SECOND CHANCES 22-EPILOGUE 2
Author's Note: I don't own any of the characters.
Shell Cottage-5 Years Later…Or So…
She knew a great many things for certain. She knew that she loved and was loved. She knew that she had five wonderful children, most of the time, and was fully expecting to have more. She knew that she had a wonderful home that was just right for her family and that her friends and family agreed with her on all of that and would help her in whatever way she needed whenever she needed it. She knew that Ron worshipped her and only had eyes for her, with him being more affectionate with her than she had ever thought that he would be during those long lonely nights in Gryffindor tower back in their school days. Her time spent after her resignation from the ministry had been spent advocating for anything and everything, writing essays, editorials, and speeches that only half actually got a chance to be given. At the end of ten years since she had graduated Hogwarts a career for herself was still in doubt as she couldn't quite figure out what she wanted to do with her life, though she was sure that she didn't want to stay at home any longer than she had to. The one thing that she knew for certain above all others was that she was not ready for what would happen the next morning, and there was nothing that Ron or anyone else could ever say that would make her change her mind.
"I don't care what you say Ron, it isn't happening, no…never," Hermione declared with a fair amount of authority and her arms crossed in front of her chest as she strode into their bedroom and sat down on the bed as Ron closed the door behind her.
"You can't fight it luv, it's for the best…and you know it," Ron replied softly as he struggled not to laugh his head off at the whole situation though the fact that he loved Hermione more than life itself and that he didn't want to have a fight kept him to simply smirking through her unhappiness.
"He's not going…he's going to stay here with me," Hermione continued to exclaim as if the decision had not already been made months earlier that Henry was going to Hogwarts whether she liked it or not.
"What…forever," Ron offered up softly as he walked over and sat down on the bed beside her before he put his arms around her and pulled her close, finally setting his chin lightly on the top of her head as she tried to not let her eyes grow wet.
"Yes…forever, we were apart for far too long and we need to spend more time together," Hermione announced with a slight nod of her head as she tried to burrow her way further into Ron's embrace through a shiver that she felt at the thought of Henry leaving for Hogwarts.
"You two spend every day together when the girls or I aren't here or needing you, you're not a bad mother Hermione, it's impossible for you to be a bad mother…and besides he's not leaving you, we'll know exactly where he is and we can go and see him whenever we want…though you'd probably embarrass the boy if you did it too often…besides it's not like Shawn is leaving with him," Ron reminded her with a hopeful tone to his words as he began to gently rub her back in his attempts to calm her down about Henry going to Hogwarts like they did when they were younger.
"But he needs me Ron," Hermione weakly mumbled out softly as she pulled back enough from Ron so that she could talk to him face to face as outside of the window a few fireflies flew past the window.
"No…he doesn't, at least any more than you and I and Harry did when we first went to Hogwarts," Ron repeated himself as he reached up and set his hands on Hermione's shoulders, almost daring her to look at him to see what she already knew, that Henry didn't need her as much as she needed him, a fact that sent unpleasant chills down her spine.
"We're not even thirty though, and we're already sending our oldest off to school, who does that at our age," Hermione exclaimed with exaggerated hand and arm gestures as she was clearly getting it all out of her system though the thought of it all still scared her more than she cared to admit.
"We do Hermione, we do…one of the results of having kids so young," Ron replied with a relieved smile and short laugh as he pulled back a bit and looked around their bedroom, already looking nothing at all like it had when it was Bill and Fleur's room.
"But we couldn't possibly have been that small when we started…could we," Hermione pleaded softly with a look of unhappy resignation as she couldn't help but scoot closer to Ron until she wrapped her arms around his middle and pulled them close until her head came to rest on his chest, a familiar result for the pair.
"Well I wasn't…Harry was pretty small," Ron remarked proudly with a bit of sticking his chest out and trying to sound macho and a bit too proud of himself before she countered by poking him softly in the ribs.
"Heh…still is, it all seems like a lifetime ago is all," Hermione chuckled out softly into Ron's chest as she then deeply breathed in his scent of the sea and warmth before the doorknob started to turn as Ron spoke back up.
"That's because it was, we've lived more than a couple of lifetimes to me…helping Harry, just think of it this way, Henry won't have to worry about Death Eaters or crazy wizards trying to kill him, his biggest problem will be trying to stay awake in History of Magic," Ron commented with a deep breath and a solemn expression on his face as he leaned back up against the headboard of the bed and took Hermione with him as Henry pushed the door open and stepped into their room, a hand covering his eyes.
"Just like his father," Hermione quipped with a sly grin and short laugh that would have lasted longer had she not seen her oldest son standing in the doorway of their bedroom with a hand over his eyes.
"What are you doing Henry," Ron asked aloud with a curious screwing up of his face as he slid one leg off the side of the bed in case that there truly was something wrong going on, though inwardly he didn't seem to think that there truly was.
