A/N: Thank you so much to gjasmine59, Jay, Rawan and cleotheo for their reviews on chapter 3! :) And Jay, I don't know why it paired Harry and Hermione like that but I've changed it now so hopefully it's a bit clearer.

I will be gone on a trip without internet for the next two weeks so I won't be able to update until the end of June, hopefully that isn't too long of a wait. ;P

RxExR! :)

Pictures on a Wall

Chapter 4 - Revelations

Dinner was finished. Harry looked around the large table in the middle of the kitchen of the Burrow and smiled at the image that met him. Everyone was leaning back in their chairs, contentment in their eyes. Some were even rubbing their stomachs because they were so full. This was the scene that he had always envisioned as a child, the scene of family and love that he had desired so long.

He smiled at Ginny next to him and she smiled back, for once the awkwardness between them forgotten. They had broken up six months ago and he wanted to get back together but he was unsure whether she still wanted to. After all, he had not really seen any signs from her direction that indicated that.

Over the course of the evening they had found out a lot about the lives of the people outside of the 'bubble' as they were now calling it. Bill was still a curse breaker at Gringrotts while Fleur had been staying at home as a housewife to take care of the children. She was beginning to think about finding a job again though as next year, or the year after, Victoire would be going to Hogwarts and the other two would be following soon after.

They had grown older, one could see that. Time had been gracious though, the Veela heritage within Fleur made her look more mature rather than aged. Her silver-blonde hair still hung straight past her shoulders, being something that every woman envied, and her dark blue eyes still shimmered the way they had done ten years ago. Bill still looked the same. There was no other way of saying it. He looked the same as he had done ten years ago which was nearly the same as when he had finished school. The scars that he had gained only made him look more rugged.

George was happily tinkering away in Weasley's Wizard Wheezes although he had let out a string of complaints of Fred not being there to actually develop something new. But that was going to change now as Fred was back. They still had Verity employed as a helper, according to George anyway, and another teen came and helped out part time, especially when it was prime time and the extra hands were needed.

Angelina had been a chaser for Puddlemere United, along with Oliver Wood who was Captain of the team by now, before leaving the Quidditch scene after a heavy accident that left her unable to bend her right arm back far enough to use her famous throws. Apparently it had been a bad case of a bludger hitting the shoulder at a bad angle and thereby shattering it. Even with Skele-Gro her arm never managed to heal completely and she had been working as a news correspondent for the Daily Prophet before leaving her job when Freddie arrived.

It had taken Fred the whole two hours that had passed since everyone had arrived to accept the fact that his twin brother had married his ex-girlfriend. Although it was pretty obvious that the whole 'twin brother being married' thing was what he was reconciling himself with, the whole 'marrying an ex-girlfriend' not so much.

Charlie on the other hand was still unwed, much to the eternal dismay of his mother. "Two of your brothers are married with kids!" She had exclaimed to which he had replied with a "But I'm not them", simply shrugging his shoulders.

"He's married to his job and the dragons anyway." George had told his mother almost consolingly.

His mother hadn't been amused.

Not much had been said by them, so far they had done all the listening. After all, for them only six months had passed while for the others it had been ten years. After talking about what had been happening with Bill, Charlie and George, they had moved onto what the friends that had been outside of the 'bubble' had been up to.

"Seamus never returned, did he?" Ron asked and Harry nodded.

"Ah, the Irishman." George grinned. "He's done quite well for himself, although he's had a bit of misfortune as of late."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"Well, after Hogwarts 'vanished' Seamus went to America to finish his education there. He was able to take and pass his NEWTs and after that he came back to England. He worked in the Ministry as an auror for two years, quite successfully if I might add, before deciding that he didn't want to work as an auror anymore and quit his job." George continued. Bill and Fleur were helping Mrs. Weasley clear up the remains of the dinner while Charlie was talking with his father about something or the other. Which left George to fill them in on what was going on nowadays, a position he took quite happily.

"He quit his job?" Ginny asked surprised, she hadn't expected her former ex to do that.

"Yeah, he was tired of chasing after bad guys. To be honest, after the war a lot of us were pretty tired of fighting." George shrugged, for him it was all in the past but they all found it intriguing.

"What did he do after that?" Harry asked, wondering what his old roommate had been up to afterwards.

"Well, he travelled the world for a year before deciding to settle down in France." George continued.

