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After walking upstairs, Hermione found her mother outside, working in the garden. She just stood and watched her for a moment. At 46, Helena Granger-Malfoy nee Hawkins was a beautiful woman. She looked at least 10 years younger than she was. Waist length hair, just a little lighter brown than Hermione's. The same chocolate eyes. Very few wrinkles. Being a former dentist, her teeth were also perfect. Helena stood, like Hermione, at 5'7" and always had a light tan. She was thin, but not too thin. Hermione could only hope to age as well as her mum.

Hermione walked over and sat on the swing. "Hey, mum." she said.

Helena looked up and smiled at her daughter. "Hi, love. How'd it go?" she asked, and walked over to sit beside Hermione.

"Well, they commented on how much I ate at the bbq. Then, they freaked out when I told them about the baby. They questioned my sanity. Again. So..not all that great." Hermione said.

Putting an arm around her, Helena said, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Nothing I wasn't expecting."

"Why did they question your sanity, though?"

"Harry did. Needless to say, it all comes back to Severus' past with Lily." Hermione said.

"Ah, I see." Helena said. She knew all about his past. Severus had told her one night, before he had started dating Hermione.

"I think I'm gonna go home for a bit. I'll see you guys tonight, yes?"

"Alright. And yes, we'll be there at 7." Helena said. Standing and hugging Hermione, she said, "Give the boys time, love. They'll come around." She pulled back and kissed Hermione's forehead. "Now, you go home and relax. I love you."

"I love you, too, mum." Hermione said, and walked into the house.

Harry and Ron entered the living room to see Hermione picking up her purse, and putting her sunglasses on.

"Hey, Hermione. Where are you going?" Ron asked.

Turning to face them, she pushed her sunglasses on top of her head. "Home. I have a few things to do."

Harry and Ron looked at her, and felt like they were seeing the old Hermione, but at the same time, someone new. The Hermione they knew would be wearing loose fitting clothes, like capri pants and a baggy t-shirt, paired with her favorite brown sandals. This Hermione was wearing shorts that went to mid thigh with a pink tank top and white sneakers, with her hair back to its curly state, hanging down in smooth chestnut colored ringlets. And, their Hermione didn't have the barely visible baby bump that was there now.

"Did you guys want something, or..?" Hermione asked.

"Right. We..we want to apologize. A baby is a good thing, and we are genuinely happy for you, Mione." Harry said.

"Yeah. What he said." Ron said.

"Thank you. Both of you." Hermione said.

"So...Can we be Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron?" Harry asked hopefully.

Hermione smiled a little as her eyes misted over. "Of course. You were always gonna be, you know. Even if you were still acting like prats."

Harry and Ron both gave a sigh of relief. "Can we get a hug, Mione?" Ron asked.

Laughing, she walked over and hugged both of them. "I'm still mad at you guys." she said, sniffling as the tears finally fell.

"We know." Harry said as she pulled away.

"You both still have a ways to go to full forgiveness, but it's a start." she said, wiping her eyes.

"We know, Mione." Ron said.

The three stood in silence for a few moments. Despite their friendship, things were still a bit awkward now.

"Well, this was nice, but I have to be going." Hermione said.

As she started to walk to the door, she turned. "Would you boys like to come with? We could do a bit of catching up?"

"Will Snape be alright with us coming over, though?" Ron asked.

"Of course. Just as long as you guys don't mess with anything." Hermione said. "Besides, he's at work."

Glancing at each other, they nodded. "We'd like that."

"Great. Let's go." she said, and walked out the door, leaving the boys to catch up.

Harry and Ron were impressed with her car. She drove a red Range Rover with black interior. There was a diamond snake pendant with black eyes hanging from the rearview mirror, and a picture of Severus and Hermione hanging below it.

"This is nice, Mione. But, what's with the Slytherin stuff?" Ron asked.

"Oh, well, this is Severus' doing, actually." she said laughing.

"What? What's so funny?" Harry asked.

"Alright. This past Christmas I was at a complete loss of what to get Severus. Then, I saw an ad for these in one of mum's magazines. Well, I didn't know if Severus would drive it or not, but I couldn't resist. You don't know this, but he's actually a big car guy. Anyway, I ordered one for him. Christmas Eve, I go pick it up and park it behind the garage. As I'm pulling in with it, he pulls up in this one."

