Chapter 18: Moonlight Whispers

Authors Note: 3 December 2013 Thanks to everybody who reviewed the last chapter – I love you all! ChelseaLovesFood – your reviews are definitely a great medicine :) and I am now back into school as of today. I still do not feel too great, my stomach is very painful and I have been sick a few times but I am one of those people who don't cope very well whilst being stranded in bed, and so even when I am ill, I'm out of bed – maybe on the sofa ha ha ha . This again is a chapter where at the point that I am writing this I have absolutely no idea where I am going with this. It could be either of two ways but anyway, let's just see. Here is chapter 18!

25th October 2005

"Hermione, are you even listening to me?" Ron said, waving a hand in front of her eyes. Hermione glanced at him dazed and almost as if in a hypnotic trance. It had been a very, very long day, and yet, sadly it was only quarter to two in the afternoon.

"Sorry, what did you say?" Hermione replied and Ron chuckled

"I said, do you want any help?" He asked for a second time, but what only appeared to be the first for Hermione as he gestured to her dress that she had held in her hand on the coat hanger. It was a wine shaded burgundy with long, billowing more translucent sleeves. It had been an absolute nightmare to try and find something that would actually fit her at seven months pregnant, not knowing at the time it had been purchased how large in size she or the baby would then be in the present day. Now that she had the dress, she truly was just hoping more than anything for the best that it did fit and did not either drown her or be too tight. More likely than not it would be the latter situation.

"Could you just help me zip it up once I have gotten into it please?" Hermione asked, "That is a task that is becoming more and more difficult than I originally imagined." She informed him and he nodded in response before she removed all of her clothes with the exception of her underwear and stepped into the dress and pulled it up over her body and arms. Her breath tensed as Ron brushed her long bushy hair to one side of her head with his arm and found the two ends of the back and zipped it up slowly.

Hermione remained silent.

"Did... did it zip up?" She asked nervously, knowing that if it had not then it would be a long experience of magically expanding the dress so that it fit perfectly.

"Yes, it turns out that very surprisingly it did." Ron replied and she sighed as he rested his head on her shoulder whilst they stood in front of the mirror in their bedroom. "And may I say that you look lovely." He whispered moving his hands towards his wife's stomach and letting them remain there. Hermione then felt a strong nudge coming from inside of her, immediately making Ron jump backwards away from her.

"Are you alright?" Hermione asked, turning her head at his very sudden response.

"Yeah, I know you can obviously feel it every time, but I only have a few times." He said grinning so widely that it looked as if the sun was adorned upon his expression. "Anyway, do you know what you are going to be wearing on your feet?"

In response, Hermione moved away from him and walked over to the wardrobe where, with some difficulty, she pulled out a pair of flat, ballet shoes that were in a matching colour. They had a glossy effect painted over them so that as she carried them in her right hand, they effortlessly caught the very little light that was present at the height of the afternoon. But soon, any of that sunlight, was slowly disperse and sunset would arrive in a couple of hours or so, followed by soothing deep blue darkness for what felt like a complete and utter eternity.

"I know that some people do where heels during late pregnancy. I know that Ginny did a few times. But your balance is already off enough as it is. And suppose you lose any steadiness, and then it is further to fall."Hermione told him as she sat down on the bed, before with great difficulty trying to lean over to put her shoes on.

"There is more chance of you or the baby getting hurt." Ron said quietly and she could tell that he looked quite anxious. She glanced up at him with gently eyebrows etched upon her face. "I have read more books on this then I would like to count. I know how worried you are that there is a chance something could go wrong and so am I."

"Exactly." Hermione responded

"I think you made a good decision. But I think you need to work out a new method of getting your shoes on." Ron chuckled before kneeling down and helping her to slip on the red shoes with care.

"I had a method, but clearly something has changed between now and last night. God..." She sighed. "Thanks for the help though." She then added with a kind smile.

"No problem. " He said before his wife with some difficulty stood up and pulled on a knee length black coat and passed her husband his grey one.

"Right then," She started, "We best get going or otherwise we will be late. Do you need to see Dean?"