"In France?" Ron snorted.

"It is a beautiful country." Fleur commented in the passing as she moved some plates from the dinner table into the kitchen. Ron rolled his eyes.

"Then he got a job there and he's kept at it for the past seven years, he's the deputy of Stellar Potions right now." George said, sounding proud.

"Stellar Potions?" Lavender asked.

"I've never heard of it." Ginny agreed.

"It was founded after the war." Bill said as he passed through the room, stopping briefly to tell them about the company. "It started off as a small potions company in France but over the past eight years since it was founded, it has become one of the top potion companies in the world. It has branches in over ten countries and has even recently began opening apothecary stores in the Muggle world."

"In the Muggle world?" Harry felt surprised, it was quite unusual to hear of any wizarding company alse venturing into the other world.

"Yeah." Bill replied as he picked up some cuttlery. "It's only two or three in Paris and one here in London but apparently the owners believe that you shouldn't limit yourself to only one world."

"That's quite unusual." Percy said, surprising everyone with the fact that he was actually listening.

"Yeah, it is." George nodded. "But apparently they're also working on producing better medicine for the Muggles so who knows? People's opinions have changed a lot since the war and a lot of them for the better." He grinned. "So anyway, Seamus is working there now. He got married four years ago and divorced quite recently."

"Divorced?" Lavender sounded aghast, which wasn't an unusual reaction. In the wizarding world people got married and they then normally remained married for life. A divorce was quite rare and normally also looked down upon by society, but there was one thing that the wizarding community disliked even more than divorces and that was a child being born out of wedlock. They really were a rather old-fashioned bunch in that sense.

"Yeah, according to him his wife was cheating on him left and right. The actual process to get rid of her took nearly a year." George looked disgusted at how Seamus' wife had acted. "He won custody of the kids though which made him incredibly happy despite the high alimony that he had to pay..."

"Kids?" Ron asked, looking shocked.

"Yeah, two little twerps." George grinned. "They're twins and three years old like our Freddie here." He smiled and Angelina rolled her eyes at her husband.

"Sean and Connall are two of the biggest trouble makers around." Angelina said, explaining her actions. "And George here knows that they're going to wreak havock in Hogwarts once they join. Seamus, like any good father is trying to stop him from making his sons into a miny Fred and George."

"Ah..." A unified sound went around and George mock glared at them.

"And they seem to have inherited their fathers proficiency with making things explode." She continued and they all winced. Two mini-Seamus', now they could see why George was so excited. It spelled trouble all over it.

A sort of silence fell over the group as they thought over everything that they had just heard.

"What about Hermione, what's she been up to?" Harry finally asked, the question bugging him ever since Kingsley had refused to mention much about her life in the past ten years.

Everyone grew silent. A hooded look passed through George's eyes and Angelina looked out of the window. Harry wondered what was wrong. Had something bad happened to her?

"This is going to be difficult." George said with a sigh and Ron exploded.

"Why is it going to be difficult?" Ron shouted and George looked at him, not even getting riled up. "Why is everyone acting as if she died? Why are you all keeping silent about her?!"

"She hasn't died Ron. And I never said I was going to keep silent. I'm just saying that this is going to be difficult. Out of all of us and the people we've talked about today, her story is going to be the most difficult for you guys to understand." He said softly as if he were talking to his children and not to them. "She's one of the people who's changed a lot over the past ten years and she knows that she's changed which is why she said she wouldn't come today. She knows that as you are, you're not going to like what I have to tell you and she doesn't want to be there when you might say things that you will regret later on."

"She asked us to ask you to listen to what we have to say and then think about it, she'll come and visit at a later date." Angelina said with a small smile and Ginny noticed that after Ron's outburst, the others had also come back to the living room to listen to what they had to say.

Harry absently noted that George had gotten a lot more patient over the years. Had it been ten years ago, he would have shouted back at Ron instead of remaining calm like he had just now.

"Where to start?" George asked as he stared into space before beginning. "After the war Hermione left to find her parents, you still remember that, right?" He asked and they all nodded. "Well, she found her parents in Australia and returned their memories. Turns out they weren't really happy with what she had done and they had quite a big falling out. They've only begun talking again recently." He continued.

