EPILOGUE 3

Author's Note: I don't own any of the characters.

Hogwarts-Hermione's Office

If she were truly honest with herself there was a rather sizable part of her that had always dreamed of being right where she was and in the particular job that she now inhabited. However all of that childhood dreaming had not included being a teacher of magic. Nor had any of those dreams ever foretold her chances of being said teacher with now eight children. Eight children and a much larger home than she had ever expected had become her reality. Shell Cottage had been the perfect home for them and their young family however now they had certainly outgrown the cozy building. Ron's aunt Muriel had died shortly after hearing the news that Hermione had been expecting three boys, with Fleur sending over a large assortment of sweets as a thank you, as the two had never gotten along. Hermione had possessed at least the good sense to appear saddened by the old woman's passing however Ron had not stopped grinning for more than two days at the turn of events, mostly because it meant he had learned that they would get the house.

With the Hogsmeade branch doing wonderful business things were definitely looking up for the Weasley family. The whispers and wonders about their children's parentage were now long silenced and few if anyone even ever brought the subject up, and certainly not in their presence. Rather now by the tender age of about thirty two both Ron and Hermione had become rather well respected members of the wizarding community. The fervor over Harry's celebrity had died down a fair amount over the years even though he would occasionally run into an ardent fan and be overdrawn with questions before he knew what hit him. Henry was almost through his time at Hogwarts and having a mother who is a teacher and head of Gryffindor house, his house, was not something that he found particularly exciting. Ginny had also joined Hermione at Hogwarts, helping out with all of the sporting events along with quidditch that had been added over the years, mostly in an attempt to get the students to let off some steam in more productive ways than dueling each other and for those that were terrible on a broom. She helped out Hagrid when she could, as he wasn't as young as he used to be and welcomed the aid, while using any free time to help her mother watch the ever increasing Weasley brood.

Harry had retired from being an auror and had been dragged kicking and screaming into being the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. It turned out that he was a great teacher and considered Hogwarts a shield against almost anyone that would want to cash in on his celebrity. At first his students had been bowled over by the fact that he would be teaching them, however after a few years that had mostly worn off. Ron of course had never missed an opportunity to tell a joke or two or three about Harry being a teacher, feeling that while it was strange for his best friend and sister to be teachers for Hermione it was in the end right where she should be. After school and work was over each day Ron and Hermione would retire to their gift of a house while at school. It had been gifted to them by Neville's grandmother, as Ron guessed a thank you present for their efforts in bringing out the best in her grandson. The house was not anything special and in later years would serve as home for visiting professors during their tenure, but it had been built on the spot of the old Shrieking Shack. The shack had been destroyed a couple of years earlier by a badly fought duel between two students, as their spells had struck and mixed together before blasting the old building to pieces.

"Are you going to be long luv, the boys miss you," Ron wondered softly with a bit of hesitation in his words as he slowly opened the door to her office and slid inside, a small box in his pocket.

"Yes…unfortunately, and the boys always miss me," Hermione replied with an irritated huff before she glanced up long enough to see the wince on Ron's face and she softened and smiled sweetly at him, hoping that he understood that she hadn't mean to be angry at him.

"Missing your mum isn't a crime, at least it wasn't last time I checked, the girls…," Ron called back softly as he shut the door behind him and then cautiously stepped across the room until he was standing next to her chair, and she found it a bit odd to not look up at him.

"Could care less about me unless I was going to buy them some new makeup or help them style their hair," Hermione answered softly with a weak smile as she then glanced up at Ron and tried to keep the smile firmly fixed on her face but found it impossible and so she let it fall.

"Bullocks, you are their mother Hermione, and besides it's normal for most girls their age to not like spending time with their parents," Ron called her out a little louder than had originally intended to as he pulled the quill from her hand and set it down on the top of her desk before he pulled her up to her feet amidst feeble protests and then leaned in and the two shared a short string of gentle kisses on the lips.

"I always loved spending time with my parents," Hermione whispered softly back through a giggle and an intentionally odd smile before she leaned in and gave Ron a kiss that could have gone much further before the two were interrupted from the doorway.

"Only further proof that you are not normal Hermione, besides the eight kids and probably counting part," Ginny let out with a quip and a sly grin as she stood in the doorway and stared merrily at the pair while Harry stood at her side, grinning from ear to ear and looking like he'd fallen asleep in his chair again and just woken up moments before.