"I will pop my head in and say hello, but otherwise you need to go and see the aforementioned bride apparently. Ginny asked if you would just go and see said person for a moment." Ron told her and Hermione nodded before they headed out of the room and towards the fire place downstairs to floo into central London.

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The muggle registry office in which Dean and his fiancée were getting married was in a busy corner of the centre of London. Traffic was heaving past in a large, noisy kerfuffle. People bustled past in the midst of the lunch rush hour, working muggle adults darting here, there and everywhere in the hope they would get to and from their place of work in a timely and rather quick fashion of sorts. The muggles apparently did not appear to notice the array of colour of dresses, and suits as many people walked along from different directions, up to the white, stonewashed coloured building in the middle of a long row of old Victorian structures.

"Here, I will go and find a seat in the registry office while you go and see the bride. Are you sure you are alright?" Ron asked, touching her forearm gently and her head turned towards him smiling carefully.

"I am fine Ron, honestly. I will see you in a few minutes." Hermione said, kissing his cheek before heading up a small flight of stairs to the nearest room on the corridor. She knocked gently before there was a very quick reply of "Come in!"

She stepped into the room behind the door and shut the oak panel of wood behind her rather quickly. There were only a few people in the room but due to the much rushing around, chatter and laughter, it felt like there were ten times the amount of people that were there when the reality was that there were only five of them including Hermione, Ginny, and Angelina.

"Oh...Katie." Hermione smiled, "You look beautiful." To this, Katie Bell beamed as she twirled on the spot in her white wedding dress. The colour of her dress made her look incredibly pale, almost ill, but the smile on her face made that completely unnoticeable. Her hair was gently tied into a neat bun in an elegant way which made a few wisps of the dark brown hair fall out of the hairs position. From where Hermione was stood she could see the curve of her old school friend's stomach that was incredibly obvious once noticed.

"Thank you, Hermione." Katie replied, "How are you by the way? When is the baby due?"

"I am good thank you, the baby is due in early January. Well, Ron says that depends on whether they have inherited his timing skills or mine." Hermione chuckled, "What about you? When did this happen?" She gestured towards Katie's stomach and the older girl laughed. They rarely saw either Dean or Katie, as although they kept in touch, they did not quite have the same relationship as they did with Harry and Ginny or Neville and Hannah. They had been invited to the wedding six months ago, back in April and this certainly had not been a development at that moment in time.

"Oh erm... tad ah!" Katie laughed, "Well, something happened, and one thing led to another and I ended up pregnant on my wedding day. I am five months a long and trust me I saw this coming as much as everybody else did... so...not at all. We were waiting to decide when to tell people, you know... just in case. I guess we ran out of time and barely told anyone at all. We have told my mum, dad and my brother, and we have also told Dean's mum, step-dad and his brothers and sisters, but we somewhat forgot to tell everyone else. Even Angelina and Alicia did not know."

"She is right, to not use the right phrasing, we all got a bit of a nasty shock." Angelina told them, "We are all really pleased for you both." She added, kneeling down and straightening Katie's dress out at the back to avoid anyone stepping on it.

"Have any of you heard from Alicia?" Hermione asked and Katie frowned almost instantly.

"Not for quite a while. Not at least since she and Oliver's daughter was born." Katie shook her head.

"Oliver and Alicia have a child together?" Ginny questioned curiously, looking both surprised and confused and Angelina nodded.

"Did we not tell you. They went and got married, in the April after the war. Actually, they asked a few of us to go. Katie and I went, and so did George and Harry went as well. I remember you were invited as well but could not go because of... what was it?" Angelina questioned, turning to her sister in law.

"I had a Quidditch match that day, it was one of the first ones I had on the Holyhead Harpies and I could not afford to miss it." Ginny answered

"Anyway..." Angelina continued now that she had an answer to the missing piece in the puzzle. "We all went up north, just past the border into Scotland and they got eloped. Even their parents did not find out until afterwards. Then, back in March the twenty seventh if I remember rightly, their daughter was born. She is called Eloise Alice Wood. She does not really look like Alicia but she is just the spitting image of Oliver. They moved right up to the top of Scotland, near Stirling I think."