"Trying to make sure that I won't be scarred for life," Henry replied with a clear bit of tension and hesitation in his smile as he kept his free hand on the doorframe as he slowly shuffled into the room.
"Put your hand down Henry, your father and I are fully clothed," Hermione grouched out unhappily as she pulled away from Ron and then slid off of the bed, coming to a stop just in front of her oldest son as he nervously dropped his hand and opened his eyes.
"Ah…good, always good to check with you two, because the opposite is just too frightening to contemplate," Henry replied with a joking grin as he walked forward by Hermione a few steps and then he leaned forward with his hands on the foot of the bed as he grinned at his father.
"Hey now…watch it," Ron snapped as he slid off of the bed slowly before standing up and making a bit show of it though Hermione could tell that he had no real malice either in his words or in his actions.
"Sorry Dad...is there something wrong," Henry stuttered quickly in his reply as he stood back up and then looked back and forth between Ron and Hermione, sensing that something was amiss between them but not knowing what it was.
"No son, everything's fine," Hermione explained softly as she then rolled her eyes at Ron and walked forward until she could wrap her arms around Henry and pull him into a strong hug.
"Bullocks, your mum is just a bit nervous about tomorrow," Ron grumped out loud with an audible shaking of his head before he lightly elbowed Hermione out of the way so that he could give Henry a quick hug.
"Ron," Hermione scolded him with a frustrated scowl as she crossed her arms back in front of her chest and leaned forward towards him, hoping to show him that she hadn't appreciated his honesty.
"Well you are," Ron replied hurriedly before he retreated from her baleful glare back towards their bed and he sat down up at the head of the bed, busying himself with the fit of his socks.
"Nervous…what for, there's no safer place than Hogwarts, especially with old lady McGonagall as headmistress," Henry asked softly with a nervous look as he looked back and forth between his parents and then sat down on the bed beside Ron.
"A friendly piece of advice there son, don't ever let McGonagall hear you call her old, it won't end well for you," Ron reminded his son with an immature grin that threatened to become a laugh before Hermione snapped her head around and glared at him even though she agreed with the sentiment.
"Your father is right, it's never okay to call a woman old…even if she is, it's better to stay on McGonagall's good side for as long as you can," Hermione reluctantly agreed with Ron after a deep breath she took to try and keep her composure and sunny disposition before she went back and sat down on the bed beside Ron.
"But won't I already be on her good side, being the son of her favorite student," Henry wondered aloud with a hopeful yet fearful expression as he made a subtle nod of his head in Hermione's general direction before the immediate look on her face quashed any happy thoughts.
"I was her favorite student Henry…years ago, I just don't want you to think that you can skate by on that alone, you need to bury your nose in those books and get a good education so that you can go places," Hermione chided her oldest son with a very stern and intense glare, one that she always gave her children when she was talking to them about either their education or their future, which she often viewed as one in the same.
"If he's got a…fifth…of your brains luv, then he'll be just fine, and you and I both know that he's got more than that," Ron added while thinking out loud with a curious frown and a hand on Hermione's knee while staring out of the window briefly before he turned back to his eldest and smiled.
"Er…thanks Dad…I think," Henry nervously answered with a confused look towards Hermione, who could only frown and shrug her shoulders a bit at his silent pleading, before Ron tried to clarify his earlier remark.
"I was just trying to say that you're smart enough to be fine as long as you try your best," Ron admitted with a nervous and slightly unsure blush to his cheeks and his ears turned a bit pink before he was interrupted from the doorway.
"That's funny coming from you dad," Lexi remarked with a soft laugh as she shuffled into the bedroom and then sat down on the bed next to Henry, as he looked a bit annoyed that she was interrupting their conversation.
"Especially because of what Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny have told us about how you used to study," Ana added loudly as she followed her older sister into the room dragging a bored looking Shawn after her, as it looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but with his entire family.
"Or didn't," Angie let out with a sly grin as she brought the family to a whole in Ron and Hermione's bedroom before she sat down on Henry's other side and lightly poked him in the shoulder.
"Mummy," Shawn groaned loudly as he struggled to pull away from Ana, who seemed more than a bit happy about bedeviling her younger brother, before he let out a growl as he pulled him into a tight hug.
"Whole bloody family," Ron grumbled through a sigh as he slipped his arms around Hermione's waist and pulled her back up and onto his lap, before she seemed to be quite content there.
"It's horrible," Lexi groaned out loud with a mock flop onto her back on the bed, complete with the back of her wrist to her forehead, before she lay there as if she were dead, though everyone could still see her breathing normally.
"It's terrible," Ana added with a look of sheer panic as she tightly squeezed Henry's shoulders and looked like she fully expected him to be wrenched away from her at any moment.