"Says the one with five already herself," Hermione shot back with an equally sly grin as she kept herself so close to Ron and her hands lying flat on his back, holding them close to each other.

"Soon to be more I'm afraid," Harry nervously shrugged as his smile faded noticeably and he slid past his wife into the room before setting himself down on in the first chair that he came to.

"What…really," Ron gasped out in shock as he stood up ramrod straight and looked open mouthed back and forth between Harry and Ginny, with the former looking overwhelmed and the latter could only shrug her shoulders and grin.

"Yeah, we just found out," Ginny admitted with a sheepish but excited smile as she walked into the room, kicking the door shut with her foot, before she came to stand directly behind Harry's chair, her hands on his shoulders.

"Congratulations, guess Lily and Minerva are going to be big sisters," Hermione warmly stated with a quick nod of her head before she slipped unhappily out of Ron's arms and went over and hugged Ginny on the spot.

"Yeah, just wait till the boys want to be big brothers," Harry snapped out poorly under his breath with a knowing grin as he kept his chin down but glanced up and over at Ron with a very knowing look in his eyes.

"They're like five mate, a little too young for that kind of thinking just yet," Ron countered with a less than pleased expression as he took a step to the side and then sat down behind Hermione's desk and leaned back a bit, though he made sure to not put his feet up.

"You never know with you two, Hermione could be pregnant right now after all," Ginny cooed back with a playful grin at Hermione and a wink towards her big brother before Harry turned in his chair and lightly glared up at her, hoping that she wouldn't push it. He felt that if Ron and Hermione wanted to have any more kids they would, but that he himself was not going to be included in that conversation at all if he could possibly help it.

"Oh come on, you'd think that she'd know if she was…after four times," Ron offered up in rapid succession as he gestured a bit wildly with his hands, almost as if he were trying to make what he was saying the truth rather than think of the alternative before Hermione could speak up.

"I think I would, then again with Henry…I didn't," Hermione replied with a slightly nervous shrug and little smile as she pulled back from Ginny before she walked back around behind her desk and tried to get Ron to vacate her chair by tapping him on the shoulder with the back of her hand but he refused, so she rolled her eyes and then just settled herself sideways on his lap, with his arms almost instinctively wrapping themselves around her.

"You were also what…like sixteen at the time and it was your first pregnancy," Ginny pointed out slowly as she made her way around the other chair in front of Hermione's desk and then sat down in it, giving an anxious looking Harry a quick smile afterwards.

"True…er, maybe I should go and visit Madam Pomfrey…just to be on the safe side," Hermione sheepishly admitted with a wary smile before she grew much more serious and thoughtful and then decided that it might not be such a bad idea to get herself checked out, just to be safe.

"Might not be such a bad idea," Ron agreed rather reluctantly with a subtle shrug of his shoulders as his hands found their way to cover Hermione's stomach seemingly of their own accord.

"At least you two have the room for more kids, not to mention that it won't be too much longer before Henry and the girls are out on their own so…wish we were that lucky, we're having to double up as is, especially since we can't put James and Albus together unless we want the aurors to have to come and tear the apart," Ginny pointed out in a slight huff as though it was clear that she was thrilled to be pregnant again she wasn't liking the idea of having to fit more kids into their already full house.

"Knowing our luck I'll be pregnant with triplets again," Hermione groaned softly with a look of frustration before she brought her hands up to her face and rubbed her eyes a bit to try and relieve some of her weariness.

"Don't even joke about that," Ron cracked loudly, looking more than a bit intimidated by even the idea of another set of three babies as he looked anywhere but at Harry, who was shooting him a sly smirk with an eyebrow raised as a soft challenge.

"Who's joking Ron…I was being serious, with our history…," Hermione whispered softly to him as she curled up a bit more in his lap and used her free hand to reach up and playfully scratch his stubble, silently reminding him that he hadn't shaved in a few days.

"Well…okay yeah…but…a third time…is that even possible," Ron anxiously answered as he tried to shift a bit in his seat but found it a bit difficult with Hermione in his lap so he resorted to moving just enough so that there was no longer a little kink in his neck.

"We have seen stranger things remember…er…sorry, not helping, am I," Harry started to counter a bit before her realized his mistake and tried to back out as quickly as possible, though he didn't do a very good job of it.

"No dear…you're not," Ginny replied to her husband's weak plea of help with a warm but joking smile and a light pat on his arm before she couldn't hold her laughter back any longer.

