Chapter Four: The Coming Home Party

In anticipation of Hermione's return home, Molly Weasley had gone all out to make sure her welcome home party was enough to persuade her never to leave England again. Because of the amount of people who had been invited the party was held outside, and Molly's fear that rain would come and ruin the party proved fruitless as the skies over head were clear and anyone who bothered to look up could see straight into the heavens.

She had worked extra hard in the kitchen, readying and preparing three days before hand, the end result being that the two tables she had had Bill and Arthur set up were groaning from the weight of it. A bonfire had been built in the field adjoining the Weasley's garden and that was where Hermione had taken refuge.

Using her wand to draw a large log closer to the fire she had taken her seat and allowed her friends to come and find her there. It wasn't that she wanted to be particularly stand offish, it was simply that after living in Spain for five years she was no longer used to English weather and a night that would have years ago been warm and balmy chilled her, despite the layers of clothing she now wore. Sensing her need Molly had stopped by several minutes ago and handed her a warm mug of tea which she gripped tightly in her cold fingers.

She had spoken to everyone there at least once already and everyone sensing her exhaustion form her day of travel was now leaving her alone to relax. Every so often someone would stop by to keep her company but they usually left within a few minutes to join one of their friends in one of the many wizarding games that were taking place in different corners of the yard. And she was all right with that. She was content to sit there within the warm embrace of the fires heat, with her mug of tea and the comforting sound of English floating on the breeze around her.

It was always one of her favorite things about coming home, being able to hear people speak English again. It had taken her awhile to grow accustomed to hearing Spanish all the time and even longer to develop an adequate grasp of the language. And even when she had she found that she still struggled. It was hard for her to find the right word to say what she wanted and she hated that her sentences had been reduced from ones of great articulation to simple structure and grammar. The longer she stayed in Madrid the more she relished listening to tourists from England or America walk past because it allowed her to hear her native tongue for a short while. She had missed fully comprehending everything a person said to her. And now when she understood everyone around her she relished in it. It was very strange though. Eeven though she knew she was in England and everyone there was speaking English, every once in a while she still whirled around, momentarily thinking that she heard someone speaking Spanish behind her.

Standing in a clump on the other side of the fire was Harry, Dean, Seamus and Neville. They had started out by exchanging some of their Hogwarts stories but had soon moved on to stories from the work place. Neville had quickly bored them with facts about some of the new plants he was working with. Under penalty of never being allowed into another Irish National Quiditch match if they repeated anything they heard, Seamus had them holding their sides with stories of some of the player's messes he was forced to clean up while Dean told them about some of the ad campaigns he was working on.

"Actually," Hermione's ears picked up on Harry's voice carrying across the fire. "Right now I haven't been training any new recruits. I've been running refreshers courses for the Aurors we already have. Ron and his team got into some trouble a few weeks back and he sent one of his Aurors to me for a refresher but most of his team decided to do the course as well. Then, for whatever reason, Greene decided that all the teams needed to go through the training again so the recruit work has been pushed off for a few weeks until we're all done with that."

"Speaking of Ron," Dean looked around the darkened yard. "Where is he? I expected to see him here tonight."

Tensing slightly, Hermione lifted her head and made her own search of the yard looking to make sure the tall redhead hadn't slipped in without her knowing.

"Don't worry. He isn't here." Puffing slight Ginny lowered herself onto the log beside Hermione.

"Who isn't here?" Hermione took a casual sip of tea as she moved over slightly to make more room.

"Ron. He's not here. And he won't be. Trust me. The only way we could have gotten him here was if his job depended on it. Mum, tried everything in her arsenal, it didn't work."

"Oh," she blew lightly on the surface of her tea. "That's a relief."

Ginny cocked her eyes at Hermione. "Is that why you've been hiding yourself back here, to avoid running into him?"

"Partly," She admitted. "But mostly because I'm really cold."