"It's a travesty…our dear brother, abandoning the family that's loved him for so long…," Angie wailed along as she slapped her hands over her eyes and looked quite like she was fully ready to bolt from the room before she was interrupted by her big brother.
"What…I am not abandoning the family, and you know it," Henry growled angrily as his hands balled up into fists on top of the covers, his ears starting to turn a bright red, before Hermione reached out and laid a light but restraining hand on his arm.
"Well you might as well be, leaving us with…with…them…for months," Lexi gestured wildly during her answer, appearing as if she had suddenly been stricken with some odd illness, before she covered her face with her hands.
"We're not that bad," Hermione argued weakly with a look of hurt on her face as she leaned back against Ron while keeping a slightly squirming Shawn in her arms.
"You know you love us," Ron chimed in with a wide grin as he sent a light glare towards each and every one of his children in the room with the exception of Shawn, who seemed to be just confused as to exactly what was going on around him and why he was even there.
"No we…er, bloody hell…okay yeah, but it's still not fair that he gets to go and we don't," Lexi stammered and stuttered softly, her face fully red and her ears growing more and more red as she spoke, before she bit her bottom lip and looked away, her eyes appearing to get a little wet at the end.
"Alexandra, no cursing," Hermione declared strongly, her brows furrowed in a stern glare, as she started to slide Shawn off of her lap and onto Henry's before her eldest daughter spoke up.
"But…," Lexi tried to object softly as she sat up straight with her hands in her lap before she caught her mothers' eye and instantly decided that it was best to say no more on the matter as she suddenly obsessed herself with a few stray strands of her hair that had fallen into her field of vision.
"But nothing," Ron cautioned her with an equally stern expression as he wrapped his arms a bit tighter and more protectively around Hermione and Shawn even though neither was really in any danger.
"Fine, it's okay mum, you'll still get to boss us around for another year," Lexi politely replied with a warm but nervous smile on her face as Hermione knew that her girls weren't actually mad about spending another year with she and Ron they just at times could have a bit too much of their uncles Fred and George in them. Unlike their famous, or infamous, uncles the trio were not prone to practical jokes or inventing things. The three were usually more concerned with their hair, or how they would do their makeup when they got old enough, the latest gossip that was going around the wizarding world, or worst of all, to both Ron and Hermione, wondering if there would be any cute boys during their years at Hogwarts.
"Yeah," Ana and Angie chimed in with together as their shoulders slumped noticeably before Hermione caught on to what Lexi had said and thought up a retort.
"I do not…boss you around, half the time you barely listen to me," Hermione sharply started to snap before her nerve left her as she thought that it sounded a bit too harsh for the moment as she hid her own blush with her still bushy hair.
"It's not like we don't try, right Shawn," Ana softly mentioned back as she kept her shoulders slumped a bit before she tried in vain to change the subject to something that she had always found far more enjoyable. The middle child of the trio had always been good with other children and had found it easy to make friends anywhere she went.
"Can I go play in my room mum," Shawn asked aloud as he looked more than a bit bored and the young boy definitely wanted to be anywhere but sitting in his mother's lap surrounded by his sisters and only brother.
"In a minute dear, there's actually something that I need to tell all of you kids," Hermione cautiously replied, suddenly looking very anxious and nervous all at the same time, before she took a deep breath and looked to be fully ready to continue speaking but was interrupted.
"Oh bloody hell, here it comes," Henry grumbled out under his breath mostly as he inwardly steeled himself for what he fully expected to come next, looking oddly at his little brother and hoping that he wouldn't get any more sisters.
"Your mum and I…," Ron started as he thought that he would just get it out of the way and help Hermione out a bit as she had been the one to explain it all a time or two to their families and friends and that he'd do it this time before he got cut off.
"Are getting a divorce…oh no, what will happen to us…we'll be orphans…what will the rest of the family think," Angie squealed out in complete dismay and an aghast look to her as she slid off of the bed and laid on the floor with her face down as she looked to be about ready to throw a hissy fit before Ron stopped her.
"We are not getting a divorce luv, your mum is stuck with me till the day I die," Ron proclaimed quickly with a bit of an irritated edge to his words as he tried to reach a hand out to set it on Angie's shoulder but couldn't so instead he resorted to setting said hand on Hermione's knee and let Shawn mess with his wedding ring a bit.
"And if I have anything to say about it then that day will be a very long time in the future," Hermione declared almost the second that Ron stopped speaking with a very fierce look of determination on her face as she momentarily balled her hands up into fists before relaxing them.
"Only if he stays away from Uncle Harry, especially after all of the stories that we've heard," Lexi let slip with a darkly amused smirk as she slid off of the bed and then leaned up against the wall near the window with her arms crossed in front of her chest.