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The Weasley Household-Some Months Later

"I still can't believe that you're pregnant again mum," Henry declared while looking more than surprised before he looked away as he got an angry glare from his little sister Lexi before she spoke up.

"Why, those two are at it so much that we don't have to catch them in the act to be terribly scarred for life," Lexi remarked with an amused and warm smile towards her parents and then an irritated scowl sent to her big brother and an unspoken threat of what she'd do to him if he kept it up.

"Lexi…don't say that," Ana cautioned her older sister with an unhappy frown before she had to focus her attention on keeping the oldest of her triplet younger brothers Devon on her lap as he had been up and a pain all day.

"But it's true," Angie argued back softly with an uneasy look as she gave her older sister a brief glance before turning her attention back to Devon's slightly younger brother Arthur.

"Do I still get my own room," Shawn questioned in earnest as he stood up and kept his youngest brother Horatio from busying himself with something that he had found underneath the sofa.

"We'll see," Hermione sweetly answered her son as she knew that things were probably going to change for him but she wasn't sure how and wanted to soften the blow as best that she could.

"But at your age…sorry…really," Lexi started to object with a look of minor pleading and exasperation at her parents before she realized what she was saying and couldn't help but blush and feel embarrassed.

"Blimey, I can only imagine what Muriel would say about this," Henry chuckled out with a loud guffaw as he shook his head a bit before he got an image in his mind of the former owner of the house and what her reaction would have been to Hermione's news about being pregnant again, an image that he found entirely humorous.

"She'd say that she was right, that we Weasley's breed like rabbits," Ron chortled in fully agreement with a large grin plastered onto his face before it took all of himself to keep said laugh from going any further than that as Hermione lightly elbowed him in the ribs so that she would have it quiet to speak.

"Ron…that's not…actually that's surprisingly accurate in our case, though I guess that it's better than the alternative…perhaps," Hermione tried to argue against Ron's point before her cheeks went pink and she had to admit that he was actually being pretty honest about what his old great aunt would have thought of their situation.

"Well whatever the case I'm happy about all of this, scared…sure, but happy," Ron quickly continued with a nervous shrug of his shoulders as he tried to stay smiling through it all but the fears of what could happen with another pregnancy and children came to him suddenly, making it very hard for him to accomplish his goal.

"Scared about what dad, we'll be here to help, not likely that we'll see anything with these three that we haven't helped out with before…things will be okay…really mum," Lexi asked looking both a bit worried and a bit confused as she leaned forward a bit and glanced at her older siblings, hoping that in their silent reactions she'd gain the answer to her question.

"I hope that you're right honey, but what are you four going to be doing after you graduate…which is coming up far too soon for my liking," Hermione answered softly at first before she posed a question of her own, one that she truly wasn't sure that she really wanted to know the answer to but knew was coming regardless.

"I have…ideas…and possibilities, Rachel said that her uncle needed some help in Italy getting their trading business up and running, and she asked me to go with her and help," Lexi eagerly replied with a twinkle in her eyes and a little bit of pink in her cheeks as it was clear to her whole family that she quite liked the idea of going to help her friends business get off the ground.

"Who's Rachel again, she the one that can't speak English very well…," Ron pondered aloud with his face scrunched up in thought as he knew that he had heard that name before but couldn't fully connect the dots with the friends history given how many children that he had and how many friends that each one of them had, both at school and elsewhere.

"She's my…uh, friend, Italian is her native tongue," Lexi awkwardly admitted, her cheeks very red, as she found herself unable to look either of her parents in the eye and so then the redhead settled on staring at the tops of her shoes.

"Right…her special friend," Ana cheekily added under her breath with a dirty look cast over at her older sister and a light elbow to her side before she then suddenly turned away just as the eldest triplet managed to get a word in edgewise.

"Shut it," Lexi snapped angrily with both of her hands balling instantly up into tight fists as she looked fully ready to give her little sister a piece of her mind but the whole thing was stopped in a heartbeat when Hermione cut in.

"Am I missing something…," Hermione wondered softly with an innocent look on her face as she looked back and forth between Lexi and Ana, guessing that there was something about their sudden argument that she was missing and the brunette genuinely wanted to help her daughters resolve their dispute.

"Nope…definitely not, we should move on to Henry, right big brother," Lexi exclaimed as fast as the words could possibly leave her lips as she was almost to the point of frantically slugging Henry to get him to say something and take the focus off of her.

"Uh…yeah," Henry answered with an odd look towards Lexi at first before he turned his gaze to his parents and then his siblings, noticing the odd looks that they were all giving him and feeling like he had to say something to them.

