle with a wave of her wand, then turned to Harry, "I just need to get changed, then we can go call in at St Mungos. Oh, and you might want to shower and change too, you've been wearing the same outfit for twenty-four hours."

"I can't believe you got drunk while you were working." Was the only response she got.

"I'm not drunk!" she insisted again, "And anyway, it's Christmas, the rules don't apply"

"Mmhmm. Ok, I'll go get changed, you get some coffee and then get changed. I will meet you back here in twenty minutes, tops." Harry kissed her forehead then disapparated back to Grimmauld Place.

Half an hour later the pair were back in Ginny's room at St Mungos, surprised to see Ginny fully dressed, sat in the chair next to her bed.

"You two look nice," Ginny commented, when the pair entered the room, "I take it you haven't got all dressed up just for me, you guys going on a date?" she questioned,

"No, just going for a few drinks up in the Bay, with some of the locals" Hermione clarified, shrugging it off "It's a yearly tradition. How come you're dressed so soon, I half expected to find you asleep, after the long night you've had."

"Nah, the healer's have been around, we're both doing great, we can leave this evening." She explained, "We're just waiting to sign some paperwork, then we'll be on our way."

Harry and Hermione spent the next five minutes helping Ginny gather together the rest of her things, they then said their goodbyes, and once again apparated back to the bay where Hermione reminded Harry that everyone here knew her as Jen, "So whatever you do, do not call me Hermione in front of people here – I really don't want any awkward questions."

Harry smiled, told her not to worry, and allowed himself to be dragged along to meet her friends, excited at finally being allowed properly into her life up here.

###

(Six Months Later)

Summer was starting to make it's way back up to the bay, and not only was Harry now a well known sight in the village, but so were the rest of the Weasley's who had taken to coming up for a visit nearly every weekend. Molly had recently taken to spending a lot of her time at Hermione's coffee shop: since Ginny had returned to work, Molly was often left to look after Isabella and as Godmother, Hermione had happily agreed to take an equal share of the duty. Betsy and Molly struck up a quick solid friendship – their mutual acquaintances, love of gossip, and interest in Harry and Hermione's relationship immediately endeared each to the other. And every one who ever entered the shop found Isabella to be such an adorable baby that her presence alone doubled Hermione's takings as many were spending twice as long in there as they usually would.

Harry had now been back in Hermione's life for a year; He was with her near enough every day, except when work called him away to various places, sometimes for weeks at a time. Hermione was starting to take more time off – increasing Katie's duties and responsibilities, and even thinking of hiring an extra pair of hands. She would spend her free time often with Harry and the Weasleys, though she now managed to re-touch with others from her school days – Luna and Neville among the most prominent. Hermione had finally got to meet Teddy, who was full of excitement and anticipation about his first term at Hogwarts - he had heard plenty of stories about the various adventures Harry, Ron and Hermione had shared. She was often seen in Hogsmeade, and Diagon Alley, and was a frequent visitor at Grimmauld place, often staying the night - though not as often as Harry stayed over in the Bay.

Hermione had now fully accepted magic back into her life: No longer did it take her up to an hour to finish cleaning down the store when it came to closing – a few waves of her wand and everything was sparkling. She had taken out another subscription to the daily prophet so she was once again fully up to date with the major goings-on in the magical world, and her cupboards were once again stocked with a multitude of treats courtesy of Honeydukes, along with a few favourite brews from The Three Broomsticks. She had also taken to switching out her regular supply of hot chocolate in the store to a Honeydukes blend – Every customer that sampled it were in agreement that it was the best chocolate they had ever had tasted.

One night, toward the end of June, Harry had returned from a month long assignment in Norway. After finishing up some paperwork, and returning home for half an hour to check in with Kreacher, shower and change, he called in on Hermione at 9pm. After spending so long in the coldest parts of the Breheiman Mountains, he persuaded Hermione to walk with him along the beach, to enjoy the clear warm night.

After generally discussing the past four weeks, and walking up and down the shoreline, hand-in-hand, five times, they sat themselves on a large rock, looking out to the dark ocean; Harry moved onto what he really wanted to talk about:

"So, I've been thinking," Harry began, a little nervously, "We're pretty much living in each other's pockets. We rarely spend a night apart, except when I'm away with work."

Hermione nodded, "Is that a bad thing?" she asked, leaning into him,

"No, not at all," he assured her quickly, "I was just thinking, we should make it a permanent thing."

Hermione turned to look at him, her expression calm and masked, "Are you asking me to move in with you?"

