Chapter Seven: Australia

Their final plans for going to Australia were made. Hermione had all the information she needed to locate her parents, and she and Ron had each packed a large rucksack containing everything they would need for the trip. They had their plane tickets and passports ready. Hermione had changed the name on hers to read Hermione Weasley, so that was one less problem. They had done all the work themselves and felt good that their trip was going to be a success. Sirius offered to drive them to the airport and Ron and Hermione accepted. Harry, of course, came with them in the car along with Ginny.

Once they got to the point where Ron and Hermione had to check-in and part from the others, Harry spoke, 'Good luck, guys, and have a good time while you're there, won't you?'

'We will, thanks, Harry,' said Hermione.

'Yep, this'll almost be a second honeymoon,' said Ron.

'Stay safe, but if you get into any trouble, you have your mirrors, okay?' said Sirius.

'We do, Sirius, take care now, won't you?' said Hermione.

'We will, I'll look after everyone, don't you two worry about a thing,' said Sirius.

'Ron, don't forget to get dad a book about aeroplanes, but you should still be prepared for his interrogation, when you get back,' said Ginny.

They all shared a brief laugh and took it in turns to share hugs before Ron and Hermione said goodbye to them as they went to check-in.

Once again they whole thing of going through all the airport security and passport checks took ages and then the wait for their flight to be called gave them time to relax. Of course twenty hours on an aeroplane would give them ample time to relax. Hermione had advised Ron to get first class tickets, yes they were more expensive, but they would be flying in more luxury.

Once their flight was called, they had their bags inspected and they too had been searched, they were good to go, and were allowed to board the aeroplane. A stewardess showed them to their seats and they sat and waited for take-off as Ron took her hand. Hermione appreciated the gesture and leaned her head on his shoulder.

Eventually the plane took-off and they were in the air. Unfortunately, boredom set in very quickly for the both of them. Sure they could walk around to stretch their muscles, but as for other things to do they were limited.

That was until Hermione invited Ron to meet her near the lavatories in five minutes and got up and left him slightly bewildered. Then five minutes later, he went to the lavatories to find that she wasn't there, but then he heard her voice in a carrying whisper so he went to her and she pulled him into the lavatory with her.

'What are we doing in here?' he asked.

'All I'm going to say is that it's a good thing I'm wearing a skirt, so drop your trousers, Ron, we're having a quickie in here,' said Hermione coolly.

Ron still slightly bewildered complied with his wife's orders as she hiked up her skirt and removed her knickers. Ron got the hint and he was quickly inside her. Worried Hermione might be too loud and them getting caught, Ron stuffed her knickers into her mouth as he shagged her up against the wall. It was a good thing that Ron had used her knickers to silence her as her muffled moans were still loud as she was so incredibly turned on as he pounded into her. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he held her up but before long they were both climaxing and exhausted.

'Wow, that was … fucking incredible, Hermione,' said Ron as he took her knickers out of her mouth and kept them in his hand.

'Yeah, even better than I thought it would be, but we can't stay in here for much longer,' she said.

Ron set her back down on wobbly legs as she made herself presentable again as Ron pulled up his trousers and stuffed the knickers into his pocket. Hermione told him to meet her back at their seats in five minutes before leaving him alone. Five minutes later, he sat back down next to her.

The rest of the flight spent was spent reading or sleeping and with one more shag in the lavatories before they landed in Australia. Once allowed into the country, they went to find somewhere that served coffee as it was early morning and they were still a bit tired. Ron got some money from an ATM to buy the coffees and they sat somewhere quiet to drink them.

'I still can't believe that you wanted to do it on a plane, sweetheart,' said Ron.

'We were bored and it was fun, you know; the thrill of getting caught and all that …' she replied.

'Do people do it on planes often?' he asked.

'It's been known to happen. They call it joining the mile high club,' she told him.

'A club eh? Well, I'm all for it as long as there isn't a membership fee,' said Ron grinning.

'Nope, there's just an initiation and we just passed it – twice,' said a giggling Hermione.

Once the coffees were gone, they decided to go to the house she had arranged for her parents almost a year ago. It was a good thing it was the weekend and the Wilkins'/Grangers would not be going into work today. Having Apparated close to the road where her parents were living, they walked the rest of the way. They quickly found the house and waited for signs of life inside the house as they did not want to wake them.

Eventually a man Hermione recognised as her father opened the front door to get the newspaper from the doorstep and went back inside without seeing them.