"Wow..." Hermione sighed, realising how much time had literally just in some ways flashed before hers and everybody else's lives. It only seemed like yesterday that the war had ended and yet now, the majority of people that they knew had married one another and some of them even had children, this including herself and Ron.

"Well we best get going or else we will not find any seats." Ginny said and Hermione nodded, walking out with her, "Good luck and you look lovely." She added before they headed out of the room and closed the door. Ginny was walking considerably more quickly than Hermione was – as the months had passed by even walking was become like a trek through thick mud, a complete and utter nightmare. As soon as Ginny realised what she was doing, she immediately slowed down and waited for Hermione to catch up with her.

"Sorry, I forgot how difficult it gets at times." Ginny said before they continued walking towards the stair case, a lot slower than she had been before as she spoke to Hermione. "How are you doing at the moment?" She continued to ask before they finally reached the stair case and stopped moving.

"I do not really know. It really feels a bit weird because unlike you and the rest of our sisters in law, I have never been pregnant before now. Fleur, Audrey and Angelina, they have all done it at least twice. Fleur has done it three bloody times and when people say this, this and this is what I have to watch out for I feel like I have no idea what I am doing. I feel alright at the minute, my back kills and it is an absolute nightmare to be comfortable when I am actually sat down but other than that I feel fine. Just over two months to go but I am really looking forward to it." Hermione told her "How is James?"

"He is fine, he seems to never stop growing. Mum and Dad agreed to look after him for the afternoon whilst we are here. Actually they said they would have him for the night if we wanted. So we have a rare night off." Ginny chuckled.

"You know we really do not mind looking after him for you and Harry if you ever need a break. It is no trouble at all." Hermione reassured her.

"We could never do that to you at the moment. Right now, you and Ron really need to focus on the baby and focus on preparing for them to enter the world. It is lovely of you to help and you have no idea how grateful Harry and I are but we love you too much to not give you space whilst you get ready. We are so proud of you both you know?" Ginny told her friend and Hermione felt her eyes sting.

"We were proud of you both you know?" Hermione said, "We still are. We always are."

"We know but this is different. You and Ron have been on a very different road to us and it hurt to watch you both become so unhappy. It happened for us immediately but for you it took so long and you have achieved what you both so desperately wanted now and we are so, so pleased for you two. More than you will ever, ever realise." Ginny replied as they reached the bottom of the stairs, she had been clutching onto Hermione the whole time that they had been walking down to make sure her sister in law did not fall over. Hermione embraced her gently and squeezed her hands before they entered the main registry office and took their seats in one of the middle rows.

"Are you alright?" Ron asked concernedly, looking between his wife and his younger sister. "You seemed to be a while."

"I could not find a lift when I looked around earlier and so we had to take the stairs." Ginny told her brother, leaning forward past Hermione and Harry who were sat in between Ron and herself.

Everything seemed to go rather quickly after that, and soon enough Katie Bell and Dean Thomas were stood at the top of the aisle beaming at one another, in such a way that Ron and Hermione realised they had never seen either person so happy before.

Nobody had really seen any of this relationship coming. Dean and Katie had not even been friends when they had been at school. They had hardly spoken to one another, Katie being in the year above them. It was only after the Battle of Hogwarts, when the second Wizarding war was finally over that they had apparently started dating. No one really knew apart from Angelina and perhaps George out of everyone who was attending the wedding what had lead up to them starting a relationship but all they knew was that there had been other people they had both been in relationships with very briefly for a few months after the war, and then once again, their paths had crossed. Now here they were, stood holding hands in front of a fairly small amount of people, repeating vows to one another. They were getting married and having a baby as well, they had changed so much in some senses because they had fallen for one another and a lot of them believed that they were better that way.

"Do you Dean Anthony Thomas, take Katherine Elizabeth Bell to be your lawfully wedded wife?" The muggle woman who was marrying the two Gryffindors asked.

"I do." Dean replied, squeezing Katie's hands visibly.

