A/N: Happy New Years! I cannot believe it's already 2024... Anyway, here's another chapter. I have had this chapter done for about three days but was trying to psyche myself up to edit. Hopefully, all my jumping around in time isn't too confusing. I'm trying to fill in the blanks of the past as I go. I'm hoping to post every week or so... We'll see. Also, I don't own HP.

CHAPTER 2 - "Moral of the Story" by Ashe

Hermione was gardening with her mother in Melbourne, Australia. She was visiting her parents for the Christmas of 2000. Her parents were proud to hear about her new job and book. A week before she had arrived, the divorce was finalized. Hermione felt like a thousand bricks had been lifted off her shoulders.

Hermione could clearly remember the day Ron proposed. It wasn't really a proposal, but it was sweet. They had just gotten back from restoring her parents memory, and she was due back to Hogwarts in just over a month and when Ron would begin his Auror training. In the meantime, there was plenty to do with rebuilding Hogwarts and the Ministry.

The pair were wandering the Hogwarts halls, trying to find an area that was in need of workers. Eventually they found themselves down the corridor from the library, waving their wands to repair the smashed wall and window.

Ron paused, looking out the newly mended window. "This year's gonna be tough… with you here and me training. We've barely been apart in so long…"

"Yeah… but, hey! We're each following our dreams. I love this place, and you've wanted to be out there, fighting, for so long." Hermione slid down, sitting bellow the window.

Her boyfriend copied. "I suppose. I'll miss you though. I've actually been thinking, what will we do after you graduate? I'll still have a couple months of training left, but they should be the same hours as a normal job, plus a handful of missions…" Ron stared blankly at the wall ahead. "I hate being here. I just keep getting flashes of Fred… Of all the battle scenes, really. I don't know how you can stand being here now, let alone for the next nine months."

"Oh, Ron. It's only seven months - and anyway, there are Hogsmead weekends and the breaks. I love school, you know that."

"What about after, though? You ignored that bit."

"Caught that, huh?" Hermione chuckled. What would happen? Until September first, she was staying at the Burrow. But after that? Would she be able to afford a flat? She had some money saved up, plus her parents old house. Although, she wasn't sure she could live there without her parents.

"I was thinking we could get a place together." Ron mumbled. Hermione looked at him surprised. Somehow, in all her fretting about the future, she hadn't pictured that happening quite so soon. Living in a tent with her two best mates was on thing, but renting a place with her boyfriend?

"I'm not sure your mum will be a fan of that. She's a bit old fashioned, she'll probably want us to be married first and…" Hermione trailed off, unsure how to explain her trepidations.

"Okay then." Ran stood, pulling Hermione to her feet.

"Okay… what?"

"Let's get married!" Ron was grinning. His eyes sparkled - his ears weren't even red with embarrassment.

"Ron.. Are you - I mean, we're so young and - we need to think this through-" Ron silenced her worries with a searing kiss. Then he got down on one knee.

" 'Mione, I've loved you for years. When we were young, I thought it was simply platonic but now… Now I'm certain there's more. I think I've always loved you. I want to spend my life with you. Hermione Jean Granger, will you marry me?" Ron asked, holding Hermione's hand in his.

She stared down at his eager face. She did love him. She truly did. But once upon a time, back in fourth year when she'd been distraught over the Yule Ball disaster, Hermione's mum had told her, "never get married before 28. You'll regret it." She wasn't even 19 yet.

On the other hand, the redhead looking up at her had been there with her for so much. When her mother gave her that advice, there was no way either of them could have known the war would take place. Hermione decided enough was enough. Risks are what make life interesting. And, despite only having dated Ron for two-ish months, she couldn't imagine another person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

"Yes, Ronald Bilius Weasley, yes!" Hermione squealed, pulling him to his feet. They kissed there, in the hallway outside the library just like their first kiss months prior. Passion and heat seared between them. Then an all too familiar "Oi" brought them back to the present.

Breaking apart, they turned, flushed, to see Harry looking at them with a bemused look.

"Harry! Oh, Harry!" Hermione rushed over and gave the raven haired boy - well, man, really, Hermione thought, a hug. "Ron and I - we're getting married!"

"Hermione! I asked if you were alright?" Mum asked, shaking Hermione from her revere.