Ginny chuckled as a shiver ran up her friend's spine, causing her whole body to shake. "And here I thought it was really hot tonight. Damn it." She placed a hand to her swollen stomach. "Stop it. Can't you let me have a moment's peace? Merlin, I swear Si was an angle compared to this one. He never kicked me like this. I can't even remember him really kicking me at all. But this one. I'm going to be permanently black and blue on the inside."

"May I?" Hermione held out a hand asking Ginny's permission to place it where the baby was kicking against her stomach.

"Yeah, sure." Ginny directed her friend's hand to a spot in the middle of her stomach. Hermione's hand had been resting there for barely a second when she felt the gentle pop that was the baby's foot. "Wow." She let her hand rest more firmly on Ginny's belly. "I've never felt anything like this before. It's amazing. That's really the baby?"

"Yes," Ginny laughed. "That's really the baby. But you won't think it's so wonderful when it's you being used as a kicking bag."

"Yeah. Maybe." Hermione removed her hand and wrapped it once again around her mug. "Where is Si? I was looking forward to seeing him tonight. I have a few presents for him stashed-somewhere amongst my things."

"Ron's watching him. Actually, Ron's watching all the Weasley grandchildren. Which is why I didn't argue with him about coming to the party when he offered to watch Si. Do you know how difficult it is to find someone to watch him? Besides mum of course. Outside of the family it's impossible. We can never have an adult get together without the children. You know, I miss spending time with just my brothers. But, that's one of the prices you pay for being a parent."

Taking another sip of her tea Hermione's brows scrunched as she tried to fathom why her heart had suddenly plummeted into the pit of her stomach. She knew all along that it would take a miracle to get Ron here tonight. She knew he didn't want to see her. It was the same thing every time she came home. But for whatever reason tonight it hurt her to know that he had made certain that there would be no way of getting him to come. He couldn't possibly be unaware of the plight of his siblings in finding childcare. He had to know that none of them would turn down his offer to watch their children. And because it was allowing them a night of adult fun without the kids no one was going to bother him about not coming either. It was, she had to admit, really very clever of him.

And despite her anger and gloom over Ron's behavior towards her, she couldn't help but smile at the thought of him taking care of his little nieces and nephews. He had always been good with children…when he wanted to be. That mostly happened when he thought other people weren't looking. But she had caught him a few times. She had seen him gently rouse a first year or two who had fallen asleep on the common room sofa out of their sleep and send them up to bed. Or help one of the younger students get up into the portrait hole when their legs were too short to do it themselves. She just knew he had to be a wonderful uncle.

Spotting the knowing look on Ginny's face she set her empty mug on the ground next to the log. "When did Charlie move back?"

"Several months ago. Three…maybe four I think."

"Is he glad to be home?"

"I think so. But it might be too soon to tell. I think he likes spending all this time with the family but he really misses his dragons. I don't think he'll ever really be happy without them."

"You think he'll move back then?"

"Yeah." Ginny nodded. "Someday. When he and Cat stop having kids and they're all in Hogwarts. He and Bill were talking about that the other night at dinner. It sounded like Bill would move back to Egypt in a heartbeat if Fleur let him, but she won't." the redhead smirked. "Who would have believed after the way she behaved at Hogwarts that she would actually grow to love our country with 'ze heavy fod'. But she does. I think she likes having family so close most of all. Anyway, she loves it here and the only way she will move out of this country is if they move to France to be closer to her family, and as much as Bill loves her he is not willing to do that. So it looks like they'll be here a good long time."

"And thank God for that. Could you imagine what you're mother would do if they tried to take her grandbabies out of the country? She would go absolutely ballistic."

"You're telling me. And think, that's just Bill. Yes, the first of her sons, but still one of the six. Can you imagine what she would do if I tried to move out of the country? Believe me, it would not be pretty. Lucky for me I've gone and married a man determined to clean up this country one recruit at a time."