"And, do you, Katherine Elizabeth Bell take Dean Anthony Thomas to be your lawfully wedded husband?" The lady asked turning towards Katie.

"I do." Katie responded, a tear spilling down from her right eye as Dean beamed at her.

"Well, then it gives me great pleasure to announce that you are now, husband and wife. You may kiss." She grinned, closing her declaration but shut and stepping back as Katie reached up onto her toes to kiss her now husband, gently. People stood up one by one clapping as Dean and Katie broke apart laughing. As they watched on, Ron felt Hermione reach down in between their sides and squeeze his right hand. To which he responded by wrapping an arm around her waist caringly.

"Now if you please, we have a room upstairs for you all and so that the bride and groom can do their speeches as well as their first dance. Thank you all for attending." The registrar lady added and slowly everybody left the room.

"Oh God, the stairs again..." Hermione trailed, an evident sigh in her voice.

"Don't worry about it, we will work it out." Ron reassured her as they reached the bottom of them. Ron looked towards her as people started to head up. Whilst holding one of her hands, he placed his other arm around her waist before they began to walk up slowly.

After a few moments, Harry and Ginny passed them. "We will see you up there." Harry said touching Hermione's forearm kindly. Eventually they made it up to the top and headed into the main room that they would be in for the evening. It had been decorated beautifully and like Harry and Ginny, the majority of their decorations were the colour red, including the flowers, some ribbons and some of the chairs. It was simple yet elegant.

"I see you made it." Harry smiled as Ron and Hermione sat down at the same table as he and Ginny in a quiet area of the room.

"Eventually, yes." Hermione sighed and Ron chuckled. Time seemed to fly by after that, the meal went by very quickly along with all the many speeches including one from Angelina, who was the maid of honour for Katie and another from Seamus Finnegan who was the best man for Dean. Soon enough everybody was getting on their feet and joining Dean and Katie in the middle of the room where a dance floor had been formed.

"Hermione?" Ron asked, and Hermione giggled standing up and following Ron to the edge of the dance floor as everybody else was starting to join in.

"Of course I will, you idiot." Hermione smiled, "You know, your way of asking me if I want to have a dance has not improved one tiny bit in the past eight years since Bill and Fleur's wedding."

"But you love me anyway." Ron laughed and Hermione grinned as they swayed

"But I love you anyway Ronald Weasley." She replied, leaning up to kiss him gently. As they danced Ron looked over his shoulder and noticed Seamus stood with his now wife, Lavender and someone else, who was much, much younger than them both. A baby. From a first glance, it was not obvious what gender the baby was but having spoke to them both earlier on in the evening, Ron already knew as did the majority of people.

"Who would have thought it?" Hermione asked, "Seamus Finnegan and Lavender Brown with a baby."

"You do realise they have twins as well?" Ron asked and Hermione shook her head, her eyes widening. "Do not worry, I only just found out about it as well. Apparently they were born back in 2003. Twin boys called Aidan and Keiran."

"Irish names I see." Hermione raised an eyebrow knowing how she should have seen that coming.

"The baby is a girl. They came over earlier when you went to talk to Neville and Hannah and I ended up holding her for a few minutes, she looks just like Lavender. Seamus said they have called her Jasmine and she was born on the 21st of September." Ron told her informatively.

"Wow, we have no idea when it comes to some people. Do we?" Hermione questioned.

"We don't do we." Ron replied, "She will be in the same year as our daughter."

"As will Katie and Dean's child. Everyone has really grown up haven't they?" Hermione smiled and Ron tightened his grip on her caringly as she started to wobble a little.

"It is probably for the best though." He grinned and they continued to dance.

Author's Note: SORRY, sorry this has taken so, so, so long. Three weeks! I had a few exams that I needed to focus on as well as Christmas shopping for my family and friends and then as you will remember I had food poisoning – I am better now though. This has coincided perfectly as today – Tuesday 24th December is my 15th BIRTHDAY! It is only 8:13 am and I haven't opened any presents yet but I am so excited! That is all from me, it might say it has been updated on 23/12/2013 depending on the time zone but where I am in the world – England it is Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas Everyone!