"Fat chance of that seeing as how he's family luv," Ron reminded her with a cheeky smirk that despite herself Hermione copied and did her best not to laugh at the absurdity of it all.
"I know dad, but thankfully that means that we still get to spend time with Aunt Ginny," Lexi proudly announced with a great look of relief as she pushed off of the wall and walked around the foot of the bed until she came to stand just beside Ron.
"Maybe James will be decent now," Ana thought out loud as she laid back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling with her legs dangling off the edge of the bed before her little sister cut in.
"Not when he's trying to mess with Albus," Angie countered with a clear tone of annoyance in her voice as she never liked it when James picked on his little brother, as it was something that he seemed to take great pleasure in and do as often as possible.
"Well then we'll just have to make him treat Albus better won't we," Lexi declared forcefully as she lightly began to pound her fists onto Ron's shoulders before he reached a hand up and laid it over one of her fists, stopping her on the spot.
"Yeah, just glad that he doesn't treat Sirius like that," Ana relayed somberly as the middle daughter looked like she truly felt sorry for her Potter cousin before Lexi spoke up and interrupted.
"Only because he's barely three months old…give him time," Lexi called out through a soft fit of laughter as she knelt down on the bed beside Ron and Hermione as she set her chin down on the top of Ron's head, only possible as he was sitting down, before the patriarch of the family started up again.
"Your mum is…," Ron tried to get out, clearly excited and happy about the news that he was trying to relay to his family as he felt his chest begin to swell with pride, before Hermione cut him off and broke the news herself.
"I'm pregnant," Hermione exclaimed with a merry grin that stretched from ear to ear the longer that it took her children to respond as she gave Shawn a healthy hug before the tumult broke around her.
"Again," The trio all shouted together in shock and surprise before they all squealed loudly with glee and threw themselves bodily at their parents, hugging them both and a disgusted looking Shawn in a giant hug, almost knocking Henry off of the bed in the process.
"Yes again, and it probably won't be the last time either, which means," Ron replied to the squealing and the hugging with a bit of an odd raising of one of his eyebrows as he thought for a few seconds that his daughters had gone a bit odd.
"Which means that we'll be stuck taking care of Shawn all of the time," Angie figured out softly as she and her sisters pulled back from Ron and Hermione before the latter answered her.
"Well yes…that, and helping me around the house," Hermione nervously answered with an unsure expression as she sat up a bit straighter while heavily leaning back up against Ron, with Shawn just looking around a bit confused but relieved to not be in the center of a family hug anymore.
"What, why doesn't dad have to help," Ana argued sharply, looking suddenly very upset, as she pulled back from hugging her parents and heavily scowled, hoping that if she fussed enough about it that she'd be able to get out of helping with the chores.
"Because I don't want the dishes broken or the windows shattered, your father has a tendency to overdo it with household spells," Hermione explained with a rational and calm tone of voice, sounding as if this line of thought was not anything that she was doing on the fly or just off the top of her head but rather something that she knew well and sincerely believed in, before she was interrupted.
"Hey, it's not my fault that those bloody dishes seem to have a mind of their own," Ron argued loudly as he sounded very annoyed at their dishware while he pulled his hands back from around Hermione, who pouted a bit at the loss of contact between the two.
"They are inanimate objects dear, they do not have a mind of their own, you're just not very good at household spells is all," Hermione answered as she tried to explain things to Ron, who was obviously not agreeing with her but was staying quiet so that she could finish, before the laughter that quickly spread through the three young ladies in the room and then to their brothers before the whole family was laughing heartily, with Hermione having at least momentarily forgotten her fear of Henry leaving for Hogwarts the next day.
END OF EPILOGUE 2
Author's Note: Thanks again to everyone for reading and reviewing this and the other chapters. As always reviews, comments, and questions are always welcome. The epilogue is about the night before Henry leaves for his first year at Hogwarts and Hermione is obviously more than a bit upset at the thought of it. To me she has obvious separation anxiety, something that Henry does not share. I tried to give the three girls a bit of fleshing out of their characters in this epilogue. They can be like Fred and George were at times with their going overboard about things and the theatrics and all but they're more grounded than the twins were and don't do it as often. I had Shawn be the baby that Hermione was pregnant with in the last epilogue and here she is pregnant again. They're not done having kids so they very easily could surpass Ron's parents. I kept how James and Albus act to each other but added Sirius, since Harry already named his kids after those that he knew and such. The next epilogue will be another five years into the future and things will definitely have changed for the Weasley family and others. Side note it's still more than a bit odd for me to type mum instead of mom for Hermione but I understand the cultural differences well enough so it is what it is. Still also think that a good plot for a story would be how or did Dean and Luna and such tell Mr. and Mrs. Weasley about the trio being at their house before the final battle, or did Bill do that. Thank You.