Hermione chuckled with skepticism. "Does Harry actually say that?"

"He only did once." Ginny pressed her lips together when she spotted Harry looking at her. "But that hasn't stopped me from throwing it back at him when I can."

"You know," Hermione crossed her arms playfully over her chest, "Sometimes it surprises me that Harry's stayed with you as long as he has."

"I know." Ginny said on an exaggerated sigh. "I am the most overbearing and shrewish of wives. I dare say the threat of what my brothers would do to him if he ever tried leaving me is the only thing keeping him at my side."

"Right." Hermione nudged her friend with her shoulder. "It has nothing to do with the fact that he is absolutely mad for you?" She nodded her head toward Harry whom she noticed sought out his wife every so often to make sure she was alright before returning to whatever conversation he was partaking in.

"No," Ginny smiled at her husband, savoring the way his eyes lit up when she did. "I don't think that's it at all."

The two girls laughed when, face flushing, Harry turned back to his conversation with his three former housemates.

"What about you." Ginny nudged Hermione playfully. "Is there anyone who makes your eyes light up like that?"

"No." She shook her head sadly. "No one's had that effect on me in years."

"Why ever not? You're young. Intelligent. You were beautiful even before you moved to Spain but now with your skin tanned and you hair highlighted from the sun like that you are absolutely gorgeous. Surely there must have been at least one male in Spain who found you attractive."

"Sure." Hermione shrugged. "Plenty of men asked me to dinner but it never went much farther than that."

"And why not?"

"Because." She shrugged dismissively. "I couldn't see myself having any kind of future with any of them. I knew I would eventually be moving back to England and I couldn't expect any man to follow me so I just didn't bother."

Ginny's mouth gapped open slightly. "I think that has got to be the most depressing thing I have ever heard you say."

"Why?" Hermione's voice tumbled with laughter. "I was never lonely. Beila and I would go out to the pubs together and have so much fun with the locals. We became really good friends with the barkeep at our favorite pub and he would slip us drinks on the house. He was one of the biggest flirts I ever met in my life and it was so much fun sparring with him. He never gave up even though I said no every time he asked me to dinner. And every time he asked me it became more outrageous than the last. Eventually I started saying no just too see how he would ask me the next time."

"Hermione, are you insane?"

"No," she shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Then why didn't you say yes?"

"I already explained that to you."

"Hermione, you have got to loosen up. Going out with boys is not about finding the one you want to spend the rest of your life with, it's about having fun in the process."

"How would you know that? You and Harry have been together for ages. You've practically been in love with him since you were a child. You've never had to worry about this."

"What?" Ginny's mouth dropped in shock. "Are you pulling my leg? Do you not remember the conversation we had before fourth year? You told me I had to relax around Harry and go out with other boys until he woke, pulled his head out of his arse and noticed me."

Hermione opened her mouth as if to protest but the look from Ginny stopped the words before they made it to her tongue. "I did say that, didn't I?" She propped her chin suddenly on the edge of her fist while focusing her eyes on a log buried deep within the dancing orange flames.

"Yes, you did. And I think it's more than a little hypocritical of you not to even follow your own advise, especially when we know how well it worked with me."

"But I'm not waiting for anyone to notice me."

"Right." Ginny said, the inflection in her voice making it clear she did not believe a word of it.

"If you're talking about Ron…"

"Of course I am."

"Ginny…that ship sailed a long time ago. Any feelings that I may or may not have felt for Ron have long passed."

"You know, I really don't understand what this feud between the two of you is all about. All it takes to set Ron off is anyone even mentioning your name. Two weeks ago at dinner when I told everyone you were coming home he couldn't have gotten away from the table fast enough."

"That's rich." Hermione's voice turned to ice. Ginny shivered, suddenly the air felt chilly around her. "He uses me, doesn't even say goodbye when I move to Spain and he gets angry over the sound of my name?"