"So, you guys got each other the same gift?" Ron asked, laughing.

"Yes, we did. Except his is black with red interior and a yellow diamond lion pendant with chocolate diamond eyes." she said. "We had no choice but to exchange these presents right then and there, then spent about 15 minutes laughing our asses off." she said laughing, making the boys laugh.

"Alright, guys. Let's go." Hermione said, and started the drive to her house, which was about an hour away.

About 15 minutes into the drive, Ron found a small photo album in the back seat. He opened it to a random photo, and recognized that this was, like many other things, taken while he and Harry were gone.

"Hermione, when was this taken?" he asked.

"What?" she asked. Looking at the picture he handed her, she smiled. It was a picture from a few years ago. Hermione and Ginny were smiling at the camera with champagne flutes in their hands. They were wearing black dresses with little lavender colored flowers attached. "Oh! That was at Seamus and Lavender's wedding a few years ago. Ginny and I were bridesmaids."

"Lavender's married to Seamus?" Harry asked. "What about Dean? He married yet?"

"Yep. He married Parvati not long before Seamus married Lavender." she answered. Seeing the convenience store she stops at often, she decided to stop for a quick break. "I'll be right back, guys. Pee break and I need a bottle of water." Hermione reached into her purse, grabbed her wallet and hopped out.

"Blimey, Harry. I just realized. Not only did we miss out on important family stuff, we also missed our friends' important stuff."

Harry nodded. He looked through the album Ron handed him, and said "You're right. Hannah's married, Neville and Luna have a kid, Dean's married, Seamus is married, Gin and Mione are both married."

"Mione's having a baby." Ron added. "I don't regret leaving, Harry, but now I'm thinking we shouldn't have stayed away as long as we did."

"Yeah, you're right, Ron. We should've stayed in better contact with everyone, too. We didn't know about marriages, births, deaths or even the weather because they didn't know where to write, or if we'd even respond. I mean, our best friend's whole life changed, and we weren't here to support her. A lot of her dreams came true, Ron and we missed it. We missed her WEDDING! The one person who we always knew we could rely on in our lives, and we turned our backs on her." Harry said, getting angry at himself.

"We turned our backs on everyone, mate." Ron said in a sad voice. "And, I don't know about you, but I'm not going anywhere again. I'm gonna try and make up for these last seven years." Harry nodded in agreement.

They both looked out the window to see Hermione crouched down, talking to a little boy. She was smiling and laughing with him, and he gave her a hug before she stood back up. She also hugged who looked like the boy's mother, before walking back to the car.

"Alright, boys. I got you both a bag of crisps to munch on. When we get to the house, I'll make something small, but this should hold you over." she said. "And don't tell me you're not hungry. I could hear your stomach, Ron. I also got you each a bottle of water. Plain, because I don't think you'll like the peach flavored, like I drink." Hermione handed them their crisps and water, and started back on the road.

"Hey, Mione? Ron and I were talking.." Harry started, only to be cut off by Hermione's cell phone ringing.

"Hello?" "Hey, babe. You still working?" "Yes, I know. I'll write it in when I get home." "Yes." "Oh, I saw MaryEllen and Samuel at the store. He's feeling much better." "Peach, like always." "I'm always careful." "Yes, they're with me. We're going to the house." Alright. I'll see you later." "Love you, too, Sev. Bye."

"Sorry about that. And here we are. Home sweet home." Hermione said, pulling into a long driveway.

Up ahead, Harry and Ron could see the house. A brick, 3-story house with a beautifully manicured front lawn and what looked to be a screened in porch that wrapped around 3 sides of the house stood out aginst the background of rolling was also a big bay window, where they could see a black cat curled up. Harry and Ron recalled seeing houses like this in America.

"Isn't it beautiful? After we got engaged, Severus and I started looking for a house to buy. We found this old, run down house. A few months, and a lot of work later, and voila! This was the end result." Harry and Ron were speechless. It really was a beautiful house.

Pulling around back, she parked in front of a garage door, and shut off the car. "Well? Are you coming in or what?" she asked. Hermione was in a hurry to eat something small before work tonight.

Getting out of the car, Harry and Ron followed Hermione into the house, both determined to earn their friends forgiveness.

SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT. WRITER'S BLOCK SUCKS. HOPE THIS MADE UP FOR IT, THOUGH.

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XOXO-Onyx Obsidian