'Your dad looks fine, Angel, so shall we?' said Ron.

Hermione nodded and together they walked to the front door and knocked.

The door was answered by her father. 'Hello, how can I help you?' he asked.

'You don't know us, but we have come all the way from England to see you. May we come inside?' said Hermione.

'Right, please do,' said her father. 'Monica, can you join us in the living room? There's a young couple from England here to see us!' he called.

A moment later, a woman who bore a strong resemblance to Hermione came into the room. She took one look at Hermione and said, 'If I didn't know any better, I'd say you would have to be my daughter.'

'Yes, Monica, you're right, she does look a lot like you did at eighteen,' said her father as he was becoming more alert which each minute that passed.

'Well, that's because I am your daughter. You just don't remember,' said Hermione as a tear escaped.

'Why don't we sit down? Then Hermione can put you in the picture, as it were,' said Ron.

'Hermione? I've always liked that name,' said her mother.

'Me too,' said her father as they sat down.

Hermione, meanwhile, had taken out her wand and pointed it at her mother and said, 'Trust me, you'll soon understand.'

Her mother nodded and Hermione began to wave her wand and with a non-verbal incantation, the spell on her mother was reversed.

'What did you do to her?' her father shouted.

Hermione quickly turned her wand on her father and repeated the process.

'What happened?' said her mother and her eyes met Hermione's, and she said, 'Hermione? Is it really you?'

'Yes, Mum, it's me. Do you remember everything now?' she asked gently.

'Yes, I remember. I remember your wedding, you looked so beautiful. Hello, Ron,' said her mother.

Her father who had been watching and listening said, 'If you're here, and we're back to ourselves, does that mean that the war is over?'

'Yes, Dad, the war is over and Voldemort is dead. Everyone is fine, Harry, all the Weasleys, Sirius, Remus, Dora, Andie and Ted. They're all at Potter Manor or the Burrow,' said Hermione.

Both her parents got up and hugged their daughter for dear life before Helen pulled Ron into their family hug, telling him he was family too.

Breakfast was eaten in the kitchen and then coffee was made before they all gathered into the front room once more, where Ron and Hermione told them what had happened to them over the past nine months or so, skipping over nothing. Her parents were a good audience. They cried, swore and laughed in the right places and when it was over, both her parents were hugging them again.

By the time the story was over, both Ron and Hermione were pretty tired and they were told that they could sleep in the spare bedroom, and they both jumped at the chance to get some sleep.

Ron and Hermione slept all the way until the next morning. Hermione awoke first and could hear someone downstairs in the kitchen. She put on a dressing gown and went down to the kitchen to find her mother making coffee.

'Morning, Mum,' said Hermione brightly.

'Good morning, Hermione. Would you care for a cup of coffee?' her mother replied.

'Yes, please,' Hermione replied.

Her mother put a cup of hot black coffee in front of her and she added two sugars much to her mother's disapproval.

'Since when do you take sugar?' she asked.

'Since I found out that coffee, and tea both taste better with sugar, than without it. Or, you can blame my husband for being such a bad influence on me,' replied Hermione with a smile.

'Bad influence? I'm not sure about that, Hermione. After all, was he not the young man who taught you about friendship and love?'

'Oh, he did, Mum, which is one of the many reasons why I love him so much. Though during the hunt I did wonder how we were going to make it work, but we did. He kept us all sane somehow,' said Hermione.

'But what about sex? I don't mean to embarrass you, but you're both so young, and I'm sure you both had needs,' said her mother.

Hermione went red and said, 'I don't want to talk about it.'

'Oh, Hermione, you're an adult, you can talk to me about sex with your husband, you know,' said Helen.

'Well, all right. I take a potion on the first of every month that stops me getting pregnant, and it also prevents STI's and keeps Period Pain to a minimum, and the potion is one hundred per cent effective. So, we were able to have sex while on the hunt. We also did it on the plane over here,' Hermione confessed with a little smile.

'His idea, was it?' her mother asked with a knowing look.

'No, it was mine. We were bored and so we did it. It was fun,' said Hermione.

'I'm not judging you, Hermione. But, I do have to ask, when was your first time?'

'I'm not sure you want to know. I don't want you to be disappointed with me that I didn't wait until my wedding night,' said Hermione.

'I want to know, Hermione. You may as well tell me, you are a married woman after all and I can't tell you off for it now,' said her mother.