"After that, she returned to England to join you guys at Hogwarts but by that time you had all already been put under the preservation spell. She then took Beauxbatons up on their offer to complete her NEWTs there and she left for France. After finishing her final year, with top marks by the way,"

"I think she broke a record." Charlie interjected softly, looking at Bill.

"She did." Bill nodded in response.

"She stayed in France, spending a year just relaxing and travelling around the place. She fell in love with Paris, both the Muggle and the Wizarding side and remained there, working odd jobs here and there and refusing to work at the Ministry." George said, smirking slightly towards the end.

"She refused to work at the Ministry?!" Harry knew that his voice sounded incredulous.

"Yeah." Charlie grinned. "She didn't exactly have many good memories associated with Ministries now, did she?"

"Anyway," George gave his two elder brothers a look, "After that year she co-founded a company and then a year later she got married. She and her husband and family only moved back from France to England two years ago and they just had their fourth child two months ago." George said quickly deciding to make it quick. What did Hermione always say? Ah yes, 'rip it off like a bandaid.'

"Married?" Ron asked, completely and utterly shocked. It looked like he wasn't really comprehending what had just been said.

"Four kids?" Ginny looked just as flabbergasted.

"Yes, she's married with four kids." George said and he heard something that sounded suspiciously like a sob erupting from his mother.

"She's married?" Ron repeated, now beginning to grow red. Harry looked at his friend and realised that Ron was literally looking like he was about to combust.

"She got married only three years after we vanished?!" Now he was fuming and George, Bill and Charlie all let out a sigh.

"Ron, can you please sit down?" Bill asked carefully and his younger brother swung around, glaring at him, fire burning in his eyes.

"Sit down?! You want me to sit down?!" He shouted. "Do you know what she told me when she decided to put our relationship on hold?" He continued, completely angry now. George decided to cast a quick silencio around them so that the children wouldn't get frightened by all of the shouting. He wondered how bad they would react when they found out who exactly she had ended up marrying.

"What did she say?" Charlie asked, mainly just to humour Ron. The quicker he got it out of his system, the faster he would hopefully cool down again.

"She told me that she wasn't ready for a long-term commitment yet! That she needed some time to take things slow! That she didn't even want to think about children for at least another ten years! And now she has four fucking children ten years later!" He shouted, the colour of his face growing darker and darker.

George looked around to see how others were taking it and saw that Harry looked like all the air had been knocked out of him, in fact he looked like he was going to be sick any moment now. Ginny was pale but her eyes were also angry, he guessed that she was angry at Hermione for Ron's sake who had obviously been waiting for her to come running back into his arms. Lavender looked mutinous, as well as surprised, and was alternating between throwing her glare at them and then at her boyfriend. He guessed that her anger at Ron was quite justified, if the evening was anything to go by then they were a couple and the way he was reacting showcased his attraction to Hermione quite obviously. Most girls didn't exactly like it when their boyfriends were in love with someone else.

The others just looked shocked and surprised, with his mother looking like she had just heard that someone had died. Which he guessed he also understood. Back then, everyone had thought that Harry would end up with Ginny (who were surprisingly not together, he and Charlie and Bill had been quite shocked to find that out) and that Hermione would end up with Ron as a perfect couple. His mother probably saw it as a sort of betrayal on Hermione's part as Ron had obviously been waiting for her.

The shock and surprise was a bit insulting he thought though, as they had obviously not even considered Hermione even attracting other guys apart from his brother. He decided that he wouldn't add more fuel to the fire and mention the quite short relationships and flings she had had with several guys in France before settling with Draco, it would probably make the situation escalate even more.

"Ron, people falling in love isn't planned." Bill said in an attempt to calm Ron down. Sadly, it had the reverse effect.

"Oh, so she fell in love, did she?" He asked angrily. "And she wasn't in love with me?!"

"Ron, she loves you, just not the way that you loved her back then." Bill said and Fleur just sighed. Her husband really couldn't help but try and be the mediator in such a situation.

Ron obviously just heard the words 'she loves you' and not the parts after that. "Well then why didn't she wait?! I've waited for her!" He exclaimed.

"How long was she supposed to wait for Ronald?" Charlie interjected, finding it hard to keep quiet when Ron was obviously about to insult Hermione who was like a sister to him. "She wanted to wait for all of you to come back and be there on her wedding day but how long was she supposed to wait for?! You were lucky that the spell broke after ten years, it might have broken after a hundred! Do you honestly expect her to wait that long for you when she doesn't even know whether you will return at all?" He asked and Ron seemed to deflate just a tiny bit.