"Oh come off it Hermione. Ron uses everyone. Well, at least he use to. He's changed quite a bit since he joined the Aurors. I think it was really good for him. He's the only one of us to become an Auror so there was never anyone to compare himself against and because of that he never had any self esteem issues. He's doing very well."

"What about Harry? His inferiority complex has always been pretty bad where Harry's concerned. I'm surprised he actually made it through training with the Boy-Who-Lived. I thought he would have dropped out."

Ginny shrugged her shoulders daintily. "Maybe he would have, but Ron joined before Harry did. Didn't I tell you that?"

"No."

"I didn't? Well, I probably knew you didn't want to hear it. Anyway, Harry took a few months to just relax and not have to worry about the rest of the world before he joined. Ron took the opportunity to get his foot in the door before Harry did. I think he wanted a chance to prove himself before Harry arrived and everybody started fawning over him for being the one who stopped Voldemort. He did really well. He was the top of his class in almost every category. When Harry finally made it through training and graduated they wanted to put them together as partners but Ron wouldn't have any of it. He already had a partner and wasn't willing to change."

"Really?" Hermione asked in disbelief. "How did Harry take that?"

"Oh, he understood. He does know Ron better than any of us. Besides, Harry felt the same way about his partner. They would have had to go through training again and they both just wanted to get out there and make a difference."

"I always thought Harry and Ron weren't partners because the Ministry wouldn't allow it."

"Merlin no." Ginny laughed. "You should have seen the way the Ministry pushed them trying to get them to change their minds. It was this whole image thing they were working on. They thought it would boost morale if the two boys who saved the wizarding world from you know who were now working together to put the rest of the Death Eaters in jail. But you know them. Harry dug in even harder when he heard that, and Ron wanted even more to make a name for himself and they're both so annoyingly stubborn sometimes that the Ministry didn't stand a chance."

"And you're not annoyingly stubborn sometimes?"

"No," Ginny tossed her hair lightly. "I'm always adorably stubborn."

Hermione groaned and rolled her eyes. "If you weren't pregnant right now…"

"You'd what?"

"Hex you for being obnoxious."

"And bring down the wrath of Harry on your head?"

"I'm not scared of Harry. I can take him."

Ginny took Hermione's hand and patted it indulgingly. "You keep telling yourself that."

"Keep telling herself what?"

Ginny and Hermione both looked up to see Harry standing over them.

"Where'd the boys go?" Ginny leaned over slightly to look around Harry at the now empty yard.

"Their wives came to take them away. They said to say goodnight to the both of you, by the way. And welcome home again." He nodded to Hermione. "Now what should Hermione keep telling herself?" Harry's brow cocked playfully.

Ginny smiled lovingly up at him. "That she could take you?"

Harry turned his attention back to Hermione. "You think so?" His lips spread into a cocky grin. "I could always arrange a time and place. I have access to all the training rooms at the Ministry."

"No, thank you."

"Why? Scared you'll lose?"

"No. I'm more worried about embarrassing you in front of you students."

"Thank you for your consideration."

"Anytime." Hermione smiled sweetly. She'd missed having Harry around and she hadn't really realized how much until just now. All of her visits home over the years had been so brief and a frenzy of activity as she tried to see everyone she was suppose to see that she didn't get to spend much time with just Harry, talking like they use to at school.

"Are you two ready to go?"

"Do we have too?"Ginny stuck out her bottom lip and batted her eyes pitifully.

"I suppose we could spend the night here with your parents but I don't think that would be fair to Ron. We never asked him if he would watch Si over night."

"Harry James Potter," Ginny held her hands out to Harry who helped pull her to her feet. "If Ron managed to get him to fall asleep we are not going over there to wake him up and bring him home. We'll get him in the morning."

"But what if Ron kept him up expecting us to come and get him tonight?"

"You can floo over there if you must and ask him if you want, but I think I'll just head home with Hermione and get her settled in."