'All right, I'll tell you. It was at the end of our fourth year. Voldemort had returned and I wanted to make love to the only boy I will ever love. We were both fifteen and it was wonderful. Ron took care of me as I knew he would, he was wonderful, Mum,' said Hermione in a soft voice full of fondness for the memory of their first time.

'I'm so glad you had a wonderful first time, dear, most girls don't. Usually it's short and painful for us, but thankfully for the both us, we've been lucky to share our first times with such wonderful young men. And I'm not disappointed you didn't wait for your wedding night, because if I was, it would be dreadfully hypocritical of me. But I can't say I'm too pleased at you for having sex at fifteen, though, but considering the circumstances, I understand,' said her mother.

'Good, but can we please talk about something else?' Hermione pleaded.

Her mother agreed and soon they were joined by Ron and Richard as they discussed what they wanted to do next.

Her parents decided that wanted to go home to England. Hermione informed them that the house was back to how it was before they packed up and left. She and Ron had gotten everything out of storage and returned it all to the house. The house, unfortunately, had been vandalised on the inside by Death Eaters, but Hermione had repaired all the damage done to it. She had also gotten her brother-in-law, Bill, to check the place for hidden curses, and when he was done, he had declared the house safe.

Ron and Hermione also decided to stay for the whole two weeks to enjoy a second honeymoon. They visited many of sights of Sydney and Melbourne, thanks to Apparition. They stayed in a hotel so they could be alone and to shag however much they wanted – which was a lot.

The two weeks had also been enough time for her parents to get things taken care of here, and at home. They had been told that their old jobs were waiting for them for when they returned as locums had been hired in their place in their old practice.

On their last evening in Australia, the four of them were having dinner when Richard remembered something. 'We missed your eighteenth birthday, Hermione,' he said.

'Don't worry about it, Dad, I had a wonderful eighteenth with Ron and Harry, who spoiled me as much as possible,' said Hermione, 'Ron cooked a gourmet dinner and pampered me while Harry gave me a nice book.'

'Still, you only turn eighteen once,' said Richard.

'I know, but there's a chance you would've missed it anyway even if weren't for Voldemort as I would've been at school,' replied Hermione.

'I suppose, but we should still buy you a late birthday gift, Hermione. So what would you like – a car, perhaps? Some money for a deposit on a house, or a flat for you and Ron?' said Richard.

'Well, Dad, here's the thing. We don't need any money or gifts from you. Ron and I have enough money to last us for the rest of our lives,' said Hermione.

'How is that possible?' asked Helen.

'I'll answer this one,' said Ron, 'three years ago, Harry gave me a thousand Galleons to buy Hermione something nice. But, because I had learned that she loved me for me, I didn't need to. So I gave the thousand Galleons to Fred and George to get them started on their joke shop. In return, they've been giving me a piece of the profits and putting it into my vault at Gringotts. Then when the war was over, Harry insisted we should have two thirds of the reward for bringing down Voldemort. Before we left England, we received a letter from Gringott's informing us of what was in our vault since I had Hermione added to it, and we have twenty-two million Galleons in our vault.'

'Which is around one hundred and thirty million pounds,' said Hermione.

'Maybe we're the ones who should be asking you for a new car?' her father joked.

'You both still intend to work, right?' asked her mother.

'Of course we do, Mum. The new Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, has said to us that any job we want is ours,' said Hermione.

'Do either of you know what you want to do?' asked Helen.

'Well, I want to finish Hogwarts and then go into the Ministry to make some serious changes to the laws on house-elf treatment, as well as revoke laws against werewolves and other people whom face discrimination,' said Hermione.

Ron could not say he was surprised by his wife wanting to finish Hogwarts. However, he, on the other hand, had not given going back to school to finish, a single thought. He wanted to join the Aurors and help to make sure that no-one else had to have a childhood like theirs.

Ron was broken out of thoughts by Helen who was asking him now. 'Will you be going back to school too, Ron?' she asked.

'I haven't made up my mind yet. But I'm more inclined to join the Aurors, rather than go back to school,' said Ron, 'but there's still plenty of time to make a final decision, which gives Hermione and I a chance to talk about it all and come to a reasonable solution.'

Ron already had an idea what that solution was going to be, and perhaps so did Hermione, but their discussions could, and would, wait for another time.

The next day the four of them flew back to England to be reunited with their friends and family as May ended, and June began.