"We all thought that you were moving along in the same time that we were. We thought that for you ten years had passed too." Bill said, putting a hand on Charlie's arm to calm his brother. "We've all moved on Ron, that's what we're trying to say."

"So you gave up on us?" It was Ginny who spat this out, not her brother.

"No Gin, we didn't give up on you, in fact we were pretty sure you'd be back. But would you want us to put our whole lives on hold while we wait for you?" George asked gently.

"No." She said almost sullenly. It was annoying but true.

"She fell in love?" Harry asked, this being the first time that he had spoken since the whole conversation had started.

"Yeah." Suddenly George grinned and he shared a look with Bill and Charlie that the others didn't understand.

"Absolutely and completely." Fleur said with a beautiful smile, a faraway look in her eyes.

"Not sure whether it was head-over-heels or not but she fell in love." Charlie nodded wisely.

"Nearly took off our heads when we said we wouldn't allow it." George remembered fondly.

"And with right," Angelina said, looking at her husband with exasperation, "it's not your place to tell her who to love and who to not love."

"She's been married happily for seven years now." Fleur said, sharing a loving look with her own husband. George's hand snaked its way around Angelina's waist who just sent him a look and Charlie rolled his eyes at his siblings' antics.

"Who did she get married to?" Harry asked next, feeling like this was the crack point. So far, not one of them had actually mentioned her husband's name and it was beginning to worry him. Did they really think that they wouldn't be able to cope with whomever she had married?

George sighed and he and the other four exchanged another look.

"She got married to Draco Malfoy."

The silence that met their ears was deafening. Nobody moved. Nobody even twitched. Everyone was staring at George as if he had just told them a really bad joke.

"Wha- you can't mean- Malfoy- Hermione- the ferret- what?!" Ron's sentences were so incoherent that George had to listen closely to understand what he was saying.

"What?!" Ginny shrieked and George covered his ears.

"You know that you sometimes resemble a banshee my dear sister?" He asked and winced when she punched him in the arm.

"Hermione Granger became Hermione Malfoy seven years ago when I gave her away to marry Draco." Charlie said quite clearly and they all turned to look at him.

"You gave her away to marry the ferret?!" Ron shouted and Charlie sighed in response.

"Yes, I gave Hermione away because she asked me whether I would mind doing it, which I of course responded with that I would love to do so. Her parents were still refusing to talk to her at the time so she had to ask someone else to give her away." Charlie replied.

"I don't think that that's the point Ron's trying to make Charlie." Fred said rather weakly.

"Yeah, how about the fact that she married an ex-death eater?!" Ron's voice was still raised.

"Granger with one of the hottest boys?" Lavender looked affronted.

"Hottest boys?" Fred turned to look at Lavender with a wrinkled nose.

"Even I can't deny that Malfoy was good looking." Ginny said with annoyance laced in her voice as she shrugged.

"Ginny!" Harry looke at his ex-girlfriend in shock.

"What, it's true." She shrugged once more.

"And Draco's really quite a decent bloke." Bill said and the others stared at him in disbelief.

"He likes dragons." Charlie said with a grin, obviously remembering something.

"He's quite brilliant with spells. Sometimes even helps test some of our merchandise." George added.

"When did it become Draco?" Percy asked and even he was looking throroughly surprised by the revelation of Hermione, one of the most sensible people around, having married Draco Malfoy of all people.

"About the time when Hermione said that she wouldn't give up their relationship to accomodate us." George said.

"Once you get past his past and his icy public facade, he really is quite nice." Bill said, his wife agreeing with him.

"You let her marry Malfoy?!" Ron's face was now puce-coloured.

"We're not going to discuss what we have and haven't done." Bill said.

"Here, she gave us this to give to you so that you can have some idea of what it's like for the two of them." George handed them a bag with several photo albums and something that looked suspiciously like some tapes.

"The tape's from us and Seamus. Seamus learned how to use a camera and since then he's been recording videos left and right. Hermione doesn't know that we even still have a copy of that but it'll definitely help you guys see some things that pictures do not show." Charlie added and they all looked at the bag.

"Let's look at it then." Harry said, feeling exhaustion wash over him. This was going to be a long night by the looks of it.