"And how do you plan on getting there?"

"The same way we got here. Through the floo. Honestly Harry, I have used the floo before."

"Yes, but you're pregnant and…"

"I used it when I was pregnant with Si, and my mum did when she was pregnant with all of us. I'll be fine. Honestly you worry too much."

"I just don't want you getting caught up a chimney."

"And you following behind me will stop that how?"

"If you're not on the other side by the time I get though I know I have got to go looking for you."

"And Hermione will be following right behind me. I think she's capable of managing that. Good lord," Ginny pushed Harry toward the house. "Go have a drink with Ron. After watching all those kids he'll need it."

"But-"

"Go," She ordered. "Before I lose my patience with you."

"Alright," Harry gave in. "I'll see you at home."

Ginny rocked up onto her toes to press a kiss to Harry's cheek. "Give Ron and the baby my love."

"Will do." Ginny watched Harry walk away, her head tilted to the side. "I never get tired of looking at that." She said when he disappeared into the house. She turned to face Hermione who had gotten to her feet, her empty tea mug in hand. "I'd be content to watch his backside all day."

"That's sick."

"What?" Ginny laughed. "He's my husband."

"And he's my best friend."

"That's not my problem." She held out her elbow, "Shall we?"

Hermione looped her arm through Ginny's and together they walked back to the house. "Gin," she ventured when they were a few steps from the back door. "Who had a baby?"

"What?"

"You told Harry to give Ron and the baby love. Who had a baby?"

Ginny stopped, uncurled her arm from around Hermione's and turned to face her. "Ron." Her lips twitched slightly. Hermione's face had remained mostly expressionless, all except for her eyes. She could see in Hermione's eyes that the idea bothered her though she doubted her friend would ever acknowledge the reason why. "Ron has one." She crossed her arms over the top of her belly. "Does that bother you?"

"No." Hermione snapped quickly. "Why would it? I just didn't realize? I mean, you never said Ron was married."

"He's not."

Hermione's eyes grew larger and her mouth gapped slightly. "You're mother can't be alright with that."

"Actually, Mum doesn't mind at all. She thinks it's quite brilliant really. She thinks it's taken too long for Ron to have a baby as it is."

"I…I…uhh." Not knowing what to say she turned and walked up the steps into the house.

"Hermione dear," Molly called happily at the sight of her. "Are you leaving already?"

"I'm afraid so Mrs. Weasley." She carried her mug to the wash bin and rinsed it out before leaving it with the other dishes to be cleaned. "Would you like me to stay and help? I would hate to leave this mess all for you."

"Don't you worry, dear." She took Hermione's hand and gave it a gentle pat. "I'll have this place cleaned in no time. Besides, you look like you could do with a good night's sleep. You look absolutely exhausted. I wanted to wait until next weekend to throw this party for you but unfortunately this was the only night that worked with the rest of the family's schedules."

"Don't worry Mrs. Weasley. I had a wonderful time. Really."

"I'm glad to hear it."

"Are you ready Hermione?" Ginny was waiting at the fireplace with the flowerpot of Floo powder in hand.

"Yes." She strode across the room and took the pot from Ginny's hands. "You go first. I would rather not test my theory on dueling with Harry because I didn't go after you."

Ginny huffed with annoyance. "Honestly." She took a pinch of powder and threw it into the flames. "Just so you know, I'm only going first because I'm too tired to argue." She stepped into the fire and called out her destination. In a flash of green light she was gone and the fire returned to its normal state of yellow gold.

"Thank you again, Mrs. Weasley."

"I'll have none of that. You're practically family, dear. I'll expect you to come and visit me regularly now that you're home. I've missed having you around."

"I would love to."

"Good girl. Now be away with you before you collapse on my kitchen floor."

"Goodnight Mrs. Weasley."

"Good night Hermione." The fire flamed green again and in a whoosh of warm air Hermione was gone.