"Yes, sorry. Just.. remembering." The mother and daughter stood, and walked to the shade on the nearby porch to hide from the hot, Australian sun. Mum looked at her expectantly. "Mum… do you remember when Ron and I first got engaged? It was a few days after we got back from restoring your memory. I was so scared to tell you. I waited a full four days before flooing you because I was scarred how you would react."

"Oh! Of course I remember. Your father and I were just settling down to have some tea before heading up to bed when our fireplace roared to life with green flames and your head stuck through." The Granger matriarch laughed. "I got such a fright. I spilled most of my tea all over your poor father."

"Yes.. well I'm just thinking about how he proposed. It wasn't planned at all, typical Ron, and we were in the honeymoon phase of a relationship. We could barely see anything but each other. And we were terrified to actually live. We thought we were going to die. We never expected to live - to win." Hermione paused, unsure if she should go on. Though her parents had eventually forgiven her for all the secrets she had kept over the years and the memory charms after sixth year, she still sometimes was scared to talk much about those initial months of awkwardness. "Um, it was just so… casual. Like it was just the logical next step. I don't think either of us really thought it through. I mean, we were barely adults. Sure, we'd gone through a war but…"

"But that's not the same as having a couple more years of life experience under your belt." Mum supplied.

"Exactly!" Hermione smiled and accepted the glasses of water Dad had brought out. "Thank you! It's so hot here…"

"Of course honey. Now what do you need more life for?" Dad asked, setting down on a recliner nearby.

"Oh David, we were just reminiscing about Hermione's engagement." Mum chuckled. Her father looked slightly taken aback. Even now, he still couldn't quite accept what had happened. He's never liked the idea of his daughter marrying so young, especially with the big riff between them.

"Oh, darling. Well, don't let me interrupt. You won't even know I'm here" He leaned back.

"I was just saying that I don't think either of us understood the responsibility involved in marrying, what that step really meant. " Hermione mused.

"Weren't you hesitant to say yes, even at the time?" Dad asked, sitting back up. His wife swatted him.

"I thought we were barely going to know you were here?" Mum teased her husband lovingly.

"Sorry, sorry, Emma." One thing Hermione had taken from her parents was what they both said about names. They claimed that their basic names meant they had to create their personalities from scratch; Hermione was lucky. Her unique Shakespearean name meant she had a base to start with.

"Dear, I think you fret too much. What's done is done. All you do is look towards the future. Say, why don't you go on a few dates? Use that body of yours while you still have it?"

"Mum!" Hermione cried, pulling up her knees.

"Oh, darling, it's nothing to be ashamed of. You're rather a looker, and it's good for a girl your age to be out and about a bit. I had fun when I was your age." Mum smiled affectionately, the past seeming to absorb her.

"She's not kidding. By the time we met, I was almost thirty and your mum was twenty-eight. And she still was wild, always wanting to go out to a pub or club or some place. Always wanted to do something, always surrounded by a million friends." Her parents made eye contact, smiling wistfully.

"Oh I wasn't that bad. At least I wasn't boring like you." She turned to her daughter, "When we met, your father just wanted to read and play golf. He was twenty-nine going on seventy-five."

"Was not!"

"You so were. I remember one day asking you if you'd like to go…" Hermione tuned her parents out. Growing up she had always felt rather lucky to have two parents who got on so well. They rarely fought, and tried to spend time with her when they could. Of course, they worked long hours so Hermione spent a lot of time alone, but whenever they could, they spent time with her or took her to their dentistry conventions. They were never much fun, but Hermione enjoyed feeling grown up. Now, she wished she could find that for herself. She knew she was only twenty-one, but she'd already been married once and that hadn't gone as planned.

Sometimes, late at night, Hermione would wonder if leaving Ron was the right thing to do. But then she'd remember their screaming fights, slamming doors, and cold-shouldering. Looking back, she could see just how toxic they had been to one another - particularly while they were married and living together. Maybe if they'd stayed as girlfriend-boyfriend for a few years then things would have worked out.

But, then again, they never would have been patient enough. He wanted commitment, and she was scared to give it. And Hermione was sure that if they'd waited till after she'd graduated, he would have gotten fed up - or their positions would have switched.

Either way, Hermione thought, Mum's right. What's done is done. All I can do is learn from my mistakes, find the moral of the story.