"Yes,"

"To Grimmauld Place?" Hermione wanted to clarify,

"Yes." Harry said again, more slowly this time. "You don't want to" He stated, rather than asked, looking back to the sea, trying to hide his disappointment, "That's ok, it doesn't matter"

Hermione smiled, took his face in her hands and turned him to look at her, "I do want to live with you, believe me I do. But I would like you to consider living here" she asked,

"Here? You don't think it will be a little small for us?" He asked, thinking of his plans for the future, Hermione laughed,

"We're only two people. And I'm not talking about forever – a few years down the line, maybe less, I agree, this place will be too small." She sighed, "Ok here's the deal. I'm really happy here right now – I don't want to leave. Not yet, anyway. And I'm still working a lot, it's nice to be here at close and open to take care of the money -"

"You're a witch, you can apparate from London to here in less than a second."

"Right back at you – you can apparate from here to work in less than a second – that's not the point. When I'm ready to move away from here, I will be ready to take a less active role in the business, but right now I need to be here. And it's not just about an emotional attachment; I'm talking financially as well. Do you know why I've worked so hard since starting up? Why I never employed anyone to work along side me until just over a year ago? Why I did everything myself?"

"I assumed it was to distract you from remembering us?"

Hermione shrugged, "Okay, partly that" she admitted, "But mainly, it was money. Every penny this place made went straight back into it. I didn't have rent to pay, but I still had a mortgage. Luckily it wasn't too big, my inheritance fund meant I could put a lot down towards it, so the mortgage was pretty small, but it was there. I also had a couple of loans to repay for starting up a business. I got a couple of credit cards that covered the furnishings of the place. The credit cards I paid off within the year: that was the easy part. The loan repayments took five years to pay off, and I took them out about three years apart, so a majority of my income went toward those. I managed to pay the second one of about a year and a half ago. I had a ten-year mortgage repayment plan, I wanted those payments as small as possible so I could pay the loans of quicker – less interest payments that way. I didn't actually need the mortgage, if I'm honest," She admitted then, "My inheritance covered the full asking price of the place. But keeping some of it back meant I could take out a smaller loan."

Hermione went quiet for a moment, re-collecting her train of thought, "Next month I will make the final payment on my mortgage, and this place, my little empire, will be all mine, I will owe nothing on it, and I want to live here and enjoy it. I still have a few bank accounts, all with hefty overdrafts, which are all dipped into. The main business account isn't overdrawn anymore, but only just. I only hired Katie fifteen months ago, because it was only then that I really believed it to be financially viable. And once I pay off the mortgage I can think about employing another pair of hands to give me more time off, and give Katie the hefty raise she deserves. Until I am fully debt free, and have a clear income coming in, only then can I consider moving from this place. I've poured more than my heart and soul into this place, there have been plenty of blood, sweat, and tears poured into it as well, believe me. For the first few years I was basically living off the tips – it wasn't a lot. I couldn't afford any luxuries, it was incredibly hard, but it meant I could start paying back what I owed a lot quicker."

Harry listened in silence, feeling a mixture of shame that he had never really considered just how much hardship Hermione would have had to go through to build up from nothing, and admiration at her perseverance.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I never thought about the financial side of this for you, I just took it for granted you had no money worries, you never said."

Hermione laughed good-naturedly, "They're not 'money worries' per-say, they were never really 'worries' if I'm honest, more of a necessity to my long-term goal." she explained, "I had panned ahead; I knew what I would be paying, and when I would be paying it. I knew how I would be paying it: which accounts would be paying for what, I knew how much of the takings I would be putting into each account, each week – I had on overflow account, so when takings covered the weekly deposits, any left over cash would be in that account, and should there be any weeks that takings didn't cover the deposit amounts, I could top up from the spare money – It happened a lot, especially in the beginning. The overflow account is now for wages. Back then I used to live off the tips only, it wasn't a lot, but it was enough."

Harry laughed, "Either I forgot, or I never realised just how anal you are with your organisation."

"Laugh all you want, at least I will be completely debt free in less than fifteen years. I'll admit, it's pretty lucky, and having a hefty inheritance really helped a lot. But that's not what we were discussing. One day I would love to live with you in Grimmauld place, but right now my place is here. But I do want to live with you. I just hope you understand why me leaving here now isn't what I want, or need."

Hermione began chewing her lip nervously, hoping she hadn't offended, or upset Harry too much. Harry looked at her, and smiled,

"Looks like I'm moving to Robin Hood's Bay then. When Shall I bring my things?"

A/N: okay, so this chapter was a bit of a filler chapter to get the story moving along the timeline a little bit quicker. We're getting very close to the end now, I can't tell you how many chapters are left - possibly two, but if writing goes well and ideas flow, I might be able to stretch it out. - I made a brief mention to Teddy in this chapter, we will be seeing more of him in the next chapter, but I thought here would be a good place to bring him in briefly.

...but when one thing ends, another one begins...another reason that this update was a little later than planned, I've been working on my next fic, and I now have the first chapter ready to go :)

I hope you enjoyed the update, I'll get to work on the next chapter and will hopefully have it up pretty soon.

Until next time, let me know what you think, I hope your wait hasn't been disappointed

xBx