"Maybe you should be an auror," Shawn offered up confidently as he looked like he really seemed to like the idea before he leaned over and patted his big brother on the shoulder.

"Maybe," Henry admitted with a slight shrug of his shoulders as he seemed to be mulling the idea over in his head a bit before Hermione broke in and rained on both of their parades as only she could.

"Over my dead body," Hermione stated sharply, a look of strong anger and disapproval firmly fixed upon her face, as she sat up ramrod straight and glared her best motherly glare at her oldest son, telling him in no uncertain terms that she wholly disapproved of that idea.

"Why…Uncle Harry," Ana started to ask with a confused frown as she had to use all of her strength to keep Devon from vaulting right off of her lap and down onto the floor.

"Is a grown man…when he chooses to act like one…just like your father, and so it was his call on whether to be an auror or not, you Henry Arthur Weasley however…am my son and…," Hermione finished her daughters thought with a rather stern expression as she first frowned at Ana before sending another glare in Henry's general direction.

"I know mum…I know, we burned those letters that you and dad wrote to me years ago remember, you didn't die searching for the horcrux's, you made it…and if I want to be an auror I will and there's not really very much that you can do about it…really," Henry groaned back through a rather large sigh as he rolled his eyes and tried to get Hermione to calm down and explain to her that he had heard all of this doom and gloom many times before and was in no mood to rehash it now, all while trying to not make her any more upset than she already was.

"Oh really, well mister, while you live in our house and under my roof you will not be an auror….understand," Hermione declared calmly as the tone of her voice scared her older children noticeably as it was usually their father that would get mad and upset and scream and shout, and their mother would equal him, however everything was pushed to a new level when Hermione was arguing while remaining totally calm. It was a condition that they had all learned to fear.

"Mum," Angie asked softly as she held onto Arthur a bit tighter and curled her toes up in her shoes as she was fully expecting a heater argument to break out between Henry and their parents at any moment and she wanted to be ready for anything.

"I'm not going to be living with you guys forever, a year or so from now and I'll have a flat of my own, you can't worry about me forever mum, sooner or later," Henry reminded her as he looked like there was a rather large piece of him that was already fully prepared to live on his own before his dad spoke.

"She's your mum Henry, she'll worry about you till the day that she dies, and then she'll haunt you for…," Ron told him with a clear tone of disapproval of his oldest sons attitude as he scooted to the edge of his seat so that he could use his sheer size to settle the issue if needed to.

"Your father might be overdoing it a bit son, but he has the right idea," Hermione told Henry as she held her hands on her stomach and looked across the room at Henry right in the eye so that he would understand how serious she was about what she was saying with no room for confusion.

"Wonderful," Henry groaned out loudly as he tightly squeezed his eyes closed and flopped himself back in his seat, finally staring up at the ceiling and feeling like even after his mother's death she'd come back and haunt him for the rest of his life regardless of what path he chose to follow.

END OF EPILOGUE 3

Author's Note: Thanks again to everyone for reading and reviewing this and the other chapters. As always questions, comments, and suggestions are always welcome. The first part is just an update of sorts about how and what everyone is doing. Ron is still working at Hogsmeade at that branch of George's joke shop while the others have now become teachers and such at Hogwarts, as Harry always did say that he felt at home there and he can use it as a shield as it's only the teachers and students there. The shrieking shack probably would have fallen apart by the time that it was demolished so putting a new house there for Ron and Hermione and their family to use during the school year was something that worked. Both Hermione and Ginny are pregnant again and the four have some fun with it. The second half is the Weasley family at home, I viewed Aunt Muriel's as having plenty of room for their large family given how many people were there before Voldemort's defeat. We see that Henry might want to be an auror and that Hermione is having none of it, or even the idea of it. Hermione's pregnancy of the last epilogue ended in three boys, Devon, Arthur, and Horatio. Now she's pregnant again with triplets and the whole family is shocked and surprised by it. We see that Lexi has a special friend that she's helping that friend to improve her English, like how Bill helped Fleur, and some fun that came from that. The next epilogue will be about twenty years after the golden trio graduated Hogwarts, though since Hermione and Ron started having kids so young remember that even after twenty years she'd only be like thirty seven. I always thought that two kids were not enough for Ron and Hermione to have and always felt that five was more the right amount, though in this story I went overboard beyond that as Hermione always goes above and beyond in whatever she does, including